RDHGP S4 - Testing event - 15th October

[Stuart Thomson]

Servername: RACEDEPARTMENT.COM
Class: GTC76 League Cars (skinpack to follow)
Track: Paul Ricard 88 / Paul Ricard 75 / Snetterton 64
Practice: 15 mins
Qualification: 10 mins
Race: 6 laps
Notes: Click here to read the password and golden rules!

No entry list or sign up required.

 

[Steven Palmer]

This was a great evenings racing.

Even though it's early doors it was a great yardstick to measure the competition, and to find out how the car performs in a pack and under pressure.

Race1: quali was really good, just wish we had a little longer as the car felt better as the tyres warmed. The Race was a blast, started well, a nice starter the 906, and headed off to T1 with trepidaton. In a pack the visual markers you rely on are gone and it was evident as one or two ran wide. Picked up a place or two and a shadow in the form of Mr Lennon. Had some great laps trying to stay in front which wasn't easy through the twisty section but inevitably after a huge amount of understeer the 2Tone 911 was through, then I made a stupid lunge up the inside the very next corner which my 906 refused to acknowledge and decided to go straight on and the resulting collision put us both into the sand. Sorry about that Gary. This allowed Sam to catch up to us and made for a good last lap. Gary scooted off but Sam and I encountered the Porcshe on the last corner making pretty doughnut rings on the track We went either side and made a bee line for the finish, only a knats knacker between us.

Race2: A lot like race 1 TBH, only with me going from leading at the beginning of lap one to P8 by the end of the race because I kept out braking myself or coming down too many gears too quickly causing a few squirrelly moments. Car was nice on the longer straight though .

Race3: Didn't practice for it and never raced here, so Practice was spent to and fro ing from the pits to the bridge :wink2: Managed to get it together for quali and stuck it in P4. Again the start was good, made up a place and held on to P3 until Knut done an Evil Kenevil over the berm and gave me P2. Held that to the finish with Piotr closing at the end.

As mentioned earlier it was a great learning experience, there are strengths and weaknesses in all the cars, and hopefully I can learn to exploit some of them over the coming season

Roll on Melbourne

 

[Ivo Simons]

Great read Steven. Hope i can find more pace and battle with you in the following races. Because we already had some great battles at other sims.

 

[Bert Van Waes]

indeed a good read

 

[Kris Leeten]

Hi guys, I just connected my pc to the web after 2 weeks of renovation works in my house. The works are still not 100% completed though but hoping to join you soon. I will try the new connection asap after a good night sleep. With a bit of luck this Thursday.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Good news, Kris :good:

 

[Ulli Haus]

Hi guys,

I'm currently in France, visiting my girl in Dijon...btw, just got back from Paris what a wonderful ciry ....
since I wasn't able to participate last thursday and am still curious about the race, could s.b. please upload his replay? I can watch it here in France, cause I got GTL installed on my gf's laptop as well

Will be back ready to participate this upcoming thursday night

Thanks

 

[Warren Dawes]

could s.b. please upload his replay?

Steven has already done it here:

http://forum.racedepartment.com/418995-post63.html

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Will be back ready to participate this upcoming thursday night

Thanks

I'd better think up an event then

 

[Ulli Haus]

Yeah... PLEAAASE

I would then "test-drive" the entire race(es) using the flaps to change gears 4 the 1st time since my H-pattern gear shifter turned against me during the Corolla event --> perhaps I will even switch to auto clutch mode to see the difference in my performance (don't get me wrong, I joined this community and bought the top notch G25 so I could become a "hard-core-sim-racing-professional," using clutch, toe-heel technique, the H-pattern shifter and all that. But I wanna have fun during the league which kinda requires driving WITH the field, not ALONE half a lap off due to not yet mastering all the mentioned above!)

--> so, Stuart, feel free to set up ANY KIND of GTL event, I will be in

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Ulli - rather than going all the way from H-box to Flappy paddles, why not use autoclutch with the sequential box on the stick?

You get the increased stability of the autoclutch, your hands still use the same movement to change gear etc.

 

[Ulli Haus]

Stuart, I've tried this before and got disappointed rather quickly- the stick seems to be kept in place by some mechanical lock, allowing only linear movements of the stick into 2 directions which is ok. BUT, this movement to the front and to the back appears to be not so stable at all. Sometimes, the stick got stuck in one position giving me the impression that either sth. is broken or the entire concept is not so solid!?

I do remember that you can move the stick to the front and to the back with it returning to its centered position automatically. But sometimes it just stayed front or back!--> was I too hard on it then?

btw. sorry 4 being redundant in this post

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I've always used sequential on the G25 and never experienced that, to be honest, but if you've tried it and it doesn't work for you, then fair enough. :good:

You did the thing where you twisted the collar round to make the box go from H to sequential?

