What is the Most Satisfying Corner Complex in Sim Racing?

Best Sim Racing Corner Sequence 01.jpg
We want to hear what our readers think is the most satisfying series of corners in sim racing.

Corner sequences or complexes are successive corners on a racing circuit grouped together, where your speed and attack angle through each corner affects your line through the next. Getting the timing, angle and speed correct through these sequences can have a major impact on your overall laptime.

Perhaps the most famous example in racing is the Eau Rouge / Radillion complex at Spa-Francorchamps. Most of us as sim racers know the feeling of hitting the entry at exactly the right angle and carrying a lot of speed, which eventually leads to a successful launch up the Kemmel straight. Conversely, most of us also know the feeling where you check your mirror at the wrong instant before beginning your ascent through the complex and awkwardly enter Eau Rouge, which then slows the car to a larger degree through Radillion.

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Running fast and aggressively through a complex is among the best experiences you can have as a sim racer, which makes other sites such as the Porsche curves at Circuit de la Sarthe or Brunchen at the Nurburgring Nordschleife such rewarding corner sequences.

Lesser known, but no less rewarding corner complexes include the 7/8/9 sequence at Virginia, the S-curves at Suzuka, turns 9 and 10 at Termas De Rio Hondo (thank you Automobilista 2!), and Ascari at Monza. But we want to hear your favourites. Which complexes challenge you as a sim racer, but pay you back handsomely when you get them right? Let us know in the comments below.
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

An Under-rated one for you: Turns 4 - 12 on the Newcastle Street Circuit!!
A decent version on Assetto Corsa has been whipped up "VRA Newcastle 500"
 
I put my personal classification, regardless of the car I drive:

#1 : all the 1st sector @ Suzuka

#2 : from turn 16 (Porsche) to turn 19 (Maison Blanche) @ Le Mans

#3 : the S of Senna @ Interlagos
 
I am thinking about Magny Cours, this is a track made of curves sequences. It's been a long time I haven't raced on it but I still think about its flow and the way the curves follow each other.

I hated it when I was a kid, I loved it when I really got more serious in sim racing. It is not a too long track (I get bored quiet easily in a track like Spa if I'm not racing it at high speeds), not too complex to learn, but enough to experience various and technical curves, with a really good flow, including some interesting weight transfers (last turn is an amazing one).

Knockhill! I was just thinking about this one, short with an amazing flow between the corners. I remeber how fun it was with an overpowered canam car, each turn becaming a challenge.
yup Magny is ace, I race it more in Bike sims than car sims though. I think I have a reasonable version in RF2 but it doesn't look good. The whole section after the hairpin right up to the final chicane is an endless series of corners!
 
Mount Panorama particularly no chicane layout, old cars, brakes and tyre.

rFactor2 Isle of Man, can't put one complex above another. Hooking up through the flat out tree covered sections for mine is satisfyingly good while strangely terrifying for driving a sim. :p

How could I forget the IOM!!!

Also I had a crack at the Targa Floria on RF2 and judge how well I do for how long I last (not long usually) before a crash (like the IOM!).
 
Honorable mentions:
- Ledenon: the two right corners after the big downhill in the 2nd sector
- Salzburgring: the two right corners after the back straight
- Donington Park: the first downhill
- Kyalami: that sort of corkscrew in the middle sector
- Cadwell Park: all that last tight sector
- Vila Real: too much scary/fast/beautiful corners... impossible to choose
- Mugello: from Casanova/Savelli to Arrabbiata 2
- Zandvoort: from turn 4 to turn 8
- Paul Ricard and Autodrom Most: the first chicanes in the "fast" layouts... you can take them full throttle and they're breathtaking, especially in GT cars
- Pau Arnos: for the same reason as above
- Macao: the scary fast corners in the first sector
- Le Mas du Clos: the last two corners in the downhill before the main straight
 
The blind full throttle left with jump at the Steinbachsee on the Solitude 64
With an old TC-76 car in GT Legends

Glück auf!
:)
 
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Premium
All Acque Minerali part (the one that goes after Tosa and before Variante Alta) at Imola. You go uphill, then a fast left hander where you start to go downhill, a tricky bracking zone, and then again up for the chicane. Awesome.
 
So many good ones...
Turn 8 at Istanbul of course, Pouhon, Eau Rouge/Raidillon, the whole mountain part in Bathurst, turn3/4/5/6 and the last chicane of Detroit'88 with an '79 F1 in rF2 are awesome, almost every turns of Oulton Park without chicanes... Arghh too hard to choose one sorry:)
 
Some great choices so far.
Mine is a tad obscure, but it's the entire Fern Bay Gold track from Live For Speed.
It's a thrilling track, easy to learn, with some amazing high speed corners. Terrific for racing.
 
Premium
I got another one for you...
High speed ring (before it got botched up) the whole track, it was/is a circuit where you could push and push and push, and every lap get a quarter/half a tenth better and push until the tyres called enough and it just wouldn't go faster... on the old GT games but more recently for GTR2.

(did I just admit to scrumping from the Royal orchard?) :redface:
 
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Premium
For some reason, corners where you can make or break your lap are frustrating rather than satisfying to me.

Since I usually compare to my fastest lap, if I can take such corners fast enough, it's nothing more than the usual consistency I expect from myself. If I'm constantly far behind my best because of a tricky corner I cannot nail, it's very frustrating.

If consistency leads to satisfaction, such corners do not help.
 
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