Lower Lap Time Advice @ Spa

3GeForce · Feb 6, 2018

Below is a video of the best time I can achieve at Spa in a Maserati Gran Turismo MC GT4. It's a low 2:37. When I did an online race at Spa with the same car the average drivers were around 2:33 and the fast drivers were 2:28 - 2:30.

I have no idea where I can shave 4 seconds off just to be average. Let alone 6 - 7 seconds to be competitive. Any help would be appreciated!

Traction Control: Off
Stability Control: 45%
ABS: On

Fuel: 50 liters

Left Front and Left Rear: 19 PSI.
Right Front and Right Rear: 20 PSI.

Height LR and Height RR: 0 (Front 83 mm Rear 96 mm)

Mr Deap · Feb 6, 2018

Bomb dive the corner with the brake.

Gevatter · Feb 6, 2018

Two tips I could give you from watching your video:
1) Use the inbuilt tires app. It will tell you how to adjust your tire pressures so they are in their optimal range.
2) Use a Seating position that lets you see the shift lights above the dash. Optimal shifting points are important to keep the enigne running in its maximal power range.

Gerneal tips:
With those low power cars you need to manage your momentum. Be as smotth as possible as not to scrub too much speed off by oversteering and try to exit corners as fast as you can to keep up the speed on the straights. - the old "slow in fast out with trailbraking" thing. I would also advise you to learn to drive without Stability Control. It's not a simulated ERS system, but an external force that keeps your car in check, like the hand of god

Mr Deap · Feb 6, 2018

Mr Deap said:
Bomb dive the corner with the brake.

What I mean is to brake more late & trailbrake deeper more close to the apex. Accelerate at the apex or more late. If you feel to accelerate more early just simply lift off.

You trail brake with the default setup(tire pressure adjusted) till it's about to oversteer. If it does, just lock by steer in to override lift off till the apex & after you accelerate.

Just stick with the same driving line. You'll see a massive drop in lap time

RasmusP · Feb 6, 2018

3GeForce said:
Below is a video of the best time I can achieve at Spa in a Maserati Gran Turismo MC GT4. It's a low 2:37. When I did an online race at Spa with the same car the average drivers were around 2:33 and the fast drivers were 2:28 - 2:30.

I have no idea where I can shave 4 seconds off just to be average. Let alone 6 - 7 seconds to be competitive. Any help would be appreciated!

Traction Control: Off
Stability Control: 45%
ABS: On

Fuel: 50 liters

Left Front and Left Rear: 19 PSI.
Right Front and Right Rear: 20 PSI.

Height LR and Height RR: 0 (Front 83 mm Rear 96 mm)

We all started there man. Just keep practicing. Not only driving, but also thinking about it etc.
Creating such a thread is the right way forward!

Not the same car but a great video from one of the fastest drivers we got here at RD:

You'll see the line, pedal inputs, FOV, seat position and wheel input in that video. A few quick notes from my own:

Adjust your FOV. If you don't have triples or an ultra wide big screen your FOV is way too high!
You don't use the full width of the track
You let go of the brake too early and try to accelerate while you should still have your foot slightly on the brakes. That's what Mr Deap is describing too!
Your wheel inputs are not calm and smooth enough
You are constantly "pumping" through the turns. With the wheel and with the pedal inputs.
Put Stability Control to off! It's for gamepads or total beginners. It's disabled on most servers anyway.
When you do such a video, enable the pedal app so we can see your inputs
Overall your driving looks okay. No big mistakes where someone would cringe or anything. You just need to look into your driving details, adjust the line a bit and the FOV and the seconds will drop off automatically. 4 seconds in that car at Spa isn't that much. Nail 2 corners and you are 3s faster

guidofoc · Feb 6, 2018

Aris from Kunos made some nice videos on driving technique. I really need to watch them again. Here (open the YouTube page to see all the playlist with the other videos):

Tberg · Feb 6, 2018

Yeah, after a few corners, it's obvious that your braking is inconsistent, you coast too much and are too far from the apex thus late on the throttle.
Your steering is fine though, it'll get smoother as you progress but it's not where you're loosing time, pedal inputs and missing apexes are.

Mr Deap · Feb 6, 2018

Tberg said:
Yeah, after a few corners, it's obvious that your braking is inconsistent, you coast too much and are too far from the apex thus late on the throttle.
Your steering is fine though, it'll get smoother as you progress but it's not where you're loosing time, pedal inputs and missing apexes are.

He have the transition wrong. He's too early on the brake & too early on the throttle. It's funny, because it's always the same problem as all threads player having bad lap times. It's not even a question of skill but rather a learning curve issue.

Also releasing the brake slower & longer is faster. Having high resolution pedal give a massive advantage in AC.

The lap time is so bad that setup is also the reason. The tire pressure need to be adjusted which can drop a lot of seconds.

