Feature: Driving rFactor
A Fast Lap at Essington Park

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If you find that you are not really in control over the car, leading it gently around the course like a dancer would, but rather reacting to it, trying to keep up with it, good and sound advice would be for you to slow down, before you entirely lose control.

After having studied the track map it is time to take the car out to the track. The first lap should always be driven cautiously because the tires and brakes need to be warmed up. The same thing applies to the driver; you also need to "warm up" — get comfortable driving the car and picking up the pace slowly. Build it up gradually.

One very good advice given by Steve Smith who wrote "Four-Wheel Drift", the strategy guide that came with Grand Prix Legends also applies here; Take it easy and do not stress yourself into diving harder and harder. The likelihood is that you will only crash, and then all you have achieved is that you have learned how to crash. It is far better to get some laps under your belt and learning how to drive the track. Don't focus too much on what lap times you are achieving but drive with focus and concentration. Don't go faster — concentrate more.

Ultimately, the concentration required for driving this thoroughbred racing car means that you should not pay much attention to what RPMs or top-speeds you ought to achieve. You should drive by feel and by ear. Below the gear indicator inside the car are a number of small LEDs that will light up when you should be going up a gear and you will notice it out of the corner of your eyes and learn to associate the engine note with the necessity to change up or down.

For less experienced drivers it is too easy to place focus on reaching a specified top speed or RPMs which often leads to driving by the numbers, instead of driving by the seat-of-your-pants. A mistake often seen is that drivers set themselves goals like achieving a specific lap time. In my experience this strategy seldom pays off. You should relax and maintain command of yourself, the car, and the situation, and just drive as efficiently and precisely as you can. Drive within your own abilities and then your abilities will grow.

If you are extremely interested in RPMs and top speeds, please view the provided replay available at the end of this article for detailed information.

The basic racing line is usually a line that straightens the corner out so that you can take the corner at higher speeds. The figure below is reproduced with kind permission from the author Brian Beckman, and it appears in his very informative series of articles which are available here. The "apex" is the part of the turn where your speed is the lowest through that particular turn.

Enough of the theory and the talk. Let's get to the track and let the engine do the talking.

Turn 1R: In the picture below we are already hard on the brakes, preparing to release them prior to turn-in. If you can position your car a bit more to the left than I've managed here, that would be ideal.

Although Turn 1 right is depicted on the track map as a 180° right hander with constant radius, in reality the turn tightens up on the exit. You can bleed off speed by braking hard initially and then ease off the brakes as you start the turn-in (which is later than you think). The darker lines in the track are a good indication of when you should start the turn-in. Mid-turn you'll be going into 4th gear and can actually stabilize the car with a short stab at the throttle, before braking lightly as you enter the second, tighter part of the turn. Select 3rd gear to accelerate gently onto the short straight before T2L.

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