Power & Glory Test event - Fri 4th March 2011

[Stuart Thomson]

Servername: Racedepartment.com PnG
Class: All Classes
Vehicles: All Default Cars
Track: Donington Park GP 2004 / Brno GP 2004
Start Time: 20.00 GMT
Practice: 5 mins(joining time)
Qualification: 25 mins (no lap limit)
Warmup: 3 mins
Race: 25 mins
Weather: Changeable
Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note2: You must use the Terrain Patcher or you will be kicked by the server as a cheat.
Note3: You can choose different cars for each race, or stay with the same.
Note4: No sign ups for this as it's just a connectivity / teething event.

 

[Carlos Diaz]

I've been playing rF for a while with WTM, and I also tried Historix out recently. Compared to those games, P&G is very forgiving and predictable.

Compared to GTL...Well, that's my favorite sim, hands down, so it doesn't beat GTL, but it's the closest thing to it (for me anyway).

I told myself early on that I wouldn't let myself compare P&G to GTL, I decided to treat it as its own game, with it's own characteristics. I tried to keep an open mind. And it helped a LOT. Once you stop thinking "hey, this is not what this is supposed to feel like" and start to accept that things WILL be different (sometimes better, sometimes worse than what you are used to), things start to get better.

I think the tires is probably the biggest difference between GTL and P&G. In GTL, you only have one type of tire, not several tires to choose from. I scanned through the tire manual that's inside the directory to try and educate myself a bit about tire selection, but I soon found out that it would take more than a quick scan to learn about the tires. There are different tire models tied to different cars, so you have to learn about the tires that are attached to the car/cars you are using. Since I didn't know much, I just went with "intermidiates" all the time. Then I find out that INTERMEDIATE, SOFT WET, and HARD WET tires are all "WET TIRES". They are basically all the same tire.

Please have a look here for all the info on the tires in P&G...TIRE INFO

Remember that there is a copy of the above manual inside your game directory wich tells you which cars use which tires.

Regarding tonight's test...All went pretty well for me. I only had one CTD in race2 when I was loading everyones car for the first time after joining. But it never happened again, so no biggie.
I chose to drive RWD cars with not so great handling and a lot of power. I figured if I can survive and enjoy the races while driving those beasts, things can only get better up the road once I start driving the more nimble, grippier cars.

Thanks Thommo for setting things up, and thanks to all who showed up.

 

[Steven Palmer]

A familiar start to P&G car wise for me....Alpine at Donnington and 906 at Brno....both cars I had raced in previous GTL leagues.

So P&G for me.....as Carlos says it doesn't help to compare the Mod to GTL otherwise I feel you'll be disappointed. Both have a distinctively different "feel" to them that's for sure.

I had many disconnects during the evening although thankfully none during the races.

As Warren has stated there are a few settings that need to be set/changed/ticked, plr options to be set and to that end a sticky post with some of that info could easily be filed by us with useful advice/settings etc....

As for the races.....well Donny was a familiar blast round in the Alpine, qualified 8th and finished 8th

Brno was for me, the highlight.....I drove the 906, I know, one of the fastest cars on grid here.....but I do enjoy this car.......a lot

Started 3rd and finished 3rd...sounds pretty straightforward I know but from the first lap to the last it was a massive battle.

I bogged down at the start and was dropped into 6th before I knew it..... a couple of corners later and I had gained a place or two back. Then I just clipped the grass going into a corner and had to skirt around on the grass, rejoined in front of Marc, (who I'm sure must of had a heart attack as I had no vision of you beside me) then got totally caught out by the difference in braking between my 906 and Tudors Vette ? I'm sorry to say I pushed him clean off the track and as I sat there in the sand waiting for him to recover I felt like hitting the ESC button, I hate messing up someone else's evening.

Eventually we recovered and XD revealed I was 47 seconds behind the leaders Nils,Amir and Roland, all in various guises of Porches, and every car on the grid in front of me.

Reluctantly I passed Tudor on the run up the hill, then a few more over the course of the lap.....maybe, just maybe I might be able to get something out of this.....the car had the legs of everything else so why not. Lap after lap and car after car passsed, Nils disco'd and Amir and Roland seemed to be holding each others pace. With only 3 laps to go I had gone from dead last to now only 10 secs behind Roland in P2 also in a 906. A couple of guys commented on my "ugly" little car, but to me it was a beaut.... it just got better each lap and on the final lap at the penultimate turn I passed Roland for P2, promtly ran a little wide and just lost out on the drag to the line to finish P3. Woot

Awesome race.....

A very entertaining night and regardless of what Sim/Mod it is that's what really important, right?

Thanks to Stu for setting up the event and to all those taking part.

and once again...apologies to Tudor.

 

[Tim Ling]

Well, not a good night. Multiple disco's for multiple reasons too, which is why I didn't make race 2.

For race1 is chose the mini, with the setup from the PnG forums. This worked luvverly during the monsoon that was practice, but for the race it was too much, with the back end jumping out at the slightest excuse. After another off road trip at the old hairpin I gave up, then got disco'd due to my connection

 

[Wayne Reed]

It was awesome to be in these Had some disco's yet to find out why that is but other then that all was well. Had a awesome last 3 laps rond donny with Mr Gult then for the last 10 mins in race 2 with Mr Tasker will be good if you start doing events in these Good work stu

 

[Tudor Morris]

Nice to have a PnG outing here.

A few things to consider.....

If you alt tab out of PnG/GTR2 you run the risk of the game crashing and taking others with you. A simple fix for this is to always go to fullscreen monitor view (from in the garage) before alt tabbing out. For some reason this stops the game crashing.