Use the tire app & get all 4 tires exactly at 27 PSI while on track.

3GeForce · Feb 6, 2018

Mr Deap said:
He have the transition wrong. He's too early on the brake & too early on the throttle. It's funny, because it's always the same problem as all threads player having bad lap times. It's not even a question of skill but rather a learning curve issue.

Also releasing the brake slower & longer is faster. Having high resolution pedal give a massive advantage in AC.

The lap time is so bad that setup is also the reason. The tire pressure need to be adjusted which can drop a lot of seconds.

Use the tire app & get all 4 tires exactly at 27 PSI while on track.

I got those tire pressures and ride height from @Bobby Pennington who was helping me after an online race at Spa.

Tberg · Feb 6, 2018

Mr Deap said:
He have the transition wrong. He's too early on the brake & too early on the throttle. It's funny, because it's always the same problem as all threads player having bad lap times. It's not even a question of skill but rather a learning curve issue.

Also releasing the brake slower & longer is faster. Having high resolution pedal give a massive advantage in AC.

The lap time is so bad that setup is also the reason. The tire pressure need to be adjusted which can drop a lot of seconds.

Use the tire app & get all 4 tires exactly at 27 PSI while on track.

Thanks for the "disagree", favor returned.

nm, whatever

BhZ · Feb 6, 2018

Most people already told you what you have to do. What i want to add is to try and push to the limit. You'll make mistakes, you'll crash and you'll lock the tyres, but that way you'll be more aware of where is the limit and you won't drive too safely.
Since rasmus posted my video, i think it would be better to drive the mx5 to practice. That way you have a reference lap with braking points and all and you can focus on imitating what i do. Feel free to post new videos if you improve your lap, possibly without stability control and with you pedal app on. I also believe that a lower fov would help.

3GeForce · Feb 6, 2018

BhZ said:
Most people already told you what you have to do. What i want to add is to try and push to the limit. You'll make mistakes, you'll crash and you'll lock the tyres, but that way you'll be more aware of where is the limit and you won't drive too safely.
Since rasmus posted my video, i think it would be better to drive the mx5 to practice. That way you have a reference lap with braking points and all and you can focus on imitating what i do. Feel free to post new videos if you improve your lap, possibly without stability control and with you pedal app on. I also believe that a lower fov would help.

I drive with the Oculus Rift. I make sure I can see the shift lights before I leave the pits. I autocross and do track days in real life and I've been taught to look past the corners and let my hands follow my eyes. So I don't think I could drive in a sim using monitors because I often have to lean forward to see around a corner.

I'll take your advice and practice in the mx5 so I can follow your video. Thanks!

Tberg · Feb 6, 2018

3GeForce said:
I drive with the Oculus Rift. I make sure I can see the shift lights before I leave the pits. I autocross and do track days in real life and I've been taught to look past the corners and let my hands follow my eyes. So I don't think I could drive in a sim using monitors because I often have to lean forward to see around a corner.

I'm on the Rift too, I'd gladly give some pointers in the sim.

3GeForce · Feb 6, 2018

Tberg said:
I'm on the Rift too, I'd gladly give some pointers in the sim.

That would be great. I'm in the US Eastern time zone (GMT -4) and have evenings and weekends free. Let me know what would be a good time for you. I'm doing an online race tonight in the Maserati GT4 at Highlands Drift.

dud · Feb 6, 2018

I had a thread about the first hairpin. It was about heavier cars, but much of it applies here, too:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...spa-and-nürnbergring-with-a-heavy-car.145260/

I would also say that raiding the curb after the hairpin turn needs to be carefully decided on. You need a very floppy suspension to not lose so much traction and energy that it isn't worth the wider radius you create. Energy loss can be severe, both from converting kinetic energy to potential energy from the bump-ups and from converting kinetic energy into heat in the dampers.

BhZ · Feb 6, 2018

3GeForce said:
I drive with the Oculus Rift. I make sure I can see the shift lights before I leave the pits. I autocross and do track days in real life and I've been taught to look past the corners and let my hands follow my eyes. So I don't think I could drive in a sim using monitors because I often have to lean forward to see around a corner.

I'll take your advice and practice in the mx5 so I can follow your video. Thanks!

I tend to keep an eye on the apex and an eye on the exit. The way you used the wheel looked ok. There were a couple of places where you turned a bit too much, but overall i'd say that that is something we can ignore for the moment. If you use the motec, i still have the telemetry of that lap, so you can compare your inputs with mine.

Tberg · Feb 6, 2018

3GeForce said:
That would be great. I'm in the US Eastern time zone (GMT -4) and have evenings and weekends free. Let me know what would be a good time for you. I'm doing an online race tonight in the Maserati GT4 at Highlands Drift.

I can do a Friday 19PM your time (midnight my time)