rec.autos.simulators

by **Jeffrey Row** » Tue, 29 May 2001 09:08:37

I'm trying to race longer races in GPL, but after 7-10 laps into a race at
the Glen, my engine explodes. Bang! I shift at or before 9000 and I always
let off while shifting. This keeps happening. What am I doing wrong?

Also, I've observed a peculiar trend in my lap times: they're getting worse,
not better. I drive the Glen more than any other track, and I haven't come
with a quarter second of my best lap there in exactly one month. I've only
been driving GPL for 2 months. My gplrank keeps falling because I'm driving
the other tracks. But why can't I go any faster at the Glen? I can get
within ~1.5s of my best lap in most of the cars. After posting a 1:06.49
last month in the Lotus, I've only been in the 1:06's twice since, and both
laps were today: one during training, one during a race. Have I managed to
_forget_ how to drive? I've been using Alison Hine's setups the whole time.

--Jeff

by **Jan Verschuere** » Tue, 29 May 2001 09:24:41

What are your downshifts like? Would it be possible to upload a replay of
you "breaking" the engine somewhere (if it happens within 10 laps, the
filesize might be reasonable)?

I don't think you've forgotten how to drive, but rather have started to
develop your own style of driving. Whether you're going in the right
direction or not, I don't know, but it's fairly obvious what you expect from
the car no longer meshes with Alison's setups.

It takes a long time to figure out how to drive a given layout/car
effectively and how to balance setup/approach/driving style to acchieve
that. One of the fascinating aspects of GPL and part of the reason for it's
longlevity, IMO.

Jan.
=---
"Pay attention when I'm talking to you boy!" -Foghorn Leghorn.

by **Jeffrey Row** » Tue, 29 May 2001 09:42:45

Click-click. 5-4-3. I downshift quickly, with no throttle, I think.

Unfortunately I only saved the laps from the most recent blowup. But I do
have a replay of 10 laps of training that I did in the same sitting, right
before the race (2MB). I don't blow the engine, but the driving style is
very close to the race. Would you like me to email it to you?

Thanks for the help.

--Jeff

by **Simon Brow** » Tue, 29 May 2001 10:41:01

I presume then, if you do all your downshifts in a short space of time, that
you leave them to the end of the braking zone?

You should be able to tell whether your shifting is hurting the engine by
listenning to the engine note, or by watching the needle. If either spike
high, then you timed your shifts badly. A little study and a little
practice is all you need.

:)

by **David Butte** » Tue, 29 May 2001 10:58:13

<snip>

Driving a Lotus <g>

--
David. (GPLRank handicap -5.92; Monsters of GPLRank h/cap +279.42)
The GPL Scrapyard: http://scrapyard.9ug.com
"After all, a mere thousand yards - such a harmless little knoll,
really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.

by **Jeffrey Row** » Tue, 29 May 2001 11:07:24

I'm slower in the other cars at the Glen (and a few other tracks). On some
tracks I still find the Lotus undrivable.

--Jeff

> > I'm trying to race longer races in GPL, but after 7-10 laps into a
> > race at the Glen, my engine explodes. Bang! I shift at or before
> > 9000 and I always let off while shifting. This keeps happening.
> > What am I doing wrong?
> <snip>

> Driving a Lotus <g>

> --
> David. (GPLRank handicap -5.92; Monsters of GPLRank h/cap +279.42)
> The GPL Scrapyard: http://scrapyard.9ug.com
> "After all, a mere thousand yards - such a harmless little knoll,
> really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.

by **L Won** » Tue, 29 May 2001 15:55:33

I'm going to haxard a guess ( difficult without seeing you drive , obviously
! ) that you are trying to drive faster , sliding round the corners ,
instead of driving through them in a grippy way. Try using higher gears than
normal , say coming out of the esses in 5th , onto back straight in 3rd or
even 4th , round last bend in 2nd not 1st . Concentrate on getting best line
and grip , not max acceleration / braking. Widest entry point etc. Slow in ,
Drive out. Good Luck. Lucinda W

by **Topi Paavol** » Tue, 29 May 2001 16:53:18

>I'm slower in the other cars at the Glen (and a few other tracks). On some
>tracks I still find the Lotus undrivable.

Yes, it's annoyingly twitchy. I'm having a difficult time deciding
between Eagle and Lotus for our upcoming season. At the end of the
previous season I did some serious Lotus training to cleanse my soul of
the evil that was Honda, and improved my GPLRank by about 15 seconds
while grinning like a maniac.

Then I gave the Eagle another try and suddenly made PBs on four tracks
without even trying. It's a bit clumsy in Zandvoort but I seem to be
much more in control with it. The only problem is that if you even
*think* about bumping a fence or another car, it breaks apart. But at
least it doesn't blow up from bad shifts as easily as Lotus.

- topi
--
http://www.iki.fi/tjp/

by **Jan Verschuere** » Tue, 29 May 2001 18:30:36

Sure..

