Badger's GT5 endurance races

[b_adger]

Introduction:

After about a decade of not playing any car racing games, I had a visit from some nieces and nephews who were keen racing gamers, so I got the PS3, GT5 and my steering wheels out of the shed and dusted them off. After a worrying moment where the PS3 didn't recognise it had a HDD (resolved by taking it out and reseating it) we had a nice afternoon driving some cars around tracks, and I was hooked again.

I bought the PS3 and GT5 specifically to practice the Nürburgring for a trip to Germany.
I previously played GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT4 (although never finished any of them), but with kids and other responsibilities I soon ran out of time to play, so it all got packed away and forgotten. But now I have less responsibilities and more free time to play

I don't really like the short races in GT, especially starting from 6th or 7th on the grid and having to drive like a maniac or overpower/over tyre your car and/or barge the AI cars out of the way so you can get past them all to win. I enjoyed tuning the suspension to give the best lap times and the endurance races much more. Of course in GT5 you can't just enter the endurance races right away, you have to level up to gain access, but after a month or so of playing through I've unlocked them.

This thread is mostly just for me to record my thoughts and , I love to test and optimise everything. I also want to try to make the racing fun and close, which is hard work with the variation in grids, AI driving and so on. The information already here on these forums has been very helpful, but some things are missing and some info is pre-patches (especially tyre wear) which means it is uncertain.

I've already posted about my first 2 races in the GV300 thread: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/grand-valley-300km-companion-competition.243506

This thread is mostly just for me to record stuff, I love to test and optimise everything. But if anyone is still around reading this, hopefully it is interesting and maybe useful. Comments welcome.

The next few posts will be about preparation and racing the 4 hour roadster enduro.

 

[b_adger]

After my GV300 races that were too easy, the 4h roadster race needs to be a bit of a challenge. Being a one-make, MX-5 only race there isn't much choice of cars to use. Well, actually it turns out there are 35 different cars in GT5 that can enter this race! Which one to use from this list?

• Eunos Roadster (NA Special Package) '89
• Eunos Roadster J-Limited (NA) '91
• Eunos Roadster J-Limited II (NA) '93
• Eunos Roadster SR-Limited (NA) '97
• Eunos Roadster S-Special Type I (NA) '95
• Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95
• Eunos Roadster V-Special Type II (NA) '93
• MX-5 (NA) '89
• MX-5 1.8 RS (NB, J) '98
• MX-5 1600 NR-A (NB, J) '04
• MX-5 1800 RS (NB, J) '00
• MX-5 1800 RS (NB, J) '04
• MX-5 J-Limited (NA, J) '91
• MX-5 J-Limited II (NA, J) '93
• MX-5 Miata (NA) '89
• MX-5 Miata 1.8 RS (NB, J) '98
• MX-5 Miata 1600 NR-A (NB, J) '04
• MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB, J) '00
• MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB, J) '04
• MX-5 Miata J-Limited (NA, J) '91
• MX-5 Miata J-Limited II (NA, J) '93
• MX-5 Miata SR-Limited (NA, J) '97
• MX-5 Miata S-Special Type I (NA, J) '95
• MX-5 Miata VR-Limited (NA, J) '95
• MX-5 Miata V-Special Type II (NA, J) '93
• MX-5 SR-Limited (NA, J) '97
• MX-5 S-Special Type I (NA, J) '95
• MX-5 VR-Limited (NA, J) '95
• MX-5 V-Special Type II (NA, J) '93
• Roadster 1.8 RS (NB) '98
• Roadster 1600 NR-A (NB) '04
• Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '00
• Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '04
• Roadster RS (NC) '07
• Roadster Touring Car

I immediately ruled out the Roadster touring car as much too fast. From reading about other experiences the Mazda Roadster RS (NC) '07 is a rabbit and much faster than the others, so not that one either.

I already had the premium Eunos Roadster J-Limited (NA) '91 won in the IB licence test (Bronze) which I had used to win the roadster cup:

from https://www.roadster.blog/2016/01/eunos-roadster-j-limited.html
'The J Limited used the 1.6 engine with a 9.4 compression ratio producing 120PS.
This limited model was only available in the unique Sunburst Yellow colour and featured 14" 5.5J alloy wheels, stainless sill plates, black cloth interior, Nardi wooden steering wheel, Nardi wooden gear knob, and a wooden handbrake handle.'

At only 120 hp(ps?) and 940 kg, the stock pp is about 350. The race information gives the following typical opponents (apparently identical to the Roadster cup):

pp hp kg
391 165 1100 Mazda Roadster RS (NC) '07
383 160 1070 Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
383 143 940 Mazda Eunos Roadster (NA Special Package) '89
383 160 1070 Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
382 160 1080 Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '04
382 160 1080 Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB,J) '04
380 148 1050 Mazda Roadster 1600 NR-A (NB) '04
380 148 1050 Mazda MX-5 Miata 1600 NR-A (NB,J) '04
380 148 1050 Mazda MX-5 1600 NR-A (NB,J) '04
378 147 980 Mazda Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95
378 147 980 Mazda Eunos Roadster V-Special Type II (NA) '93
378 143 940 Mazda MX-5 (NA) '89

There are a number of very similar possible not listed that probably have the same PP/stats, for example you'd expect the
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '00 and the Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '04 to be the same as the Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '00 and Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '04 listed above.


I also checked out the first 10 grids (after a PS3 reset - unplug it and leave for 30 s, then start it up):

Grid 1
Mazda MX-5 1.8 RS (NB,J) '98
Mazda MX-5 (NA) '89
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '00
Mazda Eunos Roadster V-Special Type II (NA) '93
Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
Mazda MX-5 V-Special Type II (NA,J 93
player1
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '04
Mazda Roadster 1.8 RS (NB) '98
Mazda Roadster 1600 NR-A (NB) '04
Mazda Eunos Roadster S-Special Type I (NA) '95
Mazda MX-5 J-Limited (NA,J) '91

grid 2
Mazda MX-5 J-Limited (NA,J) '91
Mazda MX-5 (NA) '89
Mazda MX-5 1.8 RS (NB,J) '98
Mazda MX-5 J-Limited II (NA,J) '93
Mazda MX-5 S-Special Type I (NA,J) '95
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1.8 RS (NB,J) '98
player1
Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '04
Mazda Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95
Mazda MX-5 Miata VR-Limited (NA,J) '95
Mazda Roadster 1600 NR-A (NB) '04
Mazda Eunos Roadster (NA Special Package) '89

grid 4
Mazda MX-5 J-Limited II (NA,J) '93
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
Mazda MX-5 1600 NR-A (NB,J) '04
Mazda MX-5 J-Limited (NA,J) '91
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '00
Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
player1
Mazda Eunos Roadster (NA Special Package) '89
Mazda Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95
Mazda Eunos Roadster SR-Limited (NA) '97
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '04
Mazda MX-5 VR-Limited (NA,J) '95

grid 5
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB,J) '04
Mazda MX-5 Miata VR-Limited (NA,J) '95
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1.8 RS (NB,J) '98
Mazda Eunos Roadster J-Limited (NA) '91
Mazda Eunos Roadster SR-Limited (NA) '97
Mazda Eunos Roadster J-Limited II (NA) '93
player1
Mazda Eunos Roadster V-Special Type II (NA) '93
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1600 NR-A (NB,J) '04
Mazda MX-5 Miata S-Special Type I (NA,J) '95
Mazda MX-5 (NA) '89

grid 6
Mazda MX-5 Miata SR-Limited (NA,J) '97
Mazda MX-5 S-Special Type I (NA,J) '95
Mazda MX-5 Miata J-Limited II (NA,J) '93
Mazda Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1600 NR-A (NB,J) '04
Mazda Roadster 1.8 RS (NB) '98
player1
Mazda Eunos Roadster J-Limited II (NA) '93
Mazda MX-5 J-Limited II (NA,J) '93
Mazda Eunos Roadster SR-Limited (NA) '97
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '00
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1.8 RS (NB,J) '98

grid 7
Mazda MX-5 Miata J-Limited II (NA,J) '93
Mazda MX-5 SR-Limited (NA,J) '97
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '04
Mazda MX-5 Miata S-Special Type I (NA,J) '95
Mazda Eunos Roadster S-Special Type I (NA) '95
Mazda Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95
player1
Mazda MX-5 Miata V-Special Type II (NA,J) '93
Mazda MX-5 Miata SR-Limited (NA,J) '97
Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
Mazda Eunos Roadster SR-Limited (NA) '97
Mazda MX-5 VR-Limited (NA,J) '95

grid 8
Mazda Roadster 1.8 RS (NB) '98
Mazda MX-5 1.8 RS (NB,J) '98
Mazda MX-5 SR-Limited (NA,J) '97
Mazda Eunos Roadster (NA Special Package) '89
Mazda Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
player1
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1.8 RS (NB,J) '98
Mazda MX-5 Miata J-Limited II (NA,J) '93
Mazda Eunos Roadster S-Special Type I (NA) '95
Mazda MX-5 Miata (NA) '89
Mazda Eunos Roadster V-Special Type II (NA) '93

grid 9
Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '04
Mazda MX-5 SR-Limited (NA,J) '97
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB,J) '00
Mazda MX-5 1600 NR-A (NB,J) '04
Mazda MX-5 VR-Limited (NA,J) '95
Mazda Eunos Roadster V-Special Type II (NA) '93
player1
Mazda Roadster 1.8 RS (NB) '98
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1600 NR-A (NB,J) '04
Mazda MX-5 Miata V-Special Type II (NA,J) '93
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB,J) '04
Mazda Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95

grid 10
Mazda Eunos Roadster (NA Special Package) '89
Mazda MX-5 Miata J-Limited (NA,J) '91
Mazda Roadster RS (NC) '07
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '04
Mazda MX-5 J-Limited II (NA,J) '93
Mazda Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95
player1
Mazda MX-5 V-Special Type II (NA,J 93
Mazda MX-5 S-Special Type I (NA,J) '95
Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '00
Mazda MX-5 Miata (NA) '89
Mazda Eunos Roadster J-Limited II (NA) '93

The RS 07 doesn't appear until grid 10, but I want a grid with cars that will be competitive with each other and me, so I'll pick one of the earlier grids.
Grid 1 has seven of the listed opponents (or clones), but grid 4 has eight and five of them are 382 or 383 pp.

Next question, what pace do I need for a close race?

 

[Famine]

Well, actually it turns out there are 35 different cars in GT5 that can enter this race!

Different is a stretch.

In essence, what GT5 did with "Standard" cars was smoosh together three previously separate, localised car lists from GT4. If you played GT4 in the NTSC-Americas region, your game featured MX-5 Miatas. Players in the PAL region got MX-5s. Finally, those in the NTSC-Asia region got Eunos/Mazda Roadsters (Eunos for Mk1/NA, Mazda for Mk2/NB).

