It’s a buy once, cry once thing. I’d rather just cut to the chase & get where I know I’m inevitably going instead of taking the scenic route.
Makes sense. There’s a very healthy secondary market for all this stuff too so if you don’t like, shouldn’t be too hard to get most of your $ back.
Modulation wins the day
S1: 13.804
S2: 18.707
S3: 05.178
So I went and raced IRL, and in just a few laps after logging in, I landed the optimal I have been chasing for a week. Down into the .6’s. Yay! I am going to be impossible about how much I think sim helps regular driving and vice-versa. Good stuff always seems to come from it.
I think in real life, you HAVE to do certain things, like, brake, lift, reduce throttle. When I pop back into SIM after IRL driving, it seems like I’m a bit tidier with throttle and more big-picture focused rather than on each turn.
This lap is aggressive. I was pushing very hard and got a little creative, which resulted in a very nice and powerful push up and out. Enjoy!
And the next day my optimal has dropped to 37.391. That’s a huge change overnight. I am really starting to flow, here.
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Big round turns are fun
S1: 13.797
S2: 18.620
S3: 05.126
Finally landed something by letting go, a bit. The deep end of this track involves some pretty precise throttle inputs. You need to be early, but early, correctly. Too much throttle and you make heat, not speed. Even an errant moment of wheelslip seems to matter, letting the other driver slip by.
So I have been careful, figuring out better and gentler ways of trying to get the most out of each turn. I managed to get my optimal down to .39 a couple days, which was very cool, but I couldn’t break .7. I think I was trying too hard to get everything right.
Tonight, I let go. If I wanted to do something, I let myself do it. No questions asked. Just drive, be instinctive, and go get that Ghost. It worked. Made a mess of turn 1, which gave me the fight to take it home. Enjoy the lap.
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Just realized, it’s been a year since TJ started the thread!
S1: 13.743
S2: 18.682
S3: 05.107
I didn’t drive at all yesterday. I had a race on Saturday and I found myself avoiding logging in. When I did try, the game was down, thankfully. I needed a break. I have been digesting my race day and @tjkoyen’s coaching comments. I include them below as part of this for those interested in that sort of thing. Its relevant to the experience of setting this lap in a roundabout way. It’s what I was musing as I lapped, actually.
My Pal Tanguy brought a gopro this time and shared his footage with me. Bearing in mind that Tanguy is heavier than the rest of us, particularly the lads, he was in the mix and likely could have won, had it not been for a late stage punt.
Tanguy’s driving seemed to illustrate many of the points TJ was making in his critique, actually. Where I dive in, feeling that I must, he chooses his engagements better. He prioritizes the corners more carefully. He also waits for the pass to be a done deal before doing it, etc. In short, he has racecraft I do not, yet. But I think I understand a bit better now.
I have much to learn, but I can see the wisdom of tucking back in line and taking only the passes that you know can be completed. I definitely need to work on my courage, however. Gotta get used to making smart rather than impulsive decisions. I am racing with Nick, so I’m going to talk to him about working together and seeing if combined, we can be faster than alone. I want to farm momentum with him.
None of this has anything to do with this lap, directly. But yet, here we are. I can’t help but feel that the race and thinking about the race, colored my KK driving. When I finally did log in, I was smoking fast from the get go. I could tell something was up. Maybe it was the day off, letting stuff sink in.
Whatever, I’ll take it. Enjoy. It is a very pretty lap. My optimal tells me I can be #2. We shall see.
2 Likes
@Muskabeatz
I have been thinking about KKraft relative to Irl.
As TJ points out, the inputs I use in KK are too huge for irl. I am not sure why I use these big inputs. I must do it because it works.
Can you give me any sense of what hoofing a KZ is like irl as compared. Where are the big differences in your opinion? Got any real life footage of any track similar to what we’ve been on?
So @tjkoyen TJ told me to try this and it works. He’s right, the inside driver popped back in line and the pass was easy.
Nice send. 
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Yay! Sensei approval! 
Thanks for the idea.
Happy 4th of July!
S1: 13.831
S2: 18.566
S3: 05.098
Took a couple days off from sim again. I’ve been doing quite a bit of IRL racing and that’s got my attention, for now. I forced myself to get back on this am as I don’t want to get rusty. The leaderboards are getting busy.
I was a touch wide in 1 but nailed the rest. This lap drops me into the .4s, finally. Optimal is down in the .3’s. Time to grind.
