Renting a FM next week. Advice?

[kflyer]

Hey guys, I'm going to rent a FM at Autobahn this Tuesday and was hoping to get some advice on what to expect and look out for when I get behind the wheel? Especially shifting and handling. Thanks! -Kevin

[mike g.]

Uhm. Have you driven a formula car before? What about a racecar?

[kflyer]

Uhm. Have you driven a formula car before? What about a racecar?

No Formula experience but 15 yrs of UMP open wheel modified(dirt) and 5 yrs IMCA modified asphalt. Both are direct drive transmissions which is why I asked about shifting a Formula Car. NO road course experience. Yet...

[SStadel]

Hey Kevin. Probably mentioned this when i saw you Tuesday, but data is a huge deal. Especially when you have comparison data. It accelerates the learning curve exponentially in my opinion.

[kflyer]

Thank You Steve. I hope Jody at Havoc will take care of that as I'm renting one of his cars. My main goal is to learn to drive the car enough to be comfortable and decide if I will purchase one for thier member series and a few SCCA races next year. FE is where I want to be but I better step back and learn a few things about driving road circuits first. BTW, how did the test sessions go last week? I should've stayed another day!

[JRMarchand]

Really pace yourself, warm up the old tires and get to know the track. If you have never done any road racing, autobahn might seem a little dangerous, respect the car, these cars can be overwhelming if you don't know what to expect. Formula Mazda are not easy to shift up and down when you are a beginner. You will get used to grinding gears at first and then you will get better at "speed clutchless shifting".

It will be to your advantage if Jody takes the time to explain how the FM gearbox work prior to you venturing out there. If you have never been on a roadcourse or have little experience acknowledging corner workers/flags, maybe you should do the free orientation at autobahn. You might not be the only driver out there. Have fun and hope you like it. I prepped a few of the cars for the autobahn series this year, it will grow with time, most races had ten or more cars.

FE would be a much easier car to drive and safer if you decide to go racing formula.

[SStadel]

Kevin, The tests went great. No issues. You probably should have stayed two more days! The FE was available on Thursday.

[glenn cooper]

I'd focus on getting the tires warm, they all pretty much use a 430 Goodyear, possibly the 255. Work them a few laps by driving arond at reduced speed, and just stay in maybe 3rd gear.


Come in after 5 laps and see where the tire temps are, not sure what the weather will be, so if cold it will be a big deal.

The transaxle rewards very quick shifts. You don't need to shift slowly like in a street (synchronized) transmission. In fact, you can't shift these things quick enough in my opinion.
Up shifts - NO clutch
Downshifts - Heel and toe, and blip throttle a bit to match revs, use clutch, go down through each gear.

In time you may want to switch over to left foot brake and skip gears on the downchange:
5th gear pinned on straight and approach 2nd gear corner, shift to neutral, brake, blip and select 2nd when it's appropriate. If you match the revs/blip correctly, it'll snick right into gear, like a newborn to a nipple!

Many folks have trouble downshifting in a corner as the G forces are pulling on their arm, and they go off to one side or another, and say in a right hander, go from 5th (bottom right gate) and miss 4th, and put it into 2nd (middle top gate).

THAT makes an ugly noise, so be advised - if you were driving a 4 stroke powered car - you just ate many valves!

Braking in a straight line for a fast corner and then going back to full power on the approach to the apex may be a new sensation, coming from your background (I dunno), but these cars love to be tossed into a corner, as opposed to driving into the corner. The rear suspension has significant camber gain, so in high load corners as you load the outside tire, the suspension compresses, and the outside rear tire starts to go negative camber enough to lessen the contact patch - promoting slides - which in my book is really fun.

Work into it, try getting heat into the tires, drive around in 3rd or 4th gear, extending braking points, getting on the gas sooner, have fun!

[Canadian Formula 3 Championship]

No Formula experience but 15 yrs of UMP open wheel modified(dirt) and 5 yrs IMCA modified asphalt. Both are direct drive transmissions which is why I asked about shifting a Formula Car. NO road course experience. Yet...

Sounds to me like you'll be sliding that formula car through corners like Jean Alesi

[Richard Hybels]

Re shifting: The first time I got in a Formula car with a racing clutch I let it out at 45- 50 mph with motor basically idling. You may not be aware that that locks up the rears instantly and I took two corners off. I was lucky it was not worse cuz a guy was killed in that same spot not long before. Not a story I like telling but I'd hate to see it happen to anybody else.
Do build up speed carefully. No need to break the track record on your first time out.

