300k Endurance at Grand Valley :: Times, Cars, and Experience

  • Thread starter Thread starter JeremiahFyffe
  • 298 comments
  • 45,660 views
Running it with a stock Toyota FT-86 (non Sport version);

Yesterday I was on sport hards, doing 2:19s, passed the leading NSX on lap 5 and the red RX-8 was on my tail for quite some time. Quit about 25 laps, as I'm doing testing runs atm.

Today, I was against two NSX, the red RX-8 was somewhere in the pack.

The faster NSX was doing ~2:13s, and even as I started on sport mediums today, I couldn't do better than a 2:14 so he kept a 6 seconds lead. Pitted on lap 15, got 2:10s and caught up after a couple of laps. Aborted this race as well.

The FT-86 is quite an interesting car to drive. Next week-end I'll try sport mediums and some very mild hp upgrade (exhaust). Should be the combo to go with.
 
I'm preparing for this race at the moment - my first Endurance since good old Indycar Racing about 20 years ago...

Somehow, I convinced myself that I have to do it with a BMW 2002 Turbo - lots of modifications, churns out 320 hp right now, weighs 970kg.
With Sport Soft, it's very tail happy, so I played with suspension, brakes, LSD, the lot - now it's both, it kills you during braking and accelerating and understeers so much that you can't go into corners. I think I will have fun and will tell you more about it later tonight.

The question I have right now: How do you test your equipment for an endurance race - especially tyre usage? I've done a few laps in Practice mode and managed high 2:12s, so I think it is competitive enough (with my driving style), but I don't have any tyre wear in Practice and with the amount of drifting I'm doing it sure feels like I will have to change the tyres every 5 laps.
I know I can just start the endurance race and use it as a test, but somehow this bothers me - there must be a more adequate way of testing it...

Thanks.
 
I have completed the race yesterday, and i am quite frustrated because i do not know what i have done wrong.
First of all, i used a Stock Nissan Fairlady Z (Z34) 08 (untuned), a car which should be competitive. I used Sports Hard tyres.
During the first 5 laps, i was able to to place third, 5 seconds behind the first. After those 5 laps, the opponents increased their pace an by lap 20, i was 40 seconds behind the first one.
I decided to pit and changed to Racing Hard tyres and by lap 40, ich achieved to be 30 seconds in front of the opponents.
During my second pit stop, i switched back to sports hard tyres. Although i had new tyres, the "chief-opponent" was able to beat my lap times by 1 1/2 seconds. According to the fact that my tyres were ruined by lap 57, i placed 4th, 50 seconds behind the thrid one.
I have to mention that i drove nearly perfectly, whithout going off the track. Of course, i did not drive maximum pace because i would have ruinend my tyres much faster.

It seems as if the opponents completely "owned" me, and i dont know why !

- Are sports Hard the right tyres or should i switch to sports medium ?
- Should i take a more lightweight car, will that reduce the tyre erosion ?
- Is it essential to avoid curbs ? (i did so most of the time)
- how can my opponents drive 40 Laps in sports hard tyres whithout going off the track ?
- Am i a complete fool ? ;-)

It would be very nice if somebody could help me. :)
 
I just finished 300k Grand Valley with the BMW 2002 turbo and thought I'd let you know that it is possible.

Well, the car is heavily modified (320 hp, 972kg), so it's really a piece of cake.

Setup:
all aids off, Sports Soft.

I took first place in lap 1 and built up ~30 seconds within 5 laps. My lap times averaged around high 2:12, sometimes 2:14 at that point.
Around lap 8 I was very surprised that the performance of the tyres decreased significantly, although the display showed only little more than 1/4 used. I thought I needed to get at least to lap 15, but had to pit after lap 12, which was a terrible ~2:50 lap (without pit stop) with more than 3 really bad turns.
I got back in the race in 5th place, ~1:00 behind the 1st (RX-7, no NSX in the race) and made it back to 3rd place and 0:15 behind in lap 24, in which I pitted again (yeah, didn't bother trying to change my strategy at that point).
Actually managed to take 1st place in lap 32, while the RX-7 was still on his first set of tyres (he pitted right after), but it was obvious he had to get in, I gained about 20 seconds in one lap.

