ドライビングガイド

簡単なドライビング Tips

• コーナーにアプローチする時はちょうどいいタイミングでブレーキをしてください。ブレーキングが遅かったり、急ブレーキをかけるより、安全な速度でコーナーを曲がる方が実際には速いです。

• 急ブレーキはフラットスポットの原因になります。フラットスポットが発生するとグリップが減少して、最終的に、バーストに至ります。芝生やダート上を走行することもグリップを減らすので避けてください。

• ＦＲ車（後輪駆動車）を運転するとき、アクセル操作は慎重にしましょう。コーナーの出口で速くアクセルを踏むことはスピンにつながります。

• レースの１コーナーで、特に後方からのスタートのときは慎重になりましょう。前を走っている車はあなたよりも早くブレーキングに入っています。スタート直後の１コーナーは最も危険です。慎重にならないとレースを台無しにする恐れがあります。

• 習うより慣れろです。レースに勝利するドライバーはコースと車を学ぶことに時間をかけ、決して努力を惜しまないように。

オンライン・レーシングのエチケット

• メッセージを何度も繰り返さないでください。他のレーサーはあなたに悩まされます。それは失礼です。何の利益もありません。あなたが怒っている、あるいは、たとえあなたに怒る権利があるとしても、決してばらまかないでください！

• ブルーフラッグが表示されると、あなたのすぐ後ろに速い車が近づいています。あなたは周回遅れで、速い車に進路を譲らなければなりません。速やかに前に行かすか、ピットに入ってください。

by Gentlefoot

あなたがクラッシュしたからといってレースのリスタートに投票してはなりません

Never vote to restart the race if you are the one making the mistakes. If you miss your braking points and fly off the road at turn 1, but everyone else is doing just fine, then how is it fair to try to restart the race and ruin there races because you couldn't keep your car on the track? Learn from it and try to catch up. If lots of people do make a mistake and cause an accident then fine, vote to restart.

ピットレーンの入り口と出口を利用しましょう

Pit lane entrances and exits are there for a reason. They are there to improve the safety of not only those who are pitting but also all those drivers that are not. Crossing the white/yellow line when exiting the pitlane is a clear violation of racing rules and is dangerous.

An example: The Kyoto Oval has a pit lane exit that goes inside the banked corner to the second straight before the white/yellow line stops. This means that any cars leaving the pit lane will re-enter the racing track at close to full speed before Turn 2. Those people who simply don't care about rules often re-enter the racing track at slow speeds in Turn 1... the results are obvious.

Please take notice of the pit lane entrances and exits when you explore a track to improve the safety for yourself and other racers.

適切にピットを出る人々に関して、不平を言わないでください。

This is an extra bit to the rule above. During a race it is the "on-track" car's responsibility to avoid the cars that are properly exiting the pits (i.e. staying inside the pit exit line). Do not drive into the pit exit area if you think a car is going to be exiting the pits in front of you. In fact, it's a good idea to never do it, and please don't tell others to wait to exit the pits until you've passed. That's what the exit lane is there for.

E.g. At the Westhill International circuit where the pit lane exit takes up the left-hand 25% of the straight.

ドライバーが最終ラップにいるなら、レースのリスタートに投票しないでください。

This is more of a courtesy act than a rule. E.g. If two (or more) drivers are busy battling away on the track and are almost finished and then 10 people that just joined the server decide they want to race right now, the drivers racing may get an unfair restart just before finishing. Show a little respect and wait to start a vote until you see the racing drivers finish their races.

Edit by Keling: Be careful if you and some fast friend have just finished the race. There may be some other players relatively slow who are still struggling 0.5 lap from the finish line. Don't shift+R immediately after seeing YOUR results on the list. The event doesn't end because the first 5 have finished. Wait for everyone.

クリンに追い越す戦術を使用してください。

Driving a faster car or exiting the corners at a greater velocity does not mean that you have right to ram or force others to step aside if they are in front of you. If you are in a faster car, overtaking safely will not be too much trouble, but it does not cost too much to wait a bit for a clean safe space, so don't squeeze to that 1/2 car space inside of every turn while braking.

