1000 Miles! II: The 300SL Strikes Back!

[Falcon787B]

Well, long time no see, but I'm back on GTPlanet for now. Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and will have an excellent 2011

Anyway, on with the show. Since I've yet to stump up the IMO still large amount of money for a PS3 and GT5, it's back to the now-oldskool of GT4 for me. But hey, there's still unfinished business around here for me, so let's get cracking, with a 2nd attempt at one of my favourite championships in the game - the venerable 1000 Miles series.

I've already had a go at this one when I was last here in the summer, and you can read the report on that one right here. That run lived up to all my expectations for the championship - great, close racing, some mishaps, and the enjoyment of endurance racing of a slightly different nature, featuring vintage classic cars rarely seen in races anywhere else in the game.

My biggest opponent that time round was the classic Mercedes 300SL Coupe, and as I wrote about in that thread, we enjoyed some fantastic tussles. However, there are a couple of riders on this:

a) I felt a little like I was having to artificially limit myself a little too much by way of tyre selection, pit strategy etc to ensure a close race, as my Alfa largely had the measure on the 300SL by the end of the championship.

b) I barely picked up any A-spec points for my efforts - in fact, I was lucky to pick up more than 20-30 at most rounds! I'm aware that was because my only opposition was the 300SL, and the other opponents largely served to just get in the way as I was lapping them.

So, this time around, I'm fancying more of a challenge. I'm going to start testing cars and lineups for this series tonight, and will kick this off around the New Year. If anyone here could suggest potential cars, lineups etc for me to go for, I'd really appreciate it. Just throw ideas into the ring. I'm aware that, if a muscle car is in the field, it's largely a lost cause, so I'm going to try and get that crucial balance right between annoyingly easy and pointlessly difficult. At the moment, the only cars I have lined up are a stock version of the Alfa that competed first time around, or a nice baby blue Alfa Spider Duetto convertible.

Thanks in advance for any info everyone, and I'll hopefully be hitting the track for the first race very soon! ​

 

[DK]

Good luck, this is reminding me to get to work on my latest Race Report/Story.

 

[Eggstor]

I did this earlier in the month with a very-mildly-tuned Ginetta G4 (sport exhaust, racing brakes/flywheel, weight reduction 1) against the following lineup - a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe (C2), a second 1964 Ginetta G4, a 1967 Isuzu 117 Coupe, a 1967 Mazda 110S (L10A) and a 1967 Skyline 2000GT-B (S54A). It got me some decent A-spec points (even if I had to use S2 tires instead of S1 tires at Sarthe), but other than Sarthe and Nurburgring, it was pretty much a laugher.

The thing is, the Vette finishes anywhere between 4 and 6 minutes faster than the 300SL, so you might want to keep that in mind.

 

[Falcon787B]

Interesting, can you remember exactly how many A-spec points you got for the runs? And you were the comfortable winner in each race?

I've just tested the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale 1963, stock at 113hp on N3 tyres, to give 121 A-Spec points at the 'Ring, with a lineup including as the two fastest cars the 300SL and the Elan. This would've been a new Club 200 record for A-Spec points for this event (no-ones ever got the full 200 as far as I know, the highest is 115), but it was a hopeless cause - the Elan was a good 10s up the road by lap 3, and I wasn't making any ground, whereas the 300SL had already cantered to a good 30-40s lead by this time. Even factoring in AI mistakes (which they do make on worn tyres) etc, there was no chance of me catching them across the race, especially as my tyres looked to be wearing faster than theirs too.

So, that removes one car from contention. I'll try your G4 idea too, do you think in stock form it'll be competative against a field without the Corvette, or will it be too much of a breeze?

 

[Eggstor]

Let me break out the diary...

Nurburgring - Because of the one-off nature of the random lineup, that 18-point race on S1s was won by just over a minute (I was, however, off-track quite a bit).

Opera Paris - The still-random lineup reset for the one and only time, which netted me 33 points on S1s (either that, or the new oil hp bump wore off real quick). That one was won by 3 laps.

Cote d'Azur - Still 33 points, won by a lap.

Sarthe - Only 24 points because I needed the extra traction of the S2 tires (I learned my lesson with the S1s burning off after 34 laps the previous run against the 300SL), won by 23 seconds.

The 300SL (and probably the Jaguar) will give a stock G4 a good race at Nurburgring (do watch the bumps; the G4's suspension is not at all suited for German driving), while the extra weight of those cars will make them essentially non-competitive at Paris/Monaco. However, their greater top speed will make things just a bit too difficult at Sarthe (I was 1-for-2 against the 300SL and the 1 was because several times slower vehicles blocked the 300SL at key points).