Looking for target lap times

Realistically not many cars can hang on a Miata in most curves, downforce aside hehe.

But then your car will take them 2-5s every time there's a straight so there's that haha.

 

I suggest learning how to drift. Take your car and teach yourself how to manage the grip so that you know exactly where the limits are. Keep drifting until you can control the car in all the gears and around different corner radius’.
Once you can drift at will, when go to race you will be much more confident and able to push the car to the edge of traction and still maintain control. It becomes a balancing act where the car will want to drift all the time but quick times will come from finessing the car so that it doesn’t slide.
Try diving the Maserati 250f because it’s a car that needs to be steered with the throttle. The fastest way around the corner in Maserati is to “dirt track” it, which is simply a very shallow angle drift.
Like I said mastering the drift and the Maserati will make you a quicker driver overall.

 

Knowing how to slide a car definitely is a big plus. I'd do it in a normal car tho, too easy in the 250F.

 

I really suck at Laguna Seca. Levesque did 1:40. I saw a video where Randy Pobst, driving a Cayman R like mine, did 1:41.6 and he wasn't going for any lap records. Numerous Cayman videos on YouTube are 1:45 or lower. I can't get under 1:49 and I don't know why. I get reasonable times at other tracks, but not here. My line is right but I'm missing something important. What's different about this track?

 

Did I do 1:40 ? I don't remember driving any sim on a wheel for the past month

 

My apologies! I should have checked my reference more closely. PhilS13 said 1:40 was a decent time, which I took to mean that was a time he had achieved. Regardless. I still suck. I can't even better the times I had a couple of weeks ago. I am just totally screwing this up.

 

The one in the game is this one:

 

I realize that. I've tried to back off the alignment to be closer to my car. I'm happy to say they feel and perform about the same. I get results that are comparable to what I actually get on tracks I know and this seems to carryover to tracks I don't know but know people who know. So far, the exception is Laguna Seca. Unfortunately I don't know it and don't know anybody who does so I have to go with whatever I can find. What I am finding is I suck! I've put 200-250 miles on it in the last few days and I'm just not improving.

 

LFS had this problem solved in 2006 (2005?). Raceroom also has something that solves this issue.

Either way, I always wished Kunos and LFS merged to get the things I miss most from either game.

 

Slow track, 96% grip, air temp 26, your setup, default tyre pressures, first two laps ever in this car (although done a couple races in the manual version):


Back to pit, then adjusted PSI aiming for 36 all round, outlap and then 2 flying laps:


Back to pit again, then just to see the difference put the PSI nearer the correct value (about 40 hot):



So a 1:40 is easily doable with some practice and 40PSI, if I got to 41.5 in 5 laps surely somebody will smash 1:40 in their first go but not sure if it is easy with such low PSI as 36.

 

I never doubted somebody can do it, just not me, not yet.

Interesting about tire pressures. I run 36# hot on my actual car so I have been using that in the sim. I haven't checked all cars and don't know them that well anyhow, but the default values don't always seem to be right. I don't have any idea how they come up with them and maybe they are right for the sim. I have to experiment more.

I'm already doing that a bit. I found the sim car to be too squirrelly compared to my car so I dropped the front 2#, 34/36. I added a pound back, 35/36, at Laguna Seca and that helped. For whatever reason I was getting more understeer there. BTW, I've seen valid arguments both ways on changing tire pressures to correct over/understeer. My experience has been to add pressure at the end needing more grip relative to the other end. That may not be scientifically correct but it works for me, although I suspect there is a point where this would reverse. However, up to that point it makes sense to add pressure all around and maybe 40# is the place to be.

 

Too squirrelly is an understatement. When I drove on your setup I immediately thought there is no way a street car is that loose on a track.

The tyre app litterally tells you what the optimal pressures are. Default ones are working for the semi-slicks but you need to increase for street tyres.

Regardless, 1.40 is possible on 36 psi. I did it a week ago.

 

I'm out of town right now. I will have to try more pressure when I get home, maybe on the track as well. I'm finding some things transfer directly. Others don't. It is a lot easier to try different things in the sim, but you don't know if they will transfer or not. That's why I try to make the sim car as close to the real car as possible, with minor modifications like slightly less pressure in the front, and I'm pleased that the sim behaves the same on the tracks I know. It might work the other way. I've always used 36# because that was what other drivers were using and it worked okay. That doesn't mean it is correct.