Suggestions for El Capitan 200 - now with Race Report!

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Duke

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Tomorrow afternoon I'm hoping to do the El Capitan Enduro - my first enduro at nearly 60% complete!

I'm looking for suggestions on what car to drive. I've read through all the race reports I can find, and I'm not feeling enthused about any of the cars listed there. I don't care about A-spec points at all, but I DO care about having a fun, winnable race that is not a blowout.

So far the cars I'm considering include:
  • Mustang SVO Cobra R - I bought the used one; it'll need a refresh
  • Motorsports Elise - or other Elise?
  • Audi TT 3.2
  • BMW M Coupe - or even the 1 series?
  • Volvo 240 wagon - I have a perverse desire to build this up and use it
I've also got a decent array of prizes, used buys, and one-make entrants. Let's see your recommendations!

Click here for the race report for my first time through.
 
id say get a bettr car like an slr mclaren then go to legends of the silver arrow then win it in bspec in app. 8 minutes then you win the clk-gtr and then race it with that
 
1967GT500E
id say get a bettr car like an slr mclaren then go to legends of the silver arrow then win it in bspec in app. 8 minutes then you win the clk-gtr and then race it with that
Duke
I DO care about having a fun, winnable race that is not a blowout.
Thanks anyway.
 
Jag XKR-R Performance stock. Check Race Report Ref thread and you'll find my report. Give or take a couple of middle stints it was an enjoyable race, and you can win but you won't win by miles (well I didn't because of my mistake on the last few laps. But with S2 tyres it keeps the race close
 
I think I used an Opera S2000. It was quite tight for a lot of the race, though it was always readily apparent I would win. 200 A-Spec points too. Fun little car.
 
Renault Sport Clio V6 Phase II.

TVR 350C (More fun that hard).

I've A-Specced it with the TVR once and the Clio a few times, it depends what line up your against on occasions (harder if your up against a Sport Elise (fast through corners) or Pagani Zonda (pits once every 20 laps and is fast).
 
I really doubt the Volvo would have any chance at all in winning the race. I would suggest the Corvette Grand Sport, or maybe a CLK 55 AMG.
 
cerpin_taxt
Gran Torismo 4, dumpkof.

oh yeah, who the f@#$ is that inyour avitar Duke?

General Lee, nemesis of Count Takeshi.

Oh, and tone it down a bit, please.
 
Famine
I think I used an Opera S2000. It was quite tight for a lot of the race, though it was always readily apparent I would win. 200 A-Spec points too. Fun little car.
Now that sounds fun. Not overpowered, nice balance, and I don't own an S2000 - I hate driving the same cars too much, so it's good to have an excuse to try a new one.
George Morley
Renault Sport Clio V6 Phase II.
Now there's a thought, too. I'll have to see how much I can de-tune the Clio I built up for the Clio one-makes. Midengine layout might keep me on my toes at El Cap.
Toronado
I really doubt the Volvo would have any chance at all in winning the race. I would suggest the Corvette Grand Sport, or maybe a CLK 55 AMG.
Heh, although I should be saying this in a PM, could you please reduce the font size in your sig? It's a little large.

I like the Corvette GS suggestion, and I even own one, but it's what I used for the Corvette series. Even though I love the car and get along with it very well (suits my driving attack well) I figured I'd widen my experience. Hence having the Cobra R as my first suggestion.

I may try a practice session with the hearse, though, just for fun.
cerpin_taxt
oh yeah, who the f@#$ is that inyour avitar Duke?
And this would have been better asked in a PM to me. However, it's the General from Takeshi's Castle, which is broadcast as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge in the States with hilarious dubbed dialogue. His name is Captain Tenille in the dubbed version, and the other hosts are Vic Romano and Kenny Blankenship.

OK, back on topic: the Opera S2000 and Clio Sport go on the list. Thanks! Keep 'em coming.
 
Duke
Tomorrow afternoon I'm hoping to do the El Capitan Enduro - my first enduro at nearly 60% complete!

I'm looking for suggestions on what car to drive. I've read through all the race reports I can find, and I'm not feeling enthused about any of the cars listed there. I don't care about A-spec points at all, but I DO care about having a fun, winnable race that is not a blowout.

So far the cars I'm considering include:
  • Mustang SVO Cobra R - I bought the used one; it'll need a refresh
  • Motorsports Elise - or other Elise?
  • Audi TT 3.2
  • BMW M Coupe - or even the 1 series?
  • Volvo 240 wagon - I have a perverse desire to build this up and use it
The AI has 17 different cars to randomly select from for that race and there is quite a range of performance from the best (Lotus Motor Sport Elise) to the worst (Aston Martin V8 Vantage) of the AI cars.

For these reasons, it will all depend on the selected field as to what car will give you the most challenging race, and still have a good opportunity to win.

The Motor Sport Elise is probably overkill, but the other cars in your list should offer a challenging race in most cases.

