49 replies to this topic

[ti2blegrr]

Hi guys, been a member here for quite some time, most in the past it was all NR2K3S, now at age 51(almost 52) I'm really getting into open wheel racing, especially F1.

With that said, I've had GPL for years and it's been on my system just as long and every once in awhile I'd fire it up, run a few laps then ignore it for months on end. Now I'd really love to learn how to drive it. I've been taking various mods to "short" Monza to try and learn the cars, basically get the feel for them. I've now decided to not use "aids" and having a hard time getting the cars to take the corners without hitting the walls. I've also decided to use just the '67 advanced trainer for now with no damage, so I can get the car going again without having to start my laps over again.

What I'd really like to know is if there is anything on the 'net that I can read or watch to help me learn better and am I doing the right thing in trying to learn GPL.

[John Woods]

How to drive Grand Prix Legends detailed in Introduction by Dave Kaemmer

Go here and check out GPL Driving School section.
The tech section has interesting stuff that applies to car physics.

Anything that applies to real life racing technique or setup can be adapted to use in Grand Prix Legends.

Also here...Lee's GPL Motorworks.

There are lots of YT videos of GPL drivers.

Best learning technique imo is to follow your interests and over time you will touch all the bases at least once.


1. Calibrate display to your rig and the eye between your ears
2. Isolate a variable and experiment until you can use the effect
3. Start with tighter slower-acting setups and build toward looser quicker responding

Edited by John Woods, Jun 13 2017 - 12:49 PM.

[Millennium]

I would recommend the 'Four-Wheel Drift Guide' that came with the original game. It's really focused on slowly learning and understanding the game, it helped me a lot. There's a PDF download of it on this forum.

http://srmz.net/inde...5931#entry49106

Edited by Millennium, Jun 13 2017 - 01:14 PM.

[ti2blegrr]

Thanks guys! I have some of those guides, I just didn't know if they were the direction I needed to take. I pretty much have my monitor and sound focused so that's the only thing I see and hear until the wife sticks her head in my "cave", lol! Years of oval racing taught me to have that set up right. You guys know these cars are tough to tame, through in the fact I'm used to bigger heavier cars to me is making it just that much tougher. Any more suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

Is it a bad thing that I'm also running GP3 cars in rFactor?

Edited by ti2blegrr, Jun 13 2017 - 01:31 PM.

[twinpotter]

I thought there was,in the mists of time,some driving guide by Alison Hine the eagle woman?
But I think it is more setup related and still relevant ?

http://alison.hine.net/gpl/

http://alison.hine.net/gpl/setup.htm

And: http://www.force-fee...ving_guide.html

Don't know if this is applicable?

My own personal preference for learning was to jump in the deep end.Live and breathe every chance I got to practice.No aids,or trainers.But everybody is different.I wanted it that way because I love instant realism
One thing I will say is the obvious.Be patient and don't expect miracles from the start.
I found racing different sim games and coming back to gpl really taught me how to drive better in gpl.As also it did when going back to other games.
I know one thing too.Remove all distractions,noise,wife's and lack of time.Also make sure your cup of drink is far away incase of inherent mishaps and spillages. Lol 😃

TP 😃

[ti2blegrr]

Is there a giod place to get set ups, I really suck at doing these symmetrical set ups, for now.

[twinpotter]

There's an idiots guide sheet somewhere,that as appeared on this site.Just forget who posted it ?
Just gives you a basic guide on what occurs when moving slider arrow icons in the gpl setup menu.

TP:

[jgf]

I found it quite difficult to use other people's setups in GPL because you need to tweak the car to your driving style more so than in other sims (in N2k3 I found setups by "Dray" that worked very well for me ...but I never got the hang of creating asymmetric setups).

At the track database you will find some setups for almost every track, and I could post a 1meg zipfile of a near 20 year accumulation of setups ...and the only  thing you would learn is that there are no standards, people turn equivalent laps with setups that are poles apart.  Best advice is to start with an easy car - Brabham or Cooper - and a track you can drive well, then play around with setups to find what works for you.

If you want to start with mods, I suggest the '67 F2 mod for learning;  handling is very much like the F1 cars but lower power means they are much easier to drive.  (This is what the default "trainers" should have been.)

[ti2blegrr]

I'm on my cell at work, I'll look into getting that F2 mod if I don't already have it.

I really do appreciate all the advice and guidance guys, it should help a lot as long as I can keep the wife away, lol!

[Old Simmer]

Hi ti2blegrr:

Reads to me as if you're entering the curves too fast and the front is pushing to the wall?  Or, is the rear breaking loose and you spin to the wall?

