Looking for SRF advice

[Hydro]

I'm a bit (really, really) lost with this car. Currently it's the only Class D race I can enter and I'm trying to get my MPR out of the way but the car just won't finish more than 2 straight laps with me at the wheel for the most part, and I'm clearly not the only one in that boat if my last practice session is any indicator.

I've tried a half dozen tunes (including ones that claimed to be very safe and stable) and tried for over an hour to tune it myself to no avail. I can string together multiple laps now, but it's like I'm on ice in the rear at all times in all but the banked corners at Charlotte RC. To top it off, it's been simply no fun at all.

Am I missing something?

 

[vk1968]

I started with the SRF this week too and it took me quite a few hours to get used to it too. It was very frustrating at the beginning but now I actually like it and have fun with it. I plan to stick to the SRF series for the whole season 4.

I'm stilling losing the car more often than I like but I now get through a race - sometimes even incident free - with an average pace.

Only advice I have is stick to a tune and practice, practice, practice. The car doesn't like aprupt input, so being smooth is key.

There is a sub-forum for the SRF on iRacing, there you'll find some good advice. Jonathon Hall is freakishly fast and shares his tune in the thread of the week; that's the tune I use.

 

[magic_town]

Just drove the SRF for the first time a few hours ago. It is really different, I hated it at first. Try not to coast through corners, just run a bit of trailing throttle to keep it from oversteering. You also use the throttle to steer it a lot. It's a really different feeling car.
Took me almost an hour at Charlotte to be able to be consistent. Feels really slow but I was pretty much on pace with the rest of the guys on my first race

 

[left888]

With the SRF it will take a little seat time to get use to it. It really is a fun car to drive, I don't think anyone can get in it and drive with efficiency in a day or two. I think the best thing to do is drive it slow and smoothly to the point where you can drive incident free for 20 laps, then work on increasing your speed. As far as setup's go for this car I would just use the baseline. After that give the Radical a try, it is the SRF on steroids.

 

[Roush_fan_99]

Try not to coast through corners, just run a bit of trailing throttle to keep it from oversteering. You also use the throttle to steer it a lot. It's a really different feeling car.

^that needed emphasis...
this helps a ton too http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/2022116.page.
it's a blast to drive once you learn it, I still haven't raced it

 

[Masi_23]

It's like the Skippy with its very exaggerated (for me at least) lift-oversteer. Just be gentle with it and don't be abrupt with releasing the throttle while entering a corner. Be smooth with your inputs. I think i only raced once with this car back in 2010. Hated it.

 

[Ardius]

As the others have said already, don't lift completely off the throttle too much and use it to balance the car mid-corner.
Try to get the braking done in a straight line and try to basically take each corner as a slow down, corner and then blast the throttle on the exit.

Once you get used to it, this car is one of most rewarding to drive in my opinion. It feels like a big go-kart with all the sliding of the rear. You can actually get on the throttle quite early thanks to the natural oversteer it has, you can learn a lot about how to drive unstable but fast setups from this car..and why understeer-prone or neutral setups are not always fastest.

 

[Hydro]

Thanks for the advice guys 👍

I have gone through the iracing forums and read all the advice there, but it hasn't helped much so far.
The baseline setup for me is virtually undriveable and by reading the comments here I'm thinking the bigger problem with the car is my right foot. Nerve damage to that foot makes for less than ideal fine tuned throttle control. From tons of GT5 time I've managed much better throttle-on control but not so much with throttle-off.

The car does feel like it would be a lot of fun though so I'll keep at it for a while. I love the kart-like feel to it. Maybe this is just a particularly tough track to start on (for me). I'll track down the Jonathan Hall tune that vk1968 recommended and test it on a couple other tracks to see.

 

[Ardius]

Charlotte road course is by far the best circuit for it actually! I thought the same as you and found it very frustrating at first, but if you keep at it, its actually a lot of fun.
I don't really like Summit Point in any car, but especially not in the SRF. At least at Charlotte you've got plenty of track to use to dance the car with.

 

[Hydro]

Charlotte road course is by far the best circuit for it actually! I thought the same as you and found it very frustrating at first, but if you keep at it, its actually a lot of fun.
I don't really like Summit Point in any car, but especially not in the SRF. At least at Charlotte you've got plenty of track to use to dance the car with.

The bolded part just depressed the hell out of me
The car does dance though - it's like a crazy breakdance. Or the "Elaine' from Seinfeld.

The more frustrating part is that the car doesn't need to be shifted at all in the infield. I stay in 3rd all the way from turn 1 to the oval re-entry so it's only the driving part that I'm concentrating on. There are 2 spots where I could shift to fouth for ~a sceond but it doesn't seem worth it.

 

[YouichiHophop]

I'm a bit (really, really) lost with this car. Currently it's the only Class D race I can enter and I'm trying to get my MPR out of the way but the car just won't finish more than 2 straight laps with me at the wheel for the most part, and I'm clearly not the only one in that boat if my last practice session is any indicator.

