then that tune doesn’t fit your driving style, load different tunes until you get one that works for you. and give the celica a go trying different tunes on that one too. search tunes by class and track, it took me about 10 tunes before i found one that fit my driving style. my fav car for d is also the mini, but i am seconds faster in the celica. and i found a buick tune for silverstone that is faster than the mini and feels exactly like the mini. if you were in bumper cam where you cant see your car with the volume off you would probably think you were driving the mini. the mini is the best over all car but dont be afraid to use other cars for specific tracks.
and dont be afraid to take some breaks. if you broke a controller you were never going to get you best lap. stress and adrenalin throw off your timeing. its just going to take practice, your subconscious will pick it. just relax and let your subconscious take over. thats also why many people have their favorite driving music. it occupies their mind so the subconscious can take over the driving. be willing to make as many mistakes as you need to to let the sub mind take over. and dont worry if it takes you a while.
Hmmm… well, that is not at ALL what I was hoping to accomplish here
First, three of rdo3’s points:
“then that tune doesn’t fit your driving style, load different tunes until you get one that works for you.”
This is not the advice I’d offer. I started with gtFOOTw’s “Open Source” setup, using Worm’s tweaks. Ran a 2:07.192 with it, and felt I could do a little better. I then loaded your tune (Lou) from in-game, and that’s what I used to get the 2:06.198. Went back to the FOOT tune, and could clearly see that your tune was better suited to this track. Don’t know what you changed, but it was for the better.
At this point, you know that your tune is at least capable of a 2:06.198 (quicker, if one of the top guys went to work with it)… And, since you tweaked the original tune to your style, I don’t think I’d go off looking for a different tune. It’s not uncommon to hear “I’ve tried 8 different tunes, and I can’t find the one that will put me in the top …” In my view, sticking with one proven tune until you can drive the heck out of it is a much more productive way to go, and is much more likely to produce the desired results.
“give the celica a go”
Ugh… personal opinion, of course, but taking that approach will leave you with ZERO improvement. Sure, you could move up positions on the LB, but then you’d be right back at “How can I improve my lap? I’m still being beaten by the same car, it’s just a different car.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re using a stock Mini or a race-prepped Ferrari — if you learn to drive ONE car fast, you’ll be able to drive ANY car fast.
"don’t be afraid to take some breaks’
Now this sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. It’s a video game - games should be fun. If I’m getting that frustrated trying to do something in a game, I should take a break for a bit. Plus it’s absolutely correct that your physical condition - stress, adrenalin, fatigue, etc - will affect your performance.
Let me offer another suggestion: Chase your OWN ghost for a while.
When you’re chasing someone who is a couple seconds quicker, you fall off the pace pretty early in the lap. From there on, you end up paying more attention to the ghost pulling farther and farther away instead of paying attention to your own driving.
When you’re chasing someone who is just a bit quicker, you’re likely seeing him make mistakes (unless you’re up at the top of the board). It’s also not unusual to be ahead of him at certain points, and then fall behind at other points… and you have no way of knowing why - Did you catch him after that turn because you took it really, really well? Or because he took it poorly?
When you chase your own ghost, you know exactly where you’re improving (or messing up). If you run pretty even with your ghost for 3 turns, and then start pulling ahead after turn 4… well, you know you took turn 4 better that time. Experiment with braking a little earlier or later… adjust your turn-ins and track-outs… Suddenly, you find your ghost getting smaller and smaller in the mirror
D’oh! Got so caught up in other comments, I forgot to offer some direct advice for this track!
The Alps track - more than any other in the game - is a momentum track. And with a D-Class car, you do very little braking.
Lou — Since we’re running this with Auto-transmission, it’s worth pointing out: on my lap, the only place the transmission drops to 4th gear is at turn 1. The entire rest of the lap the car never leaves 5th gear. If you’re finding that the auto-trans is dropping down to 4th anywhere else, then you’ve immediately found somewhere that you can hold a little extra speed… plus, without the slow auto gear changes, that’ll shave a bit more time.
IIRC, I only brake slightly in 4 spots. A little going into the first turn, going up the hill with the leaves, just a very slight bit at the turn after the tunnel, and a small amount on the last sweeper before the finish line. The rest of the track is either full throttle or a little bit of feathering. I never bothered to look at the gears since I am on Auto. I will take note of it the next time I run the track.
To keep the car on the inside line, you need to lift off the throttle (and maybe tap the brakes) to start a very very mild drift; control the drift with throttle, not steering, by mild I mean less than 2-3’s of slip angle - if you fishtail, if won’t be faster, but much slower. If you do this correctly you will be able to get back on the gas 100% almost immediately after you touch the apex of the sweeper, and keep your speed/momentum up.
Sounds like you might be a good candidate for investing in a wheel. The Thrustmaster TX is pretty good. There is no clutch and the brake pedal takes some time to get used to, but shifting is much easier with the paddle shifters. Plus it is blast to race with. All the Alps couses are good wheel tracks because you can hold your lines consistently and there aren’t any sharp corners where controllers can have an advantage. Just my two cents. Fanatec has a decent wheel stand that is reasonable and you can use a lowered office chair with the recline active to get a decent cockpit feel. I have a cockpit with a Fanatec set up that I can’t bring myself to mount those plastic pedals to it. I think some adapters are on the way from Basher Boards for the CS pedals and shifter. A wheel setup will probably cost you $500 plus US dollars.
