Spec GTP: Formula Mazda - Series Complete!

[ImaRobot]

I spent 40 minutes controlling nothing but wild oversteer. It was fun I suppose, but if I can't get it tuned, I'll probably quietly remove myself.

My set up is more towards understeer if you'd like to give it a go. Gotta watch the throttle though, once it kicks its hard to regain control.

I was focusing hard in the beginning so I didn't even realize people had dropped till the later half. Sorry to hear that @HighSeasHoMastr

@SlipZtrEm, I was chasing you the whole race, I would catch up and then do something stupid. The ending sure was intense!

 

[prousonhairy]

Who ended up winning?

 

[VXR]

@ImaRobot yeah will definitely try your settings. I had a moment about midway through where I was totally over-driving it through frustration. Still, I advanced from Level 12 to 14, but I only got 25k credits and an XKRS GT for my troubles lol.

I know one thing, I'll never be a racer or hotlapper!

 

[SlipZtrEm]

I was really hoping that with all the trouble we had starting, when I got forcibly disconnected halfway through the first lap we would restart, but...
Great use of an hour, staring at the lobby screen and doing <4 laps of racing. Thanks.

Hope the race is fun for those of you who actually got to do it. Was looking like it would be.

Sorry about that, I didn't notice you were gone until a few laps in. From now on, we'll force restarts if anybody drops out the first lap or two. I felt bad that we were already so late due to the earlier issues.

I spent 40 minutes controlling nothing but wild oversteer. It was fun I suppose, but if I can't get it tuned, I'll probably quietly remove myself.

I'd recommend either @Im_Lukas' or @ImaRobot's tunes, as they're a lot better at that sort of thing than I am. My tune is from Lime Rock, and didn't seem to like Laguna as much.

I kept getting hit with the weird understeer issue @ImaRobot has mentioned in T1. It was frustrating, since I'd either plow through or suffer massive oversteer.

@SlipZtrEm, I was chasing you the whole race, I would catch up and then do something stupid. The ending sure was intense!

And then I messed up at the Corkscrew a lap away from the end! Until that point, I was happy I wasn't succumbing to the pressure, but with all of the brake markers down, I definitely missed my mark there. Well done. 👍

Who ended up winning?

@Im_Lukas. @GTracer38 was second after toying with me in the early laps. @ImaRobot passed me for third on the penultimate lap.

 

[Populuxe]

@ImaRobot yeah will definitely try your settings. I had a moment about midway through where I was totally over-driving it through frustration. Still, I advanced from Level 12 to 14, but I only got 25k credits and an XKRS GT for my troubles lol.

Was that you on my tail at the end of the race? Someone was getting real close to relegating me to last place at the end. I never tune my cars since I have no idea what I'm doing, but I decided to use SlipZtrEm's tune that he graciously shared, and it was very good. I felt completely in control. I wasn't fast, but I wasn't overdoing it either. I made enough money in leveling up, race winnings and a prize spin to buy a '62 Ferrari GTO, so it was well worth the time investment. Sorry for the people who got booted out. Hopefully it will be smoother sailing for the next race.

 

[prousonhairy]

It was a fun race, even though I'm not near as fast as a lot of you. With ten minutes to go it disconnected me, but my internet was fine so I don't know if it was a Forza 6 hopper thing or what, I could still see all you guys being online and everything.

 

[HighSeasHoMastr]

I spent 40 minutes controlling nothing but wild oversteer. It was fun I suppose, but if I can't get it tuned, I'll probably quietly remove myself.

The key with this thing is maintenance throttle through the corners, of you try to coast to the apex it will oversteer.

My car is dialed exactly where I like it, and in the practice it seemed like I had the pace for a top 3 pretty easily (and in the laps I ran last night I was fast enough to crack the top 1K worldwide in S class with the car at 785 This was definitely going to be my best shot at that, since this is the track I know by far the best out of the ones we're running. So basically I probably have no shot at being close to the top of this thing anymore, which being honest has lowered my enthusiasm for it.

Disappointing in the entire; I was looking forward to this all week.

Sorry about that, I didn't notice you were gone until a few laps in. From now on, we'll force restarts if anybody drops out the first lap or two. I felt bad that we were already so late due to the earlier issues.

I get it, it happens. It's just particularly infuriating because this was the only track I reckon I had much of a shot at. Plus, that is literally only the second DC I've had in 40+ hours of online racing. Timed impeccably, as expected.

I'd recommend either @Im_Lukas' or @ImaRobot's tunes, as they're a lot better at that sort of thing than I am. My tune is from Lime Rock, and didn't seem to like Laguna as much.