For GT5, these were all just bashed into one single game and the 11 cars you'd get in each region became 33. And, while it wasn't previously an issue, the non-Asian cars were made-up; only the Asian Eunos/Mazda Roadsters were real specifications of the car - there's no such thing as an MX-5/MX-5 Miata J-Limited - although other regions did get very close equivalents (the VR Limited is close enough to the European MX-5 Merlot; the SR-Limited is not far off the MX-5 Berkeley) and nobody really minded the fudging before that.

You may thus consider the following to be the case, in order to simplify your options:

MX-5 Miata (NA) '89 = Eunos Roadster (NA Special Package) '89 = MX-5 (NA) '89
MX-5 Miata J-Limited (NA, J) '91 = Eunos Roadster J-Limited (NA) '91 = MX-5 J-Limited (NA, J) '91
MX-5 Miata J-Limited II (NA, J) '93 = Eunos Roadster J-Limited II (NA) '93 = MX-5 J-Limited II (NA, J) '93
MX-5 Miata V-Special Type II (NA, J) '93 = Eunos Roadster V-Special Type II (NA) '93 = MX-5 V-Special Type II (NA, J) '93
MX-5 Miata S-Special Type I (NA, J) '95 = Eunos Roadster S-Special Type I (NA) '95 = MX-5 S-Special Type I (NA, J) '95
MX-5 Miata VR-Limited (NA, J) '95 = Eunos Roadster VR-Limited (NA) '95 = MX-5 VR-Limited (NA, J) '95
MX-5 Miata SR-Limited (NA, J) '97 = Eunos Roadster SR-Limited (NA) '97 = MX-5 SR-Limited (NA, J) '97
MX-5 Miata 1.8 RS (NB, J) '98 = Roadster 1.8 RS (NB) '98 = MX-5 1.8 RS (NB, J) '98
MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB, J) '00 = Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '00 = MX-5 1800 RS (NB, J) '00
MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (NB, J) '04 = Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '04 = MX-5 1800 RS (NB, J) '04
MX-5 Miata 1600 NR-A (NB, J) '04 = Roadster 1600 NR-A (NB) '04 = MX-5 1600 NR-A (NB, J) '04

If I recall correctly (and I can't be bothered to pick up and thumb through my GTPEDIA copy, as - thanks to being a Mazda fangirl - the MX-5 part of car list always made me angry and gave me a headache) there are a couple of minor spec differences with a couple of the Eunos/Mazda cars, but otherwise that's the rule of thumb.

There are two, standalone, unique cars in GT5, which are the two new ones created for the game and not drawn from the GT4 car list:

Roadster RS (NC) '07
Roadster Touring Car

And finally there's also Premium versions - much more detailed models, with an interior - of the Eunos Roadster (NA Special Package) '89 and Eunos Roadster J-Limited (NA) '91. That makes for 37 in total (11 base GT4 cars, triplicated, plus two Premium models and two new cars), but basically 14.

 

[b_adger]

there's no such thing as an MX-5/MX-5 Miata J-Limited

I suspected that to be the case. The car listing I'm using is from the GT5 matrix https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...-guide-with-credits-xp-spec-2-ver-3-5.168769/

It seems the premium models have replaced their standard versions leaving us with "35" models, but this is really just 13 different cars.

I decided to stick with the premium Eunos Roadster J-Limited (NA) '91 at 120hp and 940kg, but how fast do I need it to be?

Reading through the reports here, there aren't many for this race as it is seen as a bit boring. There is one thread where it is suggested that you must be able to do a lap of 1:10 to win, but 1:09 is too fast.

Others say that their race was 200 laps finishing just ahead of the AI cars. Not clear which AI car, and again it is hard to know how many pit stops I might need with the current tyre wear, but assuming I lose 21 seconds for each pit stop, then if I stop 3 or 4 times, then my average lap time will need to be better 1:11.6 to 1:11.7. Fastest possible lap would need to be faster for the average to be I have to allow for a few slow laps after I make mistakes and also for the tyres to go off.

I think I'll try for a car that will do about 1:11 on Sports hard, and if I find I'm not able to keep up, I'll switch to sports medium or sports soft to gain the extra time. SM seems to improve times by about 1.3s per lap, although I'll need to stop more times maybe.

I wanted the car to be nice to drive, so I upgraded the transmission, suspension and LSD. I also did a weight reduction and added some ballast to move the balance closer to 50:50. I added a few mods to increase the power.

Being an incorrigible tinkerer, I started tuning the suspension. At first I used practice mode, but then I realised that the roadster cup is 5 laps of the same circuit with the same opponents on the same tyres, but gives me exp (I'm currently at level 29, every bit helps) and is a bit more fun. The AI are terrible on cold tyres, so I'm usually able to get to first place during the first lap which gives me 4 clear laps for testing.

I started with a setup based on the advice from Motor city tunes, and adjusted it bit by bit, mostly to dial out the understeer, but also trying to gain corner speed. I changed all sorts of things, spring rates, ARB, dampers, camber, toe.


After 6 races and some practice, with 144hp and 915 kg (380 pp) I managed a 1:10.012 lap and a 5 lap race time of 5:56. I felt like there was still too much understeer, so I made a few changes and realised after a few more races that I'd made the car 1 to 3/4 of a second a lap slower! But I hadn't kept records of my setup and couldn't undo my changes - Rookie error!

I started keeping track of each setup on my spreadsheet and making small changes. After I started lapping in the 1:09s, I started reducing the power as well. Obviously I'm also learning the track and the best line, so that would be making me faster over time too.

After running the roadster cup 30 times, while tinkering with the setup as well as power levels, I now have a setup that gives me an average lap time of about 1:11.0 - 136 hp, 915 kg (373 pp).
The final setup is:
Ride Height 15|15
Spring Rate 8.0|5.8
Damper Ext 8|6
Damper comp 5|4
ARB 3|3
camber 2.5|2.2
toe -0.22|0.07
LSD IT 9
LSD AS 14
LSD BS 8
BB 5|5
top speed 191


During the testing, I noted a few times the AI cars started lapping very quickly after the tyres warmed up and they had clean air, a Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '00 did a 1:10.5 and a 1:11.01. This could be tight!

 

[SmokingCones]

I've done the 4H enduro not too long ago and in my race, the fastest opponent was the 1800RS (can't remember the year) and it achieved 199 laps. If you can consistently lap around 1:11.00 it will be close but you'll eventually win as the faster opponent often get stuck behind slower cars thus losing some time.
If you opt for SH tires then 1 stop will be more than enough, the tire wear is quite low but you'll lose a bit of time in the pits for refuelling (40 L needed IIRC).
2 pit stops if you go for comfort softs, with the advantage of refuelling each time 20 L. SM or SS tires are clearly overkill in my opinion.
Good luck !

 

[b_adger]

Race report:

I reset the PS3 and loaded up the 4 hour roadster race. On a whim I decided to use Grid 1 instead of reloading to Grid 4.

I was up against:
L. Savalas Mazda MX-5 1.8 RS (NB,J) '98 ?? pp
R. Robertson Mazda MX-5 (NA) '89 378 pp
A. Keufer Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '00 383 pp (turquoise)
U. Van De Ven Mazda Eunos Roadster V-Special Type II (NA) '93 378 pp
L. Rodrigez Mazda MX-5 1800 RS (NB,J) '00 383 pp (also (turquoise)
F. Pacheco Mazda MX-5 V-Special Type II (NA,J 93 378 pp
Badger Eunos Roadster J-Limited (NA) '91 373 pp
F. Korpela Mazda Roadster 1800 RS (NB) '04 382 pp (silve)
N. Clay Mazda Roadster 1.8 RS (NB) '98 ?? pp
T Aaltonen Mazda Roadster 1600 NR-A (NB) '04 380 pp
I. Osborne Mazda Eunos Roadster S-Special Type I (NA) '95 0 pp
C. Wimmer Mazda MX-5 J-Limited (NA,J) '91 ?? pp

I expect that Keufer, Rodrigez and Korpela will be the ones to beat in the similar 1800 RS models ('00, '00 and '04)

The start was on the grid, not a rolling start which I'm used to from the Roadster cup, but I made up 3 places off the line and took 4th place going into turn one behind Robertson, Savalas and Keufer, with Van De Ven, Rodrigez and Korpela behind me. The AI are very slow in the corners on cold tyres, and seem to take a while to warm up the tyres, but this also aids their tyre life.

Carrying too much speed through turn one meant I was pushed wide alongside Keufer onto the grass, but held it to keep 4th, then into the inside of the turn 4 hairpin outbraked Keufer and Savalas who were fighting each other. I was now in 2nd behind Robertson.

Rodrigez took 5th from V de V, Korpela also went into 6th, and Keufer took 3rd out of turn 5 while I settled down to chase Robertson.

First lap was a 1:19.795 on cold tyres, standing start, 1.19 s behind Robertson.

At the end of lap one:
1. Roberston in the '89
2. Badger in the 91 J
3 Kuefer in the first '00 RS
4. Savalas in the '98 RS,
5. Rodrigez in the other '00 RS
6 Korpela in the '04 RS



I did a 1:11.28 on lap 2 (drafting Robertson) and this stayed my fastest laps for many laps.

A dive down the inside into turn 4 and I took 1st place. Behind me, Keufer was 3rd ahead of Rodrigez in the twin turquoise '00 1800 RSs. Korpela was still back in 6th.

Now I was in free air, and Robertson, who did a 1:11.8 ahead of me slowed down to 1:13 for lap 3 and had fallen back into the clutches of Keufer. Korpela had passed Savalas for 5th and was rapidly catching the twins who were caught behind Robertson who was doing low to mid 1:12s. Korpela did a 1:10.947 catching up, maybe with some draft, but was soon right behind the twins.

I was getting a bit worried, the tyres had warmed up but at the start of lap 7 I was only 0.85 s ahead of Robertson, with lap times in the mid 11s to mid 12s. With this setup in practice I had done 5 laps in a row under 11s, averaging 1:10.8, and the only change I had made was to reduce power from 137 to 136 hp. Why was I so much slower? Would I be fast enough to win?

Things were just as bad at lap 11, average lap time (excluding lap 1) was just under 1:12s, and Keufer had finally passed Robertson for 2nd in turn 1 on lap 12 and was right on my tail. The twins were lapping in the mid 1:11s, but passing me was much more difficult than catching up. Kuefer was clearly faster in the back straight, hitting 153 km/h where I was just touching 150, but slower in the middle of the course, especially through turn 5 and 6. Rodrigez and Korpela were still trying to get past Robertson.

For lap after lap I stayed just ahead of Kuefer, who tried passing a few times with no luck. The gap fluctuated between 0.5 to 1.5 s as he lost time trying to pass me and I also managed some slightly faster laps, getting a 10.8 on lap 22.

At lap 25 (30 min and 6s), Kuefer was still on my tail, and Rodrigez and Korpela were 4-5 seconds back, still trying to get past Robertson.

