From Virtuality to Reality (1 Viewer)

Mazy CZ

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Hello to all fellow simracers and readers. Almost a year ago I wrote a blog in my native language (Czech) about my experience and I thought that here is the best place to share that with you all. So if you have some spare time, sit back and enjoy the reading. Here is my story. :)

Chapter 1
As I hated the czech lessons and basicly every essay I suffered a lot and I believe my teachers were suffering during reading aswell, it is obvious for me to start writting a blog. But recently I have experienced something that is worth sharing with simmilar minded people.

As a boy, I always played with cars and I always bought some car models back then and obviously with PC boom and games, I started to play games such as the first Prince of Persia and Pac-Man but mostly racing games. The very first game I got my little fingers on was "The Cycles" a MotoGP game on my dad's company black/white screen laptop with breathtaking resolution of potato. I still remember that intro music and it is playing in my head now. Skipping few years I played through many Need for Speed titles (not today's arcady sh1t, I think my last was NFS Carbon and even than was awful). The best for me was Underground 2 with that hot brunette on main screen. At that time I bought myself my first wheel with unherad feature..... Force Feedback. It was Saitek R440.
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With the wheel, I could start some proper racing, so rFactor, GTR, F1 Challenge 99-02 etc. During this time I learned the most iconic world track and also how the cars behave, what is oversteer/understeer etc. But I can't remember if I ever found that hard to understand and it felt natural to me to know, what the car will do if it is FWD, RWD or AWD. But still, my dream game was Grand Turismo on PS1 which my neighbour had back then and we played sh1t out of that game. But my mom said that when I earn my own money, I can buy PS. She is not gonna buy me one. And so I did! My first proper wage after 1 month of summer job came and I ordered PS2 and GT4 with smug face and controller in my hands playing on 55cm TV, lying on my bed like 2 meters away amazed by the realistic graphic on CRT TV LoL :D
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During university, my laptop wasn't any good for any proper racing game, so I bought Xbox360, Forza Motorsport 3, F1 2010 and also later the MS Xbox wheel. And then I got myself some free month of Xbox live gold, so I tried some online races in F1 2010. I beat them all. So I though maybe there are some leagues out there with people that can race properly. And I found FisiFan91's youtube videos and I was hooked up. So my competitive online racing career started and it was april 2011 I believe. It got downhill after that. I bought myself a proper PC after university which I still play on today and I build it myself so I think I did a good build. Also upgraded to Logitech G25, then exchanged it for T300rs, put triple screens on and this is what I have now. I did many seasons in F1 games (2010 till 2015 I believe) then moved to Project Cars 1 and 2, starting Assetto Corsa league with Noztra at AOR, and then bam, my son was born. So I quit my racing for a year and then Noz contacted me than he is doing DTM league here at RSR. little boy was already sleeping in his bedroom so I could play in the evenings so I joined RSR and this is basicly a brief story. :cool:
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But the main part starts now. I always had a bug in my head asking me "Man, if you can drive in racing games quite good, could you actually drive race car and be quite good? Will you be able to go fast, go to the limit of the car and if you go over, can you catch a slide, sort out the understeed and this kind of stuff? Or are you just a prick who thinks he is preety good driver?".
Well, I thought I will never answer that question and I will stay at that point "I'm just a preety good driver and if something happens on the road, I have good simracing experience so no problem there"

But one time I started looking on the internet if there is some opportunities to actually try to drive a race car. And I actually found a racing team (RadicalTeam based in Prague) who races in amateur Makpak Endurance championship here in Czech republic that sell their driver spots for complete beginners. You can buy some few laps as a passenger, or as a driver in training session at Brno track or Autodromo Most (the 2nd racetrack in Czech). Few laps or 30mins, or 1h. Or, if you want to you have balls to do that, you can buy 1h (or more)in a endurance race with instructor sitting next to you. So, guess what I did? Yes. I bought 1 hour in amateur endurance race at Autodromo Most track that I don't even know. The car I will drive is BMW E36 325i, with race tyres, race suspension, LSD at the back, stripped out cockpit, so it has around 220BHP and weights around 1000kg. And you don't need any racing licence. It is amaterur cup. The team also have E92 325i aswell for beginners, then BMW 130i but without instructor, and then 3 radicals. And you can race them aswell, if you have the money. Now, you may ask, how does it cost? Well, it is a surprise but not that much considering what you get. 800€ which seems much spending it in 1 hour, but it is actually cheap in my opinion.
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So I will finish the first post here, looking forward to your feedback and comments and soon I will create next chapter. See you :p
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Chapter 2
When I got place in a race at Most, I wanted to learn the track somehow as I haven!t been to Most and the track is not present in any game which is no surprice. But some bloke made a mod into Assetto Corsa so I loaded it up with E30 M3 and did some practise to be fammiliar with the track.

