First of all, i'm not a quick driver on LFS, just average. And I race in LFS about 5 or 6 hours a week, always multiplayer. Been user of LFS since 6 months.

Might be a stupid question but:

I always had been a very calm real life driver, (very soft on pedals, shifting at low [normal] revs, etc) but I think i'm getting the bad habit to be a bit more aggressive at the car since i using LFS, wich definitivelly is not good.

Does did happening to somebody else? Did LFS influenced the way you use your car ?

In my opinion the level of simulation/realism in LFS is so -terrible- close to real life that i'm quite sure things like this doesnt happen to me only.

Yes, I think so. (in answer to the thread title )
I am a lot more aware of witch set of wheels needing tracktion (just use "f" in game ), and car physics. Let car settle before turns, what NOT do to in turns and stuff...
I also think that I am a bit more concerned of the exit of turns (having spare "grip" when exiting (having the possipillity to turn wider AND tighter).
I don't think that I am driving faster, but safer at the same speed.

I call people "f---ing noobs" when they cut me off in traffic

I suspect you won't get too many replies from this thread as from my in-game observtion is the majority of drivers can't actually drive in real life judging from their poor techniques which no-doubt come from full throttle all the way round arcade games.

I have altered my actual driving technique using slow in fast out more consciously and better apexing. This has also drifted (pun intended) into my motorcycling...

im smoother, better with lines and think more in real life races. its helped, alot.

i know a guy who used to be really ragged, then he bought a MOMO and played LFS and rF for a bit and now hes pretty quick in real life.

I am alot smoother with the inputs(still rough) and shift at redline every time I drive my car... but then LFS never really changed the revving and I have always done that. I am usually churning the rubber at every stop sign or light taking off and I will chirp second. I do the speed limit, but around everything. Though there wa a 15MPH corner that I could only take at 50. I never heard tires moan so loud in my life, I think they could have used more pressure =P

I ride my bike more to the max now!

3 1/2 years of LFS has definatly had a positive impact on my real life driving. I have better control of my car, I am more aware of the traffic around me and can better anticipate the stupid ass moves the average american driver makes on a daily basis. More then once I have been able to identify and avoid a bad situation because of the time I have spent in LFS. Although I do some times drive a little more agressivly then I need to its not the norm and find that I often drive at a more sedate pace now then before I started playing. Racing is for the track, not the street, at least for me.

i started driving around the same time i started playing lfs

After a lot of mrt5 I improved by one second on a 30s lap with a go kart ! It was month that I was stuck to 30.0 and then 29.0 ! Yeah !
The good news is my rubbbish diesel is not in lfs !

I think my fuel ecnomy on daily driving is improved, due to better lines through corners and crossroads -> less throttle needed. On the other hand, all research that LFS and other sims have been inspired (finding the braking points, tyre deformation, fwd drifting, trailbraking, heel and toe, 'rallying', stunts like 360 or reverse 180, etc etc..) has propably cost me more fuel I will ever able to take back with economy driving.

Driving today is lot more fun than it used to be, but I have a feeling that I would drive slower and safer(?) without any sim experience.

edit:
I had never oversteered rwd car before, but with experience from sim racing, after 2min testing I could drift my friend's Sierra on ice lots better than him. I remember his look when I said it's my first time

lfs hasn't changed my driving in RL at all

Neither mine.

Vain

Did LFS changed the way you drive in real life?Not a bit, I think it's important that most sane people can draw a distinction between real life driving and a sim racing game on a computer.

I use LFS to quench my thirst for driving quickly. Especially since I got a speeding ticket, as I've had my license for under 2 years, if I get another one I lose it.

Did LFS change the way I drive? No, did it make me think about how i drive more? Yes. When on the road I have always been fast and aggresive, I am naturally inclined to push the limits of the car on a given road. Living where I do the country road commutes provide ample opertunity to push the car at or below the speed limit. I am the most economical driver in the family, my anticipation and prediction are the best of all my friends. As such I need less steering input, less acceleration and less braking to be as fast or faster than those I know. Since passing my test I am the one that the family calls on to chauffer as my style on the road is so smooth. All this is improved by LFS forcing me to think about how the car is 'feeling' at any given point. But the things I have learned in LFS and other simulators have only given me confidence, not changed the way I drive.

It has not changed the way I drive, but now I have a better understanding of what is happening with mass transfer and grip changes.

But in a real circuit the thing changes, in June I went to a Honda Test Day in the Jarama Circuit, where I could test a 150HP Honda Accord for some laps, and I'm sure LFS has helped me picking the right line. It was a totally different and exciting sensation of course, but at some level everything was so natural and I didn't felt like a stranger in the racetrack.

I think it made me more aware of what things do/could happen and why, from the phyiscal point of view. I know alot more about the effects of "setup" changes (durr, tyre pressure), but ofcourse that doesn't mean I try to apply the LFS ideals

From the driving itself, I don't think much has changed, as I was already playing LFS when I got my drivers license. But a hint might be that the mandatory driving-safety training (simluating snowy/wet tarmac grip) was a piece of cake for me.

I still don't have enough opportunity/balls to mess around with left foot braking and/or heel-toeing, but I do revmatch (blip the throttle) when downshifting now, when I don't need the brakes in the current situation.

Quote from AndroidXP :

From the driving itself, I don't think much has changed, as I was already playing LFS when I got my drivers license. But a hint might be that the mandatory driving-safety training (simluating snowy/wet tarmac grip) was a piece of cake for me.

Same here. Got my license only months ago. When I was on the "slippery track" the instructor couln't spin me off even with the help of handbrake,. Everyone else got fooled but I felt the countersteering and correcting the car somehow natural, so natural I had to think very hard when he asked where should I pull the wheel when the back slips out

But I think LFS hasn't got any negative or dangerous effects on my driving, positive if anything.

Yes, it has a little, if I was late, I would drive a bit faster, and be more confident in taking the corners, without worrying if I lose control of it.

And because of instinct reactions on racing games over the years *before I got into LFS* It's adapted to my driving, and I am able to be more calm, collected, when doing emergency brakings.

In the beginning of this summer when I didn't have internet connection I couldn't then play LFS online, I noticed that my speeds got faster on public roads. Not that I would drive like maniac, but still faster than normally. Going through traffic circles and trying to find the optimum line through it, stuff like that. When I got back to LFS my speeds dropped back to normal. I guess I need the daily dose of speed and rwd action

nope, the vehicles in game have 2 too many wheels. a game is a game, and i let it rest at that.

LFS or any other sim didn't change my RL driving.
What I'm little afraid of threads like this is that some kid will read this and think "hell, I can drive pretty good that FZR so I can drive at least some 300 hp beast in RL" and end up dead around some tree beside the road.
Maybe it's just my crazy way of thinking

Quote :

What I'm little afraid of threads like this is that some kid will read this and think "hell, I can drive pretty good that FZR so I can drive at least some 300 hp beast in RL" and end up dead around some tree beside the road.

I think the difference between reality and virtuality are wider than left wing liberal tree hugging lesbians would have us believe.

I dont think LFS has changed the way I drive at all, but then I already was a veteran of the race track when I first picked up LFS though.

The difference I think with me is I dont see racing as an excuse to drive fast 'because I can handle it', i'm quite the opposite. You see when I race I have these run off areas, armcos, roll cages*, no oncoming traffic and an ambulance on stand by...

*not in karts

Nowadays I somehow feel more confident driving my Citroën BX on dirt roads with the tail out... probably something to do with LFS.