Seating positions

I guess the blog has become rather stale as of late... since I havent been home much to organise (organise? hehe I guess Cloud and Keisuke can differ to that :P) any touge activities among us RedSuns crew, thus the lack of update...

And since the last big crash way back in March has forced the Old Lady to be almost constantly in the workshop... until now we are still very cautious on handling here... and with her sensitive handling issue I guess it will be some time until we have her back for touge duties...

So now we go back to some of my main interest in cars... the techniques and tips on getting that little faster than your rival^^

These driving techniques post has been started by Keisuke and contains quite a massive amount of information and studies... I'll try to find some time to try organize the blog better probably to categorizes our entries for easy reference^^

Especially these driving tips, I always find my self reading them again and again... becoz for person like me driving has become somewhat of a luxury for me... my work does not permits me to drive often thus I may forget some of those basic points that makes driving all that more comfortable and much more fun^^

So the subject of this post is rather simple... but often overlooked, but it's one the most important aspects of driving... especially driving at the limit.

Seating positions whether we notice it or not affects our authority of control of the car and also our fatigues... sometimes one doesn't even notice that their driving position may not be correct...
Although driving position may be subjective and differ from one person to another, but there are some basic rule of thumb we can follow to ensure we are always in the correct driving position no matter what car we drive^^

There are 3 simple steps, firstly just after you sit in the car... ensure that you are properly seated, back resting flat against the seat and the buttocks firmly tucked in at the intersection of the back and bottom seat.
The underside of your legs should be in contact with the seat bottom... this is to ensure maximum contact patch between the driver and the car... as to feel the weight shift and grip limit of the car is through these mediums...

This is why even choosing your seat is as important as the next suspension upgrades... racing bucket seats allow these kind of seating position, with fairly little cushion on the bottom seat to enable the driver to have more 'raw' feel of the car... semi-bucket seats some of them offer these kind of seating position with some street comfort in mind... others are just imitation that are not worth the money... also the seat sizes is of utmost important, always before buying your next seat try the seats first and ensure they fit the necessary seating postion as mentioned above and if the seat have shoulder braces make sure you fit in those things ;)
As for our Old Lady we have a racing bucket seat with the size 'S' which makes it rather small but fits perfectly our small body frame... unless someone like Cloud or maybe even Hanz couldnt fit comfortably in the seat xD

Next is the hand position, after you've taken your seating position correctly fully extend the arms above the steering wheel and rest them at 12 o'clock of the steering wheel, ensure the wrist rest on the steering wheel.

This is to allow when we're driving our arm does not overextend... and overextended arms tend to tire quickly and once our arms tires we will lose sensitivity towards the steering feedback and not notice steering vibrations. With this steering position it allows for maximum authority in handling the car and using the 'shuffle-technique' much easier.
Although you may not notice how important the 'shuffle-technique' doing daily driving or town driving but once you get to much higher speed of driving at the touge or the tracks, steering techniques is essential ;)
Also just in case there is a crash... the hand being bend a little allows it to act like a shock absorber... unlike if you have straight arms streching to reach the steering wheel the force will directly be subjected to your shoulder pocket... which is not nice >.<

Lastly is the feet position, when seated fully depress the pedals with the ball of your foot... not your toe. The knee should be bend a little.

This is for the same reason as above, never to allow the legs to over extend and also to make it easier to perform the all-important heel-toe technique if you're driving a manual^^ but make sure the knee is clear of the underside of the dash board a few inches when driving... this is rather hard for certain cars as their factory default position may not cater our arms and leg lenght but just as I mentioned before, these are simply rules of thumb... seating position may be different from one person and another.
Well hopefully you'll find these entries interesting and makes your driving that little more comfortable and enjoyable ;)

*referenced : http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving/driving