Twitchy wheels

Hi all. Been really getting into the whole sim racing bit and one thing I’ve been seeing a lot of on both real live videos and in some player videos is the steering wheel twitch. I have a G27 wheel and never have felt the wheel force this. Is this a ffb thing or a style of racing to avoid losing traction/spin outs? Any info or pointing me to why this happens would appreciate! Happy racing.

 

Not so much a style but you nailed it

 

They are catching slides. With GT3 car the slides can happen really snappy and you need to have good reflexes to catch them before it's too late. Slides can easily happen due to the oversteery setups of the car and driver overdriving them. Key is to be smooth with pedal and steering input to avoid these as slides cost you lap time no matter how short they are. You'll learn to catch these with practice. At first I did not understand what to do in a slide situation and often span out. Then I learned to countersteer but not to correct after that and I used to spin out in the other direction. But after doing many many hours of sim racing I learned to counter-steer and correct these slides catching them with a good probability.

Here is a video tutorial what a snap-oversteer is and how to save it.


Tip: In the video he mentions squeezing the throttle. This is very important as it helps to settle the weight during the slide and can really be a make-it-or-brake-it factor. It is a very subtle squeeze. So if you get into a slide don't let your throttle off, rather push it just a tad more to keep the weight balanced.

Also check out this great blog about using oversteer to your advantage:
https://driver61.com/uni/oversteer/

Now go and try it your self. The feeling is great when you get it right

 

Depending which wheels are more on their limit. Could be catching little oversteer slides, it also could be this:



And it can be both

 

I love this technical stuff. FEED ME MOAR!

 

Modern GT cars have quite light steering, the twitching you in onboards is a combination of a) driver trying to feel the grip by moving the steering wheel b) preemptive movement based on drivers knowleage/feeling/memory of the places where car gets unstable and c) bumps or g-forces pushing the driver's arms around pulling on the wheel.

You can use FFB to save spins but part "b)" takes precedence. That is: if you expect the car to be unstable in some place, FFB can be used as a trigger to spin saving action, but unless it's a street car in AC you can't really use just FFB only to know when car wants to spin.

Also concerning "a)", by twitching the steering left to right, you want to look for how car yaws.
- If for example the car does not change it's rotation speed at all, it means you are understeering and you will be better off with less steering.
- When it suddenly rotates faster as you momentarily turn the wheel into the turn, it means you were on the limit of grip and car wants to oversteer - you are on the ball and car can't turn any better.
- Sometimes when cornering you will feel that car rotates faster as you turn away from corner, it means that car is 4 wheel sliding already and to save it radical measures have to be taken: hard, fast countersteer, or turn deeply into the turn - something very rarely used in real racing but quite useful in simracing, and give the car mild amount of throttle to load the rear tyres.

As you gain experience in how car yaw rate changes when steering or driving around the track, take mental notes what happens to FFB. After some time FFB will become more helpful in getting the "feel" of the car, and you will notice more details.

 

Great stuff guys. Makes sense. Will have try pay more attention to this while driving.