Car: Freisinger Motorsport Porsche GT3 RSR (NGT)
Opponents: Full (24)
Length: Full (3 hr/114 laps)
Aggression: Real
Skill: 100%
Physics/Tcontrol/Stability/ABS: Simulation/off/off/off
Aids: Auto Clutch
3rd Round...Magny Cours
Magny Cours....Where do I start with this track. Well, a good place seemed to be the driving school run around the track, seeing as I had never actually made a serious attempt at the line before. Didn't turn out to be the case, as the Corvette C5-R that I got to drive wasn't set up right nor very kind in the turns.
Back in the league, the first session of practice began with rain. Must have come down from England or something. Either way, I decided that I did NOT want to learn the track in the wet, and since the forecast was for sun anyway, I skipped the entirety of P1 and am hoping that there will be enough time in P2 to get a hang of everything before the qualifying.
Anti-lock brakes are also off for this race, and I'm sure it will be a challenge, what with the last of my training wheels coming off a track with hairpins like this. The fact that the dark braking line starts LATE into Adelaide did nothing to help me learn that particular corner, and with the limited time I raced tonight (30 min maybe) I still haven't nailed a good landmark to brake for. That, in addition to the fact the track is DARK, sometimes finding the braking zone for any particular corner is a guessing game, especially in the heat of the action. (e.g. some Ferrari 550 snorting your exhaust fumes)
After trying for a while to set up the car by myself, using a very useful tool I found (Race Engineer), I decided that I wasn't approaching it properly at all. The way the default car was set up, I couldn't manage consistent laps (probably mostly due to my skill), and without that, you might as well just randomly guess at what would help. Instead, going on a tip from the description for the program, I pulled the setup that I used in Valencia out of the hat and started there.
Immediately things felt way way better. With the understeer problem 80% solved, I found it about 80% easier to learn at least a basic line around the track, enough to be consistent. Finally I could put the car through final tuning to eliminate the last of the understeer and start working on improving lap-times. And when I go with the next track, I'm going to just update it again for that one. Whoever made the original setup, I thank you very much! (and don't say I'm lazy or something....one day I'll get to making my own, probably with a car nobody uses anyway)
*Day1 End
So, after taking a day-long break after the tuning breakthrough, I went back to go finish the practice runs. Trouble was, the mild 20C weather had decided to surreptitiously cloud over or something, and after a mighty large crash I discovered upon returning to the garage that the track had suddenly become 'wet'. A big WTF was definitely in order here. Water simply doesn't materialize out of thin air, not when it's still sunny out and forecasted to be sunny. And it must have been quite a deluge, cause intermediates were NOT working. Switched to every tire choice under the sun and none of them could make me happy. I completely cooked a set of Soft Wets after merely a third of a lap! The track was still 20C out but that was obviously enough to send the temps past the boiling point of water.
After raging against what I suspect is a bug, I decided to skip the remaining 20 minutes of practice and jump straight into the qualifying, which, thankfully, was the next day. The track was back to normal, sitting nicely at 35C, and the car's setup could use what it was designed for, a set of Mediums. I love having a competitive car! (eh, but it can be boring...sometimes)
After a couple laps out on the track things began to shape up. I wasn't crashing or doing pirouettes anymore, thanks to the newfound footing, but I still do NOT like the track. The kind of corners it throws at me make me unhappy and stomp all over my driving rhythm. (Though, after 120 laps I'm probably going to know it preeety well -_-)
*Day2 end
Ok, slept in, ate brunch, and first order of the day was to finish the race! Jumped back into qualifying 1, decided that my previous time set me in a good spot for the race (2nd in class) and sped up time to qualifying two....where there was a complete downpour!
The track status was 'flooded' and as I strapped on some soft wets and eased out of the garage I was worried sick that it would persist into the race. I got a few practice laps in, testing out the grip and line in the conditions. I had never driven before when the track was 'flooded'....pretty slow going overall. After a while (read: I spun) I decided that this wasn't helping at all so I skipped the entirety of Qualifying 2 in the hopes that the warmup session would be back to normal.
And it was! The track temperature was back up to a nice 40C and dry as a bone. Getting on mediums again I did some practice laps, trying to get back a good line, especially around the first corner, Grande Courbe, where there are so few reference points on where and how much to turn in. Actually, the whole area around the pits was just terrible...
Race start! Things didn't go so great off the line as I struggled with Grande Courbe right at the start, falling back two places by the time the mess of cars had got around Estoril and onto the long straight. It was on the braking zone to Adelaide where I really made up time, taking a large (FREAKING HUGE) risk and diving down the inside at close to race pace. Almost had a very big shunt with a Ferrari as it moved to the outside while I dove inside...a foot to the right and my race would have been over before it started.
