Your cornering technique

obi_waynne

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Deal, Kent UK
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A3 1.4 TFSI 150 COD
When you take a fast corner what are your usual habits?

Keep left foot braced against the footwell, hold hands so they are still forming 3:50 with your hands on the wheel. Go in with light throttle then push harder as you come out of the corner?!

Is each corner different?

Do you have a favourite corner or bend that you've pretty much got sewn up and can carry a lot of speed safely through it?
 
Every corner is different, depends on what is on the other side and who is trying to get past or if you are trying to get past them.

Some corners can be taken at speed and carry that speed on through, some require a little feathering of the throttle to keep it balanced but ready to push as you clip the apex and exit. There are a lot of variables, trust in the car, suspension set-up, tyre condition, track conditions and size of gnads, not to mention if you have fwd, rwd or 4wd.

On track I have a few favourite corners and quite a few that I haven't quite mastered. But that is where the fun is!

Pretty much most of the Goodwood track has great corners. Madgwick is a challenge as it has a double apex. Woodcote is hard as you try and take it fast as you come off Lavant Straight but you need to be careful as the chicane comes up quick as too the outer limits of the track!

Brands Hatch I find challenging as you don't get much time to think as it is a short busy circuit. Paddock Hill is fast and drops off quickly, still trying to get that one right! Surtees I can take at speed and no coming off the throttle until I need to enter Clark which can catch you out if taken too fast.
 
As above, all different and all depends on the car. A lot of these is just drivers instinct really I think. That said I do drive the RS6 very differently to my other halves Merc C350 Coupe being 4WD vs RWD. The RS6 you can make good progress by stomping on the throttle quite early through the corner and letting Quattro drag you in the right direction. The Merc on the other hand requires a much more delicate approach of getting the car mostly though the corner before you go fully back on the power or it'll just try and push the tail wide and the traction control kills any progress.. particularly because unlike the C63 i had... the ESP OFF on the C350, well I swear its just a light... as apposed to actually turning anything off - it still buggers around with the brakes trying to keep everything sorted.

On the C63 you had a physical button which pressed once put it into ESP SPORT and pressed and held turned ESP off completely. On the C350 it's not a physical button. It's a setting with only ON or OFF through the menu on the instrument cluster. Not only does this menu and sub-menu arrangement annoy me over a physical button... but OFF may as well say "OFF (unless at any point you try and have some fun).
 

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