Cadence Accelarating
Discussion
We've had cadence braking, and even cadence clutching :laugh: but I wanted to bring up right foot technique.
I've read many posts over the years here about 'planting the right foot' and just wondered how many people really do plant the right foot all the way to the bottom and wait for the engine to catch up?
I guess that since I learnt most of my craft on bikes I never do this. It was never an option on a performance bike to just wind the throttle fully open, you'd either lose the back wheel or end up on your arse eating the front one.
When driving I'm constantly feeling with the right foot for the 'balance' point where the car will accelerate with a little more pressure and retard if you raise a litle.
I use it often to settle the suspension after going over a bump and also to balance the car in corners.
So how many people here would own up to planting the right root all the way, perhaps when over taking on a motorway and you want everything the car can provide?
I guess that one area where I might be guilty of this would be in a kart where there is very little pedal travel and the throttle is more of an on off affair.
best
Ex
I've read many posts over the years here about 'planting the right foot' and just wondered how many people really do plant the right foot all the way to the bottom and wait for the engine to catch up?
I guess that since I learnt most of my craft on bikes I never do this. It was never an option on a performance bike to just wind the throttle fully open, you'd either lose the back wheel or end up on your arse eating the front one.
When driving I'm constantly feeling with the right foot for the 'balance' point where the car will accelerate with a little more pressure and retard if you raise a litle.
I use it often to settle the suspension after going over a bump and also to balance the car in corners.
So how many people here would own up to planting the right root all the way, perhaps when over taking on a motorway and you want everything the car can provide?
I guess that one area where I might be guilty of this would be in a kart where there is very little pedal travel and the throttle is more of an on off affair.
best
Ex
depends on the car.
In the Ginetta planting the throttle unless you're doing north of 100...you may as well call the hospital straight away
the mini suffers from transmission shunt if you plant it and also it will bog down until 3500 rpm due to the ridiculous cam profile
but any modern car, mostly I will plant it when necessary...usually a) they can take it, mechanically and b) they are FWD and c) they haven't enough power to be worried about (316/320i company cars)
In the Ginetta planting the throttle unless you're doing north of 100...you may as well call the hospital straight away
the mini suffers from transmission shunt if you plant it and also it will bog down until 3500 rpm due to the ridiculous cam profile
but any modern car, mostly I will plant it when necessary...usually a) they can take it, mechanically and b) they are FWD and c) they haven't enough power to be worried about (316/320i company cars)
Rude-boy said:
... then I do plant it for overtaking as it engages the kick-down.
Yup, that's a given, but would you ease off to find the balance point again?
gemini said:
in corners throttle should be "balanced" - constant acceleration - until the corner begins to unwind - then feed in the power?
Indeedy, I also seem to have some success dealing with moderate crosswinds whilst cornering on motorways in a high sided vehicle (Land Cruiser) by using the throttle, though I guess most of this could subconsciously be coming from the steering wheel.
In the dry, and in or above 2nd gear, then a progressive "plant" (i.e. not trying to shove it through the floor) is nothing to worry about in a straight line...enough grip and ability to deal with it.
But in the wet, or round corners, then you've got to meter it out...I'm still probably too lead-footed, but practice and all that...
But in the wet, or round corners, then you've got to meter it out...I'm still probably too lead-footed, but practice and all that...
depends on the car and situation for me:
Ka: it seems to need to be planted quite a lot of the time fopr it to be able to make any progress at all.
racing mini on track: it has got enough power so that if you are too eager at some points you can come a bit unstuck so i am a bit more gentle.
racing elan on track: VEEEEERY careful! if you are not constantly conscious of how much power you are feeding in to the rear wheels you can find yourself going backwards quite quickly!
but i am yet to drive a powerful rear wheel drive car on the road, so i dont know about that one.
chris
Ka: it seems to need to be planted quite a lot of the time fopr it to be able to make any progress at all.
racing mini on track: it has got enough power so that if you are too eager at some points you can come a bit unstuck so i am a bit more gentle.
racing elan on track: VEEEEERY careful! if you are not constantly conscious of how much power you are feeding in to the rear wheels you can find yourself going backwards quite quickly!
but i am yet to drive a powerful rear wheel drive car on the road, so i dont know about that one.
chris
Are you talking about how much throttle you use ('balance point' implies neither accellerating nor decellerating)?
Most cars, and certainly most TVRs, are most stable under gentle acceleration, and this is the recommended way to take corners. This also produces a 'slow in fast out' late apex approach which gives you the maximum scope to react to unexpected hazards in the corner.
But how progressively you open and close the throttle is just as important, the stability of the car is greatly improved if all controls inputs are progressive.
Most cars, and certainly most TVRs, are most stable under gentle acceleration, and this is the recommended way to take corners. This also produces a 'slow in fast out' late apex approach which gives you the maximum scope to react to unexpected hazards in the corner.
But how progressively you open and close the throttle is just as important, the stability of the car is greatly improved if all controls inputs are progressive.
theexcession said:
... then I do plant it for overtaking as it engages the kick-down.
Yup, that's a given, but would you ease off to find the balance point again?
Although purely for economy reasons, why dump more fuel than you have to? gemini said:
in corners throttle should be "balanced" - constant acceleration - until the corner begins to unwind - then feed in the power?
Sort of, you are quite correct, imvho, at the point when you start to feed the power back on the best way to do so is in a smooth and controlled manor, making the best use of all available power, torque and grip. Up to that point you are usually on the brakes though
, or on trailing/light throttle. theexcession said:
Indeedy, I also seem to have some success dealing with moderate crosswinds whilst cornering on motorways in a high sided vehicle (Land Cruiser) by using the throttle, though I guess most of this could subconsciously be coming from the steering wheel.
One of the great black arts of driving a car, or indeed riding a bike, swiftly is understanding how a car can be steared 'on the throtle'. As many an ex 205 owner will tell you. (very few of those ever got written off as a result of front end damage...
) Rude-boy said:
One of the great black arts of driving a car, or indeed riding a bike, swiftly is understanding how a car can be steared 'on the throtle'. As many an ex 205 owner will tell you. (very few of those ever got written off as a result of front end damage...
as an ex 205 driver I know what you mean, the lift off over steer on those could be quite extreme, I guess that's where having your foot on the 'balance' point applies to what I'm describing, the abillity to add or remove power to the wheels in small doses without the on/off type scenario and the massive suspension unloads that take place. I remember vividly one day out in the Supra, booting it out of a second gear corner, when the back end let go the automatic gear box just leapt up through the gears and made the problem even worse. It wasn't until we'd completed a 720 that I finally got arround to figuring what had gone wrong - when the same lampost went past for the second time I just let go of everything. Not a pleasant lesson to learn on the Queen's highway and fortunately no other vehicles were involved.
On a bike it's even more critical, getting to the point where the back wheel has just started to spin up is a glorious feeling. Difficult to explain, but everything seems to tighten up yet go soft at the same time - if you can follow what I mean.
best
Ex
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