What does have a big effect while you’re sliding? Weight transfer. By spinning the wheels under acceleration, you clean off the surface to an extent and dig down to a better friction surface, achieving more traction.Īnd once you’re sliding, control inputs don’t have nearly the same effects they had while you were sticking. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, so a lot of your forward movement is a result of the kinetic energy put into those rocks and clumps of dirt thrown behind you.Īdditionally, a rally stage is usually composed of loose gravel or dirt covering hard-pack earth or clay. Think of it this way: Spinning the wheels can be good. Add to that the effect of loose gravel and dirt on the surface of the road-essentially you’re always in the marbles-and you’ll see that you’re almost constantly operating in the vast no man’s land outside the orthodox friction circle. That’s the challenge of most rally courses: The static friction circle of the given surface is very small, almost useless. The rules are different here.Īs soon as you make a serious control input on gravel or snow, you’re almost always beyond the tire’s friction circle and into what I call dynamic or sliding friction.
Some of these things may sound and feel counterintuitive to an experienced track driver, and for good reason. And surprisingly, front-wheel-drive cars are typically faster than their rear-drive counterparts. You never, ever lift when on the edge of control, even in a front- or all-wheel-drive car. Here you must extensively use left-foot braking, trail braking and slide braking. Now you’re trying to manage a constant, 200-mile-long slide through the woods.
Most enthusiasts probably know the basic orthodoxies for racing on tarmac: Stay within the tire’s friction circle, use smooth inputs, finish your braking before you start your turning, and roll into the throttle while unwinding the wheel. Not only do you have to race on tarmac, gravel, snow and ice-sometimes all on the same stage-but you must also use some very specific techniques for handling this loose terrain. Piloting a rally car quickly and competitively requires a broad range of pretty unusual skills.
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