Mazda Cup @ Laguna Seca

[little P]

My best time so far is a 1:44.435... I'm struggling with a couple of turns so far but hopeful I can get that down to a 43. I think I'm going to need a lot of practice to get any lower than that.

How's everyone getting on with it so far?

I'll likely participate in my first first race there tonight, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Kenadian]

I'm just about to crack into the 1:43's myself but I still have a long way to go before I race this track. I'm not able to string together more than 3 or 4 laps with a consistent time so it may be Thursday or Friday before I actually race here.

I'll definitely want a good Qualifying effort and TT before I ever Grid up.

 

[Shilka]

1:47.5 after an hour of practice. I'll prob need at least 100 laps of practice to get into the 1:44, and another hundred to get under 1:44, if I ever manage to do so....

Having heaps of troubles with the turn (6) before the corkscrew, I eather go way to slow making me lose 1-2 seconds on the uphill, or I go to fast and end up in the gravel.

Then there's the downhill sweep (9) after the corkscrew. Holy Shyte, whoever designed that part of the track needs to be smeared with batdroppings, that part is just designed to make you not have any roadcontact... Too fast and you're either in the gravel, or have to let go of the throttle which makes you take an unwanted left turn into that side road, and if you go to slow you'll end up exiting the corner with your car facing the wrong way.

And the smooth asphalt makes it near impossible to feel what's happening, I need LOTS of practice, so I'll be on this track every euro evening I think before even trying a TT or anything...

 

[Wapwap]

My best after a couple of first hours is 1:49.490. Got some practicing to do!
I like Laguna Seca though, fun track to drive.

 

[Shilka]

Well, managed to get 1:45.7 in practice, there is still hope.
Hard to be consistent on this track though, some of the corners leave very little room for error...

 

[little P]

Holy Shyte, whoever designed that part of the track needs to be smeared with batdroppings

:lol: This is something Jeremy Clarkson would come up with lol

1:43.343 is my best so far. I've found a nice line for that turn 9 and a new line for the corkscrew that fires me out of there like a cannon. I've definitely got room for improvement on turns 5 and 6 though so hopefully I'll be able to get in the 42's before too long.

 

[Kenadian]

I'm on the fence about whether or not I'm going to even race this track at this point. I'm getting to the lower 1:44's but I can't put more than a few laps together without fucking up royally.

I really don't want to screw up someone else's race because of my lack of skill here.

This is a tough track and the Mazda is geared absolutely horrific for it.

 

[little P]

Don't be like that you'll get it, anyway you have to race at least once on every track eh, otherwise you haven't really done the series have you?

We'll get together in a practice session and it'll all come together. I think we all improved quite a bit when we were all running together that's for sure.

One thing I found is you need to turn in a lot earlier than you think, force yourself to turn in earlier than you normally would and really hit those apexes marked with the red bit of kerb. It's amazing how much time you can make up just hitting one of those right, so hitting all of them (something I still haven't managed to do yet) would take seconds off your lap time. Once you get used to turning in earlier I find it gives you a lot more room for error on the exit whilst still maintaining momentum.

I'm not looking at p00tube videos/tutorials etc. as all the ones I saw recently are from an old tyre model, and I'd rather figure it out on my own anyway as my style of driving will be different to other people.

Although I did find this which I think will be useful, and is (from what I've read so far) really interesting anyway

http://www.norcal-saac.org/ot/laguna.pdf

 

[Wotan]

Isn't this supposed to be a rookie race?

 

[Wotan]

http://www.norcal-saac.org/ot/laguna.pdf

Good read, wish I had the pylons in the game

 

[Shilka]

Very nice PDF P, I expect you to find one for every track we do from now on!

 

[Wotan]

Just did my first race and came in 6th - and yes we had more than 6 cars at the start. :lol:

 

[little P]

Yeah some of the markers aren't appropriate but the entry, apex and exits I thought would be helpful to everyone, congrats on your first race Wotan, did you enjoy it?

 

[little P]

Very nice PDF P, I expect you to find one for every track we do from now on!

I'll do my best

 

[Wotan]

... congrats on your first race Wotan, did you enjoy it?

You bet - because the only thing I wanted was to see the finish line. :icon_cheesygrin:

 

[Kenadian]

I finally sat down tonight and just concentrated on turning laps and getting as much consistency as possible. Unfortunately, the only consistency I have is I'm consistently bad lol.

I'm getting to the point now though that I can string together a number of laps without too much trouble but there's still usually a 1x for every 2 laps so far.

I did manage however to keep it in the mid 1:44's as an average and actually broke into the 1:43's with a PB of 1:43:794.

I'm still probably not going to race this track however until Saturday or possibly even Sunday night. I have no idea what the lines are outside of my own so I'm going to need that insight from driving with you guys.

 

[Shilka]

Little P_ showed me a really nice line for rainey curve (9) which helped me a lot, much easier to keep that line, and a bunch faster. For the most I've got the othercurves down now, just a matter of perfectionizing, and consistingly being able to take the lines...

 

[Shilka]

Here's a vid of the real deal, interesting to see the lines. Also noticed a few differences in shifting.

[video=youtube;6WITZSKiahA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WITZSKiahA[/video]

 

[little P]

Great find Shilka. I change up to 4th for turn 3 and down to 2nd for turn 11 which are the differences between this and my shifting. I'll try staying on the limiter for 3 and not changing down for the final corner and see how I go there. Other than that I am following the line he takes already so I'll see how those shift adjustments go.

Nice one mate

 

[Shilka]

Yeah its funny, at first i would go on the rev limiter of 4th on the straight, and later i changed to going to 5th at relatively low revs at exactly the same spot as this guy did to improve my time. I shift down to 2nd as well in turn 11, seems a bit safer, but I'll see how it goes in 3rd too as its downhill there anyway.
For turn 3 I would upshift to 4th between the 3 and 2 sign, then shift down to 3 as I brake and turn in for the apex which seems to work for me. Have to fiddle with that a bit too.

Here's another vid of a race with the same cars. It's funny to see that people go off-track and spin out at exactly the same points as they do ingame. Shows that laserscanned tracks with good physics go a long way in recreating this racing experience.
Also quite a bit of car contact in this vid, and he blows his engine at the end, lol.

[video=youtube;4oDd0YBbHbI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oDd0YBbHbI[/video]