In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:
Mine was 1:08.2 I think. I ran off about 10 laps in a row in the 1:09's (at least it felt that way. There may have been some 1:10's in there. I saved the replay, but as usual didn't watch it.) Consistently quick laps seem to be the key to these series (and avoiding damage). I didn't figure that out until after SS5, since then I've concentrated on trying for consistentcy and not all out fastest single lap times.
T.J. wrote: In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac: Mine was 1:08.2 I think. I ran off about 10 laps in a row in the 1:09's (at least it felt that way. There may have been some 1:10's in there. I saved the replay, but as usual didn't watch it.) Consistently quick laps seem to be the key to these series (and avoiding damage). I didn't figure that out until after SS5, since then I've concentrated on trying for consistentcy and not all out fastest single lap times.
I need to watch the replay to see if aircooled bumped me or if i messed that one up all by myself. 
I do need to do some tweaking in more than just gearing for that track. I'm pretty sure i can get in the 1:06s consistently, i just need to avoid "the drift." My tires were pretty shot by the 13th lap.
Celica: The only bumping I remember was a bit of a side scrape going into turn one, I don't think I ever bumped anyone from behind. I do remember Apex and I did doing a fair amount of door handle "love".
Race, SBC: Made for an interesting start... stupid inverse grid! I got the normal jump, which turned into a challenge to see if I could pass the whole field before I got scrunched in the first turn. I got up to Turn 1 with a Mini between me and freedom. Thankfully Brad left enough room on the outside for me to get by. I think I made the first few corners in the lead, and I was home free... so I thought.
I look in my rear view and I see the Nickmobile, apparently very angry about his recent "time off". Anyway, this sliding menace of early Japanese engineering was heading my way in a big way, so much for home free. I could really tell he was going all out. I could also see he was having a bit of difficulty which was apparent by the fact that half the time I looked back I had a very good view of one of his rear tires.
He did get very close a few times, I eventually pulled ahead after one of his mega power slides and you all know the result of one of his slides after that (I could see his icon spinning on the track display with a bunch of other icons packing up behind it). After that it was pretty bland. I did get stupid in the chicane at one point and caught the wall, spun and did a bit of front end damage, but I was too far ahead at that point.
I eventually caught up with Brad, who gave me a very wide berth. That was a bit disappointing since I wanted to dice it up a bit. After passing Brad I did slow it down a bit (sorry, it wasn't the tires) to let him catch up and see how he was doing. He seemed to come into corners rather well, but did not come out very fast (very expected for a slightly underpowered FWD). He also seemed quite slow through the chicane for some reason, I figured he would just jump that bitch. After playing around a bit I found you could cut that chicane pretty tight, still hard to coordinate in a squirrely car.
MX5: Had a bit of fun doing a qualifying dual with Apex before the race. CONFESSION: Apex, I totally cheated on the last qualifier 
I completely cut the chicane! I don't feel too bad though, since I already had the second spot. Not sure why I bothered, it was another stupid inverse start, so it actually hurt me (karma).
The start of MX5 was an unholy mess! I just tried to stay out of the "pack" and take some good lines. Eventually there was some sort of massive smokey spinning mess going on and I broke out in the top three. There was some pretty good dicing going on for a about a lap or so. The red / orange car dropped back and I was left with Apex... again. I immediately implemented plan "pace and intimidate" again. I pretty much pushed him down the back straight .... didn't work.
I ended up getting one of the minor bump ramming penalties at the big sweeper and that was pretty much it. Apex got his rhythm and started pulling away. That was pretty much the race for me, everyone was very well spread out around the track.
Aircooled- hahahaha yeah I try, so you liked that huh? and honestly, yeah I wasn't in the best of 'mood'.
Ben-YES, I think so too! hey Tsukuba's coming up.....just sayin
Aircooled, at least when you start in the rear with the Europa you can charge to the front of the pack. I started on the back row and (similar to Monza) made it to the first turn dead last. I went with the hgh range turbo for Trial Mt as it gave me 5-6 mph higher speed at the end of the back straight and a second or two faster lap times overall, but it also cuts way down on my available torque and the start was a killer for me. If I didn't get caught up in the rumble in the tunnel I think I might've been able to give you someone to play with instead of just lapping around by yourself all race.
T.J. wrote: Aircooled, at least when you start in the rear with the Europa you can charge to the front of the pack. I started on the back row and (similar to Monza) made it to the first turn dead last. I went with the hgh range turbo for Trial Mt as it gave me 5-6 mph higher speed at the end of the back straight and a second or two faster lap times overall, but it also cuts way down on my available torque and the start was a killer for me. If I didn't get caught up in the rumble in the tunnel I think I might've been able to give you someone to play with instead of just lapping around by yourself all race.
Your top speed on that back straight was WAY higher than anyone else's, that's for sure. 
Apex's Elan would kill me on a few of the corners. The biggest place was the turn leading into the tunnel and the backstraight. I could go into that on his tail and he would get a huge jump on me through the corner. I had a faster car on the straights and would catch him just in time to brake at the end of the straight, but not in time to pull off a pass. I tried to force it once, passed him there and couldn't make it stick. Would've been interesting to see how the Europa was on that track. It sure didn't pay to qualify well with the inverse grid, but I like that Brad changes it up.
