Past Issues

Race car driver, BMW instructor, and coach Kevin York says, “Breathe!” Ross expounds on mental imagery and performance, then lightly puts the brakes on about threshold braking.

Ross answers readers’ questions about selecting a coach and how drivers adapt to changing conditions, plus links to his Speed Secrets Quick Tips page for answers to other common queries.

Marketing whiz Bruce Cleland asks the question “What’s Your Brand?” to help you focus your personal selling points. Ross enumerates the strengths of successful drivers and provides an important vision exercise.

Every article by race engineer, Jeff Braun, is valuable, and this week’s is no different. Jeff writes about differentials – their purpose, the different types, and what you as a driver can do with them. Adjusting and using your mirrors properly – on the street and on the track – is the focus on this week’s Speed Secret. Ross also writes about the legendary Carroll Smith – what he wrote (that you should read), as well as sharing a couple of stories about him.

Issue #75 is a bit of a special one, as Ross focuses on answering readers’ questions. The first is about race starts – how to get the best start possible. The Speed Secret, all about change, leads into answering a question about what to do if you’re participating in a performance driver education program, and you and your instructor “don’t click.” Finally, Ross answers the question, “Can you discuss the pros and cons of using the curbs on a track?”

What does yoga and performance/race driving have to do with one another? You might be surprised at the lessons you can take from Valerie Maloof’s article comparing the two disciplines, and how her article will improve your on-track performance. You’ve heard of the “traction circle,” but what does it really do and mean to you. This week’s Speed Secret explains, and deals with the overlap of braking, cornering and acceleration. If you’ve ever gone to the track and felt that everything went wrong… great! Ross’s sidebar tells you how to take advantage of “what went wrong.”

Don Kitch writes this week about vision. Yes, vision again… a driver can never work on vision too much, and Don provides a slightly different perspective on the topic. This week’s Speed Secret is all about how to deal with distractions and frustrations – a strategy that will help you on and off the track. And Ross follows up with an article about mentally preparing to adapt to all sorts of handling problems (if your car never has a handling problem, you don’t need to read this…).

What to do with a car with massive horsepower – one that would be more at home on a drag strip than a road course? That’s the challenge Ingrid Steffensen writes about in this week’s feature, as she instructed a novice from the right seat, relying on some hugely important, but basic advice about vision. This week’s Speed Secret provides a list of things you can do to adapt your driving to suit a poor handling car. All drivers should start in “momentum” cars, as Ross writes about – they will teach you more in a day than a super high performance car will in a year.

Controlling a skid is relatively easy, but as this week’s feature author, Rob Schermerhorn, points out, it’s the “rebound” skid that causes the big problems. Rob writes about how to control the second skid, as well as traction and stability control. Ross’s Speed Secret provides advice about how to fine-tune your abilities to sense the limits of your car, and control it there. Ross also writes about the balance between confidence and skill, and how the best drivers have matching levels of each.

Fire is probably the most feared problem a performance or race driver could ever face. Racer, Seth Thomas, provides great advice about how best to protect yourself from a fire in this week’s feature article. Ross’s Speed Secret reinforces Seth’s message, and talks about the different levels of motorsport and what safety equipment should be used. Finally, Ross shares his real-life experience of being in a burning Indy car while at speed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – it’ll give you a wake-up call.

Why? That’s the question you need to answer to drive really well. To drive the way you’ve been told is simply following along, and as Peter Carroll writes about, you’ll never be the best you can be if you don’t understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. There’s always more, which is the theme of this week’s Speed Secret – and your aim should be to continually improve. Ross also recalls a situation when the driver he was coaching made a huge improvement in his driving once he fully understood the reason for using all the track at the exit of the corner.

The art and science of tuning shock absorbers – from a driver’s perspective. That’s the focus of pro driver and coach, David Murry’s article this week, and it’s something you won’t want to miss. This week’s Speed Secret leads into a process that you can use to help you determine what to adjust on your car to make it handle better. Then, Ross shares his thoughts on the value of digging to the core of the problem – just as the great philosopher, Shrek, would have done!