UKGTR Skin Pack 2.6 test - Imola - Aug 28

[picnic]

Results up top and replay here

[picnic]

Mixed race for me, had a great scrap with Gizmo almost the whole race. Each of us in turn making a small mistake to let the other through but neither of us quick enough to make a break. Then I got a bit of oversteer on to the start finish straight and my nudge in the wall gave me a puncture. Damn that was a long lap. Cost me a lot of places too as Gizmo and others seemed to pay trips to the pits to server stop and goes.

[mo]

Qual was close but once the lights went green Backo started to pull away chased by the G2 porker. That left me and Baracus to scrap over 3rd and I really enjoyed it. Sorry if I was a bit erratic but that 360 is hard to get used to, very twitchy is an understatement! I had several offs and eventually went off at Bassa on the final lap which gave me a stop/go that I couldn't take because I got the chequered flag.... oh yeah and a dq. The results show me in 3rd for some reason even though I was 2nd at the time, but it should be Baracus and then teamie Paul968 (in the GTC porker!)

Nice racing out there and really looking forward to S6

[John]

Possibly the best race Ive ever had.
Made a poor start at the being and lost 3 places,and ended up behind Felipe.
Christ he's quick in that Morgan.
Anyway,got past him due to a mistake on his behalf.
Then i had Dave next,i think someone has been practicing i there defencive driving.
Because i couldn't get past him.all i could do was pressurise him.
Then his mistake came when you hit the left and right hander,where the sun blinds you,and he ran wide.
took a couple of laps to catch up to Darren,but he gave me an adrenaline rush of a life time.
I couldn't get past him.
I was clearly faster,but he stopped every attempt i made to get past.
I finally got past him at the second but last turn but took his place back in the final chicane.
nice racing mate.
I received 3 cautions while behind him,due to avoiding his rear end and got black flagged 3 laps from the end.
i had 1.40 on the clock when i came to the last chicane and thought i could squeeze off another lap as i was having to much fun to do a stop and go,but got disqualified as i crossed the line.
Oh well,it was a fun race after all.

[DynoDaz]

I have to agree John, it was a great race and I have you to thank for it.

I managed to qualify in 10th but was soon up to 8th place with John welded to my back bumper.  For some reason I just couldn't match my pace in qualifying and I guess the sun didn't help either.  Every lap I misjudged my braking point on that corner.

However, who wants to be fast and race alone when you can be slow and have a fantastic battle with a faster driver.  I hope I didn't over step the mark with my defensive driving.  I just tried to hold my ground and always keep the inside line.

Under such pressure I was always going to give you one chance to get past, and you did with a great move.     But I think you was so happy at this point that you forgot to close the door at the last chicane, allowing me to retake my position.

It's a shame you received a DQ, because it was heading for a grandstand finish...

Let's hope we can continue this battle in S6. 

[John]

I hope we do continue to race like that in S6.
Who needs to go for a win,when ive experianced racing like tonight.
It can only make us better.
As for your deffensive driving,i hated it,but must admit,it was superb.
Cant wait for S6.
See you all then

[Paul968]

Great fun tonight, battling with TT, Mo, Paul R & Mark M. Had a fun little joust with TT early on (we must stop meeting at piratella!), and then tried hard to hang on to Mo but to no avail. Paul R then did a sterling job playing rear gunner for much of the race, until I succumbed to the ridiculous sun and went wide at the 2nd chicane. Paul kindly returned the favour later on, but Mark put a nice pass on me at Rivatza before he too made a mistake and gave the place back. Backo's stop/gos gave me another place and I finished a surprising 4th (or even 3rd if Mo got a DQ). Sorry to TT, who may have spun after I had a bit of a wobble at the top chicane, although that is just the way it goes at Imola - following another car closely into the top chicane is very risky for exactly that reason (not criticising btw m8 - I had the same dilemma more than once and took the same risk).

I have some sympathy for Mark's comments on the 360 Modena. I found it very hard to get a good laptime in it , although some of that was because it is very stiff and doesn't like the top chicane. This was the first quickish track that we have tested on, whereas on the tighter ones it was more in it's element. I think it could easily have some ballast taken off to make it more competitive. I don't think the RS is too heavy though, or too light (I was quicker in the Mosler in the sprint last season). Good to hear that the 350Z is better with the new tyres - otherwise I think it was well out of touch.

