◆ SNAIL [Spec] Racing - Join now to win a Digit Racing EDGE Masterclass enrollment!!Open

[BayouSimDrifter]

I will try that immediately prior to Sunday. Thanks!

Wait, how can you tell when someone has changed their oil?

When you look at the members list in the lobby just click square to see the car hp/pp

 

[Handlebar]

I think I will practice a bit offline on the tracks in use and try my best this Sunday.

Remember that the physics - how the car handles, the tire grip, etc. is very different offline and online. You are better served making an online Friends Only room and just title it Solo Practice Only Please if you do not want anyone to join you. That also allows you to save the correct room settings into one of your three settings saves.

Back from travel, not yet coherent. Getting life back in order this am. Hopefully run some practice laps this afternoon.

 

[malachi666]

Remember that the physics - how the car handles, the tire grip, etc. is very different offline and online. You are better served making an online Friends Only room and just title it Solo Practice Only Please if you do not want anyone to join you. That also allows you to save the correct room settings into one of your three settings saves.

Back from travel, not yet coherent. Getting life back in order this am. Hopefully run some practice laps this afternoon.

How are the physics different online?

 

[Skills]

Why hello Gentlemen and women,

I'm interested in partaking in your fine league you've got running here. I've submitted my Survey and Time Trial.

@Severn,
Thanks for your interest!
This post may be moot by now but just in case:

We would love to have you in the league. Here's what you need to know and do in order to join:

We run a clean league by enforcing a strict penalty system based on the S.N.A.I.L. OLR (which is a modified version of the GTP OLR). We also expect all of our drivers to know and follow The Good Racecraft Guide.
Please become versed in both if you aren't already. Once that is complete, please follow the steps below to complete your entry into the league:

1. You take the S.N.A.I.L. OLR and Racecraft Test

2. You run the Time Trial and submit your information by 23:59 EST on Saturday night if you want to race this Sunday.

3. @JLBowler PM's you with your assigned Division that we feel will give you the closest competition. You will be added to the drivers list.

4. The Race Director or Primary Host from the corresponding SNAIL Division will send you a PSN friend request. Sunday night you will need to sort the online lobbies by friends and join the lobby named 'snailracing.org Division_(x) based off your Division placement from JLBowler. That lobby will be where you race Sunday.

5. You drive fast and clean on Sunday 👍

The original post has everything you need to know about what to expect on Sunday night and what you will need to have completed in order to be competitive. If you have any questions, please feel free to post your question on the thread.

If you have a preference for car/wheel colour and racing number, please follow the instruction contained here.
To avoid duplication, the currently claimed combinations can be found here.

During the week we run a number of different events, we encourage all SNAILs to join as many as possible.

Welcome to S.N.A.I.L.

 

[Severn]

@Severn,
Thanks for your interest!
This post may be moot by now but just in case:

We would love to have you in the league. Here's what you need to know and do in order to join:

We run a clean league by enforcing a strict penalty system based on the S.N.A.I.L. OLR (which is a modified version of the GTP OLR). We also expect all of our drivers to know and follow The Good Racecraft Guide.
Please become versed in both if you aren't already. Once that is complete, please follow the steps below to complete your entry into the league:

1. You take the S.N.A.I.L. OLR and Racecraft Test

2. You run the Time Trial and submit your information by 23:59 EST on Saturday night if you want to race this Sunday.

3. @JLBowler PM's you with your assigned Division that we feel will give you the closest competition. You will be added to the drivers list.

4. The Race Director or Primary Host from the corresponding SNAIL Division will send you a PSN friend request. Sunday night you will need to sort the online lobbies by friends and join the lobby named 'snailracing.org Division_(x) based off your Division placement from JLBowler. That lobby will be where you race Sunday.

5. You drive fast and clean on Sunday 👍

The original post has everything you need to know about what to expect on Sunday night and what you will need to have completed in order to be competitive. If you have any questions, please feel free to post your question on the thread.

If you have a preference for car/wheel colour and racing number, please follow the instruction contained here.
To avoid duplication, the currently claimed combinations can be found here.

During the week we run a number of different events, we encourage all SNAILs to join as many as possible.

Welcome to S.N.A.I.L.

Done and done!

 

[Dragonwhisky]

How are the physics different online?

It's always possible the programming code is different offline to online, but, even if it isn't, network latency changes how the car(s) react to your inputs. This basically means, practice under conditions you intend to race. If your using your own lobby for practice, the car will be unlikely to behave the same when you race in a lobby not your own. The farther away you are from the host, both geographically and logically, the more pronounced those differences will be.