On turn 1 of lap 31, Rodrigez finally passed Robertson for 2nd. On the same lap I braked a bit late into the last hairpin and Keufler caught me then did a pit manoeuvre on the straight. I recovered from the slide but lost pace on the straight and under brakes into turn 1 he came up to me again and gave me another big tap.

Rodrigez was soon right behind Kuefer, and I was a bit grumpy, so I slowed a touch in the middle of turn 4, slowing Keufler and letting Rodrigez get past into turn 5. Take that!

However, it didn't change much for me. The twins were still on my tail and the gap stayed between 0.5 and 1.5 seconds for ages.

On lap 40, Korpela had caught Kuefer and they started changing places occasionally dropping back to about 2 s behind me, but Kuefer kept 3rd place.

Then, on lap 45 I got a bit untidy in turn 5, onto the grass on the exit and Rodrigez caught up through turn 6 and pushed past on the outside at the turn 7 hairpin. I drafted him up the back straight and passed him again in turn 1.

After this I noticed that I was a lot faster braking late and inside on that pass in turn 1, even though I didn't touch Rodrigez. The AI cars were alwasyscatching me in turn 1 and realised that I was taking a poor line, braking too early and turning in, then braking again for the apex. I changed to braking later, right into the apex in one motion, saving about 0.2-0.3 s per lap.

So at 50 laps, total time 1h0m6s, average lap time 1:12.125. Still in the lead though. Some reports suggest pitting 4 times instead of 3, but after 50 laps, there was no significant reduction in tyre grip. I decided to push on and see how the tyres were at 67 laps for a 2 stop.

With my better turn 1 line and a bit of pushing I got a new best lap of 1:10.421 at lap 52! Tyres ok, fuel down to 3/4 tank.

After 75 laps, the tyres were still ok, lap times still averaging under 12s , so I decided to push on to see if I could one stop.

On lap 81 I braked a bit late into turn 1 and Kuefer who had passed Rodrigez on lap 75 came up and bashed me again. I slowed again "by accident) in the middle of turn 4, and Kuefer and Rodrigez were held up, and Korpela passed them both.

Now I could see the backmarkers at the end of the straight, and I was still doing sub 1:12 laps, but they were in the high 12s and low 13s. I still had Korpela 1 to 1.5 s behind, but I knew I'd gain some time in the traffic. On lap 90 I managed a 1:10.670 and on lap 91 got into the tow of the J-limited of Wimmer, hitting 157 on the back straight. Into turn 1 of lap 92 I passed Wimmer.

I was soon up on Osborne in the '95 S-Special and passed him in the last hairpin. Korpela wasn't having too much trouble, but the lead had increased to 3 s. Clay, Pacheco and Savalas were quite close. I passed Clay on the back straight on lap 94, then Pacheco on turn 4 of lap 95, and Savalas on the back straight of the same lap.

There was about 1/3 of a lap to the next car, Van de Ven, but my lead had increased to 7 s, thanks to several low and sub 11s laps in a row.

Fuel was getting lower now, less than 1/2 a tank at the 1 hour mark. I had completed 100 laps and I knew I could 1 stop. I was still lapping at an average of 1:11.3. The lead AI cars were still lapping in the low 11s.

I started to wonder about when to stop and would the AI have to stop at all? Could they do the whole race without stopping? What would their fuel use be? Having read the post from SmokingCones above would have helped me be less stressed.


I was still only a few seconds in the lead, and I was starting to think about whether I needed to stop at all for fresh tyres if the Ai didn't. I'd calculated based on the fuel use in practice (4L in 7 laps) that I'd need somewhere between 100 and 128 L of fuel, but I expect to burn less fuel as the weight reduced. I was pretty sure I couldn't make it the full distance on fuel. I tried short shifting and fuel saving for a few laps, but it was costing me at least 1 s per lap, with 90+ laps left better to stop for fuel!

Laps passed, and my average lap times were still ok at around 1:11. By lap 121 Korpela had passed the traffic and had caught up to being only 4.5s behind.

On lap 127 I caught Osborne and Wimmer again. Lap 133 I caught Clay, Pacheco and Savalas too.

After a bit of thought, I realised that although the car was now 60-65 kg lighter due to fuel burn, I wasn't lapping any faster than in the first 20 laps.

The gap back to Korpela was 8.899 s at the end of lap 135, but I was finding that I was having small issues with grip, braking wasn't as good as I expected, I spun the rears out of the last hairpin, couldn't quite hold the lines in the corners.

Obviously the tyres were going off, albeit slowly. With 60+ laps to go, I only needed to gain 0.35 s per lap to make up the estimated 21 s for a pit stop. I decided to pit on lap 137, get fresh tyres and make sure I had enough fuel to make the distance.
When I pitted they offered me 74 L for a full fill. I quickly selected 20L to add and another set of sports hard tyres.

74L use in 137 laps is 0.54L per lap, ie 108 L for 200 laps. 20L was a bit more than the 8 L I actually needed but better to have a few litres too much than to run out again! 14 s stationary time and while I was in the pits, Korpela, Kuefer, Rodrigez passed me, as well as Aaltonen who was about 10 seconds behind the triplets in the '04 1600 NR-A.

After exiting the pits, I was back in 5th place, with most of the lap empty behind me, just Van de Ven who wouldn't be troubling me.

At the end of lap 138 ( was 22.9 s down on the leader. Not sure how I lost a full 33 s in the pit... After 1.5 laps the tyres were warmed up and I started making up time on Kopela who was in lapped traffic and doing 1:14s.

On lap 144 I caught and passed Aaltonen. Koepela was about 12 s ahead, with plenty of lapped cars between us.

Best laps for the AI so far were all better than my best lap of 1:10.421 on lap 52:
Korpela 1:10.384
Kuefer: 1:09.945
Rodrigez: 1.10.221
Aaltonen: 1:10.297

Every lap was sub 11s, and on lap 145 I caught and passed Rodrigez under braking into the turn 8 hairpin. I was just 5.5s behind Korpela.

Then my wife reminded me that our dinner visitors would arrive at 6pm, and it was 5:55. Time to pause the race. I kept going around to the back straight and paused the race. It was looking good, but I'll have to come back tomorrow for the last hour and 4 minutes.

 

[b_adger]

I was on Sunday school duty this morning, and a kids birthday party in the afternoon, when I woke up I realised I could fit in an hour to finish the race before I'd have to leave if I prepared quickly.

To recap, I was lap 148, 2h57 in, and 5.5 s behind Korpela in the lead with Kuefer and a backmarker between us. I wasn't sure when or even if the AI would pit, but surely they would have to for fuel? In the replay later I realised that the AI cars were all on Sports Soft tyres, which explained why they were able to hold a higher speed in the corners, but they are terrrible at accelerating out of the corners.

Since the pit stop I'd been lapping at an average of 1:10.78 before pausing the game. But I've had a long break overnight. Taking it easy my first two laps were about 1:11.5 - still catching the leaders, the gap to Korpela was down to 3.9 s and Keufer was just in front of me.

On lap 150 I passed Kuefer into turn 8 and was soon on Korpela. I was lapping under 1:11 and he was in the 1:12s. I caught him and passed on turn 6. Into turn 7 he shunted me, and again into turn 1. I was not pleased, my slowest lap of 1:14.85 was as I recovered. After a couple of laps it seemed I pulled away a bit. The crew chief told me I now had a 3 second lead.

After a few more laps, I looked in the rear view mirror to see a silver car catching me, but it couldn't be Korpela because I still had a lead of 5 s over 2nd place and this car was much closer behind. There were 3 silver MX-5s in the race but this one was fast and catching me, maybe one of the backmarkers had just pitted and had fresh tyres and was on a blinder?

Suddenly I realised it was Korpela, but he was a lap down! He'd pitted on lap 152, but a complete fill with fuel meant he'd exited the pit just after I lapped him. Now I was 13s ahead of Aaltonen (yet to pit) with 47 minutes left.

Kuefer and Rodrigez were about 5 s behind me, and I set to work to stay ahead of Korpela. He stayed right behind me, then the twins pitted on lap 160 and came out behind Korpela.

I knew now the race was won, I had 40 laps left and they needed to get past me, then make up 72 seconds and pass me again. I decided to treat this as if we were on the same lap, and race to the line.

I was clearly holding Korpela up a bit, and so Kuefer and Rodrigez had caught up to him around lap 170.

On lap 172 he shunted me into turn 7, then I braked a bit late into corner 8 and lost some time on the dirt on the outside. Korpela and Kuefer went past. I recovered "2nd" from Kuefer in turn 3, and set my fastest lap on lap 174, a 1:10.044 chasing Korpela, and not close enough to benefit from drafting on the straight either...

With 30 minutes left, it was still pretty exciting, could I get it back?

On lap 175 I got close enough to draft on the back straight and passed Korpela through turn 8 to take back the "lead".

We all passed another set of backmarkers, although some were still going into the pit at lap 176!

On lap 182 Korpela gave me another couple of big shunts while trying to pass. I was getting more and more annoyed with him, and into turn 7 he hit me again from behind, and we got tangled up out of the corner, both ending up in the dirt, letting Kuefer and Rodrigez through. I quickly passed Rodrigez, and set off again to take back the "lead". I took it back on lap 186, and kept it to the end.

Korpela took back 3rd place, but never got past Kuefer. Serves him right for poor driving.

At 3:59:58 I crossed the line to start the 201st lap, so carried on for that final lap.

Average lap time of 1:11.87.

 

[b_adger]

Some thoughts on the 4h roadster race:

1. I didn't realise the opponents were on sport soft tyres until I looked at the replay. Strange that the roadster cup sprint race has the same opponents on sport hards for only 5 laps. Even stranger there isn't much difference in lap times, I saw an 1800 RS do a 1:10.5 in the cup race on SH with no drafting, best lap time in this race was 1:09.8, with drafting
2. I don't know how they managed to make the soft tyres last 175 laps. My sport hard tyres were about 1/3 worn when I pitted after 137 laps, so I could probably have done the whole race on them, but I easily made up the pit stop time with faster laps on fresh tyres, and I needed to pit for fuel anyway.
3. I could possibly have done a faster race by pitting earlier and doing more laps on fresh rubber, but since I spent a lot of time with second place right behind me, perhaps they would have gained time on me if I'd pitted earlier?
4. Even though Kuefer and Rodrigez were in identical cars, Rodrigez was very slightly slower - Kuefer got past again every time circumstances gave Rodrigez the lead. At the end, Rodrigez finished lap 199 about 2 seconds behind Kuefer.
5. Aaltonen in the '04 1600 NR-A did well, finishing lap 199 just 2s behind Rodrigez.
6. I way over prepared for this race, but that process was fun too. I could have just gone with version 5 of the suspension tune and adjusted the power to hit the required lap time. It probably helped to do 150 laps of testing before the race.
7. Korpela and Kuefer just made it to the 200th lap, crossing the line during the last 2 seconds of the 4 hours.
8. The faster opponents didn't seem to have much trouble passing the slow backmarkers, held each other up a bit, but seemed to be held up by being stuck behind me. They were able to draft me (or each other) almost every lap whereas I was out in the air nearly all the time, so perhaps their laps wouldn't have been as good without the drafting? My top speed into corner 8 was about 150 km/h alone and 157 with a draft. Looking at the replay, they were only getting to 154 with a draft even with 17% more power. However, Korpela caught me pretty quickly after pitting and coming out 1 lap behind.
9. My lighter car, better suspension tune and better(!?) driving meant I was always able to pass them fairly easily under braking into the slow corners, even though my best lap times weren't as good as theirs. Maybe next time I'll add ballast and up the power and see how that goes.

