AC Classic Mini Monday @ Road Atlanta Short Course - Monday 8th March 2021

[Interslice]

All I saw was Reik buggering off into the distant, I could do very little about it.

Almost now, but he didn't lap me twice! Really struggled with it, only had one decent lap i was happy with near the end when i kind of started to get a feel for it. All good fun though! Thanks to everyone who togged out.

We'll have next weeks race up tomorrow night. Shall be a change of pace. We are going to move the traditional monday night racing to a tuesday and the wednesday to a thursday. Clear the diaries! With the gt3 late on sunday and some other fixtures we feel it gives a better balance to the week.

 

[Reik Major]

Nice race, everyone. Great fun. A lot of battles from what I saw.

Congrats to the podium.

@Reik Major You lap times were insane!
I know that it's the driver that makes the difference but you were so far ahead of the rest, there must be something in your setup too. Would you mind sharing it with us? Personally I don't know what really works for a FWD car.

Thank you mate! Here's the setup.

It's very sensitiv driving to keep the momentum high. Very slight lifting the throttle in the right moment to make the rear steer. But never too much, because sliding costs a lot speed.

Seemed to be my combo though...

Btw I drove the shortest gear ratio and even stayed into 4th gear on the entry of the chicanes on top of the hill. Found out it's the fastest way to keep the speed high. A bit like Chris does in the McLaren.

 

[Reik Major]

All I saw was Reik buggering off into the distant, I could do very little about it.

Sorry mate. Didn't mean to devastate anyone. It's just the racer in me to always squeeze out everything.

Once I'm alone in a race, no matter if in 1st, in the middle or last, I challenge myself to be as fast, smooth and consistant as I can be. It's the best way not to make silly mistakes and teaches you to drive at the limit all time.

 

[stribbeck]

Almost now, but he didn't lap me twice! Really struggled with it, only had one decent lap i was happy with near the end when i kind of started to get a feel for it. All good fun though! Thanks to everyone who togged out.

We'll have next weeks race up tomorrow night. Shall be a change of pace. We are going to move the traditional monday night racing to a tuesday and the wednesday to a thursday. Clear the diaries! With the gt3 late on sunday and some other fixtures we feel it gives a better balance to the week.

Ah that's a bugger already got races on Tuesdays and Thursdays

 

[640er]

Thanks Brian for hosting, had my share of fun. This time I had no problems with setting up my rig (but I also had the checksum problem, reinstalling car and track solved it) and therefore enough practice time. Think it took me about 30mins to do my first clean lap in this car. But once you get the hang of it, it's really fun (except the annoying sound). The race itself was nice, had a few battles in the beginning but ended up 10s behind Ernie and 10s in front of Han. Ernie doing the same laptimes as me so no chance of catching him. Congrats to you and Reik, well deserved.

 

[Kek700]

Sorry mate. Didn't mean to devastate anyone. It's just the racer in me to always squeeze out everything.

Once I'm alone in a race, no matter if in 1st, in the middle or last, I challenge myself to be as fast, smooth and consistant as I can be. It's the best way not to make silly mistakes and teaches you to drive at the limit all time.

It was not all bad, at least for most of the race I was chasing a DOT in the distance.

Like looking at the old cathode ray television of the 50’s at 10 o’clock when the broadcast had finished and the only entertainment left was looking at a disappearing DOT.

 

[maxilogan]

it's really fun (except the annoying sound)

Ok so I wasn't the only one to hate that

 

[maxilogan]

Very frustrating race. I started practicing few days before and stamped a 1.14.3 that @HF2000 mentioned as good, and which I never managed to repeat in the following sessions. Then I connected to the server for the quali and saw that the best time was in the 1.10.x range and thought "ok, it's another back markers race for me".
It turns out I was optimist: qualified in penultimate place, just ahead of @Interslice , I couldn't manage to complete a single lap without sliding or spinning all over the place. Sometimes recovering a place because of other's spins or off tracks, I then found me in the position of having to be lapped by @HF2000 and in a terrible lack of understanding I managed to let him lose time and almost rear end me.
Just after this I had so many cars all around that the disaster was a tiny step away: in an attempt of recovering understeer on the finish straight I think I touched the grass and managed to Grosjean-ize me cutting the track all the way to the right, carrying away the guiltless @GeekyDeaks
At that point it was just a matter of time before the fate decided to draw a merciful veil and had my connection time out in shame.

