UKGTL Season 5 Classic Endurance - Le Mans (Sarthe) - Jun 19

[Mark J]

i think the biggest problem last night at the start was so many people giving the big V8's too much welly and then spearing left and right into other competitors. I was guilty myself to some extent, of lighting up the tyres in the 911 and then having to go at an exagerated angle to avoid the two cars in front coming together so i cant point the finger too much. 
But it was definitely the heavy right foot off the line that caused last nights carnage from certain cars ahead. I felt like a Nascar driver driving through spinning cars, tyre smoke and debris !

Shame GTL forces starts into such a hurry that we dont get a chance to put up a 'take it easy guys' notice etc just to calm the adrenalin flowing through every ones veins.
Im still for standing starts no matter how often some chaos may occur.

[Truetom]

Just looked at the replay.
I caused some issues for the last 6 or so drivers, my fault sorry.
There was also another incident at the front of the pack.
Not my place to comment!
M.

This things happen to everybody, Martin, no need to sweat about it.    What I'd like to know is why was your car invisible for me I was like I hit a wall of glass. Also you don't show on my replay.  

TT

[Blunder]

Wierd!? the replay plays Ok!
Just figured out, I had been driving the 906 at 60% power setting and had changed it last minute to get better drive/laptime but of course, I forgot about the potential change to my start strategy! Ah well, lesson learned the hard way!

[Steve Holmes]

Since a 'Legends 906' seems to be popping up accused of running into Phil, let's make it clear I was an innocent bystander in all that mess (as far as I am aware, replay pending), made a great, clean start was outdragging several people and looking for a top 5 position and then 'waaaah' a Pantera side on directly in front of me appears in the smoke, nowhere to go.  

So my race was compromised from the word go, had bodywork damage losing me a little top speed and slightly wonky suspension making braking tricky, unpredictable single wheel lockups.  But it was only losing me 2-3 seconds a lap so I didn't even bother repairing it in the pitstop, needed 1m50 and just didn't seem worth it.  Think it was probably the right decision too.

Did make a few minor mistakes but this often led to some good close racing with a host of people.  Apologies to PR near the end, fighting for 3rd, after I retook I stayed on the inside but being offline had to brake a little harder and my car simply wouldn't take braking on the limit and I spun.  I was very relieved when you carried on your way after bumping into me, looks like no major damage caused.

By the end car was pulling to the left, couldn't ride the kerbs with any throttle or brake hard at all, really felt like the end of an enduro, nursing a woulded car home.  

Great series of racing all round, well done to our leaders.  

[mr_oily]

Well i've always hoped one day i'd be setting new records but I hadn't planned on it being for number of stop/ go's in one race.   :'( Five pit stops in total and a fair amount of general scrappyness meant eighth place was the story of my first Le Mans outing. That said, the Panterrifying kept me amused in what was a very quiet race overall...thought everyone had gone home!

Grats to the podium and new Prodigy recruit Sooty, finishing in a Pantera around here is an achievement so to keep up those times throughout was really very impressive, same to Stnasky, I imagine you had your work cut out sticking with him in the Vette. Also Pribeiro, that was one hell of a drive buddy, no idea what you do with that beemer to make it so quick but it seems to work. I was having a shocker so when I saw you in my mirrors, just dived out of the way thinking you were lapping me, only to realise we were racing for position, albeit 9th'ish!

Jonzo, big apologies mate, that was me who clipped you. Just arrived at the chicane, saw a flash of agreen 906 off the road to the right so thought something was going on but i'd already left my braking later than I should have and just couldn't quite scrub that last few mph off before just shaving your bumper enough to synchronise pirrouette. Really sorry about that, definitely my bad. Pretty crap ya DSL gave out, can recommend BE Internet if that helps!

Really sorry you didn't get a better outing Jeb, replay should be interesting if not painful! Grats to the other Prodigy boys for sticking in there and bringing it home in one piece, not forgetting our other new addition Spanner who also pipped the rest of us to the post and Will who seems to have a combination of nitrous and Renault F1's launch control off the start these days!

As always cheers to you organiser types, doing a sterling job of keeping things interesting and can't wait for the next one to roll around!

We could run a couple of unofficial Thursday night blasts on the Prodigy server to keep those idle wheels busy - might be a nice opportunity to test some add-on cars in the off season if anyone's up for it?

[ginsters sponsored]

The standing start chat is important so can we continue in the UKGTL S6 discussion thread please. I'm really torn on this one. Shame to see such a messy one last night but the way all battled on regardless says a lot . Ta for that.

After avoiding mayhem in front, I was down in 12th and looking to thread my way past a few. Really had MJ in my sights, as most others had to much POWER, but denied a good battle when he and a few others fell off in front. Then spent most of the first half passing/re passing the bright green tomato's of Will and Oily who were having a "little" trouble harnessing that power. Great fun with them, good driving to avoid me gents, and some stand out moments down Mulsanne with them, Steves 906 and TT Cwapri. Luvverly nostalgic stuff. Second half of race and through pits had a nice fight with Spanner. Again, great stuff to avoid my early braking and twas funny as I pulled away down Mulsanne only to seeing you flying up as the GT40 ran outta gears. All in all a cracking finish to S5 for me.

