How to avoid losing control

[marcocsx3121]

Taking some classes and also following some experience drivers on a specific track would be a good place to start!

Good advice. Cobras (or Pseudo- Cobras) spin for the same reason as other cars, exceeding the limits of what Mark Donahue called the friction circle. Learn to drive a more forgiving car first, then approach your limits with care.

[RICK LAKE]

Dallas56 Larry it would take about 2 hours to type you out all the reasons and why things happen. here's a quick list of possible reasons for why you spun out.
Car is not setup for the track, wrong springs, wrong shocks, alignment out
Car has the worst tires on it for the track, they are good for drifting if BFG
Corner weights of the car has balance off
Your speed was faster than your reflexes or mind. It's easy to happen.
Missing your marks for a turn
Brakes not up to the abuse and overheat, fluid boils, pedal fades.
Drivers seat, if running a stock cobra seat you are forced to hold your weight in a turn and control the car, doesn't work. Been there done this too. I now run a road race seat and don't worried about weight shift.
Driving schools are really needed if you want to race the car.
Oil, water, coolant, on the track from a car ahead of you.
Not staying in the drive line and getting into the rubbel junk and it sticks to your tires.
Not warming up your car and tires before hot lapping. low air pressures.
This is the start of a list that will explain what happened. I have looped my car at a couple of tracks from not following a correct check list and warming up the car and tires. Knowing the track is also real important for running the correct lines through turn. If no damage is done outside of a change of underwear, no harm,no foul. This is your learning curve on driving a cobra. You will need suspension increases of 30-50% in spring rated to start with better adjustable springs. Race seat. Top of the line driving suit. Having your roll bar 2-3" higher that the top of your helmet incase of a roll over. I roll cage would be better. Video to car at speed, you will learnalot be watching it run. Looking at body roll, driver control, location of line on track. Rick l.

[zrayr]

Originally Posted by marcocsx3121

"......... Learn to drive a more forgiving car first, then approach your limits with care.

the shorter the wheelbase, the faster things happen. If you have access to a car with a longer wheelbase, that is what I'd experiment with to get your confidence up.

Z.

[1985 CCX]

My first thought was tires.........

BFG's Dangerous
Goodyear II's Dangerous

Cobras require a soft compound like Dunlop Vintage, Avon's or Billboards. Sticky tires means less short changes. My last car would spin tires, act up and skip in hard corners with BFG's. Changed to Billboards and life was great.

Low psi is also a good idea...

[Eljaro]

first of all, a Cobra is certainly not the right car to learn going fast in corners.
You steer more with the pedal than with the wheel.
Tires a very important, and BFG are really bad, Yokohama a little bit better and Avon the best bar Slicks. Goodyears are not radials, and they are difficult to balance. I had to throw them away after trying to balance them, which was impossible.
You should check you tire pressure, increasing it for cornering( I run 35psi in the rear), and you should have negative camber in your rear wheels ( I have 1º negative).
The list of things which affect roadholding is inmense, so these are the most obvious things to get right first.
Good tires, good shocks, good wheel alignement and the right tire pressure.

[Tommy]

Larry,
My Cobra is not a SPF, but I've spun it at least twenty times on various tracks. The simple, but worthless, answer to your question is that you likely demanded more of one or more tires than they could give. The usual suspects are entering turns too fast or exiting turns with too much power. The quickest way around a race track typically involves getting as close to loss of control as possilble without stepping over the line. The only way to avoid losing control on the track is to drive like you do on the highway and don't stray too close to loss of control. Of course that will give you a slow lap time and leaves me wondering why you'd go to a track to drive that way.

One of the safer ways to learn what you and your car can and cannot do is to participate in SCCA Autocross events. The speeds and venues are usually safe enough to allow you to step over the line and lose control without doing any serious damage. After you get comfortable at autocross, step up to faster track day events where the consequences of loss of control can be a lot higher.

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by Tommy

Larry,
My Cobra is not a SPF, but I've spun it at least twenty times on various tracks. The simple, but worthless, answer to your question is that you likely demanded more of one or more tires than they could give. The usual suspects are entering turns too fast or exiting turns with too much power. The quickest way around a race track typically involves getting as close to loss of control as possilble without stepping over the line. The only way to avoid losing control on the track is to drive like you do on the highway and don't stray too close to loss of control. Of course that will give you a slow lap time and leaves me wondering why you'd go to a track to drive that way.

One of the safer ways to learn what you and your car can and cannot do is to participate in SCCA Autocross events. The speeds and venues are usually safe enough to allow you to step over the line and lose control without doing any serious damage. After you get comfortable at autocross, step up to faster track day events where the consequences of loss of control can be a lot higher.

Spot on, get into Autocross first, then go to bigger faster tracks and you'll be o-k.........
Good Autocrossers generally make good road racers, good road racers generally don't do well at Autocross!!!!!!!!!!!!
Start off slow with Autocross and work your way up, starting at the top is not the best way to learn how to drive these cars fast and safely.........

David

[Dallas56]

Guys, this is a lot of good information, a bunch of stuff to follow up on, Bondurant book, autocross events, etc. Thank you for all the helpful responses. I am not blaming anything about my SPF for my weekend loss of control at track. Almost certainly, that happened because I did something wrong or failed to do something right as a driver. Right now, I'm just trying to learn what all the right and wrong driver things are. Larry

[whichonetodrive]

Larry, now you understand why when I took you out in my car I told you, you dont need a monster motor in one of these cars. now you have a really big learning curve to try and catch up to a 427 high horsepower motor in a car that weighs just a little over 2300pounds that can get away from you anytime you press that little pedal on the right. but if you look on youtube you will find many people that "know what they are doing" crashing there cars. just keep your foot from going to the floor and the car will behave nice.

[Dens]

Larry

I think a great way to learn good car control at a relative slower speed is by doing an autocross. I've chased cones for many years and have done it with many cars, but the cobra is by far the toughest car I've ever driven around the cones and the most fun. I know a lot of people want to go straight to the track and feel the speed...but, I'd attribute a lot of my basic seat of the pants feel to autocrossing. Also you could join NASA there in Texas and go through their HPDE. Dave and Revkah Balingit are the Directors for both the Texas Region and the Rocky Mountain Region. The instructors are very good and have helped me tremendously.

http://www.nasatx.com/

http://www.nasarockymountain.com/

Brad

[GT350Mike]

Originally Posted by 1985 CCX

My first thought was tires.........
Cobras require a soft compound like Dunlop Vintage...

Who supplies Dunlops???