FZ5s @ WE1R

[easyed]

Thought I'd go ahead and start this one early again

First - what happened to everybody yesterday during prime time??  That new virus knock everyone offline?? Or maybe y'all were all over at nKP ??  Had a few interesting races on Tuesday with quite a few racers but nobody there yesterday?

Welp, like the last several cars, the RZ5 was new to me.  And what a surprise :blink:  Like most of ya, I was having real trouble finding a set to keep the tires cool.......actually more complicated than that.  It's always "interesting" trying to learn to drive a car and tune it at the same time.  As you get more familiar with the car, tuning requirements change ....... and that was particularly true with the FZ5 and tire heat.  As I got "faster" I ate up the tires faster :lmfao:  And so the quest would have to continue for "the magic setup" :sideways:  And that just lead to chasing the red around the tires - I'd cure it in one place only to have it appear elsewhere!!

Enlightenment struck while watching replays from Tuesday's races.  I noticed the Deetz tires didn't overheat during the whole 6 laps and was thinking - "Man I'd love to get that set!!"  But then - I watched his driving.  I'd describe it as "smooth and not quite on the edge".  Wouldn't do for hotlapping for a single fast lap - but not far off.  Tires almost never making a squeel, only a pleasant swush thru the turns.

Watching Deetz and then trying to emulate his style fleshed out the original insight.  The FZ5 tires can take a spin-out with less heating up than from pushing "too hard".  That problem is particularly critical on the fast turns and high speed kinks.  I can do a 360 spin at over 100 mph with less tire heat than pushing the edge at 120 mph.  In hotlapping mode, ya want that rear end to kick out a bit while braking from high speed, but here it toasts the front tires.  And exiting a high speed turn in hot lap mode, ya want to feel that slight slide with full throttle and hold it there on the edge.  But with the FZ5, the rear tires get toasted.

I did notice the warning when connecting to the server - "Easy on the gas".  But that, as I've tried to say, is only part of the "style"..... at the higher speeds especially, ya need to keep it on rails, feather the gas thru the high speed kinks, turn in only as much as ya can get away with without squeeling, apply full throttle only when the nose is pointed enough into the exit.  I know, I know - easy to say ......

Now, about today's enduro!  I hope there's a good crowd for it.  I've done several 1 hour runs - and my only problem getting the tires to last is from blowing-out the right front tire from too many lockups late in the race - so beware of that.  If you can get the tires past about lap 15, you can start pushing somewhat harder without as much tire heat.  On one run,  I got my first ever 1:53 on the last lap (31).  On another run, I got my fast lap (again a 1:53) on lap 29, then started really pushing for a better lap - - - and blew-out the right front tire on the first turn :doh:

I have to say - I really love this format of working on a car for a week culminating in an hour race.  Sorry I've missed the last couple - but baseball season is in full tilt now, and with two teenage players, late afternoon (here in USA) is too often a busy time.  But I do have this afternoon penciled in

[Doorman]

What a damned good post. 'Easy on the gas' was my input. There isn't enough room on the welcome page to be more specific. I don't know about lack of people last night. Could be some of them were rioting in London, waving the Stars 'n' Stripes at Mr. Pres'dent or watching football. No, REAL football, where you kick the ball, which is shaped like a.....er, ball.
They sure as heck weren't on nKP! :doh:
I'm really glad you've made yourself at home here. :thumbsup2:

[Gnomie]

I'll be on the plane home when the race starts. Best of luck to all!

[obsolum]

I'll be on the plane home when the race starts. Best of luck to all!

Aww, sorry you won't be able to join. I'm curious to see what the turnout will be for tonight.

Good post there, Ed. Tyres will definitely play an important role in this one, I think. I haven't had the chance to do proper test runs for longer races so I'll have to go by what I've learned in the sprint races. I've jacked my tyre pressures up, they seem to remain on temperature for the sprint races. I find that if you spin once, the rears turn red, though. And it takes them a while to cool off again. So yeah, I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on my F9 menu, and focus on my lines and try not to push it too hard.

