rec.autos.simulators

by **Uwe Schuerka** » Mon, 29 Nov 1999 04:00:00

>Great post Buzz!

Great post, Larry!

>I accomplished all three goals and came away with fastest time of the day
>(beating my brother which made him nuts). That fastest time came without a
>focus on getting the fastest time, which would have brought up all of the
>head trips that kill me every time. Sorry about the length here, I just find
>this aspect so fascinating and a great metaphor for life I tend to go on a
>bit.

I have been playing racing sims since F1GP on the Amiga made its appearance,
and only went karting (the closest thing to real racing I have done) for the
first time in my life a couple of weeks ago. It was fascinating to feel that
mental aspect that trying to drive a decent GPL race has on a real track, in
a real vehicle at real speed under real G-forces. The same techniques of
focusing and determination that GPL coaches you into works on a real track,
too.

Cheers,
Uwe

--
Uwe Schuerkamp http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Herford, Germany (52.0N/8h30mE)
Ever wondered what's wrong with the world? http://www.racesimcentral.net/
PGP Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

by **Jim Alliso** » Mon, 29 Nov 1999 04:00:00

I find I'm at my absolute best when I'm chasing another car. So if there's
nobody ahead
of me I pretend there really is and that keeps my concentration up. If
someone is chasing
me I also pretend that I'm trying to catch the imaginary car ahead and that
puts some pressure
on the driver behind to keep up with me (of course I still have to be ready
to defend my line).

Also I find that it helps me to remember to keep my focus well ahead of the
front of the car
and toward the apex *area* rather than the outside of the turn. Notice I
emphasized "area".
I find if I fixate on the apex itself I generally***up the line through
the turn. By keeping my
focus on the general area of the apex (but still well ahead of the front of
the car) I drive a much
better line through the turn. Keep reminding yourself to do this on every
lap. It's easy to forget
when you're on your own and bored :-) .

Note: if one of the imaginary cars swears at you for running him off the
road say "sorry".

by **Steve Ferguso** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

What about total brain fade? Sometimes (usually late at night) I'll go
screaming into a 3rd gear corner at top speed in 6th because I have simply
forgotten where I was on the track. Doh.

Stephen

by **Harjan Bran** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

Five things; first practise a lot in normal practise mode so you're
absolutely sure you're one with the car and the track.
Second a real racers thing; I saw Mika and Heinz do it and I do it myself,
when you're travelling in a straight line move the four fingers behind the
wheel, it helps you to get rid of any tension. (don't touch you shift
paddles like Mika did at Monza)
Make sure you're always on the corner ahead, as soon you're on the exit of
one corner, focus on the braking point of the next. Try to get into a 100%
mental focus without loosing sight for other things (like back markers).
Fourth point; get yourself a force feedback wheel, it gives you that split
second earlier indication that something is going wrong. When I've done
quite some practising I actually don't go off anymore since I have my FF
wheel.
The fifth point is especially for duelling, when you're heading over to
Parabolica or the first corner at Kyalami next to somebody make sure your
head is saying: I'm not going to make the same mistake as him by braking too
late. Make sure your opponent sees you in his mirror. And give every
indication of going to brake very late. You do this by moving out of mirror
right before the braking zone, he'll be focussing on you and try to do some
late braking. While you'll just take a very nice (a bit early) braking
point, it works in real life and it works in GPL.

I know some of my points aren't about the mental thing, but get those right
otherwise you're mental state will never help.

by **Jonathon Gree** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

>- if someone is behind my, I try to ignore...

...and then it turns out to be John Surtees (or at least his AI
incarnation), who attempts to outbrake me into Parabolica from about three
inches behind my gerabox casing, runs straight of me, and punts me off into
the gravel :-(

I have trouble with "the head thing too". In what's laughingly referred to
as my real life I took up motorcycle racing this year, and regularly find
that (contrary to what you might expect) my laptimes are consistently and
significantly _faster_ when I'm riding in traffic than when I've got clear
track ahead of me.

The reason?

I dunno. Maybe it's confidence ("He's riding an identical 'bike on identical
tyres - If he can leave his braking till _there_ so can I..."), maybe it's
motivation ("He's three feet closer to me coming into Druids this time than
he was last time round. If I get my head down, and concentrate I can get
close enough to have a go at taking the place..." ) or maybe it's just plain
lack of concentration ("Mmmmm. Lovely flowers, isn't it a nice day, Mmmm
pretty girl... Hey! wasn't that my braking marker for Park...!")
--
JG

by **Jonathon Gree** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

>What about total brain fade? Sometimes (usually late at night) I'll go
>screaming into a 3rd gear corner at top speed in 6th because I have simply
>forgotten where I was on the track. Doh.

This can happen in real life too. A friend of mine (and fellow motorcycle
racer) once went straight on at Cadwell parks Coppice corner (fast, uphill
left hander - on my bike it's flat out or just the barest hint of a
"confidence lift" but Sols bike has literally twice the power mine has, and
there's _no_ way a SS600 can take this bend without a dab of brakes and a
downchange...) and simply _forgot_ _to_ _brake_ resulting in a 100+++ MPH
moto-cross experience, followed by a fairly gentle (fortunately there's
_lots_ of runoff here...) encounter with a grassy bank. His only
recollection of how the incident happened is suddenly arriving at the
turn-in point 20 MPH faster than he should have done with the throttle still
open and no idea why!

