Best collision avoiding method in your opinion

Probably the biggest thing I've noticed, is that in race starts, or heavy traffic while racing, nearly everyone does the same thing with their eyes, regardless if they admit or not, or whether they think they are actually doing it or not. It's automatic.
Many peoples' eyes end up right in front of the car. MANY/MOST. Many know that we all need to get our eye UP. Look at the direction you WANT to go, not where you're heading when racing. Get you eyes on the apex, but before you even reach the apex, your eyes must be UP.
When in heavy traffic, it's natural to lessen the depth of view, for worry and anxiety of being next to someone (You don't want to lose track of them so it's natural to bring your eyes closer). This is a big no-no. KEEP THOSE EYES UP AND FAR. Can't explain how many bad race starts ended with me gaining 15 positions (usually joining late and didn't qualify) because of this. It's so blatantly easy to get caught up behind a car in a field. Watch their mistakes because of race-start anxiety, instead of the field. More times than not, it's not the guy ahead of you who is going to have an accident. IT'll be 2-5 cars ahead of you starting the chain reaction. The chain reaction happens because most people are focused on the immediate car ahead, and they too get caught up in the obstacle closest to them, which gets you caught up in the chain.

Back. The hell. Off. Early. GET YOUR EYES UP.
However, everyone is going to have mistakes, it's unavoidable, but you can lessen them with merely your eyes and less adrenaline.
I use Helicorsa, and it helps, but only a little bit (5%).

 

I find it very easy to avoid collisions. Myself, I hardly cause any because I drive predictably. The arrows and track map are enough for me to know where to place my car.

Predicting dangerous moves of other cars is the harder part. I try to read the cars around me and foresee if the drivers will do something risky. It works in many cases but it's hard to explain how...it's just experience I guess.

 

Great post @Salajutsu

I always try to look far ahead where I want to go. If really close to another car and the sight is blocked (damn SUVs...) I try to look through the car as if it was a ghostcar. But some drivers also have tunnel vision and are not aware when a car is beside and then are surprised when they turn in. Using single screen, most time I have tunnel vision too. I can press the look right and left buttons but in some situations it's just impossible. For example a car behind misses his brakepoint, gets on the grass and shoots back onto the track just the moment I turn in. This is where helicorsa (or even track map) could definitely help me avoid the collision.

 

I use helicorsa over my virtual mirror, I dont rely too much on helicorsa but I always keep an eye on the mirrors to have an idea of where everyone around me is and helicorsa will cover blind spots pretty well. Using triple screens I also use the extra FOV this gives to the sides in traffic but its mostly a general awareness of where all other cars are rather then just relying on a single spotter app. The main trick is to be able to use your mirrors and understand where people are but still focus on your own reference points apexes etc and simply knowing when you need to adjust your line and speed to allow for cars that may be alongside.

I will also leave more room to people I dont know or that look to be struggling, only the people I am familiar with racing close will I run a bit closer to if I know we will both give each other racing room in corners.

The main mistake I see many people make is rear ending those they are following, this really is an unacceptable error as you should leave enough margin to those ahead under braking and if your not trying to make a pass and directly following there is no point trying to out brake the car ahead as this just means you will run into the back of them. When trying to make a move you also need to allow for having less track to make the corner so if going inside you need to slow more then normal to make the apex and not run the other guy off the road. The more you race people the better you will get in traffic but in most cases its fairly easy to avoid causing collisions and also being aware of others you can avoid most from those around you.

When racing very close and hard with someone the odd rubs are always going to happen but if you do the most you can to avoid contact and remain in control you should be fine.

