road racing school in a formula car!

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ra64t
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road racing school in a formula car!

Post by ra64t »

Just got done with my first day of racing school! You can read all about it in my blog. http://www.aracingdream.com

It's kinda long so here's a few points:

the cars are 80's vintage F2000's with the pinto based engines. Not that much power but the engine feels pretty torquey, especially if its only pushing around 1100 pounds or so!

The tranny is a 4 speed non synchronized dog box which can take quite a beating. I know cause i was grinding gears quite a few times! Shifting and footwork take quite a while to get used to. The shifter has no gates and short throws, so is was fumbling around, not knowing what gear I was in or if i was even in a gear a few times!

The pedals are pretty close together so the side to side motion is the way to go for bliping downshifts.

The instructors taught a downshifting technique that is not true double clutching, rather you can just pop it into neutral without the clutch, the blip, then grab some clutch while moving into the next lower gear.

They taught sequential downshifts. They didn't suggest full clutchless shifting or left foot braking, but I don't think it would be that hard. Shifting was the big on track activity for day 1.

THe brakes feel nothing like a street car, they require a lot of force but the pedal actually barely moves.

The experience is just amazing. I'll update again tomorrow for anyone interested.
My racing blog: aracingdream.com
PILL
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by PILL »

ra64t wrote: The instructors taught a downshifting technique that is not true double clutching, rather you can just pop it into neutral without the clutch, the blip, then grab some clutch while moving into the next lower gear.
I do that all the time. When you aren't accelerating or engine braking you can just pop it out,
ra64t
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by ra64t »

In these cars you can actually pull it out of gear without the clutch anytime, even while engine braking, so you aren't forced to block downshift with this technique.
My racing blog: aracingdream.com
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gizmo
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by gizmo »

I found this helpful:

http://www.hewland.com/svga/help.htm

how much did the school cost?
ra64t
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by ra64t »

cool article. I'm gonna try some clutchless shifting tomorrow. Actually I did a few already at lower speeds. Day 2 details are on my blog.

The school cost 3400 retail, but in the current economy, you can call them and get it for 3000 or so, maybe less.
My racing blog: aracingdream.com
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gizmo
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by gizmo »

I was very enthused by your school experience! If it weren't such a hefty price, then I would love to race that school. You should've brought a video camera with you, that would've been the icing on the cake.

Looking forward to hearing about day 3.
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by ra64t »

They do offer photos and an on board video of you for 90 bucks but that was too expensive for me.

paul, it is like a street car without power brake boost, but more extreme. At high speed, I could squeeze the pedal almost as hard as I could and the wheels would not lock.

Day 3 was awesome, and included some damp sessions! at one point, I was sideways at close to 100mph!
My racing blog: aracingdream.com
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gizmo
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by gizmo »

That's not uncommon (when I raced an open wheel modified the brakes required massive amounts of pedal input for what seemed like minor amounts of decelleration). I wonder what purpose that serves?
ra64t
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by ra64t »

I think it's just because they are not power assisted.

Oh yeah, I switched to completely clutchless shifting on the last day. I'm sure gary would probably disagree, but I don't find the clutch necessary in the non syncroed box. Even for downshifts, if you go sequentially (don't skip gears) its pretty easy to get them smooth.
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gizmo
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by gizmo »

Dog boxes are designed to be shifted clutchlessly. Gary would say the same thing.
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by ra64t »

perhaps. some people still like to use the clutch to smooth out downshifts even with the dogboxes.
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gizmo
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by gizmo »

With those sequential gear boxes, how do you DCHT?

EDIT: by that I mean how do you shift into neutral to make your rev match? (or are the engines/gears setup so that the blip is tiny enough to avoid the need for a blip?)
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by ra64t »

The cars that I was driving were 4 speed H patterns. In these, the blip has to occur in neutral, but you don't really need the clutch to pull it out of gear. When done quickly, it almost looks like a regular single clutch heel toe like I do in my street car (assuming you are even using the clutch) but actually its pull to neutral - blip - drop into gear.

I'll be driving the skip barber cars which are a 5 speed sequential in less then 2 weeks. from what I understand, you don't DCHT in those, in fact you can't. There is no neutral position to stop in, so its all in one motion. You do need to do a small blip though.
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gizmo
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by gizmo »

I wanna run a skip barber course. A bit expensive though. But that's my next plan. They have 60 minutes for 500... considering that if I win lotto. But that's what I thought, with a sequential box, how in the hell do you blip if you can't get to neutral?
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Re: road racing school in a formula car!

Post by mtheis »

gizmo wrote:But that's what I thought, with a sequential box, how in the hell do you blip if you can't get to neutral?
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