The same holds true for offline practice. The car will behave differently than online because the conditions are different. The PS3 is not having to process anything network wise so it changes how the car behaves.

 

[ParkerMO125]

sad, but true.

 

[intoflatlines]

S.N.A.I.L. Color and Number Chart

This post contains the rules governing color and number choice and instructions on requesting a choice.​

While choosing a color and number combo is not required, we ask that all of our races to do so. This is done for a number of reasons. From easier driver identification to adding uniqueness in a spec race series. Here are a couple of rules, tips and instructions on submitting your choice.

The rules:

1. The driver with a greater number of races participated in has seniority over a racer with less, giving them rights to a particular color/number.
   Tip: Have another color in mind just in case.
2. Any color and any combo is allowed, so long as it does not match or present a hard distinction from another driver in your division.
   Tip: Look at the divisions above and below, if you or another who is looking to be promoted and they hold seniority, be prepared to switch colors.
3. Please try not to duplicate numbers with another racer across the series.
4. Please, enter a paint chip and not a general color. (IE, WC Mica Blue, as opposed to Blue) This will insure that we get the maxiumum amount of use of hues in any given color.

Instructions:

1. Read the current Color/Number Chart first!
2. First decide on a body and rim color combo.
3. Next click HERE and fill out the form
4. To find when your SNAIL start date. Column Y "SNAIL birth date"

The most current lists:
Sorted by Division
Sorted by Number
Sorted by GTP_ID

If you are in a different division than what is currently listed, it would be helpful to submit a new form, even if you don't change your color or number.

Special thanks to @Rallywagon for being the previous Color / Number Coordinator.

Links have been updated.

Hi! I have a couple questions. You state that the driver with the greater number of races has seniority, but you say to look at SNAIL birth date. Is it greater number of races or SNAIL birth date?

In the current color/number sheet, there is a column for SNAIL birth date. However many entries do not have a birth date filled in, and are locked for public editing. The form to fill out does not include a field to enter in birth date. How do we get our birth date into the color/number sheet?

If you are actually using race count# for seniority, how do we get that information onto the color/number sheet?

For simplicity and consistency, I recommend that SNAIL birth date be used instead of race count. That way the birth date stays the same and you don't have to worry about outdated race count information on the color/number sheet. You could set it so that when submitting the color form, you are required to input your SNAIL birth date. That way people don't have to check back and forth between the color sheet and the driver information sheet to see if their seniority has suddenly changed due to a missed Sunday.

 

[aliengamer25]

It is cool that Canada gets a chance at GT Academy this year! It will make getting to the final 32 a bit harder for the Americans. Good luck to all the SNAILs that are going to try!

Since I grabbed a TOTP post without meaning to let me just say again

Good Luck to all the SNAILs that are going to try to make it to the GT Academy Finals.

Lets get more this year than we had last year!​

I may be division 7 but I'm gonna give it hell I know that lol

 

[CoachMK21]

Hi! I have a couple questions. You state that the driver with the greater number of races has seniority, but you say to look at SNAIL birth date. Is it greater number of races or SNAIL birth date?

In the current color/number sheet, there is a column for SNAIL birth date. However many entries do not have a birth date filled in, and are locked for public editing. The form to fill out does not include a field to enter in birth date. How do we get our birth date into the color/number sheet?

If you are actually using race count# for seniority, how do we get that information onto the color/number sheet?

For simplicity and consistency, I recommend that SNAIL birth date be used instead of race count. That way the birth date stays the same and you don't have to worry about outdated race count information on the color/number sheet. You could set it so that when submitting the color form, you are required to input your SNAIL birth date. That way people don't have to check back and forth between the color sheet and the driver information sheet to see if their seniority has suddenly changed due to a missed Sunday.

Thank you for the suggestions. Keep in mind that I, with @Wolfsatz just took this over a week ago. I've made some adjustments to the google sheet, including multiple sorted tabs, etc. However, I do not know what the reasoning was behind the ranking for who had seniority. I agree, that trying to track your race count yourself might be difficult. I'm currently working on a few other things as well.

When I get home, I can try to edit the submission form to allow anyone to include their SNAIL birth date. Other suggestions are welcomed as well.

 

[intoflatlines]

Thank you for the suggestions. Keep in mind that I, with @Wolfsatz just took this over a week ago. I've made some adjustments to the google sheet, including multiple sorted tabs, etc. However, I do not know what the reasoning was behind the ranking for who had seniority. I agree, that trying to track your race count yourself might be difficult. I'm currently working on a few other things as well.

