SF Bay Area Gran Turismo Party 1 (14th & 15th July!)

[Smallhorses]

Any nerves yet Nik? 👍

Just that no-one will show up & I'll be playing with myself!!!

Seriously no, not really, I'm like the lite-beer version of Famine! All the organisational skills, and only half the brains!!!

 

[Diego440]

Just that no-one will show up & I'll be playing with myself!!!

I thought you liked that

 

[Touring Mars]

Have fun over the weekend, chaps 👍

 

[VEXD]

Why arent their any Transformers on your avatar Chris?

Make sure to take fotos/secret videos of the prizegiving Nick, im lookin forward to seeing how many you take home... oh no wait you live there...

👍

 

[SimRaceDriver]

Rig is all packed up as I type this up!
Once tomorrow morning arrives, all I gotta do is put the TV in the front seat (Hopefully it'll fit! ) of the Jetta and I'm off! ;-)

I'll be taking off at around 8am(ish) and should arrive in Emmeryville around 9am(ish) Small-Horse...giving me plenty of time to put everything together and allow anyone a few practice laps!

I had a few good runs on the Ring' with the Yellowbird, running Sport Medium tires...GOD I love that car/track combo more then...well...I'll keep that to myself! lol!


Printing up the directions from your earlier PM as well, so I don't get lost!


Cheers,


Ray

 

[Smallhorses]

Today is the day!!!!

2 stations set up already, and it's confirmed that it'll be a 4 driver event, DaveS1138 understandably from so far away won't be able to get here after a frantic scramble to get some work finished in Florida on Friday.

alrivers also bows out for today from across the Bay, but may be able to make it for tomorrow, so we'll see.

Gentlemen! Start your engines!!!!

 

[Smallhorses]

Today has been amazing!

Great racing, excellent company, some marvellous photos, quotes and results! Looking forward to more of the same tomorrow!!!

Off to enjoy some well earned rest before the engines start up again in the morning!!!!

 

[CAMikaze]

Today has been amazing!

Great racing, excellent company, some marvellous photos, quotes and results! Looking forward to more of the same tomorrow!!!

Looking forward to reading up on the report Smallhorses.

 

[KLR142]

Looking forward to reading up on the report Smallhorses.

Indeed!

 

[EXelero]

well its now Sunday so you should all be raced out by now....

Really cant wait to read your write up Nik and see all the pics. Will be great to hear what the other attendees have to say too!

Bring on the fun and antics!

 

[alrivers]

woOO!!! had lots of fUN!! ^_^ thanks again for the invite!!!

 

[ceiling_fan]

I had a great time! I never realized that was my first time ever racing humans! I was at a lower level skill-wise than the other drivers, but I snagged a couple of the absurdly unfair handicap races! juana b.: the wildly reflexive, table shaking (but somehow controlled) driving was fun. That TVR maneuver at El Capitan was classic. SimRaceDriver: You are one incredibly consistent, smooooooth driver. Grand Valley on day one was a great race. alrivers was only there day two, but put in a lot of good races. M5. Enough said. And of course, Smallhorses, I can't thank you enough for the hospitality and good racing! And Miss Smallhorses, for holding the phone to my ear when I was in the middle of a race!

I also thank myself for completing two laps at the Nurb in the 11hp Daihatsu Midget!

There are lots of great race stories, but I'll let Smallhorses handle that, as he has all the actual results! I'm sure we all thank Famine for providing the random track generation software! 👍

 

[a6m5]

This gotta be the first of its kind(gtp wise) in the States, right? Sounds like you guys had a blast! Props to you, Smallhorses, for putting this thing together. 👍

 

[Smallhorses]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for the swift responses, fantastic racing & an all-round top-notch weekend!!!
I have understandably been making up on quality time this evening with my exceedingly understanding & patient wife!

I'll be starting a results and photos thread fairly soon (i.e. in the next week or so!) as we've got guests from England arriving on Tuesday so we've plenty more entertaining to do for a couple of weeks.

It's after midnite now, so I'm off to bed to reflect on a weekend full of highlights, highlights and even more highlights!

In the meantime, keep posting your memories & recollections of amusing & entertaining moments, quotes & races in here and I'll be back refreshed tomorrow to chip in with some more of my own!

