Hello Everyone,
I was watching some of the behind the scenes on one of the fast and the ferious movies. They were talking about some chick that had NEVER driven before, and so they had to teach her how to drive regular, then how to drive badass...

They said that when doing performance driving, she should NEVER shift while in a turn. But shifting in a turn is okay when regular driving.

Is it true that shifting in a turn while race driving is bad?
If so Why?
Thanks

 

im not a road racer by any means so im not 100 percent sure but im just gonna guess so that ur in total control not worrying to have to shift and not losing any power going through the turn if u did shift

 

I'm going to assume because if you're shifting and then flooring it while your wheels are turned you're just asking to break traction and lose control?

 

i'm going out on a limb here, but I think it may have something to do with the oil and lubrication? also on top of that you would probably wanna be focusing on the turn and not shifting.

 

You should NEVER be doing anything except turning while turning when you're on a race course. Getting out of the throttle to shift while one side of the suspension is under load is a real good way to lose control of the car and/or end up on your roof. You should also never EVER brake or lift off the accelerator suddenly during a turn for the same reason. All deceleration should be done before entering the corner. When you turn the wheels you should keep the speed of the vehicle as uniform as possible until you hit the apex of the turn, then accelerate and let your momentum pull you out of the turn. In other words slow in, fast out. My instructors always told me if you're carrying too much speed into a turn, your best bet for a good outcome is slowly let off the accelerator and let the car go off the track into the runoff (hopefully there is one, there isn't always) rather than upset the stability of the car, then recover back onto the tarmac once you've gotten the wheels straight.

 

if your car is set up properly if you lift in the center of a turn your gonna spin, you need to stay on the gas to keep those back wheels planted.

 

this is where this thread lost it for me.. lol.

 

^^^ This... I was going to say the exact same thing.... Youre aiming for smoothness in motion and throttle... Brake and downshift before turn... flow through it... once you hit apex its time to accelerate hard.

 

plus, if you shift while taking a corner you'll loose manifold pressure and your floor pan will fall out.

 

Dont be ludacris and act a fool

 

everyone starts somewhere. People arent born knowing how to properly drive the car at its limits. It's something people are taught, practice, and spend years attempting to drive in that perfect balance of the cars abilities and the drivers input.

During a high speed turn, your car is being pushed to the limits of its traction. You don't want to do anything that will push it over that limit. Theres 3 stages to the turn, Preparing for the turn, entering the turn, and exiting the turn. All three of these have a whole world of techniques and procedures for how it should be done. My advice would be to youtube some videos of professional drivers and take note on when they brake, when they enter the turn, and when they accellerate out of it. Become familiar with heel+toe techniques and for this car being FF with a differential, Left foot braking techniques. Practice at low speeds, then gradually increase your speed. The car will let you know how smooth your being. You want to be gentle and dance with the car through the turns. Not force it to do something it doesnt want to.

 

Thanks
Heel and Toe is something I've tried with very little success. I need more practice.
But anyhow, thanks. I thought about doing one of those drive a nascar things. Although
a Cobalt will probably handle nothing like a nascar, the schooling and principals for the turns and high speed driving should be the same. Just diffrent thresholds on everything. I wonder if one of those places would LET you drive your cobalt SS on the track instead of the NASCAR Id LOVE that

 

You'd be better off to do a driving school here.

A NASCAR isn't going to teach you much about real driving. They're designed to go lots of left, not a lot of anything else, so the suspension is not going to be setup to handle a course with real turns.

 

Cool thanks,
and it's alot closer to where I live

 

Pretty much what everyone above said.

If you shift mid-corner, you transfer weight up front, and you're not putting down power, which helps keep your car planted in the back. Depending on your car's setup, and how fast you're really going, that little lift might make the car rotate. Sometimes this is good, but usually it's a bad idea. Get your shifting done before the turn. Once in a while, you have no choice, so you just have to do it, but you do it somewhere where you are not fully loaded up laterally.