ACC Monday Pre Season rules and driver swap test races

Correct no driver change as nothing has changed since our test and it had too many issues to bother ruining peoples races, when its highly likely it wont work properly for everyone atm.

Is there any appetite to test the full manual warm up lap?

Probably only if it doesn't have the limiter I'd say.

Can do the test as it will be a passworded server with no randoms. Password will be given in discord so everyone in the race will be able to understand the race format.

Hey guys, shame about the driver change rules not working just yet. @Mat Nipperess and i would have enjoyed teaming up in the Godzilla!

I need to do a full Windows reload to try to get on top of my performance issues and now total freezes, can’t race anything as hitting drive causes the whole thing to freeze and all I can do is end task it. I’ll try to do the Windows reinstall straight after work but don’t like my chances of getting to a raceable state in time for tonight

However, I'll go out on a limb and say that in future when the driver changes work, Mat and I will team up in the #23!!

I did do a test and the full formation start is with the limiter so will just make it a short formation for tonight, the password is in discord chat.

Tonight's race is a 60 minute sprint race at Barcelona, refuelling is not allowed so don't go stingy on the free fuels. Pit Window is 10 minutes mid race, Server will be up at 7:45 AEST and you will need to search for it as passworded servers don't show in the lobby otherwise.

Search for Raceon in the server lobby, I forgot to add ROOZ to the name.

Update during practice as @Wally entered everyone else in the server crashed out. If it happens again on the next joiner we will even abandon the rules test and just make it a 60 min race with no forced stops.

More people got in game crashes so I have resest server to normal SA80+ rooz open format with no password. Will try again later but clearly this is not league ready feature wise yet with forced stops etc.

Well that was eventful!
Just a quick question, has anyone else tested or raced with the GTR? Both myself and mat are finding the back end to be nervous and inconsistent. On a good lap it feels like the car is a fraction of a second from swapping ends. On a bad lap it's oversteer from the point of turn in all the way through the second and third phases of the corner and into the exit. Even in the short corners it can need two or three adjustments to try to settle the rear end enough to pick the throttle up.
Mat and i collectively have sunk hours of testing into the car but it is largely numb to changes (and we've changed everything bar the windscreen wipers!). A quick look through the change logs shows that other cars have recieved updates but the GTR has been largely ignored. Trying to isolate whether the car is just broken and i need to swap manufacturers or if it's the nut behind the wheel!!

I did have a bit of a test with most of the cars at Barcelona over the last week as MP was mostly dead and we got ingame laptime saves to make a comparison a bit easier. Seems the Nissan I only did 5 laps but its a car I have enjoyed having a run in. The 2108 at least having not run the 2015 much at all yet, I didnt do much to the setup other then pressures from aggressive and maybe a bit less ABS and TC. Pace wise I was .7 slower at Barcelona in it then the top few cars Bentley, Merc, Audi, Lambo and Ferrari who were all pretty close at the top for me.

The Nissan I always found just in the second tier probably .5 to .8 down at most tracks. I know @andyo450 has ran the 2015 Nissan a bit and somehow has got pretty decent pace in this.

Handling wise for me I quite like the Nissan, pretty decent turn in and the balance is good fun as it seems pretty controllable in a slide. On exits I tend to light up the rears quite a bit running pretty low TC levels usually in all cars but the Nissan seems quite nice in a slide. Its not great for lap speed or tyres over a long run, but overall it just seems a bit over BOP'd unfortunatly in Blancpain Europe.

It was more competitive in the US series even getting pole over the weekend at road America so maybe it will be more attractive in some future seasons. In 2019 the car wasnt even ran in the sprint series and I dont think it even did many if any enduro races with the team that ran it RJN running the Hondas in Europe 2019 maybe because of the poor BOP it got with its 2018 car.

