How much practicing on GT5 helps real driving at Nürburgring?

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banannasugarload
I don't think this was posted, as it was pretty recent, although if it has, forgive me because I didn't see it.

This guy never drove the "Ring" and only drove it in GT5. He decided to give it a try in real life....

Here are the results...



Your thoughts?
 
Oh im sure it helps immensely. It likes when athletes do visualization drills to help them with the task at hand
 
Would be fun to try but I think I would be nowhere near as good in real life.

I am however better in karting than I was before. We go karting like once every two months with a group of friends. In the end we always check who has the fastest lap time and we are pretty competitive in that. Normally I would end up 3rd behind a guy who had his racing license(now expired for two years) and one who karted for 5 years. But the last three times I finished first beating them by a more than half a second

I'm putting aside some money now so I can get my racing license on Zandvoort next year. If I have that I will go to the Nurburgring. Don't think GT5 alone will prepare you enough for the real thing.
 
Pretty good for a guy who has never actually driven it before. It would've been nice to get a better angle though.
 
At least it helps when it comes to learning the track, that's pretty obvious. And that helps a lot on Nordschleife, I can imagine.
 
Although I could lap the Ring with my eyes closed, I woudn´t dare exceeding 60mph on the real thing. Remember that although GT5 makes a great job on representing tracks and physiscs, it is still just a game. Probably if you tried that, you would have the advantage of knowing what´s ahead of you, but remember that in real life, no track is the same twice...

There are factors such as surface conditions, weather, unexpected situations and the car itself. These things play a serious threat in real life. In the game there´s not much that could go wrong. And even if it does, it´s no big deal.

I though of this before, but then I did the following: Did ten laps to the Ring with street tires and a powerful RWD car. I made more than one mistake that I´m sure it would´ve cost my safety (and life probably) in real life.

So yes, as for knowing the track, it sure helps. Specially in this massive green hell. Not many can brag about knowing each of every corner of the Nurburgring by heart(well, we GT players can ;D ). I´m sure I could go to the real Ring right now and I wouldn´t feel intimidated. But before hitting it with all I got, I would dedicate some serious track time on it. And if you know the Ring´s rules, it´s not cheap...
 
I remember reading reports that a number of people were going to The Ring and crashing after playing GT4 and then going there thinking they knew the track well enough to go fast around it. One of the big problems was that the game didn't replicate the various bumps around the track well enough. Maybe GT5 has improved in that sense as I've not been reading/finding similar reports now with this new game. My mate who has driven around it is very impressed by how real the game feels compared to the real thing.
He also mentioned the other day how close the stock Caterham in cockpit view with sports hard is to the real thing as he's driven one of those round a track here in the UK.
 
When I went there with a few mates, the one who was driving (none of us were insured on his car nor wanted to take our cars there) had no knowledge of the track, neither did the other, but the other guy and I had done plenty of laps in GT4 so we basically told him what was coming up. Not that he really depended on our knowledge, he wasn't racing anyone (only idiots actually race on a public track day, then promptly crash into something) so he took it easy most of the time.

So, in short, I have no idea, but it was cool being able to use my memory of the track in GT4 to navigate it, I just wouldn't depend on the knowledge in real life until I'd done a good few laps.
 
What are the qualifications in order to drive at the ring? Like for instance i have a NYS drivers license. Im sure thats not the only thing i need haha,or do i?
 
tfed
What are the qualifications in order to drive at the ring? Like for instance i have a NYS drivers license. Im sure thats not the only thing i need haha,or do i?
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Basically you can go there, pay some money and you can go on it with a normal drivers license
 
smilerftm
I remember reading reports that a number of people were going to The Ring and crashing after playing GT4 and then going there thinking they knew the track well enough to go fast around it. One of the big problems was that the game didn't replicate the various bumps around the track well enough.
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Agree. I know one guy who went there as part of a 24 hour team. He was specifically told not to play it on a console before hand (this was also back in the PS2 / GT4 days) because it gave people a false confidence that they knew the track and the differences would catch them out.
 
Eric W
I'd be scared as hell to actually drive Nürburgring.
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Me too, no matter how well you know it, there are too many things that can go wrong really quickly.
 
