To the leaders of most races...how is it possible?

[Lifesundeath]

I've been playing for a while now and I'll occasionally get perfect runs on tracks, or at least what I imagine is perfect, but I consistently come in 2 seconds slower than the top racers. What is the secret, what am I doing wrong? It's been driving me crazy since I started that I can never be number one on a race even when doing everything perfectly.

[pjw]

Two things come to mind right away:

1) This game has a lot (A LOT!) of subtlety to it. The physics are very deep, and there are always things to learn, even with relatively simple tracks. Exact timing on braking, acceleration, when to slow down or speed up, what line to take, drifting, and so on. What you think of as a perfect run is nearly guaranteed to not be perfect.

2) A lot of people (like myself) have been playing Trackmania for eight years now. That's a lot of time spent practicing, so don't be too hard on yourself. (Since I spend more time building than racing, I am still pretty bad, compared to some of the better drivers out there.)

If you really want to get better, the best way to do it is to race against the top replays for tracks. When that ghost leaves you behind, you can try different things, and experiment to see what the difference is, and what you are doing wrong (or not doing right).

[Lifesundeath]

Thanks, I should do more races against ghosts. I realized the subtly of cornering in this game, but it's just crazy because drifting sometimes helps you go faster where riding the line and maintining grip isn't always so fast out of the corner. Also I wonder what is going on when you make subtle adjustments to your steering, seems like it slows you down but it doesn't always seem to happen, so is it better to let your car angle a little bit out and correct when you are in the corner or adjust your steering earlier and line up for a better turn?

[iamadv8]

Let us wait good acceleracer (aka riolu.exe, that is the #1 in the World) give his answers.
Anyway one important (little) thing is learning how to brake and accelerate simultaneously (using for example a key on the keyboard, for example "x", to brake while you are accelerating with the normal "direction key") and cutting in the right way the corners.

Another important thing (that acceleracer told us) is to limit the time the car is "flying", choosing a slightly different trajectory or braking for a millisecond before a jump

These two things can begin to help you

I use the keyboard, but I think that acceleracer uses a joypad or something similar to drive
So take into account also this fact... using the keyboard doesn't allow to get the maximum.

[riolu]

Yo
The most important thing to drive good times is to know the car's physics. After time, you will get a feeling for how the car will behave in certain situations and how to take certain corners as fast as possible.
The main things, which apply to every environment in the game, are (as iamadv8 already said) reducing air time, getting corners as close as possible to save time and using bugs or smaller tricks in order to get even faster times.
This all depends from the line you're driving, obviously.
In Canyon, when you attempt to take a corner while drifting, make sure to start the drift from the outside, hit the apex and end the drift at the outside again. The Canyon car accelerates faster then (probably because the acceleration depends on the drifting angle). If you try to stay close to the wall the whole time, you will probably be slower (at least while drifting).
@Lifesundeath: If you try to adjust your drifting angle WHILE you are drifting, then you will be slower. If you do so BEFORE you start the drift, it shouldn't be a problem. So basicly it's all about where you start and end the drift.
In fullspeed turns, make sure you choose the right line and try to be as close as possible to the wall.
Of course, there are lots of other tricks which you will get to know sooner or later, but I think it's really important to know how the car works before you attempt any weird tricks which you can't control at all. just practice a lot, watch replays, try to analyze them and you will get better for sure
Hope that helped a bit

[Weeeeee]

I use the keyboard, but I think that acceleracer uses a joypad or something similar to drive
So take into account also this fact... using the keyboard doesn't allow to get the maximum.

No offence, but I think this argument doesn't hold. Just because you are slower than riolu it doesn't mean it's the keyboard's fault, top players like tolkie use keyboard without problems, so you can atleast get at 99.9% of the pad/joystick users level.

[iamadv8]

I use the keyboard, but I think that acceleracer uses a joypad or something similar to drive
So take into account also this fact... using the keyboard doesn't allow to get the maximum.

No offence, but I think this argument doesn't hold. Just because you are slower than riolu it doesn't mean it's the keyboard's fault, top players like tolkie use keyboard without problems, so you can atleast get at 99.9% of the pad/joystick users level.

No offence at all man
I didn't mean that it is keyboard's fault if I am not fast as good/old riolu
I was trying to say that I heard that top players don't use the keyboard, now that you say something different I believe you and I take it into account to improve

[Lifesundeath]

Thanks for the replies. I use an Xbox controller, and since the triggers support is rubbish I use the buttons for accel/brake. This set up has me with my thumb covering the acceleration and brake button at the same time, so I keep the acceleration depressed almost always when braking. As for the drifting advice thanks. Yes it seems that you slow down if you twitch the controls too much during the drift so I'll try and get it set becore the turn and ride it out. For the most part I place in the top 10 or top 6 depending on who's playing, but still almost always 2 seconds slower than the top person online with me...it's frustrating.

[Sm0k3D]

Drive the most wide/straight lines that the track allows. Start corners in the outside, go to the inside at the apex and end at the outside again. This is the "basic" rule for getting the fastest line trough a corner. This means going very near of the edges/walls 3 times in every corner. The more you turn your wheels, the more speed you lose.
Take in acount that there's lots of interwoven corners, so in most cases you need to end first corner at the inside in order to enter second corner in the outside.
In some wide corners is better to drive always near the inside edge.
Don't drift if you can turn without drift.
Don't use the brake for drift if you cant use a jump or dirt section to start the drift. In most jumps you need to start turning before the jump in order to drop in the right angle to start a drift.
Try to mantain the same drift trough interwoven drift corners. (Don't try to stabilize the car after a drift if you need to drift in the next corner)

Practice, practice, practice. XD

[Poutrel]

I use the keyboard, but I think that acceleracer uses a joypad or something similar to drive
So take into account also this fact... using the keyboard doesn't allow to get the maximum.

No offence, but I think this argument doesn't hold. Just because you are slower than riolu it doesn't mean it's the keyboard's fault, top players like tolkie use keyboard without problems, so you can atleast get at 99.9% of the pad/joystick users level.

This is true for Canyon for sure. But for TMUF players, it's not that obvious. Except for Stadium, it's just impossible to get the same times with pad than with keyboard.
I guess there's some pgms out there who will say that i'm wrong, but that must be 0.0001% of the TMUF players