Some say that he used to live in a shed and raced it around the Nurburgring. Others say that it was actually the shed.. that drove him.. all we know is he's called the Jimmer.
Imagine telling young Jimmer, sat watching The Stig thrash some supercar round Dunsfold on old Top Gear, that when he grows up, he’ll be teaching The Stig how to drive…
@@chrisi7127 those are the best though. i know i can shave off a second, if i at least START seeing some progress, i feel like i can be more consistent and pushing more where i need to
It absolutely stuns me how humble Ben is. I mean, I’ve read his books and listened to him talk, I already knew he was humble. But watching him push himself through this while admitting he is unsure…just amazing.
I think some of that is down to Jimmy's ability to teach effectively. He was able to communicate the positives and negatives without coming across as judgemental or like he's sugarcoating. There were several times where Ben was getting in his own head and Jimmy moved him onto a different subject to get his focus back. I think they actually make a pretty great team, given how receptive Ben is to being instructed.
First sign someone shows when they know something is that they admit they don't know about the said something because they've dug around the subject and saw.
In this case you can take anyone who has learnt to race only in cars and move them onto a sim and after 1 session they will think they suck. When I was young, my dad and I played NFS: Shift I would send it into every corner (often flying off track) to find the limit and he would point it towards me not driving and thinking about irl consequences but now that I drive on a daily bases and compared his to my lap times on AC with multiple cars (flappy and h-shifter trans) I have always gotten a faster lap than his fastest within 3 laps. Now he blames me having more practice at the game. Mean while I hopped into a car, and although nervous at first I could drive with little issue, and quickly lost focus on how to drive but put more focus put on the things going on outside. Years later and I will say that the added feel of vibrations through pedals, G-forces, and the suspension loading, on top of the visual ques you learn to make from sim racing, makes driving fast/efficient much easier.
@@GG-bt2fs AMS1 is still good tho see the vid where he goes over the training rig, not just jimmy but also jem hepworth who was the pro driver he raced with last year was saying it's remarkably close in behaviour to the actual thing :) (+ I think the reason they used AMS1 was because they got Niels to make a Praga mod to match exactly the praga he's racing irl as that doesn't exist elsewhere)
I think a racing driver not getting a feel for Sim racing just goes to show how much they rely on their butt and the feedback they get through the seat.
Yeah, the two extremes of learning to race are basically starting in karts and starting in sim racing. Going from one to the other is always going to be extremely jarring.
Is that a gap in the market, or do such devices exist? Getting that 'feedback' through the seat could be a game changer for transitioning both to and from sim.
At my last track day, I apexed a corner and unintentionally started looking elsewhere down the track, completing the corner only using the feeling of g-forces and steering response. I'd never done that before; it literally felt like I had a new appendage or body part. It was awesome. I have to imagine going from real racing to sim is like losing an appendage, and you have to relearn.
Given Ben is an "old school" racer - driving on feel more than data, I suspect if he got to spend a bit of time with a motion platform sim-rig he'd get on with the whole sim-racing mindset a little better. He's working backwards from the whole body immersion of real cars and racing to the reduced immersion of sim-racing, and that's gotta be hard.
I think Jenson Button had the same problem with simracing, they're so used to that physical feedback and it's such a cornerstone to their driving that when they get into a sim and it's not there they can't tell what the car is doing.
It makes sense. I've never raced in real life but thrashed a few cars around the back roads in my youth and everything Jimmy says is something I've been thinking. The "problem" with sim racing is that you just don't have that feedback. Many years ago, when the car skidded sideways on ice and headed towards a ditch, I was could sense it early because I could feel it and was able to recover it. If that was in a sim, there'd be no chance.
Yupp, my guess is since there is no g-force he's effectively blind in that regard. After many hours in a sim rig you can get a little of that feeling through the wheel. As Jimmer said, give him a 9 to 5 getting good and he'll be there.
That, and getting in the power before he has straightened the wheel. It’s definitely the lack of physical feel that is slowing him down. A few more hours getting used to the sim “feel” and he’ll have it.
Amazing to see the Stig curse and fail around a track. As someone who just started sim racing this year, it's amazing to see someone as talented and proven as Ben struggle the same way some of us do.
I have the pleasure of instructing at my local track, glad to say sims are a gateway to track days That said when I have a sim racer as a student I heavily stress that braking is what you're going to have to re-learn: ie - actual weight transfer when on the brakes - your sense of self preservation changing how you drive - brake fade Good news is that sim racers typically adapt and start running confident hotlaps quickly
As someone who hasn't driven a lot of track days, what do you mean by brake fade? That's something we do a lot in sim as well, no? I imagine self preservation is a big thing. You can push so much harder in sim, knowing a crash means absolutely nothing other than a ruined lap. Not quite the case in real life
The big difference between sim racing and the real thing is the sensation of speed and knowing that you can't just hit the reset button when you go into the tire wall. Doing 120-150 into a semi-blind sweeper is way more intimidating in reality than in a sim. Having respect for the car and some fear is normal and welcome in real life. Jimmer showed that when he transitioned into the Praga last year and he slowly chipped away at it until he was comfortable. Ben is an example of the reverse TBH. He knows what the real car can do but has no feeling to guide him through the process. His lack of patience, which he realized, was a big issue early on.
@@Excludos street cars that run Dot4 or less brake fluid and pads/rotors made for the street will, in the least, not feel consistent at the brake pedal throughout a track day in most cases the brakes will begin to feel like someone put a sponge behind the brake pedal, worst cases the brake pedal will go to floor and not provide enough braking force to brake at threshold imo the best track day prep you can do is to simply bleed your brakes with fresh fluid, if you car has no service history then new pads/rotors are a must too
Sim racing won't make you a great driver per say, but it can give you a good head start for sure! And it's great practice especially for track knowledge imo.
@@BenCollinsDrives oh it's the stig himself, didn't know you had a channel until now, fantastic vids, cinematography, editing and the cars themselves, really great stuff, It's kinda unbelievable that it's not as popular as I think. I hope jimmy's video can raise it to new heights!
