BradLTL
BradLTL HalfDork
6/8/11 9:07 a.m.

Fireblade fire sale in the OCD right now... half price / 0 miles if you want to race with us and don't already have a Caterham.

I have a few minutes and am going to run a practice session in my lobby if anyone is interested.

T.J.
T.J. SuperDork
6/8/11 9:09 a.m.

Interested? Yes. PS3 at work? Nope.

The new races in the seasonal events have giant prize money. The Subaru race at Laguna Seca is over a million for first place.

NickF40
NickF40 Dork
6/8/11 9:42 a.m.

Yeah I saw that for the online dealership and races, i'll have to get in on that!

I'm ok with Type V, I actually like that version

T.J.
T.J. SuperDork
6/8/11 10:05 a.m.

I like Type V as well, although I haven't driven on it much. It would make the start safer that is for sure. T1 would still be rather wicked, but at least it is not only 20ft wide.

T.J.
T.J. SuperDork
6/8/11 12:03 p.m.

Came home for lunch. Bought 3 or 4 used cars and did the new seasonal event with the Fiat 500. Used my totally stock one and managed 4th place for $400,000. That was a boring 10 minutes. I had 3rd place in sight at the end.

Haven't tried the other ones yet. I wish I had a stock pile of cash in the game to buy one of the high $ cars at half off, but I only have around a million right now.

NickF40
NickF40 Dork
6/8/11 6:47 p.m.

Ok, not sure what's different with all of you but my update says 80 minutes

aircooled
aircooled SuperDork
6/8/11 7:15 p.m.

Faster connection.... mine said 3 minutes

CAMikaze
CAMikaze New Reader
6/8/11 7:16 p.m.
BradLTL wrote: Here a free tip to make the Fireblade easier to drive at the Ring... raise the ride height. This prevents it from bottoming out and spinning for no reason.

By how much?

BradLTL
BradLTL HalfDork
6/8/11 7:34 p.m.

Room is up 1472 6399 9009 5384 9093

NickF40
NickF40 Dork
6/8/11 7:41 p.m.

I berkeleying give up, at first my internet was acting up, so it would lose connection at 5% and it wouldn't even let me stay in PSN and I couldn't bypass the update like before because it's online oriented. So I decided to reset the internet, still good connection but it's still going to take too long so I won't even be able to compete, this E36M3s really pissing me off because other than tonight I really don't play GT5 much so the update is useless to me. The funny thing is, the whole time I was 95% connection and NAT Type 2 So hope the races go well and Brad, hope you'll enjoy my GT-R, sucks it'll be a no show for me and your Mini

I'm seriously not in the best mood right now, i'm so berkeleying pissed off

92CelicaHalfTrac
92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork
6/8/11 7:43 p.m.

How the hell do you just join your friends in a room? I'm so sick of typing in this damn room number everytime i join, because inevitably i'll get disconnected at least twice.

Someone told me two days ago to just click on their lounge if it shows that they're actually playing, but that's just taking me into empty lounges.

You cannot tell me that they spent 8 years making this game and there's no way to just join your friends that are online.

NickF40
NickF40 Dork
6/8/11 7:53 p.m.

All I do is when I click on their name there's a little yellow button on the tea cup, click that and join their room......I'd show you but yeah

92CelicaHalfTrac
92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork
6/8/11 7:54 p.m.

The yellow thing is clickable? Oh.

NickF40
NickF40 Dork
6/8/11 7:56 p.m.

hahaha yup yeah, just pressing the tea cup gives you an empty lounge

T.J.
T.J. SuperDork
6/9/11 7:16 a.m.

Somehow I was running in P2 for the beginning of the Fireblade race. Coming off the GP track and on to the ring I was starting to bottle people up a bit. Made it through the first slow twisty section and on to the first high speed section. Then I figured out at least one of the corners where I was losing time. I must've over-braked for a turn and got rear-ended and was out in the sand. That was it for me in that one. The only funny part after that from my POV was one time a little later (Still on lap 1) CAM rear-ended me under braking for a turn. I had been hit in the rear too many times by then and figured I'd just let him by and enjoy riding around by myself. CAM, I think, decided that he wasn't going to take the position by crashing me so we both just sat there parked off the side of the track honking our horns at each other for at least 5 seconds. Eventually I pulled back out on the track. I pulled away a bit from CAM and caught the next car (Brad?) who had just recovered from a wreck or penalty and that caused me to lose it and wreck. I eventually packed it in after lap 2 and did a lot of do-nuts at the finish line for 9 minutes or so.

