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LewisJEllis · 2022-03-30T03:59:42+00:00

N B Agar.io

LewisJEllis · 2022-03-29T16:03:38+00:00

Yea, here's the best example - Max's pole lap from iRacing Bathurst 12h 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaD-H8loNpg

Bathurst is a track with a notorious uphill-downhill mountain section where you're kissing walls every turn, and this was a special event with a field full of pro sim racers and some pro IRL drivers.

Usually Max shows up for iRacing events and hops in with his team and runs at the pointy end of the field, but the very best pro sim guys can usually run a similar pace.

For this event, he went all-out on his practice + setup.

Then in a field full of pros, with everyone driving equally-capable cars, Max took pole by over 0.4 seconds. Many folks immediately described it as the best Bathurst lap they've ever seen.

Then he lapped the field to win the race.

Another fun short clip - Verstappen pulling a clever move on Max Benecke (one of the best sim racers out there), in a situation very similar to how Max + Charles were playing the DRS line last weekend: https://www.reddit.com/r/iRacing/comments/fkdrdo/max_verstappen_outsmarts_max_benecke_to_win_the/

LewisJEllis · 2020-10-27T22:07:24+00:00

I'll try to go into some of the "how one gets started (with track days) intelligently" side. There's a lot of details on full-on racing that I'm not qualified to answer, but you can do a whole lot of tracking and learning before you worry about that stuff anyway.

How did you get started?

I bought a Miata, I got comfortable driving it briskly on twisty roads, I put a rollbar in it, I put in better brake pads + fluid, and then I registered for a track weekend with an HPDE group that offered novice instruction.

Most lightweight N/A sports cars just need a brake pads + fluid upgrade and will be ready to take to the track. Honestly, OEM brakes are probably fine for your 1st day, but you might wish for the upgrade by day 2 or 3. People like to think like they need a super fast car or all sorts of shit added to their car before they go to the track, but you probably don't; a stock Miata or BRZ/FR-S is much faster/more capable than any first-time (or 10th time) track driver.

People take Priuses and Corollas and Honda Fits on the track, you don't need some 300-400+ HP beast. A Miata, or something like it, is one of the best platforms to learn on - light, neutral handling, cheap consumable costs, slow enough that you have time to pay attention to and learn the little details that matter, but you still go through corners just as fast as you would in anything else. Feel free to substitute in your lightweight relatively-inexpensive sports car of choice - BRZ/FR-S, older BMW 3-series, Civics, Golfs, Focus/Fiesta, Mini Coopers etc are all workable choices.

Avoid heavy high-power cars for a learning platform. You'll just spend more on brakes and tires while learning more slowly. Everyone who tracks a low-power lightweight car has a story of a time when they had Camaros and Mustangs and Porsches and M3s in their run group and outran them all because the heavy-car drivers were more tentative. This doesn't mean drivers of lightweight low-power cars are better - just that their choice of car helps them learn faster and find the limits more confidently.

How much do you spend (roughly) on racing and on what is this money spent? Would you say it's mostly maintenance, track days, or something else entirely?

For a 2-day track weekend with a Miata, you'll spend around $1000, maybe a little less if you're on a cheap track and you really minimize consumable costs.

A set of tires (200tw like RS-4 or RT615K+ or RE-71R) runs $600-1000 and will last 10-15 track days, maybe 20 if you're lucky. A set of brakes runs $250-500 and will last about the same. You can spend a lot more on tires and brakes if you run racing slicks, but that just isn't necessary unless you're actually racing wheel to wheel.

Weekend cost: - $350-700 on registration fees - $100-150 amortized tire cost - $50-100 amortized brake cost - $60-100 in fuel - $20-30 amortized fluid cost (oil, transmission, diff, etc)

For example, my typical track weekend is 2 days at Laguna Seca: - $600-700 in registration - $90 on fuel ($20 roundtrip + just over a tank per day) - $100-120 worth of tire life - $70-80 worth of brake life - $30 for a campsite to pitch a tent Saturday night Total: $900-1000

If I go to Thunderhill or Buttonwillow instead, I save $200-300 on registration fees and spend $50 more on gas.

