The Chicane Podcast

AMS2 1.6 A Gamechanger?

• Track Ghost Sim Racing • Episode 32

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Have you ever wondered how transitioning from casual gaming to the competitive world of online sim racing feels? Join us for a thrilling ride as Erick Kelly shares his first-hand experience with iRacing's Formula V, where the stakes are high and the tracks are unforgiving. Together with Jeff Smart and I, Jason Rivera, we unravel the steep learning curve and the adrenaline rush that comes with racing virtually. Laugh with us as we juxtapose Erick's cold climate with our warmer surroundings, adding a touch of humor to our tales of camaraderie and friendly competition.

Shifting gears, we delve into the current twists of the F1 season where the landscape has evolved dramatically following Adrian Newey's exit from Red Bull. With this game-changing move, the spotlight now shines on drivers like Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, stirring vibrant fan debates that resemble NFL loyalties. We share personal anecdotes, including a memorable fishing trip in Hawaii that mirrored our shared passion for racing and the sea. This segment captures the essence of being a fan and the bonds formed through our shared interests.

As the episode races toward the finish line, we explore the impact of electric vehicles on motorsports, debating the role of AI and the essence of human involvement. We cover the history and challenges of the iconic Mount Panorama Circuit and discuss the frustrations of dealing with customer service for high-end racing gear. We also highlight the latest updates in Automobilista 2, including enhanced physics and online stability. Before wrapping up, we encourage our community to stay engaged by subscribing to our YouTube channel, sparking larger discussions and strengthening our racing community.

Please e-mail the show for any questions, comments or stories/experiences at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com

Watch the show in video podcast form on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@TGSsimracing

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Intro/Outro Rights below:
Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/holdyou
Watch: http://ncs.lnk.to/holdyouAT/youtube

Jason:

The Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast, where we discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, Jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Mr Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart. How's everybody doing? Doing good man Doing good, Joined here by Mr Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart.

Erick:

How's everybody doing?

Jeff:

Doing good man Doing good, doing well. Great seeing you, gentlemen, as always Ready to get into it.

Jason:

Hell, yeah, man, we are. What is it? Where is it? We're coming up real close on this iRacing update, but I don't want our audience to think that the show is straight up iRacing only, or iRenting as some people call it. So we got a plethora of news and things to discuss today with you, but before I give my side, I'm going to start with Eric. Eric, what you got for us this week. How was your week? How's it going, man?

Erick:

So week has been going good. It's been a chore to stay warm. Right now it is 10.51 pm for me and it is 23 degrees outside. It dropped since we first got in the studio 23 Fahrenheit for all you international folks. Yeah, 23 Fahrenheit.

Jeff:

Yep, that's a good point, Jess what do you think it is here, 75 at 630?.

Erick:

Man, y'all live in a postcard, man yeah.

Jason:

We live inside a postcard.

Jeff:

It's a tough life, man. Somebody's got to live there 77 degrees, not bad.

Jason:

Yeah, we're doing it for everybody else, perfect golfing smoking. High 81, low 73. You can't beat it. It's tough man.

Erick:

Yeah, people pay a lot of money for that weather.

Jeff:

Pay a lot of money in air conditioning for that weather.

Jason:

That's just true. This is very true, man, all right.

Erick:

But yeah, so, weather aside, I did do something you mentioned, irenting and I actually did my first online race.

Jason:

Yeah, you did yes oh wait a minute, wait a minute, yeah, everything stops now. See, yeah, oh man, I said we wasn't gonna go over I racing, but here we go, yeah, you picked the wrong episode to say that all right, so tell us about it. Spill it, bro. What class, what so? So time of day, when I was so it was that.

Erick:

So we I kind of talked to you about you know what the um my struggles were with finding a race that was happening in a time frame, like a racing in a car that I had on the track that I had jeff, you mentioned this before. You know, based on what's available, it's kind of you end up possibly spending some money just to be able to race. So it was in the formula v um in the. So it was multiple classes in there. I'm obviously in the rookie, but there were some d people and c people in there as well.

Erick:

Um, the track was one that I wasn't really familiar with, so I really had to spend a lot of time well, as much time as possible during the practice lap trying to get familiar with it, which I really was proud of myself for learning. To try. That's the fastest I've ever had to learn a track because, like in gt7 or something like that, I can just hop offline and run laps around the track as much as possible and then qualifying might be 30 minutes. If I skip a race, I skip a race. But, as you guys know what I race in, you know you do the practice, you do the quality and you do the actual race and the race was like 15 laps or something like that. So it's a significant amount of time you're dedicating to this race, and that was kind of newer for me, coming from GT7, where most of the races are five laps, you know, seven laps, something like that.

Jeff:

Oh, really Okay.

Erick:

You can pump out a lot of laps, and then there's not like a mandatory practice time, like, basically, once you get done, you know, maybe another five minutes, another race is kicking off. Like, basically, once you get done, you know, maybe another five minutes, another race is kicking off, and so I did not finish. But the only reason I did not finish was because I lost control of the car too many times, so I didn't crash. Okay, so I ended up going off track a couple of times and really losing control of the car, like spinning out but catching it, but just literally the last lap, last turn, I spun and they were like you're done.

Jason:

Oh, you went over the incidents 17 which was a learning curve for me.

Jeff:

There's eric, I got something. Here's a, since we're all being honest and telling each other, you know, uh, what was me stories. My first race with jason was in the in the race with me. Uh, it was the mazda car and I didn't finish either. And here's the. Here's the problem. It took me like I don't know how long to dig out of that. Um, when I did a couple races in sports car to try to dig out of it with the, uh, the safety incidents, but uh, same, I had the same problem, dude had the same problem, didn't finish the race. Um, yeah, it's a lot to take in your first race, like when you're on that start line and you know that there's like 20 other human beings spread around the world that are trying to that are sitting there, rig ready to go to whoop your ass at the same time. It's a different feeling. Right, it's a different feeling.

Jason:

Totally yeah. And another thing is that you know, don't look at it as all your fault, because sometimes you might get hit and the game just counts it again. Yeah, so that's a plus four. Then you spin out of control, that's another two points. And let's say you hit another car, that's another four points. Now I just mentioned, in a split second, 10 points and you only get 17, depending on the event. Some events more than others, right, and especially the V. The V doesn't like the downshift.

Jeff:

I'm pretty sure you found out, and it's open wheel too, right?

Jason:

It does not like the downshift.

Erick:

Look, that was my biggest right, so any little it does not like the downshift look, that was my biggest. That so that's actually a bad habit I have from gt7 is basically the cars are like on rails, so shifting didn't really. Unless you're, unless you're in like a really high power car, shifting didn't really impact the the car that much or the engine breaking, talking yeah and so in that v like downshifting to kind of get some rotation yep it doesn't want to down.

Erick:

I was yeah, you got to be really gentle. Yeah, yeah and I ended up having high rpm she's gonna.

Jason:

She's gonna toss you bro yeah, yeah.

Erick:

So I ended up I and that was the thing I was kind of, I kind of took away from it was I learned how to drive better in that car. I figured out in certain turns I need to hold the gear longer instead of trying to downshift, peel off more speed, start braking earlier. I actually learned the track and was basically just trying not to ruin anybody else's race.

Jason:

Okay so that was probably my stuff. That's what's up, man Dude, that's awesome yeah that's awesome.

Erick:

Main question here I mean Dude.

Jason:

That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Main question here Go ahead, Go ahead, Jeff. Let's hear it.

Jeff:

For what it's worth. I did a race with that V car and I found the 1600 FF, or it's the FF 1600. I found that car a lot easier to handle. It felt like it turned better, braked a little better. So just word for the wise. But if you've got a couple laps in time. In that other one, you do. You, buddy, I'm just pumped for you. I love hearing the stories.

Erick:

I'll try that with anything that's easy to drive. I was really looking for something. I could drive that Ferrari in.

Jeff:

Couldn't find a race huh.

Erick:

Yeah, I couldn't find a race that I qualified for.

