Apex Open Track Nights

Ladies and Gentlemen... In honor of S7R's third official racing season, Apex Racing Garage (arg ) will be sponsoring practice sessions that are class specific and open to the public for the upcoming official events. Where I don't for-see we'll have a large number of random people jumping in this late in the games life-cycle it IS an opportunity for friends and family to race with the S7R gear heads. The tracks will be open from this Wednesday May 22nd until the official season is over. Rookies to veterans will have the opportunity to put their tunes on the track against S7R members and randoms. Track time will start at 10pm eastern (9pm central). I'll look up the last couple of seasons track selections for each class and put those on the play list. As always, tuning questions are encouraged.

ITS RACE NIGHT, erm practice night.

On that note: I'd like to offer a little math help for setting spring rate on a freshly tuned car. If you put this in place, theoretically, you'll should have a slightly more balanced car than if you just throw on the racing suspension with no settings. Its just a starting point, but it has served me well.

Tip#1:
Vehicle weight    2250
Weight Front %  52%
Front Springs     2250*.52 = 1170<--divide this by 2
Rear Springs      2250*.48 = 1080<--divide this by 2

Tip#2:
If you like that shiny Ford '40 coupe and it appears to have high accelleration but is scored low for handling, just put some tires on it, lighten it, lower it, stiffen the springs... voila!  Instant race car.... maybe.

Take that coupe to the track while its bone stock.  Drive it for 3 or 4 laps to see if it really needs all those new-fangled parts.  Maybe that transmission is just right, maybe only the rear tires need to be 10mm wider.  So drive it stock to see what its real weak points are and "adjust" from there.

Time to get those tires warm fellas. Sh!ts'bout to get real.

I should be there for most race nights. See you guys on the tracks. Catch me if you can!

Sounds good and those numbers/ math work great I have been using them and they make any car way more stable and balanced hit me up if any one needs help with a tune I may not be able to race them great but I have learned how to tune them rather well especially thanks to that math formula above.

Sounds fun, I'll be able to make it a lot more often after mid-June.

Great idea for less-experienced tuners. Also should be a fun way to test a cars viability against what everyone else is running.

Im in but fridays and saturdays my fiance is at the house with me and during the day I go to help her on her side jobs so needless to say the weekends arent really free for me

brdrlndsmstr87 wrote:Im in but fridays and saturdays my fiance is at the house with me and during the day I go to help her on her side jobs so needless to say the weekends arent really free for me

Good thing Track days are wednesdays and races are thursdays!

true very true indeed! but either way Chippy and I have been doing some friendly online drag challenges in turn using same class vehicles but pretty much running each other best of three for pinks basically anyone think you can take my s class tbird get online and let me know!!! winner takes it!!

brdrlndsmstr87 wrote:true very true indeed! but either way Chippy and I have been doing some friendly online drag challenges in turn using same class vehicles but pretty much running each other best of three for pinks basically anyone think you can take my s class tbird get online and let me know!!! winner takes it!!

LOL! S-Class? Drag? Could be fun for a minute. How long?1/8, 1/4, 1/2 or 1 mile?

quarter mile but has to be same class

brdrlndsmstr87 wrote:quarter mile but has to be same class

That is how I understood it. I didn't figure we would race different classes. Not exactly fair in a drag race. But distance makes a big difference in the car I would use (build, tune etc...).

Let me know whe you have something I am ready whenever ive only got a few builds for the quarter but if a different length is requested id be more than happy to oblige

Well, I'll be out most likely for this week. Earliest I'd be home from work Wed is like 10:45 EST and I've got a full day Thursday that starts when the crib midget says so. As for Friday, I work in the AM on Saturday so that's probably out too. If I remember right, first race (F class) is Thursday the 6th, right?

I was going to run a Chevy Spark to help guarantee a strong vehicle, but then I felt like a chump using a leader board car. Shortly after that I started to grow fond of the Ford Coupe. It handled well but had a hunger for feet that was right up my alley. Interceptor let me know that was also on the leader board. I refuse to rely on a car that's easy to take to the front. I'd rather build and push a car that's not a 'gimme'.

Enter Alpha Romeo Spyder. I used this car for E class in my rookie season. I'm keeping it in F class this time and using some tuning experience I've gained in FM4 to help me get to the front. Track time has been the key to success in the past. I figure if I put tuning and time together, I'll have a better shot at winning this season.

Lickwid Apex wrote:I was going to run a Chevy Spark to help guarantee a strong vehicle, but then I felt like a chump using a leader board car. Shortly after that I started to grow fond of the Ford Coupe. It handled well but had a hunger for feet that was right up my alley. Interceptor let me know that was also on the leader board. I refuse to rely on a car that's easy to take to the front. I'd rather build and push a car that's not a 'gimme'.

Enter Alpha Romeo Spyder. I used this car for E class in my rookie season. I'm keeping it in F class this time and using some tuning experience I've gained in FM4 to help me get to the front. Track time has been the key to success in the past. I figure if I put tuning and time together, I'll have a better shot at winning this season.

It's always so disappointing to find that awesome car, then see it's all over the leaderboard. I generally only avoid the OP car for each class. And even then, if I happen to like how something drives - IDC if it's up on the leaderboards. I didn't tune those cars that are running 6 seconds faster than everyone, so MY car isn't a leaderboard one. It's probably pretty good, but unless I start stomping Zaks mugello times by 2-3 seconds I wouldn't worry about it.

That being said I'm deciding on my theme for this season. I might try only run a certain brand of car. Maybe Mitsubishi.

Thanks Atrum. Your thoughts on leader board vs. personal tune is why I was going to try my hands on the Spark. It just didn't feel right. Then to turn around and learn about the Coupe just solidified my feelings on the subject.

As for themes, the only visible theme I plan on trying to keep is a paint scheme. Under the hood I'm likely to focus on acceleration/speed over handling. Corners I can negotiate, its the race to the next turn that I don't want to lose. Oh, and my constant mantra will be no assists.

Lickwid Apex wrote:
As for themes, the only visible theme I plan on trying to keep is a paint scheme. Under the hood I'm likely to focus on acceleration/speed over handling. Corners I can negotiate, its the race to the next turn that I don't want to lose. Oh, and my constant mantra will be no assists.

Lol, it's funny because all lsat season when we'd have our absurdly close races my thought was always "Ok, I can catch/pass him in these last corners and we'll see if he can make it back up in the straight or not"
So you're going Spped/Accell, Interseptor is going Handling (I think), and I'll be trying to make a hybrid that is somewhere between.

If I am able to make it I will be using E class Nissan. With that in mind I am working on a S13 tune that should be pretty decent leaderboards aren't a concern at theis point since this will be the first event I plan on officially attending other than the main season

Correction to previous post it will be the 1972 Nissan Skyline

somethign to check out as well for the major gear heads

http://myforzagarage.com/

brdrlndsmstr87 wrote:If I am able to make it I will be using E class Nissan. With that in mind I am working on a S13 tune that should be pretty decent leaderboards aren't a concern at theis point since this will be the first event I plan on officially attending other than the main season

An E class that you'll drop down to F-class? Just clarifying, the first event is F-class cars only so thought I'd be sure we were on the same page.

oh no I have a few F class builds but going to put most tuning effort into the nissan makes throughout

There will probably be a return of the Green Machine Pinto or the Flower Power Bug.

9 o'clock tonight fellas.

I won't be able to get on until about 10, but I'll be racing some forza tonight. If you see me online throw me a chat invite. At the very least I'll be putting up some Mugello Club hotlap times.

I might hop on tonight. I need to do some cleaning/packing for when I visit family tomorrow.