If you aren't going to make it a little more obvious (ie, giving the race its own thread) people aren't going to notice!

I assumed people would look in the balancing thread, since it's explicitly about the balancing test races.

Some people wont read all posts with a fine tooth comb. I know I just try to get the jist of things and look out for important info (as I'm not familiar enough with LFS to offer any insight).

Quote from Starblue :

0) I'm testing Intake Restrictions. Why? Because it's only 1 variable instead of 2, i.e. mass restriction have both kilograms and position to adjust and test.

Notice: I have been told that people do not like Intake Restrictions...so I'm now testing Mass ballast effect. As for the position of mass ballast, I've assumed:
41% front for FZR
50% front for XRR
53% front for FXR
Adding ballast on these positions doesn't alter car weight distribution with 100% fuel and driver on (maybe it would have been better to check on 50% fuel actually).

Starblue

Why don't people like intake restrictions? Surely it would affect your setup less and make the car easier to drive, thus conserving tyres, and also fuel?

Ballast is fine and all but there is nothing wrong with intake restrictions IMO. One thing about ballast is, you can move from front to rear. I think it would actually be harder to prepare for a round with the new system.

Problem is XRR is already faster in corners, giv fzr extra weight and the diference will get even bigger, im for air restriction

i think intake would be better, as adding wieght means that the setup will be have to have quite a few change but intake would need very few changes

Quote from Scott_Michaels :

Why don't people like intake restrictions?

Because we want to drive full GTR's with a lot of power. Not 75% or 85% of a GTR.

We could also use the XFR and the UFR, but that's not what we have signed for. We have joined a serie with 500 bhp cars, which can do 280 kph and brake in 100 meters. Because it's going to be hard and not because it's going to be easy

The amount of balancing we'd need would likely only necessitate a few % change, but yeah, that was also my issue with the idea of intake restriction. Well put, Lotes.

I found a bit of ballast to play with nice in the LOTA GTC series. (Season performance ballasting) Get to have a little say in the weight distribution of the car on a track by track basis, it improved the handling of the FZR a lot back then but I had about 120 kg to play with. (And the FZR was way too far back in its weight distribution in the first place even for a good MR setup, and is still a little too far back from my experience.) Could actually gain a few tenths back and partially negate the damage dealt by having the ballast.

This is just a thought as I don't have much experience with LFS myself, but if we'll be sticking with ballast through next season, maybe it would be worth considering starting with a base of something like 20 kg of ballast for every car (adding more where needed to faster cars) and giving the field another setting to toy with.

So a performance based system like the DTM? Sounds like it could work, although its slightly complicated but easily manageable.

I was thinking more along the lines of everyone getting 20 kg, and then adding an additional 15 (or whatever management decide) for the FZR.

Quote from Kardum31 :

I was thinking more along the lines of everyone getting 20 kg, and then adding an additional 15 (or whatever management decide) for the FZR.

It's an interesting idea, but not one I really want to consider for a mid-season change. I'll file it away for later, though. ;]

After reviewing the available data (such as it is) and consulting "expert" opinions, it's clear to the admins that we don't have the necessary information to accurately and fairly impose any external balancing.

We feel that the master server balancing allows for close competition between the two faster cars, and while it may favor one car or the other in some way, it's undoubtedly by a very small margin. The FXR remains roughly where it was with the patch Y balancing, which we also feel to be appropriate.

Therefore, for the remainder of the season we will use the master server/default LFS balancing. All teams are welcome to change their car model at this point, but the car you race in round six will be the car you race for the remaining two rounds.

Looking ahead, we will use the results of the final three races, and similar results from other endurance leagues to determine how to handle balancing for the 2009 season.

Thanks for your patience over this period of uncertainty, and thanks to the marshals, teams, drivers, and friends of IGTC who helped in our testing efforts.