UKGTL Season 20 Goodyear BMW Classic Cup - Adria - Apr 8

[SpecialKS]

Good to know that I'm not the only one who cannot handle these ones  

[EvilClive]

Grats to the podium and all who got their cars to the end.

After a little thought, I suspect that my DQ was for speeding in the pit lane during quali/practice?  I cannot think of any other reason , after Arnold went to so much trouble to disguise the turbo and the KERS battery pack?    I was so focused on getting some sort of handle/control over these cars and simply wanted to get out on track and test any setup changes. I totally forgot about pit lane speed limits 

It is a little re assuring to hear that many others are struggling with these cars. For me it is a struggle to prevent the rear end simply sliding around at the slightest provocation. I can feel the slide beginning through the wheel and FF, but unlike most other cars there seems to be nothing that will control it???  Opp lock/ lift off the gas/ twitch steering to break grip on front, nothing appears to counter act the desire to spin 

[Wiltshire Tony]

After a little thought, I suspect that my DQ was for speeding in the pit lane during quali/practice?

There are no speeding rules during quali /practice. Only during the actual race. You were still using chat as the countdown to join the grid decreased. Maybe you joined to late?

[EvilClive]

That must be why, although It did not seem to me that I was unduly slow in chat? Next time I will focus a little more 

[phspok]

I can handle them, but only by neutralising the handling with a very restrictive setup
similar to the French F3, but where I was quite competitive in those I am slowest on the grid in these.

[Hristo Itchov]

I can handle them, but only by neutralising the handling with a very restrictive setup
similar to the French F3, but where I was quite competitive in those I am slowest on the grid in these.

That's the only way to make the car work, I agree. I had my coast differential on 80, rear anti-roll bar on zero, front on maximum, rear spring on softest setting, lots of front bump and rebound, and the thing was still prone to rotating too much on entry and easy to spin under acceleration.

What I found during testing was that you have to keep the engine in high revs, so the power wouldn't come abruptly as you accelerate. Also, a lot of time is to be gained if you just brake earlier and get on the throttle very early on. I noticed just about everyone was braking later than me during the race (after I dropped back with a bad start), but that meant they were accelerating way too late and going too wide on corner exits.

My race was interesting in the first few laps until I got back into the lead, then I tried saving tyres because it seemed the constant locking under braking was wearing out the fronts quicker than the rears. This allowed Dulichki and Erling to catch up, and we had a nice little scrap for some laps, especially after I messed up T1 and Dimitar got in front. He was suddenly very difficult to pass  I misjudged the braking into the last corner though and sent him into the gravel trap. After that it was just a matter of managing the tyres and focusing on getting those exits right. Happy to have scored the fastest time on the very last lap.

Overall, not the most enjoyable car to drive, but once you set it up well, with the tyres warmed up, and getting the hang of how to drive it, it's not bad.

[Geoffers]

I was using quite similar settings to Hristo, although I was using a bit more rear ARB than him & a little softer front suspension. The setup seems very track specific, the setup I used at Silverstone just did not work at this track, car just kept losing the rear on turn in. I got the car to handle quite nicely once the tyres were warm (that's why I spun at T1, honest), the only thing I had a problem with was mid-corner understeer. Car would initially turn in well but then just run wide, could not get rid of it without making the car too unstable on turn in, so had to live with it.

Probably would have been a good race had I not played bumper-cars. 

Congrats to Hristo, Dimitar & Erling. 

[Dimitar Dulichki]

Well that was more fun and enjoyable than i expexcted.

The start was realy good, as i was practising thos time a lot, but i spun at turn one and got to 8th i think. After that lots of guys in front of me makded mistakes and i capitalized. Then i started catching Hristo for my suprose and after few laps i was battling and chasing him for maybe 20-30 laps before we colided at the last corner and i was 3rd behind Coyote. Later the las made a mistake and i was 2nd witch i managed to keep till the end.

Grats Hristo - deserved the win as he was the fastest with both heavy and light car.

[Erling G-P]

Race was more interesting than I expected, based on my difficulties in practice.  Surprised I could find no affiliation between Tilke & the track, as all those endless, slow hairpins seemed just like something he might have concocted.  Always find it frustrating when I'm handed a fast car, and the track then forces me to drive it in 2nd gear for what seems like most of the lap.

Like others, I find the car very difficult to drive, and really struggled at Silverstone. Thus 4th on grid, behind the aliens was the best I could hope for, so pleased with that.  Things got turned a bit upside down at T1 however, when Dimitar spun. After the dust had settled, I found myself 3rd, chasing after Dan in the lead & Tony behind him.  Tony spun, giving me 2nd, and with the fast guys still some way back, I could focus on chasing Dan. Didn't take long for Hristo to join me though, and soon after, Dan waved us past (not necessary).  Held off Hristo a couple laps more, but a mistake on a curb and he was past like a flash.  Geoffers had a go, sending me wide.  I just wanted him to go, but as he didn't accelerate, I had to do it, or lose another place. One lap later a new knock sent me spinning. Again I just wanted Geoffers to follow the other aliens, but before I could try to communicate that, he had left 

Dimitar had gone past as I spun, so now in a lonely 3rd, with him some 6-7 secs ahead, dropping to 4-5 occationally.  Cars behind were steadily dropping back each lap, so no immediate threats.   Little over mid-race, I found Dimitar in the kitty litter, and Hristo apparently waiting.  For the next many laps, I was the meat in a Bulgarian sandwich.  Could never quite work out if we were actually racing, or if they were just toying with me.  Had the impression Hristo could just speed off if he wanted to, while Dimitar took some laps to get closer, so maybe my race with him was real.

Late in the race, with tyre wear creeping in, the car finally succeded in mugging me, when I spun at T1. If the rear breaks lose upon corner entry, it seems no force in the known universe can prevent it from going round.  Chased after Dimitar as hard as I could, but the race ended too soon to tell if I could have closed the distance or not.

Grats to Hristo & Dimitar & commiserations to those with unfortune or problems.

Clive, you may have been the victim of a bug or glitch. Something similar happened to me 2018.  Qualified perfectly normal, but when the countdown started, I was DQ'ed and couldn't join the grid: https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=14693.45

Tony suggests hitting Escape key might fix it, but (thankfully) haven't had another chance to test it (And had forgotten about it to be honest..  )

[Bob M.]

That was a tough one!!  These cars are way above my talent level and the track has too much of a F1 look to it.  Had some grins with following Dan.  Both of us were in wounded cars at the time.  Finally I was just going to give up and leave, but decided to pit and see if they could fix the car.  The front air dam was taken out by a wall hit I think, bad understeer and bad braking.  They worked on it but no help, the pit board said just body damage.  Think it may have been a little better but looking back I should have put new rubber on it also.  Just decided to soldier through the rest of the last laps, hopeing I would get lapped a lot and put me out of my misery.  Tried to stay out of the fast guy's way when they lapped me but had my hands full, hope I didn't hold any of you up....See you all at the Moor in the old cars, at least they are drivable for me..............

Bob M.

[phspok]

My setup was pretty well as H describes. But, it took me most of qual to realise that I was spinning lots because, although the brake bias
felt "normal" I needed to push it forward more than I would have to counter the engine braking, particularly in 1st.
So I pushed the brakes forward a couple of clicks, and made 1st a bit higher to reduce the engine braking.
I always struggle with cars that have a lot of engine braking, because I tend to brake way later than I should, and here it highlighted
Hristo's comment about brake earlier/accelerate earlier. Always been my achilles heel, Good advice, thanks for that.  

[SpecialKS]

Result