rec.autos.simulators

I'm sure they can, though I'm not sure that was the point of what was
being discussed.  We were talking about why sim cars are faster than
their real-world counterparts and Jan said he felt one of the reasons
was because real-world drivers are slower because they CANNOT afford to
drive that close to the edge for fear of an accident that sim racers
don't need to worry about and therefore sim racers may be quicker, but
at the expense of consistency.

I was disputing that premise as I felt real-world drivers CAN drive as
close, if not closer to the edge than sim drivers because they have the
benefit of real-world cues that us sim racers don't have.

Now it may well be that a sim car can be set up to drive without
spinning out, but does that prove Jan's theory that real-world drivers
are not able to drive as close to the edge as sim drivers?

However, I certainly would dispute with you that the only way to drive
consistently in NR2003 is to set the car up in a way that real-world
drivers cannot.  I'm sure there are many drivers out there who are both
fast and consistent and who don't use any of those aids or setup
'features' at all.  I may not be the quickest, though I expect I'm not
too shabby, and I can keep the car on the track for lap after lap on my
own without spinning out, but there is no way I would want to do so with
any of those 'driving aids'.

--
Peter Ives (AKA Pete Ivington)
Remove ALL_STRESS before replying via email
If you know what's good for you, don't listen to me :)
GPLRank Joystick -50.63 Wheel -21.77

No, that's why I had it as reason nr. 3 and, indeed there are those who are
quick but can't keep it on the island, those who can but are not safe to
race with and those with whom I'd go toe to toe every day, the point is none
of these guys died or went bankrupt getting to the level they're at.

Real racing cars are designed and built to be driven in a certain fashion
(in order to get the maximum out of it safely) and every aspiring racing
driver had better learn how to do that in a short space of time or his
career will grind to a halt one way or another. Ergo: drivers at the top
levels of real motorsport will drive more or less the same way and will
extract speed from the car in the same way. This is not the case in the sim
world

I'm not trying to be holier than thou', I bend the rules too and probably
still spin more than I should in practise. I don't "die" as much as I used
to before I studied some materials on being a race driver, though.

However, the point is there is no external factor which forces the driver to
compromise his driving style along the learning curve in the simworld, which
makes for an interesting mix of styles and approaches online (and a lot of
frustration for those who try to drive "properly", but that's another
story).

Ok, reason number 4: not being in a debilitatingly hot and loud environment.
Not suffering the forces the car (and driving) subject the driver to. Not
being cramped, tossed about by bumps in the track and, for non-FF users, not
having the car fight back through the steering wheel.

Obviously, fear of spinning out or breaking something on the car is not in
the concious mind of the driver as he goes around the track, but it plays
its part his appreciation of the limit and his sustainable pace.

Also, it's perfectly possible for simracers to race eachother closely, just
not using the internet. The problems with close racing stem from the
relative variations in latency between the drivers so the game reality
presented to each is slightly different from the other's perspective. It's
not a matter of sensory deprivation on the part of the simracer.

Jan.
=---