See you tonight! Or... this afternoon

[Lameduck]

{mode Jesse} Last night I ' ave been mostly watching football. {mode off.}

[Seany]

Went over to a mates yesterday, I'll be there tonight. Should be a good race, but it is really going to be about watching your tires rather than watching who's overtaking you

[Jamin]

Congrats to Venca :yahoo:

Another car I'm not keen on but seemed to be competative in, I was sure everyone would get quicker than me during the week. I hatched a plan to qualify as best as I could then keep the place by watching my tyres as I knew that any racing would kill the tyres in half a lap, also to not make any mistakes and stay consistant.

I managed fourth in quali and set off into the race in defence mode, Andy, Sean and Dee got close to me during the race but apart from Dee getting a better exit on the back straight and drawing alongside before backing off, they all slowed after trying to pass, probably due to hot tyres. I kept to 1:55s and did a few 1:54s laps and pitted as late as possable, I came out of the pits with about five secs to spare and two laps to go, Deetz had a moment and I checked my tyres which looked fine so stepped up a bit hoping I would see him somewhere rejoining the track and could steal third but it didn't happen and I finished fourth :chuffed:

[Mille Sabords]

I managed to build a set after intense (for me! around 50 laps) training during the week.
Tyres heat in control for 1:55 to 1:56 laps consistently.

Qualified 7th despite a stupid move on Spoong (tried to pass on the uphill right hander that kills tyres...) and a disco.

Race started really well, good handling on race fuel - kept up with the pack doing mid 1:55 for a few laps. Then I started getting mechanical failures (bending clutch pedal that I had to pull back after a few gear changes) that affected my concentration.
I ended up spinning, so I had time to secure the pedals. Then I went after Obsolum, closing fast with a clear track - scored a pb.

The mechanical failure started again after a few laps, causing some erratic driving (not easy to heel+toe while trying to hold the pedal set in place :frusty:)

I set for the pits just before the 1/2 hour mark, and tried to inform the pit crew that I did not want damage repair and no tyres change.
The crew completely missed the point and started dismantling the car despite my shouting, ruining my setup in the process by setting both sides of the car identically.
The also proceeded to repair the scratches caused by loose tyres on track.

I exited pits 1/2 a minute later to be lapped by Venca, and quickly discovered (T1, T2, T3...) that the car was not handling so well any more. Worst part was the last turn before the straight, symetric tyres can not cope with full throttle there.

I proceeded to the grass, and went back home on 2 feet. Next time I'll check pedals setup and fire the overzealous pit crew.

Excellent combo, requiring smooth driving and throttle control to be competitive.
Not easy to overtake on this high speed track, but good fights and excellent combo again

Congrats to Venca and Iron for outstanding performance with little practice!

[Gnomie]

Mille, you should hard mount your pedals! Like I did before I got my seat. Here's some pictures. Worked flawlessly!

Did you modifiy your pedals at all? I remember you talked about it, but can't recall if you went through with it or not

[Mille Sabords]

My "rig" is stored back in a box after each session.
1 laptop (belonging to my employer)
1 G25 without shifter
1 wireless headphones (also my employer's)
wheel clamped to the dining room table (stupid shifter does not clamp well there).

I'm not sure how the family would like wooden plates, pedals and nails living under the dining room table...
Must find a way to increase grip of the pedals on the carpet or decrease chair grip on the floor. That or reverse to mousing... no way!

[Deetz]

Well, definitely a different combo to usual this one. Lap times determined by the need to keep the tyre temperature’s in check rather than outright speed.

I got a nice set off Ben, which I only made minor changes to, including a gearing change made in my last practice race helped find a little more pace.

I had a good tussle with Iron during qualifying with both of us doing PB’s. He ended up beating me to second place with Venca comfortably on pole, and Ben behind me in 4th.

The race was all about managing tyre temps, especially the left rear. Backing off when they started to get too hot and increasing pace when they cooled. I soon started to see which corners were especially hard on the tyres, and developed different lines / technique on these corners to maximise my speed while reducing the tyre load.

