SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 22

Track: Donington Park (GP)

Cars allowed: Ford GT40

PM WT for track/car download pack which is required for this event.

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (28 laps)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops: Not Required

Server: simracing.org.uk 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: None

I will be present !  ;)

someone could post a setup, so I can compare it with mine, which is very bad.  :-\
the settings are different from gpl's, I think 

philippe

I just did a few laps and uploaded my last setup version to the online database, under the name of Ford GT40 v1b.

The main issue with the default was the way too high tyre pressures and the low damper settings.

The setup I did is not final, as I'm not entirely sure about whether to use stiffer rear (spring-wise) and softer anti-roll bar approach, or vice versa. Both seem to work fairly well. I'm also not sure about the diff power setting and also the toe. I was using a high caster initially, but it made the car way too nervous on any steering movement, so I decreased it by a lot and it was immediately much better.

Probably not going to test again until before the race next week, but when I do, I'll upload any setup updates that would result from the test.

Best lap time with the current setup - 1:45.1 on my second flying lap (better tyre temps I guess). As long as you drive it carefully and smoothly, not pushing the limit of the tyres, it's OK. The gear ratios are a bit awkward, as you either have to sacrifice 5th to have access to 1st gear for the hairpins, or use the shortest gears available and 2nd for the hairpins (which drops the revs quite a bit and makes it tricky). So far I went for the latter approach.

You are on the wrong layout Hristo, it is the shorter National layout according to the race post.

Driver's will need the download pack for this event.

Pack includes track with revised daylight times and GT40 skins.

Race announcement changed to GP circuit.

I drove on the server, so whatever it had loaded up (it was drivable, despite the gdb mismatch). Not a big deal, the setup should still work even on the shorter layout.

IMPORTANT

No of laps reduced to 28 laps

1:50.4 for me so far using Hristo's setup  ::)

That's 2secs better than I've managed so far.

You'll have to work Tony! ;D
 I got 1.48.127, you should be able to join me  ;)

 :censored:

Just did a few more laps and recorded the session on my Twitch, if it's of any help. I also made some changes to the setup and improved my lap time, but I'm not sure you're going to like the balance with that one. It's more unstable so to allow more speed to be carried into the corners, so it requires more micro-corrections with the steering and throttle.

My best time is the last flying lap on the stream (at around 14:22):

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1171015567

Also uploaded the updated setup to the database. One more thing - turning off auto-clutch is worth a few tenths, but you got to manage the throttle on shifting.

there are people, here, who use the automatic clutch...? >:( ::) :D

Oh, I don't actually know, it was just a thought on why someone might be losing additional time. I know I was in that position until just months ago when Dimitar told me about it  ::)

Besides, with this car in particular, it's just a lot more tricky having to blip and lift up precisely. With most cars in GTL you can just floor it on upshifts and the wheelspin is manageable, but not with this one, so I thought I should mention it.

I use auto clutch for some cars, some I don't

It should be remembered that not all driver's are able bodied and therefore require certain aids to be available to them.

That is why we always have Auto-Clutch and Auto Gearbox available online at all times.

yes, of course, for those who have difficulty this is normal.  For the others... :nono:

Curious; did Donington GP really get voted among the top 12 tracks?    Personally I very much like the National layout, but absolutely loathe the GP version.


Yes, laughable as you may find it I always use auto clutch, apart from the starts.  Hate the shift sound without it, as it sounds like the cars have automatic transmissions.  An advantage is that it keeps the engine running if you spin off, so no time wasted on getting the engine started again.   Besides, it seems a lot of people are gaining time by not using it, so I hardly see the problem.

Depending on the car and track, sometimes turning it off is worth of up to 2-3 tenths a lap, and probably a lot more on a track like Nordschleife. You could lift up slightly on each upshift to keep it realistic and yet still get the advantage. It's what I usually do, similarly to how it's done in GPL.

Some cars just have the auto-clutch set to disengage for too long. I agree on losing the engine when spinning though, or making a pitstop. I have to constantly keep reminding myself to quickly press F2 if necessary, or at least press my clutch button (no 3 pedal set).

