I have noticed that in all online races I am driving with my foot to the floor, and other cars are passing me on the straights with ease. Here is what I have tried so far

1. The other cars may be drafting, but when I try do draft, the car ahead easily pulls away

2. I Created a "fake" deadzone for the gas pedal. (Basically calbrated it so that full throttle was at 3/4 throttle)

3. The worst track it happens at is Aston Club with the FOX. I have tried multiple setups, and have tinkered with the downforce (lowered it to zero even) and gearing but to no avail.

I'm a noob, so it might just be my driving skills, but I can easily keep up with other drivers in the turn, and can even get a run on them coming out of the turns only to see them pull away from me with ease.

Anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Firstly, are you using Logitech pedals?

Yea, I'm using the Logitech Momo racing. i forgot to mention that I have also tried using the pedals as seperate and combined

OK, I would be trying to eliminate the pedals as the cause. I had a similar problem with my Momo pedals until I got them replaced. I "fixed" them many times before that.
There could be one or two issues preventing top speed from being attained.
- Sometimes there is a problem with the centre of the calibration shifting. Despite your best efforts to counter the problem you could be suffering from this.
- Sometimes the potentiometer has come loose and no matter how hard you push the pedal, the maximum range is never reached.
- Dirty potentiometers can sometimes have gaps in their range, including at the beginning and end of their range.

Your problem is most likely to be the second one, though it could be all three

You could seek a replacement set of pedals or (if your warranty has expired and you don't feel like attempting to get a replacement from Logitech anyway), you could try to repair them yourself.

The reaosn why I assume that it is your pedals at fault is because of my own problems in the past with this issue. You won't even know there is a problem until you can't catch any of your rivals on a long straight, even when nailed to their tail. That sounds like what you have experienced.

To help determine if it's a problem with your pedals, turn on the option to show virtual pedals. I'm not at my gaming system and can't remember the exact setting but I think it's in the Options | Display screen. This turns on some coloured bars at the bottom right of the screen which shows how much pedal input LFS is detecting. The latest test patch has a useful feature where a small white cap is displayed at the top of each coloured bar when that pedal is at max input. If you're not seeing max input (full bar) when the pedals are floored and min input (no bar) when you're not touching the pedals, this points to a problem with the pedals: they either need to be recalibrated in Windows and/or LFS, or there is a more fundamental mechanical or electronic problem with the pedals themselves.

Other possible reasons :

- you're inadvertently braking by resting your foot on the brake pedal (check external view for brake lights on those cars that have them).
- you don't accelerate out of the corner as quickly as the other players.

It seems like this is a problem peculiar to Momo Racing pedals.
I had a similar problem with my Logi Momo Racing pedals last year - the accelerator would de-calibrate for no real reason and I'd lose top-end speed. After many re-calibrations in LFS, the problem kept returning (I didn't have the problem in other games btw, just LFS). I tried using official patches for the Profiler software (from the Logi site) to correct the problem but again the problem kept returning, even after much un-patching and re-patching etc. Eventually I stopped using the Profiler software altogether and I've not had the problem since. The performance of the wheel/pedals hasn't been adversely affected.

Well, after racing all last night, I just watched other drivers and comapred their speed at the end of the straights to mine. I was able to achieve the same speed so I guess I just need to get out of the turns quicker ;-) The other thing i noticed when watching the bars for the gas/brake/clutch on the bottom right is that when the clutch is engaged fully, if I stand on the gas the gas bar only goes as high as the clutch bar. I hope that makes sense... Same story with the brake.

If the bars are all reaching the same height that's a good thing as it means everything's calibrated properly. They represent the maximum values for each input and should all reach the same height when max'd out - if one bar isn't reaching the same height as the others when they're all max'd, then you'd have a problem

Just to discount the possibility - but, you're not sat on the grid waiting for the green light with your foot flat down are you? Revving constantly in the red zone causes engine damage which would affect top end power.

Strange problem, Jetta. I was sure you were going to say that the virtual pedals display showed that you weren't getting to maximum throttle, but it sounds like the pedal inputs are coming through just fine.

What speed do you get to at the end of the back straight at Blackwood in the FOX, for example? Depending on downforce this should be about 142mph, I think.