 

[b_adger]

Next stop, the Laguna Seca 200:

I've been reading up about this race, and as usual I want to go a car that fits with the theme of the race = American muscle cars from the 60s and 70s. I'm keen to pick a grid with older cars as the main rivals, no modern rabbits, perhaps grid 13?

I had a few ideas:

• Corvette Convertible (C1) '54 - with a stock pp of 352 will need some hotting up to be competitive.
• Shelby GT350R '65 - nice car, should go ok, but a bit "sporty"
• Corvette Coupe (C2) '63 - also nice but sporty
• Tempest Le Mans GTO '64 - the original muscle car!

But since I owned a 1971 Chrysler Valiant with a 265 Hemi, I'm keen to go for a Mopar for this first race. And in the lineup for LS200 is the Dodge Charger 440 R/T - has the least power of all the Mopars, isn't too heavy, and apparently has a 50:50 weight distribution.

I picked one up from the UCD with 348,900km on the clock, in the best colour - Hemi Orange! So I'll try it out and see how it goes around the track, then fettle it from there...

 

[b_adger]

So I popped the Charger on the trailer, and headed off to Laguna Seca for the race weekend, but first a bit of practice and tuning is needed.

The engine was surprisingly good after 348,900 km, still had 336 hp from the original 382. 1650 kg of mass is a lot to throw around, let's see how it goes...

In my first laps of the car right off the trailer I was pleasantly surprised, grip was good, a touch of understeer. Reminded me a lot of racing my Valiant, with plenty of torque meaning I could balance it on the throttle out of the corners. Being a 70's car there is no limiter on the engine and it revved well past the indicated red line of 5000 rpm, but started to sound a bit scary at 6000 rpm and the power was dropping off quickly. Must remember not to shift too late.

After 3 laps I managed 1:41.051, which would be plenty quick enough to win the race - was I already done tuning?

As I pulled into the pits the crew chief came out to meet me, a bit red faced: "You know how you picked up some racing slicks cheap on the way here? The new guy put them on the car by mistake, not the sports hard tyres".

Whoops! After putting the correct tyres on, lap times were much slower, grip a lot less, more understeer and also plenty of power oversteer... Best I could manage was 1:48.630.

I had already purchased some upgraded suspension parts to replace the worn out ones that came on the car, and the new sports kit had a bit of adjustment, perhaps I could dial out the understeer a bit? I got the boys to install them and did some laps to tweak the settings.

I ended up with the following suspension setup (compared to the stock suspension), a bit more front grip helped a lot.

Susp settings stock sports
Ride Height 0|0 -5|-5
Spring Rate 2.2|2 3.9|3.5
Damper Ext 1 2|2
Damper comp 1 2|2
ARB 1|1 1|1
camber 0.0|0.0 2.5|2.0
toe 0.0|0.2 0.0|0.2

My team claim they can't adjust the front toe, even though it is just a matter of winding in or out the tie rod ends. Something about forgetting to bring the ball joint fork? Can't get good help these days!

After a few laps, I managed a 1:45.727. I am still learning the track and how this car drives, but feel pretty good. Not bad, but I was going to need to average below 1:45 to win, my hot lap time probably needs to be in the 1:41 range.

I got the boys to take the car out the back they remove some unnecessary bits: passenger seats, carpet, tools and spare tyre from the boot. They managed to get the kerb weight down to 1485 kg - that should make a good difference!

Back on the track, and I wasn't faster, I couldn't even match my previous best lap of 1:45.727, even though I was learning the track and the car, getting better lines. Eventually, after 20 more laps, I just beat my previous time with a 1:45.548...

I was confused, the car was 10% lighter, it should be noticeably faster. I even got the boys to put all the bits back in the car to do some more laps at 1650 kg, and I could only manage 1:46.374. Maybe the 1:45.727 was one of those laps where I was super lucky to take a corner or two too fast and make it around?

A few days are left until the race, so I'll try again tomorrow. Perhaps I need to tune the suspension settings more for the lower weight? I'd like to adjust to give some toe in. And maybe see if the boys can lose some more weight - I don't need the headlining or sound deadener. Possibly I need to freshen up the engine and liberate a few more ponies? My main opponent, the '69 corvette convertible, has 395 hp and weighs 1552 kg for 497 pp.

 

[b_adger]

Back to the track today, and a bit more success, we were able to remove a bit more junk from the car to lose some mass. Who needs air conditioning or a heater? This got the car down to 1343 kg. I also managed to find the ball joint fork to adjust the toe a bit which gives much better cornering and with a bit more practice got down into the mid 1:42s
I also found the aftermarket wheels on the car had a smaller diameter, which meant at the end of the straight the revs were a bit high, found a set of OEM wheels and this sorted the issue.

However, the tired engine with 348,900 km was a bit low on ponies, and I found a rebuilt long motor for sale nearby and swapped it in. This upped the power from 337 to the 375 hp that the car had when new, enough to give me a best lap time of 1:41.536 on sports hard tyres - hopefully this will be enough!

Race day tomorrow, let's see how it goes!

 

[b_adger]

Race report (part 1):

The grid for today: (grid 7 after reset)

M Probst: 300C '05
L Olsen: SRT4 '03
M Kirk: Mustang GT '05
O Gonzalez: Chevelle SS 454 '70
N Casas: Superbird '70
R Martinez: Corvette GRAND SPORT (C4) '96
Badger: Charger 440 R/T '70
H van Leeuwen: Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
W Weaver: Challeneger SRT8 '08
K Karhu: Charger Super Bee 426 Hemi '71
P Ruggeri: Camaro Z28 Coupe '97
F Burger: Corvette Convertible (C3) '69

Burger would be the fastest in the Corvette, but a mechanical in qualifying had put him at the back of the grid. Probst was the next fastest in the 300C and would be my main problem as Burger would need to work his way through the traffic and lose a lot of time doing so, but Probst would be in free air and able to make up a lot of time, I'd need to do some magic on cold tyres to catch him early or I might never be able to catch up. I'd have the advantage of better acceleration due to the weight savings I'd made, but worse corner speed due to cold hard tyres compared to the soft tyres everyone else was running...

Having a rolling start didn't help me as my weight advantage would favour a standing start, but I still had better acceleration, drafted the Superbird and then pulled to the inside for the Andretti hairpin. To my delight the whole field all moved over to the far right of the track for the hairpin, giving me heaps of room to late brake up the inside, and suddenly I was in 3rd place.

I caught Olsen out of the 3nd corner and took the position up the inside of the fourth. I caught up to Probst right on the corkscrew, coming out next to him, and took him up the inside of Rainey curve to take first place.

First lap was over in 1:48.9, and the race was on!
For the next 15 laps Probst couldn't quite catch me, with the gap sitting around 1.5 s, then I started to slightly eke out a lead, 2.5 seconds.

As per the last race, I couldn't manage the lap times that I was doing in practice. In practice after 4 laps of warming the tyres I managed 9 straight laps averaging 1:43.3, with a best time of 1:41.5.

In the first 25 laps of the race, my best lap time was 1:42.954 (lap 10), and the average (excluding the slow first lap) was 1:45.7!

On lap 27 I started lapping a group of 5 backmarkers. Laps 27, 28 and 29 were 46.3, 44.8 and 45.5 respectively, but soon Probst was having trouble passing them too, and my lead increased to about 8 seconds.

As I got closer to 30 laps, the first signs appeared that the tyres were starting to go off, with the rears breaking loose under braking into turns 2 and 4, and a bit of understeer showing up. I didn't have much hope that a one-stop strategy would work, but I decided to keep with the tyres for a couple more laps to ensure I wasn't caught short in later stints with tyres that had done too many laps.

The next 4 laps went well, in the low to mid 1:44s, helped by the lower fuel load, but there wasn't any benefit in staying for much longer - I was now losing time to Probst, the gap falling from 9 seconds to 7.5 in the last couple of laps. Hopefully on fresh tyres I could lap in the 1:43s again.

Into the pits on lap 35, put in 20 L of fuel and new sports hard tyres. Out again into second place trying to take it easy on the cold tyres and not to put too much stress on them.

Probst was now 23 s ahead. Olsen in the SRT4 was in 3rd, 8 seconds behind me. Burger had worked his way up to 6th place and was 10s behind me, with a best lap time of 1:42.139 but now stuck behind Martinez and Olsen trying to get past.
Best lap for Probst was not as fast at 1:43.177 but he was out in front in clear air.

More lapped traffic on lap 37 for a 1:44.132 and I was pushing to catch Probst on my fresh tyres, as I needed to be up with him. He and I would do one more pit stop.

Near the end of lap 38, disaster! Pushing hard, I ran just slightly wide out of turn 10, putting two tyres onto the dirt. I had control, but I could see I was heading for the pit lane! As I smoothly moved the car back onto the track, the rear suddenly gripped on the pit lane tarmac edge, throwing the car sideways and then it flicked back, throwing me straight into the pit lane!

My team were ready with fresh SH tyres, but I waved off the fuel filler. I was screaming at myself with rage, what a rookie error! I'd just given up an extra 30 seconds that I would surely need to win this race, and now I was back in 7th place with a gap to the leader of 42 seconds!

What was I going to do to recover from this mess?

 

[b_adger]

Race report (part 2):

As I left the pits, lap my crew chief got on the radio:
"Badger, why did you pit again?".
"I didn't intend to go into the pits, I was lucky not to have crashed and be completely out of the race! I've lost so much time, what am I going to do? If only I'd had time to warn you, we could have put medium tyres on to try to make up the time "

I could hear nothing but the sound of the big V8 screaming as he thought about it, then he said:
"Hold on a tick, I have an idea.."

About ten seconds later he came back on the line and said "Pit in again at the end of the lap and we'll swap you onto some faster tyres."

"What! Are you crazy! I'll lose another 30 seconds pitting and be even further behind! If we switch to medium tyres now I'll surely have to pit twice more..."

While flying down the track I did some mental arithmetic: 2 more pit stops than Probst would make meant another 60s plus the current 42 second deficit to make up. 102 s in 51 laps:

"...so I'll have to make up 2 seconds a lap to have a chance!"