Of course each one makes as it suits him best... ;)

Personally, I don't even ask myself which solution will be the most efficient...it's the one that reproduces reality (or that comes closest to it) that I would systematically choose. And I try to drive as I would in reality.
It's unthinkable not to ease off the throttle to shift gears for example ;)

Again, this is my preference and my way of looking at the race simulation :)

Seems to me though that most drivers running without autoclutch are shifting without lifting, unless strictly necessary, so basically shifting without any clutch at all (and gaining an advantage).  Isn't that even less realistic?  ???

Seems to me though that most drivers running without autoclutch are shifting without lifting, unless strictly necessary, so basically shifting without any clutch at all (and gaining an advantage).  Isn't that even less realistic?  ???
[/quote]

yes, unthinkable in reality and unrealistic in sim  ;)
I always thought that the risk of breakage or failure should be accentuated in GTL (and other sims too)

In Raceroom it is accentuated, if you run without auto clutch or don't use the clutch, you wreck the gearbox in a couple of laps.

Just to throw my 2 cents into the debate re clutches/revs etc

If there is one thing that I have found consistently different between GPL and GTL it is the gearchange/clutch/revs issue.
 
In GPL a driver learns very early that speedshifting ( i.e. upshifting without lifting off the gas ) will inevitably blow your engine, similarly downshifting too early and allowing the car's momentum to over rev the engine ends in the same way. The red line on a GPL tacho is exactly that...it is a rev limit and a line that you do not want to cross. Therefore top end gear ratios are always set to avoid hitting max revs at the end of a long straight.

In GTL the red light appears to indicate that the rev limiter is in action, so illuminating that light simply indicates that the engine is being protected both on upshifts and downshifts ( I will ignore the implications of downshifting too early and locking the rear wheels etc ). I notice that many drivers in GTL are happy to run their engines up against the rev limiter with 30% of the main straight still to complete. That just scares me lol!

Whether a driver uses ( or even has ) a clutch pedal is a matter of personal choice/budget. The use of no clutch, auto clutch, lifting off the gas etc is also a personal choice. I can see ( and I confess to having done it myself in GTL ) when the red mist descends, the temptation to clamp the gas pedal to the metal and just ram the gears through the gate can sometimes be irresistible   ::), but not very realistic ::).

99% of the time my GPL conditioning prevents me from seeing the red, rev limiter light as I instinctively feel I am going to damage the engine, despite the engine health value on the HUD telling me that the mechanicals are unbreakable. As a result I probably upshift too early ( just before the red light) or run higher ratios and downshift too late.

IMHO the condition of the engine/mechanicals should be affected by driver behaviour on track, so that looking after your car and reaching the flag becomes part of the strategy?

To be fair, some cars are a little fragile, but not as much as in GPL, no. From memory the GT40 does not like to be revved out constantly, I seem to recall blowing the motor to bits at an oval circuit in the past....For the main part the cars do take the abuse though. I almost see this in the same vein as the amount of smashing into the kerb we can do in them, as that is probably not quite bang on either.

At the end of the day, you have to operate as the sim does I always think. I have recently ruined a few races online in RRE by breaking the front suspension in a way that would never have happened in GTL, you have to adapt to the platform. For me, it is no auto clutch, I can feel it just gets in the way when cornering and adds a little fuzziness to the reaction of the car. The shift speed didn't seem very different either on or off from memory, but it is well over 10 years since I ran with it on.

Hi Phillipe,

Glad you got things sorted. Hope to see you and the other guys on Wednesday too.

Just did some more laps and experimented with the setup. 2 new versions uploaded to the online database:

v2 - easier to drift smoothly, with light steering and predictable rearend, but a bit of understeer in slower corners unless you apply more steering lock. Best time with this one was about 44.6

v3 - softer anti-roll bars, more lock on diff power, more negative front toe, plus some other changes, making i precise and quick, with smooth acceleration out of the slow corners. This one was very much to my liking, though perhaps I'd try even less rear camber (by less I mean more positive) next time, to counter some mid-corner understeer. A new PB with this one of 43.9

I also experimented with longer gears to use 1st for the slowest corners, but it doesn't work well. There's just too much of a gap between 1st and 2nd gear, making the car snap oversteer when you shift down. Otherwise the longer 2nd, 3rd and 4th felt nice in all other corners, but 1st gear just ruins it.

