Why am I rubbish?

[Kek700]

I am just about passable at Assetto Corsa, bit rubbish, but ok, but Assetto Corsa Competizione I am totally rubbish.
Some 4 to 5 seconds off the pace at Imola.

Admittedly I don't practice much, but assumed it should be an easy jump from AC gt3 to ACC gt3.

I don't expect an obvious answer, nothing in life is that easy, but you never know.

 

[Des Pearce]

I fully understand that Des, all too aware of my many shortcomings, and there is a lot, let alone in sim racing.
But I was never a "give upper", not until its bleeding obvious, nearly there though.

I wish there was an opposite of an Alien, then I could proudly wear that badge of honour.

View attachment 429897

I'd need two of those badges! I tried Imola yesterday with a race setup and fuelling (45L) and couldn't break 1.45, I was consistently lapping around 1.45.5 after 4 laps until tyre wear slowed me even further for the last 2 laps. Stop beating yourself up, enjoy it, practice with a purpose and things will come.

I partly blame my 35 years of driving, including track days, for my inability to be quick on a virtual track

 

[Interslice]

Happy christmas btw. Bought imola there on Wednesday night. It probably my favourite track in AC. I'm not a hotlapper but i can get to the front of the mid pack in a 1 hour race, rather than being just mid to rear mid pack! In my experience the aliens are aliens on this track because of the chicanes. They have setups and skill to go over the sausages and not loose the time through the rest of the lap. I'm about 2 seconds slower in ACC than AC. Initial impression was that ACC seems to let you go alot wider and more aggressive on exits. Corner entrys are similar.

 

[Kek700]

The love of my life, the Bentley, Richard was right, seems to suit me, rather like the Nissan Gtr in AC.
A front-engine seems the way to go for me. messed with the fast dampers and ARB for the kerbs, seemed to work, plus studying Richards replay.
I am now at 1-42-0.8, yes I know, not exactly earth-shattering, but for an old git like me, I am happy with that.
Will keep bashing away to try and improve if I can.
If I discover anything, will put it here, all I can say compared with AC, it seems to tolerate and reward you with being more forceful in your driving.
Plus I have read over and over again all the great advice in this forum article, putting into the pot.
Still need to keep refining it all though, can see where I am just not good enough at present.

 

[Des Pearce]

The love of my life, the Bently, Richard was right, seems to suit me, rather like the Nissan Gtr in AC.
A front-engine seems the way to go for me. messed with the fast dampers and ARB for the kerbs, seemed to work, plus studying Richards replay.
I am now at 1-42-0.8, yes I know, not exactly earth-shattering, but for an old git like me, I am happy with that.
Will keep bashing away to try and improve if I can.
If I discover anything, will put it here, all I can say compared with AC, it seems to tolerate and reward you with being more forceful in your driving.
Plus I have read over and over again all the great advice in this forum article, putting into the pot.
Still need to keep refining it all though, can see where I am just not good enough at present.

Well done, big step 2 seconds in a few days, see you when you lap me!

 

[Kek700]

I would not congratulate too soon Des, this is just a forced pace, to night I was back to high 43 seconds, this has and does happen to me a lot. I think it is were I just do something in a certain way. It is a un-natural, for me, action.
I really agree with your first statement, at 70+ years I am in that situation where I understand the difference of being 26 compared with 72, so it is hardly a surprise to me.
There is a reality to this, just bending down and picking something off the floor is a slow process. ( if I can )?

Hardly the thing that makes you a fast sim racer.

I was thinking this evening about when I was in my 40’s , playing Colin McRae rally on my play station 1, with a hand controller. I would sort of get into a trance and become one with the game, zone, if you like.
Try as I may, I never had this happen to me playing sim racing, I was really quick with that PS1 game, I assumed I would repeat this when I started simracing in my late 60’s , even with all the modern contraptions fooling you into a sense of really being there. I still cannot be??

 

[Des Pearce]

I would have thought it should be repeatable on other tracks, it should become muscle memory quite quickly. Finger's crossed it's the start of the improvement you're looking for

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Getting into the zone needs muscle memory, it's just a case of practicing until you're not thinking about controlling the car. You'll get there. Once you've internalised controlling the car you can think about where to place it instead, and then about actively changing how you control it in certain areas ( like a different braking technique in a particular corner ) - but first you just need some consistency.

At this point I'm generally not aware of when I get on the power, my right foot just does it before I think about it.

 

[DrRob]

Getting into the zone needs muscle memory, it's just a case of practicing until you're not thinking about controlling the car. You'll get there. Once you've internalised controlling the car you can think about where to place it instead, and then about actively changing how you control it in certain areas ( like a different braking technique in a particular corner ) - but first you just need some consistency.

At this point I'm generally not aware of when I get on the power, my right foot just does it before I think about it.

True. I realised however that there are limits to what I can do with limited practice. There is always (at least) one other driver quicker than me in online races. Nowadays I concentrate on being happy with what I can do (consistent laps, good strategy, decisive maneuvers) and not being too greedy for a win.

