SimRacing.org.uk

Car: Radical SR8
Track: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Practice: 18:00 for 150 mins (approx)
Qualifying: 20:30 (15 mins)
Race: 20:45 43 laps (approx 60 mins)

Start: Rolling - standard iRacing double file start
No fast tows will be available

Pit Stops: You must make a minimum of one pit stop during which you must take on at least 1 litre of fuel and/or change at least two tyres. You cannot take a mandatory stop at the end of the pace lap, or with less than 1 lap to go.

Password: see above (#post_event_password)
(2) Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=264;theme=33)

Good combo but you will have a fight to pull people away from the football.

I won't put up much resistance. :laugh:

Girlie football.... is there something on... who cares...  ;D

Pfft, I couldn't care less about football.  :D

Anyone got laptimes yet?

I managed a 1:22.1 last night, my previous PB (must've been from ages ago) was a 1:21.5.

Amazingly the Laguna set-up I had still feels pretty good :)

Isn't that Wednesday?

Nah, Tuesday for the European teams.

You're right.  Dunno where I got Wednesday from.

It's only on Sky though isn't it? 

Yes.

Scotland V. Liechtenstein Sky sports 3.

Don't think there is any more worthwhile games on?

Dunno how you can say that when Liechtenstein are playing such a bunch of no-hopers.

I could not get the smiley to work when I posted from my phone for some reason.

It's not too often we get the chance of a win, don't spoil the moment.

:D

Servers up. Have fun, I won't be able to join you tonight :(

I had a good bit of fun messing around tonight.

I could manage to squeeze into the 19s on low fuel and do very low 20s with high fuel which was odd. Should be a bigger gap than that.

Highly unlikely I will make it but you never know. It is great fun!

Very productive that :)

Tweaked Brians shared setup and finally grabbed 1:20.0 with an optimal of 1:19.8.  Lapping about a second slower with race fuel though, will need a tweak there I think.

Managed to do a low 1.22 :( with Brians set up on low fuel.
Slow in comparison to you aliens but this is sooooo much fun!  ;D

I was in the mid 22's .... finding it tough going, will just be looking to get to the chequered flag this evening I think....

Great fun, but it's going to be a tough one this for me.  Finally managed to drag out a 1m21.6 on low fuel last night.

Thanks for your set-up Brian, certainly helped although I had to set the rear ARB to medium to stop me binning it on every corner.

Cheers, Ross.

clearly this car seems to be a one setup car and it makes the car very difficult to drive for me. I dont think i've seen any setups for this that dont seem to have a soft front end, a hard un damped rear with high ARB. I guess it works if you can go deep into the corner but i still havent worked out how to drive these things.

I'll try again tonight but seem to fall off too much. Think i'll be giving this up. March can't come round soon enough.

Sounds like a few of us duffers are around the same pace so hopefully there will be some close racing :)


???

Not true...  I've used soft front ARB and medium rear ARB (soft springs & heavily damped) in every race so far and have still been competitive.

While the setup you mention may be the fastest way to setup the car (if you are an alien), you just need to find a setup that's right for you..

Without giving away all of my secrets here is a summary of my setup:

tyres: front - 20, rear - 21.5
ARBs: front - soft, rear - medium
gears: short
springs: front - 400, rear - 6xx
ride height: front - 2.0", rear 2.2"
rear wing: 18 degrees

Brake balance: 52-54

Shocks: now that would be telling ;)  Set them all to midway: Bump - 8, Rebound - 25 and take it from there...

I hope it helps....

With the rear arb on hard or medium it doesnt really change the car too much for me. Clearly having the rear relatively stiffer helps to turn the car in the slower stuff but when trying to go through a faster corner like the 2nd RH at laguna it only works if you come off the throttle to help turn it. I've briefly tried are more stiffer overall setup but find it hinders me more turning in! lol
I have a short fuse with iR at the moment, its far too frustrating. With the money spent i could have been enjoying myself! I've paid till March and will not be renewing.

Thanks Darren will try it out tonight. I'm only doing 25's so not much point really turning up atm.

Hey Spanner, watch a few laps by the aliens, it is very much a slow in fast out type approach!
Watch and try that! made a big difference to my laptimes.
You feel like it should be slower but are suprised with your laptime!

Wierd but true!  ;)

Wise words indeed.  When trying to gain time the natural instinct is to brake later going into corners.  This often has the opposite effect.  If you go into corners too hot there is a high chance you'll miss the apex.  Even if you do hit it, chances are your car is badly out of shape at this point and is scrubbing off valuable speed.

