Help!

Tim Ling · Jul 10, 2012

I'm asking for help, because my frustration level is getting to "give up" level again. Please, with all the good & consistent drivers out there, please give me some pointers as to how I can get better at driving a fecking car.

Todays race is a perfect example. In practice I managed a 1:54.7, in fact I managed a few of those. My quali lap was a 1:54.4...not unreasonable given my previous practice laps. In the race, from nowhere, I managed a 1:53.3, a whole second quicker. This was followed by two crashes which wrecked the car and caused a frustration/depression quit.

So what's the problem? I want to drive fast consistently but I'm obviously screwing it up along the way, and I have no idea what the Ferrari I'm doing wrong.

Warren Dawes · Jul 11, 2012

Tim, first rule = NEVER give up. Rage quitting achieves nothing.

One tip I'd suggest, it's easy in a Race to try too hard and overdrive the car, especially in the Mini. You should try to settle into your own rhythm and aim for a speed that gives you consistent laps (not necessarily the fastest). In the opening laps, remember that tyres are cold, wait for them to warm up, get into your rhythm, and then slowly try to improve your lap times as you settle in. Often, during opening laps, things can be hectic with other cars around you. Again, try to focus on keeping it clean and driving your own race as much as you can. If you think you should be in front of someone else but aren't, be a little more patient and wait for opportunities, be careful not to overdrive trying to get passes too early.
With GTL patience can be a virtue. These cars tend to bite you quickly (even the Mini).

When practicing, and you start running those quicker times, make a mental note of the braking points, turn in points, and driving lines. Then during the race, aim to concentrate on hitting those spots consistently every time. Try to get a mindset of monotonous routine, don't be too distracted (except for variations caused by cars around you of course).
The odd very fast lap is nice to achieve, but in the Race, you need to be focussing only on consistent good laps, even if they are usually a little off your best times.

Maybe there is something in the above that might help.

Jack Smith · Jul 11, 2012

I'm not one of the faster drivers but would like to help if I could Tim. In my mind, there is nothing wrong with your driving skills because you are fairly quick in your practices and qualies. We have both been slowly improving but I think I may finish more events (???) than you but you are a little quicker than me. So why the difference? I think it comes down to decision making in the heat of the battle. I find you may be pressing too hard when trying to catch up/overtake resulting in more potentially event ending crashes. Bob told me a while back to be consistant. My suggestion would be for you to use more care when deciding when to pass .... don't gamble as much in those questionable areas. Be a little more consistant. That's it. Now you can tell me to go to you know where ..... but I am only trying to help constructively.

All names in the above report have been changed to protect the innocent and no one was physically hurt but some feelings may have been brused.

Stuart Thomson · Jul 11, 2012

The biggest and most important thing is to not take it so seriously that you can't enjoy it.

For instance, I had an absolute shocker last night (5 laps in total across the whole night), one was someone else's fault, one was totally my fault.

Even though I quit in R2 through frustration (in my own sudden lack of talent and realising that I was going to effectively miss the whole night of what promised to be good racing after I'd rushed back home from the hospital), I enjoyed those 5 laps, and I'll be back on Thursday for more. It's frustrating at the time, but once it's happened, let it go.

Lastly - Don't hold yourself prisoner to your perfect lap.

Ross McGregor · Jul 11, 2012

Consistency is often the most difficult thing to find in simracing. My best tip would be to keep all your driving inputs as smooth as possible. So that means gradually putting more pressure on the brake pedal rather than stabbing at it, easing onto the throttle on corner exits instead of putting your foot through the floor, and ensuring that you only steer into the turn once all your hard braking is done, otherwise you end up locking up and then understeering. The key is speeding up all these processes so that you're driving smoothly and are able to do this lap after lap.

Being more aggressive doesn't usually gain you much time in GTL, but certainly mastering your braking technique by adjusting the car's brake pressure and bias will definitely help. Most of the cars in GTL are front-engined, so try experimenting firstly by reducing their brake pressure a bit (i aim for 96% as a starting point) and increasing the forward bias to something like 62/38. (For the Mini i'd suggest 70/30 at least) This prevents the back-end from spinning around and also helps prevent brake locking. Remember if the wheels aren't turning they aren't gripping! Blipping the throttle on downshifts will also help the car slow down and prevent the rears from locking. touch the throttle pedal simultaneously with your downshift)

One tip is that If you know you're going too fast into a turn, don't try to save the situation by braking or downshifting mid-corner to try and hit the apex, as you'll most likely spin out or unsettle the car. Instead, try to gently ease off the throttle, or lightly press the brake pedal until the front tyres start gripping. This brief moment of understeer will slow you down a little, and you'll miss the apex and run wide, but will at least keep you pointing the correct way and in the race.

As Warren said, the best way to be consistent is to practise your braking points, turn-in points, clipping points and get into a bit of rhythm, while pretty much ignoring the goal of a personal best lap-time, as this can be quite distracting and cause you to be more aggressive as you try to go that little bit faster. Speaking of distractions, i do all my simracing in a small room upstairs, wearing over-ear headphones so i can focus 100% on what i'm doing. My mobile phone is hidden away too!