Jason:

Yeah, I couldn't find a race that I qualified for. Yeah, because you got to get out of rookies. However, all I wanted to say was did you have fun? Because that's the main thing here. The main thing is it's not spinning out, it's not trying to get the podium. I mean, we're trying to get the podium, let's be honest. But it should have been fun. It should have been oozing worth of fun, like pressure you felt the pressure.

Erick:

The tension was definitely higher, simply because of the safety issue like not even I wasn't even worried about safety rating. But just if I crash, I will die like I hope my race will be over. That's something that doesn't exist in gt7 like you're racing me over from the standpoint of you wrecked and now you're just so far behind you can't really get any decent position. But like I run into a wall or get some critical damage, I'm towing or my race is over and yeah, your race can be over, so that's a new level of tension there.

Jason:

Yeah, man, and if you're using Crew Chief, crew Chief's going to tell you go pit, because you're orange, right? Orange flag, meatball, flag, meatball, and you don't know, you don't know how long the repairs are going to take, you don't? You pull in and then you find out it's eight minutes, yeah, bro, at don't. Yeah, you pull in and then you find out it's eight minutes, yeah, bro, at that point you might as well turn it off. I usually hang out in the pit lane, and not just on the youtube, because I don't, I don't like to leave the race, even though it doesn't matter I don't, it doesn't matter, it doesn't I don't know, if you do, it doesn't no it's the same thing.

Jason:

I mean, if you forfeit a race, it's just gonna put you in last place. You know what I'm saying? So it's the same thing. I mean if you forfeit a race, it's just going to put you in last place you know what I'm saying, so it's not going to give you more incidents by quitting.

Jason:

Okay, a dnf is a dnf, I mean it. It's kind of like formula one, right formula one. Somebody beaches the car they're. They can probably go home if they want you know, yeah, they can. They can take a cab and just I'll see y'all tomorrow or something, I don't know you say call me uber that's what's up, eric, I'm excited for you. Um, yeah, if you enjoyed that little piece of content, there's way better stuff out there just gonna get out of rookies dude it got.

Erick:

It got me hyped, because now I'm looking for, looking forward to just racing on a track that I'm familiar with okay, because that was when I wasn't familiar with.

Jason:

So which one was that one?

Erick:

oh, I can't even remember it. It was I have to, I have to shoot it to you.

Jeff:

I can't remember. And they change every week too. So by just by the time you start to be like man, I, I know this track like the back of my hand. You get two nights, three nights in there. Boom, new tracks. Yeah, which is the challenge, right? I mean it's, it's fun, I'm pumped for you, dude yeah, man, I appreciate it, hell yeah man, hell yeah.

Jason:

So what about you, jeff, what you got for us this week, man?

Jeff:

dude. All I got for for an announcement this week is, uh, you know, it's it's kind of that sad part of the season to time of year. So what are we going to do on Saturdays? Do we got F1 just concluded? Um, you know, we're recording this right before the race, this, this, the finale, but uh, it's been, and I can't I can't say this straight face because I've only been, for this is like the first full season that I've been all in on, like watching free practices. I even watched the weekend warm-up on F1 TV. But this has been awesome.

Jeff:

Where you saw last season, you saw the Red Bull. That just was incredibly dominant. It just really wasn't even very fun. The first quarter of the season rolls around and this season wasn't turned out to be much better either, because max was just dominating. I mean, we had, uh, what was it? Australia, I think, where he had the, the dnf, because he had the tire, the brake problem, you know, on the third lap.

Jeff:

But for the first quarter max was like just it just wasn't fun. Like you were watching it and you were watching for, like, who was coming in second, really right, and you were seeing where your driver was finishing, uh, and then it was like a light switch happened, that everybody got competitive and maybe it was because, you know, when adrian knew he decided to be like I'm gone, Red Bull, uh, good luck. Uh, that it became like Lando came out of the woodwork, lewis won a race, matt, uh, george won a rate. I mean, the Ferrari stepped it up, Uh, and it was like we watch F1 now and it's like you have no idea who's who's going to win.

Jeff:

It's it's like five teams and five people that really could win it on any Saturday or Sunday and it's. It's really awesome right now. There's no better time to get into F1 right now. So, uh, it sucks, we're going right into. You know, uh, the next data point we have for for F1 is drive to survive.

Jeff:

Uh, but anyways, uh, anyways uh, yeah, it's, it's bummer, we're not gonna have anything to do. Um, yeah, nothing for jason and I to talk shit about each other on text messages about you know whose driver did better, who whose driver did worse, or talk crap about their his driver my driver, whatever.

Jason:

so I got videos, yeah, um, but yeah, mr russell, you know, or mr max, it was yeah, but yeah, mr Russell or. Mr Max, it was kind of some strong words being tossed around last weekend.

Jeff:

Yeah, max and George got into it. Boy.

Jason:

Yeah, they did.

Jeff:

It was interesting and Jeff and Jason got into it on text message over who is the one that started it, who's got the right of way, who's got the right-of-way, who's got the right-of-way?

Jason:

I mean it's fun to have the rivalry, though, oh yeah.

Erick:

It's nothing but better.

Jason:

Yeah, if we were just Max fans oh, the same one yeah. None of us are. First of all, hope you guys know this. And my brother just got into F1. And get this. I said, and I'm just going to call him out right here I said you know you met Jeff right, because he came over here a few months ago, or not like a month ago. He was here Slate some fish.

Jason:

Yeah, yeah, we hung out. We had a few cold ones together, but he didn't mention the fact that he's a Verstappen fan and he hates George Russell. Yeah, we would have booted him right out of the boat. If you tell Jeff that that is a death wish is what I told him.

Jeff:

I'm going to say something here. It's a death wish. Anybody that gets into F1 now and they become a Max fan is like jumping into the NFL like four years ago and being a Tom Brady Patriots fan. I'm a diehard Patriots fan, born in New England and followed them when they sucked, when they were like three wins with like Drew Bledsoe right. But you can't jump into F1 now and be like, oh, I'm a Red Bull Max fan Straight bandwagon bro Right.

Jeff:

I mean your legs get tired from jumping on the bandwagon bandwagon, bro, right straight.

Jason:

I mean your legs get tired from jumping on the bandwagon. I mean it's just like come on.

Jeff:

So anyways, I would say that's your brother. I'm glad he kept to himself, because I had to toss them out of the boat when we went fishing together that's what I said though he's a good dude I said, I looked at him and I opened my eyes.

Jason:

I was like you better watch it.

Erick:

You better watch your mouth, man.

Jason:

We're in the middle we're in the middle of the mother bleeping ocean, bro. Yeah, we'll get to this. Sharks in this water, bro, we, we don't have to go far. Hawaii, we go. What, what is it, jeff? We go 15 miles off the coast.

Jeff:

We're looking at five thousand four thousand five to seven thousand feet seven thousand feet and we can still see land.

Jason:

Yeah, you're gonna die we caught, we caught.

Jeff:

We ended up hooked in into like six tuna that day and we were only like a mile offshore.

Jason:

Six tunas bro, but we lost three. Lost three, caught three, that last one that Jeff lost bro, it looked like Bro.

Jeff:

Dude, I was ready to jump. I lost it right at the boat.

Jason:

His soul left his body, his soul left his body. He was like I don't want to curse on the podcast man, he dropped the biggest F-bomb that I've ever heard.

Jeff:

People in Maui heard it.

Jason:

Yeah, the neighboring island is like what's going on over there, man. What's these guys doing? Okay, well that's what's up. Guys, I have quite a bit. You know I usually open up with announcements first, being the host of the show. I just wanted to get the positivity out right.

Jeff:

All right, lay it on us. Buddy Straight, no Chaser.

Jason:

The Chican Podcast is Straight, no Chaser, just like Jeff says. That is the truth. We all three of us are consumers. We are sim racers. We the products that we buy and we use and we tell you and we recommend are products that we use every day. You know what I'm saying.

Jeff:

And we buy full price. There's no discounts.

Jason:

Yes, we don't have. I wish we did man listen.

Erick:

I wish we did. If we did, we'd definitely tell you.

