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  • Thread starter zer05ive
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Cudos to dylandsan tonight for his patience in trying to herd a bunch of humming birds in the Magic Lap. One driver finally gave up on the prospects of getting everyone lined up correctly ..... and just left. It did seem a bit to the extreme for it to take 10+ mins to corral 8 cars and get them all headed in the same direction ...... at the same time. Hope it goes better for everyone next week. Otherwise the ML on Friday nights may not last much longer. IMO that is.
 
Thanks TEX, it was a bit of a mess tonight, but I think it was definitely worth it considering the number that showed up. Having lots of new drivers at a time can be difficult, but I'm willing to overlook that because I at least know that there is interest and people willing to put in the effort to make it fun.

I'm going to revise the directions a little more now that I know where the problems lie. The main thing is to make sure people know how to line up correctly, as I don't think everyone realized that finishing a lap would mess that up.

It's also pretty important that people pay attention to their times when I give them. I know a couple people missed that in the beginning but I think they realized after that and were fine.

One rather important thing though, Magic Lap is a fun event, but it's not intended to be dirty. I expect drivers to follow the OLR rules as much there as on Sundays. Although it's not particularly competitive due to the lack of accuracy in the timing, it's still no fun if reckless behavior spoils someone's race. It's very hard to recover from mistakes in such short races. I didn't see any poor racing tonight, though at one point seth did try to give me a boost at the end of a race. I understand completely that he was trying to help me, but as I said, I'd rather see where I finish under my own power. It's kind of my fault for not mentioning anything about that or reminding people to follow the OLR, but now we all know.

I can tell you already that next week's theme is going to involve Japanese cars, as we haven't done anything like that yet. I might narrow it down to a particular group, possibly classic Japanese cars, but we'll see. I'll post an official announcement on Wednesday with the track and final theme, but I figured I'd give advanced notice (late at night though) to give people more time to get cars. There's quite a few I'm looking forward to driving.
 
Yeah. People finishing laps during free run made things a mess. People not realizing that they need to pay attention to the order in the lineup on the right side of the screen, not just their position on the track, also made things a mess. People guessing lap times or trying to set them in the room made things a mess. People not paying attention to their gap times made things a mess. People thinking that 1 minute and 66 seconds is a time made things a mess.

Well, things were a mess, I guess, but for my first time in Magic Lap I did enjoy myself. I had hoped to race a couple more times to try out my other car and be the guy to come from behind, but such is life. I can understand why you were ready to quit, dylan.

One thing I would add is to adjust gap times by the final gaps for at least the top few finishers and run another race or two to try to put things closer together. Good fun, though!
 
If people would simply pull out of the pits and stop to line up along the main straight then it would probably take about a minute for that process. When people just take off and go practice their drifting all over the track and don't try to line up at all, then it takes 10 minutes to start a 3 minute race :nervous:

It reminded me of those open online rooms where people go just to screw around and do what they like :)
 
I'm pretty sure I never said that tuning brake balance was a preference. (you should really quote the whole message so my comment can be taken in it's correct context)

My point, and I'm beginning to feel more stongly about it, is that it's spec racing and everyone should be in the same equipment. The only difference should be driver skill or we really shouldn't be calling it spec racing. It should be called limited tuning allowed racing.
Indeed, I should. I just thought I'd hit on my main antagonizer. heres the post if anyone wishes for full enlightenment. At any rate, in most spec racing, you are allowed to change your setting within spec, without replacing the required standardize equipment. Just saying. even in autocross. when you run a car in a stock class. no modifications are allowed. But suspension can be set to anything within the stock specifications. You can even in a technical sense control brake bias as well, use hawk pads on the set of tires you want to brake the hardest, and crap duralast pads on the axle you want less braking on. All within a spec class, all done at the drivers preference. Well, actually, I just made that thing up about the brake pads. That's not something I've heard of being done, so I can't back up that claim in real life. But the principle is still sound and would pass inspection.
Now, in hindsight, I have looked back several more pages back from the OP of this topic. Maybe a page or two from where I stopped last time, and noticed that perhaps bowler was responding to the topic that was generated by this post. This forum moves in very fast and misty ways...
So, I thus retract my stick poke and offer a grudging apology.
And heres to the time none of you will get back! :cheers::D
 
Thanks TEX, it was a bit of a mess tonight, but I think it was definitely worth it considering the number that showed up. Having lots of new drivers at a time can be difficult, but I'm willing to overlook that because I at least know that there is interest and people willing to put in the effort to make it fun.

