Техника вождения в пятидесятые

[Владимир Коваленко]

Из книги Archie and the Listers:

Broadly, he subscribed to the view that brakes slow a car down so that they should be used as little as possible on a circuit. There is a case for this; ask any rally driver.
The Archie style, though, was now established, at least in terms of sports car racing. Formula 1 was something else, as he was to discover ruefully. His philosophy was simple - it is easier to corner a car with your foot hard down than it is to take the slow in, fast out approach. His sense of balance was quite uncanny; he seemed to be able to feel, literally through the seat of his pants, one cheek to another, as it were when a car was going out of balance and correct it before it started to go. It was and is a rare skill, and totally unassociated directly with his handicap.
Archie, like his peers, had mastered the technique of 'drifting' a car, and it's a fanciful thought that he perhaps first developed this on the dusty half-made roads of Paisley and Castlehead in ASB 38. It would be nice to think so.
The received wisdom concerning cornering is that you brake before them and accelerate out of them. That is fine for the road. On the track, to slide into a corner, the car pointing the way it will need to be for the next straight, can, done properly, save precious fractions of seconds per lap, more if the car is in the lead, as it obviously takes up more road. Of course, the method by which a road car is driven well and safely bears as much relationship to the way in which a racing car is driven competitively as it does to pole-vaulting or knitting.
The use of a hard dab on the brakes approaching the corner, while under power as the wheel is turned, is the essence of the power-induced final oversteer which Archie turned into his trademark. The dab on the brakes unsticks the driven wheels from the road, and the use of a de Dion rear end, which kept the driving wheels upright, assisted the driver greatly in governing the degree of slide of the driven wheels. More throttle, less grip. Less grip and the rear of the car breaks away centrifugally to orientate it into its next chosen path, at which point the driver recovers from the slide, straightens out the wheels and applies power in the normal manner. In this way, as we can see from the two maps which Archie himself later produced for Motor Racing magazine, the car seems to move sideways into the corner, steered on the throttle, ready for the next straight, or the next corner. He is not exaggerating the attitude of the car, as those who saw him race, or who have seen film of him, will testify. The result of all the manoeuvring is that as the car comes out of the corner, it is set up for the straight. Such styles are difficult to replicate now, as tyres are wider, with softer sidewalls and cars are designed to generate huge downforce over the driven wheels - in a sideways drift, at an angle to the intended direction of the car, downforce is lost, with predictably catastrophic results. Downforce was still a thing of the future in the mid-1950s.
The tyres used by sports racing cars 40 years ago were tall, narrow and cross-plied, with a high natural rubber content, as well as inner tubes. The sidewalls were immensely rigid, offering huge resistance to sidethrust, and a smaller proportion of the 'footprint' of the tyre was in contact with the road than it would be today. This sounds risky, and it is. To hold a car in a deliberate slide depended upon the ability to generate an early controlled breakaway, by the dab on the brakes, as well as the sense of balance to control the traction of the driven wheels via, not the steering, but the throttle.
Both Archie and Salvadori were masters at it, which made their duels all the more exciting, given that they both drove in the same fashion, with miniscule adjustments to the wheel being made constantly to reposition, and thus anticipate, the attitude of the car. Naturally, the more powerful the car the greater the control that such a type of driver can exert upon it, provided that the technique remains consistent. As we shall see, in Archie's case, the increase in power/weight ratio which the Listers were to enjoy over their life ensured that Archie was able to refine his technique in the same exponential way. Given his sense of balance, as well as his absurd strength, he was well able to keep up with both Brian Lister's chassis and brake improvements, as well as whatever extra grunt Don Moore could produce for the power plant. He had proved his ability well in the MG-powered car - he was to refine that ability towards the level of art with his next conveyance.

Дословно переводить не буду, но в целом получается, что инвалидность Скотт-Брауна не позволяла ему практиковать общепринятые стиль с торможением перед поворотом и разгоном после него. Ему было гораздо проще проходить повороты с заносом, в скольжении. Как это часто бывает у инвалидов, одни недостатки компенсируются другими достоинствами. У Скотт-Брауна было фантастическое чувство баланса, поэтому он мог управляться с очень избыточной поворачиваемостью. Автомобили того времени с узкими шинами и без прижимной силы позволяли это реализовывать.
Ещё в книге упоминается, что, например, Фанхио или Брукс отличались плавным стилем, без резких движений, с чётким следованием классической гоночной линии. А у Сальвадори стиль был схож со скотт-брауновским, поэтому битвы Скотт-Брауна именно с этим гонщиком стали самыми знаменитыми.
Вот упомянутые схемы прохождения трасс в Силверстоуне и Гудвуде:

[Андрей Ларинин]

В тексте, наоборот, прямо сказано, что стиль Арчи Скотт-
Брауна абсолютно не связан с его инвалидностью, а лишь
отражает редкий природный дар исключительного чувства
баланса, свойственный и Рою Сальвадори (вполне себе
здоровому дядьке). Они в совершенстве владели техникой
пауэр-слайда, скоростного движения в контролируемом сносе -
что-то похожее нынче можно наблюдать только у дрифтеров

[Владимир Коваленко]

Это надо читать книгу полностью. В ней рассказывается и о чувстве баланса, из-за которого он мог долгое время стоять неподвижно на велосипеде, и о силе единственной руки, которой он удерживал машину там, где, по словам Сальвадори, нужно было три руки. И не раз высказывается мысль о том, что эти способности были даны ему природой вместо уродливости трёх конечностей из четырёх.
Здесь же в тексте говорится, что его редкое умение "напрямую" не связано с инвалидностью. Не знаю, как понимать в этом контексте слово "напрямую", но из книги следует, что по-другому ему было просто сложно, потому что при торможении перед поворотом надо было обрубком правой руки каким-то образом удерживать руль, пока левой он будет переключать передачу.
В принципе, инвалидность Скотт-Брауна к этой теме не относится. "Напрямую".  Если я буду встречать при чтении книг описания стилей других гонщиков, буду добавлять.

[Владимир Коваленко]

В небольшом сюжете 1950 года молодой Стирлинг Мосс рассказывает о своей технике вождения.
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[Алексей Грушко]

По-моему, книга Дженкинсона 'The Racing Driver' посвящена как раз аспектам вождения.