Hi all

I wonder how your real life abilities and LFS abilities correspond. I have no hard evidence for my case, because I haven't done too much racing, but I tend to say I'm better in real life... damn, I totally suck at LFS.

What about you?

Way better in LFS. It's so easy to be fast, and not scary, expensive or time-limited. However, RL is way more fun, because (partly) of the above same reasons.

Not that good in RL due to lack of agressiveness, overly agressive in LFS as i have "no fear", and as such i'm probably a heck of a lot faster in LFS.

Haven't been Karting in RL since i got my Bike, so the fact i'm now used to blastnig away at 50 MPH probably makes Karting "tamer" and i'd feel safer trying harder.

I'll let you know as soon as I have 20.000 km of real life racing under my belt.

Quote from Jakg :

Haven't been Karting in RL since i got my Bike, so the fact i'm now used to blastnig away at 50 MPH probably makes Karting "tamer" and i'd feel safer trying harder.

Your moped doesn't do 50 mph, oh well, downhill perhaps, but that hardly counts blasting around at 50 does it.

On the subject, I don't have an idea. I've only done 15 minutes in a cart, but it unbelievable fun though.

Actually it does 59 MPH (96 KM/h) down hill, and cruises (albeit at full throttle) at 80 KM/h, which is a shade under 50 MPH at 48 MPH.

It's not only deristricted, but methinks the new Exhaust the previous owner put on it wasn't that bad after all...

EDIT - For clarification this is my DNA, i did my CBT on a rubbish Peugeot thing that had a top speed of 35 MPH (which oddly meant it wasn't restricted...) - Not all bikes are equal - if i spent some money on it (ie about £170) i could probably get it to do 60 MPH, but frankly i don't have £170, and if i did then i'd be much better saving for a bigger bike (or, more likely, a car).

It might do 50? My first moped did 40, my second did 60. Both 50cc.

Bastards. :P

Quote from Jakg :

Haven't been Karting in RL since i got my Bike, so the fact i'm now used to blastnig away at 50 MPH probably makes Karting "tamer" and i'd feel safer trying harder.

Karts (even rental karts) will always feel far faster than they really are due to how low you are.

What i'm saying is that when i was driving my bike for the first time, even going 20 mph felt really fast - i think that as i haven't done that much driving in a kart i always got that. Now that i'm doing about 50 every day, it's got "boring" as i'm used to it - i'm sure it will feel faster, but it wont quite feel so dangerously fast anymore.

it isnt who fast karts are its the fact that you dont seem to slow down round bends that gets me and just how much effort is needed for a small track

and yes im way better at lfs than karting

Quote from Jakg :

What i'm saying is that when i was driving my bike for the first time, even going 20 mph felt really fast - i think that as i haven't done that much driving in a kart i always got that. Now that i'm doing about 50 every day, it's got "boring" as i'm used to it - i'm sure it will feel faster, but it wont quite feel so dangerously fast anymore.

I know what you mean. My local rental track is full throttle all the way, when you finally have the confidence and correct line to take the harpin flat it suddenly doesn't seem so fast and you spend the time finding the best line depending on where the grip is on the track.

I think an easier LFS vs RL comparison than circuit racing is autocross. I am totally certain that on a real life circuit I would be afraid of pushing as hard as I do in LFS (for good reason!!), but assuming you have an autocross course with no obstacles nearby, there is no reason not to push as hard as you would in autocross in LFS.

One thing I notice myself doing in my stock miata in autox is a quick initial input to get the car transitioned and then a second, larger input once it is settled in a turn. I find myself doing this in LFS also when driving a car with soft suspension. In real life and in LFS, as soon as I am driving a car with a stiffer suspension setup (ie. a CSP Miata in RL) I no longer do this two-stage input, if you want to call it that. In the time it takes to make that first input, the car is settled.

I do notice a lot of similarities with my driving style in real life and LFS, and I think it's nice to be able to make that comparison. As for similarities in how it feels to drive in LFS and real life, given similar cars, that's another discussion...however I've autox'd cars in RL very similar to the XFG, XRG, XRT, RB4, FXO, FZ5, and XRR, and been impressed with the similarities between characteristics of all of the LFS and RL cars.

I am quicker in LFS because of no factors (fear, costs etc, as been said) but i am better in real life because i concentrate more and give more effort.

If i loose in LFS, i know i havent wasted money or i wont die, so doesnt matter if i spin off.. Spinning off in RL, could cause injury and a waste of money, so i have to work harder and make sure i make no mistakes..