I'm not far away then, 1.44.0 is my best so far, short gears were by far the favourite for me. I'll upload the setup later for those that would like to give it a whirl. At that pace the engine will not last though, guaranteed.....I switched on Auto clutch just to see the effect, costs a couple of tenths but does reduce engine wear quite a lot for me, but I still think it'll blow in my hands if at full pace as 3 or 4% was being taken, so already I can see it will be as all about trying to manage the car whilst maintaining the laptime....I had forgotten how much I don't like the GT40!

The engine health should not be a problem because I think Tony does not enable mechanical failures.

No where near you guys, in the mid 1.45s. Always felt the GT40 was one of the most disappointing cars in GTL, horrible understeer on corner entry & loads of oversteer on corner exit. Would probably not have bothered with this race, but I'm even less keen on the alternatives this week.

Unpleasant characteristics that are also found with the GT40 in Assetto  :-[

So, a question...who here has already driven this car to confirm... ;D :laugh:

 :o And there I thought my 43.9 was untouchable!  ::) This is going to be a tough one!  ;D


Isn't the GT40 in the sports car mod in GPL also quite the brick? At least that's how I remember it...

Wasn't the Ford GT40 principally designed and built for Le Mans, a track with very few sharp turns?

  @ Hristo
Yes, the GT40 in all of it's variants within the GPL 67 Sports Car mod is a struggle. The Mk1 feels a little underpowered..the MK2 is powerful enough but is allergic to anything that looks like a corner and the Mk4 is like a Saturn 5 rocket, unbeatable in a straight line..... provided the line is long enough and it is not required to stop in a hurry!!

Which brings us to Tony's comment....the GT40's were indeed built for Le Mans and the 3 mile Mulsanne straight WITHOUT the mickey mouse chicanes. Ford got something right as they were absolutely brilliant on the straight bits, quite like my driving in that respect. lol

Of all the variants of the GT40 modelled in GPL, the lightweight Mirage is probably the best all rounder.? and if memory serves me the Mirage team was quite successful at many circuits with their modified GT40's in the late 60's/ early 70's??

So, maybe the GTL version ( which I think is a MK1?) is not so far from reality, although my real life experience of GT40 driving is a little limited  ::), so what the hell do I know!!

I have uploaded my setup if anyone wants to give it a try, not as fast as Hristo or Daz but good for 1.45.0 for me.

I did give Hristo's setup a try but could not better 1.46 with it. For me it was better through the faster turns but I could not get it to turn into the slower turns to my liking.

It was similar in P&G, the MK1 was horrible, the MK2 was an absolute rocket ship on any straight worth the name but neither stopped or turned with anything that felt less than the alacrity of a supertanker. Only the JWM Gulf MK1s from 69 that used a different engine and were quite heavily modified felt the absolute beast we all think of when we think GT40, those cars were almost good fun in a very scary way.

Geoffers, I may have done a couple of fast laps, but that can count for very little at race time as we both know....I would suggest mid 45s will feel very competitive in the race to do consecutively and on a constant basis. I'll fly off the road at some point in this thing, it is all but guaranteed.....

To continue the discussion about this GT40, after having driven it a bit more, I find it much more successful in GTL than in AC and maybe PnG and it's not so allergic to curves... :)
That said, I can't improve my time of 1.48.127, I can't even reproduce it !  :-[

While searching in the .plr, I wonder if there were not some aids left activated... in doubt, I set everything to 0 and I think the car is a little more "nervous" (well I think!)

Also, I invite you (for those who would be embarrassed not to be in "pro" configuration ;) ) to examine your .plr to be sure that some aids would not be activated yet... ::) ;D

Giving it a try tonight, but - frankly spoken - I prefer watching a dozen of GT40's racing at the Spa Six Hours,
which also this year have settled the decision among themselves.

https://www.spasixhours.com/en/ (https://www.spasixhours.com/en/)

http://roadbook.alkamelsystems.com/ (http://roadbook.alkamelsystems.com/)

Unfortunately it has been a while since I could visit the race (2012, 13 & 14 & Spa Classic 2018)  :(

 :thumbup2: Yes, brilliant event Kurt, I have been to the 6 Hours three times, the last time in 2018, hopefully go again next year.

