Welcome to the (un)official GRM - Project CARS2 series #2.
This is a 7 round Championship series hosted on the PlayStation4. Although highly competitive the main focus of the racing is fun clean racing. Because of this, rough driving is highly discouraged. The Stewards will be watching.
The series will be run on **Wednesday nights at 9:30ET**.
The first race will be on: **January 17th, 2018**
PS+ is required to participate.
Car Class:
Rounds:
- Donnington National - 1/17
- Snetterton 200 - 1/31
- Knockhill National - 2/7
- Cadwell Park GP - 2/14
- Oulton Park Island - 2/21
- Brands Hatch - 2/28
- Silverstone National - 3/7
Rules:
- Races will be based on time as follows: Practice 30 minutes / Qualification 15 minutes / Race 30 minutes
- Realistic Driving Aids
- Fuel usage is set to Yes
- Tire usage will be set to "Authentic"
- Damage will have a performance impact
- Flag will be ON
- Standing starts
- Track Limit Penalties will be ON
- Drive Through Penalties will be ON
- Ghost cars will be ON
- AI drivers will fill the field and be start at 70%. This will increase by 5% as needed to keep competitive
- Competitive Racing License will be ON
- All races will be run in "summer"
- Weather conditions: medium clouds
- Time progression 2x
Points:
- 1st - 25pts
- 2nd - 20pts
- 3rd - 18pts
- 4th through 16th will be -1pt per position with 16th getting 5pts
- AI drivers will take points away from humans
- DNS / DNF / DQ will score 0 points
Driver Roster:
- # 11 - BradLTL
- # 75 - Argo
- # 99 - Aircooled
- # ? - trigun7469
- # ? - dean1484
- # ? - oldrotarydriver
- # 40 - Daylan
- # ? - Spool
- # ? - Sauce
Championship Standings:
Race Replays:
Round 1 - Donnington National
Round 2 - Snetterton 200
Round 3 - Knockhill
Round 4 - Cadwell Park
Round 5 - Oulton Park
(available for rent at aircooled's house)
Round 6 - Brands Hatch
Round 7 - Silverstone National
I used some time on my lunch break today to try and get a feel for these cars a bit more. I think they are going to be more challenging that people think... or at least I'm going to be challenged by them. I've had to do a some things in the setup that I've not done for other cars, specifically:
- Reduced (slow down) the steer ratio
- Moved the brake bias forward
- Lowered the brake pressure significantly lower than any other car I've driven
With all the weight in the back of these cars, they drive a bit like a backwards shopping cart. The front end will immediately go whichever direction you turn the wheel, the backend doesn't always agree.
Brakes are needed so rarely, the usually just thinking about braking is enough. If you actually hit the brake pedal you usually end up too slow and/or trying to swap ends of your car.
A few more tidbits of my testing:
- My current fast lap time is in the high 18s. World record is a 17 flat. So, I feel like I have good speed. What I don't have is consistency. About every third lap or so, I'll turn in too hard or go too fast into a corner and loop it.
- The AI at 80% turns a fast lap of 1:20+. They are very slow entering a corner and this can be hard to judge since we don't have brake lights.
- The Race Director at Donnington is a E36M3 (are we still using that) head. Keep it between the lines, or you'll lose you time with a quickness. It's particularly hard, because so many corners invite you to cut. I suspect we may see some penalties in the race.
Which layout are we using? This one?
(penalties... bah... if you don't get 45 seconds worth, you aren't trying hard enough!)
edit: looks above is th GP circuit, the National version just removes that tight light blue section.
Yea, we will run the National version
Getting a feel for the track (Donington GP) and this car, I'm starting to like it. What *is* it with the race directors on any of these tracks, that you go more than two-and-a-half tires off or over the gators, and it's the Time Nazi!
"No Clock for you!" 
This track is going to take a bit of getting used to, a lot of the corners are blind apexes over small rises.
In reply to aircooled :
Really, I only have issues with 2 corners, “old hairpin” and “McLeans”.
I have more of an issue with the mostly blind McLeans and 8 (Cossico?). I kind of enjoy Hairpin, but it can be difficult to get perfect and it can make a big difference in lap time because of how fast it is and the long full throttle run after it.
Thanks for the information. I and my brother have been eagerly waiting for round 7. We are all set with our F5 and my brother has even piled up additional resources which we may need for our PS4. Is this the circuit to be followed?
I can’t get the suspension calculator to work on my computer, can someone post a suggested stable setup for this thing? I keep spinning on corner entry and my knowledge of setups doesn’t seem to help.
I went with stock and moved the weight a bit forward and reduced the braking pressure a bit. One thing you don't want to do with this car is flick it into corners. You want use your brakes, or letting off the gas for rotation. In general, its pretty stable, just don't let is slide on it's own.
As a general note to GT drivers: Cars in PC2, in general, will not take nearly as much slip angle (drift) as cars in GT.
The spreadsheet only works on the newest version of Excel. I believe it will work on Google docs though. I have looked at it, but I am not really sure what to do with it.
Hmmm... this is a dilemma... help Spool get faster... hmmm....
The biggest thing, is slow down your turn in. I actually had to turn down my steering ratio to help me get over this issue. When I say "get over" I mean minimize. I'm currently testing 5ish setups, and I'm not happy with any of them yet.
I tried one like this (for PC1): http://projectcarssetups.eu/#/viewsetup/346841256
I have another based on the spreadsheet, that some of the values seem a bit crazy. I don't want to share that just yet because it might just make things worse. Let me test it a bit more and I'll share.
aircooled said:
The spreadsheet only works on the newest version of Excel. I believe it will work on Google docs though. I have looked at it, but I am not really sure what to do with it.
It works with LibreOffice as well. There are 2 files. The only one that would work for me is the *.ods file.
More toein on the rear just solved most of my problems. Just clicked off a 17.8.
Turning down the steering ratio is a huge help too. That makes it much less twitchy for me and I can catch most of the slides now. Down to a 17.1 now.
Spoolpigeon said:
Turning down the steering ratio is a huge help too. That makes it much less twitchy for me and I can catch most of the slides now. Down to a 17.1 now.
Here's something to shoot for:
My fastest lap, which still involved a spin, was in the 1:25 range when I was practicing earlier. If I can get the rear end tied down or stop fumbling around with my analog stick I might be able to stay on the lead lap.
I *think* I had a 1:20 with a hefty chunk tacked on at best. 1:14 is ... well, Yoda would be giving me the "That is why you fail" speech. Right now, impossible.
More practice. Make it "improbable". 
Got down to a 16.8 yesterday. These things are much more enjoyable than the GT3 cars. And the cockpit view is rad.
Revised estimate: 1:47
I got a LOT of work to do.
Back in the country. You guys made a good choice for the series. Love driving the cockpit view. I am a bit behind in practice and setup for the series but I will skip football and do some testing. The Formula Rookie appears to actually be a Mygale SJ formula ford.
I will take the #75 - that is the age I will probably be when Brad is finally faster than me. (But, then again, he is about to turn 40 so he will begin slowing down...)
As with the GT series, practice will be a huge advantage, especially with a track like this.
Rotary: Don't worry. Just hang back, wait for the massive pile up in the first few laps... you will have a good chance of finishing well
