SFGTP3 - "The Threesome" - Yeah, Baby!

[Smallhorses]

Ok, I owe this a little attention..... later.
Things are most busy at the moment, but I need to compile a complete equipment list just to ensure we've at least 6 networkable PS2s, 6 TVs, 6 wheels and 6 DS2s. Oh, and of course 6 memcards and 6 copies of GT4!
Watch this space, I may finish work early today....

 

[Jump_Ace]

You've still got time no big rush yet dude, we understand.

Jerome

 

[SimRaceDriver]

If anyone is looking to rent a hotel/motel room for the weekend, cuz SM hasn't yet moved into his 12 room mansion (LOL!), let me know and let's see if we can double-up and save each other some money....

Feel free to either post your response here...or send me a PM...and I'll start looking online.

SmallHorses: I'll be borrowing a friends SUV (Dodge Ram), so I should be able to keep the cockpit pretty much in tact, thus just needing to slide everything out, plug in the pedals, throw on the TV and that's about it...I'll also bring something to keep the pedals from moving, like they did last time, so you don't need to go out of your way and move things around just so I have to put every thing up next to the wall! :-)

PS: I'll also try and get some 'testing' in before the meet, seeing as it's been almost a year since I last did any GT4 playing! :-(
PPS: This will be the last time I use my race cockpit, as I finally found a "buyer" for it...sad that I have to give it up, but I'm sure when things take off, I'll be able to finally buy the cockpit I really want...which is the Racecraft GT from Nixim..over in the UK

 

[ceiling_fan]

Dang, $1295.82 and that doesn't include a wheel!

 

[CAMikaze]

Just made my airline reservations this morning, so you can consider me just about confirmed. ^_^V All that needs to be done now is to request the needed days off form the jobs I work at. Not to mention finding a place to stay for the weekend.

Question for Smallhorses: Is there any Wi-Fi internet access at the house that we are allowed to have access to? I plan on bringing my laptop PC along.

 

[Smallhorses]

That's good news Chris, when will you arrive? When do you need to leave and will you be renting a car?
The first 5 hotels on this list are within a short walk of the SFGTP3 venue.
However, the Extended Stay is in a shady-ish neighbourhood, and is further out than the other 4. It's also close by the East Bay Municipal Utilities District wastewater treatment plant, and has a tendency to be overcome by unpleasant odours if the weather is warm!!! The other 4 are fine places, Kyle stayed at the Woodfin last time around, while Craig stayed at the Fourpoints, so they'd be the folks to ask about amenities and things.

SimRaceDriver's post above suggests he'd be interested in sharing a room which'd help to cut costs a little, so shoot him a PM and see what you can arrange.

Places in Berkeley or the Jack London Square area of Oakland might be OK too, but you'll have to be driving or carpooling to get to those as I intend to have a beer or 2 on Saturday night, and won't be available to chauffeur! I'd avoid downtown Oakland though.

 

[CAMikaze]

That's good news Chris, when will you arrive? When do you need to leave and will you be renting a car?

I'm scheduled to arrive at San Francisco International on the 30th at 5:10 pm PDT on a US Airways flight direct from Philly, and I need to be at the airport on the following Monday at about 5 or 6 am for the 7 am flight home. After I arrive, I can get the BART to wherever I'll be staying for the weekend. I'll get in touch w/CardCaptorYoshi to see if might be able to go for the weekend. If not, I'll contact SRD.

 

[Smallhorses]

There is WiFi at the venue, although it's a 1.5MB DSL connection, and primary bandwidth will have to go to the webcasting if we're able to get that going. Also itgirlxx will need to have access to her knitting websites!

I've updated as far as I can tell, the equipment list in Post #1.
We seem to have just enough stuff so far, and I'm still waiting for solid confirmation of juana b.'s attendance and equipment too.
Can't stress enough the need to bring headphones!
Also bear in mind that you should bring a memory card that you don't mind having the GT4 gamesave replaced on. I do have facilities for backing up gamesaves if necessary, but it's time consuming, so it's far easier just to clone the blank mem-cards with a pre-prepared gamesave each day.

Hopefully everyone got the PM I sent regarding times, location, refreshments and prizes. Let me know if you have any questions, and please do PM me your e-mail or phone contact details. 👍

I'd also like to run the infamous Clio Endurance race on the Saturday when we'll have the most attendees, and will hopefully manage a full-on, 6-way, 2-driver-per-team race! Since some of the folks coming are new to these events, it's going to be difficult to pair the quicker & slower drivers if we don't have a benchmark based on previous events, so I'd like to run a couple of qualifiers first, and use the laptimes from those to determine the teams.

