rec.autos.simulators

My best at Monza with the default setup is 132.04, so I downloaded L.
Grandis lap of 126.23 and thought there's no way I'm going to be able to do
that with the default setup.  So I was wondering what setups most people are
using to get to the goal laptimes.

Dan

The default setups are okay as long as you adjust the fuel level, people
have reportedly gone negative with them, although I never could ;-)

Setups are very much down to personal preference, so don't just get setups
from any old place, try a few different peoples' and find a driver whose
setups suit your style. Alot of people like Alison Hine's setups, but alot
prefer Greger Huttu's. There are loads of others around. I make my own.

If you're going to compare laps, by all means look at the world records to
see what can be achieved, but you will learn alot more by comparing your
replays with someone only slightly faster, or the standard replays. Don't
aim too high basically.

Also, consistency is alot more important than overall speed. You may be able
to do a 1:32, but can you run consistent 1:32's lap after lap?

Practice, practice, practice. It's not easy but it can be done ;-)

Malc.

I don't know if it is possible to beat the benchmark at every track with the
defaults, but one can go "negative" with them.

That said, evidence suggests this course is the reserve of the very gifted
(I couldn't get close if my life depended on it) and even then most of those
got there using modified setups first. I think Malcolm Edeson did a set of
laps with the defaults you might want to have a look at. You can download
them here:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~epickett/gpl.html

Depends on the kind of driver you are... some people prefer to adapt the
setup to their driving style, some use "friendly" setups (like Alison Hine's
or Richard Nunnini's) and drive them hard, some download hotlapper setups
(like Gregor Huttu's or Andreas Wilke's) and adapt their driving style to
those.

Depends on what you want to do. The hotlapper setups yield the quickest
results, but, IMO, take a bit of the experience away. The important thing is
to enjoy the game your way.

Jan.
=---

As you stated though, I'm looking to be consistent, not just a hot lapper.

Monza for instance, my best is only 132, but I'm consistently under134, so
I"m pretty happy with that consistency ( consistent for me anyway, that may
not be very consistent for you :) ), but I'd like to be a little faster to
reach those track goals.

I'll start messing around with the setups or trying others as you suggested.

Thanks for the help,
Dan

I'll check out those replays, and see if I can get any faster.

Dan

I like Roland Ehnstr?m's setups a lot:

http://www.racesimcentral.com/downloads/gpl/other/roland.shtml

They suit my oversteery (read, overdriving!) style, and his Ferrari
setups for Silverstone and the Glen are just wonderful. I went from
1:30 to 1:28 at Silverstone and 1:07 to 1:05 at the Glen once I'd got
these setups sorted. The best thing is that they work pretty well
both for hotlapping and for racing, at least for an average driver
like me (GPLRank -10).

--
Above address *is* valid - but snip spamtrap to get me to *read*!

Also there are simple tricks that you can do with the defaults that can take
as much as a second or two off of your lap times.  Try some of these things:

1) Take out fuel to the minimum that you need.  You need about 3 laps worth
for qualifying.  Even short races require significantly less than the
default amount of fuel, allowing you to save hundreds of pounds.

2) Most of the default setups have the bump ***s way too high, causing
you to hit them during normal handling maneuvers.  Bump ***s should only
be hit when going over bumps or landing from a jump, never during cornering
or braking.  You need to have the bump ***s be about 2 inches shorter
than the ride height, more for the heavier cars or when carrying a lot of
fuel.  You can lower the bump ***s to 0.5 inches using GPL Race Engineer
from Alison Hine's site, otherwise you will have to raise the ride height to
get the necessary clearance.

3) The tires in GPL seem to give the best grip when the temperature profile
across the tread surface is absolutely flat, even if this means they are at
a less than ideal temperature.  So adjust the tire pressure and camber to
give you flat temperature profiles.  In most cases this will mean setting
the tire pressure to about 20 psi cold and setting the camber
assymetrically.

4) The brake bias is arbitrarily set a bit high, probably to reduce spinning
for people who aren't used to the brakes.  You can usually knock it back one
of two clicks without difficulty, more if you are a very smooth braker.
This will allow you to reduce your braking distance a bit and to brake
deeper into the corner entry.  Small difference in lap times, but not hard
to do with practice.

With a Lotus or an Eagle and those four tweaks to the defaults, I can run in
the low 1:29's at Monza, less than half a second slower than my best.  With
the defaults unchanged except for fuel, the best I can do is about 1:30.5.
Hope that helps.

The only cars I seem to like are the Eagle and Lotus. I was pretty even with
both of them, but then when I wanted to go a little faster I'd take the
Eagle out and warm up with it, after I turned a couple of fast laps I'd
switch to the Lotus and seem to be able to do a little better with it.  But
for the past week I've only been using the Lotus.

Everyone has their own preference, but one thing that helped me alot was to
get a good time in a fast car like the Lotus, then try to match it in a
slower car like the Cooper. Then go back to the Lotus & you'll suddenly be
alot quicker.

I still do this now ;-)

The Lotus & Eagle have lots of low down torque. This means you can use more
of the rev range, and it's easier to get off the line than, say the BRM or
Honda, but it makes them harder to control through the corners, you're more
likely to spin out.

To match your Lotus times in a Cooper, you'll need to rely less on the power
and more on the handling. When you go back to the Lotus you'll be able to
use the power AND the handling.

Malc.

Eldred
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Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPLRank:-0.381
N2002 Rank:+17.59

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
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Eldred
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GPLRank:-0.381
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Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
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Almost? =)

Admittedly still a tad off neg at the ring/rouen, but I put that down
to bad driving and not the default setups.

Jason

Jason

It is possible.  I even tried something similar a over a couple of years
back when someone posted their laptimes using the defaults here on ras.
Unfortunately I've long since thrown away those times, plus it was
whilst using a joystick and I now use a wheel with which I'm not quite
as proficient, so I doubt I could replicate it now.  However, I was
already reasonably fast anyway by that time.

So as a test exercise it is possible, but you would have to be at a
decent level, probably well under negative in the first place to
contemplate attempting it.

Your best bet at the moment is to find some setups that suit your
driving style and allow you to stay on the track.  With that will come
experience and knowledge of the way the cars handle and how to get the
best out of them.  Once you can stay on the track with confidence then
you can focus more on how to squeeze that extra bit of speed through
each and every corner.

It's can take many hours and hours of practice and it sounds like you
are just taking your first tentative steps with this game so you are
bound to struggle from time to time, but once things start to click
there is also some small satisfaction when it all starts coming
together.

--
Peter Ives (AKA Pete Ivington)
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If you know what's good for you, don't listen to me :)
GPLRank Joystick -50.63 Wheel -21.77

I hate you, hate you, hate you!!!!!!!!!!  ;-)