It is wednesday, going to work with my thoughts elswere. I'm counting down hour after hour untill lunch and funally by noon I'm leaving work and going home. Here it is. The silence before storm feeling. The feeling you usually get before exams, graduations, wedding or birth of your child.
At home everything is ready so only to put all things into the back of the car and start our way to Most some 250km away from my home. The nervosity is gradually increasing and it is also given by the fact that I decided to film a vlog about it all. :eek:
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We finally got into the hotel and as I will be driving for the first time, I need to be present at begnners meeting at the team!s garage at the circuit at 7PM. So I am leaving the hotel, driving to the track, passing the main gate, driving throught the tunnel which goes under the track and then arriving at the paddock. After some sightseeing and photoes I decided to film first bit of the vlog. Nervous as hell to speak into the mobile. God, why I did that :wtf:
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I go tot he garage number 11 and 12 where the Radicel Team is located for the race weekend. I meet the team boss Martin who is a professional racing driver bud had to stop because of some physical injury. I also met 3 brothers who will be our instructors. The other begginer participants arrive aswell and the team mechanics are working on other cars. Also, other teams are presented at the track so there is a lot to look at. Finally the last beginner arrived so we can start our information breefing.
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Instructors are giving us tips on how to drive, what to do, what NOT to do and what never ever ever definitely NOT to do. Also explaining all the flag signalizations, how to behave on the track and that in the car it is very noisy so it can be problematic to understand the info from the instructor so we have to really shout. THen we all aks different questions. I got under the impression that any cheats, like "restart, rewind, save/load,magespeed, griphack, nodamage, back to track" somehow will not work tomorrow ;)

One interesting piece of information was that if you are going into the corner and you are too fast and will go to the gravel trap, straighten your wheels and drive across. If you leave some wheel lock on and then hit the gravel, the front wheels could potentionally dig into the gravel and flip your car over the roof. "And you don't want that". Also they informed us when each driver will drive in the race. It is 6H race and we have 7 drivers (2 of them bought only 40mins, the rest 1h). I will drive in 2nd stint and in my inlap after my stint, I would need to drive to the fuel station to refuell the car for other 2 hours of racing. That is cool. I wanted to go as one of the firsts, but not for the start, so 2nd is realyl the best option.
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We also need to try our helmets and "race suits", well, overalls, and also how to sit inside the car, how to get out of it (it is preety difficult because of the roll cage and race seat as it is realyl tight), how to strap your belts and find some good driving positions. The mirrors will be set for the instructor so I will see nothing what is behind me. Only the big mirror in the car on the windshield is realyl big so I can see at least something. One importatn thing when stepping out of the car and letting another driver is is to place the seat all the way to the back so it is less difficult to get in the car. Especialyl if you are tall and you get in after some short guy. It can sometimes hurt and also you can get cramp when trying to hurry yourself in. During this testing of driver swaps, we also needed to sign some papers and agreements.
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All this came throught quite quickly and after and hour, boss Martin says we are done for today and we should be at garage tomorrow at 8AM because at 8:30AM is official drivers meeting. So off we go, in other garages I can see some nice racecars. For example Porsche GT3 RSR, X-bow GT4, some older Porsches, Skoda Felicia, well, plenty of different racecars in different classes. I do quick vlog and drive back to hotel. I want to go to sleep, but I can't. All those thoughts in my head, damn. But finally I fell asleep. Morning alram at 6:30.
It is Raceday!