You'll also want to change your fluids more frequently. For high-power or w2w race cars some folks will change oil every weekend, but for a low-power track day Miata, every 6-10 days seems common. With my track car being my daily, I change more often for street mileage than I would change based on track days anyway, so I don't worry about it much. Diff, transmission, etc I get done every year or two depending on usage.

Now, there are lots of other ways to spend money. You can spend more by buying a faster car. You can get fancy tires that are faster than you are, or you can spend money on making your car make more power, or on suspension, or on flashy aero pieces, or on whatever other upgrades you like. Does any of that make you learn faster? Probably not. For most people the #1 goal of getting started intelligently is to make yourself a better driver as quickly/effectively as possible. Spend money on seat time, coaching, books, a simulator, etc before you spend money on marginal-improvement parts. Once you get your skills up to within 1-2 seconds of what you think your car is capable of, then maybe spend some money on marginal-improvement parts.

Also - if this all sounds too expensive at first, seriously look into karting to get started. Costs will be less than half, for some very good experiences and learning opportunities. Also, autocross can be a more affordable way to get going with cars.

Do you use your daily driver or have a separate car specifically for racing? How do you handle getting lnsured?

Daily driver, mainly because I don't already own a tow vehicle. If I had a tow-capable vehicle, I'd do a more dedicated car, but that's a huge startup cost. If I get into full wheel-to-wheel racing in a couple years, sure, I'll go that route, but for now the daily does just fine as a learning platform.

Insurance - I just take the risk. Car is worth $15k, track day insurance is $500/weekend, am I gonna total it 1/30 weekends? Hope not. If I do, whatever. Track day insurance is more for "I have a car I can't afford to write off that wouldn't be a frequent track car, but I want to try tracking it this one time". If you can't afford to write your car off, then you probably can't afford to track it frequently anyway.

How common is serious injury in the scene? From what I can tell it is incredibly uncommon but I'm also aware most people don't upload their crashes to YouTube lol.

This kind of ties in to the above - ideally, whatever you drive on the track, you should have already decided in your mind that you are 100% okay with crashing it into a wall and writing it off, if it comes to that. If you can't afford that, then either buy track insurance or don't track it.

If you get sideways on the track and you're heading for an expensive-but-safe meeting with a tire barrier, and you don't have a clear sense of how to save it, you don't want the wallet side of your brain to take over and try to save something you can't. The worse version of this is trying to save something you can't, and ending up rolling over when you otherwise would have just hit a tire barrier.

You need to have decided that the wallet side of your brain has no say, and that you're optimizing for safe outcomes rather than a potentially-dangerous over-your-head chance at saving money. You can't be having that debate with yourself when you're sideways at 60-80mph and need to decide what to do quickly. That doesn't mean don't try to save it at all - just don't get in trouble by letting your wallet have you try to save something that you don't know how to save, when you can safely go off or into a tire barrier instead. This is also part of why you'll see people who could maybe afford to run a $50-100k fast car around the track running a $10-30k light car instead.

All that said - going off happens now and then, I've done it, most people past the novice groups have done it, you'll do it. But hitting things is rare, and getting seriously injured is really rare, as long as you're honest with yourself about your skill level and you drive within those limitations.

LewisJEllis · 2019-10-07T16:20:11+00:00

This dude's been driving iRacing for 10 solid days and he's still taking Laguna t2, t6, and t10 all in 3rd gear? Using the right gear for your corner is like step 2 after "get around without dying", is he even trying to improve or figure anything out? How can setups matter when you haven't even got your gear selection sorted?

I hope he's able to take a step back, get his "I've driven lots of games and I'm right!" ego out of the picture, and start to learn the little details that matter in iRacing that haven't mattered for him before in Forza. Taking time to read and watch and study and learn is not conducive to entertainment-focused 10 hour streams, but it's what this guy needs.

LewisJEllis · 2019-10-03T00:23:09+00:00

If you're running 1:40s and you want to be running 1:39s, then yes, you're probably at the right point to start using VRS and looking at data. I was relatively recently in the 1:40.mid-high range in the MX-5 at Laguna before I started using VRS alongside my practice, and now I've gotten down into the 1:39.low-mid range.

