One To Watch | Sim Racing Shortcuts By Simracing604

[Paul Jeffrey]

Mike over on Simracing604 has just released another very interesting new video, detailing some quick tips and tricks to help simracers achieve faster lap times out on the circuit.

Admit it, even those of us that say we don't care about where we finish on the track harbour ambitions of being just that little faster, that touch more consistent and a smidgen more competitive than we really are - it's a natural feeling amongst racers, even us virtual ones, and luckily Mike over at Simracing604 has put together this awesome video that details a few quick tips and tricks that can help racers shortcut their way to faster times and better performances.

As always, Mike does a fantastic job of putting together informative content over to the viewer in an interesting and accessible way, and it's an absolute pleasure to share with you this great new video from his channel. Hopefully even those of you with plenty of experience can find something useful to learn in his latest creation, or if not, sit back and enjoy the soothing voice of Simracing604!


Want to see more from Simracing604? Check out his excellent YouTube channel: click here.

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Another awesome video Mike!

 

[schlitty]

Good tips, especially the first one about not chasing gear. Really underrated advice. Learn to play what you currently have. Or as the saying goes "a good craftsman never blames their tools".

 

[Noobiix007]

What game is that C7R screenshot from? Thanks!

 

[bgil66]

What game is that C7R screenshot from? Thanks!

I'll bet it's rFactor2

 

[DopeSmokerDoom]

big up Mike

 

[Leynad777]

I learned three rules from Walter Röhrl that helped me a lot to go faster
1. The apex on entry should always be the slowest part of a corner.
2. Tyres are most efficient while braking/accelerating as straight as possible or carrying speed through corners
3. The biggest secret of driving fast is steering as little as needed.

Or in detail: Brake as straight as possible and don't turn in until you are finished with downshifts. Trailbrake or coast (depends on the car) to the apex, which should be the slowest part. Accelerate according to your steering-input out of a corner. Think as if the wheel is connected with a wire to the throttle-pedal and you can only go full throttle when the wheel is straight.

Most people are braking too late and not straight enough, missing the apex, so the slowest point is mostly after the apex and accelerate too quickly not in relation to the steering input. I guess that driving GT3-cars with lots of aero, ABS and TC is too forgiving and let people get away with bad driving habits.

 

[norbs]

Fun!

Well done Mike. So many people seem to forget that.

 

[F2020]

Great video and thanks for the supplied links!

 

[Jason Mullin]

Watched here but jumped to Youtube to give a like, great video.

I'll never be the fastest but I am the king of immersion, it's why I sim race.

 

[Mr Deap]

Arcade Braking & setup.

 

[Bonehead]

I love Mike's videos. Thanks.

 

[Demichkd]

Mike is one of the most likable and knowledgeable sim dudes I’ve followed for years. Great vid as usual, the KING of good advice.

 

[TheSourceOfTheNile]

I only have good things to say about Mike. He's one of the pillars of the sim racing community and great for people of all experience levels to watch.

 

[Patrik Marek]

master your current (most common) controller, I guess that means sticking with gamepad for me

 

[2stains]

What game is that C7R screenshot from? Thanks!

AC I reckon.

 

[guidofoc]

I tried to do some public lobby racing in ACC last weekend and.. man the guys are fast! 20+ cars grids and only a couple of "Sunday drivers", most of the rest were definitely strong. I'll have to really put in the hours against the AI to reach a decent level of speed.

I think a common scenario is feeling frustrated, thinking "I was driving at the limit, how can I improve by 1-2 seconds per lap? Forget it". Practice is a good medicine.

This has helped me in the past: do 2 full race weekends (1h practice, 20 min qualy and 1 h race) against the AI on a track, with the AI at 100%. Not both on the same day (too tiring!). For example one race weekend on Tuesday and another on Thursday. After the first race weekend, see where i wasn't fast enough and adjust driving/setup. Improve in the second race weekend until I feel confident enough about my lines and setup that i don't need to think about them. Usually the miracle would happen and I would see my lap times improving dramatically. I prefer doing this instead of hotlapping, it's hard for me to keep the motivation when just driving alone on a track.

