American Iron season II

Option to race Neon


My reasoning: I'd also like to allow people the option to select the '92 Escort which is AWD stock and needs to be converted to RWD. Since I allow that, I can't restrict the Neon.

Sim I remember that Avanti saying repeatedly from the first time I spoke to him about American Iron that he wanted everyone to utilize light weight first and foremost.  He has always wanted us to use Racing Weight Reduction.  The bucket allows for this to be.   The whole idea of "cookie cutter" series rules as you seem to slander with that term is to make for FAIR racing.  Having a series where someone like Fender or I could hop in that Neon and run away with every race is not fair.  Thats not fun.  I wouldnt want to take part in a series like that if I had a car that couldnt keep up because the rules were unbalanced and loose.  All of us want to know we always have a fair shot at a win.  Thats what made Rolex and PWC especially fun for all of us.  This will sound rude but if you want to see a whole wide range in variety of cars you should check out car shows or cruises.   

I know Avanti wants good racing first and foremost as well.  I dont mind you having the option to run the Neon as long as you dont mind the American Iron series being balanced evenly as possible just like PWC, ALMS, or Rolex.   I feel what sets AI apart isnt the lack of balanced restrictions but actually the fluid penalty system of + or - PI that will be adjusted to slow those that are too fast and help the guys that are a tick behind.  

Having talked to Geoff a bunch I have a ton of confidence that the series will evolve successfully and AI2 will be a hit just like the OG AI.

In American Iron I just like seeing a bunch of different cars selected. I hate cutting out any particular car, and won't unless the car doesn't meet the rules. Just as in the first season, there will be penalty buckets to keep drivers from running away with the points race.

I also want to take some time and bring up multi-class racing. I enjoy hosting series where more than one event is occurring and I would like to squeeze all American Iron racers into one room. One room means a maximum of four buckets. Four buckets divided by two series means each series only has two buckets.

I have a feeling we're not going to be able to get fancy with Motorsport 4. I am hosting American Iron season II on Motorsport 4 to further shakedown American Iron before I jump into hosting on Motorsport 5. We're hearing Motorsport 5 aims to host more online drivers than previous versions and I'd like to host a room with CMC 1, CMC 2, AI, and AIX … but that's coming later in winter.

I ask this, how do we fit sixteen drivers and two classes into the confines of one Motorsport 4 room? The first part is easy, be one of the first sixteen people to speak up and commit to the series.

• I am leaning toward removing the -n% power trick and racing exactly as we did in the first season.
  
• Stalker suggested we build all AI cars to the -n% power trick and that would be the normal bucket.
  
• Who else has ideas?
  

I believe lowrider had a hand in suggesting building all AI cars to -35% power. That would eliminate 1 bucket, and also allow for easier power addition/reduction through parts rather than a bucket system.

I would love to see the -35% rule utilized in some way, it just makes so many more cars able to run and with lighter weight, which is what was your desire to begin with.

Oops, sorry lowrider. I do remember you mentioning that in party chat.

I definitely prefer the builds to have less power and less weight and I won't cease holding racers to that though Forza 4 causes headaches with its limitations. I'd like more buckets. I'd like the option to score a group of buckets together and a different group of buckets together. Since I can't score buckets in pairs I'll have to either have Forza score each bucket individually and manually sort the scoring post race, or I could just lump every racer into one respective bucket and …

Oh damn. That's it! Since I have to manually pull apart the data at the end of the race anyway, I'll just wholesale lump people into buckets. Those who build their car without the -n% trick (regardless of AI or AIX) will have two buckets. Those who need the -n% trick will have another two buckets. And everyone will be Forza scored together. I'll sort things out at the end of the race. I apologize in advance to the AI class though, you won't earn the Forza notification of being your class winner (likewise the top three won't earn a podium place) because you're just going to be lumped somewhere amongst the group of sixteen racers.

If this is how we end up racing, please-please-please, make sure you're in the correct bucket. Ex: Don't build your car to the -n% set and then hop in the normal bucket, as you'd simply blow away your respective field. Also know that since I would be lumping everyone wholesale, I can't use the room restrictions (power, performance index, weight, etc.) to narrow your car choice to only AI or AIX builds. I hope I don't have to say this though I will just to cover my tail: I need honest racers.

Actually, you can score multiple buckets together. You use multiple teams.

Two teams, each with two buckets.

in fact, you may he able to use a combination of teams and buckets to get what you want. Say an AI team and an AIX team. Then a regular, -5%, -15%, -25% (or whatever) bucket. Then just choosre the right combo. That should actually give you a possible combination of 16 options (4 teams, 4 buckets). (Might be tricky to score.) And you could stack options and limits to an extent, as teams have options similar to buckets if I remember correctly.

Oh, also:

if we have more than sixteen, I say we run multiple qualifying lobbies. Top half of each class races against top half of the other and vice versa. Top finishers in lower group get 60-75% of max points in upper group. Qualifying would be done with ghosting on, so its just hot lapping. That would allow us to run up to 32 racers.

Didn't we try teams before and find it didn't work as we'd hoped? Once team rules come into play, team scoring trumps bucket scoring and team rules dictate said group is battling the other team. I don't care about red battling blue, I care about the battle within red and the battle within blue.

If there's a way to make it all go together, we can race it that way.

Simcik wrote:if we have more than sixteen

… there won't be more than sixteen. There just won't.

I meant 16 people. I assumed you were gonna recruit on the main forums, and if NSA gets involved, its very easy to get over 16.

I know what you meant, I'm just not taking any more than sixteen this season. One full room would be perfect.

So, what is the % reduction we're using??? I want to try to make some builds of the various Mopars...

35%

Cool, thanks!

After the practice last night I am going to open my build up here in a lil bit and see what I can do to slow the Binford Tools, Pape/Caterpillar Equipment Saleen Mustang GT down.  Seems its hauling the mail and I would like to get to the speeds Stalker and Sim are running.  We had a few guest racers in AI cars last night and they were running about the same times as well besides Shatter in a Buick GNX which had speed but just couldnt hang in the corners consistently.  I bet with tuning it could but just guessing.    Id like to find a way to do it without penalty buckets just yet so we can save it for later if need be but lol my Stang is rather stock.  Hope ya'll get on at a decent time so I can test some ideas otherwise Ill just run down 5%.

Much closer racing last night over race 1. That was a blast, everyone finished pretty close. Had a 4 way battle happening with 2 laps to go.

Lets get more people on board for next race, this was a lot of fun.

Yeah it was  coming in 2nd was way more fun than winning. We were all bumper to bumper most of the race. We all were in the lead at one point and all last. Great race!!!!!!!