BarbecuePete's Grill - Best Ribs and Steak East of ol' Miss...

[BarbecuePete]

I'm really having fun with the C390 Improved Touring Cars that Open worked up.  Want to talk about close racing, that is some close racing.  There were times that I was able to run with and pass the faster Exodus guys because the cars were very similar and a slight grip penalty was in place to "slow" them down. 

I logged on to Exodus yesterday and took a look at the two specs Open's come up with, I wish I could run more with the Exodus guys as it's always been good racing when I have hooked up with them, but sadly the time difference gets in the way of joining the regular series that are run over there.

The grip / hp penalty sounds like a good way of evening things up even more in a series, much like the BTCC use a weight handicap or as they call it, success ballast. Would be nice if we had that option in Forza.

[BarbecuePete]

So as you may have seen already I spent some time today setting out the projects I've been working on lately,  there's more info to follow on each of them but I just wanted to get the basics written down for now.

Look out for more on them soon...

[BarbecuePete]

Latest addition to garage is up, a subtly upgraded Ferrari 250 California... and it's already one of my favorites and has become my go to car to take for a spin when I first fire up the game...

Speaking of favourites, The Alps tracks, especially the Stadtplatz ribbon is probably my favourite strip of tarmac to drive. I just love the way it just flows, a fast rollercoaster of a track which rewards the brave but can punish just as easily, here's my take on a lap...

The first corner is vital, getting the braking point right so as not to run too deep, it's quite wide on the exit and with a well balanced car you can get on the throttle really early to build speed through the turn and carry it into the fast first section with the tricky left hander over the crest as it drops down the hill, then building speed quickly before braking for the uphill left hander at the bottom, which is slightly cambered and can be taken much faster than you think if you get the line right.

Then its the flat out climb back up the hill before diving down through the switchbacks between the walls and then braking as little as possible to carry the speed into the last corner, patience is the key just waiting enough on the throttle so that the car doesn't push wide as the turn tightens on the exit. Before blasting across the line and onto the next lap... looking like this >> 


So whats your favorite track, the one that you can just jump in a car, drive around just for kicks and it always puts a smile on your face?

[BarbecuePete]

Been trying out the ABC'S lobby's that Bronco mentioned the last couple of nights. Monday it was a bit shaky and only lasted 2 or 3 races before the lobby crashed each time, but last night it was pretty solid (even without the patch) and we had a good nights racing. 

It's a pretty fun setup with the 4 different classes and the staggered starts, in the higher classes it's all about picking your moment as you come up on a group of lower class cars fighting with each other (or avoiding the carnage as they smash each other off the track!) Lower classes it's about getting away from the carnage early and then keeping an eye out for the faster cars as they fly up on you... We were 4 wide at one point down the main straight at Mugello. I was trying to pass a fellow B class car as an A class tried to pass us both and then an S class came screaming down and squeezed through the gap between me and the pit wall!

Good fun!

[Blooze]

So whats your favorite track, the one that you can just jump in a car, drive around just for kicks and it always puts a smile on your face?

Right now, I have three.  Kaido (either way), The Ring, and Viejo Extreme.  I say "right now" because I continue to hold out hope that Positano will return, in which case it jumps up near the top of the list.

I like to "Sunday Drive" these tracks, check out the scenery and listen to the car.  The Turn 10 boys have done some pretty impressive work with the environments.  My 'Round Tuit list is just chuck full of Scenery Shots that I plan to take.

$

[Fit4aking]

Favorite tracks for me are usually the one's that everyone else dislikes.

Suzuka East, absolute favorite.  Nothing beats trying run stock '70's Dodge Chargers around there without ABS or Traction Control while trying to do it in under a minute.  It is possible but my word it takes some concentration.  On the flip side when you get that one car that holds corners well because the sway bars are set up perfect, and the dampers control transitions just so, and you still have two gears to pull down the straight, nirvana!  Just don't toss it away by missing the braking point for turn 1.

Maple Valley Short Reverse.  The "Mind Eraser" corner is a problem for just about everyone and more often then not no one takes the time to learn it, they just don't play that track.  For lower class shootouts this track is wider than SuzE so racing is more fun and the track itself is as challenging as any group of racers could be.  It'll either be a good close race, or you'll fight the track the entire time.  One way or another I'm always at home there and willing to push each corner a little harder than I should.