If your car is more powerful than the other, wait until after the exit of the corner. Usually you can take a different line which gives you a slower exit speed but lets you safely overtake the slower vehicle without bumping his/her rear (or front) out of the corner. Remember, if the other person is in a UF 1000 and you are in something like an FZ50, you can easily wait until after the turn and blast past down the straight.

If your car is better in the turns, go in around 0.5 seconds behind the slower car, and when the slower car turns into the apex accelerate and pass from the outside. Remember that this works only with medium to high speed corners, and you should be way faster on the corner to be completely ahead of slower car by the corner exit so this would be safe. If you are not fast enough, the opponent will pass you on the corner exit. This is known as double passing. That or you will enjoy a spectacular crash.

Overtaking on the inside is also possible but for this you need to know that the slower driver actually knows racing code and is obeying it, and it is quite hard to see certain spots and therefore easy to get into an accident by misjudgement. If the opponent shows no signs of taking the outside, don't try it.

ラインの維持

When you're being lapped by a faster car, hold your line. The people coming up on you have seen you, there's no need to try to get out of the way. The turns are all full throttle, and there's plenty room to go around you. If you decide to give us room the moment you see us in the mirror and move to a different line, we've probably already decided to pass you on that same line, and we all end up in the wall.

ゆっくり走ってください

If your car is damaged, and is really slow, or just coasting back to the pits, stay in the lowest possible position. Staying on the inside has the advantage of staying out of the groove for the longest period of time. When you finally make it to the pit lane you don't have to cross the track either since you're already there.

安全にピットしてください

When pitting get on the pit entry lane well before turn 3. And slow down so you can safely make the turn on the apron. When exiting, of course do so after turn 1. Also, until you're well on speed (shifting to high gear), stay OFF the groove and run as low as you can.

動かず待機してください

When you've crashed on track and other cars are trying to avoid you then stick your foot on the brake. Keep your foot on the brake until everyone has passed and you are sure that there is nobody heading your way as it's a lot harder to avoid a moving chicane than it is a stationary one. Either go to the pits immediately, spectate, or do the above and try to limit the disruption to the race.

動く前に見てください

When changing lanes, like in a real car, ALWAYS look in the mirror AND BESIDE YOU. You're doing 290+ km/h and centimetres from other cars... 90% of the time you can't see the cars you're racing. Make sure you know where they are before you change your line.

礼儀正しくしてください

Give people room, and be smooth with your actions. At 290+km/h you travel a long way in a second. Cars don't respond to evasive action that well. So be nice to the other drivers. Don't block them if it's not absolutely necessary. They pass you, you'll draft by them the next straight on the track. Being agressive will only take you to the infield care-center.

レースカーのコントロール

by Impreza WRX

Are you having difficulty driving your racing cars? Here are many tips to get you in the groove.

アクセルは控えめに

This may seem obvious, but many people forget it. This is especially important in the Formula XR, and V8. Slicks have a lot of grip, but lose a lot when skidding. If you break traction while accelerating, the cars WILL snap oversteer. While it is good to do a small burnout to preheat the drive wheels for more control, it is not a good thing when you spin wheels too much, don't get the hole-shot, and try to make up by cutting turn one; or worse, spin out at the start line and cause a crash.

ブレーキをかけるとき車輪をロックしてはいけません

This is obvious, but once again people forget this one. As stated above, slicks lose lots of grip when sliding, and have very thin tread. If you lock the wheels, you will create flat spots. It only takes three laps on a short track to have a blowout from the tread wearing faster on that one spot. Save your self the heartache and learn to smoothly control the brakes.

If your brakes lock, let off the brakes, then put them on again, but with a little less pressure. Known as cadence braking, it is a good skill to learn in real life as well, if your car lacks ABS.

レースをするときはオフロードでないところで

Another obvious one, but oftentimes forgotten. Slicks lose a lot of grip when they get dirty. Since the tread is not self cleaning, it takes some time and a couple fast corners at the limit to get the rubber cleaned off. Unless you are avoiding a huge pileup that spans the entire tarmac, don't even clip the grass with two wheels! You will also have a great chance of spinning out or plowing straight into trouble by even clipping the off road on slicks. If you want to cut corners, learn to use the kerbs!

