Smoooth . . . or not?

Topics relating to Advanced Driving in cars
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Horse
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Re: Smoooth . . . or not?

Postby Horse » Tue May 10, 2016 2:57 pm

xpc316e wrote:I wonder what some of the opinions expressed here are based on. Are they based on years of sitting alongside the very best Police drivers . . .


Playtent wrote:
Horse wrote:Just to clarify : it wasn't me who suggested that would be an observable difference. But I did say that I'd expect a trade-off!


I actually think it was me! :D


Guess what Playtent's 'day JOB' is ;)

For the 'trade off' statement, at any given level of 'smooth' under braking or acceleration, it's likely to be smoother by accelerating or braking more gently, isn't it?
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.

Astraist
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Re: Smoooth . . . or not?

Postby Astraist » Tue May 10, 2016 3:42 pm

I am in full agreement here. It's fairly simple: If a driver manages being coarse and still stay on the black stuff, he or she isn't driving fast enough to begin with.

However, I must play devil's advocate for a minute and ask: To what degree does our concept of smoothness serves a practical goal in terms of the dynamic response of the car?

Is it possible that we are sometimes excessively smooth (in that the rate of our input is a bit on the slow side) not to fulfill this requirement but rather to meet our own aesthetic sense of driving?

Even when you look in the very inspiring drive by Lewis shown earlier in the thread, not all of his inputs are quite as slow as one would imagine and this observation can be seen with practically every racing driver or driving guru from any discipline.

Normally I don't think about it so much, but when I am tackling a bend with a particularly bad view, especially to the driver's side so the roof pillar presents more of a visual obstruction, it is better - I find - to "V" the corner, so the steering input goes in very late and relatively quickly.

Since the dynamic response of the car isn't the limiting factor in road driving by far, I am in those rare instances happy to sacrifice some stability for vision. Any way, it isn't quite a "step" input and done right it does not feel particularly jerky to an occupant.

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ChristianAB
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Re: Smoooth . . . or not?

Postby ChristianAB » Wed May 11, 2016 7:01 am

aesthetics...since most advanced tests/awards are obtained with the assessor being sat in the passenger's seat...as opposed to, say, racing drivers only chasing lap-times...

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akirk
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Re: Smoooth . . . or not?

Postby akirk » Wed May 11, 2016 7:59 am

To me advanced driving is very much about making deliberate choices and having the skills to deliver them...
For example, better ability to handle the car could allow you to choose a greater safety contingency, or to drive faster in a given situation with the same contingency - choices...
Equally, an advanced driver may choose different styles of driving, if they are deliberate choices and the driver can deliver as desired and there is a logic to what they choose - then fine - for some that may mean smoothness at the cost of something else - for others it may mean full on focus with some loss of smoothness - if deliberate, then in my view either approach is fine

Alasdair

Astraist
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Re: Smoooth . . . or not?

Postby Astraist » Wed May 11, 2016 8:57 am

ChristianAB wrote:aesthetics...since most advanced tests/awards are obtained with the assessor being sat in the passenger's seat...as opposed to, say, racing drivers only chasing lap-times...


It isn't about lap times. The ״V״ isn't necessarily faster than a more rounded or elliptical approach to a bend. It certainly isn't when I am doing it on the public road, and even in a competitive environment it normally isn't faster.

However, in those particular bends it can give a bigger margin of safety with regards to vision, without necessarily having to pay in term of dynamic response.

Anyway, for me using it is the exception. Not the rule.

We all have systems of beliefs and values that shape our driving, and typically we use our driving experience to experiment and validate our beliefs, chief amongst them the belief that smooth is good.

However, very few of our driving beliefs (well, at least my own) trully hold for the entire range of situations that can be encountered while driving. At both ends of the spectrum there tends to be an extreme where the belief system fails. That is where we need to be flexible in our approach.


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