"Any performance driving t
"Any performance driving tips to share on the 355?"
1) Go to the track and find an instructor you see eye-to-eye with. Then use his/her services for 10 or more track weekends. I have 4,300 track miles on my F355 and have not hurt it yet (50,000 total miles). At 44 race weekends (and being a driving instructor myself) I still have a driving instructor (and several stand ins) who can give me pointers when the grey matter is having a bad day.
2) learn track-driving on street tires. A) they last longer, B) cost less (about 1/3rd per race-track mile), and C) allow the novice to feel the car better than the r-compounds or slicks, D) incurr less damage if the car 'has' to leave the track. When you get within 2 seconds of the lap record on street tires for a car in your class (2:03 at TWS for a F355) THEN you are ready for r-compounds (1:55) or slicks (1:51).
3) In slow, out fast.
With the suspension setup on a F355, brake early! 25 to 50 feet earlier than you think you should! Get 95% (or more) of your braking done in a straight line*, and do not try to carry as much speed as you think you can. Carrying this speed invariably prevents getting back to full throttle and slows the whole next straight--that is it is slower to enter a turn with too much speed.**
Obviously use the braking time to select the gear your want for driving through the turn. Do not select a gear that will run out of revs before trackout! Unless you can downshift without causing the nose of the car to dip or raise, add 10 more feet of braking distance to those numbers above.
Get back to maintance throttle*** (10%) before (or as) you start to dial in steering input, and then immediately get up to balance throttle. Then squeeze on the gas such that you should be at full throttle ever so slightly before apex, the car in a 4 wheel drift (albeit with low slip angles). The tires (even streets) shold not be whining, but sound more like a pencil eraser rubbing across a sheet of heavy paper. Whining tires are A) slow, B) wear out quickly, C) build heat rapidly, D) leading to more whining and slower speeds.
Be sure to choose an arc through the turn that leaves the car ON the tarmac at trackout (e.g. late apex). You choose the arc between turn in and then next 20 feet or so. A well chosen arc allows you to change the direction the nose is pointing (with the throttle) without really influencing the arc that the car is drifting across.
The steering input should be as slow as you can muster and still get the nose of the car pointing slightly inside the apex (30 feet from turnin, still 100 feet from apex). The drifting car will not actually reach inside the apex, but drift naturally to the correct point. Control this drift with throttle not with steering.
By the tine you arrive at the apex, your eyes should already be picking up the braking point of the next turn. Look very far ahead!
In a 180 degree (or more) turn, there is a speed at which if you feather off on the throttle the rear end will step out, and if you add throttle the rear end will step out. When you find this point, do not try to go any faster--paitence is the name of the game.
[*] T1 at TWS running counterclockwise is an exception. Here, you drive down off the banking at full throttle (and 160 MPH) and then go to 10% braking for the 200-odd yards of T1 arriving at T2 at 90-92 MPH with the car at trackout and already having some yaw still in the car from T1.
[**] Braking is the last thing a novice driver should learn. Given that a novice is 15 or more second slower than the track record, 13-14 of those seconds are found in the line, getting back on the throttle, and smooth driving. Attempting to gain those fleeting 2 seconds often results in simply going slower. Learn the line first, smoothness second, and leave braking for next year.
4) Get the car preped correctly. Nut and bolt check, fresh oil, fresh brake fluids, tire pressures set, corner weighted,... At some point in your development you will run out of brake pads (pad fade). They will get hot and loose their coefficient of friction. It is eye opening when it happens (ask me how I know) and if you survive, it will be the last time you let it happen. At this point, you need those kinds of pads that sit between street pads and race pads. I use Ferrodo DS2500s. Later in your development, you will be gaining speed AND doing so by not using as much brakes. But stick with the street-race pads.
[***] maintance throttle is enough throttle that the car is not decellerating through the drag forces of tires causing latteral acceleration--about 7%-10%. Balance throttle is enough throttle that the front and rear tires are equally loaded in a square inch senario. Since the front tires are significantly smaller in contact patch compared to the rears, balance throttle causes a small amount of acceleration (about 0.15 Gs). This is the point of maximum stability in turning.
