Hope you'll take a ride with me at R.A. in the Pumpkin Racer in Sept. I'll have my Helmet to Helmet intercomm with me, so can talk you through the line and all.
Which of the events that I'm attending at RA will you be attending? I was thinking it was the BMW event, but am almost positive they wouldn't allow the Pumpkin. Hence my offer to let you use my cars. However, if they'll let you use it, I'm planning to ride with you. We can use your communicator or mine. I think you'll hear my shrieks of terror equally well through either one.
If you're going to the Audi event, I need to get a quick email sent to the chief instructor letting him know you've volunteered to teach me the track and to ignore my previous email.
Think "Late Apex" and you'll probably do well. (actually, think "Very Late Apex")
The only time I've ever put two tires off the track in 9 years was (embarassingly enough) during a parade-lap-speed follow-the-leader session my first time at MAM. Very first lap. Turn 3, which looks like a carousel when you enter it, but turns into a really fun decreasing radius about 2/3rds of the way in. If you don't know it's there, by the time you notice it it's too late. My effective apex was so early that sucker spit me right out on the exit.
Late apexing is a kind of mantra for me, although there are a few turns where I intentionally take them way early. 12 at HPT and the 7-8 combo at MAM come to mind.
I emailed the chief instructor this afternoon for the Audi event I'll be attending Monday and Tuesday of that week asking that, if they're not short on instructors, they move me to the student ranks.
I was more than a little freaked out by BIR at first and would not have been a good instructor until I'd gotten at least that first day under my belt.
The thing that freaked me out about BIR was the speed of the first two turns. We can't get even CLOSE to that kind of speed at HPT and MAM.
BIR is 3/4 mile longer than MAM yet my lap times in the Mustang were only about 20 seconds longer. Seriously fast track.
Since I've never been on RA, I'm more than a little concerned about being in the passenger seat on only my 3rd entry to the track.
On the other hand, when dealing with novices, as you've found, you're not so much teaching them the track (initially) as just plain teaching them how to drive. Braking, entry, apex, exit, keeping both hands on the wheel, proper seat position, etc. Improving track performance comes later. When looked at in that light, it's easy to make a case that because I'm an experienced instructor, I know the basics intimately (of instructing as well as driving) and could instruct a first-timer whether or not I've ever turned a lap on the track we're on. Hmmmm.... Really have been vacillating on this since nearly wetting myself at BIR. On one hand, I want to know the track well enough to not get a student in trouble, but on the other hand, it's very unintimidating teaching most novices it's arguable that no matter how unfamiliar the venue might be to me, much of what I'll teach a novice isn't really venue-specific on their first day, and by the time they're ready to learn some of the intricacies of that particular track, I should have it pretty well figured out.
It's the intermediates and advanced that're scary, especially if you don't have the track down like a video game. The intermediates more than the advanced. I tend to trust the advanced student and my work with them is typically on any variations I feel might gain them a tenth or two. The intermediates are in a scary place because they drive well enough to be able to get into trouble quickly, but usually lack the experience to get out of trouble once they're into it.
Two weekends ago during lunchtime touring I rode with a novice driver. He's logged lots of time on video games and really wants to drive on the track.
We talked about entry, apex, exit and how RA is constructed. I'm glad he has years to improve!!! It wasn't scary riding with him, but I didn't realize just what "novice" means!!! He was driving with just his left hand while constantly resting his right on the shifter; in corners and on the straights! His seat was adjusted so that it would have been uncomfortable to have both hands on the wheel at the same time.
I've had a number of younger students with their seats reclined like you described. Drives me nuts that my son drives this way despite my constantly lecturing him that he can't really *control* a vehicle that way.
The first thing I have any novice student do when they get in their car on the grid is position their seat so they can reach the pedals comfortably, including the dead pedal, and lay their wrists over the top of the steering wheel and let their hands relax. If there's little or no bend in their elbows (I prefer slight bend) in this position and their back is still against the seat, the position is correct.
Most of the clubs I work with have the instructor drive the student's car first, so I illustrate this for them, which also has the benefit of them getting into the car with their seat in a more correct position.
Sounds like this would've showed your student that his seat was reclined too much.
I also stress that unless the shifter is being moved at the time, it isn't to be touched. Both hands on the wheel at all times except when actively shifting. Even on the straights. Making two-handed steering a habit they (hopefully) take back to the streets.
I have yet to encounter a student for whom a quick "Two hands" rebuke occasionally wasn't enough to do the trick, but I'm already prepared for that contingency.
