Automation Touring Car Championship [FINAL RESULTS]

[strop]

A quick check of my own car, losing 11hp by dropping down .25 inch exhaust diameter, shows that I lose maybe 0.1s on the high speed tracks, and my time remains almost completely unchanged on the slower tracks. Interestingly, it wouldn't be enough, in my current position, to have changed the outcomes of any of the races (which calls into question just how useful my super OCD special was!).

So for me, sacrificing power would only help if the powerband were improved, or the weight distribution of the car otherwise improved. But I don't know about your own setup.

[nialloftara]

I realized recently, (post races already starting) that I was running a .25" too skinny of an exhaust, and was robbing myself of 14hp and a few ft.lbs of the good stuff at a negligible weight gain for the bigger pipes

Usually a tick up in exhaust moves your powerband higher and costs some mid range torque did that happen on yours?

[np1993]

I realized recently, (post races already starting) that I was running a .25" too skinny of an exhaust, and was robbing myself of 14hp and a few ft.lbs of the good stuff at a negligible weight gain for the bigger pipes

Usually a tick up in exhaust moves your powerband higher and costs some mid range torque did that happen on yours?

I did notice after you mentioned it a 5-10ft.lbs lost from the 2-5k rev range. I don't feel that bad now with the smaller pipes

[Leonardo9613]

For the record, I am fairly sure that your car will beat mine in Brands Hatch and Laguna Seca. I have also bet that Brands Hatch will be my worst track, so it may be by well more than a single position!

Hence I am still quite certain this race will go right to the wire. There are just so many ways it can be sliced.

I would like to point out that I felt underwhelmed by the original VIR track, hence, I added some bumpiness to it, to better replicate the real race track.
That tweak could spice things up as well and, coupled with the tight configuration, it might prove a challenge for your car

[Jakgoe]

Erm, I'm not really sure how I feel about running on a bumpy track, I ran my car on flat ground only... But, still, the car soldiers on, unhampered by the thought of losing, and guided by our tame racing driver.

Some say that his brain is programmed in LUA, and that a sticker on the back of his neck says "Camshaft Software".

[strop]

I would like to point out that I felt underwhelmed by the original VIR track, hence, I added some bumpiness to it, to better replicate the real race track.

Oh, for real? Damn. Yep. That race is anybody's guess but I reckon we're gonna get slaughtered by the NAs for sure...

Some say that his brain is programmed in LUA, and that a sticker on the back of his neck says "Camshaft Software".

All we know is, IN RUSSIA, STIG DRIVES YOU.

[Leonardo9613]

Hello guys!
I bring you the sixth race results. It was held at the Brands Hatch Indy track, in Kent, England, UK. This twisty, tight track, with very big elevation changes was a challenge for some cars (especially my quickly built FWD turbo ). This is a track in which the tameness to sportiness ratio and medium-speed cornering were king. To make it clear for everyone, once the track is bumpy, the simulation gives a penalty for the cars with worse tameness/sportiness ratio, because those are, theoretically, harder to drive. Therefore, the car ends up going slower on bumpy, technical tracks. This happened to Strop's car and to mine, because both have poor ratios, which means they are very hard to drive.
So I present you the comparison of tameness, sportiness and their ratio between the cars.






The lower the number, the worse the car handles, as it is harder to control and more unpredictable.

And here are the results for the track. Quite a few surprises and a christmas gift to some, not so much to some others...



And the updated standings:



Merry christmas to everyone!

[Jakgoe]

Merry Christmas!

Thanks for the gift!

Everybody, enjoy the day!

[strop]

LOL

Okay, that was even worse than expected. But in a way not that surprising given that I also managed to attain the lowest tameness rating of all the cars Like, gee, I knew I didn't care for tameness much but that's just, wow. That medium speed cornering was most important goes a long way to explaining why Jakgoe's build does so well, though.

This lends more weight to an approach to tuning for optimal "corner speed", in a way, since I've been saying that my car is great in slow corners, and great in fast corners, but hopeless at medium speed corners. In a way, I would say this placing then also suggests that many other cars had vastly superior medium speed cornering to mine but simply lacked the outright speed elsewhere to even come close in other tracks. But Brands Hatch is different, apart from two low speed corners, pretty much the entire track is a 'medium speed corner'.

I would say, if I won every other event here apart from VIR, I would have maybe a chance, but given this result, I might be very much looking at this much deficit again in VIR, given the way it simulates. I'm also not that optimistic about Laguna Seca, because the back stretch before corkscrew seems to have a few strange spots in which the car mysteriously slows down where, in real life conditions, it shouldn't! So, because of that, it looks like this tournament is now definitely a washout for GG.

[Leonardo9613]

Edited the post to include Sportiness and tameness to sportiness ratio, the last one is really important to explain these results.

[strop]

Those graphs really does put things into perspective doesn't it!

Certainly makes much more sense given my general approach is: "hang everything else, let's go for speed!", and then attempt to optimise afterwards. You could very well say that I failed to actually scrutinise the tracks (testing on a track is certainly not the same as understanding the track itself!). It would, however, not be true to say that this had any bearing on the result, of course, as my intention had always been to try and optimise a car that had excessive power to weight ratio, so it was always going to come a cropper on a track like this, it was just a matter of discovering just how much.

But actually, this is very informative. While I obviously had high hopes for the tournament, I haven't been in the habit of actually participating in tournaments until more recently so I have a lot to learn. In this case, it pays to read the track files before tuning.

I can imagine now, if I brought my characters into this, the mood in the GG garage in pit lane would be gloomy, very gloomy indeed This would be great for story writing purposes!

[np1993]

For having upper middle of the pack sportiness and tameness ratings power must be whats holding me back.

[NormanVauxhall]

The client car performed way well than I've expected.

[Leonardo9613]

This time we have the results for the 7th race, which took place in the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, in Canada.

On this track, acceleration out of hairpins, top speed and medium speed cornering were the biggest factors. (My car might have done not as well as on some tracks due to FWD wheelspin).

Here is the acceleration graph:


And, now, the results:

[Jakgoe]

Smolensk! Smolensk all the way!

In a more serious note, I don't like the look of VIR.