Tips for the beginner

[Lappari990]

I've been driving gt sport for about 150 hours and now i feel, that it is so hard to improve lap times. I am about four seconds slower than top 100 almost on every track. Feels like i am just banging my head against the wall and i can't find any ways to improve.

 

[ASH32]

Can you post a video of your best lap? It's easier to give advice if you can see what someone is already doing well and what they are not doing.

I'd guess that your are not using all of the track though since you are four seconds down and maybe you are braking too early or too much too, it's easy to lose massive time here.

 

[Mat73]

Looked at your stats on Kudos prime.

I can see you've done all the campaign.

Have you got golds on all the circuit experience?

Really helped me quite a bit with learning tracks.

It looks as though you're either going off track a lot or having lots of contact in sport mode.

Try prioritising clean racing as opposed to results.

Watch the top lap replays to see the lines they're taking on each track and how smooth they are doing it.


Getting up to the top ten times on each track won't come overnight and for most, including myself, probably won't come at all.

Just trying to improve each day even if it is by the tiniest amount.

 

[BigJimmy]

Im in a simular situation. However Im in denial and tell myself its because I dont have much time to play.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

In the end it will just come down to analyzing world record footage and then practicing each section of a course over and over until you dial in the optimum time.

 

[VBR]

Some people are naturally fast, others are not. I ended up 1 second a lap behind the leaders in GT Academy 2010, & that was despite studying the book Going Faster as well as analysing the number one guy's lap then emulating it. I am utterly convinced that most people will never be alien fast, no matter how much they learn. Yes, aliens can learn & get a little faster, but they have the natural talent there in the first place. That's not to say that you can't improve any, maybe you are making some very obvious errors that you could get advice for.

I'm just happy to race at my own natural pace, & if I find competition at my level then I can have some fun. If I find an alien out on track, I'll battle him as hard & fair as I can, but I don't expect to win. I've drove against many fast guys over the years & it's still fun, even though I get my head handed to me on a plate 99% of the time!

 

[fastone371]

I am in roughly the same boat as the OP. I can creep up to within 1-2 seconds of the top of the leader board by putting in lots of laps. I recently ran 26 lap at DT Gardens, then studied the top time compared to my lap and got to about a little more than 1 second away from the top of the leader board but I had like another 75 laps in. It just takes many, many laps, it took between 5-10 laps to keep beating my personal best. Hopefully next time I go back there some of what I learned sticks with me.

 

[Veinz]

Watch top 10 replays if you can't find ways to improve, those alone provide all the info you need to know.

Click watch replay on the leaderboard.

Go to replay options and choose Display All in the Display Race Info tab.

Go back and choose you're preferred view. I use bumper or cockpit while racing so I always use one of those two for watching replays. The standard replay cam is basically useless for analyzing a lap.

Watch for all the little details. Like where they brake, where they turn in, what gear they're in, how much throttle they use, what rpms they shift at, etc. The hud at the bottom of the screen gives you a lot of info and it will help you improve your times, especially if you are 2 or more seconds slower than the top time. You just need to be willing to take the time to watch the replays thoroughly.

 

[Alpha Cipher]

For starters, learning how to be faster is more on a track-by-track basis. Personally, I think I'm quite decent at Monza, and I'm almost always at the Top 10 at some point in a Monza daily. But I think I'm only in the mid-B to low-A DR level at Alsace. So, like ASH32 said, try to post replay videos of the tracks you want to improve upon

ASH already also said that a common mistake for beginners is not using all the track, and I like to add upon that you might also be turning-in too early. In general, try to turn-in later than you already are. Try to adjust the apex so that it's at least in line with the middle of the turn. If you think you can adjust the apex beyond the middle and more towards the exit though, that would be ideal

 

[Whitey093]

I'm 4 seconds off the top guys often and i still find myself 35th in the FIA manufacturers cup in the Americas region by just being consistent. Ill never run top 10 times and i have accepted that. I just do my best to put myself in the best position I'm capable of. Don't worry too much about the top 10 just keep improving yourself and do YOUR best.

 

[DriftMethod]

Four seconds off generally means there are some fundamentals that are being overlooked. A lot of good advice has already been given, so I will offer some alternatives.

Look outside GT Sport for racing techniques. It's really hard to get better if you don't know what you should be doing. Great info here. There are literally hundreds of books/websites about driving/racing skills.

If you haven't already, do some "real" racing. I know this is not possible for everyone, but if you have the opportunity, I highly recommend it. I learned a lot from indoor rental karts. It helps to feel the forces involved to better understand how driving fast works.

Relax. For myself (and probably a lot of others,) it's easy to get tense while playing and trying to go fast. Being tense causes mistakes. Watch videos of the Aliens, they make it look effortless.

Sounds weird, but where you look can help you relax while driving. Don't focus too long on a single point. If you are only starting at the braking point, you have less time to focus on the turn in, then less time on the apex... This causes your brain to be stressed since you have so little time between each point. Notice where the braking point is, but then look ahead to the apex. During braking, look past the apex to the exit. Always have your focus well ahead of where you are. It takes a while to trust yourself, but this is a fundamental of driving.

