Racing Lines/Track Analysis

[pvtlapdance]

Does anyone have or know of, a guide to all the tracks? I.e correct racing lines, sector lengths etc.? I've reach the point in my driving skill where the only way I'm going to get fast is to improve my line. I'd like to start hitting THE apex instead of just an apex lol

 

[TT92]

Does anyone have or know of, a guide to all the tracks? I.e correct racing lines, sector lengths etc.? I've reach the point in my driving skill where the only way I'm going to get fast is to improve my line. I'd like to start hitting THE apex instead of just an apex lol

I really hate to point out the obvious but why don't you just turn the driving line on?

I use it to learn new tracks. It is an OK guide.

Cheers

 

[Zenmervolt]

Many of the "real world" tracks will show a racing line through the corners if you look closely. I'm not talking about the blue/red thing you can enable in the settings, but rather about a "lane" on the asphalt that is darker than the rest. The blue/red driving line that you can turn on in the settings does not always follow the racing line on the track, and I've always found the "darker black" racing line to be faster than the blue/red "driving line."

 

[Johnnypenso]

Many of the "real world" tracks will show a racing line through the corners if you look closely. I'm not talking about the blue/red thing you can enable in the settings, but rather about a "lane" on the asphalt that is darker than the rest. The blue/red driving line that you can turn on in the settings does not always follow the racing line on the track, and I've always found the "darker black" racing line to be faster than the blue/red "driving line."

Salient point. 👍 Grip is on the dark stuff. Generally you'll be fastest by staying on it as long as possible.

 

[pvtlapdance]

I really hate to point out the obvious but why don't you just turn the driving line on?

I use it to learn new tracks. It is an OK guide.

Cheers

It's not a matter of learning tracks. I know the tracks, just need the most efficient line. The provided driving line is the generic line the AI cars follow.

Following the black stuff makes sense. I'l give that a go

 

[DoogleDave]

As previously mentioned you can usually see the wear mark in the road on the driving line and blackened tyre marks around the braking points, which should give you a good starting point.

Also, assuming you're driving manual then don't always take the gear selection GT6 indicates as the correct gear for the upcoming turn to be the best gear to use....depending on the car sometimes its better to stay in the next highest gear and roll into the turn and upon acceleration there will likely be less torque hitting the wheels which may help avoid a spin (this is dependent on the car, track etc).

Into the corner slow, hit the apex and accel out smoothly. Don't hit full throttle until you know you don't need to back off. Keeping momentum is where you'll save your time. Learning to brake just enough to slow you to your entry speed and no more will help. Over-driving the car and pushing it past its (or your) limits will just slow you down. Listen to what your car is telling you as you drive as well. Screeching tyres as you turn means you're pushing too hard and/or have the wrong line.

Dave

 

[Gentoo64]

The racing line depends on the car, how fast it is, how much oversteer it has. It's pretty basic, you need to take the apex (a straight line) cutting through the corner preparing yourself for the next corner, so some corners although you can take them fast you will need to take them slower to be in line.

Also while accelerating out of a corner, make use of all the road to get maximum exit speed like on tight corners eg first corner of Grand Valley, Suzuka's hairpin etc etc make sure that when you accelerate out you are at the opposite edge of the track (as long as there is enough of a straight).

Some corners have double (maybe triple) apexes which are taken the same way, but you need throttle control, maybe some tapping of the brakes depending on how the car is.

Practice with Sport Hard tyres if you aren't already, maybe Comfort Soft if the car is low PP, you will be forced to take a cleaner line and be more careful on accelerator. Actually I would recommend Comfort Soft for practice on any reasonable car as perfect line is the only way, with good braking judgement and throttle control while accelerating out. It will be clear as day on CS tyres when accelerating out as you will either accel out off the track / need to lift off to save yourself, or have too much track left meaning your exit could be quicker.

It's usually better to brake in a straight line and downshift in a straight line on typical corners, but some corners can be taken quicker by tapping the brake while turning, or trail braking, and also downshifting while cornering to get oversteer and exit speed. There are so many types of corner, typical advice is slow in fast out on plain (rightangle-ish corners), straight as you can through chicanes, anything else you sort of have to improvise as you go you can tell if it's fastest or not.

