Before you arrive
Five minutes now. A better first lap later.
This is what our staff would tell you standing next to the rig. Read it before you come in and you will spend your session driving instead of listening.
You will learn the controls you actually need, what your screen is telling you, and what happens from the moment you walk through the door.
No experience needed
Most people who sit down have never driven a simulator before. Traction control and ABS are on by default, and it is impossible to break anything.
Step one
Arriving
Come in 30 minutes before your slot. That window is what keeps every session starting on time.
- Check in at reception. Give the name the booking is under and you will be told your simulator number.
- Leave bags in the lounge. Nothing loose in the rig, and phones stay out of the cockpit.
- Flat shoes work best. The brake needs real pressure. Sandals and heavy boots both make that harder.
- Staff walk you to the rig and stay with you until you are moving.
Step two
Getting comfortable
Spend a minute on this. Almost every complaint about a car feeling awkward is really a seating position problem.
- Seat first. With the brake pressed all the way down your leg should still have a slight bend. A straight leg cannot apply pressure.
- Wheel second. Rest your wrist on the top of the rim with your shoulders against the seat. That is the right distance.
- Hands at nine and three, and keep them there. The wheel is direct drive, so it pushes back with real force. Never let it spin through your fingers.
- Ask us to adjust it. Do not force anything. Tell a member of staff and it is set in seconds.
If you start to feel unwell
A small number of people feel motion discomfort in a simulator. Lift off, look at a fixed point, and raise a hand. Staff will come straight to you.
Step three
The pedals
Two pedals. The one on the left is the single biggest difference between a simulator and a game.
Brake
A load cell. It measures how HARD you press, not how far the pedal moves. It will feel like it barely travels, and that is correct. Squeeze it firmly rather than stabbing at it.
Throttle
Normal travel, exactly what you expect. Feed it in smoothly on the way out of a corner instead of pinning it, and the car stays settled.
Keep your heel down
Rest your heel on the plate and pivot your foot between the two pedals. Lifting your whole leg costs you accuracy on every braking point.
Step four
The wheel
There are a lot of buttons. These are the only ones you need. Everything else is unmapped, so pressing it will not break anything.
Shift up
Pull it towards you. Every change up the gearbox happens here. You never need a clutch.
Shift down
Pull it towards you to drop a gear. Do it while braking in a straight line, one gear at a time rather than all at once.
When to change up
The strip across the top fills green, then yellow, then red. Pull the right paddle when it hits red. Ignore everything else on the wheel and just watch these.
Reset to pits
Spun, beached, or damaged tyres? Press this and the car is put back to the pits to start fresh. Nobody is coming to rescue you, this is the rescue.
Change camera
Cycles the view between inside the car, on the bonnet and behind the car. Pick one early and stay with it. Switching mid lap is how people go off.
Push to talk
When pressed and held, you can speak to anyone in your group. One of the best features to have fun and have a laugh.
Increase traction control levels
The more traction you increase, the more support in the wheels, making you loose less control, especially for beginners.
Decrease traction control levels
The more you decrease the traction control, the less support you have, but more control on your pedal inputs. You have to be very smooth in acceleration at corners or you'll end up spinning too many times.
Increase ABS levels
The more ABS you have, the less chance of locking your wheels.
Decrease ABS levels
The lower you have, the more chance you lock your wheel, having it off requires smoothness in braking. Ideally, you shouldn't turn this off unless you know what you're doing.
Step five
The first screen you see
TrackMaster Pro is already running when you sit down. It knows you are booked in.
Check the name on screen is yours, then pick a car. If it is wrong, say so before you drive, otherwise your lap times end up on somebody else’s profile.
Every car in your session is the same class, so nobody has an advantage. Take whichever you like the look of.
Welcome back, Alex
Simulator 04 · Session starts 19:00 · GT3, choose your car
Step six
Your screen on track
It looks busy for about a lap, then you stop noticing most of it. Here is what each part is for.
10 things
This is the whole screen. Nobody reads all of it while driving and you are not expected to. We will take them one at a time, and by the end you will know which two actually matter.
Track map
The lap seen from above. The bright blue dot is you. Everyone else is coloured by position, red for the leader. Useful for knowing what is coming, not for racing off.
Virtual mirror
What is behind you. Assetto Corsa gives you one strip across the top rather than three separate mirrors, so it is the only thing showing you cars coming. Check it before you move across the track, and always before you rejoin after going off.
Race tower
The live order. Your row is highlighted. The number beside each name is how far behind the leader they are, and the arrows show who is gaining and who is losing.
Lap and delta
Which lap you are on, and the big coloured number is your delta. Green means this lap is faster than your best so far, red means slower. Glance at it on the straights only.
Corner coach
The one panel worth reading. It names the corner costing you the most time and tells you exactly what to change. Here you are braking 12 metres too early for Turn 4.
Personal best
Your quickest lap of the session with a letter grade for how cleanly you drove it, plus where that ranks against everybody who has driven this track here.
Skill tier
Rookie, Intermediate or Pro. Worked out from your own laps, and it decides how much the voice coach talks to you. It moves up during your session.
Instrument cluster
Gear, speed and the rev lights repeated. TC and ABS show the driver aids helping you. Either side of the gear are your brake and throttle, and to the right, who is ahead and behind.
Pedal trace
Live bars for clutch, brake and throttle. Look at this after a scruffy corner. Jagged bars mean you are stabbing at the pedals, and smooth bars are faster every time.
Notifications
Only appears when something happens: a personal best, the fastest lap of the session, a position gained or lost. It fades on its own, so you can ignore it.
Step seven
A voice will talk to you
It is not a person. TrackMaster Pro compares every corner you drive against a reference lap and speaks up when it can save you time.
It talks more when you are new and less as you get quicker, because it tracks your skill tier as you go. These are real lines it uses:
You can turn it off
If you would rather drive in silence, tell a member of staff and it goes quiet in a couple of seconds.
Turn 4 coming up, brake 12 meters earlier and try braking a little earlier.
Approaching a corner
Turn 7, clean.
You nailed it
1 minute 23 point 4, B plus.
End of a lap
Amazing! New personal best, 58 point 4!
New quickest lap
Great progress! You’ve improved 2.1 seconds since your first lap. Your Turn 4 went from C to B.
Part way through the session
Step eight
When the flag drops
Your session ends with your driving graded corner by corner. It is the part most people did not expect, and the part they talk about afterwards.
Every corner gets a letter from A plus down to F, so you can see exactly where the time went. Your best lap and skill tier are saved to your profile, which means next time you are racing your old self.
Your times stay on the leaderboard. Bring somebody next time and you already have a number for them to beat.
1:23.402 best lap
18 laps · Improved 2.1s · Intermediate, top 22%
That is it
See you at the venue
If you remember nothing else, remember these:
Still come 30 minutes early
Even having read this. Staff will set your seat up, answer anything this did not cover, and get you on track on time.
Questions before you come in? Reply to your booking confirmation and we will answer.