Driving Technique Discussion

Time spent on the track is worth a lot more than time in the set up pages….good work @remi89

 

Don't know if I can completely agree with the relationship,... "tire pressure being independent from temps".

I do a lot of AI GT4 racing, no tire warmers in GT4, so I ride the brakes with throttle on the way to the green, no swerving or hard acceleration , and watch the brakes temps go up, along with the tire pressures.
Which I would think as it should be.

Regardless of how the "air" in side the tires is heated, by the tire carcass etc. that will increase pressures.

 

That quote should be shown in the loading screens of ACC

 

I have a question that is related to wheel height and angle on the rig: by experimenting a bit I found out that having the wheel sitting a bit lower and more vertical strains my arms less and actually improves my consistency and feel (CSL DD). My arms get less tired and I seem to get a bit more info from the FFB, for example a better feeling of the lateral grip in a corner. Is there a "golden rule"?

 

https://www.racedepartment.com/news/tips-for-finding-a-good-sim-racing-seating-position.364/

 

Hi guys,

I have played ACC for a few months about a year ago, on the PS4 with Thrustmaster T150 and since then i havent touched the game.

Recently i decided to buy PC and install the game using the same wheel. The thing that i noticed is that i am lacking a lot of pace per lap comparing to the old times.
Literally on every track i am 2-3 seconds slower than before.
For example i was able to have 1,47, 1,48 on Monza with Lambo, but now i can barely go into 1.50.
I do not consider myself pro, but im not a noob either, so having this much difference in the lap times is really confusing. I am using pretty much the same setups as before, i even bought a professional setup, and still couldnt improve. I constantly see other people on multiplayer doing these quicker times btw.
I already checked the wheel settings both in game and on PC and everything seems to be working fine. Pedals go all the way as they are supposed to.
If anyone have some answers and suggestions, i would like to hear them.

Best regards

 

The 1.8 update on PC (big physics and tire model changes) slowed laptimes by 1.5 - 2 seconds a lap.

 

Question about actual driving technique...

When Im understeering on corner entry, I notice I can load up the front wheels by downshifting pretty easily in ACC.
I know this probably isnt ideal, but it allowes me to make my apex if I get my balance wrong or when Im simply too late turning in.

Do we know if this is something irl GT3 cars can do and if irl drivers do it?

Or is it simply a bad habit that I need to get rid of asap?

 

Downshift not only moves the weight to the front, but also helps to rotate the car. It's a technique used, but be aware to not over rev the engine, or if you are relying on it and the over rev protection prevents the downshift you get yourself in trouble by overshooting the corner.
Just be sure not to over rev to use it proper way. And secondly the rear tires tend to lose grip, due to lower weight on them and engine brake. The risk of spinning out is higher than just tapping the brakes to load the front or a quick release kick of the throttle.
And mostly when using 1st gear in a slow chicane or hairpin you should consider shifting up right after the car has turned in and accelerate with 2nd gear, often 1st gear will give you wheel spin and bc you are already in high rev, there is not much head room for acceleration in that gear anyway and you need to shift while accelerating, so you would lose more time and speed in the end of the upcoming straight.

Just a couple days ago I watched a video by Mabix (german streamer YT and Twitch) where he raced vs. Max Verstappen in iracing and analyzed Maxs lines ans what he did different and learned, that Max used to downshift to rotate the car into some turns and immediately upshifted again before accelerating.
german only, sorry:

 

Yeap this is exactly what Im doing as well (Im Dutch just like Verstappen ) although I might not always upshift immediately before getting back on the throttle. Which is something to look into...
I was just wondering if its an actual thing irl or if Im using an exploit which imo would be a bad habit.
I notice I use it a lot more in ACC than in AMS2 for example so that also made me wonder if irl GT3s can be driven like this.

At first I did have some problems with snap oversteer in fast turns but I feel I manage it pretty well now.

Ill take a look at your vid too, my German isnt perfect aber es reicht

 

What @AndyK70 said is packed full of good info! Wish I knew of this forum when I was spelunking the depths of Reddit looking to make sense of a similar situation.