I'm going to revise the directions a little more now that I know where the problems lie. The main thing is to make sure people know how to line up correctly, as I don't think everyone realized that finishing a lap would mess that up.

It's also pretty important that people pay attention to their times when I give them. I know a couple people missed that in the beginning but I think they realized after that and were fine.

One rather important thing though, Magic Lap is a fun event, but it's not intended to be dirty. I expect drivers to follow the OLR rules as much there as on Sundays. Although it's not particularly competitive due to the lack of accuracy in the timing, it's still no fun if reckless behavior spoils someone's race. It's very hard to recover from mistakes in such short races. I didn't see any poor racing tonight, though at one point seth did try to give me a boost at the end of a race. I understand completely that he was trying to help me, but as I said, I'd rather see where I finish under my own power. It's kind of my fault for not mentioning anything about that or reminding people to follow the OLR, but now we all know.

I can tell you already that next week's theme is going to involve Japanese cars, as we haven't done anything like that yet. I might narrow it down to a particular group, possibly classic Japanese cars, but we'll see. I'll post an official announcement on Wednesday with the track and final theme, but I figured I'd give advanced notice (late at night though) to give people more time to get cars. There's quite a few I'm looking forward to driving.

Just a thought to put out there. Since you are now running in a private room, why not set this up more like a league, and less like a one shot deal? then you can give out a list of cars to choose from, even post up a bunch of cars separated by category. People can choose what ever car from the list for up coming themes. With a little planning and foresight, people can start listing up laps times to the thread, which can be updated in a spreadsheet, much like the one snail uses for sunday races. Then you will have everyones lap times, and what their gap should be long before hand. Anyone wanting to race that isnt already on the list will have to request and submit lap times for upcoming themes. Then be expected to have the next theme lap times posted for recording no later then x amount of time/days before the next event. This will help organize and streamline the whole ordeal.
 
Just a thought to put out there. Since you are now running in a private room, why not set this up more like a league, and less like a one shot deal? then you can give out a list of cars to choose from, even post up a bunch of cars separated by category. People can choose what ever car from the list for up coming themes. With a little planning and foresight, people can start listing up laps times to the thread, which can be updated in a spreadsheet, much like the one snail uses for sunday races. Then you will have everyones lap times, and what their gap should be long before hand. Anyone wanting to race that isnt already on the list will have to request and submit lap times for upcoming themes. Then be expected to have the next theme lap times posted for recording no later then x amount of time/days before the next event. This will help organize and streamline the whole ordeal.
Actually, these are the two areas I think a pretty streamlined already. Taking times and coming up with splits is probably the quickest part of the night, surprisingly. I do have a spreadsheet and I can just spit out the numbers within about a minute and everyone has their times. I could see a potential benefit to getting everything done ahead of time, but I see some downfalls as well. Having to prepare so early would deter people I think, and it also doesn't allow for much changing of cars or anything during the night. If I gave everyone the delays early too, they would all have to have that list with them the whole night, and if we did different races, they'd have to keep track of which race was which, something I think would cause quite a few mistakes.

And I already post the new themes on Wednesday and a reminder on Friday. I've been gradually revising all the rules and instructions each time we do this, so it might get annoying for people to read every time, but I think it's worth it.

And Ap, I agree with you about adjusting lap times, but it's hard to tell from one race where people are going to finish for the next, and running four of the same race might be a little boring. I'll see what I can do, as I would like to be able to fine tune the races. I think that will require me to do quite a bit more testing beforehand of the time delays on the first lap and for each starting grid position.

If anyone's wondering why we have to get in order before each race, it's because someone pointed out that cars starting in the back get more time added than cars in the front, so I did some calculations to try and figure out just how much of a disadvantage any given car would have from any given spot, and then use that to estimate a first lap time, and get a more accurate delay. Though perhaps I should start giving people delays rounded to the nearest .5, as sometimes that makes a pretty big difference, and I think people are skilled enough to start between seconds.
 
One more thought about the BB issue. Everything I have seen about GT leads me to believe that having the bb set to 5/5 means the car will have the braking balance that the car has in real life. So 5/5 does not mean the front and rears are providing the same braking force simply that the balance is as the car provides in real life. What BB allows you to do is tailor it to your driving style or to the track. I do think this can lead to improved times so I feel it goes against the spirit of S.N.A.I.L.
 
