AC FWD vs RWD: Abarth/Swift/MX5@Hidden Valley, Wed 14th February 2024

stigs2cousin · Feb 12, 2024

This is gonna be an "interesting" one.

I predict we will see a lot of "Drift Challenges" and FWD on FWD violence in T1.

Also I know understand why the last sector is marked Darwin.
We`ll be handing out a lot of Awards down there

All in all I suggest we keep this race quiet, the less participants the less "fun" this will be and some will actually survive.

(Kidding of course)

HF2000 · Feb 12, 2024

Jason signed up with 124 which is great. That should give us an indication of the potential of the car.

stigs2cousin · Feb 12, 2024

So know we have a tight and technical track with four cars with wildly different character/performance and "slightly" different talent levels of the drivers

What could go fun?

At least we have spacious run offs/drift areas.

So please scroll on, nothing to see here.
(and please, do not like and subscribe

)

Kek700 · Feb 12, 2024

Never looked at that way Carsten, I think you are spot on. It should be a very fun packed hectic race.

stigs2cousin · Feb 13, 2024

I view it rather as a practice session in Dog Fighting than a race, plenty of Fazzi trains will occure until someone really ****s up and kills everyone.

That will be rather easy with the camber changes and the narrow track.

Also of course T1 and the Darwin sector will take their tolls.
I still approach them with the Edison method: I found a thousand ways to not be quick, sometimes even how not to survive.

)

HF2000 · Feb 13, 2024

Guys,

On this track and with a new 4th car things can get messy if we don't pay attention to the following:

The gentlemans approach to racing safely and with fun at Hidden Valley:

The Pit Exit enters into the racing line to T1, so please check your trackmap and announce "Exiting Pits"
Racers on track shall not be inconvinienced. But they may also check their trackmap and keep to the middle of the track until short before the braking zone to let the Pit exiter rejoin.
The curbs are rather brutal, so be beware and if you have "eaten the sausage" be circumspect when rejoining. There´s enough runoff so that you can turn your car around and rejoin in race direction too not impede the racers on track.
The "camber extravaganza" here makes the racing line rather restrictive, and one foot off the line can cause great instability. Please keep that in mind when planning an overtake, a divebomb that clears off another driver is really a "dick move"

So let´s have fun for all of us and "Happy Hunting"

a_murel · Feb 14, 2024

It seems I will enter again without practise. Is this do-able?

HF2000 · Feb 14, 2024

a_murel said:
It seems I will enter again without practise. Is this do-able?

Yes. It's a short track so with a few laps you know enough to go safely round.

gearwhine · Feb 14, 2024

Ok, you have another frankenstien car driver. Soggy as hell on the springs but turns in well and has some extra power. I am prepared to have a go with it

HF2000 · Feb 14, 2024

Thanks all for racing. Based on this race, I will use the Abarth 124 also for next week.

Please vote for your favorite track here: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/vote-now-for-track-of-the-month-february-2024.268841/

Boukâh · Feb 14, 2024

That was fun guys, thanks!

Had a pretty okay pace here in practice and qualy, track had to grow on me a bit (or the other way around I guess) and I had fun hotlapping. Was in doubt which car to go for, since I was a lot faster in the Spider. But I stick to my love/hate-relations with the MX5 for now...

Race start P4, with 2 beehives and Allan in front. I was planning on how to enter first corner, but 100 metres from the start a few Rocketships flew by

with Han in charge, killing my plan %^%$$# but I made it to 3/4 of the first corner quite okay. Then I got a little bump and couldn't keep it in control, hugging barriers again... Back to last, but confident to be able to get some positions racing others. Overdrove/overdriven the car a bit the first two laps, but then calmed myself down to a steadier pace. Closing in on Kimi.

And then I made my biggest tactical error of the past few months. I followed Kimi into the pit. Well, that's not the problem yet, but I didn't get out of there before he did

. And most of you guys know: Kimi is King of Defence in his little black 500. Even (or better: especially) on tracks that are not quite the best tracks for the little 500, this man is so ff-ing hard to pass!

But... I had sooo much fun chasing and racing close to Kimi, really enjoyed this race, thanks Kimi! We even waited a few times just to get back in the fight again, we were out on our own anyway.

Had a blast tonight, learned a lot about defending tricks and trying to find way to get around them.

Congrats podiums, thanks Han!

Next!

Boukâh · Feb 14, 2024

...and the results are in:

Result 240214-6Gc - hidden_valley - Unknown or offline - Assetto Corsa - Simresults

Result 240214-6Gc - hidden_valley - Unknown or offline - Assetto Corsa - Simresults - The results viewer for your favorite race sims.

simresults.net

stigs2cousin · Feb 14, 2024

I concurre, good and sweaty racing tonight.

In the first part I could feel Han´s joy when he is "annoying the Mazdas", only this time the other way arround.
Only this time it was I who lost ground into the corner and "powered away" (muahahahaha) at the exit. I had to cock up the hairpin so that Paul could go alongside. We spend some corners sidebyside until he shouldered me onto the curbs at Darwin entry. luckily for him the marschalls were on a beer break

Then Andre pulled me to some new PB´s until he cocked up darwin exit and I could outdraft him into T1. that could have gotten bloody but he pitted next lap.

