The FFB [Force Feed Back] is a success! The FFB is a failure.Not really sure which, if I'm honest. So what now?
This can't be uncommon. I touched on it last post about not being an immediate driving god, but thought after a few days it would become at least a little more clear. What does FFB actually mean? By now I feel that I have a firm grasp of how a car is meant to behave in corners, due to actual driving, things that I've read over the years, but also the Advanced Driving courses that my dad put me through when I was a new driver. This course came with - and this sounds better than it is - 'The Police Drivers' Handbook', at the time I excitedly opened it, anticipating lots of blurb about how to drive safely during pursuits - but no. There was lots of dryness about sight pictures, phases of car control, road position (but all useful), and slightly more interesting things about tyre-grip trade-off, skidding, cornering forces and what-have-you.
For those of who you aren't familiar with that, the upshot is that there's only so much grip available to the 4 little patches of rubber that join your car to the road along with the slightly less surprising revelation that the car weighs down on those same patches. When proceeding in a straight line at a constant speed the car weight is evenly distributed; all grip is available for acceleration and/or braking. When you accelerate, the weight shifts backwards so there is more of the car on 2 of the (rear) patches and transfers forwards when you brake; when cornering, the car's weight migrates to the left or right side (opposite to turning direction) as well as some of that grip being used to turn the car, so there's correspondingly less available for everything else as well. If one were to then brake in a corner, all the car's weight is now one 1 little patch, potentially leaving you in a situation where you might exceed the grip available (and thus have no control over your direction). The idea is that you get all your braking and gear changing done before entering the corner in order to stay well within the grip limit and keep the car balanced. On the road, you shouldn't really be getting near the limit of adhesion under normal conditions. It does happen though - I'll put that down to youthful exuberance leading to a sudden loss of talent. Thankfully no injury.
Those techniques, while handy on the road for 'safe progress', are a lot more useful on the track, as you get much closer to the limit on nearly every corner. It is more secure on a track (to a degree) as there's no oncoming traffic, but a corresponding lure to push the car and thus overcook it and do something expensive. Not to mention being banned from the event for the rest of the day if you can still drive it, cost of potential fluid clean up; worst-case scenario, colliding with someone else's pride and joy. Don't do that, there'll be tears before bedtime. And solicitors' fees.
Ok, so I have some understanding of real world car physics. Can I translate that to a virtual track? Can I chuff. What gives? Have I been fiddling with the wheel settings too much? The G29 rumbled and shuffled in my hands, but I still have no idea how to relate to it. Dirt Rally was getting a little frustrating if I'm honest, so I decided to reset everything to default and it was then that I began to associate the spitting and shoving to what was happening on the screen. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment having not really experienced a wheel up until now - 'Ahah! So THAT'S what it [the FFB] means!'. It was while doing the Dirt Daily, in the Lancia 037 EVO 2 (Group B RWD category) - a tricksy beast. Cresting a rise, the steering went light, landing and it went heavy - THEN is the time to tweak your direction and get a good look at that beautiful bark texture up close, shortly before being obscured by steam.
So yes, is the answer. I had been fiddling with the settings too much before even knowing what the default information it was giving me meant. It's not surprising I was Driving Miss Daisy to stay on the track.
Now to see if I can keep that fupping MX-5 on Laguna Seca.
