Derek, here is a very detailed ACC track guide video for Brands Hatch by one of the aliens in that sim:



I was very surprised how much of the track you can in use in that sim without invalidating your laptime.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

I think I should also start trying other cars too. Maybe I'd do better in a different one. I love the Ferrari but not that information cluster on the dash.

The BMW M4 was the easiest of the GT 3´s to get comfortable and fast without too much of an effort. The car feels just great out of the box!

It turns out it was my wheel. I had made zero progress in the consistency and car control ratings, despite the fact I felt I was both in control and fairly consistent, some of the time haha.

I decided to revisit my wheel settings. I'm new again and these are the sorts of things you dial in over time. I made a several tweaks. The changes worked great, the wheel is much better now. But the best thing is the changes triggered the ratings I wasn't getting. I went from beginner to FIA Bronze rating in an hour turning laps at Spa. These ratings were not working, changed the wheel settings, and suddenly they worked. The program is evaluating your control inputs, and something I did convinced the sim that I was now in control, when before it calculated that I was not.

Honestly nothing really changed as far as my pace, driving technique or racing line. But all of a sudden those ratings meters started working. I made a few changes, so I don't know which was the magic one, but I suspect it is the minimum force setting. I think my wheel has a FFB deadzone because of the hybrid system, and I think that in some way 'cuts out' the inputs, making the program see continual disruptions in my control. Just speculation, but whatever is the explanation it is now working, and my ratings are going up. I even hit the track with some AI for a bit of practice and now have a safety rating too.

Spa was wonderful. Not sure if it's the track or the setup but the car was just locked in, everything amazingly stable and smooth. Twenty laps and never made a single slip aside from an overcooked exit one time at Eau Rogue. It was a sublime driving experience. I also turned more laps at Monza and Brand's Hatch (two-second improvement). Then I swapped to AC and tried to get that 458 achievement at Imola, and failed.

Then I swapped to the Lotus 49 at '66 Monza.and oh my god I was playing GPL again. Just fantastic. I saw an achievement called something like "Old GPLer's Know why This is Important", to break 1:30. That's a fun target but I didn't break it. Not far off, but I really struggle to put the power down out of Parabolica. And I suck at Lesmos. I'll keep working on this.

I mean, come on, right?

After watching Red Bull sweep the weekend at Imola I settled in to my new rig and started cranking out the laps. I'm still slow, but I now have ratings, adding Pace yesterday. Turned my first laps in ACC at Donnington, Paul Ricard, Silverstone and Imola. Car Control rating is in the 80s so I must be doing OK, but I'm still way off the pace. Dipped in to the 1:54s at Monza in the 488 running a Hotlap Event to establish Pace rating. That is a full seven seconds off the top time submitted.

I'd like to add that I was thrilled to see the leaderboards have only legitimate times. Every racing sim or game I run has hundreds of cheat laps at the top of the board. But not ACC and that's great to see.

I also ran three races at Spa, just quick race set to 20 minutes. One thing I need to work on is pit procedures. I made these races short enough that I wouldn't need to pit, but there's a lot of jeopardy and penalties lurking here and I'll need to get that sorted so I can do it right. What's the best approach, while minimizing how much menu navigation must be done while driving?

I also spent time driving other cars. Turned laps in the Mercedes, Huracan, one of the 911s, McLaren 720 and one of the BMWs for another one of the Events, a Hot Stint session at Brand's Hatch. M2 CS I think, maybe a GT4 or Cup car? I was lapping about 12 seconds slower in this one.

At the moment I feel like the proverbial tortoise. Good consistency but pace is slow. Unlocking the pace is eluding me, despite hundreds of laps I'm not making much progress on going faster. That challenge is motivating me.

I also returned to AC to see if I could break 1:30 at old Monza in the Lotus 49 but best I could manage was 1:33.3.

For the moment I´m just making sure that I have adding fuel disabled in the pitstop menue entry in the setup screen before the race.

So, that the crew doesn´t add fuel when I have to visit the pits for some repairs needed after a crash.

Navigating menus while trying to lap at speed has never gone well for me.

