Old GTL Articles (merged)

[Ryan Callan]

Cooky & Team 21 have released a new preview video of their Opel Kadett C Coupe project for GT Legends, showing the car from a variety of perspectives in full racing action.

Built from 1973 through 1979 by German auto maker Opel, the Kadett C was a popular car in several motorsport disciplines including hillclimbs, rally and road racing.

[virtualr]

 

[Stuart Thomson]

This Thursday 14th April marks the return of RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix: Season 7.

This time round, the scream of V12's, the rumble of V8's, the roar of straight 6's and the blare of 4 pot engines will bring their thrilling racket to a couple of Test events at some famous tracks.

Classic cars by AC, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, Jaguar & Shelby make up this varied field, all playing to their own particular strengths & and hoping to minimise their weaknesses.

Firstly we are at the 1970, chicane-free layout of Monza, allowing the Muscle cars in the field to flex...well...their muscles, and the more balanced cars a chance to check gearings, tyre pressures, slipstreams etc.

Secondly, we will be at the National Layout of the Hockenheimring, a more balanced track, to give the cars a chance at sorting out their handling characteristics, brake settings, balance and the like.

These are purely testing events, running under Club rules, and are made up of mostly Practice sessions, and quick 10 lap races based off a random grid. The League proper starts in 2 weeks time on 28th April.

Come along and experience the beautiful thunder by visiting the RD Historic Grand Prix Forums!

 

[Erling Bøhmer]

The waiting is soon over.

Looking forward to this events. Last series was a leauge with great drivers.
pure racing -fun in my mind

Thanks to Stuart and RD.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Welcome to Season 7 of the RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix (RDHGP), covering the Spring / Summer session of 2011. After last season’s (successful) “new class” of vehicle, the GTC-72’s, this coming season takes us full circle, back to the class that I ran in my first ever RDHGP as organiser – the GTC-65s.

In terms of vehicles available for use, the GTC65 class is the most populous here at RD, with a total of 25 models available. However, with variety comes disparity, meaning the GTC65 cars have a wide gulf in performance from top to bottom, hence the creation of the 3 groups we now use at RD. We have eschewed the fastest group – Group A – as it is not as well balanced as the others, and probably too close in performance to the GTC72’s from last season to be a worthwhile contrast. Similarly, we have not chosen the slowest cars in the class – Group C – as (while it is well balanced) it contains all but one of the Cars we used in Season 3.

That left us with Group B, a core group of true, classical GTC65 vehicles, augmented by some later dated Touring class Cars, whose all-round abilities means that they get promoted to this class for performance matching.

With regard to the venues chosen for this season, we visit the Middle East for the first time at Bahrain, Singapore and its temporary road course gets a first taste of the Historic Grand Prix, and we have our finale at one of the most popular tracks in the Historic Racing Club - the 200km of Lime Rock Mountain.

The season opener takes us to Japan, specifically to Oyama in the Shizuoka Prefecture, and the Fuji Speedway, in it’s 5th Layout/Configuration.



Circuit Notes


Located in the foothills of Mount Fuji, the Fuji International Speedway was built in the 60’s, and was originally intended to be a 4km long, highly banked Superspeedway, but lack of funds meant that only one banked section was built, and then incorporated into a more traditional Road track design.

The track was altered in the late 60’s to allow a climb into the banking, as opposed to the blind crested drop that was there before, and which exacted such an horrific toll from drivers.

This altered track hosted the first F1 race to be run in Japan, the 1976 season decider that Championship Leader Niki Lauda withdrew from due to the horrendous rain and treacherous conditions, but which James Hunt navigated well enough to take the season by half a point. A crash a year later involving Gilles Villeneuve killed 2 spectators, and so F1 left Fuji, and did not return until 2007.

Despite F1 moving to Suzuka for their Japanese visits, Fuji remained – and remains – hugely popular for Sports Car, GTC and Drifting Championship racing, the latter being the only time that the circuit is run in reverse. Indeed - such is Fuji’s layout, with the ghost of that originally proposed Superspeedway still faintly recognisable, that the long Home Straight has hosted Drag Racing exhibitions.

The current layout was opened in 2005, and it is this circuit that we will be visiting in our Grand Touring Classics.

A lap of Fuji begins with a relatively long, wide and easy run from the S/F line and into T1R – 1st. This is a relatively tight hairpin, so there will be some very heavy braking going on into here. The cars are vastly different in their relative top speed, weight and braking performances, so all drivers should be prepared and aware for early braking, late braking and overtake attempts here. This will lead me into my first cautionary note of the season. People in cars with better braking characteristics cannot divebomb the inside line, effectively parking their cars there without ever having a chance of making the corner properly. And by the same token, people who run wide cannot just dive straight back to block the inside line if they’ve missed the apex and not care if anyone is there or not. Give people racing room – this is NOT optional. This does apply to all corners throughout the season, but I couldn’t really have asked for a better or more pertinent example to start off with.

Exiting out of 1st, there is a gentle right hand curve of T2R, taken under some pretty stiff acceleration, and before the hard braking zone and crested turn-in point of T3L – Coca-Cola. You need to try and carry through as much speed as the crest will allow you, and then get hard on the accelerator for the short downhill blast into the T4R & T5R section, collectively called 100R.

