[James Blint]

You can get telemetry in AC as well, there s always a lot to improve with it even if you are fast already. From what i usually see in replay i think overall people tend to downshift too late, have too much steering input or not at the right time and sometimes don't rely enough on torque but If you already know the basics, it comes down to specific track knowledge, understanding what works with a particular combo.

1sec sounds like a lot and it is but this is still barely a tenth of a second every corner on a small track like say Brands Hatch. If you break it down to entry, mid corner, exit, it's not that much to improve in each parts.

[Stefano Zanella]

Depends on many things

I improved a lot by switching from a non ffb 90 degrees whell to a modest Driving Force GT, and i improved lap times in very precise cars, like the Formulas, by seconds.

if you already have a good whell, then it's just, Skill, a lot of Time, Setup and Apps.

a big help it was the FFB of the car (shame it's bad in that whell, but there is at least..) plus the calm of the Sir Jackie Stewart lesson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZw7ZnxWKjs

before that i HATED front whell drive cars, now i'm in the top 10 in basically every track in the Nissan Primera Audi TT and Seat Leon TCR , just because now i use much less sterring angle than i was using before.

for Setup, if itsn't fix, start with basic setup, up the Tyre app, and do a couple of laps, so you will see if the PSI are wrong, they should stay all the same and in the green zone, different psi makes the car unbalanced, and slower (AC depends a lot on psi) and gears too, then see what the cars feels, and do some small adjustment, always start with a safe/easy setup, stiffer front in general, so you will have more time to improve the skills, it's useless to have "the best setup for the track" if you don't know how the car react, and the setup is for a different driving style.

Delta app helps a lot, specially for the final stage of improvements, because you will see if in any corner in better to have a later entry or a faster exit.

then just try and error, hope it will help.

[Michael Butler]

Is that Ray Evernham in the video?

[Ville Mauro]

Great topic and oh yes the frustrations have been real for me as well. I started sim racing early this year and Raceroom was my first sim apart from Richard Burns Rally and Dirt Rally (we Finns sure love rally).

The main reason why I wanted to answer your post is that I also had the same type of problem concerning underdriving the car. The following is a story how I got on the right track for fixing my driving tendencies and understanding in theory and in practise about the necessary elements of going fast.

After 3-4 months as a total newb in Raceroom I bought a 3 month iRacing subscription. I spent the first month in MX-5 cup and then fast tracked to GT3 with AMG Mercedes I had also driven in Raceroom previously. Shortly after I joined the Virtual Racing School mainly for car setups but also ended up discovering the possibilities of telemetry and driver coaching. As I was practically learning a new track every week, I got invaluable experience how to drive different types of corners fast in a GT3 car. During this time my consistency improved dramatically with 40 minute sprint races including a mandatory pit stop and with the infamous extremely severe 17 point incident system forcing you to learn precision.

The thing was though that after the first 3 months I decided not to renew my iRacing subscription. The problem for me was that I just didn't have the time and commitment to keep practising and learning new tracks every week. The incident penalty system was so severe that you just couldn't join races half assedly. iRacing felt more like a chore than fun. Somehow I just couldn't get the feel of the car right and realized afterwards that the main reason for this was the Force Feedback system of iRacing. The main effect of this "lack of feel" for me was that it almost felt like I was learning the theory of driving instead of actually understanding the limits of the car.

In hindsight of course, these 3 months were a crucial part of my improvement as a sim racer. By coincidence Nordschleife was also included in the iRacing GT3 schedule within those 2 months and I was priviliged to discover this magnificent circuit and its unique challenges during that week with the invaluable help of driving coach videos. After taking a complete 1-2 month break from sim racing I returned to Raceroom looking for more casual atmosphere.

The interesting thing (perhaps not surprisingly) was that I was suddenly faster than ever and also a lot more consistent even without practising or sim racing at all for quite a long while. I kept improving my lap records almost every day and actually still do. I started thinking about the main causes for this sudden improvement and was able to point out some crucial things that for me were the key points in reaching another level of driving:

• Force Feedback of Raceroom can be set up in a way that you get the sense of grip fine tuned to almost perfection. No second guessing, you can learn to drive by feel and trust your car. I was never able to achieve this in iRacing at least with my modest belt driven equipment. Keep tweaking the FFB settings until you get everything you need to feel the edge of grip consistently. Confident driver is a fast driver.
  
• Upgrading to load cell brake pedal enables you to apply consistent braking force a lot faster and build muscle memory over time. I upgraded just before joining iRacing.
  
• Dual/Triple screens enable you to see the apex without head tracking software, meaning you get an extra indicator for catching oversteer in time by using static cockpit view for sensing visibly the bodyroll of a car. This is compensating for the absent seat of the pants sensations in sim racing and in effect helps tremendously with countersteering precision and reaction time which are some of the key elements of being consistently fast in my opinion.
  
• I am a fan of driving just one car and finding its limits first before moving to another. At the same time it's important to make sure that the car you settle for long term fits your personal driving style. I ended up changing from AMG Mercedes to Audi R8 LMS because I realized the weight balance of Audi fits my driving style a lot better with less tendency to understeer and being more rensponsive than stable. Test out all cars in the group and different setups people have shared to find your style. Also remember your driving style might change over time, for example the stability of AMG was more suitable for me in the beginning while I was still working on basics.
  

If you reached this far I hope there is something worth trying out that will perhaps help you to improve in the future. Thanks for reading and I would be happy to hear about your experiences!

[Pete Parisetti]

now I am racing the front wheel traction MX5 

Uhm, you cannot mean front-wheel drive, and Mazda MX-5?  Because that car is RWD...

GOSH! I only realised when you told me... That tells you that there is quite some more work to do! ;-)