Here's what I'd like from you guys though, so no-one gets a practicing advantage, I'd like you think of the following:

1 x Car, track, tyre combo (using a race car of your choice)
1 x Car, track, tyre combo (using a road car of your choice)
(Please don't post them in here though as that'll ruin the surprise!)

Hopefully we'll end up with 12 unique road car/track/tyre combos & 12 unique race car/track/tyre combos which'll be written out at the beginning of Saturday, scrunched up and drawn randomly to determine what we'll use as a qualifier.
Based on a best of 5 hotlaps in time-trial mode for each of the 2 combos, we'll rank the drivers and assign teams.

As ever, for the rest of the races (except the Clio Endurance) all races in road cars will be run on Sports Medium tyres, all races in race cars will use Race Medium tyres, so the qualifier combos are an opportunity to throw in something a little different.

 

[Blackbird.]

Hey just dropping in to say that as far as me attending one of these maybe in the future I will. I've been wanting to it's just I lost interest in GT4 awhile ago and now more then likely don't even remember how to race correctly. But if money permits and I get GT5 when it comes out (only god knows) I'll attend the first GT5 race. Also have a great time at this most recent event I can't wait to see the pictures and read the write-up. 👍 I've been wanting to join one of these events but one GT4 just isn't my thing anymore and school has got me by the... yeah.

 

[Jump_Ace]

Had to tell my Uncle who lives in Antelope that I didn't want to rent a car and stay with him at the end of the month but he understands, lol. He'll be up for the wedding anyway. I can bring my GT5P game and gamesave that is on a MiniSD card if you don't have a US copy David, just let me know 👍 and then we can play with the 'amazing' F1 car if you don't have it unlocked yet. Which reminds me, make sure your PS3 is set to broadcast video for a 1080i or whatever TV it is, cause if it is set to 1080p and the TV is 1080i it no workie Can't wait boyz and girl!

Jerome

 

[ceiling_fan]

We'll see if my PS3 is fixed by then...

(quick reply, eh? )

 

[V1P3R]

Wait wait... Everyone is bringing their PS3's now?

 

[ceiling_fan]

No, just some showing off Sunday or something. Also, they're not networkable with PS2s, though if I recall correctly Famine almost managed to do it.

 

[SimRaceDriver]

The first 5 hotels on this list are within a short walk of the SFGTP3 venue.
However, the Extended Stay is in a shady-ish neighbourhood, and is further out than the other 4.

DAMN! $100 Per NIGHT MINIMUM!!

I think I'll just sleep in my SUV! LMAO!

Yet, I'm still interested in splitting the difference if anyone wants to split the costs..


Thanks,


SRD

 

[Smallhorses]

A PS3 (singular!!!) may get a 1/2 hour of limelight on Saturday morning while we're setting up, or on Sunday night when we're done. Other than that I'm planning the usual busy race schedule.

With up to 12 people supposed to be attending on the Saturday it's going to take a while to get through events, so the less time -ing over GT5's pretty graphics, but ultimately useless number of car & track combos 👎 and the more time spent enjoying the less refined but more fun GT4 the better! 👍
I have the Clio Endurance set and ready to go with a somewhat evil tyre & track combo!

Working on supplementing the leftover handicap series and pick'n'mix races from last time with a few more well matched combos too, but it's quite a workout

finding things to use that haven't been driven at the last 2 events and close in performance, with a common theme!

Also does anyone have a portable air-conditioning unit?
It's currently 96F (36C) in Emeryville and we don't have a/c!!!

 

[V1P3R]

You're not SF but it's pretty close, I'm glad ur asses is suffering just as much as ours. Serves you right for having cold weather even during Summer. Burn baby BURN!

 

[ceiling_fan]

It's seriously the hottest weather I've ever felt here.

 

[V1P3R]

GOOD!

 

[Blackbird.]

It's seriously the hottest weather I've ever felt here.

Not really. This is just a "teaser" for what is to come. Currently 99F(37C) in San Jose.

 

[ceiling_fan]

"Here" referred to Alameda, right near the water. It is hella* hot.





*"Hella" is Bay Area slang for those of you who don't know...

 

[CAMikaze]

Also does anyone have a portable air-conditioning unit?
It's currently 96F (36C) in Emeryville and we don't have a/c!!!

Not really. This is just a "teaser" for what is to come. Currently 99F(37C) in San Jose.

Mid-summer-like weather for the end of May, eh? Guess I better pack a few extra shorts for the trip then.

:idea:As for the portable A/C, have a look at some of those equipment rental places in the area. They might have what you're looking for there.