Chapter 3 - Race Day
Yes, I have it. The morning sickness :D. I didn't sleep much but I hope the nervosity will be a bit better once I will get to the circuit. We are going for a breakfast at hotel and I see other drivers in their suits already or with team t-shirts so that adds up the nervosity. I am not hungry at all but I get something to eat anyway. Back to the room to pack my stuff, so the race overall (borrowed), my shoes (normal shoes for indoor sports) , gloves (from aliexpress), balaclava (from gokart rental place) :p. We arrive at the race track and at the Radical team garage. Girls are serving breakfast and coffee and I am looking around. Nervosity is getting higher and higher. The anticipation. Need to go to the toilet. At 8:30AM I go for the mandatory drivers breefing where the race directors talk about the race and this kind of stuff. The important is the start. It will be rolling start but the cars will do 2 formation laps so that after the 1st lap the timing sensors on each car are checked and confirmed. After the breefing, I need to go to the toilet.
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At 9:20 the cars are free to leave the pits and form on the gird. The sound is amazing, so loud and even from the cars you actually see on the roads as then have no catalytic converters and similar Polar bear friendly features. I go to look on the grid aswell and I join the one instructor that will sit next to me so we talked. I told him that I do some online racing and that I "know" the track a bit. I wonder what was he thinking lol "Yea yea whatever..." I take a picture with girls and we are asked to leave the track as the start is close now. We get last info from our team boss Martin. The cars are rolling on the track, 2 formation laps and the race is underway. Somehow the noise is twice as big. I like that:p Need to go to the toilet.
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Ok, so I should be ready in case something happens to the Driver 1 who is in the car right now. Also, the car is a manual so I also want to try the heel@toe downshifting. At home, no problem, in a race car, we will see. I did a bit of a practice in my E46 but that is SMG gearbox so no clutch, but the pedal displacement is a bit simmilar as in this E36 so I just practiced of my foot will fit there. It did fit ok so lets see.
The car is now doing laptime around 2:13 depending on the race situation and his fastest lap is now 2:11. But the team manager gives me an info that in 5 minutes he will bring the car to the pits and I hop into it. Oh god, it is here.
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The car arrives into the pit box, the driver hops out and I am trying to get in. Well, he left the seat as it was and he is shorter than me, well, thanks., but I'm squeezing in and moving the seat where I want. I am strapped in, so now I can't even move. I can only reach the steering wheels, shifter and pedals :) I'm checking mirrors but I can see sh1t out of it. Also we are checking the intercom and we hear each other so that is good. "Ok, we can go now" 1st gear, and off I go. 40kph limit in pits but I can't see the speed because of the thick wheel rim. Exiting pits and taking it easy. Up to 3rd gear and letting other cars in front before joining the track. Ok, here it is, first downshift from 3rd to 2nd now without heel&toe into the first chicane. Full throttle on the exit riding the kerb, from 2nd to 4th arriving into the technical bit of the track.Brakes, down to 3rd and my first heel@toe went ok. staying in 3rd, following the race line and arriving to the hairpun. down to 2nd, nice, then full throttle and using the kerb on the outside. Now the high speed corner comes. You stay in 4th and trying to be as fast as you can as the next bit is uphill. Nice feeling when you turn the car, hit the apex an ride the outside kerb. Then"Matador section which is the most techical. You brake, then turn right and try to stay right to open up the tighter lefthander, again trying to stay left as the fast right king follows so you want that to take in full throttle. Then a bit of a straight and only 2 righthander corners left which are both medium speed and arriving at the main straight. And this over and over again. I have no idea about the speed on the main straight but I am in 5th and the tight chicane is closing. So I braked at 200m and slotting the gears down to 3rd and in the middle of chicane to 2nd. Turned out you can brake much much later. I'm getting into the rhythm, I also try to watch the other cars around me and it is proper hell when you can't see and you only hear something in intercom. Sometimes the instructor has to grab the wheel and steer out of an oncoming car and it is really frustrating. You can't even see that Radical in your mirrors as it is so low.
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I also do a mistake where I am too fast, I lock the fronts while trying to steer, but it is evident I'm going into the gravel. So I straight up the wheel and drive accross. Gravel is hitting the car and it really hurts. Well, ok, back to racing. But then the safety car is on the track so there is some time to rest and think. Some 3 laps later the SC is away and we can race. I had some quick cars behind me but now they are gone, maybe they fell asleep so I don't have to worry about them into the 1st chicane. In front there is grey Fiesta and he is slower so I go for my first on-track overtake and he is mine. This laptime was 2:13:xxx.Going down the main strait, hitting the brakes, downshifting and suddenly the revs dropped, the clutch pedal is on the floor and not coming back as it should. I am staying out of the racing line and the car just won't engage the clutch.
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Oh god, what have I done? I broke it! But how? The instructor says he didn't see me doing anything wrong. I am trying to stay in 3rd and the car is slowly creeping around the curcuit. I managed to bring the car into the pits, it lasted like like 8 minutes and my wife was really scared not seeing me after 2 mins on the same part of the track. Bad feeling I can imagine. I'm stopping, the mechanics are asking what is wrong and the car goes up on jacks. They are trying to fix that but the engine is shut down and there is nothing they can do. The clutch gave way. :eek: The looks of other guys who were suppose to drive after me. Oh my. But the team boss Martin calls ours together and informing that sadly we are retiring from the race. All drivers who didn't get the race will have their money back or will have place in another race or test day. I put my hand up and say sorry, but Martin says that I should not feel sorry that this happens and we are all beginners. I was in the car around 30 minutes and only 10 minutes of that was my last lap + 4 laps behind. So even got either 30minutes in race, test day or I can buy another 30 and have 1 hour. It depends. At the end, I got 40mins due to the clutch failure so that is preety nice. For example team boss also told us that in the last race somebody overreved (if that is even a word) the engine completely so we have new engine in the car.
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So that is it. My few laps in a proper race car in proper race and I can say that without simracing I would have not been capable of doing that. My fastest lap was my 3rd lap I believe and it was 2:13:xxx and the fastest lap of the driver 1 was 2:11:xxx. so that is not too bad considering he was already in the car before and has some experience. It is complete different experience if you take your car to some track. In this, you have the racing equipment, rollcage, bucket seat, race suspension, race brakes, the noise, the loudness, the proper vibrations and g-forces. But on the other hand, I wasn't that nervous when beeing in the car. it felt natural and I could feel what the car is doing. I tried to do some oversteer on exit but he car is set up very safely and the LSD worked nicely. so I had only understeer under braking. And the instructor said that i was preety good. Thanks;)

