Big Brother Program

[Jan Roman]

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.

 

[Jan Roman]

Thank you very much. Would it be possible to send me a replay? I would love to see the foowork, it is very important

I am very very satisifed with today's session. I managed to be consistent and what's more, I haven't driven a lap over 1.44 (full lap), which is quite nice. My racing time is going down like hell and I hope I can achieve stable sub 1.43, that would be great.

The best thing today however is my fastest time, I finaly managed to beat 1.42, and driven 1.41.961. Whatbothers me now is that it was a bit wobbly lap and I screwed the last turn. I think low 41s are possible for me (1.41.316 optimal). I feel that I can do more with the Corvette now and now I have to find ways to brake later and twek the setups a little bit.

janroman.cz/iracing/Watkins4.rpy

Any suggestions for improvement? From what I've just seen in the video above, you are braking A LOT later to T1. How do you do that?

EDIT:

I've just noticed something. When I search for World Records at iRacing Membersite (Corvette, Watkins Glen Classic Boot, 2012, iRating 1000-2000), I am already at the table (well, I would be if I had run a practice or something), which is really good! My iRating is just over 1100 (ridiculous, I know), but I think I will be able to gain a lot during the next season. It just boosted my confidence a bit, I hope I won't be the slowest person on the grid.

 

[Greg Carr]

Thank you very much. Would it be possible to send me a replay? I would love to see the foowork, it is very important

Any suggestions for improvement? From what I've just seen in the video above, you are braking A LOT later to T1. How do you do that?

Send me you email address and I can send you some replays.

As far as T1 goes, I have no idea . I just push on the brakes and aim for the curb a little and as soon as i get the apex I ease back on the gas.

I watched you replay (watkins4) and nothing really stood out to me as "wrong." It looked like you bobbled a little in turn 6, and I think downshifting down to 2nd (i would stay in 3rd) into T7 probably lost you .2-.3 of second. T10 also looked a little slow. For T10 I just tap the brakes on turn it to "set" the car and then ease back on the gas, if the car keeps the same line then I put it to the floor, if it starts to under stear then back off, if it starts to over stear then I start to straighten the wheel back up and hopefully it does not start to slide.

 

[Jan Roman]

Here it is: iracing[at]janroman[dot]cz. I had this feeling while driving the lap that it wasn't that good. But the I realized it's probably the case of "If you think everything is under control, you are probably not going fast enough."

I will try to stay in third in todays session and I hope I will drive even better time. I am also going to look up a couple of Nixim reviews since G25 pedals really suck (especially the brake, it might at least work for cars like MX-5 or Mustang with ABS, not for Corvette though).

 

[Jan Roman]

All right, another improvement today, a big one. I've managed to drive 1.41.387 and I think it's not bad at all My goal is to drive 1.40s, and I am not far from that! I pushed hard today so consistency was an issue, but it doesn't matter.

janroman.cz/iracing/Watkins5.rpy


I think my racing line is quite decent now, but I have to improve my braking I think, it might buy me another second.

Could someone please rename this thread to something more sensible than "Big Brother Program"? This thread is just about driving the Corvette so it would be easier for other people to find it

 

[Jan Roman]

Just ordered Nixim brake&clutch mod. I only hope it won't be too stiff since I don't have a rig. And even if it is, I will use even more tape to tape it to the floor

EDIT:

An interesting series used to run here on RD when I had to end iRacing in autumn. People were running a single car, single tracks time trials, posted their best times and we got a winner each week. I remember racing Mustangs at Watkins Glen and I remember not being the last one Is there anything similar right now? I was thinking about running this series by myself, it wasn't very difficult and it is a good opportunity to see how other drivers perform. Simply take a good car, pick a track and the fastest driver wins a... well, a good feeling about it probably

Another thing - I would like to thank Greg for sending me the replays, I am going to study them today. Thank you Greg.

 

[Greg Carr]

Another thing - I would like to thank Greg for sending me the replays, I am going to study them today. Thank you Greg.

Jan I will have a surprise for you tomorrow (well today by the time you read this ) I made another youtube video with the Corvette at Watkins. I posted my previous video on another site and somebody gave me a idea so I remade my original move. I think you will like this one better. It is going to take some time to render which means bed time for me, then in the morning I will upload it to youtube and I will let you know when its up.

 

[Greg Carr]

check this out

 

[Jan Roman]

Thank you again Greg, great video and not just for me, good idea to post it on iRacing forums If you could do this kind of video for every week during the season, that would be amazing

Still using the Falcon GP Philip Island setup? I don't think the gearing is the same since I would probably hit the limiter more than you do.

