Learning Open Wheel Cars

[BoogerMac]

So I suck with open wheel cars in rF2. What's the best way to learn them? Skip Barber? I have all the aids off, should I turn a few of them on low?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[tpw]

The Skip Barber is pretty difficult to come to grips with (literally) and if you're anything like I was you'll spend a lot of time on track with the back end of the car pointing in the direction you wanted the front to go. My personal preference in sims is turn off all assists and just learn the correct technique for the car, but of course your kilometerage may differ. In the case of the Skippy there are a couple of essentials: don't carry too much speed into corners (ie slow in fast out); do as much braking as you can in a straight line; get used to heel/toe downchanges and don't do them in turns; learn to love lift off oversteer etc etc. I'm sure others will have additional pointers. There are a few setup changes you can make to make the car a bit more comfortable, such as dropping tyre pressures and increasing front caster, but it will probably remain a frustrating car to drive until one session it will just click and all of a sudden you're enjoyably competitive.

Many people swear by the Spark F3 as a more enjoyable low powered open wheeler, and it's certainly far less twitchy and easier to throw around than the Skippy (which by all accounts is designed to punish incorrect technique).

 

[Rob Nelson]

Finding a good setup helped me immensely.

 

[hitm4k3r]

Keep in mind when driving most openwheel cars such as the Formula 2 or Formula Renault 3.5, that they heavily rely on aerodynamical grip. So you have to drive them fast to get optimial grip and maximum downforce. So be carefull when driving slowly or through low speed corners as in those situations you will spin generaly more often. If we had a Formula Ford, I would advice to take that one as it doesn't have any wings and is pretty much the best entry level for stiff suspension open whell cars and relys solely on mechanical grip. But we don't have one so my seconds best bet would be the Formula 2 mod by ISI. I would not advice to use traction control, so that you can a better feeling for your trhottle application in such cars.

I hope that helps abit, so that you don't get too frustrated by slow speed spins. It's pretty common

 

[BoogerMac]

Thanks for the help. I'll turn off all the assists and try Formula 2 this week.

 

[Alexandre Costa]

If you have AMS try the Formula Vee for practicing.

 

[BoogerMac]

If you have AMS try the Formula Vee for practicing.

But the sound...sounds like a hundred pissed off bumble bees.

 

[tpw]

But the sound...sounds like a hundred pissed off bumble bees.

It's a 40 year old WV engine, it's not gonna sound like a corvette! Seriously though, if you can drive the rF2 Skippy or the AMS FVee, you can drive anything!

 

[xnorb]

You really can't compare open wheelers.
Just because you're not behind a windscreen doesn't mean Skippies, F3 and F1 are similar
Pick the class you're most interested in and learn how to tame them.

For Skippies or Vees my main rule is: Don't overdrive. Going too fast into corners usually means death for me

 

[BoogerMac]

Thanks for the inputs. I guess I'll just keep going at it until I figure it out. Any tracks y'all recommend?

 

[tpw]

Oulton Park and Cadwell Park are my two favourite tracks for Skip racing. Technical tracks with plenty of variety and elevation changes, not to mention detailed and beautiful conversions.