I've listed the best & average lap & total race times for all the AI cars HERE, including info on fuel consumption and pit strategy. With that info in hand, I would suggest doing some practice laps with the cars you are considering and see how your times, and pit stops compare. Once you have a good idea how you might do with the car of your choice against a specific AI car, just keep resetting the AI field until that AI car shows up, and is the best of the five selected cars.

Doing al this will absolutely assure you of an opportunity of a very close competitive and challenging race.

Good luck, and can’t wait to read your race report.
 
Avatar looks like "The Hoff" to me. (Whoope wrong avatar)

Back to topic
I tried a bone stock used car for this Enduro...

The only change was to turn off any driver aids...
(No fixed chassis or Oil change... maybe you can treat yourself to some righteous alloys though.
So why not try to beat the enduro with whatever is in the lot that week?

The worry is if you get the Motorsport Elise on the grid. If you do you will need to push pretty hard, if you get a grid without one then you can get a car with much less ability.

I was happy to ace this in a Type R NSX - was pretty confortable. But I failed when I tried the Aston Martin Vantage... not due to speed but the way eat consumes its front tyres like some Zombie cannibal.


If you want to test a bit you'll want to be able to lap the car in the 1-56 area... if you do a quick time trial prior to the race.

Have fun, and wonder at El Capitan's random curbstones
 
Digital-Nitrate
I've listed the best & average lap & total race times for all the AI cars HERE, including info on fuel consumption and pit strategy.
Great info as always! 👍 and + rep for such a helpful post. Couple questions, though:

P = pit interval, I assume. But what is MPP? I assume MPG is fuel economy. And LFU is total fuel used throughout the race?
 
Famine
I think I used an Opera S2000. It was quite tight for a lot of the race, though it was always readily apparent I would win. 200 A-Spec points too. Fun little car.

ooo i might use this car, did you drive it stock?
 
Duke
Great info as always! 👍 and + rep for such a helpful post. Couple questions, though:

P = pit interval, I assume. But what is MPP? I assume MPG is fuel economy. And LFU is total fuel used throughout the race?
Thanks, and yes, P = Pit Stops, and the others you listed are also correct.

I'll add a legend to those lists for the future.


BTW: When comparing pit strategy against the AI cars, keep in mind that a tire change pit stop at El Capitan, (as long as you do not take on more than 40 liters of fuel) takes 28 seconds.

If for some reason you need more than 40 liters of fuel per stop, like when you use a hard compound tire and thus pitting less often, just add .2 seconds per extra liter of fuel beyond 40. So if you are taking on 60 liters of fuel, that will add four seconds to your pit time.

Once you know how long your pit stops are, and how many you are going to be making in that race based on the car, tires, set-up, and driving style, then you can use that info to see how your performance will compare to the AI cars.

For instance if you need to pit one more time than the best AI car, but are not taking on more than 40 liters of fuel per stop, you'll need to have an average lap time that is .424 seconds faster than the average lap time I listed on that AI ranking thread. Two extra pits would mean having to average about a second faster per lap. Pitting fewer times would of course mean the opposite, and that your average lap time can be .424 seconds slower.

Hope this all helps. Have a great race!
 
Digital-Nitrate
Thanks, and yes, P = Pit Stops, and the others you listed are also correct.

I'll add a legend to those lists for the future.
The only one I couldn't figure out is MPP. I thought it was Miles Per Pit, except that it doesn't correlate with the pit interval. The MS Elise runs a 5-lap interval with an MPP of 36, yet the Zonda runs a 3 lap interval, and has an MPP of 56.

OH. Duh.

P is not the pit interval, it's the number of stops per race. I geddit now.
 
George Morley
Wow, very confusing, but then, very good information 👍
Makes you appreciate the complexity involved in real racing were pit strategy can mean the difference between winning and losing. :)


Duke
The only one I couldn't figure out is MPP. I thought it was Miles Per Pit, except that it doesn't correlate with the pit interval. The MS Elise runs a 5-lap interval with an MPP of 36, yet the Zonda runs a 3 lap interval, and has an MPP of 56.

OH. Duh.

P is not the pit interval, it's the number of stops per race. I geddit now.
Yes, MPP is Miles per Pit. For the Le Mans AI ranking threads I changed some of the categories to include:
  • PS-T = Pit Stop Time (average time it costs that car to make a pit stop)
  • LpS = Laps per Stop (average)
  • FpL = Fuel (used) per Lap


As for my previous reference to the posted average AI lap times... I just remembered that I rounded off the seconds in order to conserve space for additional info.

