From Sym to Real

[LeftyRight69]

I was wondering what consensus there is about moving from Sym Racing to Spec Racing on a real track. Anyone care to give me your rating between 1-10 as to the ability of competitor finishing in the top 200 in the U.S. Grand Turisimo Academy competition might be.

Thanks..... Lefty

[ILIKETODRIVE]

As in...going through the NASA HPDE ladder within a year and competing in, say, a Spec Miata race by the end of the year?

 

My personal opinion: You would probably fare better than 99% of the "general population" on your first track weekend.

After that, it comes down to you and your abilities to learn and adapt and go fast (in that order).

[TowDawg]

Some things can definitely be learned form realistic syms, but where they can really be useful is when you're already an experienced racer, but use the sym to practice or learn new tracks.

I'm speaking from others that I know experiences though. I haven't had the time to get a set-up going, but I need to.

[LeftyRight69]

Here is a little video for you to watch, I placed in the top 50 in the world on this one

1PRknuEU8PA

[Jeremymoen]

Not saying rally guys can't drive (cause they are very talented / nuts) , but I'd say the cross over from rally car to road course racing would not be really applicable.

 

Just sayin.

 

But, the only way to know for sure? Try it out.

 

BTW, there was a team that had two drivers from the GT6 academy that ran in the Rolex 24 hour race recently, and the "video game" drivers seemed to do pretty well. I believe they also had track experience, but the sims do teach some real world skills.

[Emmanuel B.]

First off... call it "sim" racing (short for simulated).

I don't have GT Academy experience, but I have worked for a company building high fidelity full motion racing simulators since 2008 and have been sim racing since 2006. I followed a similar path to amateur racing, and the general concensus is very similar to:

You would probably fare better than 99% of the "general population" **throughout the DE weekends**.

After that, it comes down to you and your abilities to learn and adapt and go fast (in that order).

 

If you've been engaging in some simulated multiplayer races or league races, you'll be right about in the same finishing area as in real life against good competitors. During my skip barber racing school in 2009, after 3 years of competitive sim racing (live for speed, rfactor, gtr2, iracing), I was 3 seconds slower than the fastest guy and clearly at the front of the mid-pack. In comparison, I was typically a top 5 finisher in most online races. I've picked up another second over the last few years from seat time in the actual car.

 

The principles are of driving fast are the same, and the tracks and physics are edging closer to 100% realism with each passing iteration. The rest is learned with seat time on track, adapting to the car, and getting comfortable having your eyeballs popping out on every corner. While real world spec series are largely about the driver, the equipment plays a huge factor as well. You may be extremely quick, but if you can't shell out the money to have great equipment, it could be a while before you're seeing the podium depending on the competition.

 

Either way, there's no substitute for actual seat time. Simulators are the best bang for buck for augmenting the experience and fast-tracking the basics. A better judge would be how you fare in a go-kart. Head out to go-kart track and see where you finish. If you're easily at the top, you'll be fast in the real thing as well.

 

Happy to share my experiences if you want more info on making the jump into w2w racing from a sim racer's perspective.