Yes. Accountability to self. Make the wiser decisions. I keep climbing up the ladder, improving, then getting all excited about getting to front and fighting too hard. I think this would keep me honest with myself and avoid those 500point IRS swings. I think that it would allow me to be a bit more “pro” about things. Pretend it’s a job. Your qualification needs to be 2K.
Yes. I have sort of taken this advice and for the past two weeks have not gone straight to “race”. I’m loading up VRS and spending a couple days getting in the ballpark. It helps mainly by keeping the first races a bit less messy. As a consequence, my starts total is waaay down. But, I went straight into top split this week, so no creative destruction phase.
Re: Oval
Yes to all you wrote. I have learned much experiencing all of these things you point out. It’s endlessly fascinating. It also is different in how you play in traffic. It’s more immediate, always eventful. There is a different kind of focus and it’s more intense, more constant.
When I did iRacing for a while (Like just after it was released) I did better on ovals than on road courses. No idea why, but anyway. Full send on the roundies.
I went off and bought a sprint oval car and one of the little tracks. These cars have always intrigued me. Occasionally, you see someone pulling one of these along the highway, and ive always wondered what the deal is.
It’s undeniably bonkers. So much power and the little track is almost a circle, very little straight at all. Not sure this is what I want to race but the little I did suggests that this could teach me a lot. It appears that this is mostly finesse, hidden under 800hp of power.
The radical is a good car. The reason I don’t drive it more is that it doesn’t like no clutch. It needs to be blipped to downshift properly. Otherwise, it doesn’t shift down, which is difficult.
Wierd. I used auto clutch and it wouldn’t downshift without a lift. Auto shift was fine, though. Not a big fan of full auto as it tends to imbalance the car with oddly timed gear changes.
A blip of throttle (to ‘unload’ the gear stacks) should be all that’s needed to downshift, so your setup (no clutch peddle) should work fine. Maybe it was just a timing thing between when you were clicking the shift paddle and when/how much you were blipping? I always get messed up for a few laps when I go from ‘blip shifters’ (like the Radical or Skippy), to ECU-managed auto-blip shifters (like the Porsche GT3 or USF2K)… I keep blipping with it’s not required.
Yeah timing thing. I drive everything like it’s a dual clutch. I don’t actually blip. I could try setting the clutch to auto blip and I bet it would work fine.
OK if you use shakers, run, do not walk, and upgrade to the insane clark platinum (TST 429). I got one of these for cheap and I am running it along with the other 4 and its mindblowingly good. The car is so alive, there is so much subtlety to the detail. I am running the engine vibrations as well as road vibrations and impacts. It feels very real, much more nuanced.
I am going to have to get rid of the BK gamer 2’s. They are holding up the rig, now. They just go clang as compared to the clarke.
The downside is that these sell new for $550, each. I got mine for $170 used which was a great deal. I found a little amp, that was around $75 which puts out sustained 150watts per channel at 4ohms. Total is 300w so enough to power 2 clarkes.
When I get the opportunity I play the game through the logitech z623. The sub sits in front of the rig and the satellites nearby to side, It’s pretty glorious, engine screaming with the sub going (and the shakers).
I’ve a question - why is it on Skippy grids particularly (haven’t seen it much elsewhere but then I haven’t entered many other races) at least half the grid doesn’t bother to qualify?
Hockenheimring was a fun track to race in. Was worth the $11.95! It’s big, it’s fast and the closing corner is very cool. If I am not mistaken, the big apron is where all the f1 guys spun to in the wet last year. Iirc it was treated to be very slick.
Despite a fairly “meh” series of results, I am #2 in div 6 and 102 global. I think this is because i do so many races, it’s dropping my crap results and pays attention to my good ones. Also, the top split races are easier to progress in, in a sense. If you do well, you get a bunch of points. If you do badly, doesn’t hurt as much as screwing up bottom split.
Back to Long Beach. It’s one of my faves.
I went ahead and ordered a second super shaker. I’m up to 6 now on the rig. When will it ever end? Motion sim? Flight capabilities? Painting it pink? Who knows when the rig will be “done”. Hopefully, never.
If you’re interested I’ll shoot you an invite and knock up a Kartpulse livery for whichever car we pick.
Not thinking for one minute we’ll be at the front, just for fun. Never participated in a team race, have to figure out pit stops n stuff but should be a hoot.
