Quote from wsinda :

Seven seconds slower than AI is a lot. Better set the AI level to low or medium. When you can beat them, switch to high.

Some tips for going online:

- Choose one car & track combo and practice well on that. When you know how to drive decent laptimes, you can start learning other tracks. (The CTRA servers are very good, but they have track rotation, which is a disadvantage for newbies.) The combo should be popular, so that when you go online, you will find a server and people to race against.

- If you're not sure your laptime is acceptable, then join a server and just spectate. After watching a few races you know if you can keep up with the slower guys.

- If you are one of the slowest in the pack, then drive the car to the side of the track when the race starts. Let everyone pass, then go after them. (If you drive consistently and avoid the crashes, you have a good chance of finishing mid-field or better. )

These are good tips. I've been trying to learn one track / ccar at a time. I'm really interested in open wheel so that's what I've been working on (FBM and FOX). Practicing yesterday I cut my time down to 5 seconds back of the AI. Not great but an improvement.

I also took at look at the AI in Analyze for speed so I know where I am losing time so I'll start working on those corners tonight.

Quote from Gnomie :

If you want to beat the AI, it often helps to get up beside them and take the racing line. This will cause them to think they're in trouble (since you're blocking the race line) and often brake down hard.

And don't worry about laptimes yet. Put priority on getting consistent first, and then the laptimes will follow. Good luck!

I want to beat them by driving better so I can start racing online. Until I can beat the AI, there's no point in going online since I'll only get killed and cause people to wreck.

Well right now I can't pass them because I can't keep up with them. Just wanted to make sure its possible and that they don't have some kind of cheat code to give them an advantage with the default setup.

I guess I really do stink

I'm still trying to get better at this game. I've been practicing following the best driving line using the "4" view to show me the line. My question is should I be able to match the times of the AI if we both use the default setup and the ai is set to pro (or fast or whatever the hardest AI is). The reason I ask is I'm still 7 seconds behind the AI and I just want to make sure the AI doesn't get some extra advantage so I'll never be able to catch them without changing my car setup.

Quote from Bob Smith :

Positive 'live' camber, or positive camber 'adjust'. I suspect the latter, and that the camber is actually still slightly negative while on track.

You are correct, positive camber adjust but the live setting is still negative.

The whole reason I asked the question is because I'm trying to learn how to setup a car. The car I've chosen is the FBM and it seems the only way I can get even tire temps on that car at Westhill is with POSITIVE camber. This is completely opposite of what I think it should be.

Now, I'm sure part of it is that I'm starting with the default FBM setup and that will change as I make other adjustments but for now the only way to get even tire temps is with positive camber but that results in uneven tire load. I'm open to suggestions.

BTW, the reason I've not just used a better setup is twofold. First, it seems every setup for the FBM I've tried is way too loose for me. Second, and more importantly I really want to get an understanding of how to set a car up and I really think the only way to do this is to actually do it. I'll take any advice I can get.

Quote from RE Amemiya :

what good is even tempurature if you never have a full contact patch? I believe that a setup where your ttires are flat as much as possible(iin turns) is better than one that heats evelny(for fast laps at least).

The only argument I can think of is that 80% of a warm tire has more grip than 100% of a cool tire. The numbers may vary but at some point part of a warm tire is better than all of a cold tire. But, that's why I asked the question to begin with.

Continuing my learning and reading of LFS I've got yet another question. Many of the articles I've read say to check the tire temps of each tire at the exit of the corner that heats each specific tire the most. If the temps are not evenly spread, you need to adjust camber.

My question is if the tire temps are really the best way to check for camber or would the tire load display be better? The reason I ask this is that after running down a long straight and then making a hard left turn, the outside of the RF tire will not be nearly as hot as the inside before you start the turn so the chances of it heating up that much in the turn doesn't seem possible to me. Then again, I really don't know much which is why I ask the question.

How exactly do I use the skid pad to setup a car? A friend of mine told me to take my car out on a skid pad and set the springs up. How exactly do I use the skid pad to do this? My initial thought is no matter how fast I drive I can eventually get the car fly off the circle. Sorry for the noob question but I really don't have a clue as you can see.

Quote from Forbin :

Based on my experience on an AI-only server, the AI can be very picky about setup. In many cases the AI was actually faster with Race_S than my own setup.

So how did you tell them to use Race_S rather than the default setup?

Quote from delray25 :

Use your preferred setup and make sure the AI use the same.

Given that the AI and you now have the same setup, you should be able to whip the pro AI. If you can't, practice until you can.

Have you tried http://setupfield.teaminferno.hu/ for setups?

What's your preferred car/track combo?

There is no one "best" setup, I guess. Everyone has their own way of going around a track and needing to feel what the car does, or is going to do. A bit (or, rather, a lot) of experimenting with different sets will uncover your preferences.

Thanks for the link but I'm trying to refrain from getting other peoples setups as it just extends my ignorance as to how to tweak a setup to be exactly how I want it. I will however use them as general guides to see how other people approach a certain track.

Quote from evans :

The thing is Jarmenia, that you probably haven't got the line down.
Everyone here is rambling on about setup changes etc., things that could definitely gain you some time, yes, but it isn't necessarily what's going to make you a better driver.

