Hi all, what is the best Raceroom track(s) on which to practise braking? Track 1...At first, I'm looking for a wide, flat, straight, well (distance) marked piece of tarmac with good run off which I can get up to speed and test my straight line braking, then turn around and do the same test driving the wrong way...repeat ad infinitum. Track 2...After that, I'm looking for a short lap circuit habitually with straights leading into 2nd/ 3rd gear corners I am regularly 3-4 seconds off the pace of other multi players/ online racers on different tracks/ in different cars. In single player I struggle to lead or get close to the front with adaptive AI and I have to constantly drive closer to the limit. I am invariably using default setups. I have a list of suspects (aka "excuses" ) to the biggest problem...my braking: - I'm locking tyres on entry more regularly than I would expect (so I'm locking - I need to adapt and there's potentially changes to be made in front/ rear bias) I have an acc/brake Thrustmaster TX458 pedalset, no clutch, no load cell. The brake pedal has ~10mm travel before it registers (google shows this is a common problem with this pedal set and there are recommended fixes...but see below). I wonder whether I'm being confused because of this 10mm travel problem. Unsure why (potentially compensating for the above/ potentially because I'm adapting to simracing/ adapting to a non-pressure pedal) but I'm having to brake significantly earlier than reality/ significantly earlier than the AI, which can cause AI to rear-end/ overtake me. There's various material on the web regards how to race brake, I am working through those. I can't yet afford loadcell brakes (and to be honest, I know of fast online players who aren't using loadcells), so I have ordered a set of Thrustmaster T3PA's which should be here Saturday 18th July. Don't get me wrong, loadcells likely to come within a couple years, just not this year. What I need now is to research and practice technique supported by adequately functional brake unit.
Couple of mods that may help your braking\brake pedal out. Have a look here for a simple quick and cheap brake mod. buy a squash ball ram it in behind the brake pedal and get pretty decent resistance on your pedal for cheap.
Tried the squash ball, sliced up squash ball, other rubber shims...none were a good solution for me, just problematic in a different way. Also tried to fix the unresponsive brake pedal travel with other shims, again nothing felt better. New pedals arrive soon.
About 5 years ago I suggested a new "track" for practice purposes. The idea was just to have, say, a square kilometre of tarmac that you could just head out on and practice finding the limits of the car and practice braking etc etc. There could just be a few markings, witches hats etc to act as reference points. There'd be no AI (1 car limit on loading i.e. user only no multiplayer or AI) and its just for mucking about and practicing. The idea went over like the proverbial lead balloon with just about everyone - but I still like it... Of course I am assuming it would be easy to do but I realise it may be far from easy and may not be worth the resources. Just chucking it out there.
I think this would be a great thing for Assetto Corsa (doesn't seem to fit R3E quite as well) as a driver-trainer. I would love to have a track which is simply a square, to practice an endless sequence of 90 degree turns and experiment with different lines and setups, as well as a track that was a 5-pointed star to do the same except with alternating tighter and more obtuse turns. If only I wasn't too lazy to teach myself how to make a circuit from scratch....