Jan.
=---
"Pay attention when I'm talking to you boy!" -Foghorn Leghorn.

by **Eldre** » Wed, 30 May 2001 00:11:16

>Yes, it's annoyingly twitchy. I'm having a difficult time deciding
>between Eagle and Lotus for our upcoming season. At the end of the
>previous season I did some serious Lotus training to cleanse my soul of
>the evil that was Honda, and improved my GPLRank by about 15 seconds
>while grinning like a maniac.

When you say 'serious Lotus training', what do you mean? Hours and hours of
running laps?

Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
F1 hcp. +24.63...F2 +151.26...

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

by **Dave Henri** » Wed, 30 May 2001 01:04:38

"EldredP" > >while grinning like a maniac.
no no no Eldred. MAN you can be SOOOOOO dense sometimes. Serious Lotus
training....as EVERYONE ELSE knows is powerlifting Lotus 49 race cars over
your head while sitting with your knees wrapped around your neck which are
circled by a garland of lotus leaves. Do we HAVE to explain everything
around here?????
dave(mr. obvious)henrie

by **Kevin Gavit** » Wed, 30 May 2001 01:35:40

You forgot to tell him that you have to chant:

Ommmmmmmagod this is heavy. Ommmmmmmagod.

KFG

by **Charlie** » Wed, 30 May 2001 02:38:25

Go on to something else. Get a PB at one of the new tracks your working
on and then come back to the Glen. By learning another track, or learning
more about another track, you will learn to do things w/ the car that
Watkins Glen didnt teach you up front. Apply and let dry :) and youll find
yourself taking a turn different at Watkins Glen. BTW... I didnt have engine
probs until I got to the ring (among other things lol) so I really learned
to shift nicely while racing hard. This driving a race car thing goes alot
deeper than that, but I think you know what I mean.

Good Luck!
Charlie

> I'm going to haxard a guess ( difficult without seeing you drive ,
obviously
> ! ) that you are trying to drive faster , sliding round the corners ,
> instead of driving through them in a grippy way. Try using higher gears
than
> normal , say coming out of the esses in 5th , onto back straight in 3rd or
> even 4th , round last bend in 2nd not 1st . Concentrate on getting best
line
> and grip , not max acceleration / braking. Widest entry point etc. Slow in
,
> Drive out. Good Luck. Lucinda W

> > I'm trying to race longer races in GPL, but after 7-10 laps into a race
at
> > the Glen, my engine explodes. Bang! I shift at or before 9000 and I
always
> > let off while shifting. This keeps happening. What am I doing wrong?

> > Also, I've observed a peculiar trend in my lap times: they're getting
> worse,
> > not better. I drive the Glen more than any other track, and I haven't
come
> > with a quarter second of my best lap there in exactly one month. I've
only
> > been driving GPL for 2 months. My gplrank keeps falling because I'm
> driving
> > the other tracks. But why can't I go any faster at the Glen? I can get
> > within ~1.5s of my best lap in most of the cars. After posting a 1:06.49
> > last month in the Lotus, I've only been in the 1:06's twice since, and
> both
> > laps were today: one during training, one during a race. Have I managed
to
> > _forget_ how to drive? I've been using Alison Hine's setups the whole
> time.

> > --Jeff

by **Thom j** » Wed, 30 May 2001 08:24:03

One Comment!!! U Definately Need Professional Help Dave H!! hahaha
Dr Ruth & Dr Joyce would be ur best bet!! lmmfaorofl
thom (mr. extremely obvious to me) _j.

| no no no Eldred. MAN you can be SOOOOOO dense sometimes. Serious Lotus
| training....as EVERYONE ELSE knows is powerlifting Lotus 49 race cars over
| your head while sitting with your knees wrapped around your neck which are
| circled by a garland of lotus leaves. Do we HAVE to explain everything
| around here?????
| dave(mr. obvious)henrie

by **Topi Paavol** » Wed, 30 May 2001 22:59:11

>"EldredP"
>> When you say 'serious Lotus training', what do you mean? Hours and
>> hours of running laps?
> no no no Eldred. MAN you can be SOOOOOO dense sometimes. Serious Lotus
>training....as EVERYONE ELSE knows is powerlifting Lotus 49 race cars over
>your head while sitting with your knees wrapped around your neck which are
>circled by a garland of lotus leaves. Do we HAVE to explain everything
>around here?????

Well, there's that... and pulling the car through the Ring in 10 minutes
with your teeth :)

As Eldred said, lots of hotlapping. Not quite "hours and hours", though.
After getting used to the Honda, it was incredibly fun to drive a light,
agile car with lots of power. I probably learned some good habits while
trying to hang along with the good Brabham and Cooper guys, and that
paid off when I moved over to Lotus. I improved my records by two
seconds on most tracks just by driving a clean lap.

I've now stalled at around -24, so I'll probably have to find better
driving lines or something... maybe even get used to the alienish 45/60
setups. Then again, some 85/45 setups of the fast guys are quite nice
and they're much faster than me with those. Sigh.

- topi (finally broke 1:05 at the Glen; 1:04.96 with the Eagle, woohoo)
--
http://www.iki.fi/tjp/

rec.autos.simulators

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster

My Lotus keep exploding, and I'm getting slower, not faster