SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 22

RACE ONE

Practice/car change: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (10 mins)
Race: 20:30 (10 laps)

Track: Silverstone GP 2011 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg187123#post_silverstone11)

Cars allowed: KAD Mini Cooper S Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_mini_cooper_s_kad_works) Excluding Car #'s 6, 9, 40, 58 & 80
                       Additional skins Download this (http://www.mediafire.com/file/5ni1u5jjrf0b1la/Additional_KAD_Mini_skins.zip/file)
            
Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops: Not required

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

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

Special Notes: Note to admin. If used again, turn of Cuts.

Taster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtAy17r__bQ  :chef:

CAR OWNERS

#03 - S.Cargo
#04 - Roguk
#15 - SpecialKS
#27 - Phspok
#30 - seniordan
#31 - EvilClive
#36 - Erling G-P
#39 - Geoffers
#41 - Wiltshire Tony
#52 - Ziu Bacubacu
#55 - Bob M.
#113 - Dominick
#115 - fpolicardi

I think 12 laps is a bit too much for a 25 minute race Tony, 10 laps is more like it. Or of course it could be that you are much faster around here than me!!!! :(

I think your right. I'll change the OP to state 10 laps.

I want a refund  :taz:!! My Mini does not corner like that, how is it that his car does not swap ends as soon as he touches the brake pedal  :wacko:!!

Currently suffering from man flu, and quit a GPL race last night because I was feeling so rough. Will probably start the first race this evening and see how I feel. Maybe if I take enough pain killers the Mini won't feel so bad??

………………………...well, if you are going to argue this point using indisputable facts  ::)

Hmmm, having watched that video again it strikes me that I should have chosen the International circuit and not the GP variant.

But then we wouldn't get the Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel turns so there's three reasons right there why we should do the GP circuit instead.

EDIT: hope you are well enough to join us Clive................but that Man Flu it's a  :hang:

I actually really like the modern Silverstone GP track to drive, but from a spectating point of view it is probably the worst circuit in Britain. Just so much buildings & fencing to obscure your view, when I were a lad you could see around half the circuit from Stowe corner.  :yes: :wheelchair:

Clive what brake pressure are you using, I have mine set to around 82-84%.

Currently brake balance is around 71% Geoff.
I find that if I have it any more forward I cannot get the car to turn in....it just ploughs straight on into the boondocks!!. Pressure is at 84% in an attempt to prevent rear wheels locking.

But, TBH I find I am quickest ( which is currently just about sub 1:30)  when I avoid using the brakes at all lol   ::) and simply ease the car into the corner and balance the lift off oversteer and the power to pull me out again  :-\ The engine takes a hammering with the downshifts, but at least the rear end does not try and get there first!!

I will probably be there at the start of this evening hostilities and just see how I feel as the night progresses  ;)

I will be skipping these.  Have another tennis elbow in the making, so a break will hopefully do me good - and as I would have to search long, hard and probably in vain, for another track I hate as much as I hate this version of Silverstone, it's the right ones to skip.  Can never get the line through those blind entry curves right, and can't get the gearing right for the slow corners; 1st is too low and 2nd is too high; It's driving me bonkers!!   Besides, Clive is a full minute quicker than me, so I would be very far behind the pack anyway...  ;)

LOL How  I wish 1:30 was true  ;D

@ Erling, sounds like common sense to me. Hope the arm recovers soon.

BTW I'm running these race's with a "Full Flag" rules server setting. Just because I'm curious as to what it actually does  ???

I hope you guys don't mind being guinea pigs.  :scared:

Get well soon Clive, glad this was a typo (I am quickest which is currently just about sub 1:30) even 2.30 is 6 secs faster than i can manage, like Erling i dislike this track.

Tony track is not showing on server?

It is, I've just been on it.

Time management and myself have been at odds all week, especially today, so come-back is unfortunately postponed. Probably till Watkins Glen, I like that track.
Have fun all and see you soon™ ....

Sorry Tony just looked and yes its there.

