Pointless race this week.

Quick post folks.

This week's racing is an arrive and drive night.

We'll be using the GT500 (Skyline and Supra) racing cars around some circuits. We know we like them so it'll be good to have some quality racing.

If we agree we might do Mt Aso Hill Climb - this would be a test and tune session, so not until later in the evening if we do.

And, I'll be discussing the upcoming movie night too - we'll kick that of this week so there's a couple of weeks before race night.

Rally QLD - Special Stage

With the Rally crews in town for the ARC Rally Queensland plus round 3 of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, Andy and myself made an impulsive decision to join the crowd for the Special Stage at Caloundra Aerodrome.  After standing around in the dark for an hour before the gates were opened(technical hitch due to water, too much?) we made the 800m trek through mud, grass and more mud(wouldn't be rally without a bit of weather) to the other end of the airfield for a cracking night.  Plenty of WRX's, EVO's and Classic rally cars sliding all over the wet runway and often off it through a gymkhana style setup with lots of handbrake turns including a runway worth just shy of 200kph.

Here's Alister McRae's second run of the night, really throwing the factory Proton S2000 in a superb  display of controlled aggression.

And if Rally Cars weren't enough, there was also whole bunch of Nissan drift cars for a demo run.  Some serious skill and a healthy lack of mechanical sympathy all but stole the show.

Testing testing....

And now for something completely different...

Hill climb anyone?

Excuse the poor driving (three year old clip) but check the track - it's a very tough track to master, and perhaps one that's more suited to time trials. But does anyone fancy a foray... let me know.

League Race #4 - TC500, High Speed Ring (wet)

And here's the video...

Actually, having said in previous posts that the race was uninspiring, I have to apologise - from Chris and Evan's point of view it was epic - many position swaps, drifting, draughting and many top moments.

In my defence this was all happening half a lap in front of me. sigh.

80's Road Cars @ Monaco

Here's the first of a few uploads this weekend. Wet race at the (other) Ring to follow at sociable hours...

And here is the 80's race we had. It was indeed fun, though for some reason we all decided to race black cars - maybe testament to the butt ugliness that they have, or 'Raw Beauty' as I'm sure more than one medallion man said of his Countache...

League Race #4 - Results

Did everyone stay home cos it was a wet race?

Only four contenders in a points race, a far cry from the start of the season. But no matter, we raced on in the gloom.

Pics to follow - slight technical hitch with the recording last night (fell asleep until midnight).

Anyway, race one was 100% wet, no change, real grip - so basically a skating rink I reckon.

Both Chris and Evan had their own race with the 4wds, a good move I think as I had a tactical error with my F/F car - it seemed a good idea, but at race pace it had the turning capabilities as a steel girder. I think Paul in his mighty BMW had perhaps too much turning capability, not helped by my mobile chicane in the way.

The second race was 80% wet, 10 on changeability (so very changeable) and low grip loss (so heaps, go figure).

But, we all put intermediates on, and then the rain came in taking it from 80% to 93% at least. And that made for a repeat of the first race really. I've only saved one to watch and upload (expect a matinee of this and the stupendous 80's race from last week), and really, being such an open track I think other than Chris and Evan's spat at the front the replay will be mediocre.

Official Results:

Race 1

1. Evan

2. Chris

3. Andrew

4. Paul

Race 2

1. Chris

2. Evan

3. Andrew

4. Paul

Thinking that we'll not be doing another wet race like this for a while, once a season is plenty!

Next best thing!

And, coming to a pointless night near you soon, "The car's the star". I've talked to a few of you about this...

The concept is to buy a car that features in a movie, yes, you could say that your Mazda 323 appears in some cut scene on a documentary about pottery collections, but that's just not sport. What I'm thinking is the cars from Bullet, Ronin, and other two syllable action movies (seriously anything with decent car action in it).

Given you all work in and around IT I'm confident in saying that I want you to get a car, get a picture of it and send it to me in an email with some words around why you picked it (and of course what movie).

We'll race them too - tune to 500pp and race/med tyres.

Points!

And, I'll publish them up, and we'll have a vote on who's is the best car - and 2 points in the championship to the winner, this could be a deal breaker if you're lagging in the points.

I'll send out official rules over the weekend, expect a fortnight in duration for the competition.

More on wet racing...

More on wet racing, and interesting read:

Source

Note: We'll be racing high/low grip reduction to give a balanced wet/drying race experience...

Wet Racing IN GT5

Just noticed another anomaly/glitch, but it may be designed that way due to the game options. I figure I'll be putting this here as you can use it to your advantage (all A-Spec races have Grip Reduction set to Low).

GRIP REDUCTION & RAIN TYRES

All tests are done using a fully-tuned NSX-R (because I'm most familiar with it) at High Speed Ring Wet (because it's the simplest wet track, minimizing mistakes and other factors in laptimes) in Practice Mode. SRF off, all aids off except ABS at 1. Settings stock, except brakes at 4F/2R.

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Grip Reduction - Low

Rain Tyres - Worst choice. NEVER use Rain tyres if GR is set to Low. Car slides like noodles on wet chopsticks. Little traction on straights or grip in corners. Wheelspin very easily. But still controllable (barely).

Intermediate Tyres - Best choice. Use this if you're not confident in wet weather driving. High cornering grip. Straight line traction a bit low compared to Slicks (see below). Laptime a bit slower than Slicks (1-2 secs), but more consistent as driving is easier.

Racing Soft Tyres - 2nd best choice. Use this if you're skilled in wet weather driving. Cornering grip is around 70% of Inters, but straight line traction is far superior. Almost no wheelspin when accelerating straight, but severe understeer when cornering requires skill to negotiate. Fastest laptime, but harder to drive means more mistakes and less consistent overall time.

