NA Italy race, post your comments here...

[Bilbo]

The server replay and results files can be downloaded here:

Qual results: http://nar.kicks-ass.org:8086/narresult ... Y_Qual.xml
Race results: http://nar.kicks-ass.org:8086/narresult ... Y_Race.xml
Replays: http://nar.kicks-ass.org:8086/narresult ... _ITALY.zip (14.6MB, contains race and qual. replays)
Web-stats: Click here for stats!

[Paul M]

I'm done

[aawil]

ditto

[Steve]

Blown engine, ugh !!!

[nopk]

That was intense.

I might of got last, but I don't feel too bad since I was only +1lap

Do I get private forum membership now?

[SteveB]

Well that was interesting....

My qualy was aweful...10th on the grid.

At the start I had brain freeze and was really slow off the line.....approaching T1 I was quite nervous and tried to stay out of harms way but I think I bumped into Steve (sorry bro) but all was fine from there.....untill I started spinning again.

Finally got into a rythem and got on with it.....last.....then guys started dropping out...finished 4th...I'll take it

CONGTRATS to MARIO for the win and to FLOW and BILBO for their podium finish and a BIG CONGRATS to EMANUEL WAY TO GO!!!!!
in the points your first race.

CU at FUJI.

CHEERS

[Bilbo]

I might of got last, but I don't feel too bad since I was only +1lap

You were not last, you were 5th. Big difference!

Congrats to you, not that many new NAR drivers finish their first race.

Do I get private forum membership now?

Yes, I'll give you access when I'm done entering the results for the website.

[Steve]

Well that was interesting....

My qualy was aweful...10th on the grid.

At the start I had brain freeze and was really slow off the line.....approaching T1 I was quite nervous and tried to stay out of harms way but I think I bumped into Steve (sorry bro) but all was fine from there.....untill I started spinning again.

Finally got into a rythem and got on with it.....last.....then guys started dropping out...finished 4th...I'll take it

CONGTRATS to MARIO for the win and to FLOW and BILBO for their podium finish and a BIG CONGRATS to EMANUEL WAY TO GO!!!!!
in the points your first race.

CU at FUJI.

CHEERS

No problem Steverino, no harm done, that 1st turn was nerve wracking, lol, but I made it through unharmed, and was actually doing well until I had 2 spins in 2 laps, then I believe for the first time in my NAR career, I had a blown engine....

[Flow]

I stole the pole to Jimmy by -0.173, witch made me suprise that Mario didnt kick our ass in qualif. He was keeping it for the race

I had a nervous start, lonely middle of race but with alot of hope and verry hot end of race. At T1, i brake too late, was mirror driving cause i was too nervous of behind, got kind of trought T1 and turned it in grass, back on track with 2 positions down, and guess who was 1st, Mario! Chased Aaron for few corner and was disapointed seeing him lost it and crash the wall... too bad. Then it was only hope from there, Mario was at least able to do a full 1 sec faster than me. Mario had to do 1 extra stop, miscalculated fuel and and exit 7 sec in front of me with 10 laps to do. Around 5 laps close to end, he spun at T2 and i end up in is ass for the last 4-5 laps keeping the gap under 1 second. On the 3 last laps, i was pushing so hard, suprise that i didnt spun. I didnt fight hard enough on strait to make an inside to mario, instead i tried the good line but no hope, Mario didnt fault. Was a close end, last corner, i did the curve better than Mario, i wished that the finish line was more at end of pit exit, hehe we would of been side by side. i finished at +0.117 of Mario, about 1-2 car space between us. Was an Hot end of race, my fingher to my toes were shaking like hell

Congrat Emanuel for your first race and first 4 points. Well done Mario for your excellent race, was nice to cya at end (would prefer seen you in my mirror, but we cant win them all ) Nice race Bilbo and other finisher.

Cya on track again

[nopk]

My biggest surprise was how dangerous it is out on the track.

All it takes is one thousandth of a second of wheel lockup and you're barreling into the wall, or the back of another person.

The thing that will take a lot to get used to, will be the lag. I was at least three feet behind a mclaren after they underbraked into turn one a few laps later, and they spun out. I don't know if I tapped them, or if they over throttled, but it was nervewrecking.


I've always thought of myself as a decent driver, but it truly is a test of nerves to go for more than an hour at it.


