difference between simulator & real life

[michael lang]

I've been wondering about this.

If someone uses a racing simulator regularly, they will eventually develop habits, both good & bad, on the simulator. What is the likelyhood that those same habits will carry over to the track in real life? Let me further explain, I participate in iRacing and  at Summit Main & Jefferson as well as all the others but for this discussion we'll use those two tracks, there are certain things that I do, or certain places that I consistently go off, or have a loss of control. In real life on the track I do not do those same things or go off the track or loose control of my car. I've noticed that I will consistently do certain things on the simulator and I'm trying to break those patterns. This is why I've been wondering about this. 

So getting back to my original question, is simulator doing its job of training what to do & not to do? Or, is my brain recognizing the difference between the sim & real life and keeping me from doing something that I might regret?

 

[fasthonda]

hi.

i recently 'test drove' a real racing simulator (they had one there for us when i was screening for the Robin Hood Rally TV show).  it was this one:

http://www.virtualgt.com/

there were many cars and many tracks that could be picked from;  i drove a 997 GT3 Cup car at Limerock on it.  first, you notice when you get in that the seat is 'right';  its a race bucket seat.  and the steering wheel feels exactly right.  there are facilities for either paddle shifting, or hand shifting (depending on the car or your pref).  the pedals were machined aluminum, and felt very close to right (i thought the brake pedal felt a little wooden).

about the driving of the car -- it was RIGHT!  it drove just like a race 911 (i didn't modify the car or the suspension settings at all;  i left them factory).  the car would point and rotate when you lifted, and you balanced it with the throttle.  the feedback thru the controls was awesome.  the view out the front was exactly like looking out a 911 windshield.   the gauges were perfect.  the physics and vehicle dynamics were worlds ahead of any video game or 'simulation' that i've ever played.

30 mins of driving it wore me out;  i was so tired i started making lots of mistakes and missing apexes and crashing, etc.  i got down to a 0:54 flat;  i'm sure i could have gone a 0:52.xx, with a little more practice (and a rest!).   the guy running the thing and demoing it (and selling it!) did a mid 0:51.

it was an awesome machine.  i'm positive that it would benefit someone who owned one of the many cars programmed into it to purchase it and use it frequently. 

the only downside was it was costly.   oh, and there were no Probe GTs or Honda Civics programmed into it.  ha ha.    hope that helps?

[michael lang]

Using the simulator as a tool, I did practice sessions only for one week. During this past week I tried to notice how I would depress the accel. & brake pedals, how I turned the steering wheel, how far down the track I looked, how much concentration I was putting forth, etc... Since I didn't have a real track to practice on I used my street driving for the experiment. Here are my results:

The good:

1. My depression of the brake & accel. pedal are very comparible, both the simulator and real life are fairly smooth, quick, & deliberate but not overly aggressive.

2. Just like track driving, I would look as far down the road as I possibly could while using my peripheral vision to see everything else. I noticed far too many people only looking at the car in front of them which leads me to my next thing.

3. To go along with the above item I found that I was following my own line instead of watching the car in front of me and following that car's line. It was kind of weird, I noticed that a couple of times the driver in front of me was acting almost nervous that I didn't go where they were going. It was very odd but what I really noticed about that result in my experiment was that just like driving on the track in the simulator it allowed me to see farther down the road in my truck which I'm sure would do the same thing if I was on the track in my car in real life.

There were some bad things that resulted from the experiment like:

I was a little jerky with the steering wheel, I would intermittently start wondering on my focus and start thinking about other stuff. Just a few little things that are easily fixed.

What I can't wait for is this coming event in April. After a full offseason of simulator use I'm quite interested to know how much improvement I've made on my real life track driving.

 

[AMoore]

Todd,

Did you performance on the simulator have an impact on whether you were chosen to participate?

 

 

[fasthonda]

hi!

the simulator was just for fun, and to occupy time while we waited for our screening.  (and also i am sure that the manufacturer hoped that some of the wealthy guys would maybe buy one!).   there wasn't any bearing on the screening process (alot of guys didn't even want to try it out).