As long as you can race clean enough for online just get online and forget times for a bit.

In a race you will enter each corner in loads of different ways and with various levels of pressure from people behind you. The more mistakes you make the quicker you learn the best way to recover with the least speed impact.

The nearner to instinct your corrections become the more consisent you will be. You also need to learn racing is not about that last mph a lot of the time, its about going as fast as you can KNOWING you can keep the car on the track at that pace lap after lap.....

The number of times I have placed after watching people push hard only to DNF 5 laps in because they have cooked their tyres

A few general tips...

Raise your vision: Look further ahead, rather than 20m ahead. As in real life, you go where you look. The earlier you see something, the more time your brain has to process the info and get it right. Be smooth with the controls, hint at the steering as you approach a bend, rather than turn sharply. Don't slam pedals to the floor, but ease off and apply more gently.

Ian

Tyr having Analyse For Speed open and at the same time LFS in Autocross editor mode. Then you can place markers on the track to help you get the right line, braking points etc.

Having only recenctly come to the Fox's in the CTRA I understand your pain. Everyone has made some very good and considered points. What I would add is don't be afraid to play with the setup.

As you get faster or your understanding of the car handling becomes clearer you will find that your tyres arn't doing what you think they ought to, or that you feel you could do with more downforce in certain sections. Change it! Add some camber to the tyres, take some off, add some front wing, rear wing, take it off. Can't make an apex on a corner when everyone else is and they are going faster than you, play with some suspension settings. (Note on suspension, read some setup guides first. They are really helpful in explaining how car handling dynamics work and what you are doing when you reduce front bounce or rear ARB's)

Adjust the braking strength to take some pressure off flatspotting. Adjust the car to you as much as you adjust your driving to the car. You will find that you will completly mess this up. But thats part of learning. Once you get a handle on it you can make your own sets for your own racing style for every track you race on.

My Blackwood story was the same as you, I was lucky if I was hitting 1.10's with any regularity and just couldn't work it out. I was assuming (the mother of all mistakes) that BW would be a fairly low downforce circuit with that back straight and swooping corners. But, after realising that the cars around me, whilst I was holging my own on the straight they where completly whipping me in the corners. Took me a long time to get to thinking about the downforce because I just didn't factor it in as being as important as it transpired to be. So once I exhausted all my suspension messing about and tyre camber adjusting etc. I eventually reluctanlty raised my downforce. And 'lo the angels sang and I popped in my first 1.09.

So, yes consistency is important, understanding car dynamics is important but it could also be as simple as not having enough downforce for your driving style. (On the fox at least) Learn how to setup. That alone will teach you how to make the cars handling come to you.

Good advice, but just to counter-point, I almost never touch my setup, except for maybe some downforce, brake strength or bias settings. If I'm struggling with a corner, I will adjust my driving style in order to take it more comfortably. In my view, so long as you have a set which is stable, you should concentrate on your lines, braking and accelerating, because having good car control is the most important factor.

EDit: I guess what I'm trying to say is find whatever works for you. Listen to advice, but don't be afraid to take your own road (hehe, a pun).

Quote from jimmytwohand :

Well previously i was doing well if my rubber lasted 12 laps but i think most of the wear is coming from the above braking zone problem. Ill give it a try in conjunction with braking practice and try to kill two birds with one fox.

Hey Jimmy,

Your rubber issues are due to one thing... stop sliding into corners under braking. Brake a lil earlier, n keep the car stable into apex, it gives you alot faster exit (n thats more important than braking) and your rubber lasts much longer. My rubber will last at least 60 laps if I don't slide. However I do know you have gotten alot faster since you wrote this, hopefully you've fixed that issue, but i think I remmeber you still slide. lol

Venus

Wow, this thread is still going! Cool. Im sure it will be helpful for many people apart from me. Ive had about a month off from LFS so excuse the late reply.

5000 miles later im down into the 1:01s for AS2 pretty consistently and the 1:09s on BL1 (when i tear myself away from Redline or SR Aston).

Quote from venus :

Your rubber issues are due to one thing... stop sliding into corners under braking... ...hopefully you've fixed that issue, but i think I remmeber you still slide. lol

Oh yes, little issue that is developing as i push harder. Im just trying to find the limit of how much speed i can bleed off turning in towards the apex, but you are right it is hurting me. Not as much as that last feckin turn though, its great fun working through this process though and its nice to see the occasional good/amazing first split messages emerging too.

Right, time to go and see if i can survive the post GP mad over-enthusiasm! Thanks all and ill probably be sliding around in your rear view mirrors soon enough Venus.

Sliding the car is an easy mistake to make, but it's faster and better on the tyres when you don't. I noticed this when I first started playing the game, when back in the old S1 days we all used to hammer SO Classic in the MRT every night. I realised I was faster through the first corner if I lifted the throttle and minimised the amount the car slid, as opposed to keeping the throttle full and getting a bit sideways. I tend to slide the car much more on the exits of corners, rather than the entry, which is why I like my setup to understeer. A good old-fashioned drift out on the exit never did any one any harm.

I've only really started to get in LFS now, since I got a new wheel over christmas. While I'm still about 5 secs off the WR's (Blackwood GP in the XFG), I've found that by not braking so late, and being more controlled through the corners, I keep my speed up, and do better laps.

I was thinking it would just be a matter of time before I started to knock time off my PB's. Each night I seem to get quicker, so it seems practice, and control are the keys. This thread has confirmed this for me.

Thanks for the read

Thanks for bumping it.

Well worth a re-read.