 

[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

any big brother help for Ford Gt on sebring?with just a day until the race

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Replay of your lap would be a good start
I can't read minds just yet haha.

And also, let's switch it around a bit.
Study your own replay then come back here and tell me what you think you can improve in your driving.

 

[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

Replay of your lap would be a good start
I can't read minds just yet haha.

And also, let's switch it around a bit.
Study your own replay then come back here and tell me what you think you can improve in your driving.

@Hampus Andersson

What i can improve
1. braking - every time i touch the brakes i am afraid that the car will spin,i do not have a good feel for my g27 brakes - i read some where to re calibrate and fully release then restart pc or something like that; also the setups that i have i think the back end steps out on heavy braking and do not know where the balance is to move it a bit forword (Sebring LON S2 g;07 - Sebring Night - Niek - R - S2;12S2_FGT_Sebring_Race_GR_1.1)this are the setups i have.most confortable for me is first one
2. last 2 corners i have no ideea how to take them;
3. use more of the road - here i can not find a good fov position, currently i am running at 67 but i can not see in corners good,100 will be perfect but then i have no sense of speed and that will be dangerous among 39other cars...
those are in my mind

Here is a lap of a 2.04.8... but my personal best is a 3.9 and optimum shows a 2.6(90liters fuel)

Sory for frame rates from 10-15,do not know why is that,maybe i have high setting and replay on iracing and was running decent amount of progams in background i have a laptop with I5 ,4g ram and Nvidia geforce gt 320m with 1g ram...
p.s.> how can i plan my pit strategy?

 

[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

Later today
a fastest lap for me,still with some little mistakes but this lap is a one off to be consistent i need to be confided on the brakes witch i am not,that for me is the biggest problem,but off course i am a newb and i might be wrong.
w8-ing on u'r reply

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Just thought i´d reply first so you see that i´m alive, just got home from work and started looking at your videos so a reply might take a while

 

[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

i am work but have phone...so i can see..either whey i will be home in about 3-4h.Ty

 

[Hampus Andersson]

@Hampus Andersson

What i can improve
1. braking - every time i touch the brakes i am afraid that the car will spin,i do not have a good feel for my g27 brakes - i read some where to re calibrate and fully release then restart pc or something like that; also the setups that i have i think the back end steps out on heavy braking and do not know where the balance is to move it a bit forword (Sebring LON S2 g;07 - Sebring Night - Niek - R - S2;12S2_FGT_Sebring_Race_GR_1.1)this are the setups i have.most confortable for me is first one
2. last 2 corners i have no ideea how to take them;
3. use more of the road - here i can not find a good fov position, currently i am running at 67 but i can not see in corners good,100 will be perfect but then i have no sense of speed and that will be dangerous among 39other cars...
those are in my mind

Here is a lap of a 2.04.8... but my personal best is a 3.9 and optimum shows a 2.6(90liters fuel)

Sory for frame rates from 10-15,do not know why is that,maybe i have high setting and replay on iracing and was running decent amount of progams in background i have a laptop with I5 ,4g ram and Nvidia geforce gt 320m with 1g ram...
p.s.> how can i plan my pit strategy?

1. braking - If you spin meaning the rear end wants to come around, try moving your Brake Bias forward, this will put more braking force in the front tires and less braking force at the rear which should keep your rear tires from locking up during braking.
Don´t go crazy on it, 1-3% should be quite noticable in the car.
When you have that dialed in you might still not have perfect brake bias for every corner on the track but you have to fiddle with it until you find a setting that you feel works in all corners.

If you constantly locks the front brakes you can do two basic things to try and solve that.
Either moving brake bias backwards or just release some pressure on the pedal, it could be that your pressure is too high so no matter what BB you run, you will still lock one pair of wheels.

With GT cars or very low downforce cars you want to have the same pressure on the pedal from the moment you hit the brakes to the point where you start turning in.
-------------------

2. Last two corners - Stop the video at 1:32
Notice how the corner is still turning left towards the cones but your car is pointing straight ahead.
This means you are losing potential apex, exit and top speed in the next corner and straight.

If you position the car slightly more towards the cones on the left, it means your radius for the right hand corner is now much much wider, This in theory will allow you to take a wider radius of a corner and thus being able to carry more speed through the corner.

It will feel almost wrong when turning left there before the right hander but it will pay off during the whole straight after the right hander.

Don´t go all the way up to the cones and then turn in, you might miss the entry and thus the apex of the corner so try and turn in slightly earlier then the cones.

Last corner is a tricky one i´ll leave that one for someone who drives the Ford GT, i think i would attack it differently then what i do in the HPD so i don´t really know what i would do off the topp of my head.

