Well, I had a particularly good session tonight at Spa. The Lotus and
I were on the same wavelength. I was one with the car and it felt
good. It's almost as if I merely had to think where I wanted to go and
the car would just do it, no questions asked. So what better time to
try and improve my Ring time?
I have avoided the Ring like the plague. My GPLRank has been stuck
around 118 for I don't know how long simply because of my pathetic
9:43 at the Ring. So the time had come.
My initial plan was to take a couple of laps in the Honda just to
familiarize myself with the track a little (since I have completed
maybe 20 laps there altogether since I bought the game.) Good lord,
what a mistake that was. Does the damn thing have hamster on a wheel
for a motor? You can stand on the gas in first and never so much as
squeak a tire. And it handles like friggin oil tanker. I am used to
throwing the Lotus's ass into a corner and catching it with the
throttle. I'm used to being able to let off the gas ever so slightly
to correct understeer and make the car turn in nicely. The Honda is
simply a big smelly turd. It was as if my trusty steed was in the barn
wondering why I had abandoned her...
So I went back to the real car, apologized for my fit of temporary
insanity, and climbed back in. We had a nice warmup lap just to get
her feet used to the track. Then the second lap was going well til
near the end when we spun a couple of times. No problem...happens to
everyone. My fault, not yours. You're doing great. We'll get 'em next
lap. And we did. I went from a totally pathetic 9:43 to a still
pathetic but not quite so bad 9:24.80. Cutting 20 seconds off in 3
laps ain't bad if you ask me. My rank went from 118.09 to 99.44 with
that performance.
For the first time, I actually was able to start visualizing the turns
that were coming up, and I am convinced that that is absolutely the
key to the Ring -- PRACTICE, pure and simple. You gotta run it over
and over and over and over until you know what's coming up next. I
wish I weren't going to be out of town this weekend -- I would
dedicate myself to breaking into the 8's, which really shouldn't be
too hard. GH's setup that I am using is perfect. I just gotta learn
the track...
Todd Walker
GPLRank: +99.44
twalker at jam dot rr dot com
http://twalker.d2g.com
Well I'm a newbie and for some stupid reason decided the Ring would be the
4th track I learned. At first I thought I would never get it down and
absolutely hated it. I started out in the Lotus and was absolutely
everywhere, I think my best time the first night was 10:50 :) A couple
days later I went back in the Eagle just to try and learn the track, did a
non-shift-R lap of 9:40, hooray. Next I switched back to the Lotus, drove
really conservative and did a non-spin lap of 9:15, then a 9:10 the next
night. Today, fired it up and just let it all hang out, went crazy, got it
down to 8:46:64, then on the next lap did a 8:45.61... with a spin! Without
that spin, who knows what it would've been. Anyway now I absolutely love
the Ring :) It gets more fun every time. It's kinda hard to believe that
I've got just about all 174 turns in my head now... I remember my first lap
there, the damn track never ended! I kept thinking "you've got to be
kidding me" :) .I've probably only completed maybe 30 or 40 full laps there
(only had the game a couple of weeks) but already feel quite a sense of
accomplishment. I bought this new computer for N4, and after finding out
how much it sucks, started playing GPL instead. Fun stuff :)
dc
dc <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:9fq5ko$vk1$[email hidden]...
> night. Today, fired it up and just let it all hang out, went crazy,got it
> down to 8:46:64, then on the next lap did a 8:45.61... with a spin!Without
Not fair! I did the 'Ring as one of my early tracks too - except that
was about 18 months ago, and I'm still only just under 8:40 :-(
GPLRank around the +47 mark now, though :-)
Jonny
I had GPL for at least a year before i would even consider
the ring (too scary) then one day when i was getting bored
of the other tracks i thought what the heck, now i love that
track and i have almost broke into the high 8:20's. Just keep
at it and don't give up you really have to memorize each corner
thats what i did before i could get my lap times down.
Long Live GPL!!!!!!
Steve.