This was amazing! Ben seems like a really nice dude. Also great to see the effort he put into it, changing the setup, getting frustrated when he spun etc. He really took it seriously.
Something that could help him since he was getting frustrated with the lap times and all is reducing the ui to a minimum, seriously, everytime he looked at the times it took him out of the zone.
“the next lap is the one” the first step to sim addiction. How cool to have the stig bless your sim rig. What a cool guy the hang with. Me thinks a new sim racer on UA-cam just started. Go stig.
Especially when you're racing AI and they're banging you around the track. So hard to walk away without getting a good placing. I could spend all night racing, but I have to work for a living. :)
Well, he is a bit older. With only manuals on the road, left foot braking wouldnt be needed for most corners. I imagine he just got so used to it that he never saw the need to change.
@@mrlor3d Back when Ben started racing you had to right foot brake because everything still had a clutch pedal. Some drivers just never changed it. Rubens Barrichello for example was right foot braking well into the 2000's in F1.
@@mrlor3d I didn't have to learn how to brake with my left foot. It just came natural to me. And I've driven mostly manuals in real life. But of course I've been racing for pretty much my entire life, but just now started to really get into sim racing and taking it seriously now that I have a wheel and pedal set with a shifter, finally. Left foot braking is just something that feels natural for me. It's weird though because whenever I drive my personal vehicle in real life, left foot braking feels awkward lol.
One of the few videos that physically made me smile. Awesome stuff Jimmy, and huge credit to Ben for being such a good sport. We all knew the Stig was cool, but this definitely confirms it!
Its genuinely incredible watching somebody unlearn driving in such an advanced manner and with the way he has to mentally manipulate himself to ignore the subconscious intuitions he has developed over all the years of his career. He was driving on the absolute limit every single moment and not backing off the attempt for the hottest hot lap he could throw at Donington and working out the bugs between the two of you was so admirable because I would love to develop skills just like those. It's almost like watching two elite programmers or incredible scientists discuss an equation they are trying to solve.
Really fascinating video. I always find it interesting when a sim racer switches platforms, but to see a real racing driver try his hand at sim racing and experience the parallels between the two was top stuff.
I'm not sim racing fan. I'm not doing it myself. I watch your videos just for fun and because of way your are doing them, lot of fun and self distance. I watched most of Top Gear episodes and knowing who is The Stig was one of the things that occupied my mind. Seeing this extremely well behaving, well raised, nice gentleman working with you on the favour he asked and saw you as someone who can help him, was an EXTREME pleasure. This is the content I subscribed for. I love you Jimmy. And I'm not a gay.
Incredible to see a real pro and someone we looked up to all through our childhoods to come over an enjoy our side of the racing scene. Cant wait for the Praga season 2 and hope to see more of Ben as well!
From a shed in his mom's back yard, to Collins hanging out at his house in his sim rig. Great stuff and had me smiling for the entire vid, thank you Jimmy.
That's so cool that the stig came to you for advice jimmer. Maybe you can start a series of race drivers putting down lap times in your sim rig like how they did with celebs on top gear.
I actually can't believe what I've just watched 😂, having watched Jimmy for a long long time, seeing where he has built himself up from, riding shotgun through the highs and lows, of all the crazy things Jimmy has done and all the awesome opportunities he's had, for some reason teaching the stig how to be a sim racer is the most unbelievable of them all.
There are people who can act like they’re good people, and there’s Jimmy. The amount of time he’s spent with us, doing genuinely fast times, talking totally without a script and from the heart. That’s why I’m so truly happy to see him succeed and receive the recognition he has. Go, Jimmy, GO!
12:00 so true and when u go from sim to real you get all this new information from the seat the wheel and the G so you drive allot better than a person that just raced. Sim racing is a good school for young future race car drivers but an experienced "analog" driver will feel the handicap in the digital world allot more
I've watched the Stig since the incarnation on Top Gear. My friends and I back in the time always talked about this mystical driver. When the identity was revealed Ben Collins came across as a confident but humble driver. Watching him here with you Jimmy is a pleasure, and must of been quite surreal in some ways. What I loved was seeing he wanted to improve, he wants to still get better but not afraid to admit he maybe expecting quicker results from himself. Watching you with Ben Collins, James May, being interviewed by Jodie Kidd, seeing WEC use your tired early morning face and plaster it on Social media is quite a journey. I tuned into you years ago before your Silverstone trip and meeting Nicki Thiim, to watch some one playing rF2 and see what the online was like as I had been only driving offline. How things have changed, I am so happy they have for you.
Understandable that he's doing one thing in the sim rig and his body his waiting on g forces and vibrations for feedback but isn't getting any so he's not correcting. This is my most difficult thing for sims especially in aircraft
Agree completely. My body needs that seat-of-the-pants feeling. My flight instructor said I was a natural, but when I fly simulated, it's a total disaster. I've never raced cars, but I struggle in sim racing to find the "edge of braking" before the car will break free. You lose a LOT by going 100% visual.
It is often forgotten, but the real issue here isn’t even lack of G-Forces, which you can actually learn to appreciate through the wheel pretty well, but the real issue that is very hard to deal with is the lack of depth perception. If I drive with a VR headset (which I can’t really do very long, because I still easily get motion sick), I can judge the braking point often spot on from just seeing the distance. But if I drive with a 2D display, I really have to use track markers. And of course they are helpful in real life as well, but it generally takes me 6 laps on a flat screen tv to get where I am the first 1-2 laps in VR. And then there’s the looking into corners as well of course.
"...and this is... planes." Thanks for getting me into simracing, Jimmy. I had, idk, hundreds, maybe thousands of kills in some of the most accurate p2p ww2 air combat sims on the planet, but it was you who brought me into sim racing. Where force feedback actually matters and the components we use actually simulate reality. I had a LOT of fun when I was younger, but now I have just as must fun when I do a perfect Nordschleife lap. Because while the doctrine may not be as complex, the actual execution of it is and you can actually feel it in the force feedback.