Way faster in LfS for the reasons listed by many others here... Plus, I'm not fit enough to cope with the forces over a longer timespan...

I think that you will always be slower in RL than in LFS, for obvious reasons. If LFS is a really good sim, then when you put a really good driver into it, then he will be really fast.

Anyway, if LFS was RL, then I'd have died about 100 times by now!

Im way better in LFS there is no scarynes in real life im kindof a scardy cat

and lets face it thst not good in racing

Caus in germany i drove pro karts i was like mddle class of al the drivers do to lag of courage

If I was racing in karts or single seaters, fitness would be a big issue for me. I have done a dozen laps of my local outdoor kart track in a race kart (first time in anything other than the crappy rentals!) and I was absolutely exhausted. That isn't really much of a factor in autox which is nice, so I can still be quick

Quote from J@tko :

I think that you will always be slower in RL than in LFS, for obvious reasons. If LFS is a really good sim, then when you put a really good driver into it, then he will be really fast.

Anyway, if LFS was RL, then I'd have died about 100 times by now!

I didn't mean how "fast" you are absolutely... more like how "good" you are compared to other drivers.

Quote from Michael Denham :

If I was racing in karts or single seaters, fitness would be a big issue for me. I have done a dozen laps of my local outdoor kart track in a race kart (first time in anything other than the crappy rentals!) and I was absolutely exhausted. That isn't really much of a factor in autox which is nice, so I can still be quick

waaah... i'm relatively skinny, and when having raced a few laps in a rental kart, my pelvis aches and I get nice bruises in the "seat" area.

Quote from Bandit77 :

I didn't mean how "fast" you are absolutely... more like how "good" you are compared to other drivers.

Sorry! I just thought I'd poke into the debate with what seems like an irrelevant comment!

Quote from Bandit77 :

waaah... i'm relatively skinny, and when having raced a few laps in a rental kart, my pelvis aches and I get nice bruises in the "seat" area.

Then imagine what it's like to be 6ft 3, 240lbs, rather badly out of shape, and trying to do some decent laptimes in a race kart that'll pull a heck of a lot harder than a basic rental kart.

Well, I probarly wont ever know how well I could perform on a track as I do in LFS, When I get the chance on quiet roads I sometimes push the little turd wagon pretty hard, but being ain a silly 1.2 fwdturdwagon wont ever compare to any single seater or rwd BMW on a track, maybe one day, just maybe.

Quote from J@tko :

Sorry! I just thought I'd poke into the debate with what seems like an irrelevant comment!

no need to feel sorry.

hmmm. somehow a part of my post got lost. I also wanted to mention that I don't believe a good RL racer will automatically be a good LFS racer... even less vice versa.

would raikönnen, hamilton, alonso or even schumi/shuey smoke us all in LFS? don't think so. perhaps after a few weeks of practice.

(ok, they'd probably smoke ME after two laps... :razz

Bawbag, you really need to have a go at autocross in real life if you haven't already. If you're ever thinking of taking a holiday in the Vancouver area you can autocross my Miata and show ppl how it's done :P

Quote from Michael Denham :

I think an easier LFS vs RL comparison than circuit racing is autocross. I am totally certain that on a real life circuit I would be afraid of pushing as hard as I do in LFS (for good reason!!), but assuming you have an autocross course with no obstacles nearby, there is no reason not to push as hard as you would in autocross in LFS.

One thing I notice myself doing in my stock miata in autox is a quick initial input to get the car transitioned and then a second, larger input once it is settled in a turn. I find myself doing this in LFS also when driving a car with soft suspension. In real life and in LFS, as soon as I am driving a car with a stiffer suspension setup (ie. a CSP Miata in RL) I no longer do this two-stage input, if you want to call it that. In the time it takes to make that first input, the car is settled.

I do notice a lot of similarities with my driving style in real life and LFS, and I think it's nice to be able to make that comparison. As for similarities in how it feels to drive in LFS and real life, given similar cars, that's another discussion...however I've autox'd cars in RL very similar to the XFG, XRG, XRT, RB4, FXO, FZ5, and XRR, and been impressed with the similarities between characteristics of all of the LFS and RL cars.

I started autocrossing this year in an S2000, and started playing LFS even more recently. The S2000 doesn't have a soft suspension by any means, but I do find myself making the same autocross driving errors in LFS as I do in my real car. I guess this shows the fidelity of LFS, although it's really hard to find an LFS car that behaves identical to my S2K. The closest I can get is a heavily tweaked LX4.