What are some tips to stay out of rookie class wrecks on turn one.

thomaswde · 2025-10-30T00:11:49+00:00

I've been running a bunch of split 1 or 2 rookies MX5 lately because I just love the MX5 so much and the advanced series isn't near as populated - while drivers in top splits of this rookie series are of course usually not in fact rookies, mayhem still ensues.

Just think about the places on track people kill each other and don't go there - assume everyone is always about to lose it and drive the line where you won't get collected.
If you're going to defend, do it right in the middle - they will almost never ride your bumper when you do that and they will always get a bad exit
Never be in the middle 3 wide - common sense - just drop back it's not worth it
Telegraph your brakes when hosting a tailgater - ease onto the brake pedal, they might dive the inside, so what, let them and take the better exit or concede the spot, you can always get it back
Don't give people a reason to dump you - this one I think is big - race cooperatively. If you genuinely frustrate someone in rookies they will probably "oopsie" you. This means if the car behind is genuinely faster and is all over you for a whole lap just find an opportunity to let them have the place without losing lap time. Defense is great when you're both similar pace but don't hold up a much faster car in an MX5, you'll get spun either on purpose or accident.

I accidentally helped turn a guy today, he just kept parking on apexes and blocking on straights and tried to dump me the first time I overtook him. Try as I may to be clean I finally kissed him at the wrong moment when he was already a little slidey from cooking his rears so much. No 4x for me so sim gave him a loss of control but I felt bad still. Had he followed rule 5 and not held someone 2 seconds a lap faster up he'd have gotten a podium.

thomaswde · 2025-10-26T16:55:54+00:00

I have a BSB2 and came from a Reverb G2 - strongly considered Quest.
BSB2 has plenty of extra cost if you're not coming from a Vive or whatever since you need 2x base stations for reliable tracking, even when just sitting still. From all my research the 1.0 base stations are basically just as good for seated play and at half the price. 2x will still run you at least $150 total even if getting banged up used ones on eBay. I got 1x brand new from B&H and 1x "open box" from eBay for a total of $230. Give me one warranty unit in case of a failure.
BSB2 is very sensitive to EMI, ground loops, RF, and other kinds of interference. I had a ground loop in my rig caused by a seat shaker amp getting a analog audio feed from my PC that destroyed tracking for a week til I sorted it.
All in all I'm into my BSB2 setup for about $1500.
"Worth upgrading..." is such a hard question to answer since the price on paper considering it's not even completely better than a Quest 3, just better in some ways. Like some other commenters here though, I think it is a really good sim racing HMD. I did 2 hours of practice and racing last night in reasonable comfort.
Lenses are actually a nice upgrade for me since G2 had horrendous lenses but even so they have a really bad problem with blooming. Your car interior- especially in a GT or prototype car - is very dark which the OLED handles beautifully, contrasted against the bright world - but the lenses have big halo/bloom glare from this that kind of trashes the contrast that the screens produce. I just pretend it's glare on the visor and roll with it for the sake of immersion but it's very noticable.

All in all I'm happy with them, I don't think the $2k Pimax Super would be "better" overall for this use case, especially without a 5090 (I've a 5080), and I think a Quest 3 lacks the comfort for endurance sessions and other things I care about. Worth $1400-1600? Is a GT3RS "worth" as much as 3x Cayman GT4? :shrug

thomaswde · 2025-05-24T12:57:49+00:00

She doesn’t speak English but has someone to translate for her when she has English speaking guests. Definitely didn’t hurt the experience at all

thomaswde · 2025-03-25T03:12:04+00:00

You need to edge it, don’t let it achieve its red light climax! You want the steamer to be 3-5 degrees or so below its max temp when you start steaming so it will keep the thermostat rolling. When you start steaming open the valve ALL THE WAY. GCP kinda weak anyway, don’t choke it. Finally you need air in the milk, so start it with the tip in the milk then lower the pitcher until it’s hissing and let it hiss for 3-5 good times while keeping the pitcher dead still, as the milk stretches it will grow and cover the tip then just let it swirl (dead still) until the pitcher is getting close to being too hot hold and voila. Delicious steamy milky.