After Gas/Piss/Coffee C came out behind Colin, wheeled him in slightly until I downshitted into T1 and went off. Shame, I had the better exit from Darwin, but couldn´t keep close enough after the hairpin (yet

)

In the end a good race all around, thank you for that.

(And one MORE THING we have to remind Han off

)

(You may have noticed that I glossed over the T1cluster****(TM) damn the drunk Marshalls

)

Kek700 · Feb 14, 2024

I really enjoyed that, even though I made too many wrong decisions.

Made an early pit stop with the hope of some free air before everyone else pitted.
I got stuck behind Andrea, so that decision was a damp squib.
Next tried too hard and came
off, undoing any advantage I had.
How Andrea beat me out of the pits.

I will never know, Oh just cottoned on? I just chugged off the pit stop grid.

Next problem was Paul and Andrea in front, eventually caught up, thought about it all and I had no option when Paul let me through, I know

I took the gamble and lost. I really had no choice in the end. It was the only way I was going to get away.
Sometimes things just do not go your way, bugger?
ps, enjoyed the latest format, made it interesting.

KDiesel · Feb 15, 2024

Boukâh said:
And then I made my biggest tactical error of the past few months. I followed Kimi into the pit. Well, that's not the problem yet, but I didn't get out of there before he did . And most of you guys know: Kimi is King of Defence in his little black 500. Even (or better: especially) on tracks that are not quite the best tracks for the little 500, this man is so ff-ing hard to pass!

But... I had sooo much fun chasing and racing close to Kimi, really enjoyed this race, thanks Kimi! We even waited a few times just to get back in the fight again, we were out on our own anyway.

Had a blast tonight, learned a lot about defending tricks and trying to find way to get around them.

Congrats podiums, thanks Han!

Next!

I was going to wait you and give position back on last lap but Stevie get between us so no can do, it was really fun anyway.

Shed 17 · Feb 15, 2024

Crew Chief kept telling me that the ‘engine don’t sound right’ and that it ‘wasn’t going to make it to the end of the race’. That might have had something to do with the fact that I was ragging the guts out of the poor little Suzuki almost everywhere just to keep up momentum!
The problem is that once another car parks itself in front of you in a corner, that’s game over and that happened a lot with some epic battles with Steve, Carsten, Andre and Ernie.

Contact with Carsten when we both disputed the same piece of asphalt ended that particular battle but try as I might I could not find a way past Andre as he did a pretty good impression of a ‘Kimi’ in keeping me back. That allowed Ernie to close in so I decided to listen to team orders (“Ernie is faster than you”) and let him have a go at Andre.

I wasn’t expecting anything but they came together at the hairpin and I managed to avoid the car park and get a gap that I could hold until the end.

Some great racing, well done podium and thanks Han for another interesting race with a new car in the mix. (if only we could get rid of the co-driver in the Swift or find another 50bhp).

There is still time to register for tonight's race at Silverstone in the Radical, practice, qualy and two races all within the hour, start time 20.00 CET, 19.00 UTC.

AC - Formula Thursdays -February 15th | RaceDepartment

Also, there are only a few slots left for the upcoming F3 championship, so don’t forget to register if you want to secure a place in this event that starts in 14 days time in Bahrain.

AC - Formula Thursdays -February 15th | RaceDepartment

Shed 17 · Feb 15, 2024

Boukâh said:
And then I made my biggest tactical error of the past few months. I followed Kimi into the pit. Well, that's not the problem yet, but I didn't get out of there before he did . And most of you guys know: Kimi is King of Defence in his little black 500.

Been there, done that and got the T shirt Bouke.

JamKart22 · Feb 15, 2024

Boukâh said:
That was fun guys, thanks!

Had a pretty okay pace here in practice and qualy, track had to grow on me a bit (or the other way around I guess) and I had fun hotlapping. Was in doubt which car to go for, since I was a lot faster in the Spider. But I stick to my love/hate-relations with the MX5 for now...

Race start P4, with 2 beehives and Allan in front. I was planning on how to enter first corner, but 100 metres from the start a few Rocketships flew by with Han in charge, killing my plan %^%$$# but I made it to 3/4 of the first corner quite okay. Then I got a little bump and couldn't keep it in control, hugging barriers again... Back to last, but confident to be able to get some positions racing others. Overdrove/overdriven the car a bit the first two laps, but then calmed myself down to a steadier pace. Closing in on Kimi.

And then I made my biggest tactical error of the past few months. I followed Kimi into the pit. Well, that's not the problem yet, but I didn't get out of there before he did . And most of you guys know: Kimi is King of Defence in his little black 500. Even (or better: especially) on tracks that are not quite the best tracks for the little 500, this man is so ff-ing hard to pass!

But... I had sooo much fun chasing and racing close to Kimi, really enjoyed this race, thanks Kimi! We even waited a few times just to get back in the fight again, we were out on our own anyway.

Had a blast tonight, learned a lot about defending tricks and trying to find way to get around them.

Congrats podiums, thanks Han!

Next!

Sorry for the slight tap in T1. It was all a bit crowded and the contact was very slight.