SimRacing.org.uk

So here we go gentlemen for the 2nd running of the Blancpain series featuring a mix of Sprint and Endurance rounds using the GT3 class of racing exotica  8)

(http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y444/MJ_p911/blancpain-logos_zpsthquy1ck.jpg) (http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/MJ_p911/media/blancpain-logos_zpsthquy1ck.jpg.html)

Provisional calendar based on the real series (subject to a decent version of Zolder materialising) :-

(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4232/34808679223_16a2f47fb8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/V2VzBM)

Points table:-

1st = 30pts
2nd = 25
3rd = 20
4th = 17
5th = 15
6th = 13
7th = 11
8th = 9
9th = 7
10th = 6
11th = 5
12th = 4
13th = 3
14th = 2
15th = 1

You must finish at least 50% of the race to qualify for points.

Car legible: 8 GT3 class race cars:-

Audi R8 LMS
BMW Z4
Lamborghini Huracan
Ferrari 488
McLaren 650
Mercedes AMG
Nissan GTR
Porsche 911GT3-R

Only one car per season (subject to new releases from Kunos)

Race length:-
40 mins sprint rounds
60 min Endurance rounds with 1 pitstop required.
90 min Spa24 round with minimum 1 stop required.

Driver list:- (tbc)

1) MJ    -   Porsche gt3-R   Gulf #9  https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5z6i0q044wwzb1/2017_Gulf_9.rar?dl=0
2) Nfsw -   Porsche gt3-R Manthey racing  http://www.mediafire.com/file/mii73wjbek20kzf/Manthey_Blancpain.rar
3) Maikel - Nissan GTR #94  https://www.dropbox.com/s/39af32ro6od6a2x/gt3_94.rar?dl=0
4) Spanner - Ferrari 488 #48  https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohocag79k3tg08i/Rinaldi_Racing.rar?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohocag79k3tg08i/Rinaldi_Racing.rar?dl=0)
5) Postal - Ferrari 488 jms#51  http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/jms-lm-corsa-488-gt300.11169/update?update=19433
6) Linus - McLaren 650S #10 https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl73fbx1xslefsv/GPRT_10.rar?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl73fbx1xslefsv/GPRT_10.rar?dl=0)
7) FMG - Lambo Huracan #22  http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/huracan-gt3-leipert-motorsport.11472/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/huracan-gt3-leipert-motorsport.11472/)
8 ) Shark - AMG Mercedes - Racing_70  (stock skin)
9) Jeffrey - #69 Lambo (stock skin)
10) Baikal - BMW Z4 xdrive_20_z  (stock skin)
11) Manteos - car tbc
12) Bob - Nissan GTR  https://www.dropbox.com/s/ps0qtog5kz6fhlj/2017_Gainer_10.rar?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ps0qtog5kz6fhlj/2017_Gainer_10.rar?dl=0)
13) Picnic - AMG Mercedes - Racing_69
14) SRW - BMW Z4 GT3 BMW motorsport 2013 white (stock skin)
15) Thomas Blackett - Porsche gt3-R #80 Flying Lizard  https://www.dropbox.com/s/lwita75dqr6yiz7/80_flying_lizard_ms_gt3.rar?dl=0
16) ChrisR - car tbc
17) Sutol - car tbc
18) Pag96 - Ferrari 488  #89  http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ferrari-488-gt3-hubauto-super-taikyu-2017-season.14917/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ferrari-488-gt3-hubauto-super-taikyu-2017-season.14917/)

Right, now lets get a driver list together with chosen cars please gents. You can confirm skins to me as you decide.

MarkJ - Porsche 911GT3-R (Skin tbc)

Looks good, though not entirely sure what order those tracks are to be run in? Are the round numbers correct? I thought Misano wasnt too bad as a track tbh.


Have we really not dont Zolder in AC before??

Noticed an issue on the setup page of the Porsche which was enough to put some doubt in my mind, the camber is off at the rear. So will probably stick with the Audi.

D'oh hadn't noticed the round numbers got mixed up, now corrected thanks. I altered the official calendar to make the British rounds the first two as they are about to happen in the real series. May 6th/7th is Brands Hatch and the following week they race at Silverstone.  :) So we can grab the enthusiasm! The two Italian rounds have already happened in the real world so they have moved to rounds 3&4. And no we haven't raced at Zolder in AC yet sadly. The track has been released previously, as far back as 2014 but I cannot find a good link to it yet.

Porsche 911 GT3R  for me as well.
Can we also choose our number? If yes then I would go with the #911,  skin is coming later

I'll go with the Nissan. Don't care which livery  8)

Whaaaat, no Fezza?  :o

I tried the Ferrari for a quick spin, but I was seconds slower on Mugello  ???.
I'm not sure what to pick yet :). Nissan, Lambo or Z4 I think.

Last time I tried the fezza it was on par with the 650 on Mugello. I think I'll use it for the GT3 series @Core though  ;D

My choice was between the Nissan and Lambo, never really raced with either of them. Nissan looks abit better imo  8)

Tried most of the cars, which made the choice...even harder  ::).

The 650 is still the fastest for me. Nissan remains a beast and is fun to drive. The Z4 handles a bit like the Nissan and is a joy to throw around. I was surprised at how good the Audi is, it's really easy to drive that one very precisely. The Lambo felt the weirdest and could be the most frustrating to drive, but i think it also had the most room for improvements in the setup.

Man...I'll just wait for the practice server and decide afterwards  ;D

Used the Bentley last series, that was a blast. I'll go with the new 488 this time. Never raced it, but watched it win at Bathurst on TV. Not really a good argument for picking this car  :P, though i think it will be most fun.

I'll be using the #51 - JMS LM Corsa 488 GT300 2.0 Fuji livery

If there is one mod car to consider it might be this one:
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/audi-r8-lms-2015-by-agu-modding.13467/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/audi-r8-lms-2015-by-agu-modding.13467/)

Doh! forgot about the ferrari

It's a 2015 lms car. The older gt3 cars are out performed by the newer version, don't know if that will be the case with this mod. Also, are lms and gt3 regulations the same? And it's another audi,  doesn't add a lot of variation IMO :). Still a good find as I'm sure people will disagree with me ;D

This is Audi's current GT3 contender (successor of the Audi R8 LMS Ultra we have ingame).

Never tried this mod so I'm not sure how good the physics are.

Bit of a slower sign up this time   tumbleweed , I haven't even got the 8 names that voted for this series signed up yet  ::) :laugh:
this is also advertised on the Kunos site so feel free to show some interest  ;)

edit...Ha, I see you did already, but in the wrong thread  :-X

Hi guys. Good news about new champ, thanks!)
Will think about my joing
Questions- no BOP procedures here? As i know from work done by fast pilots- for example, McLaren650 S needs about 70 kg extra to be balanced with most of other cars )))
And one wish: please dont. DONT use moded cars here. Only original AC cars content )

I'm in,  just haven't decided what I'm driving yet..
Between the gtr, Merc,  and 911 so far.
Got good skins for all of them :D

I'm in also and haven't decided on what car yet. Either Audi, Nissan, BMW, McLaren, Porsche, Ferrai or Lambo ;D

I can't promise I'll join all the races of this champ, but I'll try.
No idea about the car yet, cause I have a poor knowledge about the GT3 performances to do a comparison. It will be a last minute choice ;)
See you tomorrow :)

I haven't decided yet on car, I'm waiting for the testserver to compare them via stracker.

There are more threads?

EDIT: Found it: http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/blancpain-styled-gt3-championship-series-2017-simracing-org-uk.44834/


650S Is indeed still the fastest by a margin, so BOP might be a good thing, but won't the Nissan then be the fastest?

Ok gent. :)  About current GT3 cars BOP, using in OSRW site.

Look at this info:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5z4pvq6y4j6p3v/ballast1.0%20GT3%202017.jpg?dl=0
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5z4pvq6y4j6p3v/ballast1.0%20GT3%202017.jpg?dl=0)

A - Hi speed\ low aero : Monza
B - Hi speed\ middle aero : Silverstone , Spa, Road Atlanta, Nordchleife, Watkins Glen
C - Middle speed\ hi aero: Mid-Ohio, Zandvoort, Macau, Vallelunga, Laguna Seca

As we can see- the car performances have great differences and balance procedure - a thing "must to be"
It's checked by years of GT3 champs  :)

Don't know what car but will be there (bringing up the rear)

Good man Bob. I did wonder whether to run a Pro and Am class in this series to give everyone something to fight for, but that would require more micro management of the points tables and enough drivers to warrant the two classes. Nice idea though :)

What day of week  and day time is planning for the races?
And it will be 1 race per week?

 ;D Not bothered about pro -am, don't fall into either category, just happy to enjoy the racing regardless.

Wednesday evenings as normal, 1 race per week at 8.15pm U.K. Time for qualifying, race start at 8.30pm

Ok, it's as usually  :)
Any comments about BOP? For example, if not BOP- your Porche will late than 650 2 seconds per lap and will be a slowest car  ;)  Same with default audi... slow cars.. Is it good for you and other pilots here? For me- no.  :)  
Now it's a main thing i am interested (slow  BMW in my plans . But i don't want to finish last every time  ;D )
PS I know that BOP is not solving car balance fully but its only way to any compensations and brings more interest to races IMHO.

I'm a bit surprised about the position of the Nissan in the list. On a fast track like Monza, it needs the lowest amount of weight (as BMW gets no weight)?

Few laps per car at Brands my list was (Fastest to slowest): 650, Nissan, Audi, BMW, Lambo. 650 was half a second faster, rest was all pretty close.

In reference laps of Monza from  fast and experienced pilot , Nissan have same time as BMW amd Mercedes- 1.49.1.
650 have 1.48.7. Other fastest drivers was agree with it. Nissan is not fast car at all here ) But fun and challenge to drive. Easyest car to drive is Audi but...have slow lap times.
Another way to some compensate races- may be disable 650 and may be Lambo from car list? Easyest way IMHO.

If your all so concerned over BOP, dont pick the cars!

Agree. If the quick drivers just don't pick the 650 it doesn't matter much. May even bring the field closer.

Well I would say just alien drivers don't take the 650, got no issue with mortal drivers choosing it. Bit of a revelation to me about this disparity tbh, I thought the gt3 set of cars were balanced by kunos?  :-\
I want variety on the grid as that's what is so great about the real series.  :)

I think we all agree on the 650 being clearly faster than the other cars, so gentlemen's agreement that faster drivers don't take it  :).

For me the Nissan is 2nd best, but that may be because it suits my driving style and the Lambo the slowest for me, so I think a lot will come down to the personal affinity with a car, how much somebody can get out of it.

