In anticipation of the GPL Le Mans track I have been thinking about
simulating the big speed differentials that exist there. This may have
been mentioned before and I missed it, but I have worked out a way to
have 7 classes of GPL performance. I use AI Tweaker, GPL Engine Manager,
and
SVG-Editor (sorry I don't have web addresses but they all must be on
Alison Hine's web site - http://simracing.com/alison/gpl/).
My apologies to all the GPL veterans out there who may read this.
Whenever I go on one of these long musings I try to remember that there
may be someone out there who is new to GPL. I hope I don't confuse them
with these comments. (I am a GPL veteran who is usually confused by all
this).
Here is what I do. In the AI Tweaker I set all the global hype scaling
to the fastest (0.000) I think this makes the AI run at their best? I
have seen an F2 Cooper hold up Clark at Spa for a mile or so!
In the GPL Engine Manager I change the Brabham engine to the Westlake,
the BRM and Eagle to 2.01 race, the Cooper and Ferrari to 2.51 race, the
Honda to 2.01 street (this helps keep Mr. Surtess from putting one of
his front wheels in your cockpit at the start), and leave the Lotus
unchanged.
I run a 15 min qualifier at SPA. or the Ring or Monza - all sites for
the Le Mans type races in times past.
When the start sequence begins I click red button and save the results.
I go to the SVG-Editor and make these selections and changes:
(of course all these could be any value, but you want enough laps so
that you can have the encounters with slower/faster traffic)
Opposition level = Intermediate (could be anything)
Damage Model = None (the most fun of course)
Laps = 15 (for Spa anyway)
On the grid on the right side of the screen make sure these are the
selections: F1 for all the Brabham, Eagle, Ferrari, Honda and Lotus
cars.
F2 for all the Cooper cars.
F3 for all the BRM cars.
When they race I think I now will have the 7 classes, in a GPL sense
anyway.
Brabham Westlake - A Super Swapper (like a prototype class)
Lotus Ford - F1 (like an established Le Mans winner)
BRM - F3
Cooper - F2
Ferrari FD ( F1 car with F2 engine (my favorite combo))
Eagle FG (F1 car with F3 engine)
Honda "FS"???? (F1 car with F3 "street" engine)a real annoyingly slow
car that you always meet at the wrong place and the wrong time like near
the end of the Mulsane (sp?) straight?
If you drive a Cooper or a Ferrari you have many competitors with the
same engine size and close racing between what must be cars of the same
class.
The fun really starts when you encounter the slower cars then get over
taken by the fast ones - this almost always mixes up the running order
just like in real racing.
Of course you could choose any combo you wanted and drive the prototype
or the slowest car, or anything in between. I hope someone will try
this, especially when the Le Mans track arrives.
A final warning to anyone new to the Engine Swapper: Be sure to create a
new driver for each of any Swapper, Fd, FG, or "FS" (?) class so you
won't
foul up your GPL rank activity! Alison explains how to do this, as well
as how to become an F2 or F3 regular driver too and I won't try to
remember how to do that right here. I am certain that as soon as I
submit this thing I will spot some fatal error in this "logic" but here
goes...