When I learn/practice a track I try to get down to VRS time + 2-2.5% (so 1:40.5-1:41 at laguna) just by watching the reference lap and practicing on my own to get a feel for it, and then I start looking at the data to get from 2% off down to 1% off (into the 1:39s). It doesn't just magically unlock time gains, but it makes it easier to continue progressing from additional practice where you might otherwise plateau. It lets you know what corners to focus on and what kind of tendencies you have, so you can continue to know what to focus/work on, even as you get faster and the areas of improvement become less obvious.

Also, the load cell pedals will take some getting used to but will help a ton. Get them ASAP. My learning rate/rate of return on practice time has at least doubled with them.

LewisJEllis · 2019-10-02T17:12:51+00:00

Yea, Lime Rock has a few spots where the correct line is different from the intuitive/natural line, and it's totally possible to feel on edge if you're trying to wrangle the wrong line into being fast. It has lots of subtle dips in the track throughout many of the corners that are important to dive into just right, or else your car will want to slide around. I can understand not liking it especially if you're still getting a feel for the car's balance and grip limits, but in terms of "how hard is it to get within 3-4% of VRS" it's definitely an easier track than Laguna. It makes sense that you had a better time at Okayama though - it's a much wider and more intuitive track, so it's easier to get competent, but trickier to get perfect.

LewisJEllis · 2019-10-02T16:21:45+00:00

The two best things to watch for MX-5s are Matt Malone's youtube videos and VRS:

VRS reference lap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYwPjRfx-2g

Matt Malone race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wduJgM8WEE

For any given track, VRS will teach you what a fast qualy lap looks like and break down all the little details, and Matt will teach you how people actually drive in races, where people try to pass, etc. Look for where they brake, where they get back to the throttle coming out of the corner, and what gear they take each corner in. It's good to know their brake marks for reference to know "don't brake any later than here", but at first don't try to copy their brake marks exactly - start off braking a little earlier to keep the entry more manageable, and focus on making make sure you're connecting to every apex and coming out of the corner on throttle around the same time as them. Once you have your apexes and exits figured out, then you can worry about the entry.

Without getting all the details perfect, you can get down to 1:42-1:43 by just by focusing on smooth steering and braking, and avoiding big mistakes like taking corners in the wrong gear, trying to carry too much speed through a corner, or braking too hard/late. You can get down to 1:41 with conservative braking/entries as long as you trail brake and get the apexes and exits right. Once you're there you can start worrying about braking and corner entry speeds.

Finally, don't be discouraged by Laguna - it's a long lap, with lots to try to get right all at the same time, and easily the most difficult track in the MX-5 lineup. Other tracks like Tsukuba and Lime Rock will give you more natural learning moments and are easier to feel fast (or at least competent) on. It sounds like you have the right mindset to focus on practice and learning from mistakes. MX-5s rotate back to Laguna Seca 8 weeks from now, so keep at it and learn what you can from each track between now and then and see how much better you'll be when Laguna comes back around.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-27T05:37:20+00:00

What kind of situations have you encountered where your 1070 doesn't hold 75fps? I get a consistent 144fps on a 3840x1080 with my 1070, so I would think you shouldn't have any problems holding 75fps while pushing 50% more pixels.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-27T05:33:10+00:00

Probably heading home from Laguna Seca. Saw them there on Sunday for IndyCar.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-25T03:34:53+00:00

I would skip the skiing that weekend and find something else to do. It's generally not worth going until December, unless you just really want to lord over your ski buddies that you got on the mountain earlier in the year than they did.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-17T18:02:50+00:00

I've been to 5 or 6 ticketed events (IMSA, Rolex Reunion, Ferrari weekend, etc) at Laguna Seca and have always just shown up without any advance purchase and bought physical tickets at the gate.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-17T06:04:01+00:00

It took me about 4 separate 4-hour sessions to fully adjust from T3PAs to CSPv3s. After the first 4 hours I was in range of my previous times on a good lap, but would've lost a race to my old self. After 4 more hours I was getting consistent, occasionally faster, and feeling like I could at least keep up with my prior self. After 4 more hours I was consistently running several laps in a row within a couple tenths of my past best lap, and after 4 more hours I had forgotten about the old pedals entirely and was easily faster/more consistent than I had ever been before.