Jason:

And we would tell you right, we're paying the same price as everybody else is, I'm going to be neutral because I'm still in the middle of this situation, and I'm trying to be neutral about it because I know things are not perfect either. So let me get into it with the announcements here. A few rig changes, excuse me. I ordered the 9800X 3D processor with new AM5 chipboard, excited for that one Beast. A beast.

Jason:

Right now I'm at a 5800X 3D, but I was stuck in the past. So when Jeff and Eric were building their PCs, I told them get on the AM5 platform and, to everybody that's listening, do not get yourself an AM4. Or if you're trying to go AMD route, which I highly recommend you do, amd is king right now when it comes to the processing power and NVIDIA is king when it comes to the GPU, the graphics, yeah, all right. So now here it comes. No, wait, wait. One more thing, one more thing. So 24H2 update for Windows. Highly recommend everybody. Install that, enable it on your machine. Machine. It's supposed to improve those who are using amd processors, supposed to give you a little boost. So now, I've been talking about this for a few months with the guys, just like we need a drum roll here.

Jason:

I know, and I finally, you know, I finally pulled the plug. Let me get it Without breaking my face, without doing that. And I ordered this. Woo, look at that thing. This is the Artura Ultimate. Why did I order this? I'll tell you why. Because it's you. Why? Because functionality and it's a sweet wheel, functionality and the main thing, constantinos. Constantinos has a special um, it's not a profile, it's um, it's uh, it's something baked into the lovely dashboard that allows, like a dial ecosystem or something it's like its own.

Jeff:

Yeah, yeah, like you, that allows the dials. It's like an ecosystem or something.

Jason:

It's like its own. Yeah, yeah, like you can change the dial and then this dial becomes basically a toggle, not a toggle, a switch for that option. So for example, you can have yeah, dude, you can have TC, tc2, engine map or ABS. You switch that dial and then this left dial can increase it or decrease it, or you can set it to another button to do it that way. So I was just thinking I have a SimMagic GT Neo. The GT Neo works. I plug it in, it works. It functions. It has buttons. It functions. It has buttons.

Jason:

And SimHub Remapper can technically do the same thing to a limit, though To a limit because you're limited by the single button and some buttons can be used twice. But then if you want to use them more than twice, then you would need to use a function key and hold down that function key to open up the extra maps. But this it works with the screen. So when you switch the dial, it tells you what option the wheel is controlling. It's amazing. I was excited to show that off here on the show, but as soon as I took it out the box and plugged it in, nothing was working. No, nothing was working. And I tried everything and I have. Look, I just ordered another one. I have these guys. These are high quality USB hubs.

Jason:

Yeah, powered USBs. This is 60 watts. You know what I'm saying. It's way more power. It's power for a wheel. Yeah, 60 watts total right, but it's supposed to feed the wheel what it needs and not basically stumble upon itself like, oh, I lost the power, or sudden loss of power. It's supposed to keep that power consistent. So long story short, I reached out to Asher. I bought it from murraysmotorsportcom. They're a shop out of Dublin and I still love them. This seat came from Murray's Motorsport, the CSX3 and my SC2 Pro came from Murray's Motorsport and their shipping is great. They use DHL. It usually is two-day shipping, but it's at a fair price. I've paid what? $20, $30? It's a fair price to me because it's an express shipment from the UK, bro.

Jeff:

To the middle of the Pacific.

Jason:

Yeah, to the middle of the Pacific. You can't really. I can't really knock them for that right For charging me that I'm like all right, listen, I already know I'm going to have to pay this shipping, but at least they have something in stock and I don't have to hunt for it. So that was the case with this. Nobody had this wheel in stock and Black Friday came around. I ordered it. I waited till Black Friday. It never went on sale, so I paid the full price. The 5% Wheel came out to $1,300 after discounts and luckily it got here to America and I didn't pay anything after that.

Jeff:

No customs, if you know, what I mean Sweet.

Jason:

I got lucky with the customs. That's not on me, that's on them. They cleared the package. I had no fault here. So, anyway, I reached out to Murray's Motorsport. I said, listen, I need to exchange this wheel for a new one because it's not working. And you know I already had. I went through a troubleshoot call with Asher Racing and a very like high-end employee of theirs I won't mention his name, but we had we went through a live video chat and I showed him the wheel, I plugged it in, I did everything he told me and he said yeah, I bet you anything, that wheel is just one wire that you have to change deep inside the internals of the wheel. And he said listen, I can send you this wire or you can go the route of the exchange. And I said he said, what do you want to do? And I said listen, this is a $1,500 product. That's the principle of the thing.

Jeff:

Yeah, you're not cracking that thing open. Get out of here.

Jason:

If I crack this thing open, take it apart, drop it, spill something on it, crack something, what do you call this?

Jeff:

One little mess up.

Jason:

One little mess up. Yeah, that just became my responsibility now, so I'm just trying to give everyone out there awareness of this type of practice. No, if you're going to sell me a brand new product, I expect the product to work out the box. I don't want to have to tinker with something that I paid full price for. If you want to do that, then hey, give me half my money back and yeah, sure I'll install a while in there and see if I can fix it.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, and then and guess what I mean?

Jason:

what? How long is that going to take? I'm going to wait two weeks for you to send me a wire. Crack the wheel open, put the wire Maybe it's not the wire and now I'm. And now my. What do you call this? The time that I have to return the wheel expired because you need to seven days is what they give you to return a product.

Jeff:

Dang seven days. Huh, that's swift.

Jason:

Seven days. So I mean, I get it, this stuff is expensive. They don't want to pay for shipping anything back. So I mean, so that was six days ago and there's been eight emails sent back and forth and I still don't you said eight, eight emails, eight emails later.

Jeff:

And you got a shipping label. I don't have a shipping label.

Erick:

I don't have a shipping label To send your thing back.

Jeff:

I don't have a shipping label Is there one of their wheels in the mail to you.

Jason:

No, oh, dude, yeah, dude, and not only that, bro is there. You know what I should. I'm going to pull this email up and read it to you. Like I said, guys, I have no shame in letting you guys know the truth, because if you guys are going to spend out your hard-earned money on something that's supposed to be high-end, on something that's supposed to work out the box, I expect With a high-end product, I expect high-end customer service. Can somebody agree with me please?

Jeff:

Yeah, not even high-end customer service. Hey, if the guy acknowledged that, hey, it's this wire. Hey, here's your two options. We can send the wire, or I'll email you a shipping label. You print it out. Once I see that it's in the mail, we'll send you another one on the way. Or hey, I'm going to charge your card Once we way and once I you know. Or hey, I'm gonna charge your card once we get yours back. We'll dump the money back in yours, but I'll send one on the way, you know, like right why can't you send me a wheel right now, so that way I can?

Jason:

great question what if this was my only wheel you you're taking me away from? You know a sport that I'm trying to do or we're? He has no idea, but we're technically content creators. Like what if I want to stream and I needed to, you know, I don't know, go ahead.

Erick:

Eric, to your earlier point. What if that wheel cost $1,500? Like you're out of $1,500 and a wheel, I mean you don't have nothing.

Jason:

I paid $1,500 and I have nothing but a wheel inside of a paperweight, a massive paperweight is what I have here A fancy beautiful paperweight, Right Beautiful paperweight.

Jeff:

Yeah, yeah, it's tough man.

Jason:

So I mean the emails. I mean Murray's Motorsport is reaching out to Asher and Asher's not responding then, because Asher said or not yeah, murray said hi, jason, we are still no. Wait, this is old Cause. I keep asking them every day Any updates, status? Where is it? What's going on? So it says here and I'll make this short, sorry to drag on with this no, buddy it says hi, jason, sorry to hear you're having issues with the wheel.

Jason:

This is from Murray's Motorsport, the dealer, which I still highly recommend. This is not on them. It says I have opened a warranty claim with Asher with the information you have provided. As soon as they provide me with a return number, we can get your will returned and replaced. I will provide further updates when I receive them". That was on November 30th, bro Rob Markman Jr. Jeez, bro Rob Markman Jr, I mean yeah, Jason De Petris.

