Season 2 - Plans

With Season 1 on a bit of a pause over the Christmas break, it's a good point to reveal the plans in store for season 2.

Many of the existing competitors have offered suggestions, and I've tried to incorporate as many as possible, even though some of these have been in direct conflict with one another.

The original "plan" was to move to an A-Class, 1970s only series. However, FM4's car list gets sparse after the muscle car era dies down so that plan would likely have seen only a few eligible cars. The second issue with such a plan is that the existing technical rules for C-class cars seem to work pretty well, and they seem worth retaining. Moving up to a higher class, with a very free formula, seems likely to require a great deal from the competitors (and organiser) to keep things close.

So - after deliberating all of that, I settled on the following idea for what to do with Season 2.

Two Championships

Next season will consist of two championships, running in parallel on alternate weeks. You can enter one or both.

1973-1993 Classic Roadsports

Putting the Belfast 911 through its paces.

The first championship essentially continues the existing formula, though moving forward in time and with a wider "window" (this is because of the smaller number of elegible cars from either the 70s or the 80s).

The Ruleset is largely unchanged from the season 1 championship - C425, Mandatory Rollcage, No Slicks, No Racing Gearboxes, no Aero Mods (Except optional bumper removal), no Engine or Drivetrain Conversions.
Front-Wheel Drive is now permitted.
Turbocharger conversions are now permitted.
There are 2 4WD cars that currently fall within the ruleset (Integrale, Escort Cosworth). Currently I'm unsure about letting them run or not.

There are around 40 cars that can be entered in this. the lowest starting PI is 108 for the Scirocco, and the Highest is 408 for the Aston Martin (which can definitely be made legal). There's a lot of variety - while most of the big-block muscle cars have gone (though a small number remain, one with a massive 455 cubic inch/7.5 litre engine), every drive layout and possible shape of car (and a pickup truck) is there.




A full list of eligible cars is available here.

Because this is more of a "fun" championship, a change to the car-swapping rule will mean that there will be no limit on swaps, but each swap will incur a 25% point penalty (rounded up)

(example, a driver has scored 12 points and wishes to swap cars - his total is now 8 points. he then goes on to score another 11 points giving a total of 19 and wishes to swap again, so his score goes down to 15).

Group A Classic Touring Cars

I'd planned more visuals, but I haven't had the chance to arrange a proper photo session.
So, here's a Beemer in a shed.

Even though the C425 formula usually gives good racing, there's a clear demand for something meatier and some cars in the game that are just screaming out for a faster series. I'd also like to do something based more on a single theme.

Group A Touring cars was mentioned by more than one competitor, and I've wanted to to a championship based on them since the Ford RS500 was added to FM3 in a DLC pack.

This Championship is only open to the following cars:

1983 Volvo 242
1985 Toyota Trueno
1986 BMW M635i
1987 Buick Regal
1987 Ford Sierra Cosworth
1988 BMW E28 M5
1990 Lotus Carlton
1990 Mercedes-Benz 190e
1991 BMW E30 M3
1993 Nissan Skyline GT-R
1993 Ford Mustang SVT

Cars are to be tuned to A600. Rollcage, Slick Tyres, and Racing Gearbox will be mandatory. No aerodynamic modifications are allowed. No Drivetrain, Engine, or Supercharger conversions (turbocharging is OK).

Test builds on these cars (I haven't done them all yet) show a power range from 290 bhp (Toyota) to just over 400 bhp (635 and probably the M5 as it's largely the same).


The Skyline does stand out as the only 4WD car, but it's carrying a big weight penalty and preliminary testing seems to show that it'll need a really skilled tuner to bring the best out of it.

Team entries are encouraged, with up to two (of the same) cars per team.

Schedule

The monday night slot, and the "on-the-night" format will remain unchanged.

Plan is to start on January 23rd with a Roadsports meeting, then GrpA on Jan 30th, alternating until March 26th.

Tracks, I'd like to open up to a vote, and I'll work out the process for that shortly.

Meeting 4 Report - Infineon

Connection problems and scheduling conflicts for a couple of series regulars contributed to a slightly diminished grid for this week's Historic Trophy meeting, but the smaller field certainly didn't mean a lack of action.


The field get under way in Sonoma, California.

The twisting nature of the track was expected to lead to domination by the smaller cars in the field, the Nissan 240z in particular, so it was something of an upset that the top spots in qualifying were taken up by some of the larger cars competing in the series.


Dudley's BMW leads the field through the Carousel.

The star of Race 1 was clearly Joe McSpeed in his 240z - with a storming drive from 7th on the grid to the lead. Morcs' performance in the O-Class Camaro was also notable as his 4th place finish was his best in the series, a result he then repeated in race two. Third place was taken by Badger Gravling in the Chevy Nova, another result that was repeated in both races.


The twisting backstretch is a serious test of car and driver.

The second-place finisher in that first race was Dudley in the BMW, who improved on that in race two with his debut win. His recent run of form has moved him into second place in the overall championship, and the lead of the Under-5-litre Class. (The previous leader, Balhambadger, also a BMW driver, was unable to compete this week.).


Dudley (BMW) and Joe McSpeed (Datsun), this week's race winners.

Both races saw battles between the Mustangs of Beezerly and RichXM655, and in fact there was action all the way down the field.


The midfield Mustang-Pontiac battle wasn't without casualties. Specifically, brake markers.

Sadly technical difficulties saw Meerman and ThaForce record DNFs in Race 1.


ThaForce (Muira) and Meerman(Corvette) dropped out early on with technical issues.

As we move towards the final meeting of the series, we already have one champion to crown, which is Meatball in the Chevy Corvette C2, taking Class O honours. The close competition, with no clear class challenger emerging across the series, means that his points total is insurmountable, so we congratulate him on a well-earned class championship.

