I was lapping in the Elan recently @ Dijon as one of my mate has the GTL demo and wanted some times to compare... anyway i found myself useing a useful technique that some people may not know or practise.
Its using the throttle and brakes at the same time while trailbraking through a turn to settle a car that is tail happy. its a great technique to use when the car starts to slide, apply both gas and brake, just a bit of each and the car will become much more stable. Experiment with this technique for corners like Dijon turn 1, zolder turn 1 etc, especially in cars like the elan.
Another thing, when you have corners that lead onto big straights, make sure you try to get the power down as early as possible. While sliding the car through bends in GTL is sometimes the fastest way, ive always lived by the rule that if you have to countersteer your sliding too much and its hurting your speed and time. Use the throttle to control these drifts, if they require countersteer then you are applying too much throttle. Rear end steering helps a lot in Dijon corner 1 in getting that 2nd apex before the left kink.
If anybody wants visual explanations of above techniques i can make up a vid.
Now concering the learning a new track, this is what i do.
Load a base setup i have for that car.
Do a lap or so and check to see if the brake bias and gear ratio is to suit, this is harder to do in the 906 and even CSL because of the gearbox, but generally its quite easy to do.
Now you need to work on learning braking points, lines and the track layout so you know where to position your car for the next few bends. Last thing you want is to be on the right hand side for a right hand corner.
Now i generally just keep lapping unless i have a major off and my car is buggered, but if i spin i just keep going. I seem to have a decent idea of braking points to start with but the best way is to pick an object, be it the dark lines on the track, tree, sign, shadow and brake at that mark. Now depending on how you go depends if you move that mark back or forwards. I generally start with marks too early and find i have to go later on the brakes. Keep pushing these marks until your hitting the correct line of the corner, you dont want to be running wide or coming up too short and coasting or re hitting the gas. Remeber this mark and stick to it. if some guy tries to pass you underbrakes do not go past your braking marker, since this represents your limit, if you exceed this you will go off track. If the opponent manages to get his car stoped before yours even though he brakes past your braking marker than try to get him on the exit
. Its really no use going past your marker in the hope to outbrake him, when all you will do is go off track.
Now we have brakes, gears and braking markers sorted. By this stage ive pretty much know the entire track layout, this takes about 15mins - 20mins for me, but it may vary between long and short tracks etc. So now you know the track and generally where and when you should be braking, your making laps and laps with no off tracks. Now its time to push some limits and go for lap times. Focus on what gears to use for what corners, in the more powerful cars sometimes its better to be in mid rev in 3rd and power out really strong then be high revving in 2nd and then have to change 20m after exiting the corner. In slower cars its nearly always better to use the lowest gear you can without being silly. Again it comes down to experimenting. Push your braking markers to the limit and figure out the best lines to use. If your uncertain try a few different ones and see whats faster. If your still uncertain search for a replay of a fast guy from that track, doenst really matter the car as the lines should pretty much be the same. Now after 40mins ive pretty much got a very decent time and have all the practise i need for a combo. I can still see some more tenths in each sector but i will find those in practise and qualify in race day.
So probably 3 sections to it
1) sort the gears, brake bias and learn the track layout corner by corner
2) find general braking points and focus on completing laps without crashing.
3) Push your braking markers till you cant push them any more, focus on laptimes and getting faster, try different lines and experiment. Download a replay of a fast guy on that track and compare the lines to you.
I hope this makes sense and helps people.
