UKAC Season 16 - Nürburgring - Nov 4

[Mark J]

@Fabri, that video is fantastic   I have the BMW DTM side of the story on DVD, called 'Adrenalin' which is superb and also covers their Batmobile car era, definitely worth a watch.

@GT, yes expect i will go M3 as well as i love it (had a 325i back in the day  ) The gear ratios just arent quite right for this track, either tad too long or tad too short  you compromise either the twisty sectors or lose out on top speed on the straights and even ping off the limiter.

[Manteos]

I should be able to join the race at the last minute, but I can't be sure of it. Anyway I didn't try any of the cars and I won't be able to do any lap before today's race at SRO. From what I reckon, original BMW and Merc were very close without ballast, and Alfas were nearly 1-1.5 secs faster in any circuit. Never tried the Sierra yet. Not even downloaded
I'll probably pick the BMW anyway.

Hope to see you tomorrow

[Mark J]

just spent my lunchbreak trying out the other cars (beauty of working from home!) They all seem spot on to me, i was able to match my times in each and enjoyed driving each of them so i am happy to take whatever car is needed to balance out the test tomorrow night.
(Did 3-4 laps @ 2:14 in each car with 30L fuel and default setup) Expect that might come down to 2:12's with a few tweaks and more laps.

I did notice all these cars are heavily front brake biased in the setups, is that how they were back in the day?

[FullMetalGasket]

You also have ABS and an LSD in the DTM version - it was a spool (welded diff to all intents and purposes) unit in the BTCC car.
The Sierra handles very nicely to be honest, although while it has very good low/mid range power and torque it's lacking a bit of top end speed, this is due to the restrictor level I'm having to run it with to slow it down (The alternative would likely be 100Kgs+ of ballast which would generate excessive tire wear).
Given it exits corners better than everything apart from the Alfa (which is obviously very good out of low-speed corners) that evens things quite nicely (I hope).

I would argue that BMW and Sierra are easiest to drive fast, as Alfa and Merc either don't have ABS - or run better without it. As I intend to take the Merc as usual, I've ballasted it based on running without ABS.
Depending on how this race goes we might want to consider just not having ABS for the series to keep things interesting? (I refuse to say fair, as the Alfa's destroyed the competition in real life without it!)

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?

They haven't changed since last week
My dogs' been badly ill and I haven't even fired up Assetto since Sat morning let alone changed anything so don't know what you're complaining about?
My previous post was just responding to SRW's comment - I have no intention of changing things now until I have enough data to warrant it.

[KDiesel]

You also have ABS and an LSD in the DTM version - it was a spool (welded diff to all intents and purposes) unit in the BTCC car.
The Sierra handles very nicely to be honest, although while it has very good low/mid range power and torque it's lacking a bit of top end speed, this is due to the restrictor level I'm having to run it with to slow it down (The alternative would likely be 100Kgs+ of ballast which would generate excessive tire wear).
Given it exits corners better than everything apart from the Alfa (which is obviously very good out of low-speed corners) that evens things quite nicely (I hope).

I would argue that BMW and Sierra are easiest to drive fast, as Alfa and Merc either don't have ABS - or run better without it. As I intend to take the Merc as usual, I've ballasted it based on running without ABS.
Depending on how this race goes we might want to consider just not having ABS for the series to keep things interesting? (I refuse to say fair, as the Alfa's destroyed the competition in real life without it!)

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?

They haven't changed since last week
My dogs' been badly ill and I haven't even fired up Assetto since Sat morning let alone changed anything so don't know what you're complaining about?
My previous post was just responding to SRW's comment - I have no intention of changing things now until I have enough data to warrant it.

Ah, it was sunday when I tested and least then #1 post have different values for ballast etc., no idea what values server has set on sunday when I tested Sierra online...

[FullMetalGasket]

Nothing has changed since 11:30am on Saturday - so no setups have been wasted because no-one managed to get online before I finished testing on the server.

I edited the first post on Sunday using my phone because I realised I hadn't done so on Saturday.

[KDiesel]

Nothing has changed since 11:30am on Saturday - so no setups have been wasted because no-one managed to get online before I finished testing on the server.

I edited the first post on Sunday using my phone because I realised I hadn't done so on Saturday.

Ok, that clear things out, thx for info. I'll take Beemer tomorrow btw.

[IbnSolmyr]

My dogs' been badly ill and I haven't even fired up Assetto since Sat morning

Hope they're well now mate.

I tested a little bit all the cars apart from the Beemer and am rather equally damn slow (in the merc even a bit more but with default setup). I guess it's useless data tbh but here they are.

