Hello everyone. Are you having difficulty driving your racing cars? Here are many tips to get you in the groove.
Tip 1: EASY ON THE GAS
This may seem obvious, but many people forget it. This is especially important in the Formula XR, and V8. Slicks have a lot of grip, but lose a lot when skidding. If you break traction while accelerating, the cars WILL snap oversteer. While it is good to do a small burnout to pre-heat the drive wheels for more control, it is not a good thing when you spin wheels too much, don't get the holeshot, and try to make up by cutting turn one; or worse, spin out at the start line and cause a crash.
Tip 2: RESIST THE URGE TO DRIFT
A lot of people forget this. The fastest way around a tarmac track is to drive just a tad over but not way above the limit of traction. If the slicks tires slide, they lose a lot of grip, causing the car to spin or straighten up. You can try drifting, but you will only succeed in smacking the wall or the tire barriers. Also, unlike road tires, slicks have very thin tread! About a quarter's thickness (a few mm for metric people) is the tread you have. It WILL wear out in seconds due to D1-style drifting.
There is a type of drifting you do with slicks, though. This drifting is when the tires are just over the limit of grip, they slide very little, but they don't blow smoke and mark the road, either. This is the fastest way around the turn, if you can stand the extra heat and tire wear. Useful for driving on hard slicks, really.
Tip 3: DO NOT LOCK THE WHEELS WHEN BRAKING
This is obvious, but once again people forget this one. As stated above, slicks lose lots of grip when sliding, and have very thin tread. If you lock the wheels, you will create flat spots. It only takes three laps on a short track to have a blowout from the tread wearing faster on that one spot. Save your self the heartache and learn to smoothly control the brakes.
If your brakes lock, let off the brakes, then put them on again, but with a little less pressure. Known as cadence braking, it is a good skill to learn in real life as well, if your car lacks ABS.
Tip 4: NO OFF ROAD EXPEDITIONS WHEN RACING
Another obvious one, but oftentimes forgotten. Slicks lose a lot of grip when they get dirty. Since the tread is not self cleaning, it takes some time and a couple fast corners at the limit to get the rubber cleaned off. Unless you are avoiding a huge pileup that spans the entire tarmac, don't even clip the grass with two wheels! You will also have a great chance of spinning out or plowing straight into trouble by even clipping the off road on slicks. If you want to cut corners, learn to use the kerbs!
DeadWolfBones adds:
Tip 5: DON'T BLOCK THE MUCH FASTER CAR PASSING YOU
Most people block the incoming car as a strategy inherited from Gran Turismo, where getting bumped by the AI train gives you a boost to speed. In online (and real life) racing, if a car is coming in hot and you block their path, it's considered rude and dangerous. If they can't slow down enough, they will smash your back and most likely cause an accident or one or both of you will go blasting off like Team Rocket because of lag. When it says Blue Flag check your rear view mirror. If they are very close hold your course, as they will pass you out of the racing line. If they are a good ways behind, leave the racing line so they can shoot by easier. This applies to drivers being lapped and drivers who are considerably slower (about 10 MPH or more) than the incoming car. However, if you and another driver are neck to neck, you do have every right to battle each other (without crashing of course) for lead position.
Tip 6: SMOOTH, RYTHMIC DRIVING REWARDS FASTER LAP TIMES
Not too many people realize that racing involves keeping a good rythm. When accelerating, braking, and turing, the car's weight gets shifted around. Depending on the suspension, it may shift quickly or slowly. If you jerk the car around, like turning left then slamming right, the weight is not loading the correct tires, and they break traction when the weight shifts violently from turning. When you put more weight over a tire, it has greater grip than with less weight. There is a point where the tire is overloaded with weight and will lose traction again. So, when you do the above manouver (sp?), called the "Scandinavian Flick", the weight is initially over the right wheels, and snapping right causes the left wheels to suddenly max out on grip with the little weight over them, causing them to break traction, and as the weight shifts over them, they continue to stay in skid, as the right wheels suddenly lose the weight over them, losing traction and also skidding. This also means that when braking, you should smoothly apply the brake pedal, so the front wheels can load up and provide maximum stopping force, otherwise they lock and you go straight into the unknown! When turning, you should smoothly dial in steering so the outside tires have a chance to load. How fast you turn in, brake, and accelerate depends on the car and the suspension setup. You may be amazed at how fast you can blow through turns by driving smoothly and rythmically.
