Firstly, this series is all about close racing, if you’re looking for a series where you can walk over the opposition and win by 30 seconds a race this isn’t for you. Likewise, I’d like input from all those who want to be involved, after all, if the racing is not close and people are not having fun then I feel I will have failed both myself and all involved, as such, all sensible suggestions will be considered. If you’re happy with this then please read the following fully and sign up!
So what is it? (The Cars)
We will be racing cars which I believe are iconic cars of 80’s/90’s touring car series’ such as the BTCC, WTCC, DTM and in some cases ‘other’ championships. The cars will be situated around the C500 PI level, the reason this has been chosen rather than ‘real’ specs is to keep the racing close and this also happens to be where most of these cars (in my opinion) work best. I have built, tuned and tested all cars in an effort to ensure fairness and balance across the board, this can be seen by looking at the linked spread sheet. Whilst every effort has been made to balance the cars we can still see visually that some cars perform better than others at certain tracks however, as all cars are within a mean lap time percentage difference of 1% I consider this to be ‘close enough’. The cars we will be racing are as follows:
BMW M3 E30 (DTM/BTCC/WTCC)
BMW M3 E36 (DTM/BTCC)
Honda CRX Mugen (SCCA GT4 + Civic platform in JTCC)
Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno (BTCC/JTCC)
Volkswagen Golf MKII (BTCC)
Mercedes 190E (DTM)
Ford Sierra RS500 (BTCC/WTCC/DTM)
Ford Mustang Cobra R ’93 (DTM)
Build and tune are open but with the stipulation that your car build must match the PI shown on the spread sheet AND the stats given on the spread sheet to within 0.2 (with the exception of launch as gearbox swaps affect this greatly) this will be checked in the lobby screen prior to each race. All cars must also retain their original drivetrain, engine and aspiration. Similarly, all cars are permitted any aero kit WITH THE EXCEPTION of the Adjustable Aero parts, the exception to this rule is the 190E where the standard adjustable rear wing will be allowed (Note the front bumper is still prohibited) however, you are welcome to remove the wing if you so wish.
8 cars are available to pick from however, only 2 of each car are permitted to keep variety, thus, if you desperately want a certain car sign up before it is taken.
Replica liveries are preferred but are not a requirement but keep it tasteful, I don’t want to see cars that look like they should be in the fast and the furious!
All cars must have roll cages.
Please note the Cobra has a higher PI than the other cars as when tested with numerous builds at 500 it was unbelievably bad to the tune of at least 1.5%+ slower than the fastest car for all circuits.
The Tracks and Weekend Format
10 tracks will be used across the campaign, there will be 3 race weekends, one ‘test’ race and a pre-season compulsory qualifying balancing event.
The test race will be a ‘soft’ no points opening for everyone to get to know each other, scope out the competition, determine if network issues will be present and of course to have some fun.
The balancing event will comprise of each driver submitting a time for their given car at a given track, these times will then be compared to those of other drivers and that of the ‘base’ time which I ran in the car, this will form the first round of PP balancing for everyone.
Mandatory ‘Qualifying’ will take place at TBD and must be completed by TBD.
The format for each race weekend will be as follows:
15 Minute assembly time,
Race 1
15 Minute break to allow for PP modifications, bathroom break, etc
Race 2
15 Minute break as above
Race 3
As each race has been tailored to last around 20 minutes this should give a total weekend time of 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours per weekend.
The tracks along with the weeks which each track will be run are as follows:
Test Track Airfield Full - 20 Laps - Week 0
Nurburgring Nord + GP - 2 Laps - Week 1
Spa - 8 Laps - Week 1
Sebring Club - 16 Laps - Week 1
Long Beach Full - 13 Laps - Week 2
Le Mans Bugatti Circuit - 10 Laps - Week 2
Silverstone National - 20 Laps - Week 2
Catalunya National - 15 Laps - Week 3
Prague Short Reverse - 20 Laps - Week 3
Bathurst - 9 Laps - Week 3
Rules
I shouldn’t have to point out the basic rules but will do anyway. Everyone is to stay on the circuit at all times, all cutting is forbidden, 2 wheels are to be kept inside the white lines at minimum. Anyone caught repeatedly disobeying this will receive a 10 point penalty, the exception to the rule is Prague Short, the fast chicane can be cut as much as you dare, this is because: 1. it would be near impossible to police and 2. because enormous accidents could be created here if a following car is more liberal in its interpretation of the rule than the leading car.
Contact is to be avoided if at all possible (even if it means you have to duck into the wall to avoid the car in front). If you do happen to hit another driver then you MUST wait for said driver to pull back onto the track and pass you before you resume racing, damage will be off so this is the fairest way in my opinion.
Damage will be off, there’s nothing worse than crippling your car within the first lap and having to drag it round for 20 minutes! In the event of a ‘big one’ however, the race will be restarted.
Amendment 1: Those who race from 3rd person view or any view where a rear view mirror is not present do so with the understanding that it is their responsibility to look out for cars alongside/passing, it is not the responsibility of the overtaking driver to inform you they are ‘on your left’.
I also actively discourage the practice of ‘I’m faster than you move over’ overtaking, you are always entitled to fairly defend your position no matter how much faster the driver behind is, providing you do so fairly and considerately.
Balancing
Assuming a 16 player lobby, the driver in 8th will be the ‘base’ and those drivers around him will have their PI modified in 1 point increments, anyone finishing lower than 8th will receive a PI increase, anyone above a PI decrease, so the 1st placed driver will lose 7PI for the next race whilst the 16th place driver will gain 8PI. The ‘middle’ of the pack driver will always form the zero point, thus in the event of say an 8 player lobby the 4th place driver will be the ‘base’. This sounds confusing at first but I will be taking care of all the balancing and informing everyone of what their ‘new’ PI should be so it’s on me to get it right not you!
The idea of this system is to get everyone racing each other regardless of skill, sure it’s not perfect but it should close the pack up and promote good racing. One might say ‘ah but what if by race 9 I’m 56PP down? how is that fair?’ well to you I say you must be a bloody good racer to have won all previous 8 races!
In a further attempt to keep the racing close grid ordering will be done by descending PI, this way the ‘faster’ drivers will always start at the back of the grid and will have to fight through for a victory.
In the event someone joins mid-season they will be assigned a PI by calculating the mean value of all other competitors, this way, it should not be possible for someone to join mid-season with a huge advantage.
Points
Points will be given as follows (Winner first): 25,20,17,15,13,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1.
There will be one dropped round.
Prizes
These are TBD as of yet but are likely to include at least three prizes of monetary value.
Dates and Times
Dates are yet to be decided but will likely fall as the last 3 weeks of July with the start of July reserved for the ‘soft’ opener and the qualifier.
Each weekend will always be ran on a Saturday at: BST 6PM / 12PM CST / 1PM EST / 7PM CET / 3AM AUS (sorry!)
Sign Ups
GTP_ChristianC -
GRD 4 3L - Mercedes 190E
RelaxedPRKid -
GP RoadRunner - Ford Sierra RS500
Clark Duffy - BMW M3 E30
The spreadsheet for the car stats/builds/balancing can be found here → https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Q4FzkRWiS7YmlrbkZJdjNuOHc/edit?usp=sharing you’ll have to download it to see the full sheet though.
Thanks,
Christian