2014 United Kingdom General Discussion

[gtpcaine]

Stock, but with RH tyres. Only ABS 1 as an aid and grip reduction on real. We got a practice lap followed by 4 timed laps.

Pretty certain the car didn't have an oil change either.

I meant to ask who you were on monday but completely forgot! Guessing you saw me due to the t-shirt!

 

[FordMKIVJ5]

I meant to ask who you were on monday but completely forgot! Guessing you saw me due to the t-shirt!

I'm Philip, came top in the FB event.

To be honest I didn't actually notice the shirt until the evening in the pub. I guessed it might be you when you said you were from Suffolk outside, but wasn't sure.

 

[gtpcaine]

Ah yeah, i know now. Eye wasn't it? And you said i would beat you!

 

[FordMKIVJ5]

Ah yeah, i know now. Eye wasn't it? And you said i would beat you!

Yeah, not far from Eye. To be fair you did beat me in the National Final, so I was half right.

 

[Cal401]

Awesome couple of days! Coming through the Facebook route I wasn't expecting to get any further than the national final as I hadn't been preparing for it as uni stuff was happening and it wasn't definite that I would be there, but good to get the experience! Would have liked them to have given us all a breakdown of how we did, all I know is I got 75 seconds in the driving (curse the 10 seconds worth of penalties I got for stopping short of both boxes ) and obviously my individual scores/times in the fitness bit, bleep test and GT, but no idea where they were in terms of everyone else. Well done to the 6 that got through though

 

[Famine]

Would have liked them to have given us all a breakdown of how we did

I asked yesterday and only the top 6 will be given their scores - the other 22 won't be released. I've also asked for my time in the Juke I hate not winning the media challenge, whether there's a PS4 in it or not

Anyway, good to meet some of you guys for the first time - and bump into some familiar faces for the second (and third) time. My apologies to anyone who tagged, PMed or VMed me yesterday but I've been experiencing some technical issues here with internets and I had some deadlines to meet elsewhere. Hopefully I'll get to Race Camp again this year and see one of our six win the whole thing - but bear in mind that to even get to Race Camp you've got something to offer and, if, while surrounded by celebrity racing judges, you can make a good impression there's nothing stopping you from carving out a racing career of your own even if you don't win.

Also, I have a new avatar for @Glenalz81

 

[Glenalz81]

I asked yesterday and only the top 6 will be given their scores - the other 22 won't be released. I've also asked for my time in the Juke I hate not winning the media challenge, whether there's a PS4 in it or not

Anyway, good to meet some of you guys for the first time - and bump into some familiar faces for the second (and third) time. My apologies to anyone who tagged, PMed or VMed me yesterday but I've been experiencing some technical issues here with internets and I had some deadlines to meet elsewhere. Hopefully I'll get to Race Camp again this year and see one of our six win the whole thing - but bear in mind that to even get to Race Camp you've got something to offer and, if, while surrounded by celebrity racing judges, you can make a good impression there's nothing stopping you from carving out a racing career of your own even if you don't win.

Also, I have a new avatar for @Glenalz81

View attachment 187801

I love it!! cheers m8y!

 

[RHODRIEWILLIAMS]

Congratulations to the guys especially Stuart ,Ben ,Shane & Luke
Get testing boys tracks days every week till silverstone

 

[Tidgney]

Congratulations to the top 6, it's amazing really every year you think everything has peaked, fitness/gaming etc. but every year left stunned how it's gone up another notch! There were some amazingly quick times in the gaming and from what I saw of the bleep test and hear say from the other fitness tests the fitness once again had gone up another notch! I mean over level 13, just wow!

Good luck to all (Especially Ghost!) at boot camp, do your best, enjoy it and hopefully #TeamGB comes out on top !

Nice to meet a fair few of you there, both old and new !

 

[01Michael]

My scores:

Juke - Unknown (No penalties, was mega fun!)

Ascari - 2:15.3
Silverstone - 4.1, 3.6, 3.1
Suzuka 2:01.7

Plank - 5m
Frog imitation - 47.5cm
Press ups - 24

Media - unknown (Got asked whether I had a South African accent? Its Norwegian if anything!)