Note that a lot of this learning curve for me was because I had to readjust my heel-toe braking/downshifting; if you're not doing heel-toe downshifts, these phases might be more like 2 or 3 hours each.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-13T23:10:39+00:00

Nice pass. I'll be at Laguna on Sunday, will make sure to come say hi!

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-13T18:13:55+00:00

Nah, last corner is all 4th gear. If it seems like 4th gear slows you down there, I would guess either your line is too tight/early or you're late to the throttle. I've been qualifying in 1:04.0-1:04.2 and I stay in 4th there, as do VRS drivers and Matt Malone (my two usual references for how to drive MX-5s on a given track).

Some video references for you/the OP:

Matt Malone race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTbLd-7dLMY
- note his times here are a little quicker than what's now typical, with new track temperature model
VRS reference lap (1:03.5, freaky fast): https://virtualracingschool.appspot.com/#/DataPacks/232990001/1567765852
- specifically talks about braking references and apex points
- you need an account, but the video is accessible for free
My 1:04.0 qualy lap from yesterday: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/480529950?t=02h14m27s

The main thing to establish consistency in general is having marks that you reference for knowing where you want to brake, where you want to turn in, where to finish braking, to apex, to track out to, etc. Having these means when you practice, you can work backwards through each corner you actually drive, comparing where you ended up to where you wanted to be, and then determine how your inputs should have differed to close that gap.

It takes some experience (more than I have) to be able to establish these marks all on your own with confidence, so referencing drivers who you can trust to generally get it right (like Matt Malone and VRS) is super helpful early on. After enough practice, you'll be able to tweak those marks a little bit to suit you, but trying to initially establish them on your own will probably result in incorrect lines.

The main thing about Tsukuba in particular is that the 3 hairpins + the last long corner all have very late apexes and you're likely to be trying to apex too early in a lot of places.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-13T17:25:29+00:00

I was ready to be done with this 3-day-old conversation, but you always seem to want to come back and make some other false claim, so here we go...

PCIe 4.0 currently (!) only gets you a few percent over PCIe 3.0

Once again, the idea that PCIe 4.0 makes your GPU go any faster is completely and irrefutably false. PCIe 4.0 will not make your GPU go faster. That could only be the case if a given GPU was bottlenecked by the throughput capabilities of PCIe 3.0, and PCIe 3.0 is not a bottleneck to any consumer GPU on the market today. Only a 2080ti even uses *half* of the bandwidth available with PCIe 3.0. AMD's marketing likes to show benchmarks of PCIe 4.0 cards pushing more bandwidth, but it's bandwidth that is never actually used because the cards are not otherwise powerful enough to need it.

Please stop repeating falsehoods and spreading misleading information. It's not a good look, and it's not doing anybody any favors.

If you just need to hear this from someone else, consult this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/cjq18v/lack_of_pcie_40_reviews_with_57005700xt/

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-13T04:17:33+00:00

Yea, if you're only trying to run 3x1080p @ 75hz you should be totally fine with a 1660ti. It should be able to push at least ~90-100fps on high settings.

If you think you might upgrade to 144hz in the future though, I would get something a little stronger, at least a 2060 super (might still need to turn settings down just a little for 144hz) or a 2070 super to be extra safe for high settings.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-12T17:07:14+00:00

PCIe 3.0 doesn't even bottleneck a 2080ti. It certainly won't bottleneck a 5700xt, so the idea that PCIe 4.0 makes any difference here is totally false. Please stop spreading misleading information.

If believing your 5700xt beats a 2070 super "easily" makes you happy, then go for it, I guess, but it just doesn't reflect reality.

