Does anyone still drive Grand Prix Legends?

[Feek]

I was never very good, more enthusiastic than skilful but I just noticed the box on the shelf and thought I might install it again. My wheel is in the loft though :(

[Zirax]

Many many years ago yep.

Nower days its GTR1&2 GT Legends and R factor. None of which I have got.... but I will get them as they are damn good :)

[Justsomebloke]

Not any more mate but i am a Serious Sim Racer.
Momo, race team, Events, League, Daily praccy sessions, International Events.
I was even asked to be team leader for Great Britain but i turned it down as i just couldn't get on with the Italians that were running it.
The game of the moment is RFactor. A brilliant online or single player racer that offers more than Any other game i have ever owned.
It's open source so new mods are released weekly which totally change the game.
The historic rally cars have just been released with RS500's, Mk1 Eccy RS's, Renault 5 Turbos, Lancia Delta Integrales etc etc etc
There is a great Touring car mod the ETTC2003, there is a Megane mod which is also superb.
Also you have All the open wheelers including the BMW Sauber which is the Actual Sim that BMW use to demo in pits on race day.
Tracks are countless, online races are endless and 24/7.

For the price of the online purchase and download you get a Brilliant sim then it gets renewed every week with the new mods that are released.
This really creates a buzz around the racing community with everyone getting the new mods then praccy like crazy getting up to speed with the new handling/physics.

Anyway heres a few links the first being the Actual site and the seciond being the Number site for Mods.
Have a look round the second site at the mods section to see the cars/tracks etc.

http://www.rfactor.net/

http://www.rfactorcentral.com/index.cfm

[Burble]

RFactor looks fun.

/downloads.

Edit - It's a shame all the download links are damn slow, I'm averaging 300k/sec from the UK mirror.

[Feek]

Sure does look interesting.

What UK mirror, I don't see any listed...

[Burble]

Hmm, there was a UK mirror listed between the last German and Czech mirrors but it seems to have vanished.

Yey, my download is finished!

/hugs 20Mbit cable modem

[Feek]

Oh, that's rather good, malc - Good suggestion.

I just reached for my Paypal and thought that perhaps I ought to wait until Wednesday when I get paid, and buy myself a birthday treat :)

It also makes me want to risk my life in the loft looking for the wheel.

[Justsomebloke]

I can confidently say that the Money back trial is Active.
Feel free to try it and if you don't like it you Will recieve a full refund.
A wheel is Definetly needed though and to get the best from this game you really do have to get the mods. They have developed the game No end through the modding scene it is Fantastic.
The Three must have mods are the Historic rally mod the ETTC2003 mod and the Megane mod. All available from the above 2nd link.
Seeing some of the BD crowd in pit online would be Excellent. People from throughout the world have constant daily battles online in races with fields up to 40. Most around the 10-20 mark though of varying levels of skill.
I race the europeans throughout the day and the Aussies in the early hours. By the way the Aussie V8's are superb but Not for the faint hearted. Slinging one of them around Phillip Island is not really where you want to start. ;D
The 3 mods i have mentioned on the other hand are very natural drives very smooth and very instinctive and natural feeling.
I'm quite excited for you i must say. I know what is out there in the way of online sim racing and it's Superb fun.
20 dudes steaming about some track or road course trying like hell all for the first bend :D or piece of track. Like i say Great fun.

[Feek]

OK, I climbed into the loft and grabbed my old MS FF wheel and pedals. Panicked when I realised the PSU wasn't in the bag but then I realised it had to be still under my desk somewhere. A quick hunt and there it was.

Plugged it in, set up a few key mappings and gave the trial another blat.

Oh my word.

I've never experienced anything like it. As I accelerated out of the last corner and down the start/finish straight I actually got a feeling of driving at speed. I compare it to the same feeling I had last week in the car I've borrowed from work on a long straight empty piece of dual carriageway where I wottle'd it up to OMG mph :)

Can't do anything with those mods until I buy it, and I won't buy it until Wednesday but I'm really looking forward to it. I don't expect to be competitive at all as I've never been especially good at these racing sims but I'll surely have a good go :)

[Feek]

Urrrggghhhh, suffering with understeer using the default car (not the F1 one) on the default circuit and the allowed car tweaks are minimal so my only way to stop the understeer is to drive slower!

I guess driving slower is a good trick but I'm sure the car is tweakable.

I'll be paying very shortly and having more fun tonight :)

Malc, you're a star - Thanks for mentioning this game...

[Feek]

I paid! Now the wait for the key........

[kaiowas]

I really ought to get myself into one of these modern sims. I used to love playing the F1GP and gran turismo series and always dreamed of being able to play something properly realistic.

Only thing holding me back is likely to be the amount of time I am able to put into it. I always found that whenever I tried GPL I got bored/frustrated long before I got good enough to actually enjoy driving the cars.

[Feek]

I played with GPL ages ago and thought I'd got reasonably good at it, I learned some of the circuits well and had what I thought was a good racing line. The problem was when I started racing against other people and found them on the line that I wanted to be on. I wasn't good enough to navigate around them and caused a fair few accidents!

I'm determined to do a bit better with this one though.

[kaiowas]

Had a play on rfactor today and just bought the full game. Currently downloading some mods.

[vix]

Woo! I get to practive driving Snetterton! Good job too by the looks of it :/

[Justsomebloke]

Bit of luck there then as Snetterton has just been released.
Glad to hear a few are getting it. Here are the three direct links to the 3 mods you MUST HAVE.
The mods effect the handling greatly and the mods are what have developed the game into what it is today. The default game although good is a whole league behind the game + mod.