Oh, I put together a team for the August 6hr enduro at OVRP. I am stoked as I have been meaning to check out that facility.
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Oh, I put together a team for the August 6hr enduro at OVRP. I am stoked as I have been meaning to check out that facility.
Same weekend as Brickyard and Rok Cup Charlotte, otherwise I’d show up to smack everyone 
So you say, so you say. But, talk is cheap. 
Sorry for the delay on this, Dom! Been giving this some thought. I think the game does a good job of simulating what the speed and reaction time feels like on a faster kart such as a KZ. However, the big difference is that you don’t get the sense of sheer force from the kart in two spots that are most taxing on the driver physically, those being:
- Under braking
- Under throttle application from center off
Heavy braking zones can actually push you out of the seat over longer runs if you’re not in good shape. Braking is difficult to master in any kart, but I feel like a lot mid-pack drivers (say at like a club or regional race) can easily find some time by learning to maximize the braking zones.
Power delivery is arguably the most important part of driving a KZ, and that’s where I typically see the best drivers gain their edge over those 2-3 tenths behind them. It’s all about maximizing your drive off of the corner, all while not sacrificing on entry or mid-corner.
The raw power becomes most apparent to me when I am breaking in a motor for the first time each year. Usually my neck and body are out of shape, so keep that in mind, but if I’m trying to get around the track at break-in speeds, it usually means I’m also watching behind for other drivers, trying not to disturb their laps. It never fails that for the next week after this type of session my neck is absolutely DEAD, and it’s not from just driving around, it’s from power application through/out of a corner while also looking behind me. Definitely doesn’t happen in a Tag or KA lol, and it makes me try to avoid this practice if at all possible, for fear of injuring my neck.
Thanks Evan. I know this sounds nuts but I can appreciate what you are saying. I am very aware under heavy braking that it would be pretty dramatic irl. The shakers do a very good job of letting me know about loads. Even though I cant feel the lateral loads, it’s hugely apparent that balance is important given all the power.
To your point, I have been finding tenths in how I use the throttle. The full throttle always approach overpowers. You really do have to be patient with KZ throttle on exit.
It sounds physically pretty brutal. A young mans kart, I suppose! Hopefully your neck muscles get swole real quick.
One one hundredth. I’ll take it.
S1: 13.780
S2: 18.565
S3: 05.143
This is an interesting lap. Most notably because I don’t remember doing it, but I remember the lap. This lap was driven by my pal, The Stig!
The Stig is the driver that takes over the wheel when I am thinking about other stuff. Literally. Most of my conscious attention is devoted to thought. These thoughts are generally “deep” thoughts, i.e. something that engages you emotionally such that it distracts you from devoting mental cycles to “am I driving correctly, oh dear I’m going to mess up, etc”.
Generally, bad things aren’t conducive to speed, but thats an example of what I mean. Let’s say you had an argument with the spouse or something and you are working mentally through that. Not much space left for worrying about whether you gonna miss an apex. You are just gonna drive and zone out. Prime Stig territory!
But, alas, it is not so easy to summon The Stig. In general, you need to be in a place where you are legit trying to be fast, or accidentally find your way there. So, Stiggy pops up mainly when I am just doing my job, driving, neither happy nor sad. Happy helps, tho. Speed = Happy.
My general observation about The Stig is that when I hand the wheel to him, he drives very well. He is consistent, precise and fast. He’s also pretty free. He doesn’t think, he does. He doesn’t question himself. For all practical purposes, he represents my “current best” driving. He is my optimal manifested IRL. He is the “Zone”.
This lap is all him. I thought I had lost him, since he hasn’t been around in a few months. I thought I’d grown out of him or something, so this is a pleasant surprise.
Welcome back, Buddy. Now, go get me 9 more hundredths, please.
2 Likes
@Muskabeatz quick question… can you take a look at the double apex turn that loads you into the final uphill push.
My question is as follows: do you see how I’m using throttle here? I am feathering the throttle and giving it little bursts of power. I’m trying to keep the kart as close to the limit as possible and the nature of this double apex seems to allow for it.
Thoughts? Is this an “ok” thing to be doing in a gearbox kart? I don’t feel like I’m upsetting the kart at all. But, it feels slightly wrong technique wise.
