Teach me how to drive a race car

[JapanGamer29]

If you’ve seen my other forum posts, you’ll know I’m not able to keep up with the AI.

So I started to think, “Where am I falling behind?”, “Where am I skidding off the track?”, and I came to the realization that I really don’t know how to drive a race car.

So here are my questions about the basics of racing:

1) How do you brake before a turn? Do you have to stay in a straight line while braking? I’ve noticed I skid off if I turn while braking at speed.

2) When do you downshift? Before a turn, during a turn, or coming out of a turn?

3) How do you know which gear to drop to in a turn. I notice I’ve skidded off when dropping to a gear that is too low for my current speed.

4) How do you recover from oversteer? So many times I’ve come out of a tight bend and the car just keeps turning onto the grass.

That’ll do for now. If it matters, I’m playing on an Xbox One controller.

Thank you!

[turtleCZ]

If you want to train sliding a bit, do drifting. Take stock Camaro and drift around. You will get some slide feeling which is important for many normal situations.

[d[-_-]b]

Start with https://www.amazon.com/Going-Faster-Mastering-Race-Driving/dp/0837602262/

Also:
https://driver61.com/uni/
https://speedsecrets.com/ebooks/

>>That’ll do for now. If it matters, I’m playing on an Xbox One controller.

Gamepad controls are average at the moment, but with some tweaking you can adjust them to suit your style. I'd stick with the defaults when you are learning, and adjust only one setting at a time if you want to experiment and learn what effect they have. Best to also do on the same car - MCR 2000 is a good one to use.

I'd avoid setup changes for now, though some cars do need tweaking.
On gamepad steering lock ~18 and Brake bias ~63 is a good baseline, but that also depends on how you have your controller settings configured.

[DC2Dixon]

Some are quite old but might help?
https://youtu.be/DFqHjR7wkuQ
https://youtu.be/imEE3cGA9Oo
https://youtu.be/tvcuGoVhpxw
https://youtu.be/YQV3zZuCtkw

[JapanGamer29]

Alright, lots to sink my teeth into here. Thanks everyone.

@R3D2, that book looks good, but at $35 plus $12 shipping it'll have to wait! :p

[Mahjik]

Some more links:

https://www.jonathangoring.com/idiots-guide-to-racing-line-theory/

https://drivingfast.net/racing-line/

[SimRacing-GP]

General idea : brake earlier than you think.
It is ok to take a corner slower if it alllowes you to keep the car under control. You will get faster as you will develop a feeling of the car grip limits and experience.
As a bonus, some cars actually really benefit from a "slow in / fast out" approach to the corners (that means braking early and thus being able to accelerate -gradually- earlier).
If you are a total beginner, sticking to just a couple of cars on a couple of tracks and then taking the time to explore different lines can really help.
At least it did for me back then :p

Of course, wheel & pedals are a must, in my opinion. With a controller, I would not even try to shift gears or use clutch manually.

[zerozerozero]

general idea: practice. dont waste time on theory

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by zerozerozero:

general idea: practice. dont waste time on theory

If you don't know the right things to do, you can practice incorrectly which creates incorrect behaviors.

[Mahjik]

BTW, there is a video version of the Skip Barber Going Faster book. The video itself, is dated as I think it was created in the 80's. However, the content is still relevant. It is not as in depth as the book, but does a good job of explaining a lot of driving concepts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-sGV2XXUeU

[zerozerozero]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

Originally posted by zerozerozero:

general idea: practice. dont waste time on theory

If you don't know the right things to do, you can practice incorrectly which creates incorrect behaviors.

you are not playing guitar, you are driving a car. digital or real, you rely more on instincts than anything else. you "listen" to the car and adjust your driving based on that. just watching all the posted videos and you already wasted hours of your time that could be spent driving and polishing skills. the only theory that is worth it is book of racing rules

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by zerozerozero:

Originally posted by Mahjik:

If you don't know the right things to do, you can practice incorrectly which creates incorrect behaviors.

you are not playing guitar, you are driving a car. digital or real, you rely more on instincts than anything else. you "listen" to the car and adjust your driving based on that. just watching all the posted videos and you already wasted hours of your time that could be spent driving and polishing skills. the only theory that is worth it is book of racing rules

As an actual race car instructor, that is 100% incorrect.

Now, there are some people who have good instincts and are able to naturally translate what they need to do to put the car into the right place on the track to find an optimal driving line. However, the majority do not have those instincts and need guidance to understand the "why" behind the things that make a driver quick and consistent on a racing track.

If everyone "just knew" what to do, there wouldn't be racing schools all over the world.

https://mahjik.homestead.com/files/hosting/NASA_Instructing/Radical/IMG_4156848208686874624_o.jpg

[OnlyPhans69]

I highly recommend watching some Driver61 videos on youtube, He has raced professionally for a few years and still does so albeit for fun to this day, he even holds the lap record for brands hatch which he achieved in a late 90's f1 car.
pretty much everything he talks about in his breakdown videos as well as his simracing videos is applicable in any sim.

I find myself watching a lot of real life racing and sim racing content and paying more attention to the lines they're taking than I am the content itself, which has helped me find quite a bit of time on many different tracks across multiple games, track guides, braking tutorials, all of that stuff you can find on youtube in regards to real life racing will help you out in AMS2 and AC (as I remember you mentioning you also have that game as well).
I'll go back and find some of the videos that helped me the most & post the links here, currently waiting on my friend to show up but yeah.

I'm also pretty much always down to create a lobby with you and we can drive around whichever circuit you like the most together.

[Johnny Speed]

All of these recommendations are good. BUT, there is no better teacher than experience. Load up a time trial, find a ghost similar to your time and race against it. When you beat it, load the next ghost, sooner or later ( it takes time, YEARS ) you will be at the top of the leaderboards. Most importantly, I can not stress this enough...you must have FUN doing it. If it isn't fun it's work. Racing games are supposed to be fun. Don't forget that. Good luck, I hope to see you on the time trials. if you want to ad me for a ghost, feel free. That would be cool.

[NTU]

1) How do you brake before a turn? Do you have to stay in a straight line while braking?

I adjust the car's suspension, brakes and differential to handle extremely aggressive braking techniques such as braking almost all the way to the apex. I'm faster on entry than most people so I can overtake extremely well in the corners, sure I lose some speed on exit but on tight tracks with lots of corners, nobody can keep up with me. Not all cars and tracks do I do this though lol. If I'm driving a car which takes forever to get up to speed, I brake early and try to maintain maximum speed on exit so I don't have to worry about acceleration as much. I also change my braking technique depending on my stability going into a corner, what my pace is (see what works) and brake+tire temps and who's cornering faster than me. It's easy to tell if you watch your pace which corners you're losing time on. Don't judge your pace until you start reaching the next corner though, sometimes it'll look like you're going slower initially, but because your exit was faster, it'll show up further down the straight.

It really all depends on the situation. Braking the same way, every time, on every corner, on every track, with every car, never works.

That's all I have time for, enjoy!

[JapanGamer29]

Thanks again for the advice, I AM listening.

I've gone off time trials at the moment because I find completing a lap at speed pretty hard, especially in AMS2, and days can go by without improving on my previous best. It's a bit disheartening.

And so I'm back in Project CARS 2. This is where I'm at right now: Raceway Leguna Seca, Toyota Bunny Rabbit (GT4), versus AI at a difficulty setting of 35 for 8 laps. After looking at some of the tips here yesterday, I qualified in 10th (out of 25) and finished 7th without spinning off. I consider that good progress!

Hopefully I'll be able to increase the AI speed while still finishing in the top 10, and eventually get good enough to play AMS2 again.