DeadWolfBones adds: If you go off-road get off the gas immediately and don't jerk the wheel

Think of driving off-road as driving on ice (In some cars that is, especially S-S) be gentle on the wheel and throttle to smoothly get yourself off the sand but do be warned your tires will get dirty.

This will help quite a bit in not losing control and you should be able to coast/drive at very low throttle back onto the track.

If you've been off-road take it easier than normal for a few corners

As Impreza mentioned, tires get dirty and it takes a few corners to clean them off. So, to avoid spinning all over again, brake early, drop down an extra gear, and generally take it easy till you're sure the tires are clean. There's a dirt bar in the bottom middle of each tire on the F9 screen to tell you how dirty they are. Don't add insult to injury!

Don't block the much faster car passing you

Most people block the incoming car as a strategy inherited from Gran Turismo, where getting bumped by the AI train gives you a boost to speed. In online (and real life) racing, if a car is coming in hot and you block their path, it's considered rude and dangerous. If they can't slow down enough, they will smash your back and most likely cause an accident or one or both of you will go blasting off like Team Rocket because of lag. When it says Blue Flag check your rear view mirror. If they are very close hold your course, as they will pass you out of the racing line. If they are a good ways behind, leave the racing line so they can shoot by easier. This applies to drivers being lapped and drivers who are considerably slower (about 10 MPH or more) than the incoming car. However, if you and another driver are neck to neck, you do have every right to battle each other (without crashing of course) for lead position.

滑らかでダイナミックな運転はより速いラップタイムに報います

Not too many people realize that racing involves keeping a good rhythm. When accelerating, braking, and turning, the car's weight gets shifted around. Depending on the suspension, it may shift quickly or slowly. If you jerk the car around, like turning left then slamming right, the weight is not loading the correct tires, and they break traction when the weight shifts violently from turning. When you put more weight over a tire, it has greater grip than with less weight. There is a point where the tire is overloaded with weight and will lose traction again. So, when you do the above maneuver, called the "Scandinavian Flick", the weight is initially over the right wheels, and snapping right causes the left wheels to suddenly max out on grip with the little weight over them, causing them to break traction, and as the weight shifts over them, they continue to stay in skid, as the right wheels suddenly lose the weight over them, losing traction and also skidding. This also means that when braking, you should smoothly apply the brake pedal, so the front wheels can load up and provide maximum stopping force, otherwise they lock and you go straight into the unknown! When turning, you should smoothly dial in steering so the outside tires have a chance to load. How fast you turn in, brake, and accelerate depends on the car and the suspension setup. You may be amazed at how fast you can blow through turns by driving smoothly and rhythmically.

ダウンフォースを調整しましょう

Race cars have wings. These wings provide traction at high speeds and keep the car from becoming airborne. The more downforce you put, the more grip the car will have at speed but the lower the top speed and top end acceleration will be due to drag. Therefore, on a high speed course like the oval the downforce should be lower, but on a slower, tight corner course the downforce should be higher, and on the drag strip downforce should be minimal.

Really, though, you need to adjust downforce to suit your driving. Start with one downforce setting, and raise (or lower) the downforce until your lap times are at their lowest on average.

Also, the difference between front and rear downforce will play with your car's handling. If there is a lot of downforce on one end, the other end will actually lose grip at higher speeds. Too much front downforce will cause the car to become nervous and oversteer easily at high speed. Too much rear downforce will cause the car to understeer at speed, and actually lose grip on the turns.

Edit by Keling: Always remember that wings hardly benefit a racer in a very big part of a straight line or at a low-speed corner, they only work at high-speed corners and in braking areas. So it's the corners that mainly defines your wing angle. If you are on a 99999-corners tarmac rally track, you never go fast and downforce adjustment is not a big thing. If you are on a super street speedway, enjoying full throttle for 0.7km and than 45kph into a corner, it's a FAST track where wings can only slow cars down (on the straight lines), time saved by better braking will not make up the time you lose in very long acceleration, and cornering speed can only change a litttttle, so you need low-downforce settings. However, we have another type of FAST track where you go through Gear 4/5/6 corners one after another. In this case, there are so many high-speed corners for your wings to work. It's still a fast track, but middle or even high downforce settings would be better.

