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[Denthúl]

Sorry to double-post, but which mod would you prefer to use for a league and which tracks?

[7UpJordan]

There's so many to choose from, but I'll post here what mods and tracks I have installed. This list doesn't include the mods and tracks that came with the game.

Mods:
CTDP F1 2005
MMG F1 2007
F1 1988
F1 1985 demo
GP1979
BMW M1 Procar 1979/1980
Champcar World Series 2006
1995 Indycar Series
GP2 2006

Tracks:
All GP1979 tracks
Bahrain CTDP
Birmingham Superprix
Brands Hatch 2005
Cadwell Park
Castle Combe 2005
Cleveland 1995
Detroit Street Circuit 2007
Donington
Eastern Creek
EMG Monaco
EOAA Interlagos
EOAA Suzuka
F1 1988 Jacarepagua
F1 1988 Hermanos Rodrigues
F1 1988 Paul Ricard
F1 1988 Silverstone
F1 1988 Hungaroring
F1 1988 Spa Francochamps
F1 1988 Monza
F1 1988 Estoril
F1 1988 Jerez
Hockenheim 1999
Imola 1994
Istanbul
Le Mans 1975 - 1986
Melbourne GP4
Montreal 2008
Norisring 2005
Oulton Park
Snetterton 2005/2006
Top Gear Test Track

[Denthúl]

There's so many to choose from, but I'll post here what mods and tracks I have installed. This list doesn't include the mods and tracks that came with the game.

Mods:
CTDP F1 2005
MMG F1 2007
F1 1988
F1 1985 demo
GP1979
BMW M1 Procar 1979/1980
Champcar World Series 2006
1995 Indycar Series
GP2 2006

Tracks:
All GP1979 tracks
Bahrain CTDP
Birmingham Superprix
Brands Hatch 2005
Cadwell Park
Castle Combe 2005
Detroit Street Circuit 2007
Donington
Eastern Creek
EMG Monaco
EOAA Interlagos
EOAA Suzuka
F1 1988 Jacarepagua
F1 1988 Hermanos Rodrigues
F1 1988 Paul Ricard
F1 1988 Silverstone
F1 1988 Hungaroring
F1 1988 Spa Francochamps
F1 1988 Monza
F1 1988 Estoril
F1 1988 Jerez
Hockenheim 1999
Imola 1994
Istanbul
Le Mans 1975 - 1986
Melbourne GP4
Montreal 2008
Norisring 2005
Oulton Park
Snetterton 2005/2006
Top Gear Test Track

Well, I have all the ones in bold. Track-wise, I think the 1988 tracks (and maybe a couple of '79 tracks) would make for a decent season with the '88 cars. I don't really like the CTDP mod, to be honest. I find FSOne 2006 a little better. In addition to the things in bold, I also have:

Japanese F3 Series
FSOne 2006
Toyota Atlantics

Adelaide
Cleveland 1995
Jarama
Valencia Street Circuit

[7UpJordan]

Adelaide
Cleveland 1995
Jarama
Valencia Street Circuit

I forgot I had Cleveland, so I added it to my original list. I'm waiting for the proper classic version of Adelaide to come out as used from 1985 to 1995, the one currently available is a not so good short version.

I better download Valencia and give that a quick drive around. So what shall we try out for a first race? F1 1985 as we're both still quite new to it and I'm still having trouble getting a Brabham round without spinning it?

[Denthúl]

That sounds like a brilliant idea to me!

I took the Brabham for a spin (no pun intended!) earlier and I found it hard to get to grips with. Surprisingly, I'd say that the Ferrari is one of the easier cars to handle on there, and the McLaren is fun. The Williams 'feels' terrible, though :/

Any track preference?

[7UpJordan]

I found the Renault the best handling as I took it for a spin around Catalunya-wn (yes I must be mad for taking it around that track) and it didn't just suddenly kick out like the Brabham does. I've not tried the McLaren or Ferrari yet, but the Lotus is also very nice handling too and the best looking.

[Denthúl]

I dunno, I seem to be struggling with any of the cars that have a six-speed gearbox. :/

The Tyrrel is a pretty easy car to drive, too.

[7UpJordan]

I dunno, I seem to be struggling with any of the cars that have a six-speed gearbox. :/

The Tyrrel is a pretty easy car to drive, too.

The Tyrrell's easy as it doesn't suffer from turbo lag and doesn't try and kick out like a bucking bronco when you put down the power, but its top end is poor.

You'll probably find the Lotus easier to drive as it uses a 5-speed gearbox.

[Denthúl]

You'll probably have to explain the phenomenon that is known as turbo lag to me. I've got a pretty good idea but I have no idea where it's occurring. Actually, that's a lie. It's probably about when my car ends up facing back the way I came, no?

The only track I'm having any luck getting the car set up nicely is Hungaroring

[7UpJordan]

You'll probably have to explain the phenomenon that is known as turbo lag to me. I've got a pretty good idea but I have no idea where it's occurring. Actually, that's a lie. It's probably about when my car ends up facing back the way I came, no?