Jason:

Jr November 30th, like come on. And then I attached an email that I got from Ashers that says says Hi, jason, I'm sorry for the inconvenience of having issues with your brand new Artura Ultimate. As per our video, troubleshooting the source of the screen, not connecting to the internal connection cable from the main PCB to the screen, cold solder joint lose contact. Since the replacement process requires an almost complete disassembly of the wheel, a swap with the new ultimate would be the best and easiest solution. Please get in touch with your dealer, murray motorsport, in order to trigger the support case and return place uh the wheel. Many thanks for your understanding.

Jason:

Things can go wrong, even though it passed our assembly QC process, if you have any further assistance. I mean this gentleman that I will not mention was very nice. We tried many things and then he ruled it and he sent me this email so that I can forward to Murray. But the rest of the Asher team is not responding. I understand that they're in Germany, I get that, but we're in Hawaii. So if it's 8 o'clock here, it's 8 o'clock over there. So I'm having to stay up late as hell, when I should be sleeping, to wake up for work because I'm waiting to see if there's anything that I need to respond to. And a lot of their reps have reached out to me the Asher reps telling me to take the screen off the wheel and plug it into the PC directly, and I was like, dude, I'm not doing that. I just told you that I got approved yeah, that I got approved replacement. I shouldn't have to take Dude, that's like.

Erick:

Taking a screen apart, trying to get you to troubleshoot after they acknowledge that it's a defect.

Jason:

Yeah. And then they were like, oh yeah, it's just a few screws, and I'm like I don't care if it's two screws.

Erick:

No.

Jason:

And then there's the attitude, too, right. So I really, you know, guys, I thought a lot about putting this out on the show and I don't want this show to become a hate show to Asher, you know. I just I think it's fair to you. If people went and bought this wheel or they're looking at this wheel. You need to understand what you're about to go up against. Next week I can have a brand new wheel here, so I will keep you guys up to date on what goes on here forward. Yeah, I'm going to keep you posted because this is it's unacceptable. I don't like it. I don't like the way that they're doing business. If they would just respond to me and say, hey, we're getting the wheel ready, or hey, we're on our way to pick up the wheel, to package it up, even if you lied to me.

Jeff:

But silence, bro, why I I don't understand. When you got the manufacturer not like some middleman you got the manufacturer saying acknowledge we got a problem, send it back. Here is the shipping label to us with murt, like cut murray out of it. You send it to us, we send you a new one, murray's. I just maybe there's some type of business thing or logistics part of the business that I don't understand. But like I, I don't know. Man, I'm sorry that you're in the middle of this. It seems like me and you have had terrible problems lately with this type of stuff and it's tough when they say, yeah, contact Murray, we're washing our hands of this.

Jason:

Yeah, you're giving me the runaround. It's like putting me in a circle. So I mean again. So I opened this up already. This is live now. So next week you're going to know what's going on and nothing. Takes five days to send out a product Nothing. Listen, I have a $300 wheel that plugs into my machine and it works. That is an embarrassment. How do I have a $1,500 wheel and it doesn't work and now I can't even get a replacement for it because I can't get a response? This is unacceptable For someone to put their hard money like that. I need you to talk to me.

Erick:

You know what I mean. I need to work on a QA for real. I need you to talk to me.

Jason:

You know what I mean. I need to work on QA for real. I need you to talk to me. That's like me going to a dealership and buying a car and the engine don't start. I'm like, oh yeah, just crack open the starter, there's a wire.

Jason:

I'm going to go catatonic on you. I'm like no, you need to get me another car. You fix this you. You fix it, not me, I'm not touching anything. So anyway, I again, this is not a hate podcast. I don't hate Asher. I still recommend for what I've seen with the wheel. I love it. I don't want to return it just yet, but if I get when, if I get a replacement and it does this thing again, we're going to have a very, very different discussion.

Erick:

I promise you, I will keep everybody posted.

Jason:

This is your one shot. One shot, I get it. Nothing's perfect. Even Toyotas can sell you a dud Promise. It's very hard to find but yeah, trust me, I know, yeah, promise, it's very hard to find, but yeah, trust me, I know, yeah. So anyway, guys, um, that's, that's, that's part of the announcements which took up half our a lot of time here, which is kind of cool.

Jeff:

So let's get into the good stuff, let's get into the cool stuff, the cool shit that's right.

Jason:

So I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen and this is courtesy of overtakegg, gotta give it up for them and we're gonna go over the automobilista 2, ams 2, 1.6 update, which is amazing, and they just opened support for lfm. You can sign up for lfm. You don't even needa license, you can just go ahead and race right now.

Jeff:

Dude, that's yeah, don't sleep on ams2, by the way, don't sleep on it, those classic f1 cars.

Jason:

You know what we could take a look? We could take a look.

Jeff:

They do a lot of things really good for car, cars stuff and tracks Okay.

Jason:

All right. So here we got just I know we're kind of late on this, right, if you see the date on this, but we're a podcast. We're always going to be a little behind. I'm trying to see how we can improve that. But basically, what we're staring at here is a massive update, so I'm going to just scroll down and give you guys a lowdown. New cars and tracks. So we got what you call this IMSA content. Let me pull up my notes. I have notes. This is a lot. So we have Monza it's a historical layout and MLGP. Okay, yeah, mlgp. So we got new tires, new physics, adjustments here that they've made.

Jeff:

Oh, they got a video of you showing you the contact patch. It's pretty substantial changes for these cars and I've you know, I've seen some videos and got in there a little bit.

Jason:

It's the noticeable change with some of the cars, so I don't mean to sidetrack you too much here.

Jason:

No, brother, this is an open discussion, Everybody can jump in. Brother, this is an open discussion, Everybody can jump in. I will say this, guys if you're running triple screens, I've seen many videos, many reviews of the 1.6 update. I have yet to come across this from anyone. I had to go and do some side digging and on a live stream I noticed one of the creators had problems with his triple screen. I thought it was just my hardware. I was like what's wrong with my stuff? I started doubting my stuff and then I noticed it happened again and basically this update breaks triple screen. So you have to just set it up again. It's not a big deal, you just go and you measure your screens.

Jason:

I have the values for my screen. I wish it was that easy that I can just send you that. But you know I'm running 32 G7s and they're curved and they're kind of personal, personalized, so just just find the correct dimensions and adjustment FOV calculator for your setup. That's it. Yeah, so I mentioned physics and handling AI improvements. Oh, one more thing with physics they improved the wet tire feel, apparently. Yeah, so wet weather, handling AI improvements, it says let me, let me scroll down, let me scroll down here. I actually I jumped ahead so, um, proper hybrid systems. So you got those hybrid cars that they jump start. You know the jumpstart.

Jeff:

It's cool. You can actually bumpstart one of those hybrid cars. Start in electric. Yeah, it's cool. It's cool.

Erick:

Yeah it's cool as hell. That's dope yeah.

Jason:

Yeah, oh, le Mans Ultimate has that too.

Jeff:

Does it really? I didn't know if that had it.

Jason:

Yeah, that's cool, the freaking. Uh, the porsche is my favorite and they oh yeah, they changed the ui yeah, I'm glad they did.

Jeff:

It was just the the old ui was just kind of like I racing, it was just it's still shitty, sorry it's still shitty it's better.

Jason:

It's way better now than it it's, it's, it's cleaned up a bit, but there's limitations, like things being stretched all the way out here. You know what I mean, I know.

Jeff:

Like. My close button is like way over here.

Jason:

So, yeah, that's the redesigned UI and presets here. Oh, here's the AI improvement, so I'll go over my notes here. It said AI behavior has been fine-tuned for better racing competitiveness, with improved overtaking strategies and general race craft. Ai performance has been adjusted to provide a better experience across different difficulty levels. I haven't tested this fully, but AMS2's AI was already good, so if they're saying that there's an improvement here, that's pretty damn good.

Jeff:

Yeah, I think, if I remember correctly, there's a couple slider bars with obviously they have the aggressiveness, but then they have don't quote me on this sliders where you can pull it out for like acceleration blocking. It gives you a little bit more tweaking, like if you find yourself being able to pull away on a straightaway, you can add yeah, you can break it down. Yeah, it's cool.