Historic rally
http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=Historic%20Rally%20Cars%20%28HRC%29

Megane mod
http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=Megane%20Trophy%202005

Touring cars
http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=ETCC


You will have to register at that site but it's well worth it as it has All the mods and tracks you will be needing. Also visit this forum and check out the RFactor section. Although the site is damn slow it has some worthwhile info for sim racing and RFactor.

http://forum.rscnet.org/

Also feel free to shout me for a meet up on track. If we meet on track i can pass you set ups via the game far easier than other methods.
If you like the default game of RFactor you are about to wet yourself when you combine it with the above mods.
Racing an RS500 up a mountain road in the Alps is something else i can tell you. Or street racing them or track racing or hill climbing or Rally, Yes RFactor has it all in abundance.

[kaiowas]

Have already installed those 3 mods. Not really had a chance to play with them yet though although I did give the Megane a quick thrash around Spa. Seems like a nice fun car to drive.

[Feek]

Aye, I've already got those three that you suggested Malc, plus Snetterton and Brands although I've not tried Brands yet.

[Justsomebloke]

Try not to get to involved in lots of tracks though but concentrate on one or two at first until you get used to the cars/mod.
The default tracks are splendid so make sure you get to know Essington, Toban and Mills as they are all still played regularly.
Brands has different versions so you can pick the short course get to know that bit by lapping it then switch to the longer ones when you know part of the track from your small circuit laps.

The one thing i must stress is racing line. You cn see the dark tyre marks of the racing line on the track and stick to this without fail.
Basically i tell everyone the same thing i read from a Jim Clarke book i read ages ago. He says if you are not on the rcing line Do nothing but get back on to it. This is so true.
Keep your steering wheel as straight as you can and Always be on the racing line and the speed will come.

I had a spin out last night in my RS500. Probably done around 40-50 laps during praccy qually and racing. These cars are amazing and you can actually feel the tyre trying to break away when you kick it up and down the gears. Brilliant.

[Feek]

:D :D

Essington is the track I've been practising on, it's got some nice fast twisty bits and some fairly hard braking points which I'm still trying to enter too fast and understeering like buggery.

The layout of that back section after the long straight reminds me very much of a GPL circuit that I quite liked. Twisty and turney like a twisty turney thing :)

Still slowly building up speed and am a fair way off the pace but getting a bit quicker bit by bit. I'm driving the rFactor open wheel trainer on it.

Amusingly, I pointed a friend at work to the sim last week, he downloaded it and tried it over the weekend and when I got into work this morning the first thing he said was that it's the biggest load of rubbish he's ever seen and "the cars are impossible to control". I chuckled :)

[Justsomebloke]

Arcade dudes don't like RFactor.
It is not a game you just press the loud peddle and steer round any track as the cars do have to be driven.
One thing you will probably need to do is reduce your steering wheel centreing in your options as this will give you more feel and better responce. Also make sure you do Not have combined pedals ticked in options as you want to be able to use the pedals independantly.

With the understeer you are suffering try shifting the weight of the car to the front just prior to entering the bend.
Basically you brake hard in a straight line then the weight shifts to the front/front wheels then you have more traction at the front and it will turn better.
Also decreasing the rear wing will make it turn better and increasing camber nad lowering ride height. Also do 5 laps then check your tyre temps, if not at optimal say 90-95 then reduce pressure to get the tyres to run hotter or increase pressure to make them run cooler.

[Feek]

Also make sure you do Not have combined pedals ticked in options as you want to be able to use the pedals independantly.


This was something I meant to ask about but forgot - I noticed that it's on by default but didn't see an option to turn it off. It seems a dumb default option as if I brake while my foot is on the throttle all it does is reduce the amount of gas, and only starts braking when the gas is fully off. I've not been able to effective heel-toe (or left foot brake) at all.

Where's this option?

And Malc, can you PM me your MSN so I can add you and we can chat on there?

[Justsomebloke]

Go to control panel/game controllers/
Select your wheel then select properties the option is in there just untick the box.
You can then tweak the break to control the back end and help you turn using brake fading techniques.

MSN = malc30@hotmail.com

Great addy a :)

[Feek]

Arrrggghhhh. The MSFF wheel doesn't support seperate axis :(

[Justsomebloke]

Did you add me to MSN Feek ?
If not do so as that dude doesn't want my spare MOMO so there is a deal to be had there. I have 3 as i said so can deal you the one i am actually using now. It works perfectly and has had around 5 months use.
As i said beforer a no cash deal as that wouldn't be right so you will have to find something i want to deal me with.
Off the top of my head a DVD player as my one don't read every once in a while and i have to do the old in out with it.
What you reckon, any deals ideas or do you not want it ?

[Feek]

Got a link to the MOMO?

I do have a DVD player in a box doing nothing, can't remember what it is apart from being multi-region.

I'll have to dig it out, but sounds like we could be on a winner. Will add you tonight :)

[Justsomebloke]

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2217,CONTENTID=6030

That's the baby, there about 80 quid over here and a quick search found the cheapest for just under 80 quid. Damn good wheel mate you just have to take them apart after around 5 months. The fixxes are easy and have been done to this one with the pedals. Basically the pots on the pedals move about, if they wear you just take the 12 screws of the base resecure them and away you go for another 5months. The wheel is even easier to do as you just reposition a cog secure and away you go remembering to apply Proper plastic greese before you reassemble.
I have links to websites with the Momo fix with pics etc i got from google.
As i said the one i will send is the one i am actually using now so i know it is perfect. I will get my new one out the box and still have a spare, good a.
Odviously you cannot take advantage of any warranty and only a swap deal would make it right.
Seems fair to me :)

[Feek]

Looks good Malc. Didn't MSN you last night, I was in bed by half eight, feeling like absolute crap at themoment. Will try tonight