Racing tonight...

We'll have some league racing - promise! Last week of my holidays this week so I'll be back in a depressive work mood from next week, and looking for excuses to do other non-work related computery things. Like a season mix.

Here's some more racing of Mount Panorama, Brock in an M3...

Very nice footage I think you'll agree.

Tonight, you'll need an HRC460 and TC500 car - we'll do Bathurst for a bit too. Great track.

E30 News
Not much, this weekend Evan and I are playing at breaking cars. Hopefully transplanting an axle along the way...

And I've refitted the air filter, it runs better with this mass air sensor.

Update...

Late, sorry.
Tonight, or last night as you read this, we'll focus on the GT590-4 cars, so that's Japan made race cars including 4wd cars, at 590pp. Tyres are Racing Medium.

Something like these in fact.

But what's been consuming me? Euro old sports that's what, these sorts of things:

They keep my busy, and allow pics like these:

That's enough eye candy.

E30 update
Not much has happened. I've ordered a gear shift knob, the last one never arrived. And I'm thinking this will be my benchmark:

Season update

Errr, yes, watch this space. Umm, still doing research. Yeah, that's what it's called.

My new wish list...

1. Large areas covered in trees - Check.
2. A desire to drive like a loon - Check
3. Ability to do so - err wait.
4. Snow - haha, funny.
5. $$$$$$ - Oh well.

It was all going well until Trevor the squirrel ran across the road.

TC500 Race Prep Night Thursday

Hi Folks.
Race prep night on Thursday.
Specifically we'll be doing TC500 races on the night - we've all had time to rebuild our garage now.

Of the league - please do take the time to come and race, you've all got GT6 now, and it would be great to get some serious racing under way.

I've also updated the charter (linked on the right somewhere) to be in line with GT6, not much has changed, other than the preposition that we'll be doing some DTM racing at some point (Fatherland cars etc).

In terms of finding rooms, make sure you tick the 'Friends rooms only' then update the list. If it's past 8:30pm I'll have a room up and running.

Hope to see you online folks, I'm looking forward to the racing this season!

Cheers
Andrew

Welcome

Top HRC460 racing last night folks. And welcome to a couple of new racers that we may see about a bit going forwards - certainly it made for some excellent races, see below...


Anyway, I'm thinking we'll have a more open league for this next season, not least as we do seem to all be busy at the moment, we'll see how we go. Thoughts so far are:

• HRC460, TC500, GT590 and 650Open will remain as 'class cars' 
• I was worried that the new GT6 pp system would render them not so nice to drive, but with a few exceptions (Evan's RUF continued to be a challenge - stick in there chap) we're all good. And there's some nice new cars in there too - just not the Trans-Am mmmkay.
• I'll run mini 2-3 evening racing seasons for various classes.
• In this I'll also bring in DTM and other class cars as we get more in-game cash.
• Plan is to have drop in and race races rather than contend with a whole season.
• Points will add up to an overall champion though - if only so we can reuse my points system!

Overall, a great night and I'm inspired for a great season's racing going forwards.

E30 Sit Rep...

Sit Rep - well, we'll find out as I now have this:

Not overly exciting to most I wager. But this collection of cables etc is in fact the business end of a diagnostic kit for my car. With this I can at least check all sensors and make sure all is working.
But also, I can reset the service interval on the car (it has one that monitors engine hours, very clever), so my car will have a little green led telling me all is well too - the dirty liar!

Jobs upcoming include the back axle/sub assembly replacement - anyone know how to install outdoor air-conditioning as it's a tad warm at the moment....

End of the holiday...

Hi Folks.

Last night of the disorganised racing tonight - I'll get the season events etc sorted for next week and we'll start some points racing around mid to late January, basically a fortnight from now.

Of course, I've been remiss in my blog updates, I blame these two:

They do take up a lot of my time it seems! (err, yeah, and the kids, those two also used up a bit of my holiday I suppose).

We'll do some in class racing tonight, so that's the HRC460, TC500, GT590 and if we've got anything fast enough 650Open. Those forgetting, the league rules are linked down on the right hand side.

And on that note, expect a major update of those rules to bring them into line with GT6.

Finally, I'll run an open room tonight for a bit too - this to see if we can drum up business. And indeed last night I had some most excellent races with some Aussie chaps last night. I even managed a win at Motegi East. The rest of the racing I was sort of in the mix but generally outclassed... about usual then.

If you three get the friend request and visit this blog, welcome, we're an easy going bunch that just enjoys organised racing.

That's all folks, let's see if we can muster up some good racing tonight.

Cheers
Andrew

GT6 Two Weeks On

Dear Diary...

