• 17Sep 07

  RIP Colin McRae

  The rally community lost one of their most spectacular drivers to ever grace the rally tracks.

  Colin McRae died on September 15 on a stupid helicopter crash, along with his 5 year old son, and two friends.

  Born in 1968, he was the son of 5-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae, and was the older brother of WRC pilot Alister McRae.

  He started his career in 1986, competing in various Scottish Rally Championship events, driving a Talbot Sunbeam, and acquired his first WRC victory in 1993 driving a Prodrive-built Subaru Legacy, and after that, driving a Subaru Impreza, he took Subaru to 3 consecutive constructors championships from 1995 to 1997, catapulting the Subaru Impreza to stardom.

  1995 was also the prime of Colin McRae's career, winning the WRC Drivers championship after an emotional duel with team mate Carlos Sainz with the legendary "555" Subaru Impreza. This title was historic for the WRC for two reasons:

  • He was the first English driver to win the Drivers Championship
  • He's currently the youngest Drivers Champion, winning the title with just 27 years of age.

  In 1996, he was appointed a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

  He continued rallying until 2006, even taking part on the X-Games, going against Travis Pastrana, and only lost due to a spectacular crash of his modified Subaru Impreza.

  Besides being a great pilot, he was my childhood hero. I watched WRC back in 1992-1997 just because of Colin McRae.

  Here are some videos of his awesomeness as a pilot:

  2006 X-games against Travis Pastrana

  Top Gear Special putting a Ford Cougar against a Focus WRC and a Stewart Ford F1 in Silverstone

  McRae driving the legendary "555" Impreza in the Rally of Portugal

  RIP Colin McRae

  1968-2007

  • Posted Sep 17, 2007 4:20 am GMT
  • Category: People
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 26Aug 07

  Tuner Meeting at GT

  Here I am again! How are you doing? I know what you're thinking: another 200 A-Spec race. Yep, that's true!

  This time, we went to mess with t3h 1337 tun3rzz, on the Tuning Car Grand Prix.

  ______________________________________________________________

  Car used: Amuse S2000 R1 '04

  Specs: All non-power/weight upgrades, R3 tires (Alternative: R2 Tires, NA1)

  Against: TRIAL Celica SS-II (ZZT231) '03, Opera Performance S2000 '04, AMUSE S2000 Street Version '04, Mine's Lancer Evolution VI '00, NISMO Fairlady Z Z-Tune (Z33) '03.

  ______________________________________________________________

  Tracks:

  Apricot Hill Reverse: Since this was a championship, it was easy to spot the lineup, and store it for later use. The main threat on the whole lineup is the Opera S2000. This car is really good, and it's ready to own you if you don't apply to your fullest. Fortunately, Apricot Hill has a critical place where you can win BOATLOADS of time: the tight S-Section at the beginning of the track, after the first corner. This place can decide the outcome of your race. I overtook the Opera S2000 at the hairpin on the 2nd lap. After this, you may only need to worry about blocking him on the stretch, since he is much faster than you.

  Fuji Speedway 90's: Ah... Fuji 90's! Shortcut ahoy! And it's definitely needed, since it's a very fast track, with a BIG stretch, and the Opera S2000 doesn't want to ease things up, so you better rely on cutting the chicane at least once. Another good place to win time is the first corner. Since you bought Racing Brakes, you should be able to out-brake the competition, braking much later, and doing the corner much faster. Overtook 1st place after cutting the chicane on the second lap.

  Tokyo Route 246: A very fast track! This is definitely not good for me, but it is good for the Opera S2000. Fortunately, you're running in R3 tires, so you can make some very fast corners. At the beginning, try to use your opponents as cushions to gain a very early lead, and win lots of time for the lead. Then, capitalize on the following corners: the long right sweeper, the banked S-Section (they brake unnecessarily here), the quick left hander after the double apex corner (same as before, but they brake even harder), and the last corner (they brake on the approach, and INSIDE the corner, which is something very unusual). Overtook the leader on the last corner on the 1st lap. Don't forget to block the S2000 on the long stretch.

  El Capitan Reverse: No matter how many races I do here, and it doesn't matter if it is the Normal version or the Reverse version, I ALWAYS find 200 point races in here EASY. Seriously, either I'm too good of a driver, or the AI simply sucks driving here, or both. You can win time almost anywhere in this track, but the most crucial point is the hill section. Overtook the leader on the right bender before the bridge. Just to give you an idea of how easy this was: I won by 8 seconds.