タイヤを賢く選びましょう

You may have noticed several sets of slicks are available. For long, endurance races, choosing the Hard slicks (R4) will mean more laps before a tire change at the pit stop, but you will not be able to corner as hard. Using soft slicks (R2) means unparalleled traction but frequent pitting. These are useful for short races and hot-lapping.

Sometimes, you can mix tire types to compensate with overheating sets of tires. For example, if you use R2 front and R3 rear on an FZ50 GTR, you can reduce the overheating of the rear tires. However, you will have less grip in the rear, so you need to re-tune the suspension to reduce the oversteer.

/edit by scipy - This is stupid, you need to INCREASE oversteer when driving R2 fronts and R3 rears because once the fronts heat up (color wise) 2-3°C more than the rears they will just understeer to death. Please don't try to help people with wrong advice.

コースを覚えましょう

Learn to drive the whole track, not just the fastest line. You never known when you will need to deviate from the ideal line, to pass a slower car, avoid an incident or recover from a driving mistake.

シフトダウンするときは注意深い

The GTR cars are very sensitive to inappropriate downshifts - braking hard and not blipping the throttle enough to match the revs will cause the engine braking on the rear wheels and locking them up. This generally leads to the back end stepping out and snap oversteering and ruining your lap (assuming you even catch it in time and don't crash.) Downshifting once too many times will have the same effect.

最初のカーブ

You will not be able to win a race on the first corner, only lose it! So don't try it, many a time I have witnessed drivers shooting down the inside of a full pack, trying to get to the corner first, locking all the wheels and taking out the front half of the pack.

On any track, the first corner is generally better to be taken at slower speeds, ensuring all the cars make it round the corner, accidents may happen, this is racing, but be wary of your surroundings, other cars, and do not try and scream down the inside, braking far to late in the attempt to get that illusive number 1 spot, it will not work!

As I said, you will not win the race on the first bend, only lose it!

ドラフティングはストレートのためにある

Don't draft in turns. It takes away the air on your car, and either makes you spin, or pushes you into the wall. Try to run a bit lower or higher than the car you're following. However at tracks such as Kyoto Ring drafting is a very useful tool. Get behind a car and let it suck you right up to its rear and put on your brakes. Important! do not let off the gas, or you will loose you momentum and fall back. By staying behind another car in a draft you increase both speeds of each car allowing for you both to pass faster cars and hold them off. "The bigger the pack the faster you go"

タイヤを過熱させてはなりません

Slicks warm up and cool down a lot faster than normal tires. If you drift or drive just beyond the limit, the tires will overheat and lose traction. If the interior temperature goes too high, the tire could blow. The last thing you need is a flat tire in the middle of the sweepers. If the tires are getting too hot, slow down in the turns or use harder tires.

ピットストップを出るとき車輪を回しましょう

Near the completion of a pit-stop; when the refuelling thing comes up, floor the gas pedal, and floor it out of the pits (in GTR cars mainly) to get the tires up to a slight optimum temperature; this will insure you that you wont slip going out of turn 1. If you always wondered why people did that in NASCAR, IRL, and so forth; not only is it to get out of there fast, but mainly to heat up their tires a bit so they don't slide around...

タイヤ圧を賢く使用しましょう

Tyre pressures are important. They can mean the difference between cold tires and blown tires. It can mean shooting through the sweepers or lumbering through with great driftage. It can even mean blasting off the line or getting off the line.

So here's what to do. Start with about 35 P.S.I., and drive around. Are your tires too cold? Are they cooling off too fast? Not enough grip? The insides are too hot? Start lowering the pressure, 2-10 P.S.I. at a time. Are the tires too hot? Is the car wandering too much? Raise the pressure, 1-4 P.S.I. at a time. Once you got it, the tires should not be overheating when you are driving correctly. Also, the car should feel quick through the turns, but not sluggish.