"dc" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:9fq5ko$vk1$[email hidden]...
it
> down to 8:46:64, then on the next lap did a 8:45.61... with a spin!Without
> that spin, who knows what it would've been. Anyway now I absolutely love
> the Ring :) It gets more fun every time. It's kinda hard to believe that
> I've got just about all 174 turns in my head now... I remember my firstlap
> there, the damn track never ended! I kept thinking "you've got to be
> kidding me" :) .I've probably only completed maybe 30 or 40 full lapsthere
Quoted text (8 lines)
> Well I'm a newbie and for some stupid reason decided the Ring would be the > 4th track I learned. At first I thought I would never get it down and > absolutely hated it. I started out in the Lotus and was absolutely > everywhere, I think my best time the first night was 10:50 :) A couple > days later I went back in the Eagle just to try and learn the track, did a > non-shift-R lap of 9:40, hooray. Next I switched back to the Lotus, drove > really conservative and did a non-spin lap of 9:15, then a 9:10 the next > night. Today, fired it up and just let it all hang out, went crazy, gotQuoted text (7 lines)
> (only had the game a couple of weeks) but already feel quite a sense of > accomplishment. I bought this new computer for N4, and after finding out > how much it sucks, started playing GPL instead. Fun stuff :) > > dc > >It took Ricardo Nunnini 100 laps to get to 8:30. I needed about 50 to get
to 8:41, which I hit last week. Jan says the rule of thumb is 50 laps to
memorize the track, and 50 more to learn the lines. 100 laps is about 900
minutes, or 15 solid hours of track time.
--Jeff
"Todd Walker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted text (46 lines)
> Well, I had a particularly good session tonight at Spa. The Lotus and > I were on the same wavelength. I was one with the car and it felt > good. It's almost as if I merely had to think where I wanted to go and > the car would just do it, no questions asked. So what better time to > try and improve my Ring time? > > I have avoided the Ring like the plague. My GPLRank has been stuck > around 118 for I don't know how long simply because of my pathetic > 9:43 at the Ring. So the time had come. > > My initial plan was to take a couple of laps in the Honda just to > familiarize myself with the track a little (since I have completed > maybe 20 laps there altogether since I bought the game.) Good lord, > what a mistake that was. Does the damn thing have hamster on a wheel > for a motor? You can stand on the gas in first and never so much as > squeak a tire. And it handles like friggin oil tanker. I am used to > throwing the Lotus's ass into a corner and catching it with the > throttle. I'm used to being able to let off the gas ever so slightly > to correct understeer and make the car turn in nicely. The Honda is > simply a big smelly turd. It was as if my trusty steed was in the barn > wondering why I had abandoned her... > > So I went back to the real car, apologized for my fit of temporary > insanity, and climbed back in. We had a nice warmup lap just to get > her feet used to the track. Then the second lap was going well til > near the end when we spun a couple of times. No problem...happens to > everyone. My fault, not yours. You're doing great. We'll get 'em next > lap. And we did. I went from a totally pathetic 9:43 to a still > pathetic but not quite so bad 9:24.80. Cutting 20 seconds off in 3 > laps ain't bad if you ask me. My rank went from 118.09 to 99.44 with > that performance. > > For the first time, I actually was able to start visualizing the turns > that were coming up, and I am convinced that that is absolutely the > key to the Ring -- PRACTICE, pure and simple. You gotta run it over > and over and over and over until you know what's coming up next. I > wish I weren't going to be out of town this weekend -- I would > dedicate myself to breaking into the 8's, which really shouldn't be > too hard. GH's setup that I am using is perfect. I just gotta learn > the track... > > Todd Walker > GPLRank: +99.44 > twalker at jam dot rr dot com > http://twalker.d2g.com >It'll probably take me a few 1000 laps just to get to the 8:40 range..phew!
Dag how many hours is that? yikes!!
"Jeffrey Rowe" wrote:
| It took Ricardo Nunnini 100 laps to get to 8:30. I needed about 50 to get
| to 8:41, which I hit last week. Jan says the rule of thumb is 50 laps to
| memorize the track, and 50 more to learn the lines. 100 laps is about 900
| minutes, or 15 solid hours of track time.
| --Jeff
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