Driving Technique Discussion

Hi guys,

I finally caved and had to come here for some help. I started playing ACC on PS4 at launch and forgot I bought it ages ago on Steam (was planning on getting a PC then, but only did recently). Using a PC now.

Anyway, I'm having trouble with CC, it's hovering between 62 and 68. I've driven the 2019 Porsche 991 GT3 R 99.999999999999999% of the time. I've completed the track medals pretty easily (for the most part, haha). My CN is between 89, it dipped recently but I got it back SA is 85 and climbing nicely against the AI @ 90-95 15min, random grid races.

I've been sim-racing since '97, I love it, always will, but I can't seem to improve my CC at all. I read the documentation saying to stay under grip so I do some casual laps purposely watching my braking lines (try not to slide past apexes), and slow down to help ensure I don't oversteer, all in practice mode. I've got my F1 DD wheel all dialed in, it's not too strong; easy to turn in, but a nice amount of FF to tell me when the tires are gripping. Good enough that I can maintain my consistency I guess.

Now, I'm not the fastest in this game I'll admit, but I feel I'm getting contradicting things thrown at me here. The description for CC says to go slow, but when I flip on the CC only for the HUD it says I'm Quite Slow, or Okay mostly and Aggressive sometimes (to my surprise, really). I'm able to do lap after lap comfortably and I'm under grip when I do this intentionally. IMO my CC should be skyrocketing. So....to me it seems CC is the ultimate Alien denominator; go fast and don't lose control.

At this point, I'm really looking for anything to help save for the old 'watch how the pros do it', I don't think it should be so low, I've never even ONCE seen a green line. Right now, my next step is to use the default safe/aggressive setups as I'm using the Dave's Academy tunes in this car (I have to slightly modify RH and AERO to ensure I have full control of the car and avoid spinouts).

Is it this car is hard to get CC? Should I increase TC to help with stability? And if I'm really this on the edge all the time, but really slow it's news to me! LOL

Thanks in advance guys! Here's a screenshot of my profile and my PC specs in my sig


Jerome

 

Small update. I tried the tune I was using on PS4 (splitter set back to 0 too) and within 30 minutes I raised my CC to 74 and CN to 94. So I guess I'm just not fast enough/too aggressive to use Dave's Academy tunes. I'm going to try and find a balance between his tune and mine as I'm a second slower with my tune, thinking mechanical grip(?). Abbey and Farm are much smoother and responsive with Dave's tune and let me carry more speed, but I can brake much easier in my tune so the Village and loop feels faster and easier.


Jerome

 

As you’ve figured @jump_ace, CC is all about managing grip. Not only in acceleration and braking, but also during cornering. If you’re not going fast enough, then you won’t get the maximum grip out of your tires.

Of course, the faster you go, the easier it is to develop under/oversteer under braking. My own personal issue (I drive the 911.2 as well) was with understeer; it was hard for me initially to get a sense of where my wheels were slipping. But I experimented with turning in to the corners a little earlier (5-10m or so), taking a tiny bit shallower line to the apex. I found my tires didn’t slide as much, and stayed in the optimum grip range. And I found that my CC values rose as a result.

 

Thanks for the reply buddy. Do you find that you get punished for trailbraking in this car as it relates to CC? I get the feeling the game wants me to brake before I steer and let off the gas at/around the apex and then hit it on the way out.

I compared my tune to Dave's and his ABS is @ 2 and mine is @ 4 and I 'think' that is the disconnect. I'm not talented enough to drive with ABS 2, so later today I'll try to bump the ABS to 4 on his tunes. With any luck I'll be faster and have more CC.


Jerome

 

Well, I tried changing the ABS to 4 and I'm still at 77 CC and 94 CN (the bars look consistent with my tune) and my laptimes are between 2:01 and 2:02 vs. 2:03 with my tune. I'm definitely and earthling, but this game is astounding and I've really only driven the Porsche. She is such a great drive! I will start trying out a handful of other cars after I try and master some other tracks in the Porsche.


Jerome

 

If not already mentioned, probably has,... brake bias also has as a lot effect on the car when late/trail braking into a corner as ABS, if ABS is set low.

 

One other thing I forgot to mention: a result of turning in earlier is limiting excess angle in the steering. I’ve found that if I go much past 90°, I’m just scrubbing the tires. By turning in earlier and taking that slight bit shallower line, you end up turning the wheel less and getting less understeer as a result.

 

Other tracks and actually other cars are what I would recommend.
I loved driving the porsche, but it felt very slidy around corners, fast, but slidy.
For other cars, I tried 5 laps in them to understand the differences and then 5 laps to get a consistent laptime.
Some cars are similar, some are not.
I removed the Lambo after 3 laps as it is too unforgiving for my driving style.
Audi is similar to the lambo, but I could keep it mainly on the track.
I was always too aggressive with the throttle on the AMG, so either high TC or very slow throttle control (maybe needed to finish car rotation).
BMW felt too unstable through corners

I found a car that was forgiving when I make mistakes (earthbound like yourself), like the engine sound and I was fast with it after the 5 laps, which to me means that it likes my driving style.


Changing tracks is good as it will give you a variety of corners, which allows you to use that experience on your other tracks.