From then on until the first pitstop, the name of the game was 'stay on the road'. During practice/qualifying/warmup I was experimenting with the asymmetric tire setup again, mediums on front and hards on the rear, to help even out tire wear. However, that setup proved itself TERRIBLE with the car. It didn't appear so bad during the short runs in practice, but as the tires wore, the car became so much harder to drive. The front retained the grip pretty well but the rear was probably not up to proper temperature and was wearing much faster than expected, and since there was no temp there was no grip, and the back end was being as squirrely as hell around the corners. Usually, I can cope with a bit of a tail-happy car but not on slicks, and definitely not when the front refuses to slide as well. There were so many skids and snap-arounds near Complexe du Lycee that by lap 25 I was begging for the pitstop at lap 38 to come, so I could end the suffering.
After the first pitstop I put mediums on all corners without a second thought and got away cleanly...my first proper pitstop! Yay! No penalty either, which made me happy, but my grid position certainly didn't. I slotted out in 22nd right in front of the class leaders, so I could see right away the hill to climb. However...now the car was competitive again. After the tires warmed up the difference was immediate...this setup is definitely designed for symmetric tire choices. From then on things went very smoothly. Sometime around lap 60-70 I had learned the track to the point where mistakes were rarely happening because of lack of track or balance smarts, but rather because the fatigue was starting to set in.
Soon after the second pitstop at lap 78, which was also clean, I figured that I had to reach P16 in order to win in my class. Starting at P18 from the pits, the gap between me and the car in front was nearly 50 seconds, which shrunk with every consecutive lap to where I was right on his tail. Had a spin as I closed on him but got back on track and passed him sometime around lap 85 or so. I realized at this point, as he pulled off into the pits, that the car in front was the Ferrari 360GTC that I hadn't seen for a good while, as the P17 car was a Viper. Feeling very pleased with the AI tweaks I had made, I set off to close the 11 second gap and bring it to the finish.
By this time I was getting pretty tired, and on the second half of Nurburging I cut the corner by a lot, prompting a warning from the race director. One lap later I repeated exactly the same thing and got...tada, a stop-go penalty. A drive through would have been sufficient, damn it. Either way, my first GTR2 hat-trick has been with stop-go penalties. Go me!
Pitting on the end of the lap, I came out 40 seconds behind him, and began the final charge. 10 laps from the end of the race, lap 98, I manged to pass, and from there went on to earn the second win of the season so far. Another trophy for the room between my ears! :)
Looking back on the race, I was actually quite happy with it. I learned a bit more about the car and the setup I am using with it, and was VERY pleased to see how the AI tweaks had turned out. The 'grandma effect' which had occured in Valencia halfway through the race had been very noticeably reduced, and the cars were still running quite a generous pace by the end. However, more tweaking will still need to be done, I think, to make them a bit more human.
I still don't like the track, but I learned it good enough to do a very good 3rd stint, with almost no errors and plenty of speed. However, it irks me that the AI still isn't presenting a good proper challenge. The only NGT cars which can compete with the RSR is other RSRs and the 360GTC....At the end of this season, I'll jump into something else for sure. (As I better...8 more races to do in that damn porsche, I'll be so sick of it :)
But, we'll see if I change my tune as I crank up the AI skill meter and head on to...Hockenheim!
PS: They better give 110% :)
PPS: Thank you VonDutch for your AI tweaks!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Blue skies and smoking tires
Car: Freisinger Motorsport Porsche GT3 RSR (NGT)
Opponents: Full (25)
Length: Full (3 hr/126 laps)
Aggression: Real
Skill: 100%
Physics/Tcontrol/Stability: Simulation/off/off
Aids: Auto Clutch, ABS (low)
2nd Round...Valencia
So, things have gone far better than I could have anticipated. The weather is a balmy 22C and the track is perfect for the medium tyres. When I jumped out on the track for the very first time, I was having mixed feelings about it, but no longer. Definitely a far cry from Monza and the nice long straights and braking zones!
One thing that I learned decently in the past was trail braking, but this track put a whole new spin on things, literally! When I first peeked out onto the track with someone else's setup, I was afraid that it would take me much longer to learn than Monza did.
I am happy to say that that has not been the case! After tweaking all the major bits (soft->medium, radiator, brake duct, rev limiter, fuel, etc), I jumped out again and started to focus on the line. Once the tires started working things began to come together, and soon I set 3rd fastest lap in class! After that, it was just lap after lap fine tuning my right foot on the throttle, and trying to make positive tweaks to the suspension based on the little I knew.
