Thanks Racon and Ripley for your support.

Cruise server? Nah! I want to race again.

Thanks bishtop and k_badam.

k_badam... sooner or later one form of stress or intense physical activity was going to create a problem for me. It just happened to be sim racing and no one in particular "caused" my attack. You shouldn't think that you can cause heart attacks.

Thanks everyone for your kind words and support. I'll be starting 2 months of rehab next week.

To see my heart rate displayed on the HUD would be a hoot!

On June 26th I was having a great time racing sprints at Blackwood in a Formula BMW. I believe I ended up in third in one of those races with my best lap time of 1:18.

I still can't believe this happened but I suffered a minor heart attack after that last sprint. I always had a bad valve in my heart that the doctors were monitoring for many years though no one guessed or suspected I was also suffering from coronary disease as it is rare to have both conditions. Surprise, surprise. I ended up undergoing open heart surgery having a triple bypass and valve repair. I was extremely lucky as it could have been a lot worse.

You wouldn't believe the laughter from the EMT's and other medical professionals after I told them my story. They all wanted to know whether I won or not though I indicated I needed to improve a couple of seconds on each lap to compete at that level.

After my rehab period I would like to return to racing as I enjoy it so much. Not sure when that will be as it's not up to me. Just completing one of those sprints without causing any mishaps and having lap times around 1:18 would be an accomplishment. Till then...

Quote from Racon :

You can also just double-click the downloaded files, LFS will move them to the right pace for you.

Didn't know that one and it works well.

Quote from MysticReverie :

Probably a stupid question, but how do I add car set ups to my car?

I can see files to download, but where do I put them and how do I choose them in game?

Thanks

Manually put them in your C:\LFS\data\setups directory. They should show up in "Garage" on the upper right side of the screen within the game.

Quote from Eclipsed :

This unlocker works pretty good: www.haxxor.com/lfs-unlock

Quote from Victor :

That's because shipping costs are ridiculously high.
It's not a shop that sends packages every day, so it's not eligible for discounts and you would have to pay the full price (a lot).

That's what I figured.

Quote from Victor :

But maybe i can do it at some point. I'm considering doing a final sale before closing it down. It's not really worth continuing.

As you can see I joined LFS late after its initial release. I'm always last to the table. I'm assuming the t-shirt business isn't what it once was. Has interest in sim racing declined as well?

No U.S. shipments???

Quote from RC-Maus :

Hehe now you just starting get those last 4 secs off

I have a feeling those last four seconds will be coming off a lot slower than the first four.

Quote from rocketzz :

just joined...so hi everyone...so what do i do first

Welcome.

Practice in single player mode and make sure you have a good understanding of the Rules of Good Racing found in the manual before racing online. Have fun!

to the developers for providing a fantastic auto racing simulation. I finally upgraded from a Demo to an S2 license. I did this more in appreciation for what I've been able to do so far than to purchase more cars and tracks. I doubt I'll ever race all the cars as I don't have that much free time though I'll probably concentrate on the open wheel cars.

I've had a great time racing against others using the BMW FBM and I hope I haven't caused too much grief as a rookie driver. I know I made lots of mistakes and most likely will make far more but hey, I did manage to improve from 1:21 lap times to 1:18 and 1:17 at Blackwood. I'm thankful for everyone's patience thus far.

Thanks again to the developers for all your effort.

Quote from cargame.nl :

IMOL rests in peace. But about which hotlaps you are talking about anyway? Are you so vague because you want to discuss hotlaps which you cannot possibly access with a demo license or what?

I went into Hotlap Charts, chose Blackwood and FBM and IMOL was at the top of the list.

I meant no disrespect, only that I found it humorous.

I watched the top hotlap and with all due respect to the driver (I certainly couldn't do it) what a wild ride! I guess it shows what one could accomplish driving like an absolute crazy person.

Driving over raised portions of the track, grassy areas, skidding through turns, occasional oversteer and understeer. I can only imagine how many pile ups would occur driving in a race at that pace. I guess that's why you call them hotlaps though I've seen drivers drive like that during a race on a demo server.

My congratulations to IMOL. To be able to keep the car from spinning off into infinity at that pace takes some skill though I'm not so sure one could pull that off in the real world.

Quote from asyed :

Usually making ur own setup is best

I agree but it's going to take a while to get to that point. Understanding the physics involved, my own personal driving habits (good and bad) and learning what each adjustment does in the car setup is going to take some time.

Quote from Gutholz :

I would not get too hang up on the excact setup, for start any of the sets on https://www.lfs.net/files/setups/FBM/BL00 will do ok.

Good advice it seems. I have tried many setups and still have lap times around 1:20. I'll probably discover my line needs to be improved, I need to brake a bit later and accelerate out of the turn a bit harder. I'm losing about a second in each corner on the average.

Thanks!

Thanks to both of you for your advice, tips and help.

Wow, that is so cool to be able to download and view the hotlap. Are you able to save the setup after trying it out?

Last edited by Sylvie20, Sun 12 Jun 2016, 03:02.

Most turns I'm entering in third and leaving in third. The last turn I'll accelerate out in second and the first turn I'll enter in second.

Same here... getting overtaken on the back straight.

Thanks for the tip on the hotlap analyzer.

and the next thing I know I got forced into spectator mode for security reasons. What does that mean?

BTW, I hope I'm not causing problems by the way I race. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether my driving is causing some pile ups in the first turn or other people's driving.

I guess this was a silly question. I'll just keep practicing with the setup I have until I can no longer improve my lap time. Then I'll start experimenting. I'll bet the farm that I'm coming out of some of the curves in one gear too high.

Quote from RC-Maus :

Newbies allmost never finish a race on demo they always vote for restart

At evenings it's much better when most are adults

Do you have any universal time and server recommendations for BMW formula racing?

Quote from Eclipsed :

Restart is triggered when at least half of drivers currently on track vote it.

Thanks for the explanation.

Quote from Eclipsed :

What I would suggest is to pick another server if one is too messy for you. There are few for sure who are usually well admined,can't tell you any names though as I don't race on public servers,just leagues latelly,which are better admined - check out leagues section for more info,but without S2 licence there's a small chance to find something though.

It's good to hear the behavior is better on private servers. I guess that's a good incentive to purchase an S3 license.

BTW, what is with the [FBM]Formula Blackwood public server? I get the lowest ping time there (60-70ms) yet I never see anyone racing.

I just started online racing yesterday and it's going to take a while to understand the politics of it all. One option I don't understand is the vote for restart. In one race I and two others were taken out in the first curve and a number of people voted for a restart which was overruled. I continued on in last place though enjoyed the challenge of trying to catch up to the person in front of me.

What bothered me was when a similar accident occurred in another race where a couple of the top drivers were involved in a pile up and I and one other managed to maneuver through the mess. As we were racing down the first straightaway for first place, a restart happened. Geez, it would have been fun to try and hang on to first place for a short time even though I knew I would eventually be overtaken.

If you're going to drive like wild banshees into the first curve at least try and accept the responsibility for it once in a while. I'm not a paying member at the moment but if this behavior is more widespread I doubt I'll be racing much.

Of course I'm a noob and I've just started racing the BMW Formula FB02 online. I use the Race_blackwood setup and my best lap time at Blackwood has been 1:20:38. The best times from others seem to be around 1:14.

I know these drivers have more experience and are better racers but can my time be increased by a better setup? I've downloaded a bunch of setups but I was wondering if someone could recommend one in particular that I could start with that would help improve my lap time. At least get me started in the right direction. Thanks.