The only track I'm having any luck getting the car set up nicely is Hungaroring

Turbo cars tended to be generally poor around the tight and twisty tracks back in the days (Piquet failed to qualify at Detroit 1982 in his Brabham BMW) which usually handed an advantage to the normally aspirated runners.

Here's an extract from Wikipedia on turbo lag;

A lag is sometimes felt by the driver of a turbocharged vehicle as a delay between pushing on the accelerator pedal and feeling the turbo kick-in. This is symptomatic of the time taken for the exhaust system driving the turbine to come to high pressure and for the turbine rotor to overcome its rotational inertia and reach the speed necessary to supply boost pressure. The directly-driven compressor in a supercharger does not suffer this problem. (Centrifugal superchargers do not build boost at low RPMs like a positive displacement supercharger will). Conversely on light loads or at low RPM a turbocharger supplies less boost and the engine is less efficient than a supercharged engine.

Lag can be reduced by lowering the rotational inertia of the turbine, for example by using lighter parts to allow the spool-up to happen more quickly. Ceramic turbines are a big help in this direction. Unfortunately, their relative fragility limits the maximum boost they can supply. Another way to reduce lag is to change the aspect ratio of the turbine by reducing the diameter and increasing the gas-flow path-length. Increasing the upper-deck air pressure and improving the wastegate response helps but there are cost increases and reliability disadvantages that car manufacturers are not happy about. Lag is also reduced by using a foil bearing rather than a conventional oil bearing. This reduces friction and contributes to faster acceleration of the turbo's rotating assembly. Variable-nozzle turbochargers (discussed above) eliminate lag.

Lag can be reduced with the use of multiple turbochargers. Another common method of equalizing turbo lag is to have the turbine wheel "clipped", or to reduce the surface area of the turbine wheel's rotating blades. By clipping a minute portion off the tip of each blade of the turbine wheel, less restriction is imposed upon the escaping exhaust gases. This imparts less impedance onto the flow of exhaust gases at low RPM, allowing the vehicle to retain more of its low-end torque, but also pushes the effective boost RPM to a slightly higher level. The amount of turbine wheel clipping is highly application-specific. Turbine clipping is measured and specified in degrees.

Lag is not to be confused with the boost threshold; however, many publications still make this basic mistake. The boost threshold of a turbo system describes the minimum engine RPM during full-throttle operation at which there is sufficient exhaust flow to the turbo to allow it to generate significant amounts of boost[citation needed]. Newer turbocharger and engine developments have caused boost thresholds to steadily decline to where day-to-day use feels perfectly natural. Putting your foot down at 1200 engine RPM and having no boost until 2000 engine RPM is an example of boost threshold and not lag. If lag was experienced in this situation, the RPM would either not start to rise for a short period of time after the throttle was increased, or increase slowly for a few seconds and then suddenly build up at a greater rate as the turbo become effective. However, the term lag is used erroneously for boost threshold by many manufacturers themselves.

Electrical boosting ("E-boosting") is a new technology under development; it uses a high speed electrical motor to drive the turbocharger to speed before exhaust gases are available, e.g. from a stop-light. The electric motor is about an inch long.[2]

Race cars often utilize an Anti-Lag System to completely eliminate lag at the cost of reduced turbocharger life.

On modern diesel engines, this problem is virtually eliminated by utilizing a variable geometry turbocharger.

[Denthúl]

Ah, cool. Thanks for that, it was quite an interesting read. Also, I think I've figured out the issue. It's not that I can't set the car up so that it's drivable, but rather that I can't get it to handle decently until the tyres are warm enough. Like, I have to take the slow corners at snail's pace.

My times are well off the 'official' pace, though. 1:38s around Monza :/

[7UpJordan]

Ah, cool. Thanks for that, it was quite an interesting read. Also, I think I've figured out the issue. It's not that I can't set the car up so that it's drivable, but rather that I can't get it to handle decently until the tyres are warm enough. Like, I have to take the slow corners at snail's pace.

My times are well off the 'official' pace, though. 1:38s around Monza :/

At fast tracks I think the trick is to drop all the aero, pump up the boost and try and get good mechanical grip for the chicanes. I've been mainly running with as little rear downforce as possible to drag my speeds over 300kph.

[Denthúl]

Getting the mechanical grip is one of those things I don't understand too much about, to be honest. I know it involves messing with suspension and cambers and stuff, but I haven't a clue.

I guess experimenting will have to do, though it may take a lot of doing since I'm used to a fairly aero-dependent setup. I can get those perfect, particularly on tracks like Monaco, but tracks like Monza and Hockenheim are where I get the slow times.

[7UpJordan]

Have you tried out the WTCC BMW mod yet? That is so much fun to drive, easy to pick up and the car is quite content to be thrown around so much.

[Denthúl]

Haven't played much lately - I'm back to a keyboard and that's no fun. Waiting a week or so for my steering wheel to arrive.