Round 2 Meadowdale Raceways - Thu Oct 15, 2020

Hiya,

To make this clear, are we allowed to adjust the turbo pressure during the race? I have two buttons mapped to do so, and the keyboard numbered keys can set the percentage. I assumed this was OK, like adjusting brake balance (not that I do that...), but I was passing quite a few people toward the end of the race and I don't know if this was because of my fresh(er) tires or because of boost I wasn't supposed to be using.

 

I make no authority at all of course, but I don't see why you couldn't, I believe the guys back in the days were doing that.
Yet I still don't have this habit (nor turbo pressure neither brake bias..)

 

This is going to be the best track of the whole season to just drive around on. It's vintage. It's mostly high speed so you're inside the turbo boost curve. It's got some great banked corners, some blind combo corners, lots of fast flow. It's fantastic in every sense other than the fact it doesn't look that good.

You're welcome to disagree, but I will reject your reality and substitute my own. We need more vintage tracks for vintage cars.

 

I'll make some more camera's for this one - there's only one camera file on it as GutBomb doesn't know how to make them yet (his words). The one in there was made for him by someone else and is OK, but it would be nice to have some more options for the broadcast I think ( 'F3' Caitlin ).
I'm with Maxime - Group 5 had no rules about adjusting Boost. The 'beat the Porsche' button on my trackcars boost controller ironically dates to similar buttons found in Porsches back in Grp5/A/B/C through the 70's and 80's

Also I need excuses to use all the twirly knobs and buttons I fitted to my box last year! I only really use them in ACC otherwise...

 

Who demented bas*ard did that???

 

Oh...
Did anyone try this track with DRM cars already? I mean, it can be driven relatively fun with slower vintage touring cars but this might be a shit show on the S/F straight with faster Div. 1 cars lol

Also comparing it to some youtube video I found, it's wrong representation and modelling, from track width to elevation changes.

And honestly, I don't mind the looks overall and I totally dig the basic idea of the layout and all the radiuses but this track also drives kind of bad. But it's a conversion of a conversion. From NR2003 to rFactor to AC. No surface as with other good AC tracks, only terrain makes it wobbly and have some character, but it's pretty flat with only some fake bumps, too grippy, flat out into that last turn banking. Similar case as with F1 1988 conversion tracks. As it is now, I don't think AC physics can handle racing over that big crest-then-downhill on the main straight. You have to lift. Or the car wants to fly and the jump is worse than Black Cat county hahhah

Got to wonder how did this get voted in? When there's plenty of good vintage tracks such as Riverside and Bridgehampton (if it has to be a US track). Midohio, Road America, no problem. Plus this is Deutsche championship. Hockenheim historic conversion from AMS looks similar to Meadowdale but drives much better. If we ignore the fact that it will suit the BHP monsters. If that's the problem, then there's Norisring, a DRM and DTM classic, although a 2009 version and not so vintage. Classic Silverstone was the layout still used until late 80s or 90s I think.

If it's supposed to have a crazy race, to relax kind of and only for fun, then I understand!

 

Posting just in case no one saw my post in BH forum. If anyone has a site/book/blog/etc. please let me know.

 

Ive raced it its gonna be very interesting.Im gonna try to really hang back if i race there.

 

To address your first point, once this track was announced on the schedule I ensured I tested all the cars and figured out which ones lifted over the crests both at Bridgehampton and the Nurburgring because I kinda' figured that might be an issue. Most of the Division 2 cars do not suffer from crest lift, only a select handful. Choosing the correct car to avoid that is something the driver is ultimately responsible for. I fail to see how that's the track's fault, considering the fact it's also a possibility at the Flugplatz at the Nurburgring, which is a high-quality Laser Scanned job.


To address the second point. What I've noticed since joining SRO is that whenever there's a track vote, the drivers vote in the same 5-10 modern tracks and maybe a vintage circuit on extremely rare occasions. It's just what happens, problem with democracy is that people like what they're comfortable with and won't often vote for circuits that actually fit the theme of the series, such is life. I don't know if this is a negative thing or a positive thing, it depends on your perspective, but it's definitely noticeable.


To address the last part - it's an online racing simulator league. Everybody's driving fake cars that don't exist anymore online with a community with some structure but not in a "Shark tank" situation. The whole point of this is having fun, I can't imagine why it would or could possibly be anything else. I genuinely don't mean to offend you but if you're taking this super seriously I really think you should reconsider that and maybe just relax a bit and focus on throwing the old turbo cars around for a laugh.

 

Hm, yeah, yeah, I see. Well, that's what I said. I said "if it's some crazy fun", not just fun. But to turn things back right, you weren't happy and complained about your yesterdays drive at Brands Hatch... so what? Finding out what makes this one go faster, on a proper track, what's wrong with that? Isn't there a way to have fun at the same time while seeing that you improve here and there? Otherwise, we are either understeering or wheel-spinning. Not at Meadowdale though hahha OK, maybe I didn't get the vibe of the series properly in the start, I can relax, no problem. But no one was apparently throwing cars yesterday on purpose and to have fun, at least to me it didn't look like that. Everybody I saw was racing, defending or chasing each other, or trying.

