UKGTR Season 8 Lower Endurance (GT3) - Donington Park (GP) - Jul 27

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Question for DG: for a second time I noticed that the track was drying slowlier than would really be with the track temperature over 30'C. Would be more interesting to see it dry sooner, would force a second pit-stop. Would this change to the clever-weather file be a hard thing to do?

The only things I can set in the file after the start of each session and "conditions" (from clear skies, through increasing clouds, and then into increasingly severe rain) and temperature. Nothing else. The track condition can only be set at the start of each session, after that the game is supposed to take care of the track itself based on sunshine, temperature, rainfall etc.

It's possible that the track GDB may influence weather as it has latitude, longitude and so on, but I suspect not.

[Truetom]

Ok, DG, it's ok as it is. I hope there'll be more races with weather like this one. 

[Mcfids]

The best is trying some laps in different weather conditions. 
I always do when I'm developing an Endurance setup.
Steps to setup/try:
- dry setup quali
- dry setup race
- dry setup race in 20% wet
- change tyres and brake ballance only in 50% wet
- if I have time I tweak meself a wet quali

Anything more than 50% rain means drive slooooooooowly. 

Thanks for that TT. I think what threw me yesterday was that on a flooded track in qualifying with soft wets I managed a fairly respectable 1.43s without the car feeling unstable, but the same setup was uncontrollable when the rained during the race. Maybe it was because the track wasn't flooded or the tyres were cold or I was just gunning it after being used to slicks. I'll try some practice in different conditions as you suggested, TT

I discovered a great new dimension in realistic and dynamic weather. BIG plus for DG.   

Yep, totally agree with that - that extra dynamic certainly mixes things up. The only issue for me atm is the lack of feedback of car and track conditions to help formulate a tactic, especially in the MOTEC-less Vertigo; hopefully GTR2-XD or GTRPS will remedy that.

[Linus27]

I must also say a massive thanks to DG for having the variable weather. It just made the whole thing so much more realistic and exciting. The pace laps gets my heart going but now variable weather, I feel like I am in racing heaven.

Is the variable weather a server setting or a track setting???

[Simon Gymer]

Out of interest, how does the Season 8 Elise compare to the other cars in this GT3 class on straight line speed?

I had dreamed of racing online in the wet for years and finally it happened  

*Desperately tries to avoid making a comment about having a wet dream *

[psuedo]

The Elise totally BLITZZES the vertigo anyway 

[Linus27]

The Elise is simply the best car in the world 

I can only comment on the last two races but at Ochers, the Elise struggled for pace and The Vertigo was faster. At Donington it was a little closer but I was struggling to keep Truetom and Gazza behind me. In fact, for the first 20 minutes I was holding up about 5 cars. In the wet the Elise was amazing.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Is the variable weather a server setting or a track setting???

Server.

[Linus27]

Is the variable weather a server setting or a track setting???

Server.

Excellent. So any race could be wet then 

[Reign Man]

Quite a good race for me but a little bit lonley for the last half of it.

Qualified in 13th, which I was quite happy with, The beamer is just a joke in the wet so I was praying for a dry race.

I was able to quickly make up 3 places quickly and close the gap to Psuedo who was trying to get past a Elise, I was able to get by them both quicky, during which Psuedo was able to take the position  ...  After that there was a 19 second gap (i think to) to 7th place ahead of me and I set out to close it.

It started raining when I was about 5/6 seconds behind the group ahead.  From that point on I just drove with the intention of keeping the car on the road and not losing any positions as I fully expected to be outclassed once it was wet enough.  I pitted with 50 mins to go and put on hard wets.  I jumped the folks ahead of me and was running in 3rd for around 15 mins when Linus27 passed me. Busi Came up Behind me but after several lap he pitted.

Fot the last half an hour I kept an eye on the track conditions and tyre temps, I had no intention of pitting unless my temps went above 120...then I would think about it.  But I was able to keep my temps at the 100 mark by driving extreamly steadily and driving offline for as much as possible to cool them down.

A steady race bringing me 4th.....not bad 

Grats to podium and hard luck to Gazza for his AI trouble 

See ya at the next one

[Linus27]

Such a shame we have no Porsche's racing with us.

[Legzy]

My 1st go at Donington & I'd have been quite happy lapping around here in the dry... Then it rained in qualy & as i tried limping onto the track for the 1st time in the wet, I nearly wet my pants as the car seemed to posses zero traction with the track. Eventually managed to complete a wet lap but was so slow compared to the rest of the field that I thought it best to just not run if it was a wet start. Team mate Martin pointed out that it should take the leaders about 10 laps to catch me before I could consider myself an obstacle & that it would be good experience. So I hung around for the start with my confidence in tatters, still toying with my new wet set up.

  - That's what I looked like when arriving on the grid to see bright sunshine - 

Had to jump back out the car, slap on some sun lotion (& load up the dry settings), so a bit of a hectic start! Wanted to just get around the track keeping the back markers in sight as long as possible, but blew one of the first few corners. Kept the gap to the next car at about 10secs for a good few laps & was cheered up to constantly read messages about "pitting in" by pribeiro (sorry mate) & then I had someone to try to stay ahead of too. Managed OK I thought, the gap was only reducing slowly I thought.

But once the rain came I was all over the place again. Held out through the rain period & made the mistake of going onto slicks straight after the rain finished, expecting the track to dry fairly quickly. I was wrong. It did get slightly (very slightly) better with every lap but found it far too frustrating to be so off pace & going off road regularly. Bumped my wing into a tyre wall & it was all the excuse I needed to eject.

Enjoyed watching everyone else going around from the pits & seeing some of you chasing puddles.

So at least two more lessons learnt this week, do more wet driving practice & allow track plenty of drying time.

p.s. Sorry to anyone I might have got in the way of.

[spanner]

Dont worry Legzy about being too slow, as long as you enjoy it and dont go off too frequently . All you need to do is stick to your race and let them worry about overtaking you. I was also very apprehensive about it raining as its only recently that its been introduced and i really struggle at times.

During qualifying i thought i didnt do too badly and ended up 11th especially with some faster guys behind.Then for the first, dry, part had a brilliant time trying to catch Mcfids and keeping H@L behind Then the rain came and i hoped that i could stay out a bit longer as the vertigo seems to handle a wet track quite well. Unfortuneatly with it being wet i picked up some cut-track warnings and got a stop-go ultimately after messing up the chicane which was when i thought i'd better stop for wets then stop for the stop-go as i wouldnt loose to much time.

Bit undecided on which wets, ended up with softs and added some fuel which proved uneccesary then ended up behind Ted with about 35 secs behind which ended up being around 10 but with it drying i was very cautious with the tyre temps and pressures rocketing up.


I'm not conviced the livetrack models the offline puddles to try and cool the tyres but everyone else was doing it

[Reign Man]

Going off line definately worked to cool the tyres down, although in other wet races doing that has seemed to make little difference 

@Legzy: Just Keep plugging away mate, try not to worry about you speed at the moment, that will come with time.  Go for consistancy and drive well within your limits to make sure you stay on the road. It's always best to try and finish a race than to quit through fustration as the more you race the more youll get comfortable with it.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

You can verify where the wet patches are when cooling tyres by looking for the rooster tails of spray behind. Yesterday I was able to reduce temperatures by 10 or 15 degrees in seconds by finding the deeper water.