Jason:

Yeah, you can break it down how, instead of it just being a one thing like hard or 100%, you can break it down however you want. It's kind of cool.

Jeff:

Yes, you can find where it's good for you, right.

Jason:

Yeah, not many Sims have that. I don't think any of them have that.

Erick:

That's my first time hearing about that.

Jason:

Yeah, I don't think any of them have. Well, maybe I might be wrong here, but at least the main titles that we all play. I usually run it at 98, 99% and it's because I don't want to win, I don't want to beat the AI. I want the AI to be one step ahead of me, because that will kind of make me push. And when you play online, then you're not used to winning, you're used to fighting. I guess that's my opinion, though.

Jeff:

And racing door to door.

Jason:

Door to door. That's right. So here we got some more online stability, and I mentioned online. Let's see if it's here. Lfm here, 32 car lobbies out of 32 cars.

Jeff:

Bro can be on track for its debut is impressive dude, I am gonna jump in there, you know, today or tomorrow.

Jason:

I listen you don't have to download anything, you don't have to buy anything nothing, it's right there, it's nice if they got. All you need is the game that's it, because it's so.

Jeff:

It's like the best bolt worlds, like you'd all this stuff, but you can put skins on them, right, you know like yeah I got the f1 skins where you have, like the alpines, the red bull, the mercedes, like it's like you get in a grid and everybody's got a different. It looks like you're on, you're racing f1, but it's way better than f123, f124, oh it'd be, great

Jeff:

if that was in lfm, I'm gonna have to jump in there to see what type of classes they have in l bro on ellett, you know I think it just happened.

Jason:

If you're saying it happened like, yeah, I raced the g40, the g40 cup car series, the junior, and that thing was freaking awesome, bro. It was. It's a five speed, so I had to use my shifter. I was clutching in and, oh man, that shit was and it was on um. It was on kansai. So it's basically suzuka, but it's the suzuka track. After the s turns, instead of going straight, it just bends right and it shortens the track. So so it's a shorter track.

Jason:

So, it's that bend S turns and then turn S turns and then turn. It's kind of cool, yeah, so some details here. I won't go through the whole thing, but you guys can if you're looking at this screen here there's significant changes happening which I'm pretty sure sim racers out there already know. We're a little late to the game on this. I apologize for that. Um, it's just that the timing of this when it, you know, when it came out it, it just didn't, it didn't cooperate with the chicane podcast I'm gonna have to talk to rise.

Jeff:

I'm out. There's an update I don't want to jump ahead here. The sound they did an update to the sound, some of the cars, and you want to go jump in there and do one of those V10 formula cars and, oh son, let me tell you it's what formula cars should sound like.

Erick:

That's what it should sound like oh, that's cool. Anyway, yeah, some cool stuff updated.

Jeff:

It's what formula car should sound like that's what it should sound like. Yeah, oh, that's cool. Anyway, yeah, some cool stuff, update. I think the bump, like the the hybrid bump start thing is cool, the sound, some of the graphics they got going on. So I'm going to.

Jason:

I'm going to give us a preview of a low fuel motor sport, which is LFM. We've covered this on the show before, back in the day. Yeah, yeah, hey, if you guys have any questions about this, leave a comment or send us an email at thechicanepodcasts at gmailcom. And, by the way, guys, we are almost at the 500 subscriber mark. That's the next goal, because I set a goal to 200 and then we jumped to 300. So I'm like, okay, wait a minute. So I need to spread that out a little more. Thank you so much for watching the show. If you're a listener in your car, don't forget we have a YouTube channel TGSR Track Go Sim Racing. Go ahead and subscribe and click that notification bell so that way you get notified when a new episode drops. Anyway, what we're looking?

Jeff:

at here. They do have AMS2 right there.

Jason:

There it is. Oh it's locked. It's locked because I'm not logged in.

Jeff:

Oh, you're not logged in, okay.

Jason:

Yeah, because my Sim Rig is back here. I got you buddy, yeah, but anyway there's a race in 22 minutes right, I got you buddy going to make me uh.

Jason:

f309 formula classic gen fours okay, that's a cool on silverstone 2001. So that's the thing, that's a new formula car dude, no, but 2001, silverstone the track version. So, because they have yeah, they have different. Ams2 is the one sim that you can go. You can race where you know. My favorite race driver, senna, passed away and you can go. You can race where you know my favorite race driver, santa, passed away, and you can go.

Jason:

You know, back in the 90s and see that the changes that they made throughout, yeah, they have those historical tracks um yeah, le mans ultimate or, excuse me, le mans 24 gt1, which, if you like formula and you want to get into GT, this will.

Erick:

Take a lurch.

Jason:

Yeah, it will Trust me, it will.

Jeff:

Scratch the edge.

Jason:

They don't like to freaking brake. They don't like to. This is the one I competed in In Kansai East. Couldn't help it. Saw Kansai there. I was like I got to go there. What is it? I didn't even try this car before and that's what I like about this. Right here it's kind of like they give you the car. You already have the car. This is kind of like a GT7 setup Everybody has the car, you can buy it for whatever, but in the game usually it's free.

Jason:

On this sim and it's a g40 cup, the junior uh cup series beta and I had an absolute blast. Look, there's somebody signed up just now. Right now, uh, there's a race in 20 minutes. Um, they got the formula USA Gen 3, gt4 racing in Long Beach. Interesting 45 minutes and a multi-class already multi-class sessions here. So, anyway, I just wanted to give you guys a preview. Lfm is free. You sign up, you use your Steam ID to sign up. There's no cost, there's no, nothing. And right now, because the game is in a beta state with LFM, your safety doesn't count yet because it needs to leave beta, so you might as well jump in there and figure it out as you go.

Erick:

That's a good point. Man Getting there bump around a little bit.

Jason:

I will say this AMS2 has a 40-button limit when it comes to mapping the buttons. So I have problems because I use a control mapper and I have over 110 inputs and I can't Do I use all the inputs. No, this is a flex I mean I gave them to eric.

Jeff:

They're free, I I just I said the buttons I don't have enough buttons to map all of those.

Erick:

Yeah, you do, bro. You just gotta get created, bro, you gotta get created listen. So anyway, just be Listen so anyway, just keep that in mind.

Jason:

Keep that in mind that SimHub remapper doesn't really get along too well with AMS2. Other than that, that's going to cover my portion. I know I've been on stage for a while, so I'll hand this back over to Eric and see what you got for us, man, on the discussion portion.

Erick:

Yeah, man. So just coming right out with it. Man, I saw an event I don't know how long ago it was, but it was an autonomous race between two F1 style cars. They weren't official cars, but they were two cars that have been fitted with basically a crap load of you know LIDAR sensors and you know electronic motors and stuff, and they were driverless cars and they raced around the track somewhat. They didn't really make it all the way around. They ended up bumping and crashing and one stalled and stuff like that, but just with that being something that's kind of more on the forefront, we got electric cars and things like that. I want to get y'all's take on evs as race cars, right, jeff, you mentioned earlier that you know the way our f1 car is supposed to sound, with the big V10 engine and stuff like that V10, huh, v10 is my favorite too, man, I've heard people complain about the modern F1 cars and how they sound.

Erick:

I think they sound great.

Jason:

The Red Bull sounds dope but I hate Max oh because, it's a Honda. No because of that freaking. What is that the damn, I forgot. When it pops on the downshift, you hear it popping.

Erick:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Jason:

I forgot what that shit's called Back to the EVs.

Jeff:

So here's the thing I have a friend. When I was back home for Thanksgiving we had a friend that he's got one of the Tesla I don't know the one with the ludicrous mode Like it's a, not the plaid, but anyways. And let me say those are rocket ships of cars, like a golf cart, right, it just pulls.

Jason:

There's no like it just pulls, there's no buildup and it continues to pull.

Erick:

Right.

Jeff:

Jason, you have a tesla pool there. Yeah, it's a like. So it ain't lulu, chris, though, but those cars, those cars are like. The torque on those cars is unmatched, really.

