rec.autos.simulators

Like almost everybody else with GPL I'm sure, when I first got my steering
wheel I started driving the F1 cars on the 11 default tracks. I spent weeks
working away at my GPL Rank and eventually decided that I must be at my
"natural limit" - as the only way I could beat my PB was to spend hours
practicing a track, and even then I was only shaving off a tenth or so at
most.

Just as I was starting to get bored with the whole thing, I discovered the
Vroc F2 club and the joys of online racing. I parked the F1 Lotus and hopped
in the F2 Ferrari, and since then I've plonked in 10-15 hours a week in it.
In fact the F2 Fezza is the only car I've driven in GPL for the last 2
months, until yesterday that is, when I decided to go back to F1 for an hour
or two.

First track was Monza, and before I'd even made it out of the pit lane I
knew I was going to be in trouble. The F1 cars have a *lot* of power! I
found I'd developed a bit of a heavy right foot, and I ended up spinning 3
times before I'd even got through Curva Grande. Once I'd made it down to
Lesmo1 it was time for surprise number two - look at all this grip! Look! It
corners like it's on rails! Wheee! :0)  I put in some more laps, and as
early as lap six I'd managed to take a few hundredths off my old PB. By lap
20 I'd beaten my PB by over a second (I'm now at 1:28.26) - the Lotus just
seemed to have SO much grip and SO much power, it was like it couldn't fail
to zoom round in record time.

A couple of hours free this evening meant it was back to the "hotlapping",
Monaco this time. The F1 Ferrari took a bit of *** into shape - I was
wheelspinning out of control over every bump and sliding into the bales at
the hairpins. I took it carefully for a lap or two to re-find my brake
markers and then things were much more consistent. Thirty laps later I
managed exactly the same time as I'd done at Monza, weirdly enough, 1:28.26,
but this time it was a good 1.4 sec better than my old PB. Cool :0)

I then moved track again, to the 'Ring, and plonked in half a dozen laps. No
happy tales of instant PB smashing here yet - I've got close (managed a 8:25
and an 8:27, compared to my PB of 8:23) - but I think I've just been away
from the Ring too long to be lapping at my limit yet. I'll have a good go at
it at the weekend I think.

So, if you've driven a lot of F1 recently, why not give it a break for a bit
and learn your way around an Advanced Trainer? I've improved my driving an
awful lot in the F2 (although there's still a very long way to go yet!), and
the improvements seem to be directly applicable to F1 once (if!) you switch
back again. The F2s make for much closer online racing than with the F1s,
and the F2 Club sorts out the organised races on passworded servers thing,
which is an added bonus.

Right that's me done, cheers for listening :0)

Jim Seamus
GPLRank -2.34

If you like F2's, you're gonna LOVE the FD's.  Check out the
instructions on the F2Club site to set up an FD.  It'll set ya grinning!

--

Fester

Speaking of the F2 Club site (the one on Yahoo, I presume?), I
registered about 10 days ago but I'm  being told that my membership is
still pending.  Thus, I'm not able to access the FD instructions or
any of the other files on the site.  Any idea how long it takes to get
membership approved?

Ian

That's odd indeed.  I got mine right away.

--

Fester

To tell you the truth, I didn't like FD...It just felt like I was driving a
cooper around.  At least F2 has a different feel to the cars...I can't stand
the lack of power in FD.  But maybe it is more fun if you are racing side by
side with other people.

JB

Good post Jim.

IMO, all the classes, F1, F2, F3, FD, FG, FV are just as tough to
drive at the absolute limit. The advantage of the lower powered
cars (F2/FD) is that, in order to go quickly, you MUST take the
optimum lines through corners and carry the optimum speed
all the way through and out. Thats why, after racing F2/FD
competitively for a while, when you go back to F1 you often
see an instant improvement.

Perhaps not the best example but a 1:29 lap of Monza in an
F1 can either be one of perfect line with maybe not such
great braking or early power application, whereas another
1:29 lap can have poor line but good braking and pretty
good power application. Or mediocre line, braking but
good power application out of corners.

You can of course see similar in F2 but in F2 you lack
the power to be able to rescue less than great line,
braking and exiting.

In FD you still lack the power so line is still very important.
You have more grip, so initially it feels easier, but as soon
as you are  "usiing" all  that grip to the maximum you are
back to F1/F2 type level of difficulty.

The FDs are more forgiving and "catchable" if you go
off line or get out of shape due to the extra grip v power.
That's why they are considered a great racing class as
you can now make those offline moves stick.

Like Jim, and I susoect most other I was in the GP car
with no aids by the end of day one. I couldn't drive the
thing but it sounded so good.

I thought :
I didn't need the "Trainers" come on, I can drive, they're
just GP cars with less power and grip, whats the use in
that.

That was fine, eventually I could drive them and could
go quite quick BUT it wasn't totally clear as to what I
needed to do to go quicker. Was it my line, braking,
power application? I think what F2 has given me is
the platform to be able to judge whether my line is up to
scratch whilst still being a platform where you need to
be careful with the gas and brake.

Maxx

I've discovered that I'm WAY off the pace in F2's or F3's.  I can't even keep
up with the slowest AI at most of the tracks, but in F1 I can usually run in
the top 10.

Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
F1 hcp. +16.36...Monster +366.59...

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

I always find myself doing real well in F2 races because I focus a lot on
line and corner exit speed.  You have to keep your momentum up and I learned
a lot of that in karting...the karting seems to carry over real well to F2,
but not as well to F1...In F1, you have a lot more power so you can gain a
lot of time on corner entry whereas most time in F2 is gained on exit.  They
all present their unique challenges...I just prefer the less grip of F2 to
the greater amount of grip of FD...personal preference I guess.

JB