 

[Kek700]

@Richard Dastardly

Today had another go, managed a low 43, but used a 1-43-0.6 in the below waffle.

it would be nice to use MoTeC , but that's not going to happen
any time soon. So I used the replay route, which I do not have that much faith in.
We are split by the odd 100th's and some 10th's up to the point in the circuit where it drops down and up. You use virtually no brakes into the dip, relying on heavy braking before the final sharp right-hander before finally going under the bridge.
I do a lot of heavy braking going down into the dip, then hardly any before the final right-hander, before finally going under the bridge, maintaining the same speed, but loosing just over half a second to you. The rest of the circuit is the odd 100th's and again the odd tenths.
finishing one second slower, I also carry a lot less fuel, 30ltr, admittedly.
You are much better on the brakes than I, more decisive, but braking distances are pretty much the same, both, is what I expected anyway.
You also are much better at carrying more speed, but probably due to the lower fuel load I carry, I can make some of that back.
I really appreciate the video, Richard, so thank you very much for that.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

If there's one piece of hardware to upgrade to for simracing, it's a load-cell brake pedal with some good springing - preferably enough that it's very much pressure-based rather than movement-based. I have Fanatec CSPs with a spring kit which are ok, certainly not Heusinkvelds but a giant improvement over stock logitech ( as an example ). The other piece of hardware would be a seat that doesn't move... sadly no room for a rig yet, I need my PC area for work too.

 

[Kek700]

I always have problems with braking, as I cannot feel my feet, so as you can imagine I have to tell my feet what to do, and try and judge that command in my head, aided by the visual car image, but do not get any feedback of pressure from my feet.
I have to have a 15% dead spot on brake and throttle, it is not unknown for me to have them accidentally pressed.
life's a bugger at times.

 

[stribbeck]

Well, I notice you making your apex's cleaner, and you take them full on with little effect to the Bently, not
only is the Bently more confident over the curbs. But some of that is getting the nose to attack the curb lumps straight on.
The Porsche is not very tolerant of the lumps on the curbs, one lap it fine, next lap it is a disaster.

Does the above make sense.???

Cannot see what you mean about the Braking, looks fine to me. I notice you using the brakes to help turn the
car in some corners, that's about it.

I got that with that Porsche, switched to the bentley a while back so much more forgiving got a high 1.42 in it today

 

[Richard Dastardly]

I always have problems with braking, as I cannot feel my feet, so as you can imagine I have to tell my feet what to do, and try and judge that command in my head, aided by the visual car image, but do not get any feedback of pressure from my feet.
I have to have a 15% dead spot on brake and throttle, it is not unknown for me to have them accidentally pressed.
life's a bugger at times.

That's a bit of a handicap yes... still, Johnny Herbert managed a career with half his feet fused together, so it's not impossible! a set of really stiff pedals might suit you even more then, that way you can feel pressure through your legs. Might be worth trying out, at least.

 

[Kek700]

Decided to treat myself to a Christmas present, no expense spared.
$6
Bought a setup for the Bentley at Imola, came with data logging too, pleased to say, similar, set up too.
But with much more refinement, both in the setup and obviously the MoTeC data logging at a 1-41-0.6.

Will report back when I have time to check it all out.
it should put to rest the idea I have about a setup when wrong, is not helpful, but when reasonable, compared to a very good setup in sims, make's not much difference.

 

[eco2006]

Decided to treat myself to a Christmas present, no expense spared.
$6
Bought a setup for the Bentley at Imola, came with data logging too, pleased to say, similar, set up too.
But with much more refinement, both in the setup and obviously the MoTeC data logging at a 1-41-0.6.

Will report back when I have time to check it all out.
it should put to rest the idea I have about a setup when wrong, is not helpful, but when reasonable, compared to a very good setup in sims, make's not much difference.

From my experience and testing various different setups, the aggressive preset is already very good and mor than capable of fast laps. As long as you are 3 seconds off alien territory i dont think you gain much with a different setup. I tried many for the Aston in Imola and was never quicker than a low 41 with the aggressive preset, someone even did a 39 with that setup. There is so much more time gained with "driving" than with a setup.

 

[Kek700]

Yes, would not get a disagree from me on that one, but for $6 I thought it would be worth a punt, I am much more interested in the data logging that came with it. Now that was very revealing from what little time I have spent with looking at it. And the setup had some interesting twist to it to. The damper setup I was particularly interested in, he managed to get it to where I was unable too

time will tell, as I said I will definitely give a waffle on my findings.

 

[Kek700]

Well, that was interesting, if only to me, setup was pointless, quicker with my own setup, warts and all.
The data logging was also, interesting, again if only to me.
Everything was virtually the same, apart from the obvious, he just held onto more speed virtually everywhere, the consequence was a faster lap time.
Could have told me that for free.
Not in the slightest disappointed though, I have found out what I knew anyway, so that is ironically a result, well worth the $6.
I shall retire from ACC, at least when my mind is in some unknown place, I can manage a 1-42, unfortunately, it is a long 1-43 by default.
I realise now that you cannot polish a turd.

Thanks for all your efforts in trying to polish this turd,

I may return to this endeavour in the future, but with a different perspective.

 

[David Jessat]

Ok, that explains some things. In my experience the 911 is the hardest one to master.

I'm trying currently and I am 1 sec slower than with my go-to car. In yesterday's community race on Zolder the car wanted me to kill me on every corner when being pushed. It is really difficult to gain some confidence with the Porsche (in my experience at least).
It snaps from under- to oversteer, changes front end behaviour with different fuel loads. I really struggle in fast corners e.g. Lucien Bianchibocht on Zolder, 130R on Suzuka or Signes on Paul Ricard.
So currently I am not fast and working like hell behind the wheel, but it is fun.

If you want to learn the tyre model (and be fast) I would start with the Mercedes, Lexus or Aston V8. Mid-engined I would recommend the Ferrari and the McLaren 720.

Rob trying the 911...I have to see this!

 

[DrRob]

Rob trying the 911...I have to see this!

You've been away for too long...

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Default aggro presets vary wildly between cars - the v8 aston's are usually very good, some of the others I find undriveable. It's always worth learning enough about setups to make your car suit you better without making it slower ( that doesn't actually take all that much knowledge ).

Setups also behave very differently with changes in track grip, so make sure yoiu're comparing your performance in the same session type with similar weather.