I had a 86 E30 325iSE and also an 85 318i. Great cars. Things to watch for when buying:

Exhaust Manifold - the headers can split between the two middle cyclinders and this cannot be welded because of the heat. Even Tig welding won't work - trust me - I tried it. These aren't cheap parts.

Check condition of the exhaust generally cos even the rear box will cost you a fair chunk of money. I managed to get one for £180 but that was years ago.

Rear bushes - these take a battering on these cars and will make the handling very oversteery. You will feel the back slopping around if they've gone, or get under it and check them with a cro- bar

Gearbox Mount - If you struggle to put these in reverse it's often a sign that the mounting for the gearbox is shot. This will cause other problems and can put stress in the gear linkage amonst other things. It may pop out of reverse too.

Steering racks - If there is any play in the steering the power steering rack is shot. This will cost you an arm and a leg even for a recon unit.

Water leakage - these cars can suffer from water leakage into the boot which will find it's way throughout the car. Check the carpets for dampness in the boot and in the car itself. I think the seem welding around the light cluster can fail but I never got the the bottom of this mystery with mine.

Those a the common things to look for I'd say.

GF

Very rare for a battle to still be going on on the same lap after 24 hours of running. Don't think I've ever seen it hence the cruisy last lap.

Choose "custom view" and you can position is however you like for driving.

Use SHFT-U for free camera movement outside of the car.

Just look through the league and events section and choose an event you like the look of. You may struggle though until you get some online racing experience. Race craft is everything in LFS especially with the collission detection as it is resulting in 'boooiiiing' -cartoon spring sound, cars flying up 30 metres into the air

Anytime this evening is cool. There's 10 of us on there now so the ball is rolling. Any help will be much appreciated.

Quote from ChristijaNL :

I dont remember there were that many disco's.

[einstein mode]Also, if u have 2x more people on the server u get 2x more disconnects[einstein mode].

Dont think there was anything wrong with server tbh.

Ian Maslen and Flip both got repeated disconnections. Flip went to cone dodgers after and had no problems. Ian Maslen was then unable to reconnect.

Other people suffered disconnections too - nigel on lap 3, hmm - I thought there were more but maybe they were just quitters. We had 32 cars on the grid and only 20 finished.

I didn't even know there was a reset option until I'd been playing for 18 months. I hate it. I think if you roll or end up buried in a gravel trap you are out of the race. Is it really such a big deal to wait for the next race? Usually it's only 5 laps anyway.

Reset is always disallowed on the GFC server if anyone fancies some dual class FOX/FO8 racing. It does seem to make people a little more careful.

Anyone willing to help me? please.

Hi all, I'm here to ask a favour. I run a competition called the GFC. Round 1 was held on Sunday night and we had quite a few disconnections while we had a full grid at the start of the race. I have spoken to 500Servers about it and they can't see anything in the logs. They have asked if I can stress test the server.

So here is the favour I need from all you kind people. At 10:00PM UK time tonight I want to get a full compliment of connections on the server i.e. 32 in race and 15 spectating to see if I get any disconnections again. On Sunday some competitors were disconnecting repeatedly. I want to see if this happens again with some different players.

So if you are free and are willing to help, please come to the server tonight at 10. It'll actually be quite a lot of fun too. FOXs and FO8s are great fun around KY National which is what the server is set on now. The server is called GFC.

Hope to see some of you later. Thanks in advance for your kind help.

GF

If they want overtaking in F1 it's simple. Outlaw downforce and give them big fat slicks instead.

Quote from Gil07 :

All of the 15 spec slots? I'd think around 7-8 would be more than enough.

I think you can only have 8 admins connected at one time anyway

I would like to offer prizes in the GFC but the only way I could finance it would be by charging for entries as I have no sponsors at the moment and it is a young league. Maybe something for the future though if it continues to be successful.

Hi dude, wondered where you'd gone

The hotlapping feature is excellent. I use it in the following ways:

I use the hotlap feature to watch people faster than me so I can learn from them;

I hotlap when I just want to focus on my time. Hotlaps replays can be used with AFS and F1PerfView for proper analysis;

I use the 'test drive' feature of the hotlap to drive the WR set, see how it feels and recreate the balance in my own set;

I use hotlaps to watch the WR tyre temps and set my cambers and pressure up so they are the same to maximise my grip;

I use hotlap to upload the laps I do for my track guides so people can watch the full lap and analyse it with F1PerfView and AFS if they want to;

I use hotlap ranks when I try a new car for the first time and want to see how competitive I am and learn how to set it up on a variety of tracks.

