Discussion Thread: The Virtual Track Day Series II, The March of the Machines....

  • Thread starter Thread starter FastEddie12
  • 169 comments
  • 5,444 views
Messages
1,020
Welcome To The Virtual Track Day Series II Discussion Thread

Launching Soon!




vtdbanner66xs.gif




Here at the VTD series, we try to re-create the fun of a track day online. We've come up with a reasonably successful formula that allows everyone to have fun and compete at ANY LEVEL, in (almost) any road car, but particularly sporting roadcars. The current regs can be seen here, just after the section about the Lotus Special Track Day.

Normal four door cars and kei cars are excluded because they're really rather dull, but sports saloons such as Evos and M5s are welcomed with open arms:D, as are all sportscars and supercars.

However, we want to improve our neat new concept, and tidy up a few loose ends, so before we embark on another series in a few weeks time, we're going to decide what we want to change.

Hence the thread, really...

Already decided:

Circuit List:

  1. Autmn Ring Mini
  2. Apricot Hill
  3. Deep Forest
  4. Trial Mountain
  5. Grand Valley

Number of Cars:

3 personal cars, one control car, and the option to run a bike from TT

Control Cars:

  1. Mazda AZ-1
  2. Spyker Laviolette
  3. Renault Megane F1 rep
  4. Reanault Alpine A310
  5. Audi S4 (new RS4 spec)
 
Oh great,the good thing would be a control car,as we speeked before Ed!
 
Yes we've had a few ideas about that

I think one of the main subjects we need to tackle is the number of cars.

I'm thinking 3 is a good number, but I would like to introduce a 'control' car, so there is some like for like competition. Similar to the Lotus Elise we're using at the end of the current series.

Dave_George, who's away at the moment, suggested we have a pool of cars that people can pick from, and they stick with that throughout the series.

But I'd quite like to have a different control car for each round, as a sort of project. I'd like to introduce people to cars they wouldn't necessarily drive themselves for one reason or another. Like the R5 Turbo, for example...:D

Edit: posting/racing rules:

Racing rules:

Standard OLR rules will apply,
All races will be run on S1 tyres,
No contact with walls or other objects,
Two wheels on track at ALL times,
Rumble strips are part of the track,
Replays may be required in certain cases.
All attempts will be made to resolve racing and setup disputes amicably and without rancour. However the Stewards reserve the right to dock a 2 second penalty from anyone who they believe (in a majority decision) has been cheating, or to scratch the times of the offender completely.

Posting Rules:

Entrants are required to post a spec sheet at each track showing all modifications to the car. The mods for each track are to be clearly marked as "Motorland mod", "base mod", etc. Some cars, such as the Ruf RGT, only have limited modifications available: in these cases please show clearly what has been modified, and what was already modified when you bought the car, or we may believe you are inadvertantly cheating.

Times may be posted with the spec sheet, or in a separate timepost. When posting a new time, please mark it clearly as an updated time, or the stewards may overlook it when collating timesheets. It also helps to use big letters. And flashing lights (only kidding).

ALL ENTRANTS MUST POST THEIR FIRST TIMES BY MIDNIGHT (OZtime) ON WEDNESDAY EACH WEEK. This is to reduce sandbagging and increase the intensity of the competition. If we find too many people are still holding back we may introduce further rules to tackle this. It's much more fun when there are more times coming in, so be a sport and join in.

Final times must be posted by midnight (OZtime) on Saturday each week. Times and points should be posted within 24 hours.
 
Yeah,i would suggest some of the S2K's for a control car,my idea is to introduce different S2K every track,so people can see the difference between the cars!
 
So good ideas here, I would certainly agree that people should stick with the same car for the entire series, as it makes you work at getting the most out of the car on different tracks. Rather than picking a car to suit a track, not that it happend much.

The pool of cars is a nice idea, my only real point is that it would need to be quite large to ensure a wide enough choice was available for all.

On the control car idea, I take it that this would be in addition to the drivers own choice of car. In which case we may have to look at the number of cars a driver can bring with them.

Also I like the idea of a changing control car, it fits the feel of manufacturers demo cars at track days, which does occur. Not sure I would be happy with it just being different variants of the same model, I'd rather have a total new challenge for each track.

Which brings me onto a topic that was touched on it the VTD thread, which tracks are we going to? Will it be 'original' tracks for the series, as its something I would like to see.

Then again I do have major soft spots for the following:

  • Deep Forest
  • Grand Valley Speedway
  • Trail Mountain
  • Autumn Ring
  • Apricot Hill

Just a few to start that discussion up again.

Regards

Scaff
 
Very nice sellection of tracks,totally agree,count me also in for

Deep Forest
Grand Valley Speedway
Trail Mountain
Autumn Ring
Apricot Hill
 
I quite like to have something tight and technical to start with, when the cars have not been fully tuned, so I'd love to include Motorland, a very demanding little circuit where you can always find a bit more time. The Mini Autumn 'Ring would also fit the bill.

I always feel that Trial Mountain and Deep Forest are like inseparable twins, I've long been a fan of Grand Valley (although it is a bit of a cliche), and Scaff's comment earlier that Apricot Hill was most like a real track rang bells with me:

  1. Motorland
  2. Apricot Hill
  3. Trial Mountain
  4. Deep Forest
  5. Grand Valley
 
Well,i'm actually not bothered to much as long as trial mountain is in :D
 
I am currently working on a banner for the VTD, I hope to have it finished sometime today.

Acontrol car sounds like a great idea, with 1 control car and 2 drivers choice.

Track list looks good also.
 
Just a suggestion, what about having a motorbike class considering most of us have TT. You wouldnt be able to add modifications but it would be cool to see how they compare to cars.
 
boomboy
Just a suggestion, what about having a motorbike class considering most of us have TT. You wouldnt be able to add modifications but it would be cool to see how they compare to cars.