The 650 is the fastest?! Not in my hands, it's one of the slower cars for me. In order for me it's the Porsche fastest, then Merc GT3, then the rest. A lot depends on how you drive and your style and therefore what suits you and what you like in a car and whether you have a good setup, e.g. I can't keep some of the cars on the track when I'm on the edge whereas others I can keep on the edge and on the track. Swings and roundabouts.

So no I don't agree that the 650 is the fastest. Fact is that the faster drivers will win whatever their car (as the case should be!). The fact that different cars have different characteristics makes GT3s interesting just like our days of GTR when the different cars produced all sorts of racing. Will the Nissan win at Monza? Will it? It's fast in a straight line yes, but can the others make it up through the corners? Possibly. Should we have driver balancing (to artificially make the championship closer), based on championship position, not sure?

Let's just race with the cars as they are with the tracks as they are.

P.S. I'm waiting on my team mate before choosing one of two cars. :-)

Can we get a test server up, somewhere like Mugello or Barcelona GP so we can start testing and comparing times :)

Kunos is haven't alien drivers in team so, they clearly said in final- " Use ballast"
To me the car choice is main thing here because i am starting to drive in BOPed car BMW in other league 30+ pilots champ. So i dont want personaly to test other cars in UKAC champ which racing in 3 o'clock night my local time. But to drive in BMW here will means that i'll loose any grid position especially when i just waken from bed  ;D  And i don't want to drive 650S because Mclaren was drived by me in other GT3 champs in last years...I tyred from him.  But i want to drive in this site because of good peoples here. Dilemma is present in my mind  :)

Good idea, both tracks are perfect for testing cars  :). Pete can we get a testing server up? Maybe until Saturday then switch it to Brands GP for next Wednesday's opening race.

Ps the real Blancpain series races at Brands hatch this weekend if you want inspiration  8)

Regarding car choices, I agree with Simon, different cars suit different drivers. Other than aliens preferably staying out of the 650, please pick whatever car you want to race with  :)

Can the server be set to run Barcelona GP please  ;D

I'm actually going to Brands on Sunday to watch. Third year in a row and the best racing I've ever seen live :)

Very true about cars suiting different drivers and driving style. I just tested the McLaren, Nissan and Audi and for me the McLaren was the slowest :) Felt wrong in my hands.

Amen!

I was hoping for a race announcement so I had a full list of cars you're running. There are 3 Porsche GT3s in game, which are we running in this championship? The Audi R8 LMS is not listed in game as GT3 but we ran it last time, are we again - are there other 'non GT3' cars I need?

Sadly I'm no expect in car classes, nor telepathic, nor do I have enough free time to trawl 4 or 5 topics to see what's being mentioned and to 2nd guess.

I have now launched a practice server - I'm sure you'll all be along soon to say you've forgotten blah or we're not running blah. So expect the server to be restarted while you're on it.

ooh someones grumpy this morning  :laugh:

GT3 eligible class cars:-

Porsche gt3-R 2016,
Audi R8 Lms,
Ferrari 488gt3,
Lambo Huracan GT3,
Bmw Z4 GT3,
McLaren 650 gt3,
Mercedes AMG gt3,
Nissan GTR GT3

Nothing different to any other morning  :-[ Thanks for the official list.

Server restarted

See it as extreme confidence in you abilities Pete ;D.

MODEL=bmw_z4_gt3
SKIN=xdrive_20_z  :)

Couldn't find the server last night, was it down?

All servers where down last night. Was an issue on AC's side.

Thanks for the car choice Baikal, 12 drivers signed up so far :) few more would be nice.

I see you've not put me on the list yet, I'll be there. Car choice still to be made.

I'm too afraid to ask now, but is there a server up?

And maybe get a thread up :-[

Server should have been up but I've restarted it just in case yesterday's outage meant it wasn't working correctly.

Thanks, I also think it's because it went down last night, but AC's servers seem to be down again  ::). Just at the time i think let's practice, these things happen, it's like I'm not supposed to practice.

EDIT: Looks like they are back

There seems to be a temp fix: You can join servers directly if you know the IP. Open race.ini, set the server IP in SERVER_IP parameter, save and exit. Now launch AssettoCorsa.exe with "/spawn" parameter (without quotes of course) and it will connect to the server without showing the launcher.

Ah ok, thank you :)

13 drivers in the list  :) though still only 6 cars chosen so far  :P

First round thread setup  8) think we should have Brands hatch on the server now really and get the pre race tension ramped up  ;D

It's so danger to start race in cold tyres.  :o  May be the time to turn on tyre heaters, Mark?
Or we love start surprises?  ;D     

Noooooo, don't make it easy. This is part of the skill of racing.

Ok Ok I am shut up  ;D Let's be some suprprises on start!  ;D

I am up for this series, not sure which car I am going to take yet

Sign me up for the #69 Lambo. Maaaaybe I'll change before the start of the season, but I need to practice with 1 car from now on :).

Time I picked,sticking to the FR layout again :angel:
AMG GT3 - 2017 EVA RT TEST-01 Rn-s AMG GT / Rn-sports #111.

Skin can be found below:
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/amg-gt3-2017-eva-rt-test-01-rn-s-amg-gt-rn-sports-111.14579/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/amg-gt3-2017-eva-rt-test-01-rn-s-amg-gt-rn-sports-111.14579/)

That's quite the funky paint scheme!  ;D wont miss you on track

Hi Guys, I would like to join you all in this championship. Can I use the Porsche with the following skin? http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/911-gt3-r-16-gulf-racing-uk-86.13311/ (2K)
See you on track.

Hi Thomas, good to see you back. One slight hitch , I have already taken the Gulf Porsche, can you choose another?

Hi Mark, a man of good taste! Ok I'll choose another and revert.

Can I use this skin instead? http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/20xx-flying-lizard-porsche-911-gt3-r-8k-uhd-edition.15212/ the 2k version please.

Hi Mark,

Mercedes for me please with the following skin.

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ks-mercedes-amg-gt3-mercedes-martini-racing.8757/

That's an amazing looking skin :o

Since everyone is picking cool skins I guess I'll choose one aswell.

Found this Godzilla livery for the GT3 pretty fitting  ;D ; http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/nissan-gt-r-gt3-racedepartment-godzilla.13902/   (the 2k version ofc )

Nice skins guys  8) Lets glam the grid up  :)

If you re-check post 1 of this thread you will see I have been updating each driver entry as I get your skins. I have also filtered out the numerous versions in some cases and uploaded the 2k version to my dropbox folder with a direct link. These skins will need to be downloaded to the proper \content\cars\??\skins directory for you to see them in the race. Well worth doing in my opinion to see your favourite foes car in its glory  :)

Stefan (Postal) is also using a downloaded skin - I found this one (assuming it's the right one) on Race Department

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/jms-lm-corsa-488-gt300.11169/update?update=19433 (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/jms-lm-corsa-488-gt300.11169/update?update=19433)

Thanks FMG, assumed he had picked a stock skin.

To the rest who haven't yet picked a car, please hurry up and do so or I will not have time to put the driver file together before Wednesday's race. Muchos gracias  :)

Ps...16 drivers now signed up  :).  Anyone heard from Chris Sutol? He's normally up for this. Would like at least 20 drivers preferably, so feel free to spread the good word.

Is there a way to search for skins for a particular car on RD?

Go into the skins subfolder, and then do a search for the car type you're after. That should bring up most of them :)

i don't have a search function, and I don't want to go through 273 pages  :D

This skin for me please:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mii73wjbek20kzf/Manthey_Blancpain.rar

Picnic and I will be driving the Mercedes AMG but I've yet to choose a skin for us. Fallback is the blue and black standard skin #70 I think the number is.

Search button is somewhere at the top of the screen,  just make sure you're in the skins section of downloads when you click on it.

Sutol (Chris Thorpe) wont make it to the first race, not sure about any of the others.

I will send you my car choice tonight Mark, I cant decide which to choose, i might just choose the one with my fav skin.

ta.

Thanks for the heads up Chris. As long as he lets me know before the next race I can slot him into the drivers file with his chosen car.

Drivers list latest:-

1) MJ    -   Porsche gt3-R   Gulf #9  https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5z6i0q044wwzb1/2017_Gulf_9.rar?dl=0
2) Nfsw -   Porsche gt3-R Manthey racing  http://www.mediafire.com/file/mii73wjbek20kzf/Manthey_Blancpain.rar
3) Maikel - Nissan GTR #94  https://www.dropbox.com/s/39af32ro6od6a2x/gt3_94.rar?dl=0
4) Spanner - Ferrari 488 #48  https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohocag79k3tg08i/Rinaldi_Racing.rar?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohocag79k3tg08i/Rinaldi_Racing.rar?dl=0)
5) Postal - Ferrari 488 jms#51  http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/jms-lm-corsa-488-gt300.11169/update?update=19433
6) Linus - McLaren 650S #10 https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl73fbx1xslefsv/GPRT_10.rar?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl73fbx1xslefsv/GPRT_10.rar?dl=0)
7) FMG - Lambo Huracan #22  http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/huracan-gt3-leipert-motorsport.11472/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/huracan-gt3-leipert-motorsport.11472/)
8 ) Shark - AMG Mercedes - Racing_70  (stock skin)
9) Jeffrey - #69 Lambo (stock skin)
10) Baikal - BMW Z4 xdrive_20_z  (stock skin)
11) Manteos - car tbc
12) Bob - Nissan GTR  https://www.dropbox.com/s/ps0qtog5kz6fhlj/2017_Gainer_10.rar?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ps0qtog5kz6fhlj/2017_Gainer_10.rar?dl=0)
13) Picnic - AMG Mercedes - Racing_69
SRW - BMW Z4 GT3 BMW motorsport 2013 white (stock skin)
15) Thomas Blackett - Porsche gt3-R #80 Flying Lizard  https://www.dropbox.com/s/lwita75dqr6yiz7/80_flying_lizard_ms_gt3.rar?dl=0
16) ChrisR - car tbc
17) Sutol - car tbc
18) Pag96 - Ferrari 488  #89  http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ferrari-488-gt3-hubauto-super-taikyu-2017-season.14917/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ferrari-488-gt3-hubauto-super-taikyu-2017-season.14917/)

NissanGT3 for me link to skin http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/nissan-gt-r-gt3-2017-gainer-tanax-triple-a-gt-r-gainer-10.14578/

Got it thanks. Found some nice skins, but I think I'll stick with the default. Can't beat lime green with the number 69  ;D

Few names still missing from our regular racers, AnimalEd?, LesN, Frex? Matt Rowe? ...any more for any more  :-\

Probably I'll jump Brands Hatch race, because I have to replace my VDA teammate at the EACC championship with that fuc... ehm fantastic ;D Lotus 98t... I had no time for some practice yet. Can I defer the car choice to the next event? I'll surely take a default skin, so I hope that it won't be a matter.
See you soon

Any tips about skins, is it a must have (will not be be able to join server) or optional (will see default skins)? Any modded cars I should download?
Sorry, been outta touch

Shame you will miss round 1 Manteos, just let me know your car choice at some point before round 2. Any of your Italian amici want to join the series?