I kept getting hit with the weird understeer issue @ImaRobot has mentioned in T1. It was frustrating, since I'd either plow through or suffer massive oversteer.

I'll post up my tune later as well. I don't seem to have any of these issues with mine, which is weird because I didn't spend much time throwing it together...

And then I messed up at the Corkscrew a lap away from the end! Until that point, I was happy I wasn't succumbing to the pressure, but with all of the brake markers down, I definitely missed my mark there. Well done. 👍

@Im_Lukas. @GTracer38 was second after toying with me in the early laps. @ImaRobot passed me for third on the penultimate lap.

Sounds like it was decent enough then. The few minutes I spectated after rejoining were pretty dull, so good thing it picked up.

Congratulations to @Im_Lukas on the win. Not surprising given your pace during the practice session.

 

[Im_Lukas]

May I suggest some kind of drop round at least? I'm sure many of us know how bad the Forza servers are... I know it doesn't make up for the wasted time but may help ease the annoyance. I was just gearing up for a good race with @HighSeasHoMastr as well when their car just disappeared.

Also I think game chat is terrible, I could see others names coming up as talking but couldn't hear them, only people I heard all race were Rolnd and Slip.

I will say good driving by all, lots of respect to leaving others space. 👍

@GTracer38 I thought you were catching me on the early laps, kept looking at the distance meter at the same point and it was slowly getting lower until one lap where it jumped up.

 

[Populuxe]

I will say good driving by all, lots of respect to leaving others space. 👍

I only had one bonehead moment. Well, only one that affected anyone else. In the first corner of the first lap, I hit my braking point where I wanted to, but it was still too late to avoid hitting the car in front of me. It seemed like a fairly light hit, but the car in front of me went flying off the track all out of proportion to how hard I hit him. So my apologies to that driver.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

May I suggest some kind of drop round at least? I'm sure many of us know how bad the Forza servers are... I know it doesn't make up for the wasted time but may help ease the annoyance. I was just gearing up for a good race with @HighSeasHoMastr as well when their car just disappeared.

I'd be more than game for something like that. Perhaps even back at Laguna. I feel really bad that it caught @HighSeasHoMastr, so if he's on board, I say we do it. It can be on a different night if that helps.

One other thing I should note; two weekends from now, I won't be able to run the race. I've got Valentines plans with the lady to see a romantic comedy by the name of Deadpool.

Also I think game chat is terrible, I could see others names coming up as talking but couldn't hear them, only people I heard all race were Rolnd and Slip.

So is party chat a better option there? I'll admit, I know very little about that aspect of the XB1.

I will say good driving by all, lots of respect to leaving others space. 👍

Indeed, there was a moment we went two wide through the Corkscrew, which I've never seen in the hoppers.

 

[VXR]

Was that you on my tail at the end of the race? Someone was getting real close to relegating me to last place at the end. I never tune my cars since I have no idea what I'm doing, but I decided to use SlipZtrEm's tune that he graciously shared, and it was very good. I felt completely in control. I wasn't fast, but I wasn't overdoing it either. I made enough money in leveling up, race winnings and a prize spin to buy a '62 Ferrari GTO, so it was well worth the time investment. Sorry for the people who got booted out. Hopefully it will be smoother sailing for the next race.

No it wasn't me, I was 4,000 feet plus behind after my mid-race meltdown.

Throttle modulation is one thing I don't like about the Xbox One pad, to me it's overly sensitive after say the first couple of degrees of pressure. I'm gonna change the deadzones on it and see if that helps. I'm not using it as an excuse for being slow, because I know I am, but if I'm gonna hold slip angles like that I might as well join drift lobbies!

 

[prousonhairy]

We'll have to keep in mind next weekend is Super bowl Sunday too, although that won't affect me at all. Was anyone else getting that brain-bleed inducing noise the first few laps of the practice round?

 

[HighSeasHoMastr]

May I suggest some kind of drop round at least? I'm sure many of us know how bad the Forza servers are... I know it doesn't make up for the wasted time but may help ease the annoyance. I was just gearing up for a good race with @HighSeasHoMastr as well when their car just disappeared.

Thanks, but I don't think I had the pace. I wasn't falling off of you too quickly in the practice, but I was losing ground. I think honestly the difference between us may have been as small as that I don't use the manual clutch and you do, but that would have been enough in all likelihood. I'm tough to pass but not tough enough to hold you off for 40 minutes...

As for the drop round, yeah it wouldn't be a terrible idea, but there's only like 5 rounds anyways right? Put it to a vote I guess, (i'm for it obviously, but..) but either way I think it will still be all downhill from here for me with the tracks we're doing
Maybe Sonoma will be decent for me. Lime Rock and Brands Hatch I expect to be total disasters, and Spa will requre a serious re-tune for me to deal with the low downforce, so we'll see.