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

I've tried sequential shifting when I tried Enduracers mod for rFactor. I experienced the same issues as Ulli. When upshifting the lever was pushed down and was locked in the rearward position.

I always use H-shifter and heal and toeing in GTL, but I would like a more solid shift action. Can anyone recommend a different brand for H-shifter? I've driven a Ferrari 355 once and it required very large force to shift. So something with more mechanical feel would be nice.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

If you like the wheel, there are separate shifters available

I think "Lightning" is one of the brands at SRT's shop that gets good reviews (not cheap though)

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Wow. Thats expensive. The wheel is excellent though:good: Maybe fabricating a custom G25 shifter:dreaming::cloudy:

 

[Ulli Haus]

Originally posted by Knut

I always use H-shifter and heal and toeing in GTL,

Wow, how long did you need to practice this technique?
AND, have you ever had any troubles with your H-pattern shifter (such as: go in 1st, then press it to the right (only to the right!!!) to get into 3rd?)

Although I always used manual clutch and H shifter, it wasn't until the day before the corolla event that I tried the toe-heel technique 2 hours in the 906.

(mostly because my technique, right foot on the brake, left on the clutch, going straight into the desired gear to accellerate out of the curve was too time consuming! And I found out that I needed to be in the desired gear before hitting the apex. And the 906 is a b*tch when downshifting without adapting the rpm's)

i did get it down after running the 906 for 2 hours, but I'm not yet on the level where I subconsciously use it! But it did provide me with much better laptimes mostly because I had to start the braking process eralier and then managed to NOT drive off the track

However, I'm not so sure if I should keep using these techniques in the league or if I should switch to the easier mode described above?!

I mean, hey, after driving the league toe-heel shifting, I should have it down perfectly, but for what price!?


btw, I may want to join tomorrow's race as a spectator, using my gf's PC (only if the lousy internet connection here enables me to do so ;(

AND Knut, there is a mod for the G25 shifter that adds the lack of stiffness to the shifter !!! There is the same thing for the braking pedal to give a a more progressive feedback (google for nexus g25 brake mod I believe

 

[Ulli Haus]

Originally posted by Stuart Thomson

You did the thing where you twisted the collar round to make the box go from H to sequential?

Yes sir, I did that!

 

[Stuart Thomson]

OK - just checking

IMO, do what you need to so you are able to enjoy the League, Ulli.

If that means autoclutch and paddles, so be it.

Don't be a martyr for realism if one tiny mistake will send you into the scenery, and you end up watching everyone else stream through.

No-one is going to judge anyone for how they drive their cars.

By which I mean what view, what clutch, what gearchange method, etc.

 

[Bert Van Waes]

Originally posted by Knut

Wow, how long did you need to practice this technique?
AND, have you ever had any troubles with your H-pattern shifter (such as: go in 1st, then press it to the right (only to the right!!!) to get into 3rd?)

Ulli, i use heel/toe together with H-pattern too.

Now for your problems.

If you race with a G25, and you want to go from first to second, you need to make sure neutral is the point were the gearlever realy is in neutral.

-->Only with a G25 you need to mark a box with the text next to it "direct shifter" (if i'm not wrong) and that's in the second wheel options menu of gtl, couple that with no auto-clutch and you're good to go.

When you guys are in sequential and experience the locked lever, it's not locked. To switch from H-pattern to sequential you need to push the lever down and pull it to you.
When you shift up sequentially, you need to pull it to you. With such a small stick it's absolutely possible (done it myself muchos times) to push it down without knowing you just did that... And therefore position the lever in the "locked" modus, wich is actually there to change it to the real H-pattern...

 

[Ulli Haus]

Originally posted by Stuart Thomson

Don't be a martyr for realism if one tiny mistake will send you into the scenery, and you end up watching everyone else stream through.

Yeah, that's true! I also realized during the Corolla's event that I need to pace myself! Meaning that I sort of felt like I was ready to drive with the fast guys. However, the fast guys where so much faster now with our new drivers from poland, that I overestimated me tremendously, messing up so many laps

I totally lost my focus which I was so glad I had found a couple weeks back BUT now, The focus for the league will again be to drive my own pace and not try to do what I cannot do yet! I had so much fun chasing Hans in the Corolla event In both races we duelled each other

With almost the full possible grid of GTL (I think it's max of 36 players) I think everybody will find the people to race with and have fun, regardless of their position


Thanks Bert, I will try it once I m back in Germany