Even the mightest 4x4 or rally car is not a liscense to treat dirt like road. Non-asphalt surfaces have less traction, and bumps on any surface have the potential to seriously mess you up. Taking a good line- a route that minimizes the actual amount of turning you have to do- will keep you from flying off the road, let you slow down less, and get more power on earlier.ĭifferent terrain is simulated realistically in this game- and that goes beyond off-road being bumpier. Then there's all-wheel (4WD or AWD), which depending on the quality of the vehicle will either do neither, or both.Įntering a turn with no power on and at a speed low enough for your vehicle's traction will usually allow you to take it correctly, but for the most speed going out of it you'll want to get the power on as soon as you can without something going wrong. There's front-wheel drive (FWD), which usually tends to refuse to steer as hard as you want it (known as 'understeer'). There's rear-wheel drive (RWD), which usually will kick the rear end out in the opposite direction of your turn (known as 'oversteer'). For this you'll want to keep track of your drivetrain- the way your car gets power from the engine to the wheels, classified by which wheels it powers. When to put the power on is an issue that's different in each vehicle, again. Cars with different weight distributions will want to do different things (swing the rear out, refuse to turn quickly, or even flip over) and you'll have to learn to compensate for this without throwing yourself off the road or into a fishtail (driver-speak for "your car's rear end is wobbling back and forth because you're steering too hard"). The next thing is, once you've hit the turn, to keep mind of where your car is going. The most important thing to do it to brake before the corner, quite a bit more than you think you might if your car's brakes aren't good (refer to above when braking in an old/cheap car). As before, always avoid slamming the controls one way or another. Your car's traction relative to its speed through the corner, as well as your route through it (your 'line') all effect whether or not you'll be able to pass it successfully. Taking corners is one of the most difficult things to do in real life and by extension this game. Braking before you take a curve is also extremely helpful for maintaining traction. Slowly apply brakes at first to get a feel for what your car can do, then try your best to always keep your car just on the edge of lock for maximum brake performance.
It seems counterintuitive to not use your full braking power, but you don't want to lock them. In cars without ABS you're going to need to exercise brake disipline and not slam on the brakes at high speeds. The tires stop gripping the road properly, and usually cause a loss of control (not good when you're likey about to make a turn). Car interiors usually have an ABS indicator too.ĪBS works by preventing the wheels from locking up, which basically causes the same issue as before but in reverse- instead of spinning fast at low speed, the wheels spin slow (rather, not at all) at high speed. You can tell if a car has ABS by the fact that the HUD's ABS icon will flash when braking hard. Anti-lock brakes (known as ABS, dunno why) are only found on modern cars, and they improve your braking a ton. Every car has brakes, but they're not all as good, and additionally they might or might not come with a technology known as anti-lock braking. Same goes for turns- if you've slowed down before the curve, slamming the gas halfway through can still spin you out from the sudden power spike. Easing into the pedal when starting from a stop will prevent you from spinning the wheels and thus losing traction. It happens when your tires don't have enough grip to handle the torque going into them and it means that you won't have very much traction for steering and you're wasting energy spinning the wheels. This looks cool, but despite what Hollywood says this phenomenon (known rather straightforwardly as 'wheelspin') isn't very beneficial.
If you're not careful and slam on the gas, you'll likely get noise and a big cloud of smoke. Obviously, each vehicle is unique, but there are some complications not immediately obvious to a non-car-savvy driver.įirstly, there is the matter of accelerating (speeding up). Something that may catch you off guard when you're driving is the way different cars behave under stress.