Apologies to everybody I caused issues to, I think I won't drive FWD cars anymore, at least not in the near future..

@GeekyDeaks I had a look at the reply and I have to congratulate with the way you recovered from the spin

 

[GeekyDeaks]

Apologies to everybody I caused issues to, I think I won't drive FWD cars anymore, at least not in the near future..

Please don't feel bad about what happened. They can be tricky cars once they go over the limit but they seem to punish you for being too timid as well. When I saw all four of us coming up to that last section with the blind bend I knew it was going to be interesting! I was trying to be fairly cautious without being unpredictable and I was giggling to myself when we hit the main straight without incident.... then I think you just touched the grass

It happens, I still remember my first GTE race in which @HF2000 became an innocent bystander to my uncouth application of the right pedal

 

[GeekyDeaks]

Btw I drove the shortest gear ratio and even stayed into 4th gear on the entry of the chicanes on top of the hill.

I'd be interested to see your replay so I can properly view your braking inputs. In the earlier part of the race I seemed to be able to carry a lot of speed through there, but part way through I must have started to do something different as I was struggling to get the car turned in the same way. Same for T1. Sometimes it just went click and the delta was up .5 at the top of the hill. Great fun cars, but really need a delicate touch

 

[Interslice]

Very frustrating race. I started practicing few days before and stamped a 1.14.3 that @HF2000 mentioned as good, and which I never managed to repeat in the following sessions. Then I connected to the server for the quali and saw that the best time was in the 1.10.x range and thought "ok, it's another back markers race for me".
It turns out I was optimist: qualified in penultimate place, just ahead of @Interslice , I couldn't manage to complete a single lap without sliding or spinning all over the place. Sometimes recovering a place because of other's spins or off tracks, I then found me in the position of having to be lapped by @HF2000 and in a terrible lack of understanding I managed to let him lose time and almost rear end me.
Just after this I had so many cars all around that the disaster was a tiny step away: in an attempt of recovering understeer on the finish straight I think I touched the grass and managed to Grosjean-ize me cutting the track all the way to the right, carrying away the guiltless @GeekyDeaks
At that point it was just a matter of time before the fate decided to draw a merciful veil and had my connection time out in shame.

Apologies to everybody I caused issues to, I think I won't drive FWD cars anymore, at least not in the near future..

@GeekyDeaks I had a look at the reply and I have to congratulate with the way you recovered from the spin

Very difficult cars omar. Hard to feel what going on with them through only the ffb. The only trick is back stronger and never give up on a car or track. Eventually some other guys will be us two eejits driving about on the grass every lap!

 

[HF2000]

Very frustrating race. I started practicing few days before and stamped a 1.14.3 that @HF2000 mentioned as good, and which I never managed to repeat in the following sessions. Then I connected to the server for the quali and saw that the best time was in the 1.10.x range and thought "ok, it's another back markers race for me".
It turns out I was optimist: qualified in penultimate place, just ahead of @Interslice , I couldn't manage to complete a single lap without sliding or spinning all over the place. Sometimes recovering a place because of other's spins or off tracks, I then found me in the position of having to be lapped by @HF2000 and in a terrible lack of understanding I managed to let him lose time and almost rear end me.
Just after this I had so many cars all around that the disaster was a tiny step away: in an attempt of recovering understeer on the finish straight I think I touched the grass and managed to Grosjean-ize me cutting the track all the way to the right, carrying away the guiltless @GeekyDeaks
At that point it was just a matter of time before the fate decided to draw a merciful veil and had my connection time out in shame.

Apologies to everybody I caused issues to, I think I won't drive FWD cars anymore, at least not in the near future..

@GeekyDeaks I had a look at the reply and I have to congratulate with the way you recovered from the spin

I'm sorry Omar. I found 1.14 a decent lap time as I had a hard time to get in the 1.13.
In qually I managed a 1.12 but I really don't understand how @Reik Major does a 1.10.
I'm used to be 2s slower than the winner of the race but not on such a short track.

And please, don't give up on FWD cars. My first race with Mini's was a complete disaster. I think I went of about a dozen times. But it's very useful to learn to master a FWD car also. It helps to understand car behaviour and therefore also to improve yourself with RWD cars.

