You’re probably wondering why we would write a whole section on accelerating out of a turn. After all, don’t you just get on the gas at the end of a corner? Driving on the street, yes, that’s all you do and its pretty straightforward. But when you are driving at the limit, things become a little bit more involved.

The first issue is when to get on the gas. The correct answer is AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE!!! The more time you are on the gas, the faster your car will be going. We like going fast, and that is the goal. Sounds easy right? Well, as always, its not quite as easy as it seems.

If you take the Line described in The Line, Part 1: The Basics, you will be carving a constant radius circle through your corners. You will be taking the corner as fast as you can on this arc, and will be at neutral throttle. While this will take you through the corner fairly quickly, time not on the gas is time wasted - you could be going faster.

However, you can’t just get on the throttle earlier and expect everything to turn out fine. If you read The Friction Circle, you’ll see that if you try to accelerate too hard while at maximum cornering grip, your driving wheels will lose traction and slip. In a front wheel drive car, you will understeer, and in a rear wheel drive car, you will oversteer. Both conditions are undesirable, and will make you slower through the corner.

The trick is to accelerate and simultaneously straighten the steering. Because you want the drive wheels to provide some acceleration force, you need to stop asking it to use all of its cornering force. You want to gradually transition the drive wheels from providing maximum cornering force to maximum acceleration force. This move should be gradual, not abrupt. Gradually give the car some gas, while you gradually straighten the wheel.

So, the ideal line through the second half of a corner is actually an increasing radius circle. This technique allows you to get on the gas sooner, increasing your exit speed and maximizing your speed throughout the straightaway.