I think i'm in love

I brought the Lotus 79 this week and I just can not get enough of it. This car oversteers, understeers and can have very bad manners on cold tires and I am hook on it like crack. The car feels like raw power, I can use my H shifter, and the sound is intoxicating. Each lap it begs you to push it just a little harder and then it rewards you with yet another purpler sector. I think my star mazda will be getting very jealous. As of right now this is my car of choice, possible the best in the sim, anyone else feel that same?
 
Ohhh I remember very well when I first took that car out. Had to pick my jaw from the floor. This car is just amazing. As you said William, it begs you to push it that lil bit further lap after lap. Strangely its the only car I can properly use H-shift with even heal n toe than other cars. I've never participated in an official race with it as I am terrified.
 
I brought the Lotus 79 this week and I just can not get enough of it. This car oversteers, understeers and can have very bad manners on cold tires and I am hook on it like crack. The car feels like raw power, I can use my H shifter, and the sound is intoxicating. Each lap it begs you to push it just a little harder and then it rewards you with yet another purpler sector. I think my star mazda will be getting very jealous. As of right now this is my car of choice, possible the best in the sim, anyone else feel that same?

Well if we can encourage a few more to take up the challenge it would be great. At the start of this season I was trying to run too many classes and sadly this is one I dropped in favour of the Williams and Star Mazda. Purely on the basis that it demands maximum respect and practice to get the most out of it. Think of it as a twin turbo charged Skip Barber on Acid.

Official races are every other day but there is a friendly hard core that do race it. Normally every Monday night someone will stick up a hosted session for the nexts weeks race for some practice. The popular races were normally Fridays and Sundays late afternoon/early evening GMT.

It's definitely a car I would like to have a go in again. Just so many to choose from!
 
I agee Daverollo, too many cars and not enough time to drive them all in a week. I did get into a race today and it was close and fun. I started in 11th of 20, last of the qualifiers. Had a good battle between 2 other guys for the whole race and worked my way up to 7th. A lapped racer spun out in front of me on the last lap giving me a 4x and lost 2 positions. I will be back next week for Spa! This is a great car.
 
I think we'll see a big boost in participation this week as it's the first series to have official races at Spa. 30 lappers mind you, so it should sort the men from the boys ;)

Hope to see some newcomers to the Lotus on track this week.

If you are new then the fist thing I'd say is don't bother even trying to use the default iRacing setups...they are terrible and will surely put you off driving the Lotus :p Check the thread in the Lotus section of the iRacing forums. There's already a couple of sets posted. I'll add my qualy set later when i've finished tweaking (done a 2.03.4xx with optimal of 2.02.8xx so far) and a race set in a couple of days.

This car was made for Spa...come and check it out.
 
With you guys talking about it, it certainly has me interested as I LOVE formula 1. I'm an open wheel guy myself so I will be getting this one when the extra cash comes in... Oh to heck with it, I plan in getting all the road cars and tracks as well as the Indy stuff.
 
I think we'll see a big boost in participation this week as it's the first series to have official races at Spa. 30 lappers mind you, so it should sort the men from the boys ;)

Hope to see some newcomers to the Lotus on track this week.

If you are new then the fist thing I'd say is don't bother even trying to use the default iRacing setups...they are terrible and will surely put you off driving the Lotus :p Check the thread in the Lotus section of the iRacing forums. There's already a couple of sets posted. I'll add my qualy set later when i've finished tweaking (done a 2.03.4xx with optimal of 2.02.8xx so far) and a race set in a couple of days.

This car was made for Spa...come and check it out.

Thanks Stuart I think I just might do that...
 
One last thing for newcomers to the car.

It drives unlike anything else in the sim. The steering is very sensitive at high speed. As David Brabham said when he tested the real car last year.. "you have to drive it with your wrists"
You almost have to just think it through the high speed corners at Spa (Eau Rouge and Pouhon being the main two) hardly any steering input is needed at all.

It also needs a good 2 laps at Spa to get the tyres up to temp/pressure and feels pretty nasty up to that point.

The ground effect downforce takes a bit of getting used to. It glues itself to the floor at speed but has almost no downforce at all in the slower sections. The transition from grip to no grip takes quite a bit of getting used to.

Lots of people try the car for the first time, do a few laps, declare it's twitchy as hell and completely unrealistic and give up. From how David Brabham described it's handling i'd say it's pretty spot on to the real thing.

It certainly requires patience to begin with. Jumping from one car to the Lotus and back isn't going to get you anywhere with this car. Spend a good few hours with it at a time though and it soon becomes clear.. it's a fantastic car to drive.

I highly recommend reading the beginners guide to the Lotus in this post http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1361273.page

I really hope this week will bring a few new people to this fantastic car. If you have the patience to learn it I guarantee it will become one of the most rewarding cars to drive in the sim.

See you on track!
 
Stuart you are spot on when you said Jumping from one car to the Lotus and back isn't going to get you anywhere with this car. I did some laps in the Inday car yesterday before getting into the Lotus and I thought I was going to cry. I had been able to do a somewhat clean lap at Spa before but I couldn't keep it pointed the right way yesterday and it didn't click until I read you post. You also made a good point about iracings setups. The day I brought the car after doing some laps at Road Altanta, I thought I had made a mistake and wasted my money. I told this to a guy that was in the server and he give me his setup to try. It totally turn the car around for me, night and day difference. The Lotus family seems to be a pretty tight one as well, 2 examples. First, it appears that every week on the Lotus board someone does a track guide write up with a hotlap video, that's freakin awesome. 2nd, in the race that I did Sunday a guy tried a risky pass on me going into the last chicane, there was no contact but it did cause me to spin to avoid him as I got going and crested the hill he was there waiting and gave the position back. Really, who does that! Great car and great guys to race with, what more reason do you need, go buy it!
 
I love love love this car!!! Been driving it at Zandvoort..what a blast. I have so many laps in the 67 GPL cars this fells a little closer to home than most of the other cars. I does stick like glue at speed but feels like a no wing car in the slow stuff....and like others have said...what wonderful sound!!
 
in the race that I did Sunday a guy tried a risky pass on me going into the last chicane, there was no contact but it did cause me to spin to avoid him as I got going and crested the hill he was there waiting and gave the position back. Really, who does that!

It's certainly more of a "gentleman's racing club" atmosphere in the Lotus. It's seems that the idiots cant drive the car, so you're left with a smaller community of dedicated Lotus fans who are generally a lot more respectful racers. It's got more of a league feel as you'll see the same guys on track all the time.

I've only got back to this car this season, but haven't raced it (though I'll make up for that this week ;) ) I intend to make it my only series next season though.
 
This car has been collecting alot of dust in my garage for awhile now. And after reading your guys' impressions on the car I decided to put in some laps at SPA. All I can say is WOW! Definitely gonna take some time to learn and find the limit in this car. But I can see that it's gonna be worth it. Thanks for putting up your setups Stuart.
 
I tried it now, and it felt like this:

RAAAAAR.gif
 

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