rec.autos.simulators

Try GPLRank at http://newgplrank.schuerkamp.de/ and compare yourself to
a couple of thousand people.

For more GPL stuff (as you sound like you are new to the GPL community)
try http://users.bart.nl/~hansvd/links.html

Cheers & welcome,
Jens

JB

I doubt you'll find anybody who has a complete set of lap times using the
default setups. Most people either do their own setups (ick) or download
them off the web (like me - all I know how to do is add/remove fuel).

Watkins Glen        1:06.56
Silverstone            1:30.63
Monaco                 1:30.01
Zandvoort              1:28.47
Monza                    1:29.14
Rouen                    2:01.18
Mexico                   1:50.94
Spa                        3:24.52
Kyalami                 1:22.03
Mosport                 1:23.77
Nrburgring           8:32.37

Malcolm Edeson - you had the letters right. :-)

/Jens

Eldred
--
Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPL F1 hcp. +28.80...F2 +151.26...F3 hcp. +373.73

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

Monza 1:29.2
WG: 1:06.0
'Ring: 8:36
Rouen 2:00.0
Silverstone 1:30.0

Can't remember any more - sorry!

Ian

Ian Riches (GPL Rank +15.88)
Bedford, UK

The GPLEGS package on Eldreds site has some useful information
but I followed it up with some posts specifically on the subject of
using default setups.

I've since added these posts to the GPLEGS zip file and will today
send the updated package to Eldred. I did some sample laps of
Monza, Silverstone and Watkins Glenn with the defaults, nothing
spectacular but all under the Papy time, you can get them here :

 http://www.umich.edu/~epickett/gpl.htm

The GPLEGS text and the additional posting about using the
defaults setups is also available to read online here :

http://users.bart.nl/~hansvd/school/

Essentially I was saying that the default setups are, IMO perfectly
good enough to get you 0.0 rank. I wasn't saying stick with them
till you are 0.0 though, just be careful not to spend too long, if
you are +50 or more, trying different setups and especially trying
to drive the very specialist setups of the real hotshoes.

Whilst I'm still of the opinion that looking around for and trying
different setups looking for the holy grail to knock seconds
off your laptimes is not the fastest way to improve I think it
is useful to try different setups AND DIFFERENT CARS if
you find yourself struggling to improve at all.

All practice is good practice, take the Cooper/Honda or
BRM out for a spin occasionally, you're unlikley to set a
new PB with these cars (and that fact alone may make you
drive more ... sensibly) but they will teach you a little more
about handling characteristics. It also gets you away from
driving the same car, same track, same line, same braking
point type of fixed mentality.

Heres a post by Richard Mathews, a GPLEGS "student",
which was posted to the High Gear GPL forum yesterday
which is along similar lines)

===================================================
"In praise of the Floppy Car", by Richard Mathews
===================================================
This post is only for the guys who, like me, suffer from really bad
days when the car just won't go where you want it to go. The rest of
you hot-lappers needn't bother reading further.
Right, do you have good days in GPL when the car communicates with you
and you feel totally in control?

Do you also have days when the car just feels like some moving icon on
the screen and you just can't get any feel for what its doing and you
end up crashing and crashing?

Well this MAY help you on those bad days.

The other night I was driving around Mosport trying to do all the
right things - gently on the brakes - gently off the brakes - keep the
car balanced -get a feel for what the car is doing. But it was all
going horribly wrong. I was getting no feel for the car and what it
was doing and I was way off my PB for the track. It was one of THOSE
days!

SO, I decided to give up on the PB's and instead I decided that my
challenge for the day would be to have a go with an evil handling car
and just see if I could keep it on the track.

I took my trusty Honda, put all the spring rates to the minimum,
likewise the damper rates and also the roll bar was put to zero. Then
I added one click of roll bar at the rear just to make the car a bit
tail happy and increase the challenge.

Well a car in this state bounces about a bit and particularly if you
are harsh with the pedals. The tail happy nature of the car means that
if you get the car unbalanced - it tells you all about it.

And in fact that is exactly what this set up does - it tells you all
about what you are doing - and it tells it to you in big movements on
the screen - you can't miss it!

I had a fun few laps in that car - I obviously wasn't chasing any PB's
but it was quite a challenge.

But what I wasn't expecting was how it managed to 'switch on' my feel
for the car which had been missing.

After about 5 or 6 laps in the Floopy Car I went back to my original
race car. It felt great and within 4 laps I had knocked 2 seconds off
by PB!!!! (as PBs go, its still slow - but lets face it, it's about 4
seconds quicker than earlier in the evening!!)

I tried the same thing at Zandvoort the following day and improved my
PB by 1 sec.

The 'Floppy Car' doesn't teach good technique but it sure as hell lets
you know when you aren't being smooth. It kind of helps make up for
those g force experiences that you use so much in real driving and
miss so much with computer sims.

So the next time you are having trouble getting 'dialed in', try a
Floopy Car - it feels like and old bouncy Yank Tank but it might help
your driving.

Kya        Lotus            1:20.44
Mex        Lotus            1:48.88
Mon        Brabham          1:27.31
Monza      Lotus            1:28.76
Mosport    Lotus            1:22.27 (Did a 1:21.x recently)
N'ring     Lotus            8:14.72
Rouen      Lotus            1:57.39
Sil        Lotus            1:28.27
Spa        Lotus            3:17.88
(changed setup in desperation after being 1 sec off the pace in a league race :)
My default pb at Spa is prolly high 3:18.x)
Wat        Lotus            1:05.57
Zand       Lotus            1:24.99

My GPL handicap: -23.740

Sometimes I take out my Floopy and play with it and it feels great,
and.........opps, wrong newsgroup.

Seriously, great idea. I sometimes, ok often, find myself totally out of the
zone and don't know what to do. I'll give it a try.

--
Don Scurlock
Vancouver,B.C.
GPLRank -5.40

Come see how you rank, at the GPLRank site
http://gplrank.ringlord.com/

I did these ages back (not all tracks) in June last year just as a test
to see what I could achieve with defaults.  All done on first run with
low fuel (10 laps worth or so) and in the Lotus.  I think they'll give
you something to aim for. Gee, I was good back then, lol.

                                      Mine

No person's opinions can be said to be
more correct than another's, because each is
the sole judge of his or her own experience.