This Note was written in Jun... Tom was replying to someone on basic
driving... I was putting through the Archieves at Listquest.com and thought
I would share this with you once again.... Personally I thought it gave me
an insight on what to expect out there my first year.... Tom has written
another one on shutting down a race car at Speed I will share later....
Keith
Date: 30-Jun-1999 11:38:30
From:
Subject: Re: Spins
Dave,
I don't consider myself an expert in this area, but, I will give you my
feelings on the subject.
Driving a car at speed is a learned artform. I grew up in the Midwest
before many country roads were surfaced for all-weather service. I
learned to drive on muddy roads, snow, and ice. Much of what we do is
very similar to those conditions. In those days, driving in mud or snow,
we were concerned only with where the front wheels were. The rear of the
car could swing from side to side without causing great concern. You
learned that the throttle had a major controlling effect and you had
better control with power on. We also learned that when you are using
all the available power, control becomes more difficult.
I have said this to set a basis for vehicle control where we run.
Driving on the Salt is very much like driving on ice. You get into
trouble by: 1) applying too much power too quickly, 2) over reacting to
drifting off the desired course, 3) running out of power to accelerate,
4) running unbalanced vehicles, 5) not getting enough seat time before
travelling at high speeds, and the list goes on and on. One thing that
concerns me is that too many are going really fast without going up in
speed gradually. The purpose of the licensing runs is to help overcome
the problem we had in the past of people strapping into fast cars
without any experience at speed. But, let's face it, three runs don't
create a seasoned driver, and there are cars capable of frightening
speeds available to anyone who wants to run.
Basically the warnings I recognize are, drifting or abrupt movement off
the desired path of travel, too much tail wagging, wheel spin causing
the back end to move out to either side, car not responding to steering
correction, etc.. Bottom line, if you are not comfortable in the seat it
is time to be concerned. We do this for fun, don't we.
There just isn't any substitute for seat time. I came up through the
ranks
at Bonneville slowly from the 150's to approaching 250 MPH. It took me
30+ years to join the 200 MPH Club. Of course I had my own agenda, as
the
song goes, "I Did It My Way".
Good Luck with you project. Just don't feel you have to go too fast too
quick.
Tom
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