GPL-Braking Advice

How I should I use the brakes in GPL- do I 1) leave it to the last moment before entering a bend then brake hard (possibly locking the wheels) then change down gears as quickly as possible before entering the bend, or 2) gradually brake with plenty of room to spare before a bend, and then down gears. I seem to do the latter far more (out of fear of not having enough time to gear down before the bends), but my times on each track are still slow. Any help appreciated. PJ

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> How I should I use the brakes in GPL- do I > 1) leave it to the last moment before entering a bend then brake hard > (possibly locking the wheels) then change down gears as quickly as possible > before entering the bend, or > 2) gradually brake with plenty of room to spare before a bend, and then down > gears. > I seem to do the latter far more (out of fear of not having enough time to > gear down before the bends), but my times on each track are still slow. Any > help appreciated. > PJ

The method that works best for me is to find a reference point on the track and always begin braking at that point. Find another reference point to begin turining in to the corner. After a number of laps, you may alter the braking and turn in points, but the thing to do is first become consistent... Once you're able to run ten laps within say a half second of each other, then it's time to exsperiment with altering brake and turn in points for one corner. See if it improves or hurts the lap times. Once you've gotten the optimum reference points for a particular corner, experiment at another corner. The key to this is consistency... if you're not running consistent laps to begin with, you won't be able to tell if the changes you make in braking and turn in points are helping or hurting. The other thing to remember is to experiment on one corner at a time. If you make a change at two corners, and your lap time doesn't change, you may be making a gain at one point and losing it at the other... you don't want to miss out on any gains, so stick to one thing at a time. Trips

>How I should I use the brakes in GPL- do I >1) leave it to the last moment before entering a bend then brake hard >(possibly locking the wheels) then change down gears as quickly as possible >before entering the bend, or Well, try not to lock the wheels... normally you'd have brake bias set towards the front which means when you lock the wheels the fronts are likely to lock up first. If you do that, you can't steer. Therefore that is bad :-) Mike.

> Well, try not to lock the wheels... normally you'd have brake bias set > towards the front which means when you lock the wheels the fronts are likely > to lock up first. If you do that, you can't steer. Therefore that is bad > :-) Yeah, but locking up the rears is much worse - you'll go into a spin! Dave Ewing

>Yeah, but locking up the rears is much worse - you'll go into a spin! If you keep locking up your rears before the fronts, drive down the pit lane and run over your race engineer. That is the best solution :-) Mike.

On Tue, 17 Nov 1998 23:22:46 -0000, "Mike Laskey" >If you keep locking up your rears before the fronts, drive down the pit lane >and run over your race engineer. That is the best solution :-) Mike is a touch teacher.... Cheers! John

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>On Tue, 17 Nov 1998 23:22:46 -0000, "Mike Laskey" >>If you keep locking up your rears before the fronts, drive down the pit lane >>and run over your race engineer. That is the best solution :-) >Mike is a touch teacher....

Er, "tough" teacher that should read....! I'm not sure what a "touch" teacher is but it sounds damn saucy! :-) Cheers! John