If my problem in Monza was spearing off straight through the gravel, my problem in Valencia has been doing donuts in it. Turns 11 and 14 were probably the worst because there really isn't any sort of straight braking zone, and I'm not an expert at trail braking. But boy, you do learn to manage weight-shifting pretty fast around this track. I did learn a whole lot about catching the 911's rear end before it got out of control, something which I finally figured out (delicate right foot is the key...).
Turn 11 is still a wild one, cause unless I was driving quite conservative, it was the scene of some massive braking-induced drifts (few of which actually ended in tears, I am surprised to report...though my laptimes suffered, along with my tires). After bringing the ride height up to help clear some nasty creases around turn 7, and some real smooth throttle control around the circuit, I manged to get the fastest lap in my class! When I saw the 1:36.4 on the cockpit readout I almost missed turn 1 :)
Qualifying blew my damn mind. 4 laps out and a 1:35.137 pops up. I was shocked that I could drag out another second and some from the car. The devil really is in the details :) After such a great result I jumped right into Q2 and began testing the car for the race. It behaved better than expected even with a full fuel load and hard slicks, but I'm not sure at this point if the grip in those hard tires will stay as the fuel burns off. That, and 1:38 doesn't seem quite fast enough for the race laps (especially since I was pushing it moderately to get that time) Ended up starting with medium slicks on front and back with a 2-stop strategy for 120 laps (71L per stop)
The start of the race was decent, and I tried hard not to bump around too much. As the field spread out things began to go nice and smooth. I put in a good 17 laps, keeping the two other Freisinger cars behind me for a while before slowly pulling away. Lap 18 though was when I put my first foot wrong and spun the car around on track (not the last time I did it either :). After getting back on the road safely, a saleen decided to suck on my exhaust pipes in the next corner and sent me spinning once again.
After some grumbling and a 1-fingered salute, I got back up to pace and fought back to first in class before my first pitstop. After the debaucle in Monza I wanted nothing less than a penalty to add to my time, so I made my way up the pit entry pretty slowly, unsure of when the speed limit was enforced. Just as I thought I was in the clear a Lister decided to ram me HARD as he sped down the lane, sending me spinning and ending up resting gently against the wall.
Cursing him and praying that there was no engine damage at the same time, I made it to the pit box and began the stop, putting in a bit more fuel than I had originally planned because the car was gobbling about 5% more fuel than predicted. I also decided to try medium on front and hard slicks on the rear, because it felt decent in practice and my tire wear in the back was a little worrying. Tires went on, repairs were finished...but another small disaster struck. I had forgotten how to turn the car on! More precisely, which button was which (ignition or starter). So I sat there mashing one after the other until I heard the engine turn over and left the pit lane grumbling even more. Telling myself that it was only 1/3 of the race, I got set for another round.
Leaving the pits in 21st place (-44 sec) I started to close the gap of over a lap on my teammate cars, struggling to get heat in the tires. A third or so through the stint, I realized that my tire choice did NOT work as well as I had expected. The front had warmed up and was nice and grippy, but the rear was barely within operational temperature range and made for a few nice spins and slides around the track. By this time the grid had spread out immensely, and the AI laptimes were pretty darn terrible due to their worn tires. Even so, I didn't catch the NGT leaders until they pitted, cause the tire choice I made set my laptimes up at 1:40+, making every second gained a challenge. And I had to push, because I knew that if I could get a nice lead then my second pitstop would be much better timed than the AI, giving me a good minute or so back.
As I approached the pits for my second and last pitstop I tried once more to take it slow, this time watching for AI surprise anal rape. However, after switching back onto mediums and having another disaster with starting the car (lost 15 seconds or something screwing around), I was told that I was speeding and had a stop-go penalty to serve. What a load of crap...
After serving the penalty next lap I slotted out in 21st again, 2 laps or so behind the leaders...and for the next 43 laps until the end it was nonstop attack. The tires were brilliant and the AI was driving as slow as ever. I was outbraking everything I saw and honestly being too aggressive. Just 15 laps into the leg and I was surprised that my front splitter hadn't fallen off coonsidering the damage which the front of the car had sustained from all the bumps and scrapes and nudges. I blew past the other Freisinger cars sometime around lap 100 (17th place) and kept attacking all the way up to 15th place (over two minutes) by the time the end of the race was called.
15th place overall, first in class, and 10 points! Sweeeet! Victory dance time!