So here is my vlog, it is in my czech language and I am actually blabbing so you can skip that and just watch the other bits and my onboard.

But I am not finished, I still have 40mins left and I will tell you all about that later.:cool:
 
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Mazy CZ

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Chapter 4 - Second try
After a month from the disappointing finish of the race at Most, I am going to hopefully enjoy the rest of the 40 minutes of driving. But this time I am going do Brno, which many of you know from PC2 games so you can imagine the track layout much better. It is not a race day but only a test day and it is a private session hosted by some wealthy car company selling exotic cars so on track there will be loads of different cars to see. The day before I recieved an email with time table and I am driving from 12:30 so I will go to work the next day and leave early so I can be at the circuit at 12 the latest but I'm leaving sooner.
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I am arriving at the paddock and again, the nervosity goes up. I can see plenty of interesting cars at the parking place, for example Ferrari, next is Porsche GT3, plenty of them actually, old Ferraris, Z4 GTR with ear-tearing sound and so on. I go to see the team in the garage and informing that I am here. I have to go and sign some papers again so I do that and then I meet with the team boss Martin. He has some bad news for me. He says that he looked on my onboard from the race and that I actually gave the clutch a hard time. While shifting up, I overlapped the throttle too much (basically letting the clutch go as in normal car -> feed it in) but that meant the clutch had too much slip and doing that, I overcooked it. (if you look back on the onboard from the video, there is white LED flashing on the left of the steering wheel telling you if I have clutch somehow "open" -> having your foot on it) Uuups. But he says that in race car, you have to press the clutch, shift another gear, and then really let the clutch drop imediatelly, like you would move your foot to the side and just the the pedal go up itself. Sounds harsch but this is how you do it.
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Okay, this is not the best start but I have to think about that and try not to do that again. I changed my clothes and am ready, Turns out some people didn't arrive so I am going next in the car. Car is arriving, Im getting myself in and as it is not a race, I can take my time to seat myself properly this time. And away I go. Intercom is working and....what?? it is raining? What the hell...Oh, well, at least now it is time to really test my skills I guess. Leaving the pits and the track is already damp. I am taking that very easy, almost crawling on the track. This car doesn't have any TC or ABS so in the wet it will be interesting. First turn is long sweeping lefthander which brings you in the little straight. Instructor says "Full throttle" so I go full even on damp track and the car handles okay so far. Arriving at the next braking zone. Hitting the brakes, and the brake rotors are so warped, that the whole car is shaking like crazy under braking. Very very annoying this is. Downshifting to 2nd went okay, no lock up (well, it is my first lap so I'm driving like a grandma). In turns, the water is dropping on me from the roof from different holes which is also nice:)
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I am really watching my shifting and letting faster cars go. The rain is still pooring down so the track is proper wet. The tyres are semislicks so it is slippery. Here or there I have oversteer moments, especially on exits under power, I also have lockups in braking zones going wide, but I'm getting there. But then....damn, the throttle pedal come loose and the only thing to put power down is the metal bar with very small flat panel on it. Well, this is undriveable, so we are going into the pits. Mechanic put some duck tape around the pedal which costed me like 5-8,minutes in boxes, but I can go to track again now.
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Im getting into the rhythm. in the wet you can really feel the car moving. As the car is set up for beginners, it is really an understeery cow and on the exit under power, you get some slides out of it but you really feel that coming way before so it is preety easy to catch it and not spin. And I didn't spun so that is great. The shifting is better, downshifting aswell and now it is time to go to the pits as my time is gone:(. My fastest laptime was 3:06 and considering the car can do 2:40 in dry in good hands, that is not too shabby I guess. other laps were oscilating between 3:08-:3:10. Preety happy with that.
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I got out of the car and it is not raining anymore. So in the end, for 800€ i have experienced 20 mins of driving at Most in dry conditions and in actual endurance race and I have experienced 40mins at Brno in the wet. Well, money well spend and plenty of experience gained. But still, for normal people it is very expensive even at this level and to spend that amount of money for 1 hour of driving can look really stupid for some people (well, they have new iphones every year so i don't give a toss about them). But the deal is this. You try it, you want more. So hopefully maybe next year I will buy another hour in a race. But one thing I can tell you is that I will not want to drive the manual E36 again. While beeing in the car, I was really focused on shifting and it is really hard to do it perfectly every time and so it takes loads of practice to do it subconsciously. So if I will do another race, I will pay a little bit more and go for the E92 325i with automatic and flappy pedals under the wheel. I saw onboard of that car and it looks much more interesting and as modern racecars don't even consider the manual, it will be much comfortable and I can enjoy the racing even more maybe. Well, who knows, let'w wait and see :cool:

Here is my full onboard with some laptimes and here and there oversteery/understeery action:

