My wife says it's wrong to acelerate entering a corner.

She hates it when I do. She says her father raced cars and would never take a corner like that because it's unsafe. Is she right?

I also draft on the highway. But hell everybody does that.

So I want to know, what is the correct way of nagotating a corner?

Have I been taking corners wrong all these years in sims..

Don't feel bad...I haven't seen a Minnesotan yet that could drive worth a hoot!

Cheers!

Never make the assumption that anything you learn in a racing sim applies to driving a passenger car on public roads.

Your primary focus when driving on public roads should be safety, because there are too many people out there already that don't give a damn about it themselves.

Just take the right line through the corner, that's first and foremost. Don't be limited by that paint in the middle of the road either, that's a horrible line and usually the slowest way through.

That's the "problem". At this point due to habits formed in sims, I'm not even sure what is the "correct" way to drive around a corner. Safety is my main concern. Is it best to coast around a corner, or to use the power to pull you through the corner? To me it feels proper to power through within the limits of traction and body sway. (within the limits of a minivan of course) but for my wife being the passenger it feels unnatural and she considers it unsafe. But for me it feels unsafe relying on momentum to take you through the corner.

Oh no. I do that also. (another "Bad" habit, I guess)

That is another topic of debate with my wife. She says it's not my line. But then she also thinks I'm hugging the line when I'm not.

Quiet you.

Hey what's happening in WI. Went through there on the way to MI over Thanksgiving. Not one Highway Patrol seen. In years past I would always see them leaning out the side of their car along the side to the road holding a radar gun or flying up behind me on the road then going around me, but this year not a one. WI must have caught there limit this year and took Thanksgiving off.

A couple of good things driving in sims has helped me with:

* Multiplayer racing has taught me to leave lots of room from the car in front, don't assume they brake at the same point as you and don't trust that they will do what you expect, human drivers are unpredictable and many of them drive like crap and brake too early or too late especially in bad weather conditions
* My preferred oversteer simracing style and rally sims have taught me how to countersteer when losing traction, this has been good in the couple of times the car lost traction in snow and rain, I didn't panic but just countersteered went with the loss of traction until it caught
* I also have learned heel-toe right foot braking in sims, using my G25 pedals, I haven't actually tried this in a real car yet but hope to use it in real life at a racing school class someday.

Other than that I would echo the other advice, using simracing skills on the real road like "drafting" or proper "apex lines" that cross over the double yellow is a real bad idea when it's not a closed track or a sim, the damage will be real when your luck runs out and someone else does something you don't expect.

For a sample of idiots trying to drive on the road like a sim see:

In almost all cases, if you're at or below the posted speed limit this shouldn't even be a problem.

The perspective of the passenger is more correct than your own. As the driver you know what you're doing as you do it, you're holding onto the wheel and you're prepared for the movements of the car. Your job as a driver (besides "don't wreck") should be to make the ride as smooth and comfortable for your passengers as you can.

If the passengers say it doesn't feel right then you need to back off. A minivan isn't a performance machine - concepts like "drafting" and "apex" shouldn't even occur to you for the most part.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here, honestly - but what you're doing here is a bit like going to one of the flight sim forums and asking the guys there how you can apply dogfighting moves you learned in a fighter jet sim to one of these:



It's just not the same thing.



Rather that focusing on learning from performance driving (racing) you should look into defensive driving. That might give you a better set of skills to apply to public road driving.

I find that most medium prized cars are not even so comfortable to drive on the actual speed limit, especially around blind bends where I can't see who's going to hit me if I stray over the middle. So I'm not tempted to go that fast.

A bit of power in a turn or such - see no problem with that though. As long as I can easily remain on my side or see all the way clear that I have all the road to myself.

I think I have the opposite problem - I drive defensively on the RL road and that spills over to my sim racing, which I tend to suck at but do enjoy. Someday I have to get better...


WC

One thing I have learned from sim racing, and later real racing in the SCCA...unloading in a corner can be worse than powering through. When you let off the gas and/or brake going into a corner you upset the balance of the car. It's especially true with front wheel drive cars. I raced a Neon at the IRP road course in Indy a few years ago (where they hold the Summer Nationals for NHRA). The drag strip was our front straight and we'd get up to pretty good speed, then it was a right hander that wasn't too terrible, but I spun twice through there because I let up and touched the brakes. Later I figured out not to let up so much and not to brake and I made it through like a champ after that.

Of course like said above, follow close to the posted speed limit and none of my advice comes into play because that's the safest way through.

I know the roads around my house pretty well and have found myself taking a 30mph corner at 60mph in my Jeep TJ because the road has more banking than most would think.

