Tag Archives: first time

iRacing

02 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Rules & Regulations, Technique, Uncategorized

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iRacing

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you got what you wanted for Christmas, didn’t put on 3 stone in weight, and are looking forward to a great 2016!

One of my Christmas presents was a subscription to iRacing.

For those of you who are even later to the party than me, iRacing is an online racing simulation used by thousands of gamers and real life racing drivers from all over the world. You have to pay a monthly subscription fee (you can get this from $4 if you watch out for offers or take out a yearly subscription) which gets you some basic cars and tracks, and then you have to buy any extra cars and tracks you want for around $12 each.

One thing that had been holding me back is that I only have a laptop, which isn’t ideal, but at least I upgraded the CRT TV to a flat screen HD one recently! You can pay hundreds for specialist racing wheels and pedals, or even virtual reality headsets to really immerse yourself in it all.

I have an old crappy Madcatz 2 steering wheel for the Xbox 360 that I paid about £30 off Ebay. Surprisingly, when I plugged it into my laptop, it actually worked! It doesn’t have any feedback or vibrations of Ferrari logo’s, but it’ll do. A quick word of warning that my Xbox 360 controller doesn’t work with my laptop, for some reason…

I downloaded all the stuff I need directly from the iRacing website, and paid up with my voucher and details whilst that was downloading, and then after a quick calibration of my controller, I was ready to race!

It takes a while to learn how to drive a simulator, so don’t expect to be able to jump on and win everything. There is also a good/bad (haven’t decided yet!) rating and licence system, which in theory means all the nutters only into knobbling everyone else will stay racing against like-minded idiots, whilst anyone trying to race a bit more realistically has an opportunity to upgrade their rating so they are also put into sessions with equally sensible drivers.

The only problem here is that it’s very hard to get your rating up, because you either bin it as you’re learning to stay on the track, or you get taken out by idiots which lowers BOTH of your ratings – your fault or not.

Even with my controller, it feels pretty good straight away. If you get a slide on, it’s extremely difficult to get it back without spinning – but that’s what it’s really like in real life! This might put off a lot of gamers…

After my first few days of playing, my Rookie rating had taken a serious bashing (down to 2.19!) but my racing was definitely improving! Today I finally had a clean race where I finished 3rd after a great battle with someone I had a brief chat to after the race, and that endeared me to it all a lot more.

At my level all I can really do is race an MX5 around Lime Rock Park (nice little track!) on the hour every hour, or race ovals in the Pick Up Cup. I haven’t really driven any of the other tracks, yet.

Ovals are a bit crap – especially when you’re trying to stay out of trouble to get your rating up. The good news here is that there are two separate licences for ovals and road courses, so you could quite happily leave the ovals to the ‘Merkans.

You can also do Time Trials, where you have to do around 8 totally clean laps minimum within 30 mins. This is harder than it sounds if you’re used to Forza and other games!

I will have to buy some of the UK tracks to see if it helps my Formula Vee racing in real life, and the closest car in the game to a Vee has to be the Skip Barber car, so that will also be getting bought. I am looking forward to getting that out around Oulton Park, Donington and Brands Hatch. Snetterton should be in the game soon, and having just checked, not only is Silverstone there, but so is the International layout!

There isn’t any other game with those UK tracks on them, and there really are some cracking tracks from all over the world, with more being added all the time.  There are also a load of instructional videos that apply to real life just as much as iRacing, and so I figure it can’t harm my race preparation.

If you’re on it, then please feel free to add me on there – weirdly enough I’m on there are ‘James Cater’.

If you’ve got any tips or advice for me, I’m open to it all – and feel free to ask me any questions, too!

Silverstone National Test 14/08/15

19 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Technique

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Silverstone National Test 14/08/15

This was my first test on a ‘proper’ track that’s been used in the Formula Vee UK Championship in recent years, and so should have given me my first real benchmark in where my lap times would put me on the grid.

