I've been dragging my heals about organizing the Spring 2021 series, I know. A lot of it has been the pressure (self-inflicted) of trying to come up with something every bit as fun as the Winter series and fits with everyone's increasingly busy spring schedules (yours truly included).
I have concerns about the '03 M3: after playing with it quite a bit, it's simply not as well-balanced out of the box as the '89 is1. The higher horse power, weight, and not all that improved brakes and basic suspension make these cars quite a bit more challenging on the edge.
Using racing compound tires covers up at least some handling issues, but only until you get close to the limits of the stickier tires performance envelope ...and... once you get there, the car is a lot harder to save.
I'll save the discussion of the gearbox2, and just say this:
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
If there's a zen about this series it's this. Close racing in lower powered, easy to drive cars. The name of the series after all is Drink Drive Racing Series. Save the hard to drive N800's on Comfort Compounds for the hard-core gamers. Our races are equal parts social and competition, and it's just hard to ingest an adult substance, be social, and race close when the cars are hard to drive.
I figure we've got three choices and frankly I'm torn which way to go. BUT... there are a few things I have firm feelings about for the Spring 2021 Series. We're not going to run every three weeks. There's simply no arrangement of every 3rd weekend that's going to fit into what I know about my spring schedule, and I know I'm not alone in that. Rather than a championship series, the Spring will be a series of one-off races, following the existing formula. DDRS race winner stickers will still be awarded, and there will be generic trophies for each event, and perhaps a wrap-up in a support series race (honestly, who didn't have fun in the TransAms?).
Now, to the three options. We could simply carry on with the '89 M3 and pretend that prior pronouncements of a new car were simply the ravings of a sleep-deprived lunatic. We could carry on as if the above rant was the sleep-deprived ravings of the aforementioned lunatic, and that there's simply nothing that some group test and tune time can't fix on the '03 M3. Or, we could say that both lunatics are in fact the only sane people in the room, and switch to a completely different car in the N200 range. (I'm partial at the moment to the Honda S2000; it's not quite as grunty as the '89 M3 but a small power bump could help; in stock trim it has no real nasty habits with which to contend).
Please tell me your thoughts on the car selection. Reply on PSN with your vote: Keep the '89, Use the '03, or Pick a different car.
The Winter series focused on (mostly) fictional circuits. In the Spring, we'll be taking the opposite approach and going to world circuits (in this order):
- Laguna Seca
- Interlagos
- Mount Panarama
- Suzuka
- Red Bull Ring
- Nurburgring (schedule permitting)
- Willow Springs (schedule permitting)
I'll be posting the schedule within the next few days, with the first race happening perhaps as soon as three weeks from now. Please let me know what you think about what car we should run.
About the fall series... Right now, I'm expecting we'll be able to pick things back up again in the September/October timeframe, and schedule a full fall series. Of course, the 800lb gorilla in the room is Gran Turismo 7 and when that will be released, and when folks are planning to move up to a PS5, and... well, you get the picture.
1 Not that the '89 M3 was perfectly balanced out of the box, but the amount of tuning needed wasn't too bad.
2 I lied. There just doesn't seem to be a single setting that works well in the vast majority of cases. You're either banging the rev limiter in top gear, or lugging along wishing for something shorter. Transmission tuning is counter to my vision for this series.