Bleep - 6,9

I'm definitely not ready to go to Race camp in terms of fitness but I need to improve my GT6 pace as well to stand a chance of getting there, maybe I should invest in a T500 because I'm only good with my DFGT right now!

Although I don't think they affected my performance my nerves were overclocked - didn't even feel like I had the authority to say hello to Tidgney! sounds ridiculous but that was my state of mind at the time.

Good luck to the six winners but in particular Shane, Ben and Alex who I met at the final.

 

[FordMKIVJ5]

My scores:

Juke - Unknown (No penalties, was mega fun!)

Ascari - 2:15.3
Silverstone - 4.1, 3.6, 3.1
Suzuka 2:01.7

Plank - 5m
Frog imitation - 47.5cm
Press ups - 24

Media - unknown (Got asked whether I had a South African accent? Its Norwegian if anything!)

Bleep - 6,9

I'm definitely not ready to go to Race camp in terms of fitness but I need to improve my GT6 pace as well to stand a chance of getting there, maybe I should invest in a T500 because I'm only good with my DFGT right now!

Although I don't think they affected my performance my nerves were overclocked - didn't even feel like I had the authority to say hello to Tidgney! sounds ridiculous but that was my state of mind at the time.

Good luck to the six winners but in particular Shane, Ben and Alex who I met at the final.

Good idea on posting the scores, will be cool to get a comparison as I only know how those in my group did (rather well).

My scores:
Juke - Unknown (Apparently I hit two cones in the really tight slalom, however I was told that I stopped in the boxes fine on my timed run.)

Ascari - 2:17.2 (really haven't driven this track enough and was far too cautious in certain sections)
Silverstone - 1:03.3 (1:08.3 due to game red lapping it going onto the Hangar straight ), 3.3, 3.6 - wasn't really happy with any of my laps here, a 1:02 was easily on the cards.
Suzuka 2:01.1 (I think, might have been a .2, however I put a wheel on the grass braking into the hairpin and was on full oppo-lock to save it- thought I was a goner at that point! Pushed too hard though Spoon and got slightly sideways and then broke too early into the chicane.)

Plank - 2:58
Sergeant jump - 36.2cm (feel I could have done better after watching others' techniques)
Press ups - 29

Media - Unknown (seemed like it went ok though)

Bleep - 5.? (haven't done any running since I was about 15 and my Asthma prevented me from pushing on, so seeing as I was only around 2 levels below what I was when playing football and other sports regularly I wasn't too dissatisfied with that.)


It was my first time at the finals though and obviously did not know what to expect with a lot of the challenges, if there's a next time I'd be much better prepared. Obviously the fitness bit (bleep in particular) was my weakest, but I can work on that. It was also my first time driving anything 'in anger' IRL so that was a bit of a steep learning curve, and with probably <5 minutes of time in the car I hadn't really got used to it all. However I had great fun, just wish I could have had ~ half an hour there.

Gaming wise I was tired from the previous day and obviously made far too many mistakes, having come through the Facebook challenge I wasn't expecting to do too well in the gaming aspect, but was actually surprised by how close I was, especially with making those mistakes. But then I suppose that being chucked into an unfamiliar rig with barely any practice laps is very different to being sat at home with as many restarts as you want.

All in all it was a great experience (both days) and I learnt a lot about myself. It was great to meet everyone and put some faces to names. Congratulations to those 6 that got through, I was glad to see one of the Facebook guys (Alex) make it as well, as that really validated the FB challenge.

Hopefully I'll be back next year and hopefully better prepared.

 

[gtpcaine]

My times:

Ascari: 2'15.x (think it was a .1 or .2)
Silverstone: 1'03.6, 1'02.4, 1'03.5
Suzuka: 2'00.x (again, think it was a .1 or .2)

Plank: 5m
Sergeant jump: 46cm
Press ups: 36
Bleep: I think I went out on 9.1, but cant remember.

 

[Tidgney]

Although I don't think they affected my performance my nerves were overclocked - didn't even feel like I had the authority to say hello to Tidgney! sounds ridiculous but that was my state of mind at the time.

Definitely understand the nerves, the best thing you can do is build on the experience as it is a great experience the nationals and getting a feel for it for any future event is the best thing really!

P.S. I don't bite, feel free to say hey if I don't say it back first !