As it turned out, it was ridiculously wet!

As I signed on in the morning, we were all being sternly warned that the trucks had been there the day before, and so there was lots of rubber down, making it all extremely hazardous combined with monsoon conditions.

I did want to drive the Sheane in the wet so that I could test the limits of the car and push past the handling limits to see what happened.  I certainly did that!

I went out on track being very smooth and cautious.  Glenn has adjusted the clutch so that it’s not all or nothing at the end of the pedal movement, and this gave me much more control to pull away.

We were also using the brand new and shiny Hoosier tyres for the first time.  There is a recommended run-in and settle cycle, but being so wet we never even got any heat into them, and so kept them on the car all day, rather than switch back to the Dunlops.

I slammed down from 4th gear to 3rd as I came up to the hairpin, and the back end came around.  Ah.  Time to readjust the brain to how slippy it is, and carry on, then!

It wasn’t quite like driving on ice, but it was the next best thing!  I had my first taste of severe understeer mid-way through the left-hander coming off the back straight, and the back end stepped out with even the slightest jab of the throttle anywhere.

It was a bit disenchanting to see the MSA Formula cars and Formula Ford’s blasting past me, and my main mission became “Stay out of their way and don’t kill the car”.

In that first session I had another spin around Copse, where I just couldn’t find any grip all day, and think I actually managed to take a decent line through there once!  This time, the back went out and I caught it, corrected, and then it went again.

The third spin of the session was powering through Woodcote in 4th gear, having not had a single problem any other lap.  I thought about a Sheane that was written off there in 2010 when it spun and hit the pit wall, and just as I thought “As long as I don’t do THAT…” I lost the back again on the exit!

As it spun a couple of times I made tiny steering inputs when I could feel the tyres bite a little, and came to rest facing the right way inches from the pit wall!

OR, as I prefer to tell it, I decided to have a go at practising my race starts, and flamboyantly spun it onto the grid, where my test start went extremely well!

I decided to reign it all back in after that.  More than 3 spins in a session is bound to attract the attention of people holding black flags, and it was clear that I couldn’t find grip anywhere and wouldn’t be even attempting any lap times.

We disconnected the front anti-roll bar for the next session, but I think it was just too wet for anything to make a difference.  All that happened was it was even less happy about turning into Copse.

When it finally stopped raining for 20 minutes before the last session, I went out only to find someone had driven the Exxon Valdez around three quarters of the track, as a 5ft wide slick of oil had taken ownership of the racing line!

I actually really enjoyed that session, with a huge opposite lock drift around Luffield as I was watching a FF behind me just as sideways doing the same thing!

So, Formula Vee’s are pretty lethal in the wet.  The Sheane was well balanced, and I did manage to recover most slides, and wasn’t just spinning helplessly everywhere.  I was pleased to find my biking instincts meant that I kept my foot on the throttle whenever the back lost grip, rather then snapping the throttle shut on instinct and making everything worse.  This will probably help me better in the dry than the wet, though… And, of course, it should be noted that everyone else was spinning off everywhere, with loads of flags and stoppages!

The custom made waterproof case from JooVuu for my Mobius camera was flawless, and despite the rain I did get some good footage.

Here’s the full first session, warts and all – remember this is my first time ever on a wet track, and my second ever time lapping in the car!

First test in a Sheane Formula Vee

09 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in ARDS Test, Formula Vee, Racing, Technique

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First test in a Sheane Formula Vee 

After finally sorting out the seized engine, we booked in to test at Llandow circuit in Wales. 

We had massive problems finding somewhere to test that was suitable to our needs – I think I’ll do a separate blog about that and what we’ve found out, so that might make it easier for anyone else for the future! 

In short, though, Llandow were brilliant and laid back.  I had sent a few emails to Louise and Sharon, but basically they let us book up the day before, and were happy for us to turn up “around 11ish” and get three hours testing in. 

