I've been sim racing/driving on and off for many years now and I consider myself to be reasonably competent. I'm not the best at setting a car up but can successfully dial out under/oversteer and get a car behaving pretty well generally. I always make sure to use as much track as possible and concentrate on hitting my apexes and driving neatly. All this is good racing against the AI, which is what I do most of the time due to time constraints, however when I do go into a multiplayer lobby I'll get down to around what I call my best time, chipping away a couple of tenths at a time until I can't really go any faster.... Then.....someone will come on the server and instantly go 4 seconds quicker. WTF!!!! That gap may as well be measured in light years for all it matters as I'm not going anywhere near it! If I watch their lap they generally spend more time off the edges of the track than on it and seem to never lift the throttle, it's as if physics don't apply to them... Am I the only one???
You're not alone friend! Welcome to the club I guess. Bit of a crappy club though... Wish I could tell you what to change but I've absolutely no idea.
Yeah i'm much too slow for public multiplayer as well and a friend of mine also. Let's do a "slow guys racing league" )
Doing the online competitions is also so depressing. You put in that magic lap and then see that you are 6 seconds off the top guy ...
Exactly, 1.5 seconds maybe you could say yeah ok, I can improve....but 4-5-6 seconds, this is another world and I just can't understand it
There might be only one explanation if you are already a competent driver. Car tunning that is. I am not good at it either, 9 out 10 times driving with default settings. I remember once I managed to tune DTM 2016 BMW for Nordschleife and no joke, I was 6 sec faster. Each track may require different settings and also must blend with your driving style. Definitely must take a good look at car tuning at some point as it seems to be a big deal when it comes to competitive racing online. Sometimes, default settings are fine.
Once I get the best time possible it is all about consistency. Sure, I need some to rage quit because they made a mistake or aren't leading the race, but in general I find that racing within the group I am in is more than satisfying. I find it to be with people like the group here and is clean, respectful and within the track limits. Hope to see you on the track.
That's true. And just for the record, I struggled for so long to go any faster prior to car tuning and suddenly...... bang! The moral of the story is it has got to do with the settings. If you get it right, you will be out there with the top blokes.
Challenge some of the quicker guys on the leaderboards (ghost on), you will appreciate just how quick they go into, apex and exit a bend. Turn by turn you will improve. Tip 1, relax, soft hands and smooth movements, with stability comes grip. Practice a turn at a time, until you don't think you can go quicker, then the next, before long, with just 2 improved bends you could gain 4-5 tenths. Tip 2, corner exits gain more time than corner entry, concentrate on accelerating from the apex with no wheel spin. Use as much of the track as possible, with as little steering as possible. Tip 3, streamers (and bloody fast drivers) like @Jardier share tips, show their setups and for a quick like and subscribe to their YT channels, can provide a wealth of information that is invaluable if you want to improve. Tip 4, Join a club and race regularly against faster drivers. There is no better incentive to improve than a friendly (but competitive) club, cheap as chips but worth it's weight in constructive help. Race Department is a great place to start and for £10 a year a no brainer, be at that 1.5 seconds off in no time and beyond. Tip 5, Get a good setup guide, I've used the 'XSR Setup Guide' for years, simple (like me) but oh so helpful. Plethora of very good ones all over the net. Setups are important but only if you have some understanding of why, when you add a turn to something it does what it does and what it can do to other settings, which can be detrimental to your goal. Tip 6, Enjoy, if you're not having fun STOP, frustration can breed discontent. Get away from your rig, have another interest that clears your mind. Then get back to it fresh. Happy New year guys! What a great year, some people got their wishes fulfilled, we all got a surprise or two and we all got some great features, cars and tracks. We have promises of Porsche's, tracks, physic updates for some of our favourite cars and new classes to fill. Like to thank S3 for their great work, dedication to Sim racing and creating some of the best content out there. May 2019 bring all your dreams to fruition and may I wake up every morning alive to reap the rewards! Thanks guys, it's been a blast!
another leaderboard tip is pick the guy 1 second faster when you get there pick the guy 1 second faster and keep repeating , learn the track corner by corner it takes a while but its worth it Andi
I was driving the Mercedes AMG gt3, my time was in the 1.45s I think so fast guy must have been around 1.41
@ravey1981 - One potential solution would be to directly compare your onboard lap with a faster driver who is willing to send you a replay file. Using a video editor, you could create a split-screen video with each onboard having the input meter on for comparison. It's probably a lot of work but you would be able to instantly compare brake, throttle and steering inputs, along with gear choice, corner entry and exit speeds, etc, etc. I expect you would learn exactly what you need to know.
I'm not fast, in the leaderboard comps I am usually on the bottom half of group 3. The ghost feature on the leaderboard as has been mentioned, is a good way to improve, or at least see how others handle corners and braking. I luv the Merc amg gt3, great fun, definitely one of my favorite cars. I don't think it's the fastest though at many tracks
That is probably a tad too optimistic It really depends on the car, some cars like GT3 have quite terrible default setups, where mainly the rear wing costs you about 1-2 seconds, other than that you really can't gain that much more out of the setup. Anything on new physics already has a very competent default setup, no major flaws in them, Setup will be mostly about finding the right balance for you on those cars. Seen as though this is about GT3, make sure you have the wing on 0-2 clicks max. Other than that it is mostly practice practice practice
That is exactly what happens to me as well. I was racing GT3&Imola like a week ago in a public multiplayer. Since I've decided to save my results in my Excel form I can easily check my best lap time in that race. In a total of 15 laps I made was able to reach 01:44.506. And thats it. No way to be competitive against best guys out there with their 1:41... I mostly drive with default setups with some changes to wing depending on the track. Its like a wall you can't go past no matter how clean your lap is. They say "Setup won't make you significantly faster, you need to work on your racecraft" but sometimes it feels like there's little to gain with improved racecraft compared to well made setup changes The good thing is, you can sometimes make up a little bit worse laptimes with consistency. It happens I finish a race before someone clearly faster just because my laps are nearly the same.
I usually have the wing on 1 click on the GT3 cars and I generally soften the front end a little to eliminate understeer. Do you know if the GT3 physics are due for a tweak then if the default setups are so bad? I know in reality the answer is practice but I just seem to hit that wall where I can't improve and if I try to go faster I overdrive and go slower.... I think comparing to better ghost drivers is the only way forward at this point.
Just on the leaderboards now, the fast guy on the server was Sven schluter, he is currently 2nd on imola with a time of 1.41.6
I would personally love a GT3 rework as they have fallen far behind the quality of the physics on recent classes. TC is another thing that is quite broken on them, it can cost quite a significant amount of time in GT3. Learning to use the slip you can create without TC is key in being fast in GT3.