The SBC race. Not sure what happened on T1, but it seemed that more ghosted cars drove right through me than were even in the race. From my POV myself and one other car made the first turn (everyone else was ghosted). Somehow out of that mess I got tagged with a BS ramming penalty and came out of T1 in last. Short race. Had some good back and forths with Brad and Ben, but near the end of lap 2 I was bored and tired so that was it for me. I did about 500 donuts at the finish line and at T1. I learned the Elan can do donuts in 5th.

People actually type in the room number? Yikes! That is the hard way to do it.

92CelicaHalfTrac
92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork
6/9/11 8:59 a.m.

Yeah, i got dropped right after i got by you in the SBC race. I was mad... i was just starting to get the hang of that car, i think i could have ended up in 2nd.

I'm surprised i didn't completely embarrass myself in the Fireblade race, considering no practice.

It's going to take me some time to like the HH series. These cars are INFURIATING on small tight courses.

Oh, and Nick can't handle the VTAAAAKKKKKK on Daytona Road Course.

410hp Civic > All

BradLTL
BradLTL HalfDork
6/9/11 9:04 a.m.
T.J. wrote: Somehow out of that mess I got tagged with a BS ramming penalty and came out of T1 in last.

I know you got another one later in the race too. It should have been a penalty on me. Going into a 2nd gear corner you ran a bit wide and opened a small door... I momentarily forgot I was on CM tires and tried to dive bomb the inside just as you rejoined the track completely. I guess I got the GT-R turned enough for you to get ghosted (I assume you got a penalty), but I totally rammed you. In fact, if you had not been there I would have been almost head-on into the barrier. I self penalized, waited for you to un-ghost and get going ahead of me before I tried to overtake again.

I kept getting myself in trouble last night in the race and let the GT-R down. I think I could have kept it close to the front runners, but... My problem was that I would end up watching everyone else and not paying attention to what I was doing, miss a brake or turn point. For example, I was running in 3rd behind apex and ac, with graefin close behind. I was on racing line, but going into the brake point I looked at my mirror to see where graefin was behind me. He was a lot closer than I expected, and coming up on my inside. It caught me off guard and by the time I had assimilated the information I had already missed my brake point and ran off into the grass.

That would compound, because now I was frustrated and would try and go too fast. Maybe carry and extra gear through a corner. Which resulted in...

T.J. wrote: caught the next car (Brad?) who had just recovered from a wreck

It was a 720+ which ended up with me perpendicular to the track and having no choice but to reverse, and apparently pull out in front of TJ.

All in all, a good time but a bad race. Both of them.

aircooled
aircooled SuperDork
6/9/11 10:41 a.m.

The start of the Fireblade race was weird. I got up near the front for the first corner and the car right in front of me ghosted for no reason. I think I went through him and ended up behind Apex for the second corner. I followed apex pretty closely (intimidation, intimidation...), but on that coned corner a few before the long track I was too close, needed to brake, went inside, and got a 10 second cut penalty that lost me something like 5 places.

That let Apex go, never to be seen again. I did have some fun following Graefin for a while. He eventually became a guardrail inspector and I slipped by. On the last lap, as the tires got a bit more slick and I spun twice in a short space, allowing Greafin to catch me and pass me. I got him on the next tight corner though as he over cooked it. I have to say though, Greafin has really improved in this series, he has been near the front of the pack for the last few races.

In SBC, it was fun watching the Europa blast by everyone (didn't last long though). I ended up in the following pack after turn one and got a ramming penalty... I have no idea who it was because I NEVER saw the car! All I can guess is the other car slid into me and somehow my front bumper hit them?, but I never saw them?! I did end up passing apex for the lead for a bit, but the damn slow speed snap oversteer of the Pink Monster got me at the transition to the big track. I settled in an tried to avoid more snap oversteer.

Comments on the cars: Fireblade: NEVER leave the track!!! That car will loop in a second if you even touch the grass, and it can be a huge pain getting back on the track. All in all a fun car to drive, but you need to be really careful with power application out of a corner. The car has a lot of "room" to allow you to run fast... if you dare. It would make an interesting spec series car, a LOT more challenging then the MX5.

SBD: The Big Pimpin' Pink Celica. After my transition of it to a "proper track car" it is actually a pretty nice drive. It is very nice at mid-speed, but enough oversteer, and you can get more by adding some gas. High speed it was a bit loose, had to steer by thought. Mid-slow, it was hard to get the rear end out enough, had to use the brakes for that sometimes. Slow speed, very tricky, had to be very careful coming out of corners. To much power, and BAM, snap oversteer. All and all a reasonable fun car to drive. I suspect it came up a bit short on top speed though (135 ish), I will have to test the Europa on the ring to see what it does.