As for event suggestions, I dunno if an encore of the JGTC/SuperGT 500 Pick 'n' Mix is in the works. If not, how about a DTM Pick 'n Mix using 3 cars from each DTM era? For me, it would be a good way to keep in shape for the two GTPDTM series I'm currently taking part in.

 

[Smallhorses]

Mid-summer-like weather for the end of May, eh? Guess I better pack a few extra shorts for the trip then.

No, mid-summer weather here is 57F and foggy!
This is spring weather before it goes cold again!

:idea:As for the portable A/C, have a look at some of those equipment rental places in the area. They might have what you're looking for there.

We have "A/C"-ish!
There's a good breeze blows off the Bay, and if necessary we'll open the garage door a little to let it in!
(After first ensuring that alrivers isn't using the garage door as a pillow! )

 

[Blackbird.]

"Here" referred to Alameda, right near the water. It is hella* hot.





*"Hella" is Bay Area slang for those of you who don't know...

Hella, for sure.

 

[CAMikaze]

Remember the winners of the endurance races like the Daytona 24 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans getting some top quality Rolex Watches? I was wondering if the winning drivers in the Clio Endurance should get their own Seiko stopwatches like the Seiko S058 EL Light 100 Memory Stopwatch sold at this link.

I know it's way over the prize price limit, but it's a thought...

 

[Kylehnat]

Also does anyone have a portable air-conditioning unit?
It's currently 96F (36C) in Emeryville and we don't have a/c!!!

It's supposed to be kissing 90 here for the next couple of days, too.

Only two weeks to go! I'm still recovering from Saturday's LAN. I did manage to beat Jerome once! Of course, it was a car/track combo I picked... .

 

[Jump_Ace]

Yea that BMW/Motegi Combo was pretty sweet. Of course that car is just killer. What happened to your PS3 David? Its no big deal if we don't play GT5P imo, cause I own it already . I am hoping to finish building my new gaming cpu and finish up configuring server2003 web ed. on my current system this weekend as well as prep for the event. I can't say it enough, thanks again for all the hard work you and Rachel have done m8s!

Jerome

 

[ceiling_fan]

The Blu-Ray drive failed. Click the number in my sig (it's the error number you get) to see posts by people who think RANTS IN FULL CAPS get taken seriously.

 

[Smallhorses]

Alrighty then folkses!
Thankfully that furnace blast was a one-off, and it's been a most comfortable 80F-ish (80 Fahrenheit, not 80

!) for the past few days.

I'm almost prepared! 👍
Kind of heavy on the road car side, and a little light on the racecars this time, but so far we've got:

1 x Clio Race Car Team Endurance Race (50 Laps with driver changes!!!)
1 x Road Car Handicap Event
1 x Race Car Pick'n'Mix
3 x Road Car Pick'n'Mix

Thus, I'm going to change my rules as far as qualifiers for the Endurance race goes. You can now suggest any 2 car/track/tyre combos for qualifiers.
To clarify, there's no need to suggest a road car & race car combo, you can do 2 road or 2 race cars if you'd like.
I will, however, say that being as it's a best of 5 lap qualifier, that the 2 Sarthe Tracks & Nurb' are not eligible for qualifiers, being as we'd spend half the day getting qualifiers done if we use those!
(Especially if David suggests Daihatsu Midget '63 / Economy Tyres / Nurburgring as a combo!!! )
Also bear in mind that the standard LAN-rules regarding "no driving aids" apply, so think carefully before nominating TVR Speed 12 at Motorland!!!
(You can choose AT or MT as you see fit!)

 

[Jump_Ace]

The Blu-Ray drive failed. Click the number in my sig (it's the error number you get) to see posts by people who think RANTS IN FULL CAPS get taken seriously.

What did you have to do? Call them up and say I got this error and did they pay for shipping? That is a bum deal dude, sorry to hear that I'll keep an eye out for that error message, when did you see it come up, in the middle of a game or movie? How often did you see it?

Jerome

 

[SimRaceDriver]

First and foremost, unless it hits TRIPLE DIGITS where you live, the weather isn't really HELLA HOT...just a tad uncomfortable...try coming over to Sacramento, CA (State Capital)...where it was hitting the low 100's this past week....and the only AC equates to all windows open and ceiling fans turned on...NO..Not THAT "Ceiling Fan"....LMAO!

SM: Update to our previous conversation the other night...was able to hock a few non-played games, along w/an old Xbox and get a new, slim PS2....so now that the race-cockpit has been pulled from the garage and the cob-webs dusted off....Practicing has begun! ... However, it looks like I'll only be making the Saturday event, as the monetary funds aren't currently available to stay the night and w/gas prices what they are, driving back and forth isn't an option as well!