- 206
- superunknown800
Hi all.
If you are like me and enjoy closely matched, clean races and like to play on a casual basis (ie don't like the idea of having to meet at a certain time just for one race) and are sick of only being able to use a handful of cars competitively then I may have the solution for you! I regularly host races containing a wide array of cars but with the competitive closeness of a one make series. The overall performance capability of everyone's cars are essentially capped but as in a one make series you still have some performance scope to play with due to gearing, drive train and suspension tunings. At the end of the day the cars performances are almost identical so the main factor in your success is how well you drive.
In my quest to find a way to balance different cars against each other so that each car has an identical overall performance (power vs handling) I have stumbled onto a formula if you will that seems to work flawlessly! I have been trialing it for the last few weeks and the results are very encouraging.
For example I hosted a race at Eiger Nordwand short track, 10laps, one mandatory pit, heavy damage and max penalties and by the end of the race there was only 7 seconds between first and second. I think those are pretty indicative results ( one of many ) of a system that works.
Anyway this is how it works. We decide on a Hp range to race and I pick a car from my garage. I then tell everyone my Hp and PP. Then they pick a car from their garage that exceeds my cars spec and detune their cars using the air restrictor to point where they match one of the regs (hp or pp, doesn't matter) and are under the other reg.
Hey presto its that easy! We all now have virtually identically performing cars, ( save for individual suspension tunings, gearing and driver performance). Whatever reg you are short on is compensated by the extra torque you now have and the different weights of the cars play a part as well. It works like magic!
Now the only reason why it does work and is so easy for people to match with a wide variety of vehicles is because the car I base the regs off is always tuned to at least 90% of it power ouput. If I based the regs on a heavily air restricted car you would have far fewer choices and you would have to try and match the regs exactly ( as you would no longer have torque as an advantage).
As you can see because torque and weight are not directly regulated you have those to compensate with. In fact if anything you have the potential to use a car with slightly better specs in some aspects as I am trapped in a car running on the edge.
Anyway I have used this method time and time again, and because everyone's cars are even anyone can win any race. As it stands I probably win one out of 10!
Since this method has proven successful I have been able to up the laps and we regularly race 7-10 laps. On these longer races I introduced a mandatory pit stop which eliminates the difference in tire wear between FF's and FR's. Which means now any drivetrain can participate without added penalty. However the original reason I included a pit stop was to add an exta dimension of strategy to the game. Because I always host with heavy damage and it only take a split second to lose concentration and suffer position killing damage the pit stop also doubles as a kind of get out of jail free card. Where as before you would have to pit and lose 40+ secs to the field, now you can use your mandatory pit to repair at no added penalty! It also builds on the strategy of pitting. Do you pit early or do you wait until later in the race encase you stack it? Personally I like to take it sometimes when someone is gaining extra pace on me by drafting, remove their advantage! Or if I'm being tail gated and I fear the pressure may cause me to make a mistake I may pit in so when I come back to the track I'm alone to drive unpressured.
Anyway it makes the whole race pretty exciting and their are alot of place changes.
So what sought of cars are eligible? Well their are more cars you can enter then cars you can't so it might be easier to list what is not allowed.
*No concept cars.
*No LM or RM cars
*No racecars- I will list all the things that make a car fall under this banner.
If you are like me and enjoy closely matched, clean races and like to play on a casual basis (ie don't like the idea of having to meet at a certain time just for one race) and are sick of only being able to use a handful of cars competitively then I may have the solution for you! I regularly host races containing a wide array of cars but with the competitive closeness of a one make series. The overall performance capability of everyone's cars are essentially capped but as in a one make series you still have some performance scope to play with due to gearing, drive train and suspension tunings. At the end of the day the cars performances are almost identical so the main factor in your success is how well you drive.
In my quest to find a way to balance different cars against each other so that each car has an identical overall performance (power vs handling) I have stumbled onto a formula if you will that seems to work flawlessly! I have been trialing it for the last few weeks and the results are very encouraging.
For example I hosted a race at Eiger Nordwand short track, 10laps, one mandatory pit, heavy damage and max penalties and by the end of the race there was only 7 seconds between first and second. I think those are pretty indicative results ( one of many ) of a system that works.
Anyway this is how it works. We decide on a Hp range to race and I pick a car from my garage. I then tell everyone my Hp and PP. Then they pick a car from their garage that exceeds my cars spec and detune their cars using the air restrictor to point where they match one of the regs (hp or pp, doesn't matter) and are under the other reg.
Hey presto its that easy! We all now have virtually identically performing cars, ( save for individual suspension tunings, gearing and driver performance). Whatever reg you are short on is compensated by the extra torque you now have and the different weights of the cars play a part as well. It works like magic!
Now the only reason why it does work and is so easy for people to match with a wide variety of vehicles is because the car I base the regs off is always tuned to at least 90% of it power ouput. If I based the regs on a heavily air restricted car you would have far fewer choices and you would have to try and match the regs exactly ( as you would no longer have torque as an advantage).
As you can see because torque and weight are not directly regulated you have those to compensate with. In fact if anything you have the potential to use a car with slightly better specs in some aspects as I am trapped in a car running on the edge.
Anyway I have used this method time and time again, and because everyone's cars are even anyone can win any race. As it stands I probably win one out of 10!
Since this method has proven successful I have been able to up the laps and we regularly race 7-10 laps. On these longer races I introduced a mandatory pit stop which eliminates the difference in tire wear between FF's and FR's. Which means now any drivetrain can participate without added penalty. However the original reason I included a pit stop was to add an exta dimension of strategy to the game. Because I always host with heavy damage and it only take a split second to lose concentration and suffer position killing damage the pit stop also doubles as a kind of get out of jail free card. Where as before you would have to pit and lose 40+ secs to the field, now you can use your mandatory pit to repair at no added penalty! It also builds on the strategy of pitting. Do you pit early or do you wait until later in the race encase you stack it? Personally I like to take it sometimes when someone is gaining extra pace on me by drafting, remove their advantage! Or if I'm being tail gated and I fear the pressure may cause me to make a mistake I may pit in so when I come back to the track I'm alone to drive unpressured.
Anyway it makes the whole race pretty exciting and their are alot of place changes.
So what sought of cars are eligible? Well their are more cars you can enter then cars you can't so it might be easier to list what is not allowed.
*No concept cars.
*No LM or RM cars
*No racecars- I will list all the things that make a car fall under this banner.