Due to our difficult to gain real life racing experience sometimes many simracers have from little to none knowledge about what is needed to improve their own performance on track. Study and reading it is not a foolish thing in any case, and racing and simracing are not exceptions.
There are outstanding books out there, but if you don’t have a guide where to start, I have some recommendations for you. Let’s take a look.
Ultimate speed secrets: A truly bible about racing, covering almost anything you can think of, from technical aspects to mental and physical training. Easy to read and understand, with many basic and intermediate terms and explanations. My first choice. You can see some pages here.
Going faster! mastering the art of race driving: Covering most of the aspects of racing through Skip Barber driving and Skip Barber Racing School staff. A very good explanations and diagrams starting from fundamentals to advanced techniques. We did already have it on the blog, you can read an excerpt here.
The perfect corner: an advanced explanation how to understand physics affecting the line and car behavior on track. Amateurs and starters could struggle with some concepts but nothing you can’t overcome.
Analysis Techniques for Racecar Data Aquisition: a new edition from the 2008 data acquisition classic: “It details how to measure the performance of the vehicle and driver, what can be learned from it, and how this information can be used to advantage next time the vehicle hits the track.”
Performance Thinking: I’ve read a couple of reviews and notes about this book and people seems to be very thrilled about it. I’ll try to get it at the future and see if really helps me on track.
Driving on the edge: One of my friends has told me about this one and it seems a truly hidden gem. Here one of the 5 starts reviews in amazon.com:
Krumm covers every aspect of performance driving, from weight transfer to setup, and does it in a way that’s clear and easy to understand. Even better, he backs up his instruction with specific examples, citing moments in Formula 1 races that illustrate his teaching points. This allows the reader to see in video what he’s talking about in the book.
He also covers techniques I hadn’t heard of before. One example is how to induce understeer to help deal with a car with severe oversteer. After explaining the technique, he cites a race where Fernando Alonso used that very technique to keep his car under control in a particular corner.
This book has gone to the top of my racecar instruction library, and it’s hard to think anything else will top it. I wish it was available on Kindle so I could have it as a pocket reference; that’s how good it is. If you’re trying to learn how to drive a race car better, this book is a must-buy.
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