Friday, October 14, 2011
Do K&N ai filters really work? My oil analysis says yes
There's been some debate over the years that K&N only filters out large particles and leave the small stuff free to destroy engines. A few months ago I drove the car 15 miles through this dust storm...
...and it was like driving in a tunnel of brown talc powder. Very, very fine stuff. Couldn't see 30 feet in front of me, and frankly I never want to do it again. But it did occur to me: What a wonderful opportunity to find out if K&N's are the dirty menaces some people make them out to be.
I've been running a K&N on this car since before I split the block and rebuilt the engine in '05. Since then, I've put 40,000 miles on it, with maybe 4500 of them on track, and every time I change its oil I send a sample to Blackstone Labs for testing. If K&N filters are that crappy, I would expect to see an increase in silicon in my oil sample this time around. So, the next time I changed the oil, I sent it off to as usual. Here are the results.
It's worth noting that silicon has been up in my samples since I moved to Arizona from the midwest in the middle of 2010, but not heinously so, and every one of the samples includes ample track time on dusty Phoenix race tracks. But what interested me the most was it wasn't up at all after driving through that talc storm.
I'm not a K&N rep, and I don't work for Blackstone either. I just thought the results were interesting, and, for once, fact-based.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
There are Drivers, and there are Passengers Behind The Wheel
My brother is of the opinion that "there are drivers, and then there are those who simply ride around behind the wheel". You know what? He's 100% correct.
Forgive me if the following makes me sound like a Cranky Old Bastard, but my POV is this: it's only going to get worse.
Back in the day, if you wanted to drive a car, you had to drive it. You had to know the basics of car control, and you had to know how to respond to emergency situations, or you were ordered out of the gene pool.
We didn't have ABS, so if you didn't want your tires to skid, you let off the brakes when the tires locked up. And you didn't follow so closely in the first place.
We didn't have Traction Control, so if you didn't want your tires to spin in the snow, you put proper snow tires on it and you learned how to properly manage the throttle.
We didn't have Electronic Stability Control, so if you didn't want to spin out, you didn't do anything stupid with lane changes, and you learned how to control slides.
We didn't have Navigation Systems, so if you wanted to find out how to get somewhere, you asked first, or you used a map.
We didn't have Tire Pressure Monitoring systems, so if you didn't want a blowout on the freeway, you checked your tire pressures every once in a while...and if you DID have a blowout, you didn't sue the tire company, the tire manufacturer, nail manufacturers, the car dealer, the dealer's mother trying to project your lack of responsibility onto them.
We didn't have Park Assist, so if you wanted to park without banging into anything, you put your goddamned coffee down, hung up the phone, and paid attention.
No, actually, we didn't do that, because back then, we didn't have cupholders in cars, and we didn't have cell phones.
No longer. We have been trained, by equipment and by legal precedent, to expect that our vehicles will always get us where we want to go without ever letting us get harmed in the process. We are being trained to let the vehicles and their manufacturers take all responsiblity for their operation. We're being trained to take the "driver" out of "driver's license". And why not? We've already been trained that such license is a right instead of the privelege it really is.
So now, the current whipping-boy Toyota has issued a "stop sale" order on their Lexus GX 460 SUV because the no-driving nannies at Consumer Reports have said it's rollover prone.
Why is it rollover prone, you ask? Because if you suddenly lift off the gas in the middle of a sharp, fast corner, the rear end slides out and the vehicle goes sideways. GASP! The horror! Physics are being applied and reality will not bend to our whim! And because it's a Stupid Useless Vehicle with a high center of gravity to make 105 lb soccer moms feel like they're on top of the world, it'll flip pretty easily when sliding sideways.
I'll say it again: This is a fault of vehicle type and of driver input. But because we've been trained to believe this shouldn't be possible, and because other manufacturers put Stability Control on heaps like these in an attempt to keep people from spilling their latte's in life or death situations, Toyota is taking heat that their ESC is not preventing the behavior.
Watch the video for yourself:
You know what would have solved that problem with an absolute quickness? STEPPING ON THE GAS A LITTLE BIT. Yes indeed. Give it a little gas, and the acceleration will cause the vehicle's weight to shift rearward, giving the rear wheels more traction, and stopping the slide.
Drivers know this, almost instinctively. Sheep riding around behind the steering wheel don't know this, and don't want to hear it. They just want to sue somebody.
Learn to drive, folks! It's fun, and it could save your life.
Street Survival for young adults
Highway Survival Training for all drivers
And see your SCCA, PCA, BMWCCA, Audi Club, and many more for similar courses in your area.
Forgive me if the following makes me sound like a Cranky Old Bastard, but my POV is this: it's only going to get worse.
Back in the day, if you wanted to drive a car, you had to drive it. You had to know the basics of car control, and you had to know how to respond to emergency situations, or you were ordered out of the gene pool.
We didn't have ABS, so if you didn't want your tires to skid, you let off the brakes when the tires locked up. And you didn't follow so closely in the first place.
We didn't have Traction Control, so if you didn't want your tires to spin in the snow, you put proper snow tires on it and you learned how to properly manage the throttle.
We didn't have Electronic Stability Control, so if you didn't want to spin out, you didn't do anything stupid with lane changes, and you learned how to control slides.
We didn't have Navigation Systems, so if you wanted to find out how to get somewhere, you asked first, or you used a map.
We didn't have Tire Pressure Monitoring systems, so if you didn't want a blowout on the freeway, you checked your tire pressures every once in a while...and if you DID have a blowout, you didn't sue the tire company, the tire manufacturer, nail manufacturers, the car dealer, the dealer's mother trying to project your lack of responsibility onto them.
We didn't have Park Assist, so if you wanted to park without banging into anything, you put your goddamned coffee down, hung up the phone, and paid attention.
No, actually, we didn't do that, because back then, we didn't have cupholders in cars, and we didn't have cell phones.
No longer. We have been trained, by equipment and by legal precedent, to expect that our vehicles will always get us where we want to go without ever letting us get harmed in the process. We are being trained to let the vehicles and their manufacturers take all responsiblity for their operation. We're being trained to take the "driver" out of "driver's license". And why not? We've already been trained that such license is a right instead of the privelege it really is.
So now, the current whipping-boy Toyota has issued a "stop sale" order on their Lexus GX 460 SUV because the no-driving nannies at Consumer Reports have said it's rollover prone.
Why is it rollover prone, you ask? Because if you suddenly lift off the gas in the middle of a sharp, fast corner, the rear end slides out and the vehicle goes sideways. GASP! The horror! Physics are being applied and reality will not bend to our whim! And because it's a Stupid Useless Vehicle with a high center of gravity to make 105 lb soccer moms feel like they're on top of the world, it'll flip pretty easily when sliding sideways.
I'll say it again: This is a fault of vehicle type and of driver input. But because we've been trained to believe this shouldn't be possible, and because other manufacturers put Stability Control on heaps like these in an attempt to keep people from spilling their latte's in life or death situations, Toyota is taking heat that their ESC is not preventing the behavior.
