Race #4 Results (and WTF happened to Race #5?)

Hi All,
Race #4 results first.

So not so many folks online in the first race, and compounded by my dropping out. And that doesn't tell the tale of me winning into the final lap. Tsukuba likes 4wd cars and my Evo loved that race. At least against an M5 and a Carlton, which in fairness both were overly competitive in any case, despite Bismark proportions.
Still, about the closest I've come in recent years to throwing a controller at the screen I think. bah!

Race #5
Thanks PSN. Thanks for dropping all of us like dog eggs from a collie after eating a box of after eight mints.
Racing was not to be, and it was the last race of the TC500s, I had a good feeling about that race too, my Jaaaag would have been well suited to those tracks and so long as a couple of our drivers had aneurysms I'd have been in there.

Next race
Well we have a choice...
We can have the missing race of last week - and I know we'll all have cars for that.
Or we can do the DTM racing that is in the calendar. Tempting!

Personally, being the stickler for control that I'm not, I'd say we do the DTM thing. I'll send a PSN out shortly.

If we don't have the cars for this we'll fall back to TC500 which we all know and love.

DTM Rules
It's all about the rules eh.
As per the calendar:

• German Road/Race car; or
• DTM Race car
• 580pp
• TC allowed
• Racing Med Tyres (made this bit up).

Welcome
So we have (probably) a new driver. Alex (FrenchieBMX) is a colleague from work who's finally sorted his Internet connection so can race on. He's new to GT6, which basically means I'm now going to be scoring 2 points in a race for a while. Woohoo!
Seriously, welcome to Alex and hope you enjoy the racing.
Avid readers of the blog will have seen him rousting around on his BMX in a video posted a while back.

Race#3 Results

The results are in, and they are thus:

What this doesn't do justice to though is the ongoing love affair (not Bro enough?) with the TC500 class.
I think this will be the last season we have the FWD/2-Door rule though, the Renault and for that matter the Civic are just too fast. Anyone who's spent time in GT6 using a FWD car will know that they handle so much better than they did in GT5. And the 4 door rule is great - the cars are compromised somewhere in their makeup, so cars are fast in different places.

I'm sad though, I should have been a better contender at Bathurst. I have to blame the spin I had, and I've made it worse by un-mapping my instant reverse button.I didn't think it would matter now that one can simply bang down the box, but in a race it's seconds spent trying to get from 5th down to reverse.
Re-map time I think. But in fairness that wasn't why I was so far down the field. Mostly it was because you lot are better drivers. Dammit!

Replay er yes. To follow...

Next race
Interesting short track this next race, I wonder if it's the 4wd time to shine...

And Trial Mountain - these cars love Trial Mountain.

Great season folks, race on!

Lights... camera... inaction

Sit rep...

As you'll have seen from a previous post I had the cabling to sort the lights, behold:

We have working lights, at least at the front!

Next weekend is 'run the car around the block' weekend - we'll see...

Lotus Carlton

So the question came up last night around the Aussie version of the Lotus Carlton.
This car

There is a reasonable wiki on it, so I won't belabour the point, other than to say it was an excellent car in it's day and remains an icon of it's era (1990 or so).

What's more, it's a pretty reasonable read around just how much was done to the donor car to make it the mad bit of kit that it was. Many thought that it just had a fancy engine added, not even close.
Read the Wiki, it's amazing just how much was done.

Specifications
Top speed - +176 mph (283 km/h)
Peak power - 377 bhp (281 kW; 382 PS) @ 5200 rpm
Acceleration - 0-60 mph (97 km/h) : 5.1 sec., 0-100 mph (160 km/h) : 11.1 sec.[9]
Peak torque - 419 lb·ft (568 N·m) @ 4200 rpm
Engine displacement - 3615 cc
Engine type - Twin turbocharged straight six-cylinder
Configuration - Front-engined, rear-wheel drive
Transmission - Six-speed ZF S6-40 manual
Weight - 3,666 lb (1,663 kg)
Production - 950 units

Tiff's review:

Australia tie in?
But is there an Aussie tie in to this car?
Yes is the simple answer, the LSD diff on it is from a Commodore V8 in fact,

But could you get something similar in Australia?
Short answer no, it's engineering excess at a time when it was OK to have bits fall off a car on a regular basis.

But...
Here's the conspiracy, check the first pic (of the Carlton):

Goodness

And then squint a bit and look at this:

Gracious

And that's the VR commodore (apparently), but that was produced in Australia after the Lotus Carlton. And you'll notice that the rear end is certainly different, but not by a massive amount.

If you start to search for VP Senator 5000i you start to see some very similar looking cars indeed actually, and they're from around 1992 - so right in the ball park.

Omega (eye) strain

But the true origins of the Carlton are for something that never appeared here, the Vauxhall Omega or Opel if you like bratwurst.

Here it is and the back end is somewhere closer:

My Eyes!

Thank god they did something to it.

So if you want something similar over here, I'd go with a VR (or if you're rich a VP Senator, they seem rarer), put a straight six in it and put a couple of turbos on it.

You might want to update your will too.

Afterward

I can tell you that searching for images, and perusing so many old Holdens, Vauxhalls and the likes I feel quite violated.. I need something nice to look at now...

