rec.autos.simulators

I had just started using the Cooper after flailing around in the Eagle most
of the time since I started with GPL.  The Cooper really is a better car to
learn a track with.  I had been able to get my Cooper times down to
remarkably close to my best times with the Lotus just by a bit of practise.

Alison's set-ups are, of course, great.  Within 5 minutes with her WG
set-up, I had matched my best time there with the Lotus.

Get them and pay attention to her advice.  She knows what of she speaks when
it comes to setting up these old beasts!

http://www.racesimcentral.net/~alison/gpl/

Marc

--
****************************************************************************
Marc Collins

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist---"
           General John B. Sedgwick's last words, 1864
****************************************************************************

well done Alison and thanks
shane

Mike

Last nite there was a VROC race at Monza ... 2 of the top 5 were Coopers
both in qual and finish.

What was interesting was that even though my qual time was a couple seconds
off my usual time in the Eagle, my actual race lap times were only about 1/2
a second off. It's just a lot easier to fling the Cooper through the turns
than the Eagle.

And the Cooper was always wonderful at Watkins. It practically glides
through the S's.

    -MSM (VROC: "Jethro Bodine")

Cheers!
John

The main difference being that the Ferrari can turn a really hot lap
once in a while but more often the numbers are higher and in the high
1:28s or low 1:29s.  Make a mistake and lets talk about 1:39s if not
1:40s..

What amazed me about the Coventry/Cooper is how forgiving it is.  An
oversteer that spelt certain spin in the Ferrari is easily caught in the
Cooper; a touch too much of a wheel on the edge of the track and kiss
goodbye to your lead in the car from Maranello - not so in the
Cooper-Maserati: it just hangs on and gleefully asks "Okay, what do you
want me to do next?".  It seems to me the Ferrari wants to bite the hand
of its feeder, whereas the Cooper is just eager to please.

I don't really know how much is setup and how much is the car, however.
I am using D.A.'s setups for the Ferrari and have modified them a bit to
my liking; I used Alison's setups right out of the box.  A bit too much
understeer for my liking, so I will have to adjust that as long as it
doesn't upset the balance too much (I live in Canada, drive a lot in the
winter and have developed a terrible fear of understeer as a result of
too many wheel to curb smacks and bumper to pole conversations... I
know, I know, slow down and it will go away!!  -- these are my younger
days I am talking about, in a front wheel drive car so we are talking
about very deep seeded, long lasting impressions!).

The Cooper with Alison's setups just feels like you get and extra moment
to catch a mistake.  It is not the fastest car on the course, but easily
makes up for this by its forgiving nature.  The second or two it is
slower on a hotlap doesn't come into play in a race for the most part:
people drive at 11/10ths during qualifying but that can't possibly be
sustained during a a whole race and with traffic about.  There are a few
exceptional people I have seen in GPL who can just thunder out an
amazing time lap after lap after lap, but the are *very* few and far
between.

So, kudos to Alison and the Cooper.  I am eagerly awaiting her Ferrari
setups and then I will have to decide which Italian powerplant will have
to push me!

Cheers,
Gian.

<snip>

% Alison's set-ups are, of course, great.  Within 5 minutes with her WG
% set-up, I had matched my best time there with the Lotus.

% Get them and pay attention to her advice.  She knows what of she speaks when
% it comes to setting up these old beasts!

% http://nh.ultranet.com/~alison/gpl/

Spot on!  If you are struggling (or even if you're not) try these babies
out.  I had the privilege to race with Alison and her brother at 3
tracks while she created these setups.  She is a wiz at creating fast
and stable setups.  Within just a few laps, she was matching or
bettering anything I could throw her way with my Eagle.  These are real
RACE setups and not these throwaway hot-lap setups that you find filling
the Internet bandwidth.  

Thanks Alison for all you have done for the simulated racing community!

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If I am not mistaken, Alison favors trailbraking and the is why her
setups have the understeer tuned into them.  Learn this trick and your
times should improve.

% I don't really know how much is setup and how much is the car, however.
% I am using D.A.'s setups for the Ferrari and have modified them a bit to
% my liking; I used Alison's setups right out of the box.  A bit too much
% understeer for my liking, so I will have to adjust that as long as it
% doesn't upset the balance too much (I live in Canada, drive a lot in the
% winter and have developed a terrible fear of understeer as a result of
% too many wheel to curb smacks and bumper to pole conversations... I
% know, I know, slow down and it will go away!!  -- these are my younger
% days I am talking about, in a front wheel drive car so we are talking
% about very deep seeded, long lasting impressions!).

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I am just trying to stop from touching the edge when at close to maximum
speed for the section.  The best way to reduce understeer is to reduce
speed... I don't want to to that!  If I can get it right I can dial in a
setting that has the car a little more balanced for these sections and
the resulting slide will get me very close to the edge of the track and
avoid the front wheels "plowing" in.

Cheers,
Gian.

Aaron

After Alison posted her setups, I tried them immediately on some
on-line races at Kyalami, Mexico, Monaco, Monza and Zandvoort,
comparing them to the defaults and Doug Arnao's.
They worked for me on some tracks, like Monza, were I could brake
extremely late compared to other cars, but that might be caused by the
low top speed. But I lead a race for a few laps after a lucky start.
On the other hand, in Zandvoort (and Kyalami), the brakes did not work
well (I could not lock them up at the end of the straight), and all
other cars seemed to pass the S/F line 20 km/h faster than I managed
to. Maybe I should have recalibrated my pedals - too bad that there is
no data-recording that shows that a pedal is eg. limited to 93% or so.

I certainly appreciate that Alisons setups are aimed for good stable
racing (rather than these strange nervous hot-laps setups of others)
even though some tyre pressures or gear ratio make few sense to me:
apparently I get so slow out of the corners that I can not rev the 5th
anywhere near the limit at the end of the straights. Seems to be a
"overdrive" for reliability, low fuel consumption and slipstreaming.

Looking forward for similar "promotion" for the underrated
Murasama/Honda and even the BRM ...

Just another stupid question:
Isn't the Coventry/Cooper-Maserati a V12? I counted only 4 intakes per
cylinder bank in the game - but AFAIR I use patched graphics.

--
   _____
 /_______\              .\\ a t t h e a d
I  XT /~~~~                    
I  500\_____       1977' Yamaha XT.Rex 500 Enduro
 \____/\__I_I      http://www.racesimcentral.net/

For Mexico, Wolfgang Woeger's setup for the lotus is much more stable
than Alison Hine's setup. *it's not usual!*

Seb