This problem is a lot more common than you'd think, but a lot of guys are shy in stepping forward and speaking to someone about it. So good on you, Notanillusion, for posting this. Hopefully it will raise awareness and more people will feel happy getting help.

Quote from JamesF1 :

this was originally intended to prevent premature detonations.

Thanks, I had been looking for ways to prevent premature detonation. Perhaps this will be my answer.

Quote from dropin_biking :

Some Vtecs, some inline 6's (Supra style) Maybe some rotarys. It would also be nice to see some v12 sports car style engines.
~Bryan~

I agree, Vtec would be nice. I also think a few more larger, normally aspirated road car engines would be welcome, as we are quite heavily focused on small high-revving units or turbo'd engines right now.

I'm in the 2:51s in the LX6....won't be competing for top spot, I'm sure

Thanks guys. I will head on to that server and say hi.

Is this going to be on one of the public Redline servers or on a private one?

Don't feel bad, I've been playing since the first demo came out, August 2002, and I only found out how to add colours last month!

Quote from Vain :

Exactly that's what I mean. You can digitally learn which line to drive. But you shouldn't learn where it's safe to brake or where you can accelerate. Real life will be different from that.

Vain

Yeah, of course you need to understand the limits of using a game to learn a track....but as long as you just focus on learning the track and the lines, I don't see what's wrong with putting a lot of time in on a game like GT.

Quote from Vain :

My personal tip:
Don't "learn" it with a videogame. Use onboard-footage to memorize the corners. Drive it with some sim once or twice to see wether you remember everything well, but don't burn down 20 laps in any simulator, it'll hurt your perception because of the deficiencies of the game.
For onboard-footage: www.renn.tv

Vain

I think if it's not a very good representation of the track, this would definitely be true. But I learned the lines of the current day circuit on GT4, and did a lot of laps, comparing lines to those in videos. I found in GT4, my lines were very close to in the videos I've seen, and the lines I observed experienced drivers do when I visited.

I think the problems come when people who play GT4 go there and expect to match their video game laptimes There are some variations between the GT4 track and real life, but on the whole it's very close and good enough to learn reasonable lines to get around on your first go there.

I learned it on GT4 before going there a couple of years ago. I had played it a lot on GPL but with the more accurate, present-day version on GT4, I was able to really get some of the lines down. I also spent a lot of time watching on board videos.

As for your doubt that it will help... it definitely will help in my opinion. You should have a reasonable idea of the line and a good idea of where the track goes when you get there. This means you can focus more on motorbikes and quick cars flying up in your mirrors, and on changing conditions on the track, etc.

Whatever you do though, take it easy when you get there. You should have an idea of the line, but the individual bumps aren't all accurate in GT4, and some of them will have a much bigger effect on your car in real life, the tarmac is a lot more slippery in some places than others, and in the morning, shaded areas may be frosty, etc. There is always the chance of coming round a corner to an accident as well (we saw one pretty much every lap).

If you're sensible though, you'll be fine! And knowing the track a bit makes it a lot more fun. We were driving a 1.8 litre Mercedes convertible rental (best they could give us...) and we went past 911s, Impreza STis, Escort Cosworths and Focus RSs quite often because we knew where we were going and a lot of people didn't...

I think if it's RAC or FZ5 or LX6 that wins, we should just have all three.

I am interested, put me down for a spot please.

Looks nice I like the picture on the homepage, and the layout of the site looks nice and simple, easy to navigate...

Yeah, providing you're smooth with something like the DFP or G25, you shouldn't need to do as much correction. I have the force fairly low on the DFP, and I don't really have any problems correcting quickly enough. It's not perfect, and the FF can be notchy when it weights up, but for all intents and purposes it does the trick pretty nicely. I bought mine new and my Dad bought a reconditioned DFP off ebay, and interestingly, his feels smoother than mine. It's not gone wrong in the year he's had it either. Mine has been fine for the two years I've had it, too...

Just incase anyone else stumbles upon this thread looking for a link, here it is anyway:

http://www.liveforspeed.net/?page=patch_v

27.2 here. I found I got into a groove of keeping it going straight up and down, but then lost it when it got too fast.

Quote from marzman :

Animalls eat the same thing every day and it doesn't seem to harm then. Never heard an animall about his two pieces of fruit or about and never think of the different types of foodgroups

Interesting article on eating like animals:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6248975.stm

Weekends are pretty much always good for me; Friday afternoon or evening, anytime morning afternoon or evening on Saturday or Sunday. Weekdays not so good, have class a couple of evenings a week and often meetings etc weekday evenings.

Last edited by Michael Denham, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 14:30.

If you find the gym boring, try and find an indoor rock climbing gym. I was doing that for a year or so and got in really good shape, going three times a week for an hour or two. It's a lot more fun and a nice social atmosphere where I go too. That and some cycling had me at 185 - 190lbs (6ft 2in) and fairly toned which I was happy with. After about a year of being depressed, not exercising and not eating well, I'm at 235lbs and really out of shape too. Need to get back into that stuff....!

Yeah, I think we could just keep at roughly 80 manually and then speed up when we hit the exit of the last corner or the start line, whichever is preferred.

After a while you'll start to find out which servers always have good, clean racers on, and which aren't so good. Don't worry, it's not all like you've experienced so far!

Good advice so far. One thing I would add is to try the skidpad. Start circling the skidpad around the middle or towards the outside in 2nd gear, get to the limit of grip, then hit the throttle and practice controlling oversteer in there. With the XR GT, I often keep it at full throttle while drifting, as it doesn't have much power. With the GT Turbo, I usually lift off the throttle a bit to avoid spinning, especially at lower speeds. Try and keep roughly in your lane. Once you really have the hang of holding it at the right throttle and steering angle to maintain your course, you should be able to do laps of the thing sideways It's a nice place to practice because there are no bumps to throw you off, and lots of space.

Quote from JTbo :

Well, luckily there is this thing called reality, most likely I will never ever get even boat with 20hp Mercruiser in it

Talking of boats and reality....I was out with my Dad in his sailing boat, which has a small diesel engine. We filled up the tank with about $15 of diesel. As the guy next to us finished putting a couple of hundred dollars of petrol into his speedboat, he remarked that he wished it only cost him $15 gas for a day on the boat. He was really pissed when we told him that would last us through the rest of the season!

Quote from jayhawk :

DoN and his slow-mo vids.

Nothing beats those for me, but there are quite a few talented movie guys out there!

Your story reminds me of a recent one of mine. I was qualifying in LX6 at Westhill with maybe 10 others, all from the server's team. I came first in quali, and then promptly got kicked

Another thing to consider is that with the closing speed the GTRs have on the LX6s on the straights, by the time we've seen a blue flag, it's often only a second or so before a GTR comes flying by. Of course we'll try to work together to make the passes go smoothly, but we might not know of your presence in a GTR until you're right there.