Tip 7: ADJUST YOUR DOWNFORCE
Race cars have wings. These wings provide traction at high speeds and keep the car from becoming airborne. The more downforce you put, the more grip the car will have at speed but the lower the top speed and top end acceleration will be due to drag. Therefore, on a high speed course like the oval the downforce should be lower, but on a slower, tight corner course the downforce should be higher, and on the drag strip downforce should be minimal.
Really, though, you need to adjust downforce to suit your driving. Start with one downforce setting, and raise (or lower) the downforce until your lap times are at their lowest on average.
Also, the difference between front and rear downforce will play with your car's handling. If there is a lot of downforse on one end, the other end will actually lose grip at higher speeds. Too much front downforce will cause the car to become nervous and oversteer easily at high speed. Too much rear downforce will cause the car to understeer at speed, and actually lose grip on the turns.
Tip 8: CHOOSE YOUR TIRES WISELY
You may have noticed several sets of slicks are available. For long, endurance races, choosing the Hard slicks (R4) will mean more laps before a tire change at the pit stop, but you will not be able to corner as hard. Using soft slicks (R2) means unparalleled traction but frequent pitting. These are useful for short races and hotlapping.
Sometimes, you can mix tire types to compensate with overheating sets of tires. For example, if you use R2 front and R3 rear on an FZ50 GTR, you can reduce the overheating of the rear tires. However, you will have less grip in the rear, so you need to retune the suspension to reduce the oversteer.
Tigershark adds:
DeadWolfBones adds:
Tip 10: DO NOT VOTE RESTART A RACE IF DRIVERS ARE ON THE FINAL LAP
This is more of a courtesy act than a rule. If two drivers are almost finished in a neck to neck race and 10 people that just joined the server decide they want to race NOW, the two drivers may get a restart just before finishing. They may also be a little upset. Well, they may be VERY upset. Wait to start a vote restart until you see the racing drivers finish their runs. Instead of guessing it and hitting Shift+R, you can just as easily [TAB] over to the driver and check his/her stats.
tristancliffe adds:
Tip 11: USE CLEAN OVERTAKING TACTICS (JTbo suggested this)
Driving a faster car or exiting the corners at a greater velocity does not mean that you have right to ram or force others to step aside if they are in front of you. If you are in a faster car, overtaking safely will not be too much trouble, but it does not cost too much to wait a bit for a clean safe space, so don't squeeze to that 1/2 car space inside of every turn while braking.
If your car is more powerful than the other, wait until after the exit of the corner. Usually you can take a different line which gives you a slower exit speed but lets you safely overtake the slower vehicle without bumping his/her rear (or front) out of the corner. Remember, if the other person is in like a UF 1000 and you are in like an FZ50, you can easily wait until after the turn and blast past down the straightaway.
If your car is better in the turns, go in around 0.5 seconds behind the slower car, and when the slower car turns into the apex accelerate and pass from the outside. Remember that this works only with medium to high speed corners, and you should be way faster on the corner to be completely ahead of slower car by the corner exit so this would be safe. If you are not fast enough, the opponent will pass you on the corner exit. This is known as double passing. That or you will enjoy a spectacular crash.
Overtaking on the inside is also possible but for this you need to know that the slower driver actually knows racing code and is obeying it, and it is quite hard to see certain spots and therefore easy to get into an accident by misjudgement. If the opponent shows no signs of taking the outside, don't try it.
