Practice is the time spent at the wheel

It is not enough to just drive and drive on if you’re doing everything incorrectly. A great number of novices try to move too fast thus gaining awful habits which, as is known, die hard. The best way to learn is to have an experienced instructor who will supply you with directions and control your actions. Nevertheless, it is often very problematic to have a personal instructor and that’s why a lot of novice drivers learn alone. These are the basic things I try to master when I’m on a track:

Drive the Car Smoothly

If you can learn to be smooth the speed will come with time. Keep in mind that fast laps look impressive quite rarely. Sliding in turns “eats” speed. Brakes blocking decreases the balance of the car. Any driving school or book underlines that YOU SHOULD BE SMOOTH.

How to be smooth? Try to get in turns mildly instead of trying to cut it short. Try to get through a turn without correcting the trajectory of your movement. Your goal should be the following: you smoothly turn the steering-wheel until you reach apex and then slowly turn in back.

Each time you turn the steering-wheel sharply you lose the speed of your vehicle and worsen the balance. Don’t torture the pedals. When shifting gear use your fingertips and shift slowly and mildly. Unnecessary excitement and pulling the lever won’t increase either your lap time or your transmission.

Practice the Perfect Trajectory

There are a number of trajectories on each track. First of all, keep in mind that there are two trajectories: for wet and dry tracks. Ask somebody to show them to you and later on perfect your skills. Ideally you have to have control spots for braking, apex, and accelerating. Sometimes in driving schools the instructors place fishes on these spots.

Keep the Car Ballanced

I heard the expression millions of time and asked myself the question what it really means. It means what is said: ideally you have to have the same pressure on each wheel.

In fact you cannot insure the perfect balance (only when the car is not moving) but you have to try your best and make it as close to balance as possible. For instance, if you fully brake, the front end of the car get extremely heavy in comparison to the rear end: the car is not balanced any more. Broken braking causes less weight transaction and thus the car keeps more balanced. Have you seen how it works? One of the major causes of smooth driving is retaining the balance.

Use your Eyesight

Frankly speaking, when we learn new things our vision is narrow and concentrated. With experience you begin to look wider and more generally. When you drive on track for the first time you look straight ahead of you. Experienced drivers are able to look far ahead and sideways. They think about where they want to drive but not about where they are driving at the moment. You can’t do anything with the current state because you’ve already reached it. Look where you intend to drive and the car will follow your gaze. There is an exercise: when you reach the spot of entering the turn look at the apex. When you reach the apex,  look at the end of the turn. When you move try to notice what you see with your periphery eyesight; you have to be able to look sideways without having to move the pupils.

Concentration of Attention

Try to remember how concentrated you were when you were driving for the first time? Later, you probably stopped thinking about driving too much. The more experienced you get, the more difficult it gets to stay concentrated. The same with races. This is the reason for advanced drivers get into accidents more often than novices. On track the difference between an average and great driver is concentration. Fortunately, this can be learned.

When braking try to FEEL the brakes, how they approach the blocking point. Just fancy: can you brake further or this is the max braking? When you accelerate at the end of the turn think: the car has a tendency to sliding. Are you ready to resist it? Feel the car: can you feel slight slide of the rear axis before the process becomes controllable? Who’s ahead of me? Who’s behind? Are they moving faster? Or slower? If the car right ahead of you slides the next seconds, where you are going to drive?

I work on this when I’m on track, but you can learn these things simply driving in town. It is not even necessary to drive fast, just train. For instance, try to drive your wheels right where you want them to drive. Can you spot where they are? Can you fully brake so that the car doesn’t swings backwards? Can you shift gears so smoothly that it resembles an automatic transmission? These skills aren’t easy to master, but, fortunately, they can be gained in everyday driving in town.

Train until the driving becomes natural – and you will become faster without having to pay a thing for tuning.

How to Make Your Car Faster. Driver. Part I

What is car insurance and what for it is needed? It is an act, system, or business of providing financial protection for our automobiles against specified contingencies and involving payment of regular premiums in return for a policy guaranteeing such protection. I think today Car Insurance is very important for everyone. It is much better to drive a car and know that in case of some problem with the car it will be solved.

Kwik-Fit Insurance Services started in 1995 and has become one of the UK’s leading motor insurance distributors focusing on providing the best service to the customers. Today you can enjoy the benefits from dealing with Kwik-Fit Insurance online. At its website you can find the system operating with the Car Insurance Quotes. The company takes into account your personal requirements so you are sure to find Cheap Car Insurance that will suit you.