 

[Cal401]

My scores:

Juke: 75 seconds, 10 seconds of which were due to stopping short in both boxes. Was a good car to drive, very different to my Arosa (it actually accelerates when you put your right foot down ) and obviously doesn't respond in the same way as a kart so there's potential to go a lot faster as it was only my first time.

Ascari: 2:18.994, rubbish at the track, hardly ever played it, plus span on my last lap about 4 corners from the end when I was 8 tenths up
Silverstone: all 1:04s, think .3, .2 and .7/8, hardly ever play the international layout so again I suck at it would liked to have at least been in the 1:03s
Suzuka: 2:11, completely went to pot, had a couple of offs and a spin.
Had little chance to practice beforehand as hadn't had my PS3 with me all year at uni, got it when my exams ended and then 10 days later it got RLOD (just before the invitation email came out, conveniently) which then developed into YLOD Bought my mate's PS3 5 days before the live event. The transition from DFGT to T500RS was difficult too but lots of people had that problem so can't really use that as an excuse

Plank: 1m39s
Sergeant Jump: 41cm
Press-ups: 23
Hadn't trained for this at all, it wasn't definite that I was going to be there as had to get through the Facebook event first, and was also at uni and then seeing family in the weeks prior to it.

Bleep test: 8.1, which I was pretty pleased with considering I'm terrible at running by my own admission and haven't done the bleep test since year 9 when I got 7.something.

Media seemed to go pretty well, was pretty surreal being questioned by John Hindhaugh!

Like I said wasn't expecting to go through as it was my first time there and I came through Facebook, but hopefully can come back next year more prepared! Hoping the Facebook qualifier runs again, I have a lot of speed to find in GT but the biggest problem is that my second year exams will be later than this year's exams so the rankings period will probably be ending whilst I've still got exams on :/ have to say, the Facebook live event was a lot more competitive than I expected it to be, and 4 people from it were in the top 10 on Tuesday with one going to race camp!

 

[Cal401]

I asked yesterday and only the top 6 will be given their scores - the other 22 won't be released. I've also asked for my time in the Juke I hate not winning the media challenge, whether there's a PS4 in it or not

Anyway, good to meet some of you guys for the first time - and bump into some familiar faces for the second (and third) time. My apologies to anyone who tagged, PMed or VMed me yesterday but I've been experiencing some technical issues here with internets and I had some deadlines to meet elsewhere. Hopefully I'll get to Race Camp again this year and see one of our six win the whole thing - but bear in mind that to even get to Race Camp you've got something to offer and, if, while surrounded by celebrity racing judges, you can make a good impression there's nothing stopping you from carving out a racing career of your own even if you don't win.

Also, I have a new avatar for @Glenalz81

View attachment 187801

Was good to meet you too! I was in your group for the day, you seemed quick in the Juke and can't recall you getting any penalties, and if there were any they weren't as blatantly obvious as mine

 

[Famine]

Was good to meet you too! I was in your group for the day, you seemed quick in the Juke and can't recall you getting any penalties, and if there were any they weren't as blatantly obvious as mine

I had the advantage of experience - they sent us out in the Jukes last year and at Race Camp too

Well, that and I cheated - I ratcheted the seat up to get a better view of the front corners and tilted the passenger wing mirror down so I could see the rear wheel and cones in the stop boxes The instructor seemed impressed at least!

It's good fun spanking someone else's car about - and I'll pass on the same advice I gave to Ben last year. Just go out and drive things. Doesn't matter what it is or where, just get used to being in a different car for ten minutes as often as you can. When you've not driven many things, you get a few nerves sitting in something different - but once you're at 30 or so different cars it's just another driving seat

 

[GTP_Ingram]

I hope all of you guys had fun!

I wanted to congratulate all of the competitors on a very impressive job, especially considering the fact the way the competition is run - and the pretty intense pressure that comes with it - will have been a pretty alien experience to the majority of you.

Re. the gaming: You guys should know that I, occasionally Tidgney, and even Jann were unofficially "benchmarking" your times during the events (i.e messing about on the pods when they were free.) I have to say @gm matthew - Tidgney and I agreed that your best lap at Ascari was seriously impressive.

