SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 28

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (15 laps)

Track: Spa GP 1967 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg109873#post_spa1967) (Includes texture update)

Cars allowed: Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_alfa_tipo_333), Ferrari 312P Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_ferrari312p), Ferrari 512S Code Lunga Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_ferrari512s), Lola T70 Mk3B/C Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_lolat70), Matra Simca MS650 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_matra_simca), Porsche 908/2 and 908/03 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_porsche908), Porsche 917K Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_porsche917k).

Modern tyre fix must be applied to the relevant cars. Full details here (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=12159.msg218178#msg218178)

Car restrictions: Two drives maximum per make *. Check your status here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuS59xI7-YTLdGl0aWt3YWM4dkdMZGZhQlFwaTBqcVE&usp=sharing). *Drivers may elect to drop one make entirely and add two bonus drives with one other make.

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops: Not required

Server: simracing.org.uk Monday
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules.
(3) The AI control should be turned off so that you have control of the car at all times, including pitting. Your player file should therefore read
Autopit="0"
Force Autopit Off="1" // Forces autopit always off
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car
If you still finding pitting problematic, experience tells us that its less to do with positioning and more to do with approach speed. A slow approach to pit crew chief has proved most reliable.

Special Notes: None

Race announcement revised

Porsche 917L removed from series.

Race announcement revised

Message and link for Modern tyre fix added.

Another circuit that will feel like home from home for our GPL'ers

Thanks for the wheel fix, Tony!

https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=12159.0 (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=12159.0)

Can't keep any of the car on track - hope to get a driveable setup together til raceday  ???

Race announcement revised

Race reduced by one lap.

Cripes this came round quick...best try and get some laps in this weekend!  Hmm Matra or 917 perhaps...

Expect you GPL'ers will be fastest around here tonight with your intimate knowledge of the old Spa and hurtling F1 cars around it, its blinking fast!!  :o
Alas I only started practising last night and didn't realise how far off the pace I would be.  :(  5 secs behind Goldtop so far!  ::) ...must try harder.

Setting these cars up is a bit of a learning curve, its just not turning in for me on the high speed corners round the back of the circuit.

I'm using lift off oversteer for most of those turns, don't try to take them all flat out or you will be over the barrier and lost in space.

It actually feels very different in GPL. Last time I was here in GTL I spent most of my time over the barriers looking for a way back in  ;D

yup! Very different from GPL and I have only managed about 3 laps so far and those were NOT incident free  ;)  lol.

Off now to try and get to know the car...the track is very similar to GPL but more detailed in the tree dept it seems, so I know that bit. Persuading the car to go where I think it ought to is proving to be the problem. The pace that I can take through corners in GPL is not necessarily the ideal speed for these cars it seems ......ah well more testing needed just like Red Bull.  ;)

LOL  crashed on 1st lap, over wall no way to get back.

aarrrghh, this ridiculous game is doing me no favours and my already thread bare patience with it is almost at a second end.

It gives me a stop/go penalty off the line because my car started to roll down the hill..even though I stopped it well before the 3-2-1, I do a lap, come to a complete halt, roll into the pitlane on the limiter all the way down to my pitbox, does the s&g, leaves the pitlane and it gives me another bloody stop and go for pitlane speeding...despite being on the sodding limiter all the way!! :censored:
Had no point in continuing, didn't do one competitive lap for the 2nd round in a row.  ::)

Ended up in nirvana earlier as I feared... ??? ::)

One of the most challenging tracks ever - maybe the most challenging!


Just found at flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smuckatelli/12278048053/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/smuckatelli/12278048053/)

 :o

Meets requirements  ;D

Crikey  :o  Is that at Stavelot? No wonder he's wearing brown trousers.

Replay and results now posted.

Condolences MJ, your luck must get better mate. Hey it's Nordschleife next time. What could possibly go wrong there  ::)

Roger, you not the first and you certainly won't be the last to find yourself on the wrong side of a wall at '67 Spa. I have done it so many times yet I keep loving this circuit.

BTW forgot to say earlier, Bill couldn't join us tonight due to ongoing PC probs.

Well that was a blast.

Some early evening investigations led me to discover that not all 917s were created equal. Some were more or less powerful than others while some had 5 gears instead of 4.

Hadn't fully tested so plan was to see who was in what when I joined the server and see what times they were posting. Coyote was in the same "Shell" car as me and looking quick, so I stayed with it. Didn't realise how much quicker it was until quali or I might have swapped to the Gulf to make more of a race of it.

Even so it was such an enjoyable event. Had a scare midway when my xd went haywire and I expected a disco to follow, but all returned to normal. Tyres were worn late on so I slowed down a little to preserve them (I was on mediums) but as they lost temps I lost even more grip so had to start pushing again to regain  :o

Sorry to hear of your woes MJ. You'll get the hang of this one day  ;) Hope you get your pc sorted soon Bill (I wondered what had happened).

Well done to all finishers.

What an absolutely fantastic track for these cars !

