Back to topic, as the others have said, on tarmac drifting* is always slower than proper driving. The only situations where this is not the case are

• an extremely small radius corner/hairpin (which we basically don't have in LFS), and
  
• a very understeery setup, where the non-optimal grip utilization on drifting is more desirable than suffering from understeer
  

So if there is a normal corner that you can consistently take faster by drifting, then it means either your setup or your corner entry style is not suited for the track or at least for that particular corner. Even then you have to keep in mind that a race is more than one corner or one lap. If you ever choose a drift as your main driving technique for one or more corners during a race, you will lose, because you will overheat your tyres in no time. To finish first, you first have to finish.

*defined as the rear wheels slipping beyond the optimal slip angle

My mates dad blew up his old merc when a something puntured his brake hose lol.

Quote from March Hare :

Ian, we have to give the guy some slack. He doesn't know how to drive a car with a manual transmission.

Now I just have to laugh. You're trying to say that I don't know how to drive a car with a manual transmission, yet you guys are saying that you don't have the brains not to yank as hard as possible on the handbrake and can't ease it on to stop and it will lock the wheels every time.....

I believe Mike's point is this. He had to stop and he didn't have the option of turning since there were cars, people, buildings, etc on all sides. Remember, over here, every street corner has 4 Walmarts on it.

Slowing down with engine braking, yes. Stopping with engine braking, no.

Quote from mrodgers :

Now I just have to laugh. You're trying to say that I don't know how to drive a car with a manual transmission, yet you guys are saying that you don't have the brains not to yank as hard as possible on the handbrake and can't ease it on to stop and it will lock the wheels every time.....

Americanz R dum.



Seriously it's like you search for every stereotyping post on this forum so you can get offended by it. It's not like everybody hates you*, so chill out

*This statement might be inaccurate

Quote from AndroidXP :

Americanz R dum.



Seriously it's like you search for every stereotyping post on this forum so you can get offended by it. It's not like everybody hates you*, so chill out

*This statement might be inaccurate

Nope, I only commented on this....

Quote :

The handbrake is the _last_ think I'd think of using in an emergency when thinking about braking.

I certainly would think about stopping my car rather than only slowing it down in traffic if I found that I had no brakes. They are the ones who started the "can't drive a manual" thing.

I did a rather pointless test so that we can end this argument with a proper bit of FACT

Normal Braking: I stopped the car safely in 60 metres

Engine Braking:

I stopped the car fairly safely in 140 metres - I used engine braking to slow the car down to about 25mph, then eased the handbrake on slowly to bring the car to a controlled stop . The only disadvantage was that the car would not longer start or move under its own power

Handbrake Only:

I stopped rather dangerously in 166 metres. I simply put the handbrake on and tried (and just about succeeded) to keep the car in a straight (ish) line.

You must suck with the handbrake . I just made a quick 60-0 brake test with XFG at the drag strip.
Brakes: 44m
Handbrake: 115m, no difficulty at all.
Engine brake: 135m, ruined engine.

Quote from AndroidXP :

You must suck with the handbrake . I just made a quick 60-0 brake test with XFG at the drag strip.
Brakes: 44m
Handbrake: 115m, no difficulty at all.
Engine brake: 135m, ruined engine.

Well I did it at 85MPH in the FXO

Quote from Ian.H :

The handbrake is the _last_ think I'd think of using in an emergency when thinking about braking.

Funnily enough, I once managed to avoid an accident (irl) by pulling the handbrake and initiating a scandinavian flick. But of course it would have been wiser not to get in that emergency in the first place.

Quote from March Hare :

IYou might want to use the hand brake to actually stop but for slowing down the engine is much better.

Quote from Danke :

Slowing down with engine braking, yes. Stopping with engine braking, no.

Strange echo in this place...

Quote from March Hare :

Strange echo in this place...

Great minds think alike.

Anyway, I'd use the both the engine brake and the handbrake! That'd be even more effective.

What if you in quick succession engage/disengage/engage etc the handbrake? Wouldn't that be kind of like "pump braking", meaning you'd get some braking done before/after the wheels lock up? (Dynamic friction > static friction..) Never tried it though..

Quote from hrtburnout :

Anyway, I'd use the both the engine brake and the handbrake! That'd be even more effective.

In a RWD car it would be more effective, not so much in a FWD, although it is still possible.

Don't forget in RL your handbrake isn't on or off, the harder you yank it, the more it will slow the wheels down, so it would be fairly controllable if your normal brakes failed for any reason.

Anyone have a handbrake rigged up to an axis in LFS or other games/sims?

Quote from beefyman666 :

In a RWD car it would be more effective, not so much in a FWD, although it is still possible.

That doesn't make any sense?

I would say the opposite. In a FWD the engine brakes the front wheels and the hand brake the rear wheels.

In a RWD the engine might prevent the rears from locking up.

Quote from AndroidXP :

That doesn't make any sense?

It makes perfect sense, well it makes sense to me atleast.

Handbrake goes to the rear wheels, if it's a RWD car then the handbrake will slow the wheels down more aswell as engine braking.

In a FWD car it's not slowing down the driven wheels, it's just gonna drag the arse end a long.

What would make more sence, but no clever monkey has thought of it yet. Is to add ABS to the handbrake thats only effective if the car is going more then 10mph. Its very rare brake pipes break or something goes wrong, but still the possibility...

Quote from beefyman666 :

It makes perfect sense, well it makes sense to me atleast.

Handbrake goes to the rear wheels, if it's a RWD car then the handbrake will slow the wheels down more aswell as engine braking.

In a FWD car it's not slowing down the driven wheels, it's just gonna drag the arse end a long.

No, chances are you're able to lock up your rear wheels with the handbrake alone, having both handbrake and engine brake work at the rear wheels is a waste of braking potential. "Not slowing down the driven wheels" - that makes me think you maybe should learn a bit more of how cars work, since that statement doesn't make any sense whatsoever. There is no huge wheel inertia that you have to fight against, and the thing that accelerated the wheels before (aka engine) is now slowing them down.

Funny thread. I actually had an emergency situation just a week or so ago where I had no brakes (in one way or another) getting off a highway at ~70mph.

I had been driving 5.5 hours, I was really tired, and I finally reached my destination. So like usual, instead of slowing down for the offramp like a normal person, I sped up because I like to take offramps like an idiot

Unfortunately for me, while filling up for gas 2 hours earlier I stepped in some gooey tar substance. Over a period of 2 hours, my foot became permanently attached to the gas pedal. So long story short, I attempted to brake for the stop sign at the end of the offramp and I couldn't get my foot over to the brake. I thought it was stuck on the carpet, so I tried wiggling around for a few seconds. When that didn't work I panicked! I began frantically trying to rip my foot off the gas, going off the road (because I was looking down to see wtf was going on). I didn't even think about using my left foot to brake or using the e-brake. I used engine braking to give me a few more seconds to try to get my foot off of the gas pedal. Eventually it broke free (taking part of my shoe with it) and I hit the brakes just in time before I rear ended some poor guy at the stop sign! Good thing that was a long ramp!