League Race #8 Season Finale - Le Mans 24 Minutes

It's back...

Oh Yes!

Le Mans 24 Mins Race - Season Finale

Nearly Normal rules apply:

Damage - Low (normally off) - this means if you hit a barrier, expect 1/2 a lap of grief

Penalties - low

Boost - High.

PP - 597 Road cars

Tyres - Open/Racing Soft

Race info:

6 Laps.

Time advance - 45min/min - last time we didn't hit dawn, we were too fast!

Double/double points...

Official Race Info:

Event Date: 01-Mar-2012

Time: 9:00 PM

Race Starts: 9:15 PM

Lounge: FCT GT5 Andrew

Track: Le Mans / La Sarthe Time Change.

Laps: 6

Car: 587pp Road Cars

Tyres: Race Soft

Other info:

Remember to practice night driving. Personally I set the time advance to 60 (The max) and race three laps, that seems to take me through the night, and racing down the mulsane at dawn is most excellent.

Points

Double points as per the last Le Mans race, as it's only one race.

And double points for the last race of the season...

That means that the winner will get a stupendous 24 points should we all race. Well worth it and possibly a championship make or break on the night!

Cheers!

Gone but not forgotten!

Hey Guys,
As you're all aware, last day for me today...
But I intend to continue the GT5 league, it's an excellent game and made all the better with excellent company.
The midnight task of publishing videos will have to slip for a few months - I don't get an hours sleep on the train any more!

I'm assuming we'll continue our format of official races every other week - it seems to work well.
And if we want to extend our racing into off-road, I might start to promote Dirt3 races too, it really is a good racing game too.

Anyway, race on next week, it's the "Andrew C Memorial Race around Le Mans with 587pp road cars that are in fact slower than Andrew's current beauty" race. Catchy titile eh.
And speaking of titles, it's the clincher (and some of those 300kph corners are indeed clinchers). Who's going to win the title? It's open slather really, why?

Double points on a double point race!!! that's why.

Eh?

Assume five of us arrive and drive. Normally that would be two races, max five points each.
This race is a double header: So one race, 10 points (don't f*ck it up).
But, as it's the last race of the season, let's double the points! So in this example, a maximum of 20 points to be had!

So, assume six racers and I come last (haha, seriously). That's a lowely 4 points taking me to 56 points.
But George makes the grade and takes the cup, that's (6*2)*2, so 24 points, that'll take him to 58 points, mathmatically there's still the chance dude...

And, last time I raced here I wasn't so lucky, and damn near did come last - practice practice practice...


I should have a phone by then too, so I'll flick out an update email, as texting on the night is handy if you can't get online - though of course I can tell...


Cheers guys,
Andrew

Pointless race this week...

Hi Folks.

Whilst I have a cool idea about what we'll be racing this week, and it will be a surprise (no, not karts, they were terrible), I may not be there. (WTF?)

Hopefully it'll be fun, a challenge and something we've not done before.

Few runners and we'll do something else.

But, I'm drinking my last on Thursday, so may not be on-line to race. As it's a no-points race I'm a bit 'Meh' (tm) over that.

Of course I'll be on line to beat you all at the next league race - which is looking very much like it'll be at Le Mans thanks to the voting to date.

Just for reference, I've set a faster time than George around there, so whatever he says he has done it in, I was 2 seconds faster... ;o)

Cheers

Andrew

League Race 7 Official Results.

Been a bit slack on this one, no pics (seem to have lost my USB key. If you find it, it's the one with the bunker scene in it - oh dear).

But we do have video:

Luckily it's a corker too, as I fell asleep whilst recording it!!

Anyway, it's boring to say top race, because they all are eh...

Official Race results:

Race #1

1. Andrew

2. George

3. Paul

4. Evan

5. Rod

Race #2

1. Evan

2. Paul

3. Rod

4. Andrew

5. George (DNF)

For me the first race was far better, not because I won it (that helped) but more because there was not so much jostling for position in the race, it just seemed cleaner. Remember folks if you can avoid a crash try too. Certainly I was part of the problem on occasion, but I also tried to get the hell out of the way. Boost soon brought me back into the pack.

