Simulation and reality.

[manu68]

As maybe some other members here, I recently had the opportunity to drive a real race car on a real track .
I just wanted to share this experience with you.

I am a huge fan of Porsche 911 since I was a young boy, and until know I never had the opportunity to drive or even seat into a real one.
I just would say that there is so many other priorities in the real life

My wife offered me this year a session on track for my 50th birthday.
What a surprise !

I have driven a Porsche 996 GT3 cup with manual gearbox at the track Anneau du rhin

(here is sebastien Loeb driving , 9 time Rally WRC world champion ; just for you to know the track)

Simulation is one thing, driving a real pure 400cv race track with slicks tyres on a real track a total another thing.
Some people would say , it is "just" a 996 cup. It is not a formula one or a crazy GT Le mans series . it is "just 400 cv" . After all, we can drive so many more powerful cars within assetto corsa without any difficulties.

My only humble comment is that it has been a thrilling experience.
The car is a BEAST, a MONSTER for someone not used to do that.
I was wearing an Helmet, and after 10 laps I was almost deaf . It is almost impossible to breathe during the curve, the car vibrates, screams, ..... It is just insane.
your FOV is limited to the track.
Just leaving the pit on 1rst gear is a challenge . The clutch is about 2 cm, the gear box makes noise and seems to be blocked, the all car seems to be about to explode
Until 4000 trs/min, it is scary, beetween 4000 and 6000 tr/min, it is crazy, and above it is unreal.
you dont drive anymore, the car goes forward and it is like you are about to be projected through your recaro seat
The slick tyres have about NO limits on such track.
same thing for the brakes. When you are approching the curves at 200 km/h or more and you have to brake at 50 m, your just think you are going to die , nothing less .

After driving myself, I could make some "real" laps with a professional driven, as a passenger.
It is really difficult to keep your eyes open. you just can barely move because of the G forces, especially by braking.
And then you just wonder how can such car be driven during real race !

Assetto corsa has a lot of sensation to offer, and we can drive many beautiful cars.
But it remains that the real life on track is a totally different thing.

I have probably exagerated, but for a normal guy it is about what you feel the first time in such a car, which would be totally undrivable on public roads.

 

[Kek700]

In the 90's I was offered a drive in a highly modified March 803 race car, below 4000rpm
It was a job to pull it off the line.
The event was on an airfield, a sprint event, coned to represent a 1.5mile circuit, so I did not
need to worry too much about crashing.
Before this event I had a test run on an industrial estate, Sunday so there was no one there.
It scared the life out of me, the acceleration, the noise, everything was just an overload,
so much so that I returned after just one practice run, being quite scared of it.
On the day of the event, being quite petrified, I sat on the start line waiting for my turn, at least I
was going to be alone on the circuit. I had run formula fords up till then so I suppose I was used to the cockpit environment.
I thought It was going to be a repeat of my practice run the week before.
When I started , that was it, I never noticed anything , just flew round the 1.5mile circuit twice and
the sprint was over. All that fretting for nothing.

That taught me that being an observer or not being fully involved is never the same as doing it. From then I stopped worrying about situation like that. The brain removes the bits that do not matter when you are In a stressful situation.

 

[HypoToad]

And what makes the big big difference (I think) are the slick tyres.
For someone like me, it changes all the habits we can have, because the car is absolutely stuck on the road, it seems to be NO limits at the speed I was able to drive. you need to turn more , just turn ! Very surprising, it comes no noise from the tyres, not like in our simulation

So the grip we get from slick tyres in most games isn't the same as in real life? I used to go to the touring car races near where I lived back in the day, never heard tyres squealing, even saw one guy with smoke coming off his tyres but no squealing like in games. In GTR2 you get a sound from the tyres but it's not a squeal.

 

[digital1nk]

I can talk only by my experience, i've never driven a properly race set up car on a track, but i've done lots of trackdays (arround 20-25) in my cars (MK7 GTI and mk1 Octavia vRS), and while i agree its different (you have lateral G forces, real sense of speed etc), since i've been simracing i have actually learnt i can push my cars a bit harder. I've been into simracing for about 1 and a half years now (before that i casually played simcades like GT and Forza) and what has really helped me is that i now have a clue on what to expect from cars under their limit, before this i was too scared to push my cars to the limits due to being scared of not knowing what to do if i lost the rear etc.

Now, being in a Cup car with slicks and open exhaust must be another story, which i would certanly enjoy none the less.

 

[manu68]

So the grip we get from slick tyres in most games isn't the same as in real life? I used to go to the touring car races near where I lived back in the day, never heard tyres squealing, even saw one guy with smoke coming off his tyres but no squealing like in games. In GTR2 you get a sound from the tyres but it's not a squeal.

I can not really judge about the grip itself.
I just wanted to mention that driving a car with Slick tyres for the first time is something very surprising in comparison with the street tyres we are all daily used to .
Of course we tend to take the curve at the speed we are used to. The brain is the master !
But of course, with the slicks it is an other world, and you have to convince yourself to take the same curve at a much higher speed as you would normally do.
The first time, it is very very surprising.

 

[Rob Every]

To be honest, even using semi slick track days is an eye opener.

I tried a Swift at the Nordschliefe on semi slick tyres and after the initial dampness went away early morning, the grip was staggering!

Only really hampered by the un turnoff able TC. But the lateral grip was amazing. Obviously this is a good handling car anyway, on sorted suspension and decent brakes and with a surplus of grip over power.

But in my own car a few months later on Toyo road based tyres the grip was considerably less at Snetterton. OK the car was not set up as well, but the tyres were the limiting factor, not me or the car. Much more understeer, crap turn in, lift off oversteer if provoked. Similar sortof suspension setup, fast road, decent brakes etc.

On the semi slicks, it was me the limit (and the 3500 Euro insurance fee for a write off)

 

[Andy_J]

I remember the first time I had a session at Oulton Park in a Formula Renault in the early 90's. It was the first time on slick wide tyres and boy did that thing track every little track line and undulation. I was amazed how the steering wheel pulled your arms like mad as the tyres dug in and pulled where they wanted to go. I still remember how shocked I was having gone from a club race Renault Clio with road/track tyres straight to that.

I often use slick tyres on my track bikes and they are a world apart from road tyres. They grip like poo to a blanket once up to temperature but they are shite when cold. Tyre warmers are a must for slicks on a bike.