- 229
- Canada
29.5, nice!
Zeroes to Heroes: how to learn a track in Driveclub
- Thread starter Moto54
- 66 comments
- 4,941 views
- 236
- England
- Mcpartyman
As promised, I have uploaded the video now. It's currently processing. Unfortunately, I couldn't save a replay (15 minute limit, sigh...), so I had to use the video I saved from SHARE.
I'll write some notes tomorrow. I'm too tired right now.
On another note, I'm jealous of your driving @Moto54. It's so clean and smooth. It looks beautiful.
EDIT: Here's the current leaderboard:
Congratulations that's absolutely brilliant!! Now we will see if it can be got down to low 1-28 or high 1-27 as someone predicted on here. Cheers for posting the video.
Thanks. Getting below 1:28 is 100% possible, but I doubt I will be able to do it.
Yeah, I really do drive in chase cam... I used to drive in bumper cam in GT, but in DC that view is placed far too low. I tried chase cam for a bit because of that and it actually felt nice and fast. It didn't feel floaty/disconnected like the one in Gran Turismo.
Controller.
I'm still interested in that secret time of yours!
I'm going to try and write some notes later. What things I have looked out for. Certain apex speeds, etc.
- 236
- England
- Mcpartyman
Automatic. I haven't put any effort in to trying manual in DC. I have no idea if it's faster or not. However, I always drove manual in other racing games like GT.
Since the point of this thread was to unlock what it takes to be Top 3, lets examine a few things.
The first split of Centuras, compared to mine, is similar. His is faster, but by a small margin.
But the second split is amazing. I dont know if he learned his line from a ghost or he invented
it himself, but its off the chart. Brilliant ideas and brill driving.
Having said that, at the end of the 3rd split I noticed something.
Just before the last corner (a left) theres a neon-orange colored circle on the road on the right hand side.
You know that spot? But past that spot theres supposed to be a diamond shaped yellow sign. The thing is,
if you hit that sign during a hotlap it really slows you down. You can knock it over, but its solid!
The answer is- you NEED to knock the sign down on one lap (and be slower) so you can be faster on your
following laps (because that yellow sign is in the way).
That my friends, is the secret of Driveclub TT.
First of all, his #1 is in no danger from me, because I'm not going to play that game with signs.
Secondly, Centura drives like a pro to begin with, so its not as if just anyone can say, 'oh, I'll just
knock some signs down and be new #1'. I suppose if theres a 'thirdly' it should be how nice it is not to
have wasted hours and hours trying to beat his time by driving 'normal'. Huge huge relief, for that.
On a personal level I'm a bit gutted that *this* is what I got myself into.
Still, Driveclub is beautiful, and it handles pretty good, so I'll
just make the most of what I like about DC and ignore what I dont.
The signs can remain standing as they were.
So can the Leaderboards.
Thank you Centura. That was big of you.
The first split of Centuras, compared to mine, is similar. His is faster, but by a small margin.
But the second split is amazing. I dont know if he learned his line from a ghost or he invented
it himself, but its off the chart. Brilliant ideas and brill driving.
Having said that, at the end of the 3rd split I noticed something.
Just before the last corner (a left) theres a neon-orange colored circle on the road on the right hand side.
You know that spot? But past that spot theres supposed to be a diamond shaped yellow sign. The thing is,
if you hit that sign during a hotlap it really slows you down. You can knock it over, but its solid!
The answer is- you NEED to knock the sign down on one lap (and be slower) so you can be faster on your
following laps (because that yellow sign is in the way).
That my friends, is the secret of Driveclub TT.
First of all, his #1 is in no danger from me, because I'm not going to play that game with signs.
Secondly, Centura drives like a pro to begin with, so its not as if just anyone can say, 'oh, I'll just
knock some signs down and be new #1'. I suppose if theres a 'thirdly' it should be how nice it is not to
have wasted hours and hours trying to beat his time by driving 'normal'. Huge huge relief, for that.
On a personal level I'm a bit gutted that *this* is what I got myself into.
Still, Driveclub is beautiful, and it handles pretty good, so I'll
just make the most of what I like about DC and ignore what I dont.
The signs can remain standing as they were.
