General tips to improve lap times

Yep, the yoke is real nice for airplanes since it rotates 90 deg which is replicating real aircraft yokes. For racing however it makes the steering too nervous although I've made it as calm as possible around center. There's a bit of a deadzone around center which causes the jerkiness seen on the video. I hope a G29 won't have that.

I watched the racing school video by Skip Barber and it helped me understand the theory better and also remember basics I think I learned but forgot about.
Would be great to have a slip angle app which shows the amount of slip of the fronts to learn how much the wheel can be turned until I get the FFB wheel.
(edit, found some nice apps on RD which will help)

I agree about the ghost and will drive Time trial instead and get the Delta app.

 

No need to 'get' a delta app, AC does already have one.

 

This one http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/esotic-kmh-delta.13568/ looks nice. I'll compare it to the original one.

Edit: I'll stick with the KS original

 

I also hate the ghost nothing more distracting when the delta gives you better and more useful info, even in a race looking visually at the car ahead I cant really see if I am gaining or losing but seeing live splits or live delta between cars will show how your going against traffic where visually unless your gaining or losing lots of ground you don't get much info.

I use the one in Ptracker, mostly as it saves your PB delta per combo. With it on any server running stracker you can also set the reference delta to anyone else's lap which could be a handy tool not that I have ever actually tried that but I see it would be useful. I do use the stracker lap comparison though to see where I may be losing time to others.

With the ptracker PB delta always up I do run dashmeter pro on my phone as my main OSD and this shows my current session delta, you may be running very different conditions so the PB delta isn't going to be that useful. The in game delta app would be fine for this too.

Pretty much every modern form of racing these days the drivers always have the delta running as its the best way to get direct feedback to your driving to see where can gain more time.

 

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/deltabar.4842/

Doesn't just show how the lap is generally going but you can see per corner performance easier.

 

I managed to make the Cobra more controllable by altering the setup. Suddenly I could improve my lap times around Brands. Still missing 10 secs to mr Labbé

I've been cautious about altering the basic setups to avoid making the cars worse in handling so this is a big step forward for me

 

You mentioned not liking the KTM in a previous post.... it's a road car that has the manufacturers recommended road settings as the default setup in AC.

It generates a lot of downforce from under the car, but the default setup is designed to clear potholes and speedhumps on the road so it's not generating the downforce as well as it could. If you drop the ride height significantly you'll go a lot faster and the car will feel more stuck to the track and more predictable.

Likewise as with most road cars in AC you'll find more speed if you increase the camber at the front, maybe experiment with tyre pressures too. I also reduce the front rebound dampers to get less understeer when I get on the power (although that's something I do on all cars in every sim, might just be my super smooth driving style )

Makes the car a bit more oversteery and a lot more fun to drive. It's a combination of understanding how your inputs at the steering wheel affect a cars handling, and also getting the spanners out and adjusting setup that makes you go faster

 

In most cases that would have an opposite effect depending on the absolute starting rebound value, especially on aero cars.

 

Really? That's not been my experience in any car in any sim.... maybe I apply the throttle too smoothly and those changes compensate? Anyway, it definitely works for me in terms of laptime and how the car feels, but your mileage may vary

I guess that's why we all prefer different setups

 

The only setup changes that I make to the KTM are to reduce the ride height, and I think that it is a really enjoyable car to drive.

 

... and maybe some strengthening of the front springs

 

Good call, Johnny!!

 

I'll give the KTM a retry and test it with low ride height. The Cobra at Brands Hatch kept trying to jump off track at each bump and was very unstable in a straight line. I think I got that damped out rather ok.
The Xbow is more slippery in general and wants to go tail first. I need to smoothen my pedal work a lot so it will be a great car for teaching footwork.
The G29 is ordered and paid for now so in two weeks I'll be having a new experience

 

For the record, my ride height changes on the KTM X-Bow R are rather modest at the moment. I drop the front down to 20, and the rear down to 15. I am pretty sure that others lower it more than that.

 

That KTM is a great learner car I think, it has no factory aids. H pattern but still a fair bit of grip but it can bite you fairly quickly so it needs some good car control to keep it in check, its lightweight and can actually challenge the supercars around many tracks which is quite surprising.

 

I guess I should give the KTM a drive again at some point. After 1.12 got released I did a few laps on the 'Ring and was surprised how much more stable and planted the car was. It felt much easier to drive than before and that put me off a bit from the X-bow.

 

IMO, most cars should feel planted and relatively easy to drive....up to a point. When I encounter cars that are "all over the place", I start to wonder if there is a problem with the code.

 

I've wondered about the 488 GT3. Everytime I select it to drive it online I keep spinning and it seems to have hard plastic tyres or running on the rims even.

 

GT3 can be tricky with cold tyres (well, cold slicks in general), maybe check if the server runs with tyre blankets = off.

Also the ideal pressure was changed some time ago, maybe if you have an old setup with the old and too high pressures this might also be an issue.
Check with the tyres app if the pressures are green with warm tyres.

 

As @Schnipp says above beware of cold slicks they will have much less grip then street or semi slicks when cold, many cars it may take a lap or more to get the tyres to temp and pressure. If not using tyre blankets getting around before the tyres come up is one of the biggest challenges. The softest compounds will normally come to you sooner but medium and hard slicks in some cars may take 2 or 3 laps to get to normal temps and will be pretty sketchy before that.