Big hint is if you cannot get faster on a track, try to brake 5-10 m before and see what change that does. I would always brake too late, then I was turning while 100% brake, sliding abit and not rotated enough, so slower exit speed. Other advantage for me is that I was more stable.
Use Motec to see where you are sliding or putting in too much steering input.

Before you do alot of online racing, race against AI as this will get you used to the car infront blocking your braking point, and you will have to find braking points from the inside line. With AI, make sure you hug the apex as human drivers fight back and you will be side-by-side around the apex.

Glad you're having fun.. its a blast

 

I pushed hard and i cant feel like i can improve my lap time more

 

I think you linked the wrong video.

 

Upss i fixed it

ANE-LX1 cihazımdan Tapatalk kullanılarak gönderildi

 

Hi guys, about Trail Braking, I'm also trying to improve myself by reading and I found an interesting explanation: the 'string theory'. Maybe I don't know how useful it can be but it intrigued me.
https://trinacriasimracing.wordpress.com/trail-braking/

 

Thats often the analogy I use when coaching.
The other method I use is ‘percentages’ https://learntorace.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/todays-tip-trail-braking/

 

It's me OP! Been a long time, I studied @Aristotelis videos and tried to make the best of my limited simracing training time by following his suggestions to "do the right things" and improve.

Well I'm posting a video of my best lap at Kyalami in the AMG GT4. Time is 1.52.713 aggressive setup, untouched. I have ZERO clues if it is a good time or not, just to be clear

I would love to hear any suggestions about my lines and ways to improve. I'm going to start a championship soon and would want to be a more competitive and faster driver and i guess there's nothing better than getting some help and feedback here from you guys.



I recorded both the onboard and the helicam replay; obviously the inputs are shown too.

I'll be grateful to anyone that takes his time to comment and suggest

 

Hey, you got the basics right, it would be great if you gave us the onboard with the pedal bars visible, that would allow a way deeper understanding.

Overall: you got it already right to use a lot of track, but on some occasions you only use the width of the track because you know thats where the car needs to be, but in fact the car is coming too slow off the corner to really need that space.
some of the car positioning is happening rather late and edgy. especially visible in 2nd to last corner, where you go very late onto the outside curb before turn in, but you also change the angle of the car to add a few extra degrees to the corner, which doesnt really have to be.

Was hard to see from the the heli cam, but it seems like there is almost 0 trail braking happening, so thats certainly an area to work on. keeping the tires loaded at all times and not changing load too abruptly. i.e. as you turn in, you have to let go off the brake to make a load transition from fronts to outside tires.

In depth analysis costs time. loads of time. but you can buy it get in touch if you need the full package

 

I'm not in the economical position to consider such an offer but i wish you the best of luck with your choaching

 

Probably not.

I was in that same boat until recently. Then one day I accidentally set brake gamma to 5 (the maximum) while fiddling with the controller settings. Then on the outlap, the car just wouldn't stop in a heavy braking zone, and I went off track. Back in the garage, I noticed that the brake power gauge at the bottom right only went up to ~50% when I thought I was fully braking. Even after setting brake gamma back to 1, it only went up to ~80-90%. Basically, I hit the rubber stop in the brake before the pedal travel registered as 100%. Since there was no way to calibrate this on the PS4, I had to press the pedal very hard to get to 100%. Now on PC, I set a deadzone for the brake pedal in the ACC settings.

Being able to use full braking power has enabled me to brake quite a bit later in heavy braking zones, and has definitely gained me a few tenths per lap.

In a nutshell, higher brake gamma results in braking power staying lower during the initial pedal travel, then it rises more quickly at the end. So it would likely just make your problem worse.

 

To avoid that use brake gamma 1 + set a deadzone at the end of the pedal.

 

Probably off-topic, but lately i pushed myself into driving lower ABS and TC settings, mainly ABS2/TC2 and on some GT3 cars even ABS1. I have crappy T150 pedals but since there’s no possibility of investment in the near future, I settled with improving my skills with whatever setup i have now.
Anyway, since racing lower assists, my lap-times improved a bit since i can brake harder and accelerate stronger on turn exits, but at the same time my ratings dropped, mainly the car control. My guess is that now i’m much closer to the grip limit, allowing more (let’s say managed, shall we? ) slip and the game registers it as loss of control. Because at no point in my racing i feel like actually losing control of the car, but rather allowing micro-slides to turn the car more into the corners at mid speeds. For example, Aqua Minerale at Imola (T10), to keep momentum for the left hander up the hill @T11, I’m throwing the car into T10 allowing some limited sliding, which feels quite natural, otherwise i’d be much slower and i wouldn’t feel i’m pushing the car as much as i can. I’m not talking skidding here, just minor slides, rotations of the car into turns. The thing is, i guess the game penalizes that by reducing CC. Is that true, or maybe my CC is affected by something else i don’t realize right now?

 

It may have some effect on it. However what I've seen most is that CC is mostly affected by over-driving (over-steering), or how to say it - just using too much angle of your steering wheel causing your wheels to be behind peak grip level. But in general, everything counts, so give it a time and when you get used to new ABS/TC settings your CC will be fine again or you manage to change your driving style a bit.