SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 28

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (26 laps)

Track: Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada  Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg187122#post_montreal)

Cars allowed: BMW 2002tii Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/downloads/s3.php/gtl/cars/SRou_GTL_BMW_2002tii_1.0.0.0.exe)
                     Ford Escort RS1600 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_escort_rs1600)
                     Nissan Skyline GTR2000 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_skyline2000gtr)
                     Opel Commodore GS Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_opel_commodore_gs)
                     Porsche 911S Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_porsche911s1972)
                     Mini Cooper S KAD Works Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_mini_cooper_s_kad_works)

Get Geoffers Mini setup HERE (http://www.mediafire.com/download/6h742hka4il6q4u/G%2527s%2520Mini%2520KAD.zip)

Car restrictions: Three drives maximum per make. Check your status here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuS59xI7-YTLdE81OG1jQUtIb2lGYUZrNUNIY0VRZmc&usp=sharing)

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

Nice quintet of cars Tony - the Commodore and Skyline GTR look and sound good particularly the GTR.  I could spend hours just sat blipping the throttle, the way those revs just pick up and drop - music to one's ears.  :thumbup1:

Have to start practicing next.  ::)  :rockon:

Not seen any notice of a Christmas Special this year.  ???

There won't be a GTL Christmas special this year Bill, sorry. Matt was kind enough to let me take on the P&G Christmas special instead.

That's OK, we have visitors over Christmas so it's one less to do.

Will be able to try and set these cars up instead.  ;D

Have to agree. Great line up of cars Tony! Really looking forward to the new season already :P

Tony neither MegaDownload or GameFront links are working.

Thanks Bill. I've asked for a new download link.

Brand new download link provided

Thanks Tony, downloaded and installed OK.  :thumbup1: Next week's task to  sort out for when I return from week's coach tour to Wales.   :rockon:

Drivers are respectfully reminded that the "two wheels on racing track tarmac at all times" rule applies here. If any driver appears to consistently cut corners or chicanes then they can expect the race moderator to impose severe penalties  :devil: after the race.

All sorted for this race.  ;D Consistently lapping in 1:58s with the Mini - thanks to Geoffers beautiful setup.  :thumbup1:

Hope to cya for the race.  8)  :rockon:

My best in race trim is 1:57 and it's not in a Mini

A race to look forward too.  ;D Hope I get back refreshed, not too knackered  ;) and able to quickly get back into the groove.  :rockon:

Me like this track!   :wub:

Cheers,
Erling

I tried a couple of cars yesterday and some seem more suited to this track than the others. Is it just me or does the Escort seem undergeared for this circuit. It just seems to run out of revs on the straight and yet needs a lower gear for the hairpins??

The Mini again seems a bit limited on that long straight??  I am always afraid of breaking that poor little screaming engine  ::)

As a total noobie as regards these cars I am only learning about them as we race them, so I am unsure which cars I should save for future races. This means that I am trying to keep all of my options open by using each of my 3 drives equally so that I always have a choice...thus far I have not used the Escort, which means that really I should employ it soon........but maybe not here lol!!

That leaves the Porker, the wonderful sounding Commodore, Mabel's screaming Nissan and the Beemer?

Decisions, decisions........hmmmmmmmmmmmm I'll probably decide 10 mins befre the off tonight.

When I tested the cars here I don't remember a gearing issue for any of the cars. As long as you don't hit the rev limit before the end of the long back straight you shouldn't have a problem. BTW some of the cars don't like you using first gear at tight turns; their inclined to spin around rapidly. So use 2nd gear instead.

