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17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent Book on Solo Racing Mar 27, 2005
By Maxim Masiutin
The author briefly and concisely covers every aspect of racing in general and solo in particular: the friction circle, correct line in turns, late apexes weight distribution and suspension compression in turns, acceleration and braking, optimizing the slip angle, left foot braking, trail braking, heel-and-toe with double declutch, and so on.
How to prepare yourself and your car for solo racing, as well as the basic rules, are covered here.
Hand position on the steering wheel here is explained better than in most books on competition driving. The author has devoted 9 pages to it, and exposed the "Shifty-Hand" and "Zaccone" methods.
The author writes that on higher-speed slaloms (series of pylons set in a line), you may need to be lifting the throttle or tapping brakes bit to get the car to do what you want it to do. I fully agree with the author. Someone can argue that constant throttle application is better to not upset the car. Throttle lift during slaloms is tricky to coordinate and will require practice to become expert. When you've found the limit with constant throttle application and cannot go faster, the throttle lift will give some additional mphs. For example, for a straight line of pylons at the distance of 25m (82 ft) the maximum speed of a FWD stock 1500 kg (3306 lb) car with constant throttle application is about 65 km/h (40 mph) and is around 80 km/h (49 mph) when using throttle lift. That's a big difference. When the car is at its speed limit, with constant throttle application, the front wheels tend to scrub, the car tends to understeer. With throttle lift, the rear wheels are sliding all the way around the slalom, but the grip of the front wheels are perfect, they always point to the direction of travel, that is what we need, the car overseers here, but it is OK.
Another important advise that the author gave is to hit the apexes. "Even if you are sure that the car will not go to the apex, turn in and hit the apex".
This is a very good book. It has a glossary, a bibliography and an index.
I would also recommend "The Front-Wheel Driving High Performance Advantage" by Jack Doo, Carroll Shelby in addition to this book.
17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
Great for a novice too Dec 04, 1998
I have just begun autocrossing this year. A fellow autcrosser reccemended this book. I was very pleased with the information. There are many diagrams to explain concepts and ideas. I was able to drop 1 second off my time in under a month. The only thing that I didn't like was that I drive a FWD vehicle. There was a very limited amount of information on these vehicles. But the few things that where there were very helpful. I applied the phyics to my driving, just not the chassis set-up advice. Otherwise a great book.
18 of 19 found the following review helpful:
Short and Sweet: How to Drive Better Jul 28, 1997
First, let me say that I am an accomplished race car driver, with several national championship road racing wins. My own driving style is smooth and efficient, with no wasted motion, and an emphasis on looking and thinking ahead.
Hank Watts' "Secrets of Solo Racing" is the first book that I've ever seen that teaches the style of driving that has made me a successful racer. Like the driving style, the prose is smooth and efficient, with no wasted words. It is simple and clear, and best of all, it can make you a better driver. While some parts of the book are specific to SCCA Solo racing, the driving skills you improve will help you on the road course or the street.
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
excellent for starters, good for review Aug 31, 2000
This book is good for all. It is easy to understand, goes over basics, goes over the more detailed stuff. As a novice to autocrossing, I found it very helpful to learn all the basics in one book. Anything anyone has told you about the basics out on the track has been listed here. Not a substitute for track time, and some of the autocross wizards have pearls but they might be jumping over the basics. An excellent read.
16 of 17 found the following review helpful:
Wonderful book for any autocrosser! Jan 09, 1999
I highly recommend this book if you have any intention of being competitive in autocross driving. In fact, I would recommend it even for casual racers. Tons of great information on driving technique, the fast line, tire adhesion, preparation of the car and driver, and more. This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to drive fast.
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