Well, tristan, its in fact run in Bahrain at the GP circuit. I'm hoping to start competing in the Formula BMW Racing Center Race Series, thats the series I'm trying to get in to where many F1 drivers raced, true didn't do it in Bahrain but have done it in other countries. One of the 3 drivers has already been sponsored for the season so it isn't exactly hopeless and the fact that I have a much deeper understanding of racing compared to him as I've met him before and he may equal my speed (in karts where he's been racing in it for 5 years and I've had no professional karting experience) but doesn't know much about racing. I'll let you know of my progress if I get in.

Last edited by Leprekaun, Thu 18 Oct 2007, 12:40.

Well, the handy thing about this series is that the seat price is quite affordable so if lets say I approach between 8-10 companies and being realistic, 2 or maybe 3 agree, the money that they'll be investing is waay less than what they'll be gaining. I will let you know what I'm racing if I get in it but the figures aren't extreme as I've seen before. You may think that if I mentioned the seat price as being affordable, that the series would most likely not be serious or considered a joke but I'll have you know, many current day F1 drivers have competed in it and as far as I know, many of today's F3 drivers started in it.

I know sponsorship is one of the hardest things in motorsport, if not the hardest but the way I look at it, there are only 3 Egyptians in the WHOLE country who are attempting to compete in this series, me being one of them and Egypt doesn't exactly have a history of great racing events, drivers or tracks like a country like England or Germany so the newness and ignorance of companies will make them easy to encourage them to sponsor me. If you think that Egypt isn't that ignorant, not sure if you're familiar with it but there is a ZIP Formula series that runs in Bahrain. They're a bunch of 20 cars designed by a guy called Martin Hines (Details of the series and cars can be found here). Anyway, the Egyptian Racing Team principle was able to bring 3 of the cars over from Bahrain to a motorshow here in Egypt known as the Automech. The main idea was to try and promote the team and its drivers, I went to him telling him that I was interested in becoming a driver for the team(trying to promote myself better being part of a team). He said it was cool and felt good about it but there had been many interviews that they did, himself and the other drivers that he didn't tell me about so now, I've kind of just thought screw them, I'm going in my way. Anyway , point of the story is that a bunch of companies approached the team, telling them that its the "Chinese Formula 1 car" so talk about ignorance . So, many companies don't fully understand racing and while there is the downside because they may not understand the promotional idea behind placing their company logo on my car or racing equipment, there is the up side that I'm of very few who want to reach F1, trying to say that I can be the first Egyptian, well 1/2 , to get to F1.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Well, Helmets have a shelf life - after a few years you have to replace them regardless of accidents or use. And even the slightest knock can compromise safety, even if it looks 100% fine inside and out.

Chunky prize money is YEARS away for you. If you haven't even started racing then you'll have a lot of paying out to do. You've said before you want to get to F1, so you need to be winning in a national championship soon.

If you are struggling with money then don't paint it. It doesn't make you faster. That same money spent on a car item might be the different between winning and losing, and if F1 is your (ambitious) aim you would sell your body to go faster rather than squander limited cash on pointless frivolities.

Well, I'll probably be spending a bit out of my pocket. I've written my racing profile last night, some grammatical mistakes here and there to correct but overall, I think I'm promoting myself quite well. Anyway, I was considering offering 3 options to the companies I'll be approaching. 1st option. They can pay for my race seat, thats fine and would be great or 2nd option. Pay for my race seat and equipment and in turn, I will place their company logos on my overalls and helmet so I may not have to pay a single penny in all this , if the 2nd option falls through and the 3rd option. Pay for my race seat, equipment and test days to give me a better chance to win races, thus promoting their name. I still have to start writing a proposal which I will do very soon but I don't really have much idea on what kind of format to go with so any tips there would be greatly appreciated.

After reading my post now, does it seem like I'm talking out of my ass?

