Its a disgrace that the AI was able to beat up on poor smallhorses like that and rob the valiant English of their well deserved gold (see "Why I hate AI part 1"). Well, If the AI likes to play a little rough then I'm certainly game to rub bumpers with the best of them. They wont find me quiet as willing to play by the rules as he was.
Taking an exact same mini which I'm not sure if he even remembers trading to me about 2 years ago I headed for Rome.
Modded to the max it has 178HP and was fitted with the same T2's front and T3's rear to counter the uneven tyre wear.
No time to take in the sites I had revenge in mind and spent the day mercilessly thrashing the very symbol of cool 60's England around the track to ensure I could get a consistent low 1'40's lap time. Then off for an oil change and wash before heading back to the track.
Since smallhorses hadn't raced against the Clio or Griffith then clearly I had no gripe with them and hit reload until they were gone. My field was the same if a little jumpled from their qualifying which I had decided to skip so as not to show them my style.
1) Alfa Romeo 156
2) Peugeot 206
3) Audi TT 1.8T
4) BMW 328 Ci
5) Fiat Coupe Turbo
6) Mini Cooper 1.3i
Clearly somthing fishy was going on to give the Romeo the pole. I suspected bribery or some other foul play clearly I would have to keep my eye on this bunch.
Also starting from the back of the grid I hit a break right at the start as the entire pack hit the barrier at T2 Ensuring that I can catch them all as they break for T3. I manage to give the BMW a friendly tap on the rear going into T4 just to let him know i am there and passing the Alfa Romeo in the process. the Romeo takes this personally and gets his revenge by pushing me into the barrier at T6. I pass him again at T10 and better breaking allows me to pass the Audi on T13. End of lap 1 sees me already up to 4th.
Lap 2 starts with the Audi passing me but then forgetting all about T2 and plowing into the barrier. A trick the Fiat must have copied seconds earlier as I am able to easily pass him on the hill up to T3. Now for the Peugeot. Not having to touch the break from the exit of T6 until T12 gives me enough speed to touch his bumper as we exit T9 but I'm no match for him on the straight and I finish the lap in 1'40.538 2.8 seconds behind the BMW.
Lap 3 I take the Peugeot at last as in common with everybody else he decides to visit the barrier at T2. We trade paint all the way to T6 where my superior cornering finally sees me pull away. I end lap 3 in a personal track record time for me of 1'38.306 in a mini. 3 laps and already its down to me and the Beamer.
Lap 4 the obligatory AI bump into the barrier at T2 (did they make the track narrower this year or something) sees me catch him and give another friendly hello by way of a light bump in the rear as we enter T3. Just a Friendly "Hello old chap. I'm right on your ass you know" kind of thing. Its bumper to bumper the rest of the lap as I finish in 1'40.290 1.1 seconds behind him.
Lap 5 again sees us trade door paint through T6&7 and the back straight but I take the lead and hold him off through T12&13 to hold a 0.1 second lead as I cross the line.
Lap 6 he finally realizes how to avoid the barrier by simply copying my line and is able to reclaim the lead. I pull back dead level through T3&4 but he regains the lead and I end up down 1.1 seconds again by the end of the lap.
His tyres must be approaching optimum. I can only stay with him through laps 7 and 8 but without all this bumping around I am able to get back to 1'39.5 laps and stay within 1.5 seconds of him.
On Lap 9 I agian take the lead on T9 and hold him off to the finish line with me 0.2 seconds ahead. To say this is close racing is an understatment.
Lap 10 starts with him taking his frustration at being unable to hold the lead out on me. He rams me into the barrier at T2 but luckily I bounce back into him and his advantage is lost. We trade yet more paint and I end the lap 0.65s down.
He tries the same trick on Lap 11 but this time I'm ready for him and let him plough into the barrier all by himself. At last I am able to take and hold the lead with a lap of 1'39.546 and I'm 1.5 seconds ahead.
With clear road ahead of me I start to pull away as his tyres wear down. Laps 15 and 16 I gain approx a second each but Lap 17 sees me gain 2+ seconds over him.
I pit at the end of Lap18 now almost 9 seconds ahead. He is able to pull out faster than me however and takes about 2 seconds off that lead but I have clean tyres and still clear road up front.
