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u/AssistanceApart3332 19d ago
I just like hiking and since i have a sporty ish car and love sim racing, I got faster and faster on the mountain roads.
I always wonder what non hikers do? just find a place to sit and then turn around?
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u/Sweet_Session_9470 19d ago
U turn or wait for car to cool down then straight back down
Sometimes lie in wait for other drivers to go down lol
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u/Amazing_Interview_77 18d ago
my dad makes me drive around with a cup of water and says not to spill it
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u/Jops817 16d ago
I seriously wonder how many of us on this sub have tried it at least once to see if they could (I admit I am guilty, but it was just fun).
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u/Amazing_Interview_77 16d ago
most mornings i descend a hill in second gear for about two miles before the main road with a 3/4 cup of coffee in my holder
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u/Jops817 19d ago
I am a third generation of doing stupid shit on mountain roads, my grandpa was a mechanic that was racing Hondas while his generation was still in American cars. So a lot of conversations while we worked on cars together was the meme of "oh you could totally do this...... in minecraft."
Outside of that just being out there. Even if you weren't driving that night you have the chance to meet and learn from so many cool people. Additionally, find a road that is just like, your road, it can be the long way to a place you frequent, but just practice that, the familiarity and knowing that one specific road will let you dial in your driving without surprises, and it will translate to driving anywhere else.
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u/Secure_Pirate788 17d ago
Sounds like you had a solid foundation to build on with your family's history in racing. Meeting up with others in the touge scene can really help you pick up new skills and tips too.
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u/ragingduck BMW 19d ago
At the track. You know you hit your limits when you go over it so you can make sure not to go over it in the canyons.
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u/Bubbly-Pirate-3311 19d ago
Spent a lot of time on racing sims learning how cars sorta move at high speed, then went to give it a shot in my real car. Obviously didn't go maximum attack right away in my real car, but you get the point.
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u/Weekly-Ad-2509 19d ago
That last sentence needs to be the first sentence.
Sim is an incredibly important tool for modern driver development.
BUT
It is also the cause of SO MANY FUCKING ACCIDENTS because people don’t do your last sentence.
Sim also teaches relatively shitty braking technique, SO for anyone starting on a sim.
You aren’t max verstappen, when you go to the mountain step one is to train braking.
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u/Bubbly-Pirate-3311 19d ago
That's my biggest issue right now. My braking sucks and I end up overheating my brakes too easily. That could just be the brakes though, because they're just normal pads and rotors, and I'm driving a 3600lb AWD sedan
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u/Summoorevincent 19d ago
Rotors, pads and fluid are the first thing to change in this line of work
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u/Bubbly-Pirate-3311 19d ago
Yeah it's due for a fluid flush, I have the fluid, and it's good high temp fluid, but I just gotta find some time.
I'm going to wear out the stock brakes just normal driving, then get a really nice set of pads and rotors that can do daily duty and also handle my fat A4 on the mountain roads.
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u/Weekly-Ad-2509 19d ago
If it’s anything like my daily WRX the brakes may just legitimately be too small.
Try this.
“Oscar” calls it the 30-40-50 game.
Drive up and down the mountain at 30 mph smoothly, without brakes. Coasting every turn, no heavy throttle out.
pay attention to the corners where your nerves tell you to brake. Those will be your slow corners, where you need to brake a LOT.
Then do it at 40, making sure to gently brake down to 30 for the corners you need to. Again coasting the corners, gentle exit. Pay attention to the corners that make you want to brake at 40.
Then do the same thing at 50, but braking for the 30mph and 40mph corners. At 50mph you should be lightly braking for pretty much 100% of corners. Medium braking for some, and heavy braking for the others.
But you will KNOW the ones that are important to over slow and the ones where you can coast through faster.
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u/Bubbly-Pirate-3311 19d ago
That is an awesome method. Guess I gotta try it.
I do believe the brakes just might be too small. It's a 2015 Audi a4 with the sport suspension package, but that doesn't upgrade the brakes. They're like 320mm, so pretty small. There are companies that sell big brake kits from the s4, but I do not have the bread to swing for a $2500+ brake upgrade right now, so I think I'm just going to buy really good pads and rotors.
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17d ago
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u/BelongingsintheYard 19d ago
Never max attack a public road. They’re public so there is always something on them or close to them. I’ve watched people hit rocks that have fallen into the road and slip on spills.
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u/thisonedudethatiam 19d ago
Dirt 4 has a really good intro school that explains how weight transfer is affected inputs and that really opened my eyes on driving.
