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That was an interesting day. I never had that little traction on a track before (near-freezing temps and aggressive tires do not mix well). One of the things that was throwing me off was that I never felt how much grip I had, and many of grip loss situations were completely unexpected. At times it was like driving in a videogame with poor physics model and no force feedback - very unsettling. Never had this before even in rainy weather.
Only on the way home I realized why it might have been that way. I see two reasons:
1. There was no perceivable (to me) slip before complete loss of traction. In dry, the car is always slipping a little when cornering (without breaking off) and based on that you know you how close you are to the limit. In those conditions the slip before break off was so small that I often could not feel it - probably a result of very cold & wet rubber having different traction vs. slip angle curve or just overall g-forces being too low for my "sensors" to perceive the difference.
2. Wet line was crossing the dry line on most corner exists with moments when one rear wheel was on very slippery stuff and the other had much better traction. Applying too much power then threw rear more violently and less predictably. Probably explains why the car was less predictable when I drove the wet line Al showed me vs. the dry line - driving dry line was slower, but loss of traction was easier to manage there.
Anyway, it was great to start the season and see everyone.
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