Round 4 Nordschleife - Thu Nov 12, 2020

Ace vid Tim, great pace. I’ve been building a sim rig all weekend so had no chance for practise but having a rock-solid rig should help nicely as my rickety old rig was shaking apart with this mod at the Nords.

 

Rig...i got table, modest chair and computer in largesized closet. My old wheel kept so much noice. Wifey threw me out from common quarters. " Cant hear him, cant see him, everything is fine now!'

 

She almost got you in the closet there, well done!

 

Come out of closet so wifey problem solved

 

Hehe, guess how many times she said that allready

 

I really looking forward for next...massive pile up at some point of race. If someone make big mistake front of you, there's not much chance to avoid collision... It may be some fun cruising around here alone as a "adventure" but for racing this track is totally useless.

 

Kimi - The Nurburgring is an 'old fashioned' race track. Racing there requires mutual respect and space to be given by all protagonists.
Just drive defensively and intelligently and you'll be fine - people are still racing the CanAm and GT mods of GPL around the 'Ring, the netcode in GPL so so bad people try to keep a couple of car widths apart to avoid lag-hits - here we can pretty much lean on each others cars in safety.

When I say intelligently I mean watch what is going on around you - if a faster car/driver is behind you then you know they'll appear alongside at some point so stay ready to give space and actually check before turning in.
If cars ahead are battling and you're gaining, then think very carefully about if and when you want to - or even should - get involved in the fight. Watch their own actions and judge whether they're an accident waiting to happen or are actually racing safely. If they don't look safe and you continue to get closer or drive as if they aren't ahead then you're guaranteed to be also involved in any accident they have - if you stay back while they're being daft you still have plenty space to avoid them.

Simply put - if you don't trust the cars around you then be bloody careful and sooner or later you get to pass them for free

Do this and you can have great races on the Ring - I know I've had plenty.

Even if you aren't running Helicorsa (which you really should be) the standard AC app is still very good for locating the competition and knowing when to be careful.

 

I use AC standard app to "see" around, what I meant, lack of racing is just like you say, waiting...track is too narrow
and cars too wide here, like being stuck in traffic, waiting red lights to go green and speeding 250 km/h at same time.

 

There are at least two huge straights to over-take on always makes me wonder why some guys say you cant overtake at the Nordschleife, have you ever watched an N24 event with well over a 100 cars of massively varying driver ability and car pace?
Lifted from their bumph:
Competitors
158 Vehicles were scrutineered as the initial entry with some 580 drivers from 32 countries. Altogether, the grid features vehicles of 22 manufacturers. (Two cars have been withdrawn following damage in Practice/ qualifying accidents)
210 Vehicles contested Friday’s 3-hour ADAC 24h-Classic race. About 450 drivers will race vehicles from five decades.

 

N24 is totally different story than short races i.e. WTCC 3 laps or our 8 laps race (why don't we drive 2 hours here btw?). Actually when theres WTCC @ 'slaiffe, I don't even bother to watch, not much action unless someone wreck car or something, watching criket or chess gives more adrenaline tbh..

 

Must admit I never look forward to racing nords. A gentle tour around admiring the scenery is great but an hours full on racing in these cars is more adrenaline than I'm used to these days.

Done a few laps in the Fezza and I'm dog slow, probably around 8:50 race pace. If you're in a Div 2 car and you find yourself behind me I feel for you.....you won't get past me on the straights either because that's the only place I'm fast I will though skip quali and start from the back so you'll only have yourselves to blame if you find me in front of you.

 

I’m only on about 8.45 (55L & E Tyree) so far GT so you can at least race me Not been able to spend more than half hour at a time so far so no rhythm built up Having laps wiped from cut warnings is tedious too when it takes near 18-19mins to get a hot lap in
Running 1-3 wing at moment but may have to put more wing on as not sure how loose car will get on worn rubber.
The cars look ace here

 

Skip to 2hrs 14 Min 50 sec or thereabout for the fastest lap from my practice stream last night. Mostly doing 8:36's in the Div2 BMW 320i w/ 100 Liters of Fuel + endurance tires. Did this singular 8:33.xx w/ 100L and Endurance tires, as well. 1 Outlap + 1 Flier. The link isn't embedding with the time stamp for some reason, sorry.

Somebody may learn something from, it, I don't think so though. I can tell I'm leaving 2-5 seconds on the table somewhere and I'm really probably not going to do great this week.

Warning: I Profusely swear at myself for making stupid mistakes for most of the lap - be aware if you don't like that kind of thing.