If I understood it correctly, the extra rotation when downshifting is basically the product of the engine braking. This makes sense when you really entertain the idea of your powertrain (engine + transmission + wheels + all the shafts and axles linking them all together) as one closed system. Engine speed (RPM) and power output is linked to whatever is happening to the wheels and vice versa, unless that link is briefly interrupted by engaging the clutch.

The higher the RPM, the higher the energy being input in that system by the engine, regardless of the gear you're in. That's why dyno charts with power + torque curves vs RPM do not specify the gearing; it's all the same.

How much of the engine power output at a given RPM will be used to turn the wheels harder (torque) or turn it faster depends on the gear ratio engaged in your transmission. You know all that basic stuff: 1st gear makes your wheels turn really hard but not very fast, so only useful to launching the car or to accelerate from very slow speeds, while 6th gears will enable you to reach top speed but good luck trying to make the car move from a standstill with it engaged. But then again, the engine power being injected in the system at say 6500RPM will be the same, no matter if you're on 1st or 6th gear.

What gives, when you stop feeding gas to the engine the whole system gets inverted! Now it's not the engine driving the wheels, but the engine sapping the wheels energy. The wheels would be content to keep on spinning at their original rate (inertia) but now not only they're not receiving power anymore, they have the engine cylinders coming to a stop.

Now when you downshift from say 4th @5500RPM and disengages the clutch, the driven axle is suddenly linked to an engine running at @6500RPM in 3rd gear which a significantly higher gear ratio - as it is a closed system, the wheel speed and the engine speed will match and keep up with one another. The engine braking works at basically the same rate as if it was inputting power into the wheels!

So it will slow down your wheels even more the more you downshift. Braking is the same as acceleration anyway, just the direction of the force that is inverted, so it makes sense that the lower the gear the stronger the effect, thanks to the transmission. Get to 100kph in a high gear, lift and check how long it will take to reach e.g. 40kph, then do the same thing in 2nd or 1st gear - you slow down much faster!

The extra rotation you get comes from the engine draining power from the driven axle and slowing you down. If it so happens that you lose the rear, it's just that the braking force + the suddenly higher engine braking force exceeds the grip between tyres and tarmac and the rear wheels start to slide.

Hope that makes sense!

Edit: By the way it's the very same principle by which shortshifting in the wet, with worn tyres or in any other situation where your grip is compromised makes you keep the car on the track!

Say you're able to go full throttle and reach the rev limiter without ever breaking traction at the rear. You've got enough grip to enable 100% of the power coming from the engine to be planted on the tarmac through the tyres, pushing you on your merry way.

If you were to suddenly hit a puddle, slippery line or is just caught under heavy rain while still on your slicks, the grip decreases significantly and it just so may happen that you don't have enough adhesion to the tarmac to plant all that energy your engine outputs at 6500RPM.

Now if you short shift before reaching that threshold you'll be able to keep going without breaking traction.

There's more to that naturally. But I genuinely think it helps to keep these things in mind when driving/playing.

 

Hi ,
just out of curiosity: as you shoot in Launa Seca? Am I very slow? I used a safe setup to get started because I can't find any online for Laguna Seca and Ferrari. Thank you

 

Hi ,
as the title suggests, I accept suggestions for improving lap time here at Watkins Glen.
)) Thanks

 

As a fellow first timer I would suggest you drive Watkins Glenn for about 20 hours trying to improve your time and achieve maximum. Then ask for setup improvements.

 

1:50 ? PICNIC



and this

 

Hi guys, I'm hoping to get some advice here on how to get to that level of racing where I can compete. I've purchased ACC about a year ago have just been practicing alone and racing against the AI. I'm looking at LFM times for people racing at the rookie lvl and I'm about 2-3 seconds away from the avg racer's times for most tracks. For example, I'm avg around 2.22 at Spa, 1.51 at Monza, 1.48 at Barcelona etc. It's pretty much at every track, I'm 2-3 seconds slower from being competitive so obviously there is something in my technique that's holding me back. So I'm hoping you guys can help me figure it out because I can't for the life of me.

