Well, I for one can tell ya that this last couple of weeks has been a pain in the ass - literally. I had one of my special little "events" whilst putterin' around in my kitchen a couple weeks ago, and long story short, the final little bit of the episode was to drop dead onto my tailbone on the hard assed tile of the kitchen floor. Now that has put a hitch in my git-a-long for sure, I'll tell ya. It is just now getting to where I can drive more than a few laps without taking a break.
So, the driving end of things hasn't progressed very well, and stuff that I thought would be long done still has a ways to go. As of this morning I stand at 96.4% of the Career finished, and that is where my focus is going to be till that is completed. Then it will be off to finish the P2P boards and I will be done.
I got to speculating on how I would deal with the end of Forza designed projects and left to my own devices. The whole business with the Private sessions has made that quite a bit easier, this time around. I created a spread sheet for a "season" if you will, which in reality is a time sheet for all of the Real World tracks that aren't already covered by the QR tracks. 22 Races. With the QR tracks and the 'Ring, 32 races. I can track the times and money across the whole gamut. With the addition of a "Sort" field, I can compare track and composite times by class and by sub-class. For instance, the BTCC cars will still be B Class, but I can also segregate them and compare them within BTCC only.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to deal with a whole season. How hard will it be to keep the interest up? We will see... it took me three days to develop the sheet using my Porsche 997 RS.
At any rate, I got a glimpse of how I will proceed once the boards and such are all completed.
Hearing, Listening and Hearing... that has been a major contributor to my improvement as a driver lately. And I am getting better - I can tell. I can feel it. Last weekend, listening to the V8 Supercars as they moved about on the track, especially during their special undercarraige shots and such. There was a lot more of "Brake, Turn, Haul Ass" as seperate actions than I would have thought. It is the same when I watch those Takata Track Attack videos. Brake, Turn, Haul Ass.
I've started driving like that as much as I can. Individual tasks rather than trying to blend them. When I listen to the AI driving my car at the end of the race, it is the same.
Another thing that I have found is that if I let my engine rpms come down a bit before I start with the brakes, then I slow down a lot faster and sooner than I do when trying to go immediately from max revs to max brakes and down shifting. Again, individual tasks... Off the gas, on the brakes, down shift. They work better when applied in succession rather than at once. The difference in execution is miniscule, but when the seperation is there, things work better.
Working on those things makes the driving more interesting, and every bright green hint in my rear view mirror a celebration - I'm getting faster...
Home Track. I've been thinking about that lately. How would things be in my virtual racing world if I was located in, say, Atlanta. Not far from the track... on quiet nights I could hear them, the engines screaming.
When I needed to test, I'd be there. Every car I built, I'd be running it on that track, or on variations of it. Over the years you can bet your ass I would get to know every nook and cranny on that track, and I would have learned how to get around it as fast as possible. I would be
good on that track.
So I wonder about how to do that - the concept of a Home Track, without it getting too boring...
Ah... this is going to be a good day. A Forza day...
Need another cup of coffee first though...
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