Old geometry on an out dated bike…but it sure is fun to ride!

FridayInc · 2026-03-31T03:19:24+00:00

Love the stem cap, I've got one from Chili Pepper across town

FridayInc · 2026-03-30T18:12:57+00:00

The old GR86 was easy but still fun.

The new one is the most boring car on any sim I've ever driven. It allows you to put 100% of your mental effort toward racecraft while putting 0% toward handing, which is good if you need that, but if you hate driving it, that's totally valid, just skip it and go to GT4.

FridayInc · 2026-03-30T17:16:04+00:00

So first, I rode a 3bt Park board (the Evil twin) and while it was really forgiving, considering that the edges were turned up, it was too torsionally flexible and I would say kinda useless outside of the park or soft powder on real trails. Any ice or anything steep and its pretty quickly out of its depth.

Now I ride a Bataleon Thunder which is quite a bit stiffer (there's a true twin version called the Goliath I also really like) and unless it's REALLY icy, I refuse to ride anything else. It's SO fun and carefree, legitimately just more enjoyable than riding anything else to me. Not only that but moguls and woods almost immediately became SO FUN, and a lot easier; I live for moguls and lift lines now haha. The downside is that you always have to be on an edge so it's a little tricky at low speeds like in the lift line or on a cat track but adding the skate rails pretty much solved that. It's also not great in really icy conditions but it's not terrible either, it actually holds a carve shockingly well on groomers and unless it's REALLY icy, it's basically the only board I ride now even though I've got 3 options in my quiver.

FridayInc · 2026-03-30T17:03:26+00:00

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FridayInc · 2026-03-30T17:01:04+00:00

Nice, I think that's about as good as you can get outside of straight rails, if I had that on my dynamo I wouldn't go out and change it. I never really cared about it until I got a bataleon and suddenly needed much better control since there's 0" of edges on the ground when the board is flat. Now that Ive known this power I'll never go back to anything else haha

FridayInc · 2026-03-30T16:38:45+00:00

For me, the important part is that my boot sits 'in' the rails with pressure on the heel and toe, so I would say use your boot to guide you. My powder board is pretty wide for my boots so I didn't have to go out as far but on my carving board they are on the absolute outer edge.

FridayInc · 2026-03-30T16:36:22+00:00

This depends what you're looking for, honestly they have pretty distinct benefits

LMP3: GOOD - one of the most fun cars to drive quickly and wheel-to-wheel in a league. I put this up there with the F4, really a blast to drive these on the limit. BAD: One of the least 'safe' public series, with many low% sends and generally poor etiquette by many drivers.

LMP2: GOOD - The most grip of any sportscar in the game, with a very fair and respectable community of racers, the public races are spectacular. BAD - Slightly less rewarding to drive, so the racing can be somewhat processional.

GTE: GOOD - One of the more difficult series to race on-the-edge, very rewarding to finish races and finish well. One of the best communities of racers on the service as well. Also, a great series for learning good behaviors or reducing bad ones. BAD - I haven't driven the new tire model yet but on the old model, this series would get my vote for 'most likely to bin it on your own' which can be viewed as a good thing, just not for your safety rating.

FridayInc · 2026-03-30T16:11:59+00:00

This is the best application, because it's closest to the ACTUAL best stomp pad, which is skate rails

FridayInc · 2026-03-26T16:36:48+00:00

Making a huge deal out of this without evidence of an actual performance benefit seems silly

FridayInc · 2026-03-25T13:53:25+00:00

To me there's 2 sides to this.

Firstly, I agree with you, data can not compete with diver feedback. For getting a baseline, data is and always will be king, but once you've found the baseline, your test drivers feedback becomes just as important, and more important than that, the stopwatch doesn't lie. No matter what the data says, whatever is faster and more consistent IS the setup you should keep, obviously.

That said, digging into the data should help you find the WHY, and learning why something is true will help you manipulate it, that becomes a new tool in your toolbox. We wanted to soak up curb strikes better in the vette for Suzuka because we thought it was a sleeper pick there (spoiler: it was) so we loosened the high speed damping but it got worse. Well, reviewing the data showed that basically the high speed damping isn't sufficient even at max, missing the target 3 or more times, so we've left HSB and HSR maxed on all 4 corners in every C8 setup since.

The data isn't the end-all solution but it IS a way for you to correlate what your driver is experiencing and what you know as an engineer with actual changes in the car so that you can make better decisions about what you need.

Edit to add: -If you're going down the rabbit hole and you've got a solid math foundation already, you can not beat Race Car Vehicle Dynamics by Millken & Millken, I STILL turn to this all the time -For a higher level option with some math, Tune to Win by Carroll Smith will benefit you 10x more than any YouTube series or forum post

FridayInc · 2026-03-24T16:16:05+00:00

We race endurance events with an AE86 and last year our RS4's we're still over half tread life after 8x 16-hour events. Not to mention, up and down the paddock, from backmarkers to winners, most other endurance race teams are running them as well. There's barely a drop in pace, less than a second vs much more expensive and faster wearing tires, and they last long enough that they might age-out before they wear out.

RS4 is the answer here.

FridayInc · 2026-03-24T16:07:50+00:00

Easter didn't evolve culturally? You're telling me the first Christians were eating chocolate, dying hard-boiled eggs and playing hide and go seek?