TT, no you do not have to install the skins, the game will default them for you. No mods required yet though a couple of tracks will be further along and I will post a link if needed. They are an easy install anyway.
Assume you have the various official car packs?

From last time when I had a few skins missing, any car you don't have will appear as a plain white car.
There're some cracking choices going up though so I'd recommend adding them anyway for your viewing pleasure  8)

Can we pick Car 69 for Picnic so that we're both Just Mareo or whatever it is. Can't find any good skins for the Merc that I like that have a pair. Unless we can both have car #70 can we?

I wasn't sure what having two identical cars would do hence why I gave Pete number 73 as it's black and blue. Would it fubar results? I could copy the car and give it a new number otherwise. It would just be another skin to download.

How do any of the following hit you?

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/team-akka-amg-gt3-skins-2k.13860/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/team-akka-amg-gt3-skins-2k.13860/)

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/amg-gt3-akka-asp-bes-2017.15176/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/amg-gt3-akka-asp-bes-2017.15176/)

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/mercedes-amg-gt3-ups-racing-team.11501/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/mercedes-amg-gt3-ups-racing-team.11501/)

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/htp-motorsport-amg-skin-pack.9870/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/htp-motorsport-amg-skin-pack.9870/)

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/mercedes-amg-gt3-black-falcon-56-57-blancpain-endurance-series-2016.10266/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/mercedes-amg-gt3-black-falcon-56-57-blancpain-endurance-series-2016.10266/)

Sure there's loads more but that's enough to start you on  ;)

I looked through the whole list on RD, the only ones that stood out were the Martini Racing one, the UPS ones and the Corsair one. Other than that I prefer the ones already in the game.

I have the Martini skin at the moment but if I change to the Audi then you can have it. Will confirm tomirrow evening.

Nah it's fine thanks, I'd rather have blue.

okay, Bobs skin uploaded and Picnic changed to Number 69 Merc (yellow car!)

Yeah, you can't miss him!  ;D ;D

Argh Audi is just too slow, and was going to use a Flying Lizards skin! Last minute change to the Ferrrari 488 i think.

 Shame there arnt too many liveries that really stand out. Though tempted by the Clearwater one.


Green, naturally...

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ferrari-488-gt3-rinaldi-racing-48-2016.12400/

Thats a stunner Spanner.

Bit of a shame there's not a full set of car types in the mix though. No audis or mclarens, 1 Lambo.  :(  maybe some of the undecided will use them.

Spanner has an Audi. I can test he McLaren tonight to see how it goes or possibly switch to the Audi. Will test tonight and let you know.

I'm surprised nobody took the mcLaren. It's fast and fun to drive.

It is round here, only did a few laps and went quickest than anything I've done. But remember it around nurburgring last season and it was a real handful!

I'm not going with the Audi now, Linus. Just wanted to try something I haven't driven before so will be in the Ferrari..

Another Fezza on the grid is welcome, shame some of the Merc brigade didn't opt for more variety  ;)

:o
If you must know, this is why I picked the AMG in the end... :-*

Raced the Nissan for a season before.
Raced the Audi for a season before.
I can't make the BMW go fast at all, doesn't suit my driving style.
Can't control the McLaren, far too hard to drive.
Ferrari wanted to spit me off the track and I don't like the need to change up so early in the rev-range, it's weird and I couldn't get used to it.
Lambo was a possibility, but I found it quite tricky to get the most out of.
Don't think I've driven the AMG before, even though spent a couple of seasons in the SLS and I wanted to drown out the sound of all the other cars with my own engine.
Porsche I liked and seemed pretty easy to drive, but wasn't sure where extra time was in the setup as it felt pretty good on the default setup already, beside you are in the Porsche Mark so we can't be driving the same thing! ;) :P

Mine's less technical than that.

Drove the Nissan last season so fancied a change.
Didn't fancy Porsche as I knew Mark would be driving one and we just finished a Porsche championship.
Wanted to drive the BMW but it sounds rubbish.
Wanted to driver Ferrari but it sounded rubbish.
Wanted to drive McLaren but it sounded rubbish.

So this left Audi, Lambo and Merc. Lambo's do nothing for me and the Merc had nicer skins so I chose it lol :)

So tonight I will try the Audi and McLaren and decide on one of them, probably Audi as it sounds the nuts.

Just drive the cars you want to drive, it's no biggie, just a personal preference that all 8 cars would be represented for variety and a good looking grid as well as out of interest to ser them all shape up against each other.  :)

I agree it would be nice to have a mixed grid.

Reinstalling AC now, will try to join server later and see if I can.

Didn't you take the AMG last season ?  ;D

Hi may I still join the league ? Thanks!
(Sorry for being so late for this)

Did I? If so, bollox, I've made an error somewhere. :o

To be fair I picked the Merc cos it looked under-represented at the time.
While choice 2 was the Nissan (I found the Lambo really quick if I'm honest and prefere a good fight even if I'm going to loose).

However I found an epic Lambo skin this morning so am quick happy to take that if wanted now  ;D

Linus - there're some updates to the fonsecker sound mods released on Sunday. Haven't tried them yet but they include new sounds for the Merc, Z4 and Lambo GT3 cars.
If it wasn't for that mod I'd have never put up with the Z4 for a season last time around...

You even had a custom skin. A shark with the memory of a goldfish ;D. You might still have screens hots on your fb page.

Welcome. Don't think you're too late but you need to let Mark J (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=profile;u=87) your Steam ID and car choice ASAP

haha brilliant....senior moment sharky?  :laugh:  I also knew you took the AMG last season so was surprised to see you pick it again this time  :P

Hi Pag, better late than never!  :)  can you pm me your steam guid? long number beginning 7656....
Also your car choice and any skin (stock or download-with a link).
Thanks and welcome onboard.

The black and blue Just Mareo skin if I remember correctly  :P

Sod it.
Lets keep you happy Mark  ;)

Change me to the Huracan please Mark - I'll run the following subtle skin please http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/huracan-gt3-leipert-motorsport.11472/ (http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/huracan-gt3-leipert-motorsport.11472/)
Car number is 22.

Maybe Maikel and I should form 'Team giant Lizard'  ;D

Sent you the PM, but can't see it from my Outbox so I am posting the required info here as well..
Steam GUID : 76561198057512567
Car of choice: Ferrari 488 GT3
Skin: If I can choose only from the stock ones then "Rosso Scuderia", otherwise this one
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ferrari-488-gt3-hubauto-super-taikyu-2017-season.14917/
Thanks!

Mark,

Please can you change me to the McLaren 650 GT3 please.

My skin choice is the #10 Yellow Monster car.

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/gprt-2016-monster-racing.9412/

You wanted some colour :)

Thank you :)

Isn't that going to make you a bit quick?  :-\ but okay will do. Good job I hadn't already finished the drivers file  for all these late changes  ::) :-*

i would like to race the BMW, not fussed which skin

I'm about to add some more colour, that's truelly f'ugly.


I've not been paying attention to this thread, nor the race thread. I'm way too late to the party, no idea what to drive... except, we all know "I can't" drive the Audi.

hurry up and pick something Eck!  :)

Hi Mark. Is you will done a skinpack or we should download each player's skins?

Hi Alexey, I will try and do a skinpack for next time but I have run out of time for round 1 due to many late changes. There is a link to each skin next to each driver entry in my list on page 6 of this thread. I have uploaded each one to my own AC directory as I got them and I sorted some of them out and uploaded to my dropbox.

Right, Pag96 you are in the driver file with your chosen skin Ferrari.
Michael is now in a 650s with his yellow skin.
SRW is in a z4 with the BMW white paintscheme.

You're the one who was complaining!  :P

And you've missed my increased Bull content, see below ;)

you just beat me to editing my last post to include your new Lambo skin  :) Done!

Can someone confirm, is Baikals Z4 skin a stock one? I had it in my directory but cant remember if its stock or not. If its not, I need a link.

If any clever IT bod knows how to make an extracting zip/rar file that would drop these all the skins into their correct folders, be my guest  :) But otherwise just extract each skin next to that car types skin folder, ie:-

Copy/paste these lines into your winzip/rar extractor for the destination folder for each car type:-

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\ks_lamborghini_huracan_gt3\skins

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\ks_mclaren_650_gt3\skins

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\ks_mercedes_amg_gt3\skins

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\ks_nissan_gtr_gt3\skins

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\ks_porsche_911_gt3_r_2016\skins

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\ks_ferrari_488_gt3\skins

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\ks_audi_r8_lms\skins

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\bmw_z4_gt3\skins

You don't have too, but its very worthwhile to see a glorious grid and tasty car skins. :)

Hehe and I only changed as nobody picked the McLaren  ;D

Maybe make a copied cars folder with only those new skins in it in the same hierarchy as the original, that way you only need to extract the rar file to the content folder.

I've got some spare time tomorrow so I could try to make a skinpack and see if it works  ;D

"Can someone confirm, is Baikals Z4 skin a stock one? I had it in my directory but cant remember if its stock or not. If its not, I need a link."
Yes. My skin is stock dir named xdrive_20_z ( not need to upload)

Ok, my programs are changed and I will race here with my teammate Gavino Pintus tomorrow and for the rest of the season... I hope   ???

We will both drive the Lambo Huracan GT3 with default skins: #61 for me and #36 for Gavino

See you tomorrow for the race  ;)

Great news Manteos and Gavino...two more hot shoe Lambo drivers in the mix  8)

20 cars now gents, it will be fierce up front!  :)

and thanks for confirming the skin Alexey.

ChrisR...are you racing tonight? not heard your car or skin choice. Cant put you in the driver entry file without it.

Eck Simpson, not sure if you are racing tonight? I have put you in a AMG merc for now so if you do decide to race you can join in that - unless you let me know before mid afternoon to give Pete time to upload the driver file.

Reminder to all, if you are on the driver entry file you can join the race server at any time. I can't remember the process if you are not on it but sure Pete can remind us.

