Silly GPL tricks... pulling a "Rockford"

Has anyone else tried to pull a "Rockford" in GPL? That's the old stunt where you get going fast in reverse (to about 50-60 mph), shift into neutral, turn, and touch the brakes (all simultaneously), switch up to second gear while you do a half spin, catch the car on the other side and continue in the forward direction. You never fall below 35-40 mph during the whole manuever. We used to call this a "Rockford" because James Garner used to often do it in his TV show. Anyway, it looks very cool, and this is the first sim realistic enough to allow you to do it. I have a small (20K) replay of it if anyone wants to see a demonstration, or I can post it here if there's any interest. Might be kind of fun to start an online "Rockford Race" sometime where everyone has to turn around before the green flag and start backwards! Joe

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>Has anyone else tried to pull a "Rockford" in GPL? That's the old >stunt where you get going fast in reverse (to about 50-60 mph), shift >into neutral, turn, and touch the brakes (all simultaneously), switch >up to second gear while you do a half spin, catch the car on the other >side and continue in the forward direction. You never fall below 35-40 >mph during the whole manuever. We used to call this a "Rockford" >because James Garner used to often do it in his TV show. >Anyway, it looks very cool, and this is the first sim realistic enough >to allow you to do it. I have a small (20K) replay of it if anyone >wants to see a demonstration, or I can post it here if there's any >interest. Might be kind of fun to start an online "Rockford Race" >sometime where everyone has to turn around before the green flag and >start backwards!

I'm pretty sure that the "Rockford" was possible on sims as old as the original NASCAR Racing. Still, it's nice to try it on any simulated car you can get a hold of! Now if only I can get the Lotus to corner on two wheels... Martin Nigel Mansell RIP!

I never had a problem doing this in NFS-SE.

In real life it is a heck of a lot easier to do in a front-engined car... It's pretty easy in GPL to do the 180 the other way--where you end up going backwards--but of course it requires something to trip up the rear wheels. Marc.

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>Has anyone else tried to pull a "Rockford" in GPL? That's the old >stunt where you get going fast in reverse (to about 50-60 mph), shift >into neutral, turn, and touch the brakes (all simultaneously), switch >up to second gear while you do a half spin, catch the car on the other >side and continue in the forward direction. You never fall below 35-40 >mph during the whole manuever. We used to call this a "Rockford" >because James Garner used to often do it in his TV show. >Anyway, it looks very cool, and this is the first sim realistic enough >to allow you to do it. I have a small (20K) replay of it if anyone >wants to see a demonstration, or I can post it here if there's any >interest. Might be kind of fun to start an online "Rockford Race" >sometime where everyone has to turn around before the green flag and >start backwards! >Joe

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> I'm pretty sure that the "Rockford" was possible on sims as >old as the original NASCAR Racing. Still, it's nice to try it on any >simulated car you can get a hold of! > Now if only I can get the Lotus to corner on two wheels... >Martin >Nigel Mansell RIP!

Ive got the Lotus on two wheels around the corner at the end of the long straight at Nurburgring. I even felt the steering suddenly pull to the right when the left side left the ground.

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>Has anyone else tried to pull a "Rockford" in GPL? That's the old >stunt where you get going fast in reverse (to about 50-60 mph), shift >into neutral, turn, and touch the brakes (all simultaneously), switch >up to second gear while you do a half spin, catch the car on the other >side and continue in the forward direction. You never fall below 35-40 >mph during the whole manuever. We used to call this a "Rockford" >because James Garner used to often do it in his TV show.

I tried to do this quite often ("getting the car back to point in the right direction" necessarily is one of my standard maneuvers in GPL ;) but I rarely manage to shift gears quickly enough to avoid slowing down or even stopping. Problem is the game would probably disqualify everyone for driving in the wrong direction... Now, I'd like to see a sim allowing "Le Mans" starts. Kind of "run&jump&drive". I can see it now: ctrl-alt-ctrl-alt-ctrl-alt-shift-i- and off you go. :) -- Wolfgang Preiss \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.

> Ive got the Lotus on two wheels around the corner at the end of the long >straight at Nurburgring. I even felt the steering suddenly pull to the right >when the left side left the ground. I can do this too. Usually it involves *** a corner or two off on a wall tho :)

> this is the first sim realistic enough > to allow you to do it. Try doing it in TOCA.....and I'm sure there are others too? 8-) *Peter* 8-) (NB: remove asterisk to e-mail)

On Wed, 21 Oct 1998 01:30:43 +0800, "T.Galvin" > Ive got the Lotus on two wheels around the corner at the end of the long >straight at Nurburgring. I even felt the steering suddenly pull to the right >when the left side left the ground. Wow! What was your setup like when you pulled this off? I'm guessing the rise at the end of the straight helped you a bit, or was it really just the sheer force of cornering that tipped you over? Martin Nigel Mansell RIP!

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> On Wed, 21 Oct 1998 01:30:43 +0800, "T.Galvin" > > Ive got the Lotus on two wheels around the corner at the end of the long > >straight at Nurburgring. I even felt the steering suddenly pull to the right > >when the left side left the ground. > Wow! What was your setup like when you pulled this off? > I'm guessing the rise at the end of the straight helped you a > bit, or was it really just the sheer force of cornering that tipped > you over?

i suspect it's a combination of physical events that get the car on two wheels at that turn - i've seen my car on two wheels there myself when i watch replays:) although the rear wheels are only like a couple of inches off the ground, nothing tooo exciting (except that you're at 280kph!). The little rise leading up to the bridge gets the car slightly airborne at that sort of full speed, but as you are turning your front wheels to the left at the same time, the act of forcably changing the rotational axis of the front wheels via turning means that the difference in rotational momentum on the front wheels is fed into the chassis, and for turning left that rotates the car to the right, bringing the right wheels down to touch the ground while the left wheels are still in the air... all fun stuff really, and it shows off the coolness of Papy's physics modelling:)

says... I don't know about doing a Rockford ..... as I'm not that good. I do know how to do a Starsky and Hutch ....... that is going sideways into the gutter. I think I'll call it a "Turkey Breath". Oh those were the days!!!!!

Yep, I tried it at Monza. I figured it would help my car control abilities... I was pretty PLEASED with myself, too. :) writes: ________ Eldred Pickett e-mail address altered to deter spammers - remove the '*' to reply Put your message in a modem - and throw it into the ***-sea...