Either way, I suggest:

* Pick a car that is less finicky to drive. (See above for suggestions.)

* Use the DEFAULT car setup (Don't confuse yourself trying to understand all the tech talk and/or inadvertently make the car more difficult to drive.)  Simply DRIVE the car using the default setup.

* Do NOT use driving aids.You need to learn how to "feel" the car under braking and acceleration. (Exception: Using the automatic shift feature will help you concentrate more on learning a track and learning to "feel" the car.)

* Select an easier track. Monza or Silverstone aren't bad.

* Treat it as a simulator. You don't learn to drive a real car by mashing the gas as hard as you can and trying to slam on the brakes and sliding into a curve as fast as you can. That is a perfect recipe for a wreck for a beginning driver. Treat this the same way. Start off SLOW. Simply drive around at speeds that allow you to enter the curves without any drama. What you want to do is learn to FOLLOW THE RACING GROOVE well BELOW "race pace". Don't worry about SPEED at this point. Once you can circle the track reliably (following the racing groove), pick the first corner after the start, and start raising your entry speed AT THE FIRST TURN until you feel the car start trying to loose grip. Catch it at that point (back off) and let car get back under you, then gently modulate the throttle to get back on the race groove, and ease out of the turn onto the next. Once you can enter and exit the first turn briskly, start working on the second turn. Eventually, you'll be able to navigate the entire track at a brisk pace.  In the process, you will have learned a ton about how the sim reacts and the car(s) handles.

GPL is like no other sim. It IS difficult... but so is actually racing finicky F1 cars of yore! It is NOT an arcade game. There WILL be a time investment needed in order to derive maximum fun and yield some really fun dicing with AI drivers.

Hopefully, the above pointers will help you "get up to speed", if you'll pardon the pun!

Have fun!

Old Simmer

[Bo Bruce]

when i started i found the need to coordinate the wheel dynamic's with GPL steering ratio.   example, for a G25 Logitech, in my profiler (now advised not to use it) i set the rotation to 500 dg's... in GPL that (for me) is 11:1 steering.
what ever feels right for you is easily adjusted in GPL remember the bigger the number in profiler, uses a small ratio in GPL -
also.. set your linear setting nearly full to the left in options.

[ti2blegrr]

I've been driving the Eagle, I'm not anymore! I'll be getting the F2 car here in a bit.I've got the good old Black Momo. Been home for an hour, had a beer and thinking about my next adventure behind the wheel while having quality time with the wife, LOL!

You guys have been great!

Oh, and Old Simmer, I'm doing both! And I'm going to take time reading everything you wrote and what the other guys posted and wrote before I get behind the wheel. My ultimate goal is to run decent laps at Nurburging.

[Alan Davies]

As others have said turn off all aids.  If you learn with aids you will have to learn again when you turn them off.
Bo Bruce is right about setting up the wheel
All the Mods are great but 1967 F2 or 1965 Mods are great for learning.
GPL is as close as you can get in a sim to real driving so drive the same as you drive for real.
Try all the cars in the chosen Mod then pick just one you feel most comfortable in to develop.
The default setups that came with the original 67 were bad; much too long in the gears especially first.  The Mod defaults are much better.
You will need to create a setup for a circuit to get the fuel level right even if you don't change anything else.
I do create my own setups but am not sufficiently expert to give advice except to say that I don't like spending hours working on setups I prefer racing so I have learned that once you have a basic setup it will be easily adaptable:
1.  for all cars in a Mod only needing a couple of clicks here and there.
2.  for all circuits only needing a couple of clicks here and there.

My initial test and development circuit is Albi as it has a long straight and a variety of fast and slow corners with a left right combination.  Albi also appears high in the drop down list so is easy to copy into other circuits.  I then test that setup on a few other circuits with different characteristics and if a change is required to improve the setup I go back to Albi to see if it works there.

Hope that helps.

[Stefan Roess]

This will also help to learn GPL.

LOR (Lights Out Racing) track guides:
http://wiki.grandpri...OR_track_guides


And of course also have a look at the GPL Links for guides:
http://www.gpllinks.org/

Edited by Stefan Roess, Jun 14 2017 - 03:09 AM.

[Old Simmer]

ti2blegrr:

IMHO: The Ring Is NOT a place to learn to drive in GPL. WAY too many curves and a huge lap length. Go for something easier, MUCH easier.  The 65 mod is a great driving tool to learn how to drive GPL.

Have fun!