An interesting piece on Fifth Gear (which is where the Top Gear presenters went when Clarkson took over Top Gear), which is on Velocity TV these days. Do you get more speed from modifying the car, or the driver. They took an untrained driver (Suzi Perry, Moto GP and F1 commentator) and had her drive a car for a few laps.

Then they modfied the ECU to give more power see how much faster she was. They took off that mod and put on a fancy exhaust. Then took the exhaust off and put on better tires (Yoko AD08), then put the standard tires back on and Jason Plato (British Touring Car driver) gave her some coaching.

I'm not entirely convinced of the methodology, but the results were interesting. Her lap times were:

Unmodified: 1:43.6
Power via ECU: 1:37.6
Power via Exhaust: 1:37.5
Tires: 1:35.0
Tuition: 1:30.9

So the conclusion was driver training is more important than any mechanical modifications, and tires trump power. Hardly a surprise to anyone who'd drvien on track, but its not something you often hear on TV.

The episode (Series 21, Episode 1) seems to be on YouTube: The segment starts at 18:15.

 

This is exactly why I have only done cosmetic mods so far. I just went to The Dragon for the first time, and it was clear to me that I didn't need to do anything to the car until I had figured out how to drive it properly. I did a course at Thruxton in the UK years ago, which helped a bit, but it's definitely time to do something again.

 

This is true of anything though...you can buy a really expensive and tricked out component (be it a gun, a camera, a car, etc) but if you don't know how to use it properly and efficiently it won't make any difference.

 

+ 1

 

As with most things, a proper mix is what is needed.

 

i agree, most bang for the money is driver training

next is tires

last is horsepower

most people do it backwards!