Spent hours preparing for this. In practice, I went straight for hard compound tyres, as I figured those were the only ones that would have a chance of lasting the whole race.  Had huge problems with the left rear overheating though. Bumped tyre pressure to max, which helped with a few degrees, but it would still reach 125º in several places.  Was very worried it wouldn't stand for such torture for 15 laps.  Late in my practice, I tried soft and medium, as I had started to suspect something was amiss.  To my surprise, mediums were much cooler, with no significant overheat problems.  Some further testing and noting of wear rates, suggested that medium and hard were mixed up for this car.  For the race then, I used hard (medium ?) fronts, and medium (hard ?) rears.

After all this pratice, and by driving like my life depended on it, I was able to set a 3:12.5 time in qualy. Total shock then to see Goldtop being a whopping 7.5 secs faster :o   Have always laughed at the crackpots claiming aliens to have infiltrated Earth. Not so anymore..  ;)

In the race, all he would have needed, was a 'beep beep' horn, and I would truly have felt like the inspiration for my online tag..  :)  Aside from the ass of Goldtop's car for about ½ a lap, I never saw another car, apart from one lapped later in race.  Not much to do, except trying not to screw up, so tried to improve my best lap time. Last lap was my fastest, despite well worn tyres, so maybe I was pussying around too much early on..  ;D

Hope the next race will be better MJ. Sorry to hear about Bill's ongoing troubles, but relieved that it was 'only' PC trouble, and not something more serious keeping him away.

Cheers,
Erling

Had a great time chasing to and fro with Clive, I was managing to hold him at bay for lap after lap, but then the tyres started
going off, and I went on the grass too often, then started spinning as well in the last few laps, good fun all the same  ;D

I seem to remember being sat on the start in GPL centuries ago, and find the car creeping if I oput it in gear perhaps?
not sure, I sit on the grid with my foot firmly on the brake these days.

I could have just about swallowed the s&g for 'clutch creep' on the line, albeit meaning I had no chance of a podium, but the ridiculous speeding in pitlane when I am on the automatic limiter, whilst serving the s&g! was just taking the pee  >:(  Had no interest in trundling around on my own 2 laps down from the very first lap!  ::)

That's round 2 of two wasted rounds in these great cars. Be nice to get to race them at some point  ::)

Anyway GT, where the heck did you find another 7 seconds pace from the eve before?!  :o You had a massive advantage over the rest. I left qually to find a 5-spd when I saw how easily someone pulled away from me (to the tune of a minimum 3secs a lap) down the straights in another 917. I had thought they must all be 4-spds.

Thought I was well prepared for this race as praccy had told me to prepare the race car with hards on the rear and meds on the front. Made the car undriveable for the first half lap until the rubber warmed up then I noticed the the left rear was lighting up bright red! followed by the right rear. Hindsight suggests that there is something not quite right here. Maybe ignore the hards in future for this car.
I also hadn't anticipated the arrival of a 5 speed Porsche. Wonder if it's going to be faster at Le Mans?
Desperately quiet race with little incident except for some spins which I managed all on my own.
I have a love/hate relationship with this track, having left the circuit at most turns over the years. Sadly last night didn't live up to the expectation. Hoping for a better one next time.

I was (half) sad to miss it but got a last minute invite to watch Chelsea thrash Man City and as a devoted blue (dark sort), the twin temptations of beer and football proved too much! Still got as many points as in round 1!  ;D

Well there's your answer. The "Shell" car is much quicker having a slight power advantage over the Gulfs and more importantly an extra gear. That extra gear made a big difference resulting in an almost perfect choice for each corner. Not sure if any other 917s are 5spd btw as I haven't tested them all :-\

I'd actually managed to get my race pace down to 3:10s in the 4spd Gulf but wasn't sure what the 5spd might be capable of in Coyote's hands....hence my choice.


Agree about the track/car combo  8) I couldn't help thinking to myself last night what it will be like to race the same combo in Assetto Corsa wearing an Oculus Rift....maybe in a couple of years time when the mod makers have been to work. Now that would really be something  :o

As for my planet of origin, I'm certainly from these parts and regularly have to eat the dust of the aliens who visit us for our PnG events  :alien:

Tony, as mentioned above, I suspect the hard and medium tyres might be reversed on the 917k, at least the rears.  Is it something that might be possible to check ? (Since you were able to provide a fix for the modern tyre dilemma, I wonder if the tyre properties might somehow be visible to you).  Btw, I had the overheat problem offline, before applying the tyre fix, so don't think it's related to that.

Mark, you mention an automatic pit lane limiter. Have always used the manual one, so don't know how the automatic one works. But could it be that the automatic one is perhaps not reliable with these addon tracks ?

If you should switch to controlling it manually, then be aware that even if you have it activated as you enter the pit and stop, it will be off again when you continue after the stop, so remember to reactivate it.


Well thanks for the vote of confidence, but I doubt you'll have anything to fear from my side  ;)


LOL, now thanks for making me feel even slower..  ;D

Cheers,
Erling

Fortunately the problem of which car to use did not afflict me as i have absolutely no idea which car might be quickest.