Sport Soft Tyres - Similar properties to Inters. Use this if you haven't bought the expensive Slicks which comes with the Rain tyres set.

Comfort Soft Tyres - Similar properties to Rain. Stay away from it.

Explanations: The grip reduction option does what it says on the tin, basically. The rain barely affects the grip of the road, so if you use Rain tyres with its deeply grooved surface, it's the same as using Comfort tyres in normal conditions. Driving on ice, in other words. The grip is slightly reduced however, so Racing Slicks are not as effective as in bone-dry conditions in the corners. For this reason Inters are needed to maintain grip when turning. The slight grooves does the job just right. Sport tyres (which are also lightly grooved) also give the same performance as Inters.

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Grip Reduction - Real (High)

Rain Tyres - Best choice. Same pros and cons as Inters in GR Low. Obviously the overall grip is lower than when GR is Low, but Rain tyres give superior cornering grip, at the expense of slight decrease in straight line traction. Slower laptimes (~1 sec), but more consistent and easier to drive. Use this if you're not confident in the rain.

Intermediate Tyres - 2nd best choice. Same pros and cons as Slicks in GR Low. Moderate cornering grip, but superior straight line traction. Faster laptime but more prone to mistakes. Use this if you're a pro in the wet.

Racing Soft Tyres - Worst worst worst choice. Absolute zero grip. You cannot go straight unless you're at 50 km/h or lower. It's 500% worse than Rain tyres with GR Low. AVOID at all costs (should be obvious). Try it once, just for laughs. You will never complain about Comfort Hards ever again.

Sport Soft Tyres - Same performance as Racing tyres. Craptacular, in other words. Slightly lower grip means it's more controllable when breaking traction, but that's about it. Stay away at all costs.

Comfort Soft Tyres - Again, never use this unless you have a death wish. Even lower grip than Sports, but also less sudden when breaking traction. The most usable out of the 3 dry tyres, but still useless in racing conditions.

Explanations: Since the grip reduction is set to realistic, it behaves just like in real-life. Rain tyres is the obvious choice, but those who are skilled may wish to gamble on Inters and trade drivability for a bit more speed. Keep in mind that these tests are conducted in POURING conditions. Light rain may magnify the difference and make Inters much faster than Full Wets (just like in real life too!). More tests may be conducted in the future (it's a bit difficult though, since the rain intensity is random). Dry tyres (all 3 types) are a big no-no. That much is obvious.

League Race #4 High Speed Ring (Wet) - TC500

The season swings on...

Been a bit busy with an office move, but pleased to say that we're on for this Thursday's league race. And it's a points one following the excellent 80's night last week - video to follow I'm sure.

The cars:

Our usual TC500 class cars for this one. The tyres will still be set to Race/Med but that allows wets and intermediate tyres to be used. What's best? Don't know, but if you set your car up on comfort hard you'll probably have your own special race!

The Track:

We've not raced the high speed ring before - in the dry it's a boring track. Perhaps with the extra speed of a high class car it might be OK, but when the number of corners can be counted on one (special) hand you can imagine that it's not going to be an exciting race.

But, with a added challenge of a bit of water on the track, and a class of cars that have proved to be very closely matched I think we'll have a blinder.

Official details:

Host: Andrew

Date: 24-May-2012

Start time: 9:00 PM

Race starts: 9:15 PM

Lounge: FCT GT5 Andrew

Track: High Speed Ring (wet)

Laps: 4

Cars: TC500

Tyres: Race/Med (Dry/Wet/Intermediate)

Boost: High (TBC if full field)

Notes:

I'm planning on setting it up that the first race is full wet and the second is a drying track - it's possible in GT5 so should make for some interesting tyre choices.

And I'm sure you'll all be thinking the 4wd cars will have it, but remember that high speed straight and corner - a faster car (and the 2wd cars are faster in a straight line) will happily drag past the slower leaving some difficult manoeuvring to get passed again.

Macleans Bridge - Sports and Classic Car Day @ Lakeside Raceway

I was lucky enough to visit the Maclaren's Bridge Sports Car Festival at Lakeside yesterday were there was some very impressive hardware on display - far exceeded my expectations.  Every car enthusiast was catered for, even the fabled Volvo enthusiast.   Lots of exotica from past and present was around, even a couple of our 587 cars.  Very glad this is an annual event, I'm keen to visit again next year.  You can visit my photos here and visit the official website here.  Plus here's a bonus album (I found an dormant flickr account whilst looking for somewhere to host some pics #winning), mostly my old rexy and S-13 doing what they do best in some club level events - apologies in advance for the flames, I swear they came with the car(it was well worth it for the discounted price at the time), the worst part is it took me 3 years to finally remove the horrid things.

80's racing tomorrow night...

Hey folks,

We're on for tomorrow being 500pp 80's road cars - any configuration (2wd, 4wd, 2/4 door etc).

Only thing is that the car had to be able to be bought and run on the road.

Standard rules apply otherwise - so no TCS etc, as if your 80's sled would have such a thing anyway.

And tyres are racing mediums to give a hint of grip (some of the 80's cars really are bad aren't they!).

The tracks:

We'll run two tracks - so worth a practice on both. Initial thoughts are Fuji/F and Monaco.

They're both tracks that have been out for a long time, and we've raced on both before of course.

As a pair they're a fine mix of long and short course - so tuning may well be needed to get your car to handle!

The cars:

I've done a few test laps around Fuji and I'm getting around 1:50 there in the 80's cars. These include:

• Lotus Esprit
• 300zx
• Supra
• RUF BTR (that blue monster)
• Skyline R32 Type-M (Rwd!)

So now you know, they're all in the same ballpark in terms of times, so boost will keep the racing close - for all but the RUF which will spend most of the races facing the wrong way unless I can dial out terminal madness in it's handling...