Mon 20:00-21:30 UK time - PC2 - Hosted by @IfAndOr - Please refer to new threadPS4 

Hey @Sick Cylinder ! It's been awhile! I'm trying to get myself back into racing...it always holds my fondest memories of playing games. I was wondering if I could join you this Monday evening, if you have a spot available? I've ran a few practice laps and determined that I'm slow - but enjoyed myself a lot in the Formula rookie car. And if you do have room for me - is it the actual 'ring, or is it the GP circuit?

On a separate note, one thing that made me get out of racing online was lack of a wheel. And being broke enough to realize I wasn't going to get one. But I've moved and circumstances have changed, so I'm wheel shopping for probably April or May. I can probably afford a T150....but they're still pricey here (about $400+tax if I get the pedals with it). I can get a used Logitech G29 for less than half the price. What are your thoughts gentlemen? Or ladies, of course?
 
I can get a used Logitech G29 for less than half the price.
Hi Benny, very long time no see. Glad you're still kicking. :)

I like my G29, a very reliable wheel with a decent FFB feel. If the used one is in good condition I'd say go for that. Not that there's anything wrong with the T150 but a saving is a saving. The G29 has the much better pedal set though, metal not plastic, also it has a leather rim instead of being rubberised.
 
Hi Benny, very long time no see. Glad you're still kicking. :)

I like my G29, a very reliable wheel with a decent FFB feel. If the used one is in good condition I'd say go for that. Not that there's anything wrong with the T150 but a saving is a saving. The G29 has the much better pedal set though, metal not plastic, also it has a leather rim instead of being rubberised.
Thank you sir! Yeah,I was leaning that way anyway with the wheel. I know there are others out there, but they're either cheaply made or far out of my price range.

And I'm glad to be back! It should be fun
 
I should add you do need a sturdy table or rig to clamp any FFB wheel to otherwise you'll be fighting to hold it in position instead of driving! :P
Yeah, that was one of my big concerns. I had a plastic TV tray I tried out with a T80 wheel I had (awful piece of equipment) and it didn't work. But now that we've moved, I'm near my father who has a woodworking shop. I found a couple simple designs on here I could use. I also need something that can fold away easily so I keep the missus happy
 
Mon Rookie R3 Imola.jpg


Nordschleife (the original circuit) 2 x 2 Lap Races. Your best result out of the two races scores points. No pit stop, no qualifying. Don't be late or you'll miss race one!

Welcome back @Benny44 - If you have the space (and a tolerant wife and family) a wooden rig will be good. Build in adjustability by getting an old car or truck seat from a scrap yard which has forward and backward adjustment - then the rig can be used by people small and large. Passenger seats normally have less wear - especially from vans or pickup trucks. @IfAndOr has good advice re wheels, but be very careful with something secondhand - maybe buy from a shop which offers a guarantee.

Welcome back @ILIV
 
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but be very careful with something secondhand - maybe buy from a shop which offers a guarantee
Yes good advice and any warranty would certainly give some piece of mind. Although aside from the obvious wear and tear of moving parts the Logi wheels are pretty bullet proof. I've had 3 various wheels and none have failed.
The one thing I'd say to Benny is try to make sure all the buttons work properly, overly excited use of the paddles can have a detrimental effect on their switches for instance. If the wheel looks too shabby move on.
 
I've got the g29 bought for good middle ground price range , have been very happy with . If you by second hand check for play in the wheel join to base as mine has got some now after a few years of janking on it (some very intense racing and frustration. )
Nothing better than racing with wheel...20190111_202121.jpg
 
Looking forward to getting back at it, thanks guys. And thank you all for the advice! Unfortunately one caveat I have is that I can't build a whole rig. We only have one spare room, and that's where we keep the TV, stereo, etc. So I have to have something that I can use on the couch and folds up or is easily put away. But there's been some nice designs on GTPlanet. I used to own a DFGT wheel, complete with a car seat, welded frame made from exhaust pipe and adjustments in place. Honestly though, I'll just be happy with a functioning wheel. I was a much better driver with one. These old thumbs don't work with a controller as well as they used to!
 
@richroo that's pretty much exactly what I had in mind. The only difference is I'm not very handy, so I couldn't put it in writing. Thanks for this. I have a couple months, so I'll wait until a day dad is looking for a project. He's semi-retired but doesn't keep still for more than a half hour:lol:
 
@Mr Grumpy I remember seeing an image of your rig somewhere and I seem to remember it was something like @Benny44 is after. Smallish in size and fold away-able.