You have to also 'confirm' a new driver before getting to the pit right? Seems there are several things you have to set and confirm to pit properly. But maybe this can all be set in the setup, and the attention required during the race can be minimized.

I said give me a month to get accustomed to all this new racing stuff, but three days will do

Hooked up with NimRud tonight for a multiplayer test and I had a blast. Productive too as I set new PBs at both Brand's Hatch and Zandvoort, knocking two seconds off at each track. That's awesome, and thanks to Frank (NimRud) for the tip to change FOV, which I did. That shouldn't explain laptime improvement, but it's all I changed.

Frank and I raced in the same leagues all those years ago, and talking tonight on Teamspeak I realized it had been about fifteen years! Wow. It's a privilege to do so once again, you're a top racer and a cool dude.

Yeah I had an absolutely brilliant time. We ran around Mt Panaroma, and it's my first time here since the GTR days. But a couple tours around and we were zipping along in tandem. It's a challenging circuit, full of dips and twists, and it was awesome. Frank's about six seconds faster, so he had to reign it in a bit to run with me, but he did it perfectly, somehow running at just the right speed to maintain his lead while I ran near my limit. My Trust and Safety ratings both shot up. The car felt hooked up and I could really go for it and what a great driving experience. Really loving this sim. And finding some pace is a great motivator.

I turned a 2:11 in the 488 Evo and left a second or two easy out there on the tarmac, Frank ran a 2:06 and probably did the same. Thanks for the session Frank, that was a lot of fun and see you next time.

I was hoping for some replies after so much enthusiasm haha.

After running with Frank for a couple hours I did the seasonal event with the Huracan at Imola. It's a 30-minute Hot Stint. I was running in the low 1:50s, with a PB of 1:50-flat. This was good for my ratings. Running with Frank on the server, and visiting a new circuit brought down the Consistency rating. I felt like I did well, but I was running 2:18 and then brought it down a little each lap to 2:11. So that's an improvement of 7 seconds. That is not consistent. So it doesn't matter if you're getting better or worse, consistency is exactly that. So of course as I learn each new track the consistency will naturally suffer even if I'm doing well.

The Hot Stint for 30 minutes of course encourages consistent lapping and my Consistency rating recovered.

I then switched to AC and tried to beat 1:56 at Imola in the 458 and again failed dreadfully. Not even close yet.

The GPL mod shot looks really great! I must admit I'm terrible driving these cars, but I do love driving them. My times are all over the place, and add in other cars in the mix and I tend to spin out and crash more often than not. The '67 season was the best IMO.

The GPL mod does look great, but I have yet to get it.The Lotus 49 and 1966 Monza are stock I think. I only have one or two AC DLC, Dream packs as they are called, and no mods yet, but I think everyone has the Lotus and old Monza.

It's really a handful, as we'd expect of course. My lap is fine until I get to Lesmos, where I suddenly feel like I'm piloting a sled, so easy to snap when you get on the throttle. Then wide open through the old Ascari, before it was polluted with a chicane, and down to Parabolica. My lap really falls apart here, even if I get the braking right, putting the power down out of Parabolica is so difficult. The car wants to skate right out and the modulating throttle to keep it in check kills the run down the pitstraight, killing my lap time. My PB in GPL here was 1:28.177, in the Eagle though. Benchmark was 1:30.202, hence the name of the achievement for breaking it in Assetto Corsa.

But I've not gone faster than 1:33.3 in AC. Max power side differential is 80 in AC, when I could go 85 in GPL. A small difference, but would let me lay down the power out of Parabolica better. Instead I need to get it right with springs and camber. I've got too much rotation right now both throttle-on and throttle-off to turn fast laps. But I like this sort of challenge as you try to hit targets through a combination of better setup and better driving. 3.3 seconds though might be beyond me

My first night action, this at Misano on the SimHQ server

Turning laps in the 488 Evo

Had the day off yesterday and managed some seat time amid all the adult responsibilities.

Tested our new server by running a race event solo at Misano. I came in first by some margin

Spent a lot of time with chassis setup, learning it better. The differential has always been one of the best ways for me to tweak cornering balance, but in ACC it's different. A single setting, rather than having the differential split between power and coast sides. Bottom line is that lower preload values mean more oversteer on corner entry and less on exit. As ever it's a balancing act, but it's a good setting to play with to dial in your cornering behavior.

