Quote from tristancliffe :

Save your pennies for nice things, like furry dice

Piss off, it's not that kind of Seat Ibiza.



Thanks for the comments everyone. I certainly don't loon about on the roads, I hate people that drive as if they were on a racetrack (I've often thought about being a traffic cop, were it not for the fact that after a dangerous pursuit, when the pikeys bail out, I'd just run the f***ers over instead of stopping and chasing them on foot).

However my car understeers and wheelspins sooo easily in the wet (no doubt due to the poor wet performance of the Turanzas - and a sudden dollop of turbo torque at 2200 rpm), but the front left tyre is pretty shot from tipping it into roundabouts on a clear road in the dry. Completely bare on the outer shoulder, with 2.0-2.5mm of tread across the width.

I can't imagine the Yoko S306 being a nightmare, if anything I suspect it will be softer than the Bridgestones, I was just wondering if anyone knew where to find any tests or user reports (car forums, owner clubs, etc?) before I make the decision. The S306 is also £20 cheaper per tyre than a replacement Bridgestone.

Very nice site, much improved over the old one. I see the content is getting there at a noticeable speed, too.

In terms of constructive criticism, I only found myself looking for a list of race/fixture dates, both for the past season, and the likely ranges for the next season. But there doesn't seem to be a placeholder page for that kind of information.

When it comes to scoring points on the lower servers, I have to side with the higher licence = no points argument, and quite strongly too.

Suggesting that bronze & copper drivers aren't entitled to points scoring positions unless they beat the silver, gold, platinum and titanium drivers is a little rediculous, imho. Isn't the whole point of the Race 1 server to provide an environment for new or less skilled drivers?

Copper/bronze drivers should progress to the next level by going faster than the other copper/bronze drivers. And surely, if you're getting quick enough to beat the other copper/bronze racers, you're getting quick enough to compete at silver level. Isn't that the whole fundamental idea of the tiered servers? To allow racers to compete amongst their own level, and the better guys score points to move onto the next level?

Suggesting that new drivers have to be running at platinum pace in order to progress when the server has platinum guys on it is just the equivalent of raising a finger to all the new guys. "Hey you there, with the copper licence. Want a bronze one? Try getting another 30,000 miles of experience and a setup for every track before you dare think about that, muahahaha..."

Quote from JTbo :

if car is driven on track or at limit.

It's not, no way am I taking my car to the track, and I don't drive at the limit on public roads.

Well it's time for some new front tyres on my car - currently wearing Bridgestone Turanza ER30s all round. But one tyre place I went to for a quote also recommended the Yokohama S306.

I can't find much out about this tyre online, does anyone know of any reviews or tests, or how it fares against the Turanza? I know my ER30s are poorly rated for their wet weather performance.

Also not sure what the implications are for putting a different brand/tread on the front compared to what will be on the back.

Any thoughts, anyone?

It's a Seat Ibiza btw, 1.8T 150bhp fwd.

Well, that's one more destroyed. Can only be a good thing.

Quote from P1lot :

You have a talent hoover or something?

More of a dyson, it seems.

Congrats to AR - again.

Quote from xaotik :

Which was sadly cropped out for the sake of the scientific interests of this thread.

Yep, sorry, the instructor is far too lovely for me to start splashing her pictures around on the internet.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

No, in the US the word republican or conservative is considered a swear word.

Somehow I doubt that.

Quote from ajp71 :

Cheers Strobe, nice simple system, certainly useful for my research.

No probs. I'd offer more shots but they're all largely the same in terms of the view offered of the mechanism. Needless to say, the camera was focussed on the girl riding the bike.

Oh no, the pictures aren't the resistance kit I was talking about. The rowers, cross trainers, etc are all air resistance, and you can't see inside them. For obvious reasons the whirry bits are all enclosed either in solid plastic or such fine mesh that you can't see through.

The pictures above are examples of a spinning bike (in the studio, for classes) which uses friction resistance. There's no magnets, just a set of brake pads which you screw in and out with the adjuster next to the red lever (the red lever being the emergency brake, of sorts). Sorry for any confusion.

