New to sim racing and Assetto Corsa

[TamaThps]

A little background: I have a G27 wheel, and previously had only played Gran Turismo 5. I wanted to get into a newer and more serious racing game recently, and after some research on the existing and upcoming games I decided to pick up netkar pro in order to try out the Assetto Corsa technology preview in anticipation for the full release.

I'm liking the game so far and I'm trying to improve my skills/time. I've seen some great hot laps on youtube of more experienced racers, and I'm trying to integrate their style into my own racing. Sadly, the best I've been able to achieve is in the 1:29 range so far, so I still have a lot of work to do. So far I've noticed that I can't just mash the throttle, but instead have to give it different levels and control it more, and that I need to turn more gradually in places to avoid bringing the car to almost a halt from turning to sharply.

I'm not expecting to become an incredible racer overnight, but I'd like to know some tips for you guys that have been in this longer. I have some questions. Some are more general (could apply to any game) and some are more specific to Assetto Corsa.

1. Generally, how do you practice a track? Lap the track over and over? Practice specific turns over and over to master one and then move on? Practice different sectors?
2. Any tips in general for someone new to sim racing?
3. Are there any apps in AC that I should pay more attention to that are usually used for practicing?
4. Is there a way in AC to set a start point on the track, and a shortcut to restore the car to that start point? For instance, I've seen in some hot lap videos, they start from a standstill a few turns back from the beginning so they have full entry speed at the beginning of the lap. This would help a lot for me, as I tend to mess up a lap away at a specific point, and the rest of the lap doesn't even matter because I already screwed up. It'd be nice to just quickly restart.
5. I randomly saw someone mention that ctrl+o sets you back in the pit in Assetto Corsa. Is there a listing of all of the key shortcuts in Assetto Corsa?

tl;dr Please try to answer some of the questions above, keeping in mind I'm new to Racing Sims.

Thanks!

 

[Majnu]

What is blipping exactly?

 

[LazyBug]

What is blipping exactly?

I believe its something like "shortly push down the throttle and lift after downshift to let the revs go up when downshift to avoid wheel lock".

I hope i explain it right. Or any better explanation ??

 

[Hampus Andersson]

You need to match the engine speed with the speed at which the wheels is travelling at.

If you go at 50km/h let´s say in third, about 2000 rpm, when you downshift to second you need the revs at 2500rpm and downshifting to first you need them at 3000 or 3500rpm*

*examples

 

[Damien Wintz]

Usually on your everyday car you rev match letting the clutch slowly grip while into the new gear. Of course, it's not optimal, so instead of letting the clutch do it, you can accelerate the process by giving the engine some rpms : that's blipping. You can do it quickly with the clutch too but then the engine slows down the wheels very violently which can thus lose grip. It can be pretty dramatic on a rear wheel drive because braking the rear wheels with the engine does pretty much the same as pulling the hand brake.

 

[LazyBug]

This blipping really something new to me. Hopefully i can get it right without need to practice too much.
By the way i found an article about this blipping stuff, like to share it here but do tell if i am not allow to do so.

Rev matching and down shifting

http://www.drivingfast.net/car-control/rev-matching.htm#.UUCLwlfpn-0

 

[Hannes-Joshua Thor Barthel]

why you shouldn't be allowed to share usefull informations?

 

[LazyBug]

why you shouldn't be allowed to share usefull informations?

Some forum not allow user to paste link, not sure why ..

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

I would like to make my own small contribution. Whenever I see new simracers, the number one thing they do wrong is not to use the entire track. They generally tend to drive in the middle of the road and even if they merge to the left for a right hand turn, they get target fixation and drift back toward the center before hitting their brake mark and turning.

It's really important to learn to use the entire width of the road surface in order to maximize your line. Braking, blipping, etc. are all very important things to know and practice, but if you make every turn tighter by virtue of your line, you'll never optimize your speed.

 

[LazyBug]

Though am a new simracer but i believe i understand those theory for cornering, I do play some simcade like F1 2011 which i believe the cornering theory is the same but what really slow me down in this TP is the car. I have no idea atm how to master this car. Its like understeer everywhere

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Though am a new simracer but i believe i understand those theory for cornering, I do play some simcade like F1 2011 which i believe the cornering theory is the same but what really slow me down in this TP is the car. I have no idea atm how to master this car. Its like understeer everywhere

You are probably entering the turn too fast. Try moving you brake point much earlier and then little by little move it back toward the turn. Especially if you are used to F1 type cars, simcade or not, they have ungodly grip compared to the Lotus, which is essentially a street car.