So can the Leaderboards.
Thank you Centura. That was big of you.
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You are making it sound very, very dirty.
First, you can't see the damage on the front of the car which is where the damage would be from knocking down signs.
Just look at the amount of Fame I have gathered from TT in that session. Over 50,000! That's a lot of laps, trust me. The car looks horrible because it has accumulated dirt over all these laps and there were a couple of crashes. I actually crashed the lap before this lap during the flat out section before the double right hander that leads up the hill. Some of the damage from the rear right section is likely because of that crash.
From what I remember and this is something I was going to touch on later in my notes, there are two signs that need to be knocked down. It's the sign you mentioned and the sign in the middle of the chicane a few corners before.
The sign before the last corner can be worked around, but I'm sure you will lose speed on entry and exit in the last corner.
The sign in the chicane; You have actually knocked it down yourself in your video and you are driving through where the sign was. This sign is even more crucial to be knocked out of the way for a fast lap.
However, I do find it ridiculous that you need to "set-up" your lap by knocking down objects on the track. This is something I noticed after a while and hadn't thought of before.
Anyway, thank you for your comments about my middle sector. It's interesting how that the sector that appears to be easiest and simplest turns out to be hardest and most difficult to ger right.
EDIT: I forgot that I actually look back once during the lap so that you see my damage from the front. Either way, this is mostly damage from crashes.
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I'm sorry for the double post.
As promised, my thoughts on Sinclair Pass and my lap. After all, the purpose of this thread was to teach and help others and hopefully you will learn something from this.
As we all know, DRIVECLUB is not a simulator, but the basic driving rules to go fast still applies.
I will go corner by corner and I created the following image so you can easier follow along:
I highly recommend doing a flying lap (non-A.I. started lap) for a couple of reasons:
The following applies to turn 2, 3 and 4: Hug the inside of the corners as much as you can. It’s probably the easiest and one of the fastest if not the fastest way around these corners.
Turn 2: The easiest and one of the fastest ways is to hold the right side as you drive down the straight and brake slightly before the white line that goes across the track. Just brake and turn right as hard as you can until you reach about 110 km/h. You want to get on the power as early and as hard as you can out of here because you have a short straight before turn 3, but it’s very important to get a good exit, so don’t slide around too much.
Turn 3: Just hug the inside of the corner and try and get on the throttle as hard as you can going out of it. The rear end shouldn’t slide as you do that because of the way the corner is angled.
Turn 4: Once again, hug the inside of the corner and get on the throttle as early and hard as you can. It’s very critical to get a good exit out of here as it leads to a very long straight.
Turn 5: Going out of turn 4 you should move to the middle of the road before you turn in for 5. This help you mitigate some bumps and you end up scrubbing the tires less as you drive down the hill. I actually turned a bit in too late on my lap. You should try and cut the gravel just a little bit, but beware of the signs.
Turn 6: You should try to hug the inside of this corner and try to keep your speed as high as possible as you accelerate out of it. You will lose a lot of time if you slide out towards the left and it will set you up worse for the next section. I actually pushed slightly too hard and you can see me drifting towards the left.
Turn 7: Just cut as much to the left as possible, but be sure to quickly make your car stable as you go through the next corner.
Turn 8: You should be able to go flat through here, but if you feel your car isn’t stable enough going out of turn 7, definitely lift off just a little bit for a very short time. It will help you settle the car as you go through turn 8. If you car isn’t stable coming out of turn 7 and you stubbornly go flat through here, you will likely screw up your entry for turn 9 and compromise your exit speed out of turn 10 and lose a lot of time.
Turn 9 and 10: These two corners are very complicated. You should definitely go back and read previous comments by Moto54 in this thread. Try to brake and turn in somewhat close to the apex of the corner. The car will start to rotate towards turn 10. Try and control the car with the throttle and keep your speed up as high as possible through here, but it’s critical to ensure you get a good exit out of turn 10 because of the long straight up the hill. You can see between turn 9 and 10 that I start to slide a little bit and got stuck around 125 km/h. And I started to slide once again going out of turn 10. It’s critical to ensure these doesn’t happen because they will cost you a lot of time as you drive up the hill. It’s extremely hard to get this right and I definitely didn’t on this lap. If you feel unable to improve your time going through those two corners, try driving with a different car. This helped me a lot.
