The more I think about it, the more I think I'm right. The placing of barriers at various places on KY3 has caused a bit of a kerfuffle and although my first motivation was to stop track cutting another thought has occured to me whilst reading this thread (http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=29489) on the LFS forum.
There were complaints that one couldn't see the turn in point at the end of the oval section or that someone couldn't see over the wall. Well doesn't that just mean you're going too fast? The whole point of a chicane IS to slow cars down.
/dons fireproofs
I can understand your point of view. I agree with barriers being placed to stop cutting and to slow the cars down. My views on KY3 are: The 1st barrier at the end of the pit straight should consist of the second element only, as drivers who go over the rumble strip are penalised by having their suspension damaged, beside making the car unstable for the 2nd part of the ‘S’ bend.
There should also be a barrier at the end of the ‘oval’ section to dissuade drivers from going straight on over the gravel, as the gravel appears not to slow the drivers down. But once again it should consist of the second element only, as clipping the green painted section with the rumble strips risks damaging the suspension.
I spent some time this afternoon checking the damage caused by hitting the rumble strips against 4 laps of NOT hitting anything. (Very difficult with my skills!). Pit stops were some 10-12 seconds longer.
My other point is that ‘guests’ don’t have the luxury of practising on our server, and the appearance of the ‘new’ chicanes can disrupt a well rehearsed driving tempo.
:getmecoat:
I agree with Doorman and Lameduck o.0
If the server has mature racers on, the chicanes are fine without barriers as cutting them is usually down to a mistake in taking the corner and you get a bit of suspension damage for your error. If the watertank barriers are there...your out of the race.
But as we get lamers on from time to time who cut them to get a quicker lap time, we should have something there to stop them. I suggest a low tyre barrier instead of the watertank barriers so you can see the corners better and don't get flipped into orbit if you clip one. They also should be placed to catch the exit area of a cut so if you do error, you have a bit of braking space as the chicanes are a late braking overtaking point for the brave.
I thought about the damage angle and reckon that 10-12 seconds of repairing suspension doesn't equate to the 3-4 seconds a lap quicker times. If it gets to the point where damage caused is SERIOUS damage i.e limping to pits, taking an age to fix, then barriers wouldn't be needed at all, at all.
The amount of suspension damage depends some what how stiff your suspension is. But in shorter races (even 10 laps) you can cut quite a lot w/o slowing down you so much. If you need to make a pit stop it takes some time to fix the damage so some dirty cheater could take pit at lap 1 and then cut all the time for rest of the race.
Personally I found out that even I do not cut, the barrier walls disturb my driving little. When I turn I look at the apex, but now the whole corner looks different and I cannot even see the apex. Going slower wouldn't give me that x-ray vision (even though it would help taking the corner :rolleyes:). This means that my turning is never so smooth as w/o the barriers. I have to take the corners slower than what the optimal would be and still i manage to hit the walls sometimes. It would require more time to learn the new curves (at least for me). (Did I make any sense?... yep, didn't think so :sideways:)
There are quite heavy concrete walls in almost every corner now. Indeed one option would be to replace some of them with tyre stack walls. Maybe it would limit the damage to something less serious than with concrete walls. It's bit unfortunate that going slightly wide can ruin your whole race. But because the long race is today, maybe it is too late to change them now(?)
And yes, I do think some sort of cutting prevention system is good as long as the server is public.
Well, 24 laps without the barriers went off ok. Mostly because only us regulars were on. No herberts to contend with. :)
Just go with what aquilifer says, he's got the best avatar :-)
Stewed cat, yummy! :D