There's talk of a ring trip at some point soon with my brother in his recently acquired Skyline. He's a pretty handy driver (Class 1 trained) and his car's quicker than mine (or the one I will have by then).

Now what I'm wondering is this: does anyone have any experience of whether you can learn the track on GT4 abnd that knowledge actually be useful when you're on the tarmac. They reckon it's millimetre perfect so in theory I could learn the track and do pretty well... Any ideas? :P

BTW, I already know I'm a geek so that's not going to help

It'll certainly help you remember the sequence of corners but I wouldn't trust a computer game to give you a realistic expectation of how fast you can go through any of the turns.

There's talk of a ring trip at some point soon with my brother in his recently acquired Skyline. He's a pretty handy driver (Class 1 trained) and his car's quicker than mine (or the one I will have by then).

Now what I'm wondering is this: does anyone have any experience of whether you can learn the track on GT4 abnd that knowledge actually be useful when you're on the tarmac. They reckon it's millimetre perfect so in theory I could learn the track and do pretty well... Any ideas? :P

BTW, I already know I'm a geek so that's not going to help

If you wish to kill yourself, by all means go ahead. On my first trip to the ring, I saw a brand new Jag XXR being swept up form a corner. It was his first visit, having "learnt" the track on GT4.

What GT4 is good for I have found, is once you have been to the track for real, it's handy to try and help memorise direction changes. What it doesn't represent fully is cambers, bumps, incline/declines, etc, and also how little room for error there is.

HTH

If you wish to kill yourself, by all means go ahead. On my first trip to the ring, I saw a brand new Jag XXR being swept up form a corner. It was his first visit, having "learnt" the track on GT4.

What GT4 is good for I have found, is once you have been to the track for real, it's handy to try and help memorise direction changes. What it doesn't represent fully is cambers, bumps, incline/declines, etc, and also how little room for error there is.

HTH

:iagree:

I used GT4 for purely know if there is a left or right coming up - that definitely helped to get a slight headstart compared to a total stranger to the circuit. The real thing is nothing like GT4.

:iagree:

i also agree with Shifty and Devonutopia , it will just help you too learn the bend sequences etc , but when you get to real thing , :eek: just take it easy for a few laps is the best advice

Yep - what they said. Not quite the same complexity but when I drove at Donington I learnt the track beforehand from a touring car game - can't remember what it was. But it definitely helps.

I used google earth to "learn" the runway in Czech Republic.

I learned to corner using Gran Turismo - eg whenever I come up to a 90 degree right turn, I just handbrake at the last minute and slam the passenger side into an invisible wall before carrying on undamaged and with hardly any deceleration. SWMBO hates it when I do that

Does your car come out of it all magically undamaged too?

Mr Clarkson famously tried the GT4 Vs track dilema using a rather nice blue Honda NSX at the Laguna Seca track in the US.

He had same car and same conditions for each test, even using wheel and pedals ont PS2 but he found it impossible to match his time in real life and had some pretty scary offs.

Regulars to the real Ring always comment on how GT4 can't possibly prepare you for the inclines, the bumps and jumps and the fluidity of the real track.

I will make my pilgrimage one day.....

I've not been on that (or any other) track as a driver, but based on the difference in handling in the Fabia vRS between a 'smooth' road surface and one with even minor bumps in it, especially on standard suspension, I would drop my speed by at least 30%

The ring strikes me as a very challenging circuit, which is probably why those who have visited it enjoy it so much

FWIW I think one thing about these games is that you do need and thus learn lightning fast reactions.

The trick is whether one can translate fast thinking to proper car driving and so be able to take appropriate measures needed in real situations.

Mo

Mo, out of curiosity - have you any track driving experience? Or is that not of interest?

Mo, out of curiosity - have you any track driving experience? Or is that not of interest?

Only once as a total newbie. I love fast cars and speed (don't we all) and putting my foot down in a decent car with decent brakes. Then speed bumps came along, plus nose to tail traffic. To be honest, I can knit faster than I can drive (edit make progress) now :mecry:

Mo

I drove at silverstone in a Caterham 7 superlight and before I drove the circuit on

GP4 and also toca racing touring cars and it did help to a point but because the caterham was soo low down it was difficult to see the road ahead as it was just a line on the horizon.

