Tony Quiroga a writer for Car and Driver did an article on the Friction Circle, in my opinion he is one of the better automotive journalists. His opening remarks says it all “Driving successfully at a car’s limits is less about bravery and more about understanding the dynamics of three disciplines—acceleration, braking, and cornering—and how they work together.”

In my opinion The Friction Circle is it is one of the pillars of driver training, it is a simple graphic way of showing the performance of any driver in any car in any scenario.  Basically, it is a graph of the g-forces during braking, cornering and acceleration that the driver applies to the vehicle while being driven through any scenario the instructor creates.

The information can be captured on anything from an inexpensive iPhone App to a computer costing in the thousands.

Whether it is advanced driver training – security driver training – testing vehicles – or racing – to get the maximum performance from the vehicle the driver must “drive the friction circle”. In my opinion good instructors must understand the friction circle, and use as a learning tool.

I would like to hear from others who use the friction circle concept as a training tool, or use some form of G Meter for testing or training.