I have been driven the ring several times in real life. I drove several hundred laps in a similar car on GT5 in preparation, and it helped immensely. I did not "take it easy".

<--- there is one of many pics taken of me.
 
I race karts and it teaches you he flowing Racing line. It has helped me a lo with my karting, but you need all driver aids turned off for the full experience. :)
 
The guy obviously knows how to drive, I'd love to give it a go. I think i'd certaintly give it a few laps before I pushed, regardless of the car, as I'm sure the driver in the video did.
 
I have been driven the Nordschleife 4 times, 3 times in my 165hp Nissan Primera and once with my uncles supercharged 540i BMW. This was before GT5, but I had already done 100's of laps on GT4 before my first time. I would say given my knowlege of the track from the game, along with watching numerous onboard videos online I was quite confident going into it. This quickly changed with in the first couple of corners as I started realizing the track is really really bumpy and has tons of wavy parts that were making me feel unconfident about "knowing" the track right away, so I ended up taking it slower than I wanted, I had 2 friends with me as well so it ended up being a fun but cautious run.

Then in 2008 I returned after having closely studied serveral onboard laps with real drivers commenting about each corner and the dangers of the bumps, elevation changes and angles of the track, and this really helped me with my confidence and I would say I was driving it a lot more like it should be driven and I was getting the tires to squeel through a couple of turns. I learned a lot in that 1 run. A week later I came back with a friend and gave it another good go, he thought I drove it extremely smooth for only being my 3rd time (he had drivin it about 10 times already in his Golf). Definitly tons of fun, but take into consideration that I also have alot of experience racing on small tracks and autocross events, as well as driving hard around empty roads and learning how the car feels. I moved to Canada like 2 months later, so my Nürburgring career was over... lol. If I move back I'll probably buy a season pass so I can have fun all year.

Last year I went to visit and convinced my uncle to drive down (1.5 hours) with his BMW and we had pre-purchasing 2 lap ticket online. He's no expert when it comes to understanding the balance of a car so he wanted me to go first and he immediatly panicked around the first corner, he didn't know his cars can go that hard around corners and be under contol...lol. I had to slow down for the first few minutes and take it easy so he could get used to the feel and of the constant turns, but I still drove pretty hard towards the end to show what his car can do. I got his respect for sure and when he hopped in for lap 2 he was so paniked about the track, he drove so slow, and was like "I don't want to drive fast".

He knows that I've been on it, but the only reason I am so confident about it is GT and watching onboard vids. Now my cousin who is 12 yr. old is playing GT5 because my uncle went out and bought it and they got the DFGT a couple months ago.

That's my story, and I would recommend to anyone to löearn the track via GT5, because there are too many turns to memorize. They've done a good job on GT5 for sure, but it's probably slightly off (only by mm) unless they laser scan the track like the guys at iRacing do. And unless you have extensive RL racing experience I would not recommend relying on video games to drive through the "Green Hell" too fast.
 
occasionalracer
I have been driven the Nordschleife 4 times, 3 times in my 165hp Nissan Primera and once with my uncles supercharged 540i BMW. This was before GT5, but I had already done 100's of laps on GT4 before my first time. I would say given my knowlege of the track from the game, along with watching numerous onboard videos online I was quite confident going into it. This quickly changed with in the first couple of corners as I started realizing the track is really really bumpy and has tons of wavy parts that were making me feel unconfident about "knowing" the track right away, so I ended up taking it slower than I wanted, I had 2 friends with me as well so it ended up being a fun but cautious run.

Then in 2008 I returned after having closely studied serveral onboard laps with real drivers commenting about each corner and the dangers of the bumps, elevation changes and angles of the track, and this really helped me with my confidence and I would say I was driving it a lot more like it should be driven and I was getting the tires to squeel through a couple of turns. I learned a lot in that 1 run. A week later I came back with a friend and gave it another good go, he thought I drove it extremely smooth for only being my 3rd time (he had drivin it about 10 times already in his Golf). Definitly tons of fun, but take into consideration that I also have alot of experience racing on small tracks and autocross events, as well as driving hard around empty roads and learning how the car feels. I moved to Canada like 2 months later, so my Nürburgring career was over... lol. If I move back I'll probably buy a season pass so I can have fun all year.