Warning 2: The audios actually really quiet, too, I just now noticed. So you might have to turn it up really high and then turn your speakers/headphones down again after.

 

Can I join to server middle of the qualifying? I want start from back.

 

@Henri Miettinen - I guess anyone can join in whenever they want to the server, as long as they're registered for the championship and have a car/skin reserved for their name on the server by the admin/host.

Found this nice group 5 cars gallery with some short but good reads in between. There was an interesting points system back in the Group 5 DRM days. The Division 2 cars didn't race Division 1 cars directly of course. They mostly ran separate races, just occasionally ran all together like a multi class and had a separate points system like we have here. But whoever accumulated most points in any of the both divisions, would eventually win the overall championship. Which puts me for example to 3rd in Division 1 only, but to 5th overall currently. So there's even less reason to despair, Division 2 people Get on it. And knock those points in.

We know that starting in the midpack is to be the most difficult. That famous start + turn 1 adventure could be avoided here if first we watch out for heavy wheelspin or engine bog downs on the grid, but also if we get on brakes early, well before the 150m board, like close after where the pit wall ends. Watch out for the cars in front. You can also use the trick of stomping on the brakes there while still accelerating to it to put some of the initial heat into it but also to warn others behind when your brake light turns on. Try it out in practice. The cars won't slow down much yet then. What follows through out most of the GP part of the track is some horrible understeer in those slow corners due to cold and non-scraped fresh endurance tires. So bring down your speeds on time and lower than on a timed lap to prevent running wide. Especially with heavy brutes of the Division 1, the Porsches, the BMW M1 Turbo and the Ferrari 308. Just leave enough gap in front if not sure. Watch out also for the last GP chicane's hard braking zone. When we get into the Nordschleife section, tires should be a bit better with more heat and some more grip but still not at optimal until well ahead. Defend your line if you want, but don't do unpredictable stuff like sudden blocking. Leave enough room for the other car behind and make sure you can actually go through the corner while defending. If not sure and confident enough yet, rather lift and let faster cars by, safely and predictably.

Didn't have time to put up some videos with other cars, but Ted posted a fine practice session there. I took the 320i for two laps. As usual, I wouldn't mess with the setup early, just fiddled with gears and managed just barely to match my 8:30 in the Lancia. That was with endurance tires but with low default fuel load. I've still got a fine race pace here in the Toyota at low 8:20s which is most important to me since it proves to be the weakest Division 1 car. In one qualifying trim attempt offline, I managed a 8:16. So I'll be mostly in my smooth ride mode here and looking to finish unscathed. There's some good grip and handling from the car due to lower weight, but not much power for those fast corners and straights to be able to pass or fight back. The brute cars can sort of lay back, follow and enjoy while making some easy passes on the straights. That frustrating-torque-curve 320i turbo followed by the lite-smooth-rider Lancia are very close to the Toyota's ~280kmh top speeds which is worrying If you think you're struggling for top speed, you can take out the front downforce since it carries some significant drag on these straights. Of course, you can balance it with a click or two less of rear wing and can eventually even gain some time overall here and there on accelerations and long straights. If your tires temps are not already hitting the ceiling that is. Second half of the race and tire wear will bring some understeer with easier to do wheelspins also, so watch out for that later in the run.

 

Nice! I love the Norrisring photo's, good to see some epic motorsport happening on the day I was born

 

Jeez, GT40 MKIv's were winning Le Mans in my birth year

Great DRM photos Filip, thanks for sharing

 

One cool thing is how the DIV 2 cars seem to balance themselves out decently.

The 320I has power, but no other advantages.
The Escort is a low-speed corner handling monster because it's so light.
The Lancia is a decent all-rounder and a good in-between of the two.

You can see the advantage changing depending on the sector. I really think it's going to be impossible to race anybody of equal calibre in the Beta Montecarlo because the 'Ring is such an all-around circuit, though. We'll have to see.

 

Not going to be very easy to overtake others with escort because it is slowest on straights

 

I'd honestly swap with you in a heartbeat if I could.

I'd rather have the more nimble car so I can push harder on my qualifying lap and ensure a track position/race advantage with that - then be behind in the higher-powered car trying to overtake at the Nurbrugring with how narrow and bumpy it is. I'm not sure if you watched my onboard, but to get that 8:33 out of my car on a race fuel load and endurance tires I had to take some pretty massive risks I can't afford to during the race. IMO that hands the advantage to the Lower power, higher grip/cornering speed cars like the Escort and Beta Montecarlo.