Unreasonably excited

I am, I'm afraid to say, unreasonably excited about this:

What is it? It's all the clip things to reattach my headlights and ancillary lights to my car, which in turn means I can rebuild the front end, albeit with 'Ron' redness - if I so choose.

Certainly this weekend will be spent tidying up the wiring down the front (not a euphemism) as it's 24 years of no-touch badness.

And, I have ample spares to do all the other clips around the car too should I choose to - including the speed sensor on the replaced diff. Handy!

Racing tomorrow night

Hi Folks.

Action Replay
I've not uploaded the replay from the last race, it's sat waiting for some bandwidth. And if I'm honest it's not our finest hour as every time I swapped cameras I managed to catch the next crash. So here are some pics of the race to keep us in the mood...

Just past crash #2

Arty sort of thing, or something.

Race night

So the event that's coming up this week is the first TC500 race.

Remember the rules - 500pp, race medium tyres and either a four door road car or front wheel drive two door. Testing in GT6 suggests that the front wheel drive cars may have the edge this season - that and Callum's Pocket Rocket Renault.

Or, if you've had a sense bypass and the racing isn't going to eclipse 130mph, and is in a straight line (to cope with a 2000kg "lightweight"option), this:

Which I think you'll agree is stunning in every way except performance in either straight line or cornering... Oh and it has one gear, "D", which means that it's not fun to drive either.

I'm calling dibs on this:

The civic is epically fast, corners like a dream and of course is compact and FWD. So you'll see me a half lap behind in this then... 

Official details

I'm lazy, and it's easy, here are the details:

See you tomorrow night for the racing!

Race results

Quick update today with the race results. More on the next race when I upload the crazy Matterhorn replay!

Official Results

What these results don't talk about is how errr different these tracks were. I don't think any of us have ever enjoyed Big Willow (maybe in a different context). It's slippery, with tight corners and load of over brow badness. Actually, much like the 'other context'.

Other news
You'd think after so many seasons we'd have it sorted. But I'm going to amend the charter:

Issue: Disconnects in Qualifying.
Resolution: When a driver is disconnected during a qualifying the room owner/race organiser can call for a practice/race scenario with final qualifying order.
This means that qualifying will continue, with the disconnected driver(s) reconnecting and waiting. Once qualifying is completed the places will be noted and the race type changed to practice/race.
In open practice the cars will assemble on the first lap in qualifying order and disconnected drivers will assemble at the back of the line in disconnect order (first disconnect first etc.).
Once the grid is in formation the race organiser will start the race.
Where a driver passes the field (including the race organiser doing that sideways with full brakes and lock on, ooops) a verbal call will be made to continue or reassemble - assuming enough track remains on the open lap.

This would resolve the issues that Paul had, at least to the point of gaining a point. If you get my point.

Otherer News
In even more other news, we now have a domain URL! And being the stingy s.o.a.b that I am I used a/the free one: http://www.gtqld.co.nr/. Time to sit back and bask in the glory of being the top search result in Google. At least for anyone searching for GTQLD, which in fairness is just me.

GT5 End of Life
It's interesting reading comparision reviews between GT5 and GT6 - there seems to be a world of difference, but some might like to revisit their 500+ car garage...
If you do, then you need to read this:
http://eu.gran-turismo.com/nz/news/00_4372104.html
It's instruction on how to ensure that you can still use your DLC, which checks back to the servers, which are turning off in April.
Basically, add the family gaming download and all is good. I'll just be off to do that then...

Something different...

And here's an interlude...


This is a guy from my work (Alex) showing the world that bikes are good mmmkay. Whilst I can't endorse things with little wheels (I look like a clown on a BMX) and struggle with things without engines - this is a very cool bit of biking. Enjoy.

Season Race Results (13 Feb)

Hi Folks

Results
The results are in...

Great racing I think you'll agree. Certainly to get second place in Madrid was lucky. But some in-race discussion, a bit of tuning and my skyline became a lot more competitive in the second race (outclassed by the drivers I think). Pretty much on any straight in the first few laps I was staring at three cars, jostling for position. 

Then we had the pits - and the group split right out, actually it was hard to find something to watch in the replay below... But that changed in the final laps, and how close was that finish!

I know we have boost and pits which is counter intuitive, but if it makes the racing like this I vote that it stays...

Action Replay

Next Race
The next race is the last in the three set series for the HRC460s, but I do think we'll have to race them in the after races, they're such good fun!
Do check the tracks, they're not our usual haunts so some practice will be advisable.
Also, I do reserve the right to change the Matterhorn track on the night if this one is shear pants. Hard to know which one is which in a list online...

Race Update

Hi Folks.
Race update time...

Results from last week

Whilst we didn't have the fullest of fields (feel free to suggest an alternate night), the racing was still great fun.
For me Grand Valley Reverse was the track of the night, as although Evan dropped out the racing was pretty close up until then (and indeed the line).

Points have been tallied and added to the points board on the nav stuff on the right.

Tomorrow's racing official details

Notes

Check the tracks folks, city short course racing, a car that can stop will be king on these tracks of course.

Cheers

Andrew