I felt bad at first ending 1.5 laps behind the leader, but then I did the math and realized that in the total race, I was only 2.5% off of the pace, which isn't too bad I suppose

I suppose the biggest surprise was to see that out of the twelve people, only five finished!

For the people who had suspension/engine problems - were they caused by random mechanical failures or because of errors on the track?

[Steve]

For the people who had suspension/engine problems - were they caused by random mechanical failures or because of errors on the track?

I think Bilbo sabotaged me, it was HIS setup. LOL, just kidding m8, I was down shifting a bit too fast sometimes, and had just came out of the pits when my engine blew on the long straight before parabolica? I was only in the pits for I think 14 secs, but it doesn't take much to heat these things up, BUT, I never noticed the " temperature " warning, which is really strange !!
And the suspension problems are caused by those things on the side of the track, yeah, the WALLS we hit really hard, haha

[Flow]

Well steve, up to now, i think that we notice that those who blow engine always have a damage car before. Didnt you notice any smoke from behind before it die? Then it must of been not realy cause only by overheating, but more by mechanical failure cause by an earlier contact with those non flexible walls.

[SteveB]

If I am not mistaken Bilbo's setup....the rad was set to 3.
I bumped mine to 4 because like Steve I tend to downshift keeping the engine at high revs.
I am sure if you set your rad at 4 Steve you would have been fine.

These ALIENS don't have these problems.....LOL

[Bilbo]

Hey Steve, that setup I gave you was made from one you gave me (they're VERY similar, compare them!). The biggest change I made was to the gearing. The rad ducts are the same as they were. I did lower the brake ducts to 2 (from my usual 3) because of the particularities of the track (lots of time and air flow due to speed between the big braking areas) and that too cool brakes are not very efficient (just like tyres).

My setup was geared relatively longer than some others. 1st gear was long so I could get on the throttle early exiting the first chicane although it was penalising for the start. I was trading the first lap against the 52 others on purpose. The 7th gear was also relatively long so as to both save load on the engine on those long straights and to try to get an advantage if a drafting opportunity happened. I think the setup was relatively safe and it has been for me in over 475 laps total now. I was downshifting the gears relatively quickly but not as quickly as I could have. I learned the hard way in F1Champions that being too aggressive on the downshifts had a real toll on engines. After 2 or 3 blown engines in a short time, I had learned that lesson.

Now that I have exposed my philosophy on the modifications I made to the setup YOU gave me , I will expose my understanding of how the game determines who wins or loses at the engine lottery, because it's mostly that: a probabilities game. (Please note that I'm not pretending to know all on the subject or that this is the undeniable truth, this is just my interpretation of what I see in the engine.ini file)

Edit: Well, I was going to post a big chunk of text here when I though I might just google it and I just found this magnificient post at RSC which does a pretty good job of explaining things for me (look for "LifetimeAvg" and read the section around there near the end of the post).

In short, you could be unlucky and just get an engine with a short lifespan that will die on you no matter how much you pamper it, or you could get lucky and get an engine that will last to the end of your race despite some beating. That's the luck part of it. But you can help put a maximum of chances on your side by taking care of your engine (setup + driving), just in case you did not get that cursed black sheep engine that will die no matter what.

[Flow]

My rad was at 2 but i never overdownshift

[Steve]

Hehe, I was kidding Bilbo, it may have been a little damage from the tap that Steve gave me, but I seriously doubt it, I just think it was my hard downshfting at the first and 2nd chicanes that caused it, PLUS it was my out lap after a "somewhat" long pit stop ( 13 or 14 secs I believe ) I would never accuse anyone of sabotaging me. why would they? I am as slow as molasses anyway, hehe

[Bilbo]

Oh, I did not take it bad, Steve, don't worry. There was the argument, for argument's sake (you know me) that, IMO, the setup was quite safe in itself as I had traded some speed for increased engine safety, but I was more wanting to educate about the "engine failing" problem and how it could blow up without having anything to do with the driver while it could also be totally the driver's fault. Anyways, there is a lot of good information in the post I linked to, I kinda wish I had found it earlier rather than try to figure and guess things on my own.

[Steve]

I guess it is about time I lost an engine eh? hopefully it won't happen again, haha

[Flow]

Remember Paul that burn one in QUALIF??? that was funny, lol a single lap and KaBOuMM!