Round 4 Nordschleife - Thu Nov 12, 2020

I drove Geoff Crammond's GP2 with a flightstick

 

Allllllright.

Lausitsring over. Time for the most G E R M A N round on the calendar. Grab your Dirndl and tighten your helmet straps.

We're all going to die.

 

Needless to say... well, maybe not needless:

Turn 1 (it's really a sharp one)
1. Cooooold brakes = no good braking power for 100 meters, brake at 200m board or earlier at start
2. Cooooold tires = no good turning at normal speed, go through it slower than usual

 

The above applies for about half the GP course on lap 1 to be honest. At Lausitzring I was well into lap 2 before I had full brakes and warm front tires (Not helped by taking avoiding action onto the grass admittedly, but would have been the same regardless).
On a random note - the first time I went to the 'Ring (about 2008 I think) there was a DRM era M1 turbo in the Museum foyer that I dribbled over for quite a while!

There was also a non-turbo racer in the VLN race that happened while we were there which sounded ace.
This was before all the new noise limits and the switch to major-league, 'bought' race cars that is prevalent now, there was some epic old machinery dicing with the modern GT3's over the race weekend. Plus odd modern stuff that seemed made just for VLN, including some unusual Lambos and even incredible sounding early Lexus LFA racers and even some 935's that were STILL being raced

 

Just to double-check - we're NOT using the 1967 CSP enabled vintage version by WilliamTRiker from Race Department, but the Kunos native one, correct?

 

Correct - I think it's one of the endurance layouts though as opposed to just the Nords

 

Endurance Cup I believe.

 

Would have prefered the vintage one for the immersion, but such is life. Will practice on Endurance Cup if I get a chance

 

24 pitboxes only, does it matter? osrw or whaatnot version 34 boxes

 

I think the series is at exactly 24 right now but I've got the OSRW expansion installed just in case we need it.

 

Very true, and to add to it, even each and every new lap is a torture on the GP part of the track until back at Nordschleife. When you go down that last long straight on the Nordschleife, the tires and brakes will cool off a lot. Even braking late and hard for the last chicane won't put back in enough temperature. So you have to account that going back over s/f line, you have to brake again earlier than what seems normal for a GP layout, so you can put the speed down in time for turn 1. Otherwise you'll overshoot it. This goes especially for heavy division 1 cars, such as M1, Porsche and Ferrari, maybe even Lancia, with their engines being behind the driver. What annoyed me when running a Ferrari, after any longer straight on any track, I always had to pump some brake before actual braking to have some temperature in. They cool down really fast on the Ferrari.

Anyway, early on and hopefully in time for everyone for some orientation, I've got a couple of things to share again:

Division 1 cars should fast lap around here at 8:20 ish to 8:30. That kind of pace should bring us all with just over 7 laps when the timer is up, so I assume for sure we will run the 8th lap. Top speeds from 270 to over 300 kmh.

My own fuel estimates
Toyota C78 rounded up to 11 liters,
Ford Capri a bit over that, maybe about 12 liters,
Porsche and M1 a bit more, maybe 13 liters per lap,
Most fuel for Ferrari Carma 308, about 14 liters per lap.

Division 2 cars fast laps should be about or just under 8:40 for division 2, ran with Ford Escort. The 1979 Lancia Beta Monte Carlo has the lowest fuel usage in this grid of ours. Now, the BMW 320i turbo should have about 10% more fuel usage than the 1979 Lancia. Ford Escort together with 1980 Lancia should be somewhere in between, and when I ran here in it, the fuel burnt was between 10 and 11 liters per lap. Top speeds at about 260+ kmh.

That's all with 90% turbo, so make sure you don't make tight calculations, especially if you want to use that max boost which might burn too much fuel early on. It's a looong tight track so think of it as an adventure rather than a normal close door to door race hahaha We want to avoid pitting but even if it does happen, it's not more than up to about 15 seconds to refill for one lap worth of fuel to finish a race reasonably. I'm not sure if we should bother with medium tire here, since it may as well wear off before ending first timed lap. Endurance tires should last the whole race for division 1 if cautious about them, but division 2 cars should have to worry even less, I think. If you decide not to risk, tire pitstop will take from 35 up to 40 secs so you can use that time for adding some fuel. There are some liters/lap values for each car on a couple of different tracks in the DRM manual that you can use to compare the cars.

Let me tell you a story. We ran this DRM at SRS for four seasons already, starting summer 2019. That was all with the older 1.2 version. Beginning of 2020 we had a 4th and so far final DMR season at SRS, all cars available, six weeks - six races. No limitations on car choices either during the season, and also no points separations between divisions. A normal thing at SRS. They always run with tire blankets, at 22/28 C temperatures, 100% grip. Any contact with damage there gives you an incident point, which takes away 3 championship points from you. Really too harsh if you aim for the title, but that will never change there. Crashes, shunts and punts always happened and still happen, even with all that. Also, the grid was always the same type like anywhere. This mod attracted several faster guys, but then you had some slower guys, and then even slower guys for whatever reason. So, we've had two seasons of 20 minutes sprint races with tighter or wider car selection, but later it got to 1 hour race seasons. Since I was already familiar enough with the mod and with a lot of laps in Escort and Lancia, I chose the Ferrari and stick with it the whole season because I wanted to figure it out. It was fun, lots of power and grip but tough on tighter and slower tracks. Like the Porsche. M1 wasn't as good back then, practically always behind them and even the Capris. As usual I tried to run one series at a time, and this was the case again. The only series I was concentrated on, so it was easier when I had time to practice. The series had 2x increased tirewear and mandatory pitstops. This same track and layout was a season finale. Up to then in that season, we've had three different winners (all three - Finns), and all my Ferrari finishes so far were 2nd places except one 3rd, in the first race at Spa. Not historically accurate, but I liked this version more hahhah So knocking all those points in and coming here, still had a good chance to grab the title from the current championship leader, if he made a big mistake or a mishap on the Green hell. We ran 8:22 laps in the beginning. One fast guy in front for me to chase him, the other, a champ leader to run away from. Not ideal but good for motivation, I was confident. So I almost ran out of fuel due to my bad and too tight fuel calculation and max boosting it on straights in the first laps chasing the leader who was in a Capri. I had to ease off during last two laps just to make it to finish, 2nd again, in front of the championship leader who earlier fell behind with a small lousy spin, but was now closing up fast. He chose a 1979 Porsche for this race that could go over 310 kmh down the last straight. However, eventually that was 3rd for him and winning the title. If I add that both the race winner and the champ were Finns, nothings seems strange lol Great times and great experience earned from all those DRM weeks at SRS.

So anyway, moral of the story is that even with a tire/fuel pitstop in 1 hour race, we ran 8 laps here.

'Tis a special track so fill yer gasoline receptacles and start cruisin' I say!

 

Did about half an out lap on Single Player today when bored. This is going to be absolutely disgusting, I can't wait, hahahah

 

And I've done half a lap many times , not many times full,
it will be a dramatic show.
I too can not wait

 

Blaaah, why can't there be good ready-made setups like in acc, so you can just jump in the race without doing many many laps practice? Can anyone share your setup for marod scream pls?

 

I am asking for a presentation in a Porsche 935
regards

 

I don't think I've ever done a Nurburgring track guide. I might have one out by mid next week.


Edit: Does anybody have the link for the OSRW Pit expansion version? I know I've probably asked this before but I always, always, always forget to bookmark the Goddamn thing.