Aims of the day:

  • Check the engine runs ok 
  • Get the feel of the car 
  • Gain confidence in driving the car 
  • (personal aim) Not to spin, crash or kill the car! 

I didn’t really get a chance to be nervous after arriving at Llandow.  We basically unloaded the car, fine-tuned some things, and then I signed on, kitted up and jumped in. 

There was a brief moment of panic when I slowly let the clutch out (at my Silverstone driving experience they advised to treat the race clutch like a hill start – this was great advice!), only to find the car didn’t move!  I checked it was in gear, tried again, and still nothing… 

Then I remembered that the biting point on the Sheane is stupidly high off the pedal – unnaturally so!  I took my big stupid foot ALL the way off the clutch, and bunny-hopped it forwards a few times.  Doh! 

Just to rattle me even more, I then saw the light was red onto the circuit, so I had to stop again!  When it went green I stumbled away again, then crunched the hell out of the gearbox as I tried to find 2nd gear.  I couldn’t, and pulled off the side of the circuit, thinking I must look like the biggest rookie ever and that I’d be seeing a black flag waved at me soon… At least I was the only car out there! 

Several deep breaths and I found second gear, deciding to pull away in 2nd to at least get rolling, then 3rd and 4th as I eased onto the back straight with no problems.  I was easing the brakes on, and trying to warm the tyres whilst expecting the back to snap around on me like it did at Donington at every second, but after a few corners I realised that must have been the engine seizing that spun me, and all was now well.  I could concentrate on getting some heat into the tyres and brakes. 

Coming past the pits I braked progressively and changed to 3rd, then to 2nd just before I turned left… and just got lots of crunching again. 

Finding 3rd gear I kept it running, and decided to stay in 3rd and 4th for the rest of the session, as getting laps in the car was more important than lap times. 

I warmed everything up and after a few laps had found the line and (safe) braking points.    I pushed a little harder, raising the corner speed, braking later, and getting on the power harder and earlier, before the chequered flag called me back in. 

Second session, and I raised the bar even more.  Faster, later, more speed! 

I tried braking at the 100 yard board into the first corner, dropping to 3rd at the 50 before turning in, but, as I told Glenn after the session, “the front wheels were doing all kinds of crazy shit!”.  I could see both flapping around like a rabbits ears if you gave it a good slap (err, not that I ever have, or would advise doing this – that’s just the image it gave me at the time)!   

I thought this was just a combination of the bumps and crest in the braking area and me braking to the limits and locking the wheels a little (more on this later!).  I found braking 25 yards earlier and a little smoother seemed to fix the problem, and I could get Glenn to add more damping. 

I’d been discussing camber with Glenn on the drive to the circuit, and found exactly as he called it: more throttle in the corners squatted the car down and stabilised the rear.  This was the first time I’d felt the power of camber in action, and it felt good! 

Always wear a HANS device, kids!

The speed wasn’t intimidating to me at all – I’m used to 0-100mph in under 4 seconds on my bikes – but it also didn’t feel slow.  I had a feeling I’d enjoy the high-speed corners, hard on the throttle through the turn, and the two coming onto each straight were indeed my favourites!  The connection to the car was as close to riding a bike as I’ve found.  It’s still a fair way off, but far closer than I was expecting I’d ever feel on four wheels. 

It felt good, and it felt natural, as I improved gear change times and everything started to get into muscle memory.  My lap times for the session were consistently within the same second, even though I was still taking the complex in 3rd gear. 

I had a few twitches from the rear, but was making sure to push gently up to the limits. It was either Mansell, Senna or Skip Barber who said that if you spin you learn nothing, other than that you went past the limits, and you don’t need to spin to find the limits.  Glenn told me after that he was expecting me to spin, and wasn’t sure if I was taking it easy or being smooth and sensible! 