Some pictures on my flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/75520942@N08/albums (https://www.flickr.com/photos/75520942@N08/albums)

Have not photographed much lately  :P

No that was the Spa Classic in May, the 6 hours is at the end of September (beginning of October this year).

44.9 is the best I can do...  ::)

The albums "Spa Six Hours" are a little further down  ;)

Sorry Kurt, I was replying to the above line from Daz's post, I had seen your photos of the Six Hours further down.

 ::)  :D  ;)

@ Clive: looks to me that you have a similar issue concerning your brake lights like Tony some weeks earlier.
Maybe that's the reason why you are one or two seconds slower than usual and still have some handling problems.
Even if you're accelerate, brake lights are on from time to time.
Watch replay or hot lap from one of the onboard options.

I quit in disgust with myself for repeated gearshift errors and a right foot which has suddenly put on several kilos in weight!! I think my car had enough too because it took itself into the pits off the final corner with a huge lump of oversteer.  :-\

Thanks Kurt.
I think that my new Fanatec pedals are ultra sensitive and I am trying to find a way to reduce that.

I can even get a reaction if I rest my foot too heavily on the baseplate!!?? If I have my left foot over the brake pedal ( coz. I left foot brake ) and simply just brush against it, then it registers and the brakes are activated maybe 2-3%.

I also have the Fanatec upgrade on the pedals for the load, cell which means it feels more like a real life brake and I have to press very hard to get full brake effect. I need to find a way of increasing the dead zone on the beginning of the pedal movement, for GTL and GPL.

Hi all,

I really was enjoying myself but I need to get my head around a few things...

First one was I think because I'm using the plug in I'm seeing more on screen than I'm used too, such as a timer appeared at the top of the screen counting down to zero. That was new!  I assumed it may be because I was at the back of the grid I wouldn't be able to see the flagman... oops 1st mistake, when the time hit zero. I hit the throttle, oops 2nd mistake. I stopped and then watched as it then went.. 3,2,1 about 3 seconds later. DOH!! .

I was then given a stop n go penalty, which I took I think 2 laps later. Drove in the pits. Stopped. Drove out, oops next problem. LOL.. another stop n go penalty for speeding in the pits.. like a good boy took the next lap into the pits and when I stopped in my pit box , up came the clipboard and then nothing. Just sitting there. But was fun while it lasted.

So nice to some people I know from GPL, and really enjoyed the physics etc of these cars. Awful understeer though, which having now read all of the posts realise it's probably a GT40 thing.

One other thing, if anyone is still reading this... A few of you have mentioned uploaded setups, are they available on the server or do I need to request them via a PM or anything.

One last thing,, not sure what happened but can't remember the last time I was ever in front of Clive.. im usually always at the back. I'm what I think they call the "lanterne rouge"

See you next time. Thanks for making me welcome to race with you. Cheers.

I'll tackle all of the above tomorrow Paul, good to have you with us.

You can put a deadzone on them in game Clive, works really well. I used to have the same issue many moons ago with the brake registering too easily, deadzone of 5-10 sorted it....Which pedals do you have?

you have the sensitivity of the brakes in the Fanatec software
or in the "control" parameters of GTL

Results and replay now posted.

A Gladiators battle! More to follow tomorrow. :)

There's an online database with setups within the game, as an option. You can access it from one of the buttons when you're on the server. People can upload setups and others can download them from there.

You can access it when offline too. Once clicked you will be logged on to the server. In your garage (setup) screen it is the middle button on the bottom right called Online Files when you hover over it.

IMPORTANT

Once again, can I remind all driver's to go online before Race Night to check for miss matches.

I do not appreciate having to provide assistance when I'm trying to have my fun on Race night's.

Rant over

WT

If you require further advice please pm me.

Using Hristo's first setup (thanks for providing  :thumbup1: ) with some slight changes which eventually
gave me over 1.5 seconds.
Funny race as long as it lasted - on my way to a new pb (sub 1:48) I wanted too much and went off to
the pits  ;D


Result (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/_2021//13102021_DoningtonGP)


8)

This was a tough but exciting race all the way! I was struggling to improve on my lap time in Q until the very end of the session, though little did I know that both Dimitar and Daz were running on higher fuel loads and so my perceived advantage was nonexistent.