 

[Ghoults]

Here are my beginner tips.
0. Get your settings right.
- I don't think fov is critical but you want it consistent. I use somewhat larger fov to give me better spatial awareness so don't worry about it too much. Comfort is more important than everything else.
- vsync off. Set your monitor into gaming mode if it has one. If you have 60Hz monitor set your fps limit to 83. That gives you best of both smoothness, little tearing and low input lag.
- Make sure your pedals are linear. Unlinearity just gives you less precision. Same with steering. Unlinearity is unpredictable.
- Make sure your ffb is not too heavy. Cranking up the percentages won't make you quicker. Racing is a sport of precision, not force.
- bring your monitor as close to you as possible. Ideally it should never ever be further away than right behind your wheelbase
- Don't sit too far away from the wheel. If you lean against your seat backrest and put your hands on the wheel you should have your hands at 90 degree angle. The futher away from your wheel the less precise you are. Also hold your wheel 9-3. Not 10-2.That gives you the best precision and space for hand movement for corners and corrections.

1. 95% of the lap time is in the corner exit. Make sure you are getting good exits out of corners and using all the space on corner exit. The better the corner exit the faster you are all the way the next straight until the braking zone.

2. Forget qualifying setups, forget even taking fuel off. If there is faster qualifying rubber available then use it. But when you are beginner you need to focus on your consistency. Use one setup for all sessions. This makes you faster in the race and you get an extra practice session in the qualifying session. What you want is a consistent car when you are beginner. Once you want to learn more then start messing with fuels. Just make sure you have enough for the race in the beginning.

If you think setup is holding you back then go download couple of setups. Ask faster guys what they have done to the setup. While learning how to adjust setup is useful I'd not worry too much about it early on. I'd only change setup if you are truly having an issue with how the setup drives. Like way too much under or oversteer. If you want there are tons of setup cheatsheets available online. Download one or as many as you want and follow them to adjust the car but only make one change at a time. Early on I'd just adjust brake bias. And steering lock in older games so your front wheels turn as much as they can. In ams2 there is no benefit running anything else than the maximum for example. If the sim has a properly done steering lock setup setting available (iracing) then use that to adjust it to what you prefer. Quicker is typically faster, slower lock may be more precise but only at superspeedway oval racing.

3. Be smooth on the controls. Race cars can slide and oversteer doesn't kill you but it will if your inputs are too sudden and on/off/on/off. When getting on throttle be smooth but decisive. If you are getting 0% then 50% then 0% then 50% and then 100% you are both too late and too early with your throttle inputs. Generally the initial 50% of the throttle is the most important thing as that prepares the car for power. The rest is just managing your trajectory.

4. Hotlapping is useful. Do it. It shows you your real speed relative to others in that car. You can watch their laps and learn how they do it. It forces you to improve and even if you are miles off the pace hotlapping will make you quicker. It forces you to experiment and it teaches what works and what doesn't. Once you get the basics right all the skills transfer to all other cars.

5. Admit that there are no excuses. G25 on a 17" single monitor on a 4 year old pc is just as quick as the latest dd wheel with a real life f1 rim, a set of heusinkvelds and a tripple-sli rtx 3090 with a processor with more numbers on it. Speed is in the driver. With money you get reliability, adjustability, bigger numbers and immersion. Not speed. As long as your wheel and pedal is not malfunctioning it is not holding you back.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

The GOAT himself @Greger Huttu was smashing the simracing world to pieces for years with a cheap Logitech DFP wheel. Nuff said

Hardware is super immersive and awesome, but it doesn't speed you up.

 

[DND]

Not chasing gear, in that case I'll dig out my Logitech Wingman. I'm not an expert by any stretch but trying to keep speed longer, getting on the power sooner and setting up a car is hardly information a beginner needs to be concerned about. Perhaps watching the Going Faster video would be the best advice for a beginner as well as exhaust all means of improving lap times and race acumen prior to setting up a car.