Looking back, I was actually a little disappointed with how the AI behaved. Sometimes, like when they were keeping up with me and trading seconds per lap back and forth near the start, they were great, but 10-15 laps on their tires and they were suddenly driving like grandma. My team principal was screaming at me about blue flags and I was screaming at him to go tell the other drivers to grow a pair.
Aside from that, my pitstops could use a great deal of work. I'm going to have to include them in practice so I know where the speed limit is enforced (I don't want my first hat-trick to be with stop-go penalties). In addition, I think that now I know the car well enough now to turn off the anti-lock brakes I was using to get started and open up that can of worms...which should be interesting at the very least, because Magny Cours is up next.
Opponents: Full (25)
Length: Full (3 hr/126 laps)
Aggression: Real
Skill: 100%
Physics/Tcontrol/Stability: Simulation/off/off
Aids: Auto Clutch, ABS (low)
2nd Round...Valencia
So, things have gone far better than I could have anticipated. The weather is a balmy 22C and the track is perfect for the medium tyres. When I jumped out on the track for the very first time, I was having mixed feelings about it, but no longer. Definitely a far cry from Monza and the nice long straights and braking zones!
One thing that I learned decently in the past was trail braking, but this track put a whole new spin on things, literally! When I first peeked out onto the track with someone else's setup, I was afraid that it would take me much longer to learn than Monza did.
I am happy to say that that has not been the case! After tweaking all the major bits (soft->medium, radiator, brake duct, rev limiter, fuel, etc), I jumped out again and started to focus on the line. Once the tires started working things began to come together, and soon I set 3rd fastest lap in class! After that, it was just lap after lap fine tuning my right foot on the throttle, and trying to make positive tweaks to the suspension based on the little I knew.
If my problem in Monza was spearing off straight through the gravel, my problem in Valencia has been doing donuts in it. Turns 11 and 14 were probably the worst because there really isn't any sort of straight braking zone, and I'm not an expert at trail braking. But boy, you do learn to manage weight-shifting pretty fast around this track. I did learn a whole lot about catching the 911's rear end before it got out of control, something which I finally figured out (delicate right foot is the key...).
Turn 11 is still a wild one, cause unless I was driving quite conservative, it was the scene of some massive braking-induced drifts (few of which actually ended in tears, I am surprised to report...though my laptimes suffered, along with my tires). After bringing the ride height up to help clear some nasty creases around turn 7, and some real smooth throttle control around the circuit, I manged to get the fastest lap in my class! When I saw the 1:36.4 on the cockpit readout I almost missed turn 1 :)
Qualifying blew my damn mind. 4 laps out and a 1:35.137 pops up. I was shocked that I could drag out another second and some from the car. The devil really is in the details :) After such a great result I jumped right into Q2 and began testing the car for the race. It behaved better than expected even with a full fuel load and hard slicks, but I'm not sure at this point if the grip in those hard tires will stay as the fuel burns off. That, and 1:38 doesn't seem quite fast enough for the race laps (especially since I was pushing it moderately to get that time) Ended up starting with medium slicks on front and back with a 2-stop strategy for 120 laps (71L per stop)
The start of the race was decent, and I tried hard not to bump around too much. As the field spread out things began to go nice and smooth. I put in a good 17 laps, keeping the two other Freisinger cars behind me for a while before slowly pulling away. Lap 18 though was when I put my first foot wrong and spun the car around on track (not the last time I did it either :). After getting back on the road safely, a saleen decided to suck on my exhaust pipes in the next corner and sent me spinning once again.
After some grumbling and a 1-fingered salute, I got back up to pace and fought back to first in class before my first pitstop. After the debaucle in Monza I wanted nothing less than a penalty to add to my time, so I made my way up the pit entry pretty slowly, unsure of when the speed limit was enforced. Just as I thought I was in the clear a Lister decided to ram me HARD as he sped down the lane, sending me spinning and ending up resting gently against the wall.
Cursing him and praying that there was no engine damage at the same time, I made it to the pit box and began the stop, putting in a bit more fuel than I had originally planned because the car was gobbling about 5% more fuel than predicted. I also decided to try medium on front and hard slicks on the rear, because it felt decent in practice and my tire wear in the back was a little worrying. Tires went on, repairs were finished...but another small disaster struck. I had forgotten how to turn the car on! More precisely, which button was which (ignition or starter). So I sat there mashing one after the other until I heard the engine turn over and left the pit lane grumbling even more. Telling myself that it was only 1/3 of the race, I got set for another round.
