rec.autos.simulators

Wow!, just done a 20 lap session at the ring and finally got under 9
minutes.  My time was 8:58.23 in the Brabham using the default setups (with
reduced fuel of course).  Beautiful lap as well, slid wide onto the grass
twice, but didn't spin or need to reset once.
I finally feel like I know the circuit well enough to always know which
corner is coming next.  I only started learning the track last Thursday as
well.  Also did a 9:14 in the Ferrari, which doesn't seem too hot around the
ring, and couldn't get a clean lap finished in the Eagle.
Also I'm still surprised about how fast the Cooper seems to be round the
ring.  I did a 9:20 the other day which contained about 15 seconds of lost
time due to spins, so it seems to be much closer to the Ferrari and Brabham
than I thought it was.
It's amazing how much your car control improves after a few laps of the
ring.  My first out lap, I was all over the place, probably 15 spins on that
lap, but after you've done about 5 laps and are really 'in the groove' you
find yourself applying opposite lock and catching spins automatically.
Just need to do a few more 9 minute laps now to build my confidence and then
I can start really attacking the track.
Brilliant fun!
:)

Your article was really interesting and optimistic! But what was that
"20 lap session" and "reduced fuel" talk?  When I took a look to the
me still so unreachable "GP race" at the Ring, it said there are only(!)
15 laps! Why and how did you to have to "reduce the fuel"?

And 20 x 9 minutes = 180 minutes, 3 hours...

Perhaps I am a little too suspicious,..., but only today I did join the
GPLRank, and the Ring seems to be the worst problem...

Arto

You seem to have misunderstood.  I was hot-lapping, not racing.  You don't
hot-lap with a full tank of fuel.
Those 20 laps included 2 car changes, numerous Shift-R resets (which
re-fills your fuel tank) after crashing and several visits to the pits.  I
usually put 4 laps worth of fuel in when hot-lapping at the ring.
I have the replay to prove it btw.  :)

Also, when I say i've manage to get under 9 minutes at the ring in less than
a week, i've had GPL since the day it was released, so I could already drive
the cars.  I've only just started learning the ring because i've only just
heard of GPL Rank.
Hopefully you understand now...?
:)

Sheesh. Some of us took *months* to get sub-9...

I like it. It's my second-fastest chassis (8:58, as opposed to 8:51 in
the Lotus).

--
David. (GPLRank handicap: +19.68)
"After all, a mere thousand yards - such a harmless little knoll,
really."
(Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh)

Right, I'll have to give the Ferrari another try.  It's just that I did what
seemed like a fairly clean lap in the Ferrari, but the time was nothing
special, I was probably just being too cautious.
Although i've gotten under 9 mins in a fairly short time, i've been playing
GPL since the very day the demo was released, and it's much easier to learn
a track when you can already handle the cars fairly well.  Also I have an FF
wheel and solid 36 fps which both also help a lot.
And I'm avoiding the difficult cars, Lotus and Eagle and I'm avoiding
'expert' setups.

Not sure they're that difficult, at the Ring anyway. I find the Lotus
the best of the lot there, and not really more unstable than anything
else. The Eagle is a bit big for the place, really - it's more at home
on the open, sweeping circuits, especially Spa, where it's the class of
the field.

--
David. (GPLRank handicap: +19.68)
"After all, a mere thousand yards - such a harmless little knoll,
really."
(Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh)

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try tomorrow.  Generally speaking I
find it harder to put the power down in the Lotus, although I haven't tried
it much recently, and hardly at all at the ring.  Seems to me that the back
end is easy to lose, and once you've lost it it's harder to correct.
Up until 6 months ago all I ever drove was the Lotus, but I've been making a
lot more progress since I switched to the Eagle for hotlapping, and the
slower cars (Cooper, Brabham, Honda) for learning tracks and practicing.  I
particularly like the Cooper for it's handling.