But the
Lotus 79 nothing and I mean nothing will set you up for driving the lotus on a full grid with a full tank of fuel. Unless your Senna or huttu himself going from the skippy to the lotus will just make your SR and IR dive bomb, make you go bald and annoy a lot of people who have sat down all week put in about 20hrs practice. I doubt even the Lotus 49 will set you up for driving the Lotus 79 The lotus 49 as no downforce, witchcraft in effect and terrible little skinny tires. It is faster in a straight line though think they was hitting close to 200mph down Kemal back in the day ? with no seatbelts and leather helmets lol. "Like a boss".
The skippy as very zero down force uses dust bin lids for tires and handles like a lawn mower with a moped engine, compared to the 79. The 49 will handle nothing like the 79 as the 79 uses witchcraft to make it go round bends. It uses a physic bending form of downforce known as "ground effect" something that was banned in F1 due to how well it worked, and how dramictally bad it went when it failed.
Basically how it works imagine an upside down wing underneath the car, air is sucked in at the front and trapped underneath the car as the Lotus 79 used "skirts" these sit at the end of the sidepods that sit flush with the ground stopping air from escaping out the sides, basically think of an upside down wing crossed with the opposite to how a hovercraft works the air underneath the car sucks it to the ground. Which in turn means the faster you go the better the car turns in been squashed down into the road by the huge difference in air pressure underneath and above the car.
Now nothing will set you up for that as no other car uses witchcraft as an aero dynamic part. Take my first experience with the Lotus 79 for example. Mossport a track I like and had just spend about 20 hours the previous week racing in the Radical, So knew pretty well. 5 attempts just to make it out the pits
(I use no aids and a H-shifter) I wrote the car off in 5 unique ways just going from N-1-2.
Finally on attempt number 6. I exit the pits I get to Turn 2.5 the Fast downhill Left hander doing no more than a snails pace. Omg WTF is this steering wheel doing you move it all of 1mm and the cars does 2 360s I hit the grass slide off into the tires and get the god dam "Meat Ball" cars bent and theres bits of chassis everywhere. Repeat for about 15 goes, where I either loose it with steering or if I do make it to the apex applying the throttle spins the back wheels up the car points everywhere but straight. I do a 360 hit the grass slide into the tires and destroy the car. After about half an hour I can finally string a lap togther, scared tiff to touch the steering the brakes or the throttle the whole time. I know if I touch either even the slightest amount the car will just head for the nearest Tire Wall and destroy itself know matter what I do.
While all this is going on Ive got another 30 Lotus's flying past me at what looks like 1million miles an hour. After about an hour I can finally get the car round the track I try to follow people into bends now I have a bit of confidence, Im still scared stiff of the steering wheel at this point the throttle and I dread using the brakes. as every time I do the backend just locks up, wants to overtake the front end and the car heads for the nearest "Tire Wall".
After a few hours it starts to click I realised the steering wheel on this car does bugger all. Its just something for the real F1 drivers to hold onto when the car gave way and hit the nearest wall at 150+mph. Think of the steering wheel as a 1980's air bag. You steer this things with the throttle 90% of the time and brakes the rest of the time.(Ill explain the brakes in a moment) you can widdle that steering wheel if you want good luck with that one though. I only use it to correct the thottle input. Normally a huge swing to the left or right to induce under or oversteer.
The brakes again are weird to get used to most of it is done by the back wheels the front wheel on the Lotus are tiny compared to the back ones and have hard enough time trying to stop the car from heading for the nearest tire wall. Everything is done on the back. So you need to master trail braking something the skippy will kinda teach you I guess and so will the Lotus 49. But not to this degree.
The MX5 base setup has the brake Bias set 81.*% to the front 19% to the back. The radical i use 56%-58% to the front. The lotus 79 your be using around 55%-65% on the "back" some people run more than this, I cannot mines set around 45% to the front everything else to the back. Most cars your be used of the brake balance to the front no more than usually 40% to the back wheels if you use the base sets.
Once I finally got a grip of all this made a setup that worked for me (mainly tweaking the brakes adding a big more downforce to keep me out the tires)and the main thing "changed the steering rack" so when I turn the thing the car doesn't do a 360 for every 1 degree of steering input.
Setup made I took the car back out nailed her out the pits countersteering every slide as I light her up from 1st dropped the clutch whack her into 2nd grabbing hold of the steering as she wheel spins all the way up to 100mph exit the pits plant the throttle into turn T2.5 hitting T3-4 full pelt little lift dab of the brake get the backend out slide her gracefully around the apex dancing on the throttle and brake pedal pretending I'm doing the river dance. Into moss as fast as I dared, the car sliding everywhere I some how managed to wrestle it up and over moss hill aim her at the exit and hit the loud pedal the car slides everywhere I counter every slide modulating the thottle I feel grip and we are off up the long straight. I've got Lotus 79's everywhere in my mirrors some of the vets coming past me like im in a Austin Allegro but I don't care I haven't made it through moss yet at anything above 5mph We head into sector 3 the sweepers. I hold my breath, try to stay as carm as possible and just glide the car through the bends and make it through the last bend without hitting the outside curbs which i known will make the car do a 360 spit me across the road into the pit wall killing both me my car and any poor soles unlucky enough to arrive at sector 3 behind me.
Some how I manage it and the next lap I increase my pace and this time push a little faster through every bend but for some reason now I make it through the bend but without sliding off but im going faster. My brain is very confused. As I cross the line for lap 3 the car all of a sudden feels like its glued to the tarmac. It now goes where I tell it to.
After doing about 20 laps without crashing each lap getting faster and faster. I retire to the pits quite happy with Adrenaline pumping a huge grin on my face a grin I've only ever experienced racing karts.
So I look at the time board I must be at least top 10 with that Im thinking I was dancing on the pedals like the great man himself Senna. My position drum roll...................................................
Stone cold last of about 40 drivers about 10 seconds off the pace 
Did I care no I've just had the best experience driving anything made from pixels and if I squinted just a bit I could pretend Im living a live long dream of driving a 1980's F1 car at my limit. 