I used that to good effect at Brand's Hatch, dipping in to the 1:29s there. That's five full seconds I've found in the past couple of days. Now to find another five.

I also ran an offline sprint race event at Spa, although all I did was practice and qualifying, then had to shut it down for the night. Managed to drop in to the 2:24s.

My lap times are generally about 6-8 seconds off the top times at any given track, but this motivates me and the times are tumbling as I learn the sim and improve my skills.

My son returned from two weeks in Florida with the ex. He is 12 and a car guy. His knowledge of cars puts me to shame lol. I casually said I decided to get back in to sim racing, which he has long encouraged me to do. He said, did you get a wheel? I said yeah it's upstairs and he bounded up the stairs. Woah! he said spotting the racing rig. I let him and his friend turn laps in ACC at Brand's Hatch and he was loving it. He did pretty good too, breaking 1:40 in the Lambo.

I had read there is a setting to turn off the driver ratings system so you can show ACC to friends and family. It can be set to On or Multiplayer Only. So I set it to MP but a word of warning, that my Car Control rating was not disabled, and as my son and his friend spun and crashed around Brand's Hatch my CC rating plummeted, from low 80s to low 60s.

So who's driving these sims? What are your favorite cars and tracks? What laptimes are you turning? Which setup changes are you making, and how is it working? I see no posts about this stuff and despite talking about it for weeks I have no idea what cars and tracks anyone likes, how they're doing. Let's talk about it

I hopped on to the SimHQ server last night, finding Hungaroring on the docket. First time here in ACC, but I know the track well enough from F1 and was turning 1:50.

No one stopped by so then I decided to see if I could identify a second GT3 car that I really like, other than the Ferrari. Drove a number of them for short stints. Unlike many sims I find it difficult in ACC to really feel the differences between the cars, maybe because they are so similar to meet the GT3 regs. It doesn't jump out at me which cars accelerate best, corner better, have the most power. There are differences, but it's not easy for me to really feel them. So I'm left to choose less by performance and more by the soft factors. Cockpit view, dash layout, engine sounds.

The winner of the shootout was the Audi R8. I really like this car in ACC. Feels nicely balanced. The engine note is intoxicating. Sounds freakin' fantastic when passing a wall, like a Formula 1 car. Compared to something like the AMG which sounds like a Huey. Love the sound of the R8 V10! I also like the dash, and especially how the TC and ABS readouts flash blue when they engage. That's instant real-time feedback that I think will make me a smoother driver. Maybe other cars do the same thing, but if so it wasn't so apparent. In the R8 it is and noticed in the peripheral.

So yeah, going to go with the R8 for a while.

Did some more practice at Brand's Hatch, which has become my de facto test track. Such a great layout and I think if you can master this track you can tame them all. Managed to drop my PB a few tenths to 1:28.1. Getting there.

Because my ratings had suffered so much from letting my son drive it I wanted to recover them if I could so did another Hot Stint seasonal challenge. Picked one from the past, so it didn't count for score, but still boosted my ratings. 20 minutes of lapping consistently does wonders for the ratings. Then I ran another race at Spa, bumping the AI to 90/90 which puts them closer to my level, I qualified a half second in front on a 39-degree track. Led in to Eau Rouge and stayed there, winning by 9 seconds (30-minutes race). My ratings would be better served with some measured passing moves, but even still my ratings recovered over the course of the night. Still FIA Bronze, but now sitting on 7,400 points. What does it take to hit Silver?

My laptimes are improving every day as I learn more about the sim, setups, tracks and lines. But I'm still well off the pace. Here's a handy chart. The top times are fantasy for me at the mo, but the rookie column is within reach I think.




I'm within a second at Spa and Brand's Hatch for example and some others are close too. Those top times seem insane at this point to me. These laps are assumed to be with 80l on board

I finally got around to installing AC last night and hopefully today I will play it and check out the new solo career mode. I hadn't played AC in over 4 years according to Steam.

