Technique

Hold the steering wheel at 9 & 3 o’clock. Simple as that. You should be able to drive almost all corners without moving your hands from this position. 

The less you turn the steering wheel, the smoother and faster you’ll be. The less you move your hands on the steering wheel, the smoother you’ll be. 

VISION

You use three senses to drive a car well: sight (vision), sound (auditory), and touch (kinesthetic).

Since vision is what gets us to where we want to go, it may be the most important (although feeling and hearing are critical to sensing the limits of your car).

STEERING TECHNIQUE

• Look ahead, as far as you can.

• Look where you want to go, and not where you don’t want to go.

• Turn your head and look around corners.

• Think around corners as you look through them.

Your hands follow your eyes, so look where you want to go, and your hands will turn the steering wheel appropriately to follow.

Here’s another way to look at what to do with your vision: Constantly scan and look further ahead, keeping your eyes moving in a smooth, flowing movement.

Whether you drive a manual, paddle, or automatic transmission vehicle, shifting gears is part of high-performance driving. 

There are two critical aspects:

1. Timing of upshifts and downshifts

2. Smoothness

Getting the timing of upshifts is relatively easy — use the tach to find the best RPMs for maximum power, or let the engine’s computer do the work for you. But downshifts, whether you’re using a clutch and moving a shifter, or clicking a paddle, finish any downshifting for a corner BEFORE turning the steering wheel. A downshift while cornering can, and mostly likely will, upset the balance of the car, increasing your chances of losing control.

If you’re driving a manual shift car, then being smooth with downshifts is more challenging, and that’s where a “heel and toe” technique comes in. With it, you’re braking and quickly revving the engine to match RPMs with the driving wheels, so that you can’t actually feel that moment when you release the clutch while you downshift.

HEEL & TOE DOWNSHIFTING STEP BY STEP

The technique’s purpose is to allow you to brake fully, while “blipping” the throttle (your right foot operating both the brake and gas pedals simultaneously) so your downshifts are smooth (not upsetting the balance of the car). You’ll never be as good a high-performance driver as you can be until you master heel & toe downshifting. And even if you drive a car with a paddle/semi-automatic or automatic transmission, you should still understand the why and how behind heel and toe.

WHY DOWNSHIFT?

To get your engine in the best RPM range for maximum acceleration out of a corner. Notice that it’s not to slow the car down. That’s what the brakes are for. When approaching and driving through a corner, though, use the tallest/highest gear possible. It may feel and sound fast to downshift to a lower gear, but often that over-slows you for the corner, as well as upsetting the balance of the car (more about this shortly).