We added a click of damping to see what that did into turn 1, and did the 3rd session with me again raising the pace and feeling for the limits. I braked at the 100 yard board again, but the wheels still did their flappy thing, and I had to cadence brake to get it all back on the tarmac. 

I blasted out for the 4th session – with me forgetting to switch the camera on! 

I’m a bit gutted about this, because I was pushing to what I’d say was a ‘safe race pace’, and would have liked to see the onboard footage.  I was fully on the throttle and not touching the brakes until the 50 yard board on the back straight, dropping to 3rd just as I tipped into the chicane, then straight back on the throttle, hanging the right wheel over the grass on the inside all the way around the curve.  I was changing up to 4th on the corner exits onto both the straights just as I hit the curb, and giggling like a loon! 

The front was still playing up into turn 1, and Glenn waved me in for a closer look after  a particularly bad shake of the old bunny ears.  And we found this: 

Note the very thin metal plate where the shock mounting is welded on.  We thought my shoddy braking was the cause, but looking back over the video I can see it first moves around after that very first 100 yard braking attempt in the second session! 

When stationary, the mounting must have been moving back into place so we didn’t even spot anything when using the adjuster on the bottom of the shock – and although it’s clearly moving in the video footage, I couldn’t the top of the shocks from the drivers seat. 

So that was day over for us, but to be honest I’d got all I needed from the day, and was at the stage where I’d just be taking risks to shave tenths off my lap times – which is not what we were there to do. 

Here’s the onboard footage from the 3rd session:


Results: 

  • The engine is strong and ran flawlessly.  I’d like another 40hp, but after 30 mins in any vehicle I’d tell you that! 
  • I got a great feel for the car, but some things need work – like changing into 2nd gear and clutch starts. 
  • I’m fully confident driving the car to the levels that I did. I know I was pushing close to the limits, but I also know I can push closer, and then I need to know how to go over that line and still keep it on the track. 
  • (personal aim) I didn’t spin, crash, and it appears I didn’t kill the car, either! 

 

Silverstone Single-Seater Experience Review

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by in ARDS Test, Fitness, Formula Vee, Racing, Technique

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Silverstone Single-Seater Experience Review

After the somewhat disastrous Formula Vee testing, a saving grace was that I had booked a Single Seater Experience at Silverstone.

The original plan was to do this before jumping in the Vee, and then I would have a benchmark for driving a single seat racing car.  I couldn’t book the day up until AFTER I should have had my first Vee race, but as it turned out, this all righted itself.

So I was up bright and early yesterday to be at Silverstone for 08:20 am.

The ‘Experience Centre’ is easy to find at Silverstone (just follow the signs to the right and over the bridge), and presenting a valid road license for signing on was quick and easy.

I’d taken my full race kit, but didn’t want to look like a Tit-Head, so decided to sign in and check out what everyone else was wearing/carrying.  Nobody had anything at all with them, so I decided I’d use my own helmet, gloves and boots, but my three-layer race suit would be overkill.  Silverstone provide gloves and helmets free of charge – but if you’ve got your own kit, you may as well use it!

There’s a half hour driver briefing with a video covering all the essentials like racing lines, flags, the track and braking and turning points/cones.  It’s very good for novices, but if you hold a race licence you should really know this stuff already!  The main difference from the ARDS test briefing was probably that you’re expected to do all your braking before you turn in to the corner. 

Also, you can’t overtake anywhere on the track apart from on the straights and only on the left.  The marshalls will show a blue overtaking flag to the car in front, who is expected to accelerate ‘more gently’ out of the corner to allow the car behind to pass safely.  This does work wonders for safety, as you know nobody is going to try to come past you on the brakes, or pull a block pass mid-corner.  The day works incredibly well because of this.

Next you go over to the Stowe infield circuit and meet the cars.

They’re special ‘Formula Silverstone’ cars – a 1.6 litre Ford Duratec engine and four gears on the right hand side, with treaded tyres and wings.  They look the part, and I noticed the bodywork was pretty heavy duty, which I’m sure is part of having reliable cars that any old numpty can jump in and thrape around a circuit!