Jeff:

I mean like you could youtube for days, right like a tesla on a drag strip with you name it, and it's gonna blow the doors off it, it's it's the most like on I don't I don't know what the right word is like. You have this car. That's gonna feel natural, it's like. And then there's a car making a whole lot. I tell you what I I drive one and it's just straight disrespectful.

Erick:

That's what that is that's one word, is just disrespectful because, come on man, nothing that quiet should be that fast we're on a we're on a drag race with the AC still turned on.

Jeff:

Come on yeah.

Erick:

And way twice as much as the other car. Yeah.

Jeff:

I guess, regardless of what you think of EVs, they're not going anywhere. We're going to be more EVs with the hybrids. Look at the new generation F1s in 26 is less motor, more battery, more ev. So it's not going anywhere. But what your point? That you said about the the autonomous evs in formula cars? Dude, that is crazy, yeah, um, when I was in singapore and I saw like one of these f1 cars go around a corner and didn't lift off the throttle and I was like, oh my gosh, like there's a human in there.

Jeff:

When you see like it's like there's a human in there and you're like humans can't react that fast. I think of it like that there's a computer somewhere controlling this car going around, so like I'm curious to see. And you said that they didn't make it even a lap, I guess. But they will right, they will, and I think that could be it. I still think that there's a human performance aspect to racing, like the skill, the, the, the ability to put fear and the back you know away from your mind and ability to focus.

Jason:

And the feel your feel the car as you before you you know, you lock up the tires, like those are things that, like the rationalized racing computers can't rationalize.

Jeff:

Yeah, they have no fear. They, even they, they know I have 1.362 meters they're doing math face to the right, yeah four meters before I can't rationalize that we buy two percent of the brakes, or I'm gonna lock up before, like you know, like, but part of it is to see, like, why you change your voice bro, it is cool to see when you put a human, a computer in there to kind of see what is on the threshold of the absolute levels of performance that the machine can do.

Jeff:

When you take the human out, right like in you know, an aircraft, especially like military aircraft, the weakest point in the airplane is the human. 100, you know. When you take the driver out of it, no fatigue, you know no lack of ability to focus, you wouldn't.

Erick:

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Nobody would watch it.

Jeff:

It's probably true. You're probably right, because it doesn't have the human aspect. Look at F1 now. There's no danger.

Jason:

You're fans of. You're a George Russell fan. I'm a Lewis Hamilton fan. I'm a Lando. I'm a Fernando Alonso fan is my number one, and I like Fernando not just as a driver.

Jeff:

I like Fernando, the person, the persona, him, the asshole side of him. I will finish the race, not for the car but for the crew that busted their butt last night.

Jason:

Fernando. They were like we don't know how you took this turn. And he's like yeah, well, I know he was going to hit the brakes because he's got a wife and kid, yeah that was wild.

Erick:

He's got a family at home.

Jason:

He was old, I knew he lived.

Jeff:

I knew he hit the brakes, the computer don't have a wife and kid I was like I can imagine his team in the back.

Jason:

Fernando, you can't be saying that on camera, fernando. What's wrong with?

Erick:

you, so you know what I'm saying.

Jason:

Yeah, you tie a machine to something.

Jason:

It's kind of lifeless, you know, at that point and that's. I say this and I'll let you go, eric, I'm sorry, I'm on a roll here. I'm still fired up because of this freaking Astrowheel. So that's what it is. You know, I got something off camera. I want to show it, but you've heard that that's what that is. Got that yak there. Anyway, yeah, I drive a Tesla. Right, it doesn't matter.

Jason:

Tesla, it's a performance model. It has the performance, it has the speed. But there's nothing like an RX-7 just screaming down the freaking, you know what I mean Gear banging, you know hitting that clutch and then feeling the car just lift up. This car is so smart, it'll lift for you, it'll lift for you, it'll stop for you. If something comes across it, it'll do it on its own After a while. You're impressed when you first get it, but then after a while it's kind of lifeless. And I'm saying that as an owner. I still smoke pretty much any car out there, but you know, but, but the, the, the culture, I don't. I don't get the same culture of it. You know what I mean from from it, like the way we grew up. I guess we're, you know, we're 80s and 90s babies. And yeah, we grew up with a loud ass freaking muffler. You know having to push the car out the driveway and turn it on in neutral to not wake mom up trying to get the car out. I had a stick.

Jeff:

I learned on a stick.

Jason:

Hell yeah, there you go.

Jeff:

I had a Saab 900S. There you go, bro. I had a Honda.

Erick:

Civic man. I remember them. Yeah, I had a straight ricer bro, Straight ricer bro.

Jason:

You leave the lights on, you get three of your buddies pushing behind you.

Jeff:

You drop the clutch, jump in, we're going, let's go, let's go, it's on $5, bro, that's it.

Jason:

$5, half a tank, that's it. That's all you needed. I used to put premium gas in my shit back then.

Erick:

Just because, yeah, he was fancy, yeah, I don't know where.

Jeff:

EV is going to go. They got a whole series for it, though you know the Formula E.

Erick:

Yeah, Formula E is FIA.

Jason:

That's a good indicator, right, but I cut off, eric. Eric, what did you want to say earlier, my bad man?

Erick:

Well, I was going to say to your point you mentioned you're a fan of the driver, which most people are. Most people don't like the cars, they like the drivers. Rob Markman.

Jason:

Yeah.

Erick:

Rob Markman and it shows when drivers change teams, people don't say, oh well, this driver left. I'm still a fan of the Red Bull car. Like no, you are a fan of that driver Rob Markman.

Jason:

Nah bro, allegiance changes Rob Markman, so whatever car he's driving the car is just an accessory to him. It's very different, because not all sports are like that, like, for example, soccer or football, american football, basketball. Well, it depends.

Jeff:

Tom Brady left the Patriots. Sorry, tom, I'm a Patriots fan first, then a Tom Brady fan. You go to Tampa Bay, see you, don't let Thor hitch on the way out.

Jason:

Right, there you go.

Jeff:

Yeah, man on the way out, right, yep, there you go. Yeah, man, I like that.

Jason:

That's interesting and that was being very modest, because in soccer in Europe if you just left your home team like that and moved to another team, you better not come back to that country, bro, say that to the whole country. You got the whole country on your bad side, bro. You can't even go to the toilet, bro, you can't even go to the Starbucks. They'll be like get out of here, bro.

Erick:

I don't care Get out of here.

Jason:

Get out, get out. Look who's here. Go get some coffee in your country.

Jeff:

I wonder what those mileage they're getting on those Formula E races. A how long is the race? I assume there's no battery change right, so I'd love to research that. I'll take a look at that and maybe circle up with the next announcements or roundtable for the next episode, just to keep everybody informed. Very interesting stuff. What is their acceleration looking like top speeds? Yeah, their Formula E season just started very interesting stuff.

Erick:

What is their acceleration looking like top speeds? Um, yeah, their formula e season just just started. Their next race is in january, but they have about 16 races oh, really, okay, throughout next year. Yeah, and they're in season 11. Really, yeah, they've. They've been rocking for a minute, wow, but like, but like you're saying they're season 11, yeah, technology is is going to improve, they're, they're still, obviously, you know, drivers in the cars. They're not like, uh, driverless yet. Yeah, but I mean, I mean, how do you get a?

Jason:

driver in there I mean, how do you compare one ai to the other?

Jeff:

ai, it's no I just think the ai is what they push a software update mid-range and they get no chance. It's just cool on principle, you know like it would just be, cool to see too, like when, uh, you know, recently they had an f f16 with a or an f16 fighter jet, uh powered by ai and in a air-to-air engagement with a dude in the jet, and the air force wouldn't release the results no, so that makes you think that you could pretty much square away. Who won that one right?

Erick:

yeah, yeah yeah, I mean you. You remove, like you said before, the limitations, I mean ai forces I'm just saying ai against ai.

