A-spec Intermediate Level Non-Race Car Challenge: Apricot Hill Raceway

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RuSTeD
Hellow fellows, newbie on board :D
That was an quite easy seasonal, almost as easy as the last medium seasonal. Picked an random 90's Mazda rx7 (the premium one), tuned it to 49x pp and easy win. Overtook the 1. place aston martin at the first corner in 2. round.
I have to say i actually don't like apricot hill much but reverse it's more fun to drive :)
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Welcome to :gtpflag:@RuSTeD. Nice job:tup:
 
People looking for different weapons in the fight against boredom???

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Cheers
 
LM7325
I used the 4200R prize car here all stock. Was a good race, caught the Countach '74 rabbit right at the last corner.
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After several attempts I was able to do the same thing. I don't like the behavior of this car in the lower gears.
 
This race is miles better than the last Intermediate. Not too hard, but you don't have to drive something 60pp down to make it interesting either. 2CV will not be winning this one. :lol:
 
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Managed to get the alpine VGT in first place.

Be warned, at turn 2 and 3, do not go to close to the right curb, or you'll be penalized for 3 seconds for shortcut. Also with the VGT, the last turns before the home straight can be taken at high speeds, just release the gas pedal a bit and ease through the first two turns gently. if you get in too fast at one point you'll slip away and lose your momentum.
 
Thanks for recommending the stock RUF RGT '00!

It's absolutely awesome. So much fun to drive and a lot easier than I expected, at least with Active Steering turned on. I am not sure if I tried turning it off but I had the TCS off. I make lots of mistakes but the RGT is very much "alive" and even a noob like me can go faster than 1:34 on a lap and go below 5:09 total. This has been my first "so much fun it's probably addictive" experience with turning TCS off.

The '74 Countach (stock but dialed power down from 510PP to 500PP) is fun too but very different from the RGT. For this I had the Active Steering turned off, as it made the steering heavy and unresponsive. It feels pretty safe and I was able to get below 1:33 on a lap and under 5:09 total.

The 512BB was kind of frustrating, as was the dialed down F40. Maybe I just was not feeling them, so I will try them again. I know they can be pretty awesome. However, my initial impression is that they're not very newbie-friendly for this event if like me you're trying to learn to drive with fewer assists.

I will try some more stock and dialed down cars. From my overwhelmingly positive experience with the RGT, I definitely see some more RUFs and RR cars coming up. :)
 
I used a Lotus Esprit V8 with a racing exhaust, FC suspension and +2 rims. I had a Countach 25anniversary as rabbit, so not much of a challange. The biggest problem was getting used to Apricot in reverse!
 
coryclifford
Must be huge rubber banding if your RGT guy drove 14 seconds slower than mine. :lol:
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There definitely is a lot of that going on. I don't think I have won without being able to see the 2nd place in the mirror and my times are all over the place. I also finished a lot of close seconds.
 
I am not 100% sure but I think that I have had some wins with total times that are slower than times where I came in second or third against the exact same pack. I'm pretty sure that's happened often in other events too.

I just took for granted that this is the classic consequence of rubberband difficulty adaptation and messing up late in an otherwise good run.

Am I imagining this?
 
Abekat
I am not 100% sure but I think that I have had some wins with total times that are slower than times where I came in second or third against the exact same pack. I'm pretty sure that's happened often in other events too.

I just took for granted that this is the classic consequence of rubberband difficulty adaptation and messing up late in an otherwise good run.

Am I imagining this?
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no your right. The AI adept your driving ability.
Its totally obviously if you watch your Oponents all of a sudden driving 20 % faster just because you overtook them ... maybe they get angry about that ;)
i watched this happen on the last Motegi -Event over and over again...
I was this used to the track that i drove my laps all in a range of some tenth difference. In the beginning you gain about 10 seconds each lap to the leading one. But once you overtook them you cant get rid of them.

If you drive good and clean from the beginning the races get about 10% faster overall
 
Kossie
Yes, How faster you drive after the overtook how faster that AI coming behind you.
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not just so ... they even "wait" for you if you have y bad start , spin out or something.
Watched this happen on the Ring where when i slipped of the track or had a bad somehow, the hole race was obviously clearly slower (good to see here because the laptime was the racetime)
 
Nihamavasa72
not just so ... they even "wait" for you if you have y bad start , spin out or something.
Watched this happen on the Ring where when i slipped of the track or had a bad somehow, the hole race was obviously clearly slower (good to see here because the laptime was the racetime)
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What I mean is: If you drive once in the first place(overtook), That AI remains short behind you, even if you drive the fastest lap.
 
