5 Ways To Make Your Lap Times Faster On Forza

After spending time on a racing simulator and receiving tips from a professional driver, I've noticed my gaming performance has improved dramatically. Here's how you can shave time off your laps, too

Last month I spent an afternoon with McLaren GT racer Adrian Quaife-Hobbs at Pro Sim to find out how professional racing drivers prepare for race weekends - that’s me in the hot seat, above. Over the course of a couple of hours, my performance was picked apart and everything that was losing me time was pointed out. This meant that each time the lights were switched off and I went back out on track I was improving.

The interesting thing that I’ve noticed since leaving Pro Sim is that each nugget of advice that was given to me has become lodged in the back of my brain, and has resulted in my Forza Motorsport and Project Cars lap times tumbling. With this in mind, I’ve decided to impart on to you the information I found most useful:

1. Use minimal steering lock

5 Ways To Make Your Lap Times Faster On Forza

Over the course of a lap, you want to be using as little steering lock as you can get away with. The main benefit of this is that you can get on the power earlier - I’ll expand on that below - but that’s not the only advantage.

First of all, the more you turn the wheel, the more load you’re putting on the outside of the tyre. At slow speeds in hairpins this isn’t as much of a problem, but if you’re carrying a lot of speed you’re increasing the risk of understeering. Aside from losing you time by making your line unnecessarily untidy and making the car’s weight transfer trickier to control, it’ll also increase wear on the tyre. That could mean that by the end of a long race you’ll struggle to maintain pace as front end grip will be limited.

Remote video URL

To get around a corner, you obviously need to input a certain amount of steering, but as you do so, that swings the car’s momentum towards the outside of the corner. The more you accelerate with the wheel turned, the more weight you’re pushing to the outside of the tyre, meaning you’re pushing the limits of grip - go too far and the wheel will lose grip, losing you turning and accelerating ability.

But how do you conceptualise where the limit of grip is? Watch the video above, and visualise this friction circle whenever you’re turning. It’ll help you make sense of the fact that you can accelerate hard in a straight line, but the more you’re turning, the gentler you have to be with the throttle. Remember, keeping the car’s weight under control is vital.

3. Avoid kerbs in low race cars

5 Ways To Make Your Lap Times Faster On Forza

If you watch the video at the top of the page, you’ll see my GP2 lap went down the drain when I span out after turning in too early and running over a kerb. If you’re driving something road car based, you’ll probably be fine, but when you get up into the really serious kit, the cars are so low to the ground and have such hard suspension that clattering kerbs simply unsettles the car.

Your times will improve drastically if you keep it on the black stuff, and avoid any raised kerbs, keeping the car flat and planted.

Remote video URL

We all know the basics of the racing line, but sometimes you have to sacrifice your speed in one corner to improve it in the next. In basic terms, you want to prioritise the corner that’s faster on exit. For example, while at Pro Sim racing at Silverstone, I would take the fastest line through the right-hand turn three before trying to get back across the track to take the left hairpin. Instead I should’ve taken a slightly slower, tighter line through three to set myself up better for the hairpin, since that exited on to a long full throttle zone.

By ensuring my speed was higher at the exit of the hairpin, my speed would be higher all the way down the straight. That’s far more beneficial than saving a few hundredths in a corner.

5. Accelerate smoothly out of the corner

5 Ways To Make Your Lap Times Faster On Forza

Patience is key. A car should always be doing something - and no, coasting doesn’t count as something. If you’re not braking, you should be getting on the throttle. The key reason for this is because switching between the two upsets the balance of the car, which makes it harder to accelerate smoothly out of the corner once you do decide to go for it. It also kills your mid-corner speed - while you’re hesitating, your opponent will already be smoothly applying more and more power, and their balanced car will be able to put that power into the ground.

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Comments

H5SKB4RU (Returned to CT)

great! but why they don’t use gt6 instead?

03/14/2016 - 18:02 |
52 | 10

Dunno. But I do know how to improve your times in GT6:
-Ghosts: In Time Trial mode, turn your ghost on. Try to beat it on each lap.
LOL That is all I know!

03/14/2016 - 18:04 |
82 | 2

This goes for any game, and in real life too. Doesn’t have to be limited to Forza.

03/14/2016 - 18:57 |
4 | 2
Anonymous

Did you play project cars or forza

03/14/2016 - 18:02 |
2 | 2
Darren Cassey

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

On the sim it was a modified version of rFactor, but the principles apply to all racing games.

03/14/2016 - 18:07 |
18 | 0
Emil Mølhave Pedersen

So, basically what most racing enthusiast already knew?

03/14/2016 - 18:05 |
14 | 22

lol, people really don’t like your comment. :D

03/14/2016 - 20:06 |
2 | 0

I don’t know why it’s downvoted. He said racing enthusiast not car enthusiast.

03/14/2016 - 20:10 |
2 | 0

Yep those are really the basics. Why you downvote this comment people?

03/14/2016 - 21:07 |
0 | 0
Callum Luke Norris

yeah see dont work
I (being a championship winner ) have found just find the flow

03/14/2016 - 18:29 |
4 | 10
Adrian Rivero

I played today a 95 Indycar mod for rfactor, and I always push the limits of the braking. I tried to brake a little earlier at a hairpin and could turn in a smoother and better line to push the gas again. Great tips! I will try to master it soon

03/14/2016 - 18:35 |
2 | 0
Callum Luke Norris

see for forza depending on what your driving makes the diffrence, my Impala for instance is a case of rag the hell outta it.
my gt well be smooth .

just alter the diff to 100-20 and jobs a gooden no more understeer or slides.

If not well a wall is there for you wanting a hug.

03/14/2016 - 19:45 |
6 | 2

this is so true, i tend to stick with R3 and R1 class cars, in the R3’s like my C6R and Vantage i can pretty much throw them around the track and still get nice lap times, in the LMP cars i have to be so patient and smooth

03/15/2016 - 04:15 |
0 | 0
DanteTRD

Also ease onto the brakes for a corner, don’t slam on them. On FWD you can even trail-brake a little, depending on your brake ratio. Best way ti shave off time, though, is to tune the suspension & gearing properly.

03/14/2016 - 20:58 |
2 | 2

Im not sure. I was doing a cup in Assetto Corsa in Ferrari 599XX EVO and I was struggling, then I read that You can break to load the front so there is more traction that You can use to turn in more agresively (I knew it worked very well on motorcycle, I even use this technique in riding, but never done it in a car to not overload the front of the car). But I tried it and improved by a lot. In Spa, after straight after Eau Rouge I could brake very late for the S and point the car to straight to the exit, You just have to get better at coming off brakes and onto the throttle.

03/14/2016 - 22:54 |
2 | 0

Not true. You can not use setup tuning to correct your mistakes, since besides not evolving in technique and not understanding the actual mistakes youre making, you will most likely worsen the cars setup and thus it’s abilities. Rule of thumb for sim racing is - you only start Messingn with your setup when you can do 5 or more laps within hundreths of a second of eachother -that means driving pretty good, at least on that particular track with that particular car. Also, you can trailbrake with pretty much every car, it just changes a bit on how you do it

03/15/2016 - 00:16 |
0 | 0

i learned that a long time ago, id slip past people underbraking, but getting on the gas was my weakness and people slip right past me

02/13/2017 - 14:57 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

[DELETED]

03/14/2016 - 21:07 |
0 | 0
Dr. DOHC VVT-i (Riley Sawyer)

You span out, hope you car was alright. Lolol

03/14/2016 - 21:08 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Slow(ish) in fast out

03/14/2016 - 21:34 |
0 | 0