I just got the s2 license. So many cars and tracks. Where do I start?

I'm still unable to make it below 1:36 in xf gti. So I find myself obsessively racing with the xf gti. I want to learn another can and another track. So many cars, tracks and variations of tracks that it's overwhelming. Which is a popular car/track combo for me to practice?

And did it take you guys a long time to reach below 1:36? I've been at it for 5 days. I have a WR setup. Am I a slow learner? hehe

Any laps you do in any car will add to your "skill", if you had 20,000 laps in other cars, 5 days for 1:36 on BL1/XFG would be pretty damn slow, but with 5 days total experience it's not slow at all.

Why not join OLFSL, next race is BL1/XFG and it's still a week away, and the following races will give you a few new combo's to practise.

I think the XFG is great to learn the basics in. It doesn't bite your head of when you get it wrong like the RWD cars, it doesn't roast the front tires like the more powerful FWD cars, but it's not pure understeer like the UF either.

As for different tracks, I would suggest one of the shorter tracks like FE Gold or one of the South City sprint configurations.

I remember racing you on the Mercury server. From what I can tell your braking and lines are pretty good. What you should look into is car control. You sometimes lose a lot of speed in corners because you get sideways. That's the downside of WR sets. They're fast, but not really the most stable to drive.

I figure you could pick up a second or more if you learn to catch slides earlier. You might wanna use one of the empty Autocross tracks (parking lot or skidpad) to practice. Just throw the car into a drift and try catching it. Once you're familiar with this, it'll also become easier to avoid or correct slides on the track. And try to listen to your tires. You don't want to hear any squeal.

Yup, LFS is overwhelming. I remember 1st time after I bought it (was still S1) I got online and just spectated for about an hour, jumping from server to server, not grasping the amount of tracks and cars (which was at least 40% less combos than now), with a grin I couldn't remove

So, take it easy, start with the easier cars (FWD cars, FOX if you're into single seaters). As for popular tracks, start with the not very technical and not very long tracks 1st (aston national, south city classic, fern bay gold are few nice tracks). And, don't forget to respect blue flags if you're racing online. You'll appreciate people who respect blue flags much more when you're less novice

And, most important, get online and have fun oh.. and don't forget to say goodbye to your social life welcome.

Download and watch some of the hotlap replays from lfsworld

Note: multiplayer replays lie ! don't copy lines or braking points from other drivers in multiplayer mode as the slight lag thats always present makes all of them inaccurate !

Make sure the replay uses the same input controller as you - no point in watching a wheel replay if you drive with mouse - and if you use wheel, make sure that you have same pedal config - e.g. combined or seperate axis can make a big difference to driving style.

Watch the replays from different viewpoints - watch from wheels view and look at the 'mouse indicator' to see how much they are turning the wheels. Watch from the view you race in (cockpit is best IMO) to get a good feel - if you drive on the right find replays that drive on the right and vice versa. watch form chase view to see how much curb they take at apex.

Switch on pedals input to see not only when brake and gas are applied, but how heavily and how slowly they are pressed and released.
Check what speed they are going at at marker points - e.g. apex, exit, and any good marker you can find - start/finish line, a change in the road texture, a marshal in the crowd etc - ideally shortly after corner exit as exit speed is VERY important to good laps. This will give you targets to aim for, and is a better indicator than split times - because it tells you which corners you are bad/good at, not just which track sector.
e.g. if on Blackwood you are getting the same speed in back straight marker (say.. where the blue+white left curb finishes after exit of chicane ) as world record lap , but your 1st split is much lower, then you know that your chicane is good, but you are slow in either t1, or final turn of previous lap - so next few laps you check speeds after final turn exit - this way you can narrow things down and work out what to concentrate on

Go on a less busy server, and after settling in and having a few races, see if any of the faster racers are willing to spectate you and give you some tips - even with the inaccuracy of multiplayer, they can help you to spot obvious areas for improvement

The guy that said no tyre squeal is best is wrong - loud tyre squeal is bad, but a little quiet squeal means you are maximising the grip potential of the tyres !

keep steering and pedal inputs to the minimum for fast times

Most important of all: Be cool ! Be clean ! Show respect ! and HAVE FUN

not a good example, but i got in a FO8 for my first car. I suggest trying the XFR at BL for a start.
Ready to lose your social life?

I am not using it myself, and i'm not sure if it works with the latest patch, but kegetys ghostcar mod might help you. check it out:

http://www.kegetys.net/lfs/

follow real life, start with slow car and build up, try not to copy the real life spoilt brat who gets a 911 for his 17th and doesnt make it to 17 years 1 day

I know the feeling!

Only got licensed today and only had the demo a couple of days...


...too much information!

Only pulling 1.40's round BL...need to spend more time on it, also awaiting my wheel which should hopefully turn up this week. Until then it's joypad all the way.

I really need to sit down and work out what all the settings mean and how they alter the cars. But thats half the fun i guess. At least the games got depth!