When I get home, I can try to edit the submission form to allow anyone to include their SNAIL birth date. Other suggestions are welcomed as well.

An idea that I was discussing with rallywagon was that you could automatically format some cells in the sheet such that you could easily scroll through the sheet and see the basic color schemes of everyone. Rally started with this idea by using the "color shade" field. So you pick "blue". And then when it's transferred over to the sheet, that row is automatically formatted so that if the value is "blue" then it will paint the background blue. Same thing for wheel color, although it doesn't look like he got to adding that response field yet. You can get as detailed as you want... having shades for light blue, dark blue, regular blue, light green, dark green, regular green, etc. Then when you scroll down the sheet you get a visual estimation of color schemes already taken (e.g., regular green with light purple wheels) rather than have to look through and figure out that Le-Mans Grun body + Candy Lavender = regular green/light purple.

Another idea I had was to somehow link up the color sheet to the current driver's sheet, so that the division data is always up to date. The problem with this is that I'm not sure if you're able/allowed to pull data from an outside sheet. So maybe you'd have to, on a monthly basis, copy the new driver's sheet over to your color sheet, and then have the color sheet match up the division information to the driver's sheet you just copied over. Then sort by division by default.

 

[chatva]

Here is some food for thought"
I have defended our right to adjust BRAKES, add RIGIDITY and what ever you can get away with, right?

Well this morning I bought all the cars for this weeks Combos and did some testing.
I ran first with the unmolested car, only oil change "ONLY" ran 10 laps.

Then I ran the same car I've been running, also for 10 laps and discovered that the unmolested car was consistently "1 second" faster and it was less of a handful to drive!
This was the case for all three.

I sold the Toyota and Nissan as I was so sure but have kept the Mazda as it's if'y.

 

[ptslopoke]

Here is some food for thought"
I have defended our right to adjust BRAKES, add RIGIDITY and what ever you can get away with, right?

Well this morning I bought all the cars for this weeks Combos and did some testing.
I ran first with the unmolested car, only oil change "ONLY" ran 10 laps.

Then I ran the same car I've been running, also for 10 laps and discovered that the unmolested car was consistently "1 second" faster and it was less of a handful to drive!
This was the case for all three.

I am on the same boat with you. most of the time, if you are spending time adjusting brakes or rigidity you are just spending less time getting better at the track!

I bought 2 GTRs last night, one with rigidity and one without, my fast times were around the same, but i found I was a lot more consistent in the GTR without the rigidity added (i very rarely touch brake settings unless it is a horribly understeering fwd car)

Fun racing around with everyone last night as well...now to just get down to the 27's....

 

[Troggy]

Apparantly GTRs are the bane of my existence. I can't seem to get it below 1:31. Any tips?

Also, what seems to be a decent time in the Toyo?

 

[intoflatlines]

Here is some food for thought"
I have defended our right to adjust BRAKES, add RIGIDITY and what ever you can get away with, right?

Well this morning I bought all the cars for this weeks Combos and did some testing.
I ran first with the unmolested car, only oil change "ONLY" ran 10 laps.

Then I ran the same car I've been running, also for 10 laps and discovered that the unmolested car was consistently "1 second" faster and it was less of a handful to drive!
This was the case for all three.

Good to know! It is still my opinion that everyone should be on the same car platform, so even though adding rigidity or adjusting brake bias may hurt performance in some cases, it is still not the same platform. Think of it this way. In a case where adding rigidity makes the car harder for you to drive (besides the point that others may find the car easier to drive). Do you want to win a race by 5 seconds, but be unsure of whether that is due to your skill or if the driver behind you modified his chassis stiffness, essentially handing you the win? I think everyone should be on stock brake bias and chassis stiffness to eliminate those as variables.

Here is a relevant quote from @zer05ive post #1 (emphasis added):

Because variables in the car are eliminated, spec racing is the truest measure of driver skill! It also produces intense battles for position because all of the cars are equally strong or weak in the same areas of the track. Another benefit of spec racing is that you'll never spend time tuning cars or wondering if someone is truly faster than you or if they just have a better tune.

So with that in mind, I don't see how brake bias/chassis stiffness mods are OK. Let's get past the whole "well, in real Spec racing, you can adjust your brake bias, etc.". We're not doing spec racing in real life. We're in a league where all variables are supposed to be eliminated, all cars are supposed to be equally strong or weak, and where you're never supposed to wonder if someone is actually faster or slower than you, or if it's just because of the brake bias/chassis stiffness they chose.

