Roo
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by Roo on Sept 29, 2020 23:07:44 GMT -5
Now I can give you the official congrats for besting me in Argentina. I had flashes of pace here and think I might have just caught you if I had not made mistakes, but that definitely didn't happen.
Managed to claw some time back in stages 7 and 8, but it all went south after that. Stage 9 was actually really good, except I got the nose a little too close to some spectators on the inside of one of the early hairpins and the game gave me an 8 second penalty. Ended up only 6 seconds down at the end of the stage, so that should have been better. Stage 10 I just couldn't keep up, same with start of 11. Stage 12 started out well again and was flying, but I ended up getting the nose just fractionally too close to the inside of a bollard and it spun me around. Pretty much game over at that point for the win, but still managed to finish with a shred of dignity.
I race in VR too, but I just couldn't get confidence chucking the car around the narrow rocks. A lot of times I could get the nose in close to the inside of a hairpin, but in a lot of cases I'd snag the nose on a rock that was jutting out and it would spin me around. I'd then try and stay further out, but then the rear would tap the rock face and spit me out of the slide as well. Your car control is quite remarkable if you can feel comfortable in those conditions.
As for setup, I don't have huge amounts of experience for any particular car or for tuning in general, so I just leave it at default. Most of the time I end up getting quicker just by learning the quirks of each car. My reasoning is that any tuning changes will either make the car worse (due to lack of tuning experience) or change a characteristic just as I was learning to cope with it, so it's usually better to live with the default. One day I want to learn how to tune them properly, just haven't found the time yet.
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Post by Mudcat on Sept 30, 2020 10:00:38 GMT -5
Damn, I was looking forward to this and then my internet went out for a few hours last night
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Roo
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by Roo on Sept 30, 2020 22:46:31 GMT -5
That's a shame. While Argentina isn't my favorite location, there are still fun sections.
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Post by an70ny on Oct 1, 2020 1:47:24 GMT -5
I think that night my internet was out of commission too. Perhaps we are neighbors! Regarding car setup - you are quite right, it won't magically make your car faster, and there have been a few instances where I blamed a bad setup for a poor performance or a spectacular crash. However for certain locations and certain cars it can make a difference. Plus it's fun to play with, and useful in case one day you are offered a driver's seat IRL (has not happened to me yet).
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Roo
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by Roo on Oct 6, 2020 22:13:42 GMT -5
Well, looks like the USA rally ended up being a rollercoaster and I think a fitting end to the championship. I started off dropping a few seconds behind An70ny and thought I'd be on the back foot, but looks like after a few stages I managed to gain a bit of a pace advantage. In my practice runs I really wasn't comfortable with the car, but after the initial stages I started to feel more comfortable with it. The RWD Group Bs require a very different driving style to the 2000ccs we came from. They definitely don't take kindly to chucking them into corners at absurd angles and scrabbling out the other side. It's much more of a track driving mentality where you keep slip angles pretty low and power out of the corners as straight as possible. Once I got comfortable with that I could start pulling out a gap.
I'm pretty sure I know exactly where it all fell apart for you An70ny. It was the "six right, opens over big jump" that tries to spit you out into a pile of rocks, right? I'd almost ended one of my rallies in the exact same spot, so I knew to avoid it. I assume you got a puncture which you didn't fix, but based on the time difference at the end I think taking the 1 minute penalty may have been the better course (if you had a spare, of course).
I'd been sailing smoothly, but stage 9 threw me for a loop. Ran a little wide about halfway through the stage, ran through a signpost, and smashed out all of the headlights. Not too bad in the open areas, but under the trees it was almost pitch black. Just after going lights out I ran wide at one of the hairpins and trundled into a semi-hidden pile to rocks in the grass. Couldn't have been going more than 30 mph, but popped the front right tire. Since I was only at the midway point of the stage I decided to spend the minute to change to the spare, and only lost about a minute at the end. Could somewhat cruise after that with the remaining time in hand.
Overall this was an extremely close and entertaining championship. Unless Mudcat can sneak into 2nd, I think An70ny and I will tie on points with 2 wins and 2 seconds apiece. I think Racenet might give you the win as you won the first round, and I fully agree with that. In Argentina and the USA we both got a solid win over the other driver, so I'd call those a wash. But considering New Zealand and Poland, I only got a narrow, less than 3 second win in one while I crashed out less than halfway through Poland and really just lucked into 2nd. So based on those performances I think An70ny deserves the overall championship.
Great rally, great championship, and great driving all around. It's been an absolute blast to compete with you guys over the past 8(?)-odd months. I'm looking forward to a little hiatus, but always open to starting this up again. A huge, huge thanks to Mudcat for the vision of setting this up and running the rally through thick and thin, through the good times and the technical difficulties. It's been an absolute pleasure.
