Yah when I first test drove the Z, my whole world changed. It had been so long since I had the thill of a car I wanted to bad that had just everything I wanted. Sad to say cars have gone so boring and dull but they just have lost their flair. ex: the 2013 is clearly made to bring the 350z owners over, I really dont like it at all. They are trying to force sales so hard that they are diminishing the aggresive looks of the 370z. If I wanted a 350, I woulda just bought one ya know?
Saw you owned Preludes? What years, I have 2 currently myself. Was a massive Honda fan all through the mid to late 90s and into the early 00's till they turned into dull turds we call Honda now Which brought me to the 370z. Great choice btw!
For leaning I'd leave the VDC on and it will generally save your butt. Any time it engages will be your tip that you are pushing the envelope.
For straight line braking just crush the pedal and let the ABS do its thing. It is theoretically possible, in some situations, to manually out brake the ABS but in practice the ABS is always alert and never has a bad day, can you say the same about yourself?
For straight line acceleration with the AT7 just step on the gas and go. The VDC will save you on all but the slickest of surfaces. For drag racing turn off the VDC and you are on your own.
4. If the rear is sliding (oversteer) aggressive counter steer is your primary tool. Brake only after you have arrested the skid. Premature and/or aggressive use of the brakes will only make the skid worse.
5. Smooth control inputs minimize undesirable body motions and adverse weight transfer which can compromise traction.
6. Applying power on corner entrance is generally not for the neophyte. It requires some advanced driving skills and is best learned in a controlled environment.
7. Applying controlled power on the corner exit is generally easier to master and can help rotate the can around the corner's apex and get you pointed in the right direction.
I'm on a roll so I'm going to ignore your last message and continue with our lesson.
So now that we have a basic understanding of tires what are we to do with this new abundance of knowledge? Well applying this in practice takes time and space on the roadway.
Warrens tips:
1. Hug the inside of the corners. Now you have more room to recover if you skid.
2. Don't push the limit on corner entry, your recovery options are very limited. If you want to probe the limits of adhesion it is generally best to do so on the corner exit where you have better recovery options such as reducing the throttle.
3. If you are understeering a bit of counter steering (turning into the direction of the skid) will ease the cornering burden on the front tires and allow for the controlled application of the the brakes so that you can, hopefully, complete the corner on a wider arc and at reduced speed.
Interesting note: Sliding tires produce significantly less traction than a rolling tire, so once a tire is sliding its available traction drops significantly below its normal maximum of 1G (in this example) to perhaps .8G (as an example) of available traction.
The takeaway is to catch a skid early because once it is fully developed it becomes significantly harder to recover from the skid because the available traction is reduced as well. You would REALLY have to widen the turn or really get off the brakes and/or gas (getting on or off the brakes and/or gas creates front/rear weight transfer which can be both a curse or a blessing depending on the individual circumstances and how you modulate the transfer of weight) to arrest a fully developed skid.
So if we are turning at .75G and accelerating at .25G we have used up our available 1G of traction. If our turn were to tighten we would have to get out of the gas, if we were to increase our rate of acceleration we would have to widen our turn. End of story. You can allocate the available traction between turning, braking and acceleration anyway you choose but the total can NEVER exceed the available traction, in this example, 1G. Try to exceed 1G (racing cars with aerodynamic aids can exceed 3G's at high speeds) and the tire begins to slide.
For a sliding tire to to begin rolling and stop sliding requires that the demands asked of the tire do not exceed the available traction. So you must reduce your, braking, cornering or acceleration, individually or in combination, such that the total falls within the limits of available traction.
Which brought me to the 370z. Great choice btw!
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