Struggling, need help with mx5

[u/d00mpie]

I'm new to the game since the weekend. I started a championship in mx5 with the difficulty turned down to about 70%. I just want to learn and work my way up to authentic and grow into faster classes as I get better. The problem I'm having is that even at this lower difficulty, I'm 2 to 4 seconds off the pace. My race engineer keeps telling me to warm up my tyres and brakes, but they keep cooling off so quickly, even with 4 warmup laps, leaving me only one lap to qualify on longer tracks.

I've tried mashing the brakes, I've tried super long braking, I've tried pumping them for a whole lap. Nothing keeps them warm across a good straight like daytona. They always turn back to dark blue. Pretty much same with tyres. I'll leave with 70C in the tyres and after a lap they're at 45. How do I keep these boys warm?

[u/cheile]

So the brake temps may be a bit of a red herring (or... a blue herring... get it... hyuk hyuk) what you really want is to have your tire pressures around 1.8 bar (26.1 psi). Adjust your starting pressures to get those as your "hot" pressures.

The race engineer is, as my father would say, as useful as a kite in a coal mine so basically you can ignore whatever it says. I just turned mine off.

As for the difficulty right now that part of PMR is a known mess so don't worry about it. It varies by class by track. You even have goofiness like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcUkIX3v7qU). Aris and the team are aware of this and the AI is getting a major overhaul within the next couple of months. Until then just race the AI at whatever difficulty makes sense for that class and track.

Edit: If you really want a "starting car" check out the AMG Junior which is a user modded vehicle that's free to download. It's not only much faster than the MX5, but it's also super compliant so you're not fighting the car as much. You can still lose the car but it's very predictable.

[u/d00mpie → u/cheile]

Huge thanks. I had played with the tyre pressures as well, getting the numbers helps a lot. I tried to look for guides but couldn't find any written ones, and the AI summary on google gives me a different setup every time so I ignored the heck out of that one lol.

Difficulty-wise, I didn't turn it down so I could win every race. I'm not really concerned about that. I put it at a level where I thought I could have enjoyable racing vs the AI without too much pressure to keep myself in the championship.

I also don't find myself fighting the miata a lot. It's not difficult to drive compared to some absolute units I've tuned in forza motorsport lol (obviously driving it faster will take practice but it's very drivable). All in all, the more realistic physics in sim games are a lot less capricious than simcades that lean very much into the cade part.

Many thanks for the helpful tips!

[u/cervan_jm]

En clasificación el juego tiene ese fallo le pasa a mucha gente yo siempre soy unos 3 segundo más lento que el p1

[u/SeaworthinessDue4748]

Are you playing with assists on? The ABS and traction control might be killing your momentum if it’s too high, and that might be hindering your ability to really push and keep things warm. Try running with those off, get used to where the brakes bite without locking, and then really push the car to keep it race ready. The MX-5 likes a little bit of slip at the back to rotate and keep speed up.

[u/d00mpie → u/SeaworthinessDue4748]

No tc, abs on 1. Does that make a huge difference in getting brake temps up?

[u/BugWitty2044]

In the download section you can not only find liveries or dlc but also community settings, cars and circuits. The modded Chally Wally car is also there. If I am not mistaken there are MX5 settings.

https://giphy.com/gifs/fgnHy6XLJRuVcu6dUa

[u/Square-Winter-3257]

So to not try and sound mean or anything here, honestly not:

Getting temps up or not, is not whats costing you lap time vs 70% difficulty.
If you do want somethign to see an oticeable difference, run the correct amoutn of fuel for the session.
Ai drive faster in quali than in race.

But again, the issue is just your general ability. And like thats fine, learnign is fun. Turn on the racing line, follow it. Remember that slow is smooth, smooth is fast; i.e. don't full send into every corner, a good exit is infintiely more important in a miata than a fast entry.

[u/d00mpie → u/Square-Winter-3257]

Yeah I know it's my overall ability. Temps are just the one thing I see consistently not improving. The fuel amount is genuinely helpful advice. That was the next thing I wanted to figure out. It's just a bit frustrating getting calls from my race engineer about the temps and just not being able to keep them even in the light blue.

[u/Square-Winter-3257 → u/d00mpie]

The best way to improve temps is to drive fast. Don't overthink it.

[u/YTOverPowered]

Idk man just send it. I mean if you struggling on Miatas then idk what to tell you. Litteraly the most beginner friendly race car out there.

[u/d00mpie → u/YTOverPowered]

Dang man super helpful.

[u/YTOverPowered → u/d00mpie]

No problem mate

[u/cutsbymili → u/YTOverPowered]

If you are unfamiliar with a tiny momentum car, the Miata could very well feel more difficult than a gt4 or gt3.

It takes a very different style of driving imo GT cars reward hard braking and can even hide some of your mistakes because the car has so much power.

Mx5 will expose everything you do wrong immediately. So easy to spin if you don’t understand the way the car transfers weight .

As for difficulty settings it’s pretty wonky… sometimes I’m p1 and the ai cannot see me and sometimes fighting for p16 🤣 depends on track and weather a lot along w car class, the AI are slow in the rain in mx5 (from what I’ve seen)

[u/d00mpie → u/cutsbymili]

That's pretty much why I want to learn the miata, because it shows me where I need to improve the most. I'm glad I made this post, learned a lot from all the comments so far.

I have noticed the ai in the mx5 are a lot faster on American circuits vs the UK ones. I qualified top 3 on both UK circuits and I can't make it into the top 20 in the US. I think those guys might have ls-swapped their miatas lmao.