Practice sessions

vobler · February 21, 2009, 09:22:47 AM

Quote from: romus;265062Now what is it with my driving? :g: It might be the feel, I lose the care pretty easily in fast corners, so I might be driving, for example the last corner in Summit Point, too slow.

I'm not sure, but the Skippy is something special. You need to be smooth with it. Also I am usually driving it with heel&toe and not using left foot braking. But I am much more safe when using the left foot to steady the car with the brakes while holding the throttle a little bit open.

Also you might be setting your goals a bit high and thereby limiting your enjoyment of racing. I'm sure you can be faster than you currently are, but there does not have to be anything seriously wrong. You just need to drive and enjoy it.

Romus · February 21, 2009, 09:44:41 AM

Quote from: vobler;265091I'm not sure, but the Skippy is something special. You need to be smooth with it. Also I am usually driving it with heel&toe and not using left foot braking. But I am much more safe when using the left foot to steady the car with the brakes while holding the throttle a little bit open.

Also you might be setting your goals a bit high and thereby limiting your enjoyment of racing. I'm sure you can be faster than you currently are, but there does not have to be anything seriously wrong. You just need to drive and enjoy it.

Right. I think I'll just do what you said and race more that way try to learn what the car is telling me. Currently I'm not always sure when it's sliding or gripping. I think it's easier to hear the difference in LFS and in nkPro.

Gnomie · February 21, 2009, 09:57:26 AM

Quote from: vobler;265091I'm not sure, but the Skippy is something special. You need to be smooth with it. Also I am usually driving it with heel&toe and not using left foot braking. But I am much more safe when using the left foot to steady the car with the brakes while holding the throttle a little bit open.

Yeah, the fast guys all seem to use LFB, even though this is (apparently) not possible in a real Skippy. I think I'll have to learn it eventually.. I've been sticking with h&t so far, but I'm starting to realise that it's an advantage to master both techniques. For example in Turn 3 at Summit Point, where you really need to balance the car and get back on the throttle really quickly.

Vobler, when h&t-ing, do you sometimes skip a gear or two? I never do in the Solstice, but so far I've been doing it with the Skippy. I find it hard to get a perfect h&t motion in a fast car like this.. (compared to the Solstice). In turn one I go from 5th to 3rd to 2nd, and in turn five I go directly from 4th to 2nd. Seems that the gears are so close that this can be done without locking up..

Romus -- I really like the sounds in the Solstice. It tells me exactly how much adhesion I have left. But I have to get used to the sounds in the Skip! At the moment I, too, find it hard to find out when it's sliding and when it's not.

vobler · February 21, 2009, 10:37:22 AM

Quote from: Gnomie;265095Vobler, when h&t-ing, do you sometimes skip a gear or two? I never do in the Solstice, but so far I've been doing it with the Skippy. I find it hard to get a perfect h&t motion in a fast car like this.. (compared to the Solstice). In turn one I go from 5th to 3rd to 2nd, and in turn five I go directly from 4th to 2nd. Seems that the gears are so close that this can be done without locking up.

I use sequential in the Skippy and all others except the Solstice where I use the H shifter. I think if I should drive the Skippy again I would use LFB there too. In the Solstice I use H&t to shift down, sometimes skipping a gear, and in some (fast) turns I use LFB to stabilize the car.

So no gear skipping in the Skippy...

Gnomie · February 21, 2009, 10:53:46 AM

Ah.. so the Skippy has sequential shifter in real life? Hm.. then I'll have to rethink my strategy.. :g:

vobler · February 21, 2009, 01:08:25 PM

Quote from: Gnomie;265101Ah.. so the Skippy has sequential shifter in real life? Hm.. then I'll have to rethink my strategy.. :g:

As far as I know there are different models of the Skippy, some models have 5 speed manual, but the one that is modeled had a sequential box.

Gnomie · February 21, 2009, 03:20:41 PM

Well, I've decided that mine is gonna have H-gate for the time being, until I can get used to sequential shifting.

By the way Romus I joined a practice session just the very moment that you left! We just missed each other.

Romus · February 21, 2009, 07:58:46 PM

Quote from: Gnomie;265137By the way Romus I joined a practice session just the very moment that you left! We just missed each other.

Oh bad luck. But I think I'll do all my racing in the Skippy series for now, so we'll meet for sure. I got another 1:22 lap today, so I think I'm getting there, though slowly.

Romus · February 21, 2009, 09:02:12 PM

Quote from: romus;265174Oh bad luck. But I think I'll do all my racing in the Skippy series for now, so we'll meet for sure. I got another 1:22 lap today, so I think I'm getting there, though slowly.

I've been driving with full tank this far. I don't know if it was lighter car or what, but now I got 1:22:3xx and quite a few below 1:23. This time I had as little fuel as possible, about 6 liters instead of 20. Bad that the track changes now. :lmfao:

Gnomie · February 21, 2009, 10:01:20 PM

Quote from: romus;265179I've been driving with full tank this far. I don't know if it was lighter car or what, but now I got 1:22:3xx and quite a few below 1:23. This time I had as little fuel as possible, about 6 liters instead of 20. Bad that the track changes now. :lmfao:

Way to go!

I think the fuel actually does matter quite a bit.

So.. it's off to Lime Rock next, isn't it? The Solstice is at Lowe's. The Solstice is my main priority, and I'll use the remainder of the season to just get used to the Skippy. Then I'll be racing that full force next season!

Gnomie · February 22, 2009, 08:39:06 PM

I've been practicing with the Skippy today at Lime Rock.. that sure was a handful!! Incredibly bumpy. Felt like my hands were going to fall off!

Even the main straight feels like it's been target practice for a squadron of B-17 bombers.

I think I've got a pace that I'm happy with. Tomorrow I'll just try to get more consistent and avoid all those 1x-incidents.. (particularly at that scary part on top of the little hill where you get airborne.. I always touch that patch of grass on top!)

vobler · March 19, 2009, 10:06:19 PM

Einar, Ron and me had a few nice practice sessions at Jefferson tonight. Nice to see some dMr's in there for a change.

Me and Ron joined a race but ended up in different sessions. Still, I had a good time in an intense race on that short track. Had a crash though, but it was a very rewarding race.

Hope to see you guys in there more. Post here if you are going to spend an evening in iRacing and we'll get together on Ventrilo.

vobler · March 20, 2009, 12:03:49 PM

Spec Racer Ford info

I was asked online yesterday what the upcoming Spec racer Ford is and here is a few posts about it.

Links
http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=239492&postcount=16

Videos
http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=239610&postcount=21

All the links does not work anymore, but once on the tube just do a new search.

Doorman · June 18, 2009, 09:36:12 PM

Can we resurrect the practice night?

Pick a day, any day.