 

That is a good point, i tend to run an outlap, followed by one or two hotlap(s).
The rest of the quali time i spectate the guys that postet similar times on the leaderboard and look out for things like:
Do they look familiar with the track and car?
How do they react to traffic?
Is he waiting in the pitlane to enter the track, when there is a big enough gap?
Who asked how much fuel is needed?
Who called someone an idiot?
Who is apologizing?
Do they wait for a safe rejoin?
Do they respect faster guys, by helping them pass?
Who is out on track constantly, but does not post valid laps?
Are the guys with similar pace consistant, or was it just a lucky lap that placed them next to me on grid?
Are there guys i know behind me and what color is their car?
Which cars are driven by the guys that joined last minute?

To know who is a confident and respectful racer and who is struggling and a potential problem is important, not only during the start, but also in the race. During the next qualification i spectate those, that caused trouble in the race and give them advices like:

@ randomname:
That was an unsafe rejoin, try relative app to see when the track is clear.
The guy behind you was on his hotlap, you just left the pit.
Why are you on his bumper all the time? There is no one behind you. Create a gap and try again next lap.
You could have avoided that accident, if you slowed down once you saw the smoke.
Dont cross the pitexit line, do you want someone doing that to you?
Try the helicorsa-app, that guy was next to you the entire straight, yet you turned into him.
@all: "randomname" revenge wrecked / drifted / cut the track on purpose / has ping of 2000 ... let's kick him.

These chat messages will be read by others too, so they are aware of the names and start to look out for them in the race, which also helps in having less accidents in the next races.

 

I really wish that all online racers could see these words. I have lost count of the number of times that I have been rammed from behind because I have slowed down after seeing cars spinning further along the track.

 

Probably the absolute most frustrating thing in sim racing, haha.

 

Its kind of also one of the main reasons many struggle lap one of a race from mid to back of the field, some don't seem to understand that they need to go around cars ahead and if there is no way to do so need to back off and stay behind. This means the cars at the back of the pack will at times be almost crawling around the first turn somewhere like Monza, but that's kind of the deal from starting at the back. If your so desperate to get to the front qualify better, if you didn't qualify then you chose this spot.

In a general pub server race you can gain quite a few spots by being last and leaving a big gap to all cars ahead, let them crash then pass half the field that's facing the wrong way. At times I have been amazed with some clean starts in large fields but sometimes many have a real desperation and try moves they pretty much never succeed with. Then when this happens mid pack its funny to see the rest of the pack not slow at all and just make it a bigger mess, the guy chilling at the back gets 10 or more spots and those desperate to gain spots into t1 are now calling for a restart or have already rage quit.

Don't get me wrong I love the early battles into t1 and in many league races especially races are pretty much decided here even if its a 1 hour race, in a pub server with people I don't really know I will rarely push the issue early and try make passes later on which is more fun anyway.

 

...And there was me thinking that it was all due to some weird magnetic force

I'm probably wrong, but the fact that this thread has managed 2 pages so far compared to any number of threads where the much more important issues of things like cheesy chips are discussed tells you where the priorities lie with the majority of users . It'll be interesting to see the response when @Aristotelis gets round to discussing the matter of racing etiquette in his very informative series of videos.

 

You really shouldn't have to pay attention to it that much. I have it kinda in the lower left corner of my center monitor and in my peripheral vision I can if it lights up yellow or red to let me know there's a car in close quarters, I rarely look directly at it. It's hands down the most valuable spatial awareness tool for me, the crew chief is good too but can sometimes be a little late with the call and only gives you a brief moment of info where if Helicorsa is staying yellow/red in my peripheral vision I know the car is still there, still there, still there, and when the color goes away I know I'm clear. The brain is a highly adaptable thing, if you give it time you'll adapt to it and it will become less of a distraction and more of a sixth sense. Personally I never found it distracting and adapted to it right away, the proximity arrows however I find very distracting/confusing so they are disabled.

 

After several attempts I put helicorsa right in the middle of my screen, so I can watch both the track and the app. For me it's more distracting if something lights up somewhere at the side, but, as so often, ymmv.