And don't bother about the situation where I lapped you. Yes, I expected you to ease off on the straight but you didn't which isn't a problem because I was not that close behind. But I didn't expect you to brake so early on the chicane. I thought you would let me pass after the chicane on the start/finish part. These things happen and it did help to get the most exciting finish I ever had on AC with Simon!

 

[maxilogan]

I'm sorry Omar. I found 1.14 a decent lap time as I had a hard time to get in the 1.13.
In qually I managed a 1.12 but I really don't understand how @Reik Major does a 1.10.
I'm used to be 2s slower than the winner of the race but not on such a short track.

Of course this wasn't to criticize you but to say that I somewhat had greater expectations than how it went.

And don't bother about the situation where I lapped you. Yes, I expected you to ease off on the straight but you didn't which isn't a problem because I was not that close behind. But I didn't expect you to brake so early on the chicane. I thought you would let me pass after the chicane on the start/finish part. These things happen and it did help to get the most exciting finish I ever had on AC with Simon!

I don't know if I am still not used enough to the T-LCM and the fact that these car's don't have the ABS, or that they are FWD, but no matter what I did, if I tried to brake later than that, I inevitably spun in the first chicane turn

 

[Reik Major]

Ok so I wasn't the only one to hate that

After driving a few meters for the first time, I got so annoyed, I quit the game to replace the sound files with much better ones from another older Mini-Mod here in the DL section.

Hope you don't call it cheating.

I very much rely on hearing at which rpm I am and the sound has to fit the driving situation logically. The sound of this mod has some strange overlapping, which doesn't feel real.

 

[Reik Major]

I'd be interested to see your replay so I can properly view your braking inputs. In the earlier part of the race I seemed to be able to carry a lot of speed through there, but part way through I must have started to do something different as I was struggling to get the car turned in the same way. Same for T1. Sometimes it just went click and the delta was up .5 at the top of the hill. Great fun cars, but really need a delicate touch

You're welcome mate. I recorded it at high quality. It's about 200 mb. So far I never had to upload such big files. Any suggestions about an easy and safe way to provide it to you?

 

[Reik Major]

I'm sorry Omar. I found 1.14 a decent lap time as I had a hard time to get in the 1.13.
In qually I managed a 1.12 but I really don't understand how @Reik Major does a 1.10.
I'm used to be 2s slower than the winner of the race but not on such a short track.

It's a very thin line you're fast with such a low powered FWD car. Everything has to fit together perfectly - optimal race line, ultra smooth inputs the right combination of brake/power inputs during direction changes and so on.

For example T1: A tiny bit too much braking and you're off straight on. A tiny bit too much speed plus steering makes you loose the rear end. A tiny bit too cautious makes you loose speed and time. T1 is a very good example of making use of a light rear in a FWD car by letting it help rotate the car. Always very close to losing it at all.

You may have a look on my inputs, once I've uploaded the replay later on...

 

[GeekyDeaks]

You're welcome mate. I recorded it at high quality. It's about 200 mb. So far I never had to upload such big files. Any suggestions about an easy and safe way to provide it to you?

Thank you!

I usually 7z mine, upload them to google drive and then make a share URL to the file. If you use drive for personal stuff then I'd recommend making another google account for things like this as you'll get a full 15Gb to play with. It's trivial to switch between accounts in chrome if you also use that. Just click on the avatar icon top right and it'll give you the option to add a new account

 

[Interslice]

I upped the quality to max for this replay... It only recorded the quali for some reason.

 

[Interslice]

After driving a few meters for the first time, I got so annoyed, I quit the game to replace the sound files with much better ones from another older Mini-Mod here in the DL section.

Hope you don't call it cheating.

I very much rely on hearing at which rpm I am and the sound has to fit the driving situation logically. The sound of this mod has some strange overlapping, which doesn't feel real.

I havn't heard these mini's irl but have been in a toyota starlet with a similar setup and the gearbox is louder than the little engine. Sounds like it has a massive supercharger.

 

[GeekyDeaks]

I upped the quality to max for this replay... It only recorded the quali for some reason.

There is some really odd logic regarding the replay settings. It doesn't seem to correctly honour the number of files you set for specific event types. I never got to the bottom of it, but I also found that it would not save a race if you let the number of non-keep files reach their maximum on a different type (e.g. qualy). I now regularly keep and delete to ensure things are well under their max settings so replays don't go accidentally astray