I made some last moment changes to the setup, but they turned out to be for the worst, as I soon found out. Lost a lot at the start after realizing this was going to be one of those races where the opponent's engine volume was too loud, particularly from Dimitar's car, so I couldn't really hear my own engine and tyres whenever we were close. Daz set a fantastic pace in the early laps, more than a second quicker than what I could do while trailing Dimitar at a few tenths gap. So quick was Daz in first, that I seriously thought he must be running on lower fuel and would maybe make a pitstop.

Apparently that wasn't the case though and if it wasn't for his off that dropped him to 3rd, there was little chance we would have challenged him for victory. Meanwhile I was doing my best to put pressure on Dimitar and to take advantage of any mistakes, but he was just too good under braking and so any time I was making on acceleration on some corners was not enough to make a proper attack, at least without taking unnecessary risks. The changes I made just before the start didn't allow me to accelerate as good out of some corners as I was able to before.

I thought I'll just look after my tyres a bit and wait for a better chance. Unfortunately made my own mistake at the chicane and dropped behind Daz, who was then very difficult to overtake as well. Eventually moved back to 2nd after he went wide and my battle with Dimitar resumed, but by then there were just a handful of laps remaining.

I had one opportunity after he messed up the last corner and we went side by side going into T1, but I couldn't go around the outside fast enough and the sound issue made it impossible to feel confident enough to push more. He had another moment on the very last lap, but I wasn't positioned well enough to take advantage, struggling with tyre wear myself.

A very well deserved victory, Dimitar, congrats! Well done to Daz for hanging onto 3rd after your issues early in the race, that pace you had on full fuel was incredible!

Grats to everyone else who made it to the end as well!

Thanks Kurt  :thumbup1:

One of those lonely races even though I enjoyed the car more than I expected.

Quite pleased with my qually time, much quicker than in testing but still only good enough for 4th. I hoped I may have been able to hang on to the fast trio in the race but got a terrible start. Like Hristo I struggled to hear my engine & just did not give it enough throttle resulting in losing places to Erling & Dan. Dan waved me past early on & a couple of laps later Erling nearly lost his car at the final turn & donated 4th place to me. By this time the lead trio were over 6s ahead & any hopes of podium rested on one or more of them making a mistake.

The first half of the race I could more or less keep pace with the leaders only losing a tenth or two a lap. After half way though I started to lose focus running on my own & the mistakes crept in & at times I was 2-3s a lap slower & I trailed in a distant 4th.

Congrats to DD, Hristo & Daz, excellent drives.  :clap: :clap: :clap:

Hristo said everything really well. I won because i was the one with less small mistakes. It was so much fun and I needed to keep the focus because during the whole race there wa someone behind me.

Grats to Daz and Hristo, it was awesome to fight you again.

https://youtu.be/Ax_3lULmPWk

I hope I didn't disturb anyone during my laborious race.
I'm new to ukgtl, I just can't do it.

I'm going to ride a lot to improve my times.
the problem is that it's completely different from gpl.

it will take me a while, but i'll get there

thank you for your kindness and patience towards me

 ;D

someone can give me an alpine setup for monday, or rather a simple setup base, stable enough, so I can practice

I set the steering sensitivity to 73%.
is it a good idea ?

if i keep the steering sensitivity at 51, i find the steering too soft

I use a g27

Thanks for your help

In Windows there is a app called USB Game Controller. It contains some useful things. Search for it.

My personal preference is to have very little steering input so I use these settings for my G27.

Open USB Game Controller. Make sure your wheel is selected in the opening screen. Now click Properties. Here you can test that everything is working ok. Now click Settings. I have wheel rotation set to 170°. Then in garage screen I have wheel rotation set to 15. Works for me but you need to find what works best for you. BTW I have steering sensitivity set to 71% with 2% deadzone.

Have you looked online for an Alpine setup? There are two in the Dijon folder. One is called A110 dijon and the other is called Renault Alpine GD. Download both and try them out then fiddle with them to make them suit you.

Great fun, even in the GT40, a car I've never truly got on with.