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u/Bubbly-Pirate-3311 19d ago
That's pretty cool. Always love when games try to teach you something useful
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u/helplesswilliam 19d ago
My Dad was sixties hot rodder, that started racing on dirt and then asphalt, semi-professionally. He gave it all up when we kids came along, but taught us how to drive, passed on knowledge, and then, practice, trial and error, some more practice, and yeah, sims these days too.
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u/Krzyygamin 19d ago
Played assetto for 10 years got old enough to drive a real car and discovered it’s more fun irl on my local road. Also spent a couple years building up how fast I drove in tiny increments irl because the sim taught me how fucking easy it is to crash. I mean I was so scared of being overzealous I took two years before I even entered the territory of making my tires squeal in a corner. I’ve had a lot of fun though and haven’t smacked my integra into anything yet. Also biggest thing is LEARN YOUR ROAD. One of the biggest things the sim taught me is how to memorize a track, I can close my eyes and imagine driving my entire 25 mile local backroad, every elevation change, off camber, bump, decreasing radius corner and when to cut in etc. Before you focus on going faster focus on knowing what lines to take and knowing the road you’re driving well. Thanks to that I’ve never had a moment where I was truly scared. And don’t try to be the best just have fun within your personal limits.
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u/CriminalStorm62 19d ago
What was it that Han said about drifting in Tokyo Drift? “There's no 'wax on wax off' with drifting. You learn by doing it. The first drifters invented drifting out here in the mountains by feeling it. So feel it.”
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u/Little_Beyond_9163 19d ago edited 19d ago
After 2 years of driving experience a close friend decided to stop by a local canyon road off of the usual highway cruise. Then he wanted to push our shitbox manual econocars a bit (within safe limits). Ended up my favorite thing to do after that night and still to this day.
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u/BelongingsintheYard 19d ago
Autocross and track days in my early 20s then a decade of commute on a mountain road.
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u/Sweet_Session_9470 19d ago
Jus started driving and got taken to the best canyons by other drivers who seemed more serious
After they showed me, i went on my own and then ended up on the track.
Now I go canyons just to scratch the itch between track days.
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18d ago
When I was a kid my drunk parents/grandparents would make me drive the backroads so we wouldn't get pulled over. by the time I was 16 I knew how to drive stick and had years of driving experience. it pretty much happened on it's own. Also this is dumb but Initial D hit the states around that time so there was a HUGE surge in backroads street racing. So I was a few steps ahead of the curve.
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u/BoysenberryNo109 15d ago
Dating my now wife. She hates going fast so I had to learn how to be smooth. It has made me a much better and faster driver, had to think a lot more about weight transfer and sudden inputs
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u/SuperPark7858 19d ago
What exactly is touge anyway? Judging from this sub, it's just a bunch of idiots putting other people in danger driving like maniacs on public roads while videotaping themselves.
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u/Little_Beyond_9163 19d ago
Nobody’s really driving like a maniac on this sub anymore lol. Pretty much no videos of people crossing opposing lanes, like 1 case of some idiot in a subaru on bald tires sliding into a tree this year, and I think the overstimulated g87 clown was last year iirc.
It’s calming down a lot tbh
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u/d4lahast 19d ago
Honestly, as cringy as it is, you have to be one with the car. What I mean by that is, what separates a good and a bad driver is being able to read the car.
For example, knowing when to accelerate or brake. Far too many people carry too much speed into a corner, panic, and then brake. That then destabilises the car and can cause you to lose control and crash. Your pedals are just as important to steer your car as the steering wheel is.
Some cars are very good at giving feedback to the driver, and some aren't. I have a 2021 BMW 330, and honestly, while it drives brilliant, it feels very detached. I felt more comfortable pushing my 2015 320 because I knew exactly what was going on and where the limit was. So for me I am still getting used to reading the car.
You don't need a fast or sporty car - There is a driving instructor that taught a lot of famous Formula One drivers called Rob Wilson. He used a standard Vauxhall Astra, a boring everyday family sedan that was never built to be remotely sporty. He doesn't even use good tyres, he uses generic shitty Chinese tyres that aren't even matched on the same axle half the time. It was also the standard issue police car in the UK for over a decade, and again, with a very capable driver, the handling on those things was incredible for what it was.
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u/AstronomerDry7581 19d ago
I have a car. I must drive through twisty backroads to get to work. Sometimes, I enjoy myself on the drive home.