[FullMetalGasket]

Last time we ran these myself and Jeffrey used Mediums for a half hour race - my times on the server were mediums for that reason (be sure to check the dates for the Sierra times, it has some silly fast times from before I managed to slow it enough so ignore those!)

[Stefan aka Postal]

Ok, there seem to be a lot of Beemers on the grid tonight?

I haven't touched the brake balance in the Sierra yet as I did not seem to lock up any wheels badly. Maybe there is more to gain there. But it looks like it does not have adjustable brake balance from in the car.

Thanks for the tip MJ. The "Adrenalin" story looks to be available on youtube now also. Will have to watch that one too. 

[Fabri Fibra]

I will go with Alfa, too iconic. 

I have on my car the same Momo steering wheel.

[Stefan aka Postal]

Darn. Tried to plug my Rift in another USB. Big mistake as I had to re-do the complete setup again. Missed the race Hope you had fun

[FullMetalGasket]

Sorry to hear that Stefan.

I had an absolute blast battling Fabri for the entire half hour.
I somehow forgot about the Alfa being 4wd so got monstered at the start and didn't have to 'fall off' by accident 
After catching him I made a pass into T1 on the 2nd lap and then pulled away a bit - I think Fabri made a mistake or over-drove a bit.
After putting some fast laps in because I could, I then 'accidentally' fell off at the hairpin and rejoined behind Fabri.
He was a bit more wise to where I could get alongside so blocked better this time. It took ages to get back past as a result. The Alfas' 4WD allows you to park it on an apex and take a very tight line while still out-accelerating the RWD cars at low speed.
The BMW, Merc, and Alfa all have near identical power/weight ratios now, so as expected the Alfa suffers slighty at high speeds due to transmission loss and gives you a chance at the end of straights.
After re-passing Fabri again I turned on the ABS for a laugh, within a lap the car simply failed to stop and I ended up taking a shortcut through the final chicane 
I slowed and let Fabri re-catch me and turned the stupid ABS off again and carried on racing.
About 4 laps from the end I made a mistake in the Shell-kurve and clipped the kerb with my outside front wheel. This fired me at the gravel and allowed Fabri back past.
I had a hell of a fight trying to re-pass Fabri, he covered every attempt I made.
In the end I threw a dummy move at him into the final chicane in order to make him compromise his line - I don't think he saw me drop behind on the turn in for a better line as he stayed to the right - this gave me a better exit line so I was able to pass on the outside of him exiting the chicane 
I was far enough ahead that I could stay beside him onto the start/finish straight and take the inside line into T1.
After that I just put my head down and concentrated on a clean run to the finish.

As soon as I get time I'll set the server for Zandvoort with the current handicaps. As it's at sea level it will highlight whether the restrictor on the Ford is correct for all tracks or if I'll need to adjust at each course according to altitude (I believe AC simulates altitude/air pressure so the turbo cars have a massive power advantage at high circuits), I should have the handicaps 'set' by lunchtime Saturday if they need adjusting.

[Mark J]

I will award myself one of these for last night  that or sack my mechanic who was too busy smoking and sipping a schnapps to change my gear ratios 

I had lengthened the ratio for qually as it was pinging off the limiter on two straights with low fuel. Qually was rubbish anyway as i hadn't practised any low fuel/soft tyre runs and the softs weren't that great. I was faster on mediums and more fuel by half a second in the BMW.

Anyway, qualified 3rd. Only realised how long my gears were when the lights went green and i got mugged by about 4 cars within 100m  not a good start! But soon picked them off except Maxime. He had good pace and i started over-driving the car to try and make up for the poor start and time lost getting past a few cars. Inevitably at Turn 5? the first downhill left, i carried too much speed into the corner and despite trying to hold it, did a long sweeping slow oversteer spin and lost two places again 
But that meant i enjoyed some cracking chases with these great looking cars, the Alfas and Sierras looked fab!  Enjoyed a few good battles back to 4th again but Maxime was now 9 seconds down the road. I was setting constant green laptimes on stracker but never got close to put him under any pressure. Shame as i think we would have had a good battle in the race. My longer gears were making me suffer in sector 1 and at the chicane with the car bogging down. 

The Alfas had much better traction out of some of the corners and the Sierras seemed better on the brakes, but with the BMW's agility i was often able to turn in tighter/sooner and catch them on the following straights by getting on the power sooner. Good stuff. Just need to add an Opel and we have the full set 

Really hope the series can attract a good group of drivers, these cars deserve a full grid 

[Bob]

First outing for a while, managed a couple of laps, missed a gearchange and locked up. Must try harder...