Not sure if this has been asked before, but anyone know the size of teams' annual budgets in ALMS or LMS? I'd be interested to see variations between the different classes. I'm especially curious what the privateer teams spend per season.

no wai, opera ftw!

What about that girl LH is chatting up? Is she up for auction, too?

Quote from thunderhead :

lerts I Want Whatever You Are Smoking.

+4

Mesmerizing, Nolan!

^:clapclap:

Quote from Lynce :

Underground Style:

Car looks great, but where are the ladies in bikinis?

Opera 9.26, and for the sites that don't support it I have Firefox 2.0.0.14. Used to be a big FF fan for about 3 years.

What a great app. Thanks, Soeren! Makes watching races a lot more interesting

Quite a shunt! Glad Marc is OK. Hope the organizers allow Peugeot build another car for this year's event.

Spot on, Lynce. Making a not-so-pretty car look pretty

Photoshopping is not an issue for me. In fact, I enjoy post processing as much, if not more, as taking photos with the camera. I actually feel weird when all the adjustments I have to do are levels/curves.

I feel pp allows me to give an image a unique character and mood. I don't take photos to document reality. I take them for aesthetic reasons, and in that sense pp just gives you more control. If I'm able to capture something truly extraordinary with the camera, then sure, I won't touch it up much. Otherwise, into Photoshop it goes

Very well done. BTW, YouTube now has a hq option

Great stuff, Don!

F1/GP2, LMS/ALMS/endurance-type racing, GT cars

Quote from Anathema :

Skin by Schuppor

That's just off the wall! Absolutely amazing!! :jawdrop:

Quote from r4ptor :

Seeing your millage at LFS World, I would say that you need more experience - what you are speaking of can also occur with experienced drivers, but for now you would be best off by just driving, and do it in somewhat controlled manner (as Hyperactive writes - use markers).

There is one single, and IMO good tip I can give you though: Rape the car - toss it around, finish races even when damaged. You'll learn about the LFS physics and how the car behaves faster that way.

Thanks r4ptor. I agree about needing more practice, although LFSW milage isn't very representative. I've clocked a lot more miles in the past year in demo mode, and I've been lapping alot offline the past few weeks. I guess I'm familiar with the general physics, but I'm still learning the physics of the FZR (should come in handy when I buy that GT3 in 20 years from now )

Quote from Hyperactive :

To me it sounds a lot like you are driving by feel, instead of judging corners by brake markers and corner exits/entries. On one day it all clicks because you maybe drive behind someone who "knows the line" and you just replicate it. On another day you have no driver to watch on so you drive by feel, maybe braking a bit too late, going around corners on wrong line or just missing apexes and corner exits totally.

Driving by feel can produce some seriously fast single lap times on rare occasion but mostly it just kills your consistency.

If I was you I'd check my braking markers and corner entries and exits and put more effort on improving things slowly instead of trying to nail it on the first laps. Granted, there are people who can go insanely fast after just few laps, people who are naturally fast. (These people also have unnatural perversions, sick minds and generally die from bullets from angry husbends' semiautomatics). Not being naturally fast (not saying you aren't ) doesn't mean automatic fail or loss - it merely indicates that you need to go through some extra effort to match their speed.

Simply put, having brake markers and all that will greatly improve your consistency but you need to be aware that those braking points and never fixed. Hot/cold tyres, slipstream, fuel amount always randomizes things a bit. And you should always try to get those last tenths by moving your braking points and altering your line - but this needs to be done very carefully. I'd say a car length is good base unit for momving braking markers.

All this braking markers and all is even more important when you are just starting out with LFS. Once you learn to do it right the rest comes more easily. And learning off bad habbits can be downright difficult.

Hyperactive - thanks for an insightful reply. This inconsistency happens even in hotlapping mode, i.e. one day I'm driving well all by myself, and another day it all goes awry.

I try to brake, turn, accelerate at the same points, but of course, getting it just a bit wrong can be disastrous. Maybe my reaction times and/or focus are just not very good on the "bad" days...man, it starts to sound like I'm on a period :spyoda:

What exactly do you mean by brake markers? I'm using the distance markers (colored), kerb locations, tyre stacks etc. as reference points. Am I missing something else?

I'm having consistency issues. I often find that I can be fairly fast and consistent (based on my personal driving history) one day, when everything just "clicks", but slow, inconsistant and spinning out the next day (same car/track/setup). It's like I'm on a "driving block" or something

Does anyone else experience this or have any ideas how to get over it quickly?

The 4th shot of the tree is super nice. The mood is just right and that bit of noise gives it a vintage feel.

The last tree shot is nice too, but I'd crop out most of the black stuff on the bottom.

Great capture of apple buds as well.

Looks like you live in a rural area. So did you build a go-kart track yet?

Quote from mrodgers :

Certainly not about the needing a telephoto. That shot is fantastic just as it is. Very nice shots in the post here.

Man, these latest batches of photos popping in here makes me wish I could waste the fuel to roam around to shoot more then just the kids playing in the back yard as I've been doing lately.

I may have to head into town to the railyard and wind my way back home tomorrow evening after the sun is ready to go down. Maybe I'll go on a photo shoot with my 7 year old. I'd like to get her using her camera a bit more and teach her a bit about camera settings.

Thanks, Mike! That one is one of my favorite photos (that I took), but having a telephoto could capture more detail of the bridge

As to wasting the fuel, it really depends on where you live, but I personally prefer to simply go for a walk around town with camera in hand. You never know what you'll spot, so it's a bit of an adventure every time. The aesthetics of seemingly everyday/familiar objects can be striking. Just need to get the angle and lighting right

Nice avatar, eRaptor. Did you just say something?

Quote from Tweaker :

There was a girl I dated that owned a beautifully restored 2002.

Lucky you! Hope she was as nice as the car
I'm up in Berkeley, btw. And given our parking situation, finding a girl with a beautifully restored 2002 ain't easy

A few non-car shots

San Fran Downtown




Elsewhere in SF


Flowers...sort of


Sunsets with Golden Gate/SF in the background (I need a tele-zoom!)




And something random



Sorry for the image overload

And just for the hell of it, here are a few other car pics I took in the past

Another 2002 (I get soft in the knees whenever I see one :nod



E46 M3


MINI S


and the classic one and only...116