"Remember when we arrived and you first took the car out on the wrong tyres? We still have that set of hard compound racing slicks. You were easily 4 seconds a lap faster on them. You can run the 20 laps of this stint, catch up, and then go back onto sports hards for the final stint."

"OK, I'll come in."

At the end of the lap I pitted again, this time putting on the slightly used set of racing hard tyres.

Out onto the track to find I was now 1:06 behind Probst in the lead, but still in 7th place.

Pretty soon I was lapping in the high 1:39s and 1:40s, making up 3-4 s per lap on my times on the sports hard tyres.

The gap to the leader was dropping much faster than I expected though... Probst now was lapping in the 1:46s as his tyres were very, very second hand. In the next 4 laps I made up 26 seconds on Probst, as well as repassing Olsen, Martinez, Burger, Van Leewen and Ruggeri who were all struggling in the 1:47 to 1:48 lap times (Burger still being held up).

By lap 47 I had caught up to just 25 seconds behind Probst, when he called it and pitted, but the damage was done and he came out in 6th place. I now had a margin of 37.5 s over Burger (who was yet to pit and had just passed Martinez for 2nd as both passed Olsen in the pits).

In clear air Burger started lapping much faster, but on worn tyres could only do 1:45s and I was doing 1:40s, while trying to conserve the tyres as I didn't know if they would last the 20 laps I needed until the next stint.

On lap 49 I caught and lapped Olsen, Probst was doing 1:43s and then caught the pack and was held up trying to get past.

I was 48 seconds ahead of Burger when he pitted on lap 52 and dropped to 6th place. Probst was back in second place, but now 1:23 behind me.

On lap 60 I caught Probst and lapped him, but then on lap 61 into the pits for a set of sports hard tyres and enough fuel to take me to the end.

Probst was now lapping in the 1:43s, but so was I on my fresh tyres, even getting down to 1:42.694 on lap 84.

I was cruising to the end now, there was no way for Probst to catch me, and I crossed the line in 2h 37m 9.919s, 1m 25.74s ahead of Probst in the 300C (Best lap 1:42.538)

Burger nearly caught up to Probst, but didn't make it. Best lap 1:41.067
Olsen was next best, over a lap down, closely followed by van Leeuwen.

 

[b_adger]

Thoughts on Laguna Seca 200:

1. In the end there was no need for me to pit and switch to the racing tyres. If I'd stayed out on the fresh sports hard tyres from my accidental pit stop I would have made up the time anyway, the AI cars slowed dramatically at that part of the race due to their tyres going off. I did a quick calculation and assuming I averaged 1:44 from lap 40 to lap 60 then I would have only finished 13s behind my actual time and still won by 1m 12s.
In the last stint from 61 to 90 I averaged 1:43.8, so 1:44 seems reasonable on the same tyres with a similar fuel load.

2. The AI being on soft tyres makes it a bit unsatisfying to race them. To get similar lap times to the AI on hard tyres I needed to reduce the weight of the car a lot, which meant it was very easy to pass them - basically I could out accelerate them out of any of the slow corners and that reduces the challenge. However, having a slower car would mean I couldn't keep up. During the race, excluding the first lap and time lost to pit stops I averaged 1:43.3.

3. I tried the car on sport medium tyres, and the extra grip means I can lap in the low 1:41s either with the stock 1650 kg at 375 hp, or reduced weight of 1500kg with the used engine power of 336 hp. This will reduce my acceleration and make it harder to pass the AI. I'm not sure how long the mediums will last, and whether I'll need to pit 3 or maybe even 4 times. I'm inclined to go with the lower weight and lower power setup to keep tyre wear low as the AI somehow kept their soft tyres going for 35 laps before starting to significantly lose time. Maybe 1485 kg and about 320 - 330 hp?

4. I'm a bit puzzled why my lap times are so much worse during the races. When testing to see how much fuel I would use, in practice with fuel/tyre degradation turned on, I did 14 laps and then pitted (26 L of fuel), with the exact setup I used in the race. Best lap in practice was a 1:41.5, average over 9 straight laps was 1:43.3. In the race, with 60 kg less fuel on board my best lap was 1:42.694, and best 9 lap average (at least 55 kg less fuel) was the same 1:43.3.

5. After this race I hit level 30 in A spec, so I need to decide whether to do this race again or go onto the next...

 

[b_adger]

I thought I'd look at some alternate grids to see if I could find competitive fields. I reset the PS3 and loaded the grid for the Muscle car championship (Daytona), then looked at the LS200 grids, but found they were the same as those listed in the Companion thread: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/laguna-seca-200-miles-companion-competition.249461/

After another reset I tried the Classic muscle car championship and then got the following grids at LS200, of which grids 3, 5 and 6 look good with several similarly paced cars not starting from the front and no rabbits.


grid 1
Viper GTS '99
GT350R '65
Cougar XR-7 '67
Corvette Convertible (C3) '69
Corvette Z06 (C5) '00
GNX '87
player1
SRT4 '03
Charger 440 R/T '70
GTO 5.7 Coupe '04
Mustang GT '05
Challenger SRT8 '08

grid 2
Corvette ZR-1 (C4) '90
Mustang GT '05
Corvette Stingray L46 350 (C3) '69
Taurus SHO '98
Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
Prowler '02
player1
Challenger R/T '70
Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07
Challenger SRT8 '08
Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
Viper GTS '02

grid 3
Mustang SVT Cobra R '00
Corvette ZR-1 C4 '90
300C '05
GT350R '65
Charger 440 R/T '70
Corvette Stingray L46 350 (C3) '69
player1
Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
Viper GTS '99
Chevelle SS 454 '70
Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Corvette Z06 (C5) '00

grid 4
Camaro SS '69
Camaro Z28 Coupe '97
Corvette Stingray L46 350 (C3) '69
Corvette GRAND SPORT (C4) '96
Mustang GT '05
Superbird '70
player1
Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
SRT4 '03
Taurus SHO '98
Chevelle SS 454 '70
Corvette Convertible (C3) '69

grid 5
Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
Mustang GT '05
Challenger R/T '70
GTO 5.7 Coupe '04
Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
Viper GTS '99
player1
Corvette Z06 (C5) '00
Corvette Convertible (C3) '69
Corvette Stingray L46 350 (C3) '69
Challenger SRT8 '08
Mustang SVT Cobra R '00

grid 6
Cougar XR-7 '67
Superbird '70
GNX '87
Mustang V8 Coupe GT Premium '07
Corvette Z06 (C5) '00
GT350R '65
player1
Prowler '02
Challenger R/T '70
Corvette Coupe (C2) '63
Mustang GT '05
Charger 440 R/T '70

grid 7
Camaro SS '00
Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Charger Super Bee 426 Hemi '71
GTO 5.7 Coupe '04
Mustang GT '05
Corvette Stingray L46 350 (C3) '69
player1
Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
Mustang SVT Cobra R '00
Corvette Coupe (C2) '63
GNX '87
Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07

grid 8
300C '05
Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07
Charger Super Bee 426 Hemi '71
Camaro SS '69
Corvette Coupe (C2) '63
Corvette Convertible (C3) '69
player1
Viper GTS '99
Challenger R/T '70
SRT4 '03
Challenger SRT8 '08
Tempest Le Mans GTO '64

grid 9
SRT4 '03
Corvette Stingray Convertible (C3) '69
Chevelle SS 454 '70
Superbird '70
Corvette ZR-1 C4 '90
Challenger SRT8 '08
player1
Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
Camaro SS '10
Taurus SHO '98
Mustang SVT Cobra R '00

grid 10
Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
Mustang SVT Cobra R '00
Challenger SRT8 '08
Cougar XR -7 '67
Camaro Z28 Coupe '97
player1
Camaro SS '00
GNX '87
300C '05
Viper GTS '02
Camaro SS '69

grid 11
Prowler '02
Chevelle SS 454 '70
Cougar XR-7 '67
Challenger R/T '70
300C '05
Taurus SHO '98
player1
Corvette GRAND SPORT (C4) '96
Camaro SS '00
Charger 440 R/T '70
Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
GTO 5.7 Coupe '04

grid 12
Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
Corvette Convertible (C3) '69
Charger 440 R/T '70
Mustang SVT Cobra R '00
Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
player1
Corvette Z06 (C5) '00
Taurus SHO '98
Superbird '70
Chevelle SS 454 '70
SRT4 '03

grid 13
Viper GTS '02
Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
Corvette ZR-1 C4 '90
GNX '87
SRT4 '03
Corvette Z06 (C5) '00
player1
300C '05
Charger Super Bee 426 Hemi '71
Challenger SRT8 '08
Charger 440 R/T '70
Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88

grid 14
Charger Super Bee 426 Hemi '71
Chevelle SS 454 '70
Mustang SVT Cobra R '00
Prowler '02
Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07
player1
Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
GTO 5.7 Coupe '04
Camaro SS '69
SRT4 '03

grid 15
Corvette Z06 (C5) '00
GTO 5.7 Coupe '04
Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
Viper GTS '02
Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07
player1
Camaro SS '00
Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Chevelle SS 454 '70
Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
Corvette ZR-1 C4 '90

grid 16
Camaro SS '10
Cougar XR-7 '67
GNX '87
Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
Corvette GRAND SPORT (C4) '96
Superbird '70
player1
Chevelle SS 454 '70
Corvette Stingray L46 350 (C3) '69
Corvette Coupe (C2) '63
Prowler '02
GT350R '65

grid 17
Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07
Charger 440 R/T '70
Camaro SS '69
Viper GTS '99
Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
SRT4 '03
player1
Camaro Z28 Coupe '97
Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
Camaro SS '00
Viper GTS '02
Chevelle SS 454 '70

 

[b_adger]

In case you haven't noticed, I'm inclined to overanalyse things. So instead of just reducing power or increasing weight a little from last time, I decided to try to make the car much slower accelerating. This meant I needed more grip, so I swapped to Sports Medium tyres and did some fiddling. I'd worked out that to match the time of the 300C from the last race, with 3 stops I needed to average 1:44.8, and based on my previous practice runs and times in the race, have an average race lap time about 1:43.9 and best lap about 1:42.3.

Since I can't help myself I also tried tweaking the setup, but in the end on the only change that I kept was to increase the brake pressure by one click front and back.

So I put some of the weight back in and reduced the power. I wanted to keep the weight down to make the tyres last - the AI seem to have much lower wear on the soft tyres!

I even tried a few weight/power configurations on the test track to check acceleration, but it turned out that at the same PP the 0-100 and 400m times were pretty much the same.

I ended up with the car at 1500 kg and 310 hp for a PP of 356. Using the stock gearbox (the other gearboxes are too whiny) I was running into the limiter in 4th gear at the end of the straight, but I noticed that some mods increase the red line and the limiter - ECU, and exhaust. Interestingly, in my testing the intake mods decreased the rev limit!

So to get enough revs to not hit the limiter at the end of the straight at 193 km/h, I needed to add the ECU upgrade, but the get the power down to 310 I had to use the power limiter. This setup gave me an average lap time of 1:42.7 - pretty much spot on.

