UKGTR Season 8 Upper Sprint (GT1) - Silverstone (GP) - Jul 15

[Truetom]

Hm, can't set up the Saleen, rear was all over and I had 10 wing!    Also, I was slow through the slow corners which points to a shot in the dark concerning setting the mechanical grip. Will try to improve that 'till Sunday. If not I'll go for another car. Maybe it'll rain. 

[Jeffrey]

I've been checking through previous results after each race, curious to how much performance changes and people improve over time.

Last time we did a GT1 sprint at Silverstone, April 10th 2007, I did 23 laps in roughly 41mins 20 secs. Jeff won in Saleen doing 23 laps in 40min 51 secs.

This time Jeffs race time would only scrape the top 5.

Shows how much people can improve with practice.

The last time I drove here with a GT1 was on the old version of Silverstone, with the old GDB file, so both races are incomparable.

Hm, can't set up the Saleen, rear was all over and I had 10 wing!    Also, I was slow through the slow corners which points to a shot in the dark concerning setting the mechanical grip. Will try to improve that 'till Sunday. If not I'll go for another car. Maybe it'll rain. 

I have no idea why you guys are hurting yourself by picking the Dunlop Saleen . It's rubbish and probably 1s a lap slower than the Pirelli version.

[Truetom]

I'm picking Legends Saleen, not matter what! 
Now, who's the xxxx that took that car to set for Legends livery... 

Edit: Didn't even look at it. Might give a spin with another Saleen with proper tyres, then.    On the other hand, Psuedo took it and vanished into unknown - that's what results say. 

[Jeffrey]

I'm picking Legends Saleen, not matter what! 
Now, who's the xxxx that took that car to set for Legends livery... 

Edit: Didn't even look at it. Might give a spin with another Saleen with proper tyres, then.    On the other hand, Psuedo took it and vanished into unknown - that's what results say. 

I think I also notice it at more cars from your team. Was it the 575 or 550, don't know, but I think also your RSR is at Pirellis when it could be on Michelins.

Or do you guys just hope for rain 24/7 .?

[Kerr]

I've been checking through previous results after each race, curious to how much performance changes and people improve over time.

Last time we did a GT1 sprint at Silverstone, April 10th 2007, I did 23 laps in roughly 41mins 20 secs. Jeff won in Saleen doing 23 laps in 40min 51 secs.

This time Jeffs race time would only scrape the top 5.

Shows how much people can improve with practice.

The last time I drove here with a GT1 was on the old version of Silverstone, with the old GDB file, so both races are incomparable.

Hm, can't set up the Saleen, rear was all over and I had 10 wing!    Also, I was slow through the slow corners which points to a shot in the dark concerning setting the mechanical grip. Will try to improve that 'till Sunday. If not I'll go for another car. Maybe it'll rain. 

I have no idea why you guys are hurting yourself by picking the Dunlop Saleen . It's rubbish and probably 1s a lap slower than the Pirelli version.

I thought we had always used the same version of the track. I don't recall it changing but I will stand corrected. It was not a go at you Jeff, merely highlighting that it seems everyone improves season on season. 

[Mark J]

Well that was good fun and yet painful at the same time 

Had a good qually session despite missing all of the practise session when i got a phone call at first attempt at leaving pits.
Stuck it 8th on the grid behind team mate Steve in the brother Maserati and was feeling confident of a top 8 finish in the race.

All went to plan as i stayed glued to Steves rear bumper and gradually increaased a gap back to the guys behind us whilst running 6th and 7th after about 5 laps.
I then started to turn the pressure up on Steve and harass him big time around the back of the circuit where i seemed quicker. But coming out of Luffield final tightening turn onto the straight, i tried taking a tighter line to get a run on him up the s/f straight but must have been just a little too keen on the throttle as the cars rear end came round on me spinning me backwards across the pit lane  :'(
So annoying! and had to watch as DG, TT and Simon sped past.

Still i thought all was not lost but the maserati went through that awful, familiar 'rears made of glass' spell for about the next two laps, and i was pretty ragged allowing 2 other cars past me.    It seemed no matter how gingerly i took a corner, the car was having none of it 
But then magically grip returned and i set about chasing Reign man, Jan and Roadrunner, enjoying some good battles along the way.
It was shaping up for a wicked 3 way fight with Reign and Roadrunner?  for the final 5-10 mins but calamity was waiting in the wings once more 
I found myself once again glued to Reigns bumper as he chased R/runner hard himself but as the 3 of us steamed down to Becketts, i was just un-sighted enough for that crucial split second at the fast 5th right hander braking point and the car gave a quick wobble of indignation and i had no choice but to take to the grass at high speed and bounce my way over the infield and crawl back out on track. The lost momentum on the fastest part of the track cost me 10-12 secs and that was that.
Finished a poor 13th 

Story of my season so far, having cracking races and showing good pace but not getting the result. I need to adopt sharks aforementioned mantra 

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Still i thought all was not lost but the maserati went through that awful, familiar 'rears made of glass' spell for about the next two laps, and i was pretty ragged allowing 2 other cars past me.    It seemed no matter how gingerly i took a corner, the car was having none of it 

There's a fixed 'map' of tyre wear numbers (visible in GTR2xPD) which correlates grip level to wear - although nobody seems to know what the actual numbers are for GTR2, I believe there is a sort of 'graining phase' around wear 6 or 7 with grip returning at about 8 and then dropping off in a less dramatic way after 10.

[Mark J]

that sounds spot on Dave as my rears were showing 7 wear at the very point where they turned 'glass-like'.

With the sound mods i use, you can really hear when a tyre is working hard, struggling for grip, too hot etc and the massas tyres sounded in pain once they got past 7 wear. My lap times in the race dropped into the 44's whereas in even extended practise lapping i was doing late 42's/early 43's consistently.

I spent a lot of time trying to get the tyre temps consistent but the rears are a real conundrum.

Has anyone tamed the maserati with a good setup yet?

[Steve Holmes]

Not me, that's for sure.     My setup was good for qually on a hang-it-all-out lap but still too unstable and tail happy for racing consistently, must stop setting these things up really loose like GTL cars. 

Made for a slipping backwards kind of race. Hung on to Gazza for a good few laps, just a few seconds back waiting for someone's mistake, but of course, I cracked first (well MJ had in fact  ) and spun it exiting Woodcote and both Simon and Dave snuck through.  Was having trouble with the car's handling, when you're right on the ragged edge changes in the rear tyre grip really do surprise you.   

Then for a final flourish I spun in the same place on the very last lap, but was lucky not to lose a place.  After the race I thought I'd thrown away a 5th place but tbh I don't think I'd have been able to hold off Simon and Dave anyway, I was making so many little errors.  Was a lot of fun though, even if each clean lap felt like a victory, great cars on a circuit that works really well for them. 

Still damn hard work to figure out how to setup/drive these cars, change this and something else gets affected, but I guess I really should try for a more planted setup with better traction rather than the skittish driving-on-a-knife-edge approach I can't stop taking.   

Too many variables........does not compute.........stack overflow.....bleurgh 

[Truetom]

Small people might help you out, Steve.    ... runs for cover...   

[Steve Holmes]

What...pixies?  What do they know about setups?

Or hobbits?

Who should I ask TT?

[psuedo]

Gandalph

[Paul968]

Is he a friend of Phrodo?

[psuedo]

yeth....but pleath dont take the pith out of my lithp.

[Steve Holmes]

Unophicial Lapchart