^You can't use the Spoon cars lol.
^You can't use the Spoon cars lol.
oh yeah....DAMN! It's not like i'll dominate lol Well....I still changed the color combo on my Alfa lol
I'm a bit disheartened. Apex is faster around Monza in any number of HH cars than I am in my fastest car. And he is way more consistent as well. I'm hoping for big fields so there will be someone to race with - I don't think I'll be battling at the front. The Vovlo does get off the line well. I'll play around a bit more with my setup and see if I can't get another second out of it.
BradLTL wrote: That is a Focus ST... I am running the Focus RS.
Doh!
I didn't realize there were two of them. Oh well, if I can't find an ST in time (I do generally go for the lighter car) I will just stay with the RS. I am not a huge fan of these cars, so I am OK with not having the perfect one.
Regarding braking: I have found that braking is absolutely the most critical thing for running the rain at Monza, especially in the HH's. Miss your braking by a hair and you are sliding uncontrolled into a barrier.
The HH's in general are pretty easy to drive except for the braking. I was running with Celica last night in an open room with our HH's (running RS tires though) and was doing quite well against "normal" cars, but it was very noticeable that hard braking situations were the weak point of these cars. Of course it got a bit better when I realized I had my braking set to a rear bias (I was still using my experimental Tsukuba settings)
Go team orange!!!
P.S. - If anyone wants to go for a Hot Dog on a Stick theme, we can have Mall Wars!!
Oh, and Brad. I did run your Moonshiners Run track... I like it.
It's plenty wide, so passing and running side by side should be relatively easy and it has some interesting elevation changes. It would have been a nightmare with the SBC cars, but for this series it should be fun. There is one turn in there (hard right, over a hill, can't see the turn) that might put a few cars in the outer wall if the drivers aren't careful.
I got creamed in the first two corners in that room last night Air, then spent the rest of the race overdriving trying to catch back up. 
You have to live up to that team name
aircooled wrote: P.S. - If anyone wants to go for a Hot Dog on a Stick theme, we can have Mall Wars!!
LMAO
aircooled wrote: Oh, and Brad. I did run your Moonshiners Run track... I like it. It's plenty wide, so passing and running side by side should be relatively easy and it has some interesting elevation changes. It would have been a nightmare with the SBC cars, but for this series it should be fun. There is one turn in there (hard right, over a hill, can't see the turn) that might put a few cars in the outer wall if the drivers aren't careful.
Sweet. Glad that the track sharing thing works. Now we just need to figure out what has to happen for all of us to race it online (e.g. does everyone need to download it ahead of time?).
The track builder loves blind, off camber, elevation change turns. I literally spent probably 2 hours trying to get rid of all of them. I think there are still 3 blind corners, but only 1 is really fast and it is just past start.
So, I am thinking about things to make the championship a bit better, and I think I am going to steal 2 rules from another series. What do you guys think?
That does 2 things. First, it gives everyone a fighting chance for pole. Second it should improve the race experience for those not at the front of the field.
Thoughts?
Ideas stolen from here: http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=204892
BradLTL wrote:Apexcarver wrote: M10psi, graefin, and I were all doing some monza testing. I am trying to decide between 3 cars... Car 1:::: Lower HP, great in turns, not on straights, seems to save tires the best Car 2:::: Low torque, higher HP. sacrfices some turning and a bit of tire conservation for straightaway speed. Car 3::: HIGH POWER. Eats tires. on a power track, WOAH MOMMA! can pull some ridiculous times out. will the tire eating negate the speed though? in short, rocks out loud at monza, sucks at tsubuka. All have advantages on different tracks. I am leaning towards car 2 right now. have to admit to being tempted to roll the dice on car 3 though...Lesson from the SBC Class of the last series... don't give up too much on HP otherwise you'll end up being a spectator for most of the races. I would probably look really hard at car #2. See if running the mid-range turbo gives more torque without sacrificing too much HP. It might end up being the best of the 3.
In regards to car 2, in that case car 1 would be the better option.
Other factor is that Car 2 is the DC5 ITR that others are thinking about running... might be good to be different..
My thoughts there are that the reverse gridding on some of the races was fun. Working through the pack can be more fun and challenging then streaking off from the pack. Makes clean passing and racecraft count more.
Plus, I REALLY enjoyed the qualifying battles like Aircooled and I had at Trial Mtn in MX5. Trading times back and forth.
Finishing points are a great idea though. (I know, I started the pull off and park thing at Tsubuka, fact was I was out of the points and not enjoying fighting the car)
That might be fun. The start and first lap of every race seems to be the most interesting (and challenging) anyway. Also it allows those that get "a bit goofy" on the qualifying laps to have a second chance.
Not sure about the second one. I do know it sucks being stuck on the track without anyone around.
I suggest that we try it with the 2 lap qualifier and see how every one likes it.
If the main event isn't shortened by 3-4 laps then the overall time spent Wednesday nights will be longer.
I'm guessing the main event will be gridded fastest first to provide incentive in the qualifying race, but another option is to make the main race reverse gridded, but award some points for the top few spots in the qualifying races. That way both races matter and if one wants to go for it in qualifying and then fight through traffic in the real race they would get rewarded for that. Seems a bit complicated and without the right point structure the qualifying race would be like watching a WRC gravel stage where nobody wants to win so they don't have to be the course sweeper the next stage.
