Walter Rohrl's driving masterclass top ten tips

warren_cox

Back from the dead
In Shell V-Power magazine (V-Zine), this month is a section on driving masterclass with Walter Rohrl.

Appreciate to all the seasoned experts on here this will be like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, but if its useful to a few then its worth it.

There isn't a section for driver training / tips, so put it in trackdays as here it might be more useful.

Here are his top 10 tips:

1. Make the entry to a curve the slowest point, and brake only while travelling in a straight line before you start to turn

2. Steer the wheel as little as possible to make any manoeuvre

3. To carry good momentum through faster curves, (almost regarless of conditions), if you have the right steering input/line you can go as fast as on dry tarmac

4. With all wheel drive cars brake much sooner to make your curve entry slower so that you can accelerate sooner and straighter, using the main benefit of the 4wd when exiting the curve

5. Do not over-correct understeer (i.e. pushing through a turn towards the outside edge of the road) as you will possibly snap-spin the other way

6. Do not pump the brake pedal, especially during panic stops. On a modern car equipped with ABS, for best effect depress the pedal firmly and hold it there

7. Attend one track day driving course every three years, and try to pick a track you are unfamiliar with

8. When on snow or ice do not deactivate any of the stability systems, especially for a RWD car (road and track)

9. Do not floor the throttle pedal full on out of a tighter curve until you are heading straight ahead as the tyres will not be able to grip the road fully

10. Stay away from high power RWD cars unless you are a very accomplished driver who has been trained, and feel you have the reflexes to correct oversteer instantaneously!


Some other useful quotes that were included in the top 10 but were elaborated further in the detail in the article:

One mistake a normal driver makes in a tight corner is that he thinks he must go faster, but he does not understand you cannot cheat physics. Most aim for the inside of the corner, come in too fast, the wash out with understeer. As they see the front end washing out to the edge of the track they increase steering input, decrease throttle input and induce snap spins

Conversely, in fast corners these drivers often go to slowly, and very often the driver will go off to the inside in this type of manoeuvre. This is because they are too vicious with the steering input. He goes on to explain of a 125mph corner at Nurburgring called Hatzenbects-Bogen where if he steers through the corner with three fingers distance of turn and lifts off the throttle slightly he will get thorough at 125mph. If he inputs 4 fingers distance of turn he will very likely spin out. The skill of limiting the steering in in starting the manoeuvre early enough to create a slightly different line through the curve. The best practice for this is setting up slalom cones and seeing how fast yopu can get through without over-correction of steering input.


OK, some some of the above are pretty basic, but there are people on here of all ages and ability levels, and I'm sure there are a few points above which some will choose to argue with as they may feel they have different experiences!
 

bubbles1

Nurburgring Lover
Dec 28, 2008
490
2
Llandudno
Some very good tips from sir Walther!

The tip about using as little steering input as possible by planning your line early is absolutly crutial especially on the nurburgring:D
 
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