SimRacing.org.uk

Password: see above (#post_event_password) (released 24hrs before the race)

Test race - Ford Vs Alfa

(https://i.postimg.cc/3xrTmR2G/Screenshot-alfa-romeo-gtam-croft-11-4-120-11-52-52.jpg)

April 22nd - Password entry (on day of race)

This will hopefully be our final fun/test race before kicking off my first season. I now know what I'm doing with the server and just need a series to check I know what I'm doing with LM2.
With that in mind the recent release of the GTam on race department and it's being BoP'ed with the Ford Escort make for a perfect test series.
This race is to test that theory (I'm getting near identical lap times here with some work on the setups, again each car has some nice variations in handling)
(https://i.postimg.cc/gX3VJbPZ/Screenshot-alfa-romeo-gtam-croft-11-4-120-11-58-54.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/gX3VJbPZ)


If successful I intend to run a first season using this combo over 4 rounds (if they're very popular we can always revisit)

To spice things up I've swapped out all of the tires for part worns, and extended the race to 45 minutes so we have to stop for a change at some point - the server will be set with a pit window starting 5 minutes into the race and ending 40 minutes into the race. This is probably not needed as I'll be fairly amazed if anyone would have a masochistic streak big enough to do the entire race on the same set!
For the series I might keep the tire wear but remove the mandatory pit in order to allow a spot of gamesmanship and outside the box tactics (I'll need to test that idea out further first).

Practice: 19:30 (45 mins)
Qual: 20:15 (15 mins)
Race: 20:30  (45 minutes)

Cars allowed:
Ford Escort (Stock Kunos)
Vs
Alfa Romeo GTam (V1.2 from Racedepartment - do NOT use the new 1.21 version! The server will be running V1.2. This is all available in the history tab on the download page  (https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/1970-alfa-romeo-gtam.28717/))
*The Alfa seems to have a requirement for the Stock Kuno's Alfa GTA from Dream Pack 1, If you don't have that pack and suffer CTD when loading the car then you need that pack. *

Track:  Croft (https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/croft-circuit.16806/) (V1.0)


Live Timing: stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat (http://stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat)

Time of Day Setting: 10:00
Weather: Mid Clear
Start: Standing
Tyre wear: x1.3
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit-stops: Mandatory stop for tires

Server track settings:
SESSION_START=100
RANDOMNESS=0
LAP_GAIN=0
SESSION_TRANSFER=N/a

Damage: 70%

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

PLP App - Not used in this series. Cutting will be monitored on replay and penalties issued for excessive cutting.

Notes:
(1) Please make sure you are fully aware of the UKGTR Rules (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3349.0)
(2) Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page

(http://www.motorsportcircuits.co.uk/assets/images/croft_track_guide.gif)

This should be interesting, I have the GTAM mod and it's quite good.

The fact that is BOP with the ford escort is something that has in common with the lancia fulvia mod (BOP with the stock GTA) another great mod.

Looking forward to this!

What does "BoP" mean plz ?  ???

Balance of Power.
Basically they'll race each other pretty closely - far more closely than they would do in reality I suspect ;)

Love that screen shot in 1st post  8)

This sounds a cool selection  :)

This sounds fun, havn't tried the GTAm but count me in  :)

No one is going to take the Escort i am guessing... ::)

If everyone is in the Alfa I'll take an Escort.
The Escort is actually easier to drive fast I think - the Alfa has far more torque so needs careful footwork to really go fast in.
Alfa also seems harder under brakes/turn in, it loves to lose the rear.

Therefore I would imagine it'll still get some fans and put on a good show as a result

Hello everyone,

the game doesn't load the car , i've triend to download the Gtam file again but couldn't figure out the problem, any idea?

Regards

Lorenzo

Hi Lorenzo - where did you put the files from inside the alfa's Zip?
They should be placed in the 'xx\Assetto corsa\content\cars' directory so that it creates a new file called 'alfa_romeo_gtam' as below - obviously your Steam install will be in a different location to mine:

(https://i.postimg.cc/13JG6142/Alfa-car-folder.png)

Is the car loading or visible even when you are setting up a practice event?

Hi Tim, yes, i put the files in that folder, everything seems correct, actually i can see the car on the Ac menu, but once i start a driving the game doesn't load the car and take me back to the menu

Could it be a problem with the track installation rather than the car? Also check your in-game video/resolution settings. Incorrect video settings can prevent the session loading.

Try the same car but on a standard Kunos track - as Frex says it might not be the car.
If your folder structure looks like mine it should work perfectly..