Watch the video for yourself:
You know what would have solved that problem with an absolute quickness? STEPPING ON THE GAS A LITTLE BIT. Yes indeed. Give it a little gas, and the acceleration will cause the vehicle's weight to shift rearward, giving the rear wheels more traction, and stopping the slide.
Drivers know this, almost instinctively. Sheep riding around behind the steering wheel don't know this, and don't want to hear it. They just want to sue somebody.
Learn to drive, folks! It's fun, and it could save your life.
Street Survival for young adults
Highway Survival Training for all drivers
And see your SCCA, PCA, BMWCCA, Audi Club, and many more for similar courses in your area.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tips for Driving on Snow and Ice
It's about that time of year...folks have a tendency to react to snow as if it's White Death Raining From the Sky. They listen to fear-mongering TV newscasters, they stock up on milk and bread like armageddon is approaching, and they barely dare to venture out in a vehicle. When they do, they hold the wheel in a death grip, stare wide-eyed at the car in front of them, creep along at 10 mph, and refuse to change lanes, like the little mound of snow between lanes is a nest of dragons.
And if they crash, this is what they say: "The car just went out of control, there was nothing I could do!"
That's nonsense. Seriously. There's almost always some things they could have done, if they only knew. There's a big difference between situations you have no control over, as in "there was nothing I could do", and things you DO have control over, like driving a car. If an engine falls off a plane and hits your car, OK, I'll give you that: There was nothing you could do. But if you spun out in the snow and hit a pole, yes, I'm here to say, there absolutely was something you could have done to prevent it, and I don't mean just staying home. But first your car needs decent tires, good wipers, and washer fluid. If your car has crappy tires, or summer-only tires, worn out wipers and an empty washer tank, yes please, do stay home or call a cab.
Otherwise, cars, trucks, and SUV's are all quite controllable in slippery conditions, but only when the driver has the right attitude and the right skill sets, which really aren't that hard to learn. But the key to a lot of bad-weather driving is fighting what your instincts want to do. The skills may be unfamiliar, and they require practice, but they work.
We have to fight the instincts we've developed from all our driving in normal conditions on dry pavement. If you want to turn more, you turn the wheel more, right? If you want to slow down more, press the brakes harder, right? NO, not when the car isn't doing what you want it to do! You have to make the logical side of your brain, the one that says "this isn't working", take over from the animal side that says "do this" no matter what. So that's where knowledge like what I'm about to tell you comes in.
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I learned to drive on snowy roads in Michigan and Ontario. I've been driving for 28 years, and I instruct high-performance driving situations and for Street Survival. I've attended the Bridgestone Winter Driving School and I can vouch for its effectiveness.
So, with all that out of the way, here are my tips for successfully driving in snow:
1) Look way ahead of the car. WAY ahead. That way, your brain is already aware of situations as they're developing, minimizing the amount of surprise involved. Look way behind you, too, in your mirrors. There should be no surprises coming up behind you. Of course, you can't look way ahead of the car or way behind the car when you have your face full of mobile phone texting or reading email, so put the mobile down, it can wait. Seriously.
2) Slow down a little. I don't mean slow to a crawl, unless conditions really are so slippery that you can't accelerate or brake very well at all. I mean just slow down at least a little. Give your brain a little more time to consider what's happening and react accordingly.
3) All-Wheel-Drive and 4-wheel Drive can't change the laws of physics...AWD and 4WD vehicles accelerate better than others in slippery conditions but they do not stop or turn any better! have you ever noticed that so many cars spun off the road or rolled over are SUV's? Those are the people who didn't notice how slippery the conditions were because their car still accelerated well, or they knew it was slippery and figured 4WD would save them. They were wrong, and they found out the hard way. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security just because your car accelerates better than others in the snow.
4) Always look where you want the car to go, not at what you're afraid it's going to hit. I can't emphasize this enough, and it'll be a recurring them. It's called Target Fixation, and it's part of the human condition. When we're surprised or scared, we have a tendency to focus on what it is that's surprising us or scaring us. We get tunnel vision as our brains actually tune out everything else but the thing that's spooking us. But because the car will follow your hands, and your hands follow your eyes, when you stare at something, you'll drive right into it. Fighter pilots sometimes fly right into their opponents thanks to target fixation. Skydivers sometimes drill right into the ground without pulling their cords, thanks to target fixation. Motorcyclists quite often drive off the road in a turn, thanks to target fixation. And drivers very often hit things in the middle of nowhere, thanks to target fixation. Remember: If you're staring at it, you'll drive right at it. No matter what.
So this is critical: when you get spooked that you're approaching a stopped vehicle faster than you think you can avoid it, do not stare at the car...look to the empty lane next to it, and drive there. If your car starts skidding toward a curb, do not stare at the curb, focus instead on the road next to it where you want the car to go, and have patience with the controls. Car coming into your lane? Do not stare at the car, focus instead on moving out of its way, which doesn't necessarily mean slowing down. You've been looking ahead of the car, and all around, so you know where the empty places are, right? Right. Right? Yes, because you're a driver, and not just a passenger behind the wheel.
5) Learn how to modulate the gas and the brakes. "Modulate" means learning how to apply just the right amount of gas or brakes so the tires don't spin or slide. Spinning or sliding tires hardly generate any traction, so they can't start or stop the car. More importantly, sliding tires can't steer the car, either. You must keep the tires rolling in order for them to do their jobs. Be gentle with the controls squeeze on the gas and squeeze on the brakes. My dad always said that in really slippery conditions, drive like you have an egg between your foot and the pedals, and drive so you don't break the egg. Sage advice. Be gentle with the controls.
Feel and hear what the car is doing...is the engine revving up but the car isn't accelerating? That means your tires are spinning. Lift off the gas and start over again, gently. Is the car sliding when you press on the brakes? Do you feel the brake pedal pulsing and pushing back on your foot? Quickly lift off the brakes and very quickly but gently start over again. You may have to repeat this over and over very quickly. You're trying to find the amount of pedal pressure just before the amount that causes the tires to lock. That's called "threshold braking", where you're generating braking forces just on the threshold of locking them up and skidding, and it's physically the best traction your tires can provide. Any more than that causes skidding, and that's actually slows the car less than not skidding.
Is the pedal vibrating and is there a whirring sound from in front of the dashboard when you apply the brakes? That's your ABS (Anti-lock Brake System) doing its job. Don't freak out, just look where you want the car to go, and keep after it...modulate the brakes and steer to safety. Drive the car.
If your car seem stuck in place and just won't move without spinning its tires, try to get it started in 2nd gear instead. And be gentle. It usually works.
If the front tires of your rear-wheel-drive car are sliding when you're approaching a stop, put the car in neutral.
6) Be prepared for the car to slide around a little. It's OK...did you know your car always slides a little, every time you turn it, even on dry pavement? It does, just a little, it's how tires work, but you're so used to it you just don't even know it happens. On snow, it happens more, and if it happens too much, you have to correct for it. How? First, look where you want the car to go (see a theme here?).
