Howdy,
On Wed, 22 Sep 1999, Darren Madams wrote:
> How can anyone (by anyone I mean Mark Daddio, John Thomas, etc.)
> be so far ahead of the rest of their class?
>
> Theoretically (mathematically), a certain car should only be
> capable of a certain time on a certain course. To pick a random
> variable for this let's use the Geez term "usage" and say that
> theoretically at usage=100% you turn a 60 second time. In order
> to achieve anything faster than that something special must be
> happening...
>
> Now, obviously it is possible to get more than 100% usage out of
> a car. Not only from peaks in each of the axises but also from
> making the car do things outside the limits such as rotating the
> car to travel around a turn without losing as much momentum.
I think its a combination of everything you say... First, if you're
talking about theoretically computed "maximums", then almost always that
theory will have made an assumption somewhere that if violated in a
certain specific case will result in better performance... And folks like
Daddio are more likely to make that happen.
But I think its more likely (and a bigger percentage of the difference
between humans and Daddio, Thomas, Strano, etc.) that those folks are just
way better at staying near that 100% level than us. Using Geez in my car,
I typically can hit usage levels around 80%. When I do that, I seem to be
about mid-pack at national level stuff (probably back further at
Nationals). When I see Daddio's plots in NAP with usage levels of 95% or
whatever, it totally amazes me.
I think a (maybe) better question would be, How do Daddio, Thomas, Strano,
etc. approach 100% usage in such a short time on course? I'm fully
confident that with enough laps I could match and potentially beat anyone.
Its just too bad that everyone will have gone home by the time I do it :-)
Seriously, is it that the non-human drivers have superb depth perception
that helps them judge lines better while driving? That they have super
delicate inner-ear balance that lets them feel what the car is doing
better than average? That they're wired so that just the exact correct
amount of adreneline pours into their brain so that they're aggressive but
not too aggressive? I dunno. I've ridden with folks that are better than
me enough to know that while I frequently can exceed them in particular
areas or sections of the course, they almost always just drive a section
or two _completely_ differently than I do and get a ton of speed from it.
How did they know to do that? I dunno.
But I would like to find out :-)
Mark
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