Best of luck to the six who have progressed, it'd be fantastic to have another UK winner overall. If it helps, I'm sure that I speak for all of the previous boot camp guys in saying that if you're looking for any advice for race camp, we'll do our best to draw on our experiences to help in any way we can! Just send a cheeky little PM if you have any questions

 

[Spurgy 777]

It's good fun spanking someone else's car about - and I'll pass on the same advice I gave to Ben last year. Just go out and drive things. Doesn't matter what it is or where, just get used to being in a different car for ten minutes as often as you can. When you've not driven many things, you get a few nerves sitting in something different - but once you're at 30 or so different cars it's just another driving seat

Definitely does, on a quick count I'm up to 12 different cars, with a good mix of super cars, sports cars, single seaters, and small hatchbacks, and it seems to have helped. Although having said that, I still don't know how I missed those cones

 

[Cal401]

I had the advantage of experience - they sent us out in the Jukes last year and at Race Camp too

Well, that and I cheated - I ratcheted the seat up to get a better view of the front corners and tilted the passenger wing mirror down so I could see the rear wheel and cones in the stop boxes The instructor seemed impressed at least!

It's good fun spanking someone else's car about - and I'll pass on the same advice I gave to Ben last year. Just go out and drive things. Doesn't matter what it is or where, just get used to being in a different car for ten minutes as often as you can. When you've not driven many things, you get a few nerves sitting in something different - but once you're at 30 or so different cars it's just another driving seat

Haha, excellent tactic! Now disappointed in myself as an automotive engineering student for not thinking of that yeah it definitely is, sadly I don't get much opportunity to do that as a student but I will do if I can! I spend a lot of time driving karts at uni but they are completely different. Want to try and obtain some traffic cones and find a car park or open space that nobody uses and hoon around in my Arosa going back to Silverstone on Sunday (third time in a week!) to drive a Formula Silverstone round Stowe, was a birthday present, can't wait for it!

 

[Glenalz81]

Haha, excellent tactic! Now disappointed in myself as an automotive engineering student for not thinking of that yeah it definitely is, sadly I don't get much opportunity to do that as a student but I will do if I can! I spend a lot of time driving karts at uni but they are completely different. Want to try and obtain some traffic cones and find a car park or open space that nobody uses and hoon around in my Arosa going back to Silverstone on Sunday (third time in a week!) to drive a Formula Silverstone round Stowe, was a birthday present, can't wait for it!

One of the upsides of being a mechanic, loads of cars on a daily basis...some proper bangers but some nice stuff to.

@Cal401 i must have been in your group which guy were you?

 

[Cal401]

One of the upsides of being a mechanic, loads of cars on a daily basis...some proper bangers but some nice stuff to.

@Cal401 i must have been in your group which guy were you?

Yeah you were, I was the one with the massive curly hair Went immediately after you in the Juke.

Someone told me at Warwick on an open day that we could get to test drive some of the various JLR cars kicking around the WMG part of campus but nobody's said anything about it since I've been there

 

[gm matthew]

Re. the gaming: You guys should know that I, occasionally Tidgney, and even Jann were unofficially "benchmarking" your times during the events (i.e messing about on the pods when they were free.) I have to say @gm matthew - Tidgney and I agreed that your best lap at Ascari was seriously impressive.

I was amazed myself at how well I did at Ascari, especially considering that it was far from my favourite track, but to receive such high praise from Tidgney and yourself - I'm almost lost for words.

I put in so much effort over the last 11 months to get better at Gran Turismo, and I guess I didn't disappoint on the day. Unfortunately I was foolish enough to neglect practising actual driving and hoped it would come to me naturally; it didn't, and combined with a stupid mistake on my timed run it cost me any chance I had of making the top six.

I'm already considering various opportunities to practise real-world driving, even if it's just getting some cones and spreading them across an empty car park (with permission, of course). Whatever it takes, I will ensure that I am much better prepared for the driving challenge next year, assuming that GT Academy 2015 happens. If it does, hopefully I can make it third time lucky.

 

[Glenalz81]

Yeah you were, I was the one with the massive curly hair Went immediately after you in the Juke.

Someone told me at Warwick on an open day that we could get to test drive some of the various JLR cars kicking around the WMG part of campus but nobody's said anything about it since I've been there

I remember, funny, when i read the post i pictured you.

