GT Sprint Cup - Season 1, Round 5, Donington - Aug 10th

[Truetom]

always wanted to see a 'one car all season'

And some of us are driving one car all season John Guest sponsered 911 here all the way

I drive a yellow Saleen in GT sprint and Endurance and F360 in NGT sprint. That will be my choice for the whole season. I can't imagine a team in real world to own all cars and drivers to know them all and to pick one for a specific track or track conditions (rain). Fun races are different.

[PaulW]

One car all season is a nice idea but definitely isn't a solution to the samey grids we have with GTR- already we've got several people saying they'd go for the Lister in GT and, as an overall more predicatable drive, everyone would still drive a 360 in NGT. I'd be up for it but I think it'd be a little more drab setting up and racing the same car over and over and over.

I suspect this isn't what Shark was thinking of though (correct me if Im wrong and all that jazz)- more a question of maybe bonus places for racing in a Morgan?

[Paul968]

I think NGT is a bit different - the 2 main choices are a much better bet over the season for most people, and the 360 is just a lot easier to race (as opposed to hotlap - I am roughly the same pace at most tracks). For the GTs tho the cars have different strengths and weaknesses at each track, and it seems wrong to allow drivers to hop out of a car just because the odd track is less suited for it.

Paul

[fozzmeister]

I think NGT is a bit different - the 2 main choices are a much better bet over the season for most people, and the 360 is just a lot easier to race (as opposed to hotlap - I am roughly the same pace at most tracks). For the GTs tho the cars have different strengths and weaknesses at each track, and it seems wrong to allow drivers to hop out of a car just because the odd track is less suited for it.

Paul

Thats it, besides, it's natural to have skew of cars. I mean seriously as long as it's not 2/3'rds of the field I don't see the problem, I mean there are loads of different types of Viper, which were in the 2003 season, what is that about 1/3rd.

Also I think if I was in GT. It's obvious that there are a few people quicker than me, some much more so. So the top 4ish(?) drivers would be pulled to something which is a good all rounder. Someone like me might be more drawn to a car that exels in one particular area so in one or two tracks at least I'd stand a semi reasonable chance of running in the top three or so. Thus making a more mixed grid, and a more compititve one too. The reverse could happen also with everyone picking a good all rounder 

[greg130]

Well one idea to mix it up a bit and even out the field is to enforce one car for the whole season but with a twist.
The team or driver that comes last has first pick of the cars and so on, until the championship winner is left with the car that no one wants.
Obviously you would need to decide how many of each type of car would be avaliable, would be a bit harsh to have only one Lambo avaliable for the whole field.  Perhaps it could be done by teams, say  3 x Saleen teams, 3 x Lister teams etc etc.
Just a thought.

[Mark Harrison]

Well I said long before the start of the season that for the first season I would be in the Lister, so I can select it without feeling the slightest pang of guilt

I'll be in something different for next season, though.

[fozzmeister]

I'm almost certainly gonna race GT next season... I'm working towards on F550, having done semi OK with a F575 on some tracks.

Fozzmeister

[locutos ukgtr]

Yup, same here Mark, Lister driver in both this and wosec series. I am able to concentrate on 1 set up and have only to fine tune now for each circuit. I did say b4 season started that it seemed a bit strange to allow guys to hop from car to car so they could select what they considered the best type for a given track. I know I have a speed disadvantage on spa and monza, but I wont swap cars just to try to get an advantage. Perhaps for season 2, a limited number of cars from each group should be given, loser from season 1 gets 1st pick and so on up the order. U stick with that car for the season. Might even tighten up the racing making it more competetive.

[Simon Gymer]

I don't think there is anyone (or at least very few) that is actually swapping cars to suit for each track, although I do think more people are moving towards permanently taking the Lister. It gets a bit boring when you're a lone Lambo amongst the Lister pack. I quite like the idea of having a certain number of cars and everybody gets to pick one at the start of the season. Sort of like the NFL draft, the slowest teams from the previous seasons championship get to pick first and so on. This could have the effect of firstly making sure there is a nice variety of cars on the grid but also a side bonus of making things a even more competitive by having the faster teams in slower cars. It would be great to have weight penalties but as the game doesn't provide that maybe this is an alternative. There are other obvious alternatives already tried out in UKGPL, but it's difficult to apply them to Sprint races, although they should work ok for the Endurance events (tokens or forced pitstops).

