by Czar » Sat Feb 18, 2017 7:33 am
This really was an eventful and interesting proxy race. We learned a lot in this inaugural digital proxy. I want to thank the 13 racers who participated and to those who hosted, all of you have made slot car history! Congratulations to CJR - you will receive a brand new Carrera digital C7R, thanks to the generous donation of our host here - Harry.
Some of my observations, based on driving in two of the heats (mine, and Burrell's). First, for the most part the Carrera cars were all pretty evenly matched, except for the Corvettes. Not sure why, but both of the C7s were noticeably quicker. This is somewhat obvious as you look at the results. In the future I think there should be more tuning allowed to let the cars reach their full potential. It was difficult to use the fuel simulation without either having some expensive add-ons (driver's stations) or headlights. Without fuel stops a big part of the realism of racing was missing. In the future a requirement will be that all cars must have headlights. Timing and scoring was an issue. It is really clear that the Carrera Race app is not robust enough to play in prime time. I don't understand this, and it really is a pity since the poor performance seems avoidable with the application of a little more effort. This, for me, is where I found the biggest take away. The last two races (Buspor and Burrell) and the make-up race on my track were all scored with Mr. Yingling's program. The difference between the performance of an actual computer program and the app was a revelation. With the exception of a few minor (very minor) glitches Mr. Yingling's program was outstanding. It handled all the heats, including timing, scoring and fuel stops perfectly. Having a track call feature proved to be an important factor for keeping the racing more fair without having a bunch of marshals to assist. Race totals and car rotations were handled easily and the results were tabulated for each driver, making the racing go much more efficiently. It is truly the program to have if you are racing Carrera digital and have access to a PC computer. Aside from having the program available for the Mac OS, the only other suggestion I could make, would be for Alice (the chosen voice of the race manager) to calm down a little bit when a fast lap was completed. She got so excited every time a car posted its fastest lap that she loudly expelled an enormous amount of flatulence. Burrell says that can be changed. In the future, I would suggest that everyone who has access to a PC (until a Mac version is released) use this program. I would also suggest that Carrera buy the intellectual rights to this program, or put Mr. Yingling on the payroll. I know my description of Mr. Yingling's software will surprise some of you. But, my issues with him have never been about his program or its capabilities. The program didn't work for the second round of racing and I had never seen it in operation. When it works it is very good.
I will conclude by saying that we will have another digital proxy and now that the Carson chip is available, it will not be limited to Carrera cars, or Carrera tracks. I hope more of you will join us for the next one and continue to push the boundaries of digital racing.