Muscle Inc Class Development.

[Ske]

lol ok, anyway I think the 17"s suit the cars both in look and feel. Upgrading from 16" certainly improved my Trans Am. Much bigger and I think the look is spoiled though

[larryCR]

I couldn't be more tickled with this D class thing.  The thought of going back to running an FF car in D class almost makes me yawn.

After seeing the comments about the muscle cars on Copperhead yesterday I jumped back in my Mk2 and gave it another whirl. I was able to pick up a few tenths and crawl up the board a few places, but I still couldn't catch the fast pack in the muscle cars just ahead of me. I can see I need more practice with the rear drive machines.

BTW: My laps in the Mk2 didn't make me yawn at all.  It's just a totally different type of challenge to go really fast through the corners and crawl down the straights.

I managed to eclipse my Mk2 time on Copperhead today with a muscle car! <applause>

Maybe my Muscle Inc. membership has now been ratified. 

[Blooze]

Good job!!

There are quite a few places where BucksToon is overhauling Blooze46's time, specially on the longer tracks.  Having the two accounts, with BucksToon dedicated to Muscle cars could prove interesting.

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[Blooze]

Well, as the most successful (in terms of replies) challenge to date is drawing to a close, I was thinking we should try to finalize the Muscle Inc. D Class spec.

I think we should go with this.

• Class D - 400 PI Max
• Minimum tire width of 215 mm.
• All adjustable Platform/Handling parts are required.
• Rear Wing is required.

Notes:

• This allows another lard ass besides the Challenger, the Trans Am, to go get some weight reduction.
• The "adjustable parts" part keeps us from having to come up with addendums and the ensueing discussions like with the Z28.

I goofed around with the this on 4 of the cars and was unable to do anything significant with the PI that resulted building the platform/handling out to the bare minimum.

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[Spiny Anteater]

Sounds good to me, although one rider I would suggest is only allowing the Charger & Chevelle in on flowing and twisty tracks. I had a real hard time keeping up with you guys this week in the Charger - it can just about cut it on the twisty stuff and so provides an interesting challenge there. I certainly enjoyed running something different, even if I never got around to building out a "normal" car.

The trouble comes on the power tracks. For example, I ran it against fndrbndr at Road America and the Charger was about 4 seconds/lap faster than what I ran in the Z28, even though the Charger had full rear aero and short gearing while the Z28 wasn't to spec and had no aero at all.

I guess we can sort that out before the races or challenges though...or just rely on self-censorship

[Fit4aking]

Spiny, assuming I'm in charge of the S^4 challenges, they will always reside on short tracks.  That is the only way these cars stay competative within themselves.  On a side note, that is one of the things I kept in mind when trying to develop the restrictions.

[fndrbndr]

In that case, should we hold tonight's Enduro somewhere other than Road America?

[Blooze]

The language alluding to the possible restriction of the Chevelle and Challenger is already a part of the B Classic spec.  No reason to think it wouldn't / couldn't be a part of the D Class either.

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[TheJohnNewton]

A contrarian thought on excluding certan cars from certain challenges.  Since these are not live races but rather hot laps does it matter that some cars are considerably faster than others on certain tracks?  After all isn't the point to learn about tuning and see what we can do with car?  I know when I compare my times against others in the challenges I compare with the times for the same car more than the overall times. 

[Spiny Anteater]

TJN - I would agree with you...up to a point. For example, if we'd run the last challenge on Road America I wouldn't have felt right running the Charger like I did on the snakes. The trouble with the Charger is that even one not tuned for the track will still smoke all the other cars apart from the Chevelle.

Like you, I tend to compare myself against other cars of the same type, but more than that I tend to compare how I do overall as well to give some idea of how the tuning is working. I suppose it doesn't help that my stubborn streak makes me drive cars which hardly anyone else uses.

I suppose my point is that, although ideally we should be comparing like with like, human nature would probably have led to a Road America being run mostly with the Charger and the Chevelle rather than the great variety we've just seen.

[Blooze]

I don't think the spec was developed with Hot Lap in mind so much as to develop a set of cars that were not only somewhat competitive in class, but on an equal footing with each other for Online racing events as well.  That was the primary driver behind the original B Class Spec.

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[TheJohnNewton]

Ah I didn't know the original driver was online races.  I don't think I've ever even seen you race online Blooze.  Speaking of that though Bimmer, Fndr and I did a race at Road America with the D class spec cars and we were bumper to bumper through all 6 (?) laps.  I think our best lap times were all well within a second of each other.  So I guess it's working pretty well 

[Blooze]

Used to...  I sort of had a stroke/static seisure thing last year brought on by clogged carotid arteries.  There was an operation that juked around the most clogged parts with what is essentially a rubber hose in my neck.  But since that event, my ability to concentrate on the task at hand has diminished a great deal (read: Space Case), and that coupled with hearing that has been dealt with everything from working in mines and in the woods, and hobbies including shooting sports and standing in front of guitar amplifiers, makes on line racing too much of a gut ache for me... I get cranky.

So, I just build the cars and let you guys do the racin'

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That report, plus the results of the "Roots" challenge make it all look pretty good.  I am currently working up the full 10 car garage (the Charger and Chevelle are getting limited attention, so I should say 8 car garage) with the Buckstoon account.  All of the cars are within a second of each other for a QR and that is tightening up as I tweak each one.  As for viable in class, the BucksToon account just went ahead of the Blooze46 account for overall Class D (ranked 315) and I am no where near done with the process.  All of the times except for a few are with 94% of the first place time.  These cars may not find their way into the stable of the most ardent hotlapper, who seems to be content with the Mk II and a Chevelle missle, but a guy could do worse.

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[fndrbndr]

Just to do Qmole's account one better, in two races (10 and 8 laps, respectively):

Fit and I ran bumper to bumper in Boss Mustangs for 10 laps.  Not only did we finish side by side, but our top lap times were IDENTICAL!

Qmole jumped in.  Only my wipeout in the last lap kept us from being within a second or so, first to third, over 8 laps.  I'll post some pics of this in the Driver's Lounge if/when I get my tuit in the mail.

[Blooze]

I have spent the last few days futzing with C class.  So far it is looking promising with the following spec...

• Class C - 550 PI Max
• Y Rated tires with a minimum width of 215 mm.
• All adjustable Platform/Handling parts are required.
• Rear Wing is required.

The GT-500 has a QR of 204.058, and using the car exclusively in C Hotlap BucksToon was able to move into the top 500 in C - 358 (just in front of Fit ).  The car managed to run at 94% of the #1 times on the C Pro Series and totaled 2387.358 seconds for all five races.  It totaled 1041.793 for the Amateur Iron Works series.

I have just started with the Trans Am, and it has totaled 1030.273 for the Iron Works races, and appears to be on a par with the Shelby.

The Corvettes most likely will not make it under this spec... I haven't gotten to test them yet as I have been a bit under the weather with a massive ear ache (it has me damned near deefed) for the last couple of days and I ain't quite my usual perky self...

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