Still got the picture? Save me searching. :)

Edit. Found it in this post HERE. Made from an old foldable portable workbench.



These old thumbs don't work with a controller as well as they used to!
Mine never have. Although I gave the controller a go recently and after a few setting changes it wasn't too bad.
 
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No, the controller isn't terrible. One thing I dislike about using a controller is that 'flick' you have to give the steering to get it back to straight. What I mean is, with a wheel you can keep your inputs pretty smooth, and with a controller you're sort of having to flick the analog stick a few times to get it straight.

I've been lapping the Ring a few times in the Formula Rookie, and it's really helping me get a feel for it. It's low weight makes it very treacherous to steer at the crest of hill! I think this track helps you get a feel for a vehicle much quicker than traditional tracks.
 
Yesterday's races at the Nürburgring Nordchleife proved to be as chaotic as they were fun :D

Here's my On-Board and TV Replay of the 1st one:





I squarely lose the grid position lottery by starting dead last :ill: Well, no worries, th Nordschleife is a wide track making overtaking easy, right? Right...
The race does start pretty well for me, though. I gain three positions courtesy of a good getaway and a slow starting @Napalm_LT, who is "jumpstarted" by @AndreasR behind him. Another tangle between @Oldbass47 and @Don Mejillone and good acceleration out of the fast right hander at Hatzenbach hand me another three places and I'm feeling elated :) Could I have made it through the worst of the traffic? Three more cars get it all wrong in front of me and I can taste 3rd place for a millisecond, as @Sick Cylinder touches my left rear tire and sends us both into the tangle that now comprises 5(!) cars :lol: Interlocking suspensions mean that both @Sick Cylinder and me lose precious time trying to rejoin, and by the time we manage to get going again, we are near the back of the field.
I catch up with the cars in front of me through Aremberg and am suddenly examining the gearbox of @beachboy6658, who had to slow down due to contact in front of him. We both pass @Napalm_LT, who hits the barrier hard at the Adenauer Forst, and a good corner exit lets me accelerate past @beachboy6658. Suddenly I'm back in 5th position :dopey:
It doesn't last long, however, because I put the car on the curbs where they are about 2m high and spin it around. When I get moving again, I'm relegated back to 9th place and in the midst of a 4-car battle. I approach @John Wells, and when I see him running wide at Brünnchen, I try to pass. Approaching the next corner, I'm either to eager to turn in, or he is a little bit too far to my side (or both ;)), but the result is another spin that lets @Sick Cylinder slip by.
Having the track temporarily to myself, I give it full beans and catch up to the cars ahead at Schwalbenschwanz. I see @John Wells having trouble accelerating onto the looooooong straight, and my corner exit is spot on. He tries to give me the squeeze to the left side, but my speed advantage is quite big and I'm having none of it. Forced onto the grass, I'm struggling to keep the car under control, until the inevitable happens: our cars intertwine, and both @Sick Cylinder and @Oldbass47 slip past us.
Not having learned my lesson ("curbs are bad around here!" :rolleyes:), I have another spin at Aremberg. Watch my panic trying to find reverse by shifting all the way from 1st to 4th and back down! :lol: I'm now second to last and decide to take it easy, as points are few and the hopes are high for the 2nd race. When I catch up to @John Wells, I'm patiently waiting for an opening that once again presents itself along the Döttinger Höhe. I use the slip stream as long as possible and we have an epic drag race along the straight. This time we both give us racing room and I come out on top, but only just :D

So this concludes race 1 at the Nordschleife. Plenty of action, but also plenty of lost opportunities. I vow to be more consistent in the 2nd race and try to stay out of harms way as best as possible. But, of course, it all depends on the grid place lottery, once again...
 