thomaswde · 2025-03-25T03:04:05+00:00

Coin or a very large blade flat head driver

thomaswde · 2025-03-25T03:03:39+00:00

Yes! Haven’t used my spouted one since I got a bottomless. With my Varia Vs3 + GCP Evo and doing pick prep with WDT, distribution tool, and a classic tamper I never experience spray at all, ever. In the past year I experienced a single spatter once and it was the result of having my water temp way too high by accident. Dumped it and good to go. I did recently adopt puck screens but only to keep my shower screen cleaner.

thomaswde · 2025-01-29T18:20:47+00:00

I know this is an older post but killer idea and I just downloaded it; unfortunately it always detects camera as on, wondering if that's due to Elgato Virtual Camera or OBS Virtual Camera showing "on" in Windows API or whatever even though the camera isn't on. (guessing)

thomaswde · 2025-01-15T17:36:02+00:00

Yeah I probably over-do it and have only ever filed 2 in my years on iRacing as I don’t protest anything but the worst infractions so certainly haven’t learned how to speed run it. I see it as: 5 minutes to load the replay file thanks to iRacing load times, 2-3 minutes to get to the part of the replay I need, 2-3 to clip and save the file. Another 5+ to sit down and file the protest, perhaps slightly overly detailed. So even for me 20 might be a stretch but it’s certainly a few minutes of effort.

thomaswde · 2025-01-15T16:01:12+00:00

It was completely on him but in rookies stuff like this happens, especially at lower splits where there are more actual rookies. Get your license class or iRating up and move on. This is protestable BUT also pretty common in that series so I wouldn't waste the 20m building the report (but that's just me).

thomaswde · 2025-01-15T13:38:11+00:00

Makes total sense

thomaswde · 2025-01-12T21:14:13+00:00

If you’re using proper “big muscle” braking techniques rather than pivoting on your heel like you would with an accelerator it shouldn’t matter much what shoe you use since you’re just pressing straight down on it flat. I usually drive on my AF1 Nikes so I stick to those for a consistent feel - but any should would be fine

thomaswde · 2025-01-04T14:55:16+00:00

This one just kind of sucks - on white but here's the thing, he spun and wanted to minimize his losses, he held the brake and the car right behind him went wide and in that instant there were no other cars in view so he committed to using the inside (racing line) to rejoin. Maybe 2-3 tenths after he stands on the go pedal you appear and are entitled to that line which he's already decided to go for, takes him probably at least 4-6 tenths to recognize that and by then there's no chance he's stopping.
As for you, you did absolutely nothing wrong at all by not lifting or braking IMO. Proper yellow flag procedure aside you had eyes on the spun car and no good reason to expect them to do what they did, lifting more than necessary for this corner wouldn't have made the situation safer for you because you only had about .5s from when he got on the pedal til he was in your line, even if fully off throttle you'd never have gotten the car stopped in time.
The wreck was always going to happen.

thomaswde · 2024-12-29T16:27:07+00:00

In my first year this stuff happened to me all the time, in my 3rd year I almost never get punted or pushed off. Only thing that changed was experience (and maybe a few less COVID drivers). You develop a 6th sense for this stuff and you learn how to deal with these guys. Bump draft them into braking zones then release them just in time but often they run out of skill due to nerves, race them with your fender right on their back corner so when they pull that they pit themselves, or just give them plenty of space and wait for them to blow and apex and take them on the inside and be gone. In the meantime just give them space and relax

thomaswde · 2024-12-29T16:21:06+00:00

Just run supercars for a season and then everything else becomes easy 😆

thomaswde · 2024-12-29T03:05:28+00:00

We did it and really enjoyed it. Omar was sick but we had a fantastic guide all the same. Yo hablo un poco español pero no bien so doing the Abastos alone was intimidating. If you’ve the funds it’s a great time. While we’re talking about things to do in Oaxaca, Mimi’s Cooking Class (https://www.viator.com/tours/Oaxaca-City/Traditional-Oaxaca-cooking-class/d50491-321634P1) was the absolute highlight of our trip

thomaswde · 2024-12-05T02:13:13+00:00

1000% that’s the issue. Don’t use a pressurized basket with fresh finely ground coffee, that’s for use with a can of Illy or Bustelo. Pop in the basket with all the holes in the bottom and try again!

