Welcome to another Supercarbaldie Tuned. A place for those wishing to improve their performance driving skills on road and on the track.
In this article, we are going into your visuals. Understanding how effective visuals, speed up your response and action times.
Our vision plays such an important part of driving when used correctly. We cannot fully understand where we are going if not to have our eyes on the destination, and in connection to the sounds of the vehicle, we manage better the limits of the car.
You have probably heard many times, and maybe during your driving test, “Keep your eyes on the road”! Well, this is a great piece of advice. However, your eyes need to be scanning the road far ahead. Apparent for both road and for track driving. When your eyes are ahead of you, and I am talking 150 metres and more, your brain has the chance to take in so much more information. You see accidents, and issues on the road, and or track in better time, thus then having a quicker and more visually informed response, when taking actions to avoid those issues.
Now that we understand looking ahead, it’s time to add another trick to help manage corner and directional change. That is to look where you want to go. To avoid traffic, other cars on the track, crashes and more, we should look more at our exit points and the direction we want to go. You have probably heard the phrase “Rabbit in the headlights”. Primarily this is used to describe someone who is nervous. But it translates to driving also. When something happens in front of us on the road or on the track, there is this tendency to stare at the issue. If you are a nervous driver, then I hope that what I am saying will eventually improve your confidence behind the wheel. But staring at the issue only entices your brain to head towards it. When coming through corners, avoiding traffic, etc. try to look at the point in the road that you wish to head for. A corner, look towards the exits. A car pulls out in front of you. Look left and right of the car allowing you to find a route around the issue. Beeping your horn and stressing, means you’re probably concentrating too much on the issue. On the track, you will be looking for the gaps. If taking a corner that is blocked by trees, bushes, fences, and so on, then you need to use a little imagination to get where you want to go. Easier if you know the track and or the roads that you are on.
In addition to looking forward, and looking where you want to go, you will need to keep an eye on your situational awareness. That is, to have a constant understanding of the vehicles around you, primarily in this case to your sides and rear. For this, we need to ensure that our mirrors are adjusted just right. High-performance drivers simply rely on them. We do not want surprises, especially if moving at some speed. Consistently monitoring the traffic around you is a must.
It is possible with pretty much all cars on the road today, to be able to adjust the mirrors in order to eliminate blind spots. To get these 360 views, adjust your left and right mirrors so that the side of the car just disappears from the mirror view. The rear-view mirror will cover the remaining area between the wing mirrors. Any small adjustments can be checked on the move. Best way to do that, would be to drive on the highway and move carefully past cars, or allow cars to pass you, while this happens, you’ll be able to follow the car from rear-view to wing mirror, and vice-versa without losing sight of the passing or overtaken vehicle. Pretty much every car that I have driven old and new if mirrors are adjusted in this way has NO blind spots.
These actions to look ahead, look where you want to go, and your situational awareness is (at low or high speed) not really a quality our bodies were designed for while moving at speed. Therefore, this is something to practice, something to make a habit of, and slowly but surely you will become more and more efficient with your visuals and start reaping a far safer, calmer, and smoother driving experience. There is a lot to process in performance driving, but once you feel it you are one step closer to being an experienced performance driver.
It would be fantastic to hear your stories and driving adventures too. Maybe as time goes on, your improvements and achievements. Happy to answer your questions, and yes I am available for personal driving/karting instruction if you are keen to get the most out of your driving/karting and or performance cars. Simply DM your interest.
Drive safe