I'm not sure if you're starting from 1:36 (or definitely 1:40) that it's a good idea to try and copy 1:33 lines right away, because you need a lot of car control skills to, e.g., brake at the rumble strip for t1, or past the 100m marker for the turn after the back straight. it's probably better to try and work up to that level gradually - it's much easier to get a 1:35 or 1:34 by braking a little earlier than the world record guys do than by trying to follow their lines exactly and 'just mess up a little bit' :P. I still can't quite match the lines they take, but by working up gradually I'm getting close (1:34.19 is my best now). when I was at 1:36 and trying to get down to 1:35 / 1:34 by copying the WR lines exactly, I was getting very frustrated and sliding around at 55mph a lot...

soma: do you have any experience in any other vaguely realistic driving games / real life? I was playing GT4 for a while before I picked up LFS, so I can get reasonable times quite fast, but if you never played a real sim before, five days to get to 1:36 sounds pretty good.

That's some very good advice. The WR brake points only work with perfectly warmed up tires, hard downshifting and if you have enough car control to balance the car with the throttle and brake.
Braking a little earlier doesn't cost much time, but getting sideways or running wide because you braked too late does.

Welcome To S2 LFS!

Best way to learn is to practice , but I'd suggest forget BL! i know, ages spent in gti at bl1 in demo means its a familaiar track car combo, but why buy S2 to get better cars tracks if all the new s2 racers want to do is drive the demo car track combos for ages til they get the courage to do a different track or car.

try the gti by all means but I'd suggest south city short tracks or aston they are a nice change from BL and offer skills in keep car tyres at correct temps and practicing pit stops, dl some of the newer setups for the patch q from inferno so you have sets to change to and from and enjoy the new areas of LFS

Go onto the list of servers.
Pick a race where a car is being used that you're most at home in.
Hit JOIN.
Hit Tab and join the leader sitting in his cockpit and watch his positioning for a few laps.
Choose another car and see how someone else drives it.
Make copious notes.......

Quote from bal00 :

That's some very good advice. The WR brake points only work with perfectly warmed up tires, hard downshifting and if you have enough car control to balance the car with the throttle and brake.
Braking a little earlier doesn't cost much time, but getting sideways or running wide because you braked too late does.

As I'm learning lol that's good advice tho because if you go in to the corner too hot you have no chance...

Exactly. Say it's a corner where the WR guys brake down to 65mph at apex. If you brake down to 65mph, miss the line, then lose traction or hit the brakes to get control back, you're going to drop to 55mph or less at _exit_ - and exit speed is the single most important thing. If you brake down to 60 then accelerate smoothly through the corner, which will be much easier because the lower speed gives you a nice margin for error, you'll lose maybe 1-2mph over the WR guys on your exit speed. Easy to see which is best

best to think of wr times and setups as the the old banzai qualifying setups when f1 had low fuel qualifying and could alter car afterwards.

they may be very fast but are very hard on the driver and tyres, a slightly slower more forgiving setup will be more usable and far more usefull for a race

tinvek: I've found that doesn't really apply to the GTi, probably because it's so underpowered. PBU's WR setups, for instance, will happily run at least 20 laps of most tracks (I haven't tried any longer stints than that yet). Fast people on public servers get close to the WR times with the GTi consistently. I guess it's on the more powerful cars that you see really exotic, one-shot setups for WRs.

Quote from bal00 :

I think the XFG is great to learn the basics in. It doesn't bite your head of when you get it wrong like the RWD cars, it doesn't roast the front tires like the more powerful FWD cars, but it's not pure understeer like the UF either.

As for different tracks, I would suggest one of the shorter tracks like FE Gold or one of the South City sprint configurations.

I remember racing you on the Mercury server. From what I can tell your braking and lines are pretty good. What you should look into is car control. You sometimes lose a lot of speed in corners because you get sideways. That's the downside of WR sets. They're fast, but not really the most stable to drive.

I figure you could pick up a second or more if you learn to catch slides earlier. You might wanna use one of the empty Autocross tracks (parking lot or skidpad) to practice. Just throw the car into a drift and try catching it. Once you're familiar with this, it'll also become easier to avoid or correct slides on the track. And try to listen to your tires. You don't want to hear any squeal.

Oh, thats interesting. I was told somewhere that a little bit of squeal was good. Is "no squeal" really better then as far as LFS is concerned. Maybe the earlier comment was on the subject of Grand Prix Legends (of blessed memory)....

A bit of squeal is normal and tells you you're at the limit of adhesion. Louder squeal means you're sliding and losing speed.

The "no squeal" shouldn't be understood as general advice. I just mentioned this to somasleep because I have a replay of him and he was having issues with bigger slides costing him speed.

Quote from somasleep :

Which is a popular car/track combo for me to practice?

I like the FOX/SO Classic. It's a somewhat easy car to drive, and SO Classic has a nice chicane in it. There are normally a few servers.

You call THAT chicane nice?

I call it evil.

Aye! That chicane has killed me so many times...

Lol, yeah, but it feels good when you nail it perfectly.

it's only nice if you're driving too slow :P. i spent about 8 hours driving aston club / fox yesterday. kinda hypnotic.

sounds interesting. Maybe I'll give that combo a shot today...