My Diaries

A Lurid Tale of Obsession, Depravity, Wits and Attempted Wit

Tue Feb 23, 1999

Observations of License tests and Demios.

Well, last night I was just going to do B-5 license test (cornering of Deep Forest Racing Way hairpin with a fast car) again and again. I did not get gold, but did break 24 seconds, versus the 25 required.

I noticed that sometimes fast runs seem to be taking longer because your brain (and fingers) end up doing more. I got a reliable silver technique by never pulling to the right edge of the road, but just staying in a straight line and cutting in from there. Of course this is probably optimizing to the wrong goal.

I made some more notes about the used car stocking algorithm, but no startling discoveries. I think I need to start tracking the pattern for one particular car. E.g. the red MA70 . There sure were a lot of MA70 at day 1600, however.

I broke down, however, and did do some racing. I decided to see how well the racing Demio A-spec could be tamed. It seems that if you put the spring rate right down, and reduce the dampers, and use normal "stabilizers", and reduce ground clearance, it begins to become a civilized car. But it is still very difficult to win with.

I took it to the Lightweight Battle Stage and lost once, and then got an undeserved win. The loss was 3rd-1st-4th. I nearly beat the others out in the last race, but as I went to go through their inside on the last turn I went to fast and lost it. In the second race I managed to win at Autumn Ring-Mini ii, and Clubman R5, but then came only 5th (at the last minute) at DFRW ii. The other cars are really vicious against a Demio for some reason. The only reason I won the second series was because the two other contenders split their second and third places, and so went into the last race tied 10 apiece against my 18. And I managed to get 2 points for fifth to beat the winner's 19.