It's always best to brake earlier so that your car is settled before turn in.  This then gives you the best chance of hitting the apex which then allows you to get on the power earlier.  This is especially important if the corner exits onto a long straight.

Now that's the theory..  I just need the skill to actually do it.  I'm getting there, but I keep finding myself falling back into old habits.  ::)

Server's up! 8)

Nuts :(

There was a bit of a concertina at the start when the car in front didn't get away, I stopped but the car behind hit me pretty hard. Predictably the steering was bent, I struggled though the first couple of laps but I was never going to make it very far :(

Pretty disappointing as I was "less slow" here.

L1, I got caught out by James and Paul being very slow through T6 with Paul losing the back a little on the exit and coming back infront of me.  I clouted him and then TT came up behind me and sent me into the air.  Carnage ensued.

Not sure anyone was really to blame there but apologies anyway for anything I could have maybe done better!

Shame, was quite looking forward to that ;)

Cheers, Ross.

That contact ruined my car, couldn't drive and was falling off every second corner, quit before I took someone with me. :(
Ross and Mr. Steel side by side into the upper left corner and slowed down very much, I couldn't go anywhere. :no: Must have made 100 laps in training. First lap, omg. :-X

Laughable gettaway on the grid - some sort of pile up on the left hand side.

I had to take evasive action into T6 on lap 1, lost the back of the car on the gravel, and ended up parked in a prime T-boning spot.  With the yellows firmly waved by that point I'd hoped to get away unscathed .... but it wasn't to be.

Got mugged at green by Paul T, but managed to sneak back the place under braking into T1.  Good momentum on the exit was enough to allow me to nip by Gary T into T2.

After a few laps with Gary close behind, Rob Smedley came on the radio to say that "Gary is quicker, can you confirm you understand?" :)  I allowed him through to scamper off into the distance whilst I tried to settle into a rhythm.  James came within a second or so, but I think he had a minor incident which dropped him back 5-secs or so. 

After this, I was banging in consistent laps which pulled the gap out to over 6-secs.  I was beginning to get ready for my pit-stop when the F3 screen went blank and the red-bar appered in the top corner.  Race over.  :(

Grats to all finishers, no mean feat with this combo.

PS, anyone got a replay?

Sorry guys.  I guess I'm to blame for the problems on the grid.  Was caught out by the green lights, panicked, pressed the throttle pedal (while still in neutral) and then had to wait for the revs to die down before I could select 1st.  Even holding in the clutch made no difference.  :-[

Congrats to Mike for a near perfect drive...

I am so disappointed with myself. :-[

To be perfectly honest I wasn't really taking the race very seriously. IDNet have been having routing and DNS resolution problems for a few days (not of their own making, but very annoying nevertheless). Combined with an ADSL loss of sync I got disco'd twice from practice and didn't expect to last the race, so spent all the time working on single lap pace (on race fuel during practice) hoping to at least get the glory of pole position and not worry too much about race pace.

I didn't really make any setup changes from my old setup, just dropped the back one click on both sides to account for the lower fuel load as I planned to do 8.5/8.5 - probably too much but 7.1/7.1 looked far too little based on my calculations during practice.

I have to say even I was surprised by just what good pace I had in qualifying, knocking half a second off my PB - but my optimum being a good half second better yet showed just how little consistency I had.

The race started well and whilst I wasn't exactly zooming away, I was just eeking out the gap over everyone but Mike, who was hanging with me about 2 seconds back. The lack of race preparation was starting to show, though, with little mistakes all through the opening laps, until eventually the inevitable happened and coming down the hill I caught the big bump wrong and slid off, dropping back to third behind Darren.

Rather than get risk getting held up, or worse still distracted into another mistake, I decided to roll the dice and pit very early, taking 7.1 gallons (which turned out to be 2 too many).

It wasn't a bad plan, but the setup tweak that lowered the rear end now bit me in the bum; with the car running both heavy and very low at the rear for the first few laps, I got caught out again, this time at the corkscrew. That let even more people past and I dropped to tenth whilst struggling to extricate myself from the sand without collecting anyone else.

After that I couldn't see how I could possibly finish better that 4th, even after all the stops, and only really kept circulating for a combination of team points and the knowledge that I'll use up both my drop scores whislt I'm in the southern hemisphere, so it was a big surprise when I saw Gary leaving the pits after his stop and realised it was going to be nip and tuck between us at the pit exit.