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So on to the 2nd one :gtpflag:





It's not hard to improve on starting last, but I was hoping for more than 8th position on the grid...
I nail the start, but have to let go off the gas pedal completely and lose precious momentum trying not to run into the back of @beachboy6658, who shows no haste to get going ;) Slight contact with @richroo through the 1st corner is of no consequence, fortunately, and so the race begins. I profit from @beachboy6658 getting blocked slightly and almost make it past @John Wells, when hell brakes lose! Anybody remember Mark Webber's crash at the 2010 Valenvia Grand Prix? That's basically what happens, although instead of running into the back of a car I get a push from @AndreasR behind me. This launches my car on a trajectory I didn't believe was possible at these relatively low speeds and forces me to press the reset button for the 1st time ever in one of Sick's races :eek::eek:
In a repeat of the 1st race, I catch up to @beachboy6658 at Aremberg. But wait, that's not him! It's his teammate @Oldbass47, whom I manage to pass in the technical section at the Adenauer Forst.
At the Karussell, I accelerate too early and drive off the concrete strip. I don't register the yellow flags (which are shown for about half a second, dear race director! :odd:) and slam into an upside down @Sick Cylinder.
My pace through the follwoing twisty section isn't very good, which lets @beachboy6658 close up to me. When I run a little wide at Brünnchen, he jumps at the opportunity and slips past. I then follow him closely, something we have quite a bit of practice with from the last races :P, until he drives off the track at the super fast twisty but full throttle section around and after Pflanzgarten.
All the while, a charging @AndreasR, who had lost even more time then I did during my aerial excursion, has gained ground constantly and all of the sudden is profiting from my slip stream along the back straight. I manage to stay on front, but he's clearly the faster driver and just waiting for a gap to exploit. I make my car as wide as possible without being unfair, but a bad line though the Adenauer Forst provides all the space he needs. I'm not terribly disappointed, though, but rather proud of having been able to defend my position for as long as I did. Also Kudos to @AndreasR for being patient with superior speed 👍 A lesson I had to learn the hard way in race #1 :lol:
From thereon it's a lonely race, with the biggest entertainment coming right at the end. I have my eyes glued to the relative distances screen on my lower left side while I charge down the Döttinger Höhe. More then 15s ahead of me, @IfAndOr and @AndreasR are having their own private drag race, and I watch in excitement as the gap between them is reduced to only 0.1s :crazy: At one point, the positions switch, but I can't tell if it happened before or after the finish line. A shame that it's deciced by time penalties in the end, but I guess it must have been an exciting end to their race, nonetheless :D
 
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the following twisty section
That's my description of the Nordschleife. :P

A shame that it's decided by time penalties in the end, but I guess it must have been an exciting end to their race, nonetheless
Yes it was but yes it was. ;)

Typically with Pcars I got my penalty for loosing time while bumping over some grass. :boggled: A double whammy. Well actually a triple whammy since Andreas got me. :)

Nice race reports Willi. 👍
(I can see you had some free time this week)
 
Really enjoyed racing with you all, even if it was only one race! Now I know what *not* to press after a race is done. I was happy with my finish, and very surprised to see I hadn't finished last....because of penalties. 9:38 was a personal best for me around there, and that's all you can really ask for in a race. I guess it pays to not give up going as hard as you can, even when others seem impossible to catch.

And yes, I did pull over. The last place I wanted was pole position! It was very stressful, especially for my first race:scared:

I should be able to race on Mondays. This coming Monday is a little iffy with some extra work I was given, but I think I can make it work. Brands Hatch is certainly not my favorite track, but I think the race will be exciting! Looking forward to it:gtpflag:
 
And yes, I did pull over.
Oh that was you. I wondered why there was a car neatly parked up there. :P
You should have kept going because there were a number of cars that crashed behind you. And no not caused by you. ;)

I had a good start to the 1st race. Started near the back but by avoiding the wayward cars ahead I was in 3rd very quickly! Which was both impressive and slightly worrying since I'd had zero practice. Didn't do too bad though but my slightly cautious driving meant I dropped a couple of spots. I'd got the hang of it by the 2nd race.
 
I had to take a break of PC2 .
Hey nice to have you back !(or not as your faster than me lol) I know what you mean had a break myself a while ago :banghead: We have missed you :bowdown:
Glad now you can slow simba up a bit as his getting to meny wins lately but the boys are getting quicker and racing has been fun again..
Sick has suspended Wednesday's but ifandor and i and a few others are keeping it active with some fun casual racing ..:cheers:👍
 
Hi guys sorry i went away for awhile without notice . I had to take a break of PC2 . but i'm feeling it again
Yeah it'll be good to see you again - in the distance! :dopey:

I had a break for a couple of months recently. You do begin to miss the experience though. So I'm back as well. :)

And has Rich says if you're free on Wednesdays we're keeping the racing ticking over so pop in at any time. We've actually been using a Lancer Evo recently. There were complaints it was too fast - just like you then. :D
 
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