rec.autos.simulators

this evening I did some F3 racing at Fontana. Gradually it became
interesting. In the beginning the car - my Ferrari - felt so slow;
the straights are so long and F3's are so slow... But then I started
fiddling with the gear ratios, and it became much more interesting.

After practising some 8 lap races I went to a 15 lap full field AI race.
I could qualify 9th with my 56.78. Brabham was 1st with his 55.23, Hulme
2nd, Clark 3th. The race wasn't actually very interesting; only the
moments of fear, when I was passing somebody were quite frightening;
you really had to concentrate, because you never could know, what move
they'll do, when you come closer. While the track was clear, it was also
nice to concentrate of making "perfect" turns, as smooth as possible, not
to slow down too much with my long 4th gear.

At the end I was 5th, and it is so nice to see your name on the
newspaper... :-)

Brabham won, then Hulme, Clark and Bandini. I was in a good company! ;)

Brabham's best lap was 55.66, my best was 56.68, which is by the way my
thus far best time at this track with an F3 - it is quite cool to get
that in a race...

And then a couple of questions: I used the "Final Drive Ratio" of
3.444:1 with my 4th gear, and in my fastest lap my top speed was 210 Km/h
and slowest 196 Km/h.

What do you think would be the optimum? I guess that if I make the 4th
still faster, my acceleration from the turns will get worse. And of
course the opposite makes my straight speed slower.

Anyhow, our GPL seems to continue to be a great sim, really great! :-)

Arto

Go for the longest gear you can manage. The secret to F3 racing is precision
in the turns and trying not to scrub off speed. The lack of power must be
compensated for by finding the cleanest line through the turn. BTW, The F3
engine has a much flatter power/torque curve than the F1 cars so
acceleration loss is much less of an issue than it would otherwise be in a
peakier F1 or F2 car.

MS

          ^^^^^^^^
I forgot to write my second question... Here it comes:

The "Fuel Level" of F3 (and F2?) in the setup page seems not to be real.
I suppose the "unofficial" modification of enabling the F3 (and F2)
races doesn't update that? I have thought this also earlier, but only now
at Fontana practice I really compared the number of real laps and the
"promised" number of laps in the setup page: To me it seems to be so that
you only need about 2/3 of the fuel the setup page states?

Any confirmation? Does somebody know that more thoroughly?

Arto

Like Mark said, the F3 cars do require a higher top gear ratio on the
ovals to get the best out of them.
Tracks like Fontana, IMS, MIS, Atlanta, Monza, Spa etc  normally
perform best with a top gear ratio of about 3.100
This of course can alter with the ammount of rolling drag you have
introduced into your setup through tire pressure, camber & toe etc,
but if you use a 3.100 top gear ratio on the quicker tracks and
experiment from there you will be on the right track.

Regarding fuel usage, the F3 cars do use less fuel as they are only
running at a fraction of the revs of the F1 cars, so adjusting the fuel
level on a 2/3 race distance bassis is a good starting point as well.
Also, take care getting used to the Repco in F3, as it has an unfair
advantage over all the other Marques in F3, due to it's light  weight
and diminitive rolling drag factor.
It is banned in most F3 leagues for on-line competition, due to it's
unfair advantage, so if you want to get into F3 racing on-line, then a
better choice for the large ovals would be the Eagle.
However on the small ovals, the Ferrari is unbeatable, due to it's
excellent front end tracking and stability under stress..

The Eagle is slightly faster by about 2 mph over the Lotus and Ferrari
on the straights, but does not stick to the road as well as the Lotus
or Ferrari, so on the road circuits you will find 99% of the time that
the Ferrari & Lotus will beat the Eagle quite easily.
The Ferrari & Lotus are both good choices for F3 racing 0n-line, as
they are very similiar in top end speed, with the Lotus getting the
edge by about  a half  mph, but the Ferrari gets the edge in the
handling and braking stakes, so they even out quite well on the track.
The Cooper, Honda & BRM are a bit slow for competitive on-line racing
in F3, but the Cooper's good handling will scare the other Marques a
bit in a good driver's hands.

Finally, it is good to see more drivers experimenting with F3 racing in
GPL.
It always amuses me when guys in GPL chat say to me that F3 racing is
boring..  :)
All i can say to that is they just don't like to race.  <G>
I like to race, car to car, inches apart for whole races, and that is
possible in F3, even with pings of up to .650 ms.
Try that in F1 and you will be history very quickly. :)
Good luck Arto.

Cheers,
Ron

Chris:)

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