Of season Traing Tips Pt1. Exercise

Is a race car driver an athlete? Are the demands on his or her body the same as that of a football player, or a basketball player, or even an Olympic class fencer? They sit in a sit in a seat and drive around in circles. To quote Jeremy Clarkson, “How hard can it be?” However you look at it though, if you’re in good physical condition you’re going to do better on the track than someone who isn’t. Despite what Mr. Clarkson says.

Staying in shape doesn’t mean that you have to go out and get a gym membership and schedule sessions with a personal trainer. A lot of weekend racers have full time jobs, and finding the time or even the will power for even a short 30 minute work out can be difficult after a long day at work.

A good place to start is working on your body’s cardiovascular fitness. Simply put, doing anything that will get your heart pumping and your blood flowing. The main goal of your cardiovascular exercise program should be to elevate your heart rate to between 60 and 70 percent of your maximum heart rate and to keep it there for a minimum of 20 minutes. Running, cycling, racquetball, table tennis and even some of the more intensive martial arts are great for this.

More to the point though find something you enjoy doing. I’ve done both long distance running and cycling and I cannot tell you how boring I find them. But an hour in a Krav Maga class 5 days a week; there really isn’t anything else that get me that physically tire that I can say want more of.

Just to state how important it is for a driver to have good cardiovascular fitness: Most athlete’s heart rates are around 60 to 70 percent of their maximum when performing, and even then that’s only for a relatively short amount of time. The average race car driver’s heart rate is around 80 percent of their maximum for the entire time they are behind the wheel.

Along with building your cardiovascular endurance you should also work on your muscular strength. Turning a wheel, and pressing a pedal doesn’t take too much effort...but after sitting in a hot car for an extended amount of time it’s going to turn into hard work.

Again, a gym membership can help with this, but is not necessary by any means. Simple push ups, pull ups and especially sit ups will help. Investing in a set of free weights with a wide rage of weights will go a long way as well. Having strong core and neck muscles will certainly help with dealing with the cornering forces. High speed corners will eventually take their toll; and even with a seat made for a Hans device, your neck is still going to feel it after a long stint in the driver's seat. While in most cases the point of weight training is to gain large amounts muscle mass. This is not the case for the racing driver. In this case muscular endurance is more important than bulking up.

One other thing that I almost guarantee you would not associate with being in good physical condition for racing: flexibility. The more flexible you are the less your body will be prone to injury, you’ll have fewer aches and pains, and and if you want to do formula racing, the easier it will be to get in and out of your car.

Now if you’re secure in your sexuality, yoga is a great way to go. With yoga, you knock out three birds with one stone; Three!! Yoga will help with core strength, flexibility, and balance. But if you’re worried about who’s might be watching, basic pre and post exercise stretching is good too.

All this physical work will do more than just make it easier on your body while behind the wheel. When you’re in good physical condition, you can focus more on being fast. Being in shape means that you will be more mentally alert; You can deal with stress better and you will be able to concentrate more on other things. Like getting though that throw away corner as fast as possible. One of the biggest drains on strength is the seemingly never ending high level on concentration you must maintain. Losing focus, even for an instant can least to disaster. The more physically tired you are the more chances there are for that to happen.

Not to get all zen like, but being one with your car is very important. You need to know what the car is doing. You have to sense the movement of your car, feel when its about to break loose, realize when a vibration isn’t normal; and a fat ass isn’t going to help with that. Body fat also acts as an insulator which is not something you need more of in the high heat of the cockpit. And why go to all the trouble of keeping your car as light as possible, if you’re not?

Whether you want to go pro or just spend the weekends hooning around a track, you will benefit from being in shape. Period. Hell, you’ll benefit even if you don’t like cars at all! But if you’re looking to improve your lap times, looking to dominate the field, or just blow the doors off some guy on a track day, you need to be in shape to do it.

Is the Scion FR-S the answer to weekend racers prayers?

