Mon Mar 07, 2016 12:14 pm by Madrias
This got longer than I expected. TL;DR: I liked the challenge, eco runs are a great equalizer, and I've got an idea at the bottom of the post.
For those brave enough to continue into the ramblings of someone working on about 3 hours of sleep and a cup of coffee, feel free to read on.
Personally, I enjoyed the Eco run. For me, it was a bit tense (doing all my own math to convert liters to gallons and MPG to L/100km to find out whether I'd make it) but were I to do it again, I'd simply switch my units.
I thought the Eco run was a great way to stop people throwing purpose-built 700 horsepower turbo-V8 1-mile-per-gallon monsters at this challenge. Wouldn't have been near as good if everyone could ignore their fuel consumption.
Did I put time and effort into my car? A little. I tried to make the compromise and got off-road-greedy, forgetting for a moment that the car I built would have to handle asphalt as well. I built a twin turbo V8 tuned for fuel efficiency instead of power, making (if I remember correctly) about 300 horsepower. Would I have been upset being knocked out in the eco stage? No. I'd have accepted that I screwed up my math somewhere, or I pulled a stupid by using a turbo V8 when I could have been sensible and gone either Turbo-4 or NA. Was I upset being knocked out in the asphalt stage? Not really. A touch disappointed because I thought I had a great car for Pikes Peak, but I had plenty of time to know about that asphalt stage. I failed to consider that maybe, just maybe, a bit of handling would have been better than my solid axle ass.
As for more eco stages with damage increasing fuel consumption, I'd be all for that, personally. Looking at the numbers between me and Stensen on that little duel we had, if we had more stages on gravel/offroad to beat the cars up, I would have won that duel through reliability. If fuel efficiency could be added into account through some eco stages, it'd take out a lot of the low-reliability-high-consumption competition. Gamble on gas and you may just lose.
I had more fun in this challenge checking the results than I've had in a lot of 'em in a while. Scrolling down the results page actually could get my heart racing, hoping to see my little green hatchback somewhere in the good list. Once I got knocked out, yeah, I stopped paying as much attention (after all, it's less exciting then), but I think this challenge set up a good framework for something more.
If you don't mind, Squidhead, I'm just gonna list a few of the things I did and didn't like about this challenge.
Liked:
+ Eco Run Qualifier. This kept power and cars sensible(ish) without enforcing hard power limits, weight or size or displacement limits, or restricting engines. Awesome way to even the field.
+ Events listed in order. This allowed us to build the best all-rounder we could, knowing particular tires would hurt us more than others, but knowing that some things would be needed before others.
+ Damage! We're out there beating our cars up racing. Of course things are gonna break.
+ Battle Mode! Two cars traveling together go faster. Everyone knows this. Everyone who's ever drafted a semi down the highway also knows this.
+ Duels. Pitting two cars against one another in a 1v1, winner-takes-all showdown midway through the race.
Things I didn't like
- Nothing, really. The one thing I didn't like was more a personal matter, and that was just the order of the tracks. Even at that, the list was made and agreed to long in advance, so really, this point doesn't matter.
Personally, I'd love to see another version of this some time down the road. I found it quite enjoyable to participate in, and I think that kinda says something. Very simple, non-complicated rules list, everything laid out open-handed in front of you. If I wanted to, I could have sat there with a calculator and tried to power-math my way through to a victory, or I could do what I did, with spit-ball math for my fuel economy and then hope for the best on the rest.
As for my thoughts on not making it through stage 0... We were told up front everything we'd need to figure it out: How far we're driving, The speed we were to cruise at, how big our gas tank would be. Some people barely made it (my guess, either luck, or power-math determining they needed exactly this amount of fuel to make it, and not a drop more), others made it with fuel to spare (and make bonfires with...) and others fell short. As stated, I'd love to see eco-runs both damage the cars (you're driving a long distance at a constant speed, so even if it's something like 0.1% of damage, it's something to consider as it's unavoidable) as well as damage influencing efficiency (because an engine making smoke and a chassis that's bent up shouldn't perform better than an engine burning clean and lean and a chassis that's straight as an arrow). In fact, I like the idea of the eco runs enough that I'd personally want to see one between each of the challenges. Other than a calculator and Automation, nothing else is needed, and could produce very different results.
As for something I'd like to see as a possibility... A night race. I know, I know, we can't model anything based on track temps, etc., but it'd allow an additional type of race to build around. Build your car without some form of alternate lighting, and you might just find yourself in the dark, struggling to see the track. I suppose it really works best if done as an offroad race. Basically, not having enough light (headlights alone on an off road course shouldn't be enough) would result in both a time penalty (can't drive your best when you can't see) and a damage penalty (you'll bust up your car more if you can't see) while having enough light basically makes it any other race.
As for how the compromise works on that, you have to decide between maximum engine cooling (assuming front engine, the grill and front bumper area are the greatest cooling potential) but only street lights, or reduced engine cooling, but off-road lights.
). I'm not asking for a re-run, I was providing feedback on the race structure. By all means choose to ignore my personal feelings of frustration but the premise still stands; your eco run was flawed and detracted from the spirit of the competition.