Pretty cool that Tim got Bob Bondurant to write something for the first issue.
Words by Bob Bondurant
Editor's Note:
Autocrossing is a sport that demands driving excellence to win. In fact, most experts agree autocrossing is 70% driving ability and only 30% car preparation. Because of this staggering statistic, we felt that a driving tips column in this magazine was a must.
To write this column we contacted world-famous driver, writer, and driving school owner Bob Bondurant. As many of you know Bob Bondurant gained national recognition as one of Carrol Shelby's star drivers, piloting Shelby and Cobras to victory after victory during the mid 60's. Since racing for Carrol Shelby, he has written an excellent book on driving entitled Bob Bondurant On High Performance Driving, and has started what soon became one of the nation's most respected driving schools.
In this first article, Bob will offer driving advice to help you improve your cornering, braking, and shifting ability.
To get through a course, be it a race track or autocross, quicker, you must first master the basics. There are lots of fancy little tricks you can learn, but they'll do you very little good until you’ve got these basics ingrained into your driving style.
All we have between us and the road are four small tire patches. Because of the speeds attained in any form of racing it's critical to transfer weight precisely at the right moment thus keeping these tire patches as large as possible. Mastering the basics of braking clutching and accelerating will keep these patches achieving maxim um adhesion which will result in quicker lap times.
But before we go out on the track let’s talk about driver's position. Performance driving involves the whole body so how you sit in the car is vital to how well you will drive it. An upright driving position will keep you more alert and help you to see the entire track much better.
Steering wheel grip is very important too. You need to grip the wheel firmly, remember it's the only link between yourself and the road. I recommend a three o'clock and nine o'clock hand position. This will offer you the best control while keeping you from getting tangled up if you encounter an unexpected hairpin turn.
Okay let's get started out on the track, since braking is so important in all forms of competition, we'll start there. Trailbraking is the quickest way to get through a corner, so let’s go through it. What we’re trying to accomplish through trailbraking is to keep our tire patches, mentioned earlier, as large as possible. In other words, trailbraking keeps more tire on the road which increases adhesion.
Braking transfers weight to the front of a car which makes the front tire patches larger. To trailbrake properly you must ease on your brakes smoothly through the first two thirds of a corner. The key is to brake smoothly enough so that you keep weight on the front tires for the longest possible time without slowing the car down too much.
Approximately two-thirds through the corner you should smoothly switch from braking to acceleration which will stabilize the car again. (Naturally as all this is going on you're down-shifting and double clutching too, but we'll cover this in a separate article next month.) Accelerating will shift adhesion off the front tires, but you'll still have enough to exit the corner quickly.
Once you stabilize the car accelerate hard, but not hard enough to lose control, out of the corner.
Where you drive through a corner is important too. The driving apex is an important area of the corner that you should understand. It is the first 2/3 of the corner and is usually considered the inside area usually only one or two car lengths from the inside embankment. This is where you should be when coming into a corner. You then exit long and wide thus dissipating "G" forces which will get you through the corner quicker.
Study the illustrations, go out and practice, and get ready for next month's lesson where we'll be covering proper shifting and clutching.
Pretty cool that Tim got Bob Bondurant to write something for the first issue.
Fascinating read . . . many of us have so much more prior knowledge leading up to performance driving these days, and I wonder how this article would be written in light of it in 2025.
I actually rode with him while at Michigan State around a parking lot back in 94.... effortless driving in a Taurus sho...
In reply to Ranger50 :
That's rad.
Colin Wood said:In reply to Ranger50 :
That's rad.
Be creative, live a fun life and don't be a shiny happy person.
Ford was trying to recruit people, especially engineers, so they visited some college campuses and would set up autocross courses. As Ranger50 said, Bob was giving people rides in a Taurus SHO. He was super smooth and of course really fast.
They let the college students drive the course too, in either a Probe GT or Tracer LTS (both slushboxes). I skipped classes that day and got to drive it a couple times. I can't remember who rode shotgun with the students, but I think they were instructors from Bondurant's school.
At his schools, Bob had an Econoline van loaded with his recommended suspension from Ford plus a wrap around couch for about a dozen students. He'd drive sedately around the track while explaining techniques and the driving line. Imperceptibly he would gradually increase his speed until everyone was laughing while hanging on for dear life as Bob would execute 4 wheel skids with the tires howling! His punch line was "Most cars have greater capabilities than the driver. We try to even that out." Great fun and worth the E-ticket school prices. Pick is of me (in the cool t-shirt) in the Pro Search event.
David S. Wallens said:Pretty cool that Tim got Bob Bondurant to write something for the first issue.
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a Bondurant story. Bondurant certainly made an impact with his school.
I actually have his book, and have read it several times. A very good basic primer for understanding the basics.
In reply to elbert :
Ford would also send their engineers to Bondurant. I weasel an extra day out of a course via work. Which really helped my autocrossing at the time.
Did you all see the Bondurant SHO instructor car go for sale on Bring A trailer recently? Also one of his CobraVics recently sold on BaT unfortunately, I'd just recently picked up a new to me track toy. If I hadn't the SHO would be in my driveway. Couldn't afford the CobraVic, but would love to recreate one out of a P71.
I've had both an '89 SHO that surprised a lot of folks at a BMWCCA event at Pocono raceway, and a '93 P71 that surprised a lot of folks in Fstock.
would have loved to go out to the Bondurant school. Maybe when I retire...
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