On to the race!

 

[b_adger]

LS 200, Take Two:

It seemed that one of the losers complained to the stewards after the last race and the scrutineers came and checked out the Charger and they were not happy! Apparently the new motor had been bored out and was not the correct capacity, so I had to swap back in the tired lump that came with the car for the next race. It also apparently needed an original catalytic converter on it, and this left me with just 310 hp! They also required me to put a bunch of parts back into the car - apparently production cars have to have a heater and so on! This increased weight to 1400 kg. I had found out after the race that the other cars were all running soft compound tyres, but I was concerned about tyre life, so I lashed out on a few sets of medium compound tyres. This meant my lap times in practice were only slightly slower, about 1:42.7.

I rolled up to the start line to see this was the grid:


N Werner: Camaro Z28 Coupe '97
P Becker: SRT4 '03
B Ricci: Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
L Piazza: Charger 440 R/T '70
M Gottlieb: Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88
G Pena: Mustang GT '05
Badger: Charger 440 R/T '70
M Fuchs: Challenger R/T '70
G Cardenas: Corvette ZR-1 C4 '90
R Berger: 300C '05
K Morse: Challenger SRT8 '08
C Pate: Cuda 440 Six Pack '71

I knew Becker, Fuchs and Gottlieb could lap in the 1:42s and Berger in 1:41s, but Berger was starting so far down the grid, I didn't think he'd be able to fight through the traffic:

Rolling start and we were away. The opponents went very wide right in a line into the Andretti Hairpin, so I wassed Pena and Gottlieb for 5th place into the corner, and Piazza and I took Ricci on the way out of the corner. Becker had passed Werner for first place on the straight, then I took the inside from Piazza in turn 3, and while he decided to try a Pitt manoeuvre as we braked for turn 4 I held on. Werner took turn 4 too fast trying to keep up with Becker and ended up in the dirt on the exit, so by turn 5 I was right on his tail and up the inside going into turn 6. I then set out to catch Becker.

At the end of the first lap it was Becker from Badger, then Werner and Piazza. Ricci was holding up Gottlieb and Fuchs, Pena was holding up Berger and Cardenas, followed by Morse and Pate at the back already 13.5 s behind.

On lap two I had a couple of untidy moments on the cold tyres, then started catching Becker. During the week I'd had a chat to an old hand and picked up a few tips, especially on going through the Andretti hairpin, and Rainey Curve. I used this new knowledge to catch up and get up the inside into turn 10. This compromised my exit, so Becker got alongside up to turn 11, but instead of blocking the inside he cut the corner and made a mess of it, letting me easily drive past on the straight. His superior power had him right behind at turn 2, but he wasn't able to keep up with me.

On the grippier tyres I was able to be more consistent, hitting my apexes and I was making use of my new knowledge of the track to set good times. From lap 3 to 13 I averaged under 1:43, getting down to 1:42.337 on lap 11. Still well over my best practice lap of 1:42.012 which I set on the 3rd lap out... During this stint my lead from Becker increased from 5 to 7 to 10 seconds.

I kept this up, lapping consistently and increasing my lead out to 18.8 s by lap 22, then I started catching the backmarkers. Tyres still good so no need for 3 stops. I pushed on for a 2 stop strategy.

Becker was lapping in the 1:42s and 1:43s initially, but blew out to 1:44s and 1:45s, slower as he also caught and passed backmarkers. I was just starting to feel the tyres going off around lap 27, and lap times increased into the 1:44s. By lap 30 I was 28 s ahead, so I decided to push a couple more laps to be able to pit and stay ahead of Becker, as well as shorter stints at the end.

On Lap 32 I missed my entry point to the Rainer Curve, ran wide and lost 2-3 seconds out in the dirt. I was still 35 s ahead of Becker and decided to pit in on lap 33. Fresh medium tyres and 15 L of petrol and I was out, now 9.88 s ahead of Becker, but with all the lapped traffic ahead to pass again.

The standings were: Badger followed by Becker, Werner, Gottlieb and Fuchs spread over about 25 seconds. About 1/3 of a lap back was Piazza. Berger had lost a lot of time but had finally got past Ricci (who was about to be lapped by me) and was doing 1:43s trying to catch Piazza. Cardenas, Pena, Morse and Pate were all a lap down.

 

[b_adger]

LS 200, Take Two: (part 2)

On fresh tyres, with the fuel load going down and getting used to the improved lines, I started lapping quicker. I had also noticed that out of turns 3 and 5 I was hitting the red line in 2nd gear pretty much as soon as I started accelerating out of the corner, so I tried keeping it in 3rd gear, which reduced the risk of the rear end getting loose into the corner as well as saving a gear change out of the corner.

These improvements meant I was now lapping in the 1:42s, with #39 being a new best lap on 1:42.079, followed up with a near perfect lap where I managed 1:41.638!

As the laps ticked by, my lead over Becker increased to 45 s as I banged out 1:42s and 1:43s, with a few slower laps as I came up on backmarkers. These slower cars were lapping in the 1:48 to 1:51s and so were pretty easy to pass.

Becker's tyres were going off badly, and he was losing heaps of time. Finally he pitted on lap 47 but he was a lap and 25 s behind. Werner was in 2nd, but a long 1m20s behind, closely followed by Gottlieb. Becker was now back in sixth place, just behind Piazza who was going well in the other Charger and not far behind Fuchs in the Challenger. Berger had also pitted and was about half a lap behind Becker, lapping in the 1:42s in free air for a change.

Fuchs and Gottlieb pitted and came out in front of Berger. In the free air they was lapping in the 1:42s and 1:43s and made up a lot of time. Werner and Piazza pitted on laps 55 and 54, both dropping back behind Berger. After these pit stops it was Becker a lap and 20s behind me, then another 30s back to Fuchs, 10 s more to Gottlieb, Berger about 8 s further back with Werner close behind and Piazza about 25 s behind him. The remaining cars were all 2 laps down.

As the lap count climbed into the high 50s, I could feel the tyres were starting to go off a bit, but I was planning on pitting about lap 61 and I was still ok.

Suddenly the crew chief jumped on the radio:
"Badger, we have a little problem with the tyres..."
I kept lapping as I waited for the news:
"You know how we bought 4 sets of medium compound tyres expecting a 3 stop race? The problem is that you used 2 sets completely during practice - you did 79 laps tweaking the car! We don't have any mediums left for the next stop, you'll have to change to the hard compound for the last stint".

I had no idea how much slower I was going to be on the harder tyres, and it would require more concentration, and I'd been driving for one and 3/4 hours already. I pushed the mediums for a couple more laps, getting back down into the 1:42s, then pitted in on lap 61 for fresh, hard compound tyres and 45 L of fuel for the run to the finish. Before I pitted, I was 1 lap and 30s ahead of Becker.

Back out on track, and I was happy to see I had come out ahead of Gottlieb and Berger (1 lap down), and Becker and Fuchs were well behind me on the same lap - Becker was now just 1:30 behind, and I had no idea how much slower I would be on the hard tyres.

I put my head down and found I was lapping in the high 1:44s to mid 1:45s pretty consistently. Since I knew Becker would be doing at best 1:42s and 1:43s, and his tyres would start to go off towards the end, I had the race in the bag, I couldn't lose enough time for him to catch me.

Unfortunately, Gottlieb and Berger were doing 1:42s and 1:43s and were soon snapping at my heels! I spent lap after lap getting ahead on the corners then getting caught on the main straight and between turns 4 and 5, with Gottlieb bashing the back of my car through turn 5 numerous times. But his tyres were older than mine, and after 10 or so laps, I started pulling ahead by a few tenths per lap, until at lap 74 I was about 1.5 s ahead and the gap widened from there.

At about this time, Becker and Fuchs about 20 s ahead on the lap and ran into some traffic. As they were slowed by the traffic, I started catching them, 18 s, 15 s, 11 s until on lap 84 I was just 6.8 s from catching them as their tyres went off too. They were now lapping in the 1:46 and 1:47s, and I was still grinding out sub 1:45s.

Starting lap 86 I was right on their tails, and I had a chance of getting them before the end. In the end it was all a bit easy, their tyres were toast and I was 4-5 s a lap faster, easily catching Fuchs up the inside of Rainer curve on lap 86 and Becker out of turn 11.

Berger was trying hard to catch Gottlieb, but his tyres had gone off before Gottlieb's so he started falling away on lap 88.

I finished in a time of 2h 37m 34.991.

Badger: Charger 440 R/T '70
P Becker: SRT4 '03 (-1 lap, best lap 1:42.742)
M Fuchs: Challenger R/T '70 (-1, 1:42.697)
M Gottlieb: Camaro IROC-Z Concept '88 (-1, 1:42.500)
R Berger: 300C '05 (-1m 1:41.820)
N Werner: Camaro Z28 Coupe '97 (-1, 1:43.415)
L Piazza: Charger 440 R/T '70 (-1, 1:44.006)
B Ricci: Tempest Le Mans GTO '64 (-3, 1:46.122)
K Morse: Challenger SRT8 '08 (-3, 1:44.890)
G Cardenas: Corvette ZR-1 C4 '90 (-3, 1:44.747)
G Pena: Mustang GT '05 (-3, 1:46.715)
C Pate: Cuda 440 Six Pack '71 (-5, 1:49.095)

 

[b_adger]

Thoughts on my 2nd LS200 race:

1. This one ended up not being close, although the last 20 laps were fun, first trying to stay ahead of the IROC and the 300C who were chasing me at a similar pace, then trying to catch the SRT4 and Challenger by the end of the race. The grid was just what popped up when I started LS200 after my previous race with grid 7, plus a bunch of practice sessions and trips to the test track. When I saw it, I knew it was probably going to be too easy, the 300C right down the back of the grid would be held up a lot. I thought about adding some extra weight or reducing power a bit more to give the 300C a chance, but in the end stuck with 310 hp and 1400 kg.
2. It was still too easy to pass the AI, they always brake too early and take wide lines into the corners. Often I out accelerate them out of corners. They also go too late into the stint on tyres, losing heaps of time.
3. Despite my attempts to reduce the pace of my Charger by increasing weight and decreasing power, I increased my pace by improving my driving. I found https://nasaspeed.news/columns/driver-instruction/one-lap-around-weathertech-raceway-laguna-seca/ and that helped a lot with my lines. I knew Laguna Seca ok before this, and had done over 220 laps of practice and the previous race, but the combo of the tips and more grip with SM tyres that helped me hit the lines more precisely, improved my lap times. I was reducing power and/or adding weight in practice, then lapping at the same speed as I improved. During the race I got better again with a bit of experimentation.
4. I expected the medium tyres to wear out quicker, but the grip lasted for about the same number of laps - I guess the lower grip of the hard tyres meant more slip and faster degradation. In the final stint the tyres started going off after 25 laps, but the mediums had lasted well for 30 laps. I enjoyed driving on the mediums a lot more.
5. One of the reasons I liked this grid was that it included another Charger 440 R/T - In my research here I couldn't find a lap time for it. It did a best time of 1:44.006 on soft tyres, it isn't clear how many hp it has in the race as the ones listed as typical opponents seem to vary from stock somewhat! I actually bought 3 different Chargers from the UCD and tested them with different weight reductions and engine tunes, I grabbed a brand new one from a ticket, with the stock suspension and on sports soft tyres, 1650 kg and 366 hp (not 375 hp?) I did a 1:41.364 on my 4th lap. Its actually pretty good to drive stock (on soft tyres at least!).