If both events are gridded fastst first then why have 2 races? Just to relive/repeat the T1 argy-bargy?
If we are talking changes, I'd still like to see damage set to light. Driving with a damaged car is just not any fun for me and a pit stop usually takes you out of the running for a good finish. I doubt we'd have a rash of rough driving or intentional contact with light damage. There is still a penalty for crashing/contact, but it should keep cars closer together on track and not so spread out that you go 4 or 5 laps without seeing another car.
If we really wanted to go crazy, maybe consider adding ballast to frequent winners to attempt to generate more competition. It would be hard to get it right and I don't think there is a good way to make that fair - just a thought.
I agree we need to add ballast to Apex 
I of course will be exempt because I think it was clearly shown I had a ringer car
Another rule consideration would be a mandatory pit stop. If you leave damage to full, this would make it a lot more palatable for some.
I am not sure what I think about moving damage down. I see the point that it kills your race when you get damage, but it also makes you drive a lot more carefully. On a course like Rome, it's a bad idea because you can save some good time by bouncing off that wall after the chicane.
Something that "might" be fun to try, just for one race is a sort of Destruction Race. Set the damage to light, no penalties, and all bets are off. Probably best to use a small course (Autumn Ring Mini) and let the ramming begin. It would be interesting to see what the best strategy would be to finish first. Getting to the first corner first would certainly not be a risky move...
Just throwing out idea.
I don't like the mandatory pit stop. I don't want to penalize those that manage to keep their car clean all race.....I just want to help those like me who usually don't get through lap 1 without major damage. All last season I made it through 1 SBC race and 1 MX5 without damage, both at Tsukuba. That track has nice runoff areas and I managed to only have slight car to car contact. On a track like Monza, all it takes is a little tap on the rear bumper while braking for one of the chicanes and you end up nose deep in a concrete wall while the car that hit you gets no damage and no ramming penalty. Doesn't make sense to me to end someones race because of incidental contact, but that's what happens with heavy damage.
Sure, I guess I could just be more careful and avoid damage, but in about half of my races last season my damage was not entirely due to (my own) driver error. The race in the snow and the ROC were done with light damage and I didn't notice any degradation in the racing or extra contact. I'll play no matter what the rules are, it was just an idea.
I personally like the damage being set to high. It reinforces one of the key rules of racing... "you can't win a race in the first turn, but you can lose it."
At Monza in the MX5, we were reverse grid and I didn't make a qualifying lap without spinning. At the start, I pulled off to the side and let everyone pass. I tucked in behing aircooled and started my race dead last. I worked up to 2nd place by driving carefully. My race fell apart after that, but it was my own doing. Had I barreled into the first chicane trying to hold onto the pole position I would have wrecked and likely taken out others.
Point is, patience sometimes is the better part of valor. And staying out of the turn 1 wreck doesn't ruin your race. Bouncing off walls... should ruin a race. Damage rewards those who drive smart and well.
My vote is that it stay at high.
High it is.
Last night I modded 3 more HH cars. Still not sure I know which one I will go with. I seem to be having the opposite problem of Apex - I am slow in all of them. I might just have to pick one based on paint jobs.
Don't think i'm making the race tonite.
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Don't think i'm making the race tonite.
HEY most likely me to!
I need you to look at the rear trans mount on your MX3 if you have a chance today lol. I need to know which way the head of the through bolt is facing. I think mine is in backwards and i can't berkeleying feed it out because it hits the frame.
Tonight...
Should be plenty of open spots if anyone would like to join us.
The way you might have to do the qualifying grid, would be to run it, then have everyone enter the room in the order they finished, then just stop on the track. Not ideal, kind of an admin headache, but it might be the only way to do that.
The weather will be interesting if starts raining. You can run for a little bit with slick when it starts, but there will obviously be a run for the pits and depending where you are on the track, that could be a long run.
I've made up my min on my HH car. I was torn between two different Civics, the Volvo, and the DC5 Integra. Brad's pic of his orange Focus with black wheels sealed the deal for me last night. I spent some time driving each of the 4 around Monza. My lap times are similar in 3 of the cars, and one is a few seconds slower. Out of the 3 the one that seemed the easiest for me to be consistent was the only one that was a standard car, so I eliminated that one. That left me with the Volvo and the DC5 Integra. Both I think are already going to be used in the series by someone else. My Integra has a related, yet contrasting paint job to Brad's Orange Julius inspired Focus where the Volvo has a Swedish flag inspired scheme. In the end, I decided on the DC5 for the better paint job. It is also more fun to drive mostly because I like to listen to the engine wail at 9k where as in the Volvo it seems happiest when the revs are low. Just have to do a little retraining to be in the right gear with the DC5. What used to be a 3rd gear chicane is now a 2nd gear chicane.
I'll be there tonight - more than likely to get my participation points, or not get my negative pulling out points. I'll try to stay out of the way. Looking foreward to next week already. Never really liked Monza.
^You are using the Integra and not the RSX, right?
I'll stay away from the Integra then. I couldn't get it over 395hp anyways. 
My DC5 Integra Type R is a standard car, though..... how do you get a Premium one?
T.J. wrote: Brad's pic of his orange Focus with black wheels sealed the deal for me last night.
Or aircooled's
My Focus is Blue.
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