Im no expert but i dont see myself as a slow coach.

I've been racing for just over a year now, and the key is just practice and alternating between combo's, especially the hard one's like Tweak said.

I have added alot of the very fast drivers inb LFS to my buddies list at LFSWorld and try when i have the time to go join them to learn, also to get some very good setups , but basically for the experience.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I've added a few to my buddy list so I can avoid them! But still SparkyDave regularly seeks me out and obliterates me. He does send me his setups a lot but I never seem to like them. The steering always feels weird and light.

*adds Exodus to buddy list*

Your on my list aswell....for those nights where nothing goes right i have someone to come along and race with j/k

Always good times, especially on the OCC servers!

Quote from thisnameistaken :

SparkyDave regularly seeks me out and obliterates me. He does send me his setups a lot but I never seem to like them. The steering always feels weird and light.

lol Kev I dont seek you out on purpose I just prefere racing with people I know
I would only consider myself as "fast" on a few combos some cars I just dont drive as often as I should , I found when getting up to speed in early S1 days is that I tended to steer too far with the wheel and quickly found that less steering imput produced more turn on the road (up to a point of course)
I would recomend to anyone wanting to gain speed to try playing with the cars setups in only a few ways to understand basic principles like what makes a car understeer or oversteer, and to get a car feeling comfortable (predictable) when cornering/ breaking/ accelerating over bumps ect for that driver.
when tweaking a set I begin with ARB settings to get the car cornering how I like , then play with front and rear camber and tyre pressures until i think I have hit the "apex grip limit", then I will often play with the brake strenth and balance until I am happy with that, then comes some steering changes (parrallel steer and toe settings) then improve the gearing to suit any corners I am having trouble with.
I am certianly no setup guru but once you know how to make a car feel comfortable its alot easyer to just concentrate on where other cars are going to be and not worry about my own.
I would suggest also people try reducing the amount of FF ingame I run very low FF as i feel it makes it easyer for me to feel the road and make small adjustments without having to fight the FF

your post proves not everyone drives the same style and not every WR set is drivable fast by all

Always always recalabrate your controller when you fire up LFS then lock it I do this every time and believe its well worth the extra 20 seconds.


SD.

I think the key is just lots and lots of practice and experimenting with setups plus reading up on how LFS behaves and what works for others. Then once you understand it it'll become easier to drive. Watching others and taking what suits your driving style from theirs is also important. But most of al don't give up when you hit that wall PB that you can't beat no matter what.

I'm not fast by any means even though it says reg 2003 I only really began playing LFS a month or so ago since playing with the demo versions ages ago with a mouse. On some tracks I still am faster with a mouse than the wheel as it's a whole new game of control with a wheel IMO.

Quote from SparkyDave :

Always always recalabrate your controller when you fire up LFS then lock it I do this every time and believe its well worth the extra 20 seconds.


SD.

Do you really calibrate it each time? I don't notice any changes if I don't calibrate, but I'll give it a go a few times and see if I do notice a better difference.

Agreed on the WR sets though, they are rarely comfortable enough for me to actually race or be fast with but I use them to train my AI hehe

BTW your set for the XFR on SO5 is very comfortablke to drive and I like the way it handles. I got a quick time when test driving from your hotlap, too bad you can't get setups from sprs.

Been driving LFS for over 4 years now, so lots of experience of it in different forms. In terms of distance driven, however, there's many people with much more then me.
Overall it doesn't take me long to get upto speed on any car/track combination (although it helps if it's not a combination I don't like), but my overall pace is never quite like that of the very top racers (have had some WRs, but they never last long - think 1 weeks is my record). I seem to improve in 'steps' - stay at the same pace for ages, then suddenly I 'step up' and am faster. Doesn't happen very often, but am getting close to pb pace already with this g25 (which I've had since yesterday, and not used wheel for ~7 weeks), so another step up atm I think

Imo the main method to improve in LFS (for me anyway) is not to stick to a particular car+track, but try and do a bit of everything, get in a wide range of experience, which can then be applied to a particular situation. Personally I advise some drifting to people struggling with the rwd cars, as it really does help to teach how to control the car when it starts to slide, or how to prevent it sliding when you feel is about to go.