IMHO, if you feel that way, then you should disregard your wife (please, don't tell your wife I wrote this) and do it your way. If you insist on doing it as your wife says and you loose confident on a turn, then safety will be greatly compromized.
And you're the PIC in that car, anyway. LOL.

I deliberately do not drive in real life as I do drive in a racing sim! Safety first on public roads, speed is secondary.

I find I'm occasionally having to remind myself that the most important thing is that everyone gets home safe, it's then that I lift or brake.

I just don't drive... A lot safer and cheaper that way... lol

What happened to James Dean is a good (bad) example of applying racing habits on public roads. To my knowledge he stepped on the throttle to sway around the obstacle instead of braking for it. That caused the fatality of the accident.

When driving on a public road, especially with passengers, safety and defensive driving should come first.

But, it's always good to have some knowledge of car behavior in certain situations. What first comes to mind is what Weasel_Keeper said. The necessity of having to unload in a corner is something I will try to avoid always. I that aspect it's much saver to accelerate through a corner, in my view.

Accelerate going into a corner? Just speaking in terms of vehicle dynamics (and not road driving safety or etiquette) if you have to accelerate going into a corner, you entered too slow. Also when you accelerate, the car's weight shifts to the rear wheels, giving the front tires less grip and compromising your turning ability. If you're accelerating going into a corner, you won't turn as tightly and will probably start to slide out towards the outside of the turn prior to the apex.


Uh, no. Everyone does not do that. It's called tail-gating, and it's illegal because you can't react to a braking situation in time to prevent a collision with the car ahead. You can't really get the 'draft' unless you're w/in a car-length of the car ahead (at highway speeds), and that would indeed be a dangerous driving technique on public roads.


I can highly recommend reading "Speed Secrets" by Ross Bentley. It's a quick read (no pun) and very well-written. Amazon carries it, as does Barnes & Noble. It's written for drivers, but gets you up to speed quickly on vehicle dynamics and car control techniques. I personally feel more drivers should know more about vehicle dynamics and car control, specifically to help them in extreme situations like collision avoidance. That knowledge is usually reflected in their road manners, just as a lack of that knowledge does in the opposite way.

My advice: on public roads, you can practice being smooth, and finding a good line through a corner (from within your lane only). Smooth acceleration, braking and steering are the foundation of car control, as well as thinking ahead of the car about what needs to happen next. If you want more than that, you can sign up for an autocross event, which are available almost everywhere and typically hosted by various clubs. You don't need a specially prepped car (or even the same make of car that the club drives), just bring what you drive, and bring along a helmet. Probably the best way to get a feel for high-performance car handling w/out endangering those you share the road with.

I second that. Purchased both parts, didn't regret it.

If you want to drive like a racer, go to the track. On public roads follow the road rules and drive safely, they're not there to get you home quicker and to make you feel like a racer. They're there for your safety, the safety of your passengers, the cars around you and the safety of the pedestrian that you didn't see until it was too late.

"You must be able to come to a safe stop in the distance you can see, in only your lane, without drama (no locked wheels, ABS engagement, etc.)." Pretty much the best definition of how you should drive on the roadway. If you come up to a turn, make sure your entry speed will allow you to stop in the distance you can see to be clear. As the turn opens up and you can see more road, you can accelerate back up to the speed limit if you had to decelerate for your entry. There is absolutely nothing wrong with staying at a steady speed through the turn either and then accelerating once you're out of the curve, so long as you can stop in the distance you can see. The speed limit on a given piece of road will be below that of the turning capabilities of most vehicles for a given turn, so accelerating or a steady throttle out of the curve really doesn't matter, you're not using all the traction of your tires anyway. Being able to "safely" negotiate a turn at speed is a false sense of security. Doing it truly safely means being able to negotiate it in a manner that keeps you AND the rest of the motoring public (including the guy going the opposite way who thought he could "safely" negotiate the turn at high speed) from being involved in an accident.

The following applies to the TRACK ONLY!!! Accelerating puts grip to the rear, not where you need it when turning. If you are able to accelerate through the turn (not just on the exit) you are coming in far below the speed you should be at for the turn entry. Ideally at the most advanced level, you brake until it's time to turn, gradually add in more the wheel and release the brake, then once you're completely off the brakes you'll be at max wheel input, and then it's time to start taking the wheel out and adding in the gas until right as you straighten out you are at max acceleration. This allows you to balance the steering, braking, and acceleration needs of the car against the available traction of the tire. However if you screw this up you'll either fail to fully use the traction of the tire, or over use it (slow or out of control). For most people it's more consistent, to straight line brake until turn in (all traction to braking), turn (all traction to turning), and then get on the gas once you're straightened out (all traction to acceleration).

-Jenrick