[help] having trouble improving lap times

Ah, yeah I got confused you did say you had a go on mugello but I just assumed gt2, and iirc you can lap there in under two minutes. So I assumed you had gone back to spa.

Quite a lot of assumptions on my part, apologies.

I understood what you said earlier about being reluctant to take the gt86 out because of heel-toe, I'm of similar opinion, however I liked the counter to that, whereby one of the guys suggested it improves braking coordination. Something else I'll have to try down the line.

 

@snyperal Yeah, I'm just now realizing the height of the mountain I have to climb. So for now I'm pretty much gonna ditch the race cars so I can master the basics on road cars, wich let me see more clearly what I'm doing wrong.
Some day I hope I can be somehow competitive, but for now it's just practice, practice, practice.

 

Tbh, if you can complete 8 laps without spinning off @ 2.22 pace you'll finish in the top 10 in any online lobby you like. If damage is on maybe even the top six. Depending on who is there with you if course.

Don't get hung up on your time, have fun first and foremost everything after that is just a bonus.

 

@snyperal I know my focus shouldn't be solely on lap times. What let me down is that after 9 months, I was still on the same level as I was after two weeks, so I just looked for help to tell me what I was doing wrong and couldn't notice.
Now that I've got a good feedback I know some of my faults and where to work on, and hopefully will improve upon that.
After I get some significant progress I'll post another video so hopefully you can help me improve even further.

 

Mugello is hard! Especially as you need different lines there. For a lot of the fast chicanes you need to 'give up' the first part of the corner a bit to optimize second part.

First turn and last turn are also pretty hard. You can brake extremely late and just point the front into the corner and let the car scrub off speed when coasting to the apex...

But you'll learn a lot at Mugello. Make sure you use every inch at entry (hit the inside curbs if it doesn't de-stabilize your car) and use the exit curbs. Good luck

 

slow in ...fast out.... slow is smooth and smooth is fast....trying to go fast makes you slower.....speed is not enough...and so on and so forth....

 

I wouldn't feel too bad about your times not getting better, gt3 cars have definitely gotten slower since v1.0. I used to be able to do 2:16 laps at spa(i even have my own setup created which i callled 2:15.6 however ita near useless now) but now can barely get into the 2:18s, I think a few of the tyre model changes made the cars a bit slower. My advice is to turn on the ghost car and then you can see where you need to improve relative to your prior laps.

 

Practice seems to be a major element in becoming expert at anything, talent (and physical advantage) is also a factor but practice is a huge component.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26384712

The bottom line is you're up against guys with maybe over 1000 hours just in AC, probably many 1000s of hours in other sims. I think you have to be realistic, decide how much time you are prepared to devote to this and scale your expectations accordingly.

Most of all enjoy the driving and the sim. I'm really not fast, I do feel I'm slowly getting better but compared to some in this board and on RSR my practice time is limited. I do enjoy my time with AC though and that's the most important thing imo.

Finally reading theory can unlock some concepts that aren't obvious, some elements of driving fast are, for me at least, counter intuitive. I'm not sure if you have Ross Bentley's book but as others have mentioned it is very good.

 

@Poguinhas
I'm also bad when driving road cars, but the GT86 advice is really good because it handles very well. And if you want to drive it with semiautomatic then just do it. I think that if there is one road car in AC that is not so far away from driving the same track with the GT3, it's the GT86.

For the GT3 cars and your question for the Nissan:
All GT3s are different and in my opinion the Z4 is the easiest one (in the term of predictability). Z4 and MP4 are great in corners, but lack some acceleration. SLS and Nissan are great at the straight but need to take the corners slower and you have to be much more gentle with the throttle at corner exit. So I don't think it's not very helpful to switch around between MP4 and Nissan because of their differences. Just chose the one you like most and concentrate on it.

 

@Mogster
Realistically I know I won't ever be on the highest level of sim racing, mainly because it's just a hobby for me, but I also don't intend to just play for ages without improving or learning anything. And I probably would take ages to figure by myself what I learnt on a day or two of discussion on this thread.
@Jaye
I really like the nissan, but it's a lot of work to handle, so for now I'll probably stick to the Macca. I could give the BMW a shot, but the Z4 and the SLS for some reason don't feel right to me. I hope they release other GT3 cars soon so maybe I find something that suits me better.

