Virtual Racing Challenge

[Ben Russell]

A few of us seem to have the virtual racing bug.

Let's find a track and car that is shared between the racers (I'm thinking Forza and GT5 with hope for iRacing..) and post some lap times.

Nurburgring? (brutal!)...

My favorite is a WRX around Fujimi Kaido in Forza 3, but apparently it's a fictional track. Oh well.

[Simmo W]

Great idea Indi! As usual, logistics are the challenge, plus comparing different sim times can't possibly be perfect? If we keep it relaxed and have fun sharing screenshots/vids and experiences.

I'm still pretty early on in gt5, only level 15. But can now make $100k an hr automatically, so most non-race cars are available. So we need to agree on a track. But i dont think i'm at Vettel level- more like a sleepy Webber!

The world tracks it has are, with my biased opinions:

Fuji Speedway boring

Fuji Speedway　F

Fuji Speedway GT

Suzuka Circuit boring, except for esses

Suzuka Circuit East Course

Daytona International Speedway not bad

Superspeedway – Daytona

Road Course – Daytona good fun

Tsukuba Circuit- weird, one of my favourites, great little corners

Circuit de la Sarthe- wonderful, scary

Circuit de la Sarthe 2009 No Chicane - freaking scary speed

Circuit de la Sarthe 2005

Circuit de la Sarthe 2005 No Chicane

Nürburgring  - yup, hard but good

Nürburgring Nordschleife (Time) of course classic, terrifying in anything above a Skoda

Nürburgring GP/F

Nürburgring 24h (Time / Weather)

Nürburgring GP/D

Nürburgring typeV

Indianapolis Motorspeedway- all fun

Superspeedway – Indy

Road Course – Indy - that's the f1 track? Confusing, I keep crashing on the first turn, so fun..

Autodromo Nazionale - technically challenging

Autodromo Nazionale Monza No Chicane

The Top Gear Test Track- confusing, harder than it looks, especially in a combi!

Laguna Seca Raceway- wonderful, love it

Monaco- ditto

[Ben Russell]

A not very good, I kinda remember this from GT3:  1:45.301 around Laguna in a 2005 WRX STi.

(I played that course to death on the PS2!)

I play on the "Quick Race: Hot Lap" mode of Forza so the cars are "stock". This is gentleman's racing.

[Ben Russell]

1:05.929 around Tsukaba '05 WRX STi, definitely a favorite track, so much in so little space!

[Ben Russell]

An embarrassingly slow 9:22.487 around Nordschleife of doom with a flying leap of faith at marker 17. Man, what a road.

'05 WRX STi.

PB for the car-class is 9:08.189 in an R34.

Manual, ABS on, rumble motors off.  Standard 360 game pad.

[Simmo W]

Cool, sounds like we agree! I'll give it a go tomorrow around Tsukuba in a similar car.Yeah, such variety in that track and not much rest time. That last corner, as ever, is so important to get right.

[Kaphias]

Post some GT3 or GT4 time and I'll challenge them, don't own GT5 yet sadly.

I'll post some of my top times from GT4 (using the F1 car) later.

[Ben Russell]

Please bring a competitive car or don't bother posting your times.

[samen]

X-Chauffeur?

[Ben Russell]

X-Hours-of-relaxation-for-less-money-than-a-tank-of-gas.

Please.... this is just meant to be fun. The times above are mostly from 15-20 laps on each track thrown in last night to get started.

This isn't about posting that one perfect lap you got once. Just get in and have some fun.

The marshalls wouldn't let you on the track on WRX day with your F1 car. Same thing here.

On a more constructive branch:

I don't have Open Wheelers in Forza. The best I have are Le-Mans closed wheelers from Audi/BMW etc.

I also don't get much fun out of driving them. The skills you learn are more about down force and trust at high speed than chasis dynamics and perfect corner linking. But in the spirit of fun I'll offer to post some up later for you to laugh at.

[Simmo W]

This is fun, just bought the 05 WRX STI, pretty fast for stock!

Will post some pics and times if I can keep it upright..actually will do so in anycase..

[Simmo W]

God Indi, I just did NordSchleife in the WRX in 9.24.5, first drive ther for a very long time. Bloody terrifying! I find those straights scarier than anything. About 6 mins I got really used to the grip, then by 7 my heart was pumping so hard, I started losing concentration and crashed once and left the track another. Plenty of room for improvement, but once is enuf for me today! Typical me, pics and video to come, to show the kiddies how hard it is. You did well. I'll try Tsukuba later, shorter!

[Ben Russell]

As cliche as they are, for the money the Subaru WRX is a monster.

What I love most about it is it's speed on a real road, you know, two lanes, tight, twisty, country style.

Never been a fan of straight line speed or trailer queens, I'd rather drive an Echo with low profiles.