Just finished the first page (I intend to read the rest later), and yes it's pretty disheartening. But true. I remember reading into this stuff shortly after the rebuilding started, and the warning signs soon became apparent. Americans should be outraged, and I just feel sorry for the Iraqi people. Not much has changed for them. They get royally screwed by Saddam Hussein, then get screwed just as much, but in different ways, by the US govt. Or to be more precise, the private contractors run by the buddies of the US govt that are appointed to spend US tax dollars in vast quantities to give the Iraqi people infrastructure and services that range from inadequate to downright dangerous. That's if you survive the day's car bombings when you go to get your groceries.

Makes me sick. Bring on the war crimes tribunal at the Hague for Dubya and his chum Tony Bliar. Along with Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Powell, and every other one of the America-raping, neocon crooks that the American public were stupid enough to vote into power.

I do photography for my local gym, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to start pulling the resistance kit apart in order to photograph the internals of them. If I could, I'd have gotten some detailed shots for you.

One thing that springs to mind is the resistance system on spinning bikes - a freely-turning flywheel with brake pads to provide the resistance. Problem is then of course that you have to engineer a system to provide adjustable brake pressure, which is a simple screw turn on spinning bikes, but it's all pretty substantial stuff.

Here's the clearest shots I've got of how spinning bikes get their resistance:


(They're crops by the way, not just really bad photos... )

Last edited by STROBE, Wed, 5 Sep 2007 15:04.

Quote from Leprekaun :

nice car but it all depends on heavy it is and what kind of suspension and general setup adjustments of the car. I really don't get it though, why not make it into at least a Saloon car like the way all the special BMWs (M5, M6) are saloons but with tons of power. I mean, putting a powerful engine like that in an estate is like demanding Raikkonen to win races when he's in a Spyker. Good engine, heavy car and probably not very good aerodynamic design.

I was under the impression that estate cars were actually aerodynamically cleaner than saloons. And they're not usually that much heavier than a saloon. The RS6 seems to be heavy though (according to the gossip and some links on the RS6 forum) - 2000kg is being suggested which is significantly more than its' rivals, I think. Might be wrong, though. Makes sense though, if it's carrying a 4WD system that can handle nearly 600bhp, whereas the other two are RWD.

Well I have to say that generally I don't like Audis at all - as much because of the type of people that seem to drive them as well as the cars themselves.

But with the RS4 and now this RS6, I think they're fantastic. Love the subtle, Q-car looks (BMW lost the plot with the M cars imho when they started getting more scoops and flares and bulges with every new version), and if the handling of the RS6 is to it's class what the RS4 is, it'll be a cracking drive.

/me wants...

Quote from Jakg :

Specifically i would like to able to make more tech guides and link to them in my signature - the idea of making the [URL] tags not count as characters is a far better idea.

I'm sorry some of you don't like my signature, but it's in size=1 and i've tried to make it as unobtrousive as possible. If you don't like it you can keep signatures disabled.

Tech guides are all well and good, but the amount of characters being wasted in your current sig is astonishing, and makes it seem somewhat farcical that you're requesting more.

Each of your three CTRA userbars has URL code to link to your licence. Why? I'm sure anyone wanting to view your actual licence could input your username to the CTRA website.

Why do you feel the need to tell people that you're pre-S3 licenced and a high-res skins user? I notice that you've removed the "total spent on LFS: £83" part. Like anyone ever cared how much you, I, or Joe Bloggs has spent on LFS.

Your BOTT userbar links to the UKCT site. If you're starved of characters, does it really have to?

In addition, why do you feel the need to have a separate link to the UKCT forum (isn't it linked to from the UKCT site that your bott bar already links to?)?

If you want to link to tech guides, you're also wasting characters trying to flog your stuff on ebay, and touting your website.

Sorry for souding harsh, but some sigs look a real mess and too full, and yours is one of them, however admirable your desire to link to more tech guides. There'd be plenty space if you used what there was more efficiently.

Quote from Dajmin :

A new track isn't going to solve anything.

