Hello there, everyone! I just wanted to ask one question, am I doomed to being slow for the rest of my life? Whilst I certainly know how to drive (I only spin out the immensely high-powered cars such as the BF1, but I rarely ever spin out anything below that anymore), the laptimes don't seem to come. I try out some hotlaps, but can only stay amongst the last couple of pages on the LFSWorld charts.

I've never raced online in fear that I couldn't even compete with the backmarkers. What's the most efficient way to learn? I know that in any case, I won't be able to compete with people that have been simming for years until I sim for years myself, but I'd like to at least get some, less shameful, laptimes.

Quote from Aiden McGeady :

Hello there, everyone! I just wanted to ask one question, am I doomed to being slow for the rest of my life?

Well, you've got a Scottish name and a Brazilian flag - I'd have to say "Not likely".

Quote from Aiden McGeady :

Whilst I certainly know how to drive (I only spin out the immensely high-powered cars such as the BF1, but I rarely ever spin out anything below that anymore), the laptimes don't seem to come.

I've been here for a couple of years and some tell me I'm not embarrassingly slow any more, but I do lose the car sometimes when I'm pushing hard. Maybe you need to push more and thus spin more to get faster?

Quote from Aiden McGeady :

I've never raced online in fear that I couldn't even compete with the backmarkers. What's the most efficient way to learn?

Going online. You will learn a lot from racing with other drivers; you'll get good setups, see what lines they drive, learn how to defend, overtake, get lapped, how to safely drive the first lap without losing positions, etc. For god's sake go online - you won't learn on your own!

Quote from Aiden McGeady :

I know that in any case, I won't be able to compete with people that have been simming for years until I sim for years myself,

Some people are really fast in a couple of months, some people (like me) don't manage it in a couple of years. But you won't know until you go online and learn properly.

In the meantime if you want to upload a single-player replay of a hotlap, you'll get great feedback from the forum about what you're doing wrong and how you could do it better. Don't be embarrassed - we were all slow once.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Maybe you need to push more and thus spin more to get faster?

That's the approach Gilles Villeneuve took, and he seemed to do quite well for himself.

As Kev said, go online. Make sure you let people on the server know that you're new. If you do make a mistake and take a couple guys out, it will help quench the flames early; and I think you'll find that some will be willing to help. I remember a year or so ago I was online and when a new racer came onto the server and said he was new, one of the more experienced drivers stayed back and drove with him during the race, watching him the whole time throwing out pointers, showing lines, etc etc. I thought that was pretty class; the same could happen for you I just wish I could remember who the good Samaritan was.

Thanks for all the helpful input. As for the name, it just happens that Celtic is my favourite club, and Aiden McGeady is the name of one of the players. I love all things Scottish, I'm even learning the accent.

But anyway, here's a lap around Blackwood in the FXO. I know I can push harder, but I try to have clean laps. Maybe spinning out a wee bit could bring me benefits in the long run, my fear of losing control of the car can be a tad irrational at times.

Edit: I'll definitely be going online sometime this weekend, I'm looking forward to it!

Get online and race is my advice you'll be fine.

I think your name is actually Irish . It's a pity McGeady did not chose Scotland to play for he chose Eire . Still at least he plays for Celtic

Quote from AlienT. :

Get online and race is my advice, I think your name is actually Irish

As a matter of fact, Aiden McGeady was born in Glasgow, but comes from an Irish lineage. He's a class player, one of the best MFs currently playing for Celtic.

I'll just do a few more laps tomorrow (well, technically it's today..) before beginning to race online this weekend. LFS sure is addicting, and the better you get, the more you want to play it.

Quote from Aiden McGeady :

But anyway, here's a lap around Blackwood in the FXO.

Lots to write about just at the first corner!

You brake way too early for T1 and don't use enough braking force. If you watch the replay and press F you get "forces" view. This lets you see (amongst other things) which tyres are being worked hardest, and your tyres never even come close to breaking traction until you start turning into the corner. You want them to be right on the limit as much as possible.

When you do turn into the corner you apply too much steering. Once you hear the tyres squealing like that, it means they're just scrubbing against the track surface and it will cause the car to understeer towards the outside of the corner. Try to limit your steering angle to just enough that is needed to turn the corner, and you'll find the car actually turns faster than it does with too much steering angle.

You're also not going slow enough for the first corner - you miss the apex by quite a margin, so try to slow down a bit more before you turn in. And you're not far enough over to the outside of the track when you begin to turn in, which means you're having to make a tighter turn than you need to. Always use as much of the track as possible, making the turns as shallow an angle as you can - it means you can carry more speed through the corner.

You're a little too slow out of the chicane. This is an important corner, because any extra speed you can carry through here you will carry all the way down that long straight. Your line is good, but you need to be much bolder and just barely get away with it to get a good time.

