Clean Driving and Racing

Thanks for the link.

I got my figures previously mentioned from a book called Winning: A Race Driver's Handbook (George A. Anderson and many guest authors, 1993, published by Motorbooks International). Unfortunately, I mis-remembered them; now that I have the book here, the figures it supplies are 15 degrees for bias-ply street tires, 6-12 for radial street tires, 4-6 for bias-ply racing tires, and 2 for radial racing tires. Not being a particularly scholarly work, this book never says where those figures came from, though the original graphs from the blog post actually look much more reasonable now that I'm not going off a faulty rememberance (also interesting to note that my own car, with its mismatched snow tires, might actually be happiest with a 12 degree drift angle!)

I'll have to look through some of that Avon tire data when I get a chance. If you're interested, the slip angle figures in the book came from a comment inserted by guest author Danny Collins; maybe he's on record saying more about it elsewhere, but I'm too lazy to look right now.

 

A lot of the video's seem to be moving in "fast forward".

I've noticed that in general Beamng's physics seem to be running faster than the real world.

Is this just my perception?

When driving about it seems like the car's behave in an almost "arcade" manner?

 

(It goes without saying that this is all WIP)

 

Frick, whut?

TOOOOOO THE WIKI!!!!!!

Also, why are so many BeamNG clean driving videos unlisted? That one's unlisted, Serzari's/Spec Racer Z's time trial videos are, in many cases, unlisted... perhaps different reasons in each case, but still...

 

^ Mitch

you killed me now, damn, it looks so cool (both car and track) gonna wait patiently for this.

@Spec Racer Z

Huh that's a very good point.

I tried it but seems too difficult for me now. I'll have to practice later.

Overall thank you for your in depth analysis, actually I've never read any article about advanced driving in my life (even this posted here in OP) etc. But small detail like preparing suspension for turning gave me this result, and last part of track (chicane and final turn) were complete rubbish.



So this alone gave me -0.5 sec (probably more, because I lost a lot in last section). But anyway in pessima my racing style is biased a little to the fun of driving rather than trying to set time record. In ETK it was more about doing it clean and fast, but obviously wasn't near perfect. Anyway it's awesome how much of stability and traction you gain by details like this, so thank you again for lesson

 

Oh my god, West Coast circuit with a corkscrew near the end and the time attack Sunburst. Seeing that in an update will be a fun day. Getting some HKS Evo vibes.

@Drivver Awesome to hear the tips worked out. Very nice improvement in such a short amount of time. I've always had an interest in racing games and motorsports both, but probably started looking at basic racing tutorials and resources outside of the games themselves 10+ years ago simply because I wanted to become better at Forza/Gran Turismo events and license tests, and it exploded from there when I started racing online and had access to leaderboards in Forza Motorsport 2. I can understand not diving into all of the various articles and the like if you already know enough to get you around a track fine without crashing and don't really have aspirations of professional racing someday though. If you did want to try just a single resource to give you the most cohesive and easily digestible rundown of racing in an hour, I'd recommend the iRacing Driving School videos from the OP myself. It has extremely good visual demonstrations and live examples of the concepts as they're being explained which makes it much more intuitive than articles alone.

And yeah, the feeling of those eureka moments when a concept or technique clicks for the first time is one of the biggest things that keeps me invested in the competitive side of driving. I still have those moments a decade later. It's truly incredible just how much you can optimize any little part of your techniques or racing line to become a bit faster or a bit more consistent, no matter how fast you already are or how stuck you may have felt just moments before that click into place.

My guess would be the framerate issues many of us have which get captured in the videos. Seeing 60 FPS motion video immediately after an unsteady drop of 40 FPS can cause this unnaturally fluid and fast sensation because of the way your brain tries to process the slower frames as a steady scene of movement and then has to catch up when the frames suddenly increase. Performance cars truly driven to their limit can also look unreasonably quick if you don't view a lot of time attack motorsports and lap records for a frame of reference. Try to watch something like this high framerate Time Attack video and compare it to the steady 60 FPS recording that B25Mitch posted.

