The little Autobianchi that could!

  • Thread starter Mr.Slow
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Mr.Slow

Mr.Slow

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I, like others before me, am attempting to go as far as possible without buying or modding a car. This makes a fair amount of races quite challenging. So far the most challenging series has been the Lightweight cup in the begginer hall.

The reason is that I only have the Autobianchi (from Sunday cup). I could try and get another light car but it seems to me that I would have to either gold the nat b (Honda s500) or sit down and really do some thinking.

Since I don't like to think too much I decided to go ahead and try my luck with the Autobianchi. Easier said than done! The only race that I could win was the second one. The other two (specially the first one) seemed like a pie in the sky sort of thing. Although I could finish a very close second in the third one, the best I could do in the first one was finish 1.5 seconds behind.

I forgot about this series for a few days and went on to win all the american hall races, get silver in Nat B, silver in Nat A, silver in IntB and do a few more missions (11-13). After finishing the american hall I decided to revisit this series because most of the races were in the 20-35 pt range and I had just been doing 60-140 pts races. It couldn't be that hard could it?

I battled those little lightweight bastards long and hard and made absolutely no progress for a good 2 hours. Buggers! My spirit almost broken I decided to concentrate on the last race and after a few tries it was conquered. Somehow though, there was no feeling of satisfaction... it was that dam first race I really wanted to beat. :grumpy:

I tried every strategy I could think off including cutting through the grass. Nothing worked, specially cutting through the grass! The car does not like slowing down too much as the 2nd gear is long and dull. You if you downshift into second you better hope it is in the high rpm range or the race is over.

I was starting to get desperate and thinking of golding the NatB license... :nervous: and then I had some inspiration. I remembered that a few of the Nurburing tests require you to aim the car at the strips before can even see the turn coming. It is easier in this race because you are going very slowly in comparison.

After trying this strategy a few times I was able to get to 1st place at the beggining of lap 4. But by then the front tyres were so worn out that I lost the race by having to slow down in the last couple of corners and downshifting to 2nd in the mid range of rmps.

Perseverance paid off and I finally got to be leading out of the last turn, only I had no front tires and the car drifted into the wall ARRRGGH !! , I finished 3rd....

I counted to one thousand and walked away from the playstation until the urge to stick my foot through the TV passsed........

I decided not to give up and a few more tries yielded thriumph. I was so excited/proud I captured to quicktime (anyone can host the 6.4 mb file for me?). The race itself is pretty boring... a bunch of slow cars chasing each other so i won't describe it in detail. I will only say i won by 1.2 seconds and I am soooooo happy it is done.

So there you have it: The stock Autobianchi CAN beat the lightweight cup if you are willing to put in the effort. All is good with the world!

Now... anyone know how to beat the spyder and roadster series with a 54 corvette thax maxes out at 100mph??
:)


UPDATE: I uploaded the video to the youshare website http://s4.youshareit.com/files/f8b7872dbc074a3d991fb4b03de44915.html

UPDATE: I went back to re-do the second race (the 'easy' one) and had forgotten to mention that the only way to win the race is not to get the Suzuki capuchino in the lineup. Strangely enough if you get the capuchino the race is 31 pts but if you don't the race is 32 pts... go figure. I put this one on quicktime too. Will post the link here when it is uploaded
 
The "slow car" races are often great. In GT3 the Vitz race was the best series in the entire game.

Nice write-up!
 
I had quite a lot of fun doing the old muscle car championship. I did it in the mercury cougar '67 I'd won somewhere. Also completely stock, no oil change. The biggest fun was in Seattle where I had a memorable fight with the buick.

The biggest disadvantage I had was the relatively low top speed (in between 190 and 200 kph), while the buick was comparatively superfast on the straights.

My luck was probably he had to start in 4th position: By the time I got passed car 4 and 5 he was already in position 2 fighting the pontiac for first position.
at the end of lap 1 I came on the buick's tail when he took the bus-stop chicane ,after you go across the rails, a little slow. I could pass him in the subsequent corner, the lefthander before the pit-entry. Then I was chasing the pontiac on the start-finish straight when all of a sudden I saw that buick becoming larger in my mirror at an incredible pace. I thought he couldn't pass me, since I was driving quite close to the wall, but he managed to squeeze himself in between my mercury and the wall. Lucky me had the good line for the upcoming corner, so not really a problem. But that experience at the straight learnd me this fight wasn't over yet.

In the meanwhile the pontiac still had to be overtaken. I did that some corners later, and the buick followed by passing the pontiac in the what I call hill/jump section. I tried to make the difference in the corners, knowing he would have the advantage on the hightspeed bridge-section. Indeed, he closed the gap back at that particular section, but didn't pass me. At the bus-stop chicane the gap grew again, and when I got through the chicane before the finish line I prayed the gap would be large enough.

