AC GT3 @ VIR - Sunday 17th May 2020

[Chris Down]

Yeah, I think it's less that I have settled on the gal I like best and more sorting out my foibles first

We've all been there I used to be near the back of the field frustrated back when I started racing online in Live for Speed. I really can't say much changed other than a lot of practice, introspection about my own driving, and getting experience.

 

[Evgeniy Neytman]

next one plz

 

[GEO147]

Heh, you flatter me. I think the way I'd characterise my style is just really smooth. I'm always trying to visualise 1-2 corners ahead to avoid adjustments as much as possible. As I'm sure you know, adjustments on the 650s can be deadly.

When I watch other people in the 650s, usually the thing I see is that people aren't comfortable using the gearing and diff to modulate the torque to each tyre, so the car is a lot more unstable. The car also really loves to oversteer, and people make the mistake of trying to correct it, without realising that that *is* the 650s. If you can ride the oversteer, you'll be fast. Tuning it out with setup is doomed to make a below-average car.



Hmm, I'm driving close to but a bit under the limit most of the laps in the race, just because of the grass runoff and potential for time loss. On "safe" corners like those in sector 1 I'm usually always at the limit. On a more forgiving track like Paul Ricard I'd probably run at the limit throughout the lap all the time. If I needed to a high 43 lap is possible even with older tyres, but it's too risky to do it repeatedly if not under pressure.



I had a couple of close ones into the fast left hander at turn 10, where the right wheels dipped more onto the grass than I'm comfortable with, although nothing too serious since the aero is really working there. I also had one lap where the final turn was kind of sketchy, but managed to save it with a slither of throttle to unlock the diff. Unfortunately not sure what laps those were, but they're in there somewhere



When a slide starts you've really got to catch it fast in the 650s, or lean into it and use the throttle to lock and unlock the diff to get the car straight again. I'd make sure your FFB, FOV, and other things are well tuned to make it visible when a slide is starting.

Thanks Chris. I think I understand what you do with the gearing but not sure at all how or what to set the diff power and coast to. I generally set the power low and the coast relatively high.
If you could explain for me/others what they do and how it effects the car it might help setup and handling characteristics.
Not looking for any trade secrets just high level explanations if you had time.

 

[Reik Major]

Reading about you guys trying to find the perfect balance for your car while I still have problems finding the car thats the only thing which bothers me at the GT3 class that you have to choose one out of several cool cars. That's how I imagine it has to be when going to a brothel

Well, I have found my car with the R8 because it feels nice and sounds cool. Unfortunately I often feel disadvantaged with it, because it cooks the softs much earlier than other cars do. So I always have to use meds, even in qualifying, whilst others use softs, even for a whole stint.

 

[uvraver]

Sorry to John Plant. I spun so many times I had no idea where the track was and I think I rolled backwards onto the racing line and hit you.
Such a terrible combination of mistakes. With the setup I have it seems I can be consistent and quick ish for only so many laps and then she just breaks traction at the rear and into a the 650 death slide.
Even with the bb at 70 it would sometimes over rotate in the double right hander before the long straights up the hill.
Nightmare.
But was enjoyable.
Thanks guys and apologies for my eratic drinking tonight. Must have been a good laught hearing Murphy has gone off AGAIN on crew chief.

That's the way it goes.
But the Maclaren always- and I mean always ended up facing the wrong way after a spin

THEN red tyres after a spin in the dip at the start of the home straight took me down hill into the trees kept me off the track unable to get traction at the bottom of a slope for over 30secs.
So your kiss made no difference to me being stone dead last THREE laps down, even though I was lapping at low 48s
Mind, I never succumbed to temptation and took the big short cut across the grass to catch up a few seconds..[from the fast weeper to the bus stop]
Though technically I stayed to the end and cover more laps then some.

 

[GEO147]

Yeah I think that's the only unrealistic thing about Assetto Corsa. When the Tyres are red they offer essentially no grip.
Apologies anyway it was a real messy contact.

 

[RobertR1]

Thanks Chris. I think I understand what you do with the gearing but not sure at all how or what to set the diff power and coast to. I generally set the power low and the coast relatively high.
If you could explain for me/others what they do and how it effects the car it might help setup and handling characteristics.
Not looking for any trade secrets just high level explanations if you had time.

So one thing I've worked with over time on the 650s is the power and coast diff. I rarely find a need to go beyond 10% on power as it suits my style better. Diff coast is something I play with often and probably one of the only settings I touch along with wing. On coast diff, this determines how much rotation you get off throttle and under braking. It can also vary by how soft or hard your car is setup and how much rear wing you're running.

For example, with a lower rear wing, you might want to run a higher coast diff to control the rear of the car into the corner and off throttle. Reverse is true and again it also varies by track characteristics.

I'll share 2 examples here for Brands Hatch. Both setups are good for around 1.22.7/8 which is generally a respectable time but takes 2 different approaches to how to achieve the time. Drive the car with 20 ambient and 27 track temps and get a feel for how each setup is as is. Then swap around the coast diff numbers and you should be able to tell the differences within 2 laps. I won't bias your opinion on what you *should* feel so i'll leave that to you. Adjust tire pressure because I rarely save those from track to track.

For me personally, there's also 2 ways to drive the 650s. Either bang the gears or stretch them out like @Chris Down usually does. Banging gears lets you hustle it more where as stretching them out makes you drive it smoother and roll more speed. The bang gears approach might be safer if you find yourself having issue dealing with oversteer as it's more oriented towards squaring off turns. That would be the 75 coast vs the 40 coast attached.