I got a great exit from turn 2 and managed to squeek ahead into turn 3. There followed an intense battle as I tried to pull away and Gary harried and attacked repeatedly. Lap upon lap I was sure he would figure out how to get his car inside me into the last corner and that would be that, but lap after lap I managed to claim the apex and remain a few tenths ahead.

I knew I was slower through turn 6 and up the hill, but it's a tough place to make a pass work at the best of times, and you have to take big risks in T6 to get the perfect run up the Rahal Straight, and indeed the temptation eventually proved too much and Gary caught the curbs wrong and spun, leaving me to cruise round the last couple of laps with an immense sense of relief - though not until he'd pressed me into setting the lap record.

Very well done to Mike for a great win for the team and Darren for a very solid second place. It may amuse you to know that I was working the wheel so hard I've stripped the skin off part of my right thumb - it went through blister and directly to raw skin in the course of that race!
:wheelchair:

I don't know whether to feel elated at salvaging a podium or deflated for throwing away a win. ??? ::)

Wow!  ;D

That went as well as I could have hoped!  Qualified 2nd with a new PB and made a setup tweak to ensure the car would be more stable in the race, which was the right move.

Nice clean start, but Darren got a better one and had a look into T1.  We touched slightly, which made us wobble, but no harm done and we set off after Dave.

After 6 laps I witnessed something that isn't seen very often.  Dave made an unforced error and spun on the run down to the penultimate turn  :o  I was now leading!  Kept pressing on as hard as I could to try and build a gap to Darren, when I got to my stop at lap 20, I had a handy 6.5s lead.  Stop went well, only topping up with fuel and out again right alongside James.  Since he was lighter, I couldn't stay right with him, which was just fine, but he pitted two laps later anyway.

Had to go as hard as possible to make sure I didn't lose too much time to Darren, but when I saw I would be comfortably ahead after he made his stop, I could ease off a bit and look after my fuel level (wasn't quite sure if it would comfortably make the end) and monitor the gap back to Darren.

Brought it home for the win!  ;D ;D

Grats to Darren and Dave for recovering a podium!

 ;D, I've been practicing my Yorkshire accent for weeks!

I saw you coming into T2 and though "you cheeky rascal" but didn't want to shut the door on you.

I had a mare tonight, got logged in and put the password in for the hosted session and the iRacing web site froze on me, it took a little time to sort out. Then when I got in the car the steering wasn't centred so I needed a reboot.

I couldn't drive at all well so new it would be damage limitation. After Brendan let me go I caught up to 2 secs from Darren but then started slipping back a little and had a silly half spin, this was what let Dave get so close to me at my pitstop. I knew he was there and I decided to do the gentlemanly thing and not contest the place by firing out of the pit lane at full speed. The next few laps were fun and I was a little surprised to see Dave make more mistakes than normal. Although I've pulled off quite a few passes into the last turn I think the new gearbox modelling has killed that between drivers of similar speed as there is too much to do braking, changing and blipping to get close enough.

It was a good battle though, I set the fastest lap on lap 39 and Dave beat it by a tenth on lap 40 ;D

My only real dissappointment was that I was not trying to pass out of T6 I just got my lines wrong:-( Oh and I didn't spin, I kept it straight and out of the barriers but went off! :angel:

A bit race rusty after a couple of months away, must do better.

Congrats to Mike, Darren and Dave.

Regards
Gary

Enjoyed the 1st 20mins, but it all got a bit spread out & I started making little mistakes.
When I realised that I was last car still running by clearly 30 secs... I pulled over as I'd had enough really.

I'm not what you'd call a fan of this track, but it was nice at least to be able to have an FPS that meant I could go through the corkscrew with my new(ish) pc. :)

Is that what happened?  My replay starts on lap 4 so I couldn't go back and see.

James was alongside me into T6 which basically has no braking zone and only one line.  I tried to stay wide and slot in behind but to do that I had to slow down.  It all happened a bit quickly after that.  I know the back end came round, I think I'd caught it though.

I got a puncture out of it so dived in and topped up.  I wasn't thinking straight and put in too much fuel when I could have just left the settings as they were which was careless.

After that the car turned right a lot better than it turned left which made the Corkscrew and T6 interesting.  Pace wise though I was a lot quicker than I thought, mostly 22s so stuck at it.  Gary managed to spin just after lapping me so I lost double time getting lapped again.  That came back to bit me a little when near the end Pete appeared less than 10 seconds in front.  I was catching him but there weren't enough laps left.

I've always hated Laguna but thanks to Gary's help this week I'm actually starting to appreciate it's charms.