Jimmy you really have made it; Le Man 2019 winner Indy500 2020 winner real life race driver & winner TUTORING THE STIG in YOUR HOME how to sim race and being gifted a piece of TG history you've made it, be proud with your head held high
what a supremely pleasant person to be around, kinda weird seeing someone as skilled as *The STIG* struggling with sim racing in a way I am certain a large percentage of us, your viewership myself especially, struggled with exactly the same issue not understanding why we keep spinning.
What a great guy Ben is. He didn't have to bring Jimmy anything since he's basically providing him with free content but he still acknowledged the love for the sport that Jimmy has and gifted him such a memorable piece from his own career. Great video to both of you. More collab!
It looked as though Ben was waiting to feel the car. In the way that he cautiously kept pushing little by little, but never got the feedback, he would be used to irl.
@@chrisi7127 Everyone is different, but for some reason games in which you walk around with your thumbstick are much more motion sickness inducing to me than racing or flight sims. Even Dirt Rally is totally fine for me. I think it's because it feels much more natural than walking around while standing still.
@@wilhufftarkin8543 Yep, I can second this about racing in vr in dirt rally. And I play for 6+ hours sometimes. Sometimes I'll play for about 2 or 3 hours straight before taking a break, and I've never gotten sick.
@@manny4707 Yep. I have the BoboVR M2 Pro and the 2 M2 Pro batteries, and I play for indefinite periods. When one dies, I just put that one on charge and put the other one on. By the time one dies, the other is done charging so I can play indefinitely on my Quest 2.
Wow, just wow. Ben Collins is legend to me and his book about how to drive has taught me a lot about being a better driver on the road. The fact that he came to you for assistance is a HUGE COMPLEMENT to you. And I admit finally hearing the man talk was very nice also. Thanks for this.
As someone just getting back in to sim racing and first time using wheel and pedals you have no idea how much better this video made me feel about coming off the track
I saw Ben at Donington last year walking into the restaurant just outside the pit straight - shouted "Alright Ben?" at him. He turned round and looked confused for a bit until he realised I was just some dick he didn't know at which point he broke out into a big ol grin and waved back! Shite claim to fame but it reinforces everyone's surmisings that he's a great bloke
This is so interesting... and it actually makes so much sense. To be a professional driver trying a sim for the first time, it must feel like trying to drive blindfolded. No G-force, you can't feel when the car is planted or when its losing grip, you can't feel the acceleration or how hard you're braking and on a screen you have no true depth perception. I found something similar after racing in VR for a couple of years. Switching back to a regular screen felt so much harder because I'd gotten so used to be able to turn my head and true 3D meant I could judge distances a lot easier.
Many of real motorsport athletes said sim is more "unforgiving" Than real life, but when sim racer try the real thing it's just translates. Like i remember when jimmer tries to rally and the instructor asking him wether if he done that before. And as someone whose done a couple of sim racing and track days myself, i find it quite true that you have to be waaaaaay gentle and feather with sim, otherwise it's just straight to the gravel. Great vid!! Love the stig!!
No way has Jimmy been teaching The Ben Collins! Really love seeing how things are going for you Jimmer. All I'll say is Hamilton has got to retire sometime and there's only one place Daddy Toto can reasonably turn!
This is a great experiment of the difference between sim and real racing. The Stig is a master real life driver that aggressively pushes a car to its limits. With calibration of the controls and the sim car, the Stig will master the car as he does with a real car.
Let’s be honest: this is really fucking cool. I wish we could see more videos of Jimmy with Ben just to absorb some of Ben’s knowledge in driving. Good stuff.
i think that a big thing that (i dont know if jimmy said it to ben) you need to have in mind when you are sim racing, is that the wheel tells you everything, and the best way to know if you are loosing control is when the wheel starts to feel lighter, that is the main thing, and being gentle when you accelerate, cause rwd cars are hard to drive in sim racing if you dont have that pedal control. But if you dont want to loose control of your car all the time, you should counter steer when you start feeling the wheel lighter
One thing he was doing all video is he had the headset off one ear. I know that if I was trying to focus, having one ear not hearing the car will definately effect my focus. This is just incredible to watch someone I still envy today driving on your sim rig....is insane. God I want a proper sim rig.
I imagine it would help loads. I could barely catch a slide in an easy road car but in VR it was almost instinctive. Judging distances for braking is also miles easier.
I found having a force feed back wheel is part 1 of the feed back - having 'butkickers' mounted to the seat is part 2. I'd enjoy watching Ben try again, with the extra vibes provided, he'll feel the car break traction a little more intuitively.
in a real Car, everything has feeling. you can feel your brakes thru your foot. you can fel the Car thru your Chair. In Sim, you basically only have the Wheel giving you feedback. That's so much less information your brain is getting which must be infuruating for such an experienced driver like Ben Collins
for sure, and I think this highlights why the sim racing community is constantly pushing people to buy nice pedals with a loadcell in the brake. I'm waiting for mine. It'll help with muscle memory and feel a bit but at the end of the day sim gear can only get you so far, putting in the hours is the real winner.
I did think when I first clicked that it would just be a friendly session with a "Look who I race with" vibe, but no, Ben was seriously trying to learn and be faster and was genuinely frustrated the car wouldn't do what he wanted. You could tell that F-bomb was real given how many times he stopped himself. Given how much series' like F1 use simulators and how much Jimmy was able to learn from his Praga rig, I'm sure Ben was genuinely keen to get a rig and try to get that benefit himself. And it does make me feel slightly better to see that even the pro racers get Angry-Gamer moments.
Everybody who started racing sims with wheel probably still remembers that it wasn't intuitive or easy at first. Catching spins, getting on power, braking and judging your speed were all difficult because there was no feel. And once you started to get hang of it you changed car or track and had to start all over because all the reference points changed and you have not yet built a base to build on. But it was fun. The more you do it the more fun and controllable it gets and suddenly you notice you have developed that feel. You don't need to slide the car to know how close to sliding you are, you can brake and feel how close to the limit you are, you can feel small amounts of understeer and so on. It just takes some time.
