Hopefully after
Duke's 85% solution, and wise words above, I can help with the other 15%!
There is also
no substitute for learning the track, which can understandably be a painstaking process, try to do it lap after lap, concentrating on the first turn to begin with, once you have that sorted, try to remember where the next turn appears, and whether it's going to be a left or a right, and get yourself over to the optimum braking and turn in point, and repeat until you have a perfect turn 1 & 2 combo, then go after turn 3 etc etc. Sounds painful, I know, but once you know a track like this, the less you'll be surprised by a bend time after time, and the more smooth and quick you'll get.
For example, if you take turn 1 at Laguna Seca, the sharp left hairpin, and find that you're able to negotiate the turn, but are exiting quickly on the right side of the track, but then consistenly forget that turn 2 is a right hand bend which requires that you approach from the left side of the track for an optimum braking an turn-in line.
Practice this until you can exit turn 1 and easily move across the the left before turn 2, it may be that you exit turn 1 slightly slower, but since you're now set up for turn 2 properly, you'll be able to take that turn quicker, and as a result be quicker overall for the 2 turns together.
If you do this throughout the lap, and learn to string all the corners together on a good line, you'll find that your overall laptimes improve even if your cornering speed for a particular bend is slower than you've taken it before, only to find yourself way offline for the next one, and end up digging yourself out of the sand or bouncing off the Armco!
With the number and variety of tracks in GT4, it's an arduous process to learn every bend on every track, but believe me, it
will pay enormous dividends in the end. The Nurburgring itself with 170-odd bends is going to take you a long time to get spot-on!
If you haven't already, check out the
WRS some of the times from the top drivers will astonish you, but if you have a MAX drive and are able to download some of their replay laps, and try to follow them, you'll find that you are able to learn from their optimal lines, and you'll be stringing together near perfect laps in no time, even if you can't keep up!
In short, if you can avoid being surprised by every other bend, and leaving the track, you'll improve massively in a fairly short timespan, but do pay attention to what
Duke and the others have said about braking earlier than you think, fast in = slow out = slow laps. Slow in = fast out = fast laps.
If you can pick a braking marker, not necessarily a 200m marker since they're not always present on every bend of every circuit, but use track shadows, or landmarks at the side of the track such as buildings, barriers, rumble strips or trees, then you can hopefully, begin braking at the same point for a turn lap after lap, and you'll improve! Practice makes perfect.
Hope this helps.
