Quote:
Originally Posted by MyFragileHalogen
Sorry that I dumped the whole thing without taking time digesting your point and articulating mine. I do respect your knowledge and experience and I am sure you are a lot more involved with the serious Miata thing. 
I did enjoy thinking about the idea. It's wild! It would be closer working one for an early apexing, momentum preserving Miata on shorter corners. Maybe some drivers with real good control can pull the circus on some other longer corners. Still there would be many situations need throttle to maintain/control car's pitch or throttle steer.
M4 and Miata lines have to be vastly different. M4 needs late apex on most of corners except short connecting ones because it's traction limited upon track out (and it's a lot more important to rotate and get out of corner ASAP). However, Miata can go full throttle with a lot more steering angle and hence taking the same line as M4 is totally wasteful; it can carry a lot more speed by taking earlier apex. Taking early apex and carrying more speed so that it's effectively traction limited upon exit would be more optimal.
The 'not hitting apex' theory is what I wanted to experiment after driving M4 again but have not validated on Miata, but you still can enjoy thinking about it. It's like a kart line- making line wider to carry more speed. I think at some corners (not all corners) it may work. Well precisely not completely like kart line because Miata can still accelerate better than that.. but there will be an optimal line in between.
Having all that said, I would still want to get on full throttle as early as possible.  I'd recommend watching our chief driver (LOL) Joerg Weidinger's M4 GTS driving while paying attention to sound how early he's on the throttle and where car is pointed to with respect to apex and exit when he's on throttle. Also looking at steering at the moment shows how much rate of rotation he's getting.
But yeah, I am always learning and willing to be enlightened anytime.  |
I guess it all depends how we define the "apex". For me, the apex is not a fixed point on a given corner, it varies depending on which line the driver elects to drive around said corner.
To be fast around a corner, you need to decelerate all the way to the apex and accelerate from there (unless the entry speed is insufficient due to the track layout). That "maintenance throttle from turn-in to apex" taught at HPDE events is complete BS. Watch any pro-driver video with telemetry and it is very obvious. It's important to note that one can also be partially on the throttle to balance the car and use throttle steer and still be decelerating on the way to the apex. The earlier you apex, the earlier you can be on the throttle. Late apex is safe, early apex is fast. And yes, it is possible to early apex with the F8X, you use the power to induce more rear lateral slip and generate rotation on track out. It takes finesse and lots of balls to do though, but it's tons of fun.