Perfect sir, the car really won't make a difference. I'm not gonna make tonight, I don't think...

I'll not hold anything up any farther, sorry.

Only way for drivers not preregistered is via booking mode, IIFC. I'll restart the server around 7pm so, on the off chance someone wants to join last minute, there'll be a 30 min window in which to do so.

Next round...

(http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y444/MJ_p911/Silverstone_zpsdnyhxxof.jpg) (http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/MJ_p911/media/Silverstone_zpsdnyhxxof.jpg.html)

New DLC has been released and costs 8 euros, which is about a million pounds.

Not sure if i am going to buy this right now, as it doesn't contain cars I'm interested in.

Damn it and I have no internet  >:( useless lot at BT have said it could take up to 6 days for them to repair it  >:( ::) I got stroppy and they've put a fault monitor team on it and getting back to me Saturday if still needs an engineer - obviously does!

Valid point about not getting it as that does prevent me introducing it in the current series if not all drivers are prepared to get this Dlc pack  :-\  I can't insist with 21 drivers on the books.

Worth it for the turbo stall on the Celica alone ;D
Maserati and McLarens are nice. The GT3 and VLN Audi's have good potential, but the TT Cup cars sound like bum.

Haven't tried the prototypes as I'm not a fan of the modern stuff

Tried most cars tonight. Expected the VLN TTRS to be amazing but the TTS Cup was actually more fun. The Lotus 3-11 is a rapid beast, stupidly fast. The Celica seemed fun but not something I would drive again. The new R8 GT3 was ok, just another GT3 car. The McLaren P1 GTR was really interesting. Feels weird like its always adjusting itself or moving about but still nice to drive. Not tried the others yet.

mark, you cant hold back just because one person is complaining about spending 8 euros :P

use the new content!

Given that we're not allowed to change cars what's the point in including it until this season is over? Besides I though it was millions of pounds. ????

A couple of people asked before the series started if they could use it when it became available. I'm all for improving the show and adding variety to keep it fresh.  :) However with 21 drivers, if say 5 don't want to buy the dlc then I'm not going to say you can no longer race this series. (I assume they can't race without the dlc even if they don't drive it?)
Bit of a pickle!  :P ... A poll I hear you say  ;D

If you said yes then you'd better include it. If you said no or not sure then don't. Don't do a poll. I can tell you what the results will be anyway. A vast majority will say yes and at least 1 ;-) will say no.

I said yes at the time but forgot that some might not want to buy it  :-\ I'd like it included but I can't force people to buy it.

In my best god voice...."YOU HAVE THE POWEEEEEER". Queue *rumble of thunder*.

wrong cue

LOL, very good point. I shall queue for thunder waiting for my cue to take off the idiot's hat. :euro:

My excuse is that it's Friday afternoon and I have had very little sleep with young children in the house.  ::)

Got a few weeks grace yet but might have to think of a replacement for Zolder  :-\  I have posted on the RD page for his zolder track and pm'd the track creator (a guy called Pascal if anyone knows him!) but so far no news back. There is an early version of it floating about but I haven't tried it to see how good/bad it is. If anyone else finds a decent version then shout up here.
I guess the most apt replacement would be Zandvoort but we have used it a fair bit. Mugello is another option, any more?

Use Oulton Park

Or the Red Bull ring. Together with Monza, probably the only high speed tracks (Paul Richard is in between IMO).

Red bull Ring is a good shout. I like Oulton, great track but Blancpain has more of a European flair and we've already had two British rounds.  :)

Red Bull Ring sounds good. Donnington would also fit very well in this championship imo, but as Mark already mentioned, we just had our two british rounds, so maybe something for a future championship.

Okay so I have found a version 1.0 and a 1.1 of Zolder online after some detective work  :) I had to Join an Italian forum to get the link  ;D
However the file size seems small compared to other track downloads so not sure what the quality is like until I try it. Looks decent enough in videos I have seen.
Any track mod gurus here? Can we just grab ini files from newer tracks and drop it in the track directory to bring it up to date? There is a surfaces.ini etc
I'll upload it to my Dropbox this eve so anyone can check it out.

I would say Imola, Mugello or Red Bull Ring would be good replacements.

Well if Zolder turns out to be not so great I also have Ahvenisto and Autodromo di Estoril up my sleeve to try out.

Estoril might be fun :)

I'd like to join with the Mercedes AMG. No preference on the skin or number :)

Welcome Felix  :)

Welcome Felix :) We need to know your unique Steam User ID - one starting 7656 and I think 17 digits long. Please post it here, or Personal Message Mark J or myself, as soon as possible. Without adding you to the pre-defined entry list file you'll not be able to connect.

 :thumbup1: :thumbup1: :thumbup2: Nice one Felix, welcome.

Hey Felix.

Nice to see you racing here aswell  ;D

Thanks guys  ;D

Hello ! I'm new here and I'd like to join you !
VladAlex- Lamborghini Huracan standard skin

Hi VladAlex and welcome to our community, in order to add you to the drivers file I'll need your Steam Unique ID (one start 7656 and I think 17 digits long). Please post it here, or Personal Message me, as soon as possible. We're now over 24 drivers registered which is the limit for many AC tracks. There is room tonight but I can't promise room in all rounds. However we never have a full turnout so I suspect you'll be able to join most if not all. There isn't a problem for tonight's race.

I'd like to know if it's possible for me to change the car I'm using.

If so I'd like to start using the Porsche 911 GT3-R

Thanks in advance and sorry for the short notice before the next race  :)

If I've got it right you'll be in the Racing 910 Porsche Felix

After not being able to race tonight thanks to my inept ISP I gave the version of Zolder I got hold of but sad to say it's just not up to the quality we want. The author of the good looking version doesn't even answer his own thread or pm's so Zolder is off the cards.
However the Estoril track that I planned as a possible substitute is a corker with good looking graphics, a great track layout and supports 30 pit boxes.  :)
I will post a link up and get a race thread sorted as soon as I can but may take a day longer than normal as I've just got back from holiday.

Please first check the track surface quality of Estoril mode track . I remember the times this surface was extremely bad. Hope that is changed  :)

I'm sorry about the confusion I'm creating with this change. The reason I asked for a change is that I'm using this car in another series and I cannot change cars during the week. Too much for my, limited, abilities.   ;D

As for the skin, I have no preference. I still don't understand how skin selection works in AC... :-[

Several quick guys have suddenly asked to switch to the Porsche in the last few days, something you aliens have discovered by any chance?  :detective:

I don't want this series turning into a Porsche v lambo cup so you guys really should be sticking to your car choice especially now we are 4 rounds in. But I understand it's difficult to race two different cars in simultaneous series so will let Felix change.

It's awkward to impose restrictions but I don't want any more Lambo or Porsche entries to the series.

Porsche is pretty much equal to the 650. It has a better engine but is a bit more tricky to drive.

I want to change for the same reasons as felix, purely down to not being able to drive two different gt cars.. expecially at a high level.

I will still come on and practise with you guys as i will use the porka. But i wont be entering any more races.

There is no trick with the porsche.. its fast, mostly posted fastest lap times but very very hard to drive. And it uses nearly 2/3 more fuel than the others.. :o 

Why aren't you entering any more races?

Mine is just a proposal, but it would be cool if we start to use a simple ballast system for the subsequent races.
Something like this:
1st classified + 30 kgs
2nd classified + 20 kgs
3rd classified + 10 kgs
4th classified - 10 kgs
5th classified - 20 kgs
6,7,8 ... and so on -30 kgs

Obviously the ballast will be accumulated race after race according to your position.
What do you think about it?

If it slows you down... I am all for it  ;D

because i cant drive 2 cars at such a competitive level.

But we aren't stopping you racing the Porsche  ??? I'm not happy about people switching cars 4 rounds in but as I let a couple do it then you can too. In future GT3 series I will reduce the allocation of each type of car to prevent too many of one car marque but so far in this series we went from too many AMG then Lambos now Porsche!  :laugh:

i mentioned this ages ago and got shot down faster than a duck in hunting season.. i explained it was unfair to allow fast drivers in the fastest cars without some sort of ballast / air restriction system..
 

you said you didn't want me to swap cars.

i like the idea of performance ballast. Its just that it was untested (for us) and I didn't want to put quick drivers off by loading them up with Ballast.
We could certainly try it out as I think Pete just needs to add it server side (though bit more work for Pete) but I might soon get drivers complaining when penalised with it, plus we are 4 races into the series so would need all the top 8 drivers saying they are okay with it. :-\
I don't think it needs it as you guys up front are all having a close battle with maybe the exception of Gavino who is uber rapid !  So  the only guys who might benefit are say the 5th-10th place drivers to close them up a tad.

Gents, this is the link to the proposed track (replacing Zolder) for next week:-

http://assettocorsa.club/mods/tracks/autodromo-do-estoril.html#en (http://assettocorsa.club/mods/tracks/autodromo-do-estoril.html#en)  so feel free to download it and test and give me feedback pronto. It supports 30 cars and looks great to me.  I have sent Pete the link so he can put it on the server.

(http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y444/MJ_p911/Estoril_zpsjust1tm2.jpg) (http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/MJ_p911/media/Estoril_zpsjust1tm2.jpg.html)

ballast needs to be spread across as many drivers as possible, top 10 at least, the more drivers the fairer the result, don't do a core racing and only penalise only the top 3.  The entire point of BOP'ing the cars is to bring the ENTIRE grid to within a certain lap
time..

After 4 rounds this is the top of the table...doesn't look too spread out to me (with exception of Gavino) hence me saying ballast will only really benefit 7th downward.

1 Gavino Pintus   120.0 Lamborghini         
2 Maikel K.   70.0 Nissan GT-R GT3       
3 Manteos   58.0 Lamborghini         
4 bimbo nos   57.0 Lamborghini         
5 ChrisR   55.0 Ferrari         
6 Jeffrey   54.0

Track looks good and is fun to drive. Still I'm a bit wary of an untested mod track during the season. I still recommend A1 or another official track, but if you go for Estoril, please thake the non chicane on  ;D.


Me with the least amount of weight, I say go for it  ;). I don't really see this do anything, the gaps are just too big IMO. Gavino will still be fastest, even with 50 extra kg. It won't cost him a second all of a sudden. The difference between the rest is so small, it won't be noticed and the gap between top 8 or so is still too big for the weight penalty.
I've had fun races with the people I normally battle with, there are just new people here who are a lot faster now.
Changing this mid season is risky as you can't really try it for 1 or 2 races. If you use it, you need to stick with it till the end.

I'm fine with either decision, I just don't see it fixing a lot.

