Do you consider yourself "fast" or "consistent"? (Aliens need not respond)

[benjoi84]

This question is mainly aimed at the online racing community, for obvious reasons, but is still applicable to all players of the GT series.

I know there are some of you out there who are probably "both", but from your personal perspective, what's your strongest suit?

Edit; added a third option, i didn't want anyone to feel left out.

 

[Marty_Debiru]

TBH I suck. Barelly manage to get into the bronce trophy at the online time attacks, and always behind average online players (-% think).

In real life? I eat "pro drivers" on tracks for breakfast.

 

[Dave A]

Fast......ish...... Sometimes.

 

[Fezzik]

I am consistently slow

 

[Mercia]

Definitely consistent, very rarely get a fastest lap or pole but can run a solid time 100 laps in a row if needed and finish above those pushing too hard for their fast times or making mistakes.

I think it would be more fun being fastest though, tbh. Wins aside, just more exciting overall.

 

[RobertHammer]

I am consistent at doing stupid mistakes that always drop my positions 🤣

 

[MicVic10]

I'm generally decently fast, especially when given enough practice time, usually top 1.5% to 2.0%. However I might do the fastest lap of the race only to never reach it again theoughout the race (even being off by one second, lol) so consistency is not for me.

 

[Nuschel01]

Consistently meeting up with Barry R

 

[breeminator]

I'm more consistent than fast, in that when I used to do FIA races, I'd be closer to the aliens (in terms of seconds per lap) for total race time than qualifying time.

 

[George Jakob]

I consider myself 💩 .

 

[lbpomg95]

I used to consider myself decently fast as well as consistent (among non-aliens at least!) until GT7 came out. At release, consistency went out the window, and achieving gold times in anything became very difficult indeed. Once they changed the physics so that RWD cars weren't trying to murder everyone I got back into the flow of things, but right now I'd consider myself more consistent, but not fast anymore.

On GTSport I think my consistency helped most in the few racing leagues I joined. My qualifying times weren't great at all, I'd usually be bottom half of the order, but could usually work my way up to maybe top 3 through not making mistakes.

 

[Postie]

I think I have good pace in qualifying as I'm usually within 2 seconds of the fastest regional times set.

I definitely lack consistency when racing against others and I inevitable make mistakes which cost me time.

Still using a controller, I do believe I can be quicker and smoother using a wheel.

 

[RACECAR]

From my experience in GTS, I'd say nowadays that I've become consistent with maybe a few flashes of speed every now and then (Depends on the combo honestly). Will be interesting to see if that that continues or changes in GT7 with some of the physics changes (Having played some much more difficult physics on other sims, it could go either way for me)

 

[TJC_69]

This question is mainly aimed at the online racing community, for obvious reasons, but is still applicable to all players of the GT series.

I know there are some of you out there who are probably "both", but from your personal perspective, what's your strongest suit?

Edit; added a third option, i didn't want anyone to feel left out.

Consistent but on my day and in the right mood set I can be very fast.

It's more track and car dependant for me. If the track and car is not to my liking, I'll do ok, but not my usual pace.

 

[AutumnalGlow]

I am incredibly inconsistent, but I can set some fast laps when I don't make mistakes. Nowhere near the best, but still, pretty fast.

This is probably because I put at least 2,000 combined hours into Forza where I could just rewind the mistakes away. Plenty of time to learn to be fast, but I never had to worry about mistakes.

 

[BetelgeuzeFIN]

I’m quite slow with my qualifying time trial times usually around 1.2 % - 1.8 % off the top pace. Consistency depends on a track but especially in changing conditions and with tyre wear on it’s usually very poor.

I’m somewhat able to compete on low A+ level with these but there’s a lot to do to become good in any manner.

 

[R3V]

Hard for me to put together a perfect lap in qualifying/trials, but when I do I'm close to aliens (and occasionally as fast). During a race I'm relaxed and consistent but not quite as fast. This is of course until I get PIT manuevered or a guy I'm lapping messes with me, then I get COD rage and can't drive.

I think mentally because in a race you know your position, where your opponents are and how fast you need to go. In qualifying/trials I overdrive the car trying to gain or compensate for a tenth, because it may make all the difference.

 

[LGBT_Barron]

Hadn't really thought about it much until now, but consistent is probably the best word to describe how i've been doing the past few months. I rarely crash or spin out, usually finish within 1 or 2 places from where i qualified.........The main thing that's helped this consistency is obvs doing lots of races, but doing loads of TT laps, i do 40 - 60 before i even enter a daily race.

 

[Imari]

If I'm doing well, it's probably because I crashed less/made less mistakes than my opponents rather than because I was outright faster than them.

