RDHGP S7 - Round 0 - Testing - Monza 70 / Hockenheim Nat - Thu 14 April 2011

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Stuart Thomson

The Stoat Without Fear ™
Premium
Welcome to the Pre-Season Testing event for Season 7 of the RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix.

This will be a very cut down briefing compared to the actual race events, as the event is mostly a practice session - we will NOT be having a separate qualifying session, I'll roll straight to Race and just go with whatever the game gives us.

The breakdown of the events will be as follows:

Practice1: 19.00GMT - 40 minutes
Race1: 19.40GMT - 10 laps
Practice2: 20.10GMT - 40 minutes
Race2: 20.50 - 10 laps

We will be using RD CLUB RULES and CLUB PASSWORD for this event. If you take anyone off, or even if you think you might have, STOP AND WAIT FOR THEM. Failure to do so could jepoardise your place in the League.

This is a non-competitive event, merely for us to work any last minute kinks out of our setups, test the preliminary skin pack I'll be providing, make sure no-one has any problem connecting / staying in / viewing anyone elses skin. Don't go treating it like a League race.

Event 1 will be round Monza (70s layout) I will be rolling here @19.00GMT, irrespective of what track the server is currently on.

progmonz70.jpg
Despite this being a familiar shape to all of us, the lack of any Variantes whatsoever - only 3 real turns, to be honest - means that this is a pure power circuit. This is here for people to work on their top speeds / gearings / tyre pressures / relative slipstream efficiency. The muscle cars in the pack will certainly dominate here, but the rest of us shouldn't get too depressed about it - this is almost a charicature of a power circuit, nothing in the League is this simple, nor this biased towards grunt and top speed.

mapmonz.png

The Race Director has the following notes for Drivers:

T1R - Curva Grande - Very inviting, very high speed corner. Some cars will drift to the outside, some will try and take a tighter line. Be aware of both approaches, especially on colder tyres.

T2aR & T2bR - Lesmos - The first part is a pretty standard 90, people can drift off the outside easily. If you do, take care on rejoining the circuit. T2bR can be attacked a few ways, some cars need to throw their nose at the inside apex in a slide, some will track through true and take it slightly more sedately. Just be aware that your car may need to be handled differently to the ones around you, and adjust accordingly.

T4R - Parabolica - the only real thing to worry about here is outbraking yourself (again, be considerate on getting out of the gravel), or getting wobbly by over exuberant use of the loud pedal.


Event 2 will be at Hockenheimring National Layout

proghocknat.jpg

Hockenheim National has a varied profile, there are a few decent length straights, some heavy braking sections, some parts where high speed stability is called for, some others where precision at lower speeds and traction out of corners is at a premium. It's not really a pure "handling" circuit, it's more a game of two halves.

maphock.png

The Race Director has the following notes for Drivers:

T1R - Nordkurve - it's a nother tempting corner this, but there are cuts on the inside AND the outside overrun. People will be cutting across from wide of the corner - don't just park your car on a tight inside line and expect people to be able to a) see you, and b) avoid you.

T2R - Einfahrt Parabolika - Tight corner approached at high speed, there will be quite a large difference in braking distances here, so be aware of what and who is around you.

T3aR + T3bR - no-name double apex - Again, a high speed approach funnelling cars down to a very low speed for a couple of tight turns. The lighter, grippier cars will no doubt be having a go through here, so the heavier cars need to be aware of their lines.

T9R - Sudkurve - This is the only other real problem corner - everything between T3 & here is pretty well defined. People will try and sweep around this corner, but be aware there is a cut waiting on the outside if you take liberties on the run off area.


That just about wraps it up for now, I look forward to seeing some, if not most, of you there.

Current skinpack available and mandatory for this event: GTC-65 v2.2
 
well not so great night of input for me, i guess got to test skin out though and luckily found my fault with my wheel, one of my wire to my wheel had got trapped and rubbed though and was touching my rig frame,

in a way glad it happened here at a test event rather than at an offical league race or series, sorry to anyone involved for the mess i caused,

looking forward to this league starting though should be fun,
 
What I found with the Jag, Dan, was not to overthink/overdrive it too much as it's got lots of usable torque right through the rev range.

In some other cars with different torque bands you'd need to be either:-

a) pretty nifty with the gearstick (and the inherent timing that it requires to not lock up the rears) just to make sure there's torque for exits in cars with narrower or peakier engine profiles, or

b) extra careful on the accelerator with the very high torque/high power cars so as not to break the rears loose.

With the Jag you can ease through the corner, and there's always pull there, but without being so much that you need to be treading on eggshells.
 
A couple of good tests from my standpoint - apart from the carnage at Monza, which I'd rather happen now than in a real race, tbh.

As I said in the briefing, nothing in the season is as power friendly as Monza, so anyone who expected the Escorts/Fiats/Jags/Fezzas to rule here obviously haven't done their testing on the full pack. The nature of the track was for people to work stuff out.

Hock was a more indicative test, albeit one that was so short that the heavier/more powerful cars would not have to worry about tyre conservation at all.

The Hockenheim event was a total of 36.92km, or approximately 1/3 of a normal League race distance. A League race would have been 28 laps long, so tyres would have come into play in the later stages.

