RaceWars 33, Sunday 6th December @7.30PM GMT

Reviews

Mmmm... Doughnuts by erichears

A real hoot to kick off the evening and one of my favourites from recent RDW memory, this exemplary build takes the concept of NASCAR and turns it upside down and inside out with a succession of extremely smooth banked loops that are perfectly do-able in ANY class. Yes, the physics of the motorbikes were a little wonky on some of the steeper sections and there were far more head-on collisions than I could ever have imagined were possible on 2 wheels but even so, perfect check-pointing means the way ahead is never confusing and you can not be anything less than impressed by the excellence of the build throughout. A real struggle to remain in the race, I eventually bowed out in 8th after yet another bone-crunching head-on collision caused me considerable time loss. 

(^_^) Banshees Boardwalk by shantu

Another amazing build, this is apparently a homage to a classic Mario Kart track and the most impressive thing is the complex and compact structure of the inner area. Once you get the hang of the layout it flows beautiflly although the one right-hander is a little hidden and easily miss-able early on as it appears to be pointing up the ramp you descend right at the start of the lap, perhaps a sign or chevron could be placed here to make the turn point a little clearer? Raced in non-contact as too narrow for full contact racing sadly and managed to cross the finish line in 9th seconds before I would have exploded. 

Super Smash Bros. by atheistsw

As a straight GTA race this is full-on two-way carnage but unfortunately it doesn't translate too well to 'destroy last place' due to the randomness of the weapons and huge possibility for mass pile-ups at some of the narrower choke-points. Starting on the front grid was a curse as I was inevitably exploded before the first corner and then exploded AGAIN straight after re-spawning and for the second week in a row I was eliminated first from my own race, while I was still in the black re-spawn screen to add insult to injury! Somehow smithyonetwelve managed to avoid all the carnage and romp home to victory.

Hotknife GP by FrostySnowman38

A more traditional race, albeit locked to either the titular hotrod or the equally outlandish Rat Truck, this was a perfectly designed track for a vehicle with such a limited understanding of the concept of brakes and worked tremendously well as a contact race. Aside from some odd prop choices that could truthfully use some tweaking this was a great race and I actually thoroughly enjoyed lapping with this challenging example of classic Americana, eventually finishing 4th, just behind the ever-elusive jimbob9699 ! 

[PS4] TRL.62 Cheetah Town by some12hate

One of the best .62 examples in recent memory closed out our first playlist and the 15(!) laps absolutely flew by! I made the mistake of setting the destory options to 'every lap' and this meant that because rodo77 pulled to the side of the road awaiting his execution we went 4 full laps without ANY eliminations, until the oversight was discovered and the rhythmic destruction continued! The Cheetah's a great car to drive and it was superb fun blasting around and around, aiming for a perfect lap, sadly I was stuck in a sort of mid-table limbo for a long period after a hefty collision with the tyre stack on the final hairpin and, despite catching up after Mandible_Claw- had made a similar error, I eventually fluffed it again with a poor downhill corner technique that put me a little too close to a tree for comfort! 7th place in the end, I should have exploded a few laps earlier but for the issue with the eliminations.

Pikes peak classics by method83

Short point to point inspired by the classic rally challenge. A shame it was so short but understandable as it's almost entirely barge-based as it coils it's way up and around Mount Chilliad. Could do with some signs or visual indicators on some of the blind corners but not sure if there is any prop budget left to be able to do this? Fun for what it was, I finished somewhere near the lower end of the top 10.

Chumash Rally-X by theicide

Another excellent Rally-X entry from theicide , this one crafted a fine route around the mid-west point of the map and incorporated a few areas rarely seen in these types of races in a uniquely organic way. Excellent propwork means that the makeshift route flows very well and encouraged some interesting close battles throughout. I finished 7th although nearly lost that to Mandible_Claw- at the very end as I needlessly broke before the finish line!

