GRM Project Cars 2 - Series 8: Not bitter at all...

@TJ @Sauce - Any of your McLaren friends going to be joining us?  I finally took the time to put in formulas through our scoring sheet and want to add any known participants before the series gets going.  Also, I need to add their PSN to my friends list.

In reply to BradLTL :

Invited three people. One is a definite no. One didn't answer either way. One sounded somewhat interested, but not sure if he is planning on joining or not. Since he didn't sign up here, I'll send him an invite Wed night and we'll see if he shows up or not.

littleregret265 is his PSN handle.

So, I'm working from home today and decided to have the game run a simulated race for me so I could learn the things that I don't have time to practice.  Here's some notes:

• I'm driving the #27 BMW (that's my racing number, so it seems right).  I was faster in the Opel, but couldn't do it for more than 3 laps at a time.
• I started the race, and at the end of lap 1 swapped to the AI driver to finish it.
• The Crew Chief has a sense of humor.  In turn 2 of the opening lap, I was in a mess of cars and he said, "4 wide... good luck"
• The FWD cars are much faster in a straight line and pulling out of corners.
• There is a noticeable draft affect.  In clean air the BMW would lose 0.5 seconds down the front straight.  When in the draft (less than 1 sec gap), it could maintain and even make up 0.1 seconds
• With my tune applied, my AI driver was 1.5 seconds a lap faster than the leader AI (when in clean air) and turned in the fastest lap of the race.
• My AI driver is a coward and never dared to try and out brake anyone to make a pass for 30+ minutes
• You cannot define a pit strategy to swap drivers, you have to do it in the menu while driving... that's fun.
• All the cars can carry enough fuel to not require it during a stop.
• The tires lasted the entire race.. just.  The FWD cars tire performance started dropping off 1+ seconds a lap with about 20-25 minutes to go.  The BMW seemed to suffer in the last 10ish minutes.
• What you do and when you pit is going to make a difference.  I know what I would do if I was driving a FWD car, but I'm not sure what I'll do with the BMW. 
• If I was a FWD car, I would fully fuel and drive to about 65-75% distance and then pit and swap tires (assuming no damage).  That minimizes time in the pits, but gives you fresh tires right when they start to fall off and for the end of the race when you are lower on fuel and can push for a fast lap.
• Algarve is about 39 laps.

Ugh.. they just announced who actually won the contest... I think I'm even more bitter now...

I did a 20 lap practice race today. No drop off in lap times for 20 laps. I think Brad has it right for strategy. If no damage run as long as you can until tire wear starts affecting your laptimes, then pit for tires. It all goes out the window if you get damage. I'm going to make a slight adjustment to my tire pressures, but am otherwise done making setup changes.

Should we know who these people are Brad?

As for my tune I my take a little wing out of my car.  I went from 4.5 to 3 and it was noticeably more slippery in any kind of sweeper.  BUT the top speed was noticeably better.  I was just hitting the shift point in 6th at the end of the front strait so top speed was definitely up a bit.   But it was much easier to loose the car in T1 with the wing at 3.  I may go to 4 for tonight we wil see.

I have my pit strategy in place so that is all set as well since I don't need any more tire pressure adjustments that I can see.

The only thing I may play with (after this race) is the other dif that I used in the GTE car/  That dif really settled the back end of the car down so I am wondering if it would help to get the BMW's back end planted better.

I am thinking I might go with the BMW for tha sake of everyone else.  The Megane could get a bit exciting under braking and I ended up of the track a few time when I got aggressive.  I should be able to keep the BMW on the black stuff for a race.  I may end up on the inside of T1 at some point, but that's not too bad.

I just wanted to note also, that I beat both Dean and Sauce last night in a practice race...

Do we know are basic schedule?  Practice at 9 (Eastern), when does the race start / end?  Just worried about going too late.  Might want to start the last race a bit early.

In reply to aircooled :

There is no practice.   Ok, I may launch the room early with a practice session, but the start of the sessions is intended to be qualifying. 

9ET is the start of qualifying. 

Is this going to be spec BMW?

Sauce appears to like the Megane, which, from my driving both, would likely be faster for me if I could master it, I just don't want to risk it.  I think TJ is leaning Megane also.

Of note: it appears the Megane is slow at the very start, but pulls well after first... ask Dean how we know that... :)

Ed. You going to make it?  

Quick update... We are no longer doing a timed race at 75 minutes. We will be doing a lap race for 39 laps. I'll make an update to the rules and schedule later, but it is the only way to turn on the mandatory pit stop rule. 

