I think that's Zero's intent with the series and one of the things I like about it. Making clean passes with this field is super rewarding because everyone is quite closely matched.
kcheeb, you hit the nail on the head..that is indeed my intent. I'm a huge Formula One fan so the best analogy I can think of is that I want passing in our league to resemble the passing you see in F1, and not at all like the passing you see in NASCAR. In other words, I want each pass to be a battle within a battle - a prize that has to be fought for, even if that fight lasts for multiple laps or even the entire race. In NASCAR, passes are not as rewarding because they happen so often. Cars will swap positions multiple times in the same lap and that's lame.
Although our cars are currently limited to the same PP and are relatively close in performance, there are still variances allowed in gearing, suspension, and downforce that cause some cars to be faster in some parts of the track and slower in other parts. This has caused some bunching up on the grid, especially at the start of races specifically. But in general, the variance in our cars performance (however big or small it may be) has me wanting to do more to make our cars even more similar, if not identical.
That why I'm hereby announcing that this league will be converted into a non-tuning league starting this Sunday night. This may not be a surprise to those who raced with us two Sundays ago when I openly discussed this possibility. Although I'm hesitant to tweak a format that seems to be enjoyed by everyone who participates, I strongly feel that this change will make the league even more enjoyable and accessible. In fact, those of you who've been following this league since it was posted on gtplanet know that I've wanted this league to be a non-tuning league since its inception. The only reason I didn't do so initially was because one of the founding league members felt very strongly that tuning needed to be allowed. He has since softened his stance on that position and is in favor of giving this non-tuning thing a try. 👍
The FD on Grand Valley was my favorite so I hate to change it but here goes... Same car on Indy Road Course.
Combination Update
Car: BMW Concept 1 Series Tii '07
Track: Trial Mountain Reverse
At first, I was planning to convert the league to a non-tuning league slowly and methodically by stipulating that any new car introduced into the line-up would be a non-tuning car. However, after seeing that whatbadgerseat opted to keep the RX-7 (FD) in the line-up and knowing what Diabolic had in mind for his new car choice, I knew that the time was right so just "rip the band-aid off" and make the change in one fell swoop. This is because both of those cars combined with the Toyota GT 86 that's already in the
line-up make for three cars that handle great "out of the box" without any tuning at all. I'm not saying that all the cars we race from now on will have perfect handling, but I definitely think that starting this non-tuning experiment with three cars that handle great stock will definitely help ease us into this new format with minimal growing pains.
Please let me know what your thoughts are about this. I appreciate everyone's feedback on this change, regardless of whether it's positive or negative.