 

[Severn]

Good to know! It is still my opinion that everyone should be on the same car platform, so even though adding rigidity or adjusting brake bias may hurt performance in some cases, it is still not the same platform. Think of it this way. In a case where adding rigidity makes the car harder for you to drive (besides the point that others may find the car easier to drive). Do you want to win a race by 5 seconds, but be unsure of whether that is due to your skill or if the driver behind you modified his chassis stiffness, essentially handing you the win? I think everyone should be on stock brake bias and chassis stiffness to eliminate those as variables.

Here is a relevant quote from @zer05ive post #1:



So with that in mind, I don't see how brake bias/chassis stiffness mods are OK. Let's get past the whole "well, in real Spec racing, you can adjust your brake bias, etc.". We're not doing spec racing in real life. We're in a league where all variables are supposed to be eliminated, all cars are supposed to be equally strong or weak, and where you're never supposed to wonder if someone is actually faster or slower than you, or if it's just because of the brake bias/chassis stiffness they chose.

I would say that the most likely reason why it would definitely be allowed, is because they're still allowed when Tuning is restricted in the lobby... it would just become a pain to manage ensuring that everyone was definitely running 5,5 BB etc...

 

[intoflatlines]

Also, what seems to be a decent time in the Toyo?

I think mid-low 1:42s are decent, IIRC.

I would say that the most likely reason why it would definitely be allowed, is because they're still allowed when Tuning is restricted in the lobby... it would just become a pain to manage ensuring that everyone was definitely running 5,5 BB etc...

I know that a policy can't be enforced. But it's been stated previously by leadership that the only reason why it's "allowed" is because it can't explicitly be prohibited. My point is that there should be some explicit official ruling by management that states clearly that brake bias/chassis mods are discouraged. That way people don't feel like they're doing something that is sanctioned/encouraged by the league, and if they choose to make those mods, they are well aware that it is discouraged. A problem is that people don't realize/recognize that these mods are not encouraged - simply being allowed to do it due to GT6's setup doesn't count. Unless my understanding is wrong and SNAIL actually does encourage these mods and would continue to allow them if we were able to prohibit them in rooms.

 

[aliengamer25]

Here is some food for thought"
I have defended our right to adjust BRAKES, add RIGIDITY and what ever you can get away with, right?

Well this morning I bought all the cars for this weeks Combos and did some testing.
I ran first with the unmolested car, only oil change "ONLY" ran 10 laps.

Then I ran the same car I've been running, also for 10 laps and discovered that the unmolested car was consistently "1 second" faster and it was less of a handful to drive!
This was the case for all three.

I found tha rigidity improvement is only good most of tge time for production cars with weight reduction and suspension tunes. For example the Toyota 86 '12 if you wanna mock a base model.

 

[CoachMK21]

Good to know! It is still my opinion that everyone should be on the same car platform, so even though adding rigidity or adjusting brake bias may hurt performance in some cases, it is still not the same platform. Think of it this way. In a case where adding rigidity makes the car harder for you to drive (besides the point that others may find the car easier to drive). Do you want to win a race by 5 seconds, but be unsure of whether that is due to your skill or if the driver behind you modified his chassis stiffness, essentially handing you the win? I think everyone should be on stock brake bias and chassis stiffness to eliminate those as variables.

Here is a relevant quote from @zer05ive post #1:

Because variables in the car are eliminated, spec racing is the truest measure of driver skill! It also produces intense battles for position because all of the cars are equally strong or weak in the same areas of the track. Another benefit of spec racing is that you'll never spend time tuning cars or wondering if someone is truly faster than you or if they just have a better tune.

So with that in mind, I don't see how brake bias/chassis stiffness mods are OK. Let's get past the whole "well, in real Spec racing, you can adjust your brake bias, etc.". We're not doing spec racing in real life. We're in a league where all variables are supposed to be eliminated, all cars are supposed to be equally strong or weak, and where you're never supposed to wonder if someone is actually faster or slower than you, or if it's just because of the brake bias/chassis stiffness they chose.

I haven't been one to speak up to either side of this argument in the past. I don't normally change anything on the cars. The only car I adjusted brake bias was the Lotus a while ago at Monaco and Fuji. Even though the game doesn't stop us from doing brake bias, improving rigidity and rebuilding the engine, doesn't mean it's okay to do if the league guidelines specifically state "variables in the car are eliminated". Just like how everyone speeds when they drive. Just because there isn't a cop to pull us over, doesn't make us speeding less illegal, regardless of how you feel about the speed limit.