I have similar thoughts, except that I didn't try Mini, as I don't like FWD cars.
Nissan for me has best handling abilities between front engined cars and now I realise that I really like this car. But for diversity I have to take something else.
Commodore sounds great and has good pace but it's weak part is Avon slicks which have pretty nasty unpredictable character.
Porkey handles like a Porkey i.e. good, but has problems with top speed on the long straights. And I'm not so specialized with rear engine cars.
BMW - very fast car, has IMO not so perfect handling abilities as Nissan, but it's engine gives all. Important, that I'm talking about 2002, not 2002s. The "s" version is not from this company at all, as she is too fast comparing to other cars and I will try to avoid using it if other guys will be on the other cars.
And same here, that I will decide which car right before the race. It degrades the quality of preparing for the event, but gives you the opportunity to have more surprising and interesting race.

I really like your attitude Dimetrio and you seem to have great background knowledge of the cars. The cars have been chosen to fairly equal in overall terms of performance but will behave diffently due to the nature of the various tracks throughout the series. That part has suprised me when I try each one out to find my drive.
Nice to have you with us.

I tried a few cars and most have enough options in the final drive to ensure that they do not hit the rev limit on the long straight. Like most here I suspect that is one of the first parameters to set up on any car, as ideally you want to be still accelerating right up to the moment you drop all the anchors.

But, I found with the Escort ( even in the highest ratio set) that I had the needle against the stop for a good 1-2 seconds before applying the brakes for the "wall of death". It all depended how I exited the hairpin, but even a half decent line through that corner would leave me short on revs at the end of the straight  :-\. It also translated into losing engine health by a couple % each lap which bothered me. So, I might save the Ford for some races where the straights are not so long  ::)

Did you set the rev limit to 9100?

ahem......  where do I do that? I thought that rev limits were preset with each car? Although the Escort  does max out at just over 9k as things are.

The red warning light shows at about 8.8k and I am into 5th gear just before the right hand kink meaning that 9-9.1K are reached at the first bridge. From then on I seem to be against the limiter?

So, if I can adjust the rev limit does that mean I can give myself another 500 rpm?? and not risk damage to the engine??  surely not?  :o

Some cars have adjustable rev limits (most are fixed) and it wont always stress the engine (although one should always keep an eye on the engine health %).

The rev limit +/- buttons are near where you enter fuel.

Results and replay now posted.

Great turnout guys, hope you all enjoyed that.

BTW we still need donations

Thanks Tony nice track/car combo, track seems to grow on you.  ;D Sorry folks about T1, someone shut the door on me and rather than cause an almighty shunt I took to the grass but still went across the track.   ::) Hope I didn't screw up anyone's race.  Avoided a big pile up and ended lap 1 in 5th.  Then trying to be careful on coldish tyres ran wide and lost a couple of places.  :thumbdown: Sorted myself out and chased Roger and caught him and tried to pass him down the inside but he moved across and I pushed him into a part spin.  :nono: By the time he could turn it around the whole field had passed us and I was in last place.  :oops:

Had a number of laps chasing Roger, he gave me racing room and I squeezed pass and then we had a number of laps with him chasing me and I gained a few hundredths of a sec on him then he picked up a few but eventually drew away closing the gap on Matt and ? down to about 4 secs; had them in view at the slower parts of the track but they then started to draw away again and I had a lonely drive to the end.

It was a good night, new PB and qualifying well and only getting lapped by the first and second.  :rockon:

In pre-race preparartion I found the Commodore to be marginally quicker than the Mini so that's what I choose to race with. I did find that after the tyre wear reached 10 on the XD scale it became bit of a handfull particularly at sharp changes in direction and I lost control and places a couple of times.

After the first lap, first turn kerfuffle I found to my astonishment that I was in 3rd place. With no hope of catching Clive, and definately less chance of bothering Mr D. I carried on mindfull that the chasing hordes would surely catch and pass me before the race end. And so it came to pass. First closing in on me was Erling who I helped by spinning in front of him. Then a clutch of screaming Nissans started to come into earshot and soon both Matt and Postal passed me. Matt later span off and I regained one place.
Great circuit and I enjoyed driving the monster Commodore. Next one is in two weeks at the A1-Ring which I think is also a fine track. Hope to see you all there.