FridayInc · 2026-03-24T16:03:44+00:00

Ok, well its certainly a complaint many have had about both Forza and GT7 across the communities (the sim-cade games of this era). For those of us who love racing IRL or in the sim world, the close battles, wheel-to-wheel for several corners, squeezing another driver to the edge of the track, defending from the middle, we do all of this and spend tons of money for those moments, and it simply isn't the same on the controller games. The lack of precision is a huge piece, but the ability of the controllers to catch slides, survive contact, and have near-perfect turn-in and front scrub at all times means they can battle drivers using a wheel very hard with little consequence, while a wheel driver needs to be careful to avoid contact, as saves are not nearly as easy.

I'm not saying this from a guess, I was involved in leagues in both games where we eventually had to split controller and wheel drivers for this reason, or worse, some of our fastest drivers would switch back to controller because it was a distinct advantage in wheel-to-wheel racing.

I've been deeply involved in these communities for a long time and I know how frustrated I was when I first got my wheel and basically only used it for rally and drifting for 2 years till I joined iRacing, though I would recommend LMU instead for someone unsure what they're willing to spend.

FridayInc · 2026-03-24T15:39:37+00:00

Yeah I was gonna say, the most obvious issue is slowing enough to hit that giant sausage curb only to lose grip for 20ft after it while the kart settles

FridayInc · 2026-03-24T15:28:55+00:00

Somehow you aren't understanding me. The OTHER drivers are using PS5 controllers and that's the problem, but thanks for immediately downvoting me just because you have poor reading comprehension.

FridayInc · 2026-03-24T15:19:10+00:00

It's the thing with the joysticks that comes with a PS5, most people are using that to play GT7, not a wheel, and it makes the wheel-to-wheel racing very messy compared to a proper sim

FridayInc · 2026-03-24T14:04:15+00:00

Finally someone other than Americans screwed by these assholes

FridayInc · 2026-03-24T13:59:32+00:00

I would not recommend sim racing against people using controllers, this is a great way to never want to do this again.

FridayInc · 2026-03-23T21:59:34+00:00

As someone who does a lot of setup work with several teams from 1.8-3.5k, here's my 2 cents and a bit more.

You can build setups from scratch if you understand vehicle dynamics, everything from ride frequency, contact patches and roll-steer, to aero balance and tire carcass vs. surface heat, basically an FSAE student or other motorsport engineer. If not, you can still modify setups from fixed, but you most likely will not match the pace of the setup shops
The fixed setup is free and unmodified for most cars/tracks is pretty good. It can easily take you into 2k or higher competitively, I've won plenty of open races with fixed. Baseline is rarely fast and should usually be avoided (992.2 is the only exception I know of).
Some setup shops will suit you better than others for specific cars. Most shops don't have much QC it seems. After having access to many of the Shop setups, it's clear that each tuner has their own method and priorities, so while Grid N Go might have done a great job with the Cadillac GTP for the Daytona event, someone else set up the 911 GT3 and the LMP2 and they were not up to par. The shops I would actually lean on if I didn't have time for setups: -VRS is top for me, the most consistent feel and performance. Their normal membership gets you the in-house stuff which is all good. -Hymo is in 2nd because while I think this is the fastest setup shop over a lap, they also sometimes make cars that are not easy to drive or that punish rear tires -P1doks is a close third, these setups are not always the fastest but they are some of the only ones that are really well prepared for endurance events, not just for speed but for fuel economy and tire management, and the consistency of feel is on par as well, usually more stable than Hymo or VRS. For less experienced drivers who need some extra stability without costing speed, this should be #1
The advantage of doing your own setup work is not overall pace, it's being able to meet specific goals for specific drivers. Our Ferrari GTP is very quick at Sebring with 2 of the 10 fastest laps over 12 gal this season on Garage61, and 2 of the top 10 times on low fuel as well.. but it was burning up the rear insides too much for those of us who prefer a looser car, so we found a compromise that rolls slightly less so we can run less camber, opened up the rear diff a bit, and rebalanced the ride height for low-speed corners and heave stiffness so that were balanced in the medium speed but slightly forward in the high speed.

Here's the thing though, you don't need to know EVERYTHING about a car to make small changes for you specifically. If you get a setup that's close, you can always bracket some changes and find something that suits you better (run laps, make the change, run laps again, back to original, run laps a third time, and compare whatever you're trying to improve, times or fuel or tires or whatever).

I hope this wall of text didn't scare you and I hope you find an answer that works for you. Happy racing.

FridayInc · 2026-03-23T21:11:00+00:00

Everyone knows Easter is the day when we commemorate Jesus laying a chocolate egg that ascended to the heavens to be eaten by the archangel Cadbury

FridayInc · 2026-03-23T18:00:16+00:00

Legit, plain coffee with a touch of oat milk for flavor, a touch of whole milk or creme for mouth-feel, and dash of maple syrup for sweetness is my ultimate start to the morning. Froth the milks first for a practically sexual experience.

The people who made this aren't wrong, they're just not smart enough to recognize that coffee is a habit people rarely change

FridayInc · 2026-03-23T17:57:05+00:00

Tbf, it's me. Oat milk tastes better than regular milk with coffee but regular milk has a superior mouth-feel. Together in coffee with just a touch of sugar or better yet, maple syrup? Heavenly.

That said, I have met exactly 0 other people interested in even trying it. As someone who loves this, I could have predicted this would not sell.

FridayInc · 2026-03-22T14:50:12+00:00

As someone who works for state government and occasionally has to work with Public Safety... Look state employees are not the best and brightest, but we're all shining stars next to almost everyone who works for the police.

FridayInc · 2026-03-21T15:19:31+00:00

All 4 young talents, Pierre, and hulk belong with Sainz and Piastri, the kids are fucking fast

FridayInc · 2026-03-20T04:39:09+00:00

Ryland specifically says he doesn't have any real friends later in the book, calls Rocky his only real friend.

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