Kossie
What I mean is: If you drive once in the first place(overtook), That AI remains short behind you, even if you drive the fastest lap.
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May i add that this applies to the podium pack, I shall call it, wheras you get yourself ahead in 1st , and then you got 2-3-4 trying to catch you up like crazy. positons 5- 12(16) have already thrown the towel at this point, and unless you crash way badly, you'll never hear of them again, unless you and the podium pack are fast enough to catch them.
 
Just won this with 450PP HKS RPS13 180SX replica ( 270+PS, 1240+kg ), pretty fun to drive, got time penalties going over sand at the chicane, also out cornered Callaway on the exit of the chicane.

Surprised at how much grip around corners the RPS13 has :P 7th in the 1st lap, 4th in 2nd lap ( passed the Callaway on the outside ),1:39s 1st lap and 1:37s/1:36s avg subsequent laps.
 
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Furthermore, I never knew that penalties would apply in intermediate. That 3secs penalty in turn 2-3 was a real shocker, especially that I only had, on my perspective, one wheel out of the curb there.

I also been penalized only ONCE in the red bull ring expert race, for ramming a car in the back. all my other encounters with the cars there didn't gave me any penalties.
 
Remember when you could cut the chicane at 140mph and stay on the track. Cerbera LM remembers....

Seriously though I like the penalty. Keeps the race more honest. I try to minimize the cutting at Autumn Ring also. It just feels better to me to put in an honest effort.
 
LM7325
Remember when you could cut the chicane at 140mph and stay on the track. Cerbera LM remembers....

Seriously though I like the penalty. Keeps the race more honest. I try to minimize the cutting at Autumn Ring also. It just feels better to me to put in an honest effort.
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Definitely!

The right way of overcoming a challenge should be to improve your driving and/or get a better car, not to ignore the track. I think the penalty reflects that pretty well.
 
First try with the Shelby Series One Super Charged '03.
(Racing brakes, Engine Tuning: Stage 1 with Power Limiter at 99.8% for 500 PP)
GOLD. Go me!!!
I love these Intermediate Level Seasonal races. Long live GT6.
 
Summary of findings from learning to drive with fewer/without assists:
All cars are stock except they may be "dialed down" to 500PP using the power limiter and all are driven with Sports Hard tires. All cars are driven with ABS 1, TCS 0 and SRF Off. Some cars are driven with Active Steering on Strong, others have it set to Off.

Lamborghini Miura [AS Strong, dialed down to 500PP from 515PP]
An absolutely wonderful drive. It is also fast. It has a distinctive MR feel to it but I find it very manageable. The car is super agile and I don't think that Active Steering slows it down.

RUF RGT [AS Strong, 100% stock]
Super fun. It can go fast but I find that I can also get in trouble pretty fast with this RR car. The 80's RUF's are madness compared to this. I can't handle them yet with TCS set to 0. The RGT I find superbly entertaining, even though I still go off track or spin right round on occasion. As with the Miura, Active Steering seems to only do good.

Lamborghini Countach '74 [Dialed down to 500PP from 510PP]
The steering is a bit heavy but this is probably the "safest" MR I have driven for this challenge. It is capable of going really fast too. I think the Miura is faster. It has tremendous brakes and it has tons of grip. Active Steering does this car no favors in this challenge; the car needs the extra "agility" you get from taking it off. The '88 Countach is not nearly as good as the lighter ´74 for this challenge.

Alfa Romeo 8C '08 [100% stock]
This FR car stands out as being the safest and easiest win I have had in this challenge. I don't believe I can go very fast in it but I feel like I really have to screw up in order to have things go wrong with this. As with the Countach, I strongly recommend setting the Active Steering to Off.

I would recommend to any learner like myself that they work towards taking the traction control off or nearly off. This is easier to do the less power the car has, so if you're having trouble, start practicing with less powerful cars. Because of the improved throttle response you get with TCS set to 0, you can go faster and driving is much more entertaining. There's quite simply stuff you cannot really do unless the TCS is low or off.

I will add some more cars to this list if/when I have something sensible to say about them.
 
Abekat
Lamborghini Miura [AS Strong, dialed down to 500PP from 515PP]
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The Lamborghini Miura real expensive man. Is that the Lamborghini Miura P400 Bertone Prototype CN.0706 '67 you're referring to? The price I'm seeing for that is 15,000,000. 15 million big ones. Is it really worth it?
 

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