Simulators as a learning tool
 

My daughter, Lara, says there are a number of folks on this forum who are both accomplished track drivers and use simulators. I need info.

I bought Assetto Corsa last year because somebody had "modded" Pitt Race for it and there was a collection of Porsches available. They have a 718 Boxster with PDK that I could make pretty close to my R. The big differences are it is a bit faster but it doesn't have track brakes. I figure it is about as even as I will get.

I've spent the last couple of months running the 718 mostly at Pitt Race along with a couple of other tracks. The big thing I am trying to learn is how to trail brake better and to carry more speed through corners. This is paying off and I am consistently 4-5 seconds faster than the best I have done in real life.

My question is how much of this, if anything, will I actually be able to use in May?

My "opinion" is sims are good for getting a general idea of the line of a track, and that's about it. Beats watching youtube videos because it's interactive. I can usually only last a half lap on youtube before I start daydreaming.

Simulators have a place, certainly help to learn the general track where you turn right or left, show the reference points. Unless you have one of the F1 team sims, it won't give you the feel of the track or the grip levels and won't hurt when you crash and burn
Dirk

This has been my experience. You can also look at renting time at a sim facility that usually has some very high end equipment. Experience will vary though.

Not entirely the case anymore. I drove Chuck's rig and it is brutal when you wreck - the transducers shake your freaking fillings loose. BANG!

Though his has custom features so not off-the-shelf exactly - I think he bought a lot of parts. I aspire to a similar rig but no VR for me - I tried it and made me sick in half a lap.

When BMWs Oktoberfest was at Road America I used Yani’s need for speed simulator to learn the track. Not only did it greatly accelerate my learning of the track, I took a couple rides with peers before it was my time to drive, and I could tell what they were doing was not right. My 1st session best lap was within 2 seconds of my PB for the weekend which was respectable. Interestingly, my sim times improved a bunch after driving the track fo realz.

thats consistent w my experience. I always log some time on my wee laptop based sim or #ChucksBasement. Massively helpful for learning sectors...even if I have driven there but not in a while, it's a great tool to re-orient as well

Real force feedback and VR (important because it allows you to use yours head and eyes correctly without irrelevant key strokes) provide two very important things:

1. Track familiarization, especially on non-obvious ball busters like RA, Mid-O, etc. You arrive at the track without a worry about what's next around the bend.

2. You train yourself to fluidly respond. It's a learned behavior and is important like skid pad is important. You create mental maps and programs that make you more in tune with the inputs you're receiving. Visual inputs are very good with any decent graphics package and VR. They are not the exact same inputs but they are inputs and you are responding. Good force feedback prepares you to identify and response to kinetic inputs. Again they aren't the same feelings but your mind can map them pretty quickly in the car.

So visually you can detect speed (in fact that's the only sensor we have), yaw rate (even if we can't literally feel it), pitch rate, upset car. Force feed back in the wheel tunes you to be looking for SOME information in your hands all the time. Force feedback in the pedals let's you practice subtle braking.

There is no downside and as pointed out the feedback loop works in both directions. Track<->Sim

There's some mythology about simmers being bad drivers but I expect any truth lies in the character of the driver mistaking simulation with reality wrapped in arrogance. They would probably be dangerous without sim experience as well

Also, you get up from 90 minutes at RA soaked in Schweat and raggedy just like the real thing.

Thanks, all. It appears YMMV. Some things will transfer and some not.

As many have said, I do find it useful to learn tracks I have never driven. Having done that I want to learn how to drive them well and I do that in the sim. I did find that anything I know about tracks I have actually driven transferred perfectly to the sim, which made me wonder how well it would go the other way. Apparently some, but not 100%. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

My system is pretty good but not great. I have an excellent wheel and pedal set. No VR yet but a really big TV screen. AC is reputed to be one of the best sims available. The track renderings are unbelievable. The only thing I feel I really lack that could be important is any feeling of motion, especially G forces. You get a sense of that in tire slip, FFB and things like that but it isn't the same. The good thing is you can test ideas without killing yourself or breaking your car!!

My big takeaway from studying Road America with the Sim was to brake sooner than expected to have the car placed and ready to go to throttle early. Doing this lead to consistent and faster laps. Combine the sim work with YouTube videos of world class drivers to get benchmarks. I am not so hung up on the force feedback or VR. Real life car control challenges are so dependent on track conditions, tires, setup, etc that lap to lap there can be variation. Best build a huge toolbox of car control skills in real life and focus sim time on visual cues for line, braking, and throttle points.

For example I aim for the cheese truck wheels at RA and that is a perfect visual cue in real life.