---------------------

3. Using more of the road - Bingo, this is pretty hard, especially in a car that is so enclosed as the Ford GT.
This i would say comes down to feel.

You know when you the first time drive a truck instead of a car, knowing the edges of that car takes a little while so i think this will come naturally for you as you get more comfortable in the car.

Also i would suggest dumping the fuel. When chasing time having another 100kg´s of fuel to lug around will only frustrate you as you go off or the car simply won´t turn in.

Running a light car will allow you to do more with it and you really find out what she can do

One tip would be to do laps with race fuel, then switch to low fuel and you will be amazed at how much "easier" the car will feel compared to when on full load.
She will feel very light on her feet, she will stop you when you ask etc.

Next post i´ll try and dissect your latest video using images from it.
Can take a while though.

 

[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

how do i relese presure from brakes?where in setup screen i can adjust that.also do u know something special about calibration of G27pedals..
i always do full fuel practice..i like to know what Race pace i can do.i saw WR is 58 Race pace...
how much do u think i can improve?i am a complete newb?

 

[Hampus Andersson]

how do i relese presure from brakes?where in setup screen i can adjust that.also do u know something special about calibration of G27pedals..
i always do full fuel practice..i like to know what Race pace i can do.i saw WR is 58 Race pace...
how much do u think i can improve?i am a complete newb?

It looks like you are heel & toeing on downshifts and on upshifts it seems you use the clutch.

Do not use clutch on up shifts, just keep the throttle down and change gear.
When downshifting if you are heel & toeing then that is fine, i would guess it´s about 5-6 tenths in difference from not heel&toe so that is not a problem at all.
But it´s unnecessary, only throttle and shifting is needed no clutch except for when taking off.

Releasing pressure from the brakes would be to lift your foot of the brake pedal slightly.
Brake Bias you should see in the setup window, i can´t pinpoint exactly where it is but it´s there. it´s in % so it should be easy to spot.

Yes you can improve but it´s up to you, not me. I can only provide the information and theory, it´s up to you to put it into work.

1.58 versus 2.04-5, about 6-7 seconds.

I´d say we can cut that in half no problem at all.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Here are some photos of your lap. The orange line is you, the blue line is close to "the line"

#1 As you said, using more of the road, if it feels tight here you know atleast that where you were, it´s still pretty safe from the cones.
So the next time you enter this corner, don´t be afraid to put it slightly more to the right, you now know that you have some extra space to use.

#2 I like it, this is right on the apex my friend.

#3 Notice how you "handicap" yourself by turning in to early.
Instead go more to the right, wait a little bit longer then you normally would and then you turn into the corner.
On the blue line you can brake later, have a higher entry speed = lots of time.

#4 This is a little bit tricky this corner. After T2, make sure you stay on the right hand side as much as you can. This is because the corner tightens up at the end so by taking a wider apex you can get on the throttle much much earlier and much much harder = lots of time.

#5 This corner is tricky, even for guys that is faster then you and me.
Basically it´s a hairpin so you really want to focus on the exit.
If you let it go straight a little bit more, slow it down a little bit more, hit that apex and then get on the gas nice and early you could probably gain over half a second in this corner alone. then if you hit it good you will also grab time on the straight which all could equate up to one full second in that corner and the straight after it alone.

#6 I like again notice how close you are to the grass on the left, this is what we want in every turn in for every corner.
We have to maximize the track width at all times.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

#7 Also tricky this, natural reaction would be like you do and quickly get it over to the right hand side because there´s a left hander coming up.
But instead let the car ride all the way out to the curb then move back to the center of the road and then turn left.

#8 Here you can try and position yourself a little bit more to the left hand side.
I´ll explain why in the next picture.

#9 The line you took in the last picture will affect your line in this picture.
Notice how you are coming in diagonally while braking, then you have to make a much harder turn then a car that is coming straight at the turn-in point.
As you can see, your radius is much tighter then if you were coming straight like the blue line.

Now it should be mentioned that you don´t have to come straight as the blue line, i like to be between those lines but it´s very hard to get done perfect.

The reason is because if you take the orange line you will eventually have to turn and brake at the same time. To make that work smoothly takes some practice so the best line i would advise you to take is closer to the blue line.

That way you can break in a straight line, then simply turn into the corner when you feel like it.

#10 i think you simply made a mistake here but i decided to show the blue line anyways.

#11 Try and wait a little bit longer before turning in, it will feel weird but once you are at the apex you will know why.

Last corner i really can´t give much of a tip as i said but you can improve it by braking longer, and more straight, then turn into the corner.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

After you have read this i want you to answer one question.

Out of everything i´ve mentioned and showed, what would you say is the one thing that stands out the most which you can fix next time your in the car?