 

Progress update:
Did a lot of practice yesterday with road cars on multiple circuits, today I picked the McLaren and did some laps at Mugello, this was done with the bone stock setup on a slow track and no assists. I think there is some improvement, butI'll let you guys judge the results and maybe give me some feedback on where to work.

 

I grabbed a Nixim spring for my G25 brake pedal ( identical to the G27 ones ), made a *giant* difference.

"Power braking": I used to use the throttle under braking as a dynamic bias adjuster, I guess - not really doing it in AC under heavy braking ( well not now anyway ) but I do seem to be using both pedals together irrespective of what sort of zone it is in on-off-on areas like the post-Karussel parts of Nords. Nords is more like a rally stage than a track though so I don't feel too bad

Hadn't been to Spa for some number of patches, so I took my M3 there, and now I'm slow too. Can run high 2:18s in qualy trim, but if I put a race setup on with mediums I'm struggling to hit 21s. Threw out the setup & started again from default and still in 21s, so I guess I'll try the MP4 & reread this thread... but I know the line & brake points, so not really sure what's going on here.

 

@Richard Dastardly

One of my problems is that I can hit 22s and even mid 21s on medium tyres and an almost stock setup, but I struggle to enjoy the potential of soft tyres. I'm not a setup expert, but I've tried lowering the wings, using soft tyres, stiffer suspension, low fuel load, but I could barely beat my pace from a stock setup.
For now I'll keep on my practice with road cars to improve my pedal inputs and consistency, it seems to be giving good results. I won't be able to practice during the week as much as I did this weekend, but I'll try my best to get some improvement, and will continue to post updates on this thread so hopefully the more experienced drivers can give me some hints and tips.
About the G27 pedal set, I really feel like the brake pedal could use some changes, I'm really inconsistent on brake release because I'm basically wrestling against the pedal weight, not to mention my heel and toe which is dreadful. But here in Brazil I really don't know any store which sells any good mod, even buying a wheel that isn't a G27 is a challenge on itself. So I'll try my best with what I have for now, and maybe in the future I'll look into some modifications.

 

The Nixim spring is a progressive rate spring with a rubber stop inside it - might be something you could improvise anyway.

Try more wing if less wing isn't helping!

 

You brake too late to some corners. I noticed the same mistakes in your video from Spa. As mentioned before, the key to better laptimes is fast corner exit, not enter. I learned this last year and since then I improved my laptimes a lot.
Always compare your line with real life racing videos (if possible) or from AC, you will find a lot of differences.
Examples from your video:
T1 was more or less OK
T2 (0:27) is off, you missed the braking point and entered the corner very widely which cost you a lot of speed on the exit. Brake earlier and go in tighter line, you have to hit both apexes.
From here till 1:15 it is OK again, no mistake which could cost you lot of time.
But at 1:16 you were again too fast, not as much as in T2, but still. Here you should enter slower and stay on the right, then go flatout.
1:25 - you should be more on the left side before entering the corner.
1:45 - same story, but stay on the right
Check this:

 

Spa with softs is tricky, it's not like at other tracks where you just drive a fast inlap and then be able to push. If you do this at Spa, you'll kill the softs in the inlap. So you need to be careful to bring the softs at 100% and good temperature without overheating:

• don't drive faster than 220 km/h at the straights
• don't go Pouhon (the long fast left) in normal speed, just roll around with 160 to 170 km/h and the temperatures will stay under 120 degrees

Then you will be able to do one fast lap with the best grip you can achieve, the softs will overheat at the straights so just be a little bit careful in the upcoming corners until they are getting colder.

And when you are able to drive 2:22's at Spa with the MP4 since the patch from friday, that's not so bad because the GT3 cars are 1 to 2 seconds slower now in my opinion compared to version 1.1.6.

 

Interesting that. When I was in the Mclaren I'd try a quali lap with soft tyres, and would bin it on eau rouge. I'm guessing this is why.

 

The BMW M3 GT2 seemed slower over the weekend at Spa. My previous best lap time was a 2:19.683, but the best I managed on Saturday was 2:20.576. Jura was still leaving a warp trail though in his McLaren GT3

 

@GothaR Knowing the line isn't the problem, I just don't have the consistency to hit it every time. I'll keep working on that.

 

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