UKGTR Season 14 - Jerez - May 10

[goldtop]

Unsure what to do with the cars. I like the red car, 1: because it's red  , and 2: Because
it has a "DIGITAL" sponsor sticker on it (I used to work for them centuries ago)
I found the Lotus kindest to drive, but I am slow in it. What would you siggest GT?
I got a 22.4 in the race, and may have gone quicker,l but so far mt race finishes are not great
even when I do finish as the tyre wear usually bites.
Happy to try something else, just not sure what to go for that is a "bit" slower than Ferri?

For all of us, it depends how much time we're able to devote to practising these tracks and also how much of a challenge we want. Personally I love this mod so I'm prepared to spend hours practising for each race....143 laps at Jerez If you can't afford much pracci time it's unlikely you'll be consistent, so you'll need a stronger car if you want to be competetive. Both Williams cars were available last night and would make an excellent season car for those drivers who may feel they were a bit too quick. Matt, as you're used to the fezza see how it goes for the first few races, maybe we can have a bit of a shuffle mid season if it's obvious things are unbalanced.

Actually the Benetton is proving to be tricky for me. It is a great drive, but it lacks grunt which means overtaking is always going to be difficult and I'm going to be easy prey on the straights. Although I can hotlap quickly with practise, I'm getting held up in the corners in the early laps of the race and by the time the field thins out my tyres are past their best. I'm trying to be more consistent and hoping the second part of the race is where I can be stronger, which is my challenge.

[phspok]

OK, I'll give the Billiams another try anyway, I tried one at Brno and found it more rear end heavy
than the Ferri, and was not fast in it.

[Legzy]

so I'll probably stick with Arrows in the season.

With you having finished 2nd twice & having led for 2/3's of the other race (before getting caught out on pit strategy)... I'm sure you would be happy to stick to the Arrows

I've actually found TT, that the setups transfer quite nicely from team to team (of the 3 teams I've tried), only needing a couple of clicks to sort out any issues arising. Hope that's of interest.

[Navin R Johnson]

OK, I'll give the Billiams another try anyway, I tried one at Brno and found it more rear end heavy
than the Ferri, and was not fast in it.

I think the Ligier would also be a good choice Matt. Maybe a practice run back to back with Williams

[Legzy]

MCLAREN           
LIGIER             
MARCH           
FERRARI           
ARROWS         
WILLIAMS               
LOTUS                           
BENETTON         
COLONI             
MINARDI             
ZAKSPEED 

Here are my best race setup times at Jerez with 20 laps of fuel hard tires and all with similar downforce of around 19-21Front and 24Rear
McLaren    1:21.2
March       1:22.3
Arrows      1:23.0
Ligier        1:23.1
Ferrari      1:23.5
Williams    1:23.8
Lotus       1:25.0
Benetton  1:25.1
Minardi     1:27.0
Zakspeed  1:27.2
Coloni       1:28.1

Here are my times for each car, all using my setup (from the March with zero tweaks) from the race the other night.  Setup basically has 110L of fuel, soft tires and downforce of around 44 Front and Rear:
Ferrari      1:21.5
March       1:21.6
McLaren    1:21.8
Arrows      1:21.8
Ligier        1:22.2
Williams    1:22.7
Lotus       1:23.0
Benetton  1:23.2
Minardi     1:24.3
Coloni       N/A
Zakspeed  N/A

Conclusion:
It looks like I wasn't able to exploit the McLaren's potential, but I certainly found the Fezza easiest/quickest. I reckon the March & the Arrows are very evenly matched, with the Ligier behind a little. The Lotus just edged out the Beneton (that felt very fast/nice, but I guess it just lacks the power as GT said) & then the Minardi was a fair bit slower again. The Coloni pee'd me off & so I gave up on it. Didn't try the Zakspeed as it's not available

[spanner]

I kinda enjoyed it, still wasnt entirely sure what the corner was when approaching it! Never quite got the last few corners right at all. Disapointingly completly off the pace but was resigned to driving at the back, enjoying driving these high downforce cars. They certainly dont like the kurbs round here which made taking that chicane half way round tricky. I kinda felt these cars are a bit too sensitive to damage. I think on the second lap or so did go off relatively slowly nose first but got almost 2mins of damage so came in but then loads of other had accidents as well so was surprised to be running around 4th at one stage! but ended up going off a few times but picking up 2mins of damage each time so wasnt much fun sitting in the pits so gave up.

[Truetom]

IMO, cars are very much different after 30 min of hard racing. Arrows has hards worn out completely. As we're racing and not hotlapping this test would add some reality for the Championship. No, I'm not gonna do it.

[goldtop]

Thanks for that testing Legzy Again this seems to more or less confirm relative pace. Noticed you used soft tyres though, so that could make things slightly different to mine and Navin's comparisons.

I agree with TT (for once ) Arrows is a beast and eats tyres, he's welcome to it 

Anyway, one or two visits to the gravel and laptimes become much less important.

[Legzy]

I agree with TT (for once ) Arrows is a beast and eats tyres, he's welcome to it 

I've heard that the Arrows is a tough drive from at least 4 people now, but I found it to be one of the easiest to drive quickly (probably only just behind the Fezza & March). Not counting the stupid handling Coloni, the Williams & Minardi were probably the most difficult drives. Tyre wear was not massively different from car to car either, all using about 1 wear per lap front & back as I raced the AI like they were A mix of Prodigy & Legend drivers .

I used softs for my race setup, as before the race I was talking with Ade (who was using the other Arrows)
& he was very happy with softs, "very little difference in performance drop off", so I tried them in my March. If anything, between us two, it seemed my softs were likely to struggle more. But I figured I'd start with them & depending on how they felt I'd either take another 'softs' at half way or if they started to struggle & I needed to pit early, I'd switch to 'Hards' if a longer 2nd stint was required. Sadly I never got to know the result, but my softs where still good on lap 8 when I had to pit for major repairs, so switched to 'Hards' to get me to the end with just one stop.

Ade would have to tell us how his 'Softs' held up?

p.s. Sadly all that testing last night (while a total pleasure with these cars & that track) has left me with a problem... I have no idea what car to take for the season  . The Williams would be the obvious choice, but I wasn't a fan of how it handled... Think I'll get some more laps in. What sort of laptimes should we be doing at the next race?

[goldtop]

What sort of laptimes should we be doing at the next race?

Only testing so far at Jacarepagua so not got my setup sorted yet, but we should be seeing around 1:28 to 1:30 race pace I think.

BTW the Zakka is available for the championship. For some reason it didn't paste over to the new thread, but I've now amended that. Now that would be a real challenge for someone 

[Legzy]

Is there a race thread for Jacarepagua yet?

I reckon I'll get online to do some track learning / car choosing for that tonight, 9pm onwards if the track is installed on the server?

[goldtop]

Is there a race thread for Jacarepagua yet?

I reckon I'll get online to do some track learning / car choosing for that tonight, 9pm onwards if the track is installed on the server?

I'm still useless at LM2, so H@L is looking after the event posts. I loaded Jacarepagua on the server earlier today.