Racing Tips - Racing Start
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Racing Starts
This technique while fairly simple requires some practice, and will reduce the life of your clutch and probably your gear box as well. If done properly however, off the line you'll blitz anyone who isn't doing the same thing - unless they have significantly more horsepower than you (and we mean a lot more). This technique is also useful against someone with more power, as it will allow you to keep up with them initially, and if you can get in ahead at the first corner, may be the difference between a win and a loss. To do a racing start perform the following actions :
- While sitting at the start line waiting for the flag or light signal to start, push the clutch in and pull the hand brake on
- Put the car into first gear.
- Keep one hand on the sterring wheel and the other on the handbrake (with the button pushed in if you do not have a fly-off handbrake).
- With your right foot bring the revs up and hold them at a steady rate.
- Watch the flag marshall or start light and as soon as you've got the signal to go, release the handbrake and let the clutch out. This is the difficult part, you must let the clutch out quickly enough so it doesn't slip, but not so quickly that it engages with a clunk and the revs almost die off altogether.
If done properly you'll take off from the line like a scalded cat, and probably feel some g-forces as you're pushed back in your seat. The only other thing to watch our for is wheel spin, if you spin your wheels on take off you are loosing time, so on your next start try using fewer revs. You want a many revs as you can get without having the wheels brake traction. In our MR2, on a good surface we can use 6000 revs without spinning our wheels when we take off. DO NOT rev the car up and down, many people think this sounds cool, but if the revs are dropping when you get the signal to start, you won't get a powerful take off.