Which is probably why I dislike very short races. There's not enough time for someone like me to take advantage of my skills, because in a short race at least a few of the fast-but-inconsistent group will manage to avoid choking for a few consecutive laps. It incentivises risky driving in the hope of a lucky finish, where in longer races if you're inconsistent it's simply not reasonable to expect to avoid that for 10+ laps.

I am incredibly inconsistent, but I can set some fast laps when I don't make mistakes. Nowhere near the best, but still, pretty fast.

This is probably because I put at least 2,000 combined hours into Forza where I could just rewind the mistakes away. Plenty of time to learn to be fast, but I never had to worry about mistakes.

A lot of people think that rewind is necessarily bad for learning to be consistent, but I don't agree. Rewind can be good for learning to be consistent, but you have to have the mindset of using it as a tool to practice finding the right lines/speeds/etc rather than a get out of jail free card.

I love games with rewind, but I learned to use it in games with limited uses. I tend to not hit it unless the AI does something dumb (in which case I think it's totally fair to avoid that and one of the best uses for rewind) or I do something catastrophic like plow into a wall, in which case I'll keep retrying the corner until I figure out at what point I made the mistake and what I should do next lap. You can get a lot of repetition on the same section of track in a short period of time which is great for learning, but you do have to be trying to learn what you're doing wrong instead of just trying to get lucky and hit a good line. And then you still have to develop the muscle memory to be able to repeat that lap after lap.

Rewind is ultimately what you make of it.

 

[ScottPuss20]

I suck in qualifying because I struggle to get the absolute maximum from a car. I therefore consider myself a consistent driver.

 

[Bobby-Vegas]

Neither

 

[mattikake]

Most will poll consistent because it's easier to be consistent than it is fast.

 

[OldandSlow]

Neither

Same here.

 

[OJBrit]

I'm slow and if I am ever consistent it's a bonus not the norm. But of the 2 I'd say consistency as I've had a few races without mistakes recently.

 

[mintyone]

I'm mostly consistent until my attention gets zapped and then I'm making mistakes left and right. Never fast though enough for racing humans though. I also feel like I bring real life worries about bumping into someone when they're clearly driving erratically in an online race and I brake instead of pushing through.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

I sometimes think I'm doing both then do a random lap a few tenths faster than all the others that I can't repeat and lose all the previous consistency trying. I vote neither.

 

[zjn]

I think that the question sound differently in the minds of A/B versus C/D drivers, especially in the consistency bit.

Btw, I'm a C/D driver (actually D/C driver better descibes me...) using a wheel since couple of months, wihtout having a strong history in racing with pad.

My definition of fast, for my level, is: being able to improve my lap time over different sessions (I usually get a good silver at time trials). So I would say I can be fast
My definition of consistent, again, my level, is: do not do mistakes / do mistakes I can recover without losing tons of seconds. I'm rarely able to nail 5 laps staying at my peace+-5%, sooner or later I f@#k it up.. So I would say I'm not consistent.

Looking at the previous answers I guess that most people is far better than me and have their own definition of what they consider fast or consistent.

This is a very hot topic in my mind, I always think about how to improve and don't actually have a plan...
Should I aim for a safer drive, raise consistency, and then work on quickness,
or should I do the other way around
or a mix
?

 

[Grimm6Jack]

Depends on the car/track combo for me, mostly the car.

If I'm driving fast cars, like Formula cars, Gr.1, Gr.2, Gr.3 cars, and actually put the effort and time needed to get a great lap in them, I can actually be 1% or even less than that compared to the top 1 time in time trials and qualifying sessions.
This latest Time Trial with the MP4/4 at Suzuka is proof of that, as I managed to get within the top 70 worldwide and even top of my country, much to my surprise, but I've put about 1.000kms driving it, and I think I can even get better than that.

But in terms of being generally fast across everything, I don't think that's my biggest strength at all.

Back in GT Sport where I did a lot of Sport Races (322 for the trophy alongside the poles and wins), I usually would qualify among the top 3-5, but during the race, my times would be very close to my best qualifying time, and at times, sometimes even best it...
Plus, after learning and doing a few practice sessions with the car/track combo, I rarely do mistakes in a race, so yes, consistency is a much better strength of mine.

 

[benjoi84]

Should I aim for a safer drive, raise consistency, and then work on quickness,
or should I do the other way around
or a mix
?

In my experience, if you focus on consistency then the pace will soon follow.

Consistency has the benefit of bringing better results, for sure. Many a fast driver has blistering qualifying pace but then fudges the big occasion.

 

[ShiftingGears]

Its all relative. When I am on I am quite consistent and I won a lot of races on GT Sport against faster players because of my consistency and racecraft.

After a quick check I scored 822 wins with 442 poles and 750 fastest laps which suggests as much