If you have discounted technical issues with your pedals and what not (Have you tried a spell using the keyboard or mouse. If you get the same result then it's your driving. If the mouse or keys are better then it's your pedals.) then try looking at your driving. The old adage of slow in fast out counts for alot.

This may sound backwards but slow down a bit. Take your time going throught the bandy stuff and work on getting your exit speed up. The faster you leave a corner the faster you will be down the straight. Just back off on your entry speed, try and be more technical throught bends rather than hammering on the brake and throwing it through the bends. Throwing the car around will not get you your ideal exit speed.

Also tyre pressures can effect your top speed by some considerable degree too. The higher the pressure the faster your straight line speed but the less mechanical grip you have. The lower the pressure the more mechanical grip but the lower high speed.

So prehaps you need to work on technique and also your setups. It's all about balancing a setup against the track requirements. You might think that Blackwood would be a low downforce circuit with that big long straight but my best times on BW have always been higher downforce to get through the bendy stuff. It's all about balancing everything against the need for speed against the need for mechanical grip.

HBope that helps.

If your pedal's pot(s) are in fact loose you will get varying range every time you press the pedal, regardless of whether or not the device is calibrated correctly. To compound this issue the auto calibration of the device will continually report a different range every time. This can affect not only throttle, but engine braking and idle speed too.

In your first post you mentioned good exit speed and drafting. If you in fact have a better exit speed than the opponent and you are in his draft and he still manages to drive off into the distance it sounds like a pedal issue. To test the theory go online with a friend and share the same setup. See if you can draft him on a long straight. If he still pulls away from you using the same set then it's likely to be your pedals at fault. This is how I discovered my own Momo problem. Up until that point I thought I was just a shitty driver who couldn't quite match it with the faster guys. Once I fixed (and later replaced) the pedals in question my results turned around overnight. I'm sure there's many Momo and DFP owners who are faster than they know, all due to their faulty pedals.

Of course it won't hurt to analyze your driving too, but I'd be making sure about the pedals before feeling too confident in a race.

Quote from Gunn :

If your pedal's pot(s) are in fact loose you will get varying range every time you press the pedal, regardless of whether or not the device is calibrated correctly

Gunn, just to clarify: if this is the problem, careful inspection of the virtual pedals display would show what was going on, right?

I only ask because I like your story about losing races due to your pedals malfunctioning -- I tell myself this all the time, but sadly it doesn't seem to be true.

Quote from jtr99 :

Gunn, just to clarify: if this is the problem, careful inspection of the virtual pedals display would show what was going on, right?

I only ask because I like your story about losing races due to your pedals malfunctioning -- I tell myself this all the time, but sadly it doesn't seem to be true.

When you calibrate you move the pedals (and therefore the pots) through a particular range. If your pedals all of a sudden can only move 90% of the range, your callibration will be set for that range. Now this is fine if your range never moves again, but in the case of the Momo (and first generation DFP) pedals, the pot is likely to climb out of it's place under pressure and not always report exactly the same range.
Let's go back to our calibration stage now and consider that we had 90% of our normal range, but it was calibrated to that so in LFS all would work fine. - - - Let's say now we go to race again, only this time the pot has slipped a little further out and we are only able to rotate the pot through 85% of its range. The pot is calibrated for a larger range but it never reaches the pinnacle so you never quite get 100% acceleration. *Just to clarify, now that you are only getting 85% of the normal range you should notice in LFS that the pedal meter is not quite reaching the maximum. It was when you calibrated it earlier but now the range is not as great and a re-calibration is needed. So what happens next time you race? The loose potentiometer is still going to report a random range and just a little extra-hard push might be enough to force the pot further and once again move the goal posts. You'll go mad recalibrating all the time. Fix the pot, or even better: ask Logitech for a replacement set of pedals (ask for revision B DFP pedals, they have better pots and they can't come loose).

When my pedals were like this it made me insane. I kept pushing harder and becoming more efficent but would rarely reach my old PBs and couldn't catch people even when nailed to their tail! And just as bad is the flip side; you back off the throttle and ease the car around a sharp bend only to find yourself unusually understeering of the track. Your throttle never relaxes all the way back to idle so your engine braking (and cornering ability) is affected. All of this over a bit of crappy plastic! If you are sure your pedals are like this then the answer is: Fix, replace or suffer.

Thanks, great advice and very clear.