 

Another great resource for learning about driving and the techniques behind it should look into a book named "How To Drive" by Ben Collins the Ex-Stig from top gear.
Also @Spec Racer Z if you dont mind me asking, what is your background to cars and racing? As i am intrigued from how much you know. I am only 16 but have a fair amount of experience with racing cars and also knowing the techniques of going fast on tarmac and all of the critique and tips you have given people seem to be similiar to my opinions on their videos as well.

Ps. Sorry about the picture quality its taken using the selfie camera on an ipod (stupid apple, why wouldnt they pit a rear facing camera). I could have uploaded a 4500 by about 3400 pixel photo but i dont have the time or internet to do so.

 

Actually, there's not too much more background to share than what I gave on my start to learning. I don't have family with a history of motorsports and have never track driven a full-sized vehicle because of expenses and only having "mission critical" family cars which are already fairly worn from constant commuting. Also unfortunately have barely any experience with karting other than a couple dozen runs at an indoor electric kart place focused on time attacking called Pole Position. I got Hot Wheels when I was little, enjoyed racing games on the Sega Genesis, and got to use a cheaper spring centering Sidewinder wheel in Need For Speed: High Stakes (the car showcase videos were incredibly detailed and not half-assed in that game) and less so in a Nascar sim.

I was more into flight sims and tycoon games before the couple racing sims we owned, and didn't quite have sim racing draw me in until a family friend brought over Gran Turismo. The career mode, the large variety of cars and tracks, the classy presentation and soundtrack, all of it hit the right spots for me, so I started seeking out similar games when we had more consoles. Though two notable not-entirely-sims that still fostered my interest in cars as a whole, Test Drive: Eve of Destruction was a derby style racing game with an immersive career mode and a really weighty and enjoyable handling feel (plus cockpits), and I remember Stuntman on the PS2, which definitely wasn't a sim but had good weighty handling, a really cool exploration of stunt driving, and was punishingly difficult. (PS, the Port Escape scenario in BeamNG is basically a 100% realistic version of a level you'd see in Stuntman and I love it for that.) Played the sequels to Gran Turismo, Sega GT 2002 (RIP, really a fun racing game with unique career elements), and eventually the first Forza Motorsport. I liked the career about as much as GT minus the lack of license tests, but much preferred a controller with triggers for the pedals, plus different cars and tracks that neither shared meant increased variety.

Mostly pushed myself to get better at the games rather than driving itself, until I finally got Xbox Live in 2008 or so. Many years of simple practice at them as games, figuring out the basics of a racing line from the license tests, moderate motorsports viewership and knowledge, I still was getting my ass handed to me on most tracks. So, I started reading articles and guides, watching replays on the leaderboards, and putting in more effort to understand what was different and how someone like Daveyskills could be so otherworldly faster in the exact same car and tune. (Some background on Daveyskills, he's still ranked #1 in Forza 2's overall time trial leaderboard with like 30 different events of all kinds of racing styles, and often right at the top in the leaderboards for Forza 3 and 4 too. Also recorded what was a world record in 2011 for the Star Mazda on Barber in iRacing so he's equally intense in a console sim or PC sim, controller or wheel. No idea what he's doing now.)