If the back end is sliding, that's called oversteer, and the way to correct for it is to turn the steering wheel in the direction that the rear end is moving. For example, you're making a left hand turn, but the back end starts sliding to the right. Move the steering wheel to the right, and be steady with the pedals. Most people get this almost instinctively. But here's the important part: Be ready for the car to "catch" and come back the other way. When it does, you'll have to correct for that movement, and if you don't, you'll simply spin out in the opposite direction. Remember "CPR": Correct (turn the wheel into the skid), Pause (hold it there momentarily), Recover (quickly move the wheel back to center before the car catches and darts that way).
And here's the part that makes people scratch their heads, but it's true: In most cases, you need to gently accelerate when this happens. Key word being "gently". Release the brakes and apply just a little gas. What this does is shift weight, and traction, from the front tires to the rear tires, giving them what they need to stop sliding. This does not apply if you're driving a rear-wheel drive car and giving it too much gas is what caused it to skid in the first place. Otherwise, it applies.
If the front wheels are sliding when you're trying to turn, so that the car is going more straight than you want it to, that's called understeer. It can be very frightening and the natural reaction most people have is to stand on the brakes and turn the wheel more and more. These are both the exact opposite of what needs to be done to correct understeer. So, in these situations, first (wait for it....) look where you want the car to be going, and resist the urge to turn the steering wheel more and more. The front wheels are already over their turning limits, so turning the wheel more actually makes the situation worse. It can be a very, very hard habit to break, but the best way to start is look where you want the car to go, not at what you're afraid it's going to hit. You actually have to turn the wheel back to center a little, so it's a little less than what caused it to start sliding, causing the tires to regain traction, then gently add more steering angle back into it so the car will turn. This will ONLY work if you're not standing on the brakes and staring wide-eyed at what you're afraid of hitting, and that's a tough impulse to overcome when the car is sliding. But you must overcome it.
Need to change lanes, and there's a mound of snow between them? It's OK, you're not going to die. The car will "yaw" when the front wheel catches the mount, that means the car will rotate a little around its center, and if you're not used to it, you may feel like it's going to spin out. It won't, unless you do something wrong. Let it yaw. Don't panic. Correct for it, focus on where you want to be, and you'll get there.
7) Slow down before you have to make a turn. A tire can brake or accelerate, or it can turn, but it can't do 100% of both at the same time. When traction is reduced by snow or ice, you need to slow the car before you turn so the tires can devote all they have to changing the direction of the car. Finding out mid-turn that you're going too fast to make it is about 10 seconds too late to do anything about it, but again, if you find yourself in that situation....look where you want the car to go.
8) Prepare your car. Tires with no tread don't grip the snow. Cars with no window washer fluid get crusty windshields, and if you can't see out the window, you can't focus on where you want the car to go. Cars with no gas in the tank don't go anywhere at all unless they're being towed. You get the drift.
And finally, with all this said, when the first snowfall comes, I recommend getting yourself out to the biggest parking lot with the fewest obstacles you can find, and practice. I still do this, every season, even approaching 3 decades of driving, and you should too. Get yourself lots of room so you can't hit anything, and get a feel for how long it takes to stop the car from 30 or 40 mph. "Change lanes" and get a feel for that. Lose control a couple times and learn what it feels like when it's about to happen, and how to catch it when it does.
Be safe, and happy motoring. Drive. You're in control.
And if they crash, this is what they say: "The car just went out of control, there was nothing I could do!"
That's nonsense. Seriously. There's almost always some things they could have done, if they only knew. There's a big difference between situations you have no control over, as in "there was nothing I could do", and things you DO have control over, like driving a car. If an engine falls off a plane and hits your car, OK, I'll give you that: There was nothing you could do. But if you spun out in the snow and hit a pole, yes, I'm here to say, there absolutely was something you could have done to prevent it, and I don't mean just staying home. But first your car needs decent tires, good wipers, and washer fluid. If your car has crappy tires, or summer-only tires, worn out wipers and an empty washer tank, yes please, do stay home or call a cab.
Otherwise, cars, trucks, and SUV's are all quite controllable in slippery conditions, but only when the driver has the right attitude and the right skill sets, which really aren't that hard to learn. But the key to a lot of bad-weather driving is fighting what your instincts want to do. The skills may be unfamiliar, and they require practice, but they work.
We have to fight the instincts we've developed from all our driving in normal conditions on dry pavement. If you want to turn more, you turn the wheel more, right? If you want to slow down more, press the brakes harder, right? NO, not when the car isn't doing what you want it to do! You have to make the logical side of your brain, the one that says "this isn't working", take over from the animal side that says "do this" no matter what. So that's where knowledge like what I'm about to tell you comes in.
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I learned to drive on snowy roads in Michigan and Ontario. I've been driving for 28 years, and I instruct high-performance driving situations and for Street Survival. I've attended the Bridgestone Winter Driving School and I can vouch for its effectiveness.
So, with all that out of the way, here are my tips for successfully driving in snow:
1) Look way ahead of the car. WAY ahead. That way, your brain is already aware of situations as they're developing, minimizing the amount of surprise involved. Look way behind you, too, in your mirrors. There should be no surprises coming up behind you. Of course, you can't look way ahead of the car or way behind the car when you have your face full of mobile phone texting or reading email, so put the mobile down, it can wait. Seriously.
2) Slow down a little. I don't mean slow to a crawl, unless conditions really are so slippery that you can't accelerate or brake very well at all. I mean just slow down at least a little. Give your brain a little more time to consider what's happening and react accordingly.
3) All-Wheel-Drive and 4-wheel Drive can't change the laws of physics...AWD and 4WD vehicles accelerate better than others in slippery conditions but they do not stop or turn any better! have you ever noticed that so many cars spun off the road or rolled over are SUV's? Those are the people who didn't notice how slippery the conditions were because their car still accelerated well, or they knew it was slippery and figured 4WD would save them. They were wrong, and they found out the hard way. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security just because your car accelerates better than others in the snow.
4) Always look where you want the car to go, not at what you're afraid it's going to hit. I can't emphasize this enough, and it'll be a recurring them. It's called Target Fixation, and it's part of the human condition. When we're surprised or scared, we have a tendency to focus on what it is that's surprising us or scaring us. We get tunnel vision as our brains actually tune out everything else but the thing that's spooking us. But because the car will follow your hands, and your hands follow your eyes, when you stare at something, you'll drive right into it. Fighter pilots sometimes fly right into their opponents thanks to target fixation. Skydivers sometimes drill right into the ground without pulling their cords, thanks to target fixation. Motorcyclists quite often drive off the road in a turn, thanks to target fixation. And drivers very often hit things in the middle of nowhere, thanks to target fixation. Remember: If you're staring at it, you'll drive right at it. No matter what.
So this is critical: when you get spooked that you're approaching a stopped vehicle faster than you think you can avoid it, do not stare at the car...look to the empty lane next to it, and drive there. If your car starts skidding toward a curb, do not stare at the curb, focus instead on the road next to it where you want the car to go, and have patience with the controls. Car coming into your lane? Do not stare at the car, focus instead on moving out of its way, which doesn't necessarily mean slowing down. You've been looking ahead of the car, and all around, so you know where the empty places are, right? Right. Right? Yes, because you're a driver, and not just a passenger behind the wheel.