Thanks for the tip about max rpm Tony, it certainly made things a little better for the Escort, but I still found that I was bouncing valves off the pistons at the end of the straight and the engine% was suffering.

So which car was it to be for Montreal. I knew that the beefy Commodore would be quite good and the Nissan definitely had the power, but that BMW seemed so sweet with a lovely smooth power curve from the engine, so I though it might work well around this circuit.

I have to confess that I was extremely surprised and nervous to find myself as close as I was to Mr D's qually time and once the race started I found myself being drawn along by the Meister and extending a lovely gap back to the 3rd place car. The BMW was handling just fine and provided I kept things controlled and smooth I was holding station with the big Commodore in front.

TBH I don't think I was ever in with a chance of taking 1st place unless D made a major mistake.......which he did not! It was me who blinked first and I ran wide at the first chicane. Then I compounded the mistake by pushing too hard and losing even more time. :-\

By the time that the tyres began to lose their ultimate grip we were into the last 5 laps and I was very safe in 2nd spot. So I decided to settle for what I had and just make sure I got the car to the flag. For once I had the fuel level about right, although their might have been a few more hard laps in those tyres if I had really wanted to push. All in all quite pleased with my race but not fast enough to worry Mr D who was quick from start to finish and as far as I can see never made any mistakes that lost him time. :notworthy:

Glad to get a result from the Beemer which might have been a bad choice for this track as I had no idea what a fast lap would look like at the start of qually.

A lack of practice and more importantly experience, still catches me out in these saloons, but I enjoy the fun and the challenge in each race.

BTW with the BMW are we limited to the 2002 or can we use the 2002tii as well?


P.S. The Arnold and Mabel Chronicles are a bit behind as time has been in short supply lately, but there should be a few episodes soon.

@ Clive - Both Beemers are available for selection. If a car type is not to be used it will be stated in the race announcement.

Congratulations to Roger on his winning of the Amateur Championship trophy in GPL  :clap: :clap: :clap:

Settled relatively quickly on the Commodore for this race.  Have to use it 3 times, and track didn't seem too unsuitable for it.

New PB in qualy, but only good enough for 4th on the grid.  Slipped into 3rd at the start, but then a whack from Postal spun me round. Ended up nose-to-nose with him, and thus had to reverse to get going again. All this, including some fumbling with the gearchanges, meant a fair bit of time lost, before I rejoined in 8th, with only Postal behind me.

Next had some fun working my way back through the field. Relatively quickly got up to 5th, which was ugraded to 4th, with Tibernius's untimely and early exit.  Next had a gap of 10 secs to Tony. Took some 8-10 laps to reel him in. Had expected a tough fight to get past, as he's proven quite resilient under pressure before, but he made it easy by spinning, as he mentioned.

Gap to Clive then was over 50 secs and growing, so no hope of advancing further, bar catastrophic failure for either him or Dimetrio.  Thus settled for building a secure gap to the car in 4th, without screwing it up for myself.  Almost did so, when I was about to lap Roger very late in the race. He kindly slowed to help me past, just as we passed the start/finish.  Caught me out unfortunately, so I lost control, went off track, and slammed hard into a 'trap' in the barriers. Again had to reverse to get out, but fortunately kept my position.  Think suspension was damaged, but it held up the remaining laps.

Grats to Dimetrio and Clive.  Had hoped to finish ahead of the latter, as he's my closest competitor for the Championship right now, but with our respective car choices, that wasn't to be. In the former, we obviously have Goldtop's Ukrainian cousin..  ;)  (GT is our OTHER resident alien, Dimetrio - bit of a shame he's seemingly left this series, now that he could finally get some competition ).

Was frustrated over yet another incident during the race, but I finished in the best position I could hope for anyway, so maybe I ought to thank Postal for making my race more interesting.. (Not that I'm asking for a repeat performance in the next round..  ;))

Cheers,
Erling