 

[FordMKIVJ5]

I had the advantage of experience - they sent us out in the Jukes last year and at Race Camp too

Well, that and I cheated - I ratcheted the seat up to get a better view of the front corners and tilted the passenger wing mirror down so I could see the rear wheel and cones in the stop boxes The instructor seemed impressed at least!

It's good fun spanking someone else's car about - and I'll pass on the same advice I gave to Ben last year. Just go out and drive things. Doesn't matter what it is or where, just get used to being in a different car for ten minutes as often as you can. When you've not driven many things, you get a few nerves sitting in something different - but once you're at 30 or so different cars it's just another driving seat

Can't believe I didn't think to use the mirrors. I was struggling with positioning it into the boxes all through my practice runs as well.

Unfortunately like many others here I haven't had much experience in real cars at all, having only driven my driving instructor's car and my car, neither of those being driven fast off of the road. So getting used to a completely new car was a bit odd, the hardest bit was judging the size of the car. Hoping to get some track driving experience this coming year though, whether that be track days or otherwise.

 

[PrudentBear]

I totally agree with Alex - many great performances under a lot of pressure.

Well done to the boot campers, it's a really good and varied bunch who all got the job done playing to their individual strengths. Especially pleased for Shane who has clearly worked incredibly hard and shown huge character to bounce back from last year. Also great to see a relaxed and smiling Alex P finally get his chance at the ripe old age of 36. I remember Alex being one of the fastest at the first ever national final in 2008 and he's been an almost permanent fixture at these events since.

I was adjudicating on Matthew's pod during his Ascari laps and it was indeed a great showing. He also used his practice time very intelligently, recognising that the format meant that it was more important to dial into the other two tracks. I was convinced he would go through based on the gaming and the fitness although I wasn't aware of the mistake in the Juke which sounds like it must have cost him. Just shows how small the margins are - hope you keep at it Matthew as you're so close.

Good luck all.

 

[BanditKarter22]

My scores:

Juke: 75 seconds, 10 seconds of which were due to stopping short in both boxes. Was a good car to drive, very different to my Arosa (it actually accelerates when you put your right foot down ) and obviously doesn't respond in the same way as a kart so there's potential to go a lot faster as it was only my first time.

Ascari: 2:18.994, rubbish at the track, hardly ever played it, plus span on my last lap about 4 corners from the end when I was 8 tenths up
Silverstone: all 1:04s, think .3, .2 and .7/8, hardly ever play the international layout so again I suck at it would liked to have at least been in the 1:03s
Suzuka: 2:11, completely went to pot, had a couple of offs and a spin.
Had little chance to practice beforehand as hadn't had my PS3 with me all year at uni, got it when my exams ended and then 10 days later it got RLOD (just before the invitation email came out, conveniently) which then developed into YLOD Bought my mate's PS3 5 days before the live event. The transition from DFGT to T500RS was difficult too but lots of people had that problem so can't really use that as an excuse

Plank: 1m39s
Sergeant Jump: 41cm
Press-ups: 23
Hadn't trained for this at all, it wasn't definite that I was going to be there as had to get through the Facebook event first, and was also at uni and then seeing family in the weeks prior to it.

Bleep test: 8.1, which I was pretty pleased with considering I'm terrible at running by my own admission and haven't done the bleep test since year 9 when I got 7.something.

Media seemed to go pretty well, was pretty surreal being questioned by John Hindhaugh!

Like I said wasn't expecting to go through as it was my first time there and I came through Facebook, but hopefully can come back next year more prepared! Hoping the Facebook qualifier runs again, I have a lot of speed to find in GT but the biggest problem is that my second year exams will be later than this year's exams so the rankings period will probably be ending whilst I've still got exams on :/ have to say, the Facebook live event was a lot more competitive than I expected it to be, and 4 people from it were in the top 10 on Tuesday with one going to race camp!

This may be slightly off topic, but do you by any chance compete in the BUKC? I noticed in your picture you're driving a club 100 kart! I competed in it this year, I'm a motorsport engineering student at Brunel University, by chance I also drive a Seat Arosa!! What a coincidence!!

 

[The Watcher]

Hi guys! I never really talk much on this. But seeing as I've made it to Race Camp I thought I'd pop on and let you guys know how I got on.