Kurt is right some of the cut tracks are silly. I got bored of trying to avoid them instead of racing
so quit.

Must agree with you Matt and I'm sure others will to. Track to avoid in the future or at least run with cuts off.

Like I said somewhere else, it seems that it takes a whole season before I get to grips with some of the cars. Silverstone and the KAD Mini finally clicked when I joined the server this evening and I realised that I was just trying far too hard into the corners. A lap or two following Geoffers in Race 1 taught me a lot about corner entry  ;)  Thanks Geoff  ;D


I discovered that the "cuts" are quite harsh around here during my practice session this afternoon. So, I actually did a couple of slow laps to find where I thought I would like to push the limits and where I would get penalised.
It seems that even touching some of the sausage kerbs would get a penalty, and even putting 2 wheels ( not the usual 4 off the tarmac ) beyond the rumble strips could end in tears.
Once I knew that, it was a case of adjusting my lines to avoid ALL the kerbs  ::). Even so I still picked up 2 "cuts" in Race 1 and 1 in Race 2.

These Minis are really hard work for me, but the end result is not too bad.

Race 1: Not much to tell as it was a rather lonely race, my main goal was to keep the car on the tarmac: I was way too slow to compete with the leaders but could manage some form of "cushion" on my back side.  ;D
Finally finishing 3rd looked like the opportunity to do better in race 2 as the top guys would start from the end...

Race 2: I hoped that I might be able to hold Geoffers or Clive behind till the finish line if I started in pole, so I decided to remove some fuel (I usually qualify with race fuel). It worked out and I got pole position  8)
My start was quite OK as well and I had a small gap into T1 so I was happy...
until Turn 3 :oops: where I WASTED the benefit of the pole and restarted last.  :'(
Then the race was more interesting as I battled twice (thanks to more mistakes: off + mis-shift) with Bob & Tony, to finally manage to come back to 3rd...  :)

Sorry for quitting guys - really like these cars but not this version of the track. And with the cut warning I was totally annoyed  :P
My only timed lap was about 2:38 so I would have been completely uncompetitive anyway.

I certainly make no claim to be an expert with these cars and I just might have expressed my frustration about them in previous race posts, although it was so low key that many of you will have missed it  ::) But I will offer my observations as to what changed things for me and it might help others who have also been struggling.

My success last night might also have more to do with drugs than any other reason, as I was full of flu medication and paracetamol  ;) But FWIW I can perhaps explain how I found the extra speed for the Silverstone races after some abysmal outings in previous rounds.
I make no secret of the fact that I rarely do much practice for any races in UKGTL or UKGPL. Because I regularly drive on 4 evenings per week and in vastly differing cars and on a variety of tracks, there just is not any spare time to spend getting perfectly prepared for each race. Anyway I do this for fun, so for me a really good race long battle is all the reward that I am looking for wherever that happens to be down through the field.

I was not expecting this round of the K.A.D. series to be any better than the previous attempts, and given that I was feeling less than healthy, I did consider not even turning up. But old habits die hard, and as per normal during Wed p.m. I d/loaded the track and logged on to the server just to make sure that all was working for the evening's hostilities.
With nothing better to do and not feeling inclined to go looking for anything to occupy my time, I transferred the setup I had used from the last round and casually set about running my KAD Mini around the track. We have used this track before somewhere, so it only took a lap or two to refresh the single functioning memory cell about which corner came next. That did help me negotiate the track but the car was swapping ends or ploughing straight on at most corners, so that I had about 10 attempts before actually completing a very slow lap.

If that was an indication of how the two races in the evening were likely to evolve I might as well forget it!!

