Hey guys,

I've just created a new blog, www.racingbloggers.com, which I've wanted to get going for a while now. The idea is to get a bunch of amateur racing drivers together to blog about their racing. There is really no limit to the forms of car/motorcycle racing that could be included in the blog.

Ideally I'm looking for contributors who can make at least a couple of posts per month about their racing, maybe covering a recent race, talking about strategy, working on their vehicle, sharing interesting stories etc. I would also consider bringing on more occasional posters if they have some interesting contributions to make. Blog posts don't have to be long, some could just be a few pictures with a paragraph of writing, some might be longer. Posts could also include video footage of testing/racing of course!

So, if you race and would be interested in doing some blog posts, let me know If you get started and enjoy it that's fantastic. If you give it a go and it's not for you, that's ok too. And of course if you know someone else who races and might be interested, let them know about it!

Thanks,

Michael

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

Just for discussion sake, why not a second hand S2000?

I have never driven a GT86 (BR-Z or whatever they call it in your country), or a S2000 for that matter. But why not S2000? I have always loved the way they look, plus it's a convertible with an amazing engine.

That's a great question. I've driven a bunch of S2000's, the 2.0 and 2.2L, and I've driven the FR-S. The S2k is significantly quicker and feels a bit lighter on it's feet and more nimble. The engine also has a lot more character, especially the 2.0L. I think quite a few people will like the style of the FR-S over the S2k, and there is always the special feeling of having a newly released car.

Personally I think I'd go with a 2.0L S2k.

I got my hands on an FR-S for the weekend, to take the car to a couple of events including an autocross where drivers will get the chance to take it for a spin. So far I've driven it on the street, and the ride is fairly firm, the chassis feels really stiff, yet it's subtle over bumps. The engine is not that full of character nor all that quick, but it's got decent midrange and pulls the car along well enough. Looking forward to giving it a go on the autocross course on Sunday.

Here are some pics.

Quote from jtw62074 :

The vast majority of VRC players race RC in reality. We don't generally pick up the casual gamer types out looking for something new.

I think this is what a lot of people don't understand. I see a lot of comments such as "it's too expensive for me, therefore it's too expensive/stupid/whatever" when in reality it's totally fine that it's too expensive for them, but they are just not in the target market

Hmm I don't really have a favourite right now... It used to be Hamilton, but I've been going off him a bit in the last year or so. I have a lot of respect for Vettel, Alonso, and Button, but I wouldn't say I have one that I particularly get behind and support over the others. Still have a bit of a soft spot for Schumacher, even though he was not a fair racer I will always remember the Schumacher and Ferrari era.

I just put up another tutorial video for the SRF...

http://youtu.be/L_tNNU70tO0

Haha, that is an incredibly easy slide to 'catch' in a Miata. I've been that sideways at 100km/h in the snow in my Miata on snow tires, really it's not a big deal at all if you're a competent driver, there really isn't an easier car to hold sideways.

Part of the reason the Lotus 49 is a bit special to me is that it's the first car I drove in GPL. I was at the Lotus 50th Anniversary at Hethel on Sept 12th 1998, and they had a sim rig with GPL, with the Lotus 49 at Spa. There was a competition for fastest time, and I managed to win

Hell yeah!! That's awesome Modern GPL here we come And it's not even April 1st, so no chance of April fool!

Here's a tutorial video I put together for the Spec Racer Ford at Summit Point Raceway...

http://youtu.be/A4PpdcXOgaw

I am starting to do these every week for the Spec Ford, and my friend Rich is doing the same thing for the Skippy this season, on the same youtube channel.

Quote from Ingolf :

See, that initself is quite interesting. I did some racing in a Volvo C30 (STCC) car and found the same thing while playing "STCC2 The Game". It is remarkable how close the sims get to the real thing when you have something to relate to. Simbin do not have the same sim-feel as LFS but still delivers a good "wow"-feeling if you have driven the track irl. I wish I could do the same/similar thing you did and compare with LFS and a G25. As I see it, it's like extending the fun of real racing into your living room after a day of regular work (wish I was a full time racer ).

I will certainly test your autocross layout and watch your movie again. Many thanks for sharing

For sure! To be honest, coming back to LFS after mostly iRacing and real life autocross, the force feedback doesn't feel too great. But the general handling of the cars compared to real life autocross still feels pretty good, and your inputs still result in the outputs you'd expect. Once you get used to that 'feel' in LFS again, you really can use all the techniques you'd use in a real car in autox to change your line, stabilize the car, etc etc. It could certainly be a real life training tool, and I imagine even help with setups if you were able to model your real car.