Be fortunate that S2 does not yet simulate tires flexing too much in turns and pulling off the "bead", at least as far as I can tell...

XRR FXRを速く発進させるには

You probably do a lot of bogging down at the start with the XR GTR and FXO GTR. However, it is possible to do even a four wheel burnout in the FXO GTR! How? Here's how.

Three seconds before the start, floor the gas. Your rev limiter will protect your engine from damage, but more importantly, you will build up to 20 pounds of boost. With only 10 pounds of boost, you can blast off in the XR GTR. With 12, you can spin four wheels in the FXO GTR. With this ability at your side, you can finally take off as fast (XRR) or even faster (FXR) than the FZ50 GTR! With a well-tuned differential and a well-timed launch, a FXO GTR driver can always get the holeshot.

Here's another trick. Try making the first gear higher (lower top speed). This way, the car can take off with less or no boost, and won't bog down. However, this also means having to shift into second gear sooner. Try both tricks, and use the fastest one for your driving style.

Edit by Keling: If 6 gears is really a must, the first gear will be made low enough for the slowest corner, not fit for launching. Then, try to do clutch-kick (sometimes more than once) to keep the rpm high enough. Your FXR will not launch quickly, but it's still much better than falling to 1200rpm.

1コーナーで生き残る

by Gunn

Everybody loves a close race, nobody loves being wiped out in the first corner. To win a race you must at least finish the race and all can be lost in the first hot seconds if care is not taken. Let's take a brief look at some important considerations when a race starts and a swarm of cars goes thundering towards turn 1.

• When the lights go green there is always going to be a mad dash for the first corner, all drivers want to make the best start they can.
• Rarely will all cars launch from the line evenly, a car in front of you may be slow getting away.
• Very few (and perhaps none) of the drivers will have a perfect line into the first few corners as all cars jostle for position and get settled.
• Everybody's tyres are cold, grip levels are low.
• Most drivers would now have opponents close by them but sitting in their blind spot, requiring a head turn to check their actual positions.
• The greatest potential for lag in LFS is when a large field of cars is bunched up together.

If there is ever a recipe for a multi-car pile up, Turn One (T1) of almost any race track is the mixing bowl and a bunch of racers hungry for victory are the ingredients. Let's take a look at and discuss ways to avoid T1 pile-ups and increase your chances of finishing the race in one piece so you can enjoy your victory cake.

• When the lights go green, apply the throttle smoothly (don't stomp) and try to get away cleanly with as little wheelspin as possible.
• This is a good time to quickly glance left and right to see where your nearest rivals are and see how well they have launched from the start. You now have a better idea of your relative positions and are less likely to end someone's race through a poorly-timed move.
• It is best not to throw your car into T1 with wild abandon, if someone is beside you entering the turn you should leave them room to corner, you want to avoid car-to-car contact. Better for both of you to corner carefully than to cause a 6 car pile-up.
• Be prepared to back off or brake, don't rely on luck to get you through. Be aware that other cars are prone to error in these first few turns and get ready to evade an accident ahead.
• Cars in front may brake heavily, avoid contact. Shunting the current world champion out of the race in the first ten seconds is a rather embarassing way to end your (and his) event or championship. Public races should be treated the same way. It is a common error that we have all made or will make early in our training and, as you will find out, it is the worst way to be taken out of a race. No matter if it's the first or last corner of a race be very, very wary of rear-ending another car.

フラッグに従う

by Gunn

Live For Speedのフラッグ

While racing you may see warning flags displayed on screen and it is important to know what they mean. The flags in our LFS races are controlled by the software of course, in real life racing people make decisions about if, when, and how flags are to be displayed. The general meanings of these warnings (outlined below) should apply in most cases where you are faced with a flag in LFS racing.