We should all agree with the most basic guideline from @zer05ive that we are in a league where the only variable is the driver and not make any adjustments to the car, other than an oil change and appropriate tires. Make it a test question on the new driver exam and make it part of the welcome message from @Skills too. We can make an honest pledge to follow this guideline, even though it's not enforceable.

 

[Mark II]

deleted by me

 

[aliengamer25]

Are you mad! Lol

 

[dabneyd]

Feel free to not comment if you have nothing to contribute.

The only reason brake balance and chassis reinforcement is allowed is because there is no reasonable way to enforce it. Until PD makes "tuning prohibited" actually mean tuning prohibited, we'll have to work with what we have. If you ask me, an honorable racer would run 5/5 brake balance and not install chassis reinforcement to respect the spirit and mission of the league. That said, I cannot fault anyone for trying to do as much as they can, within the rules, to win.

 

[Mark II]

deleted by me

 

[Troggy]

The problem is how do you enforce it one way or the other. We can go on the honor code, but lets be real, that won't last long in a competitive environment.

 

[intoflatlines]

The problem is how do you enforce it one way or the other. We can go on the honor code, but lets be real, that won't last long in a competitive environment.

We know that it can't be enforced, all I'm saying is that the league directors should explicitly announce that "brake bias and chassis modifications are frowned upon". Sure some people will still do it, but at least they will know that what they're doing is not encouraged by SNAIL so they can stop using the "well they never said that it's discouraged" oblivious defense.

 

[Mirado_7]

Mostly GT-R practice room:

1472-6399-8580-0417-9552

 

[kcheeb]

S.N.A.I.L. Data Announcement
​

In an effort to further enhance the performance of the data spreadsheets, I've split off the Driver Count Information into it's own spreadsheet. It's linked in the S.N.A.I.L. Information Links tab of the Results document.

The Driver Info spreadsheet was taking too long to load and often displayed errors. I'm hoping this will alleviate some of the problems experienced with the Driver Info spreadsheet.

 

[deaconblues82]

I don't think BB and chassis reinforcement really do a whole heck of a lot in terms of improving chances of winning especially with stock cars. Also they are just more variables in races that are always going to have a lot of variables. We can't have everyone run the same steering wheel, the same force feedback setting or power assist or whatever it is. I've been thinking about getting the brake spring mod for my G27 (especially after this weeks WRS TT) Is getting a better feeling brake going to be looked at like I'm getting an unfair advantage? Will I need to have two sets of pedals? We could make everyone drive with DS3's but that doesn't sound fun. IDK. If someone wants to spend all their seat time fiddling with settings and trying to find that magic balance that shaves entire seconds off their lap times let them! The rest of us can drive lap after lap until we find that ideal line and nail down brake points and actually shave seconds off. Just my 2 pence...

 

[intoflatlines]

I don't think BB and chassis reinforcement really do a whole heck of a lot in terms of improving chances of winning especially with stock cars. Also they are just more variables in races that are always going to have a lot of variables. We can't have everyone run the same steering wheel, the same force feedback setting or power assist or whatever it is. I've been thinking about getting the brake spring mod for my G27 (especially after this weeks WRS TT) Is getting a better feeling brake going to be looked at like I'm getting an unfair advantage? Will I need to have two sets of pedals? We could make everyone drive with DS3's but that doesn't sound fun. IDK. If someone wants to spend all their seat time fiddling with settings and trying to find that magic balance that shaves entire seconds off their lap times let them! The rest of us can drive lap after lap until we find that ideal line and nail down brake points and actually shave seconds off. Just my 2 pence...

I hope you're joking. The point is that the cars should be the same in terms of "physical" characteristics. This is easily done by not changing brake bias or adding additional chassis rigidity. Extraneous factors will always be present. But just because that's true, why not do what we can to at least normalize the actual car's physics? C'mon man.

 

[TEX36]

If I understand correctly, in GT-Academy the finalists are not allowed to adjust anything. They compete in cars that are exactly the same, in all regards. Why, then, if a SNAIL member is attempting to reach the finals .......... why would they want to compete with anything else?

As a supporting league, behind the drivers who make it to the Finals, why would we want to provide any other basis for our weekly races? My vote: Buy the car, change the oil, and Go ......... Period.

Question: What are the GT-Academy rules about cars and changing tires? Might be a good idea for us to consider those limitations as well...... IF we what to help our drivers reach the finals.