5) Learn how to modulate the gas and the brakes. "Modulate" means learning how to apply just the right amount of gas or brakes so the tires don't spin or slide. Spinning or sliding tires hardly generate any traction, so they can't start or stop the car. More importantly, sliding tires can't steer the car, either. You must keep the tires rolling in order for them to do their jobs. Be gentle with the controls squeeze on the gas and squeeze on the brakes. My dad always said that in really slippery conditions, drive like you have an egg between your foot and the pedals, and drive so you don't break the egg. Sage advice. Be gentle with the controls.
Feel and hear what the car is doing...is the engine revving up but the car isn't accelerating? That means your tires are spinning. Lift off the gas and start over again, gently. Is the car sliding when you press on the brakes? Do you feel the brake pedal pulsing and pushing back on your foot? Quickly lift off the brakes and very quickly but gently start over again. You may have to repeat this over and over very quickly. You're trying to find the amount of pedal pressure just before the amount that causes the tires to lock. That's called "threshold braking", where you're generating braking forces just on the threshold of locking them up and skidding, and it's physically the best traction your tires can provide. Any more than that causes skidding, and that's actually slows the car less than not skidding.
Is the pedal vibrating and is there a whirring sound from in front of the dashboard when you apply the brakes? That's your ABS (Anti-lock Brake System) doing its job. Don't freak out, just look where you want the car to go, and keep after it...modulate the brakes and steer to safety. Drive the car.
If your car seem stuck in place and just won't move without spinning its tires, try to get it started in 2nd gear instead. And be gentle. It usually works.
If the front tires of your rear-wheel-drive car are sliding when you're approaching a stop, put the car in neutral.
6) Be prepared for the car to slide around a little. It's OK...did you know your car always slides a little, every time you turn it, even on dry pavement? It does, just a little, it's how tires work, but you're so used to it you just don't even know it happens. On snow, it happens more, and if it happens too much, you have to correct for it. How? First, look where you want the car to go (see a theme here?).
If the back end is sliding, that's called oversteer, and the way to correct for it is to turn the steering wheel in the direction that the rear end is moving. For example, you're making a left hand turn, but the back end starts sliding to the right. Move the steering wheel to the right, and be steady with the pedals. Most people get this almost instinctively. But here's the important part: Be ready for the car to "catch" and come back the other way. When it does, you'll have to correct for that movement, and if you don't, you'll simply spin out in the opposite direction. Remember "CPR": Correct (turn the wheel into the skid), Pause (hold it there momentarily), Recover (quickly move the wheel back to center before the car catches and darts that way).
And here's the part that makes people scratch their heads, but it's true: In most cases, you need to gently accelerate when this happens. Key word being "gently". Release the brakes and apply just a little gas. What this does is shift weight, and traction, from the front tires to the rear tires, giving them what they need to stop sliding. This does not apply if you're driving a rear-wheel drive car and giving it too much gas is what caused it to skid in the first place. Otherwise, it applies.
If the front wheels are sliding when you're trying to turn, so that the car is going more straight than you want it to, that's called understeer. It can be very frightening and the natural reaction most people have is to stand on the brakes and turn the wheel more and more. These are both the exact opposite of what needs to be done to correct understeer. So, in these situations, first (wait for it....) look where you want the car to be going, and resist the urge to turn the steering wheel more and more. The front wheels are already over their turning limits, so turning the wheel more actually makes the situation worse. It can be a very, very hard habit to break, but the best way to start is look where you want the car to go, not at what you're afraid it's going to hit. You actually have to turn the wheel back to center a little, so it's a little less than what caused it to start sliding, causing the tires to regain traction, then gently add more steering angle back into it so the car will turn. This will ONLY work if you're not standing on the brakes and staring wide-eyed at what you're afraid of hitting, and that's a tough impulse to overcome when the car is sliding. But you must overcome it.
Need to change lanes, and there's a mound of snow between them? It's OK, you're not going to die. The car will "yaw" when the front wheel catches the mount, that means the car will rotate a little around its center, and if you're not used to it, you may feel like it's going to spin out. It won't, unless you do something wrong. Let it yaw. Don't panic. Correct for it, focus on where you want to be, and you'll get there.
7) Slow down before you have to make a turn. A tire can brake or accelerate, or it can turn, but it can't do 100% of both at the same time. When traction is reduced by snow or ice, you need to slow the car before you turn so the tires can devote all they have to changing the direction of the car. Finding out mid-turn that you're going too fast to make it is about 10 seconds too late to do anything about it, but again, if you find yourself in that situation....look where you want the car to go.
8) Prepare your car. Tires with no tread don't grip the snow. Cars with no window washer fluid get crusty windshields, and if you can't see out the window, you can't focus on where you want the car to go. Cars with no gas in the tank don't go anywhere at all unless they're being towed. You get the drift.
And finally, with all this said, when the first snowfall comes, I recommend getting yourself out to the biggest parking lot with the fewest obstacles you can find, and practice. I still do this, every season, even approaching 3 decades of driving, and you should too. Get yourself lots of room so you can't hit anything, and get a feel for how long it takes to stop the car from 30 or 40 mph. "Change lanes" and get a feel for that. Lose control a couple times and learn what it feels like when it's about to happen, and how to catch it when it does.
Be safe, and happy motoring. Drive. You're in control.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Nitto NT05 tire review
Since I average over 700 track miles a year on this car in addition to the usual 8,000 miles a year of regular street driving, I use a lot of tires. I get a little bit of “tire tester” perspective, so I thought I’d share my observations on the recently introduced Nitto NT05.
http://www.nittotire.com/#index.tire.nt05
The headline is, from a track performance standpoint, they feel like they slot right in between the high performance street tire Dunlop Direzza Star Spec, and the track-only R-compound Nitto NT01. The NT05 is a terrific tire that only asks for slight compromises in streetability in exchange for outstanding track performance, and they’re a bargain for the performance they offer. There may be streetable tires that perform slightly better on track, but they’re going to cost an awful lot more.
The Details:
I’m running the NT05 in the 255/40-17 size on factory style17x8 Cobra wheels. The NT05 doesn’t come in a 245-width 17, but the 255/40’s fit the 8-inch wheel width very nicely, not oversized at all. It seems Nittos tend to run a little narrow for any given size, and these appear to be no exception. In my opinion, they fit perfectly on the wheels I have.
My past street tire experience on this car involves several sets of Kumho MX, Bridgestone RE-01R, and Dunlop Direzza D1 Star Spec. They were all fairly equal from a road course track-times standpoint, but they were all behaved very differently from one another. Specifically:
Kumho MX: An impressive performer for the money, but screams and howls so much at the limits that it’s actually embarrassing. It gets old explaining that no, they are not being overdriven, yes they do sound that bad when they’re driven properly. Driven at their limits, they sound like an impending wreck at all times. Trackside onlookers will stop their conversations and look up to see who’s about to crash. They feel mushy, which takes some getting used to, and they’re nearly worthless in the rain.
