The UK Gran Turismo Party IV

Famine · Oct 30, 2005

Held the weekend of the 29th-30th October 2005

Saturday 29th
Attendees:
Famine
daan
Mr P
Lotus350
Venom77
vexd
EXelero
TheCracker

Series 1 - The Saloon Car Handicap:
Each driver started off in the "best" tested car - the BMW M5 - with the winner and 2nd place driver in each race moving down to a slightly worse car, the idea being that the good drivers can win in rubbish cars (or even bobbins ones) and the not-as-good drivers can still win races by being in better cars. Though some drivers turned out to be good enough to make a mockery of the tested 4s a lap (on Trial Mountain) gap and win with the worst cars while others were still nowhere near them. The winner is the first person to win a race in the worst car (the Lexus GS300).

As it turned out, this series took most of the day so, although there wasn't enough gap between the cars to make the handicap notable, this was a good time killer.

Below are listed the cars, with the order in which it took people to reach them:

BMW M5 (starter car)
Mercedes E55 - vexd, daan, Famine, Mr. P, Venom77, Lotus350, EXelero, TheCracker
FPV GT - Mr. P, vexd, Famine, daan, TheCracker, Lotus350, Venom77
Jaguar S-Type-R - Mr. P, vexd, daan, Famine, TheCracker, Venom77, Lotus350
Lotus Carlton - Mr. P, vexd, daan, Famine, TheCracker, Venom77, Lotus350
Chrysler 300C - vexd, Mr. P, daan, Famine
Audi RS6 - vexd, Mr. P, Famine
Lexus GS300 - vexd, Mr. P

The ultimate winner was vexd, with Mr. P - despite one of the most spectacular crashes in OLR history, in the Lotus Carlton at High Speed Ring - and Famine making up the podium.

Series 2 - DTM Mixer:
Six cars, seven drivers, seven races. Each driver can pick each car once and once alone for each of their six races (and each one sits a race out - pre-determined randomly by getting Venom77 to pick numbers off the top of his head). Points are scored 6 for 1st, 5 for 2nd, 4 for 3rd, 3 for 4th, 2 for 5th and 1 for 6th.

The six cars were the Audi TT, Audi A4, Alfa 156, Mercedes CLK, Opel Calibra and Mercedes 190E Touring Cars.

Points tally:
vexd - 30
Mr. P - 30
Famine - 23
Lotus350 - 22
Venom77 - 18
daan - 17
EXelero - 7

vexd (again) took the series by virtue of winning three races (Nurburgring, Opera Paris, La Sarthe I) to Mr. P's two (Hong Kong, Autumn Ring).

Series 3 - Muscle Car Pick'n'Mix
As above, but with six muscle cars - Dodge Charger, Dodge Charger Superbee, Mercury Cougar, Plymouth Superbird, Chevrolet Camaro SS and Shelby Mustang. EXelero chose to sit the series out, having racked up more seat time in the Mercedes E55 alone than anyone else in the entire rest of the day.

Points tally:
Mr. P - 31
vexd - 28
Famine - 17
daan - 17
Venom77 - 16
Lotus350 - 13

A different winner! Hurrah! Though vexd won three of the six races, his third behind daan in the final race sealed Mr. P's win, but he was hurt badly by a - gentlemanly - last place finish at Seattle Reverse, feeling that he'd unfairly taken 3rd from Lotus350 on the final lap.

Day 2 to follow...

Blackbird. · Oct 30, 2005

Are those all GtP members in those pictures?

Famine · Oct 30, 2005

Yep.

And before any asks, yes, that's my dad's spare bedroom (and no, he didn't quite realise what he'd agreed to host) and yes, I built all of that stuff myself on Friday.

vexd and EXelero are coming back for seconds today, along with Sukerkin, but Mr. P, Lotus350 and their chaffeur Venom77 can't make it back, unfortunately. Also unfortunately I think, because of this, we've only got 4 networkable PS2s today.

Blackbird. · Oct 30, 2005

How'd you afford the hardware? I'd imagine people brought their own PS2s and PStwos. But what about the televisions?

Famine · Oct 30, 2005

The two leftmost TVs are mine. The next one is Venom77's, then daan's, Mr. P's and, finally, vexd's.

I provided two TVs, a slimline PS2, a wheel, several hundred miles of various cabling and the switch. Oh, and the units and some food/coffee/beer. All the other bits (PS2s, other wheels, other TVs) were brought by the players. vexd brought his own rig...

Small_Fryz · Oct 30, 2005

Wonderful!! 👍

Congrats to all participants, sounds like you guys had lots of fun :cheers:

👍

Blackbird. · Oct 30, 2005

Looked like great fun. Wish we had a GTP meet, that would be awesome.

Venom77 · Oct 30, 2005

Superb andrew if you have another one i wont miss it for the world 👍

Thoroughley enjoyed myself

Im sure i beat you on muscle power lol :dopey:

Cheers andrew again 👍

goixoye · Oct 30, 2005

I am so GREEN with envy...I wish I new local folks that I could do this with.

