^ Intresting… It makes a whole lot of sense. This is why I am a novice lol.
I seem to remember being told in the past that if given a choice, pick the line that will best prepare you for the faster exit on the longest straightaway.
It now makes sense. If I am there next year I will pick that line.
I seem to recall that being my slowest and most difficult corner. I could probably pick up some time there shortenting the distance rather than increasing my speed.
I was pretty much late apexing the entire course which was probably not too wise given that alot of turns are spaced very close to each other and taking a late apex I found would make the next turn very difficult to negotiate at speed.
Late apexing in a series of turns is a good idea if it sets you up for a faster overall line.
I’ll walk through how I drive that place from start to finish, it isn’t necessarily correct, but did me well this time out.
Start, make left at full throttle, shift to second (where I stay for the entire course)
1st monza stay tight, exit tight
slight late apex for right hander into pear, carry out to outside, break, late apex right turn, carry to outside (inside of monza)
tight entry to monza, accelerate very very early, carry to outside at exit.
Brake, late apex left turn
no brakes, right turn ‘race line’
little lift, ‘race line’ left turn
slight brake, late apex left turn onto straight
hold foot to floor, take a drink, eat a few wings
enter monza 1 from ‘middle lane’, hold it tight through the exit, same line through the ‘pear’, very late apex on right, slowing way down to make left at finish, no ‘line’ there, just shortest distance the car will let me take. A push at that slow speed can be really costly
Thanks everyone for the above suggestions/advice, it’s very much appreciated.
It does make sense, now that I take a minute to think about it, that shifting after the turn is just wasting time that you should be on the throttle. Mid-turn is a technique I don’t think I could do smoothly at this point, thus negating any sort of advantage it might give me. I’ll definitely keep it in mind though as a way to possibly shave off a little time once I get to that point.
Next time I’m there I’ll give it a shot just staying in second the whole time, even if I bounce off the limitor a few times. Another mental thing I guess I have to get over… I absolutely -hate- hearing it.
Damn son… 80! You must have been carrying alot of speed through that last turn before entering the monza. I got into 3rd but I don’t think I saw over 75.
Thats that those big gold brembos are for the car slows down real fast.
If i were to hit the limiter i would have been bouncing off of it for way too long. I had plenty of time to slow down and i was carrying almost no speed before it. I’m sure A better driver would have been able to get it much faster on that section.
Interesting bit of math:
80 mph = 117.333333 feet per second
70 mph = 102.666667
Straight at batavia = about 270 feet
Time to cover straight at 80 (the whole way) = 2.3 seconds
Time to cover straight at 70 (the whole way) = 2.6 seconds
Point being, accelaration matters, top speed on the straight doesn’t (not targeting anyone), just trying to make is a little more visible that holding the limiter won’t cost you much time, and since you are going up hill might actually save you time being that the actual time difference is probably more like .1 seconds if you have cars that accelerate the same, but one maxes at 70 and the other at 80. The shift time is at least .1 seconds, and durring that time you are actually slowing down a good bit since you are going up a steep hill.
This is why alot of people put emphasis on powering out of a turn and setting up for a turn.
You can cover that straightaway in less time either by carrying more speed initially or having faster acceleration. Consequently the faster you exit the bottom corner the higher the top speed will be because you are carrying a higher initial velocity.
Its a double reward as you can carry more speed through the straightaway as well as through the turn.
To solve this equation exactly you need some mad calculus skills.
An approximate value would be to assume constant acceleration and take the average speed across the straightaway.
Say you exit at 30 mph and end up at 80 your average speed would be 55 mph. 80.7 FPS.
3.346 seconds
If you exit at 30 mph and end up at 70 your average speed would be 50 mph. 73.3 FPS.
3.683 seconds
A diffrence of 0.337 seconds.
Although I agree with rushman about it not really mattering too much on this course. The longer the course and the straightaways the deeper the penalty.
Lets take this for an example…
You are on the back straight at laguna seca lets assume for maths sake that this straight is 1000 feet.
Driver 1 exits the turn at 50 mph and accelerates up to 120
Driver 2 sucks and can only carry a speed of 40 mph throughout the turn. Normally this would result in a lower top speed at the end of the straightaway but say he added a supercharger to his car and driver 2 is making some mad horsepower and is also able to top out at 120 mph eventhough he is carrying less initial speed.
Driver 1 has an average speed of 85 mph or 124.667 feet per second.
Driver 2 with his m4d h0rs3pow3rz can make up a top speed diffrence for an average speed of 117.334 feet per second.
Driver 1 covers the 1000 foot straight in 8.021 seconds.
Driver 2 covers the 1000 foot straight in 8.523 seconds.
A diffrence of a HALF a second which is HUGE.
If you take a turn wrong you will need ALOT of horsepower to correct for it.
Moral of the story… Learn how to take turns before adding horsepower.
I Noticed the fast guys taking the tight entry into the second monza so I decided to try that out, seemed to work pretty good. A few things I noticed that I can improve on were that I am going way too wide exiting the first monza, then staying too tight in the ‘pear’ and probably not taking all the late apexes that well.
the car slows down real fast.