Turn 11: Not sure why I wrote this out on the image… LOL. However, this corner can be troublesome if you go too wide going out of turn 10.
Turn 12: I was a bit cautious on my entry in to this corner. Try and hold more to the left as you brake and cut the corner more than I did. An apex speed of 105 - 110 km/h is good here, but make sure you can still rotate the car while accelerating as you drive towards turn 13.
Turn 13: Continue to accelerate out of turn, but make sure you don’t go too wide as you need to prepare for turn 14 and move over to the right hand side.
Turn 14: Brake hard before the corner, rotate the car and just drive straight through it. Don’t try and turn too much going through here. You can cut a lot going out of turn 14, but don’t cut too much as it will unsettle the back end of the car. You can see that I was just about on the limit on how much you can cut going through there without losing a lot of time and/or spinning out.
Turn 15: Hug the left hand side as much as you can going flat out, but don’t get too close to the wall as the invisible barrier don’t quite match the visuals of the track and then move towards the right hand side as you prepare for the last corner.
Turn 16: This is a surprisingly tricky corner. I think my line through there is pretty good as it allows you to keep your speed high throughout and still get a decent exit. However, I got quite nervous by the end of the lap because I knew I was on a good one and I turned and braked too hard. I think my mid corner speed was fine, but if I wasn’t sliding I would be able to accelerate out of it much better.
EDIT: Typos.
As promised, my thoughts on Sinclair Pass and my lap. After all, the purpose of this thread was to teach and help others and hopefully you will learn something from this.
As we all know, DRIVECLUB is not a simulator, but the basic driving rules to go fast still applies.
I will go corner by corner and I created the following image so you can easier follow along:
I highly recommend doing a flying lap (non-A.I. started lap) for a couple of reasons:
- You can quite easily reach higher speed over the finish line as you start your lap.
- There are two objects that need to be “moved”. There is a sign in the way as you drive out of turn 14 and one between turn 15 and 16.
- Yeah, I know the point above ridiculous, but that's how it is... The most crucial one is the one going out of turn 14.
The following applies to turn 2, 3 and 4: Hug the inside of the corners as much as you can. It’s probably the easiest and one of the fastest if not the fastest way around these corners.
Turn 2: The easiest and one of the fastest ways is to hold the right side as you drive down the straight and brake slightly before the white line that goes across the track. Just brake and turn right as hard as you can until you reach about 110 km/h. You want to get on the power as early and as hard as you can out of here because you have a short straight before turn 3, but it’s very important to get a good exit, so don’t slide around too much.
Turn 3: Just hug the inside of the corner and try and get on the throttle as hard as you can going out of it. The rear end shouldn’t slide as you do that because of the way the corner is angled.
Turn 4: Once again, hug the inside of the corner and get on the throttle as early and hard as you can. It’s very critical to get a good exit out of here as it leads to a very long straight.
Turn 5: Going out of turn 4 you should move to the middle of the road before you turn in for 5. This help you mitigate some bumps and you end up scrubbing the tires less as you drive down the hill. I actually turned a bit in too late on my lap. You should try and cut the gravel just a little bit, but beware of the signs.
Turn 6: You should try to hug the inside of this corner and try to keep your speed as high as possible as you accelerate out of it. You will lose a lot of time if you slide out towards the left and it will set you up worse for the next section. I actually pushed slightly too hard and you can see me drifting towards the left.
Turn 7: Just cut as much to the left as possible, but be sure to quickly make your car stable as you go through the next corner.
Turn 8: You should be able to go flat through here, but if you feel your car isn’t stable enough going out of turn 7, definitely lift off just a little bit for a very short time. It will help you settle the car as you go through turn 8. If you car isn’t stable coming out of turn 7 and you stubbornly go flat through here, you will likely screw up your entry for turn 9 and compromise your exit speed out of turn 10 and lose a lot of time.