All i can think of is Jeremy Clarkson saying on one of my favorite episodes of TG, Season 10 Episode 9, during the interview with Keith Allen "Are you saying The Stig Span?". I also have to agree with Ben. When you are in a real race car you learn that G-Forces and the physical "feel" of the car are very important data points that you use to drive. When you sim race and you don't have those anymore its like trying to race with your eyes closed or for a non driving metaphor. Imagine one day you you take a bite of food and you no longer can feel the texture of the food in your mouth. You can still taste it and smell it but you cant feel it. That's what real racing to sim racing feels like to me.
at first i thought this was just gonna be the stig vs jimmy but i wasnt ready for the wholesome "if you dedicate yourself to the craft you can do it" vibes. i feel like to anyone struggling to improve this would be a major inspiration
Watching this was fascinating. I learned to drive on the road (never raced) years before I got into sim racing, and it did take a few hours of acclimatisation without the g-forces etc.
Flying a Drone was the same for me! I spent weeks in the simulator before I even built it but once I did the transition to flying for real was seamless! Awesome video Jimmer!
What a fantastic video Jimmy. It was really interesting to see an IRL driver learning to adapt to a sim and acknowledging the skill crossover. Great content as always.
I'd really like to see a Part 2 to this. Get Ben to put in more laps on the rig over a period of weeks, build up confidence and feel with the sum, then turn the camera on and film the result. See if he can drop into the 1:27 range. Proves Ben is a thoroughly decent guy with humility and a deep competitive desire.
Jimmy telling The Stig that he thinks the potential is there 😂
This comment needs to be pinned!
Jimmy could be SIM Stig in future
@@Skafiskafnjak51 introducing… THE SIMSTIG
@@Fletcher_Sealander STIGM-a
@@Skafiskafnjak51 oh that is so much better.
Some say that he used to live in a shed and raced it around the Nurburgring. Others say that it was actually the shed.. that drove him.. all we know is he's called the Jimmer.
And some say...
that he often races backwards
couldn't resist
why did i read this comment with jezza's voice
🤣
@@TL98 who didn’t tho
@@TL98 Because that is the only legal way to read this.
Imagine telling young Jimmer, sat watching The Stig thrash some supercar round Dunsfold on old Top Gear, that when he grows up, he’ll be teaching The Stig how to drive…
What a wonderful thought.
That he'd get to hear the Stig yell "FACK" in his own house.
@@SmallBlogV8 lmao
Absolutely insane. Jimmy really put the grind in and it's paying off for him. You love to see it!
Fooking hell
"All we know is...he's not The Stig."
"He's the Stigs Shed Dwelling Cousin!"
Underrated comment
Shed Sheeran
The stig's sim racing cousin
i can hear it in jermy cocksons voice
"The next lap is the one" thats when he became a real sim racer
And 6 hrs later.............
@@charlesingram9471
-0.05
New Personal Best
SO TRUE 😂 "Famous last words" was my thought when he said it
😂🙌🏻
@@chrisi7127 those are the best though. i know i can shave off a second, if i at least START seeing some progress, i feel like i can be more consistent and pushing more where i need to
Jimmy's just casually living our dreams. Such an inspiration to all of us!
I like jimmy, I like watching him succeed, it makes me happy
Jimmy just makes it look casual. There's a lot that goes on BTS, I imagine.
He deserves it.
Look at Jimmy man so inspirational
@@sweater7630 There is something to it, isn't it?
It absolutely stuns me how humble Ben is. I mean, I’ve read his books and listened to him talk, I already knew he was humble. But watching him push himself through this while admitting he is unsure…just amazing.
Indeed
I think some of that is down to Jimmy's ability to teach effectively. He was able to communicate the positives and negatives without coming across as judgemental or like he's sugarcoating. There were several times where Ben was getting in his own head and Jimmy moved him onto a different subject to get his focus back. I think they actually make a pretty great team, given how receptive Ben is to being instructed.
First sign someone shows when they know something is that they admit they don't know about the said something because they've dug around the subject and saw.
@@pricklypear300 hello there
In this case you can take anyone who has learnt to race only in cars and move them onto a sim and after 1 session they will think they suck. When I was young, my dad and I played NFS: Shift I would send it into every corner (often flying off track) to find the limit and he would point it towards me not driving and thinking about irl consequences but now that I drive on a daily bases and compared his to my lap times on AC with multiple cars (flappy and h-shifter trans) I have always gotten a faster lap than his fastest within 3 laps. Now he blames me having more practice at the game.
Mean while I hopped into a car, and although nervous at first I could drive with little issue, and quickly lost focus on how to drive but put more focus put on the things going on outside. Years later and I will say that the added feel of vibrations through pedals, G-forces, and the suspension loading, on top of the visual ques you learn to make from sim racing, makes driving fast/efficient much easier.
"Am I on cold tires again now?"
"Yes."
"Am I being punished?"
😂 That's a true Stig mentality.
being forced to play AMS1 is punishment
@@GG-bt2fs AMS1 is still good tho see the vid where he goes over the training rig, not just jimmy but also jem hepworth who was the pro driver he raced with last year was saying it's remarkably close in behaviour to the actual thing :)
(+ I think the reason they used AMS1 was because they got Niels to make a Praga mod to match exactly the praga he's racing irl as that doesn't exist elsewhere)
@@GG-bt2fs AMS 2 isn't all that much better, spinniest games ever... might as well give you Disneyland teacups.
I think a racing driver not getting a feel for Sim racing just goes to show how much they rely on their butt and the feedback they get through the seat.
Yeah, the two extremes of learning to race are basically starting in karts and starting in sim racing. Going from one to the other is always going to be extremely jarring.
Is that a gap in the market, or do such devices exist? Getting that 'feedback' through the seat could be a game changer for transitioning both to and from sim.
