Quote:
Originally Posted by rice_classic
7th Gear : I hope you don't mind a little editing of your diagram. 
Some elaboration on why I like the blue line.
Look at the purple line, think of that purple dash mark as "the corner" because it really is that point that really matters.
So let me talk about the green line now.
A: Angle of entry: The green car will have to initiate it's braking earlier than the blue car and in this diagram do so while pointing away from the corner. That is ridiculous unless you're setting up for a drift. If you're goal is to get at an apex why would you start by driving away from it? (rhetorical). Look at where the orange dashes are. There's a bit of an optical illusion here. Up to the point of the "orange zone" the green car is carrying more speed but in this orange zone it's radius narrows so it will have to slow for that and since it was approaching this narrow part of it's radius while it was already cornering that means the driver had to leave enough tractive force in his tires to allow for some braking for this orange zone. Because of this the green car has sacrificed its corning speed leading up to it.
B: Safety: Braking in a straight line is far safer than braking while cornering. For any rookie, having them enter a corner in which they have to balance the tractive delta between slowing and turning can easily lead to an off-track excursion.
C: Corner Exit speed: As you can see the lines in between those dashes share roughly the same radius which means both cars are making the same turn. The purple dash is roughly where the driver would be rolling on the throttle. Both cars are on roughly the same radius and exit as they roll on to the throttle to leave the corner. |
Ah, but will the Blue car and the Green car be traveling at the same VELOCITY when they reach the point where they would be rolling on the throttle. I'm thinking the Green car will be traveling markedly faster and, thus, will have a "jump" on the Blue car out of the corner.
The Blue car is just then exiting a much tighter and slower corner, despite now being on the same exit radius of the Green car.
I dunno, but it looks that way to me.
Having said that, I'm not so sure but what Rice's Blue car might be turning quicker lap times. It would depend on what preceded and followed this turn. If this turn followed a long, high speed straight, the Blue car would make up a lot of precious time in the approach, able to maintain a much higher speed for a longer time, albeit down into the apex of a (artificially generated) much sharper corner.
It would be interesting to observe video of this in real time.
The Blue car is clearly on the optimum passing line if he's trailing the Green car into the corner. He'll get to the purple throttle application point before the Green car and will "take away the line" from the Green car despite going slower at that point. The Green car may be going faster at that point, but will be effectively blocked from exploiting that advantage.
But, the issue at the moment is which of these lines will yield the best lap time independent of passing strategies.