Quote:
Originally Posted by Baddawg53
Nice results! Significant drop in times there.
My question is, do you think you were at the limit of the car prior? Was the gain there entirely mechanical? I ask because I feel like a lot of my big increases I get after upgrades are more confidence driven than actual mechanical performance driven. Placebo effect I guess. However I know that I'm definitely not driving the car near the limit.
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That's a great question. The human/machine interface is one of the most interesting things about cars, bikes, skis, and even audio/video systems.
Before I started participating in autox and track events I raced mt bikes in enduro racing which is a series of stages that are only timed on the downhill portions. Mt biking is all about the rider, but the bike setup is critical in that the bike must do what the rider intends. A fast bike is not the same for everyone.
I think cars are similar, although the car itself has far more impact on times than bikes do in mtb, but the overall concept of setting up the machine to fit the driver's preferences are similar. So a fast car is one that fits the driver's style and does what the driver intends. It's difficult to separate that out from some objective truth about whether the car is actually more capable. I think that truth exists but how much a faster time is an improvement in the car vs making the car more in tune with the driver is going to be difficult to separate out.
I think in many cases the truth is going to be some of each. There's no doubt adding 1000 lbs of DF at speed is going to improve grip. But the confidence I get having the rear end planted around high speed corners, the fact I can now trail brake into the apex to a degree I couldn't w/o aero, the overall stability and precision of adding aero is also a big improvement in driver confidence that allows the driver to get closer to the car's limits more of the time.
tl;dr The car is both much more capable and much more confidence inspiring to drive with aero. So far I'm super happy with the results.