We also (hopefully) had an indication of things to come during the Hock race, with Neil (Cobra), Gary, me, Jay (E-type), Dave C. (Escort) and a couple of 275's (I want to say Erling & Amir but I could be wrong) in the mix for lap after lap, gaps closing and opening based on car and driving style.
 
Loading Monza my screen just kept trying to load Hock and it took a few mins for the brain to tell me doh you ain't got this track installed so off i went to download the track :)

Monza Race 1: like Gary i had invisible cars on the track that appeared and disappeared in front of you so it was all a bit scary.

Monza Race 2: Started a bit better, had a brief fight with a Shelby until it went past both Nils and myself and drove off into the distance, then had a short scrap with the other Cobra driven by Nils but his setup was better as he had a slightly higher top speed and went past me no problem but when i tried to do the same with him i pulled out of the slipstream got up alongside only for him to start pulling away again :confused::frown: So i had to settle for trailing him the whole race with nothing much happening behind me as the closest jag i think was Bob and on this track they just did not have the grunt and the gap just got bigger and bigger.

Hock: Was more like a proper race and was great fun for me. Started fine but got caught sleeping as Gary in his Jag got past :redface: but not long after Gary had a wee off that let me through and for the next 7 or 8 laps it was just a case of watch gary in my mirror trying to find a way past my Cobra and failing :cool: It was very interesting to see the contrast between the two cars, the Cobra once you get the power down goes like a bat out of hell but trying to stop it at the end of the straight and gather it all up for the corner is a daunting task especially when you have a Jag haunting you down lap after lap, once round the corner you know the Jag can get the power down quicker than you but once you also find some grip then you leave the Jag for dead until you have to brake again and so it goes on. :D

It is going to be one very interesting season as we venture around all the different tracks. :doublethumb:
 
Hi there guys,
sorry I couldn't make it last night ... I had to work late, and when I got home, I was ready 4 bed LOL

I hope there will be some more pix/vids from this event (thx Ivo 4 yours ;) )
Besides that, I am really excited about our first race in Japan, especially to see how the capricous cobra matches up with all the other cars.
... and how tire wear will torment all high torque/weight cars during the final laps ;)


See you guys in about two weeks =)
 
Test went well for me hardware and software wise (no freazes, discos, invisible cars, etc...)

Race1) I spent a great deal of time trying to catch Ross. I sorta closed the gap at one point but just for a little while. Then he messes up just enough for me to sneek by but right after I screw up myself and give the position right back lol. These Shelbys are unfairly fast in a track like Monza. Thank God (or Thommo lol) that nothing in the season resembles Monza, or I would feel like a bully.

Race2) I don't know if it's because I got no prior pracco or because I haven't touched GTL in almost 10 days or maybe I bit off more muscle car than I can chew, but driving the Shelby through corners was about as hard as trying to thread a needle with my eyes shut lol. Things got MUCH better after I grabbed Ryo's setup though (thanks Ryo!). I NEED to spend some quality time with this beast, get to know it better. I spent all my time skinning it and very little driving it hehe.
 
Not a problem Carlos. It's an old setup, a couple of changes to it now I'm on the wheel but worked superbly for me when I was on the pad.

Really enjoyed myself last night - the Shelby is a joy to drive. Just pick your braking points and don't be too heavy footed and it's all quite easy :).

Monza Start 1: I'm afraid I was the reason for the pile-up sorry guys. Dmytro jumped on the brakes at T1, which I didn;t expect, especially off the grid on the opening lap and I bumped the back of him, spinning me round. Tried to keep it in the barrier, but no room for everyone and I got mullered.

Monza 2: Jammily had pole again, Gabor got past off the line. Myself and Gabor trading places for a couple of laps before Ivo joined us to make a it a proper three way battle. Lost count of the amount of position swaps we had, I seemed to be a little faster but it was easy judging certain corners when in second; as soon as I got the lead, I understeered at T1 and went back to third where I finished.

Hockenheim: Surprised how easily I was able to go fastest. In the race I got a great start from pole, as they squabbled behind, had a 4 second lead at the end of the first lap. On the second lap however I braked a little too late trying a different gearing technique and went across the gravel, rejoining right behind Norberg and Ludvig (almost took out Norberg rejoining, didn't realise how close they were). I snuck past Norberg on the next lap at T2, before Gabor ran wide entering the stadium and I took the lead again. Took the win from there, despite some scruffy laps as I tested the limits of the car.

Loking forward to the league of course.
 
No problems with skins except my default #2 but Stu will let me use #3 instead so sorted. Had 3 big freezes and wondered what had caused them as my PC never freezes. It turns out one of my hard drives was bombing out then reconnecting (failing), it is now replaced so all should now be good.

A few people seemed disappointed with the speed difference between the shelby and their car, don't be last season the Pantera and Chevy were top speed flyers and did not win the league. Just enjoy the races and see what happens. My aim is same as always, drive well and enjoy.

Looking forward to this.
 
Due to an early start at work on friday i could only make the Monza race. Had a scrap with Carlos most of the race, i think we both learned a lot about how to handle these Shelbys through the quick stuff. (And how not to handle them!) Cheers to Nigel for his gentlemanly driving, and i'm glad to report I had no skin issues at all. Looking forward to the new season now.

Cheers Thommo!
 
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