Getting Negative

[BadBlood]

Arrrrggggghhhhhh - it's so close I can SMELL it....

1:31.4 at Silverstone in the Eagle but my gearing is poor. Lights out guide suggests that you should enter Stowe at 175mph but I am lucky if I get to 162mph by the end of the wall. Anyone got a nicely geared Eagle they can give me?

[maddog]

There are no slow corners at Silverstone, except those you make yourself!  So go lower, to get lower.

[Hristo Itchov]

Gearing depends on how fast you go, so it's pointless to use someone else's gearing unless he/she is on similar pace as you. Why not just make adjustments yourself? It's not THAT difficult...

[BadBlood]

I've tried just 'tweaking' the ratios but it is the acceleration out of the corner that I am struggling with. Seem to be dropping too many revs as I drop down to second for Copse and then coming out of chapel. Rest seems OK ish but I was really after some general advice on how to space the gears to get the best balance... might be second nature to you H but it is a whole new experience for me...

[maddog]

. . . as I drop down to second for Copse . . . .

                     

So go lower, to get lower.

[BadBlood]

hehe - I've got my Prib Negative.... does that sort of count. I have done 1:31.5 four times now so it is coming...

[Hristo Itchov]

I've tried just 'tweaking' the ratios but it is the acceleration out of the corner that I am struggling with. Seem to be dropping too many revs as I drop down to second for Copse and then coming out of chapel. Rest seems OK ish but I was really after some general advice on how to space the gears to get the best balance... might be second nature to you H but it is a whole new experience for me...

It's simple really, if your revs are too low, you make the gear taller, and vice versa. I don't really see why you see it as advanced stuff, because it's not. You just tweak after each run, then try again and see how it is, and after a couple of runs you get it right. It's impossible to get it right for all corners obviously, at least on most tracks.

[maddog]

3rd & last hint - to arrive at a negative rank, you'd be looking at a 1st.

[BadBlood]

It's simple really, if your revs are too low, you make the gear taller, and vice versa. I don't really see why you see it as advanced stuff, because it's not. You just tweak after each run, then try again and see how it is, and after a couple of runs you get it right. It's impossible to get it right for all corners obviously, at least on most tracks.

Thanks. I have played around with it but when I try to use the Setup assistant although the curves look nice and smooth the gearing is awful... that is what I am struggling with really. I am now running rgularly in the 1:32's and hitting 1:31's every now and then and am a bit disappointed with 1:33. That is not awesome obviously but the last time I drove Silvy in a race I put in a best of 1:34.9 with a qually of 1:35.7 so it is a big improvement for me. Enjoying this... now I've just got to speed up in the 65's, the GT's, the 66's the 69's.... 

[Hristo Itchov]

It's simple really, if your revs are too low, you make the gear taller, and vice versa. I don't really see why you see it as advanced stuff, because it's not. You just tweak after each run, then try again and see how it is, and after a couple of runs you get it right. It's impossible to get it right for all corners obviously, at least on most tracks.

Thanks. I have played around with it but when I try to use the Setup assistant although the curves look nice and smooth the gearing is awful... that is what I am struggling with really. I am now running rgularly in the 1:32's and hitting 1:31's every now and then and am a bit disappointed with 1:33. That is not awesome obviously but the last time I drove Silvy in a race I put in a best of 1:34.9 with a qually of 1:35.7 so it is a big improvement for me. Enjoying this... now I've just got to speed up in the 65's, the GT's, the 66's the 69's....  

I actually made a mistake, if your revs are too low in a corner you have to make the gear shorter, and vice versa.  

As for watching Setup Assistant and curves, I've never done that. I don't see it as necessary except perhaps for a car like the 65 Honda which doesn't benefit from reaching maximum revs. Most other cars do though, particularly 67s. You'll see in ALL WRs that they rev them to the maximum and even keep them there for a few moments before changing up. As Senna said in his book, revs give you speed, so it's not all about torque. Not to mention that the more you change gears, the more time you lose.

I also think you should focus on 67s because once you get used to them, you'll find 65s A LOT more easier, as well as GTs and just about any other mod. At the very least you'll have the necessary habits to drive those cars, because IMO the original 67s tire model is the hardest to tame.

[Artiglietti]

Well done to you Paul, those are not bad times at all. They are in line with what I was doing in the first race here only one year ago or so...However, are you sure tweaking the gearing (and the setup in general maybe..) is really the quickest way to get where you want? I mean, there is still such a margin to the limit of the car that you are probably not exploiting whatever setup you are using now in the first place, I think you would benefit more from clearly identyfing where you are losing most of your time. I always found that the track/mod combo knowledge is far more effective to lower my times than any setup tweaking I make to the car, I honestly think you can get to at least 2 or 3 secs of the WRs with any crap setup you have on. If I were you, I would try with the replay merging and the speedtrack (not speed report) in GPLRA, theres probably a few corners where you can find bucketloads of time just by making sure you hit the apex or you accelerate a bit earlier before the straight. Thats how I lowered my times anyway! 

On a different note , but still speaking about gearing, I noticed watching race replays that many people tend to move the red bar forward in their RPM indicator, and then shift, still by ear I suppose, at the right RPM limit. Is there any kind soul who could explain whats the benefit of this? 

[Hristo Itchov]

Yes, AA, I've told Paul many times that tweaking setups is the last thing he should be doing. He should just find a comfortable setup and really focus on exploring the limit of the car instead of trying to compensate with anything other than his own driving. But I guess changing gears is OK, at least temporary to adjust them to his own current pace. I've personally sometimes struggled to keep high enough revs whenever I've tried a WR setup simply because I couldn't carry that much speed into corners, so I see where he's coming from.

As for people changing gears too soon, I've noticed many in UKGPL doing it and they really lose a lot of time overall from that. Perhaps it's something to do with their road car driving habits. 

[Artiglietti]

Mmmm, but are they actually shifting too soon? My impression is that they are shifting at the RPM where the red bar used to be, so they keep shifting at the limit set by default in the game, they just never hit the red bar by moving it at the end of the gauge. I dont even think there is the possibility to change the position of the red bar from within the game, you have to use GRE or the likes.

I have seen this sometimes in the WRs replays, but not that often really. So, it is probably  something useful (?) in race trim, I wonder if it is done just to have some extra revs when in a tow (but shouldnt your engine blow up pretty quickly by doing that?), or if theres some benefit in not phisically hitting the red bar when you are top revving?

[Hristo Itchov]

If by red bar you mean the movable red line that is set by the highest RPM you've reached, you can reset it by pressing shift-T or something. And any time you overrev, it would move to the maximum revs - they do that in most WR laps because they speed-shift on them.

[hannah]

Interesting discussion.