Or rather I've heard it. I just bought a set of headphones. That
makes an enormous difference. Now I can more clearly hear the tires
talking to me, and they've informed me in no uncertain terms that
I've always been overdriving the car.
Evidently there's a world of difference between a drift and a slide!
I had always approached the Nurburgring more as a rally course, with
lots of big power slides that inevitably ended with the car in the
hedge or on the wrong side of the fence. But I've only just
discovered that the grip is actually MUCH better if the tires aren't
making any noise.
Before I'd always be braking hard enough to make the tires squeal.
Now with the headphones on I can actually hear the point at which
the tires first begin to chirp and then I ease back a tad from
there. Same with throttle and cornering. Now the car sticks to the
track. Wow, imagine that! I lopped 15 seconds off my previous best
lap at the Nurburgring.
My previous best was an 8:56 and I'd never gone under 9 minutes
again. But with the new headphones I right away did an 8:59
followed immediately by an 8:57. Cool! Both laps included several
spins, so I knew there was still a lot more time to be saved.
I'm concentrating on going slower to get a better time. Less drama
actually is faster. But do you think I could do just one single lap
of the 'Ring ever in my life without at least one stupid spin
somewhere? No way.
I've got it down to an 8:41.8 now, but that still included two quick
spins.
The next lap was way better, clean ALL the way, me thinking this is
it, this is going to be the BIG one, flying down the long straight,
heart pounding, hands sweating so much I could hardly hang onto the
wheel, eeeEEEeeeasy under the bridge, still carrying lots of speed
along Tiergarten, brake hard for the last chicane, pLEAse don't
***up here, phew, shift up early to limit wheelspin exiting the
final chicane, yes I can see it now, Ferdinand you're a hero, up
into third gear [ON THE FINAL STRAIGHTAWAY] the rear end steps out
of line, the car pendulums back and forth a couple of times, SPINS
and clouts the guardrail within sight but just short of the finish
line.
#$%^&*! That hurts.
Yesterday I was barely half a second below Eldred in the St.Eldred
Cup. Today this sudden 15 second improvement has vaulted me right
out of the Cup standings and launched me into the stratospheric
487th GPLRank position with a 55.89 rating. That's gotta be worth a
medal, or a beer, or something...
Sheesh I still have a long way to go. But I do see the faintest
glimmer of hope now. I was lost and floundering before. But I
think I've made a major breakthrough of sorts and am itching for
more now.
-Ferdinand-