As Jack says, you do have decent pace (and have improved a lot) so the key is accessing more consistency. I know that whenever i take part in a GTL race i tone down the aggressiveness of my inputs, in comparison to qualie, and generally get a feel for the car with its race setup before trying to lap a bit quicker.

I'll try to think of other stuff that might help, but that's all i have at the moment.

Peter van Zanten · Jul 11, 2012

So es I see it Tim you are too spoilt you have on your car to many electronics and when you drive GTL you most drive without electronics and thats the problem

Look at your bracking NO ABS in GTL Tim remenber that.

Keep driving Tim and never give up.

Tim Ling · Jul 11, 2012

Consistency is my biggest problem, as is concentration. I noticed when practicing GP200 earlier that I started with some reasonable times, which then deteriorated over the session. Thinking about it, I was also pushing too hard trying to get close to what Rupe was doing, which made me slower, so I pushed harder........patience is not one of my strengths. *Deep Breath* Back to practicing.

And Peter, while I'm sure the old CMax could take a few of the GTL cars in a race, the missus said no

Roland · Jul 11, 2012

Tim Ling said:
I'm asking for help, because my frustration level is getting to "give up" level again..

Not sure if I can add anything that'd be useful to you as various very clever people already have, but I'll try.
First of all, try to avoid building up any frustration level at all... and "give up" levels should be out of the question. Taking a short step back to gain perspective might work though.

I really really don't mean to sound condescending, but GT Legends is a game. A kind of realistic simulation game, but still.. a game. And games are supposed to be fun. That is their sole purpose.
To me, the prospect of a couple of GTL Club races with a great bunch of guys is the icing on the cake on a good day, and on one of those really horrible days at work it's a bright spark that can get me through the day. Regardless of how the racing will go.

You might think: easy for you to say, you can be fairly quick and win races. True, sometimes. But I can also be horribly sloppy and inconsistent for no apparent reason. I can be really quick in practice and qualify 8th out of 10. Or qualify in 2nd and finish last. However, I will always turn off my PC with a smile on my face afterwards. And yes, if I won one, that smile will be bigger, as winning a race is quite satisfactory to me. But so is a 3-laps long close battle for 14th place. Or the thought I've completed two races without doing something stupid at some point. (<-- that one doesn't come along too often though

)

You know it's not your lack of skills. I know it's not your lack of skills. Your lack of patience might have something to do with it, but if anything, maybe you're just trying too hard.

Try a more relaxed approach some time.. If I can do it, so can you, as by no means I am a Zen master..
You do remember you did laugh out loud more than once during last week's Mini event @ GP200, don't you?

Hold that thought..

What have you got to lose?

Tim Ling · Jul 11, 2012

Thanks guys, I do let things get on top of me every now and again

Jack Smith · Jul 11, 2012

Where did you get a picture of my mother-in -law?

Rupe Wilson · Jul 12, 2012

i think this is relevant to us all... i know its Iracing but its clear and precise...

http://iracing.paulklappe.nl/node/13

ive also watched these http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDA97D69E415E1119&feature=plcp
every little helps..

Carlos Diaz · Jul 13, 2012

I can't really add anything significant, since all the important stuff has been covered already.
All I can give you is this...

When practicing, try to attack the track one corner at a time, try not to think about the entire track as a whole. What I do is I try to perfect the hardest turns first, one at a time, not worrying too much about how I'm doing in the others. The harder turns have the greatest potential to slow you down and/or cause you to lose control of the car. Work you way down from the most difficult corners to the simplest. You will see that by the time you are going as fast you can, consistently, through the hardest parts of the track, the rest of it will iron itself out very easily, with little effort.

Also, I'm sure this has been said before above somewhere, but I must repeat it. The key to a consistent and trouble free race is your braking points. Corner exit is more important than entry. You go in too hot and it could ruin the whole corner. You go in a bit too slow and you will at least have more time to drive out fast and clean and have more time at attacking the apex better. If you are always trying to brake at the very last possible instance, it's kind of like gambling. You are taking the chance that in one of those corners where you have braked as late as possible 8 times before without consequence, now your tires have something to say about it and things turn sour quick.

Basically, drive smoothly and safely and finish the race with a good overall time, even though you didn't even match your qualy time in any of the race laps. Drive hard and fast and you might and up with a short race with very good lap times.

Tim Ling · Jul 13, 2012

Once again, thanks for all the advice and encouragement, I really appreciate it. After the race last night I checked the replay from R2, as I thought I may have taken Tudor out of the race (not my fault though fortunately). As I watched it, I noticed that I was regularly missing some apexes (apiii??) by miles. I really need to start braking early!
However, I did work hard to stay calm, and I tried very hard not to overdrive, and mostly suceeded...though I may have given Stuart a "heart-in-mouth" moment as I recovered from a spin at T1