Mugello Full.  My favorite A-class and above destination.  Fast, flowing, grip intensive but it will punish you if you don't have some power under the hood.  Nothing is worse than taking a grip build Viper there and pulling on the field only to have Rossi, or a live person, make up all the ground you gained on that L-O-N-G straightaway.  Not a lot of room to pass but specific passing zones and several braking points mean you can pressure people for mistakes and generally they will oblige.  Always a good time here, and if you have to be sneaky a well timed brake check will ruin the entire momentum of a lap for the person behind you and still allow you to run away.  Yup, its a mental track too!

Honorable mentions: Infineon Full and Nascar, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta Full.

[BarbecuePete]

Blooze, I'd like to be able to just go for a Sunday drive but I always end up with heavy right foot syndrome, and Fit i'm also pretty sure not many people are that big a fan of the Alps tracks either...

Right now, I have three.  Kaido (either way), The Ring, and Viejo Extreme.  I say "right now" because I continue to hold out hope that Positano will return, in which case it jumps up near the top of the list.

I like those 3 tracks too, As you probably know i'm a big fan of the P-2-P's on Kaido and I've spent a lot of time at the Ring his time around, especially in the A class GT cars, I also miss the reverse version of Viejo Extreme, that's one I'd like to see back alongside Positano, not really sure why they have taken it out.

Favorite tracks for me are usually the one's that everyone else dislikes.

Suzuka East, Maple Valley Short Reverse. Mugello Full. 

Honorable mentions: Infineon Full and Nascar, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta Full.

Yeah i'm not a big fan Mugello, it's pretty much my bogey track and I never seem to do well there... Suzuka and MVS Rev. though I do like, I guess by 'Mind Eraser' corner you mean the first corner, where everyone tries to go around the full track?

The first / second corner at Suzuka is one of my favourite sections, when you get it just right and can get on the power really early as the car just sticks with the camber of the track in the second part and yet like you say it's so easy to mess up the first part and run out into the dirt...

Road Atlanta is a great track too (well I gotta say that really) Its a lot more of a grip / acceleration track than people think, the last chicane especially is very deceptive on how much time you can gain or lose through it.

[BarbecuePete]

Nice day here today and with summer on the way we fired up the BBQ for the first time this year today and cooked up some pork shoulder steaks. Now it's back out it will probably be fired up most nights from now until September if the weathers good, can't wait to cook up some of my special chilli burgers and Jerk Pork again.

In Forzaland its been fun times in D class muscle Superstock V8 Sports SVS) cars and I've started work on the paintjobs for the A Class rally cars, The Lancia is getting the classic Martini livery, the Renault a black and gold Diac livery and the Audi is a livery I haven't seen before, an Audi Sport UK livery from the 1982 RAC rally. Here's some source pics..

[BarbecuePete]

A bitter sweet day with the title updates release, happy to hear multiplayer issues will be solved but not so happy about the PI adjustment to so many cars. It would have been nice of them to at least said early on there was a possibility of other cars being affected by the title update and not just the known broken cars, now I probably have a garage full of cars that all need to be rebuilt.

I'm at work so haven't had chance to see the impact on my garage yet but the affected cars make up the bulk of my garage so I could have almost no cars to use.

Throw in the leaderboard wipe and F class will be wiped out as I've pretty much only ran the '78 Mustang. All the D class Superstock stuff i've done over the past week is totally wiped out and the Renault 5 will need to be rebuilt for the rally challenge. So pretty much every project is on hold now until I wade through the damage.

I almost don't want to look...


I'm gonna need a beer....

[BIGmuddyBRONCO]

I understand your pain Pete but to be honest I am VERY happy about the PI adjust. Now trolls will have to find a different way to win in online lobbies. The only thing I am worried is that people will still give you crap even for using and adjusted PI naughty car.

[BarbecuePete]

Yeah i'm happy to see the back of the Viper swapped Dart's and Superbee's Bronco. But I think most people will just swap to the Spark now instead.

I just hope they haven't overdone it with the rest of the muscle cars and it will just be a few tweaks to the builds. From what Blooze said about his garage I'm hopeful that's all it will be on most of them.

Also I'm wondering if anything will have happened with the cars that weren't on the list, The Shelby GT500CJ,  '65 Mustang,  Buick GSX and the Oldsmobile. In D class at least the 65 Mustang is just as quick as the rest of the muscle cars (fastest at Sedona in the Superstock) and the Olds / Buick are not far off and the Shelby GT500CJ is one of my strongest cars in C Class...

I guess I'll find out later...

[BIGmuddyBRONCO]

Was in the lobbies racing multi-class abc's and the C-class and oft times B as well was the Chevy spark show... So here we go again...

