@Timlour@Worst_Driver@CANOWORMS1@Skills All of your suggestions were really great suggestions for new car and track combo. After testing i will be picking @Skills suggestion. Vehicle picked matches with track. Short track but turns here and there that makes it a challenge.
Car: BMW i3 '15
Tires: Sport Mediums
Power: 166HP, 2,778 lbs
Track: Lago Maggiore West End.
Time of day: C02- Cloudy and Warm. Early morning.
Track test time: 1:09.947
Credits to purchase at Brand Central BMW dealership: 49,900 credits.
Those who raced last Sunday from both divisions, suggest a car and track you would like me to test out. I will pick one after testing each. Please make sure to let me know which tire vehicle needs.
i like this idea.. i would recommend a 70's or 80's car on comfort soft around a more known track, perhaps a real circuit/gp circuit so the combo is somewhat familiar
I will be opening an official practice lobby at 9 pm eastern, open to one and all. Warm ups until start at 9:30. Races at about 1/2 distance. Grid starts with fastest first all the time, still can't set reverse grids. Welcome back @DublDee and looking forward to seeing @cdn_sweet_tee again.
I will be opening an official practice lobby at 9 pm eastern, open to one and all. Warm ups until start at 9:30. Races at about 1/2 distance. Grid starts with fastest first all the time, still can't set reverse grids. Welcome back @DublDee and looking forward to seeing @cdn_sweet_tee again.
i'll try and join tonight. been meaning to play gt7 more than just on sunday nights. leafs game doesn't start till 10:30p est so i should be good for at least an hour
Sorry we couldn’t make the practice last night, we had unexpected company show up and I was all for telling them to beat it, but Sweet Tee thought that would be rude lol. Catch you on the weekend sometime hopefully.
Here are my thoughts on tire compounds in Snail, coming from someone relatively new in Snail. I lean towards grippier tires as the best compromise between the wants of a broad spectrum of driving abilities and preferences.
I can relate to, and even appreciate, the challenge of harder tires, which require more finesse with inputs. The downside is an increase in major off-track episodes, spreading out the field. I have observed that as you go down the divisions the number of 'offs' increases.
Softer tires reduce the severity of mistakes, therefore keeping the field tighter. I also feel more in control, but I think I'm actually slower as I'm not driving close enough to the edge.
I think the spirit of Snail is that of a development league and should consider the bottom portion of the ability spectrum, who may not be as vocal as experienced drivers. Clean, close racing is always fun and in my opinion, coming from the bottom division (where I have spent my entire Snail career), fewer accidents keeps more cars in the pack.
In my unimportant opinion, the elephant in the tyre shed is the difference in much smaller slip angles, ridiculous transitional response, and woefully inadequate spring rates in race tyres on street cars. Something like this week's combo 2, for example, doesn't make the rear axle try and pass the driver when making corner entry corrections nearly as bad on SS as it does on RH. It's actually easier to drive. In GT7, it seems that many(most) street car spring rates cannot handle racing tyres, and pretty much end up just slamming from bumpstop to bumpstop each input. Which, don't get me wrong, can be awesome in stock class racing if you have all the rebound damping causing the suspension to pack down throughout a lap. However, on the sim; it just makes a car feel floppy, you know, like a fish. And a fish is twitchy.
If you've ever seen someone get into a tank slapper on track or at an autocross, you've seen the effects of oscillating from bumpstop to bumpstop. Usually found in a transition with an underdamped econobox on sticky tyres. Sometimes it get's real exciting and they go over.
On the last point, if driver development is the goal; folks should be racing things like Miatas, Civics, Integras, maybe an Alfa or an Alpine in there somewhere, perhaps a Nissan 240 here and there. Stuff like that. I hate to sound like a broken record. While I agree driver development is important, I'm not sure that it is everyone's focus. I think fun is probably a more paramount concern, and there is no question that most find the rear end of a powerful car hanging out at corner exit to be pretty fun.
Looks great. Can’t wait to race on the new tires. I think that will please everybody. It broadens my car selection a lot if I win again, more of a SH SM tire type of guy
Welcome to SNAIL
From our humble beginnings, SNAIL (aka Sunday Night American Interactive League) is now the largest console-based sim racing league in the world. Our mission is to provide our members with clean, intense, and competitive racing - regardless of skill level! We believe that providing full grids of evenly-matched competitions is the most realistic way to race, improve skill, and refine racecraft! Our league night is Sunday at 9:30pm Eastern / 6:30pm Pacific, but we also have a a wide variety of other events held on other nights of the week. If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, please keep reading to learn more about us and how to join.
