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GT350 low-speed corner track question

km1075

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I track my GT350 primarily at Autobahn and Gingerman. I'm an Intermediate driver. Typically, I'm in 3rd and 4th gears on the track. My question is, for low speed corners, do Advanced drivers downshift into 2nd gear at some point in the corner (entry or exit?). I just feel like I'm having a hard time holding the revs up over 4,000rpms on corner exit and therefore my overall acceleration on straightaways suffers coming out of the low speed corner. I'm just curious how more advanced GT350 track drivers overcome this issue. Thank you for your advice.
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If you have the traction, yes you would benefit going down a gear and getting more power to the ground thus accelerating faster out of the corner. Now if you don't have the traction and you have to feather the throttle, you won't be any faster than if you were in the higher gear and actually going WOT or close to it.

If you don't have the traction, you can trail brake to help turn the car in those slow corners. Or give it throttle earlier and use the built in oversteer to turn the car.

Try different things and if you have a good tracking app you can see which one helped your time.
 

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This question warrants the-always-favorite "it depends" answer.

Re: advanced drivers, yes, sometimes more advanced drivers will drop a gear to stay in the higher RPMs and get better drive. And as @EFI said, it's dependent on traction amongst many other things.

In practice, it really does depend on the corner, track, car, etc. The reality is for "most" corners with "most" beginner to intermediate drivers, it will be faster to stay in 3rd. Dropping to second requires 2 additional shifts (loss of time) and they had two more opportunities for mistakes that lose even more time. The end result? Most drivers will actually lose time doing this unless they're particularly smooth or really lugging the car out the corner OR taking a horrible line through the corner.
 

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I have driven both Tracks and I honestly cant say what gear I am in, Its mussel memory. I can say at Gingerman as an example, I am generally accelerating before or at corner exit. I would say, since you are in the intermediate phase, worry about your line and hitting your marks rather then grabbing that extra gear. I can say I have taken an extra gear and totally screwed a corner. But, that's part of trial and error especially at a new track. Team Shelby with The Mohawk Track experience is holding a track beginners day on Monday August 15 and then open track on the 16th and 17th at Gingerman
 

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I know those two tracks well.

South track at AB you absolutely need to hit 2nd gear in turns 9 and 10. However when you do, the car will really come alive as the revs will be obviously way higher then you're use too. Turn #1, 11/12 as well but be ready to shift to 3rd rather quickly.

As HB says above, more shifting the more mistakes/clunky the lap can be if you're not super smooth on your downshifts and throttle application.

PM me if you want and we can go through both tracks at AB, I probably have well can't count how many days at that place. Alan Wilson (the Track designer) and I know each other from the WC days and he gave me some interesting insite on the corners back when it was built.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Wilson_(motorsport)
 
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I don't know autobahn, but what times do you run at gingerman? I would venture a guess that higher entry speeds will fix your problem better than using 2nd.

I never use 2nd there, and I'm not even sure I've used 2nd at any track I've been on so far....
 

JAJ

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I track my GT350 primarily at Autobahn and Gingerman. I'm an Intermediate driver. Typically, I'm in 3rd and 4th gears on the track. My question is, for low speed corners, do Advanced drivers downshift into 2nd gear at some point in the corner (entry or exit?). I just feel like I'm having a hard time holding the revs up over 4,000rpms on corner exit and therefore my overall acceleration on straightaways suffers coming out of the low speed corner. I'm just curious how more advanced GT350 track drivers overcome this issue. Thank you for your advice.
There's lots of good insight in the responses. My view is that you need a data logger to tell you what works. My experience is that there are corners where you'll feel faster because you've shifted down into the torque curve, but the data disagrees.

Look at the time from the start of the brake zone for the corner in question to the exit of the following corner. Sometimes, the quickest time for the two corners comes without the two shifts down and up, sometimes not.
 

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I know those two tracks well.

South track at AB you absolutely need to hit 2nd gear in turns 9 and 10. However when you do, the car will really come alive as the revs will be obviously way higher then you're use too. Turn #1, 11/12 as well but be ready to shift to 3rd rather quickly.