The BMW is able to keep pace with me now we both have fresh tyres and its as you were with lap times in the low 1'40's and me holding a approx 4.5 second lead untill Lap 28 when the moment of truth arrives and we start to come across the tail enders.
First up is the Alfa Romeo I manage to pass him on T3 without the usual bump and grind involved in passing AI drivers and hence dont loose any time to the Beamer.
Lap 30 and I come up on the Fiat and Audi. These proved more difficult and with the BMW tyres at pretty much optimal temp I started to loose time. I traded door paint with the Fiat from T12 on lap 30 to T7 on lap31 when I was finally able to pull away from him. Luckily for me his refusal to yeild to the faster car also applied to the BMW and as I approached the Audi I still held just under a 4 second lead.
I passed the Audi at T12 of lap 32 and was determined to make the next 4 laps of clear road count before I would have to pit and find myself behind those two again.
A couple of laps with high 1'39 times gave me a 6.5 second advantage as I pitted at the end of lap 36. Again the better acceleration of the BMW plus what can only be described as an incredible effort by his pit crew saw this lead drop to 2 seconds by the time the pit stop was over.
Luckily I was able to pull out inches infront of the Fiat leaving him to block the BMW as I again took on the Audi so by the end of lap 38 I was back to a 3 second lead and baring down fast on the Audi.
Lap 39 and I pass the Audi at T7 and again have clear road ahead of me to exploit but for some inexplicable reason the Audi drives into the barrier at T13 leaving the BMW to get past without so much as a fight. Agaiin it is to be down to simply me and the German with me holding a 3 second advantage.
I now start driving in a way that can only be described as completely possesed. for the next 9 laps I am able to lap at a consistent 1'39.5 gaining about 0.7 seconds a lap. Man and machine are in compleat harmony. I can literaly feel the road. With the blast shield down I CAN almost see the remote. By the end of lap 51 I have an almost 10 second lead.
But then at the end of lap 53 I make my first major error. Coming up fast on the Romeo as I approach T13 I dont realize he is going to pit. As he brakes what can only be described as Very, very early and very hard I plow straight into the back of him and bounce into the barrier. I just lost at least a good 3 seconds.
Luckily by this time the BMW has worn down his tyres again and even though for the next couple of laps I can only manage high 1'40 times I still enter the pits 7.5 seconds ahead and leave with a 5 second advantage again just managing to creep out infront of the Alfa leaving the BMW to worry about him.
Lap 55 sees the peugeot pull out of the pits just ahead of me. My warm tyres mean I can pass him easily on the back straight but in frustration he rams me into the barrier at T12 and I am left with a 1'42 laptime. However he then hits the T2 barrier at full speed and I am able to put him to my exhaust with ease.
Lap 59 sees the Fiat pull out of the pits infront of me in exactly the same way but this time I can easily pass him during breaking for T12 and he kindly lets me past. lap time is 1'40.339 and I hold a 7 second lead.
This comming out of the pits directly infront of me is a popular trick as the Audi takes his turn on lap 63. We trade door paint from T3 through to T7 before I leave him for dust on the back straight However the BMW has taken advantage of this to cut my lead to 4.3 seconds.
This is the closest he will get to me until the end of the race however as I now have clear road ahead and nice warm tyres. I start to ramp it up a little and laps 64 to 70 are between 1'39.5 and 1'40.8 I finish lap 70 with a 9.06 second advantage abd time for only one more lap.
My only concern now is not that I finish a clean lap for assured victory but rather making up enough time to win by more than 10 seconds. I touch the barrier coming out of T6 and think I have blown it. By the end of the lap I have a time of 1'40.808 and an agonising wait for the BMW to finish.
Finally the times come in and I have been victorious by 10.323 seconds. Rule Britania
I collect my 300,000 in winings trying not to smerk too much at the German with his head held low in shame. Then in an apparent sympathy vote for the poor guy who could only afford the mini PD award me a nice shiny new F688/S
Instead I decide take the coach back through the mountains with "self preservation society' blaring from the cassette deck.
Moments latter as we teeter on the edge of destruction I hear a familiar voice
"Hang on lads....... I've got an idea!"
