Acquiring Racing Techniques

[Gil]

What I did in GT3 is follow the ghosts of better drivers.
Now, I find that after a year with the game, I am much faster and smoother.
Consider turning on your driving aids, and try to get the best possible times without the little light coming on that indicates that they are "working"
It will promote smoothness.

Another trick that seems to work for me is using slower cars to "feel out" a particular track. For instance, take your TVR V8S to a track cold. Run about 5 laps. Record your times.

Run the same track in an Elan (no HP power up) or a Cap'cino built up to about 100 HP.

All three are the same basic layout (FR Convertible)
Running the track in a Cap'cino, even flat-out, isn't all that fast, and you can study the line for each corner at a more managable speed.

After about 30 minutes of this, jump back into the V8S, and see if your times haven't improved.👍

 

[Small_Fryz]

If you want to get faster, Join the WRS (in my sig). Garunteed to make you improve.

What i do is watch replays of faster drivers and try to find the best possible lines. I also use every inch of available track as well as rumble strips. Practise makes perfect though. Also in GT4 exit speed counts, its normally better to go in a little slower and get a great exit than to enter a bit fast and get a poor exit.

But in the WRS i have improved so much due to being able to watch and talk to the fast drivers and learn the techniques and lines off them.

 

[nightmarish_car]

If you want to get faster, Join the WRS (in my sig). Garunteed to make you improve.

What i do is watch replays of faster drivers and try to find the best possible lines. I also use every inch of available track as well as rumble strips. Practise makes perfect though. Also in GT4 exit speed counts, its normally better to go in a little slower and get a great exit than to enter a bit fast and get a poor exit.

But in the WRS i have improved so much due to being able to watch and talk to the fast drivers and learn the techniques and lines off them.

ok i'll try to join WRS as soon as i get my hands on them more powerful cars..

 

[Scaff]

Also in GT4 exit speed counts, its normally better to go in a little slower and get a great exit than to enter a bit fast and get a poor exit.
.

Not just in GT4, exit speed is critical in almost all forms of racing and performance driving.

Also the skills mentioned from real-world driving techniques (such as looking further down the road and looking at corners as a sequence) are all things I have been taught and use in GT4 (and other racing sims).

I'm also quite addicted to books on racing and performance driving techniques and how they can be applied and used in the real-world. The vast majority of them work perfectly well in racing/driving sims.

One good example of this is from Martin Brundle's book 'Working the wheel' in which he talks about the importance of getting your line right in the first coner of the 'S' curves, as getting it wrong throws you out fro the next corner, which throws you out even more for the next, etc. Very, very true in GT4 and if you get the first part right the rest just flows perfectly, which he also describes as the same when you get it right in real life. (great book by the way - highly recomended).

Many of the techniques I practise in GT4 come from an addiction to experiences in real cars. Indoor go karting teaches you all about momentum for instance, and balancing the throttle to keep the car from scrubbing away too much speed through sliding. Minimum steering input and straightening the wheel as soon as possible after the apex of a corner etc and trying to minimise the number of corrections you have to make with the controls. Less work = more speed... That seems to work in GT4. Skills I have learnt from an addiction to driving courses have also been useful, like looking as far up the road as I can see (this makes your steering smoother, your racing line more obvious, and also works on the road.. stare at the back of the car in front of you and you will tend to follow it and react to it. Drop back a little and move aroud in the lane and stare up the road ahead of the car you are following, and that car's behaviour becomes more predictable. This is difficult when following a truck... ) and thinking ahead: concentrate on the corner coming up rather than the one you are currently negotiating. A huge wealth of techniques and ideas that I have implemented in GT4 has come from reading car magazines and books on driving techniques.

Excelently put and I quite agree with it all.


Regards

Scaff