Paul
:)

Bumped into Adam on the grid, sorry bud!
Car seemed ok so continued!
Managed to weave my way through the carnage up the hill.
Picked up a few places and was running strongly in 7th but speeding in the pit lane  :wetfish:
left me with a 15 second penalty  :'(
Continued on my own for the last 12 laps and finished 9th.

Quite enjoyed it but am still not a Laguna fan!  ;)

I still don't get the Radical and last night was very much a battle of survival, no real fun involved. I had no intention of racing anyone after practice and qual because even on my own I had difficulty staying on track and didn't need the distraction of others. I let at least 3 by without contesting the position. Paid off for me as 2 failed to finish and I didn't fall off as a result of their pressure, or them not avoiding me when I messed up and was stupidly slow somewhere.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll persevere with this series, the cars have no feel to me. They understeer if you're too quick in to the corner, they oversteer on throttle, there is no fun. If I get out of shape that's it. At least in the LM and, as I've recently discovered, the Lotus I can make a mistake and recover. I lose time but it's not game over every time. I'll never be an alien so as I can't be winning I need something else to encourage me to partake.

It was Pops ;)

I agree with Pete mostly. :-\ I thought I got the grip of the car, then in the next moment it surprises me though I thought I did the same as the last time. Ok, it's probably my fault, but what I'm saying is that in no other sim that didn't happen to me, not after so many laps for sure. I want to participate here and I am trying to get a hang of the car(s) but so far something remotely like a controled driving only happens when I drive the Mazda. :-\ I'm beginning to be sorry I bought the darn thing(s). Would be a thing to forget if this wouldn't be the most expensive sim I bought so far and I can't say I'm getting out all that much. :-\ 

It's funny how different cars feel to different people - the LM I agree totally, but the Lotus I have the opposite feeling, very twitchy and almost impossible to correct a mistake. The Radical I can mostly catch and correct, though Laguna has got to be one of the worst places for it with some big bumps in places where it's impossible to keep the steering straight.

Yeah, but it was only a very small step out at the rear for your car - you certainly weren't to blame (I don't think anyone was) - I just got penned in behind you and James and then got slammed from behind as things jammed up.

Just one of things really.  Happy to upload that segment of the replay tonight if you want it.

Cheers, Ross.

Agreed totally.  I find the Late Model to be horrible to drive whereas the Lotus I can drift and slide in extremis.

For Sebring and Laguna I've used conventional Radical setups but Philip Island I used one based on the real car's setup.  It uses softer, more balanced springs and bars with the dampers set in the middle of their range.

The real car uses 400/457 springs by default which matches the weight distribution but they apparently run them stiffer in the States because of the inferior track surfaces.  One click on each end maintains the weight balance in iRacing and 457/514 or 514/547(?) are apparently more realistic "American" setups.

I think the 400 front springs were there in the recent build because I asked for them. :)

More rear wing pushes the back down of course so I've been stiffening the springs a click at the rear when running on higher downforce.

Another thing is that it uses higher tyre pressures, 21-22PSI.  The fast boy Radical setups have lower pressures, possibly to compensate for the lack of compliance in the suspension.  My theory is that it's better to put the movement where it can be controlled by the dampers rather than putting it all into the sidewall.

The SR8 owner's manual is downloadable from the Radical site and it includes setup details.  Not all of it can be dialled into iRacing exactly - the ride heights in iRacing aren't measured the same way for instance but most can.  I've modified the basic setup t /suit my style better and have ended up with 457/514(or 547) springs and less damping on the front end (6/20).  Resist the temptation to increase the bars though, they're the last thing you should ever touch.  Stick them at soft or and leave them there.  When you're generally happy with the setup put the rear up to medium if you need to to counter any uncurable understeer.

It's a setup which doesn't throw sudden surprises at me.  I can feel the car moving around before it snaps.  I'm quicker over a lap with the stiff rear end setups but I make fewer mistakes over a one hour race with the realistic one.

I always hated the Radical too.  Don't discard it until you've tried a soft one. ;)

Paul
:)

Interestingly you're not listed with car contact on lap one.  Are you sure you hit me?

Yes please, I'd like to see what happened if only to see how I can avoid it next time.

Paul
:)

Thanks Paul, interesting post and something I'll give a try.

I'm interested to hear what FOVs people are using in iRacing.

I find that when trying to use a lower 'realistic' FOV I lose all sense of the car rotating.  However, by dialing the FOV up a few notches I find most iRacing cars easy to catch when they get slightly out of shape.

