Scoobyring

[foreright]

Gaah... just started to try using manual gears and it's a lot faster but soo much harder! What kind of improvement are people seeing on their 'ring times when using manual as opposed to automatic gearboxes? My best so far with the B class Scooby is 8:19.066 with auto although twice tonight I've been on for an 8:15 and binned it right near the end on those ridiculously high curbs.

With the manual box I'm consistently in the low 8:20s although I'm bouncing it off the limiter a lot and kinda getting stuck between gears a fair bit...

Anyway, the question is - is it worth spending the hours of effort getting used to manual shifting?

[Mekon]

Make the switch. I did back when Gran Turismo came out. It'll take you a while but once you've started to use engine braking to load up the fronts, auto will seem like so imprecise.

[spidydude]

absolutely, it's not like it takes days...

[TheKeyboardDemon]

Did you all start playing in Auto first and then switch to Manual?

[stephen300o]

Yes, I switched in about 91

[foreright]

Mekon said:

Make the switch. I did back when Gran Turismo came out. It'll take you a while but once you've started to use engine braking to load up the fronts, auto will seem like so imprecise.

I can already see that you can stay in gear longer - the auto seems to change up very early and not change down until absolutely necessary which I should think would add quite a lot of time.

[Altrezia]

I started in Manual and never tried auto.

[GravelBen]

Altrezia said:

I started in Manual and never tried auto.

Thats the way to go.


Would you ever choose an automatic car for driving on track (or anywhere for that matter) in the real world?

[Mekon]

I started with Auto, but I wanted to get all the golds for the gt licence tests. That's what made me switch.

However, one thing Forza 2 adds is engine damage from botched shifts, so look forward to that.

[foreright]

Mekon said:

However, one thing Forza 2 adds is engine damage from botched shifts, so look forward to that.

I found this out already Shifting down two gears instead of one up by mistake is not a good thing.

[Baldylocks]

I've toyed with using manual on another game (PGR2) and I could run a quicker lap on my own using it. But in a race I found it too hard in the cut and thrust of passing other cars (I'd miss changes and braking points) - so I went back to auto after not very long.

IMO there is more to be lost or gained by the lines taken through bends than using auto or manual gears.

There isn't a 'shift glitch' on Forza is there?

[tim2100]

foreright said:

Mekon said:

However, one thing Forza 2 adds is engine damage from botched shifts, so look forward to that.

I found this out already Shifting down two gears instead of one up by mistake is not a good thing.

Forza 1 was dreadful for that, no rev limiter so every missed gear change resulted in engine damage.

FWIW I have always used Manual, there is only one game I can think of that had no advantage by using manual was Jaguar XJ220 on Megadrive/MegaCD

[Mattt]

I remember with the tuned Enzo in Forza 1 you got engine damage even when using Auto!

[GravelBen]

Mattt said:

I remember with the tuned Enzo in Forza 1 you got engine damage even when using Auto!

Italian build quality...

[R1 GTR]

I used auto until i got a wheel and then found manual a lot faster. I now use it all the time

[Stig]

[quote=Baldylocks]
IMO there is more to be lost or gained by the lines taken through bends than using auto or manual gears.quote]

Absolutely!

Forza is VERY unforgiving of being off line with about half the grip available. Now this is true to an extent on a 'real' racetrack, but like the artificially glue-grass and quicksand/graveltraps, once you're off the racing line, Forza is very unforgiving in this respect.