TC65 @ Sprints - Thursday 30th April 2009

[Stuart Thomson]

Servername: RACEDEPARTMENT.COM
Class: Lotus Cortina / Alfa GTA / Ford Mustang
Track: Zandvoort 67 / Oesterreichring 79 / Jops Neuveville
Conditions: Evening - 18.00 race time
Practice: 19.00 GMT / 20.00 UK / 21.00 Europe - (10 min)
Qualification: 19.10 GMT / 20.10 UK / 21.10 Europe - (10 min)
Race: 19.20 GMT / 20.20 UK / 21.20 Europe - (10 laps) - The above session timetable will be used for all 3 sprint races.

Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note2: Default skins only
Note3: All 3 cars must be used by each driver, but in any order.

 

[Matt Crouch]

Zandvoort, The Alfa for me and Sam seemed to be the 'best' car here. Was in 3rd in qualifying and on a better lap when my internet took a metaphorical spin and I got dscod. Rejoined but not enough time to do an outlap. T1 was where it all happened... Started from the very back but a nice space opened right up on the grid letting me into 5th straight off. Chased Ingemar for a few laps, until he went for the fence at T1, leaving Warren and Stuart between 2nd place and me.
Managed to get past Warren at T1 a lap or two later, and spent the rest of the race dicing with Stuart, mostly swapping at T1 until the final straight when I got lucky and finished 2nd with a few metres in hand

Osterrechring - Mustang. surprised how many Mustangs there were - forgot that was what pretty much everyone chose before the choices were removed . I was near the tail end of those in quali and had a fairly uneventful race. Only really managed to overtake those who couldn't keep up on the straights, but they generally took it back again on the corners...

Jops - Cortina. Nice, believable track. There seemed to be a fairly obvious order of Alfa / Cortina / Mustang here. Qualified 3rd just ahead of Knut in the other cortina and had a good race with the Knutty professor. The small crest leading to the s/f gave us both a bit of trouble, but luckily a bit less to me. Of only 3 finishers I took 2nd

All of the above races were woopworthy :woop:
woop for the event.

 

[Matt Crouch]

If anyone has the replay for Race 2 @ Zeltweg, I'd like to view it. For some reason my replay of that race is faulty.

should be it
http://zogger.co.uk/evo-report/Oesterreichring%201979_090430_2105.Vcr
bit stuttery playing it on an outside cam though

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Thanks again to the gentlemen of the GTL Club. We may be a smaller group, but I'd say we have more fun than the GTRE jockeys. :grouphug:

I'd have to agree, mate. Each of these cars has so much unique character - I mean, that's probably down to flaws and deficiencies in the handling to some extent, but that's not a bad thing necessarily. It -that fun built around the foibles and compromises inherent in mid 60's to mid 70's engineering- doesn't even change relative to power, top speed or pretty much any measure you can think of.

I think a lot of the Evo cars are very similar, pretty much thoroughbred racers, and the experience can become slightly anodyne due to lack of those faults, or at least that's what I found.

I also think it's no coincidence that my favourite car in Evo is the Caterham set, which still has those faults/compromises to navigate around. To me, it's the closest to being a GTL car, and it's no surprise to me that it's the least liked by Evo drivers. If we had some Lotus 7's in GTL, I'd probably burst through joy.

 

[Ben Tusting]

You mean this Stuart?
http://www.nogripracing.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=37787

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Yep, if that one ever gets sorted (I was reading of some issues with it's implementation) it'll go onto the potential mod installation list, with the 1310 Minis, Triumph TR4, Aston DB4 etc.

The other issues with the additional cars (unless that's all fixed now - I must double check) is that a lot of the add-on cars "replaced" already existing cars rather than being additions.

TR4 replaces Lotus Elite, R8 Gordini replaces Abarth, etc.

Much as I want to drive those cars, I'm not prepared to sacrifice already existing default SimBin cars for them.

 

[Warren Dawes]

The other issues with the additional cars (unless that's all fixed now - I must double check) is that a lot of the add-on cars "replaced" already existing cars rather than being additions.

TR4 replaces Lotus Elite, R8 Gordini replaces Abarth, etc.

Much as I want to drive those cars, I'm not prepared to sacrifice already existing default SimBin cars for them.

I'm not sure about all of them Stu, but I know that is not the case with the 1310 Mini's. I have been in races on line with both 1310 Mini's and default Mini's together, and no problem at all (except the 1310 Mini's flog the default ones :wink2: ).

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Cheers Warren - that's good to know. :good:

For my guide on relative performance, would the 1310 Mini's have been in the frame last night on any of those tracks?

 

[Warren Dawes]

Cheers Warren - that's good to know. :good:

For my guide on relative performance, would the 1310 Mini's have been in the frame last night on any of those tracks?

Not sure about those tracks (I might give it a go to see later). On most average tracks where I have had a few on-line races , the 1310 Mini's are faster.
As an example, I was involved in an on-line race recently where I drove a 1310 Mini vs some good drivers in Cortina's, Alfa's, Mustangs, at Lakeside (which is pretty high speed), and the 1310 Mini was about 1 to 1.5 secs quicker. The long high speed straights of last nights event, may have evened things out a bit, but throw in some twisty stuff and the 1310 Mini is a demon.

I think the 1310 Mini may have been quicker around Jops than the Alfa.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Blimey :shock: - OK mate - cheers :good:

 

[Sam J Simpson]

I had a good night again last night, race 1 at Zandvoort and I got pole and blasted away into a big early lead, but it looked like everyone else was having fun behind me so I slowed, short shifting, to let the guys catch up a bit, I then speeded up a bit again to stay ahead for the win.

Race 2 at Zeltweg in the Cortina with a whole swarm of 'Stangs and a couple of Alfas so I wasn't expecting much because of the long straights, I managed to steal 2nd on the grid and grabbed 1st in the first chicane, was pulling away from the scrapping horde behind until I spun it and got swamped by the marauders, I had to fight hard to get past Warren and crew to get as far as up to the back of Bram who was damned quick in the 'Stang, was fun watching him drift it round, finished only .5 behind him at the end.

Tried race 3 but the missus had stuck the heating on and shut all the windows and I overheated and had to leave, was looking forward to it too.

Great night, thanks to everyone that raced, and long may it continue.

Sam