Leaving the pits in 21st place (-44 sec) I started to close the gap of over a lap on my teammate cars, struggling to get heat in the tires. A third or so through the stint, I realized that my tire choice did NOT work as well as I had expected. The front had warmed up and was nice and grippy, but the rear was barely within operational temperature range and made for a few nice spins and slides around the track. By this time the grid had spread out immensely, and the AI laptimes were pretty darn terrible due to their worn tires. Even so, I didn't catch the NGT leaders until they pitted, cause the tire choice I made set my laptimes up at 1:40+, making every second gained a challenge. And I had to push, because I knew that if I could get a nice lead then my second pitstop would be much better timed than the AI, giving me a good minute or so back.
As I approached the pits for my second and last pitstop I tried once more to take it slow, this time watching for AI surprise anal rape. However, after switching back onto mediums and having another disaster with starting the car (lost 15 seconds or something screwing around), I was told that I was speeding and had a stop-go penalty to serve. What a load of crap...
After serving the penalty next lap I slotted out in 21st again, 2 laps or so behind the leaders...and for the next 43 laps until the end it was nonstop attack. The tires were brilliant and the AI was driving as slow as ever. I was outbraking everything I saw and honestly being too aggressive. Just 15 laps into the leg and I was surprised that my front splitter hadn't fallen off coonsidering the damage which the front of the car had sustained from all the bumps and scrapes and nudges. I blew past the other Freisinger cars sometime around lap 100 (17th place) and kept attacking all the way up to 15th place (over two minutes) by the time the end of the race was called.
15th place overall, first in class, and 10 points! Sweeeet! Victory dance time!
Looking back, I was actually a little disappointed with how the AI behaved. Sometimes, like when they were keeping up with me and trading seconds per lap back and forth near the start, they were great, but 10-15 laps on their tires and they were suddenly driving like grandma. My team principal was screaming at me about blue flags and I was screaming at him to go tell the other drivers to grow a pair.
Aside from that, my pitstops could use a great deal of work. I'm going to have to include them in practice so I know where the speed limit is enforced (I don't want my first hat-trick to be with stop-go penalties). In addition, I think that now I know the car well enough now to turn off the anti-lock brakes I was using to get started and open up that can of worms...which should be interesting at the very least, because Magny Cours is up next.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Monstrous Monza
Where do I begin...okay.
So after I got GTR2 reinstalled and done the driving school and a few course tests and the basic championship in order to get myself back into the GTR2 mindset (which came MUCH MUCH easier than last time, yaaaaay!), I decided to jump in balls first to the 2004 FIA Championship.
Car: Freisinger Motorsport Porsche GT3 RSR (NGT)
Opponents: Full (22)
Length: Full (3 hr/87 laps)
Aggression: Real
Skill: 100%
Physics/Tcontrol/Stability: Simulation/off/off
Aids: Auto Clutch, ABS (low)
1st Round...Monza
I must have started this 4-5 days ago, and just finished bout an hour ago. I downloaded a huge pack of setups for all the cars from NoGripRacing.com hoping to pick through and find a setup or two for the car (little did I know it was going to cost me later on)
Found a setup which fitted nicely into my driving style (lucky me!) and began practicing.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
For the first 3 days or something it was pretty bad. I began 4 seconds behind the slowest time in my class and set the goal to at least reach the middle of the field. The worst part was that despite my strong ability to push hard around the track, I was having HUGE problems with line.
One aspect to this game which differs from EVERY other sim I've played is the variable grip depending on your track location (which is realistic). If you stay on the proper line, you got nice gobs of grip and can push in relative safety, but as soon as you get onto the 'dirty' part of the track, it's bye-bye. In the old days I struggled massively with this, cursing the game because the grip simply seemed to disappear. (didn't realize at the time it was my fault :) When I watched my first full Formula 1 and saw vividly what happens, I knew that I had to work hard on getting that line.
Problem was, my consistency during practice was pretty abysmal, (and a factor which I didn't realize until later was also contributing), and I was having a hard time staying out of the gravel for more than 3 laps at a time. Not good, when you have an 87 lap race to do, and you are still learning the limits of the car and tyres. And to make matters worse, I had never driven on a track with so many cars, and so many cars which were much faster, and wanted to pass. It took me a while to stop freaking out about the cars looming in my rearview and figure out ways to let them by without losing too much time or line.
After a while I managed to qualify third in the NGT class which I wasn't quite satisfied with. Tried for another day or two to improve and at that point discovered that my choice of tyre was shoddy. When I found myself doing the same time as custom setup, quali fuel, and soft slicks with a default setup, full fuel load, and medium slicks, I jumped to the mediums and never looked back. I thought that track temp of 37C was warm enough for softs. Newbie :P
Managed a 1:51.1 or something which I was quite pleased with, still only 3rd quali though. Tried a few more times, got some more practice in, and then today I just decided. What the hell, I'm going to give it a shot.