I just realize that the Lancia Fulvia mod (the Step 1 version) is also BOP with the Escort RS (at least is what the mod says in the description on racedept).

Could be also a nice addition for further races, if that is verified, to get some variety on the grid. I'll try to do some lap times in the next days.

Just tried the GTAm a couple laps.

Good sounds, quite nice handling I think (may need some setup tweaks though in my hands), but there is a problem regarding the FFB with my settings : a bit of clipping, and it looks like it lacks some info somewhere or something. Don't get me wrong, I like this mod, but would need a bit of tweaks here. I will pick the Ford if I can show up.  ::)

Or a 2 heat race? So we can race both cars..

Can I have some setup advice?
I've used protyres to get to what to me seems like the proper pressure for the tires. Picture shows the situation after 5 laps. But the tires, especially the tight side are not warm enough.
Is that it for tire pressures, now I should look into other settings, camber, toe to get the tires warmed up?
Also ford seems to have strong oversteer, I feel like tail is coming around on every acceleration.
(https://i.postimg.cc/9zLpdyh4/tires.png) (https://postimg.cc/9zLpdyh4)

Just trying to learn about setups, so I don't constantly keep asking for them :)

Hi Syd - pressure wise that's as perfect as you can hope to get.
During the course of a lap I'm sure you'll have noticed it fluctuating in these old cars - providing you can spend the majority of the time between the 2 thin back lines on the pressure scale you're perfect.

As for temperatures, I find the colour scaling on Protyres to be more helpful than the stock app. Temperature is obviously important, but is secondary to pressure in terms of outright grip so the fact the tires spend more time being green in Protires stops my subconscious from worrying unduly ;D

On a lot of older cars with less advanced suspension it can be almost impossible to achieve nice green tires all around the car. I'm sure you remember from GPL setups what to do to increase temps - higher spring rates, more aggressive toe, tighter/looser diff settings etc. (these are also all mentioned in the setup tips when you hover over settings in AC).
So try playing with those to see if you can improve things - but be aware that sometimes you can make your car worse (speed-wise) by getting everything to the 'right' temperature than just driving around a cold tire.
Croft mainly features loaded right handers, as a result not having optimal temp on a right side tire is not really a major issue if the car drives well.


I hadn't seen that - I'll update my Fulvia as it's a few years out of date now and try it. I would only consider adding it if a number of people stated that they really wanted to drive it over the other 2 though, as I was aiming at a nice simple season to iron out any bugs in me ;)


My understanding is that with very few exceptions we've always shied away from that here as people have complained about the time it takes to setup and learn two different cars - an alternative (as I also wanted to see the effect of the tire settings and pitstop on the race) is that we repeat the race the following week and everyone drives the other car - that way we are all fully familiar with the track and shouldn't require very long to sort a setup with what was learnt last time out :)

Of course if the race proves terrible for some reason we can then also look at different formats or methods.
One thing I would consider if it would still draw enough drivers, is a series that allows for mismatched cars by forcing every driver to use each car x amount of times over the season - so in an 8 round season with 2 cars available each car must be used 4 times. The background work for a championship like this should be minimal and we've had some absolutely cracking series in UKGPL using that format and others like it.
My thinking was to use a system like that to get the Grp C cars all together if I can't figure out a suitable method of ballast and power restriction to get them close (my preference would always be to achieve BoP so drivers can stick with a chosen car all season, but we already know that isn't always possible).


On another note have you sorted your problems yet Lorenzo?

 ;D this combo is awesome, shame I'm so far behind the times.

I'm not a big fan of mod cars, but this Alfa is done really well. Sounds are beautiful and the car is very detailed (e.g. the gear-stick moves correctly and vibrates).

I did a bit of tests and I can do only 10 laps with tires...

That's about 20 mins. I'll jump on tonight and check that wear then. Maybe I'll need to adjust the wear multiplyer.

-On another note have you sorted your problems yet Lorenzo?-

Hi Tim, not sorted out any problem atm, tha car seems to be extracted in the right folder, actually it is the only mod car that doesn't work, i've tried to use 2k skins , but nothing changed.

Maybe i need to but some addiction car pack from Kunos?

Regards

Lorenzo

Ah, good point. Maybe this mod uses some parts from the stock Kunos Alfa GTA from Dream Pack 1 dlc. Maybe you need this pack installed.

Ok, so i'll install Dream pack one, i'll let you know if the mod will be working properly, thanks for your help!

I've installed Dream Pack 1 and now i'm able to load the car, see you on the track!

 :thumbup2:

Now that's strange - there was no mention of any requirements in the download page or in the file.