  Tsukuba Circuit: This was also an easy race, thanks to the blocking that the TRIAL Celica did to avoid the Opera S2000 to take over the lead (the TRIAL Celica started in the lead, and the Opera in 2nd). If that didn't happen, I'm sure I would have a much tougher time, especially taking into account the HUGE straightaway of Tsukuba. You can win some time on both hairpins if you do them smoothly, and on the last corner. Overtook 1st place before the first hairpin on Lap 2.

  _______________________________________________________________

  There you have it! One more race done! And currently at 44380 points

  Ratings:

  Sunday Cup: 5.8/10
  FF Challenge: 6.6/10
  FR Challenge: 7.1/10
  4WD Challenge: 5/10
  MR Challenge: 6.8/10
  Lightweight K: 7.6/10
  Spider and Roadster: 7.2/10
  Sport Truck Race: 1.5/10
  Clubman Cup: 7.3/10
  Tuning Car GP: 6.5/10

  There's nothing of too much difficulty here, only some blockage to do, and some driving skills

  Next up: NA Sports

  • Posted Aug 26, 2007 4:06 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 1Jul 07

  Got to use my vacations... while they last

  *looks at last post*

  Wow. Been a while since I last updated this...

  Anyway, I've recently decided to do another race for 200 A-Spec, since I was already missing these races!

  I've turned my head to the Clubman Cup; let's see what's in store for me...

  ____________________________________________________________

  Car used: 10km Special Toyota Supra SZ-R '97

  Specs: All non-power / weight upgrades, S2 tires, 100 ballast, Nitrous at max, no driving aids, Gearbox auto-setup at 7

  Against: Toyota MR2 GT-S '97, Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 '85, Opel Speedster Turbo '00, Honda Integra Type R (DC5) '03, Clio Renault Sport V6 Phase 2 '03

  ____________________________________________________________

  Tracks:

  Apricot Hill Raceway: Started pretty tough in here. Since this was a pretty fast track, I would have to resort to Nitrous to win here. It took a bit for me to adapt to the extra weight on the car, but it turned out that this car was really fun to drive. The AI can't say the same about the 205, since it looked like the 205 was being driven by someone who just came out of the distillery, and drunk every bottle of whisky in stock. Anyway, I overtook the leading MR2 on the second lap on the hairpin about halfway through the track. Good places to win time are the long left hand sweeper, since the AI tends to do almost half the corner on the outside a la Ayrton Senna (RIP), and the tight S-section before the last corner. Oh and use Nitrous whenever you have a patch of straight road. Block the MR2 on the stretch.

  Twin Ring Motegi East: Another fast track, but surprisingly, I thought this one was a bit easier than the last one. Don't expect the AI having the same trouble driving the 205 as it did on the last race, because that's not going to happen. Use the whole width of the track to your advantage. Overtook 1st place on the first corner of the last lap... I guess...(did this yesterday, at high night hours, so I can't remember much >_>). The technical section after the first turn is good to win time. Use nitrous on the many straightwaways.

  Seoul Central Reverse: Crap, another fast track. But with a lot of straights, you can use Nitrous to your advantage. I don't know why, but the AI does the 2nd 90º turn too much on the outside. So you can win some time by using other cars as a cushion for that curve. Another good place is the S-Section before the last turn, since you can do it pretty smmothly, gaining some time. But this isn't enough to guarrantee 1st place, so you need to wallride the last corner. That's where I overtook 1st place: last corner, 3rd lap.

  Clubman Stage 5: This was a pretty easy race. In fact, I don't think you need nitrous for this one at all. This used to be one of my favourite tracks from GT1. And since the Supra has a rather good weight distribution, you can do some corners (like the corner after the tunnel) almost without braking winning A LOT of time. The quick section after the tight left hander is also good to win time. Overtook 1st place on the 3rd lap, on the second to last curve.

  Deep Forest Raceway: Another easy race. I can't really explain why the AI drives so badly here. You can win a lot of time almost through all of the track, but the last corner gets the award for "Most time winning corner", since you can do that corner well into 4th gear, maybe into 5th. Overtook 1st place on the last corner on the 2nd lap.

  ____________________________________________________________

  That's it! That's all he wrote! Another rather easy event, with the 2 last tracks being extremely easy. But you need to be careful with Apricot Hill, since the AI drives pretty well in here.

  Ratings:

  Sunday Cup: 5.8/10
  FF Challenge: 6.6/10
  FR Challenge: 7.1/10
  4WD Challenge: 5/10
  MR Challenge: 6.8/10
  Lightweight K: 7.6/10
  Spider and Roadster: 7.2/10
  Sport Truck Race: 1.5/10
  Clubman Cup: 7.3/10

  The tuning car cup is right next door. Pretty fitting, since there will be a tuned car meeting here in Portugal next week!

  • Posted Jul 1, 2007 5:04 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts »