How to drive a Super Touring car

The truth is simple. If you want to drive a Super Touring car quickly, there are just three steps. First, get in the car. Second, start it up. Third, drive it as fast as you can. Easy.

Or maybe not. Perhaps we need to ask an expert. Let's try the man who drives a Super Tourer quicker than anyone else in the British Touring Car Championship, maybe even anyone else on this planet.

Switzerland's Alain Menu, winner of 12 of the 24 rounds of the 1997 Auto Trader-backed BTCC, crowned champion with six races still to go, voted by AUTOSPORT readers as National Racing Driver of the Year, and the kingpin in the Williams Touring Car Engineering squad of Renault Lagunas, you are now a driving instructor.

AUTOSPORT: First, what do you do for car set-up? You can't change wings, because the aerodynamic package is set in stone at the beginning of the year. So what can you do?

Alain Menu: We play with the damping, not so much with the springs. That's something you do more when you go out with a new car in February or March. Then you change only a little bit depending on which circuit you're at, maybe if it's a bit more bumpy than usual.

And then you play with the toe [the angle of the tyres relative to the direction of the car], which can be different for qualifying and the race. In qualifying the front is quite pointy with the new tyres. You need to get as much rear grip as you can, so you might use the rollbar.

In the race it's quite different because the front tyres go away, so you want to make the car a bit oversteery to start with, which means that you can maybe save your front tyres for one or two laps more - that can make a big difference.

AS: So we've set the car up and we're into qualifying. What's the secret of getting pole position?

AM: You really try to drive at 101 per cent. You have to use all the grip because you know you are only going to get a few laps. You lean on the car and the tyres. You can turn in to the slow to medium corners quicker and use your front end more, and on new tyres in slow corners you can turn in on the brakes.

AS: What's the technique in fast corners? Is a front-wheel-drive Super Tourer different to a single-seater?

AM: I would say it's not that different. In a single-seater you don't want to turn in on the brakes, and the same in a touring car. You have to have it all sorted out before you turn in.

AS: And slow corners? Is it difficult to get used to having to stop such a heavy car in such a short space of time?

AM: I don't think so. In a touring car you can brake much, much later than in a road car, but much earlier than a Formula 1 car.

Somebody started talking a couple of years ago about how touring cars are getting to become like single-seaters, but I keep saying that they are still touring cars.

They are a thousand kilos, so they are far from being proper racing cars, even though they are much better than they used to be. I can remember when I raced in Formula 3000, you could change half a millimetre on the rideheight and it would make a big difference. In a touring car it doesn't.

AS: OK, so if everything's gone well in qualifying, which normally means a Menu pole, how do you convert that into race leadership when the green light goes on?

AM: Where you have the clutch point is important - sometimes you might change the clutch on Saturday night after qualifying, and it might not have exactly the same feel.

For a good start you have to warm your front tyres as much as you can, and then when you are sitting on the grid the trick is to let the clutch bite very slightly, at maybe 7000 revs. I don't go by the rev counter though; I just go by the engine noise. You just let the clutch bite without letting the car, or else you get a jumped start.

When they give the five-second board I put it in gear, then when they put the red light on I give it more revs and dip the clutch a little bit. Then, when it goes green, the trick is not to suddenly let go of the clutch, because otherwise the wheels spin. Or if you haven't got enough revs you just bog down, like Jason [Plato, Menu's Williams Renault team-mate] did at Silverstone.

Then, for the next 20 or 30 metres you feed the clutch in, slipping it, giving it more and more power. Sometimes you might let go of the clutch a fraction too soon - we are talking a tenth of a second. That's why sometimes you get a fantastically good start, and sometimes you don't.

AS: Let's assume the start hasn't worked out. How do you overtake?

AM: Well it depends on who's in front of you - what car it is and who's driving. It also depends on what track it is and your own car.

