rec.autos.simulators

King HotPants

Siegfried & Roy's secret love child

        Seriously, though, I've found that you can shave seconds off
your time quickly by learning from others (while knowing when to apply
your own specific driving style).  A few weeks after GPL was released
I was stuck in the high 1:07s.  After downloading and studying Dave
Mansell's then-fastest lap replay of 1:05.3x (as well as using Doug
Arnao's stiff Glen setup [when it comes to setting up cars, I always
do more harm than good]), I was able to post a 1:05.63.  

        Of course, practice has a lot to do with it as well.  As I
haven't been playing GPL as often as I did in those days, I've never
broken my own time!  

        If only I could find a pair of CH pedals to complement my
GP1...                  

Martin
Nigel Mansell RIP!

In my experience, every GPL car CAN do 1:05 at Glen.
It just takes 3 things : practice, practice and (guess what?) practice :o)

But not practice with some lame setup, but with the setup you feel
confident with. For beginning try to use a bit pushy setup (understeering)
-
gained with harder front springs then rear springs (about 20-19psi on all
tyres
is a must), stiffer front anti-roll bar and stiffer front dampers
(especially rebound)
then rear ones (e.g. 2 at front, 1 at back). And keep ramp angles at 85/30
with
2 clutches (use 3 or more when you think you can handle more power-on
oversteer)
Also, use more then 200 rear toe-in, it prevents you from spinning when
accelerating
out of corners and use the same (but negative) amount at front (use less
if you can't handle high
settings). And for your own sake, make tyre temperature (using camber
setting) as even
as possible over the whole surface through the corners !! and not on the
straight (you can
maybe even decrease rear camber one notch for better grip under
acceleration out of
the corner). Use ride height as low as possible to gain cornering power
(you can use 1inch
setting at all tracks except Nuerburgring, Monaco and (maybe) Mosport).
Also use lower
brake ratio (54% for Lotus, 55% for Eagle and Brabham, etc...)

Now when you finally hit the 1:06 or 1:05, start using more clutches, less
negative front
toe-in, set anti-roll-bars to equal (stif, about 130 to 170), play with
spring rates and
finally remove the front rebound difference to your rear rebound (use the
same, e.g. 1 at front
and 1 at rear).

All that is left is to go out there and start turning laps, start out
slowly to get familiar with
the car's setup, then start to push gradually. Build on consistency and
push harder in each
corner every lap. When you start consistently crashing out in a particular
corner <g> you
(hopefully) know where the limit of that corner is. and forget the 1:03's.
This is a lucky lap
and it's got to be almost perfect... :o)

Let me know if it helps....

Tadej Krevh
Lotus Internet Racing
http://welcome.to/LotusRacing
// how many people would be interested in a GPL performance viewer of
which
   a screenshot can be seen on the page ? ;o)

--Dave

Well, I guess with the amount of time I spent on it, it had to come
eventually :-)

I came back to the Lotus last Friday after a 4-month break and started
lapping at Kyalami to get reacquainted with it, and I was running so
many laps around 1m19.0x - 1m19.3x it was maddening :-)
And then last night I sat down, did an out-lap, ran my first flyer at
1m19.2 and my second at 1m18.9! I think maybe there's another 2-3 tenths
to come so I'll have to see :-)

I think the key for me was turn 4 (sunset?). I kept sliding wide there
and losing speed but I figured out that I had to brake and change down
that wee bit earlier...  It's kinda like turn 6 at the Glen. Staying
tucked to the inside seemed to do the trick..!

--
Cheers!
Graeme Nash

http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk
ICQ# 11257824
________________________________________________________________________________
                        "Sorry, my eyes were on screensaver"

                                (Calvin & Hobbes)

--
Kirk Lane

ICQ: 28171652