A friend told me that he doesn't steer with his hands; he steers with his thumbs. His hands are wrapped around the wheel, but when he turns, he's pulling down on the appropriate spoke with his thumb. "Pulling the car into the turn" is the terminology he uses.
I've tried it and prefer thinking (especially getting feedback) through all parts of my hands rather than just my thumbs, but if I encounter a student who is especially bad about one-handed driving, I'll make them steer with their thumbs.
This approach also wouldn't work in the WRX, which takes a LOT of steering input. I don't shuffle-steer (and don't believe in it), so in that car I'll often have my arms completely crossed and hitting each other because the wheel needs 180 degrees of movement.
Perhaps if I'd shuffle it, my arms wouldn't be as sore. :)
Even when I pointed out the "turn-in" cones, he missed them and turned in early, making two corners out of each one. So, for most of us R.A. has 14 corners, for him, there were 28!!!
Got a trick for that one, too.
Unless the turn requires it (like turn 3 at MAM, which actually doesn't if you're at very high speed because you can throttle-steer into the decreasing radius), I have a rule I impose on any student I find moving the wheel too much.
On every turn, you get only one input. Mid-turn adjustments are allowed only when really needed and if we did a mid-turn adjustment, we know whether we need more or less input the next time we enter the turn.
As the hour rolled along, he did settle down, so maybe it was more "nerves" than lack of understanding. He finally was finding the apexes and making a good arc of the corner, but because he wasn't going very fast, he just couldn't get the hang of letting the car all the way out to the exits.
Actually, I largely ignore exit cones but tell the novice student that they mark where the car should naturally exit the turn once they're up to speed. It depends on the placement, though.
Problem is, (and my wife exhibited this problem during parade laps when I rode with her at HPT) novices often feel they have to hit every cone, including the exit, so they'll hit the apex, then change the steering input to hit the exit.
My rule of thumb on exits is that you unwind the wheel only as the car or an approaching turn dictates. If you're not going fast enough that the tires are howling and begging you to relieve them of some lateral g's, no reason to lengthen the turn by steering toward the exit cone.
Besides, if a student, IMO, is hitting the exit cone at low speeds, he's likely going to have trouble at higher speeds when he has drift playing a part in where the car is going, in addition to where he's steering it.
Another thing that confuses them is that there are turns (turn 5 at HPT comes to mind) where the apex cone gives the wrong idea. In that turn, at higher speeds, one has to think of the apex cone not as the part of the gator your right tires should kiss, but as the point where an imaginary line is going straight across the track. In that turn, I apex on that imaginary line, but I'm a good half a car width away from the gator. Most turns, the apex marker should be thought of as a point at the edge of the track, but sometimes it should be thought of as the beginning of a line and a painted mark on the track itself would actually be a better indicator of where to apex.
A lotta fun working with a novice, isn't it.
I've actually found it to "keep me honest" in my own driving because they don't know things that you and I consider intuitive, and teaching them these things makes us think more about these things when we're driving.
And sometimes you get *real* lucky. Like when I had a student in a 540i at MAM suddenly lift the throttle in turn 3, which is definitely a no-no, but much to my surprise, the maneuver had us perfectly lined up for the decreasing radius. I had him get back in the gas and we got through that turn with only one wheel input. And ever since, I've always just done an abrupt lift there and have my intermediate and advanced students do the same.
The same student also took me for my first out-of-track experience.
He'd ridden with a guy in an M-coupe during lunchtime parade laps, and while we were approaching turn 12 in his next session, he suddenly said he wanted to show me something the guy in the M-couple did.
He went through 12 with only a throttle lift, then hit the brakes hard entering 13.
I happen to do this and teach it to my advanced students, but there's a bit of a difference. When you do this, the car is free of lateral g's for a VERY short time before entering 13, so you have to wait for that exact millisecond, then give it a lot of "Whoa!" input, and trailbrake your way into the turn.
He didn't know this. He only knew that the guy in the M-coupe used no brakes in 12.
So, after having spun our way into the mud, I asked him to reflect for a moment and tell me what he'd just learned.
His first answer was a good first answer. "This isn't an M-coupe."
I told him that though it wasn't an M-coupe, so couldn't do the maneuver at anywhere near the speed the M could, it could still do it, and it's generally a good idea that if you want to try something new you've seen or heard about, bring it up with your instructor at some point before heading into the turn. <g>
I then asked him why, besides not being an M-coupe, we were covered in mud while watching approaching cars through our windshield. He didn't know. The reason was that he hit the brakes hard while carrying his full quota of lateral g's exiting turn 12.
Looking forward to seeing you up there.
Please don't get me muddy or facing the wrong way. :)
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