Q: “Could you comment about pedal mounting and differing techniques? After training myself in a Ford Mustang street car to handle “top mounted down swing” pedals, I found that I could not use old Porsche “bottom mounted bottom swing” pedals.”
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Johannes van Overbeek and I reminisce about the time we spent together at ESM Patron Racing, and he gives away all of his secrets about winning endurance races. We then compare right-foot with left-foot-braking, how a driver can be a nice laid back guy out of the car and yet be a killer behind the wheel, and why he recently retired from regular race driving.
Q: “This is a question I have been wondering about for some time now. I do informal track weekends in my 2011 BMW M3. I’m starting to add lightness and adding track parts through replacing things like the battery, lighter brakes, removing the rear seat, and adding aero. For this particular car, it is much easier to take weight out of the rear of the car than the front of the car. Is having less overall weight in the car more beneficial than a more weight-balanced car? Can aerodynamics be used to compensate for a car starting to lean towards a front-weight bias?”
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Trevor Ashline joins me to talk about the latest in head and neck restraint devices, as well as all sorts of other safety related topics. As VP of Engineering and Product Development for Simpson Performance Products, and a motorsport enthusiast himself, he knows his stuff – and shares it with you in this show. Should a HANS or Hybrid-S device be used with airbags? With standard OEM Seatbelts? How long do these devices stay safe? How do they interact with seats and roll cages? These are just some of the topics we talk about.
Q: “I did a track day at NCM in the rain – not damp, but RAIN. Rain, as in standing water many inches deep against curbs, little rivers flowing, no visibility when following… you get the picture. Years ago, I thought you would lower your hot (coming off track) tire pressure to soften/make more compliant tires as you do for sway bars, shock settings, etc. However, a pro who’s name I won’t mention (but he’s won a “few” races in BMWs), suggested that lower pressure was flat wrong. He said you should increase your hot pressure significantly to help pump the water from under the contact patch. Since then, I’ve tried raising a couple of psi a few times and it didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t obviously better either. What’s your take? Raise pressures, lower pressures or the same in the rain?”