Turn 9 and 10: These two corners are very complicated. You should definitely go back and read previous comments by Moto54 in this thread. Try to brake and turn in somewhat close to the apex of the corner. The car will start to rotate towards turn 10. Try and control the car with the throttle and keep your speed up as high as possible through here, but it’s critical to ensure you get a good exit out of turn 10 because of the long straight up the hill. You can see between turn 9 and 10 that I start to slide a little bit and got stuck around 125 km/h. And I started to slide once again going out of turn 10. It’s critical to ensure these doesn’t happen because they will cost you a lot of time as you drive up the hill. It’s extremely hard to get this right and I definitely didn’t on this lap. If you feel unable to improve your time going through those two corners, try driving with a different car. This helped me a lot.
Turn 11: Not sure why I wrote this out on the image… LOL. However, this corner can be troublesome if you go too wide going out of turn 10.
Turn 12: I was a bit cautious on my entry in to this corner. Try and hold more to the left as you brake and cut the corner more than I did. An apex speed of 105 - 110 km/h is good here, but make sure you can still rotate the car while accelerating as you drive towards turn 13.
Turn 13: Continue to accelerate out of turn, but make sure you don’t go too wide as you need to prepare for turn 14 and move over to the right hand side.
Turn 14: Brake hard before the corner, rotate the car and just drive straight through it. Don’t try and turn too much going through here. You can cut a lot going out of turn 14, but don’t cut too much as it will unsettle the back end of the car. You can see that I was just about on the limit on how much you can cut going through there without losing a lot of time and/or spinning out.
Turn 15: Hug the left hand side as much as you can going flat out, but don’t get too close to the wall as the invisible barrier don’t quite match the visuals of the track and then move towards the right hand side as you prepare for the last corner.
Turn 16: This is a surprisingly tricky corner. I think my line through there is pretty good as it allows you to keep your speed high throughout and still get a decent exit. However, I got quite nervous by the end of the lap because I knew I was on a good one and I turned and braked too hard. I think my mid corner speed was fine, but if I wasn’t sliding I would be able to accelerate out of it much better.
EDIT: Typos.
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What Im saying is that a guy should knock down the 2 'stiff' signs before working out his line.
The sign on the last chicane is NOT the kind of sign I mean. That sign blows away like a dry leaf.
There are 2 signs that are stiff and will slow you if you hit them, and I think a lot of guys would jump
to the wrong conclusion and Restart at that point.
What I am saying is that taking out the 2 stiff signs should be the start and not the end of your attempts.
The two stiffs are at the first half of the first chicane, and in that place in the last corner I already
detailed. Its a simple matter of hitting them at speed and seeing how they resist and how they slow.
Whats crazy is that you compare those to the flimsy one in the last chicane..
If any of this sounds dirty its probably because its not something you wanted to be made known
to everyone right up front. If I knew about the stiff signs I would have mentioned them in my
first post on this thread. But thats just me. To me its not a question of dirt, but of sillyness, that
a knocked down sign DOES NOT SLOW YOU... so just remove the sign and you can be faster, if the sign
was in your way before. I see how you take the last corner!
Anyway I dont care enough to prove it beyond what I said already. A guy needs to see for himself. As for me I dont have the interest in knocking down signs if they slow you on one
lap, just so you have a fast free track on the next lap. Have fun.
EDIT: and dude the condition of the car is irrelevant. Thats not proof of anything. I mentioned it
in passing and you make it seem like a key element of my point. What matters is knocking down the signs, not how youur car looks or doesnt look or why it looks that way or how it could look better or how it could look worse. Dont be lame dude, the question is about those 2 stiff signs.
I
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Personally I haven't noticed any difference. I just figured it was an illusion of the camera moving differently. Kind of hard to compare those signs anyway since you are not even on the ground when you hit the sign in the last chicane. Either way, I'm not looking at my speed when I drive so I don't even know how much speed I would lose if I hit those signs. Maybe there is a difference... I'm just not type of guy that cares enough to drive in to two different signs at X speed and see how much I lose and see if there is a difference.
Sorry, but I think you are being ridiculous now. I'm not trying to hide anything. I have nothing to hide.
Personally, I wish the track reset after every lap to ensure **** like this can't happen. Every time you start a new lap, reset the location of all objects on the map. No advantage can then be had by "preparing" the track.