Taking an exact same mini which I'm not sure if he even remembers trading to me about 2 years ago I headed for Rome.
Modded to the max it has 178HP and was fitted with the same T2's front and T3's rear to counter the uneven tyre wear.
No time to take in the sites I had revenge in mind and spent the day mercilessly thrashing the very symbol of cool 60's England around the track to ensure I could get a consistent low 1'40's lap time. Then off for an oil change and wash before heading back to the track.
Since smallhorses hadn't raced against the Clio or Griffith then clearly I had no gripe with them and hit reload until they were gone. My field was the same if a little jumpled from their qualifying which I had decided to skip so as not to show them my style.
1) Alfa Romeo 156
2) Peugeot 206
3) Audi TT 1.8T
4) BMW 328 Ci
5) Fiat Coupe Turbo
6) Mini Cooper 1.3i
Clearly somthing fishy was going on to give the Romeo the pole. I suspected bribery or some other foul play clearly I would have to keep my eye on this bunch.
Also starting from the back of the grid I hit a break right at the start as the entire pack hit the barrier at T2 Ensuring that I can catch them all as they break for T3. I manage to give the BMW a friendly tap on the rear going into T4 just to let him know i am there and passing the Alfa Romeo in the process. the Romeo takes this personally and gets his revenge by pushing me into the barrier at T6. I pass him again at T10 and better breaking allows me to pass the Audi on T13. End of lap 1 sees me already up to 4th.
Lap 2 starts with the Audi passing me but then forgetting all about T2 and plowing into the barrier. A trick the Fiat must have copied seconds earlier as I am able to easily pass him on the hill up to T3. Now for the Peugeot. Not having to touch the break from the exit of T6 until T12 gives me enough speed to touch his bumper as we exit T9 but I'm no match for him on the straight and I finish the lap in 1'40.538 2.8 seconds behind the BMW.
Lap 3 I take the Peugeot at last as in common with everybody else he decides to visit the barrier at T2. We trade paint all the way to T6 where my superior cornering finally sees me pull away. I end lap 3 in a personal track record time for me of 1'38.306 in a mini. 3 laps and already its down to me and the Beamer.
Lap 4 the obligatory AI bump into the barrier at T2 (did they make the track narrower this year or something) sees me catch him and give another friendly hello by way of a light bump in the rear as we enter T3. Just a Friendly "Hello old chap. I'm right on your ass you know" kind of thing. Its bumper to bumper the rest of the lap as I finish in 1'40.290 1.1 seconds behind him.
Lap 5 again sees us trade door paint through T6&7 and the back straight but I take the lead and hold him off through T12&13 to hold a 0.1 second lead as I cross the line.
Lap 6 he finally realizes how to avoid the barrier by simply copying my line and is able to reclaim the lead. I pull back dead level through T3&4 but he regains the lead and I end up down 1.1 seconds again by the end of the lap.
His tyres must be approaching optimum. I can only stay with him through laps 7 and 8 but without all this bumping around I am able to get back to 1'39.5 laps and stay within 1.5 seconds of him.
On Lap 9 I agian take the lead on T9 and hold him off to the finish line with me 0.2 seconds ahead. To say this is close racing is an understatment.
Lap 10 starts with him taking his frustration at being unable to hold the lead out on me. He rams me into the barrier at T2 but luckily I bounce back into him and his advantage is lost. We trade yet more paint and I end the lap 0.65s down.
He tries the same trick on Lap 11 but this time I'm ready for him and let him plough into the barrier all by himself. At last I am able to take and hold the lead with a lap of 1'39.546 and I'm 1.5 seconds ahead.
With clear road ahead of me I start to pull away as his tyres wear down. Laps 15 and 16 I gain approx a second each but Lap 17 sees me gain 2+ seconds over him.
I pit at the end of Lap18 now almost 9 seconds ahead. He is able to pull out faster than me however and takes about 2 seconds off that lead but I have clean tyres and still clear road up front.
The BMW is able to keep pace with me now we both have fresh tyres and its as you were with lap times in the low 1'40's and me holding a approx 4.5 second lead untill Lap 28 when the moment of truth arrives and we start to come across the tail enders.
