LVT Round 1 - 1991 Jaguar Challenge - Silverstone [Jan 31st]

Broadcast has been created and can be found here:

youtu.be/BVAVREOlQuA

I have been seeing/reading some complaints about the car and realized that most people are probably misunderstanding it. I had no issues driving it, so I am going to give some tips.

First of all, this is most definitely NOT a GT3 car, it is as it was in real life, a street car. Racing oriented, and on slicks, but definitely a street car in all aspects and especially suspension wise. You can't approach this car as if it was a full competition GT or sportscars, with stiff suspension and downforce that you can throw into a corner, smash the brake pedal at the last moment, do hard trail braking into corners and toss around left to right with no consequences.

This is a heavy and powerful machine, with lots of weight bias to the rear and SOFT suspension. That means the weight will transfer slowly when you enter/exit a corner and when you switch direction, everything will not just happen about half a second after your input, but will KEEP happening for another fraction of time until it settles in the new balance after you entered a corner, braked, or whatever. The best advice therefore is: SWITCH IN YOUR BRAIN from the all-balls-out driving mode to a street car driving mode. Use only half the pedal input in both the brake and the gas until the car is in straight line or until it has settled, reduce steering angle because violent movements will cause weight transfer to start and not be completed before you point the wheels to another direction (Which causes tank slapping). And above everything be SMOOTH, be aware at all times that the weight transfer is there but can become your friend if you know how to use it. For example, use small smooth gas inputs to put weight on the rear without losing traction so as to keep the rear in check, or brake in "two stages" as it's done in motorcyles, i.e. apply gently a bit of brake to make the weight transfer start and then put more pressure once it is settled and the tires properly loaded. They won't accept the whole weight all in once, they will instead block and make the car veer to one side. But they will accept it easily if you transfer the same weight smoothly. Also, don't let the rear move sideways too much, the inertia is too big and you won't recover it. Set an imaginary line half a meter from the car on each side and don't let the rear move further.

As in real life, weight transfer control is everything and we see all the time in racesims people doing everything they can to make it not happen (Basically stiffening suspension like mad or even eliminating suspension travel to get a kind of go-kart) because it is the hardest part to get right when driving - and unless you are really good and sensitive, you are quicker in race sims dialing it out and returning to the brutal driving style. In this car you can't do that, and have to deal with what the real cars have i.e. weight transfer and suspension movement, as well as tires that can be loaded slowly but not all of a sudden. This is a very realistic car, and anyone who has driven street cars on track days should be able to recognize all those treats.

Unfortunately most people are just spoiled and too used to the nonesense of the usual games that allow any idiot to feel like a hero controlling easily the cars without having to deal with what I described above. But we aim here to provide a challenging and realistic experience, not the dumbed down, canned, based on gimmicky force feedback bullshit that you can get in other sims and mods. So switch your approach, stop searching for what you are used to in other games, and think of this as a real car, and all will work waaaaay better!

Sorry Kayo, my car just spun on its own there was nothing that I could do.

I just can't believe I finished in such a sissy way... sorry I provoke kicking, I wanted to recover so badly..

Started well enough but eventually took too much kerb at Copse and flipped the car into the runoff barrier, removing the RF wheel.

Due to some unexpected free time I decided to download this mod during qualifying.

What a rude awakening!!!
Took 3 tries just to complete a lap, and the remaining 12 minutes wondering if I should go read a book instead 

Got just enough useful laps in the warm-up to believe I might be able to finish.

Had no Idea what was going to happen to the tires in less than 20 laps
Good thing I was driving so scared most of the time, so I still had 10%? of rubber left at the end.
Very pleased to get to the end of that 20 lap marathon of torture


Good pace up there in front
Congrats to all that finished

It was probably the most difficult car I have ever driven.
We had a very clean start, saved tires the whole race avoiding lockups but without any reward.
After the last 2 barbecues I didn't want to take any unnecessary risk and this car was very unforgiving if you try to push too hard.

2nd place was great!! Congratulations to Grant!! In these cars, he kept a strong pace without any mistake. Well deserved victory!

Cezariusz was flying too, well done!

Thanks Jonatan and Alberto for the broadcast!!

See you next race!

Woo! I still got it! 

was a fun race, I must be the only one who enjoys driving these cars! Wasn’t much to my race, just managing the gap to the guys behind who was keeping me honest all race long, my tires were surprisingly fine apart from the last lap. Rears weren’t as gone as the broadcast looked. Was good to race these and was good to battle Thiago. Always a fun race when we do   Good Job to Mikey too, shame about your off otherwise would have been a 3 way fight.

thanks all! 

Crazy race for me and I'm just glad I managed to stay inside the points!
Let's see if I can sum up the issues without writing a book. So, Saturday evening I went to the server for practice and almost right away noticed that my brake pedal pot was spiking horribly. Woke up yesterday morning knowing I'd need to disassemble and clean them, so I got on that first thing. Job done and I went in the server to find that I had fixed nothing, the problem was persistent. I fiddled with them a bit, then said hell with it and decided to move the clutch pedal to brake and brake to clutch, which is a lot more disassembly than simply cleaning. I had about 40 mins until quali, so I hustled up and managed to make it back in the server just as quali started.
Thing was...I run the TM T3PAs (for years now)and in that time I've used the conical brake mod only. I've replaced all the springs over the years with much heftier springs and I decided it was time to leave the conical brake mod out. Pedal travel is like x4 what it is with the conical mod.

Absolutely perfect car to give that a trial run
And so I spent the entirety of the race relearning the brakes. Very strange having a bunch of pedal travel when I'm used to the restrictions of the brake mod (it drastically reduces travel)
I was scared I was going to cause issues for another...so I played it safe for the first half of the race. Had some battles but kept clinging to a points position. Last thing I wanted to do was miss the brakes and shunt another car!
I managed to be successful in that. I may have inadvertently 'parked it' on a few apexes with cars close behind me, but was doing the best I could.
Towards the end (as seen on the broadcast...LOL) my tires were GONE! The car was manageable in terms of keeping it pointed the right way (most times...I did have one big spin and a half spin..luckily, in places where I didn't hit anything or get hit)
Very fun racing towards the end there..had to work hard to fight off a couple cars that were threatening my points. We basically traded mistakes. hehe.

Late last night, I sat down and watched the broadcast, which was excellent, per usual. Big thanks to staff here for that, it really adds to the immersion imo.

Congrats to the podium, and all those who managed to finish in points scoring positions. This is easily one of the hardest cars I've ever driven (though, not so difficult until you try to push it over the limits a bit...it does NOT like that. )

Looking forward to the next LVT races.