Notes for Week 45, 2024
Song of the week:
Notes
A strange thing has happened over the past few weeks, which I sort-of began documenting on my little games website. Notably, despite being a racing fanatic and sim racing fan (in so far as Gran Turismo is a "sim"), I've picked up the prosumer end of the hobby.
Part of it is having a combination of a little disposable income leftover, and some time left over now that the kids are slightly older. Which is to say that they'll go to bed consistently.
I've really taken up Assetto Corsa Competizione. The mainline Assetto Corsa is so wonky to use that I've largely avoided it. And while I enjoy Automobilista 2, the 'feeling' of the cars is better in ACC, so AMS2 has largely been a Steam Deck special; in particular on flights. So far I've had two long-haul flights this year where I spent a good amount of time on my 'career' in AMS2, only to land to have a few people (let's be fair... exclusively middle aged men) ask what was going on and how they could also bring a Porsche GT3 to a podium place in an endurance race. And what massive battery I'm using to literally and figuratively keep the lights on with.
The main thing I've done that's maybe a bit odd is purchase a good steering wheel, base and pedals. Like, really good ones. I did some research having dusted off my old G27 and loving it, and wound up spending more than I expected. That said, I got the wheel off of Adverts, which helped lower the total cost a bit.
So now I find myself getting better, caring about stats, and having tracks I've never heard of in my life (e.g. Zolder) mapped with weird precision into my brain. And I'm loving it as a past-time.
My kids are into it, ish. But I know they'll be big racing fans as they get older. They're drawn to engineering type tasks, love cars and general sports/activities.
This weekend I also brought my eldest (who's 4) to the Nevo EV car show. It's basically a conference space filled with car companies showing off the latest and greatest EVs they have on offer. The big draw for me was the Renault 5, Citroen Ami and seeing the Cybertruck IRL. There was also a Porsche Macan, which I need to stop looking at in anticipation of my own one in January. But it really brought home the fact that everyone'\s next car will be an EV, and any market spookiness is not really what's being felt by folks on the ground. Especially pleasing was the sheer diversity of attendee.
Even better, someone on Bluesky posted about getting their ancient Nissan Leaf upgraded with new batteries from Range Therapy. I know one of the founders, which made the post especially pleasing. But the tech is so ready for primetime and easy for older cars to get a fresh lease of life. Which is something you just cannot do as readily in an ICE vehicle. Even as battery tech improves, EVs will not get past a shelf life like an ICE vehicle would.
Which brings me to the confluence of these two stories. I would love to see more EV racing at GT type level. I'd love to see someone take the plunge to have hot-swappable batteries during pit stops to 1) bring the drama of pits into play and 2) allow EVs to run longer stints, push range to the limit and maybe even do endurance runs. I think GT style racing in EVs is a lot more interesting than the Formula E stuff. Which is a fantastic sport to watch (c'mon Porsche!), but it feels more staid than it should because of the type of track they've typically run on. I know, an issue they're solving from the last season into next. But still, I think GT suits the lack of engine noise better. It's a different kind of drama to the single seater stuff.
(via my flickr)