George gets points in the second race as he started. You can imagine my surprise, for some reason I had a fantastic pace on the track (boost maybe?), and ended up belting him hard on the top straight after Eau Rouge and next thing he's kicked out of the room - that's hardcore contact driving that is.

Surprise of the night for me was Paul's Lambo - damn that thing was fast. Mighty as my skyline was (and it was George) on the straights I couldn't keep up. I think the only place I was quicker was into the bends, where my lighter car gave me the edge in braking. Top tip for 4wd cars I've found is to put in the torque splitter and go 25/75 rather than the standard 40/60 - this then gives some better measure of turn in, still shite but is better...

Talking to Rod, I reckon that his violet Ferrari could be a contender too - next season we'll be in for it...

After Race

And what of Toscana folks? I'm keen to know if that's a track we should exploit more. Personally I love it as there's so many options on line and approach that it's easy to find a fast lap or make a deadly mistake. It's not an official track from the game (it's one I've made) so won't race on it officially unless we're all bought in.

Next league night.

Well, I won't be here at work then, but that's OK, I'll communicate through the blog and email updates, they might be a bit less frequent though - I suspect I'll have a fair bit to do in the first few weeks.

Anyway, important is to vote on the right for the race on the night (haha). Do it, or I'll pick Nurburgring & karts...

GBP20.5 Mil for a Ferrari 250

Story here.

So some dude has spent over twenty million pounds on a Ferrari 250.

This if you're not aware of what that car is:

The 250 GTO was designed to compete in GT racing. It was based on the 250 GT SWB. Chief engineer Giotto Bizzarrini installed the 3.0 L V12 engine from the 250 Testa Rossa into the chassis from the 250 GT SWB and worked with designer Sergio Scaglietti to develop the body. After Bizzarrini and most other Ferrari engineers were fired in a dispute with Enzo Ferrari, development was handed over to new engineer Mauro Forghieri, who worked with Scaglietti to continue development of the body, including wind tunnel and track testing.

Unlike most Ferraris, it was not designed by a specific individual or design house.

The rest of the car was typical of early-1960s Ferrari technology: hand-welded tube frame, A-arm front suspension, live-axle rear end, disc brakes, and Borrani wire wheels.

The Porsche designed five-speed gearbox was new to Ferrari GT racing cars; the metal gate that defined the shift pattern would become a tradition that is still maintained in current models. The interior was extremely basic, to the point where a speedometer was not installed in the instrument panel. Many of its switches came from the Fiat 500.

Clearly they're not GT5 gamers - $20mil for a car is almost typical, and that's before a quick tune up...

League Race #7 Spa / 587pp road cars

Hello all,

A quick posting today for our race this Thursday as it's all old stuff rehashed for this race...

The track.

Of course it's SPA.

You all know the circuit by now, but here's a video of some cars going fast around some of the bends. Worth a watch..

Nice.

The cars.

Our usual 587pp road cars.

To be clear on the rules here. Road cars means no liveries on the car. Also no 'stealth' cars either (which are special in-game race cars with no liveries).

Question if my Nissan R390 GT1 is stretching the rules?

Well, it's certainly fast around the bends, but musters a measly 478bhp compared to my mighty Ford GT's 601bhp.

But what of the rules you say... well, there's no livery, and what's more it's not a fantasy car, or a one off custom car or indeed even a concept car. Porsche, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan and Jaguar all took advantage of the rules for Le Mans that allowed a limited production run. Do a Google on Gt1 and there's a world of info there!

Shall I race it? not sure, I don't actually think it's that fast to be honest - it got owned around Rome Reverse that's for sure!

Official Race Info

Event Date: 16 Feb 2012

Time: 9:00pm

Race starts: 9:15pm

Lounge: FCT GT5 Andrew

Track: Spa (normal)

Laps: 4

Car: Road 587pp

Tyres: Open/ Race-Soft

This is the last chance to make some serious points folks, hence making it a double header race, the more of us there, the better too!

Other info:

Next league race I'll be calling in from afar, let's keep the league alive guys - will be great to stay in touch and race on.

Also, check out the voting for the last league race, we'll re-run one of the previous races, happy to take a steer on what we do.

Cheers

Andrew

Vote today on Race #8

Hey folks,

Check out the voting on the right, time to pick what you want...

