Common wisdom has held that you will always be faster around a track if you are not skidding. I.e., as soon as even 1 wheel loses some traction, you are going slower than you could be. On it’s face, this seems to make sense. After all, you should be faster when you are working within the limits of your tires.

But I have found that this principle does not always hold true. Sometimes, a “sloppy” line, one where you are understeering, oversteering, or drifting, can be faster. Clint has been saying this for a long time. He claims that in many places on NHIS, he feels faster in his Protege if he drifts the car through the corner rather than go slow in, fast out.

At my last few SCDA track day, I played around with a sloppier line through Corner 2b of NHIS. During my other sessions, I was hitting about 6700 RPM right when breaking going into Turn 3. When I went into 2b hotter, using the throttle to hold the tail out ever so slightly, and generally feeling slightly beyond the grip of all 4 tires, I found that I was going into Turn 3 at about 7100 RPM (yes Miata’s redline at 7000 RPM, but the rev limiter doesn’t kick in until about 7400 RPM - I’m using all of those revs!). That is a noticeable increase in speed!

Why might this be? Let’s look at a few factors:

Slip Angles
All tires have an optimum slip angle which maximizes grip. Slip angle is simply the angle the tire is pointing relative to the direction of travel of the tire. If you slide perfectly sideways, your tires have a slip angle of 90 degrees. The optimum slip angle varies for every tire, but it is rare to have an optimum angle much above 8 or 10 degrees.

Pushing your car a bit may actually be just pushing the tires to their optimum slip angle. I can definitely feel my Miata “settle,” with the rear hanging out a little, when I corner hard in Turn 11 at NHIS and Radius 18 at Watkins Glen. Reaching optimum slip angle would make you faster, as you would have more grip and thus be able to carry more speed through the corner.

Maintaining Speed
I suspect a lot of what Clint and I are experiencing is related to our Cars’ terrible ability to regain speed in our cars (particularly Clint). If either of us loses any speed through a corner, it takes a LONG time to get it back on the straight. By maintaining more speed through a corner, we are going that much faster at the start of the straight and, consequently, that much faster at the end.

Higher Speed Because of a longer line?
There are two things going on here that could affect the Line: 1) inability to hold a tight line and drifting out and 2) carrying more speed and requiring a different line. Both have the potential of requiring a longer line through the same section. This might make your top speed at the end of the straight higher, but your overall time longer since there is more track to cover.

Inability to hold a tight line
Pushing the tires slightly beyond their grip level means you cannot hold the same line you could hold at a lower speed. You will drift outwards (I’ve experienced this through Radius 16 at the Glen trying to pace a Corvette C5 with racing slicks wider than my house). This can make your line longer than if you could hold the tighter line. Oftentimes, this is a dangerous maneuver and will put you off the track and into a wall. Some places with lots of extra room, such as 2b at NHIS in my Miata, are more foregiving.

Different Speed, Different Line
As you know from reading Is There Really Only 1 Best Line? different speeds through the same corner can require different lines. This is not completely independent of the section just above, as they go hand in hand. What might be happening with me in 2b is that my higher speed through the corner takes me wider for longer, making the distance I travel between 2b and Turn 3 longer. This could be accounting for my higher entry speed at Turn 3. But, if the track is that much longer, it might not be faster, or may even be slower.

I don’t have a GPS tracker, so I unfortunately won’t know these answers for now.

The Rain
The rain brings all of the above factors into a new light. I cover the Rain Line in far more detail here, but the important things to note for this discussion are 1) rain usually requires a different line and 2) putting power down is difficult.

Rain Line, Different Line
Most corners require a different approach in the wet. Traction changes dramatically, particularly between various parts of corners if one has new pavement. These different approach often make much longer arcs (think rimshot), which may make you slower if you don’t maintain sufficient additional speed (see above).

Wet Weather Power Difficulties
Grip suffers everywhere in the wet, and this includes acceleration traction. Putting down power, any power, ranges from tedious to futile, depending on the tires you are running and your car’s setup. In particular, you will have a lot of trouble in the second part of the corner, when you try and power out of the turn. Remember, you lose more sideways grip than braking or acceleration grip. You will already be struggling to hold sideways grip at neutral throttle, never mind when you try and put down power as well. For this reason, you may be able to maximize speed through and at the end of a corner by going in a little warm, and using more sideways grip and less acceleration grip. Then again, you may not. This depends on many factors about your car setup and the current conditions. Be careful with this approach - you don’t want to end up in a wall. Work your way up in baby steps.

I noticed a similar phenomenon coming down Turn 10 at NHIS in the rain. I would understeer hardcore as I passed over the NASCAR oval, and would regain traction when I hit the infield course again. If I slowed down enough that I didn’t understeer, I wouldn’t be able to put power down in the second part of the corner sufficiently, and I would be slower overall.

Other Considerations
Tire temperature v Endurance
Another thing to bear in mind is that all tires have an optimum temperature range. Heat up a tire too much and it will lose grip and become “greasy.” Spinning up tires and pushing them over their limit heats them up. So, if you take too sloppy of a line, you risk overheating your tires before the end of your session or race. This would give you less grip overall, making you slower. So, you might be faster for 1 sloppy lap at the cost of being slower for every other lap. Or you might not. It depends on your tires and how sloppy of a line you take.

Rotating Cars
Sometimes, it can actually make sense to rotate a car with the throttle (read, OVERSTEER). At NHIS in Turn 3 in the rain, I take an inside line through the first part (bypassing the newer pavement on the left), then a power line up the hill. This means that I need to make a very sharp turn right at the base of the hill. I found that if I gave my Miata a bit more throttle than it could handle, the rear would kick out and the car would rotate, but the rear would catch as soon as it hit the hill. I was therefore able to get the rotation needed without having to slow down to let the front do the work. This is a particularly advanced technique, especially in the wet, so proceed with caution.