Another crazy idea. Once we switch all the cars back, we run again (maybe not at the ring) but WITHOUT changing the cars when we get them back. This will be especially hard on Celica and I, we have both made radical changes to the cars.

I need to get the Pink Pimpin' Machine back to you Celica, I will try and remember to do that tonight.

92CelicaHalfTrac
92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork
6/9/11 11:11 a.m.

Yeah, i don't think the mid-range turbo is doing that celica any favors. I suspect i should have done stage 2 engine tuning then the high range turbo. It's simply got all mid-range power, and too much of it, but then runs out of breath up top.

The Europa was HILARIOUS on the launch, i loved it! I really wish i hadn't dropped, i wanted to dice it up with you and hear the glorious noises that come out of the Celica.

92CelicaHalfTrac
92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork
6/9/11 11:14 a.m.

Nick, we need to set up some GRM Drift Olympics here soon and bribe someone into following for pictures.

I also want to see what a full mod no-holds barred SBC car does.

NickF40
NickF40 Dork
6/9/11 11:20 a.m.

YES!

and it's quite fun! I actually like my GT-R the way I have it setup now though, with a bit less power

BradLTL
BradLTL HalfDork
6/9/11 11:38 a.m.
aircooled wrote: Fireblade: NEVER leave the track!!! That car will loop in a second if you even touch the grass, and it can be a huge pain getting back on the track.

Mine had the added curse of not being able to touch a curb in any manner other than dead straight.

aircooled
aircooled SuperDork
6/9/11 11:42 a.m.

You probably had the suspension to tight. Mine was setup about as soft as I could get it. The car is so light, you hardly notice the difference. That track is really bumpy.

Graefin10
Graefin10 Reader
6/9/11 3:02 p.m.

I took time to watch all three laps of Apex, ac, and my SCB laps and discovered several things about each. First I was very very impressed with Apex's performance in the previously untamed Cosmo. I will say though, that lap 3 looked like me driving. I could tell that it was a handful at times but when the tires were fresh you did some rather high speed slides that were very impressive.

ac, I could tell that the Celica was, as stated above, falling on it's face @ high rpm. Apex had you by approx 15mph on the main straight and the Marcos had you by about 7mph. I could also tell that it was a real struggle in spots keeping it on course. I guess all these vintage RWD cars on CM tires are that way.

I noticed all three of us having more trouble as the tires went away. Fortunately most of my offs were parrellel to the guard rail and not a lot of speed was lost. The accordian was closing up fast toward the end of the last lap. All of us apparently had our heads down and were squeezing everything we could get out of the cars and ourselves. I could see the final two finishers coming on strong toward the end. Anyway, it was a fun race for me and the Marcos was a good choice for this track.

Unfortunately, I forgot to save the Fireblade race. I wanted to see how close I was to some of you in the early laps. ac you called me on almost hitting you and I wanted to see what I did in order to hopefully learn something from it. T.J., I slammed you hard early on lap 1. I think you braked or let off the throttle before I did and even though I was on the brakes I hit your rear bumper hard. I don't think either of us suffered damage or a penalty though. I didn't and would like to know if you did.

All in all a fun evening for me but very tireing. I didn't think I had it in me to do a HH run but I got through it. I'll be praying that the rain holds off @ Monza.

aircooled
aircooled SuperDork
6/9/11 3:54 p.m.
Graefin10 wrote: ......ac you called me on almost hitting you and I wanted to see what I did in order to hopefully learn something from it...

hmmm, I don't remember you causing any issues for me, it all seemed pretty civil to me. We did get pretty close a few times, but it didn't mess me up. I do remember seeing you charging up from behind once and wondering if you were going to hit me since it looked like you were going to miss the braking point. You did not hit me and swung wide and ended up in the grass.

The one tip I could offer for following people closely (and the one I didn't follow when I was on Apexes but at the beginning of Fireblades), is as you are approaching a corner right on someones butt, get off the gas before the braking point, and coast into the braking point with your foot (finger) over the brake. That way, as soon as you see the brake lights come on you can start braking. Trying to go from gas to brake on the tail lights will almost always end up in bumper tag. (This may be less of an issue with a controller)

The one question I would have for you is: During the HH practice at Tsukuba, I did a draft pass on the straight and dove in on you (you were in the volvo, right?) for turn one. This was a pretty aggressive move for me (which would be suicide in SBC), and since I could not see you I was not sure if it was a blatant cut off. What was your perspective?

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