Quote:
Originally Posted by VroomVroom
One question for Norm- what do you mean by "Getting hard on the brakes quickly and hard (as opposed to gradually like almost everybody always does in street driving) will have you catching lots of drivers with comparable track experience under braking." Do you mean catching like catching up to or catching like seeing other drivers under braking?
|
Catching up to. A gentle braker will be on the brakes sooner, before you're even beginning to get off the throttle. And longer, because he still has to get down to about the same speed and he's braking over a longer distance than you. He might have slowed from 100 down to 85 at the point where you're just starting your deceleration, so there would be some distance over which you're closing up the distance to him at a speed difference varying up to 15 mph.
Or think in terms of the time between the two of you passing the same point, not just in the distance between (which will still close up even if the two of you brake at equal rates). You might be 150 feet behind an otherwise identical car down one straight neither gaining on him nor losing anything. That'd be about 1 second at 100 mph. Say you gain half a second under braking to a 50 mph corner, so you'll be a little less than 40 feet behind him through the corner. Granted, he'll still be able to get on the throttle about half a second sooner than you can, but you'll still be closer to 50 feet behind him all the way down the next straight than the 150 you were down the previous straight. Lather/rinse/repeat.
Norm