On the final straight then.... and there he came .... at the same incredible pace as the lap before, but I saw him earlier in the mirror. This is gonna be so damn close, I thought. Again, he came on so fast I didn't have time to close the door, and he tried to pass me, this time at the right hand side of my car. Then we crossed the finishline. The last second I think I drove with my eyes closed, but when I looked at the screen the verdict was there:

I won!!! Margin of victory 0.039 secs on the buick. So very close it was indeed. I was relieved the finishline wasn't a couple of meters further on the track. 👍

In conclusion I also wanted to say the AI seemed to have one good moment there when he didn't ran in to me, but tried to pass me instead. I don't really know why sometimes there seems to be some kind of AI present, and most of the time it gets more of AS instead of AI, but it was a pretty good manoeuvre :)
 
I too used the cougar for the old muscle car competition. And Seattle was the race where the action was!

I wasn't so lucky to have the Buick start 4th so it was a 124 pts race with the buick on 1st position. The best I could do was finish 2nd by 10 seconds. I tried later and got a different lineup but the buick still there (86 pts) so the best I could do was 2nd by 6.08 seconds. I tried again the next day and there was no Buick! (41 pts).. that was an easy race then :-)

My hat is off to you for beating the darn buick (even if it started in 4th)!
 
Mr.Slow
I too used the cougar for the old muscle car competition. And Seattle was the race where the action was!

I wasn't so lucky to have the Buick start 4th so it was a 124 pts race with the buick on 1st position. The best I could do was finish 2nd by 10 seconds. I tried later and got a different lineup but the buick still there (86 pts) so the best I could do was 2nd by 6.08 seconds. I tried again the next day and there was no Buick! (41 pts).. that was an easy race then :-)

My hat is off to you for beating the darn buick (even if it started in 4th)!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think I was lucky though that during the first lap the buick got stuck behind the pontiac , and didn't seem to have the opportunity to get it passed. Otherwise I think it would be bye bye buick and drive for second place :sly:
 
Mr.Slow
Now... anyone know how to beat the spyder and roadster series with a 54 corvette thax maxes out at 100mph??
:)
Click to expand...


I used the '54 vette, added brakes, flywheel, stage 1 weight reduction, Stage 1 N/A plus a bottle of Nitrous :) . I used this for the Vette! Vette! Vette! race too but I need to add Stage 2 N/A.
 
stan394
I used the '54 vette, added brakes, flywheel, stage 1 weight reduction, Stage 1 N/A plus a bottle of Nitrous :) . I used this for the Vette! Vette! Vette! race too but I need to add Stage 2 N/A.
Click to expand...

Thanks but I am trying not to mod/buy any cars. I know i will eventually have to buy/mod something as the game cannot be finished....
 
Mr.Slow
Thanks but I am trying not to mod/buy any cars. I know i will eventually have to buy/mod something as the game cannot be finished....
Click to expand...

I think I can get it to work without either the Stage I N/A or the Nitrous. But it will take a lot of tries :crazy:
 
Well done Mr Slow - perserverance really pays off in the end. :banghead:

How many A-Spec points was that Lightweight Cup race worth? You'd think it would be worth quite a few if it's so difficult.

Be sure to post the link to that video once it's hosted. :)
 
Nice job hangin' in there Slow! 👍 Them are the races I always find the most worthwhile- the ones you have to work for!

phattboy
 
my most agrivating race was definatly with the midgets......those things are so damn slow......unfortuanatly i ended up having to modify mine as we are all in the exact same car with the exact same performance and speed and remained at the exact same time intervals....was sooooo agrivating, but the prize is histarical, thats the only reason i did it :P lol
 
Smellysocks, I tried the link to upload the video but could not get it to work. It seemed to hang on the upload and I kept getting errors about not being able to contact the server when i retried.

I think it may be my internet connection not working too well tonight as gtplanet is verrrrrrryyyyyyyy slowwww for me tonight.

I will give it another shot tomorrow morning
 
UPDATE: I uploaded the video to the youshare website http://s4.youshareit.com/files/f8b7872dbc074a3d991fb4b03de44915.html

UPDATE: I went back to re-do the second race (the 'easy' one) and had forgotten to mention that the only way to win the race is not to get the Suzuki capuchino in the lineup. Strangely enough if you get the capuchino the race is 31 pts but if you don't the race is 32 pts... go figure. I put this one on quicktime too. Will post the link here when it is uploaded
 
eSPy
nice writeup. but i couldnt disagree with the Vitz race remark more. i hated it so.
Click to expand...
I know this is an old post, and I don't mean to be attacking this particular member, but the only people who hate the Vitz/Yaris series are people who can't drive.
 
Tnx Ving!


Speaking of slow cars and not knowing how to drive: I just did the Midget Race. I couldn't beat it with the stock car but with any of the engine mods (level 1) it was just too easy.

Has anyone done it without engine mods (exhaust, tyres,etc)??
 
Yip - the newer Midget.

I got 80 A-Spec's for it.

I can't tell you if I added any ballast (but I doubt it for this many A-Spec), nor can I tell you if this was on new oil or not, but I can tell you that I didn't fit any parts to the wee beasty... :)

PS: Can't tell you 'cos I can't remember.
 
