So I am running rivals a good bit tonight. Not exactly having the best of nights either as my propensity for running dirty laps was rearing its ugly head all night. I decided that I was going to run 10 laps on Alps (which I haven’t run in a while) in B class and then call it a night. The first 9 laps were ok as I actually beat my PB, but just by the smallest fraction of a second. On the last lap, I didn’t take the first turn all that well, and sure enough, I’m .6 behind at the first split. So I figure this lap is wasted, but it is what it is and I’m just going to try and nail the rest of it. Well, I just ran the lap and didn’t bother to even notice the next split. As I’m coming up to the finish line, I’m getting ready to just wrap it up when that black box appears on the top of the screen saying you beat your rival. Turns out, I beat all the rivals on my friends list and my PB by 3 full seconds and that’s after being behind by .6 at the first split. I ran a 1:53 which put me at #326 on the leaderboard, 4 seconds behind the overall leader. I know many of you can do that in your sleep, but I sure can’t and don’t normally. If any of you remember some of my other annoying threads on here from the past few weeks, you know that is major improvement for me. What is blowing me away is that it just came out of nowhere too. I did it with my own tune too, which is making me even happier.
Anyway, just wanted to tell someone as the GF and the dogs couldn’t care any less
Congratulations! Truthfully, six tenths of a second is nothing and, depending on who you are racing against, that small stint of time is easily made up when a Rival takes a bad line, runs a corner too slow or misjudges a gear shift. Keep up the good work and I think you’ll find yourself beating your Rivals by more than three seconds more often than not.
I know the feel, I was testing my C class RX8 on Prague full, by the second corner I was a 1/4 second off my previous 2:05, so I just used that lap as a tune tester, but I wound up running a 2:03:999. If only I could manage to run that online so it counts on the LB, but I always choke under pressure
Well I sure do feel slow when I’m chasing the ghosts of you and Don, that’s for sure. I knew the 190E was a great car just by looking at the leaderboard when I first started. The challenge that I set for myself was to learn to build/tune one well enough to compete and then learn how to drive it properly. You and Don showed me in another thread that I got the tuning somewhat down with my C class version. The B is even better, IMO. Obviously, I’m not going to settle for #326, but I feel like I cleared a big hurdle. I have no idea how high I can go on the leaderboard, but the ride is becoming a lot more fun now that I’m getting better. I’ll set a new goal for #236 and go from there. Maybe I will get there, maybe not…
because you “gave up” and relaxed. you let your subconscious take over. i told you it would be like flipping a switch. i told you that you weren’t going to get your best times while stressed. and as you learn to trust your subconscious you’ll remain relaxed and wont be pressing too hard. if you saved the replay watch it. i’m betting you went into the corners, controlled the car better, waited barely longer so you could get on the gas without having to lift again to miss the rail ao you came out of the corner much faster. you slowed down and went faster. and think of all the money you are going to save on replacement controllers. if you can now stay relaxed on all the other tracks you’ll be good to go.
you can do it, you proved it. and ironically it was closer to “in your sleep” than any other laps you’ve done. i told you when you relax and let your subconscious take over it would feel way easier than trying to hard.
You’re right about being relaxed. I’m a pretty intense person and tend to put lots of pressure on myself to do well at things. Its been an issue for me my whole life. In some ways its good because it doesn’t let me settle and keeps driving me. In others its terrible, I have two halves of a controller sitting here to prove it…
I usually drive without any ghost on screen because:
1 - if it’s too close I find it disturbing
2 - I don’t get in the “I have to beat this guy” mood
Usually it works, I’m more relaxed and lap times come out more easily. I use a ghost only if my lap time is already quite low and I have to get the pace, then I disable it.