I've tried a half dozen tunes (including ones that claimed to be very safe and stable) and tried for over an hour to tune it myself to no avail. I can string together multiple laps now, but it's like I'm on ice in the rear at all times in all but the banked corners at Charlotte RC. To top it off, it's been simply no fun at all.

Am I missing something?

It may be a bit late, but you can race the free Solstice and MX5 in the Grand Touring Challenge (and the Jetta but its not free), which is a D-class series. Most of the tracks aren't free in the GTC, they are at Suzuka this week (until tomorrow), but they are at a Laguna week2 next season.

 

[Hydro]

Thanks for the advice guys, but I've basically bailed on the car for now. It's just too frustrating.
I wound up running two slow-ish TT's to satisfy the MPR and then a few Nvidia cup races got me to C and B in one quick jump (currently at C 3.45). I still need to run the MPR for C class, but I have to purchase a car / track to do so.

It may be a bit late, but you can race the free Solstice and MX5 in the Grand Touring Challenge (and the Jetta but its not free), which is a D-class series. Most of the tracks aren't free in the GTC, they are at Suzuka this week (until tomorrow), but they are at a Laguna week2 next season.

The GTC is quite a bit of fun. I had some great races at Okyama full the previous week and was really disappointed that the track for last week was not a freebie. I'm not sure why I didn't just buy Suz, it's always been a huge favourite for me and will wind up in my cart sooner or later.

 

[pilmat]

Marc, I'm starting to get it down to reasonable times and get the "feeling" of it.

A SRF in real life CAN'T be that hard. I remember my boss used to run one and he HATED oversteery cars!

So far I run it stock except for the following:
Full stiff FARB
Full soft RARB
Caster down to 4.0 degrees and front toe 1 click of toe out (take to min and one click of negative)

This doesn't make it faster, but much more stable. My next step is to take the front toe to 1 click of positive to see if that works like in real life too.

 

[zedfonsie]

Thanks for the advice guys, but I've basically bailed on the car for now. It's just too frustrating.
I wound up running two slow-ish TT's to satisfy the MPR and then a few Nvidia cup races got me to C and B in one quick jump (currently at C 3.45). I still need to run the MPR for C class, but I have to purchase a car / track to do so.

Learning how to drive this car has huge benefits later on, especially if your going to do a season with the Radical sr8 (undoubtedly the funnest car in iracing)

 

[GTP_FastM3]

Thanks for the advice guys, but I've basically bailed on the car for now. It's just too frustrating.
I wound up running two slow-ish TT's to satisfy the MPR and then a few Nvidia cup races got me to C and B in one quick jump (currently at C 3.45). I still need to run the MPR for C class, but I have to purchase a car / track to do so.


The GTC is quite a bit of fun. I had some great races at Okyama full the previous week and was really disappointed that the track for last week was not a freebie. I'm not sure why I didn't just buy Suz, it's always been a huge favourite for me and will wind up in my cart sooner or later.

I'd recommend trying it again in a few months. I was just like you. I tried the SRF after racing the MX-5 for a couple months and hated it. I went back to the MX-5 and did a 1/2 season of the IRNC. I just finished a season in the Skippy and found I could control it quite well. I've yet to try the SRF again, but from what I read the Skippy is usually harder to master than the SRF. For me more racing time seemed to improve my overall driving ability. I'm going to try some SRF and Skippy this season.

 

[BRP17]

I'm far from fast in any car, but from following advice found here and on IRacing,
I'm able to get through a race with minimal incidents.
Thankfully only a couple more days until the next season starts

 

[Eric.]

Slow down well enough before turn-in, and with few exceptions, always be on throttle through turns. You can lift a little bit to get it to rotate.

 

[Hydro]

Well I got my oval SR out of the way by running the Charlotte races and that went perfectly (4 of 5 races had 0 incidents ) so I figured I'd try the srf again because it's back to the tracks I (and everyone I imagine) know really well - Lime Rock & Okyama.
I applied Pilmat's tuning advice, but set the front toe to 0 and took about an hour to get used to the car around Lime rock without losing the car in turn 1 - the rest was actually pretty easy to handle - by comparison to my attempts at Charlotte RC.

Eventually ran a quali lap (1'02.2xx ) and a full race and had a great time However, there was a significant problem when I switched from 'test' to running the quali. The brake assist and driving line were turned off for eveything but the test session. Normally I wouldn't care, as I don't use them for the most part anyway but the brake assist was essential to learning the car. I was already in the quali session when I found that out so locked brakes were the order of the day 👎

In the end I got through it ok but the quali and race cost me a combined -.32 SR All of it from off track penalties. I'm shocked I didn't actually hit anything / anyone.
I agree with Phil, this car can't possibly be this tough to drive. It must make a significant difference to actually be in the car to feel the weight transfer, etc. Regardless, it's starting to make sense and I see now how it can be quite a bit of fun to drive. We'll just have to see if my SR survives