SaturnRacer.com

I think it is important to take seating position seriously. Most drivers sit too far away from the controls. All good racers understand that managing the cockpit and controls is much easier when you can reach them all. Any discussion about driving needs to begin with seating position.

As you get into the car, make sure you sit well back in the seat: get your backside securely into the junction between the seat bottom and the seat back. Now adjust the seat. Take care of the feet first. Be able to reach with your right foot under the brake pedal in an automatic. In a manual shift, be able to depress the clutch with your right foot without stretching.

The steering wheel…

Grasp the steering wheel lightly but firmly. Adjust it so that your arm is slightly bent when your hand is at the 12 o’clock position. (Use the tilt mechanism and seat controls for this purpose) Normal position for the steering hands are at nine and three o’clock. Don’t make a religion out of it though – it just seems to be the best hand position for equal left and right steering maneuvers, allowing you to bring the steering wheel to the straight-ahead position without taking your hands off of the wheel or visually losing your way.

Closer than you think…

Now, you will probably find you are sitting a lot closer to the instruments than usual. Try living with it, because I think you’ll agree that it makes sense to try something long enough so that the strangeness no longer influences your judgement. One other thing: as you use the new seating position, don’t assume that it’s right the first time. Play with it, especially with the seat controls available to you. Comfort and efficiency are key to driving competence on the road and speed on the race track. Proper seating position will enable accurate and easy control of the vehicle’s steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator, shifter and clutch.

Where you look…

The good driver takes advantage of the eyes to scan the road and surrounding area, continually moving, providing critical lead times for both processing information and reacting to dynamic movements of the car during driving. Its called visual tracking. MELT is the acronym for Minimum Eye Lead-Time, and refers to looking at least 30 seconds ahead of where you are. Understanding the use of time and its simple calculation for adjusting your proximity with other cars or determining just how far ahead you really are looking is easy; try this:

Counting seconds – one thousand one, one thousand two, and so on – can be an effective method of calculating your car’s relative position in traffic for following distances, mirror use, starting off at traffic lights, and Minimum Eye Lead Time.

To calculate following distance for example, glance at a car in front of you; when it passes some fixed object – say a bridge or a traffic sign – start counting (one thousand one- one thousand two), by the time you get to two seconds, you should be at the same fixed object, bridge, or traffic sign you saw before. Any closer than 2 seconds and you are following too close, three and preferably four seconds are better, and even longer in treacherous rain or ice conditions. Remember the two-second rule works at any speed.

That’s a lot to remember. Looking ahead while driving is easy to talk about, hard to do. Too often our eyes look down, especially when traffic conditions become difficult or weather conditions deteriorate and cars start to skid. Looking ahead is essential to travel in the direction you wish to go.

Another key principle of driving is initiating gentle braking and acceleration, smooth shifting up and down the gearbox, and making precise steering inputs. All of these psychomotor skills require practice and integration with visual tracking; Keep the eyes up and moving. Good drivers know good driving performance requires doing all of the ordinary things behind the wheel skillfully, without giving in to the temptation to misuse the car.

Racing is easier…

Actually, I have it easy on the racetrack – all the traffic flows in one direction (generally). There are no intersections, stop signs, or traffic lights. Corner workers wave colored flags to alert each driver of dangerous track conditions ahead. Race drivers’ sport fireproof suits and helmets, and their cars are equipped with roll cages and fire extinguishers. Strict rules prohibit the use of alcohol during competition. And all are required to pass a series of mental and physical examinations in order to qualify for a competition license. I have one focus, a single purpose – to stay off the fence and get to the checkered before the other guys.

When driving on the road, however, we are all guessing. It’s a divided attention task. We have no idea what conditions lie around a blind corner. Other road users are a mystery – are they angry? happy? sad? drunk? – you can’t tell for sure. Driving on the road means to drive with anticipation.

So next month you can anticipate one of my favorite discussions – the mysteries of "heel and toe."