Round 1 Technical Discussion: Tsukuba

  • Thread starter EL_ZISSOU
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Man I ran so many laps at Tsukuba this weekend.
Last week my best time was around 1:06.3xx and I was positive there was just no way I could get it lower. Still I practiced.
Suddenly I manage a 1:06.1xx and I find its getting easier to lay down fast laps.
Then suddenly I cross that magic threshold and I'm into the 1:05's and ranked 86th place for the circuit in my region. Heck yeah!! Obviouosly there are much faster guys but still, I'm proud, and I'm positive I can get an even better time now.
For those having trouble, just keep trying. It may take a lot of laps but you'll start getting the times down lower and lower. Study replays, follow ghosts, whatever it takes.
Now to tackle Rome...
 
Great job Kreep! That's the way to do it. All it takes is figuring out 1 corner and all of a sudden you knock .2 off, and continue to take it off. Isn't it amazing how as soon as you better your best time you can continuously do better lap times then the previous best!
 
My problem here is getting out of the corners without spinning the tires. Throttle control is an issue of mine I really need to work on.
 
Great job Kreep! That's the way to do it. All it takes is figuring out 1 corner and all of a sudden you knock .2 off, and continue to take it off. Isn't it amazing how as soon as you better your best time you can continuously do better lap times then the previous best!

That's exactly it. It comes to you one corner at a time, and when it does it's like a light switch. Click! Suddenly you're knocking .2 off your lap times when you didn't think you had any more to give. The "magic" of the leaders goes away too. Suddenly you see what it takes to go fast and realize it's not voodoo and you're not watching that ghost disappear into the distance and you get encouraged to do better.

So for Tsukuba, as has been pointed out, some are using the handbrake in the turns to help get the car to stop understeering and pointed in the right direction for corner exit. I started using it (where needed) right before the apex of a turn. Just a quick bump of the brake, not enough to throw you into a huge drift or anything. The car pivots a bit and you can apply throtle a lot earlier.

Practice practice practice. And don't race distracted. I can't even try to lay down laps with the kids up. As a single father of three, I have to wait until they are all in bed (or gone for a weekend at their mothers house) before I can even think about trying to race seriously.
 
stay off the throttle a split second longer, and make sure the nose is pointed pretty darn straight. You also might want to back up your corner a little bit. AS for the hand brake I think I experimented on turn 8 and it seemed beneficial over there, not so much in t1.
 
stay off the throttle a split second longer, and make sure the nose is pointed pretty darn straight. You also might want to back up your corner a little bit. AS for the hand brake I think I experimented on turn 8 and it seemed beneficial over there, not so much in t1.

Yeah I can't use it in every corner.
So you don't use it at all then?
 
Yeah I can't use it in every corner.
So you don't use it at all then?

I haven't used it minus 1 corner i think at tsukuba. I don't know if it was my fast lap or not but I overcooked turn 8 then used it so I could save what I destroyed. If I didn't mess up the corner I would not of used it.

I haven't used the ebrake anywhere else.
 
Question.

I want to try that "bungee cord mod" ...will it matter what size (obviously not too long) the cord is?

I'm going to buy them via Fry's Electronics.

Use an 18" cord. If it were any shorter than it would be way too hard to depress, any longer and it wont provide the necessary tension unless you find a different way to hook it. With an 18" cord, hook it on the left side around the middle, around the pedal, and straight down to the bottom middle of the pedal platform.

At first I found the pedal to be too stiff, but either I got used to it or the cord lost some elasticity.
 
If they wanted to legitimize the whole deal they could at least use that new Thrustmaster in the finals. It'll have a brake that takes some force to push down I'd assume. Better than the GT's floppy pedal.
 
If they wanted to legitimize the whole deal they could at least use that new Thrustmaster in the finals. It'll have a brake that takes some force to push down I'd assume. Better than the GT's floppy pedal.

That setup looks nice. The wheel is 10.5 lbs and the pedals are nearly 16lbs I believe. Made out of steel. WTB.
 
Heck I'm not sure if its $599 good, but its gotta have better pedals than the DFGT, and pedals are what make the biggest difference.
 
I've never really tried using the e-brake....ever. I'm really afraid to use it with these tires. You are so quick to lose traction in this thing that I think I'd be wasting time trying to get used to the e-brake instead of improving what I already have been doing :confused: But then again, if I can manage to point the car properly on exit (in theory), the tires shouldn't have a fit, right? Maybe I'll try it for turn 8 as it has a wider exit.

Jerome
 
E-brake usage is not necessary on any of the tracks, including Tsukuba. Yah FixByWire does it but hes a freak. Instead, try getting the car to rotate by slowing letting off the brake as you turn into the corner. The back will slide, but the tires will maintain enough grip for you to get on the throttle without breaking traction. I chopped another tenth off my time by doing this when I thought I was maxed out. Im at a 1:05.106, and if I didnt blow the 2nd to last turn I think I could have had a WR, without using the e-brake.
 
E-brake usage is not necessary on any of the tracks, including Tsukuba. Yah FixByWire does it but hes a freak. Instead, try getting the car to rotate by slowing letting off the brake as you turn into the corner. The back will slide, but the tires will maintain enough grip for you to get on the throttle without breaking traction. I chopped another tenth off my time by doing this when I thought I was maxed out. Im at a 1:05.106, and if I didnt blow the 2nd to last turn I think I could have had a WR, without using the e-brake.