Had another two pit stops after 36 and 48, but never actualy lost 1st place, since by now my lap times were quite consistent and I even got used to the terrible loss of grip 10 laps into a tyre set, so I managed to go between 2:10 (little bit of drafting) and 2:17 (last lap per tyre set), with some consistent high 2:11/low 2:12 in between.

Won with about 1 minute distance to second, 2:18 hrs all in all, no Pause whatsoever inbetween, too scared to accidentally restarting the game.

The 2002 is quite a handful and due to its "tendency" to oversteer possibly not the right car for endurance races, but it's a lot of fun and quite easy to control, as long as your tyres aren't completely screwed.

I think I'll do that again sometime, with a little less power, to make it more competitive.
 
After my Fairlady- Sports Hards-combination worked really bad, i spend some time in the practice mode and realised that with the NSX type R (untuned) and sports medium tyres, i am way faster. My lap times were around 2:11 and 2:12.
I hope that the race wont become too easy, but with sports medium tyres i think i will have to race a 3-Stop instead of a 2-stop Strategy.
 
shigun
After my Fairlady- Sports Hards-combination worked really bad, i spend some time in the practice mode and realised that with the NSX type R (untuned) and sports medium tyres, i am way faster. My lap times were around 2:11 and 2:12.
I hope that the race wont become too easy, but with sports medium tyres i think i will have to race a 3-Stop instead of a 2-stop Strategy.
Click to expand...

The NSX R is made for that track. Seriously, you'll enjoy it immensely! 👍
 
WHEW...Finally starting this Endurance Race. I have sooo many cars to choose from...thinking time now. Go with my s2k, or my rx7...or the Audi RS6....or just buy a new car and call it a day.
 
brambos
The NSX R is made for that track. Seriously, you'll enjoy it immensely! 👍
Click to expand...

Youre right, it is a real joy to drive with this car. Unfortunatelly, the race had not been a challenge this time round. The "hardest" opponent, a mazda, was not able to keep up with me and i won by a difference of 2 laps. It seems to me that it is a lottery whether you get competitive opponents or not.
I made three pit stops with two long stints with sports medium an one short stint with sports softs.

The only problem was that i nearly ran out of gas in the last two laps. I had to drive with an average speed of about 80kmh to make it to the finish line. :scared:
 
I did the 300kms with the 350z stock with Sport medium tires. Enjoyed the first 3/4 of the race, very competitive, last 10 laps were boring. Won by 40s
 
Used a Zonda R

Racing Hard Tyres

Pitted 10 times

Best lap time... 1:50.231

Total time 1 hr 58 min.

This car abuses tires, they are great until the 6th lap, then boom, they are gone. The Zonda R is a awsome race car, and i would recommend it to all who are trying this race

BTW...i was 6 laps up with 45 laps remaining...dont remember how many i ended up with...
 
Like a lot of people, this was my first Enduro so I just kinda said screw it and used my Minolta... I finished in a little under an hour and a half... The race is so boring even with an evenly matched car, I just got it out of the way.
 
I beat it with a fully-tuned BMW M3 Chrome Line. Won by over half a lap. Used racing hard tires. I beat it in just over two hours.
 
Did it in my Evolution Tommi Makinen Edition SCP (yes, the premium one). It was lightly modified though, that's why I trumped over everyone quite easily.
 
I did with the Mazda Furai with around 500hp.
I won by at least 6laps with a time of two hours.
I was sliding all over the place so I had to pit every 10 laps
 
Posted my story in another thread recently but this seems the appropriate place for it. For disclosure, I always drive from cockpit view, with every car option that can be turned off off. I wound up losing this race twice, once in my stock(detuned) '10 Camaro SS due to driving like a buffoon early in the race and lost too much ground to make up without driving perfectly(which I didn't), finished 2nd. Second time I thought I'd use a Japanese car so tried it with an RX-7 Spirit R, would have won but misjudged fuel and ran out with three laps to go, finished 6th. Both times I felt like my car was unfairly fast for the competition.