Chapter 5 - Back to where it started
I thing you know that it is not over. As I said, I wanted to do it again and hopefully without thechnical problems and to be full hour in the race. So I wrote to Martin that I want to do some race this year again. I prefered Brno over most as it is closer to my home, better track and I just like it more. And that I want to drive the E92 automatic. Sadly, Brno is only once in calendar so I will drive Most again, but I will do the first race of the season. Well I take it;)
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So the same things happened as in the 2nd chapter. WE got the hotel day before, I went again to the drivers breefing just to say hello and listen to the instructors again, I will drive again in 2nd stint and I believe the first stint will be driven by the same guy who drove the 1st sting last race:) All goes well, papers, nervosity, same old same old. the E92 looks bigger,wider, sitting inside feels a bit better to me aswell so it should be good. And also no clutch to worry about:D
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At raceday, again I need to be at 8AM on the track, at 8:30 we go to the drivers breefing, toilet, twice, you know the stuff by now I guess. During preparations, I also got the information that 1 driver is missing to complete full race so they asked me if I want to drive another hour. Well, of course I want, but it will cost another 900€. I said I will think about it and let them know. But as I have the greatest wife, she said that this is great opportunity because in first hour I have plenty of time to get into the rhythm and in next hour I can just go for it from the start and really enjoy. I know that in the back of my mind but the money is the problem. But if she says so:p
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Yes, I will drive the other hour. So the schedule is that I will drive in the 2nd stint, go to refuell the car for driver 3, then after his stint I go again to do stint 4, refuell again and that is it. Preety nice I think. So the race is started and I¨m watching our car. no problems so toilet again and I'm getting ready. The car is arriving, Im jumping in, saying hello to the instructor, checking the intercom and off I go. Still, even though I experienced this before, I am driving like a grandma. Still nervous but with shifting under the wheel it is really big difference. I can concentrate more on the actual driving rather than heel&toe shifting and properly work the clutch. And also you can't override the engine as it is stupid automatic only in sport mode but it shifts preety nice.
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As was said in the drivers breefing, instructor is watching the back while the driver just looks forward. But when he says to the intercom "He's left" I hear "Stay left", so I move to left and he had to grab my wheel and steer off the contact. Oh my god. It happened a bit more times than once and I'm not proud off. But on the other hand, the other drivers in faster cars with experience sometimes overtook me on places that was really begging for accident. Well, sometimes the online racing is quite simmilar when racing multiclass ;)
(Yes, that is actually me in that black car :))
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Apart from those minor moments, I'm slowly getting into the rhythm. You are always slow when you have some car behind and you have to let him through, so there are few opportunities to clock some fast lap uninterrupted. I managed 2:05.6. Fastest time before was 2:07.5 so I beat that :stig:. Once I braked too late into the 1st chicane and I locked the fronts, so I just went by the escape road between tyres and rejoined the track after the chicane. On the pit wall I see 53BOX+FUEL, that is me so it is my last lap. Hammer time....well, no, safety car is on the track and I'm the 1st to be picked up. Damn. At least we can talk with the instructor a bit about my driving and he looks happy. only the moments with the other cars. I am going into the pits, navigating to the fuel station, mechanics putting the fuel in and then rejoining back to the pitlane and stepping out of the car. So 1st stint is over. Glad I will drive another, so I'm keeping the helmet, and overalls and am ready again.
