Camaro how to drive this alien?

[Pär Öqvist]

I am trying to get to know this car in preparation for a Cascavel race. I am really struggling with it supposedly to my lacking drift capabilites. I can´t even drift properly in arcade titles. I got stuck in DIRT 3 where you where supposed to do drifting around a circle in pretty much a tutorial event. I got by in DIRT 2 but often had to settle for the lowest rewards where for rally for example there is no real challenge whatsoever on the hardest difficulties. I know the theory but can´t put it in practise it appears with my wooden legs.

In some videos of Tamurel you seem to be supposed to go more sideways then forward. Running Cascavel I do some opposite lock but not to that extent. I have had no luck trying to "overdrive" but as mentioned I am a terrible drifter. I am doing a 1.16.930 as best so far. Got a 1.16.5 but don´t know how much of that was help with slip stream. There don´t seem to be much of that though since racing against the AI at 100 % I have a real hard time keeping up on them on the start and back straights. They generally accelerate better and pull away even if I am right behind. I do feel I have a bit of a problem with those two last corners mainly though. Often loose half a second against the AI which I make back in mainly T2.

Any decent Camaro driver have a replay on how to get a solid lap in Cascavel? Do you change any of the few settings. As for those slow left corners. 2nd and 3rd from last I take the first at 3rd though I feel I loose a bit of power and the second I gear down to 2nd gear.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Driving this car properly starts with a good setup of your wheel settings. What wheel are you using and which settings have you applied?

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Running the G27. Familiar with the wheel. I experimented with steering lock/wheel rotation but I am pretty much back to my standard 360/15 though I know a lot of drifters like the 900 degree setting. But it´s just to clumsy and awkward even at 33 for me.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

No Camaro affiniados here. I haven´t driven that much but gotten down to 1,16,5 without slip streaming. It helped a lot to skip the cockpit cam and go for bonnet view. I keep up messing up the entries due not not see where I am going I assume otherwise. A shame because I really like the cockpits otherwise without wheel of course.

I would love a replay to show how it´s done. I do believe it´s still the last two corners where I really loose time. Particularly the last it´s hard to get quick on the throttle after hitting apex to try induce some oversteer. Does anybody here ever use the handbrake for this car? Feel like I have to think out of the box regarding a lot

 

[Tim Meuris]

I've only done a few laps in it yesterday.
This car is undriveable for me.
I've always tried to drift as little as possible which is not a fun driving style in these cars...

 

[Pär Öqvist]

It´s okay to drive as long as you don´t drive anything else in between. you certainly seem to have to drift and force it around some corners but so easy to do it wrong and screw things up.

Down to 1,16,1. the AI have 4 tenth on me in the last sector. It´s like they have super brakes or something. I do run them at 106 % though and beat them over an entire lap. Not sure appear like you should brake much much earlier then you would expect.

I did try changing camber to max and it certainly appeared to do wonders. Right front gets get up to 110 max and down.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I'd go for a much larger rotation of your wheel. With 360 you are missing out on quite a range to catch the slide.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

There is always a tradeoff. You get faster from lock to lock with less degrees as you have to move the wheel less which seem to benefit me more generally. Running 560/26 currently. Would need a video on myself but I don´t believe I get to full lock very often if ever.

 

[Leigh Ferguson]

The Camaro has become my go to sim-car to drive despite initially thinking it was completely un-driveable.
Watching Niels' pedals and wheel technique on his Taruma video was such an eye-opener for me.
Being able to watch how people use the pedals is fantastic for us know-nothings. Much appreciated Niels!

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Yes it look easy when Niels does it. Personally I cheat with left foot breaking and don´t touch the clutch unless to save spins. The car can sure be a bit of fun certainly though it will probably never be a favourite of mine. I like the race prepped camaro in STCC 2 a lot more or the old Corvettes in GT Legends. .. Since I am left footed I have less control over my right and it´s half the strength too more suitable for throttle. Have you done any Cascavel laps?

 

[Leigh Ferguson]

Have you done any Cascavel laps?

I've just started on Cascavel. (Another of my new favourites ) The final corner is tricky to get right although the Camaro doesn't seem to care about those humps if you run wide. I'm losing time on the AI there as well. Their exit speed is always higher than mine. I'll report back if I figure out how to catch the buggers.

 

[Marian Zelenka]

You get faster from lock to lock with less degrees as you have to move the wheel less which seem to benefit me more generally. Running 560/26 currently.

Yes, but it's a "cheat". The real Camaro should have 900deg steering (2,5 turn lock to lock) and 16,1:1 steering ratio that makes 27,95 steering lock.

So when you use 560deg, you should use steering lock of 17,39.

Now, you have 560/26 that makes 10,77 ratio. That would be 41,78 lock for 900deg! That's 240% more than in reality.

Reiza recommends 900deg and 33 lock that is still more than real life, but not that much. Personally, I like realistic locks more and I always tend to turn more than necessary with higher locks that makes me slower. I always feel like simracers push more than guys in real life that is shame. I've seen tons of onboard videos and it would be really great if next sims make it better in this area.

 

[Niels_at_home]

Using too much car setup lock with too little physical steering wheel lock makes it so sensitive. It is for me impossible to find the little 'neutral zone' when the steering is too sensitive. With say 540/30 steering is almost binary, everything happens in like 50 degrees of steering lock, and before you know it you apply too much steering and get understeer and a load of problems.

Something like 900/30 gives you more control near the 'balance zone' which is really only ever going to be 90 degs left, or 90 degs right steering. Thats where you feel the car, but a lot of the steering is done with the pedals too..

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Marian yes we push harder which is probably why we are faster. We can afford to hit a concrete barrier in 250 km/h and die a million times apart from inaccurate simulation values and all that of course .

Hi Niels. You don´t happen to have a Cascavel lap saved somewhere. It would be interesting to see exactly how much sideways you can go without loosing time. I can´t go to any extreme angles with my skill level without loosing traction out of the corners which is of course a no no also in these cars.

Seems to be so many ways to go around the corners which mean I have a hard time finding real consistancy. Not a lot of times I do laps within a tenth of a second though it would be much more frequent if it wasn´t for the last sector

Do you feel 900/30 works also with the sloppy G27? As I recall you run a leo bodnar wheel which is many times faster? I find it hard to get back fast enough to recover slides so thus I like to cheat with less steering lock.

 

[William Levesque]

I have a G27 and in EVERY cars I drive I use the correct ratio.

Street cars are pretty straightforward, slow-in fast-out at all cost, not much grip so you got to make up time on the exit of corners. It's the same in every cars but to another extreme in street cars.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

I haven´t driven anything in a week which seem to do me good. I kind of get locked in with my racing lines and trying to repeat all that works kind of like a robot hunting constancy.

Not much of that still but I now found a much better flow in the second last left. I go down to 2nd gear there does anybody stick to 3rd on the last two before back straight?

I am also certainly getting the last corner right more frequently though my lap times is still all over the place. 1:15.9 as best which was not a clean lap except for second sector and third was pretty good too. lower then 1:15:6 would be hard to achieve though.