Gimpster adds:
axusSA adds:
gcrook adds:
TagForce adds:
Tip 23: DON'T OVERHEAT YOUR TIRES
Slicks warm up and cool down a lot faster than normal tires. If you drift or drive just beyond the limit, the tires will overheat and lose traction. If the interior temperature goes too high, the tire could blow. The last thing you need is a flat tire in the middle of the sweepers. If the tires are getting too hot, slow down in the turns or use harder tires.
XCNuse adds:
Tip 25: USE TIRE PRESSURES WISELY
Tire pressures are important. They can mean the difference between cold tires and blown tires. It can mean shooting through the sweepers or lumbering through with great driftage. It can even mean blasting off the line or getting off the line.
So here's what to do. Start with about 35 P.S.I., and drive around. Are your tires too cold? Are they cooling off too fast? Not enough grip? The insides are too hot? Start lowering the pressure, 2-10 P.S.I. at a time. Are the tires too hot? Is the car wandering too much? Raise the pressure, 1-4 P.S.I. at a time. Once you got it, the tires should not be overheating when you are driving correctly. Also, the car should feel quick through the turns, but not sluggish.
Be fortunate that S2 does not yet simulate tires flexing too much in turns and pulling off the "bead", at least as far as I can tell...
Tip 26: FAST LAUNCHING THE XRR AND FXR
You probably do a lot of bogging down at the start with the XR GTR and FXO GTR. However, it is possible to do even a four wheel burnout in the FXO GTR! How? Here's how.
Three seconds before the start, floor the gas. Your rev limiter will protect your engine from damage, but more importantly, you will build up to 20 pounds of boost. With only 10 pounds of boost, you can blast off in the XR GTR. With 12, you can spin four wheels in the FXO GTR. With this ability at your side, you can finally take off as fast (XRR) or even faster (FXR) than the FZ50 GTR! With a well-tuned differentials and well-timed launch, and FXO GTR driver can always get the holeshot.
Here's another trick. Try making first gear lower. This way, the car can take off with less or no boost, and won't bog down. However, this also means having to shift into second gear sooner. Try both tricks, and use the fastest one for your driving style.
Tip 1: EASY ON THE GAS
This may seem obvious, but many people forget it. This is especially important in the Formula XR, and V8. Slicks have a lot of grip, but lose a lot when skidding. If you break traction while accelerating, the cars WILL snap oversteer. While it is good to do a small burnout to pre-heat the drive wheels for more control, it is not a good thing when you spin wheels too much, don't get the holeshot, and try to make up by cutting turn one; or worse, spin out at the start line and cause a crash.
Tip 2: RESIST THE URGE TO DRIFT
A lot of people forget this. The fastest way around a tarmac track is to drive just a tad over but not way above the limit of traction. If the slicks tires slide, they lose a lot of grip, causing the car to spin or straighten up. You can try drifting, but you will only succeed in smacking the wall or the tire barriers. Also, unlike road tires, slicks have very thin tread! About a quarter's thickness (a few mm for metric people) is the tread you have. It WILL wear out in seconds due to D1-style drifting.
There is a type of drifting you do with slicks, though. This drifting is when the tires are just over the limit of grip, they slide very little, but they don't blow smoke and mark the road, either. This is the fastest way around the turn, if you can stand the extra heat and tire wear. Useful for driving on hard slicks, really.
Tip 3: DO NOT LOCK THE WHEELS WHEN BRAKING
This is obvious, but once again people forget this one. As stated above, slicks lose lots of grip when sliding, and have very thin tread. If you lock the wheels, you will create flat spots. It only takes three laps on a short track to have a blowout from the tread wearing faster on that one spot. Save your self the heartache and learn to smoothly control the brakes.
If your brakes lock, let off the brakes, then put them on again, but with a little less pressure. Known as cadence braking, it is a good skill to learn in real life as well, if your car lacks ABS.
