(upbeat electronic music)
- It's in neutral,
you can tell 'cause of the way that it is.
It's in reverse. So, hey guys, what's going on?
It's Alex from Fitment Industries,
and today we're jumping in a hot- oh my gosh,
it's already rubbing.
A Honda Fit to talk a little bit about
what it's like to drive a slow car fast,
because that's really actually pretty important
when you start wanting to drive,
and spending more time behind the wheel
versus just at a car show.
Now don't get me wrong, we love car shows.
We love all different types of car shows,
different types of things.
But we also love driving our vehicles, too.
So as we talk about wheels, tires, and suspension,
and getting 'em over a fitmentindustries.com...
Why is this making so much noise?
- [Male Speaker] It's the suspension.
- Is that what that is?
- [Male Speaker] Yeah, it just clunks a little bit.
- Okay. Well, that's all right.
We're gonna talk about how to drive slow car fast.
Because when you get your wheels and tires,
maybe you want your wheels and tires for an Autocross.
Maybe you want it for Road America,
who just so happens to be our preferred partner
of racetrack events and activities here in Wisconsin.
Because Road America is the premier automotive location
for events and staffing.
And if you're interested in renting this ginormous track,
you're gonna need a lot of money.
Anyway, so the first thing
that you're gonna want to remember as-
oh yeah, don't forget to subscribe.
Hi Steve. This is Steve's car.
Okay. So we're gonna get started.
One of the first things to remember,
at least when you're getting moving with a new car,
that just so happens to be slow,
you go off to your first autocross event.
And a lot of times what happens
is people have a tendency to overwork the car.
Don't do that.
Every one of your friends is gonna tell you
to go send it; you're not gonna wanna send it.
What you're gonna want to do is
you're gonna wanna practice really one thing at a time,
probably one of the most important things you can do
the very first time you're driving your slow car fast,
or at least trying to, is learning how the car behaves.
Every single car behaves differently.
There's not a single car out there in the world
that drives the same way.
They're all gonna slalom differently.
They're all gonna go through an apex differently.
They're all gonna roll, their body roll
is gonna be different in every single way.
So don't go out there and just send it,
even though everyone wants you to send it, myself included.
If I saw you at a track, I'm probably gonna say, "Send it."
That's not what you want to do.
Focus on one thing at a time.
And especially once you learn the track,
and you really get a handle on the car itself,
the number one thing that you can learn
is how to go through a corner.
Going through corners is actually not as easy as it sounds,
because essentially all you're trying to do
is find the straightest point from corner to corner.
And what a lot of people do is
they'll cut into turns really hard,
they'll get really aggressive around a turn,
and end up slamming on the brakes somewhere through.
And really what you just want to do is focus on apexes,
which is essentially the inner most point,
or what would make the turn, the straightest.
There's a bunch of fancy lingo that goes along with it.
Don't get me wrong, autocross and track day enthusiast,
I appreciate all the lingo, but for normal,
just folks that are trying to learn
how to drive their slow car fast,
learning how to corner
is gonna make that car feel a million times better.
You don't need to go a million miles-an-hour to feel fast.
What you need to do is you need to feel smooth,
you know, like a baby's buttocks.
If you feel like a baby's buttocks,
and you can go through, and you can spend your time
on the track, just coasting through,
you're actually gonna have a really good time
because it's gonna feel way better.
It's gonna feel way more comfortable.
Now we can talk about things like late apexes,
double apexes, things like that,
but we can also talk about how much you actually should be
turning your steering wheel.
But those are some things that get a little bit fancier.
You will start to understand how apexes work over time
when you start driving your car.
But the last thing is,
is just as you start learning about apexes,
just as you start learning about, you know,
going fast and learning about your car's behavior
when you're going through the racetrack,
the last thing that you're gonna
really want to think about
is how you layer this information together.
I wish somebody would have told me this
back when I first started driving
my super slow cars really fast,
is that a lot of times,
when you start layering on information,
your brain can only handle so much at one time.
And even if you're driving a piece of (beep)
like Honda Si, for some ungodly known reason,
that's got three different color body panels,
and rust on the rear quarter at an autocross event
'cause it was 40 bucks,
you're still gonna have the issue
where you're not able to apply the information
faster than you can actually put it out onto the track.
Whether that's turns that are too sharp,
or whether that's something where you're going through
and you just forget,
and you're gonna end up going off into the grass,
or maybe you're gonna miss an apex.
Maybe you're gonna brake too hard,
and then accelerate through a mid-turn.
Try to remember that as you get better,
and as you add on more layers,
there will be periods of time
where you just completely (beep) suck, and that's okay.
Usually what that means means is that you're not processing
the information fast enough
to take in all the new information.
Meaning that you can do some things,
but you won't be able to do others.
A good way to practice that
is when you start feeling overwhelmed, take a break,
step away from the track for just a minute,
go grab some water,
or maybe just think about what went wrong.
Maybe a new piece of information came up to you,
and now you gotta shed that piece of information off,
and just go right back to driving without it,
until you've really mastered the two pieces of information
that you got, and not the third one.
That's gonna be okay.
If you're looking for one final little pro-tip
on the old slow-car-fast game, when I-
one thing I can say is a lot of people abuse the gas, right?
(car accelerates)
They think the gas is the way to go about it,
and really, don't get me wrong, the gas is good.
It's a good button to have,
it's a good foot-lever, if you will.
But braking, braking is how
you actually feel fast in a car,
especially a slow car,
because you're counting on the braking line
to really get you through the turn as fast as you can,
you can break down as you need to, let up, and then you go.
And what that allows you to do is a lot of different things.
It can actually go through and you can level the car down.
You can go through and you can actually just prep yourself
up for a faster line once you get around the corner.
But a lot of times what it does is it allows you to focus.
When the car's going in at the right speed,
and you're not manhandling the speed all the way through,
it's just gonna feel better.
And when you line up your braking,
which you should always do
when the steering wheel is straight,
it's gonna make it feel like you're driving a slow car fast.
And that's really what it comes down to.
Make sure you're spending time learning about your car,
make sure that once you start spending time
learning about your car,
you really understand just how it behaves,
how it goes into turns, and out of turns.
How is that actual power curve,
is it really poopy, or is it pretty good?
Is there a certain place where it's gonna have
way too much because of Vtech or a turbo,
or is it actually gonna do pretty well
all the way through?
Then once you get through that,
you can really start to learn about
how do you get through corners just a little bit faster.
As you go through the apexes,
as you start to learn what a double apex is,
what a late apex is, an early apex,
all those sort of things once you start to master
is really gonna make you feel better.
Even if you're driving a really slow car.
Finally, when you get into braking,
the number one thing that you can remember when braking,
try to brake in a straight line,
assume that there's something that's tying your hands
on the steering wheel to your feet.
And every single time you're utilizing that foot,
you have to make sure that you're not
overcompensating with the steering.
If you're overcompensating with the steering,
but you're doing a bunch of fancy (beep) with your feet,
a lot of times you're gonna have a really bad time.
And those- probably four ways
that you can drive a slow car fast.
Don't forget to subscribe.
And of course, wheels, tires, suspension,
fitmentindustries.com.
I'm pretty sure I just rubbed the living (beep)
out of Steve's tires, but it was totally worth it.
I'll talk to you later. Peace.
(slow music)