I am all for that, except some of the tracks in the list won't be in TT. Rather than change the lineup, we could just run the bikes at tracks where they can be run.

I wouls suggest that no racing bikes be used, and they we have to keep the same bike for the series. And only 1 (one) bike per person
 
Well,you could run that one goose,beacuse Ed's busy lately.
 
We had already decided that I was going to run the thread for ther actual series anyway, due to Ed not having time. But with Ed still in charge so to speak.

I have a version of the banner finished.
wtdbanner0ns.gif


Opinions? Suggestions? Like it? Hate it? Don't care?

Let me know what you think

-edit-
I have a couple more, a vote perhaps?
vtdbanner20ek.gif


vtdbanner37nw.gif
 
:dunce: I hadn't thought of comparing bikes with cars, that's not a bad idea. I haven't got TT yet, so I'll leave regs, tyre choice etc up to you guys.

I'm reasonably happy with the circuit list, but I think I'd like to run one of them in reverse: one of the great features of the first series was that there were circuits that people hadn't used much, and I wouldn't mind repeating that.

Oh, the banner: I prefer a straightforward photo to the blue background, like that one of Scaff's Elise in the VTD thread. Also, keep the letters to the left so you can read everything no matter how narrow the browser window is, and bear in mind that there are always ads next the 1st post, so you may want a narrower one. Sorry, that doesn't leave much, does it.... :indiff:

The main thing I want to change is the class system: I want to keep the Divisions: that gave us a nice spread of cars each, but I need to break down the results a bit to see what difference there is between power to weight ratios and that sort of thing. I want something simpler to understand.

Edit: 2nd one looks good, Goose:tup:
 
FastEddie12
Oh, the banner: I prefer a straightforward photo to the blue background, like that one of Scaff's Elise in the VTD thread. Also, keep the letters to the left so you can read everything no matter how narrow the browser window is, and bear in mind that there are always ads next the 1st post, so you may want a narrower one. Sorry, that doesn't leave much, does it.... :indiff:

Edit: 2nd one looks good, Goose:tup:

Ads? What ads? Where? I see no ads. Must be a non-premuim thing I guess. I spent very little time as a non-premium member (about a week I think from memory...Scaff?) so I don't remember ads. I will try to get a single photo that I like, to use as a banner, if that is what is preferred. I agree though, looking at them again after a break, they look...well...crap! I was trying to get away from the standard sort of banner that gets used here at GTPlanet, but I guess if it works, it works!
 
Ok, these cars. It's really doing my head in, cos I thought we had a good thing going with 3 cars from 4 divisions. But if we have a control car (an idea I really like) then that cuts us back to 2 of our own cars (which surely is why we are here in the first place...):indiff: Then we have problems because we spread ourselves too thin and don't have enough competition! :grumpy:

So I say we have 3 cars of our own PLUS a control car. Which now feels like too many...:indiff:

Control Cars:

I would like to use this as an opportunity to drive some cars that we wouldn't normally drive: ever driven a Spyker? or a Hommel? So nominations please for some great cars you normally overlook.
 
Volvo 240GLT

Seriously though, I think Holden was on the right track with the Odyssey, it IS a great car, that is often overlooked. I have taken it for a spin, and it's pretty good.
 
alright alright, how about the Seat Ibiza Cupra?

-edit-
A couple more banners
vtdbanner58bn.gif


vtdbanner44yq.gif
 
More great ideas 👍

Personally I love the idea of including TT and the bikes at the matching tracks and would agree that we stick to one (non-racing) bike each for the entire series.

I don't see an issue with the limited range of mods in TT, I doubt that many people would want these to be structured, as we can only change between two tyre types and two exhaust types.

So are we looking at a control car, max of two driver cars and a bike, sounds good to me.

BTW if we go for TT then Autumn ring mini is a better bet than Motorland, as its in both.

Regards

Scaff
 
Ok, the tide is moving towards Autmn mini as the opening track, so that's in. Are all the other tracks (Apricot Hill, Deep Forest, Trial Mountain and Grand Valley) in TT?

Hmmm. Will we be the first to make a direct comparison? Somehow I doubt it, this being GTP...
 
FastEddie12
Ok, the tide is moving towards Autmn mini as the opening track, so that's in. Are all the other tracks (Apricot Hill, Deep Forest, Trial Mountain and Grand Valley) in TT?

Hmmm. Will we be the first to make a direct comparison? Somehow I doubt it, this being GTP...


Yep all the other four are in.

👍

Scaff
 
FastEddie12
Hmmm. Will we be the first to make a direct comparison? Somehow I doubt it, this being GTP...

If it has been done, I haven't seen it, and I really should be paying rent, as I pretty much live here! Scaff would know about that better than me though, as it is his job to get around!
 
gOoSeTeR
If it has been done, I haven't seen it, and I really should be paying rent, as I pretty much live here! Scaff would know about that better than me though, as it is his job to get around!

A couple of quick comparisons have been done, but nothing on the scale we are looking at here.

Personally I will find it a great advantage as I'm in the process of writing a TT tuning & set-up guide.

👍

Scaff
 
Ah yes, the guide, if you need someone to test some things for you Scaff, just give me a yell in a PM (or MSN), and I would be more than happy to help.

Yay for a GTPlanet first!

-edit-
I think i just created the winning banner!
vtdbanner61sx.gif


I think it captures the feel of the Virtual Track Day quite well, what do you think?
 
Thanks, Goose! it's in the first post. 👍

Is it easy to put a border round it? (picky, picky, picky...)

*Thinks: best get my hands on TT as soon as possible...*
 

Latest Posts

Back