There are some cases when the insurance can not be paid. For example if the car was damaged in the result of a drunken driving accident the insurance won’t be paid. But of course there are a lot of pitfalls (such as sub-standing quality in repairs done through the insurer or non-claim payment) and signing an insurance contract one must be careful and attentive.

For more information please visit www.kwik-fitinsurance.com

To my mind, not everyone understands how and why different aspects influence the behavior of a car. In particular, the modification of suspension is a kind of “shamanism” I’ve been learning for many years and realize that have still a lot to learn. I thought that the review of the development of a car could be very useful to the readers, particularly a rarely mentioned topic of the development of a DRIVER.

I decided to split the article into three parts. The first will be dedicated to a driver, the second - to the suspension, the third – well…when it comes to that, we’ll see

Attention: the material is my personal opinion. I might be mistaken somewhere. If you have enough patience to read it all you can behave like a customer in a shop: take only what you need and avoid what is bad or inappropriate for you.

I would like to pay attention to the philosophy of fast driving. There are 3 types of “fast cars”:

1. Looking fast (the “showcar”)
2. Fast in the streets
3. Fast in the racing track

The majority of tuning and other press pay a lot of attention to type 1, so I let them do what they want (=) ) and go on with types 2 and 3.

Type 2 can be split into two categories:

• the fans of accelerating from crossroads
• road slalomists.

The former need the maximum acceleration: they want their BMWs work like American muscle cars. In my personal opinion if you want rapid acceleration go and buy a powerful muscle with 8-cylinder V-engine. The Slalomists are DIY racers moving in the turns of average roads. There is only one problem for them: driving E36 M3 at the top of its possibilities is dangerous for other participants of road traffic. Thus the increase in the maneuverability of a car makes driving more amazing.

As for type 3, there are also a few categories:

• totally basic cars that are driven on training tracks
• fully racing automobiles

In the former case you get just a good car: comfortable, safe, predictable. In the former (for instance IMSA M3) – fully optimized for speed: uncomfortable, dangerous if used improperly, far less predictable. A car optimized for a pro-racer is a killing machine for an amateur. You car is somewhere between these two extremes. Every major modification you install makes your car closer to one of the poles.

The things you strive for are determined by your requirements (everyday use, radio, backseats) and wishes (fast lap time, winning of a racing event etc). Thus we arrive at the 3 possibilities to make your car faster:

Improve the driver. This is the fastest and the cheapest way to faster speed. Michael Schumacher could have overtaken a modified M3 in a basic 325i on Laguna Seca track. There are a few reasons for it: the strategy of track attack (the knowledge where to go fast and slow), the ability to find the extremes of a car and drive it at these extremes, smooth control of the car in order to avoid speed losses at sliding etc.

How can you improve the driver?

• Knowledge
• Experience

You can gain knowledge in special schools and seminars, in books and videos. The two books I would recommend are: Poul Frere “Sports Car and Competition Driving” and Alan Johnson “Driving in Competition“.

Practice is the time spent at the wheel…

To be continued…

The Lazy Way to Get Most Interesting News

Nowadays a lot of insurance companies provide similar services to their customers. The only way left for them to make their offers the most remarkable and attractive is to use a system of discounts. In order to use every possible opportunity to save you money it is important to learn which categories of drivers can get discount car insurance and why.

At LV.com you can find detailed information on most cases when you can reckon on getting a discount. For instance, insurance premiums are often cheaper for those over 50 than for other age groups. There are several reasons which have led to this situation. Firstly, the no-claims discount is generally bigger, because many drivers over 50 tend to make fewer claims meaning the benefits from not claiming are increased. Another reason over 50s car insurance is often cheaper is that this demographic may travel fewer miles. Finally and perhaps above all these things, the reason is that experience does count and if you have been a safe driver over a number of years, then insurance companies can offer much better rates.

Another important question LV.com pays attention to is womens car insurance. Over the years younger women have gained a reputation as being safer and more reliable drivers than their male counterparts. Another important feature for women’s car insurance is incentives for low mileage. And also don’t forget that young women are in a lower-risk category for insurers. That’s why women can get the best prices around.

What do people usually do when they look for a new car? Well, they buy special magazines, ask their friends and visit automobile salons. But certainly many of them search for the car on the Internet, because this way is much faster and efficient. Today the number of websites on new and used cars is really huge, so sometimes it is difficult to choose one. But I think that www.motorstoday.co.uk can be of much help to everyone who wants to buy a new or used car.