I think this is an instance where the sim world and real world don’t quite line up. I’ve found that the karts in KartKraft respond to slight throttle (whether constant, or in bursts) leading up to/through apex in a way that allows for better rotation. The little bursts of throttle is definitely something that would upset the kart in real life. I think if the game responded more like the real world it would allow you to charge the first apex harder, point the kart back towards the outside of the track (probably 3/4 track) as you approach the second apex, a bit of brake, then allow the kart to roll through the second part of the corner, hugging fairly tight on ext, and late-ish to full throttle.
Have you tried holding constant throttle through there vs. the blipping? Any noticeable difference?
Thank you for the insight. Both work. The approach involves rotating the kart very aggressively and it can get a little furry. Depending upon how the intital deceleration goes, I might be more or less “round” depending.
In the cases where I find myself approaching the 2nd apex and it makes sense to add speed, I can and do. But, the long patient way works too. It’s line dependent, though.
Also, I think you may be correct. It might be “broken” in that I can’t think of too many instances of me fluttering pedal like that irl. Constant/rising throttle is the standard behavior irl. Unless I’m adjusting to get back into position after messing up or something.
Alan Dove has a couple of YouTube videos about the pulsed throttle technique Senna used.
And below is my opinion on the subject and Alan’s videos.
I wonder if the technique might have had three interconnected objectives:
- Managing the way tire loads built during the corner enter phase, but after the driver input that initiated the direction change… with the objective of…
- Controlling where/when and how quickly the car rotates in yaw around it’s center of mass (e.g. transitions from entering the corner to exiting the corner)…with the objective of…
- Orienting the car in the most advantages trajectory, relative to the line being driven, for the exit phase of the turn. Whether the ‘most advantages’ trajectory is slightly oversteering, neutral (tangent to the line), or slightly understeering is, of course, dependent on many factors. However, in general, and especially when under hard acceleration, it seems that a trajectory that is neutral to very slightly understeering, allows the acceleration force to efficiently and coherently accelerate the vehicle by push through its center of mass. If the vehicle is oriented in even a slightly oversteering attitude, the acceleration forces appear to split: with most of the force accelerating the vehicle forward, while the remaining forces try to accelerate the car in yaw, which can cause excessive rear slip angles (scrub), and/or the need to roll out of the throttle to avoid a spin.
Anyway, even early in his career, Senna appeared to be a master of managing rotation and trajectory, so I would not be surprised if the throttle technique was a critical tool that allowed him to do this.
This YouTube video is low quality, but if you look closely, you can see some differences between his technique and the other FF2000 competitors; who he completely spanks BTW.
Some of the more illustrative bits of the video occur at these time stamps:
3:00 – 3:23
4:00 – 4:03 – Senna takes a much wider entry line than the other front runners. It seems like a ‘round’ entry like that would induce a lot (perhaps too much) yaw force, but if you look at this corner from the other camera angle (before or after this shot), he has the car on rails… perhaps this was an example of an ‘anti-yaw’ throttle technique at work?
4:10 – 4:20
7:12 – 7:22
In general, the other drivers in the video seem to have a segmented corner approach; they drive the front tire in, rotate, and drive the rear tire out. But Senna seems to have a more ‘holistic’ or ‘rounder’ (full corner) approach in that it seems like after the initial change of direction, he seems to induce and maintain more balanced loads between his outside front and rear tires.
When entering a corner, after the initial direction change, there is an increasingly intense wave of energy flowing longitudinally to the front of the car. If Senna is, in fact, using his throttle technique in this video, then I wonder if he is really using the throttle to send small ‘counter-waves’ that could both influence the momentum of the longitudinal wave’s intensity buildup (which I presume would also have an advantageous impact on the yaw rate ramp up), and limit the load transfer to the outside front tire, which would effectively leave more load on the outside rear tire. Both of these would seem to make it easier to ‘check’ initial yaw momentum, and maintain a trajectory that is relatively tangent to the line being driven throughout the turn. So perhaps he was a biological active suspension system. 
Also, I would not be surprised at all if the frequency or tempo of the throttle applications was directly related to the anticipated longitudinal and yaw forces for the turn. For example, a higher frequency for a tight turn with heavy braking, which would induce high degrees of load transfer and yaw, and lower frequency for higher radius turns where the forces build more gradually.
2 Likes
So, you free the next 6 months? this is interesting, can’t wait to digest.
Speaking of energy cycles, motorbikes are weird:
I can’t even begin to understand how this happens. It would appear that the energy cycle initiated by changing direction completely seized. Minute slide from painted bit below rear wheel? Yeet!