[BarbecuePete]

Yesterday was a good day, spent time working on the paintjobs for the Rally car's, I've got the base designs finished now just need to make up some more custom logos to finish them off.

Also spent some time looking at tweaks to the SVS specs since the PI changes, more detail will be posted in that thread as I work through testing again and see how it shakes out. The biggest surprise though was how much removing the roll cage affected braking and although the handling stat / G rating's don't change much, the cars don't feel as responsive on turn in or as stable through the corner.
To overcome that I'm also looking at allowing removal of bumpers and adding the rear spoiler, as that gives a few more PI to play with as well and it helps recoup some of the losses in braking.

I've only tested the '69 Z28 so far but I actually bettered its pre-PI-change lap time around Sebring Short with the re-worked original build. Of the two sports chassis builds, it felt better with the Aero than without and I think the Aero car will be the quicker around Infineon / Sedona but the times for all 3 specs are pretty much identical at Sebring Short, I even set an new PB beating (just) the pre-change GTO build although it didn't record on the LB.

To finish the day off I went for some racing in the D class hopper, first race was Infineon Nascar, so I pulled out the unchanged SVS '65 Mustang, starting 14th out of 15 though I didn't have much hope, but there was a lot of contact in the first few corners and I managed to sneak my way through the carnage and up the 5th by the end of the first lap. The front 4 were already out of reach though, but I was happy with a low 91 second lap while the Sparks at the front were in the 89's..

Second race was Maple Short reverse, so I pulled out an '89 MR2 I'd built up ages ago and never really used, I will be using it more now though! Started about 10th and made a great start, and somehow managed to sneak my way up the 3rd by the hairpin, the first 2cars ran wide I took the lead and stayed there, on the last lap though 2nd place was catching fast. But he pushed too hard in the last corner and scraped the pit wall and I held on for the win.

Then as I was finishing up it sent us over to the Ring so I pulled out the 250 California, and had an epic race with a guy in a Civic. I pulled out a lead at the start but he got past me and pulled away through the corners, I thought he was gonna disappear but I caught him up again on the faster sections and was able to stay in touch and I could see he was pushing like crazy to build up a lead. He got a bit of gap but on the big climb up the hill I caught him again and was right on his bumper as we went into the carousel, he made a mistake on the exit and I was able to get past. But he had too much grip over me in the following corners though and was able to get back past and pulled out a lead again. I may have been second but it was so good to have such a close and clean race with someone in a random hopper, a great way to end the nights racing. I saved the replay to get a couple of photos...

[Blooze]

I had a pretty good day Forzacation wise too while rain screwed with the all the races I was looking forward to watching.  (The huge squeel by all the sheeple for "weather" always astounds me.  Why?)

At any rate, my weapon yesterday was the older VW Scirocco, an '81 I think.  My goal was to try to replace my Cobra Mustang times before they get whacked and to go ahead and finish off the class and the events that I run.  I thought I was going to be in for a real job of work beating those times, but the VW, with the Turbo upgrade, was up to the task, and then some. 

I'm really enjoying the little car, and have developed a little Walter Mitty scenario about a high school nerd eventually beating the tar out of all the Muscle car hotshots in a race to the top of Cottonwood pass.  I need to get the VW built out to D Class first - all in time...

I'm even so impressed with the VW that I have decided to throw a little paint at it... I'll be posting the build and perhaps a pic (I have email issues right now) a little later in the day.

Speaking of paint, I'm looking forward to seeing your Ralley Replicas...

$

[BarbecuePete]

I had a pretty good day Forzacation wise too while rain screwed with the all the races I was looking forward to watching.  (The huge squeel by all the sheeple for "weather" always astounds me.  Why?)

I do like a bit of a wet race, especially with F1 it always seems to mix things up. But with yesterdays Malaysian GP I would have like to have seen how Vettel's decision to qualify on the harder tyres would have worked out in the race.

It was good to see Ferrari on the top spot though with all the problems they've had with their car, love him or hate him, you can't deny Alonso is something special behind the wheel of a car.

Also good to see Perez in the Sauber surprise everyone and grab second, shame he made that mistake and lost ground at the end but he reminded me of Vettel a few years ago at Monza in the rain where he won in the Torro Rosso and look where he is now... Definitely one to keep an eye on for the future...

Look forward to seeing the Scirocco, Blooze. It's one of the cars at the top of my Tuit list once I pick up the DLC. For a livery, how about this little number?