Ten High-Performance Driving Terms to Know
When you get out to your local track day for the very first time, you’re bound to hear some new terms. We’re here to help make sure you have a brief understanding of those terms, so you can wiggle through the cones and corners even faster. Here are ten terms to know for high-performance driving.
Driving in Tenths – This is a term to relate to how hard you are driving on track. Ten-tenths is where you are pushing your skill and car’s abilities to their maximum. However, most track days you’re only driving at seven to eight-tenths at most. At a time attack you’ll usually be at nine to ten-tenths.
Oversteer – A condition in which the rear of your car will try to rotate around while the front of the car turns. IE: You’re going to crash rear first into that wall.
Understeer – A condition where the front of the car is not turning; instead, it is pushing toward the outside of the turn. IE: You’re going to crash front first into that wall.
Neutral Steer – A condition in which neither the front nor the rear of the car acts abnormally and you can drive the car on the racing line. IE: You probably won’t crash into that wall.
Left-Foot Braking – Most drivers will use their right foot for both the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal. However, there is a technique where a driver will utilize their left foot to do the braking instead of just using it for the clutch. You’ll usually see this in rally and off-road racing, but you can use left-foot braking to help rotate the car in a corner.
Heel-Toe Shifting – When you are downshifting before making the turn, you want to rev-match as you do so to prevent wheel hop. However, you have to keep slowing down the car or you could lose control getting on and off the brake. So, you’ll use both pedals at the same time to brake and rev-match by placing your right foot on both to not only brake smoothly and consistently, but also to rotate your foot to rev as you downshift. You don’t use your heel or your toes, but it’s the easiest way to say it as opposed to, “ball-of-foot-side-of-foot-shifting.”
Racing Line – The area of the track where you are driving at the car’s maximum. This isn’t always the dead-center of the track or on the inside of every turn. The racing line is not only different for every part of the track, but also for every track as well.
Braking Zone – The area where you’ll brake the car before turn-in. This is marked off with distance signs or cones (in a 3, 2, 1) at some tracks. Sometimes there are no distance or cone markers, so you’ll use visual references to create your own brake markers.
Drift – A purposeful use of oversteer. A slight drift can allow you to attack a section just slightly faster, but if you are looking out of your passenger window and the rear tires are billowing smoke, you’re showing off.
Wheel Hop – A condition where if you don’t rev-match correctly and you have your foot on the brake as you engage the next lower gear, the wheels physically hop and you will go into severe oversteer (IE: you’re going to crash rear-first into that wall).
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