From me & Mrs. Smallhorses, it was a pleasure to meet, entertain, race with and generally enjoy all of your company this weekend, and we now have a certain 👍 👍 for the SFGTP "Dos" to follow!!!!

 

[ceiling_fan]

SFGTP "Dos"

Hehe.

Spoiler

Another memory was juana b.'s tally on how many races were thrown away from a single mistake, and the mid-race fridge run.

Here's another good memory:

Spoiler

Seoul reverse, when everybody followed the leader into the wall right after the start.

 

[Blackbird.]

Here's another good memory:

Spoiler

Seoul reverse, when everybody followed the leader into the wall right after the start.

After experience of playing other multiplayer games online when it was my first time on the track apparently the leader was too and i've had many races where the majority of the grid followed the leader in to the wall, sand, tyres, etc.

 

[KLR142]

This gotta be the first of its kind(gtp wise) in the States, right? Sounds like you guys had a blast! Props to you, Smallhorses, for putting this thing together. 👍

With the random track layout and two day setup, yes, but not for LAN meetings in general. We've been having them almost once a season for the past few years up at Bobkart's place in Seattle. The next one is August 4th, if you want to ride up with me and split gas costs. We'd leave around 830-9 in the morning, and get back around 930-1030 PM that night. It's a saturday... Let me know if you're interested in coming!

 

[Venari]

After experience of playing other multiplayer games online when it was my first time on the track apparently the leader was too and i've had many races where the majority of the grid followed the leader in to the wall, sand, tyres, etc.

It's called "target fixation". Learning not to do it is an important part of a variety of high-speed activities - motorbike riding is a good one, but it is thought the phrase derives from WWII fighter pilots who while attacking targets with their (forward facing & fixed) guns, would actually collide with them.

But in this case, no harm done, it's just plain funny. Sounds like you guys had a blast.

V.

 

[Jordan]

I was soooo close to coming, I really wish I could have made the event. It sounds like you guys had a blast! I'm looking forward to the pictures.

 

[Roo]

Can't wait to read the report. Sounds like you guys had an awesome weekend!

ceiling_fan: if you think that's a bad first corner, try New York Reverse (I'm sure you did at some point) - there's entertainment

 

[ceiling_fan]

Can't wait to read the report. Sounds like you guys had an awesome weekend!

ceiling_fan: if you think that's a bad first corner, try New York Reverse (I'm sure you did at some point) - there's entertainment

I did. In a car that Smallhorses said you hate. The 240SX. That tops at 127.

Speaking of bad first corners, the worst one for me was Suzuka East. It's like Suzuka with an even worse turn than the chicane in the regular. I got used to it after crashing into the wall 4 laps in a row.

 

[Blackbird.]

Definetly sounds like you guys had a blast, i'd love to come but i'm far too young for my parents to let me go and i'm sure you adults wouldn't want some 16 yr old there. I couldn't even drink beer if I wanted to! Maybe in a few years if this event thrives.

 

[SimRaceDriver]

Well, all I can say about this weekend was that it left a 'smile' on my face from Saturday morning, when I arrived at SmallHorses's home...all the way until Sunday night, when I got back to Mountain View!

This was my first (LAN) event and even with 4 drivers, I had a BLAST!

Regardless of how many wins anyone had, I think the best memory I'll take away from this is from Day 1, when racing "Seattle", I pulled off one of my most memorable 'drifts' while in some of the most 'tightest' situations possible for that track, while driving a car I didn't even knew existed (Proto Motors - Spirra?)

MAN! If only there was a way to have recorded all of the great replays we reviewed after some of the great races we had!

It was a blast to get to race among all you guys (David, Josh, Alex & of course you Nick!) and I hope that when the moons align for the next LAN party, we'll all be able to come back and have some more fun!

Looking forward to the race recap as well!


Thanks again for everything guys!

Cheers,


SimRaceDriver

PS: I want to personally thank Smallhorse as well as "Mrs. Smallhorse" for not only opening up their home to us all, but also their refrigerator! I can't begin to thank you for your generosity!

 

[ceiling_fan]

I want to personally thank Smallhorse as well as "Mrs. Smallhorse" for not only opening up their home to us all, but also their refrigerator! I can't begin to thank you for your generosity!

Amen.

Definetly sounds like you guys had a blast, i'd love to come but i'm far too young for my parents to let me go and i'm sure you adults wouldn't want some 16 yr old there. I couldn't even drink beer if I wanted to! Maybe in a few years if this event thrives.