Since I’m still learning, I like the ghosts for now. It depends very much so on who it is though. I usually pick a name that I recognize from here who is a little bit ahead of me (maybe around .2 or .3 or about 30 or so spots higher on the leaderboard) and then set my sights on them. Right now, that name is gtFootw, I’m coming for you buddy I do get that “I have to beat this guy” mentality after a while. However, its more of a learning thing for me. I really do watch very closely what other people do better than me and then try to copy it. The things I do better than them, I pretty much ignore. It works for me sometimes…
Anyway, last night wasn’t just a one time occurrence, something obviously clicked for me. I just ran 5 more laps against my own ghost and beat it on the 4th lap. Then I beat that time on the 5th lap. It was by less than a tenth on each lap so I only moved up to #303, but at least I know its not going to be one of those things that I can never repeat. I really think I can get another second or so off the time too.
When chasing a ghost to get the pace I usually chose someone who is 0,5 seconds faster than my best lap.
Probably you are getting to know the car and the track better and better…looking at others is very useful, using both replays and ghosts. Too bad there is no telemetry like in Forza 4, it was a great learning instrument. However keep it up, I can already see you in top 200
LOL, I just got there… I just ran a 1:52 and beat my time by almost .6 and ended up at #197. I’m a little confused though as I hit two guard rails. One I just brushed, but I hit the other one pretty hard and my lap still stayed clean. I swear I’ve hit it much lighter in the past and had the dirty lap indicator go on. I’m not complaining at all though, I’ll gladly take a spot in the top 200 (my first one on any leaderboard). I’m pretty pumped right now… I bought this game on New Year’s Eve and was absolutely atrocious at it for the first month. If you told me I would ever have a snowball’s chance in Miami at breaking the top 200 in any class, I’d have thought you were insane.
Anyway, I don’t use the replays as I find nothing to gain from them. That’s just me though. What I do is when a ghost is passing me by taking a turn or coming out of a stretch faster than me, I will run a lap or two making sure to stay right behind him instead of being a little bit ahead. I watch what he’s doing and always try to learn something from it. It takes a while, but its been paying off today. I had to run 8 laps instead of my usual 5 to figure out what Foot was doing and why I couldn’t catch him. I watched him for 3 laps and then figured it out. I didn’t have any of the prior Forzas, so I have a lot to learn still.
The next name I recognize is Clay in LA at 141 and a little better than 3 tenths faster. I’m going to target him next. I know its a silly way of doing things, but it works for me.
The only thing that sucks about those laps is when you think about the mistakes you did make. Lol. Just keep setting small but obtainable goals and you’ll eventually shoot up the boards and learn faults in driving that while negligible in a racing environment, are a big deal in hotlapping.
I hear you… I’m aware of about 5 mistakes I made on my last lap. They are all small ones, but correcting them could add up to a second or better. The trick for me is to correct those mistakes without making new ones
I typically only race with ghost I’m competing against for a couple of laps ( then hit the start button and go to hud and turn them off) and if I’m still up tight I will even turn off the Lap timer and splits, so it just me and the road and run.
When I do run with ghost always on they are usually a -2 to -2.5 seconds ahead of me and someone doing the whole track well (in same car and tune) so I have a rabbit to chase. But I find I do a lot better if I just zone out and drive and not worry about splits or times. If I geek out I’ll usually drop back the pace and hit my turns as if I’m warming tires and work back up to race pace slowly to reset myself and when I really hit the wall. I just move on to something else and revisit later. Get in a car I like, (Corvette Racing car) and listen to the rumble do a few good laps and then go back to what I’m trying to do when I’m more relaxed. I psych myself out all the time. I had some awesome splits on the CBH and just go plain stupid with three turns left to go. lol
***edited to add: the other thing I do is to watch the replay of some one good ( same car same tune if possible) and place it in my driving view (hood for me) and just let it run over and over and over - watching and listening - sometimes its the listening that really works for me - the rhythm of the track and pace get droned into you subconsciousness, like a song. ( that might be weird- but it works for me)
( that’s how I deal with myself - hopefully you find something that works, for you)
Like Swerve said- initially I have elation when it happens and then I’ll think, damn, I should be able to do a xx:xx.xxx time… and then I’m back to being me. lol