I was hitting 125-126 I think. I know with the torquier mid-range turbo 119 was max and that was only if I had good exit speed from the corner. I was always a bit leary of hitting the outside wall on that turn at the end of the straight so I was usually a bit conservative on my braking point at the end of the straight. Aircooled and Graefin are usually faster on straights than me.
I liked it that I still had a lot of fun in the MX5 race eventhough I was last.
I was thinking that about halfway through the race that i should have gone with the bigger turbo on my car. I may just swap to the top end setup anyways, as the midrange just seems to overwhelm the tires until 4th gear.
I was going to try to stay with you guys at the start of the MX5 race but you guys were going into turns 3 wide. I decided to back off and wait for the inevitable. Didn't take long either. There was so much smoke I headed for the light area instead of the shadow area. Good move because there were cars in the shadow areas both sides.
I didn't know I could drift until we got to Tsukuba. I had intended on asking Nick to teach me but never got around to it. I also couldn't believe I got out in front and was able to stay there until I screwed my car up. I looked in my mirrors and saw a lot of smoke. I finally settled down and tried to stop burning off my tires but it was my fronts that got me. I was locking up the fronts pushing into the corners and around lap 14 or 15 it pushed into the wall. That race is going to be interesting. ac and apex will have the set up by then and I'm sure if they get to the front it'll be same as usual. The first few laps are bound to be tight unless there's a big shimozzle as David Hobbs calls it.
T.J.: Yes, it was looking like we might be in for a battle. You seemed VERY fast down that front straight in practice. I suspected you had gotten bogged down in the start.
Despite the finishing place, the Europa did not like that track. Bumps are bad, jumps are even worse. I had it set to full soft (except for the sway bars), otherwise it was uncontrollable in spots.
It looks like the Europa will be back in full butt kick mode for Tsukuba though, lots of nice flat even turns... look out. I think I will try and concentrate on MX5 for next week. Someone needs to remind Apex where his rear bumper is
I need to fiddle with the MX5 setup. Apex has clearly shown me there is more there to be found (because obviously, there is no way he is just better then me ). Tsukuba is interesting in that it is basically a bunch of almost hairpins and a big sweeper. The practice last night looks like amateur hour at the drift stadium! 
My tires lasted how many laps we ran at Tskuba in the MX5's. Not sure how many laps they had left, but they were still ok. That might be a race where pit stops are required just for fresh tires. I am thinking the first 2 or 3 laps of both races will be a killer. Don't know if it better to try to get ahead early or hang back 5-10 seconds at the start and try to pick up positions when/if others make mistakes. It is easy to get short cut penalties there even when no shortcut is really taken. Go in the grass leaving the hairpin even if you spin there and you get the penalty. Adds insult to injury.
For Trial Mt I softened things up and raised my ride height a bit in the Marcos. I could stay flat from the chicane all the way to T4 if I hit everything just right.
I watched the SBC replay. Not nearly as fun watching it as it was racing it. Looked at laptimes throughout, and noticed that like the previous race the final finishing order was also the same order as fastest laptimes. My best lap came on lap 7 after pitting and having a few laps into the tires and getting in front of Brad. Lap 9-16 my times were essentially dictated by Apex since I was unable to pass him. He doesn't make many mistakes that is for sure.
I did a few laps at Tskuba. Understeering nightmare. Changing suspension and LSD settings helped a bit. Hopefully I'll figure something out. If not, I'll maybe focus on MX5 for this race. That really seems to be a RWD track.
Do any of you have an Xbox and Forza? Do you like it? I've noticed that there are quite a few GT5 haters on their thread. My step son has an Xbox and I played Forza2 on it a good bit. I think it's OK but prefer GT5 because personally I think the GT series has more "feel". I'm sure all of you know what I mean or you wouldn't be here. I don't hate Forza though.
I played World of Warcraft from the spring of 07 until Jan. or so this year. I had planned on starting iracing or one of the other online games. Do any of you play one or more of them? Some pro racers play them and say they are beneficial to them. I'm sure you all know that F1 drivers spend hrs. per week on a simulator preparing for the next race. Word is that those sims are very realistic. We'd all like to have a go at one I'm sure.
If you don't play on an online only game, if you were to, which one would it be? I checked out the online buzz comparing PS3, Xbox, and online games before I decided to stick with what I knew. I love GT5 BUT it's not as fantastic as I hoped it would be and the truth is in a lot of ways I'm a little dissapointed with it.
Your input on my questions would be appreciated.
I'm actually very disappointed in GT5. I look at it as GT4 with better graphics and online play.
But, i like GT4, so i'm not mad, just disappointed. I wanted liveries.
I like the online play. Without the online play the game would have very little to no interest for me. If the game itself was restructured to be more like Enthusia was I'd like the A-Spec events a lot better. At this point I am not interested in getting an XBox so I guess I'll just stick with GT5.
I did some Tsukuba laps last night. I ran my Honda Life Step Van there and got a better time than I can in the Marcos. It has 70 hp and 45 ft-lb of torque, but has racing tires. I did some tweaking to my setup and can now almost match the step van.
