Since i haven't exactly raced in Real(apart from the odd Kart race) I couldn't really answer this.

Actually yes, but mostly in top level like Greger Huttu who did some laps in some Formula with comparable times against the real life racers.

Yes.

Examples:
Rudy van Buren
Norbi Kiss
Tommy Ostgaard
Scott Andrews
Wyatt Gooden

I dare say that's because they have "natural talent" rather than just by practising for days on end but yes they correlate pretty well. From the small amount of karting I've done I dare say I'm better IRL than I am online, but I may reconsider that after I've hopefully done some proper karting next year

EDIT: The skills are exactly the same, the only real difference is the physical side (which is the bit I tend to struggle with IRL :P)

In short words, no. But, the opposite is true...

You can find someone who has natural talent by looking at simulators, but if you get a Super World-Recordist from a sim, its no sure that he will be "good" on real life...


Be a good/great driver in real life, needs talent to find grip at any time, learn tracks in short time (30 min or less?), etc...
To be a badass in a simulator, you just need... Training... You goes from a newbie to a Pro just training, the only difference between a good and a bad driver is the time required to learn the tricks...

I don't know about sim talent, but I had a interesting situation last winter. I encountered some black ice on the road while braking, my wheels locked up and I began to go sideways for a while. I instinctively released the brakes and made a quick wheel turn to counteract the slide. These are reflexes from lfs, so in my opinion you do learn something from the sims you can use in real life. Mainly how the car will react under some circumstances.

If by talent you mean the natural grasp of how to drive fast, then absolutely yes. A sim-racing champion might not become a top racing driver in the real world, but I bet he'd do quite well. OTOH, it only works with people who need only a few laps to kick ass in a sim, anything beyond this is called practice...

Every time I see IRL I think of the Indy Racing League.. so I'm going to avoid that abbreviation in this post

Racing on a simulator will allow you to practice certain driving tactics that you hope to never practice in real life for those of us who will never do anything but drive on public roads. The poster 2 posts above me shows this point well. That was likely the only time that you had lost control of a real car and your LFS experiance helped you through it instinctivly.

The same is true with some karting that I did this summer in Dover. They had a very smooth track surface and higher than normal powered, RWD carts on a small oval and every time you went around a corner you would lose the rear end. While 30 and 40 year olds struggled with it (without any racing experiance or simulator expriance I assume), I did quite well to counter act the oversteer. I wouldn't have been able to catch on as quickly if it wasn't for my LFS experiance.

In real life I think racing is easier. I can feel the G-forces on me and from that decide how to steer and utilize the throttle and brakes rather than what I'm seeing like I would in a simulator. This is something that has to be learned in order translate simulator tallent to real racing tallent. Learning to make do with only your vision is a tallent which real life drivers must learn in order to do well at Sim-racing.

It's definitly a shorter learning curve for those with simulator tallent as opposed to those with none when first attempting real life racing

Jann Mardenborogh just won his first Brit GT race so I'd say yes.

I am also convinced if I got hold of someone like Sinbad on here (who has not just speed but an understanding of racing that translates to reality) and with a few ££s could make him a race winner.

GT academy. the current winners all race lmp or gt3

Quote from Franky.S :

GT academy. the current winners all race lmp or gt3

Has to be said that Lucas and Jann did a bit of karting when they were younger kids. That does mean they had access to real life driving and feel at an early age.

I still think a pure simmer can make it IRL, if they have the right attitude.

nope, far too many vairables to compare it to real life, give it 10-15 years then it might be closer....

but like michael mc donalds sings... " ain't nothin like the real thing "

100% yes. I'm better in real life than I would have been without LFS. Actually, I'm probably not any more, but I was better in my first couple of years than I would have been, because sims taught me setups, car control, race craft, emotion-control, damage limitation and so on.

