Racing Simulation

[Huhwha]

I am just getting started in this and hope to get to my first event at Mid-Ohio in July.

 

Just wondering, does anybody use racing simulators to at least learn new tracks and get some "seat time"? I'm talking about real simulators like rFactor (http://www.rfactor.net), Nascar Racing 2003, etc., not the arcade stuff. I have been running these things for years (and years and years my wife would say) and find them to be very credible.

 

I've been running simulation laps at Mid-Ohio in the hopes of becoming very familiar with the track (and finding a better line through Thunder Valley!) Just wanted some opinions.

 

Thanks

[Thom_S]

http://www.gamert.nl/paginas/topgear_does_gran_turismo.html

 

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=107485

[CaptainWho]

They can be a great aid, but it depends on two things: the accuracy of the track map and the accuracy of the physics model of the simulator program. Arcade stuff is usually (not always) games, more oriented toward making it "fun" rather than accurately reproducing the track or, especially, the physics of racing. For an example, there's an old PC sim called "Sports Car GT". It has Road Atlanta as one of its tracks. Most of the track is pretty accurate, but from turn two through turn five is a joke. So you can learn the track, but T2-T5 is going to be very different when you get out there "for real".

[ExRacer]

Great concept! My son was a big PS2 junkie and got GT2/3 before we went to Laguna Seca. He was trash talking all the time about how he was going to smoke his dad et al . . . blah blah.

 

Well the game is pretty accurate and served to familiarize him with the basic layout. It did not improve his ontrack times that much.

 

However, after our sessions his time on the game was lowered by 3-4 seconds . . . heh heh heh.

 

MD out

[CaptainWho]

However, after our sessions his time on the game was lowered by 3-4 seconds . . . heh heh heh.

 

I definitely found I get faster in all the sims as I get more "real life" track time and learn more about race driving. I saw a video clip recently where Gunnar Jeannette (?sp?), an ALMS driver for the Panoz team, drove Road Atlanta in the Forza sim for X-box and in real cars, using the same sim cars that they had for real (a VW Golf, I think, and a Porsche Supercup car). His lap times were within 0.9 sec of each other between the sim and real life. The big "but" here is that Forza seems to have an extraordinarily accurate version of Road Atlanta.

[granracing]

I used the Forza game before going down to Road Atlanta for the ARRC. Yes, it was helpful. Since the game was accurate with the turns (one of my friends used a game that had a wrong turn ), it took some of the learning curve out of it. But at the same time, I had no idea just how hilly the course is. The other factor is that I'm much more willing to crash in the game vs. real life. So yes, it did help.

[Charlie]

 

I've been running simulation laps at Mid-Ohio in the hopes of becoming very familiar with the track (and finding a better line through Thunder Valley!) Just wanted some opinions.

 

Thanks

 

Psuedo-related question, what sims are you running with a decent version of Mid Ohio? I haven't found much out there since the old CART games of the mid 90's.

 

-Charlie

[Huhwha]

My current favorite is rFactor (http://www.rfactor.net). Actually I believe the basis is the old track you spoke of, but some very talented people have "updated" it. It's visually very good, but more importantly, the physics in rFactor seem quite good. Certainly as compared to those old Indy Car days!

[RacinDave]

Game, get GTR, you can download Mid Ohio (good, but not great), nothing better that I know of. GTR has far better physics than Gran Turismo, Forza, SCGT, RFactor, trust me, it is the benchmark.