Erick:

You know, like two, eight, two ai cars right yeah, because now you're looking at, they're taking the turn exactly the way the computer you know it'd be the same thing as, so I got a different opinion on that. When you think about all of the like, like the human aspect of things, right, like just that quote you mentioned, I knew that this guy wouldn't live, because I knew this guy would live because he has a family at home.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's Fernando there are certain aspects of a race that AI can't really factor in. Some of the things is like human elements, right, like historical information Maybe they could factor some of that in. But I mean, just once you get past, like reaction time and just like kind of cold calculations, how do you impact another driver? Like how do you like, if you're trying to make a move on somebody, how do you, how do you like position them, how do you set them up to make a move? Like essentially everybody just driving a straight line the whole time, and be calculated. And then it's up to the condition of the track, condition of the tires. Like how does AI know my tires are losing traction or I'm losing grip here?

Jason:

Oh, they'll develop sensors. They'll come up with all kinds of stuff, bro.

Erick:

So the more stuff you add in there, the more stuff that fails.

Jason:

True.

Erick:

And you know.

Jason:

All they got to do is put a Wi-Fi chip on the car and get the data from the product.

Erick:

Rob Markman, you got Wi-Fi at home. You know how unstable that is. Rob Markman, bro, like that Netflix fight bro Like that Netflix fight.

Jeff:

That's how That'd be a catastrophic crash.

Jason:

Oh, they had a wreck. They probably lost the connection.

Erick:

Rob Markman. Yeah, man, I mean it's that I think we think about AI and computers as being perfect, but y'all use computers. It don't work like that.

Jason:

Oh yeah, tell that to a media surround please.

Erick:

Yeah, I hope you're out and everything just works All right, man.

Jason:

Well, listen, this is a great topic. I would love to touch on this again. Yeah, because we can track some of their races. Yeah, we should. But speaking of tracks, it's that time of the week, man. And this week we got Mr Kelly on his first coverage and I bet you guys can't guess which one's that going to be. Which we're about to tell you right now, eric, please yeah, man. So, y'all trying to learn a little we're about to tell you right now, eric, please, yeah, man.

Erick:

So y'all trying to learn a little bit more about one of the best tracks that exists. Let me get my little graphic up here.

Jason:

What you got for us, man. Let's see it. Yes, sir, suspense is killing me, me I know I have my suspicion see, this is what happens when we eat all this turkey. Bro. It numbs the senses, it uh okay there it is that scroll it happened to me earlier. I ain't gonna front what, yes. So again, guys, before we get into this, we are still beta testing this track of the week.

Jeff:

I knew it was going to be this.

Jason:

Mount Panorama, mount Panorama. So we need feedback. Please leave a comment. Like the video, even if you didn't like it. Just like the video.

Erick:

So that way we can improve them.

Jason:

And send us an email, please If you have any questions at thechicanepodcasts at gmailcom.

Erick:

Eric, yeah, any suggestions or anything like that. So Mount Panorama it is mostly unchanged, right. So it has two different layouts this one, and even on these graphics they kind of glaze over one of the other few changes. So basically, yeah, so basically it was introduced in 1938 and it originally started out as a damn yeah, dirt, so it's old, originally was dirt, so can you imagine climbing the they probably had kangaroos roaming that there, that's in Australia, right. Probably had people yeah down in Australia.

Jason:

Down under yeah.

Erick:

And so one of the minor changes they made if you look at the bottom at the Conrad Strait, from 1938 until so, this says until 1986, which is not true. Right, I got my notes here. Get them so actually fact, check them bro In 1970, they made a change to the track the Conrad Strait. They actually had a chicane there.

Erick:

But they took the chicane out in 87. So there used to be a chicane in addition to the chase that they added. I don't know why they took it out. I don't know if it was just like a death trap or what.

Jeff:

That is a long straightaway, yeah, long straight into a chicane. Yeah, let me think why they took it out.

Erick:

Yeah, so they added the chase, I guess, just to spice it up a little bit. So they add the chase, I guess just to spice it up a little bit. But speaking of the Conrad Strait, that actually takes you into this fact. Maybe you don't, it is. It takes you into one of the fastest touring car corners in the world, which is going into the chase, takes you in at almost 300 kilometers per hour.

Jason:

As far as touring car, you're definitely in the final gear.

Erick:

Yeah, you're wide open, so you know you miss that.

Jason:

And then you got that bend just before it, that you just take it just full throttle Hammered down. That's so much fun. I love that, oh yeah.

Erick:

Amazing.

Jason:

And then pray for your life. Downshift brake.

Erick:

Slamming it down, man. Yeah, so just some of the other kind of interesting facts about Mount Panorama. So this guy hosts several different classes of cars. They have touring car races, they have GT3. They also do some production car races. One of the most kind of well-known races is the bathhurst 1000. They also have some other races there as well. They do the bathhurst 600, I mean the six hour, and they do a 12-hour race there as well. First video game that it was featured in was the Touring Car Champions, released in 1997.

Erick:

So that's the first time it showed up in a video game and also it is where it is. One of the interesting things is it's owned by the local government, which means it is also used as an open road, so you can just drive your car, and it doesn't have to be a track day or anything like that. You can just drive onto the track, Bro, I would be up there bro.

Jeff:

God bless the Australian government. But here's the kicker.

Erick:

The kicker is there's a speed limit implemented on it.

Jeff:

Of course there is. There had to be a catch. There's a speed limit implemented on it? Of course there is. There had to be a catch. Yeah, there is a catch.

Jason:

There's a speed limit. Well, who's going to catch? You they got cameras out there or something.

Jeff:

What is it? Do you know what it is?

Erick:

60 kilometers per hour.

Jason:

Oh, come on. That's driving this daisy bro. What the hell is that?

Erick:

Look, I guess if you just want to do a track analysis, you want to take all the turns real slow Bro.

Jason:

What the hell is that? That's like second gear, Not even.

Erick:

Yeah, I'd take my Camry on there and have some fun, but you're definitely not taking your track car on there.

Jason:

I'll take my one-wheeler, bro, yeah you're not taking it.

Jeff:

Passing cars Geez On a one-wheel. Passing cars? Yeah, you're not taking cars, jeez, on a one wheel.

Erick:

Take your lawnmower on there, just freaking overtaking, yeah but um, it's uh, and also, I guess it's one of the main features of the track is the elevation change. It has a 571 foot vertical elevation of course it does, you know.

Jeff:

Yeah, and eric, I think that it is the most, it's the quickest change too. I mean, you come around like that start, finish line and it's like nothing but like uphill yeah and then there's one turn where you it's a it's like a left turn into a quick right and it's like straight downhill and there's the barricades on both sides.

Jason:

And every time I go down those turns.

Jeff:

I'm like, just let me make it to the bottom.

Erick:

I mean, you're literally just kind of falling. I think about tour stories like falling with style, Just kind of coming down the mountain trying not to crash.

Jeff:

The thing is, it's a brutal track.

Jason:

You really need to tune it for this track, because when you take that skyline, you see that skyline. That's the start of it. So you start your break. Thanks, man. Beautiful If you mess up this entrance if you fuck this up everything else is a disaster.

Jeff:

Yeah, you got to be careful They'll talk about you in the past tense, if you mess it up in there.

Jason:

I'm talking about Let me orient myself right here. So it comes in this way and that way. You start to turn. It's a right and then it's a left. Then it's a right, but after that right there's a massive. It's a right and then it's a left, then it's a right, but after that right there's a mass. It's a huge dip, going like left, yeah, but then the car lifts, is it ain't no tires touching nothing?

Jeff:

yeah, it's yeah, if you grab that wrong, you're gonna just yeah, you need to be set left hand turn three turns ago.

Jason:

It's the dipper, that's the one, the dipper.

Erick:

It's got to be that one. You have to already. The car has to already be pointed where it needs to go.

Jeff:

Yeah, that needs to be set up three turns ago, and then, once you grab, once the tire grabs, just hammer it.

Jason:

Just hammer it deep into that corner after the dipper, like super deep, because you need to have enough to make it around the freaking elbow dude, that's yeah.

Erick:

Cause you're coasting around the elbow Like you see this is cool, I didn't know it had.

Jeff:

I know they have names, but you know we really don't really pay attention to to the uh, the, uh, uh, uh, the crew chief will tell you oh yeah, mikey went off in the dipper and you're like I don't know where the dipper is the dipper.