Bridgestone RE-01R: Much quieter than the Kumho MX at the limit and overall, feel much nicer and faster, but the times don’t bear it out, at least for me. Virtually equal to the MX from an outright performance standpoint, but a nicer tire to drive.
Dunlop Direzza Star Spec: Stunning in the rain, subdued noises at the limit, very predictable, very nice tire overall, but wear [i]very[/i] quickly 5000 miles and they were gone, and only about 500 of it was on the track.
Now, on to the NT05.
Quantifiable Performance
The NT05 appears to be notably faster on track all of the others listed. The only direct video comparisons I have of the same configuration shows I was 2-3 seconds faster per lap on Heartland Park’s 1.8-mile Short Configuration than I was with the Dunlops, and probably 1 second of that can be attributed to a rear swaybar change I made to the car in the meantime. Dunlop times were about 1:24 and NT05 times were 1:21ish.
On the 2.1-mile Club Configuration, I was just barely faster with the NT05’s than I was with a combination of Kumho MX and RE-01R, at about 1:40 per lap, but the catch is, when I ran the Nitto’s, I was also battling a ridiculous 30-40 mph headwind on the main straight. Given the barn-door aerodynamics of the 1992 mustang coupe, this makes a noticeable difference. It was like somebody pulling the parking brake once I hit about 90 mph. So while I can’t quantify the performance improvement back to back, I am confident saying the NT05 is a better-performing car on a road course than any of the other ones I’ve listed.
Subjective Performance
Subjectively, the NT05’s behave like a true “summer tire”, providing amazing dry grip, yet surprisingly grippy in the rain, at least on the street. I haven’t this car enough wet tracks to be able to make a comparison, but sticking with the street, the MX and the RE01R can’t even compare to the NT05 for wet performance. Not even close. The Direzza is the only tire that came close to the NT05’s wet performance, and the only place it might actually be better is in standing water, thanks to its deeper tread voids than the NT05’s. If the pavement is simply damp, the NT05 sticks very well.
Ride quality is firm, no doubt about it. By my recollection, the MX’s were worse once they wore down to similar tread depths, but the RE01R and Direzza were a little smoother.
The NT05’s tread comes fairly shallow, but with large tread blocks and an apparently fairly stiff sidewall. Both of these serve to minimize tread squirm and resultant overheating. They don’t appear to get greasy with extended use, and at the same time, they don’t take a lot of heating to come into their own. That’s a pretty amazing feat in my book.
Turn-in is sharp, and breakaway is very predictable. The tires talk and sing at the limits, without being obnoxious about it like the MX, and when they’re about to cross the threshold of grip, they give you an audible warning so you can get it back in line with a quick, easy correction. 1:34 in the Shelby video below and 2:02 in the Subaru video is a good example of what I mean.
It’s too early for me to give a valid mileage estimate, and I haven’t taken tread depth measurements, but on visual inspection after a few track events, and a couple thousand road miles, I am very impressed with the wear rate.
One odd thing about these tires is, they have developed a buzzing noise at speed. You can hear it in some of the videos, and it has caused more than one passenger in my car to ask “why does your car sound like an airplane?” I’ve talked to other NT05 owners who say they’re not familiar with this phenomenon, so I’m not sure it’s inherent to the model of tire, and may instead be attributed to the specific track conditions I’ve used them under.
Thanks to the symmetrical tread pattern Nitto baked into the NT05, I have the flexibility to dismount the tires and switch them side to side on the car. This is a feature I really appreciate, because it allows me to extend the life of the tires. Heartland Park punishes the outside edge of the right-side tires, and if I couldn’t swap them side to side, I’d wear out the right side long before the left.
Videos
Here’s some in-car videos to give you an idea of how the NT05 behaves:
With a Shelby GT500:
With a 350-hp WRX STi:
For what it’s worth, here’s an autocross run from the only event I ran this year, so I have nothing to compare them against:
For comparison’s sake, here’s some laps with RE01R’s and Kumho MX’s on the car…listen to the howling!
For comparison’s sake, here’s the current pricing of the tires I’ve discussed here:
NT05 $154 http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?pc=40516&counter=1&ar=40&rd=17&sw=false&cs=255
Kumho MX $150
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?pc=33282&counter=1&ar=40&rd=17&sw=false&cs=255
Dunlop Direzza Star Spec $165
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?pc=29143&counter=1&ar=40&rd=17&sw=false&cs=255
http://www.nittotire.com/#index.tire.nt05
The headline is, from a track performance standpoint, they feel like they slot right in between the high performance street tire Dunlop Direzza Star Spec, and the track-only R-compound Nitto NT01. The NT05 is a terrific tire that only asks for slight compromises in streetability in exchange for outstanding track performance, and they’re a bargain for the performance they offer. There may be streetable tires that perform slightly better on track, but they’re going to cost an awful lot more.
The Details:
I’m running the NT05 in the 255/40-17 size on factory style17x8 Cobra wheels. The NT05 doesn’t come in a 245-width 17, but the 255/40’s fit the 8-inch wheel width very nicely, not oversized at all. It seems Nittos tend to run a little narrow for any given size, and these appear to be no exception. In my opinion, they fit perfectly on the wheels I have.
My past street tire experience on this car involves several sets of Kumho MX, Bridgestone RE-01R, and Dunlop Direzza D1 Star Spec. They were all fairly equal from a road course track-times standpoint, but they were all behaved very differently from one another. Specifically:
Kumho MX: An impressive performer for the money, but screams and howls so much at the limits that it’s actually embarrassing. It gets old explaining that no, they are not being overdriven, yes they do sound that bad when they’re driven properly. Driven at their limits, they sound like an impending wreck at all times. Trackside onlookers will stop their conversations and look up to see who’s about to crash. They feel mushy, which takes some getting used to, and they’re nearly worthless in the rain.
Bridgestone RE-01R: Much quieter than the Kumho MX at the limit and overall, feel much nicer and faster, but the times don’t bear it out, at least for me. Virtually equal to the MX from an outright performance standpoint, but a nicer tire to drive.
Dunlop Direzza Star Spec: Stunning in the rain, subdued noises at the limit, very predictable, very nice tire overall, but wear [i]very[/i] quickly 5000 miles and they were gone, and only about 500 of it was on the track.
Now, on to the NT05.
Quantifiable Performance
The NT05 appears to be notably faster on track all of the others listed. The only direct video comparisons I have of the same configuration shows I was 2-3 seconds faster per lap on Heartland Park’s 1.8-mile Short Configuration than I was with the Dunlops, and probably 1 second of that can be attributed to a rear swaybar change I made to the car in the meantime. Dunlop times were about 1:24 and NT05 times were 1:21ish.
On the 2.1-mile Club Configuration, I was just barely faster with the NT05’s than I was with a combination of Kumho MX and RE-01R, at about 1:40 per lap, but the catch is, when I ran the Nitto’s, I was also battling a ridiculous 30-40 mph headwind on the main straight. Given the barn-door aerodynamics of the 1992 mustang coupe, this makes a noticeable difference. It was like somebody pulling the parking brake once I hit about 90 mph. So while I can’t quantify the performance improvement back to back, I am confident saying the NT05 is a better-performing car on a road course than any of the other ones I’ve listed.