Sorry I didn't know about that Lorenzo, but glad it's now fixed - I'll add a note to the first post mentioning that requirement (As an Italian, I'd have thought you'd already have a pack including so many tasty Alfa's and the 'Ring :P )

No worries Tim! Considering that I am Italian and above all Milanese (I live near the old "Portello" Alfa Romeo factory ) it was my lack! ;D

Thanks for the advice and instructions :)

She'll do more than 10 :P
But some extended testing this evening shows that the wear is higher on the Alfa. (Maybe I should test mods at accelerated wear more - didn't see this coming at normal wear).

I'm going to reduce the server to 130% wear and keep the Pit requirement for tires. I can enforce a pit stop but there's no way to make AC force tire changes on people - At 130% wear I don't see any incentive not to change them if you're stopping anyway ;)

Given that a couple of old rogues rocked up onto the server last night I figure I should come say hello again!  Apparently my last non-iRacing race on here was 19th June 2008 ... :blink:

Darren and I have been having a bit of a play with some other sims lately - AC, pCars2, Automobilista2 - and that led us back here again to see what racing's going on.

So hello! :D

Almost fell off my chair then, nice to hear from you again Adam  ;D

The water is warm come on in  8)

Blimey  :o hello Adam, ye olde ghost from the past  ;D good to see you again.

Hi guys...

I see Adam has re-introduced himself, is there room for another old git???  ;)

It's good to see some old names still here, including the oldest of them all Jonzo. :whistling:  I bet you didn't expect to see us back on here.

Anyway, #BlameDarren

I've currently fallen out of love with iRacing, so like Adam mentioned, we've been exploring other sims.  I must admit I really like this Alfa mod.
So if things go well, you should be seeing a lot more of us in the future.  (I apologise in advance for Adam's driving  ;D)

Welcome (back) to this side of the sim universe gentlemen. Always good to have more and experienced drivers on the grid.

Tried the GTaM yesterday for a few laps after installing the contant manager en custom shader patch, which is indeed a very handsome mod too. I like the Alfa so much, I am not going to try the Escort around here.  8)
Also never driven the Croft track before, but it is a fun layout for these kind of cars.

Ptracker wasn't working for me last night on the server. Might have something to do with the new installed content manager?..
Planning to be online tonight for some proper testing.

Thanks for the welcome Stefan.  I see you are a 'Legend'.  If ever you and Jonzo want to rejoin the Mothership, PM either Adam or myself and we'll send you invites to our Discord server.

We've picked up a few SRouk veterans along the way, the likes of ReignMan, Gazza49er and Fred Basset.

heads up,  gtam was updated to 1.21 on racedept, but for me the sound doesn't work...

1.2 is still available though and thats fine https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/1970-alfa-romeo-gtam.28717/history

couldn't stop driving... ::) off to bed!

I felt a bit like Chris H. as in this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BuZmJmpTdk&t=91s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BuZmJmpTdk&t=91s)


Thanks for the invite Darren. :) You mentioned having tried AMS2. How do you feel about that new sim? Any good?

That's a real nice new to see the grid getting bigger !  :thumbup1:
Is iRacing any good for classic racing by the way ? I believed it mostly was about modern cars..

On the rules aspect, do I understand correctly that we should keep at least 2 wheels on the track itself at the chicane and the Jim Clarke esses exit ?  :angel: (Apart from any accidental over-push)

That Harris vid nails the feel of this car, really enjoying it.

Early-ish days for AMS2, still very much a work in progress.  We grabbed it early to save a few quid, and it was another sim to try.


Not really, no.  There are a couple of older cars - the Lotus 49 & 79, Nissan GTP ZX-T and Audi 90 GTO - but that's about it.




Back on topic - I've been working on the premise that as long as I keep 2 wheels on track after the Jim Clarke esses I'll not get my knuckles rapped.

Great video, great car...  I love driving the Alfa.  I just hope I feel the same after tonight's race.  ;D

AMS2 is still in early access, but is showing very promising signs.  The graphics are superb.  It runs great in VR, and the majority of the cars handle really well.
The only real negative is poor netcode in Multiplayer.  Well that's Adam's excuse for constantly punting me.  ::)  But I'm sure this will be fixed soon.

A bit more 'mainstream' content and this could easily become my sim of choice.

I've seen your lines through there, you may want to recalibrate.  :whistling: :angel:

Pffft ... like I need an excuse.

AMS2 MP doesn't currently have a dedicated server option which is likely part of the issue.  This is going to be rectified soon, and that and other updates will certainly help things.