@@gibsh. Of course there are such devices but they cost a ton of money.
@@gibsh. well there are full-motion sims, and they kinda give you that feedback, but like 20% of it because you can't simulate g-forces.
At my last track day, I apexed a corner and unintentionally started looking elsewhere down the track, completing the corner only using the feeling of g-forces and steering response. I'd never done that before; it literally felt like I had a new appendage or body part. It was awesome.
I have to imagine going from real racing to sim is like losing an appendage, and you have to relearn.
Welcome to bottom gear mates, in today's episode :
The stig gets fookin droiving lessons by a man from a shed
James blows up a childrens orphanage,
@@olekzaskurski2140 and Richard gets CBT
Clakson takes a dump in a shed and hammond dies "random steel pipes noises"
Clarkson punches someone in the face
May gets bitten by an old lady
and Hammond shoots a cat
May shows a Somalian racing driver around his pub.
Given Ben is an "old school" racer - driving on feel more than data, I suspect if he got to spend a bit of time with a motion platform sim-rig he'd get on with the whole sim-racing mindset a little better. He's working backwards from the whole body immersion of real cars and racing to the reduced immersion of sim-racing, and that's gotta be hard.
I think Jenson Button had the same problem with simracing, they're so used to that physical feedback and it's such a cornerstone to their driving that when they get into a sim and it's not there they can't tell what the car is doing.
Old Ben is a great man!
He should really have a go on VR
@@Kombivar I agree!
It makes sense. I've never raced in real life but thrashed a few cars around the back roads in my youth and everything Jimmy says is something I've been thinking. The "problem" with sim racing is that you just don't have that feedback. Many years ago, when the car skidded sideways on ice and headed towards a ditch, I was could sense it early because I could feel it and was able to recover it. If that was in a sim, there'd be no chance.
How many "is this real life" moments can one person have jimmer
Can we just get a confirmation that that is a tattoo of his face on his face, and that he also gets confused by stairs?
And that he only knows two facts about ducks and both of them are wrong
At 4:11 you can actually see Ben stop in confusion before the stairs and then se Jimmy put him down after carrying him all the way up!
As a sim racer myself, I can see that Ben's real issue is he isn't leaning into the corners.
So true
Yupp, my guess is since there is no g-force he's effectively blind in that regard. After many hours in a sim rig you can get a little of that feeling through the wheel. As Jimmer said, give him a 9 to 5 getting good and he'll be there.
That, and getting in the power before he has straightened the wheel. It’s definitely the lack of physical feel that is slowing him down. A few more hours getting used to the sim “feel” and he’ll have it.
Also place hands at 5 to 1 position on the wheel
are you being serious ???
He is, the stig's shed-dwelling cousin...it's Jimmy broadbent
Amazing to see the Stig curse and fail around a track. As someone who just started sim racing this year, it's amazing to see someone as talented and proven as Ben struggle the same way some of us do.
I have the pleasure of instructing at my local track, glad to say sims are a gateway to track days
That said when I have a sim racer as a student I heavily stress that braking is what you're going to have to re-learn: ie
- actual weight transfer when on the brakes
- your sense of self preservation changing how you drive
- brake fade
Good news is that sim racers typically adapt and start running confident hotlaps quickly
May I know more about the track?
As someone who hasn't driven a lot of track days, what do you mean by brake fade? That's something we do a lot in sim as well, no?
I imagine self preservation is a big thing. You can push so much harder in sim, knowing a crash means absolutely nothing other than a ruined lap. Not quite the case in real life
The big difference between sim racing and the real thing is the sensation of speed and knowing that you can't just hit the reset button when you go into the tire wall. Doing 120-150 into a semi-blind sweeper is way more intimidating in reality than in a sim. Having respect for the car and some fear is normal and welcome in real life. Jimmer showed that when he transitioned into the Praga last year and he slowly chipped away at it until he was comfortable. Ben is an example of the reverse TBH. He knows what the real car can do but has no feeling to guide him through the process. His lack of patience, which he realized, was a big issue early on.
@@Excludos street cars that run Dot4 or less brake fluid and pads/rotors made for the street will, in the least, not feel consistent at the brake pedal throughout a track day
in most cases the brakes will begin to feel like someone put a sponge behind the brake pedal, worst cases the brake pedal will go to floor and not provide enough braking force to brake at threshold
imo the best track day prep you can do is to simply bleed your brakes with fresh fluid, if you car has no service history then new pads/rotors are a must too
Sim racing won't make you a great driver per say, but it can give you a good head start for sure! And it's great practice especially for track knowledge imo.
It’s amazing how Jimmy is teaching the driver we all looked up to as a kid. Yeah it’s in the sim but that’s still amazing
if you enjoyed that I think you'll enjoy the little bonus we are lining up on my channel - out this weekend if my editor is still speaking to me
@@BenCollinsDrives oh it's the stig himself, didn't know you had a channel until now, fantastic vids, cinematography, editing and the cars themselves, really great stuff, It's kinda unbelievable that it's not as popular as I think. I hope jimmy's video can raise it to new heights!
The stig yelling “you FFFFFUCK” has got to be the funniest thing ive seen today 13:53
I read his book recently and had no idea he was such a hothead driving. Very funny given his Stig character.
@@zknarc I haven’t read that book but just hearing him breathing during the sim driving im not shocked by that.
*Morgan freeman voice* "And that's when Jimmy realized . . . That the Stig . . . Was hooked."
This was amazing! Ben seems like a really nice dude. Also great to see the effort he put into it, changing the setup, getting frustrated when he spun etc. He really took it seriously.
Something that could help him since he was getting frustrated with the lap times and all is reducing the ui to a minimum, seriously, everytime he looked at the times it took him out of the zone.
“the next lap is the one” the first step to sim addiction. How cool to have the stig bless your sim rig. What a cool guy the hang with.
Me thinks a new sim racer on UA-cam just started. Go stig.