And people liking what they're comfortable with has got nothing to do with democracy or anything like that, but with the way people are at the moment, and what exactly they want and need. What is democracy is you not liking what they do like hahah

But what I actually meant is, to repeat myself again, this is kind of a contrast with other tracks on the schedule, isn't it? The actual real track looks very cool. The track mod is way off. And I didn't mean it in the way as a theme for the series as you say but in quality. This track's quality is what I addressed earlier obviously, I didn't write that it shouldn't be a vintage track, which it should be. That was your point about other people not voting much for vintage tracks. That's nothing I disagree about there and also I've got nothing to do with it. And actually I named quite a few vintage tracks that are quite better or miles ahead better and fit the series theme well, some even geographically. And there's plenty more on. How this one got on, that's the only thing that I was asking. And I also assumed in the end that perhaps the idea was some crazy fun like you called it "throwing the old turbo cars around for a laugh". I see now that the track was actually not in the vote, but only you mentioned it there in the thread. Me just telling that it's a low quality track now can't make me that uptight or "super serious" in such a negative way, does it? No offense taken though, I know what you meant.

Also, Flugplatz is nothing like this downhill at Meadowdale. But OK I arrived here late, so please pardon my wondering about this.

 

It's clear from this response that you took offense to what I said as now you're just blatantly trying to insult me instead of countering any of the arguments I made.

Me apologizing for being slow enough to get in the way of some other cars doesn't mean I'm taking the racing super seriously. It's just me trying to indicate I don't want to ruin anybody else's fun.

You're a fast driver, you'll figure out how to Drive Meadowdale even if you think the mod isn't good. I think you should complain less about it though. Everybody else will have to deal with the same issues, that makes it fair. My last post was me trying to be subtle and politely tell you that nobody wanted to listen to you whining, but apparently you didn't get the memo.

 

Pfff hahhah this post of yours somewhat earlier is what I found funny by you, nothing to be offended by me finding it funny of course. Because surely you wrote it because you wanted it to be funny. Care to explain why are you offended now or answer in any other manner to my previous post than purely stating you're offended? It's just you wanting this track for whatever reason.

OK, here is one picturesque counterargument, never saw happening at Nordschleife's Flugplatz, possibly does at Black Cat County:
https://ibb.co/9wznPdq

 

I can tell you didn't bother reading anything I told you earlier. It's your responsibility to pick a car that doesn't have that issue at this track when signing up to the series. I made sure I chose one that didn't do that, plenty of the cars don't suffer the lift over the crest. You're going to have the same problem at other places on the calendar as well.

 

Ted, please hold it with the "I didn't bother reading", "I'm whining", I'm blatantly offending you" and "I'm responsible...". That's almost trolling. What the hell? You got me interested in this. It's a bad mod. No other track on the calendar has an issue like this. You can't just wish all of us wanting the same thing. This is literally shoved in. I'm surprised more and more but still not offended.

But of course I can deal with the track. It's no big deal. What is the problem is that we might end up with more incidents than laps. And doing one hour of that.

The mod is consisting of a bunch of cars with varying downforce and engine power levels. How can I choose a car that doesn't suffer from that issue, if I want to race in all fast cars Division 1? You are in slower cars Division 2, and you don't have a problem, fine. These cars fly with front up, and are not made to jump like at Thomson Road track for example. That's fun. We reach those 250kmh or something, get in draft with someone and we want to pass on the straight but now we both have to lift for the crest or we'll be up and away. So now, while doing 1 hour of this, someone lifts a bit more, someone less, a disaster for both. Especially Tim for example could have a word about that with his BMW M1 that's at about 280 kmh there at the crest. Maybe not, if he also finds it funny to race like that.

 

I'm generally a massive fan of AC's physics engine - using the Nordschlief as an example I can lap bridge to gantry in my own car within 10 seconds of the times I achieve in real life - these times are naturally a bit faster, because crashing a 90's turbo wedge in a sim won't kill me quite as much as for real
There are several other cars - stock and otherwise - in AC that I've had the pleasure of owning or borrowing on track, again they mostly behave like their real cousins.

As for never seeing flipping/lifting at the Nords - it does happen in AC if you don't lift in time in certain cars (Try a 917/30).
More importantly in happens in real life also, who can forget this horrific crash from a few years ago which resulted in a spectator dying and GT3 getting banned from the nordschliefe? A spot of googling suggests quite a few accidents over the years were caused by nose lifts there also:
https://i.postimg.cc/wMQgw4F9/Nords-flip.jpg


As mentioned - not all cars suffer this problem (again, as per real life); so when I encounter it in an official Kunos car or a decent mod (like DRM) I take it on the chin as yet another compromise forced on me by racing.
Do I like having cars try to kill me everytime I reach a certain bump? No But provided it isn't just due to really crap physics (ACLegends mod springs to mind) then I'm perfectly happy having to drive around it. DRM is like a holiday after 20 years of racing GPL on-line and having your car try to kill you for a minimum of 95% of the lap!

I do agree with you that the track isn't especially high quality compared to the others though, but it suits the cars due to it's vintage nature and looks set to add different challenges into the mix. The Capri's had rear tire issues last time out, I was heavily wearing my front left instead, As this track apparently murders the front left I might find myself suffering major tire problems late in the race if I can't tweak my setup to suit.
I run the AC series over on SRou and avoid democracy to a large extent when choosing series and especially tracks - this doesn't always avoid having to use sub-par circuits but does give me far more freedom to pick stuff that works with a given series and try stuff no-ones heard of, picking tracks by vote will rarely allow for that. John tries to keep the drivers happy while also not re-running the same tracks every season so it's a bit trickier for him.

None of this is intended as a dig if it comes across that way, but you did ask!