Great post, Paul.  :thumbup1:

I'm one of those who struggles to find the time to properly setup the car to my liking, and as such I'm usually trying to adapt my driving style to the setup rather than vice versa, so post's like yours are a huge help.


 

I use a realistic FOV but then I've got the triple monitor setup. Going back to GTR2/GTL etc now I find it utterly impossible to place the car accurately - it just seems totally unnatural once you've gotten used to the realistic setting.

Well that didnt last long, started at the back, got going ok, started going up hill people spinning got a clear path ONLY for Adam who was off track on gravel to re enter on the track with his car facing right across the track and just parked it there!, - Sorry but I will be protesting that :/

Replay of carnage on lap 1 here:-
http://www.humyo.com/FWhsHvF/Replays/lap1%20carnage.zip?a=uLepO36h-8k

Robert, have you watched the replay?

It's not really nice to call people out at the best of times, but I'd have a little check of the replay before shouting too loud.

I'm more than positive that the intent was not to reenter the track or park it on the race surface.

Most people would have tried to keep going in the gravel but unfortunately he caught a bump that spun out the rear and propelled him on to the track at an angle.

The parking it bit was just trying to stop the car. Once the car was spinning there really was not much chance of doing anything other than trying to stop and hope you don't collect anyone.

Reading your post it almost sounds like it was intentional.

you might also want to review the level of caution you applied when approaching the scene of a mass crash with "spinning cars", before announcing/naming it was another drivers fault. If you'd been traveling at an appropriate speed, even if you couldn't avoid contact, damage would likely be minimal & you could continue.

Finally, how many times does Dave have to state about not discussing incidents in the exact way you have?Log the incident, wait & learn from the mods report, move on. :)

Exactly.

It's a bit of a balancing act for me. I much prefer the lower realistic views, but I do still like to see at least some of the front wheels in single seaters or some of the bonnet in tin tops. For me if it is when using the larger wider views that I find judging the rotation difficult. Sure you can see it, but with the longer view it's like you can see parts of the car that would actually be behind you in real life, or at least see bits of the car in front of you that would actually be to the side of you in real life. It's this distorted view that I have always found difficult to come to terms with.

I use 45 or thereabouts but use FreeTrack so have the ability to move my viewpoint.  It takes a little while to get used to but I now don't even think about it.  It enables me to look to the apex, look down to check the instruments or check around to see where other cars are.

It's not as good as a multi screen setup but it's a damn sight cheaper.  If you have a Wii Mote sitting around and can wire a few LEDs onto a baseball cap then you can get it set up for around 20 quid.

Paul
:)

Cheers Ross.

That's actually different to how I remembered it.  I was actually round the corner and I put a wheel on the dirt on the exit which explains the twitch.

Looking at it there it was a very nice move by Oily, clean a whistle.

Paul
:)

Just to be clear, I wasn't saying anyone was at fault here - I simply had nowhere to go behind you and Oily.  Personally I think it was just a racing incident (only avoidable by not racing!).

I wasn't implying you were.  I was just surprised I was further round the corner than I thought.

Great if you can get comfortable with tracking Paul. I did try some software once (Cam2Pan I think it was called). It used your webcam to lock on to your eyes and then panned the view as required. I just found it difficult to keep my head still so that it wasn't constantly changing and disorientating me. I tried messing with the settings so that it was less sensitive but then it just became a glorified look left/right, and I still couldn't get comfortable with a view that was moving across my screen. It is the movement across the screen that enables me to judge if the car is sliding or not and so if there is movement when there is no sliding it fries my brain. Maybe it's something you need to persevere with, but tbh honest I just haven't got the time or patience.

It takes a while to get used to but once you do it becomes second nature.  The dedicated TrackIR setups and Freetrack using the Wii Mote are a lot more stable than older Webcam based systems which makes a big difference.

I think it's easier for people who've not driven sims before.  My brother in law tried my iRacing setup (don't tell Nim... ;)) and used the tracking and found it completely natural.

The biggest problem is that my old hat is getting fairly rank now and I can't really throw in into the washing machine.

Paul
:)

Ken the problem is most people make it more sensitive and with huge dead zones, this is completely wrong in my view. I have 1:1 motion and no deadzone, this is natural - with the deadzones it disorientates you when you move in and out of the deadzone its completely uncontrollable.

As Paul said Freetrack is excellent with a wiimote. I do now use TrackIR because my 12yr old wanted her wiimote back and the wife moaned about the wiimote stuck on the monitor looking awful - women eh ::)

Gary