So I used a very scientific method and went purely on the top speed as given on the car selection listing in GTL. It suggested that the Ferrari Lungworm was a few kph quicker so I worked on that and slowly tamed the setup to transform it from a 45 tonne jelly with zero directional stability, to something that at least responded to steering inputs within the next 5 minutes!!
I wound the gearing up to maximum and went with the Vintage Hard tyres ( simply because I have no idea about the suitability of any of the others  :-\) hoping they would at least allow me to complete the race.

The biggest worry was the fuel, because the setup page appeared to indicate that a full tank would only get me as far as lap 13!!?? Consultation with the team strategy advisor, Mabel Glutbucket, resulted in her turning on her transistor radio and announcing that Women's Hour was a long running programme and perhaps I should use it ??!!!

 I started the race carefully and even so, managed to test the wall on the exit of Masta.. I can confirm that it was solid  ;D  After a lap or so the tyres began to yield some grip, not a lot but some, and I was able to push slightly. By now it had become apparent that several cars had diverted to the refreshment tent and the free beer and that I had inherited a few places to be running in 5th!!  ::)
Still concerned about fuel consumption I was nervous about chasing Mr Spock too hard, but, well you know how it is when the little competion gremlin sits on your shoulder and whispers " there he is...only 5 secs ahead  LOOK!!! you can see him on the straights, just give it a bit more and you can have him...go on brake a little later accelerate a little earlier, go on!! go on!!"

Slowly the gap came down and I resisted the urge to try and close up too quickly and throw everything away with a dumb mistake. The speed advantage on the straight was evident and I chipped away until I was within a second and picked up the draft ( at least I think I picked up the draft, there is one isn't there??!). The mistake by Phspok was all I needed and I was through, now I did push hard to break away and give myself a cushion. But it was still only half distance and the tyres had taken some grief. On the up side the fuel issue was obviously not a problem, I could have sold half my tank of fuel to pay for Mavis's Belgian Fries and Mayonaise!!!

I was on my own for lap after lap and the only thing keeping me awake was trying to control the tyre wear...until I looked in my mirror and saw a yellow Phspok within 2 secs!! I had allowed my lap times to drift off and he was on a mission. In trying to get away again I tried too hard and ran wide allowing him to pass, but I recovered quickly and slotted in about 4 secs behind him.

With 4 laps to go I had to get on terms quickly and I think I must have used the last of my good rubber getting to him with the rears edging into the red and the fronts definitely tango'd. Thought I would play it cool and wait for the last lap and use the top end of the Fezza down to Masta and Stavelot, then try and hang on through the twists for a 3rd place finish.
Unfortunately, as we approached La Source PS ran wide and mowed both verges in a a quite spectacular and innovative way, during which process he also demonstrated his extraordinary car control by zipping across the track only feet from the front of my car at speeds of over 180kph!!!  I was very impressed !
By the time the grass was short enough and to his satisfaction I was exiting Eau Rouge with 2 laps to go and a lead of about 5 secs, which even though I eased my Lungey Fezza through the last laps, grew steadily as PS struggled with his tyres.

Quite chuffed with a 3rd place, but well aware that many who would have been quicker suffered bad luck early on. But how GT was doing the lap times that he was is just scary!! I also guess I am not working these cars hard enough as I still had 99% engine health at the end, plus a tanker load of fuel!!!  :-\

Now I've stopped laughing you really need to worry less about that darn engine percentage thingy. For most cars you can race in reverse gear and still finish a race. I guess with a lot of mods there not "modded" that well.  ???
We all like to start with high % tho just in case we've picked a car with a tendency to cook itself.

And thanks again for a most enjoyable race report.

I try to remember that sim racing is a game and we do it for fun....we do don't we?? So a little humour sometimes goes a long way to keeping me sane when teddy gets his flying goggles on and stands on the edge of the pram. I hope it relaxes others too.  ;)

I guess it is years of racing in GPL where even minor abuse of the engine, or repeatedly hitting the red line ALWAYS ends in tears and frustration with bits of engine strewn across the track that makes me paranoid about the engine health. >:(

PC problems are that, although all the "modern" items work OK now, including G25 in the Devices and Printers, none of my GTL installations work correctly.  A brand new install from my original GTLDK download, from their Le Mans Series, is no better and after a while it no long works.  Tried many options without success - I did get driving but after a few seconds the AI took over and that was the end of my driving.  ::) ???  This is "work in progress" with the software contractor - have a slot booked for Friday. I've made a management decision, confirmed by Boss,  :notworthy: that one way or another I will get a dual boot system running separating my GTL activities from all other functions.  Also the scheduling of other events mean the amount of time I can put to PC is limited this month.  (This together with memory going (it's me age y'no) is why I like to get the following month's downloads, installation and checking it all works done early.  :devil: :wheelchair:  )

I intend to continue with racing GTL as long as I continue to enjoy it and don't interfere with other driver's races.  ;D

If I were a GTL Classic Car I would need a major overhaul before taking to track.  :thumbup1: :lol: :rockon:

Cool report  ;D Sorry if I worried your nose with my frantic attempts to stay moving foward  :o
Some cars do suffer from engine health going down alarmingly, the 4.2 Daimler for example
loses 1% each time you red line it, some other cars will, as Tony says scream along
for a whole lap bouncing off the limiter.

and the bodywork could do with some buffing up  ;)