Maze Bank 0.62 by jimbob9699

jimbob9699 was unsure why somebody submitted this race as he wasn't happy with it personally but in fairness it played out well in the 'Coupe' class. The triple hairpin section is incredibly tight but, with practice I was able to use the awesome e-braking ability of my Felon to swing it around smoothly and earn a 4th place finish for my efforts. Perhaps that section could be amended slightly, maybe 3 hairpins is overkill and maybe a more sweeping hairpin would work better? In any case, I liked the general route you chose and think this is a fine addition to the 0.62 catalogue.

Deez Beez GP by most-C-wanted

Thoroughly enjoyable 'Compact' race around the airport, with a well-designed and propped track that utilised existing structures well and produced a fun and challenging course reminiscent of a real-life go-kart track. The tricky chicane midway through caught a few people out, perhaps due to it's relative blind nature on approach, but overall the route flows very well and I really enjoyed putting my Panto through it's paces around here, eventually coming home in 5th. Definitely suitable for contact racing IMHO and added to my list of A* 'Runway Races'.

Mad Wayne's Thunder by LN-MLB

A long and technical route all around the west side of the city that we ran in the default 'Sports Classic' class. The track demands close concentration as there are some really tricky sections and a few of the corners do jump out at you rather suddenly and could do with a bit of tweaking for visibility purposes, certainly some additional propping would go amiss here as I noticed quite a few fellow racers struggling to find their bearings on lap 1 in particular. I drove pretty well with only a few minor errors and grabbed a 5th place finishing position.

Power Street Speedway by lancerevowrc

At first glance a fairly standard street circuit around familiar roads but features a terrific custom corner that allows the track to divert into a previously impossible direction with all the smoothness as if a real road had existed there! Was having a great time ripping this one up out in front in my increasingly trusty Elegy RH8 until the final lap when, from out of nowhere, the creator suddenly appeared and overtook me in his Feltzer! Despite racing perfectly up to that point i'd obviously been letting my foot off the gas and not pushing it to the limit, because my best lap time was 4 seconds slower than smithyonetwelve 's fastest lap! 2nd place felt like a poor consolation but I must remember to keep pushing the limits against racers of this high calibre! 

Canaloscopy Plus by kidovey

I kept hearing that this one was going to be 'difficult' so I decided to run it in 'Sedans' and I must say, it really wasn't all that tough but was excellent for contact racing nonetheless. I started well and was holding 2nd place for the first couple of laps, but then eventual winner smithyonetwelve ghosted past and I endured a tumultuous tussle for 3rd with some12hate which ended tragically as I somehow clipped an inside barrier, bounced back into him and impacted us both right near the end, although me worse than him as he just stole ahead to take the bronze medal! 

Super Star Showdown by smithyonetwelve

A nicely routed race for Muscle Cars around Vinewood and the Broadway area, sections brought to mind Bellyfluff 's excellent Racing Line - Pheonix classic. I did feel a few of the props used (brown fences) look eyesore-ish and were largely unnecessary whilst the extremely tight left-hand hairpin heading back downhill could have used some propping and visual enhancement as this was extremely tricky to judge correctly. Despite these slight issues this was a very nice track although I was rather perturbed to only managed a 9th place finish overall after a number of unfortunate collisions left me well off the pace quite early on in proceedings.

Power Steering by jcast39

A nice track, as we've come to expect from our jose. That one left-hander that lead onto the highway seemed to catch me out EVERY single lap, as you come up over the brow of a hill and BOOM! the turn is right in front of you. Some visual aid that can be seen from the approach would be most helpful here I feel but apart from that, this is another good, solid race and I earned 4th in my Osiris after a decent drive.

La Mesa Bargeway by deejayb1874

Top quality build that takes you through the river basin in a unique way providing sub 1-minute laps with only one really challenging corner, the opening hairpin, which predictably caused ABSOLUTE CHAOS on turn 1 due to plenty of players failing to anticipate it's sheer acuteness! Raced pretty well througout in my Elegy but going into the final lap and the hairpin down in the basin as I was jostling for 5th with @jcast we both managed to get in each other's way and, tragically, he flew off the edge while I just managed to stay on and survive, protect my 5th from the approaching Leeds-Monkey and bring it home. R.I.P josecastrejon.