League Race #6 Results

Karts? - Meh!

Whilst they might look good in the pics, they're not so hot to race...

A simple bump or spin meant that we were dropping off the back of the pack, OK as most of us did exactly that. But Evan was super smooth as always! So of course won that first race.

Don't think we'll race them again eh? Fun to try but not to buy as they say...

But anyway, here's an iconic picture of Monaco

So, the next race was more fun I think - Gallardo drift club it seems...

Personally loved racing those cars. They under-steered something chronic, but a scandinavian flick followed by all the gas meant some of the bends became rally style corners. Not sure it was the fastest racing, but I got the win, lucky me I think as it was just hard to pass on that track...

Nice race!

Official results:

Race1:

1. Evan

2. Paul

3. Andrew

4. George

Race2:

1. Andrew

2. George

3. Evan

4. Paul

After races

So, what happened next?

Another race at Monaco with 587pp cars. OK driving, and much fun. Gutted I was not to win that as that Suzuki had it lined up for the win - small, nimble, etc etc. But turns out you're all fast too!

Then we decamped to a Toscana Road Course. This was built using the course builder and was around 9k in length, undulating across hills and going from open straights to twisty bends throughout it's length.

And whilst we were all gentlemen at letting the cars that crash catch up, I still reckon it was excellent racing.

Final race of the night saw the Ford GT invitational to Spa. This is home ground for George and me in our Spa tuned Ford GT's and it showed. Evan mate, you need to check your gift car set, as you'll not have an excuse for not having a Ford GT from now on (hope you like red!).

As always Spa meant some close racing, and of course the boost on high helped I think.

I'll see if I've got the replay and upload it this weekend if I can.

Once again folks, a top night's racing!

League race #6 Ammendments

Following some testing last night with Paul, I'm making an executive decision to change venue for tonight's league race...

There's also some subtle changes to the rules too:

Amendments:

Track: Monaco (Cote de zure)

Slipstream: Weak.

Boost: High

Penalties: Nill

PP Limit: 485

We are still racing Karts.

PP limit is to ensure we're all in the PDI Kart 100 (the 100cc one). DLC has a 125 variant at 496pp but we don't all have that one.

Also, as was apparent last night the racing was a tad boring on the official kart track, and Monaco is pretty good - around 1:50 to get round the circuit in a kart. Corners aren't too tight either as the karts are small enough to zip around easily enough.

Boost is up because the power curve is ridiculously steep, so bogging down in corners can really hamper a good lap. This will hopefully keep our racing alive.

After race maybe on Toscana road track to see how we go with that for a non-league race or more.

And another thing... B-Spec Seasonal.

So you're all into the seasonal events yes? It's what gets the most money and the best off-line racing (although you do in fact need to be on-line to see the races?!).

And, recently a couple of B-Spec races have come up that are well worth doing, why?

• The Le-Mans race nets a cool $3m+
• Winning both gets a gift car ticket (can't remember what but hey!).
• Experience points for your racer will go up a heap.
• Did I mention $3m+

How?

With this:

Don't have this? No worries, I'll share mine out. What's more it's geared to win the race. Already pre-set to 700pp with tyres, wing and gearing set to optimum (for my B-spec dude anyhow!).

Tactics

These are a bit fuzzy, as I was dozing whilst my man was racing...

1. Get a couple of drivers if you've not already got them, select your crappiest first so they go first in the racing.
2. Race'll start, push hard with your driver, he should be up in the 'red zone' and passing folks up to 7th place or similar with ease.
3. End of first lap pit in and change to Wet intermediate tyres - it'll have started to rain.
4. You'll be last, but that's OK. Race on, push hard.
5. You'll get through 4-5 laps easily enough, you'll need to keep deferring a pitstop, at the start because the driver will want dry/wet tyres and finally because they're shot.
6. Somewhere past 50% of the race pit in, and put on intermediate tyres again. No fuel though, you'll not need it - or at least don't adjust what's set.
7. Push hard up until lap 9. You should be back in the pack somewhat.
8. The other cars should pit in around the back end of lap 9 - idiots!
9. Don't pit in, your tyres are pretty much ruined by now, but your b-spec driver will cope with this.
10. You'll pass all the other cars in the pit. So now you're in first place, but with shot tyres.
11. I then let my driver's aggression drop to mid strength and selected maintain pace at this point.
12. Lap 10 is all about hoping you'll make it round the track without crashing and getting across the line...

Good luck folks!

League Race #6 - More Details

A few more details folks...

Normal(ish) rules apply:

Damage - off

Penalties - low

Boost - low (we often have high, but this track will be low with such balanced cars).

Tuning - unlocked so we can adjust gearing - that's about it.

Tyres - fixed at sports soft

Race info:

5 Laps.

Sunny.

x2 Races

Official Race Info:

Event Date: 02-Feb-2011

Time: 9:00 PM

Race Starts: 9:15 PM

Lounge: FCT GT5 Andrew

Track: Eifel Kart - 7 Sections, Complexity 8.

Laps: 5

Car: Polophony Karts

Tyres: Sports Soft

Other info:

So, it seems there are no karts in the list of fixed cars, but I think we should all have a kart unless we've sold it... If anyone's lacking on the night I'll buy them one and gift it.

Also, there's a fwe karts in the mix now, on the night I'll have a chat with which is the standard kart to use - I have a few...