Last year I went to visit and convinced my uncle to drive down (1.5 hours) with his BMW and we had pre-purchasing 2 lap ticket online. He's no expert when it comes to understanding the balance of a car so he wanted me to go first and he immediatly panicked around the first corner, he didn't know his cars can go that hard around corners and be under contol...lol. I had to slow down for the first few minutes and take it easy so he could get used to the feel and of the constant turns, but I still drove pretty hard towards the end to show what his car can do. I got his respect for sure and when he hopped in for lap 2 he was so paniked about the track, he drove so slow, and was like "I don't want to drive fast".

He knows that I've been on it, but the only reason I am so confident about it is GT and watching onboard vids. Now my cousin who is 12 yr. old is playing GT5 because my uncle went out and bought it and they got the DFGT a couple months ago.

That's my story, and I would recommend to anyone to löearn the track via GT5, because there are too many turns to memorize. They've done a good job on GT5 for sure, but it's probably slightly off (only by mm) unless they laser scan the track like the guys at iRacing do. And unless you have extensive RL racing experience I would not recommend relying on video games to drive through the "Green Hell" too fast.
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That was a great post! I envy you both for living in Germany and driving The Ring on numerous occasions, it's always been one of my dreams to go to the Nurburgring, even if I was just visiting or getting a ride in the Ring Taxi, I would be in heaven if I could drive it and obviously it wouldn't be flat out, but I think the experience alone would be an awesome opportunity, I have huge respect for The Ring and people such as yourself who have driven on it. I'll get there someday:p
 
tfed
Thats awesome,im assuming you need valid insurance as well
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in my insureance paper it spasificly says its valid on all public roads exept the nürburgring (it's a 3 hour drive from here)
Sa crash is costly
 
Gejabo
in my insureance paper it spasificly says its valid on all public roads exept the nürburgring (it's a 3 hour drive from here)
Sa crash is costly
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My mate said he saw people who had crashed getting towed from the track to elsewhere so it looked like they had crashed on a public road. He said insurances companies must've been suspicious of all these claims being made for crashes just a few hundred yards from The Ring. His friend bumped his Elise there but the damage was only £300 so he didn't bother with a claim and just paid it out if his own back pocket anyway
 
It definitely helps. There are so many blinds corners and stuff that can take you by surprise, you can only learn by memorizing, and game is good for that.

I drove the ring once, a few years ago. I had done hundreds of laps in GT4 and it certainly helped, and also made it so much more enjoyable.

However... I had not played it for a while, memory was not all fresh, and so on the very first lap I crashed in the Eschbach corner. Just as I was about to turn in, a Porsche came up very fast, took me by surprise for a moment, with the result that I went wide and slammed into the barriers.

The damage to my car was not the worst, it is a cheap and very slow car that I will not even name, and nothing happened to me.

The worst thing was that I knew I should have known. That was my first thought when I sat there: I should have played the game more, and more recently.

If I had, I would have remembered how treacherous Eschbach is, and that I need to brake early and be cautious. It looks so innocent, but it goes downhill and slopes outwards at the same time (typical n'ring insanity), and once you enter it is too late to brake, the track just disappears below you.

I had crashed at that exact spot so many times in the game, and the way it happened and felt in reality was exactly how it happens and feels in the game. Even before I went off into the grass I knew what would happen, and that it was inevitable. All I could do was try to align the car with the barriers to hit them side on.

After some repairs in the parking lot I was able to do another 3 laps the next day. Very, very cautiously. I admit I was scared, but there was no going away before I had used my 4 laps ticket, and it was a monumental experience to drive that hallowed road anyway.

But I still blame myself for not doing a few laps in GT before going, it would have saved me from that accident.
 
Loskey1
http://www.bridgetogantry.com/2/ind...ystation-heroes&catid=3:amusing&Itemid=300066
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That's a very well writen article that really opens your eyes. The guy that rode off his Renault clearly went in over confident and cocky having "Driven the 'Ring thousands of times on GT4". He should have known that not every bump or even corner is perfectly replicated :indiff:

occasionalracer
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Awesome story bro 👍

cicua
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Whoa... I've crashed there so many times on GT4/5, i know the feeling you speak of, but i can only imagine what it must be like in real life :nervous:. Props to you for getting back on the horse and having another go 👍
 

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