Also I think game chat is terrible, I could see others names coming up as talking but couldn't hear them, only people I heard all race were Rolnd and Slip.

It's the worst. The party system was being super buggy today for me though. As I mentioned, it wouldn't let me stay in the party without the actual party window opened over the top of Forza. There was no way for me to get it to work where I could play the game and be in the party at the same time so I don't know how excellent of a solution that will be either...

 

[Populuxe]

I have no problem with dropping the lowest scoring round. It won't matter to me overall, since I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish the series in about the same place I finished today's race, but it will be good for people who have unusually poor races or get booted out for no reason.

 

[HighSeasHoMastr]

I'd be more than game for something like that. Perhaps even back at Laguna. I feel really bad that it caught @HighSeasHoMastr, so if he's on board, I say we do it.

Well, of course I'm in favor, but I won't ask for special treatment either.

It's up to everyone,

It can be on a different night if that helps.

One other thing I should note; two weekends from now, I won't be able to run the race. I've got Valentines plans with the lady to see a romantic comedy by the name of Deadpool.

We'll have to keep in mind next weekend is Super bowl Sunday too, although that won't affect me at all.

Scheduling for me is all over the place. The Super Bowl won't affect me in any way, so I'm still free next Sunday. FOr Valentine's Day I will also be unavailable, as will several of us I suspect, so that seems like a no-brainer drop week.

If we do re-run Laguna, the next couple fo weeks are actually pretty open for me schedule-wise, but not probably at times that work for @Im_Lukas or @ClydeYellow being on the continent. That's a dicussion to have once a decision is made I suppose.

So is party chat a better option there? I'll admit, I know very little about that aspect of the XB1.

Generally yes, but see my reply above.

If we can get it to work, I think Party Chat is the way to go. I also think that giving things a little more room time-wise on the front side would be a generally good idea. With the R24 today and the probably later start for the Euro-zone people, things were a little compressed and hurried today.

We'll get there eventually

Indeed, there was a moment we went two wide through the Corkscrew, which I've never seen in the hoppers.

Nice! Hopefully someone saved the replay and can share that, for photography purposes?

Also, @SlipZtrEm I think in the second(?) start, I might have bumped you a tiny bit going into the corkscrew; I didn't feel anything but it must have been really close if I didn't. I apologize if I did- I locked up my inside front tire and didn't have much of a choice in matters.
We did have a tiny laggy bump on the actual start, but I think I came off much worse from that as it slowed me down by like 5mph and didn't seem to affect you too much at all. The collision physics are sure interesting some times

No it wasn't me, I was 4,000 feet plus behind after my mid-race meltdown.

Throttle modulation is one thing I don't like about the Xbox One pad, to me it's overly sensitive after say the first couple of degrees of pressure. I'm gonna change the deadzones on it and see if that helps. I'm not using it as an excuse for being slow, because I know I am, but if I'm gonna hold slip angles like that I might as well join drift lobbies!

👍 That will help you a lot. The key is just practice. Also, do you have vibration enabled? The rumble in the trigger alerts you to wheelspin, so once you get a feel for the nuance of that it helps a lot with controlling power oversteer.

Was anyone else getting that brain-bleed inducing noise the first few laps of the practice round?

I was. I think it was coming from @Populuxe Cowboy so I just muted him (sorry!) and it seemed to fix it.

 

[Im_Lukas]

@Populuxe Cowboy If you finished the race on turn 1 with a car alongside you that was me, I can't remember if it was you driving but I know I finished on turn 1 with another car.

So is party chat a better option there? I'll admit, I know very little about that aspect of the XB1.

Party chat you can most of the time hear everyone, but it has the problem we've seen with @HighSeasHoMastr where it can't stay open while playing (I think this is more common in larger parties).

Thanks, but I don't think I had the pace. I wasn't falling off of you too quickly in the practice, but I was losing ground. I think honestly the difference between us may have been as small as that I don't use the manual clutch and you do, but that would have been enough in all likelihood. I'm tough to pass but not tough enough to hold you off for 40 minutes...

That could have been the difference, I don't know how much of an advantage it is, especially as we're running race clutch here which I otherwise never use as it gives no benefit to manual clutch users. But I'm terrible at passing so if you stuck to the track chances are I wouldn't get past .

If we do re-run Laguna, the next couple fo weeks are actually pretty open for me schedule-wise, but not probably at times that work for @Im_Lukas or @ClydeYellow being on the continent. That's a dicussion to have once a decision is made I suppose.