 

[dabz343]

Before you start investing time to analyzing top 10 replays, perhaps it's beneficial to make sure you understand the fundamental concepts and nuances of racecraft to ensure you are applying best practices. There are many credible resources, but here is one that I found particularly useful.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAZL0MKQigFNSY0BTdt_GsDwxdHoeJ302

A personal technique that I found beneficial to finding speed has been to take a car of choice and run laps using a harder tire compound. This lowers the overall grip, making your inputs more critical and revealing where you are getting things wrong. This also has an added benefit of becoming very familiar with the car's personality, which will assist in helping you choose the car that matches your driving style.

 

[Whitey093]

If you guys are honest with yourselves, running laps in gran turismo as you would in real life would make you quite slow. The top guys cut the track to pieces in a way that would destroy a real car. The curbs in gran turismo don't negatively affect the car at all and track limits are generally quite liberal. If you want to go fast in gtsport watch people drive gtsport. YouTube is full of streams to check out. Save your replays and see how you got beat. And get comfortable clipping inside apexes not hitting them. It's not a bad thing that it is this way but it is an adjustment especially if you do have real life experience. Sim racing doesn't have the danger of real life and your car won't break so you can push the limit beyond real life. Get comfortable with that game aspect of gtsport and study the top 10 guys lines and braking points and you will improve.

 

[dabz343]

It's not a bad thing that it is this way but it is an adjustment especially if you do have real life experience. Sim racing doesn't have the danger of real life and your car won't break so you can push the limit beyond real life. Get comfortable with that game aspect of gtsport

Absolutely, it literally took more than a year to get adjusted to game physics/hardware to begin exploiting the track and finding speed. What helped the most was first getting out of racing on RS tires and moving down on speed and grip. For me, it was the RUF 3400S on SH tires in GT6.

 

[Lappari990]

My ratings go up and down because i get too annoyed about the demolition derby. I'm going to post some footage on youtube soon. Lots of good replies and maybe i need to write a long reply after this.

 

[DriftMethod]

If you guys are honest with yourselves, running laps in gran turismo as you would in real life would make you quite slow. The top guys cut the track to pieces in a way that would destroy a real car. The curbs in gran turismo don't negatively affect the car at all and track limits are generally quite liberal. If you want to go fast in gtsport watch people drive gtsport. YouTube is full of streams to check out. Save your replays and see how you got beat. And get comfortable clipping inside apexes not hitting them. It's not a bad thing that it is this way but it is an adjustment especially if you do have real life experience. Sim racing doesn't have the danger of real life and your car won't break so you can push the limit beyond real life. Get comfortable with that game aspect of gtsport and study the top 10 guys lines and braking points and you will improve.

Obviously you are correct that sim racing doesn't have the dangers of real life. I also agree that watching faster drivers can help, but you will definitely run into diminishing returns. The fastest players are fast because they know how to drive. Yes, they take advantage of the game aspect, but unless they knew why a corner should be taken with a late apex or understand corner prioritization or other real world racing techniques, they would not be able to achieve those lap times.

Suppose PD releases a brand new fictional track. The fast drivers will get up to speed in a handful of laps. How is that possible without having someone to watch and copy? Simple, they can do this because they understand real world racing techniques. They will abuse curbs and exploit track limits to improve, but that is secondary to having the actual racing knowledge.

One of the biggest problems with just watching and copying is that works best for setting a Daily Race qualifying time. It's a big difference with other cars on track, fuel management, tire wear, etc. Understanding the why is much more important than observing the how.

 

[Lappari990]

Looked at your stats on Kudos prime.

I can see you've done all the campaign.

Have you got golds on all the circuit experience?

Really helped me quite a bit with learning tracks.

It looks as though you're either going off track a lot or having lots of contact in sport mode.

Try prioritising clean racing as opposed to results.

Watch the top lap replays to see the lines they're taking on each track and how smooth they are doing it.


Getting up to the top ten times on each track won't come overnight and for most, including myself, probably won't come at all.

Just trying to improve each day even if it is by the tiniest amount.

I have all gold in track experience but i didn't give my 100% to those always.
Maybe i am just too impatient and i am trying too much too fast.

 

[Lappari990]

I am in roughly the same boat as the OP. I can creep up to within 1-2 seconds of the top of the leader board by putting in lots of laps. I recently ran 26 lap at DT Gardens, then studied the top time compared to my lap and got to about a little more than 1 second away from the top of the leader board but I had like another 75 laps in. It just takes many, many laps, it took between 5-10 laps to keep beating my personal best. Hopefully next time I go back there some of what I learned sticks with me.

Gardens one of my favourite tracks. Just so tough to get to the braking points and get on gas early as possible. Had a few good races on gardens.

 

[easygtsport11]

watching the speed helped me improve my times. just making sure the mph is always as high as it can get.