[Dakar318]

shifting! give it some thought first. my advice is never touch the clutch after 1st gear. AND BEAT THE H PATTERN INTO YOUR HEAD!!!

reverse is gated like a BMW all the way to the left and up, 1st gear is right under reverse also behind the "gate" so after 1st its basicly a 4spd gear box starting with 2nd in the top left, 3rdin the botton left 4th in the top right 5th in the bottom right.... when i first got my car i kept starting in 2nd gear not knowing about first and thought the gear box had an extra gear....

which resulted in NUMEROUS zings! so glad its a rotary.

as far as braking and down shifting... i only use the left foot for brakes ( i never left foot brake in my ITA miata) and you use the right foot to blip into the next gear. i never skip gears as it causes me to get lost in the rev range and grinds the snot out of gears.

up shifting is AWESOME. while approaching the rev limit i preload the shifter towards my next gear. a simple lift and bam your in the next gear, it happens fast and i love it. so just like your street car when you relieve load on the trans you can pop it into neutral. same thing applies but you will find the next gear.

some people may use the rev limiter to "unload" the trans but this requires more preload from your hand before you get there.

other than that, the brakes are awesome, and aero is an amazing thing! you will pull alot of G's and have a blast.

[kflyer]

Wow! Thank you all for the great replies! I'm looking forward to tomorrow for sure and I'll definately go easy on the transmission and warm the tires before I try to turn any kind of decent lap. Like I stated earlier all I really expect to accomplish is seat time to decide if I'm going to purchase my own car this winter. Thanks again!

[Johnny B]

Hey Kevin, If you are paying by the session bring extra money, once you start to get the hang of it you won't want to get out of the car.
Take your time, listen to the feed back from the instructor and enjoy.

Good Luck and please post tour weekend experience,
John B.

[kflyer]

Video link of a lap on the North Course from Tuesday. Please remember this was my 1ST time in a Formula car. Definately Fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z17xf7zjM7I&feature=plcp

[JRMarchand]

Glad you had a fun and safe time. Those Hoosier FE tires are bricks, I can tell the car wasn't all there for you, cold weather and the track is very green. You did some good quick downshifts. Good job.


do you have in car video of you in the circle track car you mentioned, just wanted to see how that is.

[kflyer]

Glad you had a fun and safe time. Those Hoosier FE tires are bricks, I can tell the car wasn't all there for you, cold weather and the track is very green. You did some good quick downshifts. Good job.


do you have in car video of you in the circle track car you mentioned, just wanted to see how that is.

Thanks! Good eye on the FE tires. I have no clue how old they were. If I had more time to practice the shifting and road experience I think the times would have been better. (Not that I really cared though) The above comments definately helped with shifting as well! Unfortunately, I don't have any incar video from racing UMP Dirt. No GoPro at that time.
-Kevin

[JRMarchand]

thats cool, times dont really count at all when you are just starting out and getting used to the unknown scenario, there is a lot happening )))

I know some about FE tires on FM's, I prepped the champion and runner up FM cars for the Senna Series at Autobahn this year, I also did some work on them at my backyard Gingerman. The FE tires are good for 2 heat cycles at Autobahn. If you noticed, the surface at Autobahn is very pale and has a hard time accepting any heat from the sun, the tire was choice as the spec tire for the series.

you got the shifting done quite nice, Jody sets up a good gearbox for sure too!

[lph]

Hey guys, I'm going to rent a FM at Autobahn this Tuesday and was hoping to get some advice on what to expect and look out for when I get behind the wheel? Especially shifting and handling. Thanks! -Kevin

Is this an old or new, meaning high downforce FM?

[kflyer]

Is this an old or new, meaning high downforce FM?

I have no clue.

[kflyer]

Well, another FM headed to the Central region! Thanks Moses!

[Johnny B]

Congrats on the new car Kevin. Post some pic.'s when it arrives.

John B.

I sent you a PM.

[glenn cooper]

Is this an old or new, meaning high downforce FM?

ya gots yer old school FM, n' ya got's yer Pro FM which runs in SCCA as an FA...