I agree that I would probably benefit from a wheel tremendously. The miser in me is hard to convince though. I didn’t spend a dime on video games in 25 years, now I’m the better part of a grand into this thing. The cheap SOB in me isn’t easy to convince when it comes to spending another $500. I will probably get a whell at some point though…
Don, you’ve been a huge help with all of this and I couldn’t be more greatful.
I got frustrated because watching your ghost allows me to see the mistakes I’m making, but I can’t seem to correct them just yet. I swear, I hit that guard rail right before the tunnel so many times its insane. I actually can get ahead of you by a little bit going up the big hill before the tunnel with all the leaves on the shoulder. From that point, its over. I keep losing my momentum there and you pass me at the turn before the tunnel. Coming out of the tunnel, you’re just gone and there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t match what you’re doing on the very first turn either. No matter how I run that, my front bumper is just behind your rear bumper at the end of that turn. I can catch you going up the first hill though and even pass you a bit as I said above. Somewhere around 55-60 seconds in, I’m even or ahead. Whatever I am doing between 60 and 70 is killing my laps.
The best thing I’ve read so far in this thread is that you were faster with my tune than Foot’s. At least that means I understand a little about the physics of the game. I just took Foot’s setup, knocked the tire compound down and started playing around with things. What I was aiming for was to get as much HP as I could while not adding much weight and still keeping grip. I think my tune is 141HP to his 131. Something like that. That extra HP doesn’t help on some tracks, but it sure does on the Alps. As you saw in your lap times, its not a huge difference, but its a difference none the less. Its still Foot’s awesome tune, just with a little tweak thrown into it by me.
I’m sticking with the Mini and I could care less where I end up on the leaderboard. I know I’m not very good yet, but I do believe this whole thing is going to help me get a lot better at the game in the long run. I’m going to leave it alone for a while then come back to it. Your idea of chasing my own ghost is a good one, that’ll probably be my next step. I really sucked at this game until I started hot lapping. I’ve just focused on D and C class and keep at it until I improve. One benefit is that my driver level is almost at 800 (think its 798) now and my credits are through the roof. Every time you beat a rival, the game really pays off. Especially when you’re as stubborn as me and will run 25 laps in order to get it done.
Hi lou.
Hope everything’s going well in your pursuit of improvement. Many years ago i recieved a Audi A4 company car with a auto trans. I didn’t like it but it was triptrontic also. Gear changes were really slow with both. In reality i found if the gear was higher than i wanted and wanted to lower gear i would lift off slightly and press down hard. My colleague called this kick down. It worked in reality but i dont know if it works in forza.
I loaded your tune and turned on auto transmission and proceded to follow your ghost for 20 laps. The first turn on Alps festival is important. If you lose time there with your setup, you may never make it back up. Practice that turn and you will gain a lot of time. also try to position your car on the track for the next turn ahead.
Your tune on the Mini will turn if you use the throttle to help steer the front end. The car will turn if you give it a chance to grip. Let off the throttle enough to get it to turn without loosing to much speed. I’m not the fastest driver but I try to learn from the fastest as much as I can.
All of the advice above my post has been very good. You have picked a difficult combination to master. FWD in D class on the Alps with an Automatic is getting right to the heart of what makes this game so much fun. Once you get the speed and time you want out of this car setup on this track, you will have learned a lot. By the way, you should be able to hit 2:06.500 with your setup on Alps festival. It is a flowing track and that is how you should be driving it. Have fun with it.
As said earlier learn manual with clutch. Map the controller so that the A button is the clutch. Also try taking a little bit of downforce off the tune. Gearbox around these tracks is usually the big difference. I will try this tomorrow and try to figure something out for you.
I saw that you are now the fastest Mini on that leaderboard. Did you do that with my setup? If I can’t make it to the top, at least it would be cool to know that my tune did.
ok, my alteration of Foot’s tune that is, fair is fair…
I’d like to get one of the top guys on that leaderboard to try my mini out and see what they can do with it.
Trust me, I hear what you’re saying. I gave it another whirl tonight and certainly improved that first turn some. I lowered my time to 2:07.72 (a little over .7 seconds faster) and got the 861 ranking. I’m the 51st Mini on that board now, so I’m moving in the right direction. Just not quite as fast as I’d like, but its cool. I will keep at it.
Driving it manually will come for me, but its going to have to wait. I tried manual without a clutch and I ended up spending too much time focusing on the gears that I wasn’t taking the right path, or braking at the right times. I’m just not good enough at the game yet to allow another distraction to get in the way. Focusing on the right path to take at this point is my main priority. Once I’m at a point where I think I’m ready, I will switch to manual.
Back in Forza 4 which I started with Manual without clutch, which I was most used to. I couldn’t keep up with the friends I found. I used to stack up more power to compensate, which always led to more or less unstable car.
One of these guys then gave me a tune. Tune that he had made for exact track, and we went racing. and my first feeling was “this is just too darn slow.” But somehow he just literally blew my doors off in acceleration.
Then he asked how am I shifting. And he pointed the reason why I was so slow.
The addition of the clutch button slow’d me down by lot for 2 weeks. I couldn’t keep up with my own times. But after that I started gaining time, on some tracks only few tenths, on some tracks over seconds, and after that I have been improving all the time. And to be honest. I feel that I’m now more in control of my car, than I was with without clutch.
What I’m saying here. is it might take some time, but it is truly worth taking the step for the manual transmission.
For me, W/O clutch to w/ clutch took 2-3 weeks but personally I shaved a lot of time with it. and the transition from automatic to manual is just about as big.