ExigeEvan · Oct 30, 2005

Most of them aren't that local.

Where's the group picture!? And why are some using DS2 when their DFPs are there?

Venom77 · Oct 30, 2005

Dfp did'nt suit all tracks man 👎

Ive only just bought my dfp so was not use to it :indiff:

ds2 was ideal 👍

Mr P · Oct 30, 2005

Awesome day of racing there 👍 :cheers:

Well done to Andrew for Organizing and Hosting and Building the venue! .. Great Job mate 👍

Also Top Marks to David / Vexd for giving me so many great battles! He really knows how to race in a LAN meeting and handed my ass to me on a plate so many times it was becoming 2nd nature to him

👍 ... everyone else supplied some great racing battles also and they were all very cool people to get along with

So to all attendees : Famine / Daan / Vexd / Excelero / The Cracker / Venom77 and Lotus350 ! .... I say thanks for contributing towards a truely memorable Event :cheers:

Put my name down for the next one also :cool:

Thanks guys! ... and again Thanks and Well done to Andrew for building all those units and making it all possible :cheers:

Regards
Ron.

👍

Kelly · Oct 30, 2005

Great day indeed! I enjoyed meeting you all really nice people, and I was impressed at all the effort Andrew had gone to in order to make this possible, the building of the units and providing car seats, (I felt sorry for EXelero being stuck in a silly plastic high school chair for the day, but she was a good sport and great company, it was nice to be in the company of another female as well

) the little name tags he made us plus prizes for both winners and losers (I deliberately lost in the muscle car races just so I could get a prize :sly:

) he put on food and drinks and kept us smokers well exercised with the steep stairs to go up and down and gave us all a warm welcome

Thanks Andrew! and thanks everyone else for turning up and making it a great day of GT racing, we'll definitely be coming to the next one 👍

I'd also like to point out that I did win a few races myself due to some excellent driving and overtaking moves

I pipped Ron on the last straight on a Seattle race and I led and won the whole Trial Mountain II race (only because Vexd and Ron weren't in it) and I also won at Susuka and El Capitan

amp88 · Oct 30, 2005

Looked like fun 👍

Who's who in the pics then?

Kelly · Oct 30, 2005

Famine,Daan and Venom77 (left to right)

Daan, Venom77, EXelero, Me, Vexd

EXelero, Mr P, Vexd

The Cracker

amp88 · Oct 30, 2005

Ta. The Cracker looks younger than I would've expected him to be

Famine · Oct 30, 2005

Sunday 30th:
Attendees
Famine
daan
vexd
EXelero
Sukerkin

Only 5 drivers - but only 4 networked PS2s - today. Which made for totally lag-free racing.

Series 4 - Best'o'British:
6 British cars - Ginetta G4, TVR V8S, Jensen Intercepter, Jaguar E-Type, Lotus Europa and Lotus Esprit HC. As before, each driver can drive each car once only.

However, it became readily apparent that, with 5 drivers and four seats, we were going to run out of drivers very quickly indeed and either end up with a two man race or have to invent something else off the top of our heads...

So, after the 5th race - where everyone had driven four cars and sat out a round - we decided to eliminate the last placed player. Or rather Carys volunteered to sit out, still suffering from E55-lag the previous day.

So, after 5 rounds, it looked like this:
Famine - 13
vexd - 12
daan - 11
Sukerkin - 8
EXelero - 6

The final two races saw vexd and Famine both take one win (in the TVR V8S and E-Type, respectively) and one last (in the G4 and Europa) respectively, preserving the original 1 point gap. Sukerkin and daan shared 2nd and 3rd places alternately, so the final standings were:
Famine - 18
vexd - 17
daan - 16
Sukerkin - 13

Close racing!

Series 5 - Saloon Car Handicap II:
Similar to the first day's race, but with a reduced field of cars - to make competition quicker and the handicap more apparent. Only five cars this time out - the M5, S-Type R, FPV GT, Chrysler 300C and the Lexus GS300. Top two in each race moved down a car, with the winner of the race sitting out the next one

Again, Carys got stuck until, out of nowhere in race 5 at Grand Valley, she took a clear race win - though, in a rare moment of female premature jubilation, she thought she'd won it quite a way earlier than she actually did, cheering at the end of lap 4 (of 5). Despite this hands-free moment, she persisted to the end - repeating the race win 5 races later at Twin Ring Motegi (and a very creditable 2nd at the Nurburgring in race 8).

Due to tactics - and luck, and the odd bit of simply not being able to keep up - Famine didn't win a single race in this series, yet still managed to be first driver to both of the last two cars and come second overall. Since the top two drivers both progressed but only the winner sat out, second place was where it's at. But still, EXelero (2), daan (1), Sukerkin (3) and vexd (4) carved the victories up between them until, in the final race, comprising a full field of Lexuses at New York, vexd took the victory, scarcely 2 seconds ahead of second-yet-again Famine.