Especially when you're racing AI and they're banging you around the track. So hard to walk away without getting a good placing. I could spend all night racing, but I have to work for a living. :)
Stig's getting a bit more chatty isn't he?
Yeah hes the opposite of me. Well, not everyone was born to be The stig.
and less language leraning on the side
@@emmata98 who are you even talking to?
@@Szaboo92 ?
This is not the point of such a comment
I love how innocent he is without the white helmet.
"Yes I do right foot breaking in race cars."
It was a shocker to me. I've always thought that left foot braking is the first thing that you have to learn to become a racing driver
Well, he is a bit older. With only manuals on the road, left foot braking wouldnt be needed for most corners. I imagine he just got so used to it that he never saw the need to change.
@@mrlor3d Back when Ben started racing you had to right foot brake because everything still had a clutch pedal. Some drivers just never changed it. Rubens Barrichello for example was right foot braking well into the 2000's in F1.
@@mrlor3d I didn't have to learn how to brake with my left foot. It just came natural to me. And I've driven mostly manuals in real life. But of course I've been racing for pretty much my entire life, but just now started to really get into sim racing and taking it seriously now that I have a wheel and pedal set with a shifter, finally. Left foot braking is just something that feels natural for me. It's weird though because whenever I drive my personal vehicle in real life, left foot braking feels awkward lol.
One of the few videos that physically made me smile. Awesome stuff Jimmy, and huge credit to Ben for being such a good sport. We all knew the Stig was cool, but this definitely confirms it!
Its genuinely incredible watching somebody unlearn driving in such an advanced manner and with the way he has to mentally manipulate himself to ignore the subconscious intuitions he has developed over all the years of his career. He was driving on the absolute limit every single moment and not backing off the attempt for the hottest hot lap he could throw at Donington and working out the bugs between the two of you was so admirable because I would love to develop skills just like those. It's almost like watching two elite programmers or incredible scientists discuss an equation they are trying to solve.
Really fascinating video. I always find it interesting when a sim racer switches platforms, but to see a real racing driver try his hand at sim racing and experience the parallels between the two was top stuff.
Some say he learned everything he knows from a man in a shed, all we know is, he's the stig
lol
This was a proper roll reversal, of which no-one would have foreseen in a thousand years.
I'm not sim racing fan. I'm not doing it myself. I watch your videos just for fun and because of way your are doing them, lot of fun and self distance. I watched most of Top Gear episodes and knowing who is The Stig was one of the things that occupied my mind. Seeing this extremely well behaving, well raised, nice gentleman working with you on the favour he asked and saw you as someone who can help him, was an EXTREME pleasure. This is the content I subscribed for. I love you Jimmy. And I'm not a gay.
Incredible to see a real pro and someone we looked up to all through our childhoods to come over an enjoy our side of the racing scene. Cant wait for the Praga season 2 and hope to see more of Ben as well!
From a shed in his mom's back yard, to Collins hanging out at his house in his sim rig. Great stuff and had me smiling for the entire vid, thank you Jimmy.
What's messing him up is driving without the helmet.
That thing gives him 1000hp and 9g of lateral grip.
We need to get him a rig and make him stream. I want him to do races with Jimmy
That's so cool that the stig came to you for advice jimmer. Maybe you can start a series of race drivers putting down lap times in your sim rig like how they did with celebs on top gear.
That’s a fantastic idea
Star in a reasonably* priced sim rig
@@diplomatofthesosbrigade931 and their need to drive on these crapy Tracer wheel :D
@@TheAndostro "crappy?" Weird spelling of "technologically advanced."
I have my trusty Logitech he can borrow. I just need it back hahahaha.
I actually can't believe what I've just watched 😂, having watched Jimmy for a long long time, seeing where he has built himself up from, riding shotgun through the highs and lows, of all the crazy things Jimmy has done and all the awesome opportunities he's had, for some reason teaching the stig how to be a sim racer is the most unbelievable of them all.
Its quite interesting how he right foot brakes even with a car that has a paddle shift
Old school, damon hill was still driving like that in 1996 when he won the championship
Right foot breaking is preferred in sportscar/endurance racing. It extends the stint, which leads to less time in the pits on the final stop.
I have done this before in my life, but so far I am unable to brake properly with my left foot.... I have to give up
Jimmy just allowed this man to enjoy his passion for the rest of his life. Love this video.
There are people who can act like they’re good people, and there’s Jimmy. The amount of time he’s spent with us, doing genuinely fast times, talking totally without a script and from the heart.
That’s why I’m so truly happy to see him succeed and receive the recognition he has.
Go, Jimmy, GO!
12:00 so true and when u go from sim to real you get all this new information from the seat the wheel and the G so you drive allot better than a person that just raced. Sim racing is a good school for young future race car drivers but an experienced "analog" driver will feel the handicap in the digital world allot more
Perfect Birthday gift, cheers Jimmy
Happy birthday 🎂
Happy birthday
Happy Birthday!!
I've watched the Stig since the incarnation on Top Gear. My friends and I back in the time always talked about this mystical driver. When the identity was revealed Ben Collins came across as a confident but humble driver. Watching him here with you Jimmy is a pleasure, and must of been quite surreal in some ways. What I loved was seeing he wanted to improve, he wants to still get better but not afraid to admit he maybe expecting quicker results from himself.
Watching you with Ben Collins, James May, being interviewed by Jodie Kidd, seeing WEC use your tired early morning face and plaster it on Social media is quite a journey. I tuned into you years ago before your Silverstone trip and meeting Nicki Thiim, to watch some one playing rF2 and see what the online was like as I had been only driving offline. How things have changed, I am so happy they have for you.
Understandable that he's doing one thing in the sim rig and his body his waiting on g forces and vibrations for feedback but isn't getting any so he's not correcting. This is my most difficult thing for sims especially in aircraft
Agree completely. My body needs that seat-of-the-pants feeling. My flight instructor said I was a natural, but when I fly simulated, it's a total disaster. I've never raced cars, but I struggle in sim racing to find the "edge of braking" before the car will break free. You lose a LOT by going 100% visual.
