Immediately after the fracas at T1 last night, and throughout the race I wondered if I was responsible for the mass pile up that saw many forced to retire.
I was so concerned throughout the race that it might have been me that I actually remembered to save the replay, something I normally NEVER do.
This morning I watched the incident again and was relieved to see that it was not an error on my part.
I got a good start from somewhere like 8th or 9th on the grid and used the draft behind Clouds ( I think?) to get close to his tail. We were both on the right hand side of the grid and as long as we stayed that side of the track we should have the inside line around the hairpin. My intention was to tuck in behind him and make sure that no-one could dive in between us before T3.
As we took the first right hand kink he suddenly seemed to lose speed, so a quick check of prib/mirror and a look left and I eased out into an empty space in centre of the tarmac and my momentum quickly carried me alongside and put Clouds into my blind spot. I thought that I should be almost past him and it was as I tried to ease into the left turn that I felt a slight contact and my car was spun to the right and off onto the (very wet grass). By the time I had slithered to a stop and turned it around there were cars everywhere although mine was undamaged.
OOPs! I though "was that me??"
I rejoined the race and slowly made my way up to 5th place at the end after Natan discovered the braking bug on the final lap and gifted me his place.
( more about my views on the bug below)
On watching the replay it looks like Clouds put a rear wheel wheel on the grass just as I passed him and that twitched his car to the left, which clipped my rear and spun me around. I left the track at high speed and cleared the way for the carnage that ensued. If he had not made that small accidental error that sent him across the track, I think everything would have been much less dramatic.
BRAKING BUG..my thoughts...............
The notorious "brake bug" is something that a lot of us have become victims of in the GT's. Almost everyone was complaining about it when the mod was released but gradually many have evolved setups and driving techniques to reduce its effect.
What you describe would fit what many of us have experienced. You approach a corner at high speed and know you are going to do some heavy braking. In any of the other mods (65,66,67 or 69) you would expect to stand on the brake pedal, either to scrub off the speed and make the corner, or lock up the wheels and go straight on in a cloud of tyre smoke.
But, in these GT cars it seems that you can get something that feels like sudden brake failure, such that the car refuses to slow down and the steering feels ineffective.?? I guess that is what you discovered last night? The point in the braking zone at which this kicks in seems to be very critical and once initiated it almost always ends in a trip to the scenery.
I have not come across any info from the developers of the GT mod, but I wonder if they tried to simulate the effect of the extra weight of these cars under braking.This brake bug seems worse with the Mk4 GT Ford than with the Porsche IMHO, but that might be just my imagination
.
The nearest comaprison I can offer within GPL, is what you get in the 67 mod if you have your suspension set too soft and it bottoms out. Something that most of us have experienced at the bottom of the dip at Mosport? the car just seems to lose all control and plough straight on.
Some of us have discovered that to reduce or overcome this "braking bug" the GT cars need to run with much stiffer suspension, bump and rebound settings, which strangely enough the setup page allows ( maybe a clue there?). Also, I have found that your braking technique needs to adapt for the GT's. In most of the open wheeled mods you can be pretty brutal with the brakes and suffer no consequence, but with a GT car I find that to get the optimum braking you really have to "feel" the brakes and avoid any possibility of a locked wheel. Demon late braking is a very risky move because of this "bug".
So a very smooth and gently progressive braking action to ease off the speed, is far more reliable and effective. Also I try and get OFF the brakes before I attempt any turn in ( something that is not 100% necessary in open wheeled cars).
So, although it has been labelled "the GT braking bug" I am not convinced that it is a flaw in the software, but rather something that makes the GT's a little more interesting to drive and possibly an attempt to reflect the extra weight of these cars when you are trying to stop from close to 200mph?
