Originally Posted by LDadrenaline

Going to disagree with the turn in later for the carousel comment, I think your line looks fine through there. You are smoothing it out and making it one nice arc instead of having to turn the wheel more sharply and upset the front tires trying to turn in later. In the hairpin I think you could turn in a little sooner with slower wheel action and use those inside rumbles to give you an extra foot or two of track. turn 10 you can also turn in earlier with more entry speed. 17 regardless of if you stay out by the brake cones and follow the white line (The "DE line") or go in brushing your mirror on the wall, you want to get out to that white line and turn in right around where the cone was out there (if you look down, there is an old fading white line intersecting with the clearly visible white line right there). Your distance off the wall in the turn itself was good, but you started pinching your exit to get to that second apex cone past the bridge.... forget about that second cone. try to release the hands as early as possible and let the car track out all the way to the outside wall. Lets you roll onto power more smoothly and earlier.

Originally Posted by Car54

As for T17, looks like you're taking more of a racing line through there where you don't want to get passed. I brake a little (too much IMHO) at the brake markers, just enough to make the radius from turn in to my second braking point directly towards the Skip Barber building. I'm actually loading the suspension on the first turn in. Straighten the wheel, brake, then turn in again, get close on the inside around the corner worker station, then use all the track on exit. If you did this in a race, in traffic, you'd be passed every lap....but it's a pretty safe school line because you're practicing more brake/steer/brake/steer/accelerate. The other way is just mechanical grip and the right damper settings. (I completely over simplified that last statement) If anything, I think the lighter/lower hp cars would want more of your line, and the heavier car would want to carry speed in, lose it and turn, then accelerate out.

PS...put the camera in the car next time! Reviewing your actions in the car will teach you more than just the car's path.

Originally Posted by Loren

I've always driven Sebring in "momentum cars", and I know that the "high power line" is different. The line I take covers less distance and stays out of the bumpy stuff. It really sounds a lot like the line your instructor was trying to get you on, it is probably the safest line for newbs.

I always do a two-stage brake. I brake STRAIGHT and FAR LEFT at the end of the straight. I don't try to push that braking zone, usually brake at the 4th or 3rd cone. With sufficient tires, most cars can probably skip this first braking zone, but I find it to be a great confidence-builder to know that you've got brakes that early in the game!

After scrubbing off "some" speed, make your initial turn in toward the end of the wall. As Ven said, try to scrape your mirror on the wall. (you can even things up when you scrape the left mirror on the wall at turn 1) As you're driving STRAIGHT past the wall, stab the brakes again to reach proper turn in speed for the sharper second turn-in. As much as you can, you want to try to make the "perfect" turn-in so that you can hold a steady arc with minimal correction around the rest of 17, clip the exit apex at the grass near the corner worker station, and then accelerate out toward the track-out.

Faster cars will take a line where they're blowing off that first turn-in, carrying their speed deeper into the turn (trusting their brakes a lot more!) doing a single turn-in with a fairly early apex that allows them to get on the gas much sooner and gain more speed through the front straight into turn 1. It's a really ballsy line, and I think it's only necessary for those cars that have enough power to make it work. It's also harder on the suspension, because it takes you through the roughest part of 17.

There are other lines through 17. Variants of both of the above, and probably a few more that I haven't thought of yet! And if you ever get into racing, you'll want to experiment with a lot of different lines because "your line" won't always be available to take, or you'll want to try to pass there or whatever. But, for DE, just find a line that you're comfortable with and keep honing it.

Turn 16 is the one that always challenged me. In a slow car, you learn quickly that botching 16 really affects your speed in the long straight! This was driven home for me when I had a bone stock 1.6 Miata ahead of me in my mildly modded 1.8 Miata... he FLEW through 16 and I never did catch him!