GRM Project Cars 2 - Series 3: Blancpain in Air's arse

Ran a pretty long session this evening and am overall happy with the car and pace but still trying to figure some things out, especially with the Soft tires.  I can get the car to work great on the Hards, but the balance is all kinds of wrong on the Softs and I haven't been able to get it where I want it.

As for my connection, it won't be fixed by tomorrow.  My ISP has gotten some things wrong and apparently can only fix them if you call during regular business hours.  My plan was to do that tomorrow (in my 4th attempt), but the wife needs to work from home so I can't risk having no internet as has happened previously.  Now, I couldn't get into Dean's room this evening so I may have more problems than I did before, but if TJ shows I'm guaranteed out of luck.

My participation tonight is questionable.  I'll host, but the stomach bug has hit the house and I'm currently the only one it hasn't affected.  Mom went down this morning, so I'll likely be wrangling kids tonight.

Did a couple 30 minute AI races at 90/40 this morning while drinking my coffee. I am not changing anything with the setup at this point. It doesn't look like my Anniversary plans will interfere, so I plan on racing.

Brad, hope you continue to avoid the crud and that your family gets over it soon.

I should Be in for tonight. Have not had a ton of practice on this track, put in about an hour and half last week to learn the course. Haven't made any setup changes yet. 

Hope to put in a solid 2 hours of practice tonight before the race. 

Not sure what everyone else's pace is but I was running in the low to mid 1:50s fairly consistently when just trying to be consistent and smooth without pushing the car to hard. 

Dean and I ran for a bit last night.  Neither one of us is particularly fast.  Dean seems to be able to keep Softs at reasonable temps.  If I run them, the right side temps get too high in about 5-6 laps.  We also learned that the AI is painfully slow at 79% and that there are a couple of places on the track that they will take you out if you try to pass them.

I had a spectacular dustup with the AI coming down the hill in to the last set of left handers before the front strait.  They will NOT give you room at the little kink just before the braking zone. Your only hope of passing them there is to be to the left. 

I haven't tried softs at all. I need to do some laps with the AIs set to the correct settings to get used to how they drive. I've done my practicing with them turned up a bit. I do know that some times the first few turns get hairy and some AIs like to lose it on the second chicane heading into the hairpin on lap one.

I will probably be without a microphone again tonight unless i can dig up my 10 year old wired mic or if one of you knows how to get the aux cable headset to work with the drive hub through the controller without it randomly switching controls and killing my wheel. 

Have a new usb headset on order from amazon for next race. 

Out of the mix again for this evening.  The rig is gathering dust, but thankfully, not drywall mud.  Renovation work in full cry at the moment, when I'm not stuck in overnight 'maintenance windows' for the cable system.

As Schwarzenegger is fond of saying, "Ah'll be back!", but it'll be more later than sooner.

I can't call it hate, more towards a Strong Disdain for our mail server, which is the source of my constant 2am 'alone time' at the office...

In reply to BatsonWorkshop :

It's all about the start up sequence.  With the PS4 fully powered off, plug the headset/mic into the controller which is not connected to the drive hub.  Power on using the PS button on that controller.  When the first screen of "Who is using this controller" comes up, push the X on that controller. Sound should start in your headset.  You should get a message "microphone switched to headset".  When the second "Who is using this controller?" comes up press the button on your wheel.  From then on, use the buttons on your wheel.

I have to start the game and run a few laps offline before joining online or my wheel wont work.  Good luck.

In reply to oldrotarydriver :

We'll leave the light on for you.

In reply to Argo1 :

Just tried your instructions, got 2.5 laps in and the wheel disconnected while accelerating out of a turn. Made for a fun crash. Idk what it is but ill live in ailence tonight

Brad: Will Spa Qualli be in same conditions as race start (light rain)?

Good race last night Air. 

T.J. said:

Brad: Will Spa Qualli be in same conditions as race start (light rain)?

 

Yes

Spa is going to be fun. 

dean1484 said:

Spa is going to be fun. 

QFT. I did a few wet laps and I like it. The rain ended right around the 20 minute point, but I only did one or two more laps, so I don't know how long it takes for the track to dry or if it will before the rain starts again.

Not only the weather, but the longer time will make it interesting.

Hopefully, no Bonsai Bots in the rain at Spa. My Race only lasted 20 seconds at Imola.

It should be interesting at Spa. Strategy, pit stops, and guessing the weather right will make a big difference.

Spa = To stop or not to stop and if you do then do you get fuel or not so you can start with less fuel.  Hummmmmmm

And then there is the pit delta for tire only versus getting fuel and the loss of time carrying a larger fuel load and only getting tires or can you just run wets for the whole race and manage them in the drying period or go to softs and make hay in the drying and suffer in the wet.  

Just a little bit to think about in this race  LOL

I am such a geek some times with this stuff

In reply to dean1484 :

The hard part will be finding the time to do the testing to figure out the best strategy. For now, I am just working on trying to get decent lap times in the rain. Haven't progressed to really figure out pit strategy. My first try will be to see if a no stop strategy on wets is doable. Hoping that it takes a bit for the track to dry when the rain stops so there are not many laps where slicks are faster.

I think Brad discovered that the slicks are really good up until they are usless.   

I've done some math.... the strategy for the Spa race could be unexpected.

I'll work on the replay and points when I'm off conference calls this afternoon.

The real issue is can you swap over to slicks for the middle section of the race and will the time gained on slicks (that could be as much as 10 seconds a lap) be more tha the time lost to two pit stops.