I like GT6.
In fact I've kinda got used to the quirky tuning menus, it's not as good as GT5 in that respect, but it's more than made up for in the two tracks that I've been pretty much exclusively racing on....

And, thankfully the holiday season has seen a return of reasonable win amounts for racing, so the grind through the lower ranks has been fun.
Actually, they've been really fun as I have an Evo II Merc for the slow stuff and a couple of TC500 spec racers for anything up to 600pp racing (and a challenge that is too):

Turns out the classic muscle cars are fun too, look what I found!

And of course I had to try a RUF @ Brands. Noice.

But what I like, I really like...

So that is what I enjoy at the moment. And here is that last picture in glorious action:

And below is an almost nostalgic Carlton hooning it around Bathurst...

GT6 - GTQLD Review (sort of)

The question you're all asking I'm sure is what is it like for our league?
Well, I've done some research (and onerous it was too eh).

Look away now if you're saving the surprise...

The Car

Car: AMG C63 - TC500 Spec. Trying to get as close to GT5 spec as I could, for comparison...

Setup
I reckon the PP points are somewhat different, the car I reckon started with higher, so tuning is a lot harder. My C63 (much the same setup as GT5) has a lot of power limiting going on.
I'll not give too much away, but overall a similar car, though it does feel a little under powered.
I've done stuff to the body, and changed wheels etc. Also, it's a custom paint chip.

Tuning, much the same setup as GT5, stiffened & lowered suspension, no aero, camber a bit of diff etc. Pretty much the same as it was in GT5 actually.


The track
In a small voice, I'll say I'm not sure about Bathurst. It's a tricky track to master, so whilst it is great fun it's hard to put in a consistent lap I think. This was one of many laps that I did but one of only a few that actually counted.
In terms of lap times, well I'll let you get the stopwatch out for the video below, but in terms of other lap times:

• 2:04 Outright - that's in something other than a V8 super car.
• 2:08 - Ford / 2007
• 2:22 - Me, three laps in playing Live for Speed in a stock V8 race car.

And here is my lap (about four laps in):

Review

Not sure I need to say too much, there's a video of my largely lame driving above...

I think it's better than GT5, a lot better. Certainly the cars feel more alive and are less forgiving than in GT5. 

It's hard to pinpoint exactly, but I think the turn in on cars is much better, and there's more tyre squeal action, in GT5 this car is impossible to step out almost. In GT6 I swapped ends regularly, but always because of my bad driving, a drift arcade game it is not, at least with a race spec car.

The car seemed a bit asthmatic on the straights, but hoping and bouncing around the bends was plenty fast enough. Overall I'd say similar lap-times to GT5 if I concentrate (and have the same track of course!).

You'll see in the vid there's a few times I have to correct, this game, with these tyres (Racing Medium) it's going to be a proper test of skill over tuning I think. And on that note, I'm certain the tyres aren't as sticky as they were, or as above, something is making the cars more twitchy (good luck with your RUF Evan! - I've bought one and it's errr, interesting even at 460pp!).

Overall, it's a fantastic game for sure. You'll all find out for yourselves, but the interface is largely far superior to the mish-mash of GT5, though I don't like the car selection screen, a better tool needed there I think.
Also, I'm sure it's been mentioned elsewhere, but no more second hand cars - you can buy all the cars in the dealership. This actually is quite overwhelming - there's just hundreds of cars and dealers, unreal really, and of course great fun to go hunting cool cars - El Camino anyone?

Not sure I like the setup screens for handling, you have to adjust then check the pp points - I think that's a step backwards as it's a right pain trying to set the weight/power mix now. And I reckon more than one person will screw up their transmission as it's not clear what your top speed is if you get into ratio adjusting.

Many folks say they'll never go back to GT5, and I'd largely agree, it's like going between GT3 and GT5 - the physics are going to feel very wooden with GT5 now. Which is fine.

A couple of game set-up does & don'ts:

• If you're using a steering wheel, make sure you change the handling from 'arcade' to Professional or Sim. Personally I'm on Professional (the middle setting) but given the physics of these cars I'm going to try Sim I think.
• Don't turn on anti-flicker, I tried it and it introduced a lower frame rate as far as I can tell.

That's about it, open to comments and questions - vague review because I'm figuring you'll find this all out for yourselves soon enough!

[edit] And here is the lap record for Mount Panorama (Bathurst). No, it's not a V8 Supercar...

Just one day to go...

Or about three weeks if you're trusting the Aussie postal service.

Who isn't excited about this, and other cars.

I'll be online racing tonight with a tear in my eye. Events will be centred on created tracks - as we'll not have those until I get back into track editing.

Cheers
Andrew