Make sure you have enough practice with downshifting as you need to rev match for the corners, same goes for gear ratios, if your gears are too wide then you will get massive understeer, too narrow and you'll get too much oversteer and will have to upshift through the corner (slow) it's important to tune gears for the track for this reason, nothing worse than coming up to a commonly 2nd gear corner when your 2nd gear is too short and 3rd is too long, you want to be at the start of the power band coming out the apex. Cars with 7 gears are a lot more flexible and forgiving (having more power bands) but not necessarily faster.

If the only problem you're having is hitting _the_ apex rather than _an_ apex then your problem is just not making full use of the road on the exit, in which case try taking corners earlier, start turning even if you think you're gona go off track a lot of the time you wont and you can accelerate out faster to the edge of the track on exit getting more straight line speed (if that makes any sense).

Also don't practice online as other people will take different lines, mess up and put pressure on you, brake at different times etc. When I race online I have to race clean but at the same time pretend they aren't there so they don't badly influence my line

 

[TenEightyOne]

On a long wide track you can easily add several hundred meters to the length of your lap by running wide around the corners.

That's why the fastest way is the shortest way, start wide, use all the track on the way on, all the track on the way out. Make the smoothest arc possible and just touch the apex of the turn (which may have more than one corner).

As Gentoo says, sometimes you'll find you need to compromise your entry in order to get a fast exit. Practising lines online is a nightmare, get confident in a lobby on your own. Don't practice offline, when you get online you'll understeer all over.

 

[Johnnypenso]

That's why the fastest way is the shortest way, start wide, use all the track on the way on, all the track on the way out. Make the smoothest arc possible and just touch the apex of the turn (which may have more than one corner).

As Gentoo says, sometimes you'll find you need to compromise your entry in order to get a fast exit. Practising lines online is a nightmare, get confident in a lobby on your own. Don't practice offline, when you get online you'll understeer all over.

The shortest way around the track would be to drive up the inside of every corner and exit on the inside and that's clearly not the fastest way. Generally the fastest way is the straightest way, meaning straighten out the corners by approaching from as far wide as possible and exiting as far wide as possible, assuming this isn't affected by the close proximity of another corner. Some corners also benefit as you said, from compromising entry in order to obtain a better exit but that varies by track/car/pp, etc. The way GT5/6 is set up, if you can do a quick rotation on a lot of corners to set up a straighter exit it's often faster. I think one of the reasons people love the Nurb so much is that it's a much smoother, more flowing track that forces you to use more natural, realistic racing lines (ignoring the unrealistic abuse of the curbs for a moment) in order to be smooth and fast, as opposed to the enter hard, flick and go of some other tracks.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The shortest way around the track would be to drive up the inside of every corner and exit on the inside and that's clearly not the fastest way.

Yup, I should have said "straightest way"

 

[BrandonW77]

You don't need to study every track, you just need to learn the concept and then you can easily apply it to every track and "see" the line naturally.

Watch this, it's a bit old but still completely relevant and all of it can be applied in GT. 👍

 

[TT92]

It's not a matter of learning tracks. I know the tracks, just need the most efficient line. The provided driving line is the generic line the AI cars follow.

Following the black stuff makes sense. I'l give that a go

As others have already pointed out here it then comes down to technique, the vehicle you are in, your skill level and style. Three of those have to be learned - usually the hard way ;-)

The way to learn is find some good online lobbies and race with them. Follow the fast guys. Or if you have some fast friends have some one on one sessions with them and get them to slow down so you can follow them more easily and hopefully learn.

 

[ace004]

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Also I didn't see anyone point out prioritizing corners. Look at all the corners on the racetrack and pay closer attention to the ones with straights in between. The corner with the longest straight afterward should be your most important corner. That's the place on the track that screwing up will hurt you the most or you nail it and have a chance to gain the most. Again that one corner should be your highest priority. Now that you're done with that one go and find the corner with the second longest straight. This is your second highest priority. Rinse and repeat until you are out of corners. Now you know where you can make the most time, and now you can just worry about technique.

