Quote from samjh :

Speed is important, but speed without consistency won't get you anywhere but a gravel trap.

In the tight corners, I like to use trail braking, with quite a lot of braking force on my rear wheels. This makes it easier to point the car in the direction I want to go early, so I can come back to full throttle earlier. (I'm using this in the XRG/XRT)

Quote from samjh :

I had a two-car duel at Westhill Reverse with another drivers who was two or three seconds per lap faster than me. But in the 12 lap race, he spun out like three times, while I had two minor shuffles and finished ahead of him.

Was it me? I had a few pretty appalling races at Westhill lately.

I don't play LFS often enough any more, so I think I'm still quite fast when actually I'm not. Recipe for disaster!

Quote from Gnomie :

In the tight corners, I like to use trail braking, with quite a lot of braking force on my rear wheels. This makes it easier to point the car in the direction I want to go early, so I can come back to full throttle earlier. (I'm using this in the XRG/XRT)

wait, do you stop your front wheels or rear wheels in trail braking?

My driving style = throw it into the corner and hope it comes out the other side.

Success rate = 8/10 times i'm on the grass, 1/10 times i'm in the barrier, 1/10 times i open my eyes and realise that i've made it through.

Quote from atlantian :

wait, do you stop your front wheels or rear wheels in trail braking?

Hm.. maybe I used the term wrong.. anyway, I do the following when approaching hairpins/acute turns at high speed:

• Approach a corner and apply full brakes while following a straight line
  
• Ease off brakes a little as I approach apex, but still braking quite a lot. This causes more vertical loading on the front wheels, which gives better traction and hence I can turn more/faster. The rear wheels will be slipping slightly (but not spinning out), as the rear end of the car wants to keep going along the straight line.
  
• Once the front of the car is pointing where I want, I countersteer (straighten up the car) while gently applying throttle.
  

In the XFG/XRT this works pretty well. I normally use 66-69% brake bias to get this effect.

I don't know, but it feels like I can go faster with this technique as I can approach a turn at higher speed and exit with the same speed, or maybe also faster.

Quote from Gnomie :

Hm.. maybe I used the term wrong.. anyway, I do the following when approaching hairpins/acute turns at high speed:

• Approach a corner and apply full brakes while following a straight line
  
• Ease off brakes a little as I approach apex, but still braking quite a lot. This causes more vertical loading on the front wheels, which gives better traction and hence I can turn more/faster. The rear wheels will be slipping slightly (but not spinning out), as the rear end of the car wants to keep going along the straight line.
  
• Once the front of the car is pointing where I want, I countersteer (straighten up the car) while gently applying throttle.

In the XFG/XRT this works pretty well. I normally use 66-69% brake bias to get this effect.

I don't know, but it feels like I can go faster with this technique as I can approach a turn at higher speed and exit with the same speed, or maybe also faster.

oh, i just read that you brake heavily on your rear wheels and thought you mixed up trail braking and ebraking...

yes, you got it right... you brake your front wheels while you have your foot on the throttle.

but why do you brake fully? isn't flating your tires out bad for driving?

What you need to be faster is simply point your nose to the apex faster than the opposition, and be in a position to floor the accelerator BEFORE the others.
This means (for my style, at least), oversteer on entry, neutral mid, and understeer on exit.

However, if your good, you can get a car to be oversteery in all situations, and via control, do a (very small) drift on entry (to get ya pointed where you need to go), then floor the accelerator toward the apex and away you go.

^actually, you NEVER want to neutral steer... on track at least

Driving style, eh?


Erratic, Mental, Fast, Out-of-control!

Quote from atlantian :

when you say "teeny bit of slip" to get past some corners, do you mean to get past corners where the turning ratio can't get you through? i don't think there are tracks like that in LFS...

What I mean is that general consensus (as far as I'm aware) is that a car that is slightly loose will be faster than a car that is slightly tight.

It can help to be just a tad slippery around some corners on some tracks in some cars ... depending.

My 2c. I'm no expert.

Driving style?

Well in LFS I tend to find myself braking earlier than most, (even people with the same lap times as me), turning in slightly earlier but getting on the throttle earlier too. End result in many races is that someone tail ends me going in to a corner and then blames me for "being slow". Whereas in reality I'm just as fast overall. Usually when I'm following the same person I'll often exit the corner faster than them. In a real race this wouldn't be so much of a problem because seasoned racers understand about hanging back and being aware of the driving style of the guy in front and learning where they can and can't pass by adapting their line etc. In LFS most drivers are very one dimentional, (and ultimately unskilled), in that they have no concept of this and just obstinately hold the same line etc no matter what and then blame the resulting crash on others, usually initiating a vote to ban them too.

In real life, I'm very cautious driver especially under braking. I always brake too early. It's probably the motorcyclist in me, where the results of going in "too hot" are a lot worse than just a little bit of front end slide. I rode bikes for 10 years before getting my car license so it's deeply psychologically engrained behaviour now.

Quote from samjh :

Nothing to get shy about. If you want to finish first, you must first finish!

I had a two-car duel at Westhill Reverse with another drivers who was two or three seconds per lap faster than me. But in the 12 lap race, he spun out like three times, while I had two minor shuffles and finished ahead of him.

Speed is important, but speed without consistency won't get you anywhere but a gravel trap.

Very true. Something that even pro's get wrong. I doubt anyone here can remember Kevin Schwantz, but he was a very fast rider that got a rep for either winning or falling off. Took him a few seasons to dial it out and when he did he won the GP world championship.

Quote from gezmoor :

Driving style?

Well in LFS I tend to find myself braking earlier than most, (even people with the same lap times as me), turning in slightly earlier but getting on the throttle earlier too. End result in many races is that someone tail ends me going in to a corner and then blames me for "being slow". Whereas in reality I'm just as fast overall. Usually when I'm following the same person I'll often exit the corner faster than them. In a real race this wouldn't be so much of a problem because seasoned racers understand about hanging back and being aware of the driving style of the guy in front and learning where they can and can't pass by adapting their line etc. In LFS most drivers are very one dimentional, (and ultimately unskilled), in that they have no concept of this and just obstinately hold the same line etc no matter what and then blame the resulting crash on others, usually initiating a vote to ban them too.

In real life, I'm very cautious driver especially under braking. I always brake too early. It's probably the motorcyclist in me, where the results of going in "too hot" are a lot worse than just a little bit of front end slide. I rode bikes for 10 years before getting my car license so it's deeply psychologically engrained behaviour now.

Geez what idiots. That's sad to hear. How can anyone tail-end you and then blame it on you? That's so stupid.

I guess that's what you get from playing against the AI so much...?

If you're slow, they should overtake you - problem solved.