GT3: Am I Trailbraking to Induce Oversteer Properly?
Sup guys! I race mainly GT3 cars with an irating of 1700 right now. I've been sim racing casually for about a year and a half, starting on ACC before moving to iracing in January.
As far as I understand, the ultimate reasoning behind trailbraking is to loosen the rears so that the car rotates faster through the corners (achieving slip angle I think is what it's called?). Almost like controlled mini drifts.
However, after watching some Suellio Almeida videos on this, and trying out his drill of intentionally trying to spin the car, it seems that I have been severely under-driving my car, and trailing my brakes in a manner that doesn't actually get the car to rotate. I always thought if you trail off the brakes, you were doing it automatically, but the feeling was just too small to notice.
After adjusting my driving technique to actively and intentionally feel the car rotate when I corner, I hopped on spa to do a couple of laps, and felt a huge difference. I now hear the tires like everyone talks about, when I turn, I steer less than before, I can feel the tires actually grip, and the car overall feels like it's floating on an edge that if crossed, I will crash (which I do on the second lap).
Now, as someone who is average at best, could any of you more experienced drivers tell me if I'm on the right track to learning proper trailbraking to get my car rotated? In these laps, I've felt faster than I've ever have before (especially through les combes), and was able to reach the 2:17's alone on track to beat my personal best, on a hotter less used track (I normally average around 2:18 and only reached 17's during a race with low fuel and tow). I know these aren't amazing times, but again, it's a jump from my plateau as a novice driver.
But while it is faster on the timesheets, as an under-driver, it feels so unnatural to me and like I'm killing my tires too much to last the duration of a race. It feels like I'm jerking the car and forcing it do something it doesn't want to. Perhaps I'm just so used to being slow and the tires will be fine? haha. Are faster drivers always driving like this and feeling like they're sliding through everything, or am I overdoing it?
I'm more curious on the technique of my inputs to rotate the car, rather than the track and my lines itself. I miss a few apexes and don't utilize all of the track because I still need to adjust to the different turn in points when sliding. When driving like this, I learned I have to turn the wheel less, but earlier.
Thanks for your help.