Tip 4: NO OFF ROAD EXPEDITIONS WHEN RACING
Another obvious one, but oftentimes forgotten. Slicks lose a lot of grip when they get dirty. Since the tread is not self cleaning, it takes some time and a couple fast corners at the limit to get the rubber cleaned off. Unless you are avoiding a huge pileup that spans the entire tarmac, don't even clip the grass with two wheels! You will also have a great chance of spinning out or plowing straight into trouble by even clipping the off road on slicks. If you want to cut corners, learn to use the kerbs!
DeadWolfBones adds:
Tip 5: DON'T BLOCK THE MUCH FASTER CAR PASSING YOU
Most people block the incoming car as a strategy inherited from Gran Turismo, where getting bumped by the AI train gives you a boost to speed. In online (and real life) racing, if a car is coming in hot and you block their path, it's considered rude and dangerous. If they can't slow down enough, they will smash your back and most likely cause an accident or one or both of you will go blasting off like Team Rocket because of lag. When it says Blue Flag check your rear view mirror. If they are very close hold your course, as they will pass you out of the racing line. If they are a good ways behind, leave the racing line so they can shoot by easier. This applies to drivers being lapped and drivers who are considerably slower (about 10 MPH or more) than the incoming car. However, if you and another driver are neck to neck, you do have every right to battle each other (without crashing of course) for lead position.
Tip 6: SMOOTH, RYTHMIC DRIVING REWARDS FASTER LAP TIMES
Not too many people realize that racing involves keeping a good rythm. When accelerating, braking, and turing, the car's weight gets shifted around. Depending on the suspension, it may shift quickly or slowly. If you jerk the car around, like turning left then slamming right, the weight is not loading the correct tires, and they break traction when the weight shifts violently from turning. When you put more weight over a tire, it has greater grip than with less weight. There is a point where the tire is overloaded with weight and will lose traction again. So, when you do the above manouver (sp?), called the "Scandinavian Flick", the weight is initially over the right wheels, and snapping right causes the left wheels to suddenly max out on grip with the little weight over them, causing them to break traction, and as the weight shifts over them, they continue to stay in skid, as the right wheels suddenly lose the weight over them, losing traction and also skidding. This also means that when braking, you should smoothly apply the brake pedal, so the front wheels can load up and provide maximum stopping force, otherwise they lock and you go straight into the unknown! When turning, you should smoothly dial in steering so the outside tires have a chance to load. How fast you turn in, brake, and accelerate depends on the car and the suspension setup. You may be amazed at how fast you can blow through turns by driving smoothly and rythmically.
Tip 7: ADJUST YOUR DOWNFORCE
Race cars have wings. These wings provide traction at high speeds and keep the car from becoming airborne. The more downforce you put, the more grip the car will have at speed but the lower the top speed and top end acceleration will be due to drag. Therefore, on a high speed course like the oval the downforce should be lower, but on a slower, tight corner course the downforce should be higher, and on the drag strip downforce should be minimal.
Really, though, you need to adjust downforce to suit your driving. Start with one downforce setting, and raise (or lower) the downforce until your lap times are at their lowest on average.
Also, the difference between front and rear downforce will play with your car's handling. If there is a lot of downforse on one end, the other end will actually lose grip at higher speeds. Too much front downforce will cause the car to become nervous and oversteer easily at high speed. Too much rear downforce will cause the car to understeer at speed, and actually lose grip on the turns.
Tip 8: CHOOSE YOUR TIRES WISELY
You may have noticed several sets of slicks are available. For long, endurance races, choosing the Hard slicks (R4) will mean more laps before a tire change at the pit stop, but you will not be able to corner as hard. Using soft slicks (R2) means unparalleled traction but frequent pitting. These are useful for short races and hotlapping.
Sometimes, you can mix tire types to compensate with overheating sets of tires. For example, if you use R2 front and R3 rear on an FZ50 GTR, you can reduce the overheating of the rear tires. However, you will have less grip in the rear, so you need to retune the suspension to reduce the oversteer.