Started dang well off the parade lap, manged to get first in class and hold it. I don't really know what happened, but everything kinda came together. Despite being heavy on fuel, the tires were working great and I think the extra caution I was taking due to it being the full race was saving my ass. It felt like the extra weight of the fuel wasn't there somehow, and I was doing 1:52.6-9 pretty consistently. The guys behind me weren't catching up, and best of all, by the time I reached my first pitstop at 19 laps, I had done a mistake-free race. That was the first time I had EVER gone so long without screwing up. And yeah, Monza is an easy circuit, but even so. Stfu. I was happy :)
Then the hammer struck. I was speeding when I entered the pitlane, and got a stop-and-go penalty. Damn. Okay, did the lap, pitted, served the penalty, came out in last 1 min behind the next guy. Double damn. Okay, time to work.
Slipped back into pace and things were going beautifully. I don't know where it was coming from but somehow there was still more speed coming. I posted a 1:52.2, then a 1:52.0, and then a 1:51.4 or something. The time between me and the next guy had tumbled from a minute and ten seconds to less than 40. Each lap I was thinking "Oh my god, if I keep this pace up I might still have a chance". It was really great, being able to do another 11 laps without incident, at a faster pace than before, on full fuel. I'm sure by that time I had just learned the ins and outs of the circuit and car, but it was the first time I had ever been so consistent and fast, and really put a smile on my face.
But it was not to be. That custom setup which I picked and had served me so well was the end of the car. The suspension was great, there was no way I could have set it up better. (cause I suck :) However, it was originally designed to be a 10 lap setup. I set the proper strategy for the fuelling and tires for the race but I didn't understand the effects of one crucial thing. Rev Limiter
Default for the RSR is 8400 RPM, and the setup had it at the max of 8800 for maximum speed during a short race and/or qualifying. After 31 laps, the engine just had enough. On the pit straight, going into the first chicane, it was over. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but i THINK that as it hit the limiter maybe 100 feet from the braking zone the engine just broke down. It is hard to tell in hindsight whether I downshifted too fast and ruined it that way or it just gave up while pushing it's maximum because it happened so fast and I was honestly thinking about the corner rushing up ahead.
The car stopped in the middle of the first chicane, and my efforts to restart the engine were futile. Looking in my rearview and seeing the steam it was pretty obvious that it was over.
Even so, I was pleased, despite not finishing. Falling out of the race to a problem like this was to me, an acceptable way to go. Much better than having to retire or lose places because of a stupid mistake such as running into the gravel. The stop-and-go penalty and the engine failure were little things that I had overlooked, and both taught me important details which I didn't know before. Best of all, I had done 31 EXCELLENT laps, close to half of which were done at a fighting pace, and my laptimes had finally become consistent.
So despite not finishing the first race of the championship, I am satisfied with what I had achieved. I'm a rookie in a game filled with professionals, and to be able to hold my own for as long as I did was plenty good enough for me.
Next round: Valencia!
So after I got GTR2 reinstalled and done the driving school and a few course tests and the basic championship in order to get myself back into the GTR2 mindset (which came MUCH MUCH easier than last time, yaaaaay!), I decided to jump in balls first to the 2004 FIA Championship.
Car: Freisinger Motorsport Porsche GT3 RSR (NGT)
Opponents: Full (22)
Length: Full (3 hr/87 laps)
Aggression: Real
Skill: 100%
Physics/Tcontrol/Stability: Simulation/off/off
Aids: Auto Clutch, ABS (low)
1st Round...Monza
I must have started this 4-5 days ago, and just finished bout an hour ago. I downloaded a huge pack of setups for all the cars from NoGripRacing.com hoping to pick through and find a setup or two for the car (little did I know it was going to cost me later on)
Found a setup which fitted nicely into my driving style (lucky me!) and began practicing.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
For the first 3 days or something it was pretty bad. I began 4 seconds behind the slowest time in my class and set the goal to at least reach the middle of the field. The worst part was that despite my strong ability to push hard around the track, I was having HUGE problems with line.
One aspect to this game which differs from EVERY other sim I've played is the variable grip depending on your track location (which is realistic). If you stay on the proper line, you got nice gobs of grip and can push in relative safety, but as soon as you get onto the 'dirty' part of the track, it's bye-bye. In the old days I struggled massively with this, cursing the game because the grip simply seemed to disappear. (didn't realize at the time it was my fault :) When I watched my first full Formula 1 and saw vividly what happens, I knew that I had to work hard on getting that line.