16.887 Km spread over... err 2 years.
Tho I drove like 2,5 years in demo, so make it 30.000 Km over 4,5 years.

If I read some guys did over 300.000 km I'm like.. hmm perhaps I just should race more, instead of race a few times and try to be fast.

Hmm, well mileage doesn't really say a thing.

I have ~3600 miles driven, but I have practiced offline a lot more and am able to get within 1 sec of the world record on at least 4 (non-oval) combo's

I'm not fast - 1:37.XX in the XFG at Blackwood, 1:29.XX in the turbo thing - and I recognise the feelings someone posted about, the nerves that come from from having one eye on the splits and another on cars ahead and behind. But I think the way to be fast is not even to think about speed (racecars don't have speedometers...)

At any one time your thoughts should be on how much traction am I using up; has the car got anything left to give me; if I have the choice of braking here, here, or here, which one is the optimum and which one will use up more traction than I have to spare?

I suppose what I'm saying is that good, enjoyable racing is about keeping your mind focused on your present actions and their immediate consequence. You don't have to worry about how fast or what position, because those things will come from the good choices you make right now.

Quote from nihil :

I'm not fast - 1:37.XX in the XFG at Blackwood, 1:29.XX in the turbo thing - and I recognise the feelings someone posted about, the nerves that come from from having one eye on the splits and another on cars ahead and behind. But I think the way to be fast is not even to think about speed (racecars don't have speedometers...)

At any one time your thoughts should be on how much traction am I using up; has the car got anything left to give me; if I have the choice of braking here, here, or here, which one is the optimum and which one will use up more traction than I have to spare?

I suppose what I'm saying is that good, enjoyable racing is about keeping your mind focused on your present actions and their immediate consequence. You don't have to worry about how fast or what position, because those things will come from the good choices you make right now.

i am neither one of the slowest nor the best (unfortunately :P ) got a bit more than 70k km on my counter now,together with the amount of driving i did in demo it should be a bit less than 100k. started in november 04, so let´s say i´ve been playing for 2 years now... although i don´t really improve since a few months i think

So, how long it took for me to be as fast as I am at the moment. Well, I would say it took every kilometer from day 1, from early January 2004 to this day, that's about 3 years. But I haven't stop improving or hit the wall, a good driver never stops learning. That's a bit worn phrase, but it's true! And from that I can tell you the ultimate answer to the question "how long it will take"...wait for it...it will take forever, all the time you can have

I'm terribly sorry if this has already been answered and I didn't notice it because I didn't bother reading the whole thread because I only wanted to answer to the original question

*insert a smiley of your chose here*

I would say it took me about a year to get to 90% of the speed I have currently, but because I acheived that so quickly things like racecraft and consistency were seriously lacking (yes, I would say a year is a short amount of time to get quick in, but I guess it depends on your definition of 'quick').

In the three subsequent years, I've gain a little in speed (that 10%), but added consistency, race craft, thinking time, car control, setup analysis, spatial awareness, qualifying tactics, pit strategy calculation........

Speed is only a tiny little bit of the racing drivers Big Book of Skills. To concentrate on that (as I did in my early LFS days) would be a mistake, and I would encourage any newbie to look at the bigger picture earlier, even if it seems more daunting.

Its taken me quite a while to get to the pace I am at now, and I still need to improve. I do however have quite a bit of race craft, consistency, and car control. Speed will come with time, and the old addage remains true: Drive the car, then Race it.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Its taken me quite a while to get to the pace I am at now

What, slow?

Quote from Jakg :

What, slow?

Careful matey, or I'll write about your efforts on Wednesday

Theres Dustin Slow, then there's SamH slow :P

Atleast he uploaded his times to the right server.