イエローフラッグ

When you see the yellow flag displayed on your screen it tells you that a car up ahead has spun or crashed. You should prepare to slow down and avoid becoming a casualty of the incident. Up ahead the car that has spun may be just rejoining the track when you arrive on the scene. It would do nobody any good if you plowed into him because you had disregarded the yellow flag warning.

• When you see a yellow, get ready for trouble and get ready to back off. You can't win the race if your car has become a burning wreck so it is better to be cautious and survive the day.

ブルーフラッグ

A blue flag tells you that a car behind is in a higher position than you are. The action you will take depends on your situation. Let's examine the two likely situations where a blue flag will appear in Live For Speed.

• If you are being lapped by a faster car: The car behind you is consistently faster than you and has managed to travel one more lap than you have. He is about to overtake you and the blue flag is displayed to warn you of his presence. In this case you are hindering his progress and must allow him to pass you as soon as it is safe to do so (you can't be expected to yield while negotiating a chicane or high speed corner) Hold your line don't fight the other car, do not make any sudden movements left or right, ease off slightly and let him pass. He is a lap ahead of you and you are not fighting him for position. You must not hold him up.

• You are not being lapped by a faster car: The car behind you is in a higher position but is not consistently faster than you. Perhaps you had an earlier spin or have just made a pit stop or stopped to serve a penalty and that is why your rival has managed to creep up behind you as if he is about to lap you. As above, if you see a blue flag you must not hinder the progress of the car behind, if you are holding it up you should allow the other car to pass you as soon as possible. If you are not hindering its progress then get on with the job and leave it behind you.

Note: There is some controversy in real racing about exact interpretation of blue flag rules. Generally it is accepted that you hold your line and make no sudden or defensive moves, allowing the faster car to overtake you. You will earn respect from all drivers for acting sensibly and fairly when faced with a blue or yellow flag.

ドラフティング／スリップストリ－ム

by Gunn As a car races forwards it punches a hole in the air as it goes along, and after the car has gone past the displaced air rushes in to fill the gap.

If you travel very close to the car in front you will notice that you can go faster than he is able to. This is known as drafting or slipstreaming. The leading car disturbs the air and does all of the work, the following car (travelling in a nice pocket with almost no wind resistance) is not inhibited and can build up speed faster than normally possible. The trailing car "gets a tow" from the car in front.

It is easy to see how drafting could be used to overtake your opponents and indeed it is a much-used overtaking technique. In some cases two cars may be so well matched that the only chance the trailing driver has to overtake is by drafting on a long straight. So obviously drafting has real benefits, but also there are hazards.

利益

• Your car may reach a higher top speed by drafting (once you pull out of the draft the wind resistance will steadily pull your speed back to the normal maximum for your setup. However your gear ratios and final drive will ultimately effect how well your car can take advantage of drafting).
• Drafting gives you a temporary and short-lived opportunity to gain position, but timing is important. Sometimes drafting may be the only safe way past your rival.
• Drafting can reduce lap times during a race and may have a minimal fuel-saving benefit.

リスク

• Braking is not as effective when travelling in another car's slipstream. Not only are you perhaps travelling faster than normal when you reach your braking zone but you have less resistance and slowing down will not be as abrupt as usual. The potential to shunt the leading car is great, and racers should always be prepared to adjust their braking to suit the situation.
• Shunting while travelling at full speed is also a risk. If you are very close behind the leading car then your speed may incease very rapidly in a short time. You don't want to shunt the other racer, you'll either damage both cars or even worse you may propel him forward and increase his lead!
• Cornering in the slipstream can be very tricky. Aerodynamic downforce that is generated by some types of cars (GTR, FOX, FO8) can be affected when there is no air to create downforce on the wings or spoilers. Coupled with your extra speed when drafting this can cause spin-outs in fast curves and can effect your braking too.

思いやり

Should I draft other cars in a race?
Absolutely, but be wary of contact and be ready to brake earlier then usual when approaching corners or slower drivers.

Is drafting a sure way to overtake an opponent?
No. Often the benefit gained from drafting is not enough to make the pass. If you get close to the leading car early on to the straight then you have a real chance of winning the position, but be wary of jumping into the slipstream late, make sure you have enough room to carry out your plans.

