When racing, how often do you keep you eyes on the speedometer? Or do you just guess the speed you should take a corner at, or is it just 2nd nature eventually?

Also, I seem to notice almost everyone talks in Km/h instead of mph, should I switch accordingly? (I use mph).

Thanks!

the majority of people come from countries that use KM/h, i use MPH just fine though.

Personally experience tells me how fast to take a corner and i use the speedo tells me if i was faster this time round than last time.

The more you race, the less you'll use the speedo. My eyes were glued to it when I first started with LFS but I only use it to check my speed at certain landmarks around the track now, to try to figure out where I can gain time.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

The more you race, the less you'll use the speedo. My eyes were glued to it when I first started with LFS but I only use it to check my speed at certain landmarks around the track now, to try to figure out where I can gain time.

same here. you'll also learn what speed your doing by the sound of the engine. (eg T1 aston club in the xfr is 5-6000 RPM in 2nd gear.)

Quote from thisnameistaken :

The more you race, the less you'll use the speedo. My eyes were glued to it when I first started with LFS but I only use it to check my speed at certain landmarks around the track now, to try to figure out where I can gain time.

when im on the brakes approaching apex entry my eyes are fixed on the speedo for a second or two, especially if I know I've overshot braking point knowing maximum speed that I can enter apex, In this second or two(if I've overshot it) looking at speedo and looking how close to apex entry gives a good Idea of how the car is going to corner ie. you'll know to throw the back out abit to kill off some speed. so yes I look at the speedo nearly every corner.

I don't look at the speedometer at all, except for when im entering the pits.

I think it's best to learn yourself take corners with feeling from the start, in stead of looking at the speedometer.

since i changed my speedo to analog i never used it again (mostly because i cant use a resolution that makes the speedo readable)
and i'd say i'm better now without it :]

The only time i ever look at the speedo is when pitting.
When racing i work out everything by feel and sound.

The pic following (ignore the 3 year old's fingerprints, grrrr) is at 60 degrees FOV. I've since moved to around 50 degrees and the camera was focused to view the monitor only, thus I can't see my speedometer because it's covered in my view by my MOMO wheel. So, I rarely look at it at all anymore.

Thanks a lot guys, I look at my (digital) speedometer a lot coming around corners, but I noticed if I try to do it by "feel" I can sometimes come around it faster. Thanks for the help again!

Only thing on the dash I really notice is the shift light and then most of the time I know its coming.

Quote from Woz :

Only thing on the dash I really notice is the shift light and then most of the time I know its coming.

I don't even notice that. The bright blinking LED on my MOMO wheel when it's time to shift kind of washes out the visibility of the little red texture on the screen

Wow, you must have some pretty cool steering wheels... I wish I had one lol.

Quote from Futur3 :

When racing, how often do you keep you eyes on the speedometer? Or do you just guess the speed you should take a corner at, or is it just 2nd nature eventually?

As a beginner racer I rarely look at the speedometer. I mostly just look at it on long straights to see how fast I can get the car going and because I have time to zoom in with the TrackIR- I run LFS at 1600x1200 on a 23" screen and most gauges are hard to read from where I sit, single seaters are a bit easier though. So I've just tried from the start to learn by feel. I still have a lot to learn...

Well I think this is like driving in the real world. I don't watch my speedometer when driving f.ex. in a city. I can pretty much use my senses to decide how fast I can take a corner, altough I'm not usually racing while driving in city. If I was, I could imagine that I don't have any time to watch speedometer, nor the need.

The way I memorize track is by going quite slowly, trying to memorize the driving lines. After that I put up some speed and gears if necessary and start memorizing braking points. After a while I know HOW MANY GEARS I TAKE DOWN before turning to hit the apex. When you get to the right gear, you can quite easily speed up or brake down easily without spinning in the corner.

So by determining how many gears I have to take down and approximately slowing down so much that I don't rev the engine and I can do any curve quite decently.

Generally I just look for the proper gear for each corner, not MPH. I may glance at my mid-corner speed and/or my exit speed if i'm fine-tuning a setup, but for the most part I just brake, downshift to the correct gear, and watch for my turn-in point.