Only have GTR2 version to compare, in the distant past, but not sure with this one, feels like its been ripped rom something personally. Massive kurbs you can cut alot, chicane that you need a tank to drive through it as i'm not sure any car can go through it without grounding.

Its not too bad i guess.. for a 3rd party track

Practice server is up if you guys want to try it. As all events I've done here in the past included the chicane you've got it until Mark says otherwise :P

Ballast is good imho even if it only alters times a little it's worth it to bring field slightl closer.

It won't let me connect, goes through the loading process then immediately hoofs me. Don't get into the track to see a message.

Same here.

Edit: Track looks ok offline, a bit bumpy tho. Unfortunately I experienced some performance issues (only half fps compared to official tracks), anyone else noticed that?

Well it appears it doesn't support 30 pit boxes online. It's running now with 24. I'll try it further tomorrow to see if it supports more than 24 slots ( readme say it's only 24 but server manager says 30 - the joy of 3rd party stuff )

WoW WoW Estoril looking very good!  I love this version! Thanks Mark for seaching! Some bumpy but OK for fun and not criminal for car suspention !  ;D
I always respecting Mitia Bonca  AC enthusiast . Hi is author of great Grobnik track convert.
 And i prefer to drive NO Chicane version too.
And yes , this track is slightly fps extraload. Usually offline i have 220. In this mode i have 200. Not so big issue IMO. I hope we will enjoy this track online.  :)

Good to hear others like it. Yes the surface has some bumps but so does the original track. I haven't tried the no chicane version as to me the chicane was always part of the challenge here in gtr2 days. But I will try the alternative layout and decide.
I didn't notice any fps hit but maybe a group of us need to be on the server together to make sure it's not an issue.

Done some laps on server and i have no problem to drive this GP version with chicane )  Very challenging and will bring some randomizer  ;)

I've had a play and the track only supports 24 pit boxes online. Anymore and you get chucked off after it's all loaded. I tried a quick race locally with 30 cars and had an accident being put on the grid as 2 cars can't go in to one slot.

Maybe I didn't explained so good. I was hypothesyze to apply ballasts in accord with your position on every single race. So, if we would have applied what I was meaning from the start of the champ we would have had a situation like this for the first six drivers after four races. Every driver will start the first race with no ballast in my example. For a no show I will count no ballast added/deducted. Obviously you can't go sub-zero.

1 Gavino Pintus = 0 +30 +30 + 30 +30 = 120 kgs ballast for the next race
2 Maikel K. = 0 +10 - 20 (0) - 20 (0) + 10 =10 kgs
3 Manteos = 0 - 20 (0) + 0 + 10 + 20 = 30 kgs
4 bimbo nos = 0 + 0 + 20 + 20 - 30 = 10 kgs
5 ChrisR = 0 + 20 - 10 + 0 - 30 = -20 (0) kgs
6 Jeffrey = 0 + 0 + 10 -10 -10 = -10 (0)  kgs

Probably, as stated by Mark, this system could advantage a bit the drivers that are between 7th and 10th position, with some more chances to have a reshullfing in the top ten from time to time. At the same time as we did in some old GTR2 championship, a roof of 100/120 kgs max. for ballast is needed.
In Monza you would have had Gavino with +90 kgs, Maikel with 0 kgs, Me with 10 kgs, Massimo Bonni with + 40 kgs, ChrisR with +10 kgs, Jeffrey with 0 kgs, and it could have add some variables to the race. However with this situation the race could have been a little bit closer IMO.
We could decide to deduct 30 kgs of ballast penalty for the drivers who jump a race, cause jumping a race is already a heavy handicap for the overall standing.

The other proposal of putting some ballast to the 'fastest drivers' or to the 'fastest cars' would be something difficult to adopt, cause that imply an individual decision of some sort of Judge, and not the use of an objective parameter like the final position obtained at the end of the race.
If you wanted to race with a 'balanced' pack of cars, you should have had a period of pre-testing by some 'beta-testers' to let them try all the cars of the pack and decide which are the 'fastest'/'slower' car of the pack. Then putting some ballast according to the opinion of the beta-testers or make a brand new mod, modifying the files of the car to obtain a balance of performance of the cars (not of the drivers), as we use to do in Italy in the GTRItalia championship, in which, after the modders finished their work, you would have a couple of weeks to test the entire field of cars and than make your definitive decision. These things needs a lot of time, something that we didn't have before the champ started.

I raced here with my teammates using Legzy's tokens, grouping the cars/drivers in what was the "handicapped" season, or in the "Reverse grid" season, during which your start position was determined by your average finish position during the champ. I really don't care too much about my final position at the end of the race or in the overall standing. I care about have some close racing with some fair drivers.
In this championship I really see just one 'alien' here, as you label fastest drivers. Than there is a bunch of 5/6 very good drivers really close to each other as the previous races and the overall standing demonstrates. Maybe, the alien with 90 kgs of ballast could have been beaten by some of us, or at least he should have sweated much more to win the race. Just my two cents.

I hope to have been clearer than in my previous post.

Waiting for some opinion of the other drivers. See you chaps :)

Not top secret for all ( may be just for Mark?  ;) that GT3 cars are not well balanced at all. I saw that situation before the champ was begun - and i was send info for current BOP variations earlier in my posts about this chapm. (Just for info.) So it's all in hands of organisators- which rules we will take for this champ. I having my own  fun in not balanced cars in this champ as is. I am not have a headache about italian's aliens who join the champ in "NO BOP" rules. But i aggree with Manteos in case : do not try to compensate low skill cars\drivers in current whan champ is already going.  BOP must be done BEFORE start the championship. Otherwise it will can ends not good. All is just IMHO. I drive in SLOW car BMW but i have a fun with guys around me anyway.  2 Mark- in next GT3 champ you think better about rules  :)

I think we only need to test how Assetto Corsa simulates the ballast.
Except for the lower speed we need to check if the tyres works well with 120kg or more.

But anyway, if you think there're some slower gt3 cars I always can change my italian bull

I'm not so keen to start adding ballast part way through the championship but have no problem having it in the next GT3 champiobship.

I'm still having lots of fun despite not being so competive as the last GT3 championship. I should of stuck with the Nissan and only changed to the McLaren to add more variety to the grid. So despite not being so competitive, at least I'm in the best looking car on the grid and everytime you guys pass me or I pass you, I know you are all whispering under your breath, "damn thats one sexy looking McLaren, easily the best looking car on the grid". I know its true, keeping it real  ;D ;D ;D

Well I confess it came as a surprise to me that the gt3 class was not already BoP'd. It was only Baikal raising the point that made us prevent aliens using the McLaren  :-\  No other cars appeared to have any advantage in our first Blancpain series.
I'm a busy guy and only just about find time to organise championships and meagre practise, so I rely on info I get from our regulars for other aspects, so all feedback you guys give is good for information.  :) We admittedly didn't have much lead in for this series due to work/holidays etc hence why some things have been adapted on the hoof.
But hey, so far the racings been great and battles close so I still don't see any need for big changes. Ballast is a good idea but needs to be done from the start and properly tested as you guys state. Next time eh?

So Estoril, with only 24 grid slots it's cutting it close, but generally we are getting about 19 drivers out of the 25 signed up each week so it should be okay. Will just ask non attendees to let us know in advance. Of course if we get 24+ I am stuffed  :P

BT turned up today, spent all afternoon trying to repair my isp and left it even worse  >:( so now I have no phone or broadband ...grrr  my own series is being ruined by them for me  :'(

So sorry about that Mark... I hope you'll return to wed anyway) You can use your friends home place and his PC for racing . Let it be the case of afterparty drink a bear!  ;D

use air restriction rather than ballast

How?

Go to acServerManager , manual , look entry_list futures descriptions :)

You guys are looking into this way too much  ;D the only person who complained was ChrisR, nobody else as far as I recall has an issue with the series standings so far or the close racing.  :thumbup1:

Pleased to say I had another BT engineer ringing my doorbell at 8.20 this morning  :o to fix my broadband successfully  :jumpjoy:

Woah.. i wasnt complaining,  hope it didn't come across as that. 

I just made a suggestion to use ballast / air restrictors to bring the entire field closer together..

It was dismissed, we moved on.

Not dismissed just entertained and discussed for future series  :)

Interesting, as i thought it was talked about previously and a number of people were dead set against adding ballast weight. Not really relevant for most people of course, unless we also look to lose weight down the field.

Any confirmation of track config for next week?

To be honest, Last season in the Z4 I was running in around 6th/7th when I didn't muck up in most races.
This season I'm around 10th in the Lambo - and there are at least 3 new faster types in the series Vs last year.

Can't complain really, and if the Lambo really is the wonder car it's being made out to be I can only get better as I get to grips with the setups (I'm finally getting there based on Misano/Monza results ;D )

I would be happy to see ballast. It worked well in GTR2 when we used it. It didn't really affect the order, just brought people slightly closer together. I would like to see negative for people down the order to bring them closer. I think we did that before?

I'm happy to introduce part way through a season if the field is too spread out, but whatever you feel is best.

Although in theory we could say it's mid point Round 5 so the second half of the series could use ballast, we would need some proper testing. You would surely have to test the effects on every car over a race distance  :-\ and with varying weights!  :o
Not the work of a moment and not something I have time (or inclination) to test.

I really really don't think you need to do any testing. A little bit of weight does not make that much difference. It's just to reduce or increase pace of people not cars a little bit. I like the suggested values from Baikel was it? as a starting point.

This (interesting) BoP article makes for a good read.  :)

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2016/08/10/understanding-balance-of-performance.html

Whatever the decision is, it needs to be made quickly. If weight is unfair because it affects other cars more than others, then maybe look at the air restriction. But I think that will require more testing, as that is something new and will also have different effect per car.

Now that we have a solid group of at least 6 hot shoes up front and in order to give the rest of us mortals a (slim) fighting chance in some rounds and keeping interest levels up, I would like to investigate ways of bringing the pack closer together for future series without penalising quick guys too much.
If you guys get the chance, it would be great if you ran some tests to see what effect adding/subtracting ballast has on certain cars and lap times.  :)
I know from my track days how weight affects a cars balance, handling, braking and speed so I know ballast should produce what we are hoping for.
The other option is the darker art of air restrictors  :o

Mark, I already tried to explain you that the BoP is not a matter that you can solve in a week. You would need some good test-drivers, and I'm not. For Massimo is quite the same. We would race with a quasi-default setup with every car without Gavino's help. Unfortunately seems that who prepared default setups for Assetto Corsa was a bit drunk, and they are all pretty rubbish IMO.
With some setups tweak in Assetto Corsa you can make the difference if we compare this game with GTR2, in which between a good setup and a default one the gap was almost never over the second with the same driver. In AC this gap has surely widen.

