FWIW,
I am certainly NOT the fastest guy in the bunch, just recently graduated
from lawnmower to really fast lawnmower to keeping it on the road most of
the time. The following is not setup help (I'm a setup idiot, like Tom
Cruise in Days of Thunder), but rather how I went from 1:28s to the 1:22s.
in the Ferrari at Mosport, with Allison Hine's setup.
The track is really hard, one of the hardest, I think, because there are so
many blind corners. I was stuck in the 1:28s myself with the Ferrari for
months, until I made an effort to change my driving technique a bit: I
would brake really early for the turns, especially T1 and T4 (the downhill
left hander). T1 I take by tapping the brakes ever so slightly in a
straight line just when the Armco starts, turning in early and shifting up
to 4th after braking (you should've approached it in 3rd), and just letting
it take the apex and using the throttle to keep it stable. Shifting to 4th
allows me to get on the power really early during the turn. For T2 I brake
early and downshift to 3rd. To me, this one has two apexes, and you shift
back up to 4th on the second one - be careful not to drift too much to the
right.
Then for the slow right hander. I shift down to 3rd, brake, then as the
revs come down, again to 2nd. Then smooth on the power (so you don't spin),
to exit in 3rd, then hit 4th. Keep it in 4th, just tap the brakes slightly
and just let it drift to the left. Add some power to keep the tail tucked
in. JUST as you exit this, start braking and shift from 4th to 3rd to 2nd
for the tight, uphill right hander. Because it's uphill, that helps to slow
you down. Be ginger in this section, because it's easy to spin, an the car
usually arrives here with a lot of energy. This section for me is a royal
pain in the ass. Then down to 1st, turn as early as possible without
bumping the curb, and when you get the car pointed in a straight line, very
smoothly apply the power. The key to a good gear ratio setup, I think, is
do it so that you avoid hitting maximum revs when the car runs over the
"dips" in the back straight.
So now you're maximum revs, and approaching the "jump". Approach from the
left, as straight as possible. Everyone, including the AI cars, jump quite
high here. I hate that. I know I could be faster, and on occasion I do
jump, but I prefer to hold it until JUST before the crest of the hill, then
I back off the power a little bit. The car will either jump very slightly
or get really light in the suspension, so when it comes down I brake
smoothly, downshift and turn in. This is why you need to keep the car as
straight as possible, so it's more stable when it "lands." Keep in mind
that you're essentially slowing down through this right hander, so you just
use the throttle to keep from going off.
As soon as you exit this, keep it on the right, downshift to 3rd and brake
for the left hander, and take a late apex. Then the last turn is basically
very slow in 2nd, but it took a lot of practice to exit with enough speed to
keep up with the AI cars.
That's my 2 cents. If it sounds familiar, I had a lot of help from reading
Riccardo Nunnini's (sp?) wonderful website on GPL driving technique:
http://website.lineone.net/~richardn/. Only that there are things that just
didn't work for me, so I added my own. Once you find a good setup, you'll
develop your own approach. But consider that I knocked off 6 seconds
without doing a thing to the setup.
Hope this drivel helps,
L.S.
