I have to wonder if his conquering of Ulcerative Colitis in mid to late 2004 has affected his confidence in general. Defeating a nasty disease that could leave you sh*tting bloody stools into a bag for the rest of your life could definitely change your outlook on life .

Here's SS's version of events:

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/38964/

Quote :

“The fact of the matter is when we left the pit wall, Franz was furious that I’d crashed in Turn One, regardless of the fact that nearly every single driver behind Button did the exact same thing, including Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. He was furious that I crashed. When I asked him about the pit stop he said it doesn’t matter because you crashed, and he didn’t want to hear any criticisms about what the team did. He was trying to blame me about the pit stop. After that I just turned away and walked towards the garage, and I guess he must have caught up behind me. When he reached me, he hit me in the middle of the back with a closed fist. Everyone in the team saw it. As I was leaving the garage, he then followed me behind the partition, where none of the mechanics could see. He grabbed me from the front of my shirt, jerked me around, ripping my firesuit a little bit, and pushed me against the wall. After that, my only response was to back up in the middle of the garage and ask him if he wanted to hit me in front of everyone else.”

Q: So did anybody see what happened when he grabbed you?

“There were a couple of people who saw. He grabbed me right below the neck, on my fireproof T-shirt, and jerked me back and forth, let go, and then pushed me into the wall behind where the cars are. There were two team people there, and another person, who saw it.”

Q: What happened next – is it true that you went to Gerhard Berger and said something?

“Immediately after that situation, as you can imagine, I was furious. I walked to the pit wall and wanted to inform everyone that this happened. So I looked at my team manager, the technical director, and Gerhard Berger, and told them that if my team chief ever touches me again, I’m going to knock him out.

To those of you interested (i.e. North Americans ), looks like Scott Speed's been sacked following an altercation in the pits with one of the STR team bosses. Prior to the race he had some brutally honest things to say about his bosses and I'm quite happy he let some of the issues in the team be known.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/38937/

I think they had unrealistic expectations of him and Liuzzi, especially given that their cars have had performance issues from the beginning. They also screwed around with Speed prior to the season, only giving him 2 days of practice in their new car (V8 vs. V10) before Melbourne. They've had unrealistically high expectations for their cars and honestly believe that with the right drivers they'd be consistently in the points. Perhaps with a true racing prodigy it would be possible to squeeze 0.5s / lap, but I have a feeling that would involve a perfect setup. Besides, if two drivers with different backgrounds (Liuzi F3000 champ, Speed GP2 Bronze) consistently end up placed closely in the grid with the same car, I think it's safe to say that the car is mostly to blame.

Now, I'd hardly consider Speed to be the next Schumi, but him being American, he's the closest thing to a Canadian driver there is and it was still fun to root for the underdogs (him and Liuzzi). Now that he's gone my interest in F1 has definitely lowered, since once again I have to watch a field of foreigners battle it out . I'll still watch, for sure, but I'm still disappointed that Speed wasn't given a better chance in F1, especially since he's had some solid results that were consistently better than his teammate's. But I guess that's F1; you don't always get the ideal circumstances to showcase your talent.

I think my hope rests in Marco Andretti making it to F1, which would be very influential in popularizing F1 in North America.

Quote :

Well, I guess it's too much to expect, you never mastered English properly either ...

You're one to talk...

I think it's silly to include the various American States and skip the Canadian provinces, especially considering that geographically and (depending on the province) culturally they're all quite big and different.

For example, British Columbia is about the size of France, Germany and the Netherlands combined. It's larger than the total area of Washington, Oregon and California. Also, 75% of the province is mountainous (3,280 feet above sea level), 60% is forested, and only about 5% is arable. That's only 1 of 10 provinces (and 3 territories).

Each province also has its own taxes (income tax being quite different depending on where you live), driver's licenses and healthcare systems.

It just seems that with the amount of comments I've seen regarding how geographically ignorant North Americans are that some sort of interest might be shown from Europe regarding the make-up of our countries. IMO, anyone that can't name more than a few Canadian provinces is quite the hypocrite.

Last edited by DrDNA, Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:44.

I often rode my motorcycle with my fingertips when going quick, as fewer inputs from the rider help the bike stay straight when going over bumps, etc. Staying loose is the key to smooth driving!

Last edited by DrDNA, Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:49. Reason : speeling

Quote from Dorkman :

I love how Rubb and Sis are speeding off they almost smoke a parked car, then run a stop sign.

The shot of them driving off in the car remains one of the funniest things I've ever seen .

No, you're in fact correct, it was my mistake and I apologize if I made it seem anyone else's fault. Despite having lived in Italy for a year, the 24-hour clock is still awkward to use and for some reason I miscalculated the correct time (i.e. 18:30 GMT as 8:30 PM GMT). Yes, silly mistake, especially since I woke up earlier today ready to quality at the correct time and changed my mind when re-reading the time in my half-asleep state. Does this mean my spot's been permanently filled for the season?

Last edited by DrDNA, Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:48.

Quote from danowat :

Yeah, it's just getting into the correct "mindset" for "the whale", as I like to call it.

Indeed, I think it was calibrating my reactions to the width of the track that caught me off-guard. It can feel like you're cornering much slower than the car's capabilities.

I must say I was tempted to switch to the RAC but I've spent too much time practicing with the FZ5 (3-4 full-length races and hotlapping in-between).

