There is no saturation. You just haven't found out to go faster yet. I think of this more in terms of levels. You start out, hop in a car, and go. Round and round you go, 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000 laps. At some point, you hit a wall. I'm down to 1.35 sec. Ok, now what?
Then you get into other aspects, things you never thought about before, like tuning. You go from the standard hard track setup to something your own. You toy with every aspect you can think of and try to make the car perform better. You start learning about weight transfer, center of gravity, and traction circles. You apply new concepts to your tuning setups. To lower you time. You hit a wall again. Time to learn something new.
You learn driving techniques and the use of racing lines. You find that optimum paths aren't perfect arcs but rather parabolas. You learn trail braking and the concept of throttle control. You learn that balance is not only tuning but also the aplication of user controls through controlled throttle/brake and steering inputs, always maximizing available grip. You learn the track inch per inch. You know when to brake, you know when to turn, you know where to aim for the apex, you know when you can add throttle. It can get quite methodical as you break a track down piece by peice to create a pattern of predetermined exact inputs that are determined through careful anylization of the track and car setup.
Again you go back to car setup and tune it for the track. You tune spring rates, dampening, brake bias, and gearing to maximize the car to the greatest effect for the given track. Even tire/alignment settings are tune individuially to maximize grip/longevity. Note that a setup for Blackwood normal isn't the same or maybe even close to a Blackwood Reverse setup.
You anylize, you tune, you run, you anylize, tune, run, ....your time goes down.
I haven't gotten to such a point. LFS is more recreational for me, so I'm not aiming to be so mythotical in such matters.
As well, I would HIGHLY suggest buying a wheel. Having the high level of control and precision provides tremendous benifits over other controller systems. The feedback is a very nice benifit as well as it tells you what's happening with the car and provides an additional sensory input other than visual and sound.
Then you get into other aspects, things you never thought about before, like tuning. You go from the standard hard track setup to something your own. You toy with every aspect you can think of and try to make the car perform better. You start learning about weight transfer, center of gravity, and traction circles. You apply new concepts to your tuning setups. To lower you time. You hit a wall again. Time to learn something new.
You learn driving techniques and the use of racing lines. You find that optimum paths aren't perfect arcs but rather parabolas. You learn trail braking and the concept of throttle control. You learn that balance is not only tuning but also the aplication of user controls through controlled throttle/brake and steering inputs, always maximizing available grip. You learn the track inch per inch. You know when to brake, you know when to turn, you know where to aim for the apex, you know when you can add throttle. It can get quite methodical as you break a track down piece by peice to create a pattern of predetermined exact inputs that are determined through careful anylization of the track and car setup.
Again you go back to car setup and tune it for the track. You tune spring rates, dampening, brake bias, and gearing to maximize the car to the greatest effect for the given track. Even tire/alignment settings are tune individuially to maximize grip/longevity. Note that a setup for Blackwood normal isn't the same or maybe even close to a Blackwood Reverse setup.
You anylize, you tune, you run, you anylize, tune, run, ....your time goes down.
I haven't gotten to such a point. LFS is more recreational for me, so I'm not aiming to be so mythotical in such matters.
As well, I would HIGHLY suggest buying a wheel. Having the high level of control and precision provides tremendous benifits over other controller systems. The feedback is a very nice benifit as well as it tells you what's happening with the car and provides an additional sensory input other than visual and sound.
