Been driving the GTR:s on Aston Nat. for the last few days (nothing else to do), and I've noticed that I am several seconds slower than everybody else. This happens on any track with any car. For now I will just go into the GTR:s (only servers with more than 6-8 people in them with resonable ping).

Up to the first split I'm over 2 seconds (up to 3 sometimes) behind most guys in the FXR and 1.5 to 2 seconds behind in the FZR. I think I lose quite a lot of time in the first corner. For me I can't keep the car from oversteering there no matter what set, speed, throttle use, car. Actually that seems to be a problem I have with just about every car on any track with any set at any (fast) speed.

I've tried the ghost-mod out to improve my racing live and braking points, and when I use those of other people I cannot maintain the line even if I'm not at their speed my car just wont hold the line (brake slightly before, throttle slightly afterwards, meaing I'm coasting longer at lower speed and still can't maintain a good line).

I've attached a hotlap replay to show where how just about every lap I drive goes. I did not bother to heat the tyres properly because I knew even with heated tyres the effects are the same.


Could my wheel be the cause of this?
Without Force Feadback I can't feel anything from the car and the wheels movement, kind of hard to describe, feels like I'm moving something that doesn't respond right away to my movements and I have to correct it way to often. Kind of like moving a box attached to a rope on a low friction area, it's easy to move over the area but very hard with fine control of it. And of course when not using Force Feedback I'm going to spinout without anything telling me that the car is doing so.

If I however use Force Feedback I can feel the wheel telling me that the car is about to spin out and naturally I try to keep the car from
spinning out and lose time in the process. When I do lose grip I let the Force Feedback to sort out some of the trouble (just keep the wheel where it is and go full throttle and voila - back in control. After a few seconds.)

I can't afford a new wheel because I'm buying a laptop next week. I need it for school and lots of other stuff. I only use this computer I'm sitting at right nopw for gaming (and everything else until I get the laptop).


Is there anything I can do or am I f***ed?

(somewhat long post...)

1) I think your driving still is..... a little bit dizzy. I know that GTRs are quite hard to control, but try to keep the car out of any drifts.

2) As you already said, yur are losing a lot in T1. You need to brake there at approx 150meters before and get as close to the inner kerb as possible. If you are doing it right, you should be able to drive with 4th gear. Just apply full throttle there. When your tires are heated properly, you can go through it with pedal on the metal. Control the car slide by steering and when you see you are oversteering just turn slightly more left.

3) Your next big time lost is at the last turn. These esses are VERY tricky, but the best line it following.
GETTING IN - get on the left side and brake when your fornt wheels touches the red/blue kerb.
GOING THROUGH - try to trailbrake and
touch the inner kerb. Then apply a lot of throttle and go on the kerb on the right.
EXIT - get as close as possible to the tires, but dont hit them This is the most difficult passage, because if you are too fast, you will go to the tires and nothing can save you..

I made a illustration of the last turn, so check it. It can be driven though on FULL throtte whn you master it.

And overall, you are good. Keep practising and you gonna beat me once! And my last suggestion, practice with XRR or FZR, not with FXR, its way lower......

Im not a "WR guy" or something, but I drive A LOT on AS Nat, so I have some skills there

Quote from DanneDA :

Been driving the GTR:s on Aston Nat. for the last few days (nothing else to do), and I've noticed that I am several seconds slower than everybody else. This happens on any track with any car. For now I will just go into the GTR:s (only servers with more than 6-8 people in them with resonable ping).......

Hi
I took a look at the replay and there were a couple of things i noticed
1. Your driving is very aggressive, it feels like your wrestling the car around the track. Try to drive a couple of laps at 90% of max, just try to drive the correct line through turns but do it in a controlled way. Gradually increase the speed but try to keep it smooth.
2. It's the exit speed of a turn that matters. For example, in the last chicane your entry speed is to high which means your exit speed gets very low. Brake earlier and let the car "flow" through the chicane and gradually increase throttle to get a better exit.
3. Never apply trottle before u are completely sure that you can keep full throttle til the end of the turn. You never wanna go on and off with throttle

Just keep practicing and eventually you'll get faster

/Mattemann1

hey im fairly new to LFS and i dont know what trailbraking is, you mentioned it in the last post...

wee frase

EDIT: 2 posts previous...

