Hi guys, I'm Greg, a 39 year old belgian guy, who discovered simracing some years ago with Raceroom. I just play a few times before, but since last week, i buyed a wheel and i rediscovered this wonderful game. I practice a lot, and become passionate about simracing, how surprising it is for me ! The fact is that i am a rookie, i looked alot of videos, tips, and so. My goal is to follow the WTCR challenge "Beat the drivers" to learn every race, slowly, in a good way, and to learn driving. I know this takes time. Up to now, i'm in a fail and learn tactic, cause i have no help from real people. I am asking here, cause maybe some of you have time, and maybe someone can help me analysing my driving if i post some videos, and give me precise tips about my driving ? That would be really great. I want to learn, and i practice alot. To give you an idea, on this first WTCR challenge race (Hungaroring), i'm at 1.55.778, so i need to gain 4 sec onds to be in the first places. I'm waiting for you guys ! Thanks a lot !
I can take a look at your videos, make sure you include input graphs. JustRace season 2 currently uses WTCR on sundays, i recommend you joining them so you can practice in action, not to mention a lot of helpful folks can give you tips about racing line and setup over voice channel
I would suggest watching the iRacing school series and then practice. Majority of generic setups will be more than sufficient and the time is better served developing technique and consistency. I am not advocating for the sim just the videos I think will get you going on the correct trajectory. Only advice I would provide is some I received 35 years ago from Gary Bailey, a motocross instructor, "in order to go fast you first must be able to do it slow' Ok, the other exhaust all effort in gaining consistency and speed prior to making setup changes. Good Luck and be patient the speed will come
Thanks for the tips, i'll have a look at JustRace. Here's my latest best lap, but i hadnt the inputs on it. I'll try to make another one. Thanks for your help guys, i really appreciate !
Good start, try taking a little less speed into the turns and concentrate on hitting the apex and then accelerating. Old saying is slow entry fast exit.
Not a chance. As Aris put it in one of his ACC videos "Driving gains you seconds, set-ups gains you tenths" I don't care how good a setup you give me, there's still no way I'm going to be seriously competitive. Besides, in this particular TCR leaderboard, the setup is fixed. As for general advice on how to improve.... Well, for one I wouldn't start with the TCRs. These FWD beasts require a fairly specialized technique to drive fast. Other than that, I can only echo what @ducman888 has already said. One thing you can try though, is don't look at the clock and turn off ghost-cars. When you're trying to beat a certain time, you almost always end up trying too hard, and overdriving the car. Just focus on being smooth with your inputs and hitting the apexes. It'll feel very weird to begin with, but I guarantee you it'll be faster than out-braking yourself in every corner. Finally, if you've just gotten into sim-racing, there's one more thing to consider. What exactly do you want out of it? By that I mean, if you want to play with the big boys and enter competitions and the like, you WILL need to practice. A lot. Every day. Make no mistake, the top guys are just stupid fast. But you can certainly have fun with a lot less effort. Some of the most memorable races I've had, have been epic fights for the honor of 14th place or the like. And while the only chance I'll ever have of winning a race is if the rest of the field spontaneously explodes, that doesn't mean I'm not having a blast, both off- and on-line. So maybe have a think about whether you want to be pro, semi-pro or casual.
Thanks again for all the tips guys. I try to understand this slow in fast out, but i dont really understand how to do it. I have to enter slower than now ? It gives me the impression to be too slow. Then i have a problem when i go full throttle, my car loose grip. Should i be more progressive on my throttle when i goes out of the corners, or do i have to delay my full throttle ?