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Quick piss on toilet and back to the garage talking about the experience. The hour goes even faster than sitting in the car so I'm jumping in again. Now it is another instructor (they rotated in the cars aswell) and he is the fahter of the 3 brothers. Well, imagine to be born in that family of racing drivers and imagine how the mum is feeling to see her husband and 3 boys go racing :D). Instructor got the info that I drove 1 hour before so he's giving me the thumbs up and I go on the track. Straight away, I'm on it. Really enjoying the track and the car. I am feeling comfortable now in the car, I also see to the back so that is also good. I have some free track ahead and I can't see anybody behind so I go for it. Soon I improve my fastest time by 0,3s, also I caught up with slower cars and also do some overtakes. If I see some faster cars behind me, I already know what to do and don't loose as much time as I did before.
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Again safety car on the track, we can talk a little bit. 3 laps of SC and here is the restart. I am like 4th behind with some fast cars behind me. Im trying to be quite close to the car in front and as they are in faster category it is impossible for me to be faster after restart. Here we go on the straight and it is green flag. But there is nobody behind me. then fell asleep again lol. :cool: "Good restart, we are alone so go" says instructor. Every time I can see my delta in green but here and there I'm a bit slower. One lap I decided to try another line through the matador section.Well, it was a coincidence but I braked too late into that section which meant I was not on the apex of the righthander and keeping right, I was basically hitting the apex too fast and carrying the speed to the left and aiming for the other apex of the lefthander. And bam. -0,6s on the dash. And that is the line I took back when practicing in AC. but in the last 2 corners I made a mistake so I lost that time. Still improved my best time by 0,3s. So after that, I wanted to go for it deliberately, which I did but in the last 2 corners there was some car, and next lap somebody rejoined the track from the pits so no improvement for me. Sadly, it is my last lap and again 53PIT+FUEL. So I got o refuel the car, exiting the car, instructor is really happy and my fastest time is 2:03:390 the fastest of the race in our car.:)
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So, if you read through here, I can only thank you. And if you have some opportunity to do this at your country, go for it. it is really amazing experience. I can only say that the E92 with auto gearbox with paddle shifters was much more user friendly that the manual. So thank you again also for your comments, you can ask everything and obviously I will try to answer as much as I can. Also, if you have your own experience, you can share that here aswell.

Here are the videos:
Fastest lap:
Stint 1 - grandma driving
Stint 2 - better driving
 
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Exited

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Really cool read, love it!
I watched your video on YT couple of months ago, was really interesting to see how you were doing in that BMW racecar even more because I knew what you can do in simracing :)
Always funny to see that we are all coming from a same point. Being interested in cars in our youth, buying toy cars, playing racing games on PS1,2 ans on PC even with the keyboard and stuff :)

I'm working for BMW in munich and to drive the development cars you need special BMW "driving licenses". The 2nd part course was at the Salzburgring where we did some more difficult driving maneuvers and low to mid pace hotlapping. The cars were rather boring as we drove 225d BMW with normal street tyres. But the fact alone, to be on a serious racetrack in a somewhat capable street car still made it my best day of my life so far. Just nothing beets that feeling you get, when the g-forces start to push your body and your stomach around :p
So I can imagine how good that 1h drive at Most was and tbh I'm really really jealous that you had such an awesome experience :p

Looking forward to the next chapter!

