![]() Trail-BrakingĪ commonly used technique drivers use to induce the car into getting entry rotation is trail-braking: decreasing, or trailing off, brake pressure as the car approaches the apex of the corner. The best way to accomplish this rotation is by decreasing the amount of rear grip in relation to the front (or by increasing front grip in relation to the rear) at corner entry-either through driver input, car setup or both. In short, it means that you want to get the car to rotate more in the earlier phases of cornering so at apex (before going to throttle), the car is pointed better down the following straightaway, allowing the driver to decrease steering input, which results in more grip for acceleration. Photography Credit: Rupert Berringtonįor that reason, it is very important to lessen the amount of steering input as early in the corner as possible before you start going to throttle, which will give the tire a bit more grip to work with for acceleration out of the corner. Properly executed trail-braking shifts weight from the rear of the car to the front, increasing grip on turn-in. ![]() Any more than that 20 percent, and the tire will go over its maximum available grip and lose traction, with the result being the dreaded “power-on” push that front-wheel drive cars are infamous for. For example, if a tire is using 80 percent of its maximum available grip for cornering, it can only use 20 percent for acceleration. Unfortunately for the driver, tires are only able to do so many tasks at once before their limits are exceeded. Between dealing with braking, cornering and acceleration forces, the front tires really do have their hands full in any given corner. The main thing for a driver to recognize is that in a front-wheel drive race car, the front tires are trying to do several jobs at the same time. I think there are a lot of drivers who say they don’t like racing front-wheel drive cars, but I think that’s mainly because they have never driven a properly set up one. So let’s take a closer look at what it takes to get one of these “wrong-wheel drive” vehicles around the track quickly.įront-wheel drive cars require a very different driving style than their rear-wheel drive counterparts. Part of the reason I still enjoy racing front-wheel drive cars is that over the years, I’ve learned a thing or 10 about how to drive them quickly, but more importantly, how to set them up to be driven quickly. Well, as Peter Cunningham proved more than a few times this year running his front-wheel drive Acura head-to-head with the rear-wheel drive Mustangs and Camaros in the WC GTS class, well-set up, well-driven front-wheel drive cars can be more than competitive with their rear-wheel drive counterparts. My thoughts were that all things being equal, a rear-wheel drive car will totally run circles around a front-wheel drive one, and of course, I wanted to be in the faster cars. When I started my pro career in the Touring Car class of the Pirelli World Challenge (then known as Speed World Challenge), I, like many drivers before me, had visions of big, powerful GT cars dancing through my head-big, powerful, rear-wheel drive GT cars to be precise. ![]()
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