If I know that I am quicker than someone, I like to take my time a little bit. With [Paul] Radisich at Brands Hatch [where Menu was forced to pass the New Zealander's Ford Mondeo], my car was better but I just waited a bit. There was no point pushing like hell and trying to overtake and ruining the tyres quickly.

And then the move - I overtook him into Clearways, but I finally got him going into Druids. So on some tracks if you are clean and give the guy room it might take half a lap. If you are dirty you can overtake quicker.

AS: What about if the car in front is quicker? Is there more urgency to get by?

AM: Yes. If someone is quicker you might have to, but if you have a championship to win you can think, 'OK, I'll stay behind and score points instead of risking anything.'

If you think, 'OK, I'll go for it' you might still need the guy in front's cooperation. Sometimes you don't get it, you collide and you get fined.

AS: How hard can you hit that car then, without damaging your own car or getting into trouble with the TOCA officials who sit in judgement of the day's incidents?

AM: It depends on the mood of the TOCA officials on the day, how the observers have reported it and how it looks on TV.

From a different camera angle it might show a completely different picture. It's tricky. Sometimes I feel for these guys because they've got a hard job.

If you give the car in front a little tap on the rear bumper, just as he turns in, then there is a good chance he will go off. Making a clean move can be really difficult because you have to be really sure - if you are just a tiny bit too fast, or lock up your front tyres a little bit, then you are going to hit him, and that's not something you want to do.

Also, there are one or two that are quite good at closing the door completely and then making it looks as though you have pushed them off.

AS: If the start was good, how hard do you drive at the front, particularly when the tyres start to fade?

AM: On some tracks the tyres go away very quickly. On others, only half-way through.

You've got to brake earlier, because your braking efficiency and turn-in capacity are not as good as your tyres go off. You have to turn in early, feed it in gently and try to be very smooth with the car.

AS: Do you leave some margin for error?

AM: Yeah, but I would say most of the trick is to get it right at the end of the braking zone and the entry to the corner. If you've got that right, then you are on the line, at the right speed.

You've got to keep a margin - that's why I say brake earlier. You know how the tyres go off and how much more they are going to in the next few laps, so you can almost drive within that.

AS: Once those Michelins have gone off, do they tend to stay the same without deteriorating further?

AM: Yes, because these days the tyres are really good. If you are able to conserve them in the first few laps, you can do better than the others.

Or you could decide, 'OK, he is in front, I'll just let him go away for two or three laps and pull out a bit'.

Then in the last two laps you might have better tyres than the other guys and you can push harder. Like with [James] Thompson at Snetterton - he was catching me but his tyres went off, and I was then able to go just a tiny bit quicker to keep control.

AS: How much do you use your cockpit adjustable roll-bar?

AM: I play with it in the race and sometimes during qualifying, but in qualifying I'd rather get the car right before going out.

In the race obviously you do use it - once or twice a race for me - because the tyres go off. But sometimes I don't change it at all.

AS: So it's another win for Menu. Was it hard work physically, or is driving a Super Tourer more a mental exercise?

AM: Like anything to do with that situation, your brain has to be alert. For sure you don't have to be physically strong to drive a touring car, but it can get very hot - that's the worst thing that happens. You have a balaclava, racesuit - I sweat quite a lot.

You have to be sure you drink quite a lot of fluid before the race, and you need to have a good heart and lungs.

That's why I go cycling - I don't like it, but it's something I have to do. I think I'm one of the few that admits I don't do much gym work.

AS: Yes, but you're also one of the few that doesn't smoke or drink

AM: Yes, I guess so. Look at John Cleland - I know he doesn't do anything, but he's still OK. I think the more relaxed you are, the better and the easier effort you can make.

So there you have it. Fine in theory, but putting it into practice is another thing entirely. That's what makes Menu and many of the other BTCC stars into six-figure wage earners. He's relaxed, calm and brilliant at what he does. Doesn't it make you sick!

For more on Super Touring, see this week's AUTOSPORT magazine and our online Super Touring content this week.