Motor-Stadt Region

What to Do With Your Hands During a Lap Dance

by Len VanderJagt
LVJ911@worldnet.att.net

  Now that the first half of the track season is in the books, my in-car experiences so far suggest that it might be useful to talk about how to steer your Porsche. As usual, I will fearlessly pump out advice and opinions, and our Esteemed Editor will deal with the reams of letters and emails of protest.

  First, the basics. Smooth as glue. The more smoothly you drive, the more likely you are to stay stuck to the road. To go fast, safely, without occasioning Drivus Interruptus, due to a spin, you must move the steering wheel gently, and relatively slowly. Quite the paradox, eh?

   If you wrench the wheel back and forth as if you are reenacting a seizure scene in The Helen Keller Story, you severely transfer weight to and fro, overloading one or two tires at a time, and you also elicit even nastier unloading, as the springs kick back with the energy you force-fed them through your imprudent actions. This often results in the classic "I got it, I got it, I don't got it" scenario of thinking you have 'caught' the car, only to lose it in the other direction. You do get to feel 'racy' though, and certainly know that you are making something happen, although it is a Bad Thing.

   What you need to practice is turning the steering wheel smoothly, not too quickly, but progressively, in order to have the car 'load-up' without overshooting either the maximum load you can sustain through the turn or the limit of grip, and then holding it there until it is time to begin unwinding the wheel. The idea is to then to unwind the wheel in synch with the motion of the car, finishing with a very gentle ending that results in no 'end-lurch', declaring that you are now officially trying to go straight.

   It is amazing how much trouble folks have with this end-of-turn technique, instead holding in the steering angle until they are Real Sure that they have made the turn, then whizzing the steering wheel to straight-ahead position. Listen to your car. It doesn't like this. It doesn't feel good for either you or the car. Once again, you must learn to dance, working with, rather than against, your car. It's a dance, remember? When done properly, corner entry and exit do not result in lurching, or the accompanying feeling of fighting a car that wants to go in a different direction than you want it to.

   Most folks make another basic error. They turn the wheel too much and/or too soon, resulting in an 'early apex' situation. You can check this out on the street as well as the track. If you turn the steering wheel twice in the same direction in a turn, you have almost certainly made this error. Stop first in line at an intersection, in the left lane. Watch the cars turning left in front of you. Virtually every one will angle in toward the pavement just in front of you, and as the front of their car passes your left fender, in goes more steering. Lurch, grind, and squeal. At that point, they have little choice. If they don't do this, it is over-the curb time! That, dear reader, is an early apex. It is unkind to your tires, very slow, and above all, unsafe. Just when you want to be accelerating, you have to put in more steering. It just isn't going to work. As Scott Hughes of BMW CCA racing fame reminds us, "friends don't let friends early apex."

   Having completed the observational learning aspect of this exercise, make your own left-turn, delaying your turn-in, then smoothly making a big steering input, which allows you to begin unwinding the wheel at or before you reach the front end of the car in the lane to your left. Yes, that is a Late Apex turn, and you will be able to briskly accelerate through and out of the corner. As it is attributed to the great Stirling Moss, "it is better to go into a turn slow and come out fast, than go into a turn fast and come out dead." Food for thought, that.

   The last common error is the actual use of hands on the wheel. On the track, it is best to position your hands at "9&3", and don't let go of the wheel. On the street, you will need to shuffle-steer. Picture a vertical line bisecting the steering wheel. Keep your right hand always to the right of this line, left hand always to the left. Move both hands up or down at the same time. At first, this is like the rub your belly and head task, but with practice, you will always have a position of maximum strength, control, and feel. Go sit in your Porsche in the garage, and practice this. Notice the push-pull that is necessary, letting the rim glide through the "non-working" hand. Never let go with both hands.

   Extra Credit Advanced Integrative Lesson: From the left-turn lane at the light, accelerate briskly forward, and lift out of the gas as you do your now-proper steering, transferring weight (grip) to the front, encouraging your Porsche to turn, then accelerating progressively as you unwind the wheel. Magic! You will win all Left Turn Intersection Grands Prix. You're doing a little Lap Dancing in a public place, and it's safe, legal, and fun.

   I'll see you out there.