What would be the best way to get feedback from the community? Should I post cockpit videos of my hotlaps along with MoTec data? I'm still a novice so just trying to get help without offending anyone lol. Hoping to join you guys on the track! Thanks for any help in advance!

 

Hello to everyone. I am a newbie, raced here and there, usually practicing alone. I've found that ACC gives me best physics, graphics, ffb and everything else regarding sim racing. My ususal car is Porsche 991 GT3R (I know, not for newbies, but I like Porsche very much). I just seem unable to go faster then 2:20 at SPA. Here is my video, so if anyone has any suggestions regarding my driving style I would be grateful. Setup is agresssive, TC bumped one notch and tyre pressure regulated.

Thanks in advance

 

I'm definitely no alien (my best Spa qualy in LFM last week was 2:18.3, aliens do 2:15s), but I'll mention a few things I see. Nothing fundamentally wrong about your driving, but a few things you can definitely work on:

• There are many corners where you are leaving a lot of track unused. This is specially obvious at La Source (T1) and even more in the left-hander at the Les Combes chicane. You are decelerating too much, carrying too little speed into the corner so then you have a lot of track you don't need at the exit. Tough to judge from that camera, but you might be turning too much as well, which would delay the possibility to go on the throttle. You can try carrying a little bit more speed each lap you practice, until it feels like you are running out of track. I'm not a coach, but this might be a vision thing, having your eyes on the apex of the corner until way too late. By the time you reach the apex, you should ideally be looking at where you want to place the car at the exit.
• If you optimize the line, Eau Rouge/Radillion, Stavelot 2 and Blanchimont should be flat. While it obviously adds up due to the long straights after, I don't think that will make such a big difference to your laptime there, though. This is the least important of the tips.
• You seem to be trail braking, which is good, but you are often quite tentative on the pedals. You are backing out of the throttle frequently (like "stabbing" the throttle if you get what I mean), which is costing you quite a bit of laptime.
• Also, in many corners, I notice you are overlapping brake and throttle. You may sometimes do that to create some understeer and stabilize the rear, but in some corners (specially Fagnes/Campus and Stavelot 1) it seems like you brake too early then have to go on the throttle to add some extra speed, or you would otherwise rotate more than necessary and end up in the grass. Try making it so that you end your deceleration and have your minimum speed at (or just before) the apex of the corner, and then it's time to go on the throttle.

Btw, an onboard cam (or even chase cam) is a better idea when asking for feedback, as it's difficult to judge your line, and specially your braking points, from the TV cam.

Hope it helps!

 

Wow, thank you very much!
I’ve also noticed that in the lots of corners I am too slow and not using all the track. I’ll definitely try to carry more speed, maybe brake a little earlier and then try to cruise through corner and be earlier on the throttle at the exit. Something similar Aris mentioned in one of his TL DW videos on YT. I am not a setup guy, I mostly use aggressive preset with one bump up in TC, but I can manage a lap with TC at 2 also.
Never managed to go through Eau Rouge/Radillon fully flat. It always seems to me that I must lift a thrrottle just a little bit to manage the first turn. Don’t know if this is due to setup or my driving line but I suppose it’s the line .
I try to trail brake, but definitely need to work on this technique. I don’t have good pedals (T3PA Thrustmaster) and until yesterday I used conical mode, which didn’t feel good since I couldn’t feel where is my foot, if you know what I mean. I try a squash ball mode now, and it feels much more natural, braking pedal has more throw and it’s progressive in the feeling. But I don’t think it’s crucial. It’s my technique that I have to work on.
I currently feel that I can coast with not much problems at around 2.24 at Spa, but when I try too hard bad things start to happen. So it’s my technique and driving line that I have to work on.
Maybe I should try to get some Motec data and compare it with ”normal” lap times at around 2.18 … I’ve also downloaded some setups but they all seem too aggresive and I can’t control a car (almost always my backend oversteers at Eau Rouge/Radillon).
Thank you once more and next time I’ll upload a video from cockpit.