Here are the complete average lap times:
  1. 1999 Lotus_______ Motor Sport Elise________ 01'57.293
  2. 2000 Pagani______ Zonda C12________________ 01'58.900
  3. 2000 Lotus_______ Esprit Sport 350_________ 01'59.363
  4. 2003 Shelby______ Series 1 Super Charged___ 01'59.510
  5. 2004 Proto Motors SPIRRA 4.6 V8____________ 01'59.370
  6. 2003 Dodge_______ Viper SRT10______________ 02'00.604
  7. 1997 TVR_________ Cerbera Speed Six________ 02'00.464
  8. 2003 TVR_________ T350C____________________ 02'00.495
  9. 2000 Chevrolet___ Corvette Z06 (C5)________ 02'00.952
  10. 1996 Chevrolet___ Corvette Grand Sport (C4) 02'01.266
  11. 1999 Dodge_______ Viper GTS________________ 02'01.499
  12. 2005 BMW_________ M5_______________________ 02'01.993
  13. 2003 Callaway____ C12______________________ 02'02.285
  14. 2004 Mercedes____ SL 65 AMG (R230)_________ 02'02.310
  15. 2000 Ford________ Mustang SVT Cobra R______ 02'02.455
  16. 1990 Chevrolet___ Corvette ZR-1 (C4)_______ 02'02.472
  17. 1999 Aston Martin V8 Vantage_______________ 02'04.366
 
I used a slightly tuned-up Nissan Skyline GT-R M-Spec Nür. It was a challenging race, really battling for top spot the majority of the race, but it had enough power to pull away at the end. ;)
 
So I've got to be running around 1':56" and getting 13-14 laps out of a set of tires to beat the MSE. Thanks!
 
Duke
So I've got to be running around 1':56" and getting 13-14 laps out of a set of tires to beat the MSE. Thanks!
Actually, if you can swing a 4 stop race (4 @ 13 laps each, and finish the race on the 14th), then you only need to be running an average lap time of 1'57.500 because the MSE will have to pit one more time then you. 👍

Of course, 1'56 would give you a much more comfortable margin of error just in case the Lotus has an especially good race, and or you have a bad race.
 
rovens
ooo i might use this car, did you drive it stock?

Yep. I may have fiddled with tyres - I don't recall, but it's in my Endurance Companion in the Race Reports forum - but I don't think so.

Mayuri Ootsuka
Avatar looks like "The Hoff" to me. (Whoope wrong avatar)

Yep - and astonishingly it's an unaltered screengrab from his NEW music video...
 
Famine
Yep. I may have fiddled with tyres - I don't recall, but it's in my Endurance Companion in the Race Reports forum - but I don't think so.
Opera S2000, stock + oil, on S2s. And that picture of the Hoff is just frightening - the eyes are too weird. The song is hilarious, though.
 
I ran this in a RUF 3400S. I don't recall the exact set of mods I had on the car, but I remember it was a fun race against the Motorsport Elise -- and you definitely want to run against the Motorsport Elise in this enduro.
 
jbrennen
and you definitely want to run against the Motorsport Elise in this enduro.
While the MSE posts the best time, personally I'd recommend a race with any five of the following AI cars (preferably the ones at the top):
  • _6 2003 Dodge_______ Viper SRT10______________
  • _7 1997 TVR_________ Cerbera Speed Six________
  • _8 2003 TVR_________ T350C____________________
  • _9 2000 Chevrolet___ Corvette Z06 (C5)________
  • 10 1996 Chevrolet___ Corvette Grand Sport (C4)
  • 11 1999 Dodge_______ Viper GTS________________
  • 12 2005 BMW_________ M5_______________________
  • 13 2003 Callaway____ C12______________________
  • 14 2004 Mercedes____ SL 65 AMG (R230)_________
  • 15 2000 Ford________ Mustang SVT Cobra R______
  • 16 1990 Chevrolet___ Corvette ZR-1 (C4)_______
The reason for this is that they all are extremely close in average finishing times making for a thrilling race, what with all five AI cars battling it out each lap and finishing seconds from each other after nearly two and half hours of racing!

With such a field of AI cars and you driving a car that can average a 2-minute lap on El Capitan (no faster mind you, or you'll find victory to easily had) and with 4-5 pit stops (11-13 laps per stop), you'll have an amazing race, with possibly the closest finish of all six cars in ANY enduro on GT4!

This is one of several reasons why I feel the 200 Miler @ El Capitan is possibly one of the best races in GT4. 👍
 
Well, all technicality from DN's charts aside (nice work though 👍), I didn't use this, but if the Corvette Grand Sport was suggested, why not a Corvette ZR-1? More challenging, and should get more A-spec points. Maybe a Fairlady 350Z would be good too, but the Opera S2000 sounds like the most challenging. Maybe a 111R then, it seems kinda fit for the race. Just a few suggestions that seem kinda fun to try.
 
I don't know if the ZR-1 would do it very easily. TI'm making an assumption that Duke wants to use a stock car, though. If I'm wrong, than that is another suggestion.
 
Digital-Nitrate
[/I]:
  • _8 2003 TVR_________ T350C____________________
  • _9 2000 Chevrolet___ Corvette Z06 (C5)________
The reason for this is that they all are extremely close in average finishing times making for a thrilling race, what with all five AI cars battling it out each lap and finishing seconds from each other after nearly two and half hours of racing!

Agreed, the Corvette overtaken the 350C in the last few bends when I raced, very good.
 
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