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- Mcpartyman
Hey chill out guys, this has been fun. I suspect there are similar little nuances to these on most the courses. Btw thats a cracking guide, I am going to try it myself just to see if I can better my pathetic 1-32 time! Interestingly enough when I first started racing Fraser Valley reverse there was a sign on the corner of the second chicane that often got in the way so I used to do a set up lap knocking that and one or two other less intrusive ones out of the way. The ironic thing is, now I don't bother doing anything like that, and I next to never hit these signs and my times are miles better than they were then!!
I think a mistake I have been making at Sinclair is not doing continuous laps. As soon as I screw up (often) I tend to hit restart. It's the same with all my fastest times, next to none have ever been from a flying start. So you guys have definitely educated me one way to faster times that's dead simple. Probably also explains why I level up so slow. For the hours I've put in I should be alot more than level 51! Congrats again Centura and well done Moto for coming up with this idea. I hope we can try something similar again. Finger looking much better btw so well done with those prayers.
Its been fun. I think I got bent out of shape by imagining myself slaving away at Sinclair and not
knowing something basic. I hate secrets, thats why I devoted my life to discovering the secret of the universe, and space / time.
I actually did that myself. At the beginning, it was very rare for me to do a flying lap. But yesterday when I was grinding away I just did lap after lap after lap even if I screwed up. I figured I could practice in the other sectors. I was unable to break 1:30.800 for at least half an hour, but then something happened. It just clicked. I beat my own lap, lap after lap, often very small amount like from 1:30.240 to 1:30.213 (for example). I almost improved upon my own lap every lap until I got to 1:29.841. And after a while I beat that too and managed to do the lap you see in the video.
Thanks. It's probably the corner I am most proud of on that lap. It was also a corner where I could see myself improving a lot over other ghosts because most of them were drifting too much to the left.
I guess that are one of the negative things of not being connected to the internet on your PS4? I have learned a great deal watching the ghosts of other drives. They are extremely useful when it comes to learning what works and what doesn't.
A great example of this is turn 2. I always went very wide to undercut the corner to get a better exit down to turn 3, but I realised pretty quickly from watching the ghosts that this wasn't worth it.
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- Canada
if you guys do flying laps I strongly strongly strongly suggest you finish/restart the session every 10-20 laps, and definitely positively if you ever get the message that the replay buffer is exceeded as I have lost fastest laps due to that in the past (meaning the lap shows up as a record locally, but does not upload to the server, exit the event and restart it and poof the record laptime is gone)
The flying lap does depend quite a bit on the track though, some tracks it's faster to restart because the best line out of the last turn (fast time) is not necessarily the best line to take to have a good first turn, I do prefer to run flying laps unless there is a really bad chicane as T1/T2 where it's too frustrating to mess it up and have to wait to redo the lap again
The flying lap does depend quite a bit on the track though, some tracks it's faster to restart because the best line out of the last turn (fast time) is not necessarily the best line to take to have a good first turn, I do prefer to run flying laps unless there is a really bad chicane as T1/T2 where it's too frustrating to mess it up and have to wait to redo the lap again
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- Canada
it is also interesting how Sinclair Pass has the apexes marked with X on pretty much every turn, wonder why as other tracks don't have this
- 236
- England
- Mcpartyman
Glad you mentioned those. I was going to ask about them as I hadn't played Sinclair much before and hadn't seen them on any of the other tracks, presumably they are to indicate the best line?? I wonder if they are on any of the other tracks?? Sinclair was an add on if memory serves me right?
I have a terrible habit of stopping and saving my replay right after a new fastest lap! (like I did again
this morning.) I really have to relax and not worry about the replay buffer.
And yes, not having PS4 internet and WR ghosts leaves me in the dark.. which is ironic because its in the dark that I most often see ghosts in real life. Funny that-
Saw .364 green but couldnt convert it all. This time was my 'leftovers'.
Thrustmaster T500, manual, dash view.
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- England
- Mcpartyman
Mcpartyman and myself have a new idea called Aggregate Time Trial.
We'll take screenshot submissions of individual sector/split times,
and keep a running account of what an aggregate lap total would be.
