UKAC Season 2 Blancpain Sprint - Barcelona - Sep 7

[Mark J]

I love all the race engineer techie stuff and was even tempted to do an online diploma course in it. But never enough hours in the day  :'(. I used to get a buzz using motec to adjust dampers etc in gtr2 days but haven't found the new acti one as user friendly for AC. Have you got your own motec workbook for AC Gary? Wouldn't mind using it if you have.
It must be proof of how good the McLaren aero is if you can run 0-4 wing at Barcelona and set that Laptime. I had to steadily increase my wing on the Bentley to gain time as my tyres were scrabbling away in the faster corners losing grip.

[Jeffrey]

To see the Wing App (along with some other interesting apps) is a Dev app, and must be enabled in one of the .ini files (assettocorsa.ini I think, set "devapps" to 1).

Ah yes, I have devapps on. I've looked at the apps and thought, I have no idea what I am looking at, and never tried them again  . Will try them again and maybe put a bit more time in them, as now I am jsut downloading setups, untill I find one that works  .

Noooo... your fast enough Jeff dont need you going faster

It's really just the car. That 650 GT3 feels a bit overpowered if I am honest, and with hindsight, I shouldn't have picked it. I just didn't know at the start that it was this good, and during the season I got used to the car, which made the gaps to other cars bigger.
I tried a few cars at Barcelona, and with most, I was able to get them close to eachother within a few laps. And then there was the 650, which didn't require a whole lot more to be 1 second faster.

[garyjpaterson]

Nah, fraid not Mark. I've used it a couple times before but found it not particularly easy to use, plus the main think I wanted to use of for was checking aero levels as well as the heights of the splitter and diffuser, which apparently it can't do.

The dev apps do the job well enough imo, just define the speed you want to test at (100mph seemed a good place to start, should be representative of the fast turn 3 of Barcelona) - then drive at that speed on a flat surface and take note of the levels, and see how height changes things. Be careful about lowering too much, as it can stall under braking or compression (Eau Rouge is tough to stop that happening).

I often have the app open while practicing, just keeping an eye on things at critical points on the track, its easy to get distracted tho so I turn it off for the race.

[garyjpaterson]

To see the Wing App (along with some other interesting apps) is a Dev app, and must be enabled in one of the .ini files (assettocorsa.ini I think, set "devapps" to 1).

I'd post a pic explaining all the values, but don't have access just now. Here's what I remember off the top of my head.

CL = Coefficient of Lift, positive number is downforce, negative is lift.
CD = Coefficient of Drag, higher is more drag.
AOA = Angle of attack, watch as the whole car (thats the BODY Wing) changes its AOA which then effects all the others, this is Rake essentially which is the only way of changing the angle of the diffuser (and splitter in some cars).
GH = Hieght of wing in mm, Front Wing and Diffuser are the only ones that depend on ground height. Lower is generally better, until a certain point where it will stall, and you will see the CL of that wing drop significantly.

Tot CL = the Sum of all Wings CL, easy to see how much DF a car produces, as it should stay relatively stable
Tot CD = the Sum of the Wings CD, again shows how slipper a car is
@%Front = Shows the Aero balance, usually a value of 45 is recommended, though its driver preference. When checking this make sure to be going at a decent speed (>30mph really) as the diffuser stalls at slow speeds, which skews the result
EFF = This shows the efficiency of your aero, which is just the ratio between DF and Drag. Higher is better
Tot DownF = In KG, this is the result of everything above at a given speed. This of course changes with speed unlike the Coefficients
Tot Drag = Same as above but drag.

A lot of it is probably self-expanitory, but hopefully this is helpful to some 

[Maikel K.]

Really interesting all this in depth tech explanations. I usually made setups by trial-and-error.

Guess I'll try the dev apps tonight for some practise and see if I can try to make some sense of it.

[Jeffrey]

Lots of those terms I know from flight training, but there I had to learn them to lift off, not to stay on the ground as much as possible 

[Mark J]

Few good end of season fights to be resolved in the final race of the series 

We have the top 3 all able to win the series 
Myself and shark fighting for 4th (best of the rest!)
Kai and Georg duelling for 5th/6th
Picnic, Linus , Gary and Spanner fighting over the next few places, all within a few points of each other. 

Tally Ho! 

[spanner]

Yay finally under 1.45

But also tried out the F488 which thought about for any future GT3 season, but until they get the rest of the GT3's on the same tyres i cant see. My first timed lap was a 44.8 and ther next was going to be at least 7tenths up until going off (offline of course) Its just too quick and easy on its tyres, certainly compared to the lambo.

[garyjpaterson]

Yay finally under 1.45

But also tried out the F488 which thought about for any future GT3 season, but until they get the rest of the GT3's on the same tyres i cant see. My first timed lap was a 44.8 and ther next was going to be at least 7tenths up until going off (offline of course) Its just too quick and easy on its tyres, certainly compared to the lambo.

Just a quick note, I'm 99% sure the 488GT3 is still on V7 tyres, the same as the rest of the field. Kunos didn't want them on different tyres, so we will get all the GT3 cars on V10 with the next update (we were supposed to get it with the last, but needed some tweaking and they wanted to avoid messing with people leagues until it was sorted).

[Maikel K.]

Gary just beat me to it  

Tried the lambo offline and the tyres were overheating slightly, something I don't have with the Merc. Had a good lap tonight but it wasn't a good one for the race, going sideways in the corners. Seems to be a one two for the mcLaren tomorrow  

Btw, how much of the outer curbs of the last 2 corners are we allowed to use?  

[spanner]

Oh...ok. moan cancelled!

Yes the tyres on the lambo are interesting here! Have noticed a 20deg difference in temp across all four. Have managed to adjust the pressures so they are around 33psi but the tempertures dont help with the grip

[Mark J]

Btw, how much of the outer curbs of the last 2 corners are we allowed to use?  

I think we can safely use the green apron in those two turns but 'try' to keep two wheels inboard  I do wonder if those aprons might get a bit treacherous once your tyres are worn and try to spit you off late on 

Re: tyres, yes I get disparate temps across the car width but find when you really do push the car they all turn green 

[nfsw55]

Not sure if I'll be back home tonight in time for the race, so if not, have fun guys

[Mark J]

Oh no not there to fight for the championship win?! That's terrible 

Upto Georg and Maikel to take the fight to Jeff then, don't make it too easy for him 

[Jeffrey]

No worries, Mark.
I'm racing by the motto: "If you no longer go for a gap, that exists, you're no longer a racing driver." - AS

Also known these days as....yolooooooooooooooo