I can confirm John's concerns over the latest AVG update and its effect on important matters like simracing etc. If it is not disabled completely before joining a race server there are nasty consequences!! In GTL, like John, I would lose graphics as the screen drops back to desktop but with that terrifying soundtrack of things continuing unseen somewhere
. Strangely, in GPL it is the sound that vanishes and the picture continues!! but I find that almost as bad if I cannot hear the engine note??!
Anyway having beaten the AVG software over the head with a large shovel before this race I was hoping for a smoother ride than in the Capri fest last week.
I tried the Cobra in the 15 minutes of pre race practice and, although it was undoubtedly fast, I suspected that my uncultured right foot would shred those tyres inside 10 laps, so I had to find something else to play with. I'm still not entirely happy with that front wheel handling, rear wheel drive Alpine, so thought....." maybe it's time to give the Porker a poke?"
Arnold rolled out a nice red Porsche and I guessed at the fuel requirements + 3 laps and gave it a spin ( or two!!). Some frantic changing of gear ratios and diff settings during quali edged me closer to Erling's time, but nowhere near those laps of Geoffers and Ziu.
I think I must have been running some ratios that were very different to Erling's car because initially he got a better start, but somewhere around 3 rd gear I was able to outdrag him into T1 and sneak 3rd spot.
As he says above, there followed a very intense battle for about 20+ laps. Initially I was keeping the titanic struggle of Ziu and Geoffers in sight and hoping that they would destroy their tyres before I scorched mine. Any thoughts of being easy on my rubber were compromised by Erling's insistence on never being more than a second behind!! There were places where the different gear ratios allowed me a better exit from some corners and there were other places where he was better on the brakes ( something I still have problems with in GTL).
Most frustrating for me was the missed/double downshifts that my G25 gearshift was throwing into the mix. Every time I squeezed the gap up to around 1 sec and thought I might just be able to pull a gap, it would catch me out. ( I suspect that this is because I was looking everywhere for the possible glitches that AVG were responsible for and might have altered a setting in Logitech?).
That is what happened on that final hairpin when instead of 2nd gear I got neutral!! and ran wide struggling to avoid the kitty litter. Erling did not need a second invitation and he pounced. I was still working out which gear I was in when we got to the end of the straight and this time it stayed in 3rd,
when I wanted second. Erlings was gone
It quickly became obvious with the now well worn rubber that although I could match his pace, any attempt to try and catch him was going to end in tantrums before bedtime. So I hoped for a rare mistake from those ahead and just tried to keep things steady until the end, although I still managed a spin when Geoffers growled past to lap me!
Grats to Geoffers and Erling, commiserations to Ziu who only seems to get bad luck? ( might be worth checking your AV Ziu? )