I have switched my brake bias to be rear higher than the front and am playing around with rear toe. Those changes got me a second or so faster. If I can get a setup that be better on the long sweeper but not impact the slow hairpins in a bad way I'll be happy. I'm about 6 seconds off my MX5 lap time at this point I think. Hopefully, I'll be able to get that down another second or so.
I took a while to practice @ Tsukuba this morning. I can run consistent 1:07/1:08s with the MX5. Got down to 1:12 once with the 110S. It seems to me that tail out is the fast way around the hairpins, but it's hard to do it consistently. Scrub off too much speed and you loose more than you gained. I tried "diamonding" a couple of corners and that too, if you get it right it's faster for me, but very hard to do consistently. I still haven't done a lot to the setups, mostly just gearing and playing with the turbos. I guess more practice is the next step.
The way I'm driving (or trying to anyway) the MX5 reminds me of the way I used to drive my Bugeyed Sprite in autocross. I used the brake very little. It was a throw it and catch it technique that worked quite well with such a nimble, low powered car. 180s were accomplished with the hand brake while double clutching to get it into the unsynchronized first gear. I never torn up a transmission either. Man I loved that car. It really seemed to become a part of me. Only reason I sold it is that I kept getting the crap scared out of me in Atlantas' I 285 rush hr. traffic. I've always regretted that though. Another way to look at it though is I'm still alive instead of getting squashed by a semi.
Updated Admin Spreadsheet... Now on Google Docs.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvtiYWdRI42fdGtIcWJPejRTZmZiQW5STXNBQ1ZPVEE&hl=en_US
I suspect that there my be some really "wide" cars in next week's SBC race...
I was doing some testing for the FR "no holds barred" class that a couple of us proposed.
Holy HELL the Jensen Interceptor is INSANE.
this^
Graefin, i'll Teach You How to Drift
But can you teach me how to execute "the douglas?"
Since the best 8 scores count for the championship standings, and both Brad and myself have one SBC DNS, we each have one race to drop. As it stands now, my lowest is 2 points and Brad's is 3 points. That makes us tied at 44 points. As long as we both finish 7th or above, whomever finishes ahead at Tsukuba will win the prize for best placed FWD SBC car. Apex has a 4 pointer to drop at this point, which would put him at 45 points, just one ahead of Brad and I.
There are a lot of things that could happen, but it seems that this final race will be interesting for the points race for P2 through P4.
Brad, for future series maybe we could also look at a minimum numbver of races run to get points at the end of the season. Not sure if that makes any sense, or how it would change things. But it would change things a bit I think. Say, for example, if some one runs less than 6 races, they get no championship points and the points get awarded based on finishing order of the racers that were actually competing for the series and not just a race here and there.
T.J. wrote: Since the best 8 scores count for the championship standings, and both Brad and myself have one SBC DNS, we each have one race to drop. As it stands now, my lowest is 2 points and Brad's is 3 points. That makes us tied at 44 points. As long as we both finish 7th or above, whomever finishes ahead at Tsukuba will win the prize for best placed FWD SBC car. Apex has a 4 pointer to drop at this point, which would put him at 45 points, just one ahead of Brad and I. There are a lot of things that could happen, but it seems that this final race will be interesting for the points race for P2 through P4.
Yes, I have not accounted for drops yet. So the last race is going to be a dog fight for P2. I better find some time to get practice in this week!!!!!
T.J. wrote: Brad, for future series maybe we could also look at a minimum numbver of races run to get points at the end of the season. Not sure if that makes any sense, or how it would change things. But it would change things a bit I think. Say, for example, if some one runs less than 6 races, they get no championship points and the points get awarded based on finishing order of the racers that were actually competing for the series and not just a race here and there.
Are you offering to take over scoring and administration?
The other thing is that this wouldn't benefit everyone equally. It would only serve as a benefit to the backmarkers (which includes me). Everyone behind the DQ'd driver would get a bump of 1 point, while those drivers who ran hard and beat that person on the track would get nothing.
Our system right now is simple and easy. It rewards the good / consistent drivers while keeping the competition close, and there is an added bonus (~11%) for getting the overall win.
Based on my calculations, we can crown our champions now:
SBC - Aircooled (worst case wins by about 40 points... no one had anything for the Europa) MX5 - Apexcarver (worst case wins by 3 points)
The battles for 2nd-4th are very tight.
So, unofficial congratulations to Aircooled for being a 3 time champion; and congratulations to Apexcarver for being the first champion other than Aircooled.
The rest of us need to step it up. Just saying.
Poop!, I figured that last race would be critical to MX5 points.
It looks like the SBC race will be fun to watch. Since I have it locked up I am considering running in the middle of the pack (staying out of the way) and letting someone else take the win, which will make the finish even more interesting (since first is worth an additional point).
Alternately I am considering running a 2002 (also giving a wide berth to everyone), just because it is a challenge, that should slow me down a bit. I really want to see what you guys have been going through and I really want some of those cool super drift pictures.
Graefin: Since you are on a controller, try keeping some gas in when braking on those tight corners (if you haven't tried that yet).
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