Sim Racing Journey

 I finally started getting under 1m56s laps for Barcelona in PS4 Assetto Corsa Ultimate — I’ve had the Thrustmaster since 29 July 2021 — under a month, and after studying this advice from TraxionGG I’ve steadily improved my time from over 2m10s down to 1m55s driving the Porsche 911 RSR 2017. I’ve got the canonical brake mod installed in the T3PA pedals, but I still don’t have a good feel for trail-braking and I’m still to slow on the acceleration coming out of corners — but it’s been great fun so far and awesome to see my driving improve over time. Best time ever! Multiple 1m55s laps Even got 1m55s in a 5 lap race (Very Easy AI) I’d still like to evolve my setup over time. I’m sitting too far away from the screen still, and would love to upgrade my pedals but I’ll be sorting that out slowly as I go… Here’s the video of my fastest lap — with some very rough cornering included… I’m planning to work my way through the Driver61.com Uni to further understand what is involved in driving w

Since studying this video from TraxionGG I’ve made some notes on positioning and gears. I’ve found I get my best times when I don’t try to set a personal best, but concentrate on positioning and choosing the correct gear. I heard somewhere that smooth is fast and fast is smooth. This seems to be true for me. Doing this I’ve taken 2 seconds off my lap time — but my laps are still very rough. I’ve put the rubber brake mod in my T3PA pedals, and I’ve got to get used to that now. I think I’ve got a much better appreciation now for how important pedals are. I’m tempted to upgrade to the T-LCM pedals so I can compare the basic potentiometer pedals to some Load Cell pedals. Now, I think I need to concentrate on braking effectively — I’ve found some advice here from Driver61 .

I’ve been trying to improve my Barcelona GP lap time… I found this explanation from TraxionGG which I’ve found very useful. I’ve printed out a copy of the track from RaceFans.net and annotated it with notes as described in the video — which gears when, where to start breaking, where to position etc. So now comes the time to put the theory to practice… And its not so easy! One thing I thought I’d try out is the rubber brake mod that came with the T3PA pedals. It was easy to install, but I couldn’t get Assetto Corsa to calibrate the brake properly — so I only had about 50% braking power. A problem similar to this one but I didn’t get to the point of breaking it, I just couldn’t put enough pressure on it to get it to register 100%. I thought I’d try out Assetto Corsa on the PC — it seems the PC version has lots of settings and customisations from what I’ve read. So I grabbed an old laptop, reinstalled Windows 10, logged in to Steam, and grabbed Assetto Corsa for less than $6 (it was o

  Dude, can you even race? I’ve always liked racing games, but never been any good at them. Sitting on the couch, playing F1 2020 on the  PS4  with the standard controller has always been a lesson in frustration with a little enjoyment. So, the time had come to give it a proper try. I did a little bit of research and opted to go for the  Thrustmaster T300 RS GT Edition . This comes with the T3PA — GT Edition Pedal Set and is a mid-level steering wheel. There are less expensive options, and there are more expensive options. In this case, the Thrustmaster cost more than the PS4, but I’m hoping it’ll give me a good enough experience. After ordering it online (couldn’t pick it up due to COVID lockdowns!) I set up an old table in front of the old 46 inch LCD TV. This is NOT an optimal setup, but this is where I’m starting and perhaps if I enjoy it enough I’ll look into some improvements. After just over a week, I can definitely say that using a steering wheel and pedals is a much more enjoy