BMW M5 (Starter car)
Jaguar S-Type R - vexd, daan, Sukerkin, Famine, EXelero
FPV GT - vexd, Famine, Sukerkin, daan, EXelero
Chrysler 300C - Famine, vexd, Sukerkin, daan, EXelero
Lexus GS300 - Famine, vexd, Sukerkin, daan

With vexd taking the series win. Again. Bastard...

ac.cobra427 · Oct 30, 2005

Looks like a great gathering. I like the way you handled the car choice.

Lotrzyna · Oct 30, 2005

Great stuff ppl

So you were (are) racing on linked cosoles ? cool. i would like to have such a events in my country :/ (hmm England is not such a far away from Poland

)
Are you Famine saying that 6 consoles = lag ?
Try to inform some more ppl next time

jk

Sjaak · Oct 30, 2005

Seems like a nice day you all had,Lan is cool

About the lag,was the network traffic on light?
I remember the first tries of making a lan, we had it on heavy which caused lag.

Famine · Oct 30, 2005

6 car fields weren't laggy unless you were on a highly graphical circuit - but the lag wasn't really noticeable. 4 car fields = no lag at all.

sjaak - I hear there's one coming in Holland. Any chance of an invite?

G.T · Oct 30, 2005

Looks like you guys enjoyed/are enjoying yourselves. I'd like to go to a meeting like this someday.

Kolyana · Oct 30, 2005

Man o man! Good pictures and nice to see England on the LAN scene!!! (Also nice to put a few faces to names!). Being originally from England, I've got a soft spot for this sort of thing, even if I am 8,000 miles away and can't participate 👎

Maybe I'll make a special trip for the next one

daan · Oct 30, 2005

That's me just home. Had a great time meeting and racing everyone again.

Many thanks to Famine, and his dad, for hosting, building and getting some great races together.

When and where is the next one, eh VEXD.....?

sukerkin · Oct 30, 2005

Hey Daan 👍

Glad to hear you got home safe and sound.

I too escaped the clutches of Sheffield unscathed (despite the cunning lack of sign-posting

) and made it across the wind-swept, pitch-black, peaks back to the Shire

.

Lady S was touched that everyone asked about her (as was I truth be told

) and sends her (belated) best regards.

I'll add my thanks to yours for Famine for the sterling efforts to put this on & his father putting up with the clutter and row of us over two days in his home.

I enjoyed this one much more than the previous LAN parties and I think that lies squarely on the fact that the standard of driving was very high, with a minimum amount of panel beating necessary on the cars after each race (apparently, Saturdays events were not so blessed so I'm glad in a way to have missed them

).

Very well played, gentlemen (and Ladies). As a result of the success of this one, you may have to put up with me at a future one too (whereas, after the last one, I'd almost decided not to attend any others).

Mr. Toad · Oct 30, 2005

Sounds like a fun time was had by all!
Next time I hop across the pond, I'll drop in for a pint (or 30) and a weekend of GT4.

Mr P · Oct 30, 2005

sukerkin
with a minimum amount of panel beating necessary on the cars after each race (apparently, Saturdays events were not so blessed so I'm glad in a way to have missed them ).

I think that statement is very misleading 👎

yeah!.. there was some contacts! ... but nothing worth writing home about especially as it should be written by someone who was there on the day and not someone from another event 💡
Glad you enjoyed your LAN meat Sucker .... kin :sly:

daan · Oct 30, 2005

I can't really tell you all what happened on the Saturday, or Ron will beat me up.... :scared:

Small_Fryz · Oct 31, 2005

@daan

Famine · Oct 31, 2005

I'm back home myself now...

For Sunday's second event, I repeated the saloon car handicap, but, crucially, swapped the S-Type R and FPV GT over, and skipped every other car (no E55, no Lotus Carlton and no Audi RS6). This had the effect of making the series shorter - it dragged a little, I felt, on Saturday - but tighter and the handicap came into play more. Carys actually got to drive the S-Type this time and did, in fact, make it to the 2nd last car - the Chrysler 300C.

I DO have to say that, all-in-all, contact was very scarce - no-one really got a race-killer on either day - but even scarcer on Sunday, though Mark did get lamped at the 'Ring, by spinning right in front of me and parking an 18 foot Chrysler sideways across a 6 yard wide track, and vexd got himself tangled then well and truely mullered by everyone in the FPV GT at Grand Valley. I think this is probably a side-effect of having only 4 cars on track too.

Still, as Ron pointed out to my dad, I can't wait for GT5 and 20 drivers per LAN...

A MASSIVE thank you to everyone who came - the event would have been nothing (well, maybe firewood) without you and it's always a pleasure to see each and every one of you. And the BEST bit about LAN is the banter. Top-notch laughs all weekend.

I'll post more results a little later (and I know Carys in particular is looking forward to this), but I'm due at work in 7.5 hours...

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