Last edited by Leprekaun, Thu 18 Oct 2007, 11:05.

so I suppose I should go with Arai then. Well, I'm kind of looking at it from the perspective that I'm probably going to use it for a very long time, if I do get into racing that is and then maybe when the helmet gets badly damaged (compromising safety) or I get some nice chunky prize money, to perhaps buy another one, maybe with a new design too as I'm not completely definite on my current one but for now, I'll try and get a helmet based on my current design.

Well, I'm not too familiar with the helmet brands but as far as I know, Arai and Bell are the ones to go for. I'll read up more on their websites to see what suits me. Just wondering though, if I wanted to get a proper helmet and get it designed professionally, how much would it cost?

Hi all! I'm thinking of getting my own helmet done (in real life ofcourse ). I've finished a draft design earlier today and I just thought that either a green visor or blue one would work. AFAIK, the blue visor already exists but does the green one too?

Also, just for my general knowledge, anyone know all the colours you can get a visor in?

Thank you soo much X-Ter!!! . I really appreciate this

I would have to say sinbad that if a driver suffers from large amounts of understeer upon entering a corner, he is simply going too fast. This doesn't mean that just because the car understeers, its the driver pushing too hard but it just means that the driver has a role to play as the setup does.

Hi all! I was wondering if anyone here has the March '05 issue of AutoSimSport. I'm creating a driver CV to present to companies for sponsorship and I need to give some backing to why LFS is realistic and could prove something about me. I know that I've made a thread before concerning whether LFS is a good base or not and many said it wasn't but please, I'm trying to give any racing stuff to these companies as I seriously lack in the real life racing department. Your help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Note: I've already tried downloading it from the AutoSimSport website but the link is wrong, I downloaded the file but the rar is corrupt .

I guess all these questions that I have can be answered in a very simple way, F1 Performance Viewer to see telemetry

Well, I know that going sideways into some corners is in fact faster. I remember hearing about how Keiichi Tsuchiya (for those who don't know him, he was the guy who properly started up drifting and is known as the "Drift King") used to go sideways in a particular corner at a track where all the others went round normally but apparently, he was gaining a lot of time over them, just through that corner. I don't really understand how it can work but I'm guessing its something to do with entering the corner faster and basically maintaining that speed throughout the corner while drifting.

I may try it with the LX6 to compare.

Quote from N I K I :

Being too shooth isnt fast at all! Look at G.Fisichella, he is way too smooth and h sucks, every real life racer is steering wheel like maniac and we do same in LFS too... Also we blip throttle out of corner etc.
To be smooth is only good with braking

so i vote for roughness

Well, the wheel juddering you see most drivers "suffer" from isn't because they're not smooth but can be because of bumps which some can be difficult to deal with.

For your information, in the late '90s, there were rumours that Fisichella was in fact a better driver than Schumacher so Fisichella isn't all that shit. Something to consider as well is that a driving style can sometimes be compromised because of the characteristics of the car. I know that I usually have to put in quite a lot of lock with the BF1 when entering a corner to get it to bite in while with cars like the LX4 or LX6, I usually put very little lock when entering a corner and just balance the car on the throttle so afaik, the Renault was more in tuned with Alonso's style than Fisichella. I'm not saying Fisichella is amazing but he certainly doesn't suck.

Quote from Shotglass :

if hamiltons driving style is so smooth ... why was he the one with the totaled tyres ?

If you're talking about Shanghai, that wasn't a case of Hamilton having scr*wed tyres, it was a case of the wrong tyre at the wrong time, much like what happened at Nurburgring.

Anyway, sticking to the topic, something I thought I should mention as well which I feel is an advantage of rough driving is throttle input.

Lets say for example that there are 2 drivers ,who are both driving the LX6 with the same setup, going through Baileys at Blackwood (medium speed right hander after back straight). One driver is silk smooth, he likes to use throttle modulation a lot, he turns the car gently to the apex and gradually applies throttle exiting the corner. The 2nd driver, throws the car hard into the apex of the corner, straightens the wheel, and puts in quite an amount of throttle to exit the corner. The 2nd driver may have a 60%-75% chance of having to do corrections and maybe not while the first, the probability would be between 10%-25%, clearly a much lower percentage. So according to those statistics, it may seem like the smooth driver is the one that has the advantage but if you were to look at it in the way that when the smooth driver is 3/4 out of the corner and has reached 75% throttle, the rough driver, just because he wasn't using much throttle modulation, could've been using between 85%-90% throttle at the same point which means that the 2nd driver is maximising the car more efficiently than the first because he gets on full power earlier than the first, giving him more engine power out of the corner.