What do I do if another car is drafting me?
If on a straight, hold your line but do not swerve or block, if you get overtaken, then that's motor racing, set yourself up for a well-timed attack further up the track or on the next lap and fight back when you have a real chance of making it happen.

If approaching a corner you can take a defensive line to make overtaking more difficult, but swerving is still a no-no. You should only ever make one defensive movement in response to an attack.
Absolutely do not brake earlier than usual if you can help it. Remember that the drafting car will brake with difficulty.

レースドライビングの基本

オーバーステア & アンダーステア

Oversteer in the “textbook” sense is the difference between cornering stiffness at front and rear, taking into account tyre characteristics, geometries, bush rates, etc, etc. By this definition, understeer and oversteer are independent of vehicle path or speed - they are purely vehicle properties.

Oversteer or its counterpart understeer is not the difference (or should it be the ratio of the two?) between cornering stiffness front and rear but it is a dynamic trajectory property caused by cornering stiffness. But cornering stiffness are not just static properties influenced by the factors given above. There are more factors that influence cornering stiffness: body roll, roll stiffness front and rear, load transfer, wheel camber change, roll steer (front and rear) and torque applied to the driving wheels. The tyre characteristics are speed and load dependent too. From this, it follows that driving characteristics of a car cannot be defined as being just over or understeering. At every speed and trajectory curvature (1/radius) one can say it is understeering, neutral or oversteering for those conditions. So the over/understeering character is a complex one.

In the everyday road car a compromise is sought to make the car responsive to the steering wheel and stable at the same time. From here follows the success story of the FWD concept (understeering). For a sports car that is quick (not the same as fast) and provides driver fun, a different concept is needed: mid-engined, rear wheel drive (initial slight understeer changing to oversteer by applying engine torque - power oversteer/steering with the throttle).

Perhaps it is useful to mention the definition of over and understeer as used by the scientists who perform research in vehicle behaviour? Suppose you are running a car at a constant speed with a constant curvature (the path is a circle then), if you then keep the steering wheel in the same position (angle) and increase the car speed gradually, then if the car wants to run on a circle with a smaller radius the car is said to be oversteering, if it remains on the same radius it is neutral and if the car goes to a wider circle it is understeering (for that speed and curvature!). The test can be done somewhat differently, again the car is running at a certain speed on a certain radius. Increase the speed and try to keep the car on the same radius. If you need to apply extra steering angle it is understeering, if you can keep the steering wheel in the same position it is neutral, if you can turn back the steering wheel somewhat it is oversteering.

Oversteer is when the rear wheels are carving a larger arc than the front wheels or the intended line of the turn. Rear “slip angles” exceed those of the front tyres. This is often described as a “loose” condition, as the car feels like it may swap ends, or be “twitchy.” This condition can be caused by “power oversteer”, where you need to reduce power in order to bring the back end back into line.

Understeer is when the front wheels are carving a larger arc than the rear wheels. This is often described as “push” or “pushing” - as the front end feels like it is ploughing off of a corner. Further acceleration only compounds the push, as weight shifts back to the rear drive wheels, off of the front turning wheels, leading to a further lessening of the car’s ability to turn in. Understeer can be remedied by slight modulation in throttle to transfer weight forward to the front wheels, aiding their traction and ability to carve the turn. Many cars are designed to have a tendency to understeer. If the driver gets uncomfortable and “lifts” off the gas, that will cause the front end to tighten the curve - a relatively safer, and more predictable condition.

トレイル・ブレーキング

Trail braking (a.k.a. ‘brake-turning’, braking while turning toward the apex of a corner) is another learning curve for you to climb sooner or later. However, learn trail braking slowly; if you’re used to road driving (where you’re taught to finish braking before turning into a corner) then you might find it tricky to learn the extra delicacy demanded by trail braking. In PU, the trade-off between brake pressure and steering input is hard to judge when you can’t feel the car turning and pitching through your body.