It IS counter-intuitive, especially when you're first starting out. "How does slowing down make me faster??" I'll try to see if I can put together a video to illustrate it, but in the meantime try this: Take your original brake-point, then move it back a car-length. Simple as that, just move your brake-point 3 meters back and see what happens. The thing that almost everybody (myself incl.) do when starting out, is braking as late as they possibly can and they go screaming into the corner with smoke rising from the tires. Which is admittedly very satisfying, it's just not very fast. Not only are you frying your tires, you're also barely in control of the car and thus unlikely to hit your apex and exits. And if you miss your apex/exit -points that compromises your exit-speeds. And since those exit-speeds carry on through the straights, that's what you should focus on. Let me put it like this: Say you have a corner that is 20 meters in length, followed by straight that is 120 meters in length. If you go into the corner fast, you gain a 5mph advantage in the corner, but your exit-speed is 5 mph slower. Go into it slow you lose 5mph in the corner, but you gain 5mph on exit-speed. Which is why exit-speed is far more important than entry-speed. Furthermore, by screaming into the corner, you'll be constantly correcting for over/under-steer scrubbing even more speed. By slowing down a little on entry, you gain control, stability and ultimately lose less speed. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Or in other words: It is far better to place your car where you want it, instead of reacting to where it happens to be. This is why I wouldn't start with the TCRs. As you accelerate, the weight of the car shifts backwards. Which is great in a RWD, not so much in the FWD TCRs. Couple that with the fact that the TCRs have absurd amounts of torque, and it's very easy to spin the wheels on corner-exit. So yes, progressive throttle-application is one solution. Another is short-shifting (i.e. shifting into a higher gear before max revs), or simply using a higher gear in the first place. Although the danger of that is possibly bogging the engine down, and losing all acceleration. So it's a balancing act. In closing, it should perhaps also be mentioned that in the above leaderboard competition, I'm only about a second faster than you. So it's one thing to know the theory, quite another to do it in practice.
Still working on the speed vs. control video. In the meantime I did the leaderboard thing again. Now, this is by no means a perfect lap. Hell, it's not even a remotely fast lap compared to the aliens. I lock the brakes into T1, and when it comes to Hungaroring I have no idea how to get through T11 and T13. Pretty much just chuck it in and hope for the best. But here's a couple of things to take note of @Big Fat Greg : There's very little variation in the revs. I'm not spinning the wheels (well, mostly ), nor am I constantly correcting throttle in the corners. I'm usually braking much sooner than you. And with the exception of T14, I'm avoiding high curbs like the plague. All of which means added stability and control. Finally, take note of the throttle under braking. There's always some throttle applied. This is one of the weird things about the TCRs (and FWD in general). If you just stomp on the brakes, all the weight gets shifted forwards meaning you have tons of grip on the tires that handle both acceleration and turning. So if you turn the wheel, you will lose the read end. Giving it a bit of throttle helps balancing the car under heavy braking. As I may have mentioned earlier, the TCRs are a little.....odd.
The old video is really gold ! And the hotlap from Lars will help me ! I really appreciate so much help guys !
Search for Driver61 on Youtube. He`s an ex-racer and full-time race instructor, who does tutorial videos for both real world drivers and sim racers.
I`ve just remembered a completely useless fact: Back in the early days of Raceroom, there were challenges (can`t remember what they were really called). The idea was that there were a number of fixed car/track combos and you had to complete a lap in a certain time. You also had to drive through these massive green hoops that were set at certain points on the track, like the apexes. Missing the hoops added time to your lap. There were 3 or 4 `levels`, from Novice to Maestro. I was really disappointed when they were removed as they were great for learning tracks and feeling some sense of achievement. Mind you, I`m probably the only person that never entered a single race, because I enjoyed the Driving School so much.
Jack Keithley shared his leaderboard lap last year. The cars might be a bit slower now (or maybe this is due to the fixed setup), but the driving style required to be fast is still the same:
Let me clarify; I'm not saying don't practice and that skill doesn't matter, I turn a crazy amount of laps as much as I can. Trying to learn all the nuances of a track, a car, my skill level. However, all that without a good setup will only garner you so much improvement after a point. A solid setup will lower your times. I dropped 1.5 seconds at Nurburgring using a setup I found online. It was repeatable. The car just worked differently. I should have explained in more detail earlier.
I watch Airis' video's as well. I've learned a lot from him. I remember that quote, however, he is not the defacto guru. Neither are you. Nor I. But I'm speaking of past experiences. Monza is one in particular. I ran possibly 400 or so laps, possibly more and hit a plateau. Using a different setup improved my time exponentially. A better setup after that would have given me tenths. A good setup is just as important for lower times. To argue that makes no sense.
Actually, I may need to step back a bit. I remember watching Aris' video about good lap times with a stock setup. I've also watched several videos of drivers laying down blistering laps on stock setups. So I stand corrected. Having said that, until I changed my setup, lap times were stagnant. Could it be down to driving style? My interest is piqued.