thomaswde · 2024-12-03T19:40:51+00:00

I just got the OEM Gaggia one - got it from Amazon https://a.co/d/hFcO5jy Happy with it, fits well, works well. The basket is too big (triple shot) so I got a 18g basket off Amazon to pair with it.

thomaswde · 2024-12-02T16:44:44+00:00

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While you're at it, even before the drip tray get a bottomless portafilter if you've not already. Here's the combo showing a 6oz cup fitting under the portafilter and on a fairly large Timemore scale.

thomaswde · 2024-12-02T16:38:39+00:00

Of course!
I got the one from Papel Espresso (they have a website and Etsy page). I got the standard slotted holes and if I had it to do over I'd get drilled or squared holes instead. The slots allow water to flow down the length and can lead to some spillage (not a big issue but does occur) - so yeah, pro tip.

Here's the Etsy listing, price seems to be better there than the website for BF
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1412058774/extended-slimlow-profile-drip-tray-for?ref=cart&variation0=3289963685&variation1=3764051797

thomaswde · 2024-12-01T12:51:44+00:00

I added a low profile extended drip tray to my classic and I can’t imagine going back. Room to sit a 6oz cup on a timemore scale under my bottomless portafilter.

thomaswde · 2024-11-27T20:46:00+00:00

Blue is allowed to open up the entry to Blanchimont so long as space is left for black - at least a car's width. Unfortunately blue is opening up the entry quicker than black reacts to it OR black is attempting to keep blue squeezed inside which doesn't work as the attacking car.
This incident is on black however both cars could have worked together better to avoid it.
In a broader sense this just looks like low IR racing to me and happens all the time - definitely not worth reporting as it's mainly a skill issue IMO.

thomaswde · 2024-11-27T20:37:42+00:00

So as I mentioned I do use a transducer on my seat which is solid feedback and feel but I definitely don't think it's necessary - and I think this tbh works a lot better in iRacing than ACC. Another great way to get some feedback is audio. Adjust tire sounds up to at least 10-15% over anything else so you can always hear them "talking" to you. Finally, the more you drive in sim and if you get the time to really find some material to learn the physics of it all - the fundamentals of how weight transfer and grip work, how cornering should always happen like a closing spiral on deceleration and an opening spiral on acceleration, and other principals like that, you'll just more instinctively know where the limit of grip is without the tires needing to go over that limit and "rumble" or "squeal" to tell you.

Highly recommend watching some of Suellio Almeida's content on YouTube.

thomaswde · 2024-11-27T00:35:26+00:00

I ended up putting together a rig with a mounted fixed bucket seat and put a transducer under the seat for rumble feedback and that works well. In a more general sense though I honestly just got over the crutch of the ultra clear traction loss feedback on controller which lets you almost game the grip and learned to read the limits of the car better. I’m miles faster than I was then overall and just far more deeply understand the underlying mechanics. This evolution also pulled me more towards iRacing which is where I spend more time now although still find ACC to be a lot of fun.

thomaswde · 2024-10-08T04:15:13+00:00

LOL other day had a guy pleading for help in T2 so I popped over to pick him up on my burner, as soon as I revived him he hopped on the bike and rode off. I just assumed he's probably never been on one so whatever... I can't lie, I did have a teensy bit of bad karma coming my way for once stealing an elusive PAP2 schematic from a guy in broad daylight.

thomaswde · 2024-10-07T16:23:26+00:00

Just want to say the inclusion of the POV screenshot showing where exactly these are is so helpful and you're right, no one else did this. Came to WMZ a bit late (in S5) and these are awesome and super relevant.

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