Sexy Curves Speedway Scramble

 I couldn't help myself. This track layout is way too much fun not to see who ran the best on it. 

When half of the layout is a tricky handling test, anything goes.

I started by just running some cars through the 4/15 snake, but there was something a lot more challenging than it looked here. You'd think that going through that mellow of a series of wiggles would be pretty easy, but it separated the grippy from the not-so-grippy.

Each car got a tire scrub and did 25 laps

Car                           Time              Lap    

Sunoco M6A           1:07.84           2.68   

Elva #47                   1:08.31          2.72   

Sunoco 908              1:10.91           2.8    

Elva #2                     1:10.99           2.8    

Tergal 908                1:11.23            2.84 

Gulf 908                   1:12.45           2.88  

Alfa Romeo #2         1:13.92           2.92  

Matra #10                 1:14.80           2.96  

Shell GT40 #8          1:14.97           2.97  

Chaparral #66           1:15.18           3.0    

Rothmans 917          1:15.32           3.01 

Gulf 917                   1:15.81           3.02                          

Lola T70 MKIII #7  1:16.25           3.04

Leyton House 962    1:16.94           3.06           

Chaparral #65           1:17.23           3.07         

Lola T70 #21            1:17.50           3.08  

Playstation 911GT2  1:17.57           3.08         

Ford MKII                1:17.82           3.09                

Lucky 917                1:17.94           3.09

Gulf GT40  #11        1:18.35           3.12        

Momo Ferrari           1:18.98           3.15                   

   

                

Sexy and fast. That seems to be a theme today. I had no expectation that the McLaren M6A would win this race.

Quite a few surprises. First, Team Sunoco doing such an impressive job with two cars on the podium. Neither had been prior, and the 908 had a simply dismal finish in the last race. I did not expect this outcome. 

Another surprise was the poor showing of the Lucky Strike 917. I think there might be a tire rub or something going on with that car. I think it might be time for a winter oil/lube job for everyone. I heard some squeaks and a few other strange noises today.

A third surprise was that there are FOUR Slot.it cars in the Top 10. 

Oh, and yeah, I figured out the other day that I have a few cars that share the same team liveries. So now I have a few teams. That's kinda cool. 

Teams

Team Sunoco

McLaren M6A #6

Porsche 908 #6

Gulf Team

Porsche 917 #19

Porsche 908 #1

Ford GT40 #11

Shell Team

Ferrari 333SP

Ford GT40 #8

There are some other cars that are eligible for teams in the future, notably Rothmans. I have my eye on a 908 from NSR with that livery, and it'll likely be next.

Looking at those teams realistically, the fight between the Sunoco and Gulf teams would be pretty good, but the Shell team would not be very competitive. The #8 would do most of the work on that team, but together they wouldn't score the points to keep up. It would make for a fun points system, though. Kinda like a Constructors Championship, which I also am considering doing; probably be Porsche that'll win, although McLaren is looking pretty strong these days.

Some days you win it all, some days you just show up. Today the Lola #7 just showed up. Prior to this race it was the fastest car.

This is what I love about racing. I know there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Lola #7. It has been running spotlessly since I got it. But sometimes the car and the track aren't the best fit, and I think this might be the case for this car. The other Lola didn't fare much better, in fact it did worse. So it is what it is. If it had come in last last place by a long way, I would definitely be getting under it, but I don't think that's what's happening here. 

Not so much of a surprise that not one, but both Elvas are kicking ass on this track. I think on a longer race they would end up 1-2. A short 25 lapper really doesn't show off the car's full potential. It's got that long distance lasting power. I can feel it. 

I also felt like the Matra did surprisingly well, and had even set the fastest lap at one point. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by that, though, as it has always done well in tricky situations. There were four Slot.it cars in the Top 10. I still can't get over that.

There is a deceptive aspect to the 4/15 snake. It looks pretty mellow, almost easy, but when you're racing it you can tell there's a line you can't cross. But that's the line you have to cross to see who's the better racer. Every car could potentially go through the snake section at almost any speed they'd like, so it's a great place to either win or lose a race. 

You pretty much have to push the car as hard as you can to get good lap times, and if you don't, you'll be behind by a significant margin. There's a half-second a lap gap between first and last on this race, and some of the cars that came last are very suspect. Some cars will rip through the snake, others will wiggle their butts trying to maintain grip. You can go through it at about 75-80% speed. Thing is, you can't do that with any other track pieces. Not even close to it. 

Felt fast, and eventually laid down a pretty fast time after two re-starts from crashing. Not bad for a pre-tuning race car.

I'm going to look into adding some more to the layout and run a longer race. It's essentially a big oval right now, and I have a bunch of pieces I haven't used yet. I could easily go out and back again, so I might look into that.

This has also been a test of tire integrity. Any car that has had significant tire attention did very well. The winner, however, still has treads showing, as does the 2nd place car. So while this track didn't seem to give an advantage to any particular model of car, the emphasis was more on handling and traction. And since the shorter cars handled the snake a little better, the longer cars handled the corners and straight a little better. 

The Alfa, the Matra and the GT40 #8 all ended up in the Top 10. 

Multi-radius Ends

The two end curves feature a single 1/60 as the apex. Doing a 180° this way gives you a lot more space for braking/acceleration points. While you have to go slowly through a 1/60, it's nowhere near as slow as going through three of them. With the smoother transitions you can run almost all the way into the curve before braking, and get quality acceleration the second you cross the apex. Not as much chance to go off either way if you do it right. 

What I like about those types of curves is that it gives you so much more flexibility in how you want to race the track. I can dive deep into the curve, let off for a split second, hit the apex, then punch it out on a controlled, progressively wider line into the straight. This creates fantastic passing opportunities. 

So the Snake [might as well give it a formal name] is going to test a car's ability to hold on at the highest speeds possible, and the rest of the track is a giant oval with emphasis on timing in the corners. There is no advantage here, even though short-bodies seemed to fare better in the standings.

I tell you right now, if I was ever to build a hill climb, there wouldn't be a straight piece the entire way. I'd do the whole thing in 4/15 curves. 

This has been one of the most fun layouts I think I've ever run.