Big Brother Program

Jan Roman · Apr 14, 2012

Since I rejoined iRacing a week ago and started to drive the Corvette, I was thinking about finding a "big brother". An experienced iRacing driver, who would answer at least some of my many questions, would be willing to provide some replays or some advice. Is there anyone driving the Corvette, whou would be willing to help? I will try not to bother you too often

Other players might be interested in this service as well. From what I've seen here on RaceDepartment so far, there are many beginners like me and this seems a good idea to improve.

// What exactly is a fast driver in my opinion? Since I train Watkins Glen now, let me make a example. I imagine that such a player would be able to drive around 1:40-41 at Classic Boot configuration, fixed setup.

Hampus Andersson · Apr 16, 2012

GT1 car has a sequential shifter. Pull to upshift, push to downshift.
I´m not sure but i think the car has three pedals, clutch is only used for taking off though.

Tom Van Put · Apr 16, 2012

I'm pretty sure that you had to heel-toe in the GT1 cars. Last year I saw an interview with Mike Hezemans (drove the Corvette for several years and won the Spa 24h) in witch he talked about it and how the GT3 cars are much easier to drive because they have auto-blip.

Greg Carr · Apr 17, 2012

Didn't the Corvette also have traction control?

Tom Van Put · Apr 17, 2012

Greg Carr said:
Didn't the Corvette also have traction control?

Yep, but iRacing has already said that they don't have the info from the manufacturers to create a decent TC system in iRacing.

Hampus Andersson · Apr 17, 2012

Tom Van Put said:
Yep, but iRacing has already said that they don't have the info from the manufacturers to create a decent TC system in iRacing.

It´s one of the most secretive things in motorsport.

I know for the M3 GT2 that runs in ALMS, BMW had an ex-F1 staff member to improve it etc.
So it´s pretty advanced stuff.

Jan Roman · Apr 17, 2012

I've only managed to do 1.42.752 today. It's not as good as I hoped, but it is certainly better than yesterday. The biggest problem right now is my consistency, which is virtually non existent. I just have to drive the Corvette for longer, I still don't have the feel for it and I keep spinning every three laps, but this should get better. I would say I had around 30-40 inc. per 21 lap session, which is insane. I am able to run clean races with the Mustang, but I was driving it for two months or so, not for 10 hours like Corvette

I tried suggested line in T6 and it even better than I thought. I'm struggling at two points right now. The first one is The Esses, where I need to upshift twice and it's still a bit hard for me to hold the wheel properly and very bumpy road there is not helping either. The second problematic spot is between T8 and T9. I go at very high revs (almost at the limiter) there before I downshift to second and I'm thinking about moving the gear just slightly higer. In conclusion, other gearing might suit me better.

Hampus Andersson · Apr 17, 2012

You mean you hit the rev limiter just before the braking zone for T9?

Jan Roman · Apr 17, 2012

Yes, exactly.

Hampus Andersson · Apr 17, 2012

Jan Roman said:
Yes, exactly.

That´s a good thing

If it just just before you hit the brakes.

That means the gearing is actually optimal there. If you have to shift up 7-8 meters before that then you are losing time which could be spent just keeping the foot down and then when you are close you just touch the limiter slightly before you hit the brakes.

It all depends on how long you sit on the limiter.

Jan Roman · Apr 17, 2012

Usually not at all, but it pretty damn close. I rather brake sooner and it's probably a good thing, because I haven't made a single mistake there today. Thank you for more information.

Greg Carr · Apr 17, 2012

If I have some time this week I will see if I can get you a replay of my lap at Watkins. I am not saying that I am expert at Watkins but it is the only track in iRacing that I live close to and I have been going to it for at least the past 10 years.

With the fixed setup I think the best I could get was a 1:41.xxx and that was the first time out in the Corvette, so since I have driven it all season I think I can get into the 1:40ish time with the fixed setup. I will also try a few laps with a custom setup that I found

.

Richard Sobolewski · Apr 18, 2012

Hampus Andersson said:
GT1 car has a sequential shifter. Pull to upshift, push to downshift.
I´m not sure but i think the car has three pedals, clutch is only used for taking off though.

Yup, it has three pedals, most drivers will only use the clutch for moving off and leaving the pits. Some drivers will clutch the car on up shifts to get a slightly smoother transition in the lower gears at dodgy revs. But at the higher gears the auto-throttle cut will take over the need to clutch the car. A couple of drivers used to (don't know if they still do thanks to the new paddle shifting system) will clutch on the way down, in practise you only need to blip the throttle but some of the pro drivers prefer to clutch as it can save a gearbox in a long race.

Hampus Andersson · Apr 18, 2012

Richard Sobolewski said:
Yup, it has three pedals, most drivers will only use the clutch for moving off and leaving the pits. Some drivers will clutch the car on up shifts to get a slightly smoother transition in the lower gears at dodgy revs. But at the higher gears the auto-throttle cut will take over the need to clutch the car. A couple of drivers used to (don't know if they still do thanks to the new paddle shifting system) will clutch on the way down, in practise you only need to blip the throttle but some of the pro drivers prefer to clutch as it can save a gearbox in a long race.