Let me use your own stats as an example. You've never run half of the South City tracks or really any of the rallycross tracks either. That's a good few combos you're missing.

Well the same is true for me, I've not driven much of the South City combos other than SO1. The thing is, saying "well you've not driven all the combinations we've already got" is missing the point. Some people think we're already maxed out with the number of combos available on the current tracks; they don't feel interested in driving all the combos in the available environments. What would be nice is new environments.

More environments is always nicer than more configurations. Obviously, it's also a helluva lot more work for Eric, and may not be feasible. Then again, we've not seen any content from Eric since early '06, so he must have been doing something. But the current tracks are getting quite long in the tooth now. They're still enjoyable, but something fresh would give S2 an excellent shot in the arm.

Quote from Dajmin :

The problem isn't the number of tracks LFS has, it's the number of servers running the same boring over-used combos. For some reason people only want to race places they could drive with their eyes closed, so we keep getting the same old crap day after day.

I'd like to see a temporary ban put on AS National and KY Oval just to see what people would do

Agree fully with you there. It always astonishes me how many people never get bored of doing FOX at BL1/AS2 or GTR at AS3, ad nauseum.

Yes, we could do with more tracks. As others have said, not track configurations (between Aston and Fern Bay we've already got more than enough of them), but actual, new, track environments. Especially ones in more varied locations around the world.

Dan makes a good point about combos for leagues - at the moment a league has to revisit each track several times, and only races in England (four times), Jamaica, or Japan. Not exactly realistic.

New tracks can't come soon enough imho, especially if we get something with the flavour of another continent and some great character. (Oh, and a track with some more technical, careful sections too!)

Last edited by STROBE, Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:33. Reason : fixed country list

Quote from danowat :

if my "plans" come to fruition, only time will tell.............

World Domination?

Quote from muhaa :

I don't care about public recognition

Of course you don't dear...

Quote from Scawen :

you found the file reading vulnerabilities and you asked us to post something recognising that you found them.

It's ok though, I don't think anyone believed you in the first place.

(Cheers Sam )

Quote from muhaa :

nvrmm your a bunch of immature kids.I realy cant be bothered with this crap.Oh they hurt our little game and blah blah blah.Get over your sefl.And grow up.

Kettle, meet pot.

Pot, kettle.

Anyway, seems like you really "learned" from your mistakes...

Quote from muhaa yesterday :

I will learn by my mistakes im sure for future releases of any other exploit or poc code.I take this as a valid learning lesson on which i will be more than happy to improve in the future.People make bad mistakes and often make bad decision,But if i could change things i would.Can we drop it before people start to flame.I've admitted i made a mistake and thats all i can say.

Less than 24 hours later...

Quote from muhahahawhatajoke :

We done the right thing just because we released the poc codes and told the developer's they better try and be quick about it because we wanted to release them.We could have just released them with out telling the devs or any thing.So stop bitching about it.

It's ok though, I don't think anyone believed you the first time.

On the plus side for the devs and hosters for whom muhaa is a pain the arse, it's soon school term again. Apologies to devs and any hosters involved with this thread for the off-topicness.

Quote from danowat :

It gives me great pleasure to announce the signing of our latest driver.......Vain.

So why did you bother skinning the front end of all your team cars? Most people only ever see the back of Vain's car, unless he's in your mirrors and about to lap you.

Seriously though, congrats to AR on signing one of the fastest, cleanest, and friendliest drivers around.

Quote from jamesrowe :

What?! Where does it say you've been booted We would never get rid of you Hunni

Well, Chris' list on the first page was updated 26th August, but I aint listed. Bitch.

Quote from Greboth :

Give us chance This is the first time I have gotten on today, will change it in a minute.

So I've been booted off the team?...

That's good news - I still have (and still use, on the odd occasion I need a joystick) an MS SW joystick, and it's great. Excellent reliability, ergonomic, and very reasonable cost. But like wollschaf says, I'll think twice about buying anything from them again after their abysmal driver support on the previous range. I too used to have an MS SW FF wheel, and was left without any proper "advanced" drivers when they pulled the plug last time.