HRa – Did you fix your weak points?

Let me guess, you expect some miracle that very few knows. The mysterious Holy Grail that everybody seeks for centuries, and failed to find.

I recall, back in Scotland, my karting instructor. He was a fan of Subaru Impreza as every Scot who knows the Scottish God of rally Collin McRae. He told me “Man you coming too hot in that corner. Exit from corner is what matters”. After usual beginner’s excuses, we ended up talking about Subaru Impreza he used to have.

He was not happy about Impreza “Oh boy, I bought Subaru Impreza…we chipped it…and I almost crashed in first corner.” There you have it, the beginner’s mistake of not having suspension faster than engine – the rule #1 in motorsport.

With such a belief, every car will be crap!

I used to have Subaru Impreza as well. It has got most likely the best suspension/chassis in family-cars category. But it has been not designed for spirited drivers as any so-called sport car sold to the public.

Imagine if you increase engine power further, you will seriously injure yourself if you are not aware of the most important limit on your car.

I think about everything as a system. The system contains various subsystems/parts, and the weakest part is the max. performance.

The weakest point can also bring the whole system down like a house of cards…as seen in the story above by.

In the past, I mostly tuned the car seat. Before I even touched ECU maps, suspension/chassis has been uprated.

The secret is, you are the weakest point of your car. Very few – like Vatanen, Schummi, Senna, Röhrl, Kankkunen, Mäkinen, or crazy McRae – were limited by car itself.

I really liked McRae for his famous pedal-to-the-metal style, no matter whether first, last, or one stage from championship victory.

There is my secret of at least 50% increase in engine output – resolve following limits:

1. You
2. understand how to squeeze maximum from engine
3. You
4. stock car with ABS, ESP is best tool for learning braking, and balance of car.
5. You
6. once, you improve your ass/spine/finger sensors – upgrade suspension.
7. You
8. practice every time you drive, the brain needs to be programmed properly.
9. You may reach the limit of suspension again – rinse, and repeat point #6.
10. You always, unless you are the greatest racing driver of all time.

I really like high-G fun, and thrill of entering the Valhalla. Doesn’t exist any computer simulator offering this experience.

The price-to-fun ratio:

1. ~€30/session (you manage barely 90 min to fully focus, and improve something) – everybody has got a car. You don’t even need a racing car for learning how to drive! My 300+HP “racing” car (in sport mode) costs me ~ €0.50/km. You don’t need to break any road limits to learn. Ross Bentley is your best offline teacher.
2. ~€50/session (90 min soft-limit) – the best way to learn car handling is karting. Every race driver started there. Just become a patron at your local karting track, and you get VIP handling. I became a patron at Greg’s Kartstart Indoor Raceways in Scotland & Kartworld Austria. If there were no tourists, we could ride for an hour without breaks.
3. €250-400/15 min/1 lap at Nordschleif. Tommi Mäkinen did one lap under 8 minutes in Subaru Impreza WRX STi Sedan 2011. For a normal driver, it is ~15 minutes of fun, and a half day waiting in queue for green light 😉
4. €2000 ??? – you can rent legendary cars like Skoda Fabia R5, driven by the best, like Jan Kopecký.

There are many options, every famous racing track has got car rental or at least race-taxi where you can observe pros when they try to scare you to the death. I won a driver of the day at Knockhill Rally Experience.