As HB says above, more shifting the more mistakes/clunky the lap can be if you're not super smooth on your downshifts and throttle application.

PM me if you want and we can go through both tracks at AB, I probably have well can't count how many days at that place. Alan Wilson (the Track designer) and I know each other from the WC days and he gave me some interesting insite on the corners back when it was built.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Wilson_(motorsport)
interesting…..are you in a mach 1 or gt350…..i havent seen a mach 1 there yet…
 

Tonymustang302

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I track my GT350 primarily at Autobahn and Gingerman. I'm an Intermediate driver. Typically, I'm in 3rd and 4th gears on the track. My question is, for low speed corners, do Advanced drivers downshift into 2nd gear at some point in the corner (entry or exit?). I just feel like I'm having a hard time holding the revs up over 4,000rpms on corner exit and therefore my overall acceleration on straightaways suffers coming out of the low speed corner. I'm just curious how more advanced GT350 track drivers overcome this issue. Thank you for your advice.
did i talk to you at the GPS event and you were in the ‘20 HEP? I was in my gt500
 

THX 138

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I've tried both 2nd and 3rd gears in Turn 7 at Putnam Park, and I find that I get a lot better acceleration coming out of the turn if I downshift to 2nd... I'm in the powerband much earlier.

However, to @EFI's point, I'm also on sticky tires (Hoosier R7's or Goodyear Supercar 3R's), so traction isn't an issue for me in that corner on most days.

putnam_road_600.jpg
 

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I have driven both Tracks and I honestly cant say what gear I am in, Its mussel memory. I can say at Gingerman as an example, I am generally accelerating before or at corner exit. I would say, since you are in the intermediate phase, worry about your line and hitting your marks rather then grabbing that extra gear. I can say I have taken an extra gear and totally screwed a corner. But, that's part of trial and error especially at a new track. Team Shelby with The Mohawk Track experience is holding a track beginners day on Monday August 15 and then open track on the 16th and 17th at Gingerman
gingerman for me is always 3rd and 4th gear. I tried 5th down the back stretch but it was for such a short period of time, the extra shifts before the front stretch, it was better to just wind out 4th.

I’ll also be there in august with Mohawk, Paul is having a pig roast Monday night at the track !
Also, I recall him mentioning the possibility of Monday late afternoon having an open session or two for all levels.
 
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km1075

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I know those two tracks well.

South track at AB you absolutely need to hit 2nd gear in turns 9 and 10. However when you do, the car will really come alive as the revs will be obviously way higher then you're use too. Turn #1, 11/12 as well but be ready to shift to 3rd rather quickly.

As HB says above, more shifting the more mistakes/clunky the lap can be if you're not super smooth on your downshifts and throttle application.

PM me if you want and we can go through both tracks at AB, I probably have well can't count how many days at that place. Alan Wilson (the Track designer) and I know each other from the WC days and he gave me some interesting insite on the corners back when it was built.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Wilson_(motorsport)
Awesome, thank you for the offer. I might just take you up on it before the next time I'm out there which will be in July most likely through LAPS track days. May and June, I'm going to run Gingerman.
 
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km1075

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gingerman for me is always 3rd and 4th gear. I tried 5th down the back stretch but it was for such a short period of time, the extra shifts before the front stretch, it was better to just wind out 4th.

I’ll also be there in august with Mohawk, Paul is having a pig roast Monday night at the track !
Also, I recall him mentioning the possibility of Monday late afternoon having an open session or two for all levels.
Thank you very much. On Gingerman, I was thinking that maybe 10b might be a kickdown to 2nd, but if that's not the case, maybe I'm going too slow on turn-in.
 
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km1075

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I don't know autobahn, but what times do you run at gingerman? I would venture a guess that higher entry speeds will fix your problem better than using 2nd.

I never use 2nd there, and I'm not even sure I've used 2nd at any track I've been on so far....
I haven't run Gingerman yet this year, but during the closing weekend last October my best time was 1:51. Just trying to find those last 10 seconds (I know it's a slow time, I'm working on it). I know I brake too soon on most corners, but I also know that on certain corner exits, my acceleration is sluggish, hence the question.
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