If you want to buy used car Motors Today can be an ideal place for you to look for it. There are more than 200,000 second hand cars to search. The search tool is quick and easy. You just have to choose the make, the model, minimum and maximum prices and to enter your location and the system will find just the variant you need.

What is more at Motors Today you can find information about car finance that includes loans, insurance, company car tax and a link to HPI to check out the cars details.

If you still don’t know or hesitate what car to choose you can read the news and reviews on new cars and used cars or use the information from the buyers guides to make a more informed choice. Visit Motors Today and the process of buying a car will become easier and more pleasant.

Do you want to read a few good and interesting stories about vehicles and parts? If yes - you came by the right address! I will tell you what’s been going on during the week and you’ll discover a number of quite useful pieces of information in the posts I will provide

Auto Parts Information For Automobile Lovers gives out CarMax’s Car Caring Tips for the Winter Season

Auto Parts and Accessories writes about

• Teen Driving Safety
• How to Buy Repo Cars On Cheap
• How to Modify Your Car Cheaply to RUN ON WATER

Auto Parts Resources says that Chrome Systems Brings Out Vehicle Data for New U.S.News Car Rankings Website

Car Magazine says Trucks - customize them with parts that give new power and more refined looks

Auto Parts Information informs that International Rectifier Introduces New High Performance Two

Auto Parts From A Lady Expert writes that

• Volkswagen Donates To Stanford
• Chrysler Helps Needy Women and Children in Oakland County
• Cars.com’s Staff Tags The 2009 Nissan Murano As A Winner

allworldauto.com writes about 2007 LA Auto Show

www.breakeryard.com informs that Ford sales may hit car parts jobs

CarDomain Car Blog  writes about

• Man Busted After Acting on Desire For BMW, Making Mess
• Limited-Edition Chargers in Every Color of the Rainbow

The Truth about Cars says that Brit Bashes Chrysler’s Big Ass Minivan

Serious Wheels: 2008 Lamborghini Reventon vs Tornado Jet Fighter

automotoportal.com writes about

• Ford Ka goes retro with two-tone colours
• Jaguar’s first XF rolls off the production line
• Subaru: Totally new five-door 1.0 litre Justy supermini

What Everybody Ought to Know about Active and Passive Auto Safety Systems. Part 2

Buying a car we always think about insurance. And it can be easily explained: we just want to be sure that in case of some trouble we won’t have to solve more problems. And the insurance gives us the feeling of being safe and secure.

The insurance prices differ greatly and sometimes it is really very difficult to find just the one that will meet all your requirements including the financial ones. But today Gocompare.com can be of much help to you to compare car insurance.

Gocompare.com is an online comparison service. It aims at helping the customers to make an informed choice of their car insurance. Gocompare.com not only compares insurance deals on price, its unique rating system takes your personal requirements into consideration and helps you to find the best possible solution.

At Gocompare.com the process of comparing car insurance or finding cheap car insurance is very easy. The unique 5-star rating system takes your personal requirements into account and helps you to find the right cover at the right price. All you need is just to enter your quote information and the system will do the rest: from searching the information from the most reputable UK car insurance companies to sending you an e-mail with the results and prices. The 5-star rating system is very handy. It helps you to make your choice more informed. And besides Gocompare.com car insurance comparison service is completely free.

For further information visit www.gocompare.com

ETC - Electronic Traction Control

It makes you understand that it is not tough to “polish” the road. The system enables stable movement while accelerating. The principle of work of the system is the opposite of that of ABS – “acceleration – analysis - reduction of torque”.

The stable work of all the active safety systems reduces accident risks and enables the driver to control the car in most complicated situations. So let’s allow them to do it!

Now let’s account for the major types of passive safety systems

• the peculiarities of body and front panel crush features
• safety belts
• airbags
• the strengthening of the doors
• etc

Let us not underestimate the importance of safety belts. They seem to be the simplest devices, but they saved millions of lives. The technology came from the aviation (as a great number of other systems). The first belt was a 5-point one (by the number of fastenings to the frame of the car) and was introduced in 1903 by Renault. Having copies the technology, Volvo showed its version of a belt – 3-point. The modern technology has enabled the progress of safety belts.

The horrible myth that safety belts tear off heads and strangle the passengers at side crashes have nothing to do with reality.

Airbags (as well as safety belts) came from aviation. Don’t believe? Ask Saab. In 1971 Henry Ford made the first automobile equipped with airbags (at that time the Americans preferred not to use safety belts).

In the 80s owing to Ford and GMC, airbags became the basic feature of any car.

