Learning Open Wheel Cars
- Thread starter BoogerMac
- Start date
The Skip Barber is pretty difficult to come to grips with (literally) and if you're anything like I was you'll spend a lot of time on track with the back end of the car pointing in the direction you wanted the front to go. My personal preference in sims is turn off all assists and just learn the correct technique for the car, but of course your kilometerage may differ. In the case of the Skippy there are a couple of essentials: don't carry too much speed into corners (ie slow in fast out); do as much braking as you can in a straight line; get used to heel/toe downchanges and don't do them in turns; learn to love lift off oversteer etc etc. I'm sure others will have additional pointers. There are a few setup changes you can make to make the car a bit more comfortable, such as dropping tyre pressures and increasing front caster, but it will probably remain a frustrating car to drive until one session it will just click and all of a sudden you're enjoyably competitive.
Many people swear by the Spark F3 as a more enjoyable low powered open wheeler, and it's certainly far less twitchy and easier to throw around than the Skippy (which by all accounts is designed to punish incorrect technique).
Many people swear by the Spark F3 as a more enjoyable low powered open wheeler, and it's certainly far less twitchy and easier to throw around than the Skippy (which by all accounts is designed to punish incorrect technique).
Keep in mind when driving most openwheel cars such as the Formula 2 or Formula Renault 3.5, that they heavily rely on aerodynamical grip. So you have to drive them fast to get optimial grip and maximum downforce. So be carefull when driving slowly or through low speed corners as in those situations you will spin generaly more often. If we had a Formula Ford, I would advice to take that one as it doesn't have any wings and is pretty much the best entry level for stiff suspension open whell cars and relys solely on mechanical grip. But we don't have one so my seconds best bet would be the Formula 2 mod by ISI. I would not advice to use traction control, so that you can a better feeling for your trhottle application in such cars.
I hope that helps abit, so that you don't get too frustrated by slow speed spins. It's pretty common
I hope that helps abit, so that you don't get too frustrated by slow speed spins. It's pretty common
If you have AMS try the Formula Vee for practicing.
You really can't compare open wheelers.
Just because you're not behind a windscreen doesn't mean Skippies, F3 and F1 are similar
Pick the class you're most interested in and learn how to tame them.
For Skippies or Vees my main rule is: Don't overdrive. Going too fast into corners usually means death for me
Just because you're not behind a windscreen doesn't mean Skippies, F3 and F1 are similar
Pick the class you're most interested in and learn how to tame them.
For Skippies or Vees my main rule is: Don't overdrive. Going too fast into corners usually means death for me