 

[Lappari990]

Four seconds off generally means there are some fundamentals that are being overlooked. A lot of good advice has already been given, so I will offer some alternatives.

Look outside GT Sport for racing techniques. It's really hard to get better if you don't know what you should be doing. Great info here. There are literally hundreds of books/websites about driving/racing skills.

If you haven't already, do some "real" racing. I know this is not possible for everyone, but if you have the opportunity, I highly recommend it. I learned a lot from indoor rental karts. It helps to feel the forces involved to better understand how driving fast works.

Relax. For myself (and probably a lot of others,) it's easy to get tense while playing and trying to go fast. Being tense causes mistakes. Watch videos of the Aliens, they make it look effortless.

Sounds weird, but where you look can help you relax while driving. Don't focus too long on a single point. If you are only starting at the braking point, you have less time to focus on the turn in, then less time on the apex... This causes your brain to be stressed since you have so little time between each point. Notice where the braking point is, but then look ahead to the apex. During braking, look past the apex to the exit. Always have your focus well ahead of where you are. It takes a while to trust yourself, but this is a fundamental of driving.

Relaxing is one of the most important things that has helped me to drive better. When i was driving the game first time with the wheel, i often noticed that i locked my shoulders and almost turned the wheel with my entire upper body Maybe i am just thinking too much and i forget how to drive.
I agree on that real driving helps. I have been on indoor kart track few times but i was being too aggressive and lost time. Maybe my driving just needs to be more relaxed.

 

[Lappari990]

If you guys are honest with yourselves, running laps in gran turismo as you would in real life would make you quite slow. The top guys cut the track to pieces in a way that would destroy a real car. The curbs in gran turismo don't negatively affect the car at all and track limits are generally quite liberal. If you want to go fast in gtsport watch people drive gtsport. YouTube is full of streams to check out. Save your replays and see how you got beat. And get comfortable clipping inside apexes not hitting them. It's not a bad thing that it is this way but it is an adjustment especially if you do have real life experience. Sim racing doesn't have the danger of real life and your car won't break so you can push the limit beyond real life. Get comfortable with that game aspect of gtsport and study the top 10 guys lines and braking points and you will improve.

That is also quite big thing, why i am so slow. I use too much common sense in the game and how i can drive without getting penalties or spinning out. After watching many videos of top drivers, it is true that in real life they would just wreck their cars.

 

[Lappari990]

Maybe i just have to be more patient and have some more training and more training.
Now that i took some time to think about my driving, is that my legs shouldn't be on/off, and learn some controlling of pedals.
I don't know how many hours everybody is spending on their driving so i want to learn too quickly.

 

[dabz343]

Maybe i just have to be more patient and have some more training and more training.
Now that i took some time to think about my driving, is that my legs shouldn't be on/off, and learn some controlling of pedals.
I don't know how many hours everybody is spending on their driving so i want to learn too quickly.

Yes, that sounds like a good place to start. Be intentional in your training though, lapping for hours with your brain on idle will not produce good results (often negative ones).

 

[yas]

If only you could download other people's ghosts like in older GT (I believe in GT Academy)... I found it way more effective (and light to download) to follow those on the track.

 

[Lappari990]

If only you could download other people's ghosts like in older GT (I believe in GT Academy)... I found it way more effective (and light to download) to follow those on the track.

Yep! Nothing is better than hunting someone.

 

[Lappari990]

My psn nickname is same as here, if anyone want to add me, so i can conpare times.

 

[praiano63]

PRACTICE !!!

 

[Macboyilija]

Please post a video so we can give some better advice.

And what is your position usually when you are 3/4 seconds off ? I mean if you are 300th for example it is still pretty good considering there are thousands of people playing online.

One easy tip which valids for most people is slow in and fast out. Rookies usually make the mistake going in to fast, braking late and thinking they are fast. When in real life you are way faster when you brake earlier but step on the gas towards the exit of the corner faster so your end speed is much higher as well as the arriving speed for the upcoming corner.

 

[SPOOLMAN]

Here is my video of a 7:20 min run on the nurb ring with a lambo LP700. Might give you some tips.

I give a lot of crap to GT as I want it to evolve and be the best it can be, but the feeling of pulling a flawless run on ring it hard to match.

Always take a slow in and fast out approach when you are first learning the basics. Breaking before a corner and distributing the weight of the car for grip is essential.

 

[Lappari990]

Please post a video so we can give some better advice.

And what is your position usually when you are 3/4 seconds off ? I mean if you are 300th for example it is still pretty good considering there are thousands of people playing online.

One easy tip which valids for most people is slow in and fast out. Rookies usually make the mistake going in to fast, braking late and thinking they are fast. When in real life you are way faster when you brake earlier but step on the gas towards the exit of the corner faster so your end speed is much higher as well as the arriving speed for the upcoming corner.

I usually finish in top 8 if it goes well. I should keep myself more calm if someone is ramming me. At this time i am D/S, so you don't really know, what kind pf opponents you get.
There is one messed up race on my youtube channel but i am going to stream or post videos more.