Think the fact that we effectively only had two laps for quali really added something and it makes me think that shorter quali sessions, say enough for 2/3 laps, would really add something whilst letting those short of time compete in the enduros. Didn't get close to a pb but it sure sharpened the mind knowing I only had two chances

Congrats to Sooty for the win last night, Ruskus for winning championship (and combined titles) and Ghostspeed for Enduro team title Special mention to Team Prodigy for their first podium finish. Roll on S6.


 

[ginsters sponsored]

We could run a couple of unofficial Thursday night blasts on the Prodigy server to keep those idle wheels busy - might be a nice opportunity to test some add-on cars in the off season if anyone's up for it?

Don't forget Fun race at Cadwell next week Pseudo and I will need a wee break after that, but should be back to do some skin/track testing ourselves within a few weeks I guess. Will let you all know asap and if you want to organise something in small gap, cheers  

[Mark J]

Really had MJ in my sights, as most others had to much POWER, but denied a good battle when he and a few others fell off in front. 

Oiy!, i never fell off, i was giving a helping hand by some rascal from behind !! ...ooer.
Blimey Oilly you must have appeared from nowhere as never even saw your car  i did wonder how the heck spanner had managed to tap my rear with his spinning car as it appeared too far away from me when i scooted through at the chicane. I presumed he had bounced back off the barrier into my rear quarter.

Flipping lead-foot V8 drivers 

In hindsight the 911 was massively outgunned here but i was hoping there would be a good mix of cars to fight against but alas everyone went the trophy hunter route of Pantera or 906.

[mr_oily]

Blimey Oilly you must have appeared from nowhere as never even saw your car 

Yeah i'm really sorry dude, couldn't believe it after hearing how much you loved the place! That seemed to happen throughout race...I was gaining shedloads under braking, more than with the top end advantage but ran out of talent quite quickly and started snatching wheels all over the show...hence my beautiful array of stop/ go's for being in places I shouldn't have been!

[Steve Holmes]

In hindsight the 911 was massively outgunned here but i was hoping there would be a good mix of cars to fight against but alas everyone went the trophy hunter route of Pantera or 906.

Hey!  Call the 906 a trohpy hunter car, you should have driven the thing, maybe it was my damaged aero, but I had no speed on the straight at all, without a draft - although more than Ginsters GT40!

Terrible luck with your connection though, time to rip out all the wiring and start afresh MJ, get that broadband sorted.   

[Mark J]

no worries mate, my poxy ISP let me down again for 2nd race in a row anyway  :'(
Whats the BE internet you mentioned?  Im with Fast at the moment, supposed to be a premium ISP yet ive got dog slow speeds, though i think its my home phone wiring thats causing the problem. I've not had faster than 2016kbps since ive been at this new house, but this week its been a shocking 5-700kpbs so must surely be an outside influence?  

[mr_oily]

Yeah that is seriously annoying, unfortunately there is a possibility it could be outside of the ISP's control and actually a flaky line. Eventually has to go across BT's network but there's also the possibility it could be traffic shaping or some other margin preserving exercise from the ISP.

I think everyone's got their opinions on good ISP's but having worked at Zen (just won best broadband provider in Which report), I know all the gamer techies who I've worked with and who've moved on elsewhere (no longer get the complimentary staff connection), have always recommended BE (owned by O2) as being as good but with much higher download caps if you want to downloads lots of p0rnography wildlife documentaries. 

They're not the cheapest but I switched from Zen to them when I left the company and have been really impressed, both with the speed/ reliability for gaming but also the customer service side - i've always had plenty of warning (via text and email) when they've got maintenance. Might not be relevant to you if you mainly use it for gaming but there's also none of this fair usage malarkey so they don't bugger about with your connection no matter how much you download or when you download it.

Anyway might be an option if the grief continues!  https://www.bethere.co.uk/

[Wiltshire Tony]

Oily, how do I test my ISP's speed?
I'm with Fast but after reading the previous post's I'd like to run a check to see what I'm actually getting for my buck.
Is there a gizmo available that I could have on my desktop showing me the current connection status?

[sooty1977]

Oily, how do I test my ISP's speed?
I'm with Fast but after reading the previous post's I'd like to run a check to see what I'm actually getting for my buck.
Is there a gizmo available that I could have on my desktop showing me the current connection status?

I go there m8

http://gadgetshow.five.tv/jsp/speed_test.htm

[BillThomas]

Oily, how do I test my ISP's speed?
I'm with Fast but after reading the previous post's I'd like to run a check to see what I'm actually getting for my buck.
Is there a gizmo available that I could have on my desktop showing me the current connection status?

Tony I use this :-

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/

Hope you find it useful.

Bill