I need help improving my driving!

[Craig HP]

Okay, recentley I've realised I need to improve my driving. I'm not one of those cases who can not keep the car out of the wall, I can do that easily, as well as follow the racing line. But for some reason my lap times seem to be quite average. Like for example, today I was playing Gran Turismo 1, and at the High Speed Ring in the Sunday Cup I came 6th in qualifying. I can't remember the the exact time of the pole position driver, but I can remember I was around 3.500 seconds of his time. The 5th place driver was around 1.500 seconds. I went on to win the race by around 0:630 and I felt quite dissapointed personally, since I know I should be able to better. I'm just not sure if it is to do with the line I was taking.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I am using a new braking technique, which is braking into the corner, instead of braking before it, but I don't think I am porforming this techniqiue correctly. Also, I am not sure about the line I am taking.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Not to offend you or anything but....isn't this thread suppossed to be in the GT1 forum?

Anyway, if you're trying to improve your driving, I would suggest you to try and gold the license tests. Although at first you'll have troubles obtaining even silver times, doing the tests repeatedly will make you a better driver over time. That's what I did to improve my skills.

But again, qualifying in GT1 is REALLY tough if you don't use an overkill car, especially around tracks like HSR because if I remember correctly, the AI's time is not his first lap time (he go around the track, then the clock just starts when he started his 2nd lap), while we only have one lap to set our time, so we lost out on the initial straightaway speed, and consequently our time will be waaaaayyy slow compared to the AI(curiously,on tracks like SSR11 I'll always place 1st on quali).

About your racing lines, I don't think ultimate precision is that much required in GT1 (compared to later games,for example) to set fast times. It helps, but not that much because cars in GT1 have insane amount of grip (which allows you to virtually recover from any wrong lines and still make it through the turn without losing too much time).

On your new braking technique, it's called trail braking actually, and it's a very advanced technique if done correctly, but if not you'll be prone to understeer due to overloading your tires. If you want to get the best out of this technique I suggest you use analog instead of the d-pad since it allows control over how much braking force you're applying.

Hope that helps, Craig HP. Good luck!

 

[Craig HP]

Not to offend you or anything but....isn't this thread suppossed to be in the GT1 forum?

Anyway, if you're trying to improve your driving, I would suggest you to try and gold the license tests. Although at first you'll have troubles obtaining even silver times, doing the tests repeatedly will make you a better driver over time. That's what I did to improve my skills.

But again, qualifying in GT1 is REALLY tough if you don't use an overkill car, especially around tracks like HSR because if I remember correctly, the AI's time is not his first lap time (he go around the track, then the clock just starts when he started his 2nd lap), while we only have one lap to set our time, so we lost out on the initial straightaway speed, and consequently our time will be waaaaayyy slow compared to the AI(curiously,on tracks like SSR11 I'll always place 1st on quali).

About your racing lines, I don't think ultimate precision is that much required in GT1 (compared to later games,for example) to set fast times. It helps, but not that much because cars in GT1 have insane amount of grip (which allows you to virtually recover from any wrong lines and still make it through the turn without losing too much time).

On your new braking technique, it's called trail braking actually, and it's a very advanced technique if done correctly, but if not you'll be prone to understeer due to overloading your tires. If you want to get the best out of this technique I suggest you use analog instead of the d-pad since it allows control over how much braking force you're applying.

Hope that helps, Craig HP. Good luck!

What you said about me struggling to obtain sliver licenses is funny, because I got most silvers on the B-Lincense tests today. I will try the D-pad, but if my lap times end up slower using the analog, I will revert to my original technique. Like I said, I can easily keep the car on the track, and I it's a rare ocasion when I go of into the wall, it's just that the speed doesn't seem to be there. Thanks for the help!

PS: Is the some strange reason why the AI gets an extra lap, or is it like that on all circuits?

 

[LeGeNd-1]

I don't intend to take away anything from you but the silver on the B tests are relatively easy to get. Can you get silver easily on the A tests? Especially on A-4 and the like? Because those are my ultimate nemesis when trying to gold the tests. The International-A tests, however, are somewhere in between B and A in difficulty. But I think that's because you've gotten so used to driving on the courses so one tiny mistake on one corner won't really affect you (i.e. you can make it up on other corners).

If you can stay off the wall and grass, your times shouldn't be that bad right? Or are you just being too cautious with your driving (hence slowing down too much unnecessarily, while you could get away with less braking)? To me it sounds like you're not maximising your tires' grip for some reason.

About the AI, I think they get an extra lap no matter which circuit they're on. It's some programming fault, I think. It sucks sometimes, because you KNOW you're faster than them but yeah....that's part of what makes GT1 harder(and more challenging) than the later games.

 

[Craig HP]

I don't intend to take away anything from you but the silver on the B tests are relatively easy to get. Can you get silver easily on the A tests? Especially on A-4 and the like? Because those are my ultimate nemesis when trying to gold the tests. The International-A tests, however, are somewhere in between B and A in difficulty. But I think that's because you've gotten so used to driving on the courses so one tiny mistake on one corner won't really affect you (i.e. you can make it up on other corners).

If you can stay off the wall and grass, your times shouldn't be that bad right? Or are you just being too cautious with your driving (hence slowing down too much unnecessarily, while you could get away with less braking)? To me it sounds like you're not maximising your tires' grip for some reason.

About the AI, I think they get an extra lap no matter which circuit they're on. It's some programming fault, I think. It sucks sometimes, because you KNOW you're faster than them but yeah....that's part of what makes GT1 harder(and more challenging) than the later games.

Yeah, I got about 5 silvers on the A-licene tests yesterday. By the way, I tried to use the analog to brake, but I found out that you can not use it to brake or accelerate on GT1!

 

[LeGeNd-1]

You need to go to Options>Controller Configuration. There you'll be able to change your analog preferences (and be able to use the right analog for accel/brake).

The downside to using analog throttle is that you cannot brake AND accelerate at the same time. Hence you can't perform 'heel and toe'. But you CAN modulate your inputs better to compensate for that and still be able to perform smooth cornering.