Problem was, my consistency during practice was pretty abysmal, (and a factor which I didn't realize until later was also contributing), and I was having a hard time staying out of the gravel for more than 3 laps at a time. Not good, when you have an 87 lap race to do, and you are still learning the limits of the car and tyres. And to make matters worse, I had never driven on a track with so many cars, and so many cars which were much faster, and wanted to pass. It took me a while to stop freaking out about the cars looming in my rearview and figure out ways to let them by without losing too much time or line.
After a while I managed to qualify third in the NGT class which I wasn't quite satisfied with. Tried for another day or two to improve and at that point discovered that my choice of tyre was shoddy. When I found myself doing the same time as custom setup, quali fuel, and soft slicks with a default setup, full fuel load, and medium slicks, I jumped to the mediums and never looked back. I thought that track temp of 37C was warm enough for softs. Newbie :P
Managed a 1:51.1 or something which I was quite pleased with, still only 3rd quali though. Tried a few more times, got some more practice in, and then today I just decided. What the hell, I'm going to give it a shot.
Started dang well off the parade lap, manged to get first in class and hold it. I don't really know what happened, but everything kinda came together. Despite being heavy on fuel, the tires were working great and I think the extra caution I was taking due to it being the full race was saving my ass. It felt like the extra weight of the fuel wasn't there somehow, and I was doing 1:52.6-9 pretty consistently. The guys behind me weren't catching up, and best of all, by the time I reached my first pitstop at 19 laps, I had done a mistake-free race. That was the first time I had EVER gone so long without screwing up. And yeah, Monza is an easy circuit, but even so. Stfu. I was happy :)
Then the hammer struck. I was speeding when I entered the pitlane, and got a stop-and-go penalty. Damn. Okay, did the lap, pitted, served the penalty, came out in last 1 min behind the next guy. Double damn. Okay, time to work.
Slipped back into pace and things were going beautifully. I don't know where it was coming from but somehow there was still more speed coming. I posted a 1:52.2, then a 1:52.0, and then a 1:51.4 or something. The time between me and the next guy had tumbled from a minute and ten seconds to less than 40. Each lap I was thinking "Oh my god, if I keep this pace up I might still have a chance". It was really great, being able to do another 11 laps without incident, at a faster pace than before, on full fuel. I'm sure by that time I had just learned the ins and outs of the circuit and car, but it was the first time I had ever been so consistent and fast, and really put a smile on my face.
But it was not to be. That custom setup which I picked and had served me so well was the end of the car. The suspension was great, there was no way I could have set it up better. (cause I suck :) However, it was originally designed to be a 10 lap setup. I set the proper strategy for the fuelling and tires for the race but I didn't understand the effects of one crucial thing. Rev Limiter
Default for the RSR is 8400 RPM, and the setup had it at the max of 8800 for maximum speed during a short race and/or qualifying. After 31 laps, the engine just had enough. On the pit straight, going into the first chicane, it was over. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but i THINK that as it hit the limiter maybe 100 feet from the braking zone the engine just broke down. It is hard to tell in hindsight whether I downshifted too fast and ruined it that way or it just gave up while pushing it's maximum because it happened so fast and I was honestly thinking about the corner rushing up ahead.
The car stopped in the middle of the first chicane, and my efforts to restart the engine were futile. Looking in my rearview and seeing the steam it was pretty obvious that it was over.
Even so, I was pleased, despite not finishing. Falling out of the race to a problem like this was to me, an acceptable way to go. Much better than having to retire or lose places because of a stupid mistake such as running into the gravel. The stop-and-go penalty and the engine failure were little things that I had overlooked, and both taught me important details which I didn't know before. Best of all, I had done 31 EXCELLENT laps, close to half of which were done at a fighting pace, and my laptimes had finally become consistent.
So despite not finishing the first race of the championship, I am satisfied with what I had achieved. I'm a rookie in a game filled with professionals, and to be able to hold my own for as long as I did was plenty good enough for me.
Next round: Valencia!
Where I stand
So to give you guys some perspective about my background with this type of game, I'll go back a bit, to...
Need For Speed SE
Heh, I can't even remenber how old I was playing that game. Dang I got hooked though, and from then raced every Need For Speed up through Carbon. Around 2004 or something I found Initial D and drifting, and that dragged my naive little head into the world of street racing.
I really can't remember the period when I bought my G25 steering wheel. I had played some Gran Turismo 3 and 4 by that time (at relatives house) and that was about it in terms of simulation racing. If I had to take a guess, I bought that wheel and GTR2 because I wanted a better game than Need for Speed Carbon, and GTR2 was the best out at the time.