For those interested, here is the suspension tune for the charger:

Ride Height	-15|-13
Spring Rate	10.2|8.0
Damper Ext	7|6
Damper comp	4|5
ARB	4|4
camber	2.6|2.2
toe	-0.18|0.10
LSD IT	10​
LSD AS	14​
LSD BS	7​
BB	5|6

 

[b_adger]

Next, the 500 miles of Indianapolis:

Not sure this will be as fun, but we will see. What car to use? There isn't much talk about this race, most people just do it to get it out of the way. Looking at the opponents, the Audi R10 seems to be the poor cousin, with the least power and lowest PP, so let's give that a go.

I jumped in and did a bit of a suspension, aero and transmission tune, and best lap at about 42.7 s on racing hard tyres. Fuel use seems to be about 2.2L per lap.
It seems the AI will finish in about 2h 35, so with 6 x 90s pit stops (ie every 28 laps) then the average lap time would be 43.7, should be doable... Let's have a go.

 

[b_adger]

500 miles of Indianapolis | Race Report:

I was feeling a bit nervous for this race, my first time driving LM prototype sports cars in an endurance race - A big step up from a used 1970 Charger!

I was pretty sure I was going to be fast enough but didn't have much of an idea how long the tyres would last or how many pit stops I'd have to do. I was happy with the suspension tune for the R10, it was fast and easy to drive, no need to brake or lift off for the corners, just turn in early and hold it steady. I thought the right rear tyre would wear out first and that would set my pit strategy. I was running racing hard tyres, all my opponents decided on medium tyres instead.

As I rolled up to the start line this was the grid:

N Valentine: V12 LMR Race Car '99
K Cardenas: Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04
H. Manning: R8 Race Car '01 (red)
M Sandoval: Courage C60 - Peugeot Race Car '03
J Cano: C60 Hybride - Judd Race car '05
N Smith: R10 TDI Race Car '06
Badger: R10 TDI Stealth Model
N Guerra: R8 Race Car (Audi Playstation Team Oreca)
E Martinez: V12 LMR Race Car '99
D Poulsen: Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04
H Reina: R8 Race Car '01 (yellow)
O Hoch: Courage C60 - Peugeot Race Car '03

The ones to watch would be the three R8s and the C60 Hybride. Several pairs of team cars, 2 x BMWs, 2 x Pugs and 2 x Judd GV5s would be hard to tell apart on the track with identical livery.

First Stint:

At the start line, the lower power of the R10 was apparent, with Guerra pulling ahead from the start, and a gap opening up in front of me. But as soon as the first corner appeared I held much higher speed and passed Guerra and Smith as they slowed to take the corner. Onto the straight I was close behind the pack and got a good tow. Out in front, Manning passed Cardenas and Valentine to take first place, and Cano jumped up to 3rd place.
At the end of the straight I was going fast enough to glide past Sandovan before turning in, and then into turn 3 went around the outside of Cardenas. Kept my speed high through the short straight and around the outside of Cano and Valentine in turn 4.

Onto the main straight and in behind Manning for some tow, then alongside and up the inside into the turn one for the lead. This compromised my corner exit and on the back straight Manning caught up in the draft and passed near the end of the straight, but I had the inside and took the lead right back on the next corner.

Manning clearly had much more power than I did, and was catching me on the straights even after losing lots of time on the corners. After a couple of laps like this, I realised I was pulling Manning away from the chasing pack but also helping him to possibly beat me! On lap 5 he had 2s over Reina in 3rd and was just 0.3 s behind me. I needed to break away.

To avoid helping Manning with a draft on the straight, I started driving over on the far left (just like on the highways in Florida). He made no effort to move over to get the draft, but being on the left side into corners 1 and 2 was compromising my entry so my lap times were up in the mid to high 43s and low 44s. I started moving over to the right at the end of the straights to improve my lines and finally on lap 9 or 10 the elastic snapped and the gap popped up over 2 seconds. I switched back to conventional lines and set to work to get a good lead, not knowing how many pit stops I needed.

Manning stayed well ahead of the pack, on lap 18 I had 10s on him and came up on the first backmarkers - it was Sandoval, Hoch and Smith in a pack of 3. I tried to give Smith in my sister R10 a helpful draft as I passed, but he was far too slow on the corners to keep up and quickly disappeared from my mirror.

Best lap of 42.483 on lap 18 with a bit of a tow. It was hard to get a good lap as after the tow I was entering the corner much faster than usual, plus having to avoid the cars I'd been drafting. This usually messed up the exit for the next straight and meant the lap wasn't much faster overall.

By lap 26 I was 18 s ahead of Manning, having lapped 6 of the field. The tyres were wearing fairly evenly front to back, with more wear on the right as expected and lap times were still good. I now knew I was going to manage 5 or maybe 4 stops.

As the laps whizzed by, the tyres were still fine, they were wearing but not going off and losing grip, and on lap 35 my lead over Manning was 33s. As I approached 40 laps I had been considering a 4 stop strategy, since before the race I had estimated my 100L of fuel would last about 42-45 laps at 2.2 L per lap. However, looking at the fuel gauge, there was plenty left, a bit less than 3/4 gone. Obviously with all the drafting in traffic and lower weight as the fuel burned off the consumption was lower than I expected!

Could I squeeze it out to 50 laps and do a 3 stop? I started saving a bit of fuel by lifting off at the end of the straights and using part throttle in the turns. This seemed to only cost me about 0.5 s per lap and I pushed on, realising that picking the diesel car could have paid off!

Soon my opponents started pitting. Cano was first to go at lap 38, having worn out his tyres before running out of dino juice. Manning, Cardenas and Poulsen pitted for fuel on lap 43, Reina on 43, Guerra and Valentine on 45, and Smith pitted on 46 - doing ok on fuel in the other diesel but his tyres were toast. Martinez lasted 3 more laps than Valentine in the other BMW V12, maybe able to save fuel due to catching the draft from faster cars, also giving him a good lead over his team mate. Finally Sandoval and Hoch pitted on lap 49 for tyres, still a few litres left in their tanks, both due to taking turns drafting, but also because they were hitting the rev limiter at about 336 km/h.

As I started lap 49, I was 1 lap and 22 s ahead of Martinez who was yet to pit and nearly 3 laps ahead of Manning. As I took corner 3 the fuel gauge blinked red. I stayed left on the exit to head into the pits, but Cano passed me up the inside and gave me a glancing blow as I moved across to the pit entry... Fortunately, no damage was done and I made it into the pits for fresh tyres and 99L of diesel. Pit in lap was 2:08, almost exactly the time of three normal laps, plus another 20s lost on the out lap...

Second Stint:

After the pit stops had shaken out, on lap 51, the standings were as follows:

Badger in the lead
Manning 20s behind me
Cano at 32s
Reina at 38 s
Guerra metres behind me on track, but 1 lap down
Martinez, Cardenas, Poulsen and Valentine all well over 1 lap down
Smith 2.5 laps down.
Hoch and Sandoval just leaving the pits and would end up more than 2.5 laps down

The next 50 laps were pretty consistent, saving some fuel and on lap 100 the tyres were still ok (right rear down to about 20%) but the fuel gauge was close to done. I was just over 3 laps ahead of Manning, who was about 9 s ahead of Reina, with everyone else one or more laps down again.

Pitted in without incident this time, for fresh tyres and 98 L of diesel. The fuel seemed to take forever to go in, and the pit in lap of 2:06 seemed like eternity...

Third Stint:

After the pit stop, I was still ahead of Manning by 33 s. If I could keep up the pace and the fuel saving, I had this in the bag.

Around lap 109 -112 some strange behaviour by Manning, he caught up to lap Hoch but didn't go past, instead bump drafting him all the way along the straights and thus slowing down to Hoch's 47s lap times. This made it easy for me to catch up and pass him. On lap 113 as I lapped him, Manning finally went past Hoch, and then gave him a good tow back up to his teammate Sandoval. This delay allowed Reina to catch up to Manning and they pitted nearly together on lap 128 and by lap 136 they were neck and neck, with Reina passing for 2nd place on lap 137.

On lap 151, the tyres were starting to go off a little, a bit of a squirm out of the corners, and as I pitted the fuel gauge showed just one bar, but in the pit could only fit 96 L in the tank - I could easily have done one or even two more laps on the fuel, laps that I would now have to do in the final stint on my final tank. This meant I needed to make 49 laps on one tank, which I only just managed in the first stint.

Fourth (final?) Stint:

After 152 laps, I was 1 lap and 9 s ahead of Manning, who was now trading 2nd place with Reina nearly every lap.
Guerra was another lap down, Cano another behind him, then Martinez not far behind. Cardenas, Poulson were next to each other another lap down, with Valentine about 15 s back. Smith, Hoch and Sandoval were together another 2 laps down.

I continued to lap with no issues, saving fuel where I could although still making good time. I set a new fastest lap on 170, 42.320s with some drafting assistance. Everything was going well until lap 173...

Valentine had done some great work drafting Reina while being lapped and had caught team mates Cardenas and Poulsen who were determinedly blocking everyone! They consistently drove side by side on the track for several laps, and as Valentine tried to pass them on turn 4 they both braked hard, from their usual 280-290 km/h cornering speed down to just 235, blocking the mid corner. Valentine had nowhere to go and ran into the back of Poulsen, but another, faster car, coming up behind them at 335 km/h also had nowhere to go and ran into the right rear of Valentine!

I managed to hold the slide for several agonising seconds, but then a wheel touched the infield grass and around we went and up against the wall. Luckily no major damage, and Guerra coming along next just missed hitting my stationary car as he flew by at 313 km/h!

While making a mental note to report this dangerous behaviour to the stewards, I accelerated up the straight again now with just 26 laps to go.

I was fully in fuel saving mode now, sitting in the draft of other cars on 1/2 throttle instead of flying past on the straights, lifting off at the end of the straight and using about 3/4 throttle through the corners. It looked like it was working, at the start of lap 189 I had just under 1/4 of a tank remaining. As the laps whizzed by, the fuel gauge dropped steadily.