Bonus of me having to work with consultants on the other side of the world means I get the points updated in a timely manner.  Also, I've updated the schedule to show the lap count for each round.

That was fun.

Fun fact, after lap 1, turn 1 I don't think I ever saw Sauce again, other than seeing his tag when I went by him while he was in the pits.

I thought I may of had a chance with the stop and go pit strategy. Sauce pitted on lap 25. I couldn't see him on my delta display since there were too much lapped traffic on the road in between us, but I was hoping I would have a 45 second lead on him at that point. Turns out it was 34 seconds. I don't know how long a stop and go pit stop takes, but I figured it would be a good bit quicker than a tire change and repairing the 5% front aero damage I got on lap 15 from Sauce's team mate.

Eventually my front left tire indicator was just an empty box and I was not sure what would happen next. I was still doing decent laptimes (1:54.7 on lap 31), but figured if the tire really went, I didn't want to lose 2nd place, so I pitted for tires and damage repairs on lap 32. According to RS Dash, that tire was only at 47% wear. Maybe I could've tried it after all. Still would've ended up 2nd though (at best) so it wasn't worth the risk to try. I'll do some experimenting on extreme tire wear before next race and the difference between the in game HUD and RS Dash.

My race was reasonable.  I was slow, which is to be expected given the rust that I needed to knock off.  I managed a great start (from 14th?) and broke the cardinal rule and went outside of T1.  Not sure what all happened on the inside, but the outside was the place to be... I came out of T1 in 5th.  I did my best to be a pain to the AI and make my car wide.  The problem I had was my brakes.  I was locking up more than in any practice session (offline vs online?).  Eventually cars started slipping past.  About the 5th lap, I got loose in Portmao.  Not bad, just a little bit, and the AI decided to test my door.  I got hit, spun around, knocked up on my side and landed.  I got going again in about 10th but was carrying damage on the front.  The damage cost me top speed down the straight and wasn't ideal, but I wasn't ready to pit so I just drove with it.  I went on for awhile, just making small mistakes.  Ebbing and flowing from about 8th to about 12th with pitstops.  Finally I pit and I didn't listen to Sauce's advice on pit strategy and my crew decided my tires were fine.  Good news, short stop.  Bad news... worn tires.  So I tried to just put in good laps without damage holding me back, but the tires started showing there age.  Honestly it wasn't terrible, I could have gone another 15 laps without wearing the tires out.  They just were a little slick.  Typically I would put together 1 or 2 hot sectors and then overcook it and slide and loose every bit of the time I was gaining.  I had a couple tank slappers right at the end, but all self-induced.  

A couple other series notes:

1. I will allow 1 round of buyers remorse.  If you raced and want to swap cars, you can now.  
2. AI was aggressive and I got hit from it where a person would not have, but I did have several laps of battles with the AI that was stressful.  I say we give them 1 more race (at their proper settings) to prove themselves.  If they act a fool again, we can finish the series with no AI.
3. If we eliminate the AI, each of us will be required to run into Dean at least 1 time per race.

Here is a graph of my laptimes because I am a nerd. Pretty consistent for the most part. Just need to learn to get off the line better and survive T1.

Here is an overall graph of gap to the leader throughout the race. Interesting to see the effect of the pit stops.

I had a good qualifying lap, got a great jump at the start and ended right next to Sauce approaching T1.  I really wanted to avoid “Deaning” Sauce so took it real wide and careful.  Sauce just disappeared after a lap or two.  

One of the nicer aspects of the longer race and pit stops was encountering a good number of cars during the race.  I race next to everyone during the race for at least little bit, which is quite unusual. I think I had a 5 lap(?) battle inches from Dean.  It did point out how challenging it was to pass since I was clearly faster on the fresher tires.  Probably had a lot to do with me being super cautious.

That was really fun. Still pretty clueless about a couple corners on that track but it was very fun.

and thank you for the help setting things up!

Was a fun race. Clawed my way back to 7th. The AI for some reason was my nemesis last night.  

It was great to see you Ed. Next week is a more familiar track I think. 
 

I think I spun more than five times last night; all in the second half. Just losing focus. 

In reply to Ed Higginbotham :

Up until these series, we mostly ran 30 minute races, so these longer races do make for different challenges. Staying focused is one of them. The good part is that there is more opportunity to recover if things go a bit sideways. 

Luckily, these cars are relatively easy to drive compared to some others we’ve raced with. 

dean1484 said:

It was great to see you Ed. Next week is a more familiar track I think. 
 

 

I appreciate you guys having me! Looking forward to the next one.