I recently got the full version of S2, but have been lurking awhile and only posted a few times. I think I am about an average driver, but one thing that kills me is my start off the line. I have some pretty good setups that I have either downloaded through links on this website, or gotten from players in game. Mainly, I drive the GTR on BP course (yes, even with the full version I enjoy driving the basic FWD cars). It seems no matter what I do, everyone else gets a better start than I. Hold the gas down and the car wheels spin at the line, try to find a middle ground and I tend to underrev. For RWD, I imagine you have to be gentle on the start to stay in control? Is my thought process right here, or am I way off and missing something in getting a good start off the line?

In LFS wheelspin is the fastest way to launch. It's much quicker to spin the wheels a bit, than it is to risk bogging down the engine. The 4wd cars take some brutal revving to get off the line quickly, but then so do the low powered 2wd cars.

Turn off auto-cut on upshift too.

seems to me like you get a better start spinning the wheels. The car is hard to control yes, and when it looks like its going to act funny, then let off the gas a little.

with some practice you will make som good starts

I tac up to about 11 grand FZR at start then drop to about 5 and feather the throttle back on. I get great starts

well i personally think it depends a lot on the gearing setup of you car... but this is what i tend to do at the start...

when the two sets of lights go red i floor the pedal completely and wait for the green lights to light up.... the full revs never damage my engine as i always get the timing just right and the starts i make are always good..

only on the odd occasion do i forget about the lights when i am looking backwards at the grid lol so i end up being last by turn 1 hehehe!!!!


mad

best way to practise starts is to practise starts

similar to Madman above I watch the lights and increase gas to about 70% then as lights hit green and as clutch disengages leadfoot it for a few seconds usually (unless in UF1 ) this produces some wheelspin but as momentum increases I tend to let off a little , hopefully when the revs are high enough to not bog down the engine and to gain a little extra traction as some grip is restored to driving wheels . this works better in FWD cars and I mostly seem to get good starts.

SD.

I just realized I posted this in general when I meant for it to be in beginners. Thanks for the responses though. I figured it was just in the timing and that I was doing something wrong, but I think I have alot to learn as just about everyone has a better start off the line than me . Another question... any idea how to control the Formula V8 off the line? lol Add just the slightest throttle and that car spins like a top.

The sensible thing to do would be not just not drive the FO8 until you are capable and reasonably able in the slower cars.

Of course, very few beginners do this - the attraction of the 'fastest' car is too great, regardless of their ability (or, usually, lack of).

So, learn throttle control, make 1st and 2nd gears taller (or shift to 2nd/3rd as soon as the lights change), and try adjusting the diff so you have a good balance between starts and 'normal' driving.

to get the v8 of the line succesfully is a challenge....if you are a bigginer then id recommend sticking to the slower cars untill you get the feel and timing right for the starts.

Because the v8 has so much power the rear wheels will always spin if one is not carefull. The way i start with the v8 is to keep the revs about middle.... when the lights go green i tend to do a short stab at the throttle to get some more power which gives me a bit of wheel spin but then i immediately decrease the accelerator power so the rear wheels regain traction and then apply throttle smoothly untill pedal is fully down.. also some correction with the wheel is needed if car becomes unstable with too much wheelspin..

it does require some practise though. I have spend a few hours doing drag racing with the v8 just so i can get use to the starts.

it requires a good control over the foot.... and it helps a lot if u have descent pedals... mine are just too light so its even harder to know how far i have pressed the pedal!!...

mad

damn.... tristan!!! u beat me to it :P

what is throttle cut on up-shift?

it cuts the throttle when shifting up.... it stops you from damaging your engine by over reving when you shift up....

normally you would have a clutch pedal so when you shift you would let off the throttle pedal press the clutch pedal and shift then apply throttle again... this way you avoid over reving your engine and damaging it....

its good to use cut throttle on upshift in long races...
mad

Something is very very wrong with the FO8 IMO, yes it is a big single seater without traction control but at low speeds it is just stupid, it's not hard to control when you know what it's gong to do but it's still not like the real thing should be.

Quote from Madman_CZ :

its good to use cut throttle on upshift in long races...
mad

Is much better to turn the auto throttle cut off and lift the throttle yourself. I lift in all cars but the big GTR's and the FOX. I don't run the F08 because after 15,000+ miles in S2, I still can't keep it from spinning out on the throttle (there, kept on topic ).

When driving short races in turbo cars, try to hit the rev limiter as soon as the second red light is lit up. If you drive RB4 or FXR, directly rev up as soon as you are on the grid. When hitting the limiter you will slowly spool up turbo pressure which will greatly affect your start speed.

This is, AFAIK, the only way to actually launch faster than the FZR... the only other way may be a ridiculously short first but that isn't exaclty great when you shift into 2nd.

In turbo cars you can get ekstra power if you can spool up the turbo before the green light.

Quote from Sp3cTr3 :

In turbo cars you can get ekstra power if you can spool up the turbo before the green light.

Unfortunately that's impossible at the moment in LFS.

No it isn't - in the turbo cars floor it as soon as the countdown begins. Watch the boost gauge, and it'll build up and up to a nice maximum when the lights turn green.

Makes a BIG different to starts.

I turned on the virtual lights because sometimes you'll start where you can't see the real lights and I start counting in my head. 3 seconds from the first red lights, on zero it goes to green like: Red, Red, Red, Green!

I never floor the pedal because the engine still makes popcorn sound when revving it to the max. I found out starting with wheelspin in the XRR is much better than without, since I don't have a clutch pedal to further optimize a start off the line. Though you are right, it needs some concentration to not spin around in the middle of the field =)

For FWD cars I do like most people over here and trying to reduce wheel spin as much as possible and I rather keep some wheel spin than underrev.

Can someone verify this: In the FZR when the lights go green I usually try to have little wheelspin for couple of seconds and then I lift the throttle just a little and almost instantly after this floor it. The rears stop spining when I do that little lift and then I can accelerate with full grip/full throttle.

So little wheelspin in the start to make wheels spin but not much. Then back to the "tracktion zone"

Quote from Messiah :

I never floor the pedal because the engine still makes popcorn sound when revving it to the max.

hmm popcorn

i tend to floor it just before lights go green, engine can last few moments at max revs. I have never had it pop after a start doing it my way...

what use to kill it is upshifting.. untill i found the cut throttle on up shift

mad

The key to a good start with the F08 is burning out, unless you've got very good clutch control. If you can control the burnout on a FO8 you can get away really quick, for example on oval, when i burnout i can get a time of 19.54 as the start, pretty much with the opposition far behind and barely seeable in the mirrors.

What i do is burnout till i hit about 40-45mph, usually at this point my rear tires have hit the optimum temperature, let off the gas to stop the wheel spin. Then put my foot down again. Same technique seems to work well with the FOX too, not sure about other cars.

You need to be optimistic

Bad start = surviving T1 !

Another thing to keep an eye on in the F08 is the speed, once you hit about 110kph you can floor the throttle because the aerodynamic downforce is now strong enough to keep the back wheels form spinning.

Quote from NO_1 :

Ok

Nice first post!

I take my word back that it's impossible to get good turbo boost before green light as I've never been so sadistic with my poor XRR and keep the engine screaming at rev limiter waiting for go. Apologies for misinformation!

Yeah, the screaming hurts me inside too, but alas, the rev limiter does its job and prevents any noticeable damage to the engine.