Makinen, 7:55.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hyATjjajPg

[Simmo W]

Some pics of the pretty nice looking WRX STI, looks better than real life, almost  ;D

Jeeze Indi, I just tried Tsukuba and busted my ass in 5 laps, couldn't get below 1.08. I use a controller too, no setup tweaks though, and not manual, I'm too unco for that. Might give it a go, sounds like I need to. Felt too understeery to me, might remove traction control totally  ;D

how do u link to web pictures in BB code? I tried inserting inbetween the img codes,  trying to link to these:

Out of my league

http://flic.kr/p/8ZVJnD

http://flic.kr/p/8ZVJnF

Practice

http://flic.kr/p/8ZV4Pp

Close up for verification

[Kaphias]

This isn't about posting that one perfect lap you got once. Just get in and have some fun.

The marshalls wouldn't let you on the track on WRX day with your F1 car. Same thing here.

We obviously find fun in different ways... When you have everything complete in GT4 except for that darned last mission around Nurburgring, enjoyment comes in being the best you can be, which means, to me, running laps around Infineon for 3 hours and ending up with a world-record time.

That said:

As far as PC racers go, I am absolutely loving BMW M3 Challenge. Although by default you can only race the BMW M3 on one track, this site this loads of track downloads that you can add to the game. This is the only game I've seen Bathurst on, and with both of you being Australian (I believe) I think you may want to give it a try. It's a very, very fun track.

[Simmo W]

Thanks for the Makinen video Indi. For a rally driver he was very smooth, few sideways movements, as that loses time. Pity about the exposure, hard to see the road.

Agree, rally drivers have the biggest cahunas, no whimpy runoffs for them! Might have time to post my lap vid tonight- I lost it more than twice, so I think with practice sub 2:20 is possible, but it's hard to keep that composed for that long, in my condition At least

[Ben Russell]

Watch out for the medium right at warp speed down the back somewhere...... it'll flip your car like a pancake with only half an inch of error on the ripples.

Hilarious cluster of swear words ensues, it's far enough in, and a dumb enough mistake, to be really annoying when it catches you.

It's definitely a crazy bit of road. I look forward to this little duel.

I've been lapping it for a few weeks now, it has the better of me still.

As for the exposure, I think it was half haze too, there's another video that Subaru made and the air temp is in single digit celcius territory.

Definitely a road you have to know to be able to go fast on, I honestly don't think "200 meters vis" matters on this course. You're already at blind speed.

[Simmo W]

Thanks Kaph, gawd all I need is another sim! Don't have a wheel though. Can't believe how expensive a good one is, better off spending that sort of cash on a new flight stick. Each to their own I spose, just like flight simming, ESP if u like getting your name on leaderboards. I'm long past that. In fact right now I'm concentrating on the older quirkier cars, like the fabled Sprinter Trueno! Few of my cars would be competitive, being too old or overtuned. My 200hp 76 Golf is a hoot, front wheel drive!

[Simmo W]

As promised, some video of my antics. Apols for quality, Gt does not save video output so have to use my video camera. The Renault 5, I have to admit, is my favourite, for its perfect balance. Like a 400 hp go kart

[uwespeed]

Seeing Indi's Mäkinen-Nürburgring video I remembered when I made 1 lap - in real life - on the awesome Nordschleife (I live "only" 450 km from there) back in 1996 with my own car, at this time a VW Golf with ludicrous 70 hp. It was big fun though. From this experience I must say, driving this track with a real race car must be ..... wooooooooooooow  .

BTW, the "speed" in my nick comes from the racing games I played and (real) karting races I did in the past ;D .

Here just a few impressions from my first attempts in Richard Burns Rally some years ago - still with automatic shifting (boo)  

Simon, the Gran Turismo graphics are awesome, are you sure that's really the game and not reality?

[Kaphias]

Thanks Kaph, gawd all I need is another sim! Don't have a wheel though. Can't believe how expensive a good one is, better off spending that sort of cash on a new flight stick. Each to their own I spose, just like flight simming, ESP if u like getting your name on leaderboards. I'm long past that. In fact right now I'm concentrating on the older quirkier cars, like the fabled Sprinter Trueno! Few of my cars would be competitive, being too old or overtuned. My 200hp 76 Golf is a hoot, front wheel drive!

I just use the arrow keys on my PC, it sucks but I simply don't have the space where I am now. I do, however, have a Logitech Driving Force Pro hooked up to the PS2- I strongly recommend buying one. It completely changed the experience for me, and I actually work up a sweat doing those endurance races (or on a lap around Nurburgring- I'm not sure which is harder).

The Sprinter Trueno was my first car in GT3, by the way. I think I may have to pull it out again, just for nostalgia's sake. ;D

[Ben Russell]

;D

[Ben Russell]

[Airbus]

More videos!!!PLEASE!! i love the GT series. You could use a video capture card, I used a Dazzle system. But I'm to lazy to toy with the whole proccess. 

I still haven't had the chance to pick up GT5 ???!

[Simmo W]

Beautiful Indi! You da man. I reckoned u could get it sub 900 considering I spent 30 seconds stationary in my first attempt!

Yes, more vids to come. Just tried the humble Sprinter Trueno, its better than I remember with the improved physics, crazy vid coming. Stock @ 128 hp,  then blown to 228 with no grip improvements