I tested the Ford Gt @ ssrx & the car had the shortest braking distance with 8/6, then 5/5, & longest with 6/9.

Im now going to run 20 minutes on each setting @ rome & post my best laptime with each.
 
I tested the Ford Gt @ ssrx & the car had the shortest braking distance with 8/6, then 5/5, & longest with 6/9.

Im now going to run 20 minutes on each setting @ rome & post my best laptime with each.

I had my best times with 8/6, but you're more consistent than I am (I think I was still leaving at least half a second on the table), so I'm curious what your experience is.
 
After 2 8 lap runs with 5/5 BB I lapped a 1.09.577 & Fastest 8th lap was 1.10.1xx, I'll run 6/9 next, which should give more oversteer but increased braking distance.

EDIT: 6/9 fastest lap was 1.09.686. fastest 8th lap 1.10.2xx. The car had more oversteer & I was faster in some turns but overall I liked 5/5 more

Final EDIT: I hated 8/6 it understeered too much I did hit a 1.09.842 however.

I think the best for this combo is 5/5, I feel like I could hit low 1.09s with it. But somebody that prefers understeer should try more bias in front.
 
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My fastest lap on stock brakes is 1:14 and some change. Just got my wheel wednesday, still getting the hang and feel for it. This car took me hours upon hours to get the hang of on this track. I got it dialed in pretty consistent, ran a 9 lap race and only made two mistakes which I am beyond happy about. I got the Civic down the best out of all the cars thus far
 
After 2 8 lap runs with 5/5 BB I lapped a 1.09.577 & Fastest 8th lap was 1.10.1xx, I'll run 6/9 next, which should give more oversteer but increased braking distance.

EDIT: 6/9 fastest lap was 1.09.686. fastest 8th lap 1.10.2xx. The car had more oversteer & I was faster in some turns but overall I liked 5/5 more

Final EDIT: I hated 8/6 it understeered too much I did hit a 1.09.842 however.

I think the best for this combo is 5/5, I feel like I could hit low 1.09s with it. But somebody that prefers understeer should try more bias in front.

That makes sense. I was probably only faster with 8/6 because with 5/5 I got a bit loose in the final combo of corners. I think I'll practice a bit more with 5/5 to see if I can overcome that tendency. Thanks for the info Bronco.
 
S.N.A.I.L. Drivers List Update

We've made some adjustments to the S.N.A.I.L. Drivers list.

Our Divisions had become somewhat unbalanced numbers and competition wise. Looking at the data confirmed the situation and also gave us the ability to make these adjustments in an intelligent and fair manner.

If you've not received a pm from me, then the Division you're racing in has not changed. Given the fact we've moved to a monthly series, we felt it best to explain the situation and how it was rectified.

This is not something zer05ive and I took lightly, but felt it was in the best interest of S.N.A.I.L. and the affected drivers.

Race on S.N.A.I.L.s 👍
 
I'm sure this was discussed before: what the official word on use of concrete beyond red/white curbing in multiple places on GVS and green run-off in Rome? Not that I was gonna use green pavement, just gotta know whether that's still track or it's an off, if I end-up there.
 
So, most likely, unless someone suprises and shows up, there will be 8 guys in D1 this week.

There could be as many as 11 by my count.

I believe dsgerbc is racing tomorrow, mopar and howyakeeping have not posted they won't be ...
 
There could be as many as 11 by my count.

I believe dsgerbc is racing tomorrow, mopar and howyakeeping have not posted they won't be ...

Howyakeeping, Mopar, and Jersey have been MIA for a couple of weeks. If dsgerbc shows up, we could have nine. It would take somebody suprising me for us to have more than nine.

Can we have voice back? It would make my job much easier and since nobody really talks anyway, what's the big deal. I could even ask that drivers unplug their mics if they're not going to use them. It would just be easier for me to give standing updates and keep things rolling.
 
I'm sure this was discussed before: what the official word on use of concrete beyond red/white curbing in multiple places on GVS and green run-off in Rome? Not that I was gonna use green pavement, just gotta know whether that's still track or it's an off, if I end-up there.

Not sure about Rome, but the concrete patches on the outside of the kerbs at GVS are considered 'off track'.
 
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