I'm a student so lets just say my hours are quite flexible .

--

I think @prousonhairy got a front row seat to my terrible start on attempt 2, brake too late in to turn 1, come out last and then go too wide on entry in to turn 2, complete contrast to my driving in the other 2 attempts but I was thinking what am I doing here?

 

[prousonhairy]

@Im_Lukas, yeah I was thinking to myself "Who is this Noob"

 

[HighSeasHoMastr]

Party chat you can most of the time hear everyone, but it has the problem we've seen with @HighSeasHoMastr where it can't stay open while playing (I think this is more common in larger parties).

Yeah, this is the first time I've ever had something like that happen. I don''t know if it was a sign of my impending dropped connection or what, but...yeah.
Probably going forward, everyone should hard-reset their 'bones before the race, just to try and get as many variables out as possible. I know @SlipZtrEm had trouble setting the lobby up due to connection issues, so if we all do a hard-start beforehand maybe it will help things slightly. Can't hurt at least.

That could have been the difference, I don't know how much of an advantage it is, especially as we're running race clutch here which I otherwise never use as it gives no benefit to manual clutch users.

From what I've seen running with other friends who are similar speeds, it gives about 1/2 to 3/4 of a car-length per upshift. Over a lap, when I've used it, it translates to maybe .10-.20 seconds, depending on the length of the track/number of upshifts. At Laguna it's probably closer to .1 but it's still a non-zero advantage.
I will be 100% honest: I don't use it because I hate the sound of it. That's the only reason.

But I'm terrible at passing so if you stuck to the track chances are I wouldn't get past

Well then I might have been able to hang onto it. I did ~20 laps in practice last night and was within .8 seconds on all but one of them, so consistency wouldn't have been my problem Oh well, hopefully it's as close for the next one!

I'm a student so lets just say my hours are quite flexible .

I remember those days [stares fondly into sunset]...........
So yeah, we can probably make something happen if everyone is up for it!

I think @prousonhairy got a front row seat to my terrible start on attempt 2, brake too late in to turn 1, come out last and then go too wide on entry in to turn 2, complete contrast to my driving in the other 2 attempts but I was thinking what am I doing here?

I thought that was you. I just saw someone plummeting down the order in my mirrors
Someone got an amazing start on attempt 1 though. Went from last to third in the first corner. oh wait, that was me! I was so happy, then everyone started quitting

--

@VXR here is the tune that I used for Laguna Seca:

Spoiler

Tire Pressure
Front 29.0 PSI
Rear 28.0 PSI

Gearing
Final Drive 2.85
1st 3.25
2nd 2.20
3rd 1.65
4th 1.35
5th 1.12

Alignment
Camber
Front -2.0
Rear -1.5

Toe
Front 0.5
Rear -0.2

Caster
Angle 5.5

Anti-Roll Bars
Front 17.00
Rear 11.50

Springs
Front 342.0 LB/IN
Rear 370.6 LB/IN

Ride Height
Front 1.4 IN
Rear 2.3 IN

Damping
Rebound Stiffness
Front 8.9
Rear 9.6

Bump Stiffness
Front 5.9
Rear 6.4

Aero
Front 248 LBS
Rear 331 LBS

Brake
Balance 47%
Pressure 70% (or whatever your preference is; I find this to be very easy to drive consistently)

Differential
Acceleration 42%
Deceleration 12%

Keep in mind that I run with no ABS, so those brake settings are very much specific to my tastes in how the car reacts to trail-braking and turn-in. It makes it very controllable but very prone towards losing the back if you overdo things a little bit.

Try it out, see if it works for you and let me know!

 

[GTracer38]

My tune is from Lime Rock, and didn't seem to like Laguna as much.

I kept getting hit with the weird understeer issue @ImaRobot has mentioned in T1. It was frustrating, since I'd either plow through or suffer massive oversteer.

First turn is weird. I always get a weird slide going all the way through it, or the understeer you mentioned.

Your setup (most of it) was fine. Bit of understeer, so I might try @Im_Lukas ('s) tune.


@VXR - I'll pop up the tune I was using. It was mostly @SlipZtrEm tune but I couldn't be bothered converting the imperial measurements to metric. It has a bit of understeer, but you might prefer that. Mostly stable too.

May I suggest some kind of drop round at least? I'm sure many of us know how bad the Forza servers are... I know it doesn't make up for the wasted time but may help ease the annoyance. I was just gearing up for a good race with @HighSeasHoMastr as well when their car just disappeared.

Also I think game chat is terrible, I could see others names coming up as talking but couldn't hear them, only people I heard all race were Rolnd and Slip.