Upon arriving at Silverstone on Tuesday morning I was happy to hear that all 28 finalists would be taking part in all four challenges this year as opposed to some being eliminated after the gaming part like previous years. I saw this as being my best opportunity to qualify for Race Camp.

After the briefing my group headed of to the Stowe Circuit for the gaming part of the competition. I mainly focused on doing clean consistent laps and trying not to make any mistakes or invalidate any laps. I was successful in that respect even though my overall pace wasn't as good as some other competitors.

Next we headed to the car park for the autotest. My 3 practice laps went smoothly and I picked out some good braking markers for the two stops. On my timed lap I made the mistake of slipping the clutch too much at the start costing me time all the way up to the first slalom. However, my stoppages on the brakes felt good and it was a relatively clean run.

Next came the media assessment. I felt it went really well and I was told that everyone in my group did particularly well in that area.

Finally I finished up with the fitness assessment and the bleep-test (which I was looking forward to actually.) My Sergeant jump went well, I cant remember what score I got for it but it felt good. I surprised myself in the push-up contest by achieving 60 push-ups having only ever done 53 before in training.

All 28 competitors then took on the dreaded bleep test. I hadn't ever took part in a bleep test before but I enjoy cycling so I thought my cardiovascular endurance would hold me in good stead. I managed to finish 3rd in the bleep test, reaching somewhere in level 10. Luke did an incredible job of reaching level 13.

So yeah, that's my summary of the UK national finals. The standard of all competitors was very high and it was a great day.

For those of you that are Interested, I have made a Twitter account and if you wish to give me a follow its @SMillar_13

Stuart

 

[Spurgy 777]

Hi guys! I never really talk much on this. But seeing as I've made it to Race Camp I thought I'd pop on and let you guys know how I got on.

Upon arriving at Silverstone on Tuesday morning I was happy to hear that all 28 finalists would be taking part in all four challenges this year as opposed to some being eliminated after the gaming part like previous years. I saw this as being my best opportunity to qualify for Race Camp.

After the briefing my group headed of to the Stowe Circuit for the gaming part of the competition. I mainly focused on doing clean consistent laps and trying not to make any mistakes or invalidate any laps. I was successful in that respect even though my overall pace wasn't as good as some other competitors.

Next we headed to the car park for the autotest. My 3 practice laps went smoothly and I picked out some good braking markers for the two stops. On my timed lap I made the mistake of slipping the clutch too much at the start costing me time all the way up to the first slalom. However, my stoppages on the brakes felt good and it was a relatively clean run.

Next came the media assessment. I felt it went really well and I was told that everyone in my group did particularly well in that area.

Finally I finished up with the fitness assessment and the bleep-test (which I was looking forward to actually.) My Sergeant jump went well, I cant remember what score I got for it but it felt good. I surprised myself in the push-up contest by achieving 60 push-ups having only ever done 53 before in training.

All 28 competitors then took on the dreaded bleep test. I hadn't ever took part in a bleep test before but I enjoy cycling so I thought my cardiovascular endurance would hold me in good stead. I managed to finish 3rd in the bleep test, reaching somewhere in level 10. Luke did an incredible job of reaching level 13.

So yeah, that's my summary of the UK national finals. The standard of all competitors was very high and it was a great day.

For those of you that are Interested, I have made a Twitter account and if you wish to give me a follow its @SMillar_13

Stuart

Looks like I'll be the worst at fitness

 

[01Michael]

To try and make my DFGT feel like a T500 I've put a foam ball under the brake pedal. If I turn the volume up on my headphones enough I can also blank out the grinding sounds from the 6 year old motor! Still managed a 1:00.9 replicating the silverstone time trial 👍

 

[RHODRIEWILLIAMS]

To try and make my DFGT feel like a T500 I've put a foam ball under the brake pedal. If I turn the volume up on my headphones enough I can also blank out the grinding sounds from the 6 year old motor! Still managed a 1:00.9 replicating the silverstone time trial 👍

Was discussing this with one of my friends the t500rs is a slower but more realistic wheel than the logic. Its to do with 1080 degree rotation not 900 degree rotation and ffb weight. Be please your missing Silverstone this year mate its a very fast field with excellent cv's no point in losing your chance at 18 before your ready in real cars.