You can put a jet engine on a car. It can do 250 mph. But what’s the point of doing 250 mph if you can’t really go around corners? It’s not a complete car.
Sometimes a state of the art new car with higher hp won’t be able to beat an old car with less power on downhill. Because sometimes a car has too much power to do the job. On the downhill, the difference in power is smaller.
To the naked eye, it is almost impossible to outrun and beat a more powerful car with a less powerful car. But on downhill, strategy combines with skills and other facts can beat it.
You can’t handle too much power on downhill. The hairpins, tight corners & slopes will limit you use that extra power. And too much power will impede the control and turn the car into loose cannon.
Let’s say you’ve increased the hp to 300. But from that 300hp, you’ll only need 180 or you’ll only be able to use 200 tops. The rest is useless. And put you at disadvantage. In fact you need the precise amount of power. It can’t be more or less. So don’t increase the power blindly. Don’t upgrade the power not more than a fraction which it need. Because in the end, you will have to lose all that power in order to win. The money used to improve power will be useless. Instead you can use it to improve brakes, suspension & aerodynamics as suits.
Downhill consist of severe slopes. So there are a lot of slow sections. Controlling the braking and steering rather than abusing the power is the key for these. If you develop techniques you can be exceptional at these slow corners. If you have good techniques, then the slope is what makes you faster. That’s why you don’t need power beyond its need.
The key to downhill is not power, its balance.
A power upgrade or an engine upgrade won’t automatically make the car better. You need to adjust many things and fine tune the footwork. And the car should be rightly balanced. You have to test it to the fullest and come up with the best configuration.
Simultaneously, if you upgrade power you should upgrade & tune the suspension to handle that extra power. Bucket seats should be able to withstand the G force. The tires & the brakes should be well balanced. So should the body. Everything should be well tuned. Even the smallest things should be perfect.
Simultaneously, if you upgrade power you should upgrade your skills too. Otherwise you can’t understand the car. You can’t drive the car. You can’t control the car.
Remember, the most important thing is deciding the correct time to upgrade. This is very tricky & very hard. You should have a true appreciation for the upgrade. You need to push the car’s capabilities to the very limit and find out that it’s still not good enough to win. If you can decide the correct time to upgrade or not then you are capable of achieving anything.
Thank you.