With regards to ACC, I am around but I am just not running ACC for now as I am more Into rF2, so I am turning with that. Will get back to ACC at some point.

Hopefully soon while we have a dedicated server and some interest!

Hopped in last night for a long session of trying to improve. I mostly did that.

Started off on the SimHQ server and ran a race in the R8 at Suzuka. That was a new track for me in ACC, and I also turned laps at Nurburgring and Oulton Park. I had confused Hockenheim and the Ring in my mind and was well confused for a bit when the track didn't go where I expected it to.

Hopped back on the server in hopes someone might be around, but it was empty. Catalunya was up so I turned some laps. I said I was switching to the R8 for a while, but I decided to run this session in the 911. I had only briefly run this car, and I ignored it since it is the consensus hardest car to drive,

But man it clicked for me. At Barcelona I lopped 1.5 seconds off my PB, to 1:49-flat, then went to Brand's Hatch --the real test considering all the laps I've turned here -- and set a new PB on the first stint, dipping in to the 1:27s. I then took it to Spa but not as fast here.

Oulton Park is a delightful romp through the countryside.

For the moment the 911 is my ride

It's actually a 991, but same difference.

Hopped on the SimHQ server to find Oulton Park on the docket. Spent about 45 minutes working on the lines in the Porsche. Great track, this.

I also hit Laguna Seca, Zolder, Paul Ricard and Donington. Made Donington a race event with practice set to an hour so I could run with AI on the track. Good fun, and the AI is pretty good to run with. Donington is not on that pace chart I posted above. Too bad there's no discussion here, maybe someone would have posted about their laps at Donington? Just kidding.

Split time between the 991 and the 488. I like both of these cars, but the feel varies widely from track to track, which is down to the setups that are included and that I use as a baseline. At one track it will feel hooked up and the next greasy as hell. I need to identify those setups that feel great, see how they're done, and then transfer those settings to other tracks, with of course certain changes to suit the new track. No setup fits all.

I think the only tracks I've yet to run are Snetterton and Silverstone. So I'll run those next and get the Track Competence maxxed out. Three stars at every track is the goal, which just requires stringing together four valid laps. It's easy to get caught out by track limits, breaking the consecutive lap string.

I changed to dynamic weather, mostly fair, but it will introduce changing track temps, cloud cover, wet conditions and the like.

The program thinks I'm overdriving, which is true, but that's how you find the limit right? Becoming smoother is a goal, slow is fast and all that, plus for endurance racing tyre management is key. So you want to be fast but also easy on the shoes. Better braking, smoother lines, less wheel input. I changed the HUD settings to show Car Control, and it gives continual feedback about how you're driving. Too much wheel, too slow, too wide etc. I can't watch this while attempting to drive, but last night my son was calling out every piece of feedback.

And then he took over the rig, fired up AC and had a blast drifting around a drift track while I couldn't get a turn. Confiscated!

Made FIA Silver rating. It's 8,000 points it seems, but not straight away. It seemed that there's a requirement to keep it there for a bit before the license is granted. I think I read 250km. So hit 8,000 and keep it there for 250km and then Silver. Or so it appeared. Anyway, that's great, and a goal reached. I filled in laps at Snetterton and Silverstone. Now have three stars at all but six tracks, which all have two. This isn't hard, just string together four consecutive, so just takes putting in the time.

Spent time in the 991 and the 488, plus did a number of laps in GT4 cars (570S and Clubsport) to give those cars a bit of a run out.

Spent a lot more time tweaking setups and hitting the track to feel how much effect it has. This process takes forever, but pays off. And if you're going to do this you can't really be hopping around from car to car since the characteristics are so different. Just something like ride height and rake, testing how it works. The 991 default safe setup for example has a really high rake compared to other marques. Should it? Is it better, for me? Well that takes 20+ laps to figure out, maybe. It's art as much as science as I think I said earlier, and for me such a fun part of racing sims.

I need to start practicing pitting and then I'll start a career or championship.

I spent some time with AC over the past few days and I was reminded about just how crappy the brakes are on most of these cars. I got too used to the instant-performance of the F1 brakes. After going off the track a few times though I got back into the AC groove.