I few of us in the GFC are planning a trip karting somewhere in the South West of England. See http://www.gentlefoot.com/LFS/forum/viewtopic.php?t=115

Thought some others not currently in the GFC might be interested.

GF

If you were to choose KY Nat you would get a lot of signups from the GFC FO8 crowd. Racers would be keen to use it as a practice run for round 2 on the 1st July.

Calendar is here http://gentlefoot.com//LFS/forum/viewtopic.php?t=81

Many of us have experienced this on my server since patch X too.

Quote from arco :

When I was that age I used to collect empty soda and beer bottles (especially around party places the day after a party), and delivering them to a store for deposit money.

When I was that age I used to steal pornography from the local newsagent and sell them at school for double the cover price lol.

That's not a suggestion. Eventually I got caught by a shop owner but fortunately for me I was a pretty fast runner at that age.

Quote from X-Ter :

Doesn't all this come down to what rules are specified in the league, the series, on the server etc? You can argue this all you like but if a league has it specified in the rules that the inside car (if alongside in the corner) has the right to the corner exit as well, then you play by those rules and like or stay the heck out.

Take a look at DTM. Wonderfull example of high speed, on the edge racing. I have yet to see a penalty given out to anyone on the indside who also claims the right to the corner exit. Even if there's a concrete wall on the outside. In addition to this, there is also a rule that say that if you have opened the door enough for someone to stick their nose on the inside, you can not close that door, cause the inevitable crash that follows will be your fault.

That rule is in effect in F1, DTM, WTCC, well... just about any racing on the planet. And let's face it... If more people followed that rule, almost half the incidents would be eliminated. And if people also follwed the turn exit rule, about 80% of all incidents would be gone. And if people also tried to use the "gentlemens/womens rule of conduct" on track, almost 95% of all crashes would be gone. The last five % would be caused by wreckers who don't belong on a track anyway...

Basically, what I am saying is:
Take a good look at the rules stated before you enter a league, a series or even a pick up race server. Be gentle and use your head. Simple really

Nice post. On my server we run dual class FOX and FO8 and so the rules are very specific to my server. The welcome message states the rules are available on the web but I know people don't read them - even some of the people entered in the league. I can tell by the conversations they have.

I stopped going to Le Mans in 2004 when the first diesel appeared. I blame Callum Lochie - drove the first one. He should have refused.

Only joking Callum - love your track days

I actually closed my server down for 20 minutes just after X was released. 30 FO8s on a dual class server meant that it was impossible for FOXs to race.

First time I've had to take such drastic measures.

If I come up behind a slower racer one of the things I find most satisfying is sitting there close behind him knowing the affect it is having on the pressure the guy feels. I'm fully aware that if I can follow him closely, have little 'looks' at passes, and then finally make a clean pass when the time is right, the guy in front will respect me for it.

This is my aim in LFS. I don't care about WRs or league titles. All I care about is my reputation within the LFS community. So long as people know they can race with my wheel to wheel and trust me I have achieved my aim. This results in the most enjoyable, realistic racing experience one can get from this wonderful SIM and public servers would be wonderful, friendly places to visit if everyone shared this objective.

Interestingly enough we've just introduced a 'no passing under yellow' rule in the GFC to help with these kinds of situations.

It's sad but true what Sinbad says - lift and get taken out from behind.

I think nothing will ever change on the public servers accept maybe those that are populated by team members or league racers.

Quote from Jakg :

I thought LFS had too much grip atm - i mean 1.2 G on cheap-o road_normals?

I get 1.2G peak in my road car. That's about right. The peak doesn't mean you have grip at that moment. You can generate these big peaks by throwing it into a roundabout and lifting.

Quote from ethan520 :

Is it faster to create a light car with a small engine or a heavy car with a huge engine?

Colin Chapman once said "add lightness, reduce complexity"

Weight is the enemy in racing.