This is a test of both patience and control, as the first portion of the turn (T4R) will allow you to build up some fairly good speed, and then it will hit you with the sucker punch of the off-camber tightening second section, T5R.

Once you’ve negotiated 100R, it’s a quick squirt up to the braking zone for T6L – Hairpin. The various cars can attack this corner differently, and as there is a long period of acceleration after here, you should be aware of drivers slithering about as they try to get their foot down as early as possible.

T7L is a gentle curve, taken at full acceleration on the downhill stretch, where the slightly deceptive T8R awaits. This may need to be taken with a slightly breathed accelerator on some cars, or flat out on others, but even if you need a lift, it’s flatout as soon as you clear it.

From here you approach the relatively gentle T9R – 300R. This is not a difficult curve in and of itself, but it does just slightly unsettle the car if you aren’t clean through here, just as you are getting set up for the heavy braking for T10R – Dunlop.

Dunlop is a tight right-hand turn, followed almost immediately by the sharp left-hand turn of T11L, guarded on the inside by a solid wall. Drivers here need to be aware that, just because they have the inside line at T10R, they shouldn’t just assume that they have the inside at T11L. People who are close through T10R may be able to get though into the inside line of T11L cleanly. Again, just parking your car across the apex, or conversely moving across without consideration of what may be there is not acceptable.

You accelerate out of T12R uphill for a short burst, before setting the car up for the complex at the end of the lap. T13R – 13th almost comes back on itself, before you hit T14L & T15L – Netz. T14L is relatively gentle, uphill and crested, before it suddenly tightens beyond that crest through T15L.

T14L is a testing corner, as restraint through here will mean a correct entrance to T15L, and that is preferable to the time you’d spend getting back in shape through T15L after an over exuberant T14L.

From there it’s a steady approach required for T16R - Panasonic, as it is absolutely vital that you get the exit of this correct, as it leads on to the approximate 1km long straight, and every iota of speed lost exiting Panasonic will kill you down the straight. You cross the S/F line approx 2/3 of the way down the Home Straight, across the line and into the braking zone for 1st.

 

[Brian Clancy]

Looks Great Stu :good:

Gonna have to get GTL going on my Win7 setup some time....Your tempting me

 

[Wayne Reed]

Wayne Reed has produced this "Runners & Riders" chart for all the currently signed up Drivers for Season 7 of RD's Historic Grand Prix.



You can download it here RD LINK

 

[Bob Hutchins]

Nice job Wayne.

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

So many nice liveries Good job Wayne:good:

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Nice spotters guide, thanks Wayne :thumb:

 

[Roland]

Very nice piece of art you created, Wayne! :good:

 

[Dave Stephenson]

Looks Great Stu :good:

Gonna have to get GTL going on my Win7 setup some time....Your tempting me

he should be, looks fab

 

[Stuart Thomson]

This August / September, the Historic Racing Club will be holding a series of points scoring races on famous old layouts of temporary, long course road tracks in the magnificent and legendary Ferrari 250GTO.



Run on 5 consecutive Thursdays from 25th August until 22nd September inclusive, the events will consist of 2 x 75km distance races, with the possibility of a double point scoring 150km Enduro as the last event if attendance and preference demand it.

The series starts at the mighty Mount Panorama 67 layout, and concludes at Le Mans (70 layout), with Longford (67), the Sachsenring (67) & Charade (70) in between.

The 250 GTO mod is made by Butch and team, and can be found in the GT Legends download section. It is a comprehensive mod, so large that it requires a 2 part download, but as those who've driven can testify, it is well worth the download, and perfectlly suited to this type of racing.



Full details can be found in the Historic Racing Club section, here: details

We look forward to seeing what will certainly be one of the most expensive grids ever assembled at RaceDepartment.

 

[Bob Hutchins]

It's as close as you can get to the real thing.

 

[Tim Ling]

I have to agree Bob. The performance closely matches the one in my garage :tongue:. Great stuff!

 

[Ericld]

This looks really great. I havent done much with the GT Legends, but I may start with this.

 

[Carlos Diaz]

OMG! Why can't I be off from work every single Thursday?! I swear I'm about to quit my job lol. This is going to be awesome.

 

[Hans Sneep]

It is a Great Car !! The Tracks are Great !! This will be a Great Event !!

 

[lil-bro]

What the hell guys.. I get that you have to require a limit on downloads but I think it is kind of a joke that I can't download this car because I have exceeded my limit by ONLY downloading part one! So I have to wait till tomorrow for part 2?! Lame...

 

[Senad Subasic]

What the hell guys.. I get that you have to require a limit on downloads but I think it is kind of a joke that I can't download this car because I have exceeded my limit by ONLY downloading part one! So I have to wait till tomorrow for part 2?! Lame...

250 MB daily limit is quite a lot I think, this is probably the only mod that is bigger than that.

 

[Butch]

Sorry for the 300MB

 

[Warren Dawes]

Nothing to apologise for Butch, this mod is well worth a little effort to download. :thumb: