rec.autos.simulators

I was just selected as a driver for a 550 HP super late model for
short tracks . . . and have never driven anything more powerful than a
Yamaha pipe go-kart

I have NASCAR 1999 and found that the Hickory and South Boston tracks
resemble tracks around here.

This question is for people who have driven BOTH sims and real race
cars: from your first hand experience, is there any benefit in me
spending time -- LOTS of time if necessary -- "practicing" with my sim
over the winter?  Will it really help me prepare for the real thing,
both in traffic and in practice?

TIA for your comments.

-the Diamondcutter #32
HANG IN THERE, SAM SCHMIDT #99

Good question.  Many of us have or had the chance to do both.  Ask Dale
Earnhardt Jr. btw, he is one of the greatest online N2 drivers on the NROS,
and it trully helped him win the Busch Grand National championship because
of that.  And he's sincere.  I had some great races with him, and he told us
often how realistic this is, and how it helps him to have a better focus in
real life.

The BGN driver races only let's say race at Watkins Glen once per year.
That is alot of time wasted.  Many of them on the first day will have to
relearn the braking point, corner apex, etc..  With simracing, you can
already eliminate this and actually be able to lap consistently.  So you can
already start on tweaking the setup.

The thing with simracing for me is that it keeps me in shape during the
winter.  For me, if I do not race for a period of more than two days, I will
start loosing my edge.  I won't be as focused as if I do practice it each
day.  I will need some time to re-adjust back.  So for many drivers who race
each week at the short tracks, they could gain alot by keeping their talents
at the maximum potential.

It is also great to help you through traffic.  On the NROS (it was an online
environment that doesn't exist anymore, it has been replaced by WON.NET
using Nascar Racing 3(which I suggest over NR99)), we often said that we
became better drivers in real-life because of the wrecks there.  Wreck
avoidance 101 is how we called that.  On this newsgroup, we often hear about
people from whom "GPL saved their life", as they became better drivers in
real-life and had an accident situation which they avoided because of the
experience gained from the racing simulator.  I suggest you put the AI at
slow speeds (80% AI) and have fun trying to pass them in whatever way.  That
will help you.  After crank them up to your real speed and try to focus as
if it was a real-life race.  Practice alone also.

Also, simracing as you will agree is missing the "edge of your seat" feeling
of real-life.  But that doesn't mean we cannot rely on other senses.  We
loose the touch feeling (having your arse thrown everywhere), but you can
gain alot from the visual and audio feeling.  I am incredibly good at the
visual feedback we can gain from a racing simulator.  Each movement of the
car in GPL, each movement of the car in Nascar Racing 3  is felt throught my
visual sense and applied correctly to my driving.  Same goes for audio.  So
when you will go back to the track, you will probably (even if you don't see
it) have a better audio and visual sensation.  Couple this to your feelings
of being in a real racecar, and you have a winner.

And whatever the situation, racing cannot hurt anybody.  The more the better
if you're racing in real-life.  Whatever time you have on the track you
should take it, and so is the same in simracing.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

The biggest thing its helped me is staying calm in the car.  I only
autocross, but on long courses when its 105 degrees out, you end up getting
a pretty quick workout and I used to find myself breathing very ehavy even
after the first run.  Adrenlin and the heat would really add up.  After
spending alot of time onine racing I stay very focused and calm in the car.
 I even noticed my mind does not jump when I miss a braking point, Ijust
react to get car around corner.  As far as learning braking points and such
in games well I cannot confirm that since its been a while since I have
been to a track, but in realistic terms not many of the games got all the
tracks down where you can trust the braking points.  Infact of the US
tracks I have been on only CPRs Road America was close.  It will help you
familiarize with how a circuit goes since the games atleast get the number
of turns right, but again some did not do that for example CPR really
screwed up a few track Surfers paradise for one.

I think these games do a great job, of mentally putting you in stressful
situations and making you stay relaxed in them, and this helps when you get
out racing.  Being relaxed in the car is very important, since being
relaxed and level headed will help keep you from doing something stupid and
getting hurt when you are in the real car.

Dave

I was at the Nurburgring this summer, drove a few laps. I felt immediately
at home there, I was NEVER surprised by any corner, I knew them all (except
from the shortcut before the new pits, but I had read about that). Imagine
how many laps that would have taken had I not known every inch of GPL's
Nurburgring... and that gets pretty expensive at 10Euro per lap.

So in this case, a simulator was VERY useful. But the characteristics of a
1967-f1 and my puny rental are so different that I cannot really comment on
the car behaviour and brakepoints etc.