There's a real range of driving options too, I've not tried the trucks yet, but at the other end of the scale the shrunken ARC Camaro is brilliant fun.

(https://media3.speedcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/23845620_10155838497829144_598978552096014536_o-1200x800.jpg)

For the first 2 tight chicanes near the start I'm happy for the auto track cut and tires to do their thing. For Jim Clark exit please try and keep 2 wheels on the track (this might be tricky of you're right behind some one but at least try please  ;) )

As for the car update, as it's so late I'll leave the server on the V1.2 to save last minute issues.

In my case, car is out of control most of time....  ;D

i'll be there tonight but must confess I haven't driven a single lap yet.  :-[ Will try and get some laps in later on

 ;D not as much as me....out of control.

Yeah of course, just I wanted to be sure that this particular place was considered "off track". Still, sometimes it's quite hard to control my Escort here for me too. Accidental abuse will occur for sure, unfortunately. The point is not to gain any advantage I guess.. also in qualif.

From offs I've made in practice, if you stray much more than a car width off track you'll hit that sandy stuff and go slower - so accidental excursions will likely encourage drivers to stay on without my waving a big stick around ;)

Mark - Just pick a car and go with it. Unless tonight is a total disaster my plan is to rerun the event next week but we all switch to the opposite cars. That should give a true speed read of each car's performance against the other without worrying about who took what.

Just done a couple of laps with the Escort. Jezz that's an upper body work out! There was me thinking my leg would give up 1st, now I'm not so sure  :o

Not very quick either, only 7 seconds to find! Not sure where that much that is going to come from  :'(

You need to cut a little here and there... 8)

enjoyed that up until I ran out of fuel with 5mins remaining  :P is the fuel calc out for these cars? I even put a few extra litres in over what it was telling me I needed.

I went back to the pits for a second time to try and add fuel but no matter what I clicked on the pit menu mfd it ignored me.  ??? Cant find any key bindings for it under 'controls' - so how the heck do we alter it in the pitlane?

Had a spin early in the race at that nasty T1 and got dumped near the back but had great fun fighting my way back up to 7th until the fuel ran out.

Great seeing a whole pack of Alfas and Escorts sideways around the track, good turn out.  8)

 ;D ;D Mark been saying for ages fuel not correct so now I add 10 ltrs more than it says and finished the race with 1 lap left in tank. great track and cars, best race for ages, managed to knock a second off my qually during race well happy. Can we do this combo next week/. :clap: :clap:

Overperformed in qually to bag 2nd, and then a shocking start had me back in 4th.  Stefan gifted me 3rd with a wild exit from the final corner on lap 1.

The Legends pit crew are as good as ever :D  Forgot to change my pressures for the new tyres at the stop, wasn't too bad and then with a couple of laps left they just went.  Lost the back end a couple of times under braking to drop me from 3rd to 5th, and then on the penultimate lap I realised I was short of fuel...

Coaxed it round as far as I could, but ran out with 3 corners to go.  Ended up parked watching everyone go by, got a nudge from Darren that allowed me to roll over the line to finish.

Fun race, but frustrating mistakes cost me dearly there.  Better in a fun race than a real one!

Good to be racing with you guys again, and some very old faces.

With the cursor keys - but I don't think it works if you're already in the pit box.

You just use the hat on your wheel/gearstick normally. I think you can also use the arrow keys although can't reach the keyboard from the race seat to confirm!

Also pretty sure they can be configured in settings.

Don't use the fuel calc on the setup screen on Mod cars/tracks, it's normally wrong. Get a proper in car app from racedepartment or do it the old fashioned way with a calculator if you want to be sure ;)

I had a fun, and very sideways race with Darren close enough to keep me honest before dropping back slowly.
And yes Bob, we can and are - but in the opposite cars :angel:
It'll be very interesting to see how the grid comes out next week (this gives an excellent measure of parity between the 2 cars before kicking off a season proper).


Thanks to everyone for attending, its great to have a big grid 8)

Honestly not the best driving of my life... I can't understand how to drive this car in a worthy way at the moment.

First of all I'm deeply sorry with the grey alfa #22 I hit on the first corner. I do apologize. I thought the nose of my alfa was "shorter", don't know if it's a prospective problem or a hitbox's one. In any case completely my fault.
The quali for me was a disaster with a time almost 0.7 sec slower than practice. But I managed a good start in race getting 2 positions on the first few meters.

