The online racing simulator
How to drive RWD ?
1
(31 posts, started )
#1 - Skil
How to drive RWD ?
Hello Everyone

Is there a guide about driving RWD cars in LFS?

I've been driving FWD (XFG) for some time but there is something about RWD cars makes me crazy

Please post any tip that can help me take control of my ride. I'd appreciate if someone could give me "learning" setup for XRGT


Thax in advance
just easy on the gas, dont expect it to pull you through a turn like FWD when you get on the gas again dont just slam it down, but ease it on.
It's easier with a wheel and pedals. If you're using the mouse or a joypad or something, it'll be more difficult to correct slides.

Just keep practicing. They are really rewarding to drive once you get the hang of it.
#4 - richy
dont rag the gearbox too much in braking, youll just lock up the wheels and takes longer to brake or may spin. dont screech the tyres, listen for the woosh. drive it like its on imaginary railway lines but do it as fast as you can.
If you are using a keyboard, try the stabilisation feature, it helps a lot to get rid of the frustration.
Quote from breadfan :If you are using a keyboard, try the stabilisation feature, it helps a lot to get rid of the frustration.

When I have driven in LFS using keyboard, I found the stabilization feature to be annoying. It works better for me just to modulate the steering keys.
Well you don't say exactly what it is that you're having a problem with. But generally just be very gentle with the gas, press it very carefully and be ready to ease off the gas when you feel the car loosing traction at the back end. With a RWD you need to learn to balance the throttle and brake, to be able to control the car with the pedals as much as with the wheel. Probably not much help really, but hey, it works for me. Just push the throttle pedal very gently. If you find the car spinning on the exit of a corner, you're pressing the gas too hard.
Hmm, i found the best way wa to gain experience in RL, which i had before discovering lfs. If you drive, find a dirt road or a paddock and drive a rwd car around for a while and feel how it responds.

If you dont drive, start very slowly, and if you ise the keyboard to steer dont, usea mouse if you can. Then speed up until you get to the limit.

I could write a guide, and might one day, but why not explain what exactly your problem is.

I assume your trying to drive it like a fwd, so your having trouble with oversteer, then like people said, putting power down through a corner, after a certain limit, will cause the rear wheels to spin, this will cause the car to slide ("drift") to remedy this, you must take the power off, or steer away from the turn, sometimes both, and sometimes the opposite of one with the other.

It takes time to understand how the car is going to react to certain inputs and forces, but when you do its very satisfying.

For me fr/mr and rr are the only way to drive, fwd is boring and without passion, and 4wd, while it has its advantages, on a dry racetrack, a rwd is the way to go, imo.
#9 - Woz
If using keyboard then stay in higher gears than you would using a wheel in corners. It will make the car less responsive on the gas and hence easier to control.

Otherwise. The slower you are going the more subtle you need to be when you feed power in/out.
#10 - Skil
First of all: thanx for all your support

Just for be precise: I use wheel Logitech MOMO Raceing.

My problem: when I enter the turn I try to slow down (with brake+gears so it's not a problem) and try to hit the best line. Usually at some point of a turn my car goes over steer so I loose gas and counter a bit. And here we are:

1) back of the car is going over steer even more and I spin
2) I counter too much and my car spin in the other direction
3) ...and sometimes I manage to drive the corner smooth and clean

I know that LFS is all about practice and that RWD is hard on the beginning so I don't lay down and cry But maybe there are some other useful tips that would help me in my way up to the top

Once more, thanks for help :Handshake
everyones driving styles variy but its a simple thing to figure out...

fwd-awd need you to maintain revs when turning , rwd-mr cars need you to go "slow in fast out" ( as said by jackie steward - worlds fastest scotsman )
Brake earlier and downshift later (so the rears don't lock up due to engine braking). Try to minimize trail braking, so you actually finish braking before turning into the corner, then coast to the apex and shortly before reaching it, start to simultaneously increase the throttle and unwind the wheel. The last part is important, because many people friggin steer too much in the RWD cars and wonder why they get oversteer on corner exit when they finally start straightening the wheel enough causing the front wheels to regain grip.

It also might be a good idea to intentionally get a bit sideways when practising offline, so you can get a feel for how the car reacts and how to properly counter steer. At some point in a race you *will* get sideways, so it's always good to know you can save it there rather than throwing away your race altogether. Furthermore, make sure that your wheel is set up properly, as the force feedback is normally a really good help on that issue. If the slide wasn't caused by power oversteer, getting on the throttle slightly can stabilize the car - but whatever you do, don't touch the brakes until the car is back under control.
#13 - Woz
play with the locking value in the diff as well because changing this can take out some of that bite and you brake and downshift.

If you find you lock the rears then try using less engine braking by blipping on downsfift. You will need to brake harder but it will allow you to modulate the forces and hence balance the car better.

Or simply add a few extra M to your brake points on corners and just brake softer. This should let you enter the corner with better car balance.

You could also try doing all your braking before the corner, coast into apex and then feed in until you learn when the tires let loose and how to read/feel that point
#14 - Skil
Quote from AndroidXP :Try to minimize trail braking, so you actually finish braking before turning into the corner, then coast to the apex and shortly before reaching it, start to simultaneously increase the throttle and unwind the wheel. The last part is important, because many people friggin steer too much in the RWD cars and wonder why they get oversteer on corner exit when they finally start straightening the wheel enough causing the front wheels to regain grip.

