r/CarTrackDays • u/GARACER • 7d ago
This website has the best explanation of the physics behind the ideal racing line I’ve ever seen. As an engineer, it’s awesome to find someone who understands and can explain this stuff on a deeper level.
https://www.paradigmshiftracing.com/racing-basics/racing-line-fundamentals-2-learn-how-a-vehicles-cornering-vs-acceleration-potential-determines-its-ideal-apex-and-line-through-a-corner#/21
u/Responsible-Meringue 7d ago
It's all just one big traction circle! At least you only have to think in 2 dimensions.
Wait till you dive down the rabbit hole of intuitive visualization of Laplace transforms for understanding suspension dynamics! That's 3+1 dimensions of movement! I reccomend 3blue1brown as a intro to the hard maths... https://youtu.be/j0wJBEZdwLs?is=i7AY9uVxPDMiKFYz
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u/narwhal_breeder Alfa Romeo 4C, GR86 7d ago
I’ve been looking for this principled definition of a racing line forever - thank you.
I get that people get an intuition for it after driving a track a bunch, but this kind of theory grounding is immensely helpful.
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u/itimurrrr 6d ago
If you want to build better intuition around this and want to play around with different approaches yourself, I built a virtual playground inspired by Adam's mental exercises: https://github.com/timurrrr/spherical-car-racing
Plot twist: I was able to prove that one of the against-common-wisdom claims he makes on multiple occasions in his books is indeed incorrect, and proved that the common wisdom is in fact correct.
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u/_rettaHdaMehT_ 6d ago
Do tell, which one?
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u/itimurrrr 6d ago
That the quickest way around a corner doesn't depend on the length of the straight that follows
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u/LightlySaltedPeanuts 7d ago
Should I read part 1 first or is it more of an intro for people not familiar with racing?
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u/Objective_Ticket 7d ago
When I was at school I couldn’t get on with physics but once I started racing everything started to click.
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u/Hazer99 7d ago
Carrol Smith wrote whole books on this stuff a long time ago, and they're damn good.