You say you have the line, but first of all, ask yourself if you have the timing? Are you braking as late as possible? Are you minimizing your free roll? Are you getting on the throttle as fast as possible and as much as possible after every single corner? Are you getting the best out of yourself?

This very question is primary. Every thing else comes second. You need to be pushing yourself to the absolute limit to be pushing the setup to the absolute limit. If you're not doing that, small setup changes are going to do very little for you.

Obviously the paradox here is that you are never getting the best out of yourself - there's always room to push more, concentrate harder. But the key point here is that you are probably not pushing yourself hard enough just yet to be worrying about setups.

Training is the key to getting better of course, but I have a few links that might help you:

http://www.virtualracersedge.com/driving_tips.htm
A series of driving tips.

http://www.virtualracersedge.com/physics_of_racing.htm
"The Physics of Racing" is a very famous series of articles from a software engineer and sparetime racer. It's very heavy on math, but the first couple of chapters are still essential to any driver.

These two links are here to help you with the same thing. You might know how to drive the car, but do you know why that is correct, or maybe why it is incorrect? These links are going to tell you this.

And finally when you want to start making your own setups and setup tweaks, here is one guide to get you started:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/cbarnett/SetupMatrix.html

Hope this is of help to you and other people here.

Thanks for the great info. I know I don't have the line down yet so I'm not making any real tweaks to the setup. I asked this more for the time that I do start drivig more consistently around the ideal line.

Kind of a follow up question, are the default setups pretty good? Should I be able to whip the pro AI using a default setup? How close should I be to the WR with the default setups? Obviously the answer is going to very based on car and track but I'm looking more for a generality.

Thanks for all the replies guys. The setup guides I've read are very detailed in what all the different settings do but for someone like me that doesn't really know where to start this type of advice is very helpful.

Thanks for the help guys. I have been using LFS Analyzer and for the most part I'm still working on getting the right line consistently based on what the WR holder does. Once I get that done I'll start looking at all your suggestions on increasing speed. I'm currently driving on Westhill International with the FBM and basically I'm driving around in 6th gear with my foot to the floor for the whole track except for the sharp corner before the long straight with the Start/Finish line on it. I'm still using the default setup by the way.

This is hypothetical but I'm trying to understand how to get the most out of a car (open wheeled). Lets say you've worked hard and are finally driving the correct line on the course but you're still too slow. There are no visible problem turns (car gets loose too tight ect). How do you start to tune the car for general speed increase.

Now obviously once one adjustment is made, the rest of the car will need adjustments to correct the problems caused by the first adjustment but I'm looking for the answer to where to start if your biggest problem is speed not handling.

My first guess would be lose some down force and then try and correct for other handling issues with other adjustments. Is this correct?

So I guess the follow up question would be what's the best way to get better racing in traffic without wrecking people on line since the AI doesn't seem to be the answer?

Quote from buedi :

They are still dumb as bread. You see it also when you do the Training Lessons (Overtake XY Lessons) when they crash into you. It´s really annoying. But then somebody will come and say it´s a Online Simulator

Thanks for the response. I know its an on line simulator but I'd like to try and be courteous to other drivers and not cause wreck after wreck online until I can imporve against the AI. I don't want the title of wrecker associated with my name.

So I read that patch Y fixed the AI and I figured I'd give LFS another shot. I'm not very good and keep waiting for the AI to get better so I can practice against them before going on line as I hate wrecking people simply because I don't have my car setup right or I don't really know what I'm doing. That being said, if I set up a 20 person race all with AI there is always a big wreck at turn 1 and throughout the race you'll see AI run into each other. I could understand this behaviour if I was on the track since I'm not an experienced racer but the AI should be able to co-exist with other AI drivers only shouldn't it?

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to keep working at it. My goal is within 2 seconds of the WR so 1:01x would be great.

Quote from Gabkicks :

yes, sets made specificly for a track are better than the default setup.

default set is no excuse for getting a 1'09 around blackwood tho

Ok, that's what I was looking for. What should I be able to get with a default setup around blackwood?

I'm just getting back into LFS after never really having any success. I've gotten my time at Blackwood GP down to 1:09, whe WR is 0:59. I've looked at my runs in analyze for speed as well as f1perfview. While my lines are far from perfect, I'm not convinced that I can drive the necessary lines using the default setup. This leads me to the following question...

How good are the default FO8 setups? Should I be able to run within 2 seconds of the WR or is 10 seconds the point where I need to start tweaking my setup?

When I looked at the analizers, they showed the WR carrying more speed into every single corner. This leads me to believe that default setups are more stable and therefore slower. Is my thinking correct?

Thanks for the help,

John

Hi there,

I'm relativly new to LFS, I've had it for about a year but never had the time to devote to really learn it. Now that I've got more time on my hands, I'm looking for a league and / or a team to join. Unfortunatly my knowledge about how to tweak setups ect is very limited and therefore my ability to run faster lap times is as well. I hope that by joining a league / team just chatting with some of the other members I'll be able to pick up pointers and things to work on. Do any of you have a recomendation?

Thanks,

John