rec.autos.simulators

That's a great line!<g>  I don't believe it, but it's damn funny...

Eldred
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That's a big leap in laptime. You'll be more comfortable trying to get late
1m50's - low 1m51's

The quick fix is to use the Lotus. It's just a lot easier to go quickly at
Mexico in it, due to it's great handling and punchy V8 engine.

I've looked at your laps and, basically, you're not doing a lot wrong IMO.
You're just spending at least half of your time chasing the car rather than
attacking the circuit.

Make no mistake, if you want to take the Ferrari below 1m50s, you're going
to have to attack the circuit. It's a bit like the instructions for flying
from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: you have to throw the car at the
concrete tyres and, at the last possible moment, miss.

The setup you included is rubbish, for the simple reason it's not allowing
you to go as fast as you want. It has you braking earlier and slowing more
than you think you should be doing and it doesn't allow you to get into the
gas when you want. In the laps it's clear that every time you try to push a
section the car either overrotates or twitches as you get on the gas. This
setup is hampering you, not helping you.

At Mexico I find it easier to have a fairly stable setup and just carry the
car a little when necessary, than to have a finely honed setup wich gets
really out of shape if something unexpected happens. My setup is just my
basic setup for the Ferrari with softer anti-roll bars and the cambers and
tyre pressures adjusted for the circuit.

Anyhow, haven't got much time to get into details with you at the moment, so
I did a couple sample laps and included the setup I'm using here:

http://users.skynet.be/bs175993/MEXICO_LAPS.zip

It's been a long time since I've driven the Ferrari at Mexico, so a couple
errors crept in, but I think you'll get the general idea... any tips on
breaking into 1m48's appreciated.

As you can see, I'm more or less doing what you to, only more decisively.
More like: "Go there!" instead of "this way, little more... that's it,
now... whoa!". <g>

Jan.
=---

I know exactly why you hit that tyre, and what you need to do to not hit
it or any other!

It's very simple, you need to borrow a technique from back country
skiing. A noob BC skier, you see, will at some stage -have- to ski
in-between trees. If he is lucky, he will told the first golden rule
about skiing in these conditions. If he isn't told, you see, he will
very soon find himself rather untidily wrapped around one!

If I'm with a beginner, I never tell 'em until after their first bit of
tree luv. I usually get them to follow me on the first pitch, making
sure I take a shallow line, thus ensuring a low speed impact. I then ski
off, effortlessly threading myself in-between the evergreens, all the
time waiting for the tell-tale sounds of small twigs snapping, followed
by the thud of human flesh against tree bark, ending with the rattle of
skis as they separate from their owner, and, of course, the odd ***
word. Oh the joy of skiing through trees!

Anyway, never, ever look at the trees you are skiing between, for, like
a giant magnet, they will pull you to them... with the inevitable
result. No, dear boy, you must look at the GAPS between them! Then you
will be drawn to them, and not the wood!

So at Mex, don't look at the ***, look at the line -through- the
corner, and enjoy Mexico for the excellent track it is!

Now go and record 50 laps, post the reply in the binary, and if it's not
done by sunrise, I'll cut your ball off!

--

Gerry Aitken

...and a friend shall lose a friend's hammer. - Book of Cyril, chapter
6, verse 16

This e-mail has been scanned for all known viruses by a fish called Colin.

Hi Eldred,

Just checked out your laps and also tried out the Ferrari setup you
included, using 9 laps of fuel for my laps.  If you were running with
all that fuel then that ain't bad.

A couple of areas where you may find a little more time:

The first long right-hander you change down to 3rd pretty early.  I was
able to change down to 4th only and then carry the speed through until I
changed quickly down to 2nd from 4th at the same time you were changing
down to 2nd.

The last 180 degree right-hander before the S/F line.  Point your car
well inside the driving line shown, almost towards the first tyre, and
then let the car drift back up through the corner so that it ends up on
the driving line.  Also try using 4th when accelerating out of the
corner.  I found that using 3rd caused the car to over-rotate (something
this setup does quite easily) when accelerating.  Using 4th prevents
this from happening which should allow you to be much faster out of the
corner ready for the long straight.

One thing I noticed with this setup, as already mentioned, was that it
does over-rotate quite easily once you've lifted off the throttle and
you're turning in.  To stop this over-rotation, just blip the throttle
when you feel the car doing this.  Not too much.  This should help in
corners such as the first where taking a lot of speed in and trying to
get the car turning in so that it stays on the driving line can cause a
lot of oversteer.  Just hold a little throttle, whilst still braking to
stop yourself drifting too wide, and hopefully the car should stay
pointing in the right direction.

One general point.  This track seems to have plenty of corners where an
early turn in helps (well inside the driving line), and then letting the
car drift a little as you apply the throttle.

HTH

PS: I was able to go only a little bit quicker.  Certainly not under
1:50 though.
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Anyway, I changed the diff to 85/45 like many of my old race setups used to
be and immediately got 1:48's because I didn't need to fight the car so
much. This might make the potential of the setup slower but will make it
easier to drive and actually result in better times for many I think.

In T1 you can break a lot later as long as you don't switch gears lower too
early as this will make car hard to control even with good simultaneous
brake and power. Taking the chicane and a few of the corners in 2nd in stead
of 1st gear will also make exit easier and you will get rid of oversteer
from rear wheel locking when you get off the power.

Also break early for the hairpin and take it tighter. Turn in early into
corners on the "mickey mouse" section and keep closer to the inside of the
turns. Turn in early as you do after the "tyres" but be patient to apply
power or you will get understeer and push too wide and have to get off the
throttle. Sometimes driving the corners slower will make you able to attack
the short straights between them better.

Also try driving the last corner in 4th instead of 3rd and you will be able
to stand on the trottle earlier without fighting power oversteer...

Kari

Exactly.  There are several places like that at Mexico, where taking
the first turn more slowly than seems correct will give you a better
laptime than going in fast will because you will have a better line
through the next corner and onto the ensuing straight.

Jason

Eldred
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I'm only in 4th before I get to that turn.  If I didn't downshift, the car
would bog down.  Either that, or I'd be going too fast because I couldn't just
my speed with a lower-pitch engine note.  I've had problems with that before -
leave it in a gear higher to lower wheelspin, then find it impossible to get
the right speed.

As Jan said, I should probably leave this setup behind...

It has to be my perception of the track.  At Rouen, I always turn in too EARLY.
 This one(and Silverstone), I guess I turn in too late.  I wonder what's going
on here...?

Eldred
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That's normal at ANY track...

Then they're ALL rubbish!<g>

Everyone says that the 'stable' setups are slow - you need the twitchy setups
to get the speed.  Now it sounds like you're saying the opposite...

Eldred
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