Round 2 - Grand Prix of Long Beach [Apr 16th]

Michal Janak wrote:

hmm only one free car and now picked

If you have a look at the hotlap chart, you'll be slightly less disappointed about missing that car.

Juha Bos wrote:

Jason White wrote:

#19 Dominic Dobson | March 86C-Chevy Stock Block

I'll take it. Someone has to finish dead last.

I disagree your experience with HSO will put you ahead of me.
I struggle with fat tires , wings and rFactor. (March86-Cosworth)

OK, second to last then.

The fuel consumption might help too. It was a very pleasant surprise to see its fuel economy. The downside is it's heavy, very heavy, and it affects the handling.

David Sabre wrote:

Jan Kowalski wrote:

Where is the "R2 Long Beach
#23 Fulvio Ballabio | Lola T8800-Cosworth car?" (CART readme)

I would like to take the seat
http://www.racing-reference.info/race/1988_Toyota_Grand_Prix_of_Long_Beach/R , retired with a fire but

The car was changed to a full time car appearing at every race to allow more people to enter the full championship. The readme didn't get updated.

Technically, the Car was a full time entry Dick Simon just had a rotating cast of characters driving it, including himself.

Actually, Dick never drove the #23, and It was only entered for 7 races.

Dick only ever drove the #22, a car he shared with Didier Theys.

I'm in!

Juha Bos wrote:

OK, second to last then.

The fuel consumption might help too. It was a very pleasant surprise to see its fuel economy. The downside is it's heavy, very heavy, and it affects the handling.

You shouldn't have to worry about traction...

I'm more worried about the corner entry - or lack of it.

This was possibly the worst layout at Long Beach there ever was. It's still Long Beach, but that Mickey Mouse section down the backside is just gruesome. The March behaves quite weirdly there. No ground effects to speak of, just a massive push so far. There's a lot to do setup wise still. Is it still a good idea to have it very low and stiff or should you try something else around here? A setup which worked well at Sebring does not work very well for me just yet.

LB is a bumpy street track with mostly slow speed corners. At those, ground effects are not that important because the car is not going quick enough, so I would recommend higher ride heigth, softer suspension and crank up the wings as necessary. Use the front ride heigth to dial out understeer, lowering it will put the centre of pressure of the underbody towards the front. Suspension wise, you will likely want stiff slow bump front to cope with the braking, and stiff rebound to keep the front loaded at turn entry. On the rear, soft slow bump and then adjust rebound depending on how easily you lose the rear. Fast bump you want overall softer both in bump and rebound. At this track, traction is the key, and a hint for free: He who has best traction out of the last turn will get a head start into the straight that probably no car behind using lower wing will be able to nullify in time before the braking zone. Watch the T88s here, those are suspension wise the best cars when it comes to tractioning out of tight turns

As a road/street course racer(but apparently slightly hindered by the chassis), I'll be racing for sure.

@Alberto: Thanks for the setup tip, but betcha I am gonna mess it up anyway

Boy, Id give my soul to race here, if I had a soul left to give!

Please put me on the waiting list.

Bruno Chacon wrote:

Please put me on the waiting list.

We already put you on the full time drive waiting list.
There is no waiting list for individual races.

Jacob Fredriksson wrote:

This was possibly the worst layout at Long Beach there ever was.

 I beg to differ, the Current layout is the Worst.

Jason Fitch wrote:

Jacob Fredriksson wrote:

This was possibly the worst layout at Long Beach there ever was.

 I beg to differ, the Current layout is the Worst.

+1

Was there ever a good one? I'm not fond at all of street courses. I never did like flying my X-Wing in the canals on the Death Star!

Talking about graphically describing street courses. Piquet once described driving an F1-car on the Monaco-course as "shitting through the eye of a needle".

Timo

I only remembered him saying racing a F1 in Monaco was like "riding your bicycle in your appartment" but that needle analogy is not bad either ! Piquet was terrible at street circuits though, so I guess he was kinda biased.

I liked the original Long Beach layout, at least it had some elevation changes and had a decent length as well. None of the numerous different ones after that never were quite as good imho... Still, not my favourite street track by far, I much prefer Monaco, Pau, Macau or even Norisring.

I like Long Beach very much. F1 79 there, CART98 there...and nooooowwww (!!!!) HSO CART88...but without me (at least without me for first 7 laps before I crash...)

Frank Verplanken wrote:

I only remembered him saying racing a F1 in Monaco was like "riding your bicycle in your appartment" but that needle analogy is not bad either ! Piquet was terrible at street circuits though, so I guess he was kinda biased.

I liked the original Long Beach layout, at least it had some elevation changes and had a decent length as well. None of the numerous different ones after that never were quite as good imho... Still, not my favourite street track by far, I much prefer Monaco, Pau, Macau or even Norisring.

Nothing compares to Montjuic, the best street circuit, except probably Macau. Just had to say this

Ricard Suanya wrote:

Nothing compares to Montjuic, the best street circuit, except probably Macau. Just had to say this

Yes of course Montjuich is excellent, how could I have forgotten it !

Frank Verplanken wrote:

Ricard Suanya wrote:

Nothing compares to Montjuic, the best street circuit, except probably Macau. Just had to say this

Yes of course Montjuich is excellent, how could I have forgotten it !

About Montjuic: did we ever do a GPL 1969 championship here?

Timo

I'm certainly not going to try to defend the Valencia circuit (AKA the snooze fest ) in this discussion