I DID do several laps when trying to decide between the two earlier on and the RAC definitely seemed to take some corners more easily than the FZ5 and isn't as prone to those long, annoying oversteer slides that seem to want to go on forever if you don't catch them right away. But the FZ5 has a higher straight-line speed and I'm able to maintain laps in the 1:50-1:52 range for the entire 10 laps with the same set of tires with only a bit of wrestling towards the end, so I'm thinking it's going to be the car for me. Still not sure what my fastest lap is since I've only been practicing with 40% fuel!

Still plenty of time to switch cars before the first race. The RAC feels much lighter on its feet, which is definitely ideal when surrounded by other cars .

I think the only part of the track that has me iffy is the mini Eau-Rouge. There's a few ways to take it but I've yet to gain the right consistency there. I have a feeling we'll have some spins at that section on the first lap...

Last edited by DrDNA, Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:40.

I have to admit it took me awhile to start driving consistent laps, the FZ5 being a lot heavier and tail-happy than I remembered. I've tried a few sets and I've yet to get a satisfactory balance between something that's quick on the line and something that's forgiving off the line or in tricky situations.

Anyhow, this is the 2nd racing league I've joined, the first being for the original Simbin GTR mod, which lasted all of 2 races when the organization fell apart, but was actually a lot of fun while it lasted. Our races would usually last around 40-45 mins and the competition was intense. I'd definitely like to experience that adrenaline rush once again .

I've also been enjoying LFS since the day it materialized and in the past year, after a good 10-month hiatus from any sims, I came back to the game with a new DFP and a different approach. I've managed to up my game quite a bit and look forward to testing my skills in a proper competition instead of the odd race on public servers. I have to admit I'm a bit nervous having such a large field since any small mistake, either by myself or someone else can lead to disaster for a lot of people. Fingers will be crossed for T1...

Good luck to everyone!

I'm pretty sure that's a feature useful only to yourself and the guy that lives in your bathroom mirror.

Slopi: Come back

I can't peer into the future and guarantee ill make it to every one, but I'll give it a shot anyway!

FZ5

Quote from deggis :

I don't think they could get away with legal issues because track is still a copy from the real life one.

I have a feeling that if it were possible then we'd already have some real life circuits. Would be nice if it could in fact be done, though .

"A Night at the Roxbury i ... aturday Night Live."

But thanks for playing.

Real as in a track that exists in the real world, which it doesn't. Still interesting to know that it captures the environment properly .

I have my left paddle-shifter set as the clutch and use it between shifts most of the time when fooling around offline. It's completely unnecessary but having that rpm drop-off before the next gear engages can sound quite good .

Yeah, yeah, I'll drop the money on a g25 eventually :P.

Living in western Canada makes significantly populated servers a rarity. Finland is 9 hours ahead of me, for example . The only times I ever race on the STCC servers are on my days off.

Needs more banana.

...anyway, thanks for the new version of lfstweak. Despite missing some pretty important adjustments it's still possible to make some bloody quick yet driveable cars .

For the record it's spelt 'Alcantara'.

Quote from Michael Denham :

Okay, it has inconvenienced the LFS devs,
but that's completely their business not ours.

Exactly.

The skid sounds are a lot nicer, but there doesn't seem to be any sort of quiet scrubbing anymore, just screeching. Therefore, even turning in a circle at 10 kph produces audible screeching. I've also noticed that my tires are making noise the majority of the time I'm playing, even when cruising gently or accelerating in 2nd and a bit of 3rd in the XRT. A scrubbing sound would be more fitting for small measures of traction loss then a screech.

I also think it's a great training tool and really wish more people would take advantage of it. The AI is slower, yes, but they also don't care much for your car at all, so any overtaking takes some actual planning. Several years ago I used to practice by seeing how quickly I could overtake the AI after giving them a 10-15 second head-start and doing my best not to make contact. If you can manage that then you're more likely to be a cleaner and smoother driver online.

I'm just getting so tired of joining a server to race and being smacked around by other cars who try to fit in the smallest of gaps, without any foresight whatsoever. Being a good racer means making smart decisions about where you should be in relation to other cars for the conditions. Too many racers are reactionary and just go for it without considering any upcoming corners or the lines that other cars will need to be taking. Yes, that only comes with experience, but if you aren't a good racer then you shouldn't be making bold moves that often end up ruining your race and the race of others.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just seldom impressed with the quality of racing on the STCC Silver & Gold servers, especially considering it's supposed to be a step up from the poor/learning drivers (and that's not a swipe at Becky, I still feel she's done a marvellous thing for LFS!).

Usually it just depends on the combo, how much time I've had to practice and if I've got a set that suits my style. I'm generally towards the front, but once in awhile I'll end up on a server where it's obvious that the top racers have more than a few laps of experience putting together some fast times .

However, even if I know I'm not quite as fast as the top guys, I'll just do my best to defend my position cleanly and hope that they run into trouble amongst themselves .

Yes, it's all in good fun, but the desire to win is always front and foremost.

I think what he's getting at is he wants the kind of integration HL2's comm. system has (all you need is a mic) with the same ability to mute players if need be. Ventrilo and TS are great if you wish to chat with people that have those programs, but quite often people don't or they can't be bothered switching out of LFS to open those programs. By having voice comm. integrated, if you wish to speak to someone about setups or race strategy then a private channel could be created quickly within LFS, or you could address everyone at once with announcements regarding the server, the upcoming race, etc.

It would be useful, yeah, but I don't think it's crucial at this stage. Would be a nice idea post-S3, though .