All I put on the midget for the races was nitrous, and only used it when I had to. That way you can make the race as hard as you want but still be able to win easily. I'm just not a fan of really slow car races as I don't have the patience. If my tires don't squeal flat-out in a hairpin my car's too slow :D
 
80 points is what you get offered with the stock car. I tried a number of times (not as many as I tried with the autobianchi in the lightweight cup) and couldn't finish better than 4th. With NA tuning 1 it is an 8 point race that you win by 20+ seconds....


But then again I am experiencing the 'brake on by itself' problem with my DFP and that could explain why I couldn't with with the stock car. It would be the first race that this problem causes me to loose. I have had the problem for about 3 weeks now and always manage to win the races (that is why I haven't got it fixed).
 
Mr.Slow
I, like others before me, am attempting to go as far as possible without buying or modding a car. This makes a fair amount of races quite challenging. So far the most challenging series has been the Lightweight cup in the begginer hall.

The reason is that I only have the Autobianchi (from Sunday cup). I could try and get another light car but it seems to me that I would have to either gold the nat b (Honda s500) or sit down and really do some thinking.

Since I don't like to think too much I decided to go ahead and try my luck with the Autobianchi. Easier said than done! The only race that I could win was the second one. The other two (specially the first one) seemed like a pie in the sky sort of thing. Although I could finish a very close second in the third one, the best I could do in the first one was finish 1.5 seconds behind.

I forgot about this series for a few days and went on to win all the american hall races, get silver in Nat B, silver in Nat A, silver in IntB and do a few more missions (11-13). After finishing the american hall I decided to revisit this series because most of the races were in the 20-35 pt range and I had just been doing 60-140 pts races. It couldn't be that hard could it?

I battled those little lightweight bastards long and hard and made absolutely no progress for a good 2 hours. Buggers! My spirit almost broken I decided to concentrate on the last race and after a few tries it was conquered. Somehow though, there was no feeling of satisfaction... it was that dam first race I really wanted to beat. :grumpy:

I tried every strategy I could think off including cutting through the grass. Nothing worked, specially cutting through the grass! The car does not like slowing down too much as the 2nd gear is long and dull. You if you downshift into second you better hope it is in the high rpm range or the race is over.

I was starting to get desperate and thinking of golding the NatB license... :nervous: and then I had some inspiration. I remembered that a few of the Nurburing tests require you to aim the car at the strips before can even see the turn coming. It is easier in this race because you are going very slowly in comparison.

After trying this strategy a few times I was able to get to 1st place at the beggining of lap 4. But by then the front tyres were so worn out that I lost the race by having to slow down in the last couple of corners and downshifting to 2nd in the mid range of rmps.

Perseverance paid off and I finally got to be leading out of the last turn, only I had no front tires and the car drifted into the wall ARRRGGH !! , I finished 3rd....

I counted to one thousand and walked away from the playstation until the urge to stick my foot through the TV passsed........

I decided not to give up and a few more tries yielded thriumph. I was so excited/proud I captured to quicktime (anyone can host the 6.4 mb file for me?). The race itself is pretty boring... a bunch of slow cars chasing each other so i won't describe it in detail. I will only say i won by 1.2 seconds and I am soooooo happy it is done.

So there you have it: The stock Autobianchi CAN beat the lightweight cup if you are willing to put in the effort. All is good with the world!

Now... anyone know how to beat the spyder and roadster series with a 54 corvette thax maxes out at 100mph??
:)


UPDATE: I uploaded the video to the youshare website http://s4.youshareit.com/files/f8b7872dbc074a3d991fb4b03de44915.html

UPDATE: I went back to re-do the second race (the 'easy' one) and had forgotten to mention that the only way to win the race is not to get the Suzuki capuchino in the lineup. Strangely enough if you get the capuchino the race is 31 pts but if you don't the race is 32 pts... go figure. I put this one on quicktime too. Will post the link here when it is uploaded
Click to expand...

Simple.
Spend 10 grand to revise the gearing and add another cog.
The completely modded '54 Vette rates at 275 hp and 507 lb.-ft of torque.

That's that.

Now I'll tell you an easy trick. Get a '68 Honda S800 and fully tune it. It should have about 152 hp and not have a torque rating (though I guess it's somewhere between 110-120 lb.-ft.
This thing will flog any competition.
It weighs 335 kg total.
For the poor in this game, focus on sheer power - that car is plenty light on its feet stock.
 
You do realize, don't you, that the post you replied to was over two years old, and more importantly, he was trying to do it without spending any money? So a fully modded anything is out of the question.
 
I'll echo what BobK said here. A search in this forum for [SEARCH]Scrooge does GT4[/SEARCH] or threads started by Mr.Slow should bring up Mr.Slow's original threads.
Have a read and you'll understand why he did this.
It's well known that you can spend money on full modifications, but there are some of us around here for whatever reasons, that see an easy solution to our choices to make life hard for ourselves, akin to selling our own Grandmothers. :(
We do it the hard way 'cos we enjoy the challenge, not 'cos we don't know the easiest way. And sometimes doing things the hard way is so much more gratifying! ;)
 
BobK
You do realize, don't you, that the post you replied to was over two years old, and more importantly, he was trying to do it without spending any money? So a fully modded anything is out of the question.
Click to expand...

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
 

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