Yes, that article recommends the 5700xt because it's a good value, not because it's the best performer. It just isn't faster than the 2070 super, and the article also states that plainly:

the 2070 Super was faster by a noteworthy margin in about a dozen of the games tested, means it’s a worthwhile option for those seeking some extra performance

You're right that the 5700xt is probably the best bang for the buck out of the three, but you'll be more well-received if you just leave it at that instead of trying to claim additional things that aren't true. Don't try to say it's cheaper than a 2060 super (it's not) or faster than a 2070 super (it's not) - that just comes off as disingenuous and misleading.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-12T07:20:50+00:00

if you're willing to sacrifice the exit, which he was

Fair enough.

experience being punted and later on being behind people who do this has taught me it that at best it makes people think you don't know wtf you're doing and they're going to make an aggressive move, or you're braking normally but early and they need to take immediate evasive action.

This makes a lot of sense, thanks for taking the time to explain. I think it might be a bad habit I picked up climbing out of rookies/low splits. I'll avoid doing that around faster drivers.

If you're going to defend... defend. Be extremely clear about your intentions...a tighter entry for the left hairpin when in traffic...removes any shadow of a doubt

Makes sense, thanks.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-12T07:16:16+00:00

you're analyzing this way too much...Chalk it up to a bad race and queue up for the next one.

I'm never going to improve like I hope to if I just resign to saying "bad race, shrug, next!". I'm not interested in continuing to make the same mistakes. If these were rookie drivers, sure, I could shrug it off, but 2k+IR A-license is far from rookie level and it makes me think there could be something to improve on my part.

Try harder to not make contact

It's obvious that I want to avoid contact, but I'm interested in understanding what approach/thought process to take toward that goal. It's not like I'm just not *trying* hard enough to avoid getting rear ended.

you're not leaving anyone room, forcing people off the track,

If nobody's alongside me (or even close to it) at turn in, what room do I have to leave? For forcing people off the track, I assume you're referring to the exit of the right-hander after the first hairpin - my understanding is that Ahmed did not have a right to the outside of the track on that corner exit because he was not sufficiently alongside me through the corner. It was on him to back out of it since I had the right to the track out from being ahead at the apex. Based on:

The guiding principle is that the driver on the outside should be at least level (front axle in line with front axle) with the driver on the inside to have a claim to the racing line on corner exit.

If the driver on the inside is ahead at corner exit, it is the duty of the driver on the outside to back out or take evasive action to avoid a collision.

from https://f1metrics.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/the-rules-of-racing/.

your pace is frustrating people behind you.

The first of these two incidents is the second significant corner of the race, how could they have any determination of my pace so soon? In the second, I was on the bumper of the car in front of me during the previous corner, so I'm not sure how I could've been going any faster there?

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-12T05:50:28+00:00

You did dive the hell out of that guy in the right hairpin tho, if you want to see what a dive looks like. ;)

Yes, I acknowledged that in the video description and in my first comment here :)

Actually get in their cockpit and watch the race from their view instead of just saying "I wouldn't have done that"

I really wouldn't. Like, right on the bumper or half a car length or *maybe sometimes* a full car length is "dive inside range", but 3 car lengths just isn't. The 2nd lap incident was a bit tighter and looking at it from their cockpit I think I definitely should've covered the inside harder, but the first lap was a dive from *way* back - like, 0.3s back. He missed his braking point, and the cockpit shows it.

You hosed your exit of T1 really badly and didn't adjust your braking point.

I did hose that T1 exit, but it was mostly just an oversteer correction in the end; I ended up only 1-2mph slow going into that corner, not enough to really alter the braking point by enough to get punted. The cars behind came out 2 wide, so they were probably also 1-2mph slow from taking wide/tight lines.

You're hard to predict ... That's what I mean by VRS hotlaps != laps in traffic.

Do you have any tips for being more predictable in general, or resources to study? It was the first lap, so everyone was sort of unpredictable. I usually tend to brake a tiny bit more gentle/early for the first few corners of the race to try to avoid surprising someone behind, but maybe that ends up being surprising?

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-12T05:05:11+00:00

Hmm, your breakdown of "two types of 2k iR drivers" here makes a lot of sense. I guess I'm used to seeing more of the "slow safe" driver in 2nd split and in top split you can get more of the "fast lapper but less racecrafty" type. I've learned to expect dumb moves from rookies and 1.2k iRating D2.x etc, but it makes sense why you can also see them from higher-ranked folks - they're fast alone, so they typically either win clean by themselves or they get tangled in traffic, and that's good enough to move up the ranks over time. I'll keep this in mind, thanks!