What Makes Us Different
SNAIL is the only sim racing league in the world that's able to combine five key features into one consolidated package. First of all, we provide you with evenly-matched competition to drivers of all skill levels. In fact, the intense level of competition that we produce has established SNAIL as the "go to" place to prepare for GT Academy. And if you want to keep track of your improvement along the way, you'll be glad to know that we keep the most comprehensive race data available on GTPlanet. We also feature an interactive process that allows all of our members to have a say in which cars and tracks we race. And last but not least, we're the only league that awards our members with valuable prizes just for racing with us!
Evenly-Matched Competition
Have you ever watched a professional race where drivers with completely different skill levels were competing on the same track? Of course not! That wouldn't be fun to watch, let alone fun to participate in. Unfortunately, that disparity of pace is something you'll often find in organized online racing. When this happens, you'll be lucky to have just a few drivers that you're truly competitive with. Everyone else will usually either be faster or slower than you. We prevent that from happening in SNAIL by dividing our drivers into separate divisions based on speed and skill. This results in full grids of evenly-matched competition and creates the closest and most intense sim racing experience around!
Prepare for GT Academy
If you'd like to compete in GT Academy, there's no better place than SNAIL to hone your skills to the elite levels necessary to make it to the finals. You need to be the best of the best to make it to Silverstone, and that's exactly what the drivers in our top division are. Half of last year's and half of this year's Silverstone Finalists have raced in SNAIL. And since our race format (which features multiple sprint races) is almost identical to the format used at the GT Academy national finals, they were able to use their SNAIL experience to help them advance to Silverstone. Click here if you want to advice from last year's eventual champion and click here if you want advice from last year's runner-up.
Valuable Prizes
Have you ever wished you could win free stuff just for having fun? If so, then you might want to know that our members win valuable real-world prizes just for racing with us! These prize are based on participation and not on race results. Some examples of prizes our members have won include GranStand sim racing products like this, this and this, ButtKicker products like a Gamer2 and a Wireless ButtKicker Kit. You can also join Team SNAIL and earn even more prizes, such as shirts (e.g. S.N.A.I.L. shirt, F1 shirt, GT Academy shirt), video capture devices (e.g. Hauppauge PVR), sim racing equipment (e.g. Playseat Evolution), and even gift cards (e.g. Amazon and PSN).
Spec Racing
SNAIL has always been a one-make series, but when we decided to prohibit tuning in all of our races, we became the first "spec" racing league on GTPlanet. Spec racing ensures that success is determined primarily by driving skill and not by differences in power, gearing, suspension, weight, or aerodynamics. Because variables in the car are eliminated, spec racing is the truest measure of driver skill! It also produces intense battles for position because all of the cars are equally strong or weak in the same areas of the track. Plus, you'll never spend hours tuning cars or wondering if someone is truly faster than you or if they just have a better tune.
Race Format
Our league night lasts for two hours and is split into three rounds. Each round consists of two races that last 10 to 12 minutes on a predetermined car and track combo. At the beginning of each round, a brief qualifying session determines the order of the starting grid. The first race is set to 'Fastest First' to reward the best qualifiers and the second race is set to 'Reverse Grid' in order to promote on-track action. Points are awarded based on our "perfect" points system. After a round is completed, we move on to the next round and repeat the same process with the next car and track combination. Once all three rounds are complete, we tally up the points and then let our interactive format kick in.
Interactive Participation
Our unique format allows everyone to have a say on which cars and tracks we race. It's also used to strike a balance between familiarity and variety of our car and track combos. In other words, the progression of cars and tracks that we race is slow enough for us to learn them well, but fast enough that they don't get "old". At the end of every league night, everyone votes on which car and track combo they enjoyed the least. The combo that receives the most "elimination votes" is dropped from the next week's lineup entirely. The combo that receives the second most votes is also dropped, but only partially. This is where our prizes come into play:
Prizes
A prize is awarded to the divisions winners with the three highest scores*. The division winner with the highest score gets Prize A. The division winner with the second highest score gets Prize B. The division winner with the third highest score gets Prize C: (NOTE: We now have a new process for breaking ties in the elimination vote) Prize A: The right to select the new car and track combo to replace the combo that was voted off Prize B: The right to replace either the car or the track of the combo that received the second most votes Prize C: The right to "freeze" either the car or the track of the combo that received the second most votes
Promotion and Relegation
Although we split our drivers into separate divisions based on performance and skill level, we realize that our drivers are constantly improving and deserve a chance to climb the ladder of success. That's why we promote and relegate drivers before every season based on the results and data compiled during the previous season. This is also done to ensure that our races are as competitive as possible for all of our league members, top to bottom. Regardless of which division you're in, you will almost always be fighting to gain or defend a position on the track. Simply put, no other Gran Turismo league in the world can offer this much competitive racing to so many different skill levels.
