Like many here I've been sim racing since the days of TOCA etc, but I'm ashamed to say I've never bothered to learn the Nordschleife.. It just never used to appeal to me. But things change, and tech/immersion have more than gotten to the point where it suddenly feels like a good idea to get stuck in. I've driven around it a couple of times in a half-arsed way, but nothing sinks in. My typical way of learning a track just doesn't apply here. If they have shorter versions, I'll learn those individually before stitching them together, or if not, I'll do longer sighting laps before focusing on specific corners until I eventually build a good mental image of what's going on with the whole thing. ..So how did you learn it?
Gran turismo 5. You used to have to do a challenge where the track was split up into sections. Other than that just lots and lots of laps. Don't pick a fast car. Something you can learn the lines without it getting away on you.
Log laps, and then log more, and drive them technically clean, not abusing options a sim offers. Drive it like you would dare to drive it in real life as well. True for every track, short or long. This way you learn the track quite fast. I see no point in being fast by abusing weaknesses in a sim's physics model or a track's layout. What I put into a sim attitude-wise, may it be flight or racing, is what the sim gives me back. Not more, and not less. In a way, the sim mirrors the way in which I approach it.
like ravey1981. I also had Gran Tourimo 5 and those challegens, which had th advantage that you haven't had to start from the beginning of a lap, helped a lot. later I had that NOS mod for rfactor and I was at the nordschleife several times for VLN races. So the fascination of nordschleife and VLN motivated me to get the Nordschleife running propperly. But in the end it is training, training.....
I learned on GT4 on the PS2 similar to @ravey1981 and @anno900. The Gran Turismo games had a lot of career races on the Nordschleife, some of the endurance events were a killer. I also agree with some of the points above on starting with something lower powered, GT4 or WTCR would be my suggestion as you can afford to push them a bit more and scramble out of mistakes easier.
If you're German, this was my go to when learning the line and braking points with GT3 cars. Greetings
Thanks for the tips. Good shout on Gran Turismo.. I have GT:S, and believe that does a similar breakdown which could work nicely. - That also means I can relax on the beanbag.
NS - not typical track. If you want drive NS ok - practice Lakeview Hillclimb with non-easy cars (PORSCHE CARRERA CUP CLASSIC, PORSCHE CARRERA CUP DEUTSCHLAND 2019). Try to handle them at Lakeview with GetReal mode and you will drive NS better Try it and you will understand what about I talking
Dont think i had a specific approach. I just kept driving until i started to recognize some corners, eventually those corners turned into bigger sections that i could remember and even later those sections connected and i knew the general layout of the track. From there on i could start pushing more and finding the limit (although i was already going fast enough to regularly crash from the very beginning of my nordschleife driving )
When you become somewhat familiar with a track, look at it in Google Earth or similar aerial view (or a detailed track map if available). Oftentimes what I perceive (on my single, flat screen) as a 90 degree corner is actually a tighter turn (or vice versa). Example: Aremberg (the turn before you pass under the bridge). For the longest time, I thought that was a quick 90 degrees, only to find out from viewing imagery that it closer to 60 degrees!
Drive it, drive it again, drive it again.... (for me it was in GTR2) Don't hotlap, don't push, enjoy the lap, it has many fun sections.. When you think, you know the layout, then start refinement: Best trackguide.
I know the first half ( and the armco) quite well......after about 5 years I'm starting to get to the end without hitting anything......