So, I would be glad to say you that I'll have the time to do some test with all the car pack, and tell you which is the difference between a Lambo with + 50 kgs of ballast and all the other car in the same situation, but my laptimes would be untrustworthy.

Now that I've read again the first pages of this thread and I looked at the ballasts posted by Alexey and what other drivers said after his post, I report their words:
1) Jeffrey stated that next to the 650, Nissan would have been the 2nd best
2) Simon said: " In order for me it's the Porsche fastest, then Merc GT3, then the rest"
3) Michael Boylan said: " I just tested the McLaren, Nissan and Audi and for me the McLaren was the slowest "
4) Maikel K. said: "Agree. If the quick drivers just don't pick the 650 it doesn't matter much. May even bring the field closer." Pete answered: "Amen".
5) Then, after I read these posts, I just told to Gavino: "I don't know GT3 performances at all, but they don't want fastest drivers racing with the 650, so let's start to try Lambos and Ferraris".... You know... we love our made in Italy even if money comes from Germany ;D
Having not read any comment on Lambos, I thought it could be a good challenge, even because I remembered that Ruskus was a damned fast devil during GTR2 days, and he didn't mentioned (like the other drivers) the Lambo as one of the fastest cars.

Now, I just reported all these opinions to get to the point. In which way you would balance this mod in a few days for the remaining car/track combos?
Next races will be:

- Paul Ricard (A or B track group following Baikal's classification)
- Spa (B group)
- Budapest (C group)
- Nurburgring (C group)
- Barcelona (B group)

A - Hi speed\ low aero : Monza
B - Hi speed\ middle aero : Silverstone , Spa, Road Atlanta, Nordchleife, Watkins Glen
C - Middle speed\ hi aero: Mid-Ohio, Zandvoort, Macau, Vallelunga, Laguna Seca

Given the fact that I won't have time to spare for practice with all the cars of the pack, and that it would be difficult to extract some useful data by my tests, I see only Baikal's way to be adopted or Chris' proposal about air restrictors, even if I maintain that both would be less fair than my proposal after the champ has already started, cause they are 'subjective' ways to balance the performance, whereas your final position is always an 'objective' data.

In the end, you must definitely abandon the idea of an instant BoP for the next 5 races Mark, because every driver has different driving skills and feelings about any car. When we used to race in GTR2 italian champs, we always BoPed the car pack, and after 4/5 WEEKS of tests made by some great test-drivers of different teams (included Gavino) you will have a well balanced car pack, or at least a balance that would satisfy the majority.
We have no time for this, so we have to choose between 3 different proposal:
1) Baikal's ballasts
2) Chris' air restrictors
3) Ballast given according to your final position in the subsequent races
and
4) Leave the things as they are

Let's start a poll and see what people think about that, or this BoP will become just a chimera.

See you :)

Manteos, thank you for the lengthy reply but you mis read my post, it is for the future series I wanted some testing done now so that we are fore armed with good info on how to ballast say the top 5 cars at each race, not necessarily how to handicap individual cars.
As you rightly say and the race posts have proved, each car suits different drivers in different ways so I don't think ballasting a car is the right way, it's ballasting a driver they should have a better effect.

So just to clarify :- there is no ballasting or further BoP intended for this series. I am perfectly happy with the results table as many of you are super close on points.  :) Gavino is the stand out uber alien  ;D

I don't really understand the intention here. There is no point in ballasting cars. The cars are not the "problem". Ballasting cars will do nothing if the intention is to bring field closer together. Ballasting must be done on drivers if the intention is to bring field closer together. The Lambo is not the reason our Italian friends are winning, it's cause they are faster, as they would be in any car!

Actually, thats not entirely true..

The 650's and lambo ARE the easier cars to extract lap times from.. they dont suffer over kerbsas much, they can put the power down faster and they can brake pretty good too..

With your logic, putting gavino in each car and let him have 2 months in each would return practically the same lap times.. it wouldn't, the 650 and lambo will always be the faster cars.

You are right by saying we need to BOP the "drivers" not the cars, for example Gavino  would receive more BOPing if he drove the lambo over driving the gtr for example.

All that needs to happen is have a rule that the top 10 drivers have a BOP applied after each race. The BOP doesnt change.. for example..

1st - 10kg / 10%
2nd - 8kg / 8%
3rd - 6kg / 6%
4th - 4kg / 4%
5th - 2kg / 2%
6th - 0kg / 6%
7th - 0kg / 4%
8th - 0kg / 3%
9th - 0kg / 2%
10th - 0kg / 1%

After each race has finished these restrictions are applied to the following race.. your bop is reset after each race so the BOP doesnt accumulate. Obviously i just picked these numbers from thin air in an attempt to visualise the BOP Idea.

all that needs to happen to test this is run each car and extract the fastest lap. Then apply the highest BOP and see how much it effects the laptime and fine tune it to suit , maybe 1 second , then fill in the rest from that.

Lol, in this case I definitely mis read your post Mark :)

However I just watched at another italian GT3 Blancpain championship rules, and they just decided they wouldn't BoP the cars, but instead they preferred to add some ballast according to your final position every race without accumulating it race after race. You could start from a similar base for future series:

1)50 Kg
2)40 Kg
3)30 Kg
4)25 Kg
5)20 Kg
6)15 Kg
7)10 Kg
8)5 Kg

If you want to penalize more the first three drivers you could change it like this:
1) 65 kg
2) 45 kg
3) 35 kg
4) 25 Kg
5) 20 Kg
6) 15 Kg
7) 10 Kg
8) 5 Kg

Then you have endless position/ballast combos, so you have just to guess some ballast numbers. It won't be the perfect system. It would work surely better in a single make champ, but we could give it a try.


You're hilarious mate. Strange fact that quite nobody picked Lambo even in Core-racing champ. They must be a bunch of idiots :D.
Even more strange is the fact that in Racing on the web Blancpain GT3 championship our italian friends raced at the end of 2016 the most preferred car to drive was Ferrari 488, then you have 4 Nissan GTR, 2 650s and two Lambos.
And even more strange was the fact that the 488 DOMINATED two races: Spa Francorchamps and Brands Hatch for instance, than Nissan dominated at Le Mans and Monza, and won by 4 tenths after 1h 30 mins race at the Nordschleife. 650 won only Silverstone's race.

You must have the truth in your pocket.
I repeat: you are Hilarious. Go on writing things like this, so the people can read and understand. I won't stop you :)

http://www.racingontheweb.net/campionati/SLS/sls_1.15/php/index.php?dataarray%5Bdest%5D=resevent&dataarray%5Bshownicks%5D=1&dataarray%5BIDrace%5D=45&dataarray%5BIDseason%5D=4 (http://www.racingontheweb.net/campionati/SLS/sls_1.15/php/index.php?dataarray%5Bdest%5D=resevent&dataarray%5Bshownicks%5D=1&dataarray%5BIDrace%5D=45&dataarray%5BIDseason%5D=4)

If anything, the Porsche is just as fast as the 650 in qually and better during the race due to the engine benefit.

No mate... these are bullxxxxs! We must be a bunch of idiots if we don't understand that we are driving one of the two fastest car  ;D ;D ;D

Can I have the New Beetle for the next please?  ;D ;D ;D

Guys,

Regarding the topic of balance the car, someone have tried in the past?
There're a lot of differencies between objective data and some words and ideas based on some (mostly wrong) "sensations".
When you balance a carset you need to take care about

- fuel consumption (In GTR2 the Lister was the car with less fuel consumption. For this reason in the past some teams have won some 24h in the online racing)
- changes with the ballast (in GTR2 the Maserati MC12 with 100kg loose 2secs. The Saleen only 1sec)
- tyres comparison (wear, temps, speed)
- Maximum speed(you need to check if some car can go with less wings than other cars and gain some important kph)
- gains with the setup. (Some default setup are fine)
- Curbs management
- Drivers that are not able to push all the cars(real enemy)
- Wrong data that comes from other "testers"

Moreover you need to save the characteristics for each car. But when you do this work, you'll find that if the cars have the same perfomance, then all the drivers will take the fastest car on the straights. So also in this case the goal is not accomplished.
With GTR2 I've balanced 9 cars in 0.08secs, but I need 39 thousand(?!) laps on Suzuka.

With Assetto Corsa there're less variables(like rain tyres), but don't trust to the sensations.
I've tried the Porsche on Estoril with the default setup. After the first ever lap I made 39.5. I believe is faster than Lambo and Ferrari(but remember is a sensation), but I'm sure that is easier than the Lambo.
I've tried the Mercedes AMG. In my opinion is a very good car and the engine sound is fantastic. But I don't have some data that demonstrate you I'm right.

The balance of performance about the cars is impossible because Kunos updates them too often.
In my opinion the ballast depending on the position you had at the end of the race is the most straightforward and effective.

Holy guacamoly  :o.

Which is also a reason why I didn't think it was a good idea to implement it mid season.

Is there a way to decide where the balast is placed?

The way the cars are now, there are only a few non competitive cars, like the old Merc and McLaren. Even the Z4 is quite alright, as also shown at CORE. So do we really need a lot of work put into getting this right, for such a small benefit? Isn't there a league that has already done this which we can learn from and use their system?

Most went with the better choice, the 650s  ;D
Upcoming race at Spa has 11 McLarens so far.

No idea what the link is suppose to verify. Comparing those results with ones from here and Core at Silverstone, with the Nissan I'm slightly faster then the quickest Nissan there and with the Ferrari I'm about 2 seconds a lap quicker then the quickest Ferrari over there  :o

And comparing Gavino's pace with the Lambo here and the quikest Lambo over there is an even bigger difference.

Though I Iike the idea of a ballast system based on drivers position for any upcoming seasons.

You're right. That link does not verify nothing Maikel. Those laptimes were done before the last AC update, so the laptimes are unmatchable. I can assure you that between those drivers there are some of the fastest drivers in Italy like Fornasiero, Fistarol, Mazzei, Nania. So, the fastest Ferrari on track was that driven by Fistarol, who didn't join Silverstone's race, not surely that driven by Basilico, that is the admin of ROTW. The only thing that is verifiable is that even before the update, Lambo had no appeal between the fastest italian drivers leaving free choice.
In CORE instead, seems the feeling is the same after the update, cause just me and Petzold did pick the Lambo. I guess that someone should shout out and unveil the secret of the 2nd best choice, we need a whistleblower  ;D ;D ;D

Doing another research, I've found that VDA team did join another italian champ, the Simleague GT3 champ, in which Massimo Bonni and Gavino did join one race as reserves. Here they went for a different type of BoP.
You had to choose the car/track combo before the champ started, and you were forced to change the car every race, so everyone drove a different car in every track. Evenmore, every team was composed by 2 drivers, and they had to choose 2 different cars on the same track. Adding to this that you would gain ballast according to your final position in race.
It could be interesting even this way.