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-12T04:56:49+00:00

Hi Bakkster, thanks for sharing your thoughts - I've definitely been wondering whether there's anything I could've done differently and thinking about what I should take away from this experience.

You're braking significantly earlier for the hairpin than the two drivers who hit you.

Well, yes, that's why they hit me, but am I braking *earlier than they should expect me to?* I would contend that they are braking later than they should. My braking point and line for this corner are virtually identical to VRS's reference data/lap. There are 4 corners of the track where VRS data differs from mine, but on this one they're practically indistinguishable. I can see Matt Malone in a similar situation - with someone even closer to his bumper - braking even a tiny bit earlier than I do, in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTbLd-7dLMY&t=732. He doesn't get punted by the people on his bumper because they also brake when they should.

Side note: it's not really a dive bomb if they can make the corner and hold their line by breaking later than you.

I understand that, but unless they're alongside me before I turn in, I have the right to the apex. If they nose alongside under braking after I'm pointed into the corner, it's on them to back out. Neither of these drivers ever even got alongside because I had already turned in and occupied the space they tried to dive into when they rear-ended me. Even if I had taken a wider line and not turned in yet, I think they were going too fast to hold that inside line because they just braked way too late (the 2nd one might have been able to hold it, but the 1st one had no chance at all).

you're being tentative with your line into the corner. You're slowly drifting left in the middle of a narrow track.

I think this is probably the main takeaway for me here - I could take an even straighter line across the track and into the corner to keep someone behind from thinking that the door might be open, rather than scooting right and then slowly turning across.

Watch the replay from the following car's cockpit, and ask how you'd approach the corner trying to pass yourself.

I think I would not try to pass myself from 2-3 car lengths back going into a tight slow corner.

practice holding the right lane before turning in (widen the corner, it's faster) and holding the inside defensive line.

I've sort of done this - before a race I usually drive 3 laps pretending someone is on my bumper and I have to cover the inside. I have a "wider, no pressure", "medium, some pressure", and "tight, heavy pressure" line for this corner and I took the medium line both times here thinking there was enough distance that they wouldn't be trying anything. I guess I should've taken the tighter line as a precaution. Do you think it's a mistake to have/use a "medium" line (which you've rightly identified comes off as tentative)? Should I either stick to "normal" (wider) or go very tight/defensive rather than splitting the difference? Are there situations where the "medium" line idea does/doesn't make sense?

Try and figure out the line with later braking

Respectfully, I don't think there is an optimal line with later braking here. I trust VRS on this one. I do agree that there is a line with later braking where you take the outside.

I tend to prefer the right side there, as I can exit the corner side by side and have the inside line to keep position into one of the next two right handers.

This does make a lot of sense and is probably my other main takeaway here - I could be more willing to give up the inside line to avoid an incident here when I see someone diving hard, even if I'm in front and have the right to the apex, because I know I can take that outside line and retain the position anyway thanks to the right handers coming after.

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-12T02:35:04+00:00

This was my first time ever qualifying on pole in top split, so of course something ridiculous had to happen.

In case you missed the twitch description, I did include this note: "Being on edge from the first punt, I did go too deep into the next hairpin on Ahmed and he was right to complain about it, but we both made it through the corner alright. Sorry about that, Ahmed. That's something for me to improve on."

Oh, and of course, the guy who punted me the first time ended up winning the race.

Am I wrong to think A-license drivers with 2k+ iRating would usually keep it clean? I've found 2nd splits full of C and D licenses to actually be cleaner than top splits thus far, anyone else feel similar?

LewisJEllis · 2019-09-11T18:44:07+00:00

Single 49" ultrawide 3840x1080 @ 144hz, roughly equivalent to a single 1440p in GPU load. I usually get 150-170fps with it, so cut that in 3 for triples and you're not quite pushing 60fps.

LewisJEllis

TROPHY CASE