Starting

Two of the fastest starters I know are Giovanni Tifosi and Ross Collison, so I'm going to defer to them the bulk of this section.

Ross Collison

I drag race in real life, and the start is 90% of the race in that style of competition. GPL starts are a bit different than ones at the dragstrip, but some principles apply - it's like starting a street car with non-sticky tires. If there's one thing in GPL I'm good at it's starts.

You must use the clutch - I used to be of the 'rev in neutral and snap into gear' school, but then tried using the clutch (mapped to a wheel button). The clutch gives far better reaction times, but requires good throttle modulation so you don't bog or overspin the tires.

Also, do not look directly at the starter - your brain registers movement better through peripheral vision. I look at the tach to keep the revs at a constant level - 8000rpm works best for the Lotus in my experience (I wish there was a 2-step rev limiter!).

Another trick is to map the clutch to a button that is difficult and uncomfortable to depress, or depress it in such a way that you are uncomfortable. That way your body is a lot more inclined to let go of it sooner rather than later.

Lastly, you must maintain some wheelspin - I keep the RPM at 8000 even after the clutch is released and slowly (which is to say "with restraint") run it up to 9000 until roadspeed and wheelspeed match - shift gears, and hopefully you're ahead of Clark and Hill. It's still quite easy to bog the motor, which is the most common mistake I make. You have to pick a first gear short enough that the necessary wheelspin doesn't take too long before the road/wheel speed synchs, and long enough that the shift into second gear doesn't happen too soon and drops the engine out of the powerband.

Practice, practice, practice.

Giovanni Tifosi's launch technique

  1. Step on brake and hold clutch to prevent car from creeping; engage 1st.
  2. Bring RPM up to midrange on the torque band and hold (62-6500rpm on Lotus), release the brake.
  3. Just as soon as the man with the little green flag (and I do mean JUST AS SOON) even twitches dump the clutch (programming prevents the poor little guy from moving at all once he raises the flag, so you KNOW when he moves it's time to jump).
  4. Do NOT modulate the throttle at this time! The wheels will begin to give some spin, and then it will decrease as the rpm drops out of the torque band.
  5. Maintain the same accelerator pedal as the previous step, until you reach the high end of the torque curve (6800 ish) then begin to feed the power on.
  6. If you feed too fast the rear wheels will begin to spin violently causing severe squirm, just right would be some frying of the tyres with just a twitch of the rear end that can be corrected with a minimal of steering input (I've got it down to using the twitch without steering correction to get around the slug in front of me on the grid).
  7. Take 1st right to the top and slamshift (no lifty go-pedal), 2nd. Suddenly you will notice cars that were previously in front of you on the grid going by, backwards... although, sometimes this effect is not as dramatic until you grab 3rd, then you positively SCREAM by them.

I firmly believe that using the clutch, instead of just dropping the car into gear at the drop of the flag, gives a tremendous benefit in the reduction of time it takes the car to begin moving (the clutch reacts almost instantaneously, dropping in gear takes a few 10ths of a second while the drivers arm leaves the wheel grabs the shifter and moves the shifter from neutral to gear engagement)

But the most important part is using the torque band at launch. Holding at redline only causes wheelspin, then you have to release the "trigger" to get the spin under control, then back on again to finally get underway. Mid-torque launches still spin, but recovery time is drastically reduced do to the engine not having to go all the way from redline, through the torque band, into the "manageable" zone for wheelspin. Holding the throttle at one point (that, you will find is THE hardest part of this whole technique), is paramount. No matter what urges you have, keep it at the point where you started until you get back up into the torque band after initial launch.

Ricardo Nunnini

Here is an alternative, 'safe' launch technique that I use on densely packed or sloping grids. It's slower than a proper clutch launch, but almost foolproof and a lot faster than a botched launch.

  1. Push the brake, all the way down.
  2. Engage first.
  3. Push the throttle, all the way down. The car will not move forward.
  4. When the flag man appears, start releasing pressure from the brake. Gently. The nose will lift, the rear wheels will start spinning (as seen from the F10 view) and the car will inch forward a fraction.
  5. When the flag drops release the brake (duh).
  6. Hold full throttle for a little while, then modulate it as the wheels start to spin.

Don't show up on VROC until you can launch the car from the start line to 2nd-3rd gear in a straight line. Don't kid yourself about this; practise starting until you know you can do it, even under pressure on a sloped grid and surrounded by other cars. One idiot can cause a lot of misery and frustration at the start and, being an idiot, they don't realise it.

We've all been told by VROC not to start until the car in front of you starts, but we still all prefer to go when the green flag drops. Therefore, we must anticipate the car in front either not starting, or slowing suddenly once it has. Running up the back of the guy in front is considered extremely rude, and makes you look very, very silly.

When the flag man appears, start counting. If you get to four, go anyway, without waiting. You can get away with creeping forward a little at the start, so you might as well make the most of it!

And like everything else in GPL, practice. Pulling out of the pits in a training session? Do a practice start. Just pressed SHIFT-R? Do a practice start. Stopped by the side of the track for a pee? You get the idea.