Was on race fuel for quali, empty tanks were making the car only a little quicker, and I preferred to be in the habit of how the car would be in the race. Which went very nicely at first, a good launch got me alongside Hristo into turn 1, but with the inside line into it so I could sweep into the lead. Dimitar followed me through, although having watched his video how he avoided a jump start I have no idea  :eek: :lol:

Was actually running at my own pace out front, but was surprised to see the gap slowly increasing. The car was a little inconsistent on the brakes, which meant a couple of laps were a little slower, but in the main I found I could pull away without too many problems. But, whilst I was pushing away merrily I just caught a little grass at Schwantz curve, which upset the car too much to recover before McLeans and I was off. And clouted the tyre wall with the front left, more of which to follow....

This let both of our Bulgarian friends through, but only by 2 seconds or so. Composed myself, and just decided to run behind for a while, knowing it was going to be very difficult to overtake in these cars here, that fact was the reason for feeling the need for a good start initially after all, and thinking that saving tyres may be a good idea given how much I had probably already taken out of them. But, despite now running behind Dimitar and Hristo, and normally having a marker makes it much easier to run at a pace, I found I was now struggling a little to close in even though we were running around a second or so a lap slower than I had been by myself. I realised over the next 2 laps or so that the car was no longer giving me the same speed through the turns, especially the right handers, which there are many of at Donny of course ::) :(.

The only way I could claw any time back on the guys in front was to massively overdrive the car from this point. Worked alright for a while, but didn't fancy being able to overtake like this. Did get gifted 2nd for a while by Hristo, but he was too quick when behind me to hold off, I was now in deep doo-doo on the tyres and running wide in all 3 hairpins nearly every time. My efforts to extract pace had taken their toll, and the car was really quite poor to drive for the last 6 laps or so, with the 2 guys out front steadily pulling away. Crossed the line for a slightly frustrated 3rd place.

Unlucky for Hristo to not get the win, I think maybe overall your pace was the best for the race distance on average, but I held you up for a start, and you also had that one mistake earlier that cost you some time....but big grats to Dimitar, very consistent and with essentially no proper mistakes to report, you were the very deserving winner here.

Yeah, I talked about that on the replay section of the video. :D

Your own surprise at getting away with it was funny, yes   ;D

Once again I will recommend Ducfreak's sound mod for this car - with it it sounds so deliciously raw, that I can easily forgive it all its handling vices!

I have spent much time in the past trying to set up the GT40, without too much luck.  Hristo's first setups were better than my own concoctions, and with these I set a best of 1:47.3 secs.  Tried his updated V3 & V2, and with the former, I got a new pb of 1:47.0, although I found it trickier than the first ones. V2 felt a little safer, but I could not match my pb with V3. Time and time again, I would arrive at the final chicane with 3-4/10 improvement, only to lose it all in that final sector.

Tried Geoffers' setup too. Coming straight from Hristo's, it felt safer, but more understeery.  Again I could not quite match my V3 pb.  Thus went back to that V3, trying to improve further. Found it hard to control the car though, especially at the exit of bumpy Coppice. If I kept the loud pedal mashed here, the car would often dart left or right, when the rears suddenly bit.  Exasperated by repeatedly losing the rear, I raised the suspension, to make it better cope with the very bumpy bits, and dropped the power diff from 70 to 20%.  With this I finally improved my pb, by dipping into the high 46's.  During qual I managed to shave close to a second more off.  Laptimes posted by the aliens remained in the realm of fantasy though.

Looked for a setup from Daz too, but couldn't identify any in the online database.  Thanks goes to Hristo & Geoffers for providing theirs.

Got a good start, getting ahead of Geoffers. Initially puzzled he didn't pressure me more, but hadn't realized that it was in fact Dan behind me - he had done his usual phantom start, gaining two places.  He quickly waved Geoffers past though - no brown envelope this time Mr. Senior!   Kept Geoffers behind me for one lap, but then got on the power too early/hard exiting the final corner and almost lost the rear.  That let Geoff & Dan through, but more importantly also dropped me into the clutches of Matt.  Basically this was the start of a virtually race long battle.  Whenever I got a small gap for whatever reason, and thought I would get a breather, he would bounce back to breathe down my neck once more.  Refused to buckle under the pressure, so managed to stay ahead of him all through the race.  Around lap 20, he had an off, giving me a gap of 7-8 secs and finally i bit of a breather.  Dan had taken himself out a few laps after passing me, so I regained that position.