My only viable competition for the checkered flag were Manning and Reina now, who pitted again on laps 170 and 172 respectively, giving me over a 3 lap lead at lap 180. In practice, we'd managed to do a pit stop with 12 L of fuel with a loss of about 53s, so it was possible to do a splash and dash if needed, and I should still be at least a lap in front, as long as I didn't lose lots of time by running out of fuel and having to coast around to the pits, or another big crash.

Reina did a good job drafting me and then Cano to catch back up to Manning, and they started trading 2nd and 3rd place again. I lapped and watched the fuel gauge drop lower and lower. As I started lap 199 it looked like there were about 2 lines wide left, it was going to be tight!

I caught a couple of backmarkers (Smith, Cardenas and Poulsen) and drafted around behind them to save fuel. Lap 200 started and there was definitely only one mark left on the gauge. I lifted off a bit, cruising down the straight at 340 km/h, willing the car to keep going for one more lap...

As I turned into the penultimate corner the red light came on. I knew I could roll the remaining distance from here if the fuel ran out, but the R10's strong diesel kept going until I was over the line - a total time of 2h 32m 5.552s.

Reina had managed to stay ahead of Manning on that last lap to take 2nd place. Most of the teammates were neck and neck, the notable exception being Martinez and Valentine who were almost exactly 1 lap apart at the end, apparently the difference being Martinez being able to stay with the faster cars ahead in the first stint, staying in the tow to lap faster and save fuel.

Final standings:

Badger: R10 TDI Stealth Model (2h 32m 5.552s, best lap 42.320s, pit 49, 100, 151)
H Reina: R8 Race Car '01 (yellow) (-3.5 laps, 42.375, pit 43, 87, 128, 172)
H. Manning: R8 Race Car '01 (red) (-3.5 laps, 43.007, pit 42, 84, 128, 170 )
N Guerra: R8 Race Car (Audi Playstation Team Oreca) (-4.9 laps, 42.800, pit 45, ??)
J Cano: C60 Hybride - Judd Race car '05 (-6.9 laps, 43.324, pit 38, ??)
E Martinez: V12 LMR Race Car '99 (-7.2 laps, 43.320, pit 48, ??)
K Cardenas: Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04 (-7.95 laps, 43.630, pit 42, ??)
D Poulsen: Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04 (-7.95 laps, 43.840, pit 42, ??)
N Valentine: V12 LMR Race Car '99 (-8.25 laps, 43.366, pit 45, ??)
O Hoch: Courage C60 - Peugeot Race Car '03 (-8.8 laps, 44.581, pit 49, ??)
M Sandoval: Courage C60 - Peugeot Race Car '03 (-8.8 laps, 44.626, pit 49, ??)
N Smith: R10 TDI Race Car '06 (-9.99 laps, 43.627, pit 46, ??)

 

[b_adger]

Notes on the Indy 500, I mean 500 Miles of Indianapolis...

1. I didn't realise that the stealth model of the R10 I had in my garage was a bit lighter and had a bit more power than the standard R10. If I do it again I'll try with the standard model, or maybe something else - the mazda furai?
2. It was pretty annoying that the AI brake so much for the corners, it means it's pretty much impossible to sit in the draft of other cars consistently and swap the lead to catch up. It was also pretty annoying/dangerous to come around the corner and find a car in the way going 100 km/h slower.
3. The race ended up being pretty exciting due to the fuel usage factor. I was way too fast for the AI and it was pretty easy to pass them even without drafting. I could easily have taken another pit stop and won, especially if I just went full speed the whole time instead of saving fuel.
4. Watching the replay there was plenty of strange behaviour by the AI. I recall watching one of the R8s hit the wall on corners 2 and 4 over and over for a few laps while trying to pass a slower car.
5. The setup on the R10 worked really well. I accidentally started with the FR suggested settings from Motor City Tunes and went from there. I went back and tried Hami's suggested MR settings but they weren't as fast. The ride height is a bit strange, max reduction at the front of -15, but -30 at the rear. I took Hami's advice and set it a bit (5mm) above the minimum, seemed to work ok. For those who are interested, the settings are below.
6. I tried different final gearing and found the shorter gearing was slightly faster and used slightly more fuel. For this race, where you don't really need the lower gears except for pit stops, I considered the idea of having very long lower gears, so I could have a long 4th gear for fast solo laps, hitting the power peak right before the end of the straight at top speed (no draft) and then a slightly longer 5th gear allowing sitting down in the torque peak for lower fuel use and some headroom for drafting. Might have a play for next time...
7. I've found the transmission settings are very annoying. The indicated max speed is very wrong (tested by reducing the gearing until the car can hit the limiter in top gear - much lower than indicated max speed!). For example, the max speed set here was 430 km/h, but I was just about to hit the limiter at 380 during the race. The other issue is the lack of markings on the graph, and the edge of the graph is at a top speed of about 340, so any speeds higher than that are off the side. How hard would it have been to make it wider on the screen and put some labels on it?
8. I also played with the aero setup, found that the fastest lap was a bit less than max aero at 52/75 of 65/85. Very low aero was slow and too much of a handful in the bends. Max aero was nice in the corners, but gave extra grip that wasn't really needed at the speeds I was entering those corners, which were lower because of the extra drag, and the lap times were 3-4 tenths slower.
9. Next race is the Suzuka 1000km. I'll have to start doing some research and pick a likely car. Suggestions welcome...

My R10 Suspension setup:
Ride Height -10|-25
Spring Rate 16.9|14.8
Damper Ext 9|8
Damper comp 7|8
ARB 6|6
camber 3.2|2.8
toe -0.11|0.10
LSD IT 10
LSD AS 14
LSD BS 7
BB 5|5
aero 52|75
max speed set 430

 

[b_adger]

Today I left work a bit early and got some time behind the wheel to try some things out.

First, I was interested in how fast the standard R10 was at Indianapolis. I grabbed a brand new one and took it to practice, making no changes at all. Lap time was 43.631.

I then tried making some of the suspension changes that I had for the R10 Stealth. Adding camber (0.5 to 2.0 at both ends) and adjusting the toe (from 0.0|0.2 to -0.08|0.10) made no significant difference to lap times, although it made the car a bit nicer to drive and hopefully saves the tyres. Reducing the aero to 52/75 gave me about 0.15s. Increasing the spring rate from 13.8|14.8 to 15.5|16.0 gave another two tenths. The power increased from 633 to 649 hp as the engine was run in, giving me a final best time of 43.133s.

The power curve of the standard R10 is quite different to the Stealth version, peak torque is very low in the rev range about 3000 RPM, peak power is at 6450 RPM, but there seems to be more than 90% of peak power from 4000 to 6700 RPM. This meant that the gearing didn't make much difference. I tried the theoretically ideal gearing where I was hitting peak power (6450 RPM) at 350 km/h at the end of the straight, and then a 13% longer gearing so I was only at 5700 RPM at 350 km/h, and the lap times were pretty much identical.

My practice lap time for the R10 stealth was 42.773. So with a 0.36s slower lap time, over 200 laps would be 72 seconds slower, or about 1.7 laps. I'm thinking about running the Indy 500 again and see how I do in the standard R10. I'm worried about the fuel use, but since the power curve is very flat I should get fuel savings with the same speed at lower RPM. I tried a 10 lap run and used 23 L! But if I run flat out and do an extra stop I should still be ok. I might try another fuel consumption run, but I've already run about 80 laps of practice. Might as well just start the race and see...

Second, I looked at a bunch of cars for the Suzuka 1000. Again I want to go with something thematic, ie a Japanese race car. First I looked at a few cars that I could hot up to about 500-550 pp:
Integra Type R touring car,
MUGEN MOTUL CIVIC Si Race Car '87
CR-Z Touring Car
Nissan Silvia spec-R Aero (S15) RM
RX-7 Touring Car
These seemed like good ideas, but I haven't driven Suzuka much and not for a while and I don't know if I can lap it fast enough in these slower cars.

I had a look at Falcon787B's thread https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/pacific-rim-suzuka-1000km-live-race-report-complete.308733/ and depending on how many pit stops I need, I'll need to be lapping between 2:06.5 and 2:08...

Also in that report, the car that came last in the race, 4 laps down, was the 2008 Lexus Bandai Direzza SC430. So I grabbed that car and started doing some practice laps. On racing hard tyres it was pretty nice to drive right out of the box, but I was pretty rusty at Suzuka.

After about 5 laps I'm starting to get the hang of it and lapping about 2:10. So it looks like I could be fast enough in that car, let's see how it goes with some more practice. If I'm too fast I could drop down to a GT300 car or one of the above.

I'm not anywhere ready to start Suzuka 1000, so I'll probably do the Indy 500 again this weekend. Or should I practice Suzuka?

My right shoulder was sore from turning left 800 times last week, I wonder if it has toughened up since?

 

[b_adger]

I decided to have another go at the Indy 500 but I had an idea which I tried out first. In my research google had suggested using the XJ13 for the race. I assumed it was confused because that's the car you win, but I wondered. I hopped into the car, added a big turbo to get 661 hp and dialed up the downforce to maximum. At 975 kg for the Chrome line version it seemed similar to the R10 on paper, but just didn't have the grip on the corners. Even with a bit of suspension tweaking the max mid corner speed I could manage was about 305-307 km/h (R10 is 323-325 on the 2 and 4), which means less speed at the end of the straight (334 vs 350+ for the same power in the R10). Best lap time I could manage in a short testing run was 46.8s, but it was also quite twitchy. I gave up and went back to the standard R10 and entered the 500 miles of Indianapolis again:

I was a bit disappointed to see that the grid was exactly the same cars in the same order, just different drivers. With a bit less power, the start was a bit more exciting, taking a few laps to wind my way through the traffic, but after 30 minutes I was well out in front. It was long enough to see the tyres and fuel would probably last the 50 laps, but I wanted a race, so I quit out and started again with the power limiter set to 625 hp. Hopefully it will make the race a bit closer, but my observation is that speed through the corners is most important in this race and the AI driving style ruins their laps.

I'm currently paused on lap 108, will finish it off this afternoon (if I have time) and write up a report.

 

[b_adger]

Race report: 500 Miles of Indianapolis race two:

I decided to have another go at this race, but Audi wouldn't lend me the fancy black stealth version of the R10 again, so I was stuck with the standard R10. The other competitors protested the diesel was too efficient, and I had to fit an intake restrictor, limiting power to 625 hp. I rolled up to the start line and this was the grid:

Y Kikuchi: V12 LMR Race Car '99
P Yanez: Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04
M Thomas: R8 Race Car '01 (red)
O Jansen: Courage C60 - Peugeot Race Car '03
D Berg: C60 Hybride - Judd Race car '05
O Hensen: R10 TDI Race Car '06
D Badger: R10 TDI Race Car '06
J Pratt: R8 Race Car (Audi Playstation Team Oreca)
M Kaya: V12 LMR Race Car '99
T Silvestri: Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04
C Durham: R8 Race Car '01 (yellow)
L Nieto: Courage C60 - Peugeot Race Car '03

Rolling start and the lack of power shows up, Pratt