iRacing Season 3 Star Mazda - Sebring (International) - May 4

[Mike Wrightson]

Yeah, the tyres were altered a bit, the car drives nicer now, but my setup hasn't changed too much.

[popabawa]

Practice server is up, I should be around later after 8.

[Legzy]

Well I can't tell you how much fun we've been having on the server tonight! That's despite still being 2nd slowest by the end of the night (despite my new PB ).

The only thing that can spoil my race now, is being hit by someone & having no way to repair my car. I just can't understand the decision for no resets.

[Truetom]

I just can't understand the decision for no resets.

I don't understand iR still keeping that ... damage model and no repairs in the pits, i.e. go back to racing in time to actualy race somebody. "Fast" tow? You get back on track, you're two laps down. That's the end of fun for me.

Sebring is great and I must say it always felt "too easy" in other sims. Here you must take seriously every corner. Every time. Quite bumpy as well on some places (T1) and I have yet to figure out the damping settings to fix these track "anomalies" - if it can be done at all. Fun track / car combo, though I don't expect to last the whole race.

[Blunder]

Well I can't tell you how much fun we've been having on the server tonight! That's despite still being 2nd slowest by the end of the night (despite my new PB ).

The only thing that can spoil my race now, is being hit by someone & having no way to repair my car. I just can't understand the decision for no resets.

Ditto, ditto, ditto....

Std of driving in the srou races has been worse than the public servers!.. imho and I include myself in this!
I agree long term we should get rid of them but we need a few races with new cars etc. so we all 'settle in' !?
Getting knocked out in the first couple of corners whether it's your or someone else's fault is just not 'fun'
and seeing hours of practice go down the drain is not good.
I agree it's not as much fun running 2 laps down but I do like to at least complete an event even if I'm last!

[Blunder]

Meant to add.. standing start ??

[popabawa]

There's no resets for the following reasons; as TT said, a lot of drivers think they're pointless as you end up 1 or 2 laps down and your race is effectively over, we saw a lot of drivers quit out rather than take the reset. Also, lapped card (due to resets) caused a few issues with overtaking cars on certain circuits last season which I'd rather avoid. My personal view is that it makes you drive a bit more carefully.

I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation that everyone can drive 40 minutes without needing a reset tbh but that said, we'll see how it goes and I'm happy to review after a few races.

[Simon Gymer]

Getting knocked out in the first couple of corners whether it's your or someone else's fault is just not 'fun'

If you want your race to last more than a corner then race more carefully. If everyone does it then we will all get around!!!

It's utterly ridiculous to be asking for resets when the problem is that people are making contact not that the cars can't be repaired. We should be asking people to not make contact, not to think contact is ok and then allow them to have another go. There are still too many people that think door rubbing is an acceptable method of overtaking, even if the cars can take it a bit of it. In UKiR you know the cars are more brittle before you start so you should be giving more room and driving less hard to compensate and if you don't you are at fault.

I'm more concerned that we couldn't manage standing starts in GTR where the cars are far less brittle, so I'm VERY surprised to see standing starts STILL being used here. I think it's going to be a detriment to the racing to not be switching to rolling starts. Maybe I missed the opportuntity in some thread somewhere to comment on going to rolling starts, but I can't believe we're still using them and I really think we'd all be far better off using them.

If you do Class A races on the public circuit the standard is pretty good even in mid pack, BUT I believe that's a lot down to having rolling starts, which has made a HUGE difference to fewer incidents on lap 1 (where most incidents in Class A occur) since I left and came back. So much so that in Class A I no longer start from the pits to avoid incidents! You know to still avoid the Italians and race everyone else, but with a rolling start there is much less urgency to desperately try and overtake on lap 1. Put me in a Class D Skippy race though and I will always start from the pits cause they are incapable of managing a standing start and have the opportunity to reset.

Once you align UKiR with UKGTR start procedures (as much as you can) I think lap 1 will be a much better place to be and I won't have to consider starting from the pit lane even here which I'm sad to say I'm contemplating doing.

[Simon Gymer]

As far as driving the Mazda goes I'm still having the problem that the cars turns far too quickly for my liking. It's one of the things I hate about the F1 79 Lotus, which is even worse than the Mazda. The Mazda at least I can manage it, but I've tried a few things with the setup and I can't get the car too turn more slowly down to a stage where I can say I like the steering.

Anyone know someway to turn down the steering response for the Mazda? I've tried opposite ends of the toe-in toe-out spectrum, I've got the castor on minimum and there is no steering ratio option, so I'm at a bit of a loss to think of anything else to try.

[Mike Wrightson]

Stiffer front springs, stiffer front roll bar, no rear roll bar, less front wing, less front camber.  They should all make the car understeer and slow down the rate of turn.  It'll kill the front tyres of course

[Blunder]

I agree mainly Simon 

I wasn't trying to get into the old debate about resets etc.
I was just trying to make the point that the first 2 or 3 races could be done slightly differently so we all
get time to run close together in new cars. After that then standing starts and no resets could be the norm!?
I agree about the Class A to D comparison.
I think we had it nailed in the end with the Indy car but did I notice srou had a few skippy issues!?
Having said all that, Oily,Legzy, Spanner and I ran bumper to bumper last night on the practice session and had a brilliant time!
( Do Mazda's have bumpers! lol )

[Simon Gymer]

Stiffer front springs, stiffer front roll bar, no rear roll bar, less front wing, less front camber.  They should all make the car understeer and slow down the rate of turn.  It'll kill the front tyres of course

I don't want understeer, I want less sensitive/responsive steering. I'm happy with the oversteer/understeer aspect of the setup. The problem I find is that even a small turn of the wheel result in a massive change of direction. Some of the other cars have steering ratio, but not the Mazda. Is there maybe a trick to do with the steering lock control settings (now that controls are customised per car)?

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

You could try less caster, although that will also reduce what little steering feel the car has.

[Simon Gymer]

You could try less caster, although that will also reduce what little steering feel the car has.

I'm already on minimum, although tbh I can't say I noticed any difference between max and min castor in the Mazda which is also VERY odd as it makes a big difference on the other cars.

[popabawa]

I thought the standing starts in the Skip Barbers were (maybe surprisingly) fine, we hardly had any issues into T1 in the last few races.

Unlike my usual thoughts though, I'll make a last minute change to tonights race and we'll have a rolling start, hopefully that should make it easier to avoid any T1 problems amd not need to use the non-existant reset