Worldwide Digital Proxy

[TuscoTodd]

10th place, but it looks like the Vette managed the quickest lap time of the group! :D
Looking forward to the pictures and more importantly for us non-digital guys, driver's impressions!
:banana-dance:

[arizona_lew]

Thanks for all the answers. I am very interested in having a car ready next year and also hosting here. I will continue to follow you all here :text-bravo:

[Z-carfan]

Czar-

I will ring you tomorrow about my car. Got tied up in work today.
Thanks for the heads up.


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[Czar]

Here are some of my post-race observations. First, I am a little surprised at how close all the cars ran on my track. I don't really know if it because we are all using the same chassis, and we have reached the limits of the chassis performance. Or, it could be that my track layout is the limiting factor, as fast laps are in line with existing track records. For the racing we had some problems, but all of us agreed that overall it was a huge success and great fun. One problem, that seems to be ongoing... the Carrera Race App is still not ready for prime time. We had to start every race twice. The first start, after the countdown and the start of the race, the app went directly to Race Finished. We would restart the race, and everything worked fine. Between races we would sometimes lose the connection to the Control Unit and it would take a couple of minutes in real time to re-connect. Little annoyances, but it really did slow down the racing, especially if we failed to notice the race wasn't being timed and we had to run the heat again.
For our races we had three drivers with no ghost cars. We rotated through to each driver for three minute heats. Then, total laps were added and the fastest time of the three heats was recorded for each car. I do not have driver's stations, so the pit stop to re-fuel was also a problem. So, we decided to forego the pit stops. In the end, it was much like an analog race with the ability to change lanes. And while I was hoping to showcase a little more of the digital potential, I am satisfied the having the ability to change lanes elevates it well beyond the reach of analog racing as lane changes definitely made a difference in passing cars and ultimately the finish order. We also had a problem with the spoilers on the Corvettes, in particular. All them lost the spoiler at one time for another. On a of couple spoilers the little foot that holds it onto the rear deck, broke off inside the car. I have had this happen with other Carrera C7R models too. I would recommend that spoilers be removed before racing in the next rounds.
The cars. Again, I was so busy trying to work out the various "challenges" in the digital system that I didn't take careful notes. But, here are my impressions. My favorite car in appearance and to drive was my own! Just kidding. I thought the Porsche entered by BARC was the class of the pack. It was easy to drive, and really looked like a racing car. Tusco Todd's Corvette C6 was the fastest in a straight line. It seemed a little light when going through the esses, but I still found it pretty easy to drive. The two other drivers had a little more difficulty getting used to it. CJR sent an untouched box stock C7R all the way from Japan! I had told him that I would tune it up and dial it in for him. His car was really easy to drive and quick. When I tuned it, his fast lap improved by a full 2.5 seconds! The first two positions both went to the 'Vettes with total laps and fastest times. None of the Corvettes was more than .2 seconds off the lead. These are very good cars that respond well to tuning. My own car, the Lamborghini, was a little top heavy and would spin too easily. Burrell's Corvette was kind of squirrely on the track and just seemed skittish. All the other mid-pack runners were pretty similar with no outstanding flaws.
I do think it is worth mentioning that the top five runners were entered by racers who do not own, or have access to a digital track! Will also mention that at least two of the participants have purchased digital tracks after they entered. So, I am very pleased with the first event. Obviously there is room to grow and improve and that will only make things better. I am looking forward to the impressions from the other track hosts. I have said it before, but I just want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who entered.

[Czar]

The two cars that could not be raced (Z-carfan, Buspor) will be raced at the end of the Proxy. Since Burrell and I live only doubt an hour apart, we will race the cars on my track before Burrell hosts the final event and add their lap totals to the mix.

[Z-carfan]

Czar, (John),
Thanks for taking the time to talk with me about the issue with my car. I hope the fix you suggest works out and can run later in the series.

FYI, I'm one of the guys who has purchased a digital (and wireless to) kit after I sent my car in. I felt it was a good chance to see what the digital cars were all about. Many thanks to Dave Kennedy on the suggestion of a whole digital kit as it was much cheaper than upgrading from analog. Plus got 2 digital cars for basically nothing.

Turns out I couldn't wait, it will be a bit before I can get that set in motion but looking forward to the journey.

I'd like to thank Czar and the rest of the group for entertaining this first of hopefully many digital proxies. If it is half as fun as the wood track stuff I have run, then this will be a great addition to the season.




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[BARC 1]

Thanks for the feedback and kind words on the BARC /Porsche. With passing and lane selection I imagine the outcome of these races will be very unpredictable, and perhaps the drivers and just plain racing luck will come more into play then a traditional proxy.

Sorry to here about the frustration caused by the race app. That would be a pain.

I will be looking forward to the next leg.

Cheers

Dan

[dw5555]

It's a little disappointing the fuel feature could not be used. That and the ghost car feature is what makes the digital proxy so interesting and strategic. :( I like the idea of using the fastest lap to decide ties. I was going to mark my track in feet (and may still do that). Fastest lap may not be the best way to run on my track since it's large and open.

Anyone who hasn't done a proxy before should know that the cars may not run the same from track to track as they vary from technical to speed. As Czar pointed out some drivers may find a car easy to push hard where others may have difficulty so it will effect the outcome.