Cheers,
Exited
 

Mazy CZ

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I'm working in a company making the front lights to BMW :) LaseLights :D:D
So you are a BMW test driver or you work for BMW but had the opportunity to do some driving? :) I guess that is also nice job, can be boring but still better than in manufacturing :D

Yeah I also wrote the blogs at that time in Czech, but I decided to share with you all as I think we all want to try real racecar on racetrack how we are capable :)
 

Jeff[NL]

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Recognizable story. My mom always tells me i was calling all car brands when we were on the road on the age of 3/4yr. When i was 6 i encountered my simsperience with Indy 500. Outrun, Testdrive 1 2 3 ,Daytona USA ,Gran Turismo , F1 1997 ,GP500 (motorcycle) and then it was time for a wheel with GTR2 on PC. Then it stalls because of my on that moment bigger love for motorcycles and i went on track myself with a Raceprepared Yamaha R6 went to Zolder and Assen on it and then i had some financiel issues so had to sell the bike. Then it got better and bought a WRX which i still need to take to the track one day.
I work for Ford btw as a Diagnostic Specialist ( more then 15yr already same company )

Not wanna steal your cool Topic but this is me on the bike I was put already in the fast group because the slow group was to dangerous haha.

Curious on your experience on track ! :cool:
 
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Mazy CZ

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Added Chapter 2 in the OP :)
 

Jeff[NL]

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Added Chapter 2 in the OP :)
Thanks ! Again recognizable hahah.... beeing at 7am on a track. It is a special feeling ,smell (yes i am also shitting myself of nervosity) i dont know how to explain.
 

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Chapter 3 added :)
 

Mazy CZ

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Chapter 4 added in 2nd post
 

Mazy CZ

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Chapter 5 added.
 

fab. ICEMAN

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Awesome story Mazy, had a good time reading it :) Big thumbs up to you!

Hope to jump into a real racecar one time too!
 

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Having done a few on track experiences, open wheelers at Silverstone, Palmersports at Bedford and Ginetta, I’ve realised that having a fast car on the road is pointless. I’m going to save my money with a cheap daily, and use my spare cash to get on track and have the most fun. Even the most enthusiastic driving on public roads is nowhere near the track experience, if it is you’re going to hurt yourself or someone else.

Anyway congrats and well done. I’m looking at bookatrack for my next slot :D
 

Jeff[NL]

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prob you are right... yet i love every time i hop in my wrx... sometimes i am thinking sell it buy cheap daily and buy a racecar but here in the Netherlands there is not much space to store a racecar safely and also if you dont pay road taxes and insurance for it it isnt allowed to be even parked on public road. Also there are not very many tracks nearby so then i need a daily with towbar to put the racecar on trailer. Then were do i leave the trailer etc etc. Maybe i just see to many bears on the road but i think its maybe better to do what Mazy did and just pay 800 a hour.
 

Born2BSlow

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Yes, there are lots of places you can hire race prepped cars, but it’s not cheap. If you are only doing it occasionally then it’s ok, but realistically I’m a 46 yo and my chances of becoming a racing driver irl are zero. My chances of owning a race car are zero, a trackday toy 50%, but still unlikely. I did it before with a mate and we hardly ever used it, turns out that was a good thing as it was completely rotted underneath and would have been lethal in a shunt....:oops:

You can even hire a race prepped Suzuki swift at the ring for not an awful lot of money...it’s on my bucket list :p

Daily driver is for safety and commuting, I’m going to keep it simple and throw money at track experiences.

Saying that, I always wanted a Chesil speedster, but wasn’t keen on the beetle underpinnings. Chesil just got bought out by Westfield (only 40 mins drive from my house) so i’m going to keep an eye on what they do with the kit as that is also on my bucket list. :cool:
 

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Yeah yeah whatever:dead::dead::banghead:o_O:p:)
 

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