Ok, there's not so much RL racers here but i'm not a member of any racing forum
What i wanted to know is, do you watch how fast you are going and how and if that is important to you? I always raced LFS "by feel" and it feels natural that way for me, and i can't imagine racing in RL side by side/bumper on bumper and looking at the speedo..
How important is that for a good lap and how significant the speedo is for you? (i mean the actual speed, not the RPM meter).

My Dad races a single seater without a speedo and a road car that has a speedo that doesn't work properly and it doesn't seem to cause an issue

I doubt serious RL-racecars have a speedo, so there´s nothing to at.

i do on occasions have a peak at the speedo but i find it rather scary as you think 'DAMN im travelling ground fast' and find it very tempting to press teh brake to slow down

No just listen to engine / tyre scrub , no time to look on speedo lol.

TBH, I rarely look at my roadcar's speedo. On the track (a few driving/safety schools) and on the road (spirited driving) I find knowing the non-exact speed is just an unneccesary variable, when I need to be focusing my attention to the interaction between the road, car, and environment.

Tyre screeching and engine revving is what i try to focus on. Speed i check out hardly, on the go kart, theres no speed to tell anyway.

I'd say real racers don't use it because many racing cars don't have a speedo and because reading it would shift their focus too much in terms of distance.

On the other hand I think it can be a useful piece of information to check how you are doing through a certain corner. But you would need to have a HUD projector so that you don't have to shift your focus too much. Quite possible that it simply hasn't been tried in real racing.

RL you feel the track and the car movement, after that they know when to turn

Haha, if some racers don't look at their speedo, a LOAD of road users don't do to, and we end up with peoples going 135 km/h in a 50 km/h zone...

When i drive i look at the speedo when im racing or being a tad reckless i dont because that way you dont need to be scared of how fast your going because you dont know.

Quote from Riders Motion :

Haha, if some racers don't look at their speedo, a LOAD of road users don't do to, and we end up with peoples going 135 km/h in a 50 km/h zone...

If you can't tell what speed your doing within 5mph in a car you know I'm very worried...

On my limited trackday experience I've looked at the speedo once, in the middle of a long straight. Other than that, other cues are much more important than measured speed.

That's so nice about "real life". When you nail a corner just right, when you do it 100% right, you feel it. You exit the corner with a smile on your face because you could feel the car sliding around a little bit on the max grip, and you know that if you had pushed it a little bit faster, it surely ended in tears. That's why you don't need to look on the speedo

well no , really depends on what car im in lol , well . i mostly drive by feeling the G-forces and such , so for the RPMs i dont concern about them i listen to the engine the only time i watch for numbers is when i brake

Quote from Michel 4AGE :

That's so nice about "real life". When you nail a corner just right, when you do it 100% right, you feel it. You exit the corner with a smile on your face because you could feel the car sliding around a little bit on the max grip, and you know that if you had pushed it a little bit faster, it surely ended in tears. That's why you don't need to look on the speedo

Don't you get that in LFS? I do.

No I don't.

Well, maybe you're not doin' it right?

Anyways, I can usuallt feel when I have a PB coming up, it's the best feeling ever. Or coming up to the last corner and then see you have a much better exit than the guy you have been fighting hte last 4 laps. Don't need a speedo for that!

In my works van the speedo isn't working probably anymore, but its no problem guessing the speed through the noise level/gear.

I have one (the car is group.N.), but no never looked at it.
Not because i know how to race. Simply because it would indicate me how much slow and unskilled i am

you dont need a speedo in rl because you can feel or sense the speed. somthing that cannot be created in LFS

No, I don't watch speedo when on track IRL, also same with LFS, no real need for one.

My Cousin rallies often and I asked him if he does glance at the spedo.

He said he did, but then would often find himself upside down in a ditch. Basically you don't have the time to otherwise you break the concentration. I suppose the only time a racer would look at a spedo is in the pits.

The GPL cars don't have speedos! On what there is of a dashboard, anyway.

I only look at it along straights if I feel like knowing how fast I'm going. Never to drive by. When I'm going around corners I just know that I have to brake-shiftdowntwo-turn or whatever.

In fact, if you are looking at a speedo, how can you be looking towards the apex of the corner?

I have to add that I check speeds from tape after session, reason why I put white gauge faces too was that I can see speed so much better from video

But when driving there is not much point as you loose apex there and generally on LFS when racing there are other cars and surprising situations that you need to look and predict, in other words, you need to drive