Mikepjbell

Lord of the Rings (ideally the Fellowship of the Ring)
Man on Fire
A Beautiful Mind

Lord of the Rings (ideally the Fellowship of the Ring)
Man on Fire
A Beautiful Mind

Lord of the Rings (ideally the Fellowship of the Ring)
Man on Fire
A Beautiful Mind

As we've got a few more faces racing who are new to the game / series, I thought I'd do a small update to this.
 
Firstly, a couple tips about the HUD
 

 
1. Gear indicator
This is the gear the game thinks you should be using for the next corner and will flash red when the game thinks you need to brake for the corner.  In my experience, it's too conservative and will always tell you to brake too early and mostly to use a gear 1 lower than actual.  However, it acts as a good starting point if it's a track you don't know and as you get more familiar you can start pushing your braking point later
 
2. Throttle position
GT7, much like GT Sport, the lower the Traction control (TCS) you can use the faster you'll be.  Though it's always important to remember, lower TCS will save you 1-2 seconds a lap but set it too low and spin, that'll cost you more like 20-30 seconds.  You can however do a little practise of using lower TCS as the throttle position goes white, as in the screenshot, to show you're at 100% throttle but if you engage TCS, a portion at the top will turn red to show how much the game is limiting your throttle.  If out of every corner you turn it red, try to be a little more gentle and ease on to the throttle.  If you never turn it red, try turning down your TCS.  It's not quite that simple as at lower levels TCS cuts in later so you can be more aggressive with the throttle before it activates but it's a small part of the picture of if you're over-driving the car.
 
3. Driving assists
Which nicely leads on to driving assists.  I think Phil mostly disable these on the server due to a certain Mike incident.  However, much like TCS, they turn red when the assist is active and again, like TCS, activation of an assist will generally cost you time in GT7 (ABS it the exception to this rule*).  So again, if you're constantly activating these over a lap, try being smoother, easing the stick to steer rather than 0 - 100% steering instantly etc.
 
*ABS is the exception to this rule - technically speaking ABS does also slow you down too BUT it's incredibly hard to threshold brake without locking up.  Lock up - and you'll be slower.  Don't brake quite as hard to avoid locking up - you'll be slower.  There's a tiny tiny margin in the middle where braking without ABS is faster.  So keeping it ABS at default will overall make you faster as you'll be far more consistent.
 
Smoothness
I've mentioned this a couple times and I want to explain some of the theory behind it - Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.  Often times you'll a lap where you're on the edge and you have to really work the car will be slow and the laps that feel slow will be your fastest.  Keeping the car balanced, with little to no understeer or oversteer, will mostly feel slower but is considerably faster.  Now the question is how to achieve this smooth is fast - this can be broken down in to the 3 areas of a corner; braking, turning and accelerating.  In a perfect world, each should only be done once - brake before the corner and come off the brakes as you turn in, turning to the maximum lock required for the corner at the apex, then start opening the steering as you feed on to the throttle.  If you needed to get back on the brakes then you braked too late, if you get on the throttle before the apex you braked too early, if you need to change steering input you turned in too early or too late, if you need to counter steer on corner exit you got on the throttle too early or too sharply.
 
I'm not saying you should be thinking all this all the time but it's something to keep in your mind while practising or watching a replay of your laps.  As you go round the lap, make a mental note of things such as braking too early for turn 3 and too late for turn 9.  Then the next lap, make small steps to correct these on the next lap while making mental notes of thing for next lap.  Basically small incremental changes each lap can equal a decent improvement on overall lap time.

Might have to re download this as it's been quite some time since I last played.

Great advice about the saddle! This thing is very important for comfort ride. For several years I rode on a high saddle, and I thought that it should be so! ..

How'd it go with the bike search?

Interesting looking hybrid!
 
Things to consider:
- Get a saddle bag, always handy to hold a spare tube
- Make sure you have a pump which will pump up a schrader valve
- Enjoy it, keep it clean, keep it well lubed
 
Cleaning: Fine to use fairy liquid and warm water. Then rinse with normal water.
Lubrication: Small moving parts - buy some GT85 and spray in small amounts to prevent rust. Large parts get some good quality Muk-off grease.
Make sure you don't get any lubricants on those discs though!! If you do then you'll just need some alcohol rub to keep them clean.
 
Also, I have a bee on my bonnet about saddle height. Don't make your saddle too high, when you extend your leg on the pedal your heel should be able to reach the pedal. Seat posts which are too high cause feet, leg, hip, back, everything pain.
 
Other than that, ride it like you stole it!

Great races last week. Congrats to @Greboth winning the first league race, despite fuel saving and not knowing how much fuel he had left🤗
 
1. Greboth
2. Philly
3. Leeeeeeeeeeigh
4. Mike 
5. CBA
 
I think Tom has shown a big improvement and with some practice I'll be looking over my shoulder...
Lee made up for Mike's lazy attitude in not shunting me off, by shunting me off. Although tyre choice kind of messed up Mike's race...get a grip @Mikepjbell  🙈
Hopefully @Bluebear  has enough credits to get Gr.3 and Gr.4 cars, although the PP race at the end of the night was a lot of fun in crappy cars.
 
I'll put up this week's race in the calendar shortly, Willow Springs.
 
 

Shall we aim to start this next week or following week? Let me know if you need help with anything Philly

Shall we aim to start this next week or following week? Let me know if you need help with anything Philly

I've been warmning people up online about starting in October again so this sounds good to me too @phil bottle 😎 We'e got a few more with the game now but i'd like it if we had some more people in and around it too. @Greboth, whats the chances of bringing across some of the friendly ones at OcUK?
 
Timing wise we may need to think about either having race nights every other week or at least splitting the day week by week I think as a trial. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays work well but it will also come against other game nights that could pull a bunch out.
 
@JBR-Kiwi  @Teenwolf25  @TurboR56Mini  @Capn_Underpants  you all in yeah? Need to get the others from past years too in on the act!
 
 
The only lasting thought on top of all this was also some kind of weekly or monthly challenge like a time trial with certain cars perhaps? Just thinking when some can't make the races but want to work towards something together with us all, it could be a nice thing to have running alongside the races?

I'm in

I'm in

I'm in

Just testing the waters 🙂
 
The game has been out a while now and a few more FGers have it. Is it worth setting up a league like we did for GT Sport?
 
I'm happy to do the schedule etc if we have enough interest.
 
If we do, also think about what night and when.
Maybe to start in October...
If we did, what day? We started on Tuesday and moved to Thursdays previously. And if we have nonUK drivers it might be best to switch to a weekend...
 
Anyway, lemme have your thoughts 👊

Personally for me it was difficult to get in to, with a steep learning curve and as we'd already established a base and various things it was difficult to have meaningful input.

Hood is a game I wanted to try a whole back but didn't know whether spending money on it was a good shout so this is superb news!

Thanks all, had a smashing day drawing up my plans on how to smash up Phil in the next GT races, can't wait! ❤️❤️❤️

Thanks all, had a smashing day drawing up my plans on how to smash up Phil in the next GT races, can't wait! ❤️❤️❤️

Happy Birthday @Mikepjbell 🤘

Thanks all, had a smashing day drawing up my plans on how to smash up Phil in the next GT races, can't wait! ❤️❤️❤️

Thanks all, had a smashing day drawing up my plans on how to smash up Phil in the next GT races, can't wait! ❤️❤️❤️

Happy Birthday Mike, hope you have a cracking day bud. 

@Mikepjbell Happy birthday dude!!!