happened to our good old GPL dominated newsgroup?)
Since the GPL clock was messed up for a couple of months there, I ran a
bunch of Seasons, and clearly the experience did me some good. Full
seasons, with something*** in the balance, forced me to focus on
technique, I guess, instead of just going out and doing wtf hot laps or
individual races where a crash was no big deal.
So I had the weekend to myself and decided to see if I could set some new
marque personal best laps, and MAYBE break a few track records. To my
delight, I broke personal track records on all five of the tracks I was
running! Shattered a couple, even.
So? Practice. Practice some more. And do your best to make your practice
count.
That's the end of the "tips" section, as such, of this post. The rest is
just "brag." But if you run middle to back of the pack, maybe there'll be
something here you can use ...
I am a longtime, vocal fan of Alison's Ferrari setups. They are really
sweet to drive, and very forgiving for a less-than-brilliant driver, IMO.
But I also run the Lotus and the Eagle, and my personal bests are spread out
over all three marques. In taking on each track below, I ran all three
marques in a number of different set-ups each.
Kyalami. My old PB was 12246 in the Eagle. Managed to shave a bit in the
Lotus, with a setup based on Alison's Ferrari, and got a 12214. (I started
with Ricardo's Lotus, but had real difficulty reining it in on this track.)
Mexico. Previous PB was 15346 in the Eagle. Shaved a mere two hundredths
for a 15344 with an Alison Lotus.
Monaco. Couldn't believe it! My personal best was in the Ferrari at 13237.
I had tried unsuccessfully on a number of occasions to break that with Eagle
and Lotus setups of one type or another, but have never gotten lower than a
134. (One of the reasons why I'm an Alison Ferrari fan.) My objective was
to break 132 -- but that fell right away. It took a bunch of laps and some
spectacular crashes after the chicane, but I ended up with a 12984!
Whoopee, where's the Sam Adams Winter Lager?
Mosport. Previous best was 12478 and the Ferrari. Got pretty close --
12515 -- in a Nunnini Lotus, but couldn't get lower. Went back to the
Ferrari and managed to trim just a bit to end up at 12464.
Rouen. I'm not crazy about this track for some reason. Best was 20314 in
the Eagle. I can't begin to touch that with the Ferrari, but with a Lotus
set up like Alison's Ferrari, I shattered that with a 20140! Another Winter
Lager, please.
So, I'm clearly not going to set any world records. But, I gotta say that
after a year and a half of driving this sim, it continues to amaze me. I'm
finally getting to the point where I can tell that the front ARB needs a
click or two, or the brakes need to be moved back a bit. I'm just a duffer,
but I can actually feel these changes. Blows me away. And I haven't even
begun to work with the F2's.
If you're still reading, hope you found something. Alison, you're
brilliant! Papy, we gotta have more like this one!
Regards,
Kurt