Ben Russell

One day I'll crack 8 minutes around the ring...... one day... Nice work. ... In any car.

That video is hilarious Simon. Love the way it's pegged on the rear bump stops and just .... silly. Makes me chuckle. I took the Trueno for a few laps around Laguna today, I think I need a good set of pedals and a wheel to enjoy that car. It's definitely a fantastic car that can draw out your skills at sane speeds. Trying to drive it through a game pad trigger is inanity though. Got out the WRX again which tends to favour the gearbox and dynamic-flicks more than fine throttle control. Tsukuba: 1:04.726 ...flakey little circuit, so hard to find the fast line.

You'll crack the 9 mark ...... it just takes obsessive practice and knowing the flow of the corners, the 'ring is about faith... blind faith. *laughs* Did some laps in the Trueno...... it's fun, but I just don't quite get it. I prefer a Miata or an S2000.

This video only "works" if you know the track intimately. *mutters* Somewhere in section 6.. you've just finished the warp speed main straight, buried the brakes, very hard right in 3rd gear, then full speed down into the valley before blasting up over the hill into a blind left: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pTrjoHoZ4M

;D

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

You're welcome. I just want to improve the world around me. Sorry the advice doesn't always come gift wrapped. (And sorry for the utter thread jack, but I look forward to clicking on your next review to see what awaits me.

Approved. Whatever it is.

I had the gain turned up on the post for emphasis. I know where I'm going, so the feelings aren't that strong. However. You compete with several hundred other tabs of data per day. Gigabytes of visual information processed daily. You leave about 1/10th the page space for the actual content title. The content title is approx half intensity of any other shade of blue on the page. The page is bright, the colors fully saturated. This does not make for a clear title that POPS out at you letting you know you hit the right page. In a world full of pop-unders and useless internet circlular link pools, this is no fun for users. Here's a heatmap of the average visual scan: And a google images link to the rest: http://www.google.com.au/images?q=heat+map+eye

I noticed this too eventually. What bugs me: Typically I will open a page in a background tab. I finish reading the page I'm on and switch to the tab. Instantly I get a whole eye full of BK117 imagery and a lot of text saying I'm reading a BK117 review. That's funny, I think. The BK came out months ago, why on earth would I have a tab open to read a review about it? Add to this the fact that the imagery takes up almost the entire page when opening a new link to the site. It feels like eithe I've been "bait and switched" ...or... their site is broken. Giving me BK117 content I never clicked on. So either, their site is broken and they don't have their stuff together.... OR.... they're "showing me something nice, and giving me something I never asked for" which is not a nice way to be treated. That's how it feels for me. As a result, I just don't open the tabs... I think the content could be better formatted and far more appealing leading to more return viewers and a much more interesting first impression. ...simply changing the BK117 graphic so it's not the default wont solve the problems I have with your design either guys.

Constructive critique: Get rid of the BK117 banner. It's confusing. We're visual creatures.

Eeesh, what an exercise in spin, that narrator sure can talk "fluff". Of note: Thunderbird jets are often the oldest in the inventory, $20m new is NOT $20m end of working life already flogged to death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Thunderbirds

...might want to try a little harder to disguise yourself next time. (See how far you get abusing real life retail staff, though you probably lack the guts to be such an idiot in person.)

Sorry for all the double posts folks, we had a synchonization script setup and it's obviously become sentient, gone crazy and begun taking over the world, Skynet starts here... ...I've pulled the plug but I fear it may be too late. Seriously though, we'll get the doubles cleaned up in good time, thanks for the patience.

Screw xmas morning. This is killing me.

the paper tape based computer they built in WW2 to decode the german signals was bested by a Pentium 2 class "general purpose" computer. that's how.

X-Plane 10 has been delayed because Tom Kyler was admitted last night suffering a severe case of Gizmo Addiction. Sorry everyone. :-\