If you’re in a room of racers, and you drop the name, “mike204”, you’ll definitely get a few ooooooohs & ahhhhhs. Heck you might even see a few candles being lit, people bowing or throwing money…and articles of clothing lol.
To begin with, mike204 has been away from MTM2 for approximately 2 yearrs, but he’s back now, and he marked his return with a little number called “204SINE”. Here’s a little MTM 2 trivia for ya: according to mike, the tracks with the “204” tag are designed specifically with tight, dramatic racing in mind. In my opinion, 204 designator or not, this guy has published some great racing tracks – period. I’ve run all 19, and a few of my all-time favorites are “
Blacktop204” “
Arroyo”, and “
Paperun (3-way), “
Landslide”, & “
Parking Deck”.
Which brings me right up to the doorstep of “204SINE”. It’s about a 2:45 ride with long straights and some rather unorthodox turns. At first I couldn’t quite put my finger on why the textures used for this track seemed so familiar. After mentally cycling thru all tracks I’ve run, it dawned on me the textures are the exact same shade/consistency used for Die Blechtrommel’s, “Son of Tin Drum Boogie”. Trust me, I’ve walked on these roads barefoot lol! Holding true to form, mike kept the number of models to an absolute minimum, which by today’s standards is rather unusual, but I’ll tell ya what, when SLO_GT3K, SLO_RAZ, SLO_Jumper and myself ran it this morning, we made very good use of the wide space and alternative lanes offered by the model deficient roadways.
Probably the most significant piece of information I can offer you about “204SINE” is do not underestimate this track. It has a tendency to lull you into a false sense of security by the long straights. But I’m here to tell ya, if you go into those turns with too much attitude…well, you might as well break out the leotards, tights, and pointy slippers because after you execute a few textbook pirouettes people will think you’re the finest ballet dancer ever to grace an MTM 2 racetrack!
I took note of a few things that have no real bearing on the track’s race worthiness, however, for the author’s information I thought I’d mention what I found. For starters, several of the trees near the narrow body of water are
recessed into the ground a bit too far given their size. Smart placement, by the way; trees planted where there’s a source of water. As for this car, it too seemingly suffered from mike’s heavy-handed
planting techniques lol. I'm not quite sure what to make of the bridges <A HREF="http://ftp.teamslo.com/imup/unsure.jpg" TARGET=_blank>
here</A> &
here . My guess is it’s the result of imperfect mating or joining, but not being a track maker I’ll have to defer to Mal, WinterKill or Phin to explain that one. A portion of the two models on either side of the road in this
pic are floating. They could have benefitted from being placed on support structures of some kind or possibly relocated to another place on the track where they could sit flush on the ground. The only other thing I saw was the cp’s tripped outside the range of their markers, which really isn’t a major issue since it doesn’t give the racer any sort of measurable advantage with respect to lap time due to their placement.
Passing opportunities lie almost exclusively in the turns, so staying within striking distance of your opponent is crucial since chances to attempt a pass are minimal. As for the Copey Rating, "204SINE" earned very respectable 8 out of 10 possible points. A nice effort on your part, mike…and welcome back to the game, bud.
PS – One last thing: I’m going to guess that the name is derived from the concave/convex thing you got going on in this one, right mike? Also, was this a recent creation or something you had sitting on the hard drive, but never finished til now?
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Edited by SLO_COPE (19-02-2003)</font>
