Seriously though, I'd light candles in every single church in NYC for this to happen. Can we (the forumites) write a letter to Aston Martin Racing or something? Certainly 30K signatures will at least attract their attention?
Well, if time and effort will be spent to model a GP2-lookalike, don't you think it's better to just add that as an extra car and leave FO8 be? I personally like it a lot and don't want it to change.
Blackwood reverse is probably the best track in LFS. Too bad I suck on it Both esses are awesome due to the way elevation flows in reverse, and entering the chicane after the long straight is also tense.
Niels, should I buy rFactor? Just got myself a full-time job, so that's one of the things I could treat myself to when I get my first paycheck I like the "feel" of LFS with a G25, how different are good rFactor mods? How many good mods are there? (I know of your Corvette mod, then there is Historix, which sounds very tempting--and I have GTL anyway, which I never even installed). Is there anything else? How good are the tracks (which as I understand are mostly user-created content)? On the average, is track surface detailed/bumpy compared to LFS? Do cars properly react to it if RealFeel is installed? I know there are a bunch of famous real-world tracks, but are there many fantasy ones?
My other option would be to wait till next NKP update, try the demo, and possibly buy that. But NKP content is kinda limited...
Sorry for derailing the thread, but I figured I'd ask here — I imagine I am not the only one interested.
Another thing I can add: do not get obsessed with lap times. Put enough fuel in the car to last 25 laps and just aim to drive that long. Pretty much the only thing you should be concentrating on is looking ahead on the track (i.e. not at the apex, but past the turn--again, good understanding of this comes with experience). After several laps, you will enter this weird meditative state and your lap times will start improving. The big speedups (up to 1 sec) usually come on laps that seem "slow" and overly relaxed.
Also, if you hit anyting, just reset the car (spacebar). You don't want even slight damage to suspension to influence your practice. Turn off wind as well.
Why? Road friction makes wheels spin, as you reach a certain slip ratio that contribution stops being sufficient. But the brakes' ability to convert kinetic energy into heat is limited, so even if you put the pedal to the floor, it will take longer to lock the wheels at 300 kmh (since the initial KE was so high to begin with), and if locked, just a slight lift off the brake will fix the situation. Of course you could argue that brakes are slightly more efficient at high speeds since they are cooled faster, but I doubt it matters that much.
[Keep in mind that I am not a very experienced driver, in fact I'd call myself a noob. Also, I did not get a chance to drive FBM/BL1 with a wheel yet, my PB is about 1:16.5 with a gamepad.]
There is some improvement from the replay you posted before, but a lot of problems are persisting.
0) S/F straight:
study the WR line through it. You are hugging the left side too closely and can't get a smooth entry into the final portion as a result.
1) Turn after the Start/Finish straight:
You start braking right at the crest of the elevation, where the inertia unloads the front wheels (since the car almost "jumps" off the top point), and get an immediate lockup as a result. That messes up your entry into T1. Brake just before you reach the top of the hump.
2) Chicane:
"getting" it takes some experience. Unless you have a feel for the proper racing line, you will not perform great here. Also, how you attack T1 influences your entry into the chicane. Try some other tracks and cars, develop your driving style, then it will come.
3) Turn after the long straight -- brake a bit earlier (about a car's length from the rumblestrip), turn a bit earlier. Also, you are not using the whole width of the track, even though it may seem so from the cockpit -- you still have about a car's width to your left.
4) Esses after that:
Again, you are in the middle of the road. That drops your turn-in speed, and you cannot get a proper entry into the second part of the esses. Stay to the left (the track curves to the left a bit, follow it). Also, in my experience you should turn just a bit earlier than what seems "right" to get a good line through the esses.
5) Right turn:
Again, middle of the road, bad entry, bad exit, risk of running out into the sand.
6) Final esses:
Stay as far to the right as possible. There is concrete beyond the rumblestrip, use all of it. Turn-in should start much earlier than you think (by the time you reach the end of the rumblestrip, you should be turning; also, your right front wheel should travel right at the end of the rumblestrip, but not farther than that). Again, this is a place where general experience helps a lot.
Just curious, is this your first sim game? I think reading up on sports driving will significantly speed up your progress.
EDIT:
I actually find it quite helpful to drive a track in MRT first. Since you are so close to the ground, you can sometimes literally see the trajectories you want to take through turns, or nasty bumps you want to avoid.
Bringing the steering wheel in neutral or almost neutral position when running over kerbs also helps. If you turn aggressively, the car leans to the side and then the kerb destabilizes it further.
EDIT:
Also, try to use higher-quality JPEG compression -- the skin is simple enough as is, no need to corrupt the logos with artifacts. When I d/l a 2048x2048 skin, I realize it's going to take up space
What do you guys think of this: several replay files can get "overlaid" so you have 2+ ghost cars "racing" one another. Similar to Analyze for Speed, but with in-game graphics. Then you can visually compare the replay of your best hotlap to a WR -- I think it will be easier to judge your lines that way.