[popabawa]

That was my worst performance is a hell of a long time and all entirely my own doing

Had a bit of a mix up with Reign Man, I'm pretty sure there was no contact but apologies if we did come together.

I'd had enough when I got my second stop & go I'm afraid. I was all over the place and my concentration was shot so I decided that I was becoming a liability as the leaders came up to lap me.

A night to forget.

[Simon Gymer]

The Ferrari 360 is, in my experience and opinion, one of the hardest cars to set-up. After a season running the GTC last season, I found a good setup not long into it and it made such a difference to both the feel of the car and the pace I was able to run. Up till that point I was really struggling even in the GTC, so I suspect there is a lot to be found in a decent setup for the Modena.

Personally I would take my GTC setup to the Modena and see if it just works. They should be pretty darn similar so I would expect to pretty much use like for like setups.

[will16v]

Mark - i was in the GT2 RSR...i am just not very quick!, so i think you may need to compare the 360 you drove with the RSR i drove, rather than the RS...(Not to sure of the performance differences between the two with the ballasts now though).

I drove the Modena @ Sugo the other night, and seemed slow, but i had never driven @ Sugo before in GTR2, and was lacking a decent set up also.

Good race anyway last night with Mark & Pseudo, i just didn't really have a great set up - the car hated the chicanes, and i was not to fully confident with braking points and exit speed, although i did a bit better than in my last outing here at Imola.
Good race and good driving by all (except me when i clipped the Lotus Elise driver when overtaking on the 1st turn - sorry about that).

[Paul968]

It does look a bit odd that the 360 gtc is 30kgs lighter than the RSR but the Modena is only 5 kgs lighter than the RS. I'm sure you are right Simon about setup being important, but I'd be surprised if it made the difference all on it's own.

[Simon Gymer]

It does look a bit odd that the 360 gtc is 30kgs lighter than the RSR but the Modena is only 5 kgs lighter than the RS. I'm sure you are right Simon about setup being important, but I'd be surprised if it made the difference all on it's own.

Yes I agree about the weight.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

It does look a bit odd that the 360 gtc is 30kgs lighter than the RSR but the Modena is only 5 kgs lighter than the RS. I'm sure you are right Simon about setup being important, but I'd be surprised if it made the difference all on it's own.

30kg should be well within the range of what the succes ballasts will adjust for.

[Mark J]

well yeah that was my point earlier Simon and Paul. I can run 49's and 50's in the 360GTC here using a CeeJay setup i have that works well for me here. I used that same setup for the Modena but the car was hopelessly slow over a lap...ie 5 seconds a lap slower in race trim ! That cannot be right. All tyre temps were good and wear was minimal so i know the setup was working well enough.
However i am not a regular Fezza pilot hence asking if some others who took the 360GTC last night could try out the Modena and see whether they agree its now too slow.

I conducted an offline test race using UKGTR only GTC class cars with AI at 120% over a 40minute race at Imola. A Nissan won the race by nearly 6 minutes ! followed by a couple of TVR's and Morgans. The highest finishing Modena was 9th with a few others down in midfield. Mosler was fastest over a qually session but the Nissan had fastest race laps. RS's were mainly 14th to 19th with about 1 in the top 10.
If we've upset the natural racing balance of the real cars by this much we might as well go arcade racing.  
I want close racing like the rest of you but not at the cost of artificial performance to make slow cars fast and fast cars slow. I just hope it all pans out okay in the championship or there will be mud slinging.
I'm not having a rant, i just want to know that we've gone in the right direction with all this tweaking.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I conducted an offline test race using UKGTR only GTC class cars with AI at 120% over a 40minute race at Imola. A Nissan won the race by nearly 6 minutes !

There's something flawed in the way GTR2's AI run races - the Nissan always wins time accelerated 40 minute races for some reason - something to do with it not pitting right near the end I think. The only useful testing with the AI is single lap performance and that has to be done in a very controlled way, ie. with a lot of duplicate cars and all models using the same AI driver.