I was very pleased to see my average lap times to be around 1.54.5 with a good number of 1.53’s thrown in. The gap between Iron and me fluctuated lap by lap, but remained fairly constant throughout most of the race, and Venca was (just) still in sight.

Shortly before my pit stop I made a few small mistakes, and after both myself and Iron had pitted I saw he had pulled away a bit and set to try to close the gap. This was helped as the tyres thinned and the temps dropped, allowing me to push a little more.

Doing this however, I started to over heat the front left causing more and more understeer, so I had to back off again. Resigned to 3rd place I just tried to keep my pace up through to the end, however I span the car twice consecutively on the last two laps entering the downhill back chicane, giving Ben(Jamin) some hope of catching me, thankfully the gap was large enough that my third place was safe.

A good race, if very tiring.

Well done to Venca for the win, and everyone who finished.

[Gnomie]

My "rig" is stored back in a box after each session.
1 laptop (belonging to my employer)
1 G25 without shifter
1 wireless headphones (also my employer's)
wheel clamped to the dining room table (stupid shifter does not clamp well there).

I'm not sure how the family would like wooden plates, pedals and nails living under the dining room table...
Must find a way to increase grip of the pedals on the carpet or decrease chair grip on the floor. That or reverse to mousing... no way!

Well, I understand. :roflmao: I guess velcro wouldn't do the job.. but surely someone, somewhere, must have come up with a solution! You can't be the only one who has problems making the pedals stick on the carpet..?

[easyed]

Well darn - I'm confused or got that "mad cow" thing going on ....... I showed up for the race about 3:45 EDT (GMT -4 hrs) thinking I'd be there a bit before quali starts.................. only to find that it was already 15 minutes into the race itself :crying:

So what gives??  Did y'all go on your own daylight savings time just recently??  Now when I set time options in User CP to GMT it gives time as GMT + 1 hr.  If US east coast is "normally" 5 hours behind y'all then when we go on Daylight Savings Time, we should only be 4 hours behind you.  But board time (set to GMT) is back to 5 hours ahead of me here. I'm guessing that must be it ...... we changed earlier than you guys (and I missed that race) and now y'all have caught up and I missed another one :/

And I was really looking forward to the race.....sulked watching on LFS remote :doh:  Looked like great fun

[Doorman]

Well, I understand. :roflmao: I guess velcro wouldn't do the job.. but surely someone, somewhere, must have come up with a solution! You can't be the only one who has problems making the pedals stick on the carpet..?

G25 pedals have a rather good carpet gripper built in. Have a poke around underneath.

[Seany]

Damn, unlucky Easyed. We have indeed put the clocks an hour forward about a week ago for GMT :/.

Most enjoyable race for me in a long while.  I only raced on my own for about three - four laps during everyone's pits stops.   The rest of the time there was a car either one second ahead or behind.

Couldn't find a groove in quali and best I could do was 8th.  Went into turn one in 7th behind Dee and Andy.  After a few laps I slipped past Dee down the straight.  Andy was a bit up the road chasing Ben. I caught up to them but Ben had pulled away and Andy looked like he was suffering with his tires due to his battling .  I got passed after a few laps and tried to catch Ben. I got pretty close and started to apply the pressure, Ben seemed to have lost some pace and Dee was behind me again.  I flat spotted my left front, going into hard left hander oddly enough, I decided to step out of the battle before I wrecked them completely and made a pit stop, leaving Ben and Dee to duke it out :boxing: .

After my pit it was pretty quiet until Dee made his stop. He came out about 2 seconds ahead of me and I was gaining on him for the next few laps.  Then Ben made his pit and we were all pretty close when he rejoined for the last few laps.  I managed to get passed Dee for fifth place after the tire chicane due some negotiating of backmarkers.  Bit of cheeky pass, but hey we are race drivers aren't we? :norty: . I almost lost control on the pass, was quite a hairy moment, weren't too many alternate routes to take

Excellent racing Dee, thanks.  Best I have had in a long time, regardless of finishing position

Well done Venca et al