First, my condolences to Greg Moore, his family and team mates. I have been at
NASA races all weekend at Sears Point......they lowered the flags this afternoon
about 5 pm (during a 5 hour enduro race). I've been racing for nearly four***
years......the death of a fellow driver is always devastating to me......
whether it occurs on or off the race track. I noticed some heated posts below
about "safety".......maybe this will makes some sense to some of you not
actively involved in real world racing:
Look at the advancements over the last 20 years in personal driver
safety equipment and technology, race track construction, track safety for
participants and fans, the crushable race tubs to absorb energy...away from the
driver and cocoon him/her in a fair amount of protection, carbon fiber itself
has saved hundreds of lives. But.....deaths still occur. I think its possible
to say that we are at a point....technologically speaking with regard to
everyone's safety at the race track, fans, drivers, crew members.....where silly
accidents that should NOT cause deaths.....generally don't anymore! Gonzales
and Moore stood almost no chance of surviving their accidents under any type of
safety equipment known and used today in modern racing. You can point to
things.....in every accident that's ever taken the life of a driver......and say
"if".....! In Greg's case......start with the access road that lifted his car,
or go back to the very beginning......the driver error...or equipment failure
(it was one or the other) that caused the high speed spin to start
with....."if"......! My experience in racing for four*** years has convinced
me that when a driver perishes....racing makes every effort to determine if the
death was reasonably avoidable.....through the "known" technology, and race
procedures employed.
On to NASCAR Legends........ I was finally able to drive it some tonight (after
getting it on Friday)....of course I would have paid the price for NL if it was
just a simulation of one track, Riverside!
I'm very impressed. The first lap around the track....I took in first
gear.....I felt like a 6 year old....who used to go to Riverside with his uncle
to watch ....I think every race possible! And as an ***....I was at Riverside
to crew for a Firehawk Enduro race team....but never got to race at Riverside
because it was torn down before I could run in a race there. The track was very
authentic to my memory of it. My hat is off to Papyrus.....for a spectacular
job of recreating Riverside from what little "images and data" they had
available to them. Even the "coloring" of the track and surrounding hillsides
is virtually a perfect reproduction (guess I needed to say that because I've
"bagged" them pretty hard for always making Sears Point "green"....when it's not
green). But, as much as the Riverside track impresses.......the driving of the
Legends cars impresses me even more! The N2 "game engine" and "car physics"
programs are not very....shall we say....."flexible." And the utilities to work
with them are borderline archaic by current standards of sim production
technology .........unlike GPL which is far more flexible in both the car
physics and game engine departments. The "feel" of driving those under-tired,
over-horse powered "boats" they called NASCAR race cars at that time in
history......is a remarkable achievement....considering the "tools" Papy had to
create it with. I never had the opportunity to actually race one of those
cars.....but I've driven several of them in solo laps at Portland International
when I instructed for the Vintage Racing Schools held there in the late
80's.......the NL cars take my brain back to those moments.....with extreme
realism.
For those of you with real racing experience......here's a "hint" on what I
discovered tonight....driving NL at Riverside: Drive the cars as if they are
front-wheel drive, showroom stock race cars....use the exact same technique.
After 20 laps of "crashing" virtually every lap....I switched to the
FWD-showroom stock technique I learned to drive in the ESCORT series....but its
the same every SCCA amateur uses in SSA, SSB, or SSC every weekend. Within 10
laps using this driving technique.....I was clicking off lap after lap above
110's mph.....and I hadn't even touched the "ACE" suspension yet (which is a
little too "pushy"......for my taste at least).
Sorry, for those of you without real world experience driving FWD-showroom stock
race cars.....the explanation of the technique is beyond the scope of this
newsgroup posting....and this one is already too long. I'll try to write a Crew
Chief's Notebook column for High Gear very soon....and will explain it in detail
then.
As to the "issue" about the AI cutting the corner in T6....??? I don't see what
the big deal is? If they do it.....so do I.....end of issue .....in my book.
Gonna go turn the AI back up to 100% and get my ***waxed a little.......I can
sleep-in tomorrow! lol....
Regards,
Tom Pabst
P.S. I'll have "sound" stuff, hints and tricks...and some "tweaks" for the SB
Live card in the "soundtwk.txt" file for NL on the High Gear pages next week!
P.S.S......Hint: The AI's line in "the sweeper" (last right-hand turn before
heading back up track over s/f) is slow....so is the "black" track markings for
"the line." Their line over "trestles" is too fast....don't try to match
them....you'll be plowing California dirt on every lap if you do!