RRE Season 7 (2020) Race Room Touring Classics - Motegi - May 7

[frex]

Sorry about the start - my steering was messed up and initially I couldn't go anywhere. One of the Porsches got trapped behind me (GT?), sorry for that. After that it was fun though. Congrats Markus and Geoff.

[Markus]

After two attempts to finish a race, I finally was succesful. For me the Porsche hadn`t changed too much due to the update. It is quite easy to drive but the tire temperatures (especially front left on this track) was critical.
The quali was ok for me, but the gap to Geoff was bigger than expected. I know him well and I am slightly faster in Quali while he is a lot faster in the race. So I knew, starting from the pole was nice but it was not the win of the race.
Geoff is a great starter, but the 964 has lots of traction so I could win the start. I could create a gap of a second between us, but I had to be careful with the tires. The first corner is a killer for the left front tire and I took it careful lap by lap. And lap by lap Geoff came nearer at this part of the track. I had to push hard without abusing my tires. Not an easy task if there is someone behind you that nearly makes no mistakes. The gap between us was only 2 seconds all the time. In the last quarter of the race we were lapping some of you (thanks for giving us space btw) and I guess Geoffs tires were nearly gone. So this was my first win in an RRE race. Thanks for organizing and for  nice and clean racing.

[Geoffers]

Went with the M3, didn't try any other cars, & as I hadn't driven it since the physics update spent a bit of time meddling with the setup. Eventually got it so it didn't want to swap ends so easily, but I still needed to be a little careful with the throttle. Pete, I know you don't play with setups much, but one of the best setup changes with the M3 was to greatly increase rear toe-in, I think I put it up to 1.2 degrees.

The race, well Markus has just about said it all, he got the lead at the start & with Frex having a problem I got into 2nd. Gap between Markus & I stayed around 2s all race, once Frex got into 3rd place he did start to catch me but only by a tenth or two a lap & I still had over 3s to spare at the end.

Congrats to Markus & Frex. 

I do agree that these cars, well the M3 anyway, are not as much fun to drive as they were before the update, although they are arguably more realistic. What I found particularly tricky with the M3 was the braking, seemed all too easy to lock the brakes, & turning braking power down only made them less effective without curing the lock up problem.    Watching Frex in practice, he was able to brake much later in the heavier 635 than I could in the M3, surely one of the big advantages of the M3 was its nimbleness & lighter weight making it much better under braking & in the corners, even though the more powerful 635 was probably faster on the straights. On the other hand it could just be that Frex is a better driver than me. 

[goldtop]

Sorry about the start - my steering was messed up and initially I couldn't go anywhere. One of the Porsches got trapped behind me (GT?), sorry for that. After that it was fun though. Congrats Markus and Geoff.

I wondered what had happened to you.

I spent a lot of time researching the new ffb yesterday for my humble DFGT. I made a lot of adjustments based on other's experiences and settings and finally got something that feels better right up until the moment I reach the limits of grip and then without warning around we go! Tried both bimmers and the 964 and the same thing, no feel on the limits and just guesswork going into corners. Gave the race a go but was tip toeing around and eventually gave up.

Maybe it's time for a wheel upgrade  

[phspok]

Agree with most of the previous comments. Just had a go with the M3, and produced a setup that, for me at least, is more drivable
Had not messed with the rear toe. I tend to set it at .2 and leave it. After a few laps I was doing similar times to my best 964 times.

As I have nothing better to do at the moment, being furloughed as I am for the next 3 weeks, I will do some setups for all the cars
we are running in these three series. Not that my setups will be faster than others, but may be easier to drive.

I will post here if people want to download them. I am having particular trouble with the Junior. It needs some coast diff, but there
isn't one, so I am doing my best. The 95 merc is loverly, and the default setup is perfectly drivable, though it has all the adjustments
that you could want as well.

M3 and Pork Example Setups in the Event page.

I will include any usefull setups that people send me (one way or another) in the event pages

[frex]

What I found particularly tricky with the M3 was the braking, seemed all too easy to lock the brakes, & turning braking power down only made them less effective without curing the lock up problem.    Watching Frex in practice, he was able to brake much later in the heavier 635 than I could in the M3, surely one of the big advantages of the M3 was its nimbleness & lighter weight making it much better under braking & in the corners, even though the more powerful 635 was probably faster on the straights. On the other hand it could just be that Frex is a better driver than me. 

Or maybe the 635 just has bigger and better brakes..!

All of these cars (disregarding the 964) suffer from the front end being prone to locking up under braking. My solution was to lower the braking power a bit and push the brake balance to the rear, but also to reduce front toe-in to zero. This gives much nicer braking and didn't seem to lose anything on turn-in. I just tried the M3 and this seemed to work fairly well there as well, so maybe it can be applied to all the cars.

The other problem (except in the Volvo with it's TC) is the major (sometimes unrecoverable it seems) oversteer through the corner, and at corner exit. My solution here was to increase Differential preload (to around halfway in the 635). This is opposite to my normal setup practice - I usually like some lift-off oversteer and tend to reduce the Diff preload as much as I can get away with. Here, I went in the opposite direction, but it certainly seemed to tame the rear end a bit. Raising the preload will also allow you to push brake balance even further to the rear, so can also help further with the brake lock-ups. In the M3 I didn't need too much here though, and I didn't change rear toe at all.

All subjective of course and none of these changes may help anyone else. And even if you work on the setup, you'll still need to be gentle on the brake and throttle (just like the 934). Mash the brake pedal and you'll probably lock up and overheat your tyres whatever setup you've got under you. Brake relatively gently initially, get the car settled with the weight transferred over the front, and then brake hard is the way to go. For me anyway. Hope that helps.