Our final race of the season will be a revival of one of the previous races in the league. They are:

Race #0

We didn't get points for it, but many moons ago we thrashed SEM S2000 Honda race cars around Autumn ring. It was a manic race, lots of spins and some shunting. But I think we all knew by then that it was going to be an awesome season. Perhaps easy points for someone who shone back then? (though by this picture I think it would be hard to choose!).

Race #1

So few of us attended this race, but it turned into an excellent night's racing. the XKR and IFS road cars were proper tail happy, and that coupled with the tight Monaco track made for some fun racing. Anyone else fancy trying their hand?

Race #2

In contrast, we had a better turn out for the wet race around Suzuka. Who can forget hammering down the back straight in the wet, only to come across a wall of brake lights as folks slammed on the anchors to get round the corners. This was a great race in a previous season and remains solidly fun in this one.

Race #3

A couple of favourite race cars made an appearance here - The JGTC Skyline and Supra. Not matched on paper (the Skyline scores higher) but it turns out that the Supra seemed to have the edge. For me, this race showed me that Evan was going to be a contender - every corner had him passing or pushing for the pass, a top race!

Race #4

I don't think I have to talk about this one... 587pp and Le Mans 24 minutes of racing. Simply a stunning race decided in the last couple of corners despite nearly a half hour of racing. And night racing too - oh my that made a difference!

Race #5

Our favourite (only) JGTC race cars came back to race Fuji Speedway. A legendary race that we'll talk about for a long time. If only to lament the fact that half the field forgot to change to Racing Soft tyres before the race. I thought it was going too easy...

Race #6

Karts? Meh. Gallardos? bring em on! Who would have thought you could do a Scandinavian flick into a hairpin at Monaco. Turns out it worked quite well. Better than the "sharts" anyway...

Race #7

Who's to say. It's an epic track that we've all had some time on. And we'll be using our favourite non-race 587pp racers. The races will be 4 laps each standard rules. We're all excellent racers so it promises to be an awesome race.

A race of champions

Albeit from the 70's...

First race was a bit of a mess, Baloo jumped on late and his car was obviously outclassed by the Italian sports and maybe a bit by my green shopping cart - complete with push bar at the back.

Second race, much more even. George had the win, we thought easy, but in reality he had to push his car, still, a great win mate easily outclassed the rest of us.

And here it is, though I think there's not much footage of the winner, too far in front!

So that was that.

But what of the rest of the evening.

Well, big news is that we won't be doing the 700pp Le Mans cars around Spa next week.

George, Evan and I did a test race, and it's patently obvious that a small mistake makes the pack spread out horribly - our league is great because of how close we race, not because of the fast cars we drive (we're fast enough without the cars!).

So, next week's race will be our favourite 587pp race cars at Spa, and we'll make it two races of 4 laps - not an endurance race. Reason for that is that there's no night mode on that track, so no point in thrashing about for so long.

So get some practice in, we've not had an official race at Spa, but have had a lot of practice. Objections on the track welcomed, option two is Trial Mountain.

That's all folks, another top night's racing!

Cheers

Andrew

Just some old shiat car race eh...

In case you're all wondering what to drive, there's some excellent stuff out there..

BMW with a bit of an oil/engine issue

Bo? Luke?

A recurring them this loose back end thing...

So there you have it, some probably aren't from the 70's but what the heck, they're all a laugh to take for a spin!

See you online later!

Pointless race - Thursday 9th

Hi folks,

Race night this week is brought to you courtesy of Baloo's suggestion to go retro...

The cars are anything from the 1970's. I was going to say pre 1975, but this beauty is from '76, so we'll go with the golden era in it's entirety:

PP will be limited to 520pp - This is actually quite high for these cars. Happy to take a lower PP if anyone wants to get online and check later tonight.

The track will be Rome circuit. In reverse. I've found it's a better track backwards for some reason. Seems going the reverse makes everything a bit tighter...

Usual start time of 9pm.

For those that don't have any cars, the online garage might have something suitable - if not we'll make an executive decision on the night.

We'll see how we go on the night, but expect some 587pp racing following the lower ranked cars being thrashed out.

Finally, my 'toscana test circuit' is shared out, so you can download that epically long race track that we were using last week. I've done a few test laps on it, and it's fast becoming a favourite of mine - expect to race on it again!

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.