Boy was that a wake-up call. In 2-3 weeks I learned more about driving for real than I had in probably close to a decade of arcade racing. I was falling off the track every which way, staggered by the lack of grip and speed (cause I was sucking horribly :)
Eventually I managed to win the first race in the first championship, after many tries, and only just....and that was it. I had learned a HUGE amount, but I was through. GTR2 had taken my head and stuffed it down the toilet, beat me up and hung me out to dry. For a while I didn't play any sim at all, went back to Need For Speed Carbon, and became #1 world fastest on several tracks.
Then I moved to Seattle for a brief spell at UW. To alleviate the boredom I bought a PS2 and two games...one of which was GT4. With the G25 it was everything I had imagined it to be and more, some of the most fun I ever had.
After 3 months I moved back home, and the PS2 went into storage (No way of getting wheel in front of the TV) but I was itching for more. An old friend I knew from the college automotive program had moved back into town and we got into contact once more, and to my delight he had TWO G25s AND playseats for both, AND a PS3 and GT5 prologue. Also, to top it all off, he was about as skilled as I was, so the racing was (for the most part) pretty intense.
Now though, I want to learn more. Steeling myself for the onslaught to come GTR2 went back on the computer. And the rest is still in the making :)
So there's a little history behind me and my passion.
Need For Speed SE
Heh, I can't even remenber how old I was playing that game. Dang I got hooked though, and from then raced every Need For Speed up through Carbon. Around 2004 or something I found Initial D and drifting, and that dragged my naive little head into the world of street racing.
I really can't remember the period when I bought my G25 steering wheel. I had played some Gran Turismo 3 and 4 by that time (at relatives house) and that was about it in terms of simulation racing. If I had to take a guess, I bought that wheel and GTR2 because I wanted a better game than Need for Speed Carbon, and GTR2 was the best out at the time.
Boy was that a wake-up call. In 2-3 weeks I learned more about driving for real than I had in probably close to a decade of arcade racing. I was falling off the track every which way, staggered by the lack of grip and speed (cause I was sucking horribly :)
Eventually I managed to win the first race in the first championship, after many tries, and only just....and that was it. I had learned a HUGE amount, but I was through. GTR2 had taken my head and stuffed it down the toilet, beat me up and hung me out to dry. For a while I didn't play any sim at all, went back to Need For Speed Carbon, and became #1 world fastest on several tracks.
Then I moved to Seattle for a brief spell at UW. To alleviate the boredom I bought a PS2 and two games...one of which was GT4. With the G25 it was everything I had imagined it to be and more, some of the most fun I ever had.
After 3 months I moved back home, and the PS2 went into storage (No way of getting wheel in front of the TV) but I was itching for more. An old friend I knew from the college automotive program had moved back into town and we got into contact once more, and to my delight he had TWO G25s AND playseats for both, AND a PS3 and GT5 prologue. Also, to top it all off, he was about as skilled as I was, so the racing was (for the most part) pretty intense.
Now though, I want to learn more. Steeling myself for the onslaught to come GTR2 went back on the computer. And the rest is still in the making :)
So there's a little history behind me and my passion.
The Road begins here!
I love racing
For me, there's nothing as special as standing on the top step of the podium, whether in reality or imaginary. Personally to me it hasn't happened yet, but even just seeing on the TV is enough for me to know that it's way better than being the victor at any other type of sport.
Fat chance I'll ever end up on a real podium, however, so the next best thing? Simulation. GTR2 to be precise. That is my benchmark for performance at this point. So, the purpose of this blog is for me to keep some kind of record of my practice. Since my team are all pixels on the screen I can't do a proper debrief, but I will try my best in this blog, along with whatever else thoughts I might have.
Who knows, maybe at some point in the future I'll have the money to run a kart or something, and hopefully at least SOME of what I learn here will translate to real life. That, and it's damn fun anyway :)
JH
For me, there's nothing as special as standing on the top step of the podium, whether in reality or imaginary. Personally to me it hasn't happened yet, but even just seeing on the TV is enough for me to know that it's way better than being the victor at any other type of sport.
Fat chance I'll ever end up on a real podium, however, so the next best thing? Simulation. GTR2 to be precise. That is my benchmark for performance at this point. So, the purpose of this blog is for me to keep some kind of record of my practice. Since my team are all pixels on the screen I can't do a proper debrief, but I will try my best in this blog, along with whatever else thoughts I might have.
Who knows, maybe at some point in the future I'll have the money to run a kart or something, and hopefully at least SOME of what I learn here will translate to real life. That, and it's damn fun anyway :)
JH
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