That's the point!!! When I unwind the wheel earlier and steer in the last part of turn only with accelerator I can finally take clean turn
I've tried different tracks just to feel the car. The problem is that I don't have setups for all the tracks but it's only matter of time since I've started understand what the car is doing

Good work guys!!! Once more you helped hopeless beginner
just one advice
Treat her like a virgin - nice and easy, no sudden movements
Glad I could help
RWD drifting is easy beacuse I'm a mouse-user! It's so easy as if I'm eating a sandwich and riding a bike at the same time... Practice makes perfect, that's what I'm gonna say for sure!
Oh hi you're another new member here I see. What's a RL by the way? AWD eats up tires real quick on dry track yeah. See whether how much torque you put in the front/rear tyres. (I don't mean I'm a cracker that's why I know. It's my friend who told me that.)

And :woohoo: my 280th post here since registering here
Quote from hiroshima guy :Oh hi you're another new member here I see. What's a RL by the way? AWD eats up tires real quick on dry track yeah. See whether how much torque you put in the front/rear tyres. (I don't mean I'm a cracker that's why I know. It's my friend who told me that.)

And :woohoo: my 280th post here since registering here

RL = Real Life

Yes you are right. AWD cars certainly do eat tyres. This is one of the reasons why I prefer the XRT over the RB4. I feel in much more control with the XRT, it steers a lot more neutral. I find that in LFS You don't have to use as much lock with RWD cars as you do with Front wheel drive cars.



To the OP: Just use RACE_S for now. It's a good setup for learning. You could try some setups from Setupfield http://setupfield.teaminferno.hu/ but they tend to be harder to drive or 'on the edge'. Just don't use 'hard track' that setup sucks! I can get very close to my PB (personal best) with RACE_S, but 'hard track' is much much slower.

Maybe you could post a replay and we can see where you are going wrong. I remember when I first took the XRT for a spin I was totally out of control! Maybe you should drive the XRG for a bit and get the feeling of RWD cars without so much power.

Have fun!
Actually I've been playing for 2 years before I registered. So, if you wanna spec me race ok... I'll post it later.

EDIT: They're posted
Skil,
Here's some advice for making learning RWD easier.
The worst thing to a RWD beginner is the apparent twitchiness of the vehicle mid corner. Is it going to over-steer? Am I going to over correct it?, etc.

What I've found to be a great learning tool is setting up the Limited Slip "correctly" for the track without worrying about the rest of the set at all.
Here are a few sets and I will explain what they do and how they behave completely different with only the LSD change.

The XRG set called "under" means under-steer/stable.
It requires you to really hit the throttle before the apex to stay in. If you lift or trail too much, the wall or grass is yours. However, it's very easy to counter steer with this set so don't worry. When you feel u need to brake or lift, DON'T. Just accelerate and you will take the corner with ease.
In other words, you have to get the car a bit lose to go fast and clean through.

This is mostly due to the locked differential.

The XRG set called "over" is the same exact set with a different LSD setup. This set is much more lose but very intuitive. If you think you're going too fast, lift and you'll be fine. Give it a bit more and you'll be even better. One large benefit of this is the ability to turn more directly, however, be prepared to counter and correct.
This set is great for learning but not as fast as the "under" set.

Once again, both are the same set but feel quite different simply due to difference in LSD.

The final set is the XRT set.
This is RACE_S with the LSD tweaked for stability.
You will not believe how stable and smooth this set is in corners, something I thought impossible with this car.

Give them a spin (I'd recommend SO town as it presents you with quite a few very different corners so you can get proper feel for it in every situation).
These sets are by no means "perfect" sets nor will they make you a WR driver. However, they can teach you plenty in terms of tweaking the car and how much difference LSD makes.
Hopefully they can help you in tweaking your favorite set to do what you need it to do in a given track.

BTW, I don't have sets for each track, like the majority of people do.
I simply tweak my same set for a given track on the fly. This allows me to know everything about it and give me the ability to control what happens when in terms of car behaviour.

Good luck and have fun.
Attached files
XR GT_V17 Work under.set - 132 B - 141 views
XR GT_V17 Work over.set - 132 B - 122 views
XR GT TURBO_R2 stable.set - 132 B - 133 views
I know some people will think this is a waste of time, but go get a drift setup and go play around a bit. It will teach you very quickly what to look/listen for when playing this game mid turn. It helped me a lot to keep the car on the track during races when I either get a fit of oversteer mid turn, or someone decides to ram into the back of me. There is nothing worse than spinning off the track because you lose it in the turn
If you are pretty experienced (like me literally) in XRTs, if anyone were to crash into your back, chances of recovery w/o stopping is like 80%. I did it when it spun out just change to 1st gear and then counter-steer. That's that. It's easy.
#24 - Skil
Thanks Everyone

I've been practicing a lot and now I find XRG more comfortable to drive

gohfeld23: I'll try your sets in the evening and hopefully see the difference

As I said, I gave it a try. I must say that both setups are nice - tested on BL.
I found that I can achieve better lap time with locked differential but on the other hand, I'm more consistent when I drive the opposite setup.

I think thats because I'm beginner and although I can keep my car on the track, sometimes I do it at the great expense of speed.

I.e. : I can't keep full throttle in the second part of most corners because I loose grip on my rear tires. Maybe it's because of setup ( I tend to use inferno setups ) but I think that the real case is that my racing line isn't perfect... I guess it's a matter of time.

Thanks for your support


Once more, Thanx Everyone
Quote from Skil :
I.e. : I can't keep full throttle in the second part of most corners because I loose grip on my rear tires. Maybe it's because of setup ( I tend to use inferno setups ) but I think that the real case is that my racing line isn't perfect... I guess it's a matter of time.

Thanks for your support


Once more, Thanx Everyone

Why would you think you can keep full throttle in any part of a corner? Even with a good setup and a perfect line, there will be parts you just can't go full throttle. It is normal to have to play with the throttle to find the grip limit, for the most part of any corner with any car.

Traction control would be the only setup that allows you to keep full throttle.
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How to drive RWD ?
(31 posts, started )
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