Track days and familiarization

I drive a Lotus 111R in Forza and in real life. Track days are very popular here in NZ and it sure would be nice to be able to use Forza for track familiarization. Not only recommendations on proper lines, but based on the car you are driving, gear changes, max speeds, and braking points as well. I’d suggest the fancy scenery is not a requirement, but a serious tool for a driver to get used to the track again that they will be driving that weekend. Could be promoted as a safety tool as better informed drivers make safer drivers. Our aim on the track days is to get better each lap and familiarization is a large part of that to develop the muscle memory required to drive consistently well. I’d happily pay for a single track that I could add to my collection.

I’ve actually used Forza for this purpose before. Works quite well. Not perfect but definitely a big plus over going to a track for the first time with nothing.

In my experience, using Forza to get a feel for a car or track is counter-productive. Forza is balanced so far to the arcade side, as opposed to the sim side, that it’s not only useless for real world training, you’re actually worse off than if you didn’t use it at all.

I’m not saying the game isn’t fun, it certainly is. However, when you get to the track, instead of just learning the car/track combo, you now first need to forget pretty much everything you think you learned playing Forza before learning the real-world car/track combo.

I have a fair amount of street and track time in 111s, as well as a few other cars in the game, and this holds true for them all.

I find Forza very useful for track preparation. Familiarization with corners, sight lines and overall layout are right there. My first HPDE was at Laguna Seca last year and I was prepared for it. I had a base level of visual knowledge that provided the confidence necessary for the task. I knew my corners and approximate brake points. I had confidence that simply reading the track notes would not have provided. The first successful HPDE has led to more.

I only wish more tracks were represented.

Thunderhill, there I said it.

I will be at Sonoma later this year and I will be ready. I run Willow Springs in PCars2 and cant wait to run it.

Forza rocks for track prep.

Forza can help with learning the overall track layout and such no doubt, but anything else I’d say forget it.

Nothing can truly prepare you for track driving other than, you know, driving on a track. From personal experience, the corkscrew & Eau Rouge are way steeper in real life, and the Nurburgring is way more terrifying. :joy:Tracks like Hockenheimring are a little less frightening since there’s no real elevation changes.