So for attempt #3 I used the Camaro again. Set the HP to about 300(I'm thinking 305ish), and added 100kg so my(other than oil) stock-as-I-bought-it Fat Pig weighed in at 1855, with Sports Hard tires. Rabbit was an RX-7 Type RS. Pole and early runaway leader a 300ZX but like everyone but the RX-7, he would eventually become irrelevant.

Followed F. Eisenhauer in the RX-7 a bit early while working through the first couple of positions, but by lap 4 or 5 he had pulled too far ahead for me to slipstream him. I settled in and ran steady laps in the 2:16-2:18 range, as fast as I could while trying to keep my SH's quiet so they'd last as long as I possibly could make them(knew from earlier races that two-stopping would take some smooth driving, and that the RX-7 would one-stop). By the time I pitted my times had dropped just a bit, mostly 2:20.XXXs

Slowly ran down the other two leaders, the gap to the RX-7 stretching and then shrinking as we caught and passed them. Once he took over the lead however, I just couldn't keep up with him. Lost about a half-second to a second every lap it seemed. Finally came in for tires only after 22 laps and so fell way behind the RX-7, but with all that fuel burned off I could go much faster as well as be nice to the tires. Running the extra 2 laps also meant I wouldn't need a full 20 laps on the next 2 sets.

By this time the RX-7s tires started to get old, as well as traffic coming into play so I could really start running him down. Managed to catch and pass him on-track on I think lap 32 or 33, over an hour into the race I took the lead for the first time! He pitted shortly thereafter and started his turn of falling behind and then eventually gaining back up on me. Lost the lead on my second stop, I think on lap 42, for fresh rubber and the fuel I'd need to finish. Don't remember the gap but it was plenty big as I think he was within 5 seconds when I stopped.

I managed to get back up to the RX-7 by about lap 50, but couldn't manage to get by. Had a blast racing with him, working through the idiotic blocking traffic and staying right on him, making repeated attempts to carefully get by without doing anything silly that would automatically make him park and wave me through(but to be honest I wasn't really turning down any clear opportunities, it was just a clean straight fight with him for once). It took me until lap 55, just past 2 hours into the race, until I was finally able to slipstream past him and quickly pull a little gap. Unfortunately my tires were a bit past their prime and his still had plenty left, and I couldn't shake him. He slowly caught me back up and the final margin of my victory was only 2.8 seconds!

I don't remember the exact numbers any more, and I'm not going to watch the whole replay just to put them in this post. IIRC my best laps were 13s or 14s and the whole race was just under 2:20, I'm guessing 2:18. Best part was that in the whole race, I never slammed the wall, never spun to a near stop, never took any trips to the beach, basically no mistakes costing more than a couple of tenths at a time. Oh, and I almost forgot, no breaks - might have paused for half a minute somewhere for some unavoidable reason, but I don't remember doing so. So to drive like that, and to conclude two hours twenty with a gap of less than 3 seconds... fair to say that was my most enjoyable offline race in GT, ever. Ever ever. And not boring at all, not even for a second.


Long story, I know. It took so long to write it that the replay I was watching was about to reach the first stop. I was going to wait a couple minutes to see what times I set early in the second stint, but I just accidentally clicked on Exit. Thanks for not putting a confirmation question on that button guys.
 
I completed this earlier today in a volkswagen lupo race car 03' with upgrades and oil change which brought it to 166hp. I used racing hard tyres with no aids apart from auto gears and abs:1.

It took me 2.19.3x.xxx to complete and I set a fastest lap of 2.16.062 on lap 36. I only took one pitstop, on lap 33, without taking any fuel. I won by about 40secs. The race itself was enjoyable and for the first twenty laps were very competitive between me and an rx-7, but as soon as we came up to traffic, I left him for dead. Awful AI.
 