Braking was most definitely where things were just WRONG, so I reasoned that I needed to overcome the tendency to swap ends whenever I used the middle pedal. ( at this point I should say that I left foot brake so keep that in mind ).
Shifting the brake balance forward would be the normal correction but then I found that the front wheels locked and the car simply ploughed off into the kitty litter. So I reduced the pressure to around 80% and it helped... a little. But any attempt to brake deep into a corner simply prevented the car from turning in  :-\
I moved the brake balance back a little, and tried what I thought would be a VERY steady lap. Braking extra early for all corners and ensuring that I got the nose into the apex ( or at least within 10 mtrs!!). It was far from smooth or tidy, but I knocked a good 5 secs off my previous best  :o

That gave me some food for thought and I did a few more laps concentrating very hard on what I was doing that was different, and why some corners felt better than others. It was as this point that I realised that I was fractionally trail braking on some bends by feathering the brakes, but when I got my foot clear of the pedal the car turned in much quicker and more controlled...………..oooooooooooo!!!!!  :o
By now I was down to the 1:30'ish lap but I was still losing bucket loads of time wrestling the car through, and out of, the corners. So, I looked at the setup which I had always run soft to try and make the car more compliant, but that had not worked. 2 clicks on front and rear springs were added just to see if it made any difference...…..it did!. The car settled quicker in the corners which increased my confidence a little more.

OK, so I now had a car that, although not perfect, I could send into corners with an 85% certainty that we would stay on the tarmac. Surprisingly, ( and this was highlighted later when I managed to follow Geoff for a couple of laps ) it was quicker if I started braking earlier and more gently ??
Avoiding any locking of the brakes with a featherlight foot took another second or two off my PB. Now we were getting somewhere.

The last piece of the jigsaw was the corner exits which were often a wrestling match with much wheelspin and understeer. A tweak to the diff and careful attention to which gear I used helped, but getting used to feeding in just enough power to avoid spinning the front wheel(s) made things much more civilised and another second was trimmed.

Last nights races were much better for me, but I am under no illusion that Geoffers is still at least a second a lap quicker even when he is not trying hard  :-\. I did manage to pass him once when he got a bit sideways in the complex, but it was only a matter of time before he took back the lead and it is still under braking that I am struggling with the confidence to attack corners......…...maybe in time that will come?

The setup I used is online at Silvy 71 under CliveKAD Mini if you want to try it. I make no claims to it being anything other than "work in progress", but I did manage a 1:25 lap last night which was some 18 secs from where I started, so I did something right.

Result_Race 1 (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/11Silverstone_23102019_R1)

 8)

Good couple of races. Had a close race with Clive in the first after I made a mistake on lap 1 & he nipped past, got back ahead a few laps later & eased away. Race 2 from the back was a bit embarrassing, got a great start & was 2nd into T1, then SC went off at T3 & I was in the lead! :blink: That was about it.

Congrats to Clive & SC on their podiums.  :clap: :clap:

As Clive said you need to be a bit gentle on the brakes in these, work out where you need to brake for each corner so you can let off the brakes & turn in & still make the apex. I tend to set most of the cars up with quite a rear brake bias so they turn with the brakes on, so rarely brake very hard, only for real tight turns, so have got used to being light on the brakes. Doesn't help much with more modern stuff in RRE where you really need to brake hard to get the best out of the car, find it difficult to get used to.

Clive mentioned in an earlier post about setting his brakes at 71/29, not surprised you were having trouble with the car wanting to swap ends Clive, I was using 75/25 at Silverstone.

I had dabbled with various settings and thought I had a good car setup but it soon was clear that in the turns I had hampered the cars ability to use power thru the corner. In R2 I reverted to previous settings and found the car at least more driveable but I was still slower than I thought I should be.

Horrible Silverstone layout. Shame as it was a great track. Oh well, that's progress  ::)

+1  :thumbup1:

Seems I am alone in liking this track  :(.  In fact I like all the versions of Silverstone except the 1970 one which in my opinion is unrealistic, it is too narrow & most of the corners too tight.

I enjoy challenging circuits with a mixture of corners and elevation changes, but Silvy is always flat, whatever version. The only thing that I did not like about this version of the track was the small grid vs the length of the lap.

Inevitably, the field spreads out and cars get lonely. There will of course be the odd pocket of action that keeps a couple of drivers involved, but the majority are running alone.
 If we had a full grid of cars then perhaps the racing would be more interesting? but regrettably we only have the numbers that we have  :-\