Stint 1 was a fun race with Mark. It was a pity the spun you had after Turn 1. I tried to avoid you but you were almost perpendicular to the track and we were too close.
Glad you were able to get on my back soon we had a fun race until I did that big mistake at the hairpin where I lost the position. I saw you entering earlier in the pits so I pushed two more laps and then pitted. I was still close on exit but you had definitely more pace in the second stint so no chance to catch you.

had a great fight with Maxime on the last laps, very fun even if I lost the position on last lap. :)

Very fun cars for sure,

Thank you Tim for the event and thank you all for the race!

cheers

It was good to be back after 10 years absence. 

Adam 'Sandbagger' Parle stole 2nd on the grid, but then promptly left the door open at T1.  It would have been rude not to take back the position, thanks Adam.  ;D


Trust me I was trying my best, but do you realise how difficult it is to put in fast laps when the car in front is laying down a smoke screen..  Impressive driving Tim, it was like watching a Chris Harris video.  :laugh:
I was hoping the abuse your poor rear tyres were taking would have an effect towards the end of the race, but sadly your amazing pace stayed intact.  Congrats on the win, well deserved.  :notworthy:

I was sad to see my team mate Adam drop back towards the end of the race with 'issues'.  But couldn't resist giving him a hefty shunt on my cool down lap to catapult him across the finish line.

Thanks for all your work behind the scenes Tim.

Cheers guys, see you for the next one.   :thumbup2:

MJ, I use a little program called JoyToKey to map the cursor keys to my steering wheel buttons.

https://joytokey.net/en/

damn Italian cars and their wonky Benzina gauges  :laugh:  I must have missed previous posts about the fuel being wrong here. Been distracted with ACC for the last week trying to get upto speed with that sim for my SRO championships so was a bit of a last minute.com to get ready for this race and re-adapt to the old tail-happy cars again.
Its been a dogs age since I've had to use the pitting technique without a pre-set pit choice so was flummoxed trying to get the mfd to work. (in ACC I have it mapped to my D-stick joggle on the wheel) Assumed it had to be alterered in the brief few secs before stopping but neither my cursor keys or mouse input worked (not easy whilst wearing a rift in a short pit lane anyway!). Ho hum, still enjoyed the racing and loved the cars.  :)

 ;D My earphones have packed up on the rift so had to use headphones, that plus the effort of manual gears and too much ffb on the wheel left me knackered. hope the alfa is an easier drive next time.

A great combo for a race, it was great fun! I managed a PB in practice but when it was time for qually I couldn't replicate it so I started 9th I think. I got caught up in that first corner incident so that cost me some time but after that I had some nice fights managing to further improve my PB in the process. I miscalculated the amount of petrol needed as well and luckily I was lapped at the right moment; as I exited the last corner the engine died but I coasted to the finish. Looking forward to racing with you guys again, but if some of you could slow down a bit that would be great ;D

Plenty of fun here !  :D

After a sleepy start, I was forced to wait for the whole grid to pass at last turn because restarting from the inside of the hairpin would have caused a terrible mess for sure. Then it was loads of fun trying to grab for a maximum of positions.
Unfortunately I did some faults here and there.

@ Mark : Sorry for both little taps ; 1st wasn't my bad, Bob had punted a bit and you were the extension.  ;D  Second one, sry I've been surprised by your penultimate turn exit skid.

@ Syd : Sorry for between turn 2 and 3 incident, I had my front axle a tad ahead of your rear axle but this was idiot from me to keep this position a little too long before that chicane entry/preparation, as nobody would like to go side by side in it. I paid a huge price though and you not thankfully, restarting for 2nd time from last..  ::) :'(

@ Lorenzo : Sorry also for the tap that made you skid more in that tricky part. Looks like you were struggling a bit with your rear end at that time and I didn't manage to avoid the contact.

@ Pietro : Sorry for that last turn exit tap.

I completely missed my pit box.  :laugh:

Some guys weren't much worried about the track limits, it's a tad of a shame.

No problem at all, it's a race after all. it needs to be competitive :) and was respectful.

I had lots of fun in the last laps battle!

My race was quite disastrous.
Usual ping problems and 2 disco. During the first lap I accidentally and lightly touched Maxime, creating a mess in the middle of the group.  ::)
Somehow I found myself in 3rd position in the final laps, but making a slideway too pronounced to do the show in front of Stefan I lost a bit of speed in exit and he passed me.

Congratulations to all, good race!

Bloody great combo. Good racing all around guys. Looking forward to next week.

Here is a short clip of the last couple of laps fighting for 3rd with "side show Bob" Fabri.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b43qOp8uGKQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b43qOp8uGKQ)

I could do without watching that again :D

Nice battle and video.!