Geek score: 9.5 - writing this on a kubuntu 'media' laptop that had a failed screen but HDMI output.. so plugged into the TV! Bonus is that I have a funky wireless keyboard too.

League race #6 Announced

This week is league night folks.

The championship is still open, there's still a maximum of 42 points on offer, and every chance for anyone to win*

So, this week we're taking our racing to somewhere new...

That's a clue folks...

Anyway, tonight I'll be testing and setting track and rules. Stand by for more info...

But you might want to do some test driving - check arcade mode for a standard version of your kart - it'll be as it's like on the night.

*Adam, not so much chap. Got to be in it to win it...

Deep Forest : 1:01:302

So a while back we decided to see how fast we could get around Deep Forest raceway with any car, any setting.

The only rule was no open wheel or fantasy cars (F1 and X10/X11 essentially).

This came about from a distant memory of GT4 and scratching a Zonda LM around the track in under a minute. Surely it's possible in GT5 right?

Well, it probably is, but we ended up using a Toyota Minolta with a turbo, that gives us 739pp, pretty handy.

It's pretty much the fastest car you can get without going to F1 etc. And we tried a few cars...

Lap times fell, starting around 1:05 it became clear that getting under a minute would be stupendous, why so hard? Well, I remembered that in GT4 you could have Qualifying Tyres and Nitro (giving around another 50% BHP), so not happening. Still, what's possible?

Many, many nights of this track, a lot of tuning, a $500k engine and chassis overhaul later and the result was 1:01:302. And here it is:

This the same lap from several different angles.

Enjoy.

Pointless race night 26 Jan

Time for another pointless race...

A few of you have commented that we haven't tried off-road, so we'll start with that on this night.

The cars, there's three on offer:

• Suzuki : SX4 WRC '08 510pp
• Citroën : C4 WRC '08 508pp
• Ford : Focus RS WRC07 '08 508pp

The track:

Something from the Eiger Nordwood set...

Source here

If it all goes horribly wrong, or we want to do something else, we'll do trial mountain with 587pp cars. In fact we'll probably end up doing that any how eh..

League Night Race 5 Results

"Good race lads"

The quote says it.

First race whilst we waited for Evan to finish swearing at his PS3 & ISP was very scrappy, I thought it was going to be a tough night.

But didn't it come good.

Both races had me and Evan away at the front. Not sure why but it is a track that a little too much pushing results in a mess for several corners. Unforgiving you might say.

Memorable for me was laps 3 & 4 on the second race - Evan came up behind me on lap 3, and passed down the straight using the cursed slipstream, I was helpless. But, that was his tactical mistake! Evan mate, you should have hung back and hassled me for lap 4, I probably would have made a mistake and then of course, as I did, it was an easy slipstream to pass on the start/finish. Mind you, if you watch the replay, which is here you'll see that I pass you on the line, phew!

Official results:

Race1

1. Andrew

2. Evan

3. George

4. Paul

5. Rod

Race2

1. Andrew

2. Evan

3. George

4. Rod

5. Paul

Special mention to Paul, who may have not featured in the race, but decimated us in the after race with his Lambo. Given it was a 587pp race I think we may have some work on our hands in future races!

I've not taken pics of the race, we've already got pics of those two cars... Instead a few more of the exotic stuff that's starting to float about in the after races...

I love this car!

Speedy cars!

Paul makes us look slow...

GT5 2.03

Bit of GT5 news...

http://tunerspit.com/forum/content.php?427-SIX-NEW-CARS-ONE-NEW-TRACK-REPORTEDLY-IN-NEXT-GT5-DLC!-2.03-UPDATE-DETAILS!

Cool stuff in the DLC:

• Aston Martin V12 Vantage 2010
• Jag XJR-9 LM Racer 1988
• Lamborghini - Aventador LP700-4 2011
• The old test circuit - 30km oval basically (way to go with interesting tracks guys).

Though... this may mean they're working on the older tracks for GT5 - that's very good news.

Not much in the 2.03 release.

• Some fixes around electric cars.
• Err, some other stuff...

That's about it. Check the source if you want more info (will get through websense, at lunchtime of course).

FCT GT5 League Race 5

A return to the format that we know and love...

"Arrive and Drive" for this race folks.

The track:

Fuji Speedway

"A nice mix of bends with a long straight to make use of drafting."

The cars:

These bad boys - we know them well..

The JGTC Supra and Skyline.

Normal rules apply:

• Damage - off
• Penalties - low
• Boost - low (we often have high, but this track will be low with such balanced cars).
• Tuning - locked (unless I get a critical mass to say unlock).
• Tyres - Open/Racing Soft

Race info:

• 4 Laps.
• Sunny.
• x2 Races

Official Race Info:

• Event Date: 19-Jan-2011
• Time: 9:00 PM
• Race Starts: 9:15 PM
• Lounge: FCT GT5 Andrew
• Track: Fuji Speedway
• Laps: 4
• Car: Skyline/Supra Race
• Tyres: Race Soft

Other info:

Please note that I'm changing the League Charter.

Points, section 4 reads:

"Assuming an eight race championship, each driver drops two race results (the lowest naturally). Shorter championship seasons will drop only one race result."

I'm proposing that we remove this, if only so we don't have a championship based on maths. If we were being ultra competitive then I'd say we'd keep it in, as it would most likely shake the final results up.

But for the sanity of the ongoing points and a general understanding of who's winning (me) I'd like to propose that we remove it*.

Cheers!

* Actually, only one vote for me to win the championship - gits!