When used, an airbag softens the blow distributing its power throughout the body. This reduces the risk of getting serious injuries. When a car crashes the sensors send a signal to a special block, which in its turn fills the airbags with gas. When an airbag opens up it requires full reinstallation of the system.

Sometimes airbags can cause the death of passengers. According to the statistics the American airbags are more deadly than the European. But don’t be too fast with conclusions, the modern airbags open with less energy, nevertheless the driver must be at least 30 cm away.

The facts I have given you might enhance you chances to stay alive. At the same time you have to realize that in case of danger the devices will take care of you. To end up I will quote the motto of an auto company: “What is the most precious part of a luxurious car? Your life!”

What Everybody Ought to Know about Active and Passive Auto Safety Systems. Part 1

Let’s have a look at the existing safety systems that have saved the lives of test dummies and people.

A ton of metal, plastic and glass is dangerous a priori. And just imagine if you are inside this mess. A driver accelerating to 30 kmph is already exposed to a serious danger.

As time goes by auto manufacturers increase the drivers’ chances to stay alive by conducting test on dummies. The most dedicated manufacturers (like, for instance, Volvo), pay attention not only to those who are inside the car, but also outside, in front of the cowling.

There exists a special organization which controls the degree of reduction of man’s health at al kinds of crashes. For instance, the independent experts from EuroNCAP buy automobiles and then crash them. The thing is quite costly but no one pays attention to this very fact when a man’s life is at stake.

So now let’s have a look at the safety systems that have saved the lives of millions of people.

The fans of categorizing things have divided safety systems into two groups – active and passive. Active safety systems, as is seen from the name, are always on and correct the driver’s errors and try to avoid an accident by all the means available. We do not recommend turning off these costly but worthy systems in any case. The only negative thing about active safety systems is that they create an impression of violating the driver’s rights for freedom. The car won’t let you behave like a hooligan and all the movements will be smooth and delicate. Of course, sport cars, as a rule, feature as few systems as possible because they are made for professionals.

Let’s review a few types of active safety systems that are encountered more frequently in the list of cars’ specifications.

With the help of the system your car won’t go into an uncontrollable drift. It’s a pity that you won’t be able to get into a controllable drift either. When drifting the wheels have different speed which is observed by the system’s sensorss. The sensors give braking commands thus stabilizing the vehicle. The major option of ESP is that is can be turned off.

VDIM - Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management

It is a combined device that control all the other installed active safety systems. VDIM absorbs the info received by the sensors placed all over the car and makes decisions thus optimizing the work of other systems. In a simple language VDIM is the boss and the brain of the car.

BAS - Brake Assist System

The system will intensify the pressure on braking plates if a driver presses the pedal too abruptly. This abruptness is measured by special detectors.

ABS - Antilock Brake System

While braking the wheels are not blocked entirely. This helps control the vehicle even when the pedal is fully pushed down. ABS means the circle “braking – analysis – unbraking”. Owing to ABS the car doesn’t drift.

to be continued…

What Everybody Ought to Know about Mounted Optics 

For the winter season 2007/2008 the company Bridgestone has released its new winter tire - Blizzak WS60.

Bridgestone Blizzak WS60 is a symbol of the fact that Bridgestone is the leader in new technologies and is continually developing its products according to the latest requirements, different weather conditions and customers’ wishes.

The tires were designed using the technology UNI-T including the latest inventions of the company - NanoProTech and RC Polymer.

NanoProTech (nano-oriented feature control technology) - is the technology of the control of the compatibility of the filling, polymer and other components at the nano-level. The usage of the technology enables to control the morphology of caoutchouc and synthesize the compounds used in the production of automotive tires. The usage of the technology helps reduce the rolling resistance, increase braking figures.

RC Polymer is a butadiene rubber with an atom of silicon at the end of the polymer chain.

Butadiene rubber is very flexible at low temperatures and high pressures which is enabled by its structure. The insertion of silicon into the compound increases the cohesion on sleek surfaces.

Bridgestone also used the technology Tube Multicell while designing Blizzak WS60.

Tube Multicell is a microcellular rubber structure which enables brilliant cohesion on a winter road. The usage of the technology enables the water offtake on the microlevel. Tube Multicell helps a tire contact with the “dry” ice layer, which makes it almost stick to the surface. Micropores and microdrainage canals cut into ice and thus create rim effect ensuring the cohesion.

Bridgestone Blizzak WS60 tires will replace Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50 and Blizzak Revo 1. The new model will be available in 38 sizes with the R speed index.

Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50:

Bridgestone Blizzak Revo 1:

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