Personally, I've stuck with the Lambo all season in GT and F360 in NGT cause I just love to drive the Lambo even if it isn't as ulimately as quick as the Lister.

I think my original point was that we are in danger of having a one make series especially in the NGT. The Mosler and Morgan are not that far off the F360 and 911 and it would just take only a little penalty to be added to the F360 to even the thing out and hopefully mean more people take different cars.

[fozzmeister]

I don't think there is anyone (or at least very few) that is actually swapping cars to suit for each track, although I do think more people are moving towards permanently taking the Lister. It gets a bit boring when you're a lone Lambo amongst the Lister pack. I quite like the idea of having a certain number of cars and everybody gets to pick one at the start of the season. Sort of like the NFL draft, the slowest teams from the previous seasons championship get to pick first and so on. This could have the effect of firstly making sure there is a nice variety of cars on the grid but also a side bonus of making things a even more competitive by having the faster teams in slower cars. It would be great to have weight penalties but as the game doesn't provide that maybe this is an alternative. There are other obvious alternatives already tried out in UKGPL, but it's difficult to apply them to Sprint races, although they should work ok for the Endurance events (tokens or forced pitstops).

Yeh that's all very nice, but it was always my plan to learn in an NGT (kindof like an easy level on a game) and move upto GT. How would you rate me against the GT drivers? (that's not a question) So how would you tell when I would get to pick a car?

There was only four Listers in the last endurance race BTW, Although I take your point that the sprint is a Lister Fest.

[PaulW]

Well one idea to mix it up a bit and even out the field is to enforce one car for the whole season but with a twist.
The team or driver that comes last has first pick of the cars and so on, until the championship winner is left with the car that no one wants.
Obviously you would need to decide how many of each type of car would be avaliable, would be a bit harsh to have only one Lambo avaliable for the whole field.  Perhaps it could be done by teams, say  3 x Saleen teams, 3 x Lister teams etc etc.
Just a thought.

I like Gregs idea best. A season is quite a long chunk of time to be stuck with a car you don't really like because you're being penalised from the season before or, perhaps more importantly, a 550 which is frustrating as hell to drive because you didn't do very wel the previous seasonl. There's a bit of a masochisitc edge to that system and surely UKGTR should be enjoyable first and foremost?!

A race by race penalty system based on the previous race though- now that would be exciting! Everything would get mixed up in terms of qualification performances, we'd all get a chance to drive more cars and we'd all get a little sweetener in the form of a 'great' car for the next race should we have done badly.

I realise I'm probably the exception here but I don't want to be forced to drive one car all season- I bought GTR so that I could try several cars out and don't want to listen to the same engine note for hour after hour after hour, month after month!

[[ZiP]Tyf]

I realise I'm probably the exception here but I don't want to be forced to drive one car all season- I bought GTR so that I could try several cars out and don't want to listen to the same engine note for hour after hour after hour, month after month!

You're not alone there m8! I did the MegaMonster and other thingymebob on GTRank a couple of days after I found out what it was! It's awesome to drive all the different cars and really feel the differences as well. So I'm with you on this one .

T

[fozzmeister]

I'm not prepared to drive a different car each race. For me swapping is not something that I would consider, I know the 360 like the back of my hand now, others _should_ be like that with thier other cars. Infact I probably would not race if I'm forced to keep changing cars, I'd rather be stuck with something I hate all season.

Fozzmeister

[PaulW]

There you go then- horses for courses. Some people really like using one car, others really dislike using one car. Not much you can do then with the field of cars GTR offers and probably any solution would result in unhappy drivers.

[fozzmeister]

How about a system where you lose say 2 champ points when you change car. That may give the front runners, thier desire to race against other cars, while simultaniously giving the people near the bottom (who aren't racing for champ places, but just for races?) the chance of picking a stronger car. I don't know if teams can change cars in the middle, but they can change drivers, and that must have a cost to the team so it kindof makes sense in a strange wierd crazy way.

Fozzmeister.