This is definitely going to be interesting. Thanks for the 1st run. :text-thankyouyellow:

Dave

I'm still undecided on laps vs timed. I want to do a full fuel and a splash and dash to finish. Gonna have to do some testing before they get here to see what the fuel windows are. :think:

[Czar]

I was sorry too that we couldn't use the fuel. But as we said all along, thesis a learning experience for us all. I don't find the lack of a ghost car a problem. With three drivers you still have to make strategic decisions throughout the race. But, one of the good things about this proxy, everyone can run the race they want to. With many of us choosing to do things differently will help to clarify what works best in a digital proxy.

[Burrell]

I was going to post about the pit stop issue as well.

We were not happy with not being able to use it. It was one of the features that we specifically wanted to use for each race. But after dealing with the issue for around 2 hours and still not getting it to work properly, we were starting to worry that if we waited any longer to get the race going that we'd not be able to finish on Friday. And with all of the other delays we didn't want to have to postpone the race yet again.

We will be running the last race of the proxy at my place. We learned some things from the first one that we'll use to hopefully improve that race. I'm going to be running quite a few tests with the Carrera app between now and then. I am also thinking of trying to get a PC computer so that I can use Bruce's software. I'm a Mac guy and don't own a PC, so I'll look into that.

[BARC 1]

Bruce's software is what I use and I like it a lot.

Cheers

Dan

[dw5555]

If my comment about fuel/ghost car sounded like a dig it wasn't meant to be. Believe me I understand technical problems.. :lol:

Dave

[TuscoTodd]

[Czar]

Your observation is spot on, Todd. The cars with a little more weight handled the turns a little better. I really don't think you have to tune your car any differently than you would for an analog track. The lane changes are not too severe that they totally upset the car.

[Burrell]

I thought I’d do a post about my impressions from driving the cars. But please keep in mind, its possible that I am the most inexperienced driver among everybody in the proxy. I’ve only been in the hobby a short time. I’ve also only been in one other proxy, so take my feedback with a grain of salt. In fact, considering that my car finished last, you might want to take my feedback and believe the exact opposite! ;)

From the other proxy that I participated in, I remember enjoying driving the Corvettes the most. I thought they handled the best and assumed that their wide bodies and low body clearance would be a benefit. That’s why I decided to go with a ‘vette. Also from that proxy experience, I remember that my car could have placed better in quite a few races if there were fewer deslots. So I decided that I’d add extra weight to mine and sacrifice speed for stability. That did not appear to work out, at least on this track. In hindsight, I think I added too much weight. I also put it all at the weight pocket beneath the digital chip. Maybe if I had put some there and the rest at the pocket towards the tail of the car, it would have worked better. Overall, I think mine is both slow and unbalanced. Hopefully it will do better on other tracks, but I was not happy with my car at all. Also, if any other drives have suggestions as they race the car, I’d appreciate it.

Regarding this proxy being digital, we’ve already discussed the issues with pit stops in other posts. I wish we could have gotten that to work. But for this particular race, I don’t think there was a lot of passes. I was the overall slowest driver and Czar was usually faster than the other driver that helped us. He was close to Czar, but overall, Czar usually was in front. If we’d had a slower ghost car, perhaps passing would have come in to play more. We did change lanes, though. We all did it several times to avoid cars that had already deslotted. Also, I found that I preferred the outside lane on one of the track’s big 180 turns (Turn 1) and the inside lane on the other (Turn 2). There is not a lane change directly before Turn 1, so I had to make a lane change before Turn 4 to make sure I’d be ready for Turn 1 on the next lap. I found that I pretty much kept the same route over the lanes for the majority of the race, with the exception of changing lanes for deslots. So in a way, it was similar to analog in that I had a consistent route, but it still required staying on top of things to time the lane change properly.

As far as impressions of the cars themselves, I enjoyed driving Lancelotalove’s Corvette the most. It slid in the corners just right for my style of driving. It felt incredibly smooth and I was jealous that my ‘vette did not perform as well. The note I jotted down while recording times for Lancelotalove’s car was “handled in corners like a dream.” CJR’s Corvette was the most solid and consistent for everyone. It handled very well. We also felt that RTRandy’s Ferarri handled well and was well-balanced. TPRgmwrench’s BMW felt very loose and its tail slid all over the place. I actually was surprised when the race was finished and it had performed so well. I felt that I had to keep slowing down to keep it in control, but it obviously made up for that in speed. TuscoTodd’s Corvette handled great and was also a favorite of the group. I was actually surprised that it did not rank higher as I had no problems driving it. Czar’s Lamborghini was slightly loose in the corners for me, but Czar did quite well when driving it (as would be expected). GAUB’s Aston Martin was solid with not major problems. It had good speed and no overall handling issues. I know that Czar loved BARC’s Porsche, but I found it to be a little hoppy for my tastes. KOMP’s Corvette was solid and consistent. And finally, KenC’s Ferrari was surprisingly fast. I thought that it felt heavy and expected the results to be slower, but the final results had it near the top of the pack.

My biggest takaway from the proxy is that every driver has a style that lends itself to a certain setup. I also think that the track plays a big factor in the car’s performance. That’s not groundbreaking information. I’m sure everybody knows that. But I’m eager to see how the cars perform with other racers and tracks. And hopefully more digital features and their effects will come in to play on other tracks.

I’m eager to see the results of the next race.