First up is the Alfa Romeo I manage to pass him on T3 without the usual bump and grind involved in passing AI drivers and hence dont loose any time to the Beamer.
Lap 30 and I come up on the Fiat and Audi. These proved more difficult and with the BMW tyres at pretty much optimal temp I started to loose time. I traded door paint with the Fiat from T12 on lap 30 to T7 on lap31 when I was finally able to pull away from him. Luckily for me his refusal to yeild to the faster car also applied to the BMW and as I approached the Audi I still held just under a 4 second lead.
I passed the Audi at T12 of lap 32 and was determined to make the next 4 laps of clear road count before I would have to pit and find myself behind those two again.
A couple of laps with high 1'39 times gave me a 6.5 second advantage as I pitted at the end of lap 36. Again the better acceleration of the BMW plus what can only be described as an incredible effort by his pit crew saw this lead drop to 2 seconds by the time the pit stop was over.
Luckily I was able to pull out inches infront of the Fiat leaving him to block the BMW as I again took on the Audi so by the end of lap 38 I was back to a 3 second lead and baring down fast on the Audi.
Lap 39 and I pass the Audi at T7 and again have clear road ahead of me to exploit but for some inexplicable reason the Audi drives into the barrier at T13 leaving the BMW to get past without so much as a fight. Agaiin it is to be down to simply me and the German with me holding a 3 second advantage.
I now start driving in a way that can only be described as completely possesed. for the next 9 laps I am able to lap at a consistent 1'39.5 gaining about 0.7 seconds a lap. Man and machine are in compleat harmony. I can literaly feel the road. With the blast shield down I CAN almost see the remote. By the end of lap 51 I have an almost 10 second lead.
But then at the end of lap 53 I make my first major error. Coming up fast on the Romeo as I approach T13 I dont realize he is going to pit. As he brakes what can only be described as Very, very early and very hard I plow straight into the back of him and bounce into the barrier. I just lost at least a good 3 seconds.
Luckily by this time the BMW has worn down his tyres again and even though for the next couple of laps I can only manage high 1'40 times I still enter the pits 7.5 seconds ahead and leave with a 5 second advantage again just managing to creep out infront of the Alfa leaving the BMW to worry about him.
Lap 55 sees the peugeot pull out of the pits just ahead of me. My warm tyres mean I can pass him easily on the back straight but in frustration he rams me into the barrier at T12 and I am left with a 1'42 laptime. However he then hits the T2 barrier at full speed and I am able to put him to my exhaust with ease.
Lap 59 sees the Fiat pull out of the pits infront of me in exactly the same way but this time I can easily pass him during breaking for T12 and he kindly lets me past. lap time is 1'40.339 and I hold a 7 second lead.
This comming out of the pits directly infront of me is a popular trick as the Audi takes his turn on lap 63. We trade door paint from T3 through to T7 before I leave him for dust on the back straight However the BMW has taken advantage of this to cut my lead to 4.3 seconds.
This is the closest he will get to me until the end of the race however as I now have clear road ahead and nice warm tyres. I start to ramp it up a little and laps 64 to 70 are between 1'39.5 and 1'40.8 I finish lap 70 with a 9.06 second advantage abd time for only one more lap.
My only concern now is not that I finish a clean lap for assured victory but rather making up enough time to win by more than 10 seconds. I touch the barrier coming out of T6 and think I have blown it. By the end of the lap I have a time of 1'40.808 and an agonising wait for the BMW to finish.
Finally the times come in and I have been victorious by 10.323 seconds. Rule Britania
I collect my 300,000 in winings trying not to smerk too much at the German with his head held low in shame. Then in an apparent sympathy vote for the poor guy who could only afford the mini PD award me a nice shiny new F688/S
Instead I decide take the coach back through the mountains with "self preservation society' blaring from the cassette deck.
Moments latter as we teeter on the edge of destruction I hear a familiar voice
"Hang on lads....... I've got an idea!"
Excellent job!
when I accidentally saved over my 100% game with the 23% game on my 2nd mem card 
! Good to see he's still running and made the CA to CT trip OK! I'll have to buy him back from you at some point! Next time I'm over in CT! Sniffle.
