Following on from a fun race about a year and a half back featuring a mixed grid of DTM cars I'm having another go at balancing the grid.
We'll be using the same track layout and the current versions of the same cars - but I've had my calculator out and have been working on better ways of balancing the grid.

As a result I'm using a combination of ballast and restrictor in order to get the power to weight into a roughly similar band.
The heavy cars will still have more power - so will likely end up with better top-end speed - but won't simply walk away on the straights anymore.

Anyone that can practice with all 4 cars will be appreciated, I'll be doing all 4 but know I have strong favourites that I'm better in so that will likely skew the times.

The hope is that I can come up with a suitable handicapping baseline to allow a series to be run - that will then have some further success ballast added depending on championship position (In order to smooth out the changes smoothly across the season).


Password: see above

Practice: 19:30 (45 mins)
Qual: 20:15 (15 mins)
Race: 20:30  (30 mins + 1 lap)


Cars allowed:
Alfa 155 (+11Kg ballast, 10% (-42Hp) restrictor)
BMW M3 DTM (no handicap)
Ford Sierra R500 V3.03 (+20Kg Ballast, 50% restrictor (turbos don't respond the same as N/A before you ask!)
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ford-sierra-cosworth-rs500-pack.24027/
Mercedes 190E DTM (+6Kg ballast, 1% (-6.3Hp) restrictor.

The above handicapping brings everything to roughly 2.7Kg/Hp apart from the Ford - as it's Turbocharged, it has epic torque and is faster than it should be - providing the mod team got their figures right.

Track: Nurburgring GP



Live Timing: here

Time of Day Setting: 15:00
Weather: Mid-clear
Start: Standing
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit-stops: Not required

Server track settings:
SESSION_START=100
RANDOMNESS=0
LAP_GAIN=0
SESSION_TRANSFER=N/a

Damage: 60%

Password: see above

PLP App - Not used in this series. Cutting will be monitored on replay and penalties issued for excessive cutting.

*edited 01/11/20 - Sierra has received heavy handicapping as was lapping over a second faster than the BMW. This is possibly caused by altitude as the Ford is turbocharged. We'll also run a test race at sea level to see how things change then - I'm really hoping it won't, as I'll have to run massive numbers of laps on EVERY circuit to balance it otherwise....

Hi mates!
hope you're well. If I can make it I think I'll be in with the alfa! Would be good to taste the tarmac again

H, some cars have 5 gears, other 6.
The 155 has not the ABS (I think), and considering that it has a manual lever, and few electronics should be that of '93 -'94. Those of the following years were a concentrate of remarkable technology.

They are quite old style to drive. They have all good handling, the Alfa is a bit strange because she is 4wd (she is like a Delta for track). I suggest you to try all, specially the Sierra and Mercedes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPEXfm7q1M&t=4s
with engl sub.

I will probably go for the Sierra, should be a bit easier to handle than the BTCC spec version we raced a few months ago as they had more power than the DTM version.

Blaah, already did testing with ballast/restriction what was in 1st race post. This is ridiculus tbh, are those ballasts/restrictions final or are they gonna be different tomorrow again?

When race post is published I expect that info is accurate for making decision what car to take and do some settings, right? Now I see that I just wasted basically 4 hours for nothing and I need to do everything again... Beside cars ain't so dramatically different, least in my hands, so I think i'ts better leave them alone and drive all kind of tracks, fast,slow and medium speeds.

I tryed the 155, Sierra and Mercedes. They seem quite good in balance.

Tried all the cars very briefly. The only one I liked was the M3 so I'll go with that. Gear sets seem a bit odd so I'll have to have a play with those but generally it seems good out of the box. As for the others, Merc felt numb, Alfa was ok but I didn't even realise it was 4WD 

My mate had a Cosi as his company car back in the day which he also had chipped. It was very rapid but at the end of the day it was a Ford Sierra! I hated it then and I still hate it now