Erick:

Oh no, I'll say this. Yeah, I'll say this If I hear anything bad happening in the S's the dipper, a force elbow on iRacing, I know I need to First of all, where are you going to go?

Jason:

That's not what I'm saying, so that's the crazy thing, right.

Erick:

So on GT7, people can, people just kind of fall like flies after Skyline, but they get ghosted.

Jason:

So for you, for me, I'm like but iRacing, if somebody crashes in there, there's nowhere for you to go, like you have no money you have, so acc too is like that acc yeah, acc yeah, I got stuck in the s's bro in the middle of it sideways that's how you get stuck like you know, there was no way, just kind of hitting straight now.

Erick:

It's like you get turned.

Jeff:

There's no grass, you're like you're like Austin Powers doing like the 47 to point, turn yeah and then you get going Meanwhile the whole field's watching.

Jason:

you Remember that.

Jeff:

Yeah, he's got to put it in gear too. I mean, for how long is the track? Can you scroll over it's?

Jason:

I don't think it's an incredibly long track uh, it is it's got some length dude, 3.8 miles is that's pretty long bro. Yeah, two, two and a half minute, I guess the long straightaways but like the straight.

Jeff:

For I mean, there was a comment on our last one about, hey, like talk about how we learned the track and I don't think it's an incredibly hard track to memorize.

Erick:

It's a hard track to be fast on yeah, definitely to learn how to manage those cars the cars in those corners.

Jason:

We were just talking because you got cars around you. You're not factoring that in.

Jeff:

I mean even for a qualifying lap of how you're managing that to the way to the weight of the car on which which tires for which turn.

Jason:

It's a lot of fun though it's definitely one of those tracks that sometimes slower is smoother and smoother is faster.

Jeff:

This is the one track that scares the shit out of me every time I go on there.

Jason:

I mean, you sign up for this one and you better have some space in your safety rating. Yeah, you better have some wiggle room bro.

Erick:

I swear, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you're trying to survive, man, because like that's the best word that's the best word for a race on and panoramic is just survive.

Jeff:

There's a lot of there's a lot of truth to that one on these ones. If you just can avoid the crashes, even if it's going slower, to avoid some of these, yeah 100.

Jason:

I raced it at night. That that was.

Erick:

That's it brutal, yeah that's crazy, and I say too, the, the, the conrad straight is kind of deceptive. Like if you don't have your your you know breaking points lined up and memorized, you can kind of get kind of low to sleep in here in the straight right, miss this chase because, like I say, you, you know, if you don't start breaking soon enough, it's over with that's a very hard break that's like a second gear for for gt.

Jason:

I would say easily second gear.

Erick:

And you want to hug that, freaking those, uh, those corners, um the road and it is yeah, I was gonna say in this, in this blind too, because there's even like a little elevation when you're coming around. Yes, correct, you can't really see the track.

Jason:

Then you got a full 90 like right there and them brakes is freaking scorching like on fire.

Erick:

Yeah, so around 2000 I did want to say this too around 2000 they did add some extra runoff for safety reasons. Um, after the chase and just on, kind of both sides of the track added some grass and stuff like that. But, um, yeah, probably a good idea there. Australian government yeah, it definitely helps out, because not not that I would do anything and not that you guys do anything like that, but I'm sure there not that you guys do anything like that, but I'm sure there's some knuckleheads out there.

Jason:

Next thing you know, the Australian government Sends us an email.

Jeff:

How do we get a hold of Mr Smart? How do we get a?

Jason:

hold of him.

Erick:

But I'm sure there's some knuckleheads who decide they're going to drive a little bit Faster than 60 kilometers per hour.

Jason:

Oh yeah, bro, we're talking about Aussies, bro, do you? Think they give. They don't have many. I trust you, trust me.

Erick:

I know a few of them hey, man, we ain't trying to get beat up by the aussies man yeah, yeah, the aussies.

Jason:

the aussies, I get along with man. They're cool, they're nice people, beautiful people, beautiful culture out there, except for them kangaroos running around. Imagine how kangaroo just jumps in the middle of the road. Man, oh man, dumb things is solid, man that's like hitting a wall bro.

Erick:

Yeah, that's one of those deceptive things like a moose. If you've never seen a moose for real, I think they're the last descendants of dinosaurs we got around here. They're the last descendants of dinosaurs we got around here.

Jason:

Before you switch the screen off. You know those little. What is that? The psychiatrist thing that they show you the pictures and tell you what does this look like to you? Yeah, the blobs. This looks like a freaking tobacco pipe to me.

Jeff:

What does it look like to you guys?

Jason:

I can see the or maybe inhaler. You know the inhaler when people are sick. I can see the or maybe inhaler. You know the inhaler when people are sick.

Jeff:

Oh, I can see the inhaler. 100% yeah.

Jason:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see that, or a short pipe or something for tobacco.

Erick:

For me. I can see like a little kind of crazy looking hatchet or something like that. I don't know, I think we got upside down pigs. We got inhalers.

Jeff:

It's like what can seem can't be unseen.

Jason:

Yeah, I see the inhaler now. Yeah, so we just ruined you guys. Now.

Jeff:

Mount.

Jason:

Panorama is an inhaler.

Jeff:

Awesome track. If you have never done it before, get in there. Don't do it on a race for your first time.

Erick:

Yeah, oh yeah, don't do it in rain your first time either.

Jason:

I still wouldn't do that, I still wouldn't get under it, it's raining. Nah man, I'm good.

Jeff:

I got an appointment Something comes up every time, some game, some other sim or something, there's got to be another race going on.

Jason:

Hell yeah, eric sim or something. There's got to be another race going on Right Hell yeah, eric, thanks man for this coverage. That's what's up, man. I don't know where you dug this up, but that's freaking beautiful man, I don't know Hell. Yeah, I like that format a little better because we could switch between the years. So I'll see what I can do to make that better.

Erick:

I'll go up to you guys at the speed after this.

Jason:

Hell yeah, man, hell yeah, mr Kelly. So that is our track of the week. We've done it three times now and we covered our personal favorite tracks. From here on out, we're going to be taking suggestions on what track do you want to see next? So you can leave comments, or you can send us an email at the chicanepodcasts at gmailcom and just let us know hey, I don't know. Silverstone next, which would be a nice one, because that's another nice track, yeah tons oh wow, yeah, it's a great track, high speed.

Jason:

So yeah, I mean that's going to be it for this week. I mean, it's kind of a sad week. We're in the month of December. Next week, at the time of this recording, iracing is coming with its new update. I know I'd said that we're not going to be speaking about iRacing like that on this episode, but it's sim racing news if you haven't tried it, just try it.

Jason:

Don't judge it, just install it. Try free, get the free month or whatever, and give it a shot. So, without further ado, roundtable time guys. Do you guys have anything else to put out on the show?

Jeff:

No, not for me man just pile on to jason said beginning of the season, a new season for uh, the iracers out here. So, uh, good luck and I'll see you out there. And uh, yeah, oh yeah, I almost forgot drive fast and break late.

Jason:

Can't, can't end it without that one hell yeah, man, drive fast and break late. And guys, I'll keep you guys all up to date about the uh history of events here as things unfold. But yes, I do want to remind you all that we are seeing a massive increase in participation, viewership on YouTube. But I just want to ask, please, if you like the content, just subscribe and leave us a like. That way we can get more people into our community and we can have bigger discussions. I guess we can make this even bigger. So, just if you're a listener in your cars or at work, just do me a favor and click that subscribe button. It'll help out.

Jason:

So, without further ado, thank you so much, guys. It's always a pleasure. Today was a lot of fun. That's how the time runs up, man. I'm telling you when you're having fun and you're talking about those three tracks that we mentioned um, amazing, amazing stuff. Uh, really happy with, with, uh with, happy with today's episode, eric, especially that graph. We need to make that a standard. Okay, man, all right, so, without further ado, thank you so much again and please, everyone listening and watching have a great start, great starting week. Thank you.

People on this episode

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Jason Rivera

Host
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Erick Kelly

Co-host
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Jeff Smart

Co-host