Quote from JohnPenn :

Forget about doing a fast lap, think line and smoothness, the emphasis being on the later you will know when you get it right as you will get a pb

BTW the best laps always "feel" slow

Exactly Especially the "best laps feel slow" bit.

strange... my best laps are usually so on edge my fingers hurt at the end of the lap from gripping the wheel so hard.
I remember my best lap on the FXR BL1 - I spent half the lap on two wheels, full throttle

I find that smoothness is key to going fast. All of my PBs seemed like I was crawling, but I kept on line and made all the corners perfectly. If you forget about stats and lap times you WILL go faster.

Quote from The Moose :

I don't think about anything really, I'm certainly never concentrating on braking markers, what speed I'm doing or any other distractions
I'm entirely focussed on how the car is handling and keeping it on the edge of traction.
When teammates ask how i did this or what gear I'm taking that in i often have to really think about what i did and analyse it to answer them as I'm not really aware of what I'm doing at the time.

Quote from Gutholz :

Do "the best" drivers really drive that much by learning brake-points by heart? Maybe for some i-want-the-hotlap-for-this-combo I could imagine that. Personelly I always drive by feeling but then Iam not very fast.
At least in stragety games (C&C, Starcraft Broodwar, TA etc) playing by feel works quite good for me, I never remember any buildorders or unitprizes.

I think when driving this way, learning a new track is much easier.
Or you just suck at all tracks, like I currently do

Maybe this "driving by feeling" is what makes people inconsistent. This approach may work quite well in pick up races. (I guess Moose is the guy who's always on a CTRA server ) This is the only way to survive the first few laps on a new combo anyway. I consider it the basis I try to build the pace on.

But if an unexperienced racer decides to just drive according to his/her feelings, it might restrict the progress. At least I always find myself thinking all the time when driving. Like... where should I improve? Should I change my line through a certain corner? Thinking is good imo. Especially when building a set or practising for an event. It's good to understand what you could change in your set and what should be adjusted inside the helmet.

What I like about LFS is that it works logically. In Counter-Strike I used to be really inconsistent. I could blame the server or my connection and the physics were quite fictional. However, in LFS you can know what you need to do to get it going. Be aware of the weight transfer rather than your steering input. Taking care of your car's balance and tires is more important than just blindly applying a certain amount of throttle. If I lose my concentration I just start to think like "here I turn my steering wheel and there I apply the throttle", and all the progress stops. That's when I know I'd better do something else instead of tring to drive.

My point is that there is no "trick". Keeping your mind on the right things and having a bit of technical approach can speed you up and enhance your consistency.

Quote from Rappa Z :

I find that smoothness is key to going fast. All of my PBs seemed like I was crawling, but I kept on line and made all the corners perfectly. If you forget about stats and lap times you WILL go faster.

This is the trick. For pretty much all of my PBs I've not been *travelling* blisteringly fast, just managed to hit just the right line through the significant corners and everything else falls together.

I always find I drive better when thinking about something else or listening to music but probably not best taking my advice as I am one of the slowest drivers here

Quote from Profi :

Maybe this "driving by feeling" is what makes people inconsistent. This approach may work quite well in pick up races. (I guess Moose is the guy who's always on a CTRA server ) This is the only way to survive the first few laps on a new combo anyway. I consider it the basis I try to build the pace on.

But if an unexperienced racer decides to just drive according to his/her feelings, it might restrict the progress. At least I always find myself thinking all the time when driving. Like... where should I improve? Should I change my line through a certain corner? Thinking is good imo.

Hmm, maybe i should have elaborated on my post
(and may i just say i don't just do short CTRA pickup racing, i race in IGTC, raced GFC in the past and also just finished runner up in the GPC netKar pro F3 league. I'm used to longer races )

When i said i don't think about things, i didn't mean i was driving with a totally empty head Driving by feel means that i know when a corner hasn't been taken correctly for instance, and that i know next lap i have to approach it differently.

All i meant by "not thinking about it" was i don't have to consciously put a lot of brain power into working out where I'm going wrong and what i need to do to go faster. That is all pretty instinctive.

I tend to do my thinking about where i can improve when I'm off the track.

I've found my consistency depends largely on my mood. If I'm not 100% focused on racing i drive very inconsistently because i cant get into "the zone"


You're right, thinking is good. But feel is just as important.



As a side note on consistency, I've noticed that driving with my 5 year old wheel/pedals isn't helping my cause any more. Having driven a set of really high quality pedals (http://www.revzalotmotorsports.com/products.html) not too long ago i realised the huge difference it made to my consistency, and it made me realise how inaccurate my pedals had become.
Top of the range gear does make a big difference to consistency. Of that i have no doubt.

You can all drive fine without thinkin about it if you've done 10k miles or more in LFS.

If you think you can lose your focus unless you think PROPERLY.

I know that makes no sense, but meh.

Quote from Jakg :

You can all drive fine without thinkin about it if you've done 10k miles or more in LFS.

This sounds about right. I hit 5k a few weeks ago and I'm *just* getting to the point where I'm starting to react instinctively to things like oversteer (I had my 'Eureka! I can drive a RWD!!' moment about 2 months ago ) and wheel locking. Things like anticipating oversteer and countering before it starts to stop it even happening in the first place was something I'd never have been able to do a few months ago, and in fact, didn't even realise you could do.