1st gear in tight corners?

  • Thread starter Miths
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Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Mike9Million
Pretty much every single sim and casual racing game I've played for the last 20 years seemed to treat 1st gear as something you would only really need when launching, but it feels like many or most of the cars in ACC are set up (still using default setups, never a part of sims I enjoyed tinkering much with) to need 1st gear for maximum speed out of tight corners.
Is this correct - and also true to the real series - or do I just need some more practice in this game? Definitely doesn't feel like I have the expected usual pulling power in 2nd gear in most cars.
 
I use it all the time, helps get you out of the corner quicker as long as you haven't slowed down too much of course.

It can also help you decelerate as youre engine braking more going down another gear
 
I was wondering the same thing. I seem to get positive remarks(green squares) when I use first gear through some chicanes.

The only reason why I questions this is because I started downshifting to avoid the way the car/audio sputters coming out of second at low speed. Going to 1st doesn't really solve the audio issue but it seem to improve my time.
 
Pretty much every single sim and casual racing game I've played for the last 20 years seemed to treat 1st gear as something you would only really need when launching, but it feels like many or most of the cars in ACC are set up (still using default setups, never a part of sims I enjoyed tinkering much with) to need 1st gear for maximum speed out of tight corners.
Is this correct - and also true to the real series - or do I just need some more practice in this game? Definitely doesn't feel like I have the expected usual pulling power in 2nd gear in most cars.
Saw some onboard footage from Dave Perel in the 488 and he says in the Ferrari they don't see 1st as simply a "pulling away" gear but just like any other gear to be used whenever suitable.

Don't forget we can't adjust the final drive ratio in these cars and they often don't get out of 5th on a lot of tracks, therefore using 1st is fine and necessary.

Of course not all cars are geared quite the same. I don't use 1st a lot in the 911 but that's because it's geared differently and hits 6th way more often than the 488.
 
Most of GT3 races in real world have rolling starts, so no real need for a 1st gear to pull away, apart from pit stops, where you are limited to speed limit and usually have a minimum time measured from the start to finish of pit lane.
Adding to that, FIA GT3 have homologated gear ratios for every car. With exception of few series, the teams can't tune the gear ratios (that's why we see in the Nurburgring full circuit the GT3 cars going 2/3 of the long 2.5 km Dottinger Hohe on the rev limiter instead of using longer gear ratios and even sometimes, some cars from slower classes are as fast or fastest than GT3 on the straight.
So, the gear ratios must adapt to a very wide range of circuits, as most series use FIA Balance of Performance and homologations, so they try to make 1st gear slightly longer to be "usable" in slower sections, to optimize the ratios of the other 5 gears. So the gearbox can have "full 6 gears" instead of "5+1 gears".
The downside is that it's an extremely longer 1st gear, which would make the car move from a stationary position extremely difficult and it would be extremely easy to stall if there weren't electronic assists.
 

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