--
JG

by **Emilian** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

found this a while ago ....

http://www.muller.net/karting/docs/articles/brain1.html

by **Steve Ferguso** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

: I dunno. Maybe it's confidence ("He's riding an identical 'bike on identical
: tyres - If he can leave his braking till _there_ so can I..."), maybe it's

Ouch. This exact same thought process has had *** consequences for me
trying to follow other riders (bicycle) down the 100kph mountain passes in
the Swiss Alps. Without the same skill as the guy you are trying to hang
with, you can get in way over your head. Not to say you're not skilled; I
certainly wasn't though, and still have the scars...

Stephen

by **Jonathon Gree** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

>: I dunno. Maybe it's confidence ("He's riding an identical 'bike on
identical
>: tyres - If he can leave his braking till _there_ so can I..."), maybe
it's

>Ouch. This exact same thought process has had *** consequences for me
>trying to follow other riders (bicycle) down the 100kph mountain passes in
>the Swiss Alps. Without the same skill as the guy you are trying to hang
>with, you can get in way over your head...

Fortunately, I've been racing with the pretty well the same people on a
regular basis, and I know who's at least more or less on the same planet as
me, and who can defy physics on a regular basis.

It would be a very bad (not to mention painful and expensive) idea to try to
use the same braking points as the Defy Physics set :-)

--
JG

by **David L. Coo** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

This is INCREDIBLE stuff!

"You must master mental techniques before you can master the associated
physical techniques. For example, you must use the mental technique of
"reducing the sensation of speed" before you can free enough attention to
use the physical technique of "driving the proper line." (It's unfortunate
that most to the physical techniques taught in racing schools and books can
not be used by the students because they have not first been taught the
mental techniques.) "

--David Cook

by **Peter Ive** » Tue, 30 Nov 1999 04:00:00

writes

LOL. That one gets me all the time. I even know I'm asking for trouble
as I think it. My other one though, when I'm in front is, "It's boring
on my own. I wonder... if I drive a bit faster maybe I can catch some
backmarkers and try a few overtaking manoeuvres on them. They can't be
too far down the road." That one's a real pig because until you
actually come across your first backmarker you just can't stop trying to
go that little bit faster, lap after lap. Your monitor starts playing
tricks with you as you try to look further and further down the track.
"Think I saw one ahead, just taking that corner! Come on! Get the
power down!!"

I try to be philosophical about this when it all goes wrong - at least
after I've calmed down that is. It's nice to win, but it's more fun to
race. 8-)

--
Peter Ives
(AKA Ivington)

by **Don Scurlo** » Wed, 01 Dec 1999 04:00:00

>>- if someone is behind my, I try to ignore...

>...and then it turns out to be John Surtees (or at least his AI
>incarnation), who attempts to outbrake me into Parabolica from about three
>inches behind my gerabox casing, runs straight of me, and punts me off into
>the gravel :-(

Being a long time motorcyclist I've always thought highly of John Surtees, but
he sure stinks as a GPL AI driver.

Don Scurlock
Vancouver,B.C.

by **Schlom** » Wed, 01 Dec 1999 04:00:00

I learned this lesson quickly the first time i stepped into a real race car
with other people. I had been driving sims for a long time but only a year ago
did i learn the true value of patience. I was driving a Mini-Sprint for a
friend who was ill that week. I had driven the car before at the same track
but only on shakedown runs. I got out there for my heat and lets just say I
learned really quickly that patience is a real virtue. When I was out there
myself i could drive a line and not worry about taking someone else out of the
race. Thankfully i survived the heat and the insuing consi and feature (how I
made it there still befuddles me). I finished 15th in the feature (out of 20)
but learned really well how not to try to hard or to quickly to make a pass.

Chris

by **Emilian** » Wed, 01 Dec 1999 04:00:00

I really like the idea of driving a track in your mind. I think most people
will be surprised of how effective it is.

by **Richard G Cleg** » Wed, 01 Dec 1999 04:00:00

: Being a long time motorcyclist I've always thought highly of John
: Surtees, but he sure stinks as a GPL AI driver.

Heh - I know what you mean. On the other hand there's a couple of
things which mark poor John out for trouble in GPL.

1) You can always recognise him - he's the loony in the white car. If
you collide with a green car, you might not spot who it was - a white
car and it's surtees.

2) The Honda seems to perform rather differently to the other GPL
cars. Surtees is always incredibly slow off the line and seems to find
different braking points. Perhaps this leads to his erratic performances?

--
Richard G. Clegg Only the mind is waving
Networks and Non-Linear Dynamics Group
Dept. of Mathematics, Uni. of York
www: http://manor.york.ac.uk/top.html

rec.autos.simulators

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing

GPL - The head thing