 

I jumped into a busy Minorating ABCN old DTM server earlier, Merc 190E, M3 and Alfa 155 TI as there were a few of my friends in there but quite a few names I didnt recognize. Lets just say in this type of server avoiding collisions is impossible in the first 3/4 of a lap at Silverstone national I got rear ended 4 times with the final one sending me into the fence. Now not that I am so worried about my MR contacts but currently I have 1.6CP in the last 1000km and guess when they all happened and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Of the 24 in there at least 10 were good quality league drivers yet the server was not worth completing a single lap because of the other 10-14 drivers most have zero clue about how to drive let alone drive in traffic.

I stick to AB, some ABC or closed league servers now and with 30 drivers in a race at Bathurst over 40 laps, actually entire league seasons I have gone with no contacts with anyone and lots of close racing. In 3/4 of a lap in a busy soft entry minorating server I get 4 rear endings in less then 1 minute of a lap. I really dont see why you would even want to run in such servers, I also tried a Nords trackday open server, only had 10 in it with japenese cars in an odd mix. All japanese cars in game from mazda miata to mazda 787B. I went middle of the road with a stock Mazda rx7, first lap I didnt really see anyone but let a couple 787's past and they managed not to hit me which I was amazed about. This was my first lap on default setup and I set the session best time with the rx7 and most others where in the 787 or tuned japanese pack cars, this time I leave the pits on my own and 3 787's come by again early so I move over and let them past. Then the rest of the lap they held me up pinging off the walls, I never hit anyone in there but simply left as it was a complete waste of time.

Both th0se servers just reconfirmed why I avoid such servers and dont run any setup that way, after that I went to my street car trackday server with just one other guy in which is at VIR and ABC we had maybe 20 laps running nose to tail with no contact and multiple passes. I then went to my Nords AB old DTM race server and did some laps til some guys joined. Only had 5 in at most but with one guy from Europe and a 350 ping on my Australian server I had the Merc he had the Alfa. Was my first run there in the Merc and for me its about 4 seconds slower around the track then the Alfa, I followed him close for a couple laps then next race lead early with him sitting on my tail the entire lap unable to make a pass til I made a small error at the small Karusel, here there was no contact racing close at Nords with a guy that has a 350 ping running laps 7:28- 7:32.

So the point of this long story is also to avoid contacts chose your company and servers wisely, join a fully open server or a very open one running MR and you cant even drive there without people hitting you or the track is blocked most of the time so your pretty much just dodging mobile chicane, if you amazingly get through the first lap without getting taken out then of 24 starters less then 5 will finish and of these 2 will be lapped in a 10 minute race . It still amazes me that these types of servers are that busy and those running MR AB only struggle to get people in them mostly. I would rather lap on my own or race 3 or 4 good drivers then join one of those carnage servers. Even in 30 car league fields over an hour and a half race I may only really race 1 or 2 people and most other cars I am passing is slower lapped traffic.

Get an open server and having someone to race from 24 or more is unlikely and even if you were to have someone to race with everyone else will hit you no matter what you do so for me I just avoid those servers like the plague.

 

Best collision avoiding method ?

L/55 120mm smoothbore by Rheinmetall.

 

Don't know much about guns which I assume that's one, when I was in the US earlier this year a friend of mine brought a small arsenal (semi auto assault rifles, pistols with silencers and a long range sniper rifle) I wouldn't mess with anyone there after seeing how much heat he was packing. Surely road rage cant be an issue when someone can be driving around with enough weapons to take down the Australian and new Zealand military in the back of their truck.

 

Quite the opposite really, lots and lots of road rage (or just rage in general) around here because people seem to think that any time they're slightly inconvenienced or "disrespected" the only solution is violence. Personally, I adhere to your advice of staying out of it because, especially where I live, there's a rather high probability that the person is carrying a firearm and looking for any excuse to use it.

 

LOL I doubt that your friend could buy this one, or shuttle it around without breaking his car. L/55 is a tank cannon, and weighs over 4.4 tons.