However, for someone new to autocross in real life, unless they were already familiar with LFS, I would say just getting out there and trying it would be better than practicing in LFS first... In LFS you have to contend with lack of seat of the pants feel, lack of peripheral vision, trying to see all the cones through a small screen, etc etc that learning to drive on the computer would be more of a challenge than just doing it in real life. But for someone already experienced with LFS, you could definitely get really familiar with the driving style required for autox before you go and try it in real life.

Quote from Töki (HUN) :

Sideways.

I have done 160km/h in the snow in my Miata on snow tires, including a little sideways around a slight bend at that speed on a deserted highway. Amazingly stable and fun once you get used to it

Quote from tristancliffe :

I'm not an advocate of laser scanning as a way of recreating the nuances of a track

Would you mind elaborating on why? I know with the gear they use they can easily get sub-cm accuracy, and I'm not sure of a better or more efficient way of doing it.

Thanks

Here's the layout!

Because it's a 924 not a 944 :P I actually had to restrict the power of the XFG to get the acceleration roughly the same.

Quote from qoncept :

That's awesome. I've never actually tried autocross in LFS because it seems like it'd be too frustrating. If I had an actual course I'd driven in real life I'd feel obligated, though.

Yeah, it can be frustrating for sure. I got into autocross in LFS before real life, but mainly because I wanted to try it in real life. You really need the seat of the pants feel for autox, and now I've come back to it in LFS after a long break I am not enjoying it as much as I used to. However, I'm still glad I made this video... I've been wanting to do it for years

Thanks Ingolf... as soon as I got the course roughly correct it felt very familiar and I was taking very similar lines, and also making the same mistakes. I find the slaloms a lot more difficult in LFS because that's one part of a course where 'feel' is absolutely everything! I am not sure about that 'wow' feeling in LFS, I think sometimes I get it when I really get a fantastic run or perfect my line. But so much of the adrenaline and excitement for me in real life comes from waiting at the start line and being told to go, and then finding out your time after the run. Still, it's a lot of fun in LFS, and a good learning experience as well

http://youtu.be/P3dUgBB0TgE (best to click 1080p and full screen!)

This is a run I did in a Porsche 924 lined up next to a run in the XFG in LFS. I recreated the course by eye so it's not completely accurate, and also there are obviously some differences between the 924 and XFG, so you can see the two runs are not quite identical.

Edit: by the way, I know it's not quite lined up at the start... I chose to do that so over the course of the run as much of it was as closely lined up as possible. When I lined the start up it soon got quite out of sync.

Last edited by Michael Denham, Wed 2 Nov 2011, 23:41.

Well I see he still has the original belt in there, so hopefully he uses that on the street

I can't blame them for losing power since a million people lost power in the storms they've been having, but yes offline support would be very nice at times like this!

By the way, here's a tutorial video I put together for some friends I'm racing with on Thursday...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YmXf2fYdY

Last edited by Michael Denham, Mon 31 Oct 2011, 20:34.

Yeah, I remember that in GT4, it was different online and offline for sure. Less detailed physics model online.

They updated the 'down for maintenance' page with the reason....

Quote :

It appears we suffered a partial power loss
in our data center.

We are experiencing a snow storm, but we do not
know if it is related

At this time, we are unsure why the redundant power
systems at the data center failed.

We are expecting that full recovery is going to require
braving the storm to physically be in the data center.

It is not uncommon for there to be hardware failures
when there is unexpected power loss. Such failures
might increase downtime.

We will keep you posted, but downtime could be multiple hours.

Yeah! I think they just threw in regular gear ratios for a car that revs to 7000 or something, and because this one revs so much higher the gears are a lot longer. Can't believe they didn't change the final drive for it in GT5.

Quote from BlueFlame :

Agreed, it's like old school F1, cars that are driven around the rear axle, makes for very fun racing.

Absolutely! I started off sim racing in GPL, so this car is perfect for me! Would love to race it regularly.

Yeah, unfortunately it's just a week 13 thing. However there are one or two leagues who have road series in this car. It's definitely my favourite car, however I'm looking forward to the new tire model for cars like the Miata and Mustang... I just got another 3 months subscription, so I'll see if I actually keep playing it regularly this time around :P

Messing around in the Legends car at Okayama

http://youtu.be/Z9Z3dvL548w