I will say good driving by all, lots of respect to leaving others space. 👍

@GTracer38 I thought you were catching me on the early laps, kept looking at the distance meter at the same point and it was slowly getting lower until one lap where it jumped up.

Psshhh. As if I was closing in I got to 2nd, held the gap for (maybe) a lap, tops and then you just drove away. But I usually use your rival times to improve mine (I can't get a quicker lap...or with in a second usually) so it was exactly as expected for me.

Also, the game chat still has problems, for sure.

I only had one bonehead moment. Well, only one that affected anyone else. In the first corner of the first lap, I hit my braking point where I wanted to, but it was still too late to avoid hitting the car in front of me. It seemed like a fairly light hit, but the car in front of me went flying off the track all out of proportion to how hard I hit him. So my apologies to that driver.

All good. I took it cautious into T1 and then got cannoned off. Wasn't really sure who did it, but I didn't really care.
Stuff like that is always going to happen and (imo) Laguna is quite bad for it. A really narrow start that opens up suddenly and closes back down onto a slow double-apex left...tough to get everyone cleanly through there.

In the first start I showed @SlipZtrEm that there was damage on the exit
Just lost the rear and slapped him into the wall. Lucky that didn't end up being the actual race.

 

[VXR]

Cheers for the set-ups guys. I was guilty of spending Forza time painting (on H2 at that) and almost forgetting we had a race tonight. Heck, I didn't even build it up to 785 spec until about a half hour before...

 

[Populuxe]

Painting can be a bit addictive.

 

[Im_Lukas]

Psshhh. As if I was closing in I got to 2nd, held the gap for (maybe) a lap, tops and then you just drove away. But I usually use your rival times to improve mine (I can't get a quicker lap...or with in a second usually) so it was exactly as expected for me

You were! For a couple of laps I was checking using the start/finish line and it was at 470ft, 450ft, 440ft and then jumped up to 600ish, I don't know if you had some good laps or I had bad ones but I started overdriving a little trying to compensate as a result.

 

[ImaRobot]

I would get in the zone and started catching up to Slip, and then I would just absolutely blow it and go sideways through a turn. I've had simulation Steering on the past few weeks as I noticed it helps alleviate the dead Steering bug I seem to get, so with that said, counter Steering was pretty scary

All in all I had fun, even though the action was mostly towards the end. @SlipZtrEm was putting up a fight on the last handful of laps, and it sure was intense. I felt that any slight hiccup and I'd have lost my rear for sure. Some turns we were both practically sliding around

Did anyone manage to save the replay? I wasn't thinking and just backed out.

 

[VXR]

I did. I wanted to get something productive out of my experience lmao.

It was a nice change, though,

 

[GTracer38]

I was watching you two battle on the map, there you made a noise over the mic and 150m quickly changed to 500m hahaha.

You were! For a couple of laps I was checking using the start/finish line and it was at 470ft, 450ft, 440ft and then jumped up to 600ish, I don't know if you had some good laps or I had bad ones but I started overdriving a little trying to compensate as a result.

Must've been all on your end then. I quickly realised you weren't going to make a mistake and probably paid a little too much attention too the other battles.
Only dots on a map and some measurements for the 3rd place battle, but it was more interesting then my race

 

[ClydeYellow]

I got disconnected with 10 minutes left lol.

Same here, apparently the good ol' days of two or three people lagging out every race are back with a vengeance! ...of course, the infamous instability of Italian DSL internet doesn't really help.

It was fun racing with you guys, even through after the first two laps I ended up basically racing alone as I was a thousand metres in front of the driver following me, and five hundred from the one preceding me. Oddly enough, it seemed to me that I was a lot faster during the practise (from which I also lagged out)... Oh, well.

Congrats to @Im_Lukas for the win... And for the good work on the tune!

P.S: care to share, @VXR?

 

[ImaRobot]

was watching you two battle on the map, there you made a noise over the mic and 150m quickly changed to 500m hahaha

I came in too hot on the left hander leading up to the corkskrew, and counter steering sent me zigzagging down the straight until I eventually spun out. I pushed it a little to hard trying to catch up from a previous mistake me and @SlipZtrEm stood within 100ft from each other for the last leg of the race.

 

[Populuxe]

I think it was coming from @Populuxe Cowboy so I just muted him (sorry!) and it seemed to fix it.

I have no idea what that could have been. I didn't have anything going on around me like another TV or a radio or stereo. The only thing on was the TV and Xbox. I did have my iPad next to me, but that was the only electronic device near me that was active.

 

[prousonhairy]

It sounded demonic. Have you been reading Aleister Crowley books or something?

 

[ImaRobot]

It sounded like it was playing back your TV over the mic.