Plus you can try things in a sim that you'd never risk in reality, due to time/money/injury holding you back. Much easier to train your brain at home!! Although it does depend on you driving realistically, and not just taking advantage of sim traits like silly setups or cutting corners massively

Quote from J@tko :

Examples:
Rudy van Buren
Norbi Kiss
Tommy Ostgaard
Scott Andrews
Wyatt Gooden

More LFS guys like Thomas Arends (Dutch GT championship) and Phillip Ellis (F3 Euro)

Quote from CrAZySkyPimp :

More LFS guys like Thomas Arends (Dutch GT championship) and Phillip Ellis (F3 Euro)

Ah yes, thanks! Was racking my brain to think of more people. And Valteri Bottas too!

Vale already had a decent amount of karting on higher level but Thomas and Phillip pretty much did simracing before their RL career really got going

Dennis (Lind) would be upset you didn't mention him. Also Kevin Korjus, currently in FR3.5 and has already had an F1 test by age 19 (Actually he was 18 at the time).

Most of these names throughout the thread came from people who already had a background in real racing and then tried sim racing and was fast there too. The opposite effect (which I think is the main question) is a bit harder to find. I know someone mentioned Greger and that was an accurate test IMO. Also Teemu mentioning Thomas Arends and Philip Ellis is good because they literally just started in real life yet have been sim racing for years.

Well there is a close link between sim and real life fast in the sim likely to be fast in the real thing.

Slow in the sim still slow as **** in the real thing (aka me).

I'm fast in both worlds but my name isn't on anybody's list.
There are things that transfer both ways but you have to know what you are doing to begin with either way. What makes a lot of guys good is their ability to learn quickly and adapt to changes. Either way the basics between LFS and reality are there, however there are some differences to adjust for. You can't see, hear, or feel things as well in LFS which makes it interesting and gives a challenge on its own.

I'd say so, at least once my senses became desensitized to the assault on them, and I broke myself of the habit of just running headlong into every corner, restarting and trying again until I didn't crash anymore. I was pretty darn slow initially, and it still took me a few years to build my pace, but I had that foundation of the basics. I eventually became a pretty decent motorbike racer, running about 1 second off the top experts at my home track. And they probably had more power than me too.

Physical fitness was always my weakness, though. I always got tired very quickly. I laughed when someone once asked me to be on their endurance team for a 4HR race.

Quote from PMD9409 :

Also Kevin Korjus, currently in FR3.5 and has already had an F1 test by age 19 (Actually he was 18 at the time).

didn't know that Kevin had a sim racing career behind him.

Quote from -NightFly- :

didn't know that Kevin had a sim racing career behind him.

Was in LFS and also more recently in iR.

also nick catsburg.

and dave williams making it into gt academy

Even that I suck hard in LFS I've noticed that this has been helpful for my own racing. I'm not driving karting more than 3-5 times per year and there's way more experienced real-life drivers than me, I still find myself in front of them at races. I've hold the lap record of my local track for some time too.

Quote from Nadeo4441 :

I don't know about sim talent, but I had a interesting situation last winter. I encountered some black ice on the road while braking, my wheels locked up and I began to go sideways for a while. I instinctively released the brakes and made a quick wheel turn to counteract the slide. These are reflexes from lfs, so in my opinion you do learn something from the sims you can use in real life. Mainly how the car will react under some circumstances.

This. LFS quite possibly saved my life and my wife too. Last week I was moving so I had this 18 foot UHaul truck and I was towing a trailer behind it too. We were crusing along a highway out in the country of East Texas and the rain just started pouring down. I cut my speed down to about 40 mph or so and I'm coming down this gentle hill into a left hand bend. I see a little water on the edge of my lane but didn't really have anywhere to go. Sure enough, I hit that puddle and it's a lot deeper than it looks and we start sliding right up onto the curb. I felt this horrible lurch and I just *knew* we were going to roll. My reflexes kicked in and I did the same as you, and was just barely able to hold the road. I can't say one way or the other about racing, but getting those "instincts" down kept me, my wife, and my cats from getting scattered along the roadside with all of our belongings.

The answer to the question: Possibly yes


As I have drove reverse and 2wheelings on real life (also have done some stunts too, but that broke my car lol), basically the sim itself cant be what real life is, but the feelings and the way how you use the sim is transferable