As has been stated above none of the games (particularly GT4) can prepare you for the inclines or bumps / jumps etc of the Nurburgring, I found the games to be of basically no use whatsoever, I practiced for months on GT4 before I went for the first time.

The only thing that can prepare you is practice on the real thing, there are so many sections that look the same it's really hard to remember what is coming next.

One of the best games to conver the Nurburgring is Project Gotham Racing on the X-Box 360, this conveys the hills better than GT4 but still doesn't really prepare you for it.

Watching videos on You-tube etc is also doesn't help much, one of the best I've seen at conveying the hills etc was shot by one of our cars on last years Scumball rally, what makes it different is that its on the back of the car, looking backwards.

No help to learn the track but does convey the hills and jumps better than anything I've seen before -

BTW, we appear in the Alfa at 3:00 mins in to the vid, and again at the end, the steepest bit is from 7:05 and from there it's virtually up hill all the way, serious horsepower is whats needed in this section, which is why powerful cars can lap in similar times to low power better handling cars.

The camera car is an Audi RS4 BTW, watch as all the mundane german BMW machinery spanks past him as if they are just commuting to work from 7:50 onwards when he puts his foot down to catch the rest of us up (just after the biker being recovered)! anyone who doubts even the most mundane BMW's handling ability needs to visit the ring.

good video , i like the tranny van , it looks like he was trying to kill it

Watched the video johnjohnhealy posted. Ta for that and the Daz who made and posted it As I said, my track experience is limited LOL, though however many TV progs one watches of tracks, they don't bring it to life (being aerial views cut to forward shots, then back) anything like as well as "being with" the same car around a whole track.

I guess, on topic, it emphasises that speed of thought will be relevant to what is around the next bend (e.g. a whopping great hill) etc so I expect SteVrs will be well pleased. I can't speak for others, so just to say that I was from seeing it

Mo

I learned to corner using Gran Turismo - eg whenever I come up to a 90 degree right turn, I just handbrake at the last minute and slam the passenger side into an invisible wall before carrying on undamaged and with hardly any deceleration. SWMBO hates it when I do that

I use Out Run 2 for practice.

Just dab the brakes and turn in hard and my ferrari slides round barely slowing at all

So it's a no all round then!

Never mind - hopefully it'll rain and then his RWD 400bhp car will just go sideways into a fence on the first straight while my underpowered Smartie plods round

Still should be a good trip - I'll keep you posted if it ever materialises

So it's a no all round then!

Never mind - hopefully it'll rain and then his RWD 400bhp car will just go sideways into a fence on the first straight while my underpowered Smartie plods round

Still should be a good trip - I'll keep you posted if it ever materialises

Having done a wet lap , i can safely say it is scarily slippy , even in a standard power Fabia VRS , but what you gain then is a slower lap with more time to take in the track/views etc

Hmmm...I disagree with Project Gotham being a better representation.

I agree with chaps that say GT4 gives you an idea of corner sequence, but thats it. It doesn't warn you about unsettling bumps, slippery pieces of tarmac/corners (in real life the surface can vary quite a bit!) and wierd cambers. Also, in real life, there are only a few places you can use the kerbs, they are mostly quite effective at throwing the car off the track! Oh...and faster/slower traffic and buses don't tend to feature in GT4 either so be aware of your surroundings.

Advice would be cadge a few passenger laps first with regulars who will narrate as they drive, pointing out turn in points aided by landmarks etc, where you CAN take the kerbs and it gives you a chance to put the game in context. Then a few sighting laps in your car will get you used to how diffferent parts of the track feel before starting to gradually up your pace, but don't get cocky!! :p

I agree with chaps that say GT4 gives you an idea of corner sequence, but thats it.

Understatement

GT4 gives you more than an idea of corner sequence, it is absolutely spot on!!

Lance