@@pliskenmovie
Hmm, is there a market for seats with butt vibrations?
You're over thinking it Stiggy.... relax.... reach out with your feelings... let the force flow through you....
We need this to be a series, absolutely loved it!
It is often forgotten, but the real issue here isn’t even lack of G-Forces, which you can actually learn to appreciate through the wheel pretty well, but the real issue that is very hard to deal with is the lack of depth perception. If I drive with a VR headset (which I can’t really do very long, because I still easily get motion sick), I can judge the braking point often spot on from just seeing the distance. But if I drive with a 2D display, I really have to use track markers. And of course they are helpful in real life as well, but it generally takes me 6 laps on a flat screen tv to get where I am the first 1-2 laps in VR. And then there’s the looking into corners as well of course.
i love the fact that he brakes with the right foot. lets you know that left foot braking doesn't do that much.
It's just preference really
"...and this is... planes."
Thanks for getting me into simracing, Jimmy. I had, idk, hundreds, maybe thousands of kills in some of the most accurate p2p ww2 air combat sims on the planet, but it was you who brought me into sim racing. Where force feedback actually matters and the components we use actually simulate reality.
I had a LOT of fun when I was younger, but now I have just as must fun when I do a perfect Nordschleife lap. Because while the doctrine may not be as complex, the actual execution of it is and you can actually feel it in the force feedback.
Can’t believe Ben Collins got to meet the stig
Jimmy you really have made it;
Le Man 2019 winner
Indy500 2020 winner
real life race driver & winner
TUTORING THE STIG in YOUR HOME how to sim race and being gifted a piece of TG history
you've made it, be proud with your head held high
always a pleasure to see jimmy living the dream. keep it up, dude
From racing in a shed to teaching The Stig how to race on a sim. Jimmy is living every petrolhead's dream.
Good on ya jimmer!!
We need a Stiggyfocus discord emote after that fastest lap lmao
what a supremely pleasant person to be around, kinda weird seeing someone as skilled as *The STIG* struggling with sim racing in a way I am certain a large percentage of us, your viewership myself especially, struggled with exactly the same issue not understanding why we keep spinning.
I enjoyed that. I came on to UA-cam to see if Jimmy is streaming but it's even better that there's a new video up.
What a great guy Ben is. He didn't have to bring Jimmy anything since he's basically providing him with free content but he still acknowledged the love for the sport that Jimmy has and gifted him such a memorable piece from his own career. Great video to both of you. More collab!
Right foot brakes. Mind blown!!!😂
It looked as though Ben was waiting to feel the car. In the way that he cautiously kept pushing little by little, but never got the feedback, he would be used to irl.
Not Jimmy turning his childhood dream into a reality. An inspiration to us all
Amazing seen both of you spending some fun time together. Awesome video Jimmer. Keep up the good work :)
Maybe he would have done better in VR. I'd imagine that the 2D vision can be quite a handycap for someone who only has driven IRL.
I don't know about you, but I think Ben would not be able to drive for 10 minutes without getting a migraine
@@chrisi7127 Everyone is different, but for some reason games in which you walk around with your thumbstick are much more motion sickness inducing to me than racing or flight sims. Even Dirt Rally is totally fine for me. I think it's because it feels much more natural than walking around while standing still.
@@wilhufftarkin8543 Yep, I can second this about racing in vr in dirt rally. And I play for 6+ hours sometimes. Sometimes I'll play for about 2 or 3 hours straight before taking a break, and I've never gotten sick.
@@chrismcallister7050 As long as your headset has power usually you can sit in a racing game indefinitely
@@manny4707 Yep. I have the BoboVR M2 Pro and the 2 M2 Pro batteries, and I play for indefinite periods. When one dies, I just put that one on charge and put the other one on. By the time one dies, the other is done charging so I can play indefinitely on my Quest 2.
Wow, just wow. Ben Collins is legend to me and his book about how to drive has taught me a lot about being a better driver on the road. The fact that he came to you for assistance is a HUGE COMPLEMENT to you. And I admit finally hearing the man talk was very nice also. Thanks for this.
Jimmy, THIS is when you know youve made it champ. Holy shit thats cool.
As someone just getting back in to sim racing and first time using wheel and pedals you have no idea how much better this video made me feel about coming off the track
I saw Ben at Donington last year walking into the restaurant just outside the pit straight - shouted "Alright Ben?" at him. He turned round and looked confused for a bit until he realised I was just some dick he didn't know at which point he broke out into a big ol grin and waved back!
Shite claim to fame but it reinforces everyone's surmisings that he's a great bloke
This is so interesting... and it actually makes so much sense. To be a professional driver trying a sim for the first time, it must feel like trying to drive blindfolded. No G-force, you can't feel when the car is planted or when its losing grip, you can't feel the acceleration or how hard you're braking and on a screen you have no true depth perception.
I found something similar after racing in VR for a couple of years. Switching back to a regular screen felt so much harder because I'd gotten so used to be able to turn my head and true 3D meant I could judge distances a lot easier.
Hold on, I saw The Stig take off his helmet once and it was Micheal Schumacher, not this imposter.
There were more than one
Many of real motorsport athletes said sim is more "unforgiving" Than real life, but when sim racer try the real thing it's just translates. Like i remember when jimmer tries to rally and the instructor asking him wether if he done that before. And as someone whose done a couple of sim racing and track days myself, i find it quite true that you have to be waaaaaay gentle and feather with sim, otherwise it's just straight to the gravel. Great vid!! Love the stig!!
No way has Jimmy been teaching The Ben Collins! Really love seeing how things are going for you Jimmer. All I'll say is Hamilton has got to retire sometime and there's only one place Daddy Toto can reasonably turn!
This is a great experiment of the difference between sim and real racing. The Stig is a master real life driver that aggressively pushes a car to its limits. With calibration of the controls and the sim car, the Stig will master the car as he does with a real car.
Im surprised you didnt let him have a go on the Top Gear test track....i think PCars2 has it as a mod maybe?
AC does for sure, I have it
Let’s be honest: this is really fucking cool. I wish we could see more videos of Jimmy with Ben just to absorb some of Ben’s knowledge in driving. Good stuff.
Make him wear both earphones! :D precious inputs lost there
i think that a big thing that (i dont know if jimmy said it to ben) you need to have in mind when you are sim racing, is that the wheel tells you everything, and the best way to know if you are loosing control is when the wheel starts to feel lighter, that is the main thing, and being gentle when you accelerate, cause rwd cars are hard to drive in sim racing if you dont have that pedal control. But if you dont want to loose control of your car all the time, you should counter steer when you start feeling the wheel lighter
VR would of made way more sense to the Stig
One thing he was doing all video is he had the headset off one ear. I know that if I was trying to focus, having one ear not hearing the car will definately effect my focus.
This is just incredible to watch someone I still envy today driving on your sim rig....is insane.
God I want a proper sim rig.
Should have stuck Ben in VR, convinced he would have gone better as it's far more natural for someone coming from the real world.
Good job. Hopefully he can get to the point of enjoying some endurance racing in the sim rig. Thanks for taking the time to show him the way.
Wonder if VR would help speed up the acclimation?
I imagine it would help loads. I could barely catch a slide in an easy road car but in VR it was almost instinctive. Judging distances for braking is also miles easier.
@@zknarc I agree my feel for the car improved drastically when i got my headset.
for sure though, VR isnt for everyone.
I found having a force feed back wheel is part 1 of the feed back - having 'butkickers' mounted to the seat is part 2. I'd enjoy watching Ben try again, with the extra vibes provided, he'll feel the car break traction a little more intuitively.
in a real Car, everything has feeling. you can feel your brakes thru your foot. you can fel the Car thru your Chair. In Sim, you basically only have the Wheel giving you feedback. That's so much less information your brain is getting which must be infuruating for such an experienced driver like Ben Collins
for sure, and I think this highlights why the sim racing community is constantly pushing people to buy nice pedals with a loadcell in the brake. I'm waiting for mine. It'll help with muscle memory and feel a bit but at the end of the day sim gear can only get you so far, putting in the hours is the real winner.
I did think when I first clicked that it would just be a friendly session with a "Look who I race with" vibe, but no, Ben was seriously trying to learn and be faster and was genuinely frustrated the car wouldn't do what he wanted. You could tell that F-bomb was real given how many times he stopped himself. Given how much series' like F1 use simulators and how much Jimmy was able to learn from his Praga rig, I'm sure Ben was genuinely keen to get a rig and try to get that benefit himself.
And it does make me feel slightly better to see that even the pro racers get Angry-Gamer moments.
You just know that everybody will try and beat his fastest lap to say that he/she is faster then Ben Collins
hard to do that no one has that spec car as it's private
The stig humble af confirmed. what a gentleman. Congrats for the video Jimmy!
the stig is in a coma
Well that got dark quickly jesus christ
@@izumadodoesstuffinc.6917 I think he thinks that Michael Schumacher is The Stig
Everybody who started racing sims with wheel probably still remembers that it wasn't intuitive or easy at first. Catching spins, getting on power, braking and judging your speed were all difficult because there was no feel. And once you started to get hang of it you changed car or track and had to start all over because all the reference points changed and you have not yet built a base to build on. But it was fun.
The more you do it the more fun and controllable it gets and suddenly you notice you have developed that feel. You don't need to slide the car to know how close to sliding you are, you can brake and feel how close to the limit you are, you can feel small amounts of understeer and so on. It just takes some time.
Omg @9:47 that little whimper he lets out was so funny!!! I do the same shit and my buddy talks so much crap about it.
I used to watch „Stig“ in my younger days, never knew really who he was, really nice guy. Thx for the video u 2👍
All i can think of is Jeremy Clarkson saying on one of my favorite episodes of TG, Season 10 Episode 9, during the interview with Keith Allen "Are you saying The Stig Span?". I also have to agree with Ben. When you are in a real race car you learn that G-Forces and the physical "feel" of the car are very important data points that you use to drive. When you sim race and you don't have those anymore its like trying to race with your eyes closed or for a non driving metaphor. Imagine one day you you take a bite of food and you no longer can feel the texture of the food in your mouth. You can still taste it and smell it but you cant feel it. That's what real racing to sim racing feels like to me.
at first i thought this was just gonna be the stig vs jimmy but i wasnt ready for the wholesome "if you dedicate yourself to the craft you can do it" vibes. i feel like to anyone struggling to improve this would be a major inspiration
Watching this was fascinating. I learned to drive on the road (never raced) years before I got into sim racing, and it did take a few hours of acclimatisation without the g-forces etc.
What a brilliant guest. I feel like he did a great job of bringing awesome questions to the shoot and is just a lovely bloke.
OG Stig Visor too!!!!!
What a man.
Interesting to see how much of Ben's ice cold focus got translated into The Stig as a character
What a lovely bloke Ben is. Just very down to earth, and really into the challenge of learning something unfamiliar to him
Flying a Drone was the same for me! I spent weeks in the simulator before I even built it but once I did the transition to flying for real was seamless! Awesome video Jimmer!
What an honor it must be to give a lesson to such a legend. And you got a great gift :)
What a fantastic video Jimmy. It was really interesting to see an IRL driver learning to adapt to a sim and acknowledging the skill crossover. Great content as always.
Didn't you ask Ben to do a few laps around the Top Gear test track in AC ?
That would of been really interesting to see .
I really like Ben Collins as a presenter, I remember watching his Stunt Man film recently and being really impressed with his skills behind the camera
I'd really like to see a Part 2 to this. Get Ben to put in more laps on the rig over a period of weeks, build up confidence and feel with the sum, then turn the camera on and film the result. See if he can drop into the 1:27 range.
Proves Ben is a thoroughly decent guy with humility and a deep competitive desire.