Driving my first endurance on this now. I'm level 31, but this is my first time on this track with driving line off. Started off with lap times of like 2:18.xx, but just had a 2:12.xx

I'm chewing up tires horribly tho, had to pit after like lap 9.
 
currently Bob,Weave,Crash and Spin(my b-spec drivers) are doing the race in the Gran Turismo Skyline I won awhile back..figured I'd break it out n let them thrash on it
I was thinking of using my Vauxhall Calibra touring car or my RM Vette but after reading a few posts I am kinda leaning toward using my bone stock Evo X to make it more of a challenge
Tried a 10 lap test with the Minolta and with my not so smooth sliding driving the tires were pretty much gone and I was up by 2 laps....made things rather boring and the faster pace seemed more tiresome
 
FlyWire
I used a fully stock RX7 on this, heaps of fun trying to overtake the NSX :D
Click to expand...

I used the RX7 aswell. Had a wonderful race with the NSX until I pitted on lap 24. Lap times had dropped by 4-5 seconds per lap at that stage. The NSX was right with me when I went in.

It looked like they might go for a 1 stop, but then pitted on lap 29, at which stage I had halved the ~30sec gap after my stop, and took the lead (my fresh tires compared to their worn)

My lead then went up to ~35secs. I pitted again on lap 44, came out just in front of them, and again I pulled away before they took another stop!

So although the AI was good enough for once, the pit crew was rubbish, I won by ~1:15!
 
Bought me a brand new NSX, an '02 I believe. Only competition came from an identical car. Managed to pass him on lap 5, posting a 2:09.5 in the process. Thereafter, stayed ahead to the tune of 3-4 seconds; tyres started to lose it after 10 laps, so pitted on lap 15. At this point, I had no idea what sort of strategy the other NSX would be on (was hoping he'd one-stop). Was a touch disappointed when he pitted on lap 27, by which time I'd already caught and re-passed him; so basically there was no way he was gonna give me a close race. Shame. Anyway, kept at it, stopped again on 30 and 45, saw the race out. Hit my fastest lap on lap 48, a 2:08.7. Total time 2:13, won by about 55 secs.
 
Morgoth_666
MUCH too fast for this race, fully upgraded. It might well be fun to drive it for two hours, but you'll lap the whole field, probably twice.
Click to expand...

What do you suggest i want to have fun but then get it done fast
 
This was by far the most epic race I've had, the first time I played it. Used a modified Ford Focus ST '06, and didn't get to first place until the 27'th lap. Then I dropped it a couple of times while pitting, and then finally got it back at lap 58 and won by just over 10 seconds in the end. Racing is so much more fun when evenly matched. It's been hard to replicate, though. It's not fun placing second after over two hours of racing.
 
Thomas2012
What do you suggest i want to have fun but then get it done fast
Click to expand...

Well, I used a detuned '10 Camaro and had a great time, but it was really challenging so I'd suggest something a little faster if you don't want a real chance of losing. I'd probably recommend something just above the stock Camaro's PP, I'm thinking it's about 450-480pp on sports hards(a little higher if you want to be sure :) )?

Stock Murci might be fun if power limited. My challenger was an RX-7 that stopped once. Sounds like a lot of people are racing against a two-stopping NSX that is surely lapping faster.

Most cars will gain a lot of time after short-filling on the first pit stop, so you only need to be a little faster than the rabbit in the first leg of the race, you can gain a lot after stopping due to fuel and traffic. If you lose time crashing, you can always equip better tires when you stop.

A 10-15 minute "practice race" can show if your PP is right. A lot depends on tire life & your own speed.
 
WRXLENT
I used the Amuse S2000 GT1 and won by many laps after about 2 hours. With Enduros I don't try for a close race, I'm not going to risk losing after hours of driving, I just pick a sweet ride and spend the time continually trying to beat my fastest lap :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats why I use my X1 for al the races in B-Spec.
 

Latest Posts

Back