I have no idea what your problem is, maybe you still think i'm bothered about the performance of Gavino in the Lambo, I don't think you chose the Lambo in an attempt to be the fastest, i understand that you chose it because its the one you just wanted to drive, that's fair enough.. i really don't have a problem with it. Let me tell you categorically.. please try understand i am NOT bothered how fast any of you are, in what ever cars you are in.. At the moment in AC the 650s and the Lambo are on par of being the easier cars to drive in the GT3 lineup.. the reasons for that is because they are more forgiving on the limit and are easier to control at the limit and easier cars usually end up with the fastest lap times.. the 911 is faster at some tracks, but it is one of the hardest cars to drive at the limit and certainly consistently. if you don't understand what i am saying i can not do anything else to make it easier to understand.. physics change all the time in AC and what once was in 2016 isn't what is now.. i'm sorry to say, you can not use data from so long ago and hope its relevant today. You will find that once 1.15 is released the tyre model is going to change yet again and the cars will most likely alter all over again, then.. the Lambo and 650S may not be the fastest, maybe it will be the Nissan which becomes the dominant car like it was 18 months ago.  

Good hopefully you all finally got the gist that I want to ballast the drivers not the car in future series.
That's why I asked if you guys with more spare time could say try your chosen car at a certain track with +50kg+30kg etc and take note of your laptimes after doing a few solid clean laps without ballast. It's the only way we can know what the effect is.
That BoP article I linked too reckoned +30kg was worth 0.4 secs of a lap in their tests.

No Chris, it's you that don't understand what is really clear by any person who posted inside this thread. What you write are only your OPINIONS. You have simply no DATA to comfort what you're repeating again, and again, and again about Lambos.
And let me say, if the logic of your words should have some value, that you are stating that more than 32 people racing in CORE does not understand nothing about this game, cause you have much more BMWs and Porsches driven by the faster drivers of that champ, leaving apart the 11 drivers with the 650.

Just to say... Gavino didn't agree with you in his last post about the ease of driving comparing Lambo and Porsche, but it's very clear by his word that is only his OPINION.

Lambo easy to control at the limit?
You're a funny guy, let me say this. ;D ;D

Sure mate..

I might as well just go talk to a brick wall.

Just been doing some number crunching using RSR and I have found the following.

What the table shows is how many people managed to get within 2 seconds of the WR on each car/track combo which core are using

(http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac245/Chrisr1984/total2_zpsnyyisx8k.jpg)

the table below is just the total amount. so for example, the mclaren had 3 times where it had the most drivers within 2 seconds of the wr and 3 times where it had the 2nd highest amount of drivers within 2 seconds.. so i just made it easier to read in the table, the lambo had 1 time where it had the 2nd highest, and 5 times where it had the 3rd highest.

if you add it all up to the top 3 then you find the following

Mclaren = 6 combos
Lambo = 6 combos

911 = 4 combos
R8 LMS = 4 combos
488 = 4 combos

R8 2016 = 3 combos

Merc = 1 combo
Nissan = 1 combo

Finally some numbers.

This table should represents which concept in your opinion?

This table backs up my "opinion" that the lambo and the 650s are the easiest to drive because more drivers managed to get closer to the wr than in other cars.

LOL  ;D

Did you spent all the night on this table? Didn't you know that I was trolling you?  ::)

It is cristal clear by these VERY USEFUL numbers ( ???) that:

1) You are able to write some numbers
2) You are able to fill the cells with different colours

I'm very happy for you  ;D

The thing I'm not going to explain you is why this table does not demonstrate anything, because is a simple question of logic. I won't give you any help, because I'm sure that you can solve the matter by yourself. Just consider to write a book: "The art of wasting time messing numbers on Excel"  ;D


I'll tell you what: Yes! The Lambo is AT LEAST the 2nd best, you have convinced me!

So, maybe, you will be finally happy

P.S. Mate I was checking your table again, cause I was hypnotized by the beauty of all that numbers inside some coloured cells, and guess what?

You forgot to mention the BMW in this VERY USEFUL  ??? table  ;D ;D ;D

A kind of anti-scientific method  ::)

Waste some more time for us please  :D

My thoughrs on this,

1. Do they use ballast in the real Blancpain championship?

If NO, then no point doing it EVER here and move on. If you are fast then well done, if you're slow then get quicker or get used to it.

If YES, then too late for this season and add it for next season with pre-season testing.

Can we move on now please?

The table doesn't prove anything as it contains too many variables. Let 1 driver use all cars and see how close they can come to WR times at RSR. Besides, those laptimes are not representative at all, I've seen WR times that are easily beatable and really good times. It all depends on who took the time to go for a WR and how many attempts there were.

Both the McLarens, both Mercs, the Audi and the Nissan are all easier to drive than the Lambo, which is a lot less forgiving on the limit. But if you find the Lambo so easy to go fast in, go on the server for the rest of the season and put in laps with the Lambo (or is it too hard to drive 2 cars competitively  ::)).

 ;D I'm slow, got used to it a long time ago, only way to get faster is for everyone but me to have a 500kg ballast added. Hope this lightens the thread a little.......

You'll be racing against this next season:
(https://media.truckstar.nl/2011/10/Foto_163729200663533.jpg)

Most of the lambo wr's were set by gavino..

I appreciate that not all wr's are the ultimate best recorded by the fastest drivers but thats not quite the point of the table, the table shows how many drivers are within 2 seconds  of  the wr on any given car/track combo , regardless of what it is.. if you only get 2 people within 1 second of the wr, then imo its deemed harder to drive because less people are capable of extracting the lap times. in the lambo, some of the wr's were set by gavino yet there were still many people within 2 seconds of that time. So either that means the wr's are really slow.. (doubt it if its gavino driving) or people find it easier to drive the car.

This is not showing the ultimate pace of a car/combo.. just a quick attempt to relate the ease of driving. Jeff, to you the lambo might feel on edge, it does to me a little bit.. but for the overall majority it seems only a fraction harder to drive than the 650s.

I did say that i used RsR and any one who has done some WR setting on there knows its not wholly accurate, but its the onlynplace i know of where i can get the information..

manteos,
I didnt include the bmw, sls, 12c etc because they were the older gt3, the r8 and nissan were just "i wonder" cars because i drove the r8 last year, and bob was in the nissan.

I cant be arsed to do any more but feel free, i genuinely have no idea how they would come out.

Again way too many variables. Did Gavino put as much effort into every WR, did the group of chasing cars all exist of the same people and did they try as hard per track? Did they all use the same track settings and I can go on and on. Also, 2 seconds on a long track is not the same as on a short track, and some tracks might favour 1 car more than the other.


Please tell me who this majority is?



For me there are only 3 options for next season:

1) Don't use any ballast
2) Use set amount, independant of car (for instance 1st gets 40kg, 2nd 30 etc)
3) Use system that was used and tested at another league.

Whatever gets picked, it needs to be picked well in advance, so everybody can test the cars and take ballast into consideration. If their car then suffers more because of the weight, so be it, they picked it and had the chance to test it.

Im not talking about how to balance the cars ffs!

Im just backing up my opinion that the lambo and 650s are the easier of the gt3 cars to drive..

Balancing is another thing entirely and i would never balance the cars using that table its just moronic!

I wouldnt be keen on using just ballast,  ballast changes the drive characteristics too much for the amount you need to have decent BOP.  i think you need to have both for a more fairer BOP.

I have not even looked at BoP for GT3 cars, a couple of ideas but nothing i would say is deffinate.

What you "could" look at is having cars which get free points for the races they enter.

For EXAMPLE slower cars like the amg or nissan get a number of  free points added to  their respective finish positions.

That will bring championship closer together, but it wont bring the grids closer together.

I think the best way would be to have maikel, gavino, jeff and myself all drive the cars and each apply ballast/restrictors to the cars until the cars are somewhat even over a short,medium and long track.

Then collaborate together and see what the results are..

Then what does it matter which cars is easier to drive than the other? Would you also start all this if the Lambo and 650 were easy to drive, but slow?

Your concern wasn't the fact that they are easy to drive, you have a problem with those cars being fast.

And you haven't replied to my question who the majority is.

I never started anything..

I just expressed an opinion of fairness..

Whiie I'm sure there is some constructive comments somewhere in the above posts, can you guys stop bickering in my championship thread?  :P
Any potential new drivers reading this will just think we are a bunch of moody trolls  ::) so please drop the spite creeping in to posts.  :angel:
I have already said we will not be ballasting car types, just race positions (if ballasting works as hoped) and not in this series but for future series.  :hammer:

Or...maybe a Premier Inn (http://www.premierinn.com) is more suitable?  ;) :P :-*

Thank god everyone has calmed down!

Everyone? There were only 3 arguing  ;)

Hi guys!
I'm Daniele, another spaghetti driver ready to race in the next one! See you soon ;)

Ciao Daniele, welcome.  if you are wanting to race tonight I need your Steam guid (long number begins with 7) and your chosen car and skin preference (custom or stock) to get you in the driver entry file otherwise you will not be able to join

This guy is another VDA mate, but he won't race tonight. He should be in for the next round at Spa.

Okay thanks Manteos, if you could tell him the info we require that would be great  :)  do I need to create a prima liga de Italia in the results?  ;D

Please do, it'll bump my placings up a bit!

Hello, I'm Simone, another VDA driver. I would like to join the next race at Spa with the Ferrari 488 if possible. My Steam guid is 76561198286380088. See you on track!

Ciao Simone, you are welcome to join us for the Spa race as more cars the merrier.  :) But if you and Daniele are just joining for the one race I will not be including you in the championship points as it robs the series  regulars who have attended most races.

Lol I think we need a separate VDA championship ;)

They are already pretty seperated  ;D

Both Simone and Daniele said they will probably race only at Spa, so don't include them on champonship points is correct.

They're the "VDA delayed team". I assure you that they won't be faster than Gavino  ;D... maybe Simone will battle against Massimo, and they could have some incident during the race so I can gain a couple fo position ;D. They're friends in real life but when on track they resemble more to Rocky Balboa vs Ivan Drago  ;D ;D

I can just join this race, very busy right now and not so much time for simracing :( probably a friend will join too.
Some few question,
there is a number of drivers limit? We don't want to overfill the grid.
I was reading about custom skin, are you using a symsinc or a shared link to download the skin pack?

