Generic Finally...consistency!

I never realised just how satisfying it is to simply achieve ‘consistency’ in lap times.

By our community standards, they are probably not massively quick, but lap after lap within half a second - and no offs - is awesome fun.

Now I am gradually building speed, locking in braking points, and hitting apex’s quite reliably.

Y’just never stop learning...right?

 

Good to hear, Dave, keep working those cars, cause from here on out it´ll be only more and more fun.
Before you´ll know it you´ll have skillwalls and breakthroughs on those walls too .

 

Same here, consistency in Assetto is something that we only get with hardwork.

 

think that is part of the learning. first i did "pedal to the metal", braking as hard as i can, throwing the screaming car round the corner and feeling like a hero to finish a lap without spinning too often....
second was this thing with the penalties.... grrr....track limits from hell!
then getting faster. ONE fast lap. please please!
and then what you mention.
driving same lap times. doing the same things at the same corners.
and for me: realizing - i feel like a racing hero, but i am totally chaotic.....
i did sometimes 2 good laps at nords.
my "dream" is to do a clean race there. one or two hours of good action. but with family its not soo easy.

 

Cheers mate...I appreciate that. What’s a skillwall ??

 

Are you like my long lost twin?

Your thoughts here are exactly my experience!!

It’s incredibly rewarding to arrive at a corner, after braking from absolutely ‘flat out’, ready to turn in - and without a hint of understeer.

And then do it again...and again...

Who would have thought!

 

Absolutely! No substitute for ‘hours behind the wheel’!!

 

For me the gratification has come more from actually learning to read what the *****s on the public lobbies will do and avoid it in order not to totally wreck my race. For instance being extra cautious at the start in case the guy in front just doesn't start and I end up crashing into him, or see when a huge wreckage in front develops in order to pass unharmed. At first these things always used to catch me off guard but slowly I read the situations better and end up being able to avoid them with a bit more consistency. To be frank, times are not my forte, and if I could do a 1:51 in monza or a 2:24 in spa with your average GT3 car 5 months ago, I'm pretty much the same now. Haven't been able to catch up with the aliens who almost bring down those times by 10 secs (I can't even fathom how they do it, a lot of setup and flawless driving? )

 

Novice: fast in, slow out
Advanced: slow in, fast out
Pro: fast in, fast out
Alien: fast in, fast through, fast out

Happy steep learning curve.

 

I think I’m somewhere between Advanced and Pro

 

A "skillwall" is something that will be encountered by any driver at some point of their experience, like getting the hang of heel-to-toeing or suddenly being able to perfectly pre-throw/pre-align cars into corners via brake-weight shift and minimal steering input compared to pure steering turn in, stuff like that . Every person driving will have a "skillwall" rearing up in front of them all of a sudden, that negates getting faster, like reaching a plateau in skill .
And then one day you just go and break through that wall and start climbing higher/getting faster.

 

Depends on the car I'm driving.

For instance, with the BMW M3 E30 Gr.A 92 on the Red Bull Ring I manage a time around 1.41. With the Ferrari F138 I'll only manage a 1.11 at most, whilst I see other people "quite easily" drive a 1.06 of 1.07 or something. And the guys in Formula One drive even faster than that.

 

I'm always pretty much 5 seconds behind the fastest guys on tracks I know well and maybe 10 on tracks i Don't know so well. However I don't do setups and I think some of them must , otherwise I can't explain it.

 

Yep! These I know well

 

Setup is not everything but it certainly helps an aweful lot. Having a good balanced car will help you to start pushing, when you have a nervous car its in the back of your mind all the time so you break a little too early, put in too much steering angle and get on the throttle to early or too late.

One thing I will say is get the track down in your head, use your periferal vision for your breaking points, before turn in you should be already looking at the apex, once you hit the apex you should be already looking at the exit spot. All this of course without touching a single setup option other than gearing ratios, braking force and break balance.

Visually looking where you are going is the hardest thing I hadto do while sim racing. Check out:



watching these vids has made more consistent and able to push..

Find your groove with the base setups, be ablwe to do at least 5 - 10 laps within a couple of tenths of each other and then change things up dependinv on how you fell the car is driving.

 

There are two broad categories that will make you faster. The first category I call technical aspects, can be learned through rote practice. This is stuff like racing line, braking points, eye focus, apex & exits. These can be learned through research and plain old instruction.

The second category I call vehicle handling, which I find more elusive. If technical aspects are like learning to play guitar hero, vehicle handling is like juggling. It’s a combination of timing and learning your own techniques. Broadly speaking vehicle handling is a set of techniques you use to get the car to rotate the way you want it to, hence following the line you leaned in technical aspects.

Vehicle handling techniques can be much harder to explain, and even harder to learn by observation. No amount of video review will tell you how a steering wheel feels in your hand. To make matters more difficult, the language used to describe many techniques is expressive and easy to misinterpret.

I recommend spending time in chat parties with fast players who are willing to answer questions. Focus on specific cars and circuits, asking questions about how they’re setting up for a corner. Ask them about how the car feels, rather than focusing on things like braking and turn-in points.

Just my $0.02, best of luck out there!

 

Cool stuff guys, highly appreciated.

 

Thanks mate...more great info and advice! Much appreciated!!

 

How I learned to drive is quite easy actually. Three things did the trick for me, but it's quite different from what I've read here.

1. Do races, don't do hotlaps. With racing you have to be far more flexible because of the other cars on the track, and flexibility is good.
2. Switch between cars, and play with setting up cars. If you switch & setup cars often, you have to adapt to a new driving style, car handling, reaction time. Good for flexibility.
3. Learn to drift. If you can drift, it's easier to reach optimal potential in races, because you're more sure of yourself that you'll be able to catch the car. That gives flexibility, which is good.

And most importantly: have fun!
In the mean time: 1.10,2. Few more seconds to go.