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Post by Mudcat on Oct 7, 2020 0:54:20 GMT -5
I appreciate the thought that I might somehow slip into 2nd lol. I did finally finish though so that's good news and I finally realized what happened and why I kept getting slower the more we drove, a few months back I dropped down the Rotation to 540, had been running it at at least 900 probably 1080, don't think I ever got the hang on that. Well glad y'all enjoyed it, it has indeed been a good 8-ish months which finally dwindled down the last 2 or so months. Appreciate everyone who raced, Roo keets an70ny Magnesium Overcast 521 For something that started as a way to keep everyone's mind off you know for a few hours a week I'd say it at the very least did it's job. Dirt 5 comes out in a month from today, err make that yesterday. Not sure if that's going to mean more or less interest for DR2 once that's out. Either way it's been fun and I've only gotten annoyed at a few people along the way
Anyway, always open to future suggestions even if it is just the old virtual hang out.
Congrats to Roo and an70ny it's been a pleasure scoreboard watching you guys.
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Post by an70ny on Oct 7, 2020 15:33:42 GMT -5
Great driving Roo and great analysis as well! Indeed that puncture near the beginning of a long stage cost me a lot. Like you suggest, I would have been better off replacing it. I had a spare, but I deluded myself I could drive a powerful RWD on a single rear tire. Lesson learned... A fitting finish for the championship, in fact. Thanks Mudcat for organizing it in the first place, and keeping it together afterwards. On this topic - there are a couple of leagues I race in which might be of interest of you guys. None are quite so targeted to sim racers, as they typically allow some assists and non-cockpit views, though. LMK - I can share the discord invites. It's been fun.
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Roo
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by Roo on Oct 7, 2020 21:37:51 GMT -5
I had a spare, but I deluded myself I could drive a powerful RWD on a single rear tire. Lesson learned... Heh, been there, done that, learned the exact same lesson. Looks like the league gave us both a gold medal for our efforts in the end, which is nice. Mudcat even got a silver! When I'm back in the mood for some rally I'll hit you up for those other leagues. Given how much my pace has improved since we started the league, I'm interested to see how high up I can get on some of the official events. Then once I get demoralized from those again I'll be happy to come back down a notch or two!
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Post by Mudcat on Oct 7, 2020 22:02:05 GMT -5
I'd be happy to check it out, I have to remember to turn off all my assists in game though. I'm actually worse when the computer is trying to help me, usually ends up in a fight haha. Shame you didn't get to see things when they were rolling an70ny. Probably can relax a bit more too when I'm not trying to put things together. Roo even with the pace improvement, I wouldn't really know tbh as I wasn't close before either, your consistency improved 10x which made a big difference overall. Just my observation.
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Post by an70ny on Oct 8, 2020 15:25:36 GMT -5
Yay for gold medals! So for when you are ready: JRC is a multi-tier league with a lot of spirit. I am racing in the top tier at the moment, where I am clearly outclassed... discord.gg/GxMYKshARC is a much smaller league, and is mainly based in North America, if that makes a difference: www.apolloracing.club/
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Roo
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by Roo on Oct 8, 2020 23:17:31 GMT -5
Roo even with the pace improvement, I wouldn't really know tbh as I wasn't close before either, your consistency improved 10x which made a big difference overall. Just my observation. Yeah, consistency definitely helped. Plus, once An70ny came on board I really felt like I had to push a lot harder and I think it made me just that little bit quicker. Was really on a knife edge in a lot of places though and always felt like I was chasing rather than leading. Also interesting to see how different car classes and driving styles could swing the result one way or the other. And if An70ny is outclassed in the top tier of JRC, I really don't have much of a chance.
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Post by Mudcat on Oct 9, 2020 9:11:40 GMT -5
Well i signed up for things i think lol
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Post by Mudcat on Nov 3, 2020 10:48:05 GMT -5
Roo the Apollo Race Club season starts on the 6th and is Group A's if you are interested. The JRC was ok, but for a tiered league I noticed that the only difference between times at the tops seemed to be differences in the car which kind of makes that set up pointless imo. So bailed out of that.
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Roo
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by Roo on Nov 3, 2020 21:22:51 GMT -5
Thanks for the heads up Mudcat. I had some projects come up at work and home that have sucked up my time (all good stuff, happily), so I probably won't make it this round. I appreciate the synopsis of the leagues for when I do look at jumping back in.
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Post by Mudcat on Nov 5, 2020 8:49:22 GMT -5
np, just wanted to make sure you had time to join if you wanted. Good luck with the projects
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