Abstract

This paper presents the claim that traction can be increased by braking. Part I is intended to be true and correct.

Part II is intended to one-up my instructor at the ELF-Renault School of Racing,

Simon de la Tour, who after our first set of laps, ripped apart cars 1, 2, and 3, then said” “Car 4: Quite good. if you continue to drive like that, you should do quite well through this school.”, and added “If I had to criticize, I should say that you could have carried a bit more speed. The car will turn quite sharply. So, uh… don’t baby it so. But quite nice, really!”*

Part II, therefore, tries to prove that the car will turn arbitrarily sharply - as sharply as I please - just like a UFO makes the proverbial “Right angle in the sky”.

I try to prove this here on paper as I was less than 100% successful at coaxing my Renault-powered Martini racecar into making any credible right angles while Monsieur de la Tour was watching.

*So I’m sitting there thinking “He’s saying I’m gonna be World Champion!!”, a more pleasant thought than “I didn’t actually intend to baby it”

Part I

1.a) Use of the brakes results in additional (in addition to the pull of gravity) downforce experienced by the front wheels.

1.b) More downforce results in more traction.

1.c) More traction in turn allows harder braking.

1.d) Go to 1.a)

Part II

2.a) You can effectively turn the car into a slot car, pinned to the roadway at the front and unable to slip, by pushing down on the front end - if you push down hard enough.

2.b) You can push down on the front end as hard as you please by braking correspondingly hard.

2.c) You can brake as hard as you please by going correspondingly fast beforehand.

Thus, we have:

2.d) The front half of the car will turn arbitrarily.

Credentials

Anyone who thinks they can drive a car like I can can come to San Jose, CA, step right up, and put yer money down. At a Malibu Grand Prix or Go-Karts place. Bring $100 to lose to me in 10 laps for $10 each, loser pays kart fees.

I do not frequent these places and neither should you. Last time I went to Go-karts was 2016 when my manager at Pivotal Software took the whole team at work. Give ya one guess what happened.

Doug “I don’t baby it anymore” Landau

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