Sorry about the bump under braking that spun you @Chris Nipperess. I redressed and that left me last. I made it back to 9th with some close racing, but the game crashed with about 20 mins to go. Still 2 seconds off the pace

Thanks for the reply Marty, it's helpful info. I agree with your diagnosis that the car turns well and the slides are controllable. In cruise mode the car is not too bad, just a touch too much entry and mid corner rotation for my liking. It's when you try to coax a little more from the car, like qualifying or in a battle that the rear being on eggshells becomes an issue. Historically speaking I tend to like a little more understeer in the car than oversteer so it might be a bit of retraining my driving style and detuning the front of the car a bit in the hopes of transferring the balance to the rear to make it a bit more compliant...

No worries @Wally, partially my fault. Locked a front brake late in the stop and missed the apex. Pretty hard for you to do much that late in the brake phase!

Even tyre pressures can play a part here. You could increase or decrease your front PSI away from optimal to promote a little more understeer. In real life, some teams use quite low rear pressures to cure understeer.

Im unfamiliar with this "cruise mode"

Is that the inlap after the race where pace doesnt matter?

Yeah it's all a bit of a mystery with this car. Between the two of us we've varied pretty much everything on the car with very little result. I'd be happy to make the car worse because then at least I'd know what direction to go, but it's frustratingly unresponsive to even radical adjustments. A change of 7 clicks on the rear roll bars last night for example gave no real difference to the behaviour of the car...

Personally I tend to adjust technique more then setup, I only do setup changes if it feels like there is something that can improve the car. I rarely go overly agressive in setup more aiming for something I can push hard not something I need to back off too much just to keep in control.

Once you get some confidence in it then the pace comes and I may look for some changes to find some speed but more often for more reliable control. The default agressive setups are generally not too bad, pressures I need to adjust and usually I reduce electronics a bit and adjust bias as needed. I do this in car and then will change in setup but most sessions I will still use these for balance and consistancy.

If reducing ABS I will move bias rearward and tend to go as low as I can handle without locking inside front or getting a big slide at the rear into a slow turn in. In qualy I will really push bias and abs levels and even adjust per corner if needed same with TC. If I am locking wheels too often causing me to miss apexes I will add some ABS and then usually also move bias more forward as inside front locking is less of an issue. This increases stopping distance and gives a bit less control in general but in a race avoiding locking wheels is more of a benefit over the long run.

TC I go as low as I can manage but there is usually a point where I start to lose time so its no point to run lower tc then this. There may be a slower exit where you can use less TC but also just avoiding flooring the throttle and relying on TC will often work better and will keep the tyres better at the end of the race.

In a race I try to avoid per corner changes but just adjust as needed for grip levels and fuel loads. In the damp conditions it was very tricky needing to use as little runoff as possible and try to hold the dryish line.

I did run the Nissan a bit last week in a server at Zolder and it was quite fun. Was able to get close to pole there but the field wasnt as strong as we race here. If the quick guys are in the top few cars then giving up .5 or so per lap just means your not going to battle them. I dont mind running the other cars and Andy has fpund some solid pace in the old Bentley which I think he was in again last night.

In the end it ran out of rubber a bit quicker and the Lambo had a small edge over it but not sure if I would have got that much out of that thing like he could.

Here is the last 20 minutes of that race trying to catch the top 2 after getting past the Ferrari.

If you went 7 clicks stiffer rear roll bar on the nissan then thats going to make it very poor over curbs. Also it will make the rear end looser and you would be better of stiffening the front ARB if you prefer a more neutral to pushy balance.

Making extreme changes arw best avoided too as there really isnt that much time to be found in setup. Just making it more driveable and giving more confidence over a longer run will find speed. If you want a more conpetitive car overall then sadly you may just need to not run the Nissan as no matter what you do setup wise it wont match the top tier cars for pace.

These would be the Merc, Bentley, Ferrari, Audi and Lambo hurracan gt3. The rest may have some tracks they are more competitive at then others but you also have the Honda, BMW (current build) and Lambo Gallardo that are well off pace at most if not all tracks. The Lambo Trofeo and 911 cup cars are also even further off pace so you can pick your car by the challenge you want.

Also here is the highlights from last nights race, shows a highlight of the sort of issues I had with Terry warping mid race. Kind of amazed we didnt wreck there but because of that it was hard for me to say how connections were vs Singapore servers. It was very smooth following Andy at the end of the race so clearly a bonus of the aussie servers.