So looking at it, I guess maybe each style has its purpose. Smoothness is much more logical to use for races and roughness for qualifying.

Well observe drivers like Fisichella and Button, afaik, they're silk smooth, thats the kind of smoothness I'm talking about. I think Hamilton would be a smoother driver than Alonso because in qualifying at Hungary, Hamilton felt comfortable using the super softs for his laps while Alonso wanted to stick with the soft prime although it could of been a case of setup, so Alonso might be smoother than Hamilton but its just his setup wasn't too tire friendly. I haven't read much into Hamilton's style but I know for sure that Alonso is quite rough with the car.

Quote from evilgeek :

why bother putting up a poll and asking for other people's opinions if your mind is already made up? rationalizing why your style is the best doesn't make it so.

I didn't make this post to say "Oh look at me, my driving style is better than yours!" because I don't think like that. Reason why I brought up of why I think roughness is more efficient and providing to reasons to why it is because no one mentioned it, whether they were supporting roughness or comparing the advantages of each, so I wanted to provide a few new facts about roughness that maybe some people didn't think of. As tristan said, I have actually thought about it, especially the wasted energy bit. Its a new factor that I didn't think about before so definitely, if you waste a ton of energy making small corrections throughout a race, you're very likely to be quite fatigued by mid-race and can't maintain a high amount of focus and come to think of it, I personally experienced that during a race and it wasn't pleasant .

Way I see it, my driving style isn't fully developed yet and I've experimented with both and got great results with both but perhaps, I may go smoothness as I remember racing the XFR round Westhill Rev in a 25 lap race and the tyres were just dying out because of my rough style, I then smoothed it out and not only did my tires last better, I was getting much faster times than before so maybe smoothness is my way, I just don't fully know it yet

Last edited by Leprekaun, Tue 16 Oct 2007, 10:55.

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

"Whatever works" is basically the most efficient driving style.

My brother told me that a while ago and while I kind of agree with it, I still want to know the technical and mental advantages of either and compare

Well, I suppose I forgot about the little corrections bit that Schumi does with the wheel but his throttle input is very gradual.

Even though, logically, smoothness would seem to be the best option when in a race since you're not throwing tons of strain on the tyres quickly but in a more gradual motion, making the tyres last longer but way I see it, if you're more willing to push the car a bit over the limit, just a bit, or to what I personally understand as the "limit", its more likely to keep you more alert because you can feel the car more and if the car does anything odd, its more likely that you'll catch it before it goes nuts than when being smooth. An example of this is my brother and I. We have contrasting driving styles (guess its kind of expected, isn't it? ). He's quite a smooth driver and its beautiful watching him drive but when he's faced with a hairy skid, it usually catches him off guard and he really has to work with the car to get it steady again whilst for myself, I'm in a constant alert mode since I'm always doing small corrections coming out of corners so when I'm presented with a hairy situation, I can usually correct it with ease and quickly.

What I'm basically saying is that smooth driving can put you in a trance, any slight skid can be a huge surprise and you'll have to do something quite special to get it back on to the track while when you're already constantly doing small corrections, any slight skid doesn't seem like a problem and you can continue on with your race normally.

Hi all! I'm interested to know the community's opinion on which is the best driving style. I know that there are many slightly different driving styles that are between the 2 extremes but if we were to discuss on a more general level. The first of the 2 extremes is ultra smooth. A few examples of drivers who are more on the smooth side than rough are M.Schumacher, Fisichella and Button. Basic idea is, ultra smooth input everywhere (smooth braking, throttle and steering). Usually, constantly driving just below the limit. Then there is the other side of the scale, the rough stuff. A few drivers who are/were on the rough side were Senna(R.I.P ), Villeneuve and Alonso. Basic concept here is that you don't mind if you go a bit above the limit (small skids here and there) as long as you come down from it a bit. Personally, I'm of the latter I believe. So, which one do you think is more efficient? ragged roughness or silk smooth?

