Track grip levels

[Aaron Channer]

In offline practice mode, the track has the most optimum amount of grip. Which online race session has the most comparable amount of grip apart from the actual race? Would it be practice 2 or qualifying?

 

[Jim Cole]

Due to lag and other issues, online racing won't have the same grip as offline racing. For this reason, if you plan on practicing for an event or league race it is best to start your own dedicated server and practice there as this will give you the best chance of having a good setup for the race.

For best results, setup the dedicated server to where you are practicing in practice 2. Once setup, you can join with the LAN option as you don't need to make your dedicated server available to the internet, just to LAN.

The down side to this is that in order to practice with mods, you have to have the mods installed in both the dedicated server as well as your Race 07 directory. If this is not acceptable, then practice online as you will be getting the exact environment that you are going to experience when you join the race server on race day.

 

[Aaron Channer]

Thanks Jim.
Why setup the car in practice 2 though? Surely a quali session has more grip than practice 2, so why not setup the car in an extended quali session in a private server? As quali will be closer to race conditions, track grip level wise.

 

[Jim Cole]

Through the years that I have raced, it seems that practice 2 is usually the best to setup the car. Not sure if race mimics practice 2 or not, but that is what it appears.

 

[Aaron Channer]

Interesting. I've found the opposite. I've found that setting the car up in practice 2 gives me oversteer during race, I've assumed it's because of the obvious increase in grip levels in race (rubbered in). So I've been setting my car up in online quali and had it reduce oversteer during the race that wasn't present in practice setup. It's helped me no end with car setup (setting up in quali mode).

PS. How can practice 2 mimic race better than a more rubbered in quali, - be simulation??

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I think you guys over estimate the influence the track grip level has. It can't be that practice 2 oversteers the car and qualy doesn't. Thats more likely to be driver input than the track causing it.

To be honest in all those years playing RACE 07 I hardly adjust my setup once in between sessions apart from the longer races with GT cars. (reduced camber)

 

[Aaron Channer]

Would you say it's psychological then ?
And that there's no difference in grip levels from practice 2 to quali' ?

 

[Dennis Phelan]

P2 is much better to drive in for setup. I find Q has just that much more grip that mistakes get hidden. Race just wears out the tires and myself.

 

[Jim Cole]

It is possible Aaron that you have a different feel for your car handling than I do and I may not be noticing a change to oversteer/understeer between the different sessions.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

From years of driving and testing, there's definitely a grip change in Online Practice 1. ONP2, ONQ and both races, no difference can be found. It may be there, it may not but it's so minute that one doesn't need to think about it. ONP1 is 1 sec slower on average, the data that i'd gathered estimate 1% drop in grip (most tracks have grip values of 98-110%). The difference, if there is, will be even smaller between the rest of the sessions. No setup changes is necessary, except for ONP1.

I made a test track a while ago, it has skipdpads, different sized perfect circles and straights, bumbs of different sizes, all the materials etc. Just for testing these things out: http://cream.galleria.fi/BTB/Tracks/PrestoTest/PrestoTest_1.0_by_CreamK.zip
Use MoTec i2 Pro for offline telemetry analyze... Test should be fairly simple, choose one circle (1km or 2km sounds about right..), make a LAN server, setup a car and drive few laps with tire wear/fuel consumption turned off. Go thru all sessions, that should do the trick.