Subjective Performance
Subjectively, the NT05’s behave like a true “summer tire”, providing amazing dry grip, yet surprisingly grippy in the rain, at least on the street. I haven’t this car enough wet tracks to be able to make a comparison, but sticking with the street, the MX and the RE01R can’t even compare to the NT05 for wet performance. Not even close. The Direzza is the only tire that came close to the NT05’s wet performance, and the only place it might actually be better is in standing water, thanks to its deeper tread voids than the NT05’s. If the pavement is simply damp, the NT05 sticks very well.
Ride quality is firm, no doubt about it. By my recollection, the MX’s were worse once they wore down to similar tread depths, but the RE01R and Direzza were a little smoother.
The NT05’s tread comes fairly shallow, but with large tread blocks and an apparently fairly stiff sidewall. Both of these serve to minimize tread squirm and resultant overheating. They don’t appear to get greasy with extended use, and at the same time, they don’t take a lot of heating to come into their own. That’s a pretty amazing feat in my book.
Turn-in is sharp, and breakaway is very predictable. The tires talk and sing at the limits, without being obnoxious about it like the MX, and when they’re about to cross the threshold of grip, they give you an audible warning so you can get it back in line with a quick, easy correction. 1:34 in the Shelby video below and 2:02 in the Subaru video is a good example of what I mean.
It’s too early for me to give a valid mileage estimate, and I haven’t taken tread depth measurements, but on visual inspection after a few track events, and a couple thousand road miles, I am very impressed with the wear rate.
One odd thing about these tires is, they have developed a buzzing noise at speed. You can hear it in some of the videos, and it has caused more than one passenger in my car to ask “why does your car sound like an airplane?” I’ve talked to other NT05 owners who say they’re not familiar with this phenomenon, so I’m not sure it’s inherent to the model of tire, and may instead be attributed to the specific track conditions I’ve used them under.
Thanks to the symmetrical tread pattern Nitto baked into the NT05, I have the flexibility to dismount the tires and switch them side to side on the car. This is a feature I really appreciate, because it allows me to extend the life of the tires. Heartland Park punishes the outside edge of the right-side tires, and if I couldn’t swap them side to side, I’d wear out the right side long before the left.
Videos
Here’s some in-car videos to give you an idea of how the NT05 behaves:
With a Shelby GT500:
With a 350-hp WRX STi:
For what it’s worth, here’s an autocross run from the only event I ran this year, so I have nothing to compare them against:
For comparison’s sake, here’s some laps with RE01R’s and Kumho MX’s on the car…listen to the howling!
For comparison’s sake, here’s the current pricing of the tires I’ve discussed here:
NT05 $154 http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?pc=40516&counter=1&ar=40&rd=17&sw=false&cs=255
Kumho MX $150
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?pc=33282&counter=1&ar=40&rd=17&sw=false&cs=255
Dunlop Direzza Star Spec $165
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?pc=29143&counter=1&ar=40&rd=17&sw=false&cs=255
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Let's talk driving technique, shall we?
I've been a high-performance car control instructor for a few years now, with organizations such as Street Survival, The SCCA, the Porsche Club of America, and the BMW Car Club of America, among others. I'm particularly passionate about Street Survival because its organizational mission is to improve the car-control and accident avoidance skills of teens and young adults, drivers aged 16-21. This age group leads the population in driver fatalities, especially among males:
Take the fact that 16-21 year olds are physically incapable of the kind of judgment they'll develop later in life, because their frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for judgment, isn't fully developed until about age 24, add in an unhealthy dose of Invincibility Syndrome that convinces them "that won't happen to me", mix with a real lack of experience that is only overcome with time and effort, and you have a recipe for disaster that gets played out every day in this country.
Well, I'm out to change part of that. I can't change physical development, and I can't do much to change attitudes or behavior, but I can teach car control skills that simply don't come naturally to people, so that when a driver finds himself or herself in a challenging situation, they have the skill and the muscle memory to do make the proper response.
Problem is, every 18 year old already considers himself an Expert Driver because the state gave them a license they think deems it so, and becuase, well, they haven't died yet.
Let's face it, 99.999% of the time, driving is ridiculously simple. You steer in the direction you want to go, and you speed up or slow down with your right foot. Easy! Problem is, none of the experience gained during all that time prepares you for what to do in those .001% of occasions that are way outside the norm.
So here we go...all of the following applies whether you're 16, 36, 59 or 70. In fact one time we had a Street Survival class that was undersubscribed, so we opened up to those older than 21. I had a 44 year old student in one class tell me "I've learned more about car control in just one day than I have in all the years of driving leading up to it".
Our brains are conditioned to follow instincts that have developed over a few million years of encountering dangerous animals in the wild and catching fish with our bare hands.
But we've only been driving cars for 5 generations!
This is not nearly enough time to develop instinct, and our instinctual responses to fear behind the wheel are almost always the exact wrong things to do. We tend to stare at what scares us, which when behind the wheel virtually gaurantees we'll drive right into it in a classic case of the human condition known as Object Fixation. We tend to lift off the gas or apply the brakes in an attempt to slow down, which oftentimes makes things worse if we're in a corner, because it causes load to shift off the rear tires and onto the front ones, leading to a spin.
You don't need a big fancy school but if you can swing one, go for it. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for Street Survival clinics. Street Survival, and autocross schools put on by local clubs and the SCCA, and driving events put on by the Porsche Club of America and the BMW Club of America. All three run great events on race tracks that include car control drills beforehand.
The main principles of accident avoidance are:
First and foremost: As an instructor at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School years ago told the class: "There is no substitute for speed control. Because if you know car control, but you're still traveling too fast for conditions, all that means is you're going off with style"
So please, if you think you're going too fast, you probably are.
With that...as I tell my students, it's not enough to miss the deer. Anybody can miss the deer. You have to miss the TREES afterward, that's what matters. A lot of people die trying to miss the deer because they didn't know how to follow through with it.
1) ALWAYS look where you want the car to go, not at what you're afraid you might hit. Your hands follow your eyes and your car follows your hands, but we humans suffer from a condition called Object Fixation. Scared you're going to hit that pole? Stare at it, you'll hit it, 100% guaranteed. Stare at the gap next to it, and that's where you go. Really, really hard lesson to learn without practice.
Object Fixation at Work:
The driver in the above situation came into the corner too fast for his nerves, and he stared at that wall, and by golly, he skidded right into it. If he had only collected his nerves and looked through the corner, I guarantee you he would have made it just fine. He may have had to clean his seats afterward, but he'd have made it. Cars are kinda like horses, they're capable of amazing performance until you treat them wrong or give them the wrong input. You can't blame poor performance on the car or the horse, most often it's the driver or the rider who did something he shouldn't have, that caused the performance to be less than it could have been.