Grats to DD & pod; commiserations to the unfortunate ones.

I had the exact same issue and couldn't figure it out. I tried some changes, but it didn't improve much. Looking at DD's live stream video, he was much better through that part. I compared my setup with his and there weren't any big differences, so I'm a bit puzzled.

I concluded that it could be the way I'm using the revs compared to him. I kept trying to short shift and keep lower revs to supposedly have less torque, but perhaps his approach of revving high and staying on the rev limiter for longer before changing up, might have been the key. For example, accelerating in 2nd all the way through Coppice and waiting before shifting up to 3rd. That gave him a higher fuel mileage, from what he told me, but it seems to be worth it.

Not that I expect to drive the car again any time soon, but I should keep it in mind in general whenever I hit similar struggles.

Don't know how GTL models an engine's torque curve / characteristic, but if it's realistic, then you could easily have peak torque somewhere below max revs, and then your short shifting might land you right in the peak torque range.

If you consider real life engines, many if not most, will have their peak torque well below max revs.  Most profound prob. turbo diesels; I recently was a passenger in an Audi A6 3.0 TDi which was chip tuned.  Had insane low down pull, already around 1500 - 2000 rpm, but by the time you reached 4000 rpm, it was clearly running out of puff.

Not sure about race tuned V8s, but would expect big American V8s to have their peak torque at relatively low revs - I remember burnout competitions where big yank tanks were spinning their wheels at quite low revs.

Street, race and rally engines have all different needs for the torque.
- In street you want to easy start offs and small fuel consumption on speeds that car is driven long periods of time. That's why in street cars have very low max torque point and nowadays with Variable valve and cam timing  engines, the toque curve is pretty much flat all way thru after the raise to max.
- Rallying you need more high end power, but want also have mid-range umph to get out of the trouble in certain situations. So, the max torque point is somewhere in middle of the range.
- in Race engine, it is all about the highend power and staying there. As the track is pretty much controlled environment, driver can be expected all the time to hit the corner with correct gear and so as the power (hp) is torque (lb/ft) x (rpm / 5252), moving  max torque to upper part of the rpm raises fast the amount of power.

in petrol engines, the type of the block does not make a difference, but engine size does. With very small engines, it does not really matter if the engine tune is for rally or the race as you want to get everything out of that 700cc power unit. In these cases gearbox makes the difference by having extremely short ratios to make it easier keep it on that very short power band. Very high tuned screamers have so little torque in low end that they hardly run idle at all and starts are like from slow motion film. (Check out from youtube how slow from the start line the legendary Bevan Imp was in BSCC 1971-1974 seasons. But after it got it going it was really fast.)


Btw, I am using auto clutch and paddle shifters with my G27. Not that I find changing gears without clutch unrealistic (Straight Cut gearboxes can handle a lot more abuse than street boxes anyways) but just simply because I find it less annoying than the fact that I don't have place for the shifter now and using clutch with paddleshifters... um, that feels so wrong more than one way.

And what comes to gearbox and how realistic they are in GTL, The gearbox model in game is really really simple and you can't make Touring car gearbox options correctly limited. In 1960's and 1970's touring cars had gearbox with certain amount of gear setups. Most of them had 2-4 sets homologated and by a set I mean complete set of 4-6 gear ratios as a whole. So you could choose like from 4 different gearboxes plus final gear. Not like in the game that you take 1st gear from gearbox #1 and 2nd from gearbox #2 and a heck let's put gearbox #4's fifth gear as third gear to our car.  That was not an option back in touring cars back in a day. In F1 or prototypes they might have possibility to build layshaft and powershaft gears by hand matching them to work together, but most likely they did not as making optimal ratios per track would  been tedious, time consuming  and labor was expensive as it is now, so expensive as well.

So when I realized that, the realistic factor went straight out of the window. This is also the main reason why in my mods usually has only one option for each individual gear.

GTL is really great simulation game, as you remember that it does have it's limitations. :)