The overall points totals also have Meatball in a commanding position, where he only needs to score 4 more points in the final race to be certain of victory. however, the Nurburgring Nordschleife is an unforgiving racetrack and there can be no guarantee of anything...

Meeting 3 Report.

Meeting 3 of the RLLMUK Historic Trophy, held at Mugello, saw 15 cars take to the track for a pair of 8-lap races.

Meatball’s Corvette in Pole Position.

Victory in both races fell to the combination of Meatball and his C2 corvette, which still seems to be the class of the field, leading both races from lights to flag.

Meatball leading, again.

In what’s becoming a case of a “best of the rest” battle, the BMW 3.0 litre CSLs of Dudley and Balhambadger took a second-place result each. Badger Gravling’s Chevy Nova took 3rd place in the meeting’s first race, and Balhambadger visited the podium again in race 2 with a third place finish.

Nose-to-tail running as the Field come out of the long right-hand sweep at the south end of the circuit

This meeting saw a few more incidents then previous weeks – this is probably due to a closing up of the field’s level of competitiveness. Multi-way battles were the norm as once again we saw small cars dominate the corners and larger cars power down the main straight.

An early incident in Race 2 Saw Badger Gravling’s Chevy spinning across the main straight right in the path of several battling cars. Miraculously, there was no further contact as the field came through.

As the meeting drew to a close, spectators were treated to an epic battle between BalhamBadger’s BMW and RichXM655’s Mustang, as the Ford driver tried desperately to keep the charging CSL at bay. After 3 laps of defensive driving, Rich left the smallest gap open and didn’t close it quickly enough. Contact ensued, dropping the red Mustang from 3rd to 6th, which after the race both drivers judged as a racing incident.

BalhamBadger’s BMW harrases RichXM655’s Mustang for 3rd in Race 2.

Next week, Infineon raceway, where cornering performance will dominate above all. Drivers of the bigger cars are looking nervously at their setups...

Meeting Report 2 - Silverstone

A full grid of gorgeous classic racers!

The second meeting of the Historic Trophy saw a full grid of 16 cars take to the track last night. Several new series entries meant for some nerve-wracking moments as the field powered its way towards turn 1.

Dimahoo gets Sideways out of Copse.

Once again, Meatball took a win in his C2 Corvette, with Beezerly taking the top spot in Race 2. And once again, we saw a fairly even spread through the field of U and O class cars, showing a good balance between the two classes’ strengths and weaknesses.

Badger Gravling’s Ford Fairlane drag racer was an amusing participant, but won’t be returning.

New Entrant Joe McSpeed made a good showing in his hastily-prepared 240z, and BalhamBadger shrugged off having to make technical changes to his BMW by claiming a pair of podium finishes.

The midfield scramble through Becketts.

Meatball now has a comfortable lead in both the Overall and Class O standings, with Beezerly leading the Class U table.

Kurzheck's Toyota negotiates Bridge.

Next week, the sweeps and swoops (and long front straight) of Mugello.

Road America race 2 - Full, uninterrupted coverage.

In a sterling piece of work requiring dedication, and nearly a week's worth of uploading/downloading, Meatball has made a video featuring the entirety of race 2. The midfield 3-way scrap between Sharky's little Dino, Balhambadger's middleweight BMW and Morcs' 5.7l Camaro is a real treat, though there's action throughout the entire race.



Annoyingly, due to an FM4 bug, RichXM655's Mustang appears as plain black, instead of red with white stripes.

Road America Meeting Report

The first meeting of the RLLMUK Historic Trophy was a great success, with 12 cars on the grid and some great close racing between closely matched, but very different cars.



While the long straights allowed the big-block v8s time to sing, the challenging sweeping corners would give the smaller, better handling cars plenty of opportunity to catch up and pass while the big cars struggled in the turns.

Both races saw a similar pattern at the front, with Meatball46 (Chevrolet Corvette) and ThaForce (Lamborghini Muira) battling for the lead. Meatball took race 1, ThaForce, race 2. Third place honours went to Beezerly in Race 1, and RichXM655 in race 2, both driving identical Ford 289 Mustangs. There was plenty of action down the field though, with notable, multi-way battles involving nearly all the competitors- Meerman’s Corvette had significant handling issues, but made up for it down the straights with prodigious power. The two BMW 3.0 CSLs of Dudley and BalhamBadger also saw action, as well as the lighter cars of SharkyOB (Ferrari Dino) and Kurzheck (Toyota 2000GT). These smaller cars were dicing with some cars with double the power outputs, making for some exciting racing with constant changes of position.
Late entrant Karzee seemed to struggle with the Jaguar E-type in race one, but a switch to an Alfa Romeo GTA seemed to make things a bit better. Boozy the clown recorded 7th in race 1, but a last place in the second race, and Morcs in the Chevy Camaro was the epitome of mid-table respectability with a 6th and a 7th place.

Next week, the series moves to Silverstone’s international circuit- the tighter layout and shorter straights seem certain to promote close racing as those big v8s struggle to put all that power down.

Introducing the RLLMUK Historic Trophy

It's an immutable fact that, pretty much without exception, old cars are cooler than new ones. old RACE cars are even cooler. Forza Motorsport 4 finally allows something that fans of classic cars have been hoping for since the very first game - the option to remove the bumpers from the classic cars, instantly making them look like the dechromed racers of old.

This relatively minor aesthetic tweak inspired us to set up a fairly open classic racing championship based on the sort of historic club racing that goes on all over the place.

FM4's PI system allows a very varied set of cars to compete on fairly equal terms, so races see big-block american V8s dicing with smaller european and japanese sports cars.