Many of the default setups and even some of the physics on some PnG cars are off. The 906 Langhack is a particular turkey and the 1275 Mini is way off with anything near default setup. Many of the V8s also suffer from unrealistic amounts of understeer. PnG V3 is due for release soon and from what I've read it addresses many of these issues as well as bringing a host of new droolworthy content.

Another problem with PnG is performance matching for events. There are big disparities within the groupings and even between the same cars often due to tyre performance or even power in some cases. Some leagues operate a handicap system where faster drivers take slower cars over a season and there are lists around which might help with groupings.

As for last night's races, they were great fun. I've driven the Alfa GTA a lot and I was able to make a fight of it amongst some quicker cars, which was a nice challenge. I took one of the slightly slower V8s for Brno, again a car that I've driven a lot and isn't too scared of corners. Was looking forward to battling with the Alfa Vols and the Daytona in particular, but had a bit of a lonely chase back after an unfortunate incident on lap 1....no problem btw and thanks for waiting.

Thanks to all and I hope we have more PnG events here soon.

 

[Ross McGregor]

Another note on P&G setups and disco's to add to what's already been said; a lot of the cars have poor default setups that need tweaking. For example, i tried out the porsche 911 and found it undriveable. I checked the setup and found that the steering lock was set to something ridiculous like 30 degrees for its default value! Some of the heavier V8's are also very difficult to drive due to understeer, and as Tudor says, this should be sorted in version 3. Also, like GTR2 i completely avoid ALT+TABBING out the game as this normally results in CTDs for me. Hopefully i'll be able to attend the next P&G event and see for myself what advantages/disadvantages it has over GTL and Historix

 

[Deleted member 133]

Brno replay here: http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/gtr-2-miscellaneous-67/brno-replay-4294/

 

[Hans Sneep]

A pretty good race one Donington an a pour race on Brno,
Taking the Elan in first race just to compare it I must say it was all most perfect with default setup ( change gear an steering lock) Q on p6 but making a mess after a great start in the downhill section going to wide hit the grass an shut myself over the track an back (must hit some one?)
I think Wayne sorry for that,but after that getting up speed an collected first Tim an Warren in the Mini's after that 2 Alfa"s an a few others an fin on p7 car was perfect not one problem after the first lap an enjoy every min. of it

Brno (never did a race there ) was a disaster with the Ferrari 250 GT SWB (it's beautiful an sound is great) but undriveble for me (must ask Amir lol ) after half race time an numerous offs an slides an going out of the way hit esc.an watch the rest of the race from the pit,looking at a nice fight between Steven (beautiful car!) an Roland.

Had only one problem, CTD during the first min. restart an had no problems so far.

Thanks Stuart for setting this up,I think it is promising to do more with P&G

 

[Roland]

Well, my very first experience with the P&G Mod was a very interesting one indeed...
I managed to get this thing working just mid-afternoon and took a few quick laps on the server to test it out.

Having no relevant GTL experience, or any setup skills, I was sort of convinced i would finish as very last in both races, but what the heck, I scouted for a fast car with a forgiving default setup, and one of the first I tried, and really liked, was the Porsche 906 LangHeck.
I think it's a pretty car, and it's cockpit view sort of makes me feel like being in a jet fighter plane..

However, when I entered the server, I was rather surprised that most of you had opted for all sorts of lower class, slower cars. Thus, I managed 3rd Qual.place. That was, well, more then I had anticipated.

1st race, I had a troublesome first few laps, I accidently hit Amir's back end in the hairpin, who in turn spun the race leader around (sorry guys!!) and I even totally lost control in turn 3, Craner Curves, once so i found myself in the middle of the field getting up to speed again. There, i soon discovered that not everybody could appreciate my choice for the 906, and i must admit indeed, the difference in straight line speed compared to, say, the Alfa, was ridiculous.
That speed was enough compensation for my lack of driving skills to blast my way back into 3rd place in the end, but over 30 sec. behind the no.2 911 and close to 2 minutes behind the winner.


2nd race Qualy I found some fellow 906's on track, and they quickly proved that in capable hands it could be at least 4 seconds faster then I was. Nonetheless, still a top 5 qualy time. Well, at least it ment i could actually see the start lights LOL!!

After a decent start in the race, I even managed to keep one 906 behind and did all I could to keep up with the leaders, but I just couldn't, and ended up driving around all alone. However some laps into the race there must have been some incident i did not see, and I got 2nd place handed to me just like that. Still quite lonely though, as Amir was very very VERY far away in the lead. About half way, he must have gotten bored or so, as he was so nice as to wait up for me, and for a VERY SHORT moment, I was even in the lead. We drove around together for a few laps, until Amir decided it was time to pick up some speed again and drove away rather fast.

At first i didn't understand why, but then i noticed mr. Steven Palmer, the other 906 driver, closing in on me at rocket speed... Oh NO!! There goes my second place!! In the very last lap he first was quite close, then right behind me, then beside me, and then - OH NO!! - in front of me with only 2 corners to go!! How could this happen !?!??
But I still had a little luck left as Steven ran wide the next corner, I gave it everything I had and brought just a little more speed onto the final straight and managed to steal 2nd place away form him again...PHWOW that was close!
Of course I very well understand that in a balanced field I would not stand a chance at all, but I really had tons of FUN in both qualy's and both races, and that's what matters most, right?
Thanks a lot to Stuart Thomson for setting up these races, for sure i will be back for some more in the future, be it P&G or GTL.