invitations are out... You are invited... All of you...
We don't have enough drivers for there to be any need to restrict the RoC. Maybe one day we will have to worry that, but not now.
the idea with the swap is that I'll assign who you gift the car to and you will need it to gift it to the person by the Monday of the week, and return it after the race.
I vote for the SBC swap.
What is a good SBC and MX5 laptime at trial mtn? (is it trial or trail anyway?)(for me it's always been a trial so that's what I think of it, but I think it really might be trail.)
Just want to have some benchmark to compare with as I try to figure it out. I'm guessing my SBC times are at least 5-10 seconds off the pace at this point and I haven't driven the MX5 there yet.
Grats. on your aniversary Brad. How many? My wife and I just had our 15th in April.
I just did some runs and (offline) MX5 times are in the mid to high 1:40's SBC being a bit slower (5 or so seconds). I had to soften my suspension as much as possible in SBC to keep from getting tossed around on the bumps.
That chicane bump will be interesting. My suggestion is to make sure you are turning in before you hit it. Hitting it while sliding would be bad.
Thanks. I just ran about 10 SBC online laps. No tuning at all from Deep Forest setup. Best lap was 1:56. That's about what I was thinking (5-10 sec off the pace). The bumps are a little unsettling. I'll work on softening up my suspension a bit and see how it goes. I like to use the Brad tuning approach of starting from default settings and going from there, but it takes time. Not sure if I'll do it for this track as I will be out of town for a few days between now and the race. I think I'm getting the hang of the T1-T3 section. The chicane still sends me airborne about every 3 laps or so because of not turning in early enough on the left hander then being wide on the right hander and launching off the hill. I can only hit 118-119 at the end of the back straight. That straight is too long for less than 170 hp to keep up with most of you guys.
Graefin10 wrote: Grats. on your aniversary Brad. How many? My wife and I just had our 15th in April.
+1.
We just had our 22nd last week.
T.J. wrote:Graefin10 wrote: Grats. on your aniversary Brad. How many? My wife and I just had our 15th in April.+1. We just had our 22nd last week.
Thanks! Not near as impressive as either of you guys, it is our second wedding anniversary. Although we've been together for 6 years.
This just in, the RM Z06 is FAST. 
So far I've only practiced off line w/DF settings and did a 1:59 SBC and 1:49MX5. Haven't had time to tune or really get into it. I have a tendency to set my fast lap first, then start pushing the limits & screwing up a few laps which tells me how the corners to be run, then trying to improve with that info. I'll have to go online asap and try to find the setup and non-penalty lines to see how much I can improve my times.
In a previous post I mentioned that my laptop, which always operates from the router, and my PS, which is plugged into the routers' ethernet outlet do not work at the same time. A couple of you told of having MANY components connected to the router @ the same time. Does anyone have any advice on what might be the problem? Comcast Internet, Linksys p/w protected router. My inet. frequently has fits of going off and on so it's not totally reliable. I don't have a clue what's wrong. Occasionally my laptop WILL work with the PS online. My only course in computers was, get ready to lol, in the days of punch cards. All I remember about it is 0&1.
Graefin, I wish I had some advice to give you. Networks and routers and cable modems to me are a bit of a black art. I can keep my setup up and running with only minor issues, but have no idea of what to suggest to help you.
I ran a 1:54 last night online, but that so far was a one time feat. Ran a few 1:55's. normal times are more like 1:56 unless I spectacularly wipeout. Still haven't tried it with the MX5. My normal pattern is to figure a track out with the Marcos, then switch to the MX5.
In reply to Graefin10:
What has made a massive difference in my network stability is using a custom firmware / OS on my router. I use DD-WRT on a LinkSys router, connected to Charter cable 20mb service.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database
I was overly cautious setting it up, but at the end of the day it was easy and took about 90 minutes to get everything set up.
Since setting it up, memory usage on the router is down, its uptime is almost 100%, and signal strength has improved in my house by about 10-15%. I am a believer.
internet still sucks here but yeah, me loves Trial Mountain
I think the swap will be fun, I want to show Ben how to drive that pink TRD drift machine lol
NickF40 wrote: internet still sucks here but yeah, me loves Trial Mountain
I was drifting like mad on Wednesday, aircooled can vouch.
In reply to BradLTL:
Thanks for the info. It's almost midnight so I added it to my comp. equip. file to check out asap.
My router is two rooms away from where I normally use my laptop and right now I have excellent signal strength as I usually do. Your suggestion gave me some ideas of some tests to do to see if I can tell what's happening to cause the signal to go away when I plug in the PS.
Got a 1:42 MX5 online lap tonight. At least with the MX5 Trial Mt is not so bad.
It is still tricky for the traction-limited understeering SBC Marcos though. Had to spend the evening doing MX5 laps/races there so people would actually join the room and race. Just did it based on PP - set the limit just above the MX5's rating. Lots of people showed up, a decent amount stayed to race a time or two.
I'm almost certain that my MR2 would have been able to keep up with your MX5 if, IF, I could get it stable in the corners. That last race, I was starting to hang with you quite well till the tail stepped out and I went dancing into the grass.
Oh well, needs more work I guess. I'm not sure I want to do the stage 3 engine and weight reduction, it's pretty much awesome the way it is, I just need to dial it in some more.
The last race I ran against that banana guy driving a Nissan March - I kept slowing way down so he could catch up. He was hard to get around cleanly, but when I did I would pull 3 or 4 seconds a lap on him. I would go half throttle down the long back straight or do the same on the front straight. Not sure if he realized it or not. I wasn't trying to be a tool I just wanted to race on that track with another car in close quarters. There was another race earlier where I did the same thing and ended up 2nd. Got what I had coming to me that time. The only car that seemed to give the MX5 much trouble there was some sort of special Celica. That guy was faster than me all over. My conclusion is that I do like green eggs and ham, er, I mean Trial Mt. (at least with the MX5).
Now just got to spend some more SBC time on it.
I've been intending to ask you guys what it takes to get the Red Bull X2010 but I got it this morning. I've been running a lot of Bspec events to get my credits up in case a cool car shows up that I really want ot buy and to be ready if we ever have another series like HH which eats up a lot of credits to prepare for. I immediately went to "like the Wind" and added full wings to see if I could drive it. The hardest part was that the steering is so quick it took a couple of laps to get used to it. It would only run 245 in the straights and then only drop to 243 in the turns. A guy online said he had used the draft to go 315 @ Indy. I just held the gas on full and steered. I can't imagine a serious race in these things @ Nurburgring. I've also gotten several other really fun cars like the Spoon Civic and Integra and the Skyline GTR Nur. The Civic turns over 12K rpm. Running Bspec. seems to stimulate the used car dealers to get new and better cars. I hit lvl. 35 so some day soon I'll do the 24 hrs. of Lemans and see what shows up.
Re. the RB X2010, does anyone know if you can run it or the Ferarris in the F1 series? I doubt it because I think it says that they have to be the Gran Turismo cars.
It occured to me today that an interesting possible future series could be WRXs vs. Lancer Evos. There may be another car or two in the game that would fit into a similar hp/wt 4WD category. Also a spec.Skyline event would be interesting. I still hope that at sometime in the future we can do an approx. 300hp full race series. Probably with a different wt. limit for 2wd and 4wd. There are so many possibilities for that sort of series and I'm sure it would be interesting to see what shows up.
MX5 and SBC I've made a little progress: 1:43.3 in MX5 and two or 3 seconds off with the SBC car.
Graefin, I think STI/Evo type series would be a good one. No idea what I have that could be in a 300hp full race series, but I do have a few cars that would be candidates.
I don't have a Spoon Civic yet, but will buy one when I see one. I did the Lemans 24 hr race in B spec and just used the X2010 car. My guys won by over 100 laps. I just left pit strategy to off and they pitted when the tires were shot. They seemed to do an ok job of picking the correct tires. If you chose a different tire than they want they will pit every lap to change them unless you tell them to not pit. With the X2010 laps with a pit stop are still way faster than any of the other cars best laps in the race so it doesn't matter.
I think I will be way off the pace in SBC this week unless my MX5 practicing somehow translates into faster SBC times.
I did some online Trail Mountain practice last night. I was able to get a few participants using the above mentioned PP limit. The nice thing about cranking up the reality settings is you tend to get the serious types (no contact at all in the races or practice). I don't think a lot of people like running the lower power cars though.
I had a guy in an early Corolla that was giving me some good runs. I had better lap times, but it was pretty close. His problem was he seemed to really like drifting and would tend to drift some corners, which would open the door for a pass.
I did not really notice it before the previous race, but, it is really hard to pass (clean) in the MX5's. There does not seem to be enough of a draft effect on either straight at TM (not enough speed?, not long enough?) to do a good full pass. That leaves the corners, out braking and mistakes. Of course the MX5's are pretty tame to drive, so mistakes are not common, even when you follow 6 inches behind them for 10 laps (I'm talking to you Apex).
Anyway, I guess the point I am trying to make is that I think it is good that we keep cars / setups in the series that are "difficult" to drive (e.g. Comfort Tire), especially in the slower cars, to promote mistakes.
Future series comments: 4wd would be interesting, although they tend to be very easy to drive. Some sort of micro car series might be fun, but the tracks might be way to big for that (Indy, in micros...).
There's always Rally. I have done very little of it in GT5. I am guessing you can run side by side? But I suspect there are no pit stops. That brings up the issue of damage, and you really don't want to allow Rally car to bounce off the fences at will. Maybe to a series of short sprints (sections) for each session? Or....
....now this is a bit more "daring". How about an AutoX approach? So the track is only announced at the START of the race. That would be tricky.
T.J. wrote: The last race I ran against that banana guy driving a Nissan March - I kept slowing way down so he could catch up. He was hard to get around cleanly, but when I did I would pull 3 or 4 seconds a lap on him. I would go half throttle down the long back straight or do the same on the front straight. Not sure if he realized it or not. I wasn't trying to be a tool I just wanted to race on that track with another car in close quarters. There was another race earlier where I did the same thing and ended up 2nd. Got what I had coming to me that time. The only car that seemed to give the MX5 much trouble there was some sort of special Celica. That guy was faster than me all over. My conclusion is that I do like green eggs and ham, er, I mean Trial Mt. (at least with the MX5). Now just got to spend some more SBC time on it.
It's because Celicas > Miatas. DUH!!!!
If anyone is playing around tonite, send me a message if you see me online. I'm a little burnt out on the MX5 and SBC, so i may just mess around with some other cars, but i'd like to race against some people!
OK, I thought of another race possibility, and this one is a bit wacky, kind of like the last minute course (autoX style) race, but with CARS! Think about it. 1/2 hour before the race, you get your car assigned, mayhem ensues!
I am guessing the best way to do this would be to have the host generate a selection of cars, then set the race to only his garage. Hell, we could even have a couple of us set up lists and switch around which list we use... mayhem I tell you, mayhem!
Well, then you only have 30 minutes to tweak the car to your liking.
I somewhat like it, though.
Alternatively... how about if you win a race one week, you aren't allowed to use that car again? Have to build a new car for next week.
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