Alfa Z-Cup - Johnnypenso and Carracerptp Z-Cup Co-Champions!

[Diabolical_J]

I signed up as a reserve. I plan on doing the TT this weekend and I'll participate in the preliminary race as long as it's in the same time slot as our normal Friday night races, but the weekends are very tough for me to make.

 

[Johnnypenso]

By definition. Special online event has tuning prohibited.

Yes, sorry, my comments about the tune of the car online vs. offline were more of a general reference to tuning, not suggesting that we should tune for the online race...

 

[TrackBound7]

I am hoping to be on later tonight if anyone wants to practice/race at Sarthe. The kids didn't take a nap, so hoping they go down easily and early. Plan on being on around 7:30/8:00 EST if interested.

 

[dsgerbc]

Gonna be in the lounge, doing laps.

 

[BrandonW77]

^ did you get your wheel yet or still using a DS3 in the Obuttu?

 

[dsgerbc]

Got the wheel. Spent like 2 hours trying to upgrade firmware =)
Load-cell brake with lots of dead zone feels really weird to me atm. Gonna be back-marking for a while.

 

[OwensRacing]

Got the wheel. Spent like 2 hours trying to upgrade firmware =)
Load-cell brake with lots of dead zone feels really weird to me atm.

Heck yea Wheel Review is in order. Give us exclusive first impressions though. LoL

 

[dsgerbc]

exclusive first impressions though. LoL

Impression #1: adjustability is gonna kill me. I feel like I gotta try every setting, when what I really need - stick to some settings and get used to them.

 

[BrandonW77]

^ That's the way I'm being with the monitors, can't stop fooling with the settings. Tonight I found I had the screen curvature way wrong, it goes from 0-180, I had it at zero but it needed to be closer to 100. So much better now but I know I'll still fool with them.

 

[chukabilly]

I'm waiting for my G27!
It won't get here before the race, though. I don't know if I'd use it anyway, depending on how much time it takes to get used to it!!

 

[Ealirendur]

I didn't realize that you didn't already have it when you mentioned spending "wife points", chuk!

I suspect you'll get used to it far faster than I am - I'm pretty pleased with mine, but I've never had one before.

It is definitely the quietest wheel I could afford, from all reports

 

[Gravitron]

Definitely missing the Friday race, but will most likely try to get in the Sat race! 👍 Excited for some night racing, for the first time.

 

[BrandonW77]

I'm waiting for my G27!
It won't get here before the race, though. I don't know if I'd use it anyway, depending on how much time it takes to get used to it!!

Speaking of, I did an interesting little mod for the shift lights on the G27 that worked out pretty well. They are very small lights and are down low enough that you really can't ever see them. So I got a couple credit-card sized magnifiers and mounted them about 1/2" apart from each other, the results were better than expected! They're actually useful now and I can easily see them in my peripheral vision. 👍

 

[dsgerbc]

^Nice. Shift light is something I will miss from g27.

And now a quote from the bug thread:

last race we did showed the usual pattern.

Wheel users hit
Pad users not hit

With 1 exception. The only person using a Fanatec wheel (Forza Motorsport CSR Elite Wheel) wasn't hit.

 

[WRP001]

Speaking of the update our WRS-OE series had some issues with qualification and start order yesterday. Followed normal procedures and both grids had some mistakes. People that should have started 4th started 10th, etc. It wasn't random either as just a few people were in the wrong spots. We ran group qualifying in our EU race and people left to lobby like we've been doing for months, but it got screwed up. For the NA race only the host left to the lobby to see the quali grid and note the times and then the starting grid was messed up. Just a watch out and maybe should be a little re-testing since 2.03 to make sure procedures still function as they should. Could have been just a quirk with that track -- Eiger Nordwand Reverse... didn't see any issues this week in the ORCA race.

 

[BrandonW77]

For the NA race only the host left to the lobby to see the quali grid and note the times and then the starting grid was messed up.

That can/will screw up the grid. Everybody has to have the same location ranking (lounge vs. pits/track) at the same time. If everyone is in the pits and one person leaves/re-enters then they will most likely be ranked at the back of the pack.

Thanks for the heads up though. It seemed to be right on Tuesday but I will keep my eye on it. It's very easy to get things screwed up even if it seemed like everything went according to procedure.

 

[WRP001]

That can/will screw up the grid. Everybody has to have the same location ranking (lounge vs. pits/track) at the same time. If everyone is in the pits and one person leaves/re-enters then they will most likely be ranked at the back of the pack.

Thanks for the heads up though. It seemed to be right on Tuesday but I will keep my eye on it. It's very easy to get things screwed up even if it seemed like everything went according to procedure.

Confused.

The EU race I had everyone leave to the lobby and then we all went back into the pits. In the NA race only myself and another admin (Hydro) left to note qualification times. This didn't cause an issue before 2.03 as far as I knew... I did the same thing for several weeks without issue. I remember back in Sept/Oct the *only* way we could ever get the system to work consistently was to do quali and have everyone park on track... nobody in pits, nobody in lobby, but one of the updates in November fixed all that. Problem is we could never see quali times. I'm going to have to learn the procedures all over again.

 

[dsgerbc]

Confused.