Good info!
Yea i think now with the paddle shifters you only use the clutch when taking off.
Seems like there´s a electro-hydralic system of some sorts.

Jan Roman · Apr 18, 2012

1.:42.661 today. Better again, even though not much. What changed massively was my consistency. I was able to do almost 10 laps at once at very very fast pace (certainly faster than race pace would be). I am starting to feel the Corvette and I think in a couple of days, I could do sub 1.42.

Thee's one thing that bothers me bit. The brakes. Everryone complains about the locking, but I have no problem with that. I(m rather thinking about modding by G25 pedals. I've made rubber brake mod, but it feels really bad and soft after a few days (the rubber is probably destroyed down there) and since I don(t have much money to spare right now, I was thinking about buying the Nixim mod. Do you have any experience with it? It seems prettey decent for that kind of money and it might stimulate load cell very well I think (at a good value). I would like to drive Corvette for a long time, so I would like to make the brakes (which is my biggest problem right now) better. The rubber inisde my pedals is almost flat, because now my pedals feel almost like the default ones. It helps a bit, but even though, I have to run at 4.00 brake curve factor, which is insane.

Hampus Andersson · Apr 18, 2012

Never modded my G-pedals sorry, i threw that crap out the window and bought a proper set with loadcell, never looked back after that

But i´m sure the Nixim mod is good, only heard great things about it.

Jan Roman · Apr 18, 2012

I saw the instructational video and one thing might a problem. I don't have anything but a table so I can't mount the pedals anywhere. Right now my pedals are simply taped to the floor and hold pretty damn well and I can press them to the floor even with the rubber inside, but I am not sure it would hold Nixim mod. It probably would, but I don't want to spend my money on a useless spring

I can't imagine how stiff the spring is.

Jan Roman · Apr 18, 2012

I've made another try today. I haven't driven sub 1.43, but I managed to be very consistent and in my division for the next season, I reckon this is going to be the most important thing ever and if I were able to be so consistent, it might end up in a couple of decent races. What is more, I am going to race in C class series (even though I am C 2.97 now and I could fast track before the next season) so I think there will be more beginners like me in comparison to B class Proto/GT series.

Here is a replay of 8 laps or so, most of them around 1.43. I am aware of most of my mistakes. I quite struggle with T1 since I am either too fast during turn-in and I run out of it or I brake too hard and lock my brakes. In the end, I started to brake slightly earlier to compensate my inability. Sometimes I get a bit "lost" and my racing line gets totally wrong. I still fight with The Esses and they always scare the sh*t out of me, but I learned how to handle them. Very high curbs are driving me mad, you run over them just slightly and you very likely end up in a barrier and rolling over your roof. (I laughed a lot when I had an accident and while my car was on the roof right behind T3, my spotter reported "You've got wheel damage." I think that was my least important problem

).

janroman.cz/iracing/Watkins3.rpy

I think this sudden boost of consistency is caused by the fact that I started to "dance" on the throttle, I push the throttle very smoothly in order to get as much speed as possible. I wanted my trainng to be more consistent, because just a few days ago, I spun every second lap. Corvette is absolutely amazing however, the NTM is cool as well and I can save almost anything, you just feel it coming (well, most of the time).

Greg Carr said:
If I have some time this week I will see if I can get you a replay of my lap at Watkins. I am not saying that I am expert at Watkins but it is the only track in iRacing that I live close to and I have been going to it for at least the past 10 years.

With the fixed setup I think the best I could get was a 1:41.xxx and that was the first time out in the Corvette, so since I have driven it all season I think I can get into the 1:40ish time with the fixed setup. I will also try a few laps with a custom setup that I found .

I will be very grateful for any replay you find. If you could provide a setup used in the replay, I would be very happy

Richard Sobolewski · Apr 18, 2012

Hampus Andersson said:
Good info!
Yea i think now with the paddle shifters you only use the clutch when taking off.
Seems like there´s a electro-hydralic system of some sorts.

Yeah, I think they only use the clutch when moving from a standing start. I wouldn't surprised if they eventually switch to a hand clutch eventually.

Which is a shame, its always nice watching handy footwork!

Hampus Andersson · Apr 18, 2012

Richard Sobolewski said:
Yeah, I think they only use the clutch when moving from a standing start. I wouldn't surprised if they eventually switch to a hand clutch eventually.

Which is a shame, its always nice watching handy footwork!

True! Nothing beats an old H-box like they used in DTM in the late 80´s

Those were the days...

Greg Carr · Apr 19, 2012

Jan Roman said:
I will be very grateful for any replay you find. If you could provide a setup used in the replay, I would be very happy

Here you go Jan. This is not a perfect lap but I think its pretty quick. I messed up in the esses, and at the exit of the boot (turn 9 i think). I know I left some time on the table with that lap, but it should give you some ideas i hope.

The setup was from the Falcon-GP guys (http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1869698.page) they don't have a Watkins setup but I used the Phillip Island setup and I think it matches Watkins fairly well.

This was also my first Fraps/Sony Vegas/YouTube experiment, took me 2 days so not to bad. Its kind of addicting making movies