The cockpit was quite spacious, and much easier to get into and out of than the Sheane Formula Vee, but you felt very safe and secure even just using a four-point harness.

It’s a full racing clutch – so pretty much an on/off switch!  You need to rev to around 5000rpm and very gently ease the clutch out until it punches you in the back and away you roar!

When I first slid into the cockpit I realised how much confidence I’d lost after spinning the Sheane.  I had a bitter metallic taste in my mouth from adrenaline, and realised I’d put myself under serious pressure not to cock this up, and to prove that I actually CAN drive a racing car.  I was much more nervous than sitting in the Vee for the first time.

All the cars went out in small groups, following single file behind an instructor in a Renault Clio.  I was the lead car in my group, so headed out at what felt like a very slow pace.

Much like a Vee, you only really use first and second gears to get going, and the whole of Stowe was third and fourth gear.

After a few laps slowly building up the pace, we came into the pits, a different lead car went behind the Clio, and we went out again.

This pace was actually pretty perfect for all levels of driver.  If you’re brand new to it all, you won’t be intimidated, and have plenty of time to learn the track and racing line.  Even for me, once again having my Tom Cruise ‘crisis of confidence’, it settled me right down so I could concentrate on getting the feel of the grip and the responsive throttle.

Once more we came back to the pits, and then were let loose for the last 20 minutes on our own!

When you push the throttle down properly, it all gets a lot more hectic.

With the revs up you’re instantly lapping the circuit in less than half the time, and having to really stand on the brakes coming off the straights.

Out the pit lane you come down to an awkward entry to a left hairpin, with a late apex meaning you feed the power in onto the longest straight.  Then you realise you’re being a wuss and squeeze the pedal more.

It’s a fair feeling of speed and a very bumpy journey as you ease the brakes on before you get to the ‘Brake Now!’ board, kicking yourself for not leaving it 50 metres later even as you slam it down to third gear and turn into the corner.

As you exit you drag it back to the left and dab the brakes again for a right hander, leading into a complex of corners all in third gear, some requiring a dab of brakes as you get later on in the session and pick up speed.

There’s another really awkward entry to the other hairpin, and it’s begging you to turn in too early, so you hold off and look for the yellow apex cone and bring it in to that, building power through a lovely left hander that snaps right onto the pit straight as you scream the revs up to fourth gear, braking hard but keeping as much speed as you can through a right-left s-bend back down to the first hairpin.

I was there to have fun, and pushed a fair bit with a few wiggles, but don’t think I ever strung a decent lap all together without hitting traffic (or missing a gear!), which I wish I’d concentrated more on, because in the debrief they hand you a printout of all your lap times!

I did ok, and I’m happy with my performance because I know there was a lot more to come.

As mentioned before, it ironed out some confidence issues both with driving itself, and also the big fear mentioned in previous blogs that my braking would be a major weak point.  It wasn’t, and I was very comfortable with it, and willing to push much further than expected.

On about the only clear lap I had, I put in a 1:04, and although I did get caught in a fair bit of traffic, it looks like I got lucky with a very fast group, so didn’t get held up nearly as much as I’ve seen watching other peoples videos.  That’s the chance you take with arrive-and-drive things.

So I’m feeling good about driving, and that should get me through to next years Formula Vee campaign.  Shame there weren’t any spaces in the next session, or I may have had another go…

The full experience is available from Silverstone for around £199 – but you’ll find loads of vouchers, offers and cashback around to bring that down to around £140 – I bought mine through www.buyagift.co.uk.  Then there’s the £20 damage waiver (it means you pay nothing if you kill the car), CD of top quality photographs for £20, and £30 for a full video of the day on a USB stick (plus you get £5 off the photographs with this).  Not cheap, but welcome to motor racing!