+1. What Tim described seems like our normal procedure. I expect to be home early, so I can help out in some testing, if needed.

 

[BrandonW77]

It's a screwy system, I have it pretty well figured out but there are still a few variables/unknowns. It all has to do with classifications between being in the lounge and being in the pits/on-track, if there's a discrepancy between the people in the room it can get screwed up. I'm also not sure what all has changed in the 2 most recent updates. I know it now displays everyone on the timing monitor even if they're not on track which was new as of 2.02 and it did a better job with the on-screen/on-track leaderboard on the right side of the screen but I think it has changed slightly with 2.03.

Tonight I'll be having everyone go all the way back to the lounge after qualifying and then re-enter the pits. Main benefit here is when everyone re-enters the pits the timing monitor will show them in order from fastest to slowest. If only some people go back to the lounge and some stay in the pits, the people in the pits will be ranked higher on the list even though they might have a slower time. I'll double-check the starting grid after the race to make sure it worked properly.

 

[TrackBound7]

Found out I don't need to stay late for a basketball game, plan to be on again tonight for some Sarte practice/racing. Thanks a bunch to dsg and Owens for their help last night. Need to practice some new found stuff though.

 

[chukabilly]

Speaking of, I didn't an interesting little mod for the shift lights on the G27 that worked out pretty well. They are very small lights and are down low enough that you really can't ever see them. So I got a couple credit-card sized magnifiers and mounted them about 1/2" apart from each other, the results were better than expected! They're actually useful now and I can easily see them in my peripheral vision. 👍

Lucas, that's pure genius!!

I'm going to have to try it!!

 

[BrandonW77]

^ Thanks Seymour. The starlight effect on the lights was a bit of a nice surprise, I was just trying to make the lights larger and more visible but they got those "tracers" which makes them quite visible and pretty cool looking. I'm very pleased with it. I think the 2-pack of magnifiers cost about $4 at my local Walmart, the rest is just tape, cardboard, velcro and a black label I put over top and cut a window out of, so the whole thing was quick and cheap. 👍

 

[BrandonW77]

Who all is planning on coming out to la Sarthe tonight for some day-night-day racing? We've had low attendance recently, not sure if it's due to "the bug" or if everybody's afraid of taking someone's spot, but there's been room for a few more drivers. Hope to see a good sized grid tonight! 👍

 

[WRP001]

Who all is planning on coming out to la Sarthe tonight for some day-night-day racing? We've had low attendance recently, not sure if it's due to "the bug" or if everybody's afraid of taking someone's spot, but there's been room for a few more drivers. Hope to see a good sized grid tonight! 👍

My primary. I plan to attend unless it's full and then I'm willing to fall back on my Tuesday result.

 

[carracerptp]

Who all is planning on coming out to la Sarthe tonight for some day-night-day racing? We've had low attendance recently, not sure if it's due to "the bug" or if everybody's afraid of taking someone's spot, but there's been room for a few more drivers. Hope to see a good sized grid tonight! 👍

I would like to run it again if there is room. The day to night transition is worth it alone 👍

 

[BrandonW77]

I would like to run it again if there is room. The day to night transition is worth it alone 👍

Glad you think so! I really enjoyed it, even more than I expected, and it didn't seem to cause any issues (but we did have a small grid). I also have to say that day-night-day transition is simply breathtaking on the triple screens. In fact, the whole la Sarthe circuit is. Watching the trees whip past down Mulsanne is just awesome.

If recent attendance is any indication, there should be room for both of you tonight. We'll play it by ear. Room will open around 9pm EST for pre-race practice. 👍

 

[RDAardvark]

Glad you think so! I really enjoyed it, even more than I expected, and it didn't seem to cause any issues (but we did have a small grid). I also have to say that day-night-day transition is simply breathtaking on the triple screens. In fact, the whole la Sarthe circuit is. Watching the trees whip past down Mulsanne is just awesome.

If recent attendance is any indication, there should be room for both of you tonight. We'll play it by ear. Room will open around 9pm EST for pre-race practice. 👍

Have you got triple screens Brandon? You never mentioned it!

 

[BrandonW77]

Have you got triple screens Brandon? You never mentioned it!

When I was planning it everybody was like "Whoa, way cool! Can't wait to hear about it!". Now that I have them nobody wants to hear about it.

Believe me when I say I'm actually restraining myself from talking about them more! A few people here expressed interest in doing the same thing so I'm just trying to share some tidbits with them, if you guys have the means to do it I couldn't recommend it more. It's comparable to the difference between a DS3 and a wheel, totally transforms the experience for the better.

 

[CC570]

Have you got triple screens Brandon? You never mentioned it!

Lol

 

[RDAardvark]

When I was planning it everybody was like "Whoa, way cool! Can't wait to hear about it!". Now that I have them nobody wants to hear about it.

Believe me when I say I'm actually restraining myself from talking about them more! A few people here expressed interest in doing the same thing so I'm just trying to share some tidbits with them, if you guys have the means to do it I couldn't recommend it more. It's comparable to the difference between a DS3 and a wheel, totally transforms the experience for the better.

Tee-hee! I couldn't resist.
Perhaps a write up in the social group?