As soon as I can I will provide my and my friend steam guid and car selection, probably r8 and 488.

https://mkurv989.stackstorage.com/s/bXprz5TFRBM9jhr (https://mkurv989.stackstorage.com/s/bXprz5TFRBM9jhr)

You will go with a defaul skin. Do not bother these kind chaps  :D

About the issue of an overfilled grid I guess that we might use the OSRW used in the last race at CORE with 32 places if you agree  ???

We had approx 27 drivers and a few don't turn up each week, so a couple of more Italians shouldn't cause a problem. If I get any more new guys signing up then I will switch to osrw version.

I'm already fluent in Italian
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41toFt7zi6L.jpg)

In Holland we usually do this gesture to ask people: "Green house?" or... "Varmoesstraat?"  ;D ;D ;D

;D

I make those sorts of shapes with my hand when I'm making shadow puppets on the wall for the children. ;D That one is "the snake".

To Simone,  okay you are in the '17_racing_499' skin F488  8)

To Dottofoggy, I still need your car choice and guid.

Any other of my regular moaners drivers had best let me know if you are changing your car (and whatever you choose you are stuck with it the rest of the season) :-*  I am only allowing this as don't want drivers getting dis-heartened and not attending, next time test the flipping car!

We have 29 drivers listed now  :o  though Thomas Blackett hasn't attended in ages, so may drop him unless he shouts up before this race.

I'll take the Ferrari then  ;D

Normally I don't like switching cars midseason but I'm starting to get quite irritated by the Nissan. I'll admit, I'm a sore loser and being seconds of pace to the front runners really gets under my skin  8)
I was a good second faster overal with the Ferrari at Silverstone then the Nissan. Though that was also the reason I chose the Nissan at first, but having those crazy fast VDA guys up front I need some more speed ( or grip  ;D ) now.

Tomorrow i have everything you need

Me - Daniele Rolfi - 488 - guid is coming
Another Italian :p
A friend - Pierluigi Leli - R8 - guid is coming

For me a black skin if is possible or a random one

Sorry for delay, busy at work and after work :(

Cant wait to take the wheels after months to meet this group and try to stay as close as I can to the top drivers :D

What a grid  :o.

Hope some of you will also attent other series after this, or else we'll just have to do GT3 till we drop (don't forget, we did years of GTR2, so it's not that crazy  ;)).

All this horror talk about the Nissan really wants me to go back to it, but I won't swap without a legit reason as the Lambo is fine ;D

Maikel you are joint 3rd in the table, why on earth do you also want to change cars? I was more thinking of us poor mortals who feel they can't get the best out of the supposed better cars or doesn't suit their driving, for changes  :(

Only reason I'm still third is because I haven't missed a race. During races I'm about a second off of these guys, something the Ferrari would probably fix abit  ;D

But if everyone just picked an alleged faster car we wouldn't have a Blancpain series   ::) however Felix and Chris both changed and they were top 6 drivers so I will not deny you a car change. :angel:
Let me know skin choice asap, same for Linus.

*wrong place

Mark, I'm not planning on changing. I was just joining in with the fun :)

Probably wise as think the 650s is a bit of a weapon at Spa  :)

I'll go with Rossi's Ferrari then  ;D
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ferrari-488-gt3-vr-racing-team.11184/

Was going to do some practise laps but its just too hot here. Stupid heat  8)

 :o : :o Oh No, am I the only surviving Nisvan, need a plan.....

Ask nsfw for his setups from season 1, he's helpful  :angel:

Always tried to create my own set ups for the cars, call me old school but very rarely do I use others set ups, never been worried where I finish, just like to try and finish. Hope the weather cools down a bit for Wed, pc and rig in a very small room and it gets really hot.

I like doing that too bob but lately I find I go down setup cul de sacs  :'( plus I just don't get enough spare time to test all the options. Mind you alien setups are usually a law unto themselves  ;)

My offer to switch to a GTR still stands if Mark wants variety on the grid - although I'll need to know by this evening as most of my practice will be early tomorrow while it's still cool enough to venture into the spare bedroom...

Only if you want to fmg, I can swap your car in the file easy enough, just need the chosen skin.

OK,  swap me. I only took the Lambo originally because no one else seemed to want it other than Jeffers I think.  As we then had the virtual Lambo owners club join in the fun plus a few switches elsewhere it seems only fair to jump into something else underrepresented - especially as I have to assume I don't really gel with it anyway...
I'll link to the skin later this evening when I can get on the pc  :)

Here you go - Subtlety is, as ever, my middle name  ;)


(http://www.racedepartment.com/attachments/2-jpg.186285/)

Haha brilliant ..Rinky dink panther... ;D will spot you a mile off  :o

edit, the Japanese script in the title caused a problem with the driver entry file so I have renamed it and re-zipped it up using just the 2k version.

Install the skin from here into your content/Nissan.../skins folder
https://www.dropbox.com/s/78qy7tdhu7vrfdq/SUPER_GT300_48_DIJON_Racing.rar?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/78qy7tdhu7vrfdq/SUPER_GT300_48_DIJON_Racing.rar?dl=0)

blooming ummer!! LOL!

Am I right in thinking I'll need to rename my own car/directory the same as your creation to actually see the skin in game? I'm not 100% on how AC handles car ID's..

Yeah I would just delete yours as it has sub directories in it with the Japanese script. Just install my link to your  Nissan/skins folder  :). Or rename all your skin sub folders to remove the jap script but it has to match my skin title or won't work hence safer to just delete and reinstall.  

Hope I get to battle the pink panther on steroids  ;D

I've copied your naming onto a copy of the original so should work (naturally I'm running the 4k version as it looks so cool).
I had the Lambo into the 2:20's - so that's my target to beat this morning before the sun can move around  :)

Ah okay I removed the 4K version as didn't think many used them as resource heavy.

Sorry but tonight I can not take part in the race for personal problems

Off topic but if anyone doesn't have the older DLC yet, every one except the new Ready to Race DLC is 50% off.  ;)

Hi Mark,

You can remove me from the rest of the championship if you need space for other drivers. For the next 4 or 5 weeks I wont get the time to race I'm afraid.

Makes for an interesting read:-

https://www.reddit.com/r/acrl/comments/6ikp13/gt3_survey_results/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/acrl/comments/6ikp13/gt3_survey_results/)

In one of those hindsight moments and with all the agro this season experienced with BoP aspertions, I realise we jumped right into this series without a test race or two. That was probably a mistake as meant people chose a car without fully knowing if they would get on with it. But probably, like me, you assumed it was all business as normal like we had for season1 Blancpain.  :-\  Even looking back on that I now realise several aliens joined in throughout the season running the useful weapon (in the right hands) that is the McLaren 650 as that was no doubt the better car at the time. :detective:
More work needed by Kunos on their GT3 BoP me-thinks  :P

Average pace of the cars in the hands of a good driver across a whole season (in my opinion of course and not including the new R8):
Group 1:
1. Mclaren 650S GT3
2. Audi R8 LMS Ultra (2014)
3. Lamborghini Huracan GT3

Group 2:
4. Ferrari 488 GT3
5. Porsche 911 GT3R
6. BMW Z4 GT3
7. Mercedes AMG GT3

Group 3:
8. Mercedes SLS GT3*
9. Glickenhaus SCG003C
10. Nissan GT-R GT3
11. Mclaren MP4-12C GT3*

This seems pretty much what I found out after some quick testing and after a race or 2  8)
Now you know why I wanted to get rid of the Nissan  ;D

Maybe the cars will be better balanced next tyre model, though I don't you can ever get a perfect BOP out of it. It's not that bad if you only look at group 1 and 2 though.

I think ballast may be an answer for the group1 cars but needs testing. I certainly think we should introduce say a top 5 finishers ballast next series to bring the field closer and present more of a challenge to the very quick front guys, though not to the point of making their race un-enjoyable. Again still needs testing. I need a couple of consistent lap time testers really to see what the effect is of adding x-amount of ballast, say 30kg max for starters.

Your making it far more complicated than it needs to be.

Just air restrict (lower the power) of the top 10 "drivers" in decreasing increments, the only thing you need to work out is how much air restriction you need to bring your desired time out of the lead.

It  might even be as simple as 10% for first place down to 1% for 10th i dont know i havent tested it

Is that an option in game, to limit power? Every car is different?

Yes, since the 1.14 update.

According to one comment on the official forum (here: http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/update-1-14-and-rtr-dlc-impressions.45319/page-2) 25% air restriction equals 0,5 secs time difference

If it works for the ACO Le Mans and FIA bods then it's good enough for us  ;)

I was going to post about in real world Bop is subjective based around a single test driver around a single track. Its not scientific at all. But...

I know everyone critisies Raceroom but driving it i relised that actually the cars in AC arnt real GT3 cars as Bop'd in real life. Everything is adjustable in AC unlike the real cars where they have the gearing fixed, differing min ride heights, fixed diffs etc. to equalise the cars

Has anyone actually looked ot see on the FIA/SRO websites exactly what the BOP for the cars are and replicating it?

Can I just say that I suggested a test race for this very reason but the idea was poo pood :( Last season we ran a test race at Mugello so next season I think we should run another test race as it has hurt us this season.

If you are going to run a test race, make the track one which is the most similar to the majority of layouts, that way it wont be unfairly bop'd.

Still, i think were all trying to put our ideals in, lets just pick a way and test it.. i have loads of free time atm so i dont mind doing some preliminary testing for bop.

Barcelona is often the test track of choice, or Nordschleiffe or portimao these days.
An incremental restrictor test would be useful for the gt3 class as would a way of BoPing the group C cars  ;)

problem with the group c cars which makes it harder than the GT3 cars is the variable turbo boost.

i'm unsure how air restriction would effect the turbo cars, ideally when setting the turbo you want the highest without causing damage at redline, you can usually have and extra 10% because even tho it is damaging the engine the engine life lasts the length of the race. it may be possible to lower the air restriction but increase the boost pressure, which would negate the effect altogether so i will have to work that out.

i will have a quick look how they react to air and ballast and try find something which is decent to start with, but they might need to be tweaked as the series goes on..  but i'm not sure they are too dissimilar out of the box tbh.

But both the ferrari and Mclaren are turbo'd. Definatly feels in the ferrari that top end theres nothing, all the torque kicks in quite low.

You're correct, but they dont have variable turbos.