What is trail braking? In essence, it means continuing to brake after having turned in for a corner. The further you progress into the corner, the more you turn the steering wheel and the more pressure you release from the brake pedal. Typically, the procedure goes like this: You are hurtling in a straight line toward a corner; You apply the brakes - fully - while still travelling in a straight line; At some point, you release a little pressure from the brakes and start to turn in; As you bend into the corner and approach the throttle application point, you progressively release the rest of the pressure from the brake.

What’s the point of it? Trail braking helps you rotate the car into a corner by controlling the transfer of weight onto the front tyres, giving them more stick, and thus compensating for any understeering tendency the car would otherwise have. The alternative is: do all of your braking in a straight line, then release the brakes entirely, then turn in. The trouble with this technique is that when you release the brakes, weight - and therefore stick - will be removed from the front tyres, just when you need them to be loaded enough to turn the car into the corner. So - unless the car is set up to be driven like this - it will understeer away from the corner. This is typical behaviour for ‘street’ (aka massively understeering) cars that have been adapted for racing.

On the other hand, a ‘proper’ race car will probably oversteer if you don’t trail brake. If you turn into a corner with your feet off both brake and throttle, the front tyres will have all their traction budget available for turning while the back wheels will be doing some (engine) braking. Net result: oversteer. Application of the brakes settles down the oversteer by substituting a proportionately balanced loss of steering traction (because the brakes are biased towards the front). In fact, you use the brake pressure to control the rate at which the car rotates into the corner.

How much trail braking you do at a particular corner - i.e. what percentage of the corner is taken under braking - depends on the angle of the corner. For a 60° corner, you’d typically only trail for a few percent of the corner, for a 90° corner, you’d typically trail brake for maybe 25% of the corner, and for a bigger corner, you could do it for up to 50% of the corner. You are aiming to trail off the brakes until they are released completely at or before the throttle application point (which typically occurs somewhere before the geometric apex). - Thanks to the Virtual Racers Edge Site for this helpful info.

ブレーキングの入り口

Think of the contact patch of your tyres. The few square inches that each tyre touches the road with may be upset not only by rapid steering input but by rapid brake input as well. ABS minimizes this, but there is a way that a good driver can shorten stopping distances even beyond ABS in some cases. How?

ABS works in different ways, but to illustrate this point, I’ll take an example of, say, a Subaru Outback with four people in the car on a snowy surface (this may be easier to visualize given a heavier car on a slick day): You begin a panic stop, depressing the brake. The car goes up to maximum braking, and then one wheel begins to slide or lock. As it does so, the car momentarily pulses the pedal back to you, which feels like a “burp” under your foot. In doing so, it allows that locked wheel to again rotate. This helps in two ways. First, a tyre brakes most efficiently when it is just short of locking up, exerting the maximum effort on the surface. When it goes beyond that point and slides, braking is diminished. Second, by keeping the wheels from locking up, ABS helps maintain directional control, especially if the driver is steering around an obstacle while braking. In effect, in a panic stop ABS allows the driver to pound the brakes as hard as he or she wishes, but still have effective braking and directional control. Remember that a tyre gets maximum braking just before the point of lockup. Without ABS a driver can get maximum braking effort by braking to the point of wheel lock, and then reducing the pressure ever so slightly to the point where the wheels are rotating again. This is known as “threshold braking.” The dangers of course are in backing off a bit too much and not getting maximum effort, and in maintaining directional control while braking.

Back now to an ABS equipped car: By using threshold braking, it is even possible in some cases to do better than ABS. Remember the pulsing action that some ABS systems use to allow the locked wheel to rotate again? While this is happening, the braking effort on the other three wheels is momentarily lessened also. On a slick snowy surface, if you continue extreme hard braking so that ABS is constantly activated, the lessened brake force is extremely evident. It almost feels as though the car starts sliding faster! If this happens to you, back off slightly to allow the ABS to disengage, and use threshold braking ... release ever so slightly as the ABS starts to “burp” back at your foot. A well executed stop will have you riding that edge, with ABS intermittently engaging as you modulate and keep feeling that threshold. On DRY pavement with good traction, you can stand on the pedal as much as you need to stop quickly and effectively.