Drifting Porsches showed me that sim racing makes you a better driver
A day at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone opened my eyes to how my driving skills have developed since taking up sim racing
At home back in Scotland, I have a Playstation 2. It was my first console that I received in 2003, allowing me to pour hours of my young life into games such as The Lord Of The Rings, FIFA 2003, Rugby '04 and Need For Speed: Underground 2.
Having grown out of gaming in my teenage years due to school work, athletics and girls, it took getting a job in automotive journalism to slingshot the Fernie arse back into a gaming seat. Through many days spent on Project Cars 2 and F1 2017, I'm now what can only be described as an 'avid sim racer'.
Thanks to deliberately choosing squirmy, skittish cars to sim like the oscillating Lotus Type 25 or the brutal Jaguar XJR-9 Group C racer, I would say that I've gained a knack when playing these games for feeling rotation from the back end and generally knowing what to do when a car decides to throw itself somewhere you'd rather it didn't.
The deepest fear that sits deep within any sim racer however is whether they'd be able to do the same thing in a physical car. Can they hit every apex, judge every braking zone and correct any slides in an environement where overdoing it can lead to a quick skid across some grass, a sharp tensing of the stomach muscles and a sickening crunch into something that's a little too hard for any gamer's liking. Thanks to an invite from Porsche, I was able to put my skills learned from sim racing to the test in some 'adverse' situations, seeing whether any of those hours had paid off.
The main story of the event at the Porsche Centre, Silverstone was to celebrate 30 years of Porsche all-wheel drive. That means they laid on 911 Carreras, Carrera 4s and Carrera 4Ss so that we could see the advantages of pushing power to all four corners. This wasn't just a track test however - we'd be driving the cars onto slalom skid pans and a ferocious kick plate to push our driving knowhow to the absolute limits.
As you probably all know, 911s are notorious for the pendulum effect that occurs due to the rear engine placement. And after the slightest steering input on the soaked skidpad, it became apparent that decisions had to be made very, very quickly. Around came the bulky rear, in came the steering input and then it was down to my right foot as to how much throttle I dared to apply.
The C2S was startlingly snappy, even when knowing where the engine sat. With no power surging through the front wheels, the bite after a couple of controlled slides needed a very quick bout of opposite lock to have any hope of catching the car on a surface that felt more like sheet ice than a layer of water.
Switching to the four-wheel drive Carrera had the impact that I imagine Porsche was looking for on the day, with the car needing seemingly half the inputs of the two-wheel drive sister car as well as being able to carry more speed with enormous confidence. Being much more bullish with the throttle, the rear-biased car was still able to scamper itself out of some serious angles with reassuring composure.
Where the biggest challenge came however was on the kick plate. A metal plate sits right in front of a pad being constantly sprayed with water. And as you hit the plate with your rear wheels, it bucks the rear of the car violently in one direction, simulating a complete loss of traction across the rear axle.
And thinking that I'd be spinning out virtually every time, I managed to catch the 911's rear immediately, getting it back with a feathered throttle and a fairly violent pull on the Alcantara steering wheel. Once I knew that my steering and throttle reactions were quick enough, I started being a bit of a dick with the speed of entry until the initial slide spat me straight off the side of the pad itself. But having never induced oversteer deliberately in the real world before, I was almost certainly tapping into the places in my head filled with coordination needed for sim racing throughout the test.
The whole experience has strengthened my trust in a proper force-feedbacking sim rig. When the feedback suddenly goes light through your hands and that screen starts to lean to one side under hurried braking or when being a tad throttle-happy, a split second steering input is needed that definitely takes time to master.
Especially in brutes like the Group C cars on Project Cars 2, you develop the touch and awareness needed to keep such a car on the track for lap after lap. And the reactions and judgement of inputs has definitely engrained itself into my brain and allowed an interaction with the 911 that I don't think would been present otherwise.
Knowing that this much yaw angle means this much steering angle and this much slip needs this much throttle input has almost all come from learning not to bin a Sauber C9 at the end of the Muslanne straight and teaching myself to be careful on gauging throttle out of the Knockhill hairpin in a Ferrari 330 P4.
Now I'm not saying that I can now step into an '80s racing car with slicks and set 3 minute 40s at Le Mans, but the intrinsic feeling of having control over a car has been fed into my nerve endings through the work of Slightly Mad Studios and Codemasters.
Sim racers are coming thick and fast onto the professional racing scene this year and with testing costs rising year on year, it definitely pays off to sit and learn tracks and cars in your living room. And after my day with Porsche, I can safely say: sweaty teenagers of the future, there's hope.
P.S. If you are looking to further yourself as a driver, definitely get yourself down to the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone, the instructors, tracks and cars are all top notch and a day there would make for an awesome present to any true petrolhead!
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Comments (19)
Sounds like driving improves your sim racing, to be honest.
Fantastic article! I really need to buy a wheel stand to use the FFB!😅
I thoroughly recommend a Logitech G29.
Hi! I already have a wheel (T150) but I don't have the support for it🙂
Awesome article. Sounds like I should get project cars 2.
Definitely, Le Mans in a Group C car at night is outstanding.
It's amazing. How ever navigation and set up is much better on project cars 1
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Let's. Not take that to far. I can drift my vehicle around at high speed, as soon as I am playing a game I crash constantly. This is why I don't race on the line I suck lol. I do agree with this to a certain point for certain people how ever.