The long awaited Toyota FT-86 /Scion FR-S /Subaru BRZ line is finally going to debut at the Tokyo Autoshow in December. In the past weeks I have read several spec sheets on the cars, as well as one review of a road test from Edmunds Inside Line. The question is, is this the answer to a weekend racers prayers?

Subaru BRZ at the LA Autoshow

It appears that it won't be marketed as such, but in all reality should make perfectly affordable weekend racer to drive to the track and back. To myself im thinking "FINALLY! A low slung coupe that is powerful, economical, isn't a convertible (sorry miatas), has enough room to haul a set of track wheels/tires, and I can drive it to work as well as the track." No official pricing has been released as of yet, but there is speculation of around $25k. The car has a sexy interior, one that can both impress ladies, and compare to high end sports car interiors. The exterior reminds me of a baby Lexus LF-A, which can also impress ladies, and compete with high end sports cars like well, the LF-A.

Performance wise it has a 197hp 2.0 litre Subaru developed flat-4 that revs to 7500rpm. It inherited its direct injection fuel system and variable timing from its other parent Toyota. Subaru's flat engines normally sit low inside the engine bay to help lower the center of gravity and improve stability in conjunction with their AWD setups. Edmunds reported that the flat-4 in these cars sits nearly 5 inches lower in the engine bay, further lowering the center of gravity. However the Scion model not being offered in AWD im sure that the lower center of gravity, 53/47 weight distribution, and limited slip differential together make for a well balanced and safe track/street car. Not to mention this car scales in at under 2,900lbs which should make for good fuel efficiency. Edmunds also reported that car had slight understeer at higher speed cornering. Maybe we can fix that with a few suspension adjustments, and a staggered set of RPF-1's wrapped in R compound tires, but we will have to wait and see. I'm sure that when the two automakers decided to place a button in the cabin to turn off the stability control, that they had more in mind than the typical young street hoon wanting to burn rubber in order to catch some tail. For us track hoons, we are really glad they decided to include such a button.

For the not so rich track travelers that don't have a trailer to tote race day extras, cars like this have been very limited. With similar vehicles priced nearly twice as much as this car is expected cost, we are driven to look for older alternatives. The older alternatives are also getting harder to find. For instance an original late 80's early 90's BMW E30 325is would be a great car, (soft spot in my heart for these because I learned to drive and take corners in one.) however it is hard to find one that hasn't been molested by young, slammed stance fanatics. Miatas are a nice choice however, they are also falling prey to previous vehicular molestation and they're convertibles (yuck). The Lotus Elise/Exieges are out of the price range for most that are looking to get started in motor sports; as is the pinnacle of my dreams the BMW M3 (all but the E36, after having the pleasure of having driven all 4 generations.)

I have owned 3 Subaru's, and currently track an 01 Impreza 2.5RS, I also own a Scion tC. Having owned both makes that have come together to spawn this cross branded love child, I can say that I have been very impressed with the quality and reliability of both marks. I am excited to see something arrive for my niche, that has modern technology, and a modern look to it. For its expected price tag, I would imagine that many people, like myself would be interested, as well as many young street hoons that want to slam it and show off. So if this car comes with a reasonable price as expected, I may be one of the first in line at the local Scion dealership offering to trade my current tC. I could also see the streets becoming loud with the classic sound of Subaru flat-4's applied with unequal length headers, the Subaru rumble!

The Hoonies?

We are a group of young professionals/students from Indiana (currently), that come from different backgrounds but share a common love for cars, engines, mechanics, and racing. We race and volunteer as much as possible, mostly club events (PCA, BMWCCA, NASA) at our home track Putnam Park Road Course in Mt. Meridian, Indiana and others within the regional area. We decided to blog after having many IM conversations at work on a daily basis over various automotive related things. We want to make our reviews, findings, opinions, and personal track experiences (in the race blog) public in hopes that it will help spark interest into people that have an interest in motorsports but don't know how to get involved. In future postings, expect to see automotive reviews, scientific findings (such as research on metal matrix composite engine components.), track reviews, motorsport news, auto show logs etc, all written from a perspective of how they pertain to the world performance motorsports.

Thanks for checking us out!

-Keep Racing