I like your style. I haven't touched Tsukuba in a while - I might ask for some assistance when I try to get from .400 down to .200.
 
My problem on Tsuk was that I wasnt using the whole width of the track on exit and was losing a lot of time because of it. This was especially true on T8, it took me a 100 laps before I realized the sucker was banked and I could get on the gas a lot sooner. T5 is also tricky, I was late on the gas there too. You wanna be at like 59-60 mph and already on the throttle as you are clipping the apex of T5.
 
Timeattack set his fastest lap on lap 88. I bet most people would run a faster lap if they did 88 straight laps.
 
Timeattack set his fastest lap on lap 88. I bet most people would run a faster lap if they did 88 straight laps.

Exactly. Great tip.

When I did the 4h enduro at Tsukuba I used my spec miata (see Turbo's spec miata link), and I ended up getting my best times after 3 hours. After an hour or so I figured I was running "perfect" laps - not so. You are constantly learning more and more details as you become consistent and knowledgeable with a track.
 
Timeattack set his fastest lap on lap 88. I bet most people would run a faster lap if they did 88 straight laps.

Yea, you definitely have to dedicate yourself to a quality session. 2 hour session is about the perfect length I find...anything more and you likely won't be in a optimal state of mind.

Unfortunately I haven't had much time of late to sit down and have another session - but fortunately I have tomorrow off though :) In my last session I had gone up .148 on my previous ghost by T2 but completely flopped the last corner and threw it away (kinda bummed to have thrown away a likely .8xx or better had I nailed the last corner) :dunce: Hopefully that 1:04.xxx comes soon enough, if it already hasn't (from someone else).
 
Yea, you definitely have to dedicate yourself to a quality session. 2 hour session is about the perfect length I find...anything more and you likely won't be in a optimal state of mind.

Unfortunately I haven't had much time of late to sit down and have another session - but fortunately I have tomorrow off though :) In my last session I had gone up .148 on my previous ghost by T2 but completely flopped the last corner and threw it away (kinda bummed to have thrown away a likely .8xx or better had I nailed the last corner) :dunce: Hopefully that 1:04.xxx comes soon enough, if it already hasn't (from someone else).

disgusting :yuck:

there should be a way to "gift" speed, just like you would do items or cars, to people in your friends list, hopefully polyphony includes this in the 1.06 patch, it would definitely come in handy for this competition.

i see you've only posted times at tsukuba. whats the plan? one combo per week?
 
I'm 128th in West, I don't know why I can't seem to string together a really "great" lap. I know I have at least mid 1:05s in me, right now I am stuck at 1:06.18 which I know will definitely not fly, I keep understeering or oversteering the final corner, its like you have to shoot in a bit wide then close it in full throttle using all of the edge markers...I know that's where I am losing time.

I can't stand it when I am turning lap after lap and on good laps I feel I am about to do well then my ghost starts appearing slowly through my car making me want to throw my wheel through the window lol
 
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I'm 128th in West, I don't know why I can't seem to string together a really "great" lap. I know I have at least mid 1:05s in me, right now I am stuck at 1:06.18 which I know will definitely not fly, I keep understeering or oversteering the final corner, its like you have to shoot in a bit wide then close it in full throttle using all of the edge markers...I know that's where I am losing time.
I believe that's how I attacked that corner when I got my mid 1:05.x time. Even when I think I nailed that corner, I try to apply modest acceleration and the Z decides to annoy me with loss of traction of the rear tires. That's why I haven't touched this track in a while.
I can't stand it when I am turning lap after lap and on good laps I feel I am about to do well then my ghost starts appearing slowly through my car making me want to throw my wheel through the window lol
That's why I usually turn it off while driving...and then I turn it on again after a corner and curse at the ghost for pulling away. Why do I keep doing that? :irked: :lol:
 
I spent three hours trying to get all gold for the S license tests today. When I gave up on the last one and drove around Tsukuba Circuit, I kept crashing and got really bad times. I guess I got too used to the higher tiered cars in the license tests.
 
I spent three hours trying to get all gold for the S license tests today. When I gave up on the last one and drove around Tsukuba Circuit, I kept crashing and got really bad times. I guess I got too used to the higher tiered cars in the license tests.

I finished all my golds today too. :)

I was finally able to put down a few 1:05s and got myself into 97th spot. I am going to try Rome now, I will go back to Tsukuba later, I am going to let that track marinate for a minute.
 
disgusting :yuck:

there should be a way to "gift" speed, just like you would do items or cars, to people in your friends list, hopefully polyphony includes this in the 1.06 patch, it would definitely come in handy for this competition.

:lol: Well, you can always give me your PSN log in info 💡 jk

i see you've only posted times at tsukuba. whats the plan? one combo per week?

Pretty much, although I'm not so worried about my overall time particularly in this 1st round TBH...I just want to advance while focusing on the combos I enjoy. Achieving P1 overall @ Tsukuba will probably be my main goal for Round 1, so I will likely be coming back to it up until the deadline. I'll try to get going on Cape next week...although I'm not going to put much effort in, as I don't really care for that combo nor the tactics (nothing against the folks doing so) being used to achieve the current top times. I will probably try to get some laps in on Rome on the following week 👍 Anyway, enough about me :lol:
 
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