Quote from gingerman87 :

hey im fairly new to LFS and i dont know what trailbraking is, you mentioned it in the last post...

wee frase

EDIT: 2 posts previous...

approaching a corner you hit your brakes and then when starting to turn in, you slowly (gradually) let off the brakes. not "no braking" at once and coasting to the apex, but smoothly letting the brake go, all the way to the apex...

cool, i get you. thanks

Your line looks good, try a few laps and try and avoid the tyre's skidding especially at t1

Dont overdrive the car, large and sudden steering Inputs ,skidding tyres etc..
As Matteman said and the OAP Jackie Stewart said in top Gear" never get on the throttle through a corner untill you know you don't have to take your foot off it".

Wise words and VERY good advice.

Best thing is enjoy your racing ,have a laugh, and practice practice practice, respect the other drivers, it gets payed back big time


John

There's some things to note about some of the turns at Aston National. For instance Turn 1. Normally, the optimum line through a corner is one that allows you to leave the corner as fast as possible. This would imply taking a line such that you are exiting the corner straighter than you are entering. In plain english, you should apex after the geometric apex (the actual geometric center of the corner) in most cases. However, T1 at Aston National opens up, so you should apex early, put your foot down, keep turning and trust that you won't run out of track. After a couple of attempts you'll get it right.

This is an article very much worth reading, even for experienced drivers to serve as a reminder:
http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving/driving_cornering.shtml

Hope that helps a bit with T1.

Quote from Chaos :

approaching a corner you hit your brakes and then when starting to turn in, you slowly (gradually) let off the brakes. not "no braking" at once and coasting to the apex, but smoothly letting the brake go, all the way to the apex...

This is a very good explanation Chaos. Because what happens when you lift the brakes at once when steering into a corner is that the weight of the car suddenly moves to the outside of the corner, which results often in a brake out. And we all know that sliding is often not the fastest way

Just keep practising and whatching others drive and you will learn it too, I'm sure!

Try and stick with one car. They each have very distinctive handling characturistics. The FZR, rear wheel drive, rear engined needs carefull setup balancing to get the best of it throught the corners whilst the XRR is front engined rear wheel drive. It can be faster through the nendy stuff but the FZR can out strip it down the straights if you are driving it right.

I was an FZR driver so if you choose that car I can probs help you a bit with that car. I don't have LFS installed atm (Crap computer) but I was playing past the last patch and got some good times on AST. NAT. (For a mouser).

So. Choose a car that you can put some time and effort into. Get used to it's characturistics, how it moves through a corner. Don't force the cars to do anything, all cars have only a finite amount of grip and as LFS is as realistic as you are going to get in regards to mechanical attributes then these cars will not react like an arcade racer. You need to put time and effort into learning the cars and the tracks.

Driving skill count for (For narative ease I shall split this down the middle) 50% of your track speed. You need to be able to drive the car properly to get the best from it. Very often you need to do the opposite of what you would think. SLOW DOWN. Don't carry so much speed into the corners. Let the car drive arond them and get your exit speed up. Greater exit speed, faster straight line speed.

Be smooth. Jabbing at the brake and the accelerator and the steering does not a fast driver make. Learn your brake points, learn your turn in points and learn your foot down points. By just looking at your driving you should be able to take chunks out of your time without having to touch your setup.

Which brings me nicely onto the other 50% of the LFS experiance. The setups.

I thouroughly reccomend learning how to setup your cars. Read the manuals that are available and mess around with the settings on the track. (Preferable an empty server, other racers can get a bit annoyed if you continually get in the way whilst your trying out new sets and whatnot). The sets are such an intergral part of LFS that you will never be able to catch the fast guys unless you can adapt your sets to the situation at hand. It's all well and good 'inheriting' setups but you will get so much more from LFS if you learn what all the functions do yourself. That way you can go to any track with any car and adapt it to your own driving style.

So. Pick a car. (FZR was my favorite. Thats the car I can help you with the setup. With the other GT's I can only be of general assistance)

Learn the track and learn how to setup.

Any specific setup questions come back here and we'll see if we can help.

And above all. Practice. Practice and practice some more.

Happy racing.