Ah cool. I’m planning on running a full hour practice race to see how it goes. 110 ai seems to be just about right. If I screw up they fly past me, but I can mostly keep up. I have never pitted on that track so it’s a good idea to do that a few times. Getting out of that pit is nuts. Not sure why it’s so narrow lol.
I plan on hanging back the first lap or two. Getting murdered in the first lap of an hour race isn’t ideal. As a side note making the crew chief app call me Zoltan was really funny for a few laps. Hours later I wanted to punch my monitor. ;)
What a fantastic app though. I don’t know how anybody could race without that.
About 80% of the league use it, but I stopped using Crew Chief when it caused me to run out of fuel at the Silverstone endurance race last year. As long as I have the expanded HUD with the radar on it I can do without Empty Box telling me my front tyres are hot.
After a damp practice 1, practice 2 and qualifying 1 and then a wet qualifying 2, race 1 was actually bone dry, which was great considering I’d done precisely zero laps of dry tyres/dry track.
I had a race long battle with that yellow Mercedes and ended up finishing a fraction over a second behind it in fourth place.
In race two the rain had come back and I got greedy with the gas pedal at the exit of the second chicane, (della Roggia), span across the track and hit the opposite wall nose on.
The car still drives straight, but it’s a bit slower and I saved the game with me in dead last place. We’ll see how far back through the field I can get.
I installed it last night and after figuring out how to configure it I’m very happy. I love that you can drag stuff around and turn on and off stuff you don’t want. Very nice. Didn’t try it for very long but it really helps me feel more comfortable that I won’t accidentally punt someone.
That is because the history of these classes is extremely complex. Here is my highly simplified version, leaving out all the evolution and racing politics.
GT1 was a rules specification that while the cars sorta had to look like the street cars, the rules were pretty wide open. How open varied during the classes run from 1995-2009. The class eventually collapsed due to the costs involved. These are purpose built cutting edge race cars, and for their era were the fastest GT class
911 GT1
GT2 was a step down from GT1 in that the rules required much more similarity to the road cars. I say similarity, but these are still purpose built. Example, in the 911 racing car the engine is actually shifted forward several inches so the car is mid-engine vs rear-engine for the street car. GT2 changed names to GTE after GT1 collapsed, and the rules loosened a bit. Due to technological improvements, a modern GTE car is I believe faster around a track than the previous GT1 cars. However as we speak GTE seems on the edge of collapse as major manufacturers (Ford, Porsche) have pulled out of the class.
Ford GT GTE
GT3 debuted in 2005 as still a purpose built race car, but homologated by factory production. The cars are still very modified for racing relative to the street cars, but much closer to the street cars than the very specialized GT1 and GT2. This also makes them more affordable, and private teams often buy and race the GT3 cars (this is rare for GT2/GT1 due to expense). GT3 cars are as fast as a GTE car on the straights, but much slower in the corners due to reduced aero. The GT3 cars do allow TC and ABS.
GT3 Aston
GT4 is a further step down from GT3. The cars are what you might get if you took your track car to a really good tuner, but they come from the factory. The HP is less and the aero is also less than GT3 cars
BMW M4 GT4
I’ve been trying to learn the Vietnam track in F1 2020 and failing pretty badly. It might be one of the more difficult tracks for me to learn. Half of the turns are weird late apex turns that you just have to get a feel for to get correctly. I’m almost about to give up as I spent like 3-4 hours the last two days and it’s still giving me fits.
Turn 1 is a rather simple 90 turn so no big deal there. The next turn is just wacky though. You have to go in with partial throttle and baby it around a late apex turn to then hit the straight. After that straight you hit a chicane into ANOTHER weird late apex turn into a straight the size of California. So if you mess up either turn you have lost an epic amount of time.
At the end of the straight is a heavy braking zone into a 90 degree left turn. I actually don’t have too much issues with this turn once I got the braking zone down. You then head down a short straight into a pretty easy right hander that then leads into the slalom course of death. Multiple turns with 0 runoff that needs to be taken at full throttle to get done correctly and then it’s followed by two sweeping turns.
It’s really fun when you get it right, but holy crap it has to be one of the more technical tracks out there and may be above my skill level right now. :(
I downloaded F1 2019 through gamepass and gave it a quick benchmark, but what I didn’t see is any kind of training/academy mode. Are you just supposed to know how to drive an F1 car off the bat, or is that part of Career or something?
Thanks! In June I “discovered” endurance racing and binge-watched a few races on YouTube. It’s frustrating when a manufacturer (Audi LMP1) leaves a league after a few years, though, reducing the variety of cars on the track. I think IMSA still has a few GT Audis, as well as a Lambo.
I got a rift last week and finally had time to set it up with raceroom. Holy crap I can never go back. It’s so much easier and fun to drive in vr. Finding the apex is so much easier and the immersion is more than I expected. I’m going to try Seca now to see if my times improve.
Ya well I totally get it now. I’m running some races with the ai and it’s way easier to tell where everyone is and the depth perception helps a ton too. So much fun. Spinning out now is actually terrifying.
Not as immersive but good enough in a pinch. I had a few quick games of Project Cars 2 VR with the controller the other day when I couldn’t be bothered lugging out my wheel.