Well, IMO, most world records don't represent real life race driving that much. If you look at some of biggi's BF1 world records, the fact that he straightens the wheel at the exact same point he hits the throttle, thus using the lack of TC to get the car to turn out of the corner. His skill is very impressive, I never doubted that, he is definitely a great driver but you wouldn't see that kind of thing in F1 in real life. Alonso uses that same concept but not to the extent of how biggi does it. I think the tintop WRs aren't that all different from real life race driving. I suppose because they're easier to drive than the BF1 so in real life, its more likely that you'll have almost the same amount of confidence as you would in a sim.

Quote from XVII :

I mean come on, who cares if someone bumps into you or nudges you (obviously someone who is intentionally trying to just hit other people with their car is a problem)

But from seeing everything on this board...YOU GUYS ARE WAY TOO UPTIGHT ABOUT MAKING SURE YOU DON'T TAP SOMEONE ELSE'S CAR!

Whatever happened to just having fun with racing? Doing this freaking honor system thing is ridiculous! You guys could have a lot of fun if you let down on some of the "standards" of "honor" driving. I say whoever gets first they do whatever it takes to get first. That is the most important part of the race, GETTING FIRST PLACE! That is the whole premises of racing in general!! The glory of winning the race. If someone sideswipes you and they get ahead of you...you should have seen them coming and gotten ready.

Defensive driving yeah, but a little offense would relieve some stress in the race.

I'm sure I'll get flamed and disagreed to wazoo...I don't really care. Just something for you guys to think about.

Sorry to disappoint you but I won't EVEN start to consider your opinion. Pure racing is meant to be honourable, if you don't think it is, then I sure hope I don't race against you in LFS. I agree, some people can be a bit too serious about sim racing but being just serious is fine and just.

Very sad . I always liked Wurz and just felt that he never got the chance he deserved. Rosberg did out perform him but still, Wurz was no pushover. I look forward to seeing him in Le Mans

Hi all! I've been playing RBR quite a bit over the past week. Just love it!!! . I've been driving around for a while and tbh, I'm quite surprised at how slow the AI is. I can usually smash the game's times by around 20 seconds so its quite boring and no real challenge so I was wondering, would any1 here be up for an online session of RBR sometime soon? I can't host a server due to my shitty bandwidth but I know that there is quite a bit of interest for RBR around here so any1 willing to set a server up?

For the cars, I was thinking we could go with the 2006 WRC cars. They're probably the best cars in the game for obvious reasons .

You can get a HUGE pack of cars here :

RSRBR V4.01.01

RSRBR 4.2.0 Update

BAH! looks like a toy more than a wheel. Hate the way the wheel points up the way it does, looks stupid. Nice attempt but G25 is doing really good for me

Hi all! I've recently got a G25 and LUUVIN it . Got back into good 'ole Richard Burns Rally and after a few days, got the RSRBR Mod which is one of the best mods I've ever seen . Anyway, I was interested to know, is it possible to do some sort of simple conversion or maybe a USB to Xbox port converter (pretty basic stuff like stick the USB cable in one end and the other into the Xbox). I don't really care much if I don't get some force feedback. I just would like to try Forza with it .

Well, I heard that Alonso crashed out which is very unfortunate. Theres a 12 point difference now and Alonso needs a miracle really (perhaps put a gun to Ron's head to sabotage Hamilton's car ) to win it. Hamilton is in a very comfy situation. You know, thinking about it, it seems Alonso has fallen in to Schumi's patterns. After his cheeky move at Spa with Hamilton at La Source, he got punished for it in Fuji, same way how Schumi was cheeky at Monaco and his car went at Suzuka.

Kids, can you see a moral lesson here? Don't ever cheat because it'll bite you in the ass hard later