Comprehensive Race Data
It's not always accurate to promote and relegate drivers based on championship points alone. That's why the massive amounts of data we track are invaluable to our league. You'd be hard-pressed to find a sim racing league anywhere in the world that tracks driver data and race results more comprehensively than we do. In fact, our SNAIL Data document contains so much information that we have to archive old data to avoid exceeding the GoogleDoc's maximum capacity! You can use this data to track the points championship for each season and compare yourself to other drivers in categories such as fast laps, total race pace, total points, average points per race, and power rankings.
Rules
We expect all drivers to follow our OLR Rules and pursue good racecraft at all times. If you're not sure what good racecraft is, watch this video. It can be summed up in one simple 'Golden Rule' of motorsports: It is the responsibility of the overtaking driver, meaning the car that is attempting to execute the pass, to make sure that the pass is made cleanly and incident free. If you don't agree with this rule or don't think it applies to you, this is not the league for you. If you ever feel like a driver is not following the rules, please wait until league night is over, then file a Racing Incident Report. Our Stewards will review the incident and issue the appropriate penalties.
Based on Dealership PP (not the PP after an oil change)
below 349 PP -> Comfort Mediums
350-399 PP ---> Comfort Softs
400-449 PP ---> Sports Hards
450-499 PP ---> Sports Mediums
500-549 PP ---> Sports Softs
550-599 PP ---> Racing Hards
600 PP & up --> Racing Mediums
How To Join Us Step 1: Post a reply (by clicking the 'Reply' button at the bottom of this post) stating, "I have read the first post and would like to join," and tell us how you heard about SNAIL. (Do not start a conversation with anyone, just post your request on this thread). Step 2: Watch the thread for a reply to your post and follow the instructions provided. Step 3: Purchase the three cars listed in the lineup for our next races. Step 4: Wait to be assigned to a division and then join that division's lounge on Sunday night.
If you are not sure which division you are assigned to, please check the Offical Driver List
For a list of helpful links and FAQ's, please click here.
In my unimportant opinion, the elephant in the tyre shed is the difference in much smaller slip angles, ridiculous transitional response, and woefully inadequate spring rates in race tyres on street cars. Something like this week's combo 2, for example, doesn't make the rear axle try and pass the driver when making corner entry corrections nearly as bad on SS as it does on RH. It's actually easier to drive. In GT7, it seems that many(most) street car spring rates cannot handle racing tyres, and pretty much end up just slamming from bumpstop to bumpstop each input. Which, don't get me wrong, can be awesome in stock class racing if you have all the rebound damping causing the suspension to pack down throughout a lap. However, on the sim; it just makes a car feel floppy, you know, like a fish. And a fish is twitchy.
If you've ever seen someone get into a tank slapper on track or at an autocross, you've seen the effects of oscillating from bumpstop to bumpstop. Usually found in a transition with an underdamped econobox on sticky tyres. Sometimes it get's real exciting and they go over.
On the last point, if driver development is the goal; folks should be racing things like Miatas, Civics, Integras, maybe an Alfa or an Alpine in there somewhere, perhaps a Nissan 240 here and there. Stuff like that. I hate to sound like a broken record. While I agree driver development is important, I'm not sure that it is everyone's focus. I think fun is probably a more paramount concern, and there is no question that most find the rear end of a powerful car hanging out at corner exit to be pretty fun.
Thanks for your interest!
Here's what you need to know (and do) in order to join SNAIL Racing League:
We run a clean league by enforcing a strict penalty system based on the SNAIL OLR (which is a modified version of the GTP OLR). We also expect all of our drivers to know and follow The Good Racecraft Guide. Please become versed in both if you aren't already. Once that is complete, please follow the steps below to complete your entry into the league:
1. You start a conversation and add zer05ive, JLBowler, nmcp1, Rednose58, MajorBlixem, SAMHAIN85, llNovall & Akzl298
as participants.
The conversation title should be "Request To Join".
2. SNAIL Administrators will respond with specific instructions on what you need to accomplish to join the SNAIL [Spec] Racing.
3. Place the following links (URLs) in the favorites (or bookmarks) in your web browser for quick reference. Please make every effort to read and understand the following links. Over the years a great deal of time and effort has gone into creating this league and we would like nothing more than to have you but we ask that you take the time and effort to do your homework. 99.9% of any question you may have about SNAIL can be found in the posts below.
Again, the original post has everything you need to know about what to expect on Sunday night and what you will need to have completed in order to be competitive. If you have any questions, please feel free to post your question on the thread.
During the week we run a number of different events, we encourage all SNAILs to join as many as possible.
Welcome to SNAIL