As someone beats a split, the old one will come down and the new one will go up.
As far as 'rules' are concerned, theres a little twist.
If someone has the fastest 2nd or 3rd splits, they will not be permitted
to enter a time for 1st split. The idea behind that is, we want to encourage
people to try, and its easier if they have quick access by way of the 1st split
(and Restarting quickly) and not have to do a whole lap.
I wanted to include that best times must come from AI started laps and not flying
laps, but as it is hard to enforce we will pick a track that reduces the flying lap
effect.
Are we good? Good. I will pick the new track. We will get started just as soon as
Mcpartyman picks a car. (and if he picks the 458 Italia I will fly to England and
shoot him on sight!!)
Aggregate World Record is at hand. To get you in the mood (Driveclub foreplay),
here is a replay that beats Centuras World Record lap of Sinclair, 2nd Split
(we're talking about the 2nd split only), by just under .150.
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I honestly got very surprised when I saw that replay error. I had no idea it existed. I just made sure to go to SHARE and save my video each time I beat my lap.
Your middle sector is massive. Very impressed. I'm pretty sure I haven't not even been below .900.
Hey, but you know. That is kind of the fun part of doing these fast laps. You gotta hold it together for the whole lap. When you know you are on a good lap, you become nervous (I do, at least...) and you do mistakes you wouldn't have done otherwise. I was once on an amazing lap and was on my way to get #1 or very close on this leaderboard and I got nervous. As I came out of the last chicane, I moved over to the left side for the flat out left-right before the last corner and I actually hit the wall on the left side and spun out. I had never hit that wall before.
Excellent idea. It sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for the video!
I wish I didn't delete the video I had of a really good first sector. It was on a flying lap in the low 1:30s and I have no idea how, but I did a low 26.4xx in the first sector.
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- 107
- Essex
- ArsenalKid1990
@Centura I'm close to your time. REALLY Close.
With your 1:29.562 recorded.
I've recorded a 1:29.568 haha.
EDIT: I have a 1:29.394 now, last couple corners were horrible, and i wasn't happy with them. Hit the wall before the finish line and scraped along to the finish, could've gotten a .100 or .200 time. I'll wait and see if you can better your own first.. Best you can get out of this track with the Italia (I'd say) is around 1:28.7-8xx I'd say if you have enough goes around it, i can get a 1:28.9 if i tried a bit more, but having scraped the wall, i'm a bit frustrated lol.
With your 1:29.562 recorded.
I've recorded a 1:29.568 haha.
EDIT: I have a 1:29.394 now, last couple corners were horrible, and i wasn't happy with them. Hit the wall before the finish line and scraped along to the finish, could've gotten a .100 or .200 time. I'll wait and see if you can better your own first.
. Best you can get out of this track with the Italia (I'd say) is around 1:28.7-8xx I'd say if you have enough goes around it, i can get a 1:28.9 if i tried a bit more, but having scraped the wall, i'm a bit frustrated lol.
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@Centura I'm close to your time. REALLY Close.
With your 1:29.562 recorded.
I've recorded a 1:29.568 haha.
EDIT: I have a 1:29.394 now, last couple corners were horrible, and i wasn't happy with them. Hit the wall before the finish line and scraped along to the finish, could've gotten a .100 or .200 time. I'll wait and see if you can better your own first.
Nice!
It's unlikely I will go back and put any meaningful amount of time time in to beating my lap (well, your lap now...
), so you have nothing to worry about. 
Do you think you could upload a video of your lap? It could be very interesting to see.
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- Essex
- ArsenalKid1990
Sure, as soon as it's done i'll link here from this reply 👍Nice!
It's unlikely I will go back and put any meaningful time in to beating my own time (well, your time...
Do you think you could upload a video of your lap? It would be very interesting to see.
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- Essex
- ArsenalKid1990
- 236
- England
- Mcpartyman
Wow you certainly use the extreme of any available angles. I bet you thought you had lost it when you hit the wall at the end!! Top driving though, well done!!
Very nice! Thanks! Especially impressed by the double right hander before the straight up the hill. That's pretty much the best you can do in that corner, in my opinion. Very close to it, at least.
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