2) Look WAY ahead of the car at all times. Further than you think. Further. Further. This gives our brain time to process information, slows things down for us, averts panic, lets us look where we need the car to go. We can't do anything about where the car is or where it's going for the next full second, because it physically takes that long for the brain to take input, process it, and respond to it. At 60 mph, your car will travel the length of a basketball court before you can even do anything about where it's going. So look way ahead. The faster you go, the more important this becomes. Most people are familiar with magazine-test stopping distances sayin the SuperDuperGT can stop from 60 mph in 120 feet. They don't usually tell you the LumberMaticXL takes almost twice as long:
They also don't take into account reaction time. Look what happens to stopping distance when we add reaction time to the mix:
3) Understand the balance of your car. Your car is only connected to the road by 4 spots where the tires contact the road. These are known as Contact Patches patches, and each is about as big around as a grapefruit:
Think about that for a second. What you do with the controls is manage the size of the patches, and with it, traction. Lift off the gas or apply the brakes, the front patches get bigger, the rear patches get smaller. That means you get more traction in front and less in the rear, until you overwhelm the grip of the front tires. Step on the gas, you get less traction in front and more in the rear, until you overcome the rear tires' grip.
Unfortunately, again, our natural reaction to fear in the car is to look at what we're afraid of (see #1), and then to lift the gas or step on the brake. And gusss when we're most likely to get scared, other than an impending collision? When we're in a corner. What happens? In an effort to slow down, all we do is shift traction to the front and away from the rear and make the car spin. One of the other counter-intuitive things about car control is when the back end is sliding out and you're not on the gas, either give it a little gas or let off the brakes...load transfers to the rear, the rear gets traction, it stops rotating, you save it. It's magic.
Which brings me back to missing the deer. Remember the letters CPR. Correct. Pause. Recover.
Correcting is the easy part. You're sliding sideways, you turn into it. Great. Now what? Well, you now have a whole lot of energy stored in the springs the car is leaning on, and when that energy releases, the car will snap back the other way. You have to anticipate this happening, but it takes a little time...a pause. Correct...pause...RECOVER. Get that wheel back where it needs to be proactively.
This all applies whether the pavement is dry, wet, snowy or icy. The only thing that really changes is how long it takes to occur. The slipperier things are, the slower load transfer occurs, but it does, eventually. So always, always look where you want the car to go.
Another thing we're ingrained to do is when we want the car to turn, we turn the wheel, right? So what do most people do when we get in a situation where we're turning the wheel, but the car isn't turning enough? That's called understeer. What do most people do? We turn the wheel more! This flat-out does not work. It also causes us to panic and stare at the guardrail or tree. Your brain is screaming "it's not working! Turn more! Oh no!" BLAM. The reason it doesn't work is, the front tires don't have enough traction, otherwise the car would be turning the way you want it to. You have to get them more traction to get them to work. The only way to do that, in addition to managing fore/aft weight balance, is to reduce the steering angle. That's right, take steering out of it and the front tires will hook and turn the car. But man oh man does that take discipline.
In an oversteer situation, where the rear of the car is sliding, turning the car more than we want to, the response is to (remember!) Look where you want the car to go, and turn the wheel in that direction. This is known as countersteering. But a very important thing to remember, and which instinct will cause to feel very unnatural, is you may need to let go of the brakes (if you're using them), or even add a little gas. Counterintuitive, to be sure, but what this does is shift load back to the rear tires, giving them traction, and helping stop their slide.
Lastly...WEAR YOUR SEATBELT. The old "I want to be thrown from the crash" is about as relevant as the Flat Earth Society. Remember...you can't control the car if you're not actually at the controls! Many times the first impact isn't the last. There's still some things you can do to control where the car is going, but not if you got bumped out of position. Trust me, you don't want to be just a passenger when half a second before, you were the driver.
See this wreck? Does that look serious enough to kill the driver? I've seen a lot of wrecks in my time, and I'd have to say "no".
But the sad reality is, the driver did die, because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. So I'll say it again: WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS.
There you go, $800 1-day professional school in a nutshell, minus the actual muscle memory. Spend $60 on a street survival school, or on an autocross school, whatever, but get the experience, it really is an eye-opener and a lifesaver.
One more thing about Street Survival: Tell your friends and family! It only costs $60, and most insurance companies will give you a discount for having taken the program. That $60 will pay for itself in the first year of premium savings.
Please check out www.streetsurvival.org and spread the word.
Here's some quick & dirty before-and-after video from just the emergency lane-change portion from the last time I instructed Street Survival:
Here's some from some other regions:
Take the fact that 16-21 year olds are physically incapable of the kind of judgment they'll develop later in life, because their frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for judgment, isn't fully developed until about age 24, add in an unhealthy dose of Invincibility Syndrome that convinces them "that won't happen to me", mix with a real lack of experience that is only overcome with time and effort, and you have a recipe for disaster that gets played out every day in this country.
Well, I'm out to change part of that. I can't change physical development, and I can't do much to change attitudes or behavior, but I can teach car control skills that simply don't come naturally to people, so that when a driver finds himself or herself in a challenging situation, they have the skill and the muscle memory to do make the proper response.
Problem is, every 18 year old already considers himself an Expert Driver because the state gave them a license they think deems it so, and becuase, well, they haven't died yet.
Let's face it, 99.999% of the time, driving is ridiculously simple. You steer in the direction you want to go, and you speed up or slow down with your right foot. Easy! Problem is, none of the experience gained during all that time prepares you for what to do in those .001% of occasions that are way outside the norm.
So here we go...all of the following applies whether you're 16, 36, 59 or 70. In fact one time we had a Street Survival class that was undersubscribed, so we opened up to those older than 21. I had a 44 year old student in one class tell me "I've learned more about car control in just one day than I have in all the years of driving leading up to it".
Our brains are conditioned to follow instincts that have developed over a few million years of encountering dangerous animals in the wild and catching fish with our bare hands.
But we've only been driving cars for 5 generations!
This is not nearly enough time to develop instinct, and our instinctual responses to fear behind the wheel are almost always the exact wrong things to do. We tend to stare at what scares us, which when behind the wheel virtually gaurantees we'll drive right into it in a classic case of the human condition known as Object Fixation. We tend to lift off the gas or apply the brakes in an attempt to slow down, which oftentimes makes things worse if we're in a corner, because it causes load to shift off the rear tires and onto the front ones, leading to a spin.
You don't need a big fancy school but if you can swing one, go for it. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for Street Survival clinics. Street Survival, and autocross schools put on by local clubs and the SCCA, and driving events put on by the Porsche Club of America and the BMW Club of America. All three run great events on race tracks that include car control drills beforehand.
The main principles of accident avoidance are:
First and foremost: As an instructor at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School years ago told the class: "There is no substitute for speed control. Because if you know car control, but you're still traveling too fast for conditions, all that means is you're going off with style"
So please, if you think you're going too fast, you probably are.
With that...as I tell my students, it's not enough to miss the deer. Anybody can miss the deer. You have to miss the TREES afterward, that's what matters. A lot of people die trying to miss the deer because they didn't know how to follow through with it.
1) ALWAYS look where you want the car to go, not at what you're afraid you might hit. Your hands follow your eyes and your car follows your hands, but we humans suffer from a condition called Object Fixation. Scared you're going to hit that pole? Stare at it, you'll hit it, 100% guaranteed. Stare at the gap next to it, and that's where you go. Really, really hard lesson to learn without practice.