Well, I showed the UKGTP7 thread to my parents and that pretty much clinched it. 👍

 

[Blackbird.]

Well, I showed the UKGTP7 thread to my parents and that pretty much clinched it. 👍

Well maybe in two years then.

 

[alrivers]

PS: I want to personally thank Smallhorse as well as "Mrs. Smallhorse" for not only opening up their home to us all, but also their refrigerator! I can't begin to thank you for your generosity!

INDEED! hey Nick! don't forget to tell about our little battle at turn 1 on Grand Valley reverse! haha, i wish we did have replays of our races! i think Paris had to be the closest one of them all! considering we all finished within 1 second of eachother

 

[SimRaceDriver]

INDEED! hey Nick! don't forget to tell about our little battle at turn 1 on Grand Valley reverse! haha, i wish we did have replays of our races! i think Paris had to be the closest one of them all! considering we all finished within 1 second of eachother

Ahh YES! Can't forget that hell-of-a-battle! That was the closest race, in any car, I think we had over both days! 👍

 

[Omnis]

I DEMAND PICTURES. please.

 

[Smallhorses]

@ Blackbird. 16 is fine, as long as you're willing to race & have a laugh there's nothing out of the ordinary that would exclude you! ceiling_fan's Mom quite happily came in to chat with us all, and Mrs S. for a while, waiting for the Midget Marathon to be completed! So your folks are more than welcome to stay too if they'd feel safer that way! G.T's folks did the same for their 16 year old at the last UKGTP!

@ Omnis There'll be plenty of pics to come in a separate results & photos thread!

At the moment though Mrs. Smallhorses is getting lots of attention to make up for having been a bit neglected over the weekend (and indeed the weeks leading up to that) while I spent a lot of time in the garage testing out suitable combinations and lineups.

We've got to spend this evening getting everything in the apartment tidy, as we're hosting international guests for a few weeks, after I meet them from the airport tomorrow. They'll be taking off independently on a roadtrip for a while though (wish we could join them, but vacation time has already been set aside for September) so I'll do my best to get at least some of the results & pics up over next weekend. I may be staying out in Modesto on Thursday night, so it'll give me something to do at the hotel!

Again, thanks to you all for coming, and each one of you deserves a special thanks for helping it all come together so well!

ceiling_fan for sharing his engineering skills & pink-chair unfolding capabilities, as well as giving us all a giggle at the Daihatsu Midget '63 doing some 3-wheel drifting at the 'Ring, and also making my HDTV finally look like an HDTV by supplying a spare component lead! I'm seriously tempted to replace my racing station 28" CRT with a flat panel 1080i screen now!!

SimRaceDriver for showing off his excellent setup and definitely not WRS Div.3 racing , chauffering us all out to lunch, and treating the Smallhorseses to breakfast on Sunday! 👍

alrivers for braving BART to get over here, and saving Mrs. S from almost certain embarrassment or accident by yelling "Red Light!!!" on the way back to the BART station in the Miata!
Also for graciously accepting my dumbass ironing skills as I managed to produce his T-shirt with the GTPlanet logo on upside-down!

and juana b. for helping me to initially test the network settings & hardware, providing the tables which we couldn't have done without, and some excellent and highly amusing quotes (some of which may prove unsuitable for GTP AUP though!!! ) before, during and after the races!

One last special mention, to Jordan who kindly allowed me to print up some prize t-shirts featuring the GT Planet logos, and supplied us with the high-res versions, which look outstanding!
Even upside-down!

 

[Blackbird.]

@ Blackbird. 16 is fine, as long as you're willing to race & have a laugh there's nothing out of the ordinary that would exclude you! ceiling_fan's Mom quite happily came in to chat with us all, and Mrs S. for a while, waiting for the Midget Marathon to be completed! So your folks are more than welcome to stay too if they'd feel safer that way! G.T's folks did the same for their 16 year old at the last UKGTP!

I don't think my parents would go for going, I actually don't think they would care if I went actually they know I can take care of myself. Just... I think they'd be irked to drive all the way to San Francisco just so I can go play a game(They don't care about games). Still only got my permit so that's why I said i'll wait untill i'm 18 where I have a license.

Of course the whole meet is much more then just GT4 it's about having a good time too.