Tigershark adds:
DeadWolfBones adds:
Tip 10: DO NOT VOTE RESTART A RACE IF DRIVERS ARE ON THE FINAL LAP
This is more of a courtesy act than a rule. If two drivers are almost finished in a neck to neck race and 10 people that just joined the server decide they want to race NOW, the two drivers may get a restart just before finishing. They may also be a little upset. Well, they may be VERY upset. Wait to start a vote restart until you see the racing drivers finish their runs. Instead of guessing it and hitting Shift+R, you can just as easily [TAB] over to the driver and check his/her stats.
tristancliffe adds:
Tip 11: USE CLEAN OVERTAKING TACTICS (JTbo suggested this)
Driving a faster car or exiting the corners at a greater velocity does not mean that you have right to ram or force others to step aside if they are in front of you. If you are in a faster car, overtaking safely will not be too much trouble, but it does not cost too much to wait a bit for a clean safe space, so don't squeeze to that 1/2 car space inside of every turn while braking.
If your car is more powerful than the other, wait until after the exit of the corner. Usually you can take a different line which gives you a slower exit speed but lets you safely overtake the slower vehicle without bumping his/her rear (or front) out of the corner. Remember, if the other person is in like a UF 1000 and you are in like an FZ50, you can easily wait until after the turn and blast past down the straightaway.
If your car is better in the turns, go in around 0.5 seconds behind the slower car, and when the slower car turns into the apex accelerate and pass from the outside. Remember that this works only with medium to high speed corners, and you should be way faster on the corner to be completely ahead of slower car by the corner exit so this would be safe. If you are not fast enough, the opponent will pass you on the corner exit. This is known as double passing. That or you will enjoy a spectacular crash.
Overtaking on the inside is also possible but for this you need to know that the slower driver actually knows racing code and is obeying it, and it is quite hard to see certain spots and therefore easy to get into an accident by misjudgement. If the opponent shows no signs of taking the outside, don't try it.
Gimpster adds:
axusSA adds:
gcrook adds:
TagForce adds:
Tip 23: DON'T OVERHEAT YOUR TIRES
Slicks warm up and cool down a lot faster than normal tires. If you drift or drive just beyond the limit, the tires will overheat and lose traction. If the interior temperature goes too high, the tire could blow. The last thing you need is a flat tire in the middle of the sweepers. If the tires are getting too hot, slow down in the turns or use harder tires.
XCNuse adds:
Tip 25: USE TIRE PRESSURES WISELY
Tire pressures are important. They can mean the difference between cold tires and blown tires. It can mean shooting through the sweepers or lumbering through with great driftage. It can even mean blasting off the line or getting off the line.
So here's what to do. Start with about 35 P.S.I., and drive around. Are your tires too cold? Are they cooling off too fast? Not enough grip? The insides are too hot? Start lowering the pressure, 2-10 P.S.I. at a time. Are the tires too hot? Is the car wandering too much? Raise the pressure, 1-4 P.S.I. at a time. Once you got it, the tires should not be overheating when you are driving correctly. Also, the car should feel quick through the turns, but not sluggish.
Be fortunate that S2 does not yet simulate tires flexing too much in turns and pulling off the "bead", at least as far as I can tell...
Tip 26: FAST LAUNCHING THE XRR AND FXR
You probably do a lot of bogging down at the start with the XR GTR and FXO GTR. However, it is possible to do even a four wheel burnout in the FXO GTR! How? Here's how.
Three seconds before the start, floor the gas. Your rev limiter will protect your engine from damage, but more importantly, you will build up to 20 pounds of boost. With only 10 pounds of boost, you can blast off in the XR GTR. With 12, you can spin four wheels in the FXO GTR. With this ability at your side, you can finally take off as fast (XRR) or even faster (FXR) than the FZ50 GTR! With a well-tuned differentials and well-timed launch, and FXO GTR driver can always get the holeshot.
Here's another trick. Try making first gear lower. This way, the car can take off with less or no boost, and won't bog down. However, this also means having to shift into second gear sooner. Try both tricks, and use the fastest one for your driving style.
(woohoo, long sentence, I hope its understandable