The sewing machine is a fast car albeit a bit boring in characteristic.

 

[Kek700]

Chris, That boy knows his stuff, I alway kill the 650’s performance by making it for me a smooth drive, but at 70+ years, the days of being a hot shot have long long past.
If you can utilize its advantages, then that goes someway to explaining its, should be dominance.
The reason I go for the Gt-r, I can hide behind it’s size , performance, and stability. When you have low skill levels it’s a great car. I really admire Aksu ability to get a 100% from this car at all circuits, it is a bit of a brick.

It is such a pity that AC cars are so susceptible to slight taps sending you flying off the track.

I managed 4 minutes to the end of the race before being sent flying.

To race for 56min and struggle to get a good place, I really struggle at this circuit, then be punted off was not exactly satisfying. I doubt if the other driver was exactly ecstatic about it either.

 

[GEO147]

Great explanation. I defo bang the gears then. And in that scenario of the two settings id use the lower coast, yes? As im stabilising it with the down shift, where Chris is smooth enough to have less input and judge the rotation better so higher coast?

"For me personally, there's also 2 ways to drive the 650s. Either bang the gears or stretch them out like @Chris Down usually does. Banging gears lets you hustle it more where as stretching them out makes you drive it smoother and roll more speed. The bang gears approach might be safer if you find yourself having issue dealing with oversteer as it's more oriented towards squaring off turns. That would be the 75 coast vs the 40 coast attached.

Will try that later at Brands

 

[Chris Down]

Let's have something more relaxing this week. 90 minutes of Monza, coming right up.

EU - GT3 @ Monza - Sunday 24th May 2020

by filnove on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/filnove/33811282972/ Over the past few weeks I've tried to bring you folks some new and interesting tracks which maybe some of you hadn't had the chance to race at before. I know that learning new tracks week after week can be pretty taxing...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[HTIDRaver2k8]

Chris, That boy knows his stuff, I alway kill the 650’s performance by making it for me a smooth drive, but at 70+ years, the days of being a hot shot have long long past.
If you can utilize its advantages, then that goes someway to explaining its, should be dominance.
The reason I go for the Gt-r, I can hide behind it’s size , performance, and stability. When you have low skill levels it’s a great car. I really admire Aksu ability to get a 100% from this car at all circuits, it is a bit of a brick.

It is such a pity that AC cars are so susceptible to slight taps sending you flying off the track.

I managed 4 minutes to the end of the race before being sent flying.

To race for 56min and struggle to get a good place, I really struggle at this circuit, then be punted off was not exactly satisfying. I doubt if the other driver was exactly ecstatic about it either.

It was absolutely not how I wanted the race to end for either of us.

I think overall I was quicker but lost out to the GTR's straight line speed/my inability to get a good exit off the final corner.

Found myself going up the inside at T1 and just plainly didn't expect you to cut back in, so I hold my hands up it was entirely my fault.

It was a fun battle up until that point, again apologies for the way it ended.

 

[Kek700]

You don’t need to apologise Thys, I know it was a mistake, you kindly waited for me anyway. Thankyou for apologies anyway.
I knew you were a lot quicker, I also had a strong feeling that was were the overtake was to be attempted, I purposely went down the middle to give myself an extra 10 meters of braking distance. It meant if you went on the inside or outside I always had the car pointing in the right direction so I could accelerate flat out before you.
Unfortunately best plans don’t always work. ( not a difficult guess, for you it was probably the only place with the straight line speed of the Gtr )

 

[Raresch]

Well, I have found my car with the R8 because it feels nice and sounds cool. Unfortunately I often feel disadvantaged with it, because it cooks the softs much earlier than other cars do. So I always have to use meds, even in qualifying, whilst others use softs, even for a whole stint.

The major is struggling with softs?
To be honest, I was doing that also when I first took the R8 and used stints of half an hour only with meds. But softs are fine for most of the stints, you just have to be prepared for when they go yellow (I usually am not ... ). Also, I usually take setups from other and set them up little to be able to control them better. I end up with back softs a little hot, but they suffice for quali, most of the time.

What I learned at Brands Hatch some time ago with the help of @Chris Down was that then the car likes a little bit stiffer on the back. I am not struggling to correct that with softer arb on the back anymore (which I always did until then) and I also find a diff pwr of 20 and coast to 60 pretty good for every track (yesterday, the setup was 10 - 50, having so many fast corners, 20pwr was too much). To compensate for the overrotation, I use a higher brake bias, around 68, sometimes even 69 (this might also be because of the pedals from G29 and also take a little strain from the back tires). Anything else about the setup I can't really say., because I always take them ...
Strange behavior I have now, that I developed in the last few races, and I don't where it cames from when I feel it oversteers on exit, I fast turn the wheel to opposite lock and then back again and I do that again if I feel I don't go straight already. It seems I can catch the slides more often now, but it still feels weird. I think I caught that in ACC, to be honest ...

 

[Kek700]

That sounds about right to me Raresch, that is how you should do it from my observations. That is the only way to keep the cars momentum going.
If I catch a slide I spend 1 second in amazement, 1 second congratulating my self, 1 second to engage my slug of a brain, then I am off again. If only I could mimick how you are supposed to do it.

 

[GEO147]

I felt like I spent 60 minutes catching slides last night 90% of them anyway.

 

[marek2209]

That was an amazing race, thanks again @Chris Down for hosting
Had some great and hard fights throughout the whole race, nearly caught up @Raf Nix in the final lap
But I was drowning in all that sweat at the end of the race Reminder for the next race: Wear other clothes (or drive naked? )