The races where I generally grew most were one-make races without tuning. Everyone being in identical cars meant that there were no excuses or confusing tuned characteristics to get in the way. Everything you saw in the replays or when the person widened the gap in front of you could be reproduced exactly if you matched their techniques. Everyone but the most intensely skilled racers had easily visible weaknesses and strengths relative to each other driver I saw (including myself obviously), and also saw intriguing alternative racing lines which would often hit a similar pace by the end of the track segments. It allowed me to build this very broad and in-depth pool of knowledge on all of the common and more unique mistakes people would make, and all the techniques of varying effectiveness that others used to avoid those mistakes. Through this, I was able to recognize all kinds of progressions and technique specialties until I soon started seeing how it all fit together for much quicker drivers and began to hold my own against them. I'd reach the next tier, break through more plateaus, share my experiences with other drivers who would in turn do the same, and just never stopped looking for new concepts and approaches to become a better driver as I repeated that process. My few league racing championships in Forza 4 were especially helpful, as the intense preparation followed by the intense pressure of each event made me much better at handling my nerves and truly reaching for that level of skill you aren't quite sure of until provoked with the right mindset.

I've been the guy looking in at an absurdly optimized lap thinking "That's inhuman, are we sure he's not using a modded controller or some advanced AI?", and I've been the "alien" driver who was numerous seconds faster per lap in an identical car and accused of using mods because "there's just no way." Those experiences are what shaped my interest in demystifying racing skills and why I try to understand the deeper reasons for why they work beyond just putting them into practice. I'm always happy to help others break plateaus and improve their driving, because once you get past that slower, potentially frustrating first step where the top runs are alien and seemingly unreachable, it becomes one of the most satisfying and endlessly gripping hobbies I know of.

Whether you can afford a full racing cockpit simulator and an actual track/race car, or just a gamepad and a console sim (basically me until a used G27 a year ago), I'd definitely say it's worth the time and effort.


Edit: Also, here's two more scenarios from my recording backlog, Road Race and Road Race 2.

 

bumb?
I'm not that good at racing so I decided to make one more drift video.


The 200BX feels like it wants to slide at a bit higher speeds than than the GM. I swapped the rear wheels because they felt too grippy for me. Also the front wheels don't steer as far as I'd like them to, so I'm not going to use 200BX that much.

EDIT: added drifting tips

Some tips: (everything here is related to grand marshal)It likes to drift best on second gear. Don't go too fast. Third is useful when exiting corners and drifting at higher speeds. First gear for tight and low speed corners. Will not slide on fourth gear. And don't use clutch when upshifting! Controller might be easier than a wheel, personally don't have a controller so can't tell. I drift with a wheel (200° steering). Look at the front wheels when you start learning drifting and learn from your mistakes. You almost never need full throttle but sometimes it's acceptable. You can extend the drift if you start braking mid-drift (try it, can be seen on my first drifting video at 2:25). Also google "scandinavian flick" and learn it. And that's pretty much all you need to drift it.

EDIT_2: The tips I gave are now irrelevant thanks to 0.6.0 and superchargers. I can't even drift it anymore.

 

The new hill climb Sunburst is really awesome, it's surprisingly easy to handle.
Video is processing, should be 4k@60 when done.

 

That downforce tho...

 

Indeed.
My first try running a lap of ECA using a tuned Sunburst took 38 tries to succeed, and it only took one try using the Hillclimb Sunburst, i will say, it is pretty easy to drive fast.

 

Wow, with the new replay feature I'll be chiming in a lot more on this driving thread, since I'll be able to replay & record good laps. I suggest other people use the replay feature if possible, and as an added bonus better camera angles can be used for footage.

Wait, is it possible to upload the replay data itself to the forum? I don't know how large they are yet, that's something for me to investigate.

 

Replay?! How does it work?

 

0.6 update has the a replay feature. There's an app to control it. I can't tell you specifics as the update is still downloading for me.

 

Oh.

 

Well, i recorded a "replay", and the length ended up about 1:30 minutes, the file is 18.5MB, located in the root of the BeamNG folder in documents.

 

Not going all out 10/10 here, and it was pretty early morning for me, but here is my highest power car in my mod doing a clean driving attempt at Utah. The body kit aero works wonders at high speeds!

 

I tested out the new ETK I Series

 

Here's a crazy one. Full lap in 9 minutes around the Canyon of Speed. I had to reset a couple times to fix the aero but it is a true one take otherwise.