And if you are serious about learning race technique then go and purchase some literature. Skip Barbers Going Faster is a great one, but there are others. Take the advice of the people above me too. There are some good drivers up there with solid technique.

 

[RIKARDO_93]

Go on Youtube, see some videos.. the thing is, every driver has a way to take some corners, some corners have only one proper way to take them, but there are others that have a different approach if not all. I love motor racing since i was little, and i always see races on the TV, that's how I got to learn some tricks I now apply on the game.

 

[JMII]

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Also I didn't see anyone point out prioritizing corners. Look at all the corners on the racetrack and pay closer attention to the ones with straights in between. The corner with the longest straight afterward should be your most important corner. That's the place on the track that screwing up will hurt you the most or you nail it and have a chance to gain the most. Again that one corner should be your highest priority. Now that you're done with that one go and find the corner with the second longest straight. This is your second highest priority.

Very true, thus some turns are "throw away" ones. You might need to run a very different or odd ball line in them to set up for the next corner or straight This is what makes learning each track so much fun. Race against your ghost and try to find time by experimenting with various lines. As noted the "apex" might be earlier or later depending on the car your driving as well as the section before OR after.

You'll know when your doing it right when you can exit under max power within reason, high HP cars require SMOOTH progressive throttle, don't floor it. I once read that if have to lift or feather the throttle once past the apex your doing something wrong, either not slowing enought before or you miss judged the true apex. Once you find the real apex you'll be flying down the straight, it's pretty awesome. Remember it's always slow in / fast out, using the full width of the track. Just be careful, some turns due rumble strips or camber will upset the balance of the car so you need to learn to avoid those. Others you can drive straight across without going out of bounds or losing grip on the grass / dirt.

I'll just add - a great way to learn is chasing some else's ghost. I've seen some lines that make no sense at first but are actually very fast once you understand the big picture. While not in the game turn 3 at Homestead (infield, not oval) is like this: the apex is odd, you go deep and stay wide, cutting over what seems way too late, but it doesn't matter, instead it's all about getting in the best position for the turn 4 & 5 complex. I only know this because I've tracked my 350Z there in real life.

 

[subsist]

I think the OP knows the general theory of a racing line and how to drive a car, so there really is no use in the 20 paragraph long posts explaining what a racing line is and the best way to take it, we all know the straightest line is the fastest, what he wants is maps showing the lines, the best place to brake and turn in points.

I too would not mind some maps like these just for interests sake.

 

[ace004]

I think the OP knows the general theory of a racing line and how to drive a car, so there really is no use in the 20 paragraph long posts explaining what a racing line is and the best way to take it, we all know the straightest line is the fastest, what he wants is maps showing the lines, the best place to brake and turn in points.

I too would not mind some maps like these just for interests sake.

Maps aren't going to tell you much other than what's completely obvious from what you are saying. Racing line constantly changes depending on the variables that are thrown at it. Different cars, drivetrain layout, tire choice, power, and racing against people or the clock just to name a few.

 

[Mustangmiha]

Many of the "real world" tracks will show a racing line through the corners if you look closely. I'm not talking about the blue/red thing you can enable in the settings, but rather about a "lane" on the asphalt that is darker than the rest. The blue/red driving line that you can turn on in the settings does not always follow the racing line on the track, and I've always found the "darker black" racing line to be faster than the blue/red "driving line."

This combined with memorizing the track is equal to the very successful and fastest way around the track. I noticed PD's blue/red line can be sometimes pretty wonky and slow, something you'd aim for the bronze.

Also ghosts from fastest online players can help a lot.

 

[subsist]

Maps aren't going to tell you much other than what's completely obvious from what you are saying. Racing line constantly changes depending on the variables that are thrown at it. Different cars, drivetrain layout, tire choice, power, and racing against people or the clock just to name a few.

Maps can tell a lot. they can show you the proper racing apex as opposed from the geographical apex. Also, most corners only have 1 proper line, there is only 1 straightest way through a corner. There are some corners of coarse where lines can change, but mostly there is only one proper line.