First off it's the only mountainpass track in the game, before the introduction of Mt Taikan in WMMT5, that is. It's also the only track where you aren't supposed to hit over 250+ km/h, ever, which is a speed you can simply blow past by in 4th gear in the city courses. The logic in the game is this: your car is tuned to have short gear range to counter the many corners in Hakone. Since there's absolutely no straightaways that could allow you go even near 300 km/h, have gears that work tightly together under low speed is the correct course of action.
This blogpost is mainly written for time attackers, to whom I belong as one as well. What's unusual for Hakone time-attack beginners is that focusing on having a higher cornering speed doesn't actually translate to a faster time, something we are all accustomed to do in the city courses. Why is that? Well, cause it's a mountain pass! Things really do work differently on them, echoing the Initial D 3 screen after a time-attack run.
As to credentials, I have clocked a 2'26" on the Inbound course a month ago. I'm no mountain pass God, but I think I know a bit of what I'm talking about.
It's not that cornering speed DOESN'T matter, it's what you are SACRIFICING to get that higher cornering speed.
We know that going Out-In-Out is almost always the best way to tackle a corner (except for that one corner in Nagoya and Fukuoka and the JCT in C1 Outbound), but this is only true when you are already started off in the really outish position to ensure your cornering speed will be high. In Hakone, virtually all corners are interconnected in rapid succession, so there's NO chance to naturally kiss the Out going into the next corner.
Unless, you sacrifice it with time.
See, most people misunderstood what it takes to be fast in Hakone. Cornering speed is only half the story here, you have to also take into consideration the DISTANCE TRAVELED.
Let's take an S corner for example (Hakone is full of them, there's also a signature corner in Osaka as well, so hope that helps your visualisation process). If things be done correctly, your first half of the cornering will land your car in the middle of the road. If it's kissing too much Out you are sacrificing too much speed. Now since we aren't into the next half of the cornering yet, imagine you are a beginning in mountain passes, you would strongly consider these two choices:
1. Corner at once and kiss the apex as tight as possible.
2. Lean on the Out to get more cornering speed. It's also safer considering I have a wider angle.
99% of the time, a beginner would choose option 2. Why? The illusion of being faster accompanied with a high cornering speed, AND it's safer, more manageable.
And it's also the slower choice. You have to understand that, when you take the time to lean out, you are creating MORE distance between your car and the apex, so essentially, you are making the road longer on yourself, slowing down in effect due to the longer time elapsed.
So all in all, the best tip for beginners out there wishing to improve their Hakone time is learn to manage the small and uncomfortable cornering angles. But there's so much more about Hakone that we will leave the rest to future blog posts. Hope this helps.
Future topics:
1. Timing of breaking
2. The sin of oversteer correction
3. Cornering timing
4. PVP Tips
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