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- Leafs Nation
- deviln3
On the topic of trail braking, according to everything I have seen there is some element of being on the brakes and the accelerator at the same time. Some overlap as braking comes off and acceleration starts, and it is usually very short and subtle. What I have noticed though is that several of the YouTubers will describe themselves (in track guides) as "trailbraking" into this or that corner, but when you look at their inputs there are times they are never on the brake and the accelerator at the same time. It makes me wonder if there is some true trailbraking going on, but also when some of these players talk about "a little trailbraking" they are really just milliseconds off the brakes before accelerating and that transition has a trailbraking "feel" to it (and is also optimum and fast), but it is not really trailbraking.
Would it be safe to say that at times people are describing the feeling and not the inputs, when it comes to trailbraking???
When I think of a true trailbraking area Variante Ascari at Monza comes to mind (turn 8, I think).
Your car tires have a finite grip. If you brake in a straight line, verses brake and turn at the same time, it will take you longer to slow down while turning.
So normally you'd brake in a straight line, get off the brakes, start turning, and then accelerate out of the turn as the car starts to straighten out.
Next if you brake really hard while turning, you'll just understeer off the road in most cases.
However if you brake hard, and then keep a little bit of pressure on the brakes as you start turning the wheels.. it will help your lap times a lot more, and make it easier to defend your position in a race. You start applying the throttle at the apex or when you have more of a straight line out of the corner.
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