Why is the Skip Barber so difficult if it's supposed to be a noob car?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by momoracer, Jan 7, 2018.

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  1. momoracer

    momoracer Registered

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    Skip Barber usually gets brought up as "the best for beginners" but it's really hard to keep it straight. Meanwhile I feel like I would be able to learn how to do laps on an F1 2017 in real life in a matter of months because of how many driving aids it has. I was expecting the Skip Barber to be sort of a faster Go Kart, having this characteristic strong grip of a Kart, but Skip Barber at least in rf2 it's driftingville.

    PS: I have never driven a Skip Barber in real life or an F1 car.
     
  2. bwana

    bwana Registered

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    It’s a trainer that teaches you to drive correctly , learn to keep it straight and your overall driving will be much better , lift off over steer when tucking the nose into the Apex is how they drive . Smooth your inputs both feet and hands ,don’t over drive it and you will soon feel it all come together and make sense
     
  3. Mulero

    Mulero Registered

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  4. GrimDad

    GrimDad Registered

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    Make sure you use 900 degrees or higher on your wheel and lower the steering angle in the setup it makes this car easier to control.
    It is still hard to control but practice practice and you will be rewarded. Steering with the throttle more than the wheel teaches control of the balance.
     
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  5. bwana

    bwana Registered

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    Another trick to driving them is brake and throttle overlap , that is maintain some brake pressure and gas pedal on corner entry , some people say it’s a sim racing hack but in fact is used by many professional drivers including Seb Vettel and a number of V8 supercar drivers including Craig Lowndes and Dave Reynolds .
     
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  6. boblevieux

    boblevieux Registered

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    It behaves like a car on the limit. It's job is to safely exagerate your mistakes.
     
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  7. Magus

    Magus Registered

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    Skip Barber is one of my favourite, HOWEVER, on National tyres, on the default Regional tyres, they can be very slippery and even harder to drive. If you go to Tuning - Series and select the national tyres for yourself and opponents I think you will find the skippies an absolute treasure of sim-racing experience. They ARE tricky, but as people have pointed out, it is to learn the correct technique to race around the circuit. Really does need acceleration for it to grip around the corner, so braking/off throttle early & accelerating out of the corner. It's the car that had me frustrated at rF2 but at the same time what made me fall for this game as one of the best simulators out there.
     
  8. LokiD

    LokiD Registered

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    these haven't got the new tyre model? so they may get more realistic yet to come.
     
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  9. SlowMike

    SlowMike Registered

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    On a related note, I'm brand new to sim racing and have been rotating between the Formula Trainer in AMS and this 4-wheel torture device aka The Skippy. I have a lot of experience with flight sims and challenging aircraft to fly, but the Skippy is a truly humbling piece of machinery for a new driver. As much as I really like the USF2000 (it's my favorite car in either AMS or rf2) and can hopefully one day progress to Indycar, I feel like I have to learn this car first.

    I do have a couple of questions:
    What is/are good track(s) to use while learning to drive it?

    Just driving clean laps is my first priority at this point, but is it better at first to run hot laps against the clock or should I mix in races against the AI?

    Thanks.
     
  10. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    As others have indicated, that's really not its role. It's a car for learning, but designed to teach you correct driving habits by NOT being easy to drive.

    I made the same mistake early on, setting up a race in them early on in rF2's life thinking we could have have a fun race... and most of the field spun out.
     
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  11. Comante

    Comante Registered

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    Limerock park, being one of the home school for skips, is the perfect track to learn it. With 3 layouts it will put through different turns and skills. If you want some "engagement" while learning, activate ghost car. While other cars like USF2000 are easier to drive, learning how to be fast is another thing completely. You could lap for months in a F1 mod, maybe get fast in a specific track, but this is not being fast, this is just "I messed each turn at least 300 times, and now I can put a clean lap together".
     
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  12. SlowMike

    SlowMike Registered

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    Thanks Comante. I tried Limerock for the first time after my initial post. It's a very nice track and roomy compared to Toban Medium Reverse, which I'd been practicing on since getting the sim.

    100% agree with your take on the faster cars, and quite honestly they're too fast for me right now to figure out the proper braking points and correct lines through turns. When I first got the game I tried the DW12 Dallara on Road Atlanta. It went about as horribly as you could imagine.

    I'm not sure what happened between last night and this afternoon, but I'm really enjoying the Skippy car now. Maybe it was the switch from the regional to national tires (thanks Magus!). Of course I still make a lot of mistakes, and I'm still painfully slow, but at least I can string together several clean laps and hang with the dummy-level AI setting around the track. And better yet I can sometimes correct the under/oversteer errors before driving into a wall or spinning onto the grass. Fun car!
     
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  13. Christos Segkounas

    Christos Segkounas Registered

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    I feel the Skippie in RF2 is overdone and made too difficult to drive.
    Reacts on throttle input like it has a Camaro engine.
    Same for the off-throttle oversteer, like lol, FWD Civic pales in comparison.
    Yes, with some practice one can get to grips with it but that's besides the point.
    Still, once mastered it is real good fun.
    Try setting up a race against the AI at Toban short.
    Before I got RF2 I donwloaded the demo and that's what I did and after getting to grips with it had lots of fun, the AI are very competitive on this track and layout.
     
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  14. Comante

    Comante Registered

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    If I can correct you, the Skip does not react to throttle input , but to weight transfer, it's more like a wardrobe on mushy wheels.
     
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  15. SPASKIS

    SPASKIS Registered

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    The only way you can transfer tire load between front and rear tires is by throttling or braking. Weight is the reaction caused by gravity and is constant. The fact that the CoG is higher compared to the tires provokes a shift of tire loads to the rear when accelerating.
     
  16. ECAR_Tracks

    ECAR_Tracks Registered

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    If the real car is like it is in rF2 simulation they should send all of them to the be destroyed in a hydraulic press.
     
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  17. Comante

    Comante Registered

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    I think we overdrive them in the simulator just because we can't feel all the accelerations, otherwise we would have no problems with it. IMHO Being a school car, this lack of feelings is much more influent than in any other simulated car. This make the first steps in it frustrating.
     
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  18. SPASKIS

    SPASKIS Registered

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    I agree. It might be a good car to get good driving habits. However, that can be said about all the bad cars that are difficult to drive. You need to be good to control them.

    Shelby Cobra is IMO another very bad car.
     
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  19. Skan

    Skan Registered

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    The Skippy is a vehicle with all the weight in the rear and low downforce. If you drive it like the engine is in the front, you will find that it does not like that. If you keep some load on the differential throughout your lap, you will not spin. This is how you should be turning in a vehicle that is weighted more towards the rear and some other vehicles if you want to maintain a good pace.

    Coasting through a turn is bad. Braking while turning can be bad if done wrong. Both of these practices are punished by the Skippy and that makes for even more awesome driving.
     
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  20. Daytona 675

    Daytona 675 Registered

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    The formula trainer in AMS is a Formula Ford, try the Formula Vee instead, more like the Skippy.
     
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