Turn 3: Same problems as T1; not braking aggressively enough, not moving far enough over to the left before turn-in, and using too much steering angle when you do turn in.

Turn 4: You should be driving on that green concrete on your left - it's got grip, so use it and you'll make the track a couple of metres wider. Again, using excessive steering to scrub off speed means you're slow at the apex. Try to slow the car down before you get there and get a good, fast exit. Exit speed is much more important than entry speed - this goes for any corner that has a long acceleration zone after it.

Turn 6: Again, not using enough of the road and not braking aggressively enough, but your turn-in isn't too bad this time and you're using the green concrete on the exit.

Turn 7: Yet again, not using enough road. There's a whole car's width strip of road beyond the kerb on your right - you need to be driving on it! It will make the corner much more open and allow you to carry a lot more speed up the hill and over the finish line.


In short: Use all the road, brake more aggressively (try setting up your braking force so that you can use the whole pedal travel), only turn the wheel as much as you need to (avoid that constant loud screeching noise while steering), concentrate on mashing the throttle pedal as early as possible on corner exit.

I think you'll gain a couple of seconds very quickly.

That's some tremendous help right there, cheers. I know that if I work on all that, I'll see some improvement not only with this car/track set, but also in general.

Blimey Kev, do you ever sleep?

@ O.P.

Practice, practice, comparing your lap to a fast (or WR) lap using the replay analyzers and driving against good, fast drivers is the key to getting up to speed.

Best advice i ever had was

slower in faster out, tighter out (corners)

Yup, good advice, slow in-fast out, also smoothness on all controls is a good tip

Quote from danowat :

Blimey Kev, do you ever sleep?

@ O.P.

Practice, practice, comparing your lap to a fast (or WR) lap using the replay analyzers and driving against good, fast drivers is the key to getting up to speed.

This is the best advice. The people that got WR`s on some laps probally have driven that lap for xxxx amount of laps. And don`t expect to be close to WR, but I like to think, if your around 1 sec +- behind the WR, then it`s a great lap!

also try to work on one corner at a time. don't worry about T2 when you still have T1 to take. a perfect lap is a bunch of perfect corners. and get online!!!!!

i've just seen a movie and the one guy said: "the only way to get smarter is by playing a smarter opponent"
and thats the point. drive online against better drivers. go behind them and try to keep up with their pace. following a good driver is very usefull. u can see where he brakes, how fast he can be. u have to learn more about the technical stuff. there is alot of things u can do against over- or understeer for example.

http://en.lfsmanual.net/wiki/Basic_Setup_Guide

this is a god start

peace

Thanks to all the helpful advice, my laptimes are steadily improving. I'm now managing to do laps in the high 1:26 - low 1:27 range and the car feels great. If I brush off only 3 more seconds, I'll be looking at a top 50 position on the chart.

I'm going to practise each turn until I feel fully confident, then it'll be time for me to tweak the car every couple of laps and see what each change does to my laptimes. For now, I've lowered the brake balance to 69% (front) to give the car just a wee bit of oversteer during braking, and reduced the brake force so I can brake harder without having to worry about locking up the tyres.

Quote from Aiden McGeady :

Thanks to all the helpful advice, my laptimes are steadily improving. I'm now managing to do laps in the high 1:26 - low 1:27 range and the car feels great. If I brush off only 3 more seconds, I'll be looking at a top 50 position on the chart.

I'm going to practise each turn until I feel fully confident, then it'll be time for me to tweak the car every couple of laps and see what each change does to my laptimes. For now, I've lowered the brake balance to 69% (front) to give the car just a wee bit of oversteer during braking, and reduced the brake force so I can brake harder without having to worry about locking up the tyres.

Get online now and I'll race you

I'm on, should I join now?

emm you won't be able to get on the server I am on, go to CTRA race 1, or you chose any server

My advice would be to avoid playing with the setup, and stick with RACE_S untill you are around 103% from the current WR.

Quote from danowat :

My advice would be to avoid playing with the setup, and stick with RACE_S untill you are around 103% from the current WR.

Depends on the track though, need higher ride height for sure on the different tracks.

Man too bad I'm not S2 licensed if not, I would like to learn about the FXO techniques. I heard it's pretty difficult to get it not understeer too much when we're starting.

Wait for it.............

Hmm, i just got my wheel and im terribly slow, even slower than with a mouse. I keep practising offline for fear of being owned, lols. I guess i'll go online more often now. Heck, even if i got owned, SO WHAT??!!

Sounds like me
I used to be o.k with keyboard, then I whent over to wheel, and damn I was slow! Tok me some months to get used to it, and after that time I started to notice that my old PB`s wasn`t a problem anymore
Give it some, or much time, depending, and you`ll see that it in most cases it fastest, tho there are people in the top that uses mouse and such.

Quote from The Very End :

I used to be o.k with keyboard, then I whent over to wheel, and damn I was slow!

Whaddaya mean you WAS slow