ddecart

Cool. No doubt that Guldstrand has tons of experience in the area. I'm not quite sure on his total history and what factory connections he's had with Chevrolet over the years though. I should ask around and see if people know him (and not just know OF him).

Chuck Harmon

I posted an article about him a month or so ago. Here it is. He and Duntov were very tight!

Chuck




[Modified by Chuck Harmon, 7:50 PM 9/13/2002]

Racer16k

I'm with gkull on this one. Trying to turn while under braking is going to be the slow way around. When I drove dirt latemodels we used to drive into the turn allowing the car to roll, then apply liberal amounts of power to cause the forward bite to push the car into a greater roll, steering the rear axle. You essentially steered with the rear. On a tacky track you would come out of the turn with the left front a foot off the ground and often carry it 6 inches or more to the next turn. Try doing that three wide at 100+. It's fun. Every book you read says your faster with all four wheels on the ground. Sometimes books aren't written by the fastest people, just by the ones that can write. I have used the snowy road trick. It works pretty well but you're not loading the suspension like you would at 100 in that same corner. Although it does give you a feel for the cars inherent balance. I just added a 3/4" rear bar to my 73. It now feel drivable. Before it just didn't instill confidence that it would turn at speed.

ddecart

if you're racing on a road course and you want to drive as fast as possible, you HAVE to steer while braing and steer while accelerating.

Lemme 'splain.

(Borrowing this from Jackie Stewart, one of the most smooth drivers ever)
Imagin you're driving with a big bowl on the hood of your car and inside the bowl is a ball. Your goal is to keep the ball as close to the rim of the bowl at all times (imagine it's set up so you can't get the ball OUT of the bowl).

So while you're accelerating, the ball is at the back, turnign right it's swng up to the left side, braking it's up at the front, etc...

When you enter a turn from a straightaway, you go from full acceleration (ball at the back) to full braking (ball at the front). Now, you want to transition to get the ball all the way to one side. You can stop braking and then turn and the ball will roll back to the bottom of the bowl and then up the side. Or you can balance the braking and steering to keep the ball moving along the rim of the bowl from the front to the side. As you add steer, you remove bnrake. That's 'trail braking'. You pretty much do it instinctively.

Dirt Tracks? I don't know how those guys do it. I haven't figured out how sliding around so much can be the fastest way around the track. :crazy:

VegasJen

thanks, ddecart. i was beginning to think i was a voice lost in my own little wilderness. you explained it better than i did though.
with the amount of track time they have, i'll bet racer and gkull both do this but it has become so instinctive to them they just don't realize it. the key to this is that your so light on the brakes at this time, you hardly feel as though your still braking considering the massive amount of energy you have already scrubbed off. another point is, like what was pointed out in the gulstrand article is how much stuff is going on and how little time in which it takes to happen. that supercomputer behind your eyeballs tends to do alot of stuff without tell you to keep your **** from getting into trouble. most of the time when you do screw the pooch, if you really think about it, it's because you conciously overroad the learned instincts you've programmed that computer for.

jdunne

Clutchdust,you may have seen the earlier post from Chuck Harmon about accelerating through a corner when you feel you are losing it....the reason why that works is the rear wheels transition from neg camber to pos camber as you lift off and/or brake,that MUST increase the tendency to oversteer as ,in simple terms,neg camber assits tendency to understeerie. go straight ahead,and pos camber assists tendency to oversteer.....consequently,the rapid transition to oversteer will spin you in the same direction you were turning......the trick to racing effectively is understanding and usuing to forces to work for you....on a track it enables you to steer the car on the throttle and to minimize the front wheel turn required....generally speaking straighter is faster on an autocross track.....john :chevy ;)


[Modified by jdunne, 6:14 AM 9/15/2002]