The mentoring idea had a few shapes, and only gets tossed around as an Idea from time to time in conversation.
I remember one plan was to have a small (4 events over 4 weeks - in the same cars, etc.) race series where drivers were split into teams and the team results would matter almost as much as individual results. - Sort of like F1 teams. An overall winner, and a team Championship.
Teams would be split up according to divisions with each team having an even mix of divisions.
For example, if 15 drivers joined, and conveniently there was an even mix of all divisions among the drivers, then there would be 3 teams of 5 drivers with one driver from each division on each team. Even with an unbalanced number of entrants in any division (100% more likely), evening the teams for this type of event would be pretty simple. As simple as taking the drivers and dividing them according to their current handicap (realistically teams of 3 or 4 would be more ideal).
In order to win the overall title, the teams would by default have to share advice on tunes, technique, race stratgey, etc.
As special events go though, we have enough events currently in development to last until December / January at this point - and if PD drops another track by New years' (a guy can dream) then it's into February.
But I'd never rule out anything.... Motegi was a nice surprise, and it's a special event already.
The post inspired a wheel purchase? Wow I need to get into sales..
I eagerly await your ideas 👍
Also, there are so many factors involved in online race results that I think it would be hard to incorporate the handicap into it. Others may cause an accident dropping you in the finishing order, pit strategy, length of race, disconnects when running well, multiple lobbies, loss of sound affecting performance, pass through penalties on N24, etc. It could be interesting if PD came up with a good safety rating for GT6 though.
Do online races actually count towards handicap? (I haven't found any evidence they do...)
Since I'm lacking the time to put enough effort into the time-trials, online is the only races I see myself participating in the near future. So, that would mean I will be parked on my current handicap indefinitely. (not that it matters much, just out of principle)
It's probably pretty difficult to put together a formula for this, but I guess it could be done. (actually it isn't, but it's supposed to be fair, too)
I imagine something based on other participant's handicaps.
E.g.: Simple version:
If you finish in a better position than your current handicap would indicate, for every position you get handicap -0.01. Same for lower position with +0.01. Maximum would be +0.15 therefore with a full field. Of course you can take any number to get the desired effect. It would probably also be advisable to award something for the winner in case that is also the one with the lowest handicap - otherwise that guy wouldn't have anything to win.
Got a question:
For my own entertainment, I'm currently doing a "Balance-of-Performance" for road/production cars with GT3-like specs. (that's "GT3" as in the FIA regulations, not the previous iteration of the game) Specs are something like 470-570 hp, 1300 kg as a rule of thumb.
It occurred to me that this might maybe be of interest as an on and off racing series (regular participation might be too much of a problem). So, I guess my questions are these:
1) Would there be interest in organizing events like these, where about 30 different cars could be eligible, tested out to be equal (within 1 second) anywhere on different tracks?
2) I haven't looked at my BoP-tuning from the angle of verifiability by stewards before, so out of personal curiosity I would be interested in your expertise as to what can be checked and what not.
From what I know you can check Engine Stage- and Turbo-Tuning (by checking redline). Is Sports ECU also verifiable? Exhaust could be checked from the sound-note, but is a nuisance. I guess all the other upgrades would have to be free anyway. Afterwards you can impose hp, weight or PP restrictions.
Anyway, I would love to see some racing in such a wide variety of cars on one level. You could even think of some weight-"penalty" for past race-successes to keep the field equal, like they also do in (some) real GT3-series. Ok, that might be taking it a bit far, but hey, one can dream.
If there's interest in my BoP (even if it's not for WRS), just tell me and I'll send you my findings so far. (have done about 20 cars so far, but without verifiable aspect; will take me another 2-3 weeks to do the rest)
GTPorsche