Object Fixation at Work:
The driver in the above situation came into the corner too fast for his nerves, and he stared at that wall, and by golly, he skidded right into it. If he had only collected his nerves and looked through the corner, I guarantee you he would have made it just fine. He may have had to clean his seats afterward, but he'd have made it. Cars are kinda like horses, they're capable of amazing performance until you treat them wrong or give them the wrong input. You can't blame poor performance on the car or the horse, most often it's the driver or the rider who did something he shouldn't have, that caused the performance to be less than it could have been.
2) Look WAY ahead of the car at all times. Further than you think. Further. Further. This gives our brain time to process information, slows things down for us, averts panic, lets us look where we need the car to go. We can't do anything about where the car is or where it's going for the next full second, because it physically takes that long for the brain to take input, process it, and respond to it. At 60 mph, your car will travel the length of a basketball court before you can even do anything about where it's going. So look way ahead. The faster you go, the more important this becomes. Most people are familiar with magazine-test stopping distances sayin the SuperDuperGT can stop from 60 mph in 120 feet. They don't usually tell you the LumberMaticXL takes almost twice as long:
They also don't take into account reaction time. Look what happens to stopping distance when we add reaction time to the mix:
3) Understand the balance of your car. Your car is only connected to the road by 4 spots where the tires contact the road. These are known as Contact Patches patches, and each is about as big around as a grapefruit:
Think about that for a second. What you do with the controls is manage the size of the patches, and with it, traction. Lift off the gas or apply the brakes, the front patches get bigger, the rear patches get smaller. That means you get more traction in front and less in the rear, until you overwhelm the grip of the front tires. Step on the gas, you get less traction in front and more in the rear, until you overcome the rear tires' grip.
Unfortunately, again, our natural reaction to fear in the car is to look at what we're afraid of (see #1), and then to lift the gas or step on the brake. And gusss when we're most likely to get scared, other than an impending collision? When we're in a corner. What happens? In an effort to slow down, all we do is shift traction to the front and away from the rear and make the car spin. One of the other counter-intuitive things about car control is when the back end is sliding out and you're not on the gas, either give it a little gas or let off the brakes...load transfers to the rear, the rear gets traction, it stops rotating, you save it. It's magic.
Which brings me back to missing the deer. Remember the letters CPR. Correct. Pause. Recover.
Correcting is the easy part. You're sliding sideways, you turn into it. Great. Now what? Well, you now have a whole lot of energy stored in the springs the car is leaning on, and when that energy releases, the car will snap back the other way. You have to anticipate this happening, but it takes a little time...a pause. Correct...pause...RECOVER. Get that wheel back where it needs to be proactively.
This all applies whether the pavement is dry, wet, snowy or icy. The only thing that really changes is how long it takes to occur. The slipperier things are, the slower load transfer occurs, but it does, eventually. So always, always look where you want the car to go.
Another thing we're ingrained to do is when we want the car to turn, we turn the wheel, right? So what do most people do when we get in a situation where we're turning the wheel, but the car isn't turning enough? That's called understeer. What do most people do? We turn the wheel more! This flat-out does not work. It also causes us to panic and stare at the guardrail or tree. Your brain is screaming "it's not working! Turn more! Oh no!" BLAM. The reason it doesn't work is, the front tires don't have enough traction, otherwise the car would be turning the way you want it to. You have to get them more traction to get them to work. The only way to do that, in addition to managing fore/aft weight balance, is to reduce the steering angle. That's right, take steering out of it and the front tires will hook and turn the car. But man oh man does that take discipline.
In an oversteer situation, where the rear of the car is sliding, turning the car more than we want to, the response is to (remember!) Look where you want the car to go, and turn the wheel in that direction. This is known as countersteering. But a very important thing to remember, and which instinct will cause to feel very unnatural, is you may need to let go of the brakes (if you're using them), or even add a little gas. Counterintuitive, to be sure, but what this does is shift load back to the rear tires, giving them traction, and helping stop their slide.
Lastly...WEAR YOUR SEATBELT. The old "I want to be thrown from the crash" is about as relevant as the Flat Earth Society. Remember...you can't control the car if you're not actually at the controls! Many times the first impact isn't the last. There's still some things you can do to control where the car is going, but not if you got bumped out of position. Trust me, you don't want to be just a passenger when half a second before, you were the driver.
See this wreck? Does that look serious enough to kill the driver? I've seen a lot of wrecks in my time, and I'd have to say "no".
But the sad reality is, the driver did die, because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. So I'll say it again: WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS.
There you go, $800 1-day professional school in a nutshell, minus the actual muscle memory. Spend $60 on a street survival school, or on an autocross school, whatever, but get the experience, it really is an eye-opener and a lifesaver.
One more thing about Street Survival: Tell your friends and family! It only costs $60, and most insurance companies will give you a discount for having taken the program. That $60 will pay for itself in the first year of premium savings.
Please check out www.streetsurvival.org and spread the word.
Here's some quick & dirty before-and-after video from just the emergency lane-change portion from the last time I instructed Street Survival:
Here's some from some other regions:
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Father Son Bonding Time
Well now, I do need to update this more often, don't I?
There's something about model rockets that's stuck with me since I was a kid. So a couple years ago, I thought I'd introduce them to my son, who was only 3 at the time. We had fun building it together, and have since built and flown many more. Sadly, that one got stuck about 40 feet up in a tree never to be recovered.
Here's some video
There's something about model rockets that's stuck with me since I was a kid. So a couple years ago, I thought I'd introduce them to my son, who was only 3 at the time. We had fun building it together, and have since built and flown many more. Sadly, that one got stuck about 40 feet up in a tree never to be recovered.
Here's some video
Monday, October 8, 2007
The Gathering of Mustangs and Legends
A couple weekends ago, my brothers and I met up in Columbus to experience the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends. This was a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see dozens upon dozens of P-51 Mustangs that had flown in for the event, plus sevaral other WWII-era fighters and bombers. They called this one "The Final Roundup" because the living Legends in attendance are well into their 80's, and sadly but inevitably shrinking in number every day.
The weather was incredible, and the planes and the flying were beyond exceptional. I didn't have the opportunity to meet any of the Legends on hand myself, but my brother Lee was standing near a B-17 and an old, weathered veteran standing nearby. He'd flown in these things in the war, and somebody asked him if he'd like to hop back in one again. He said "you know, I'm getting old enough I'll probably never get the chance again, but I'm not young like you folks, I can't climb up there anymore". And without hesitation another bystander said "how about a couple of us lift you up in there, and then you can show us around and tell us all about your time in these things". And so they did. And that's a lot of what the Gathering was about.
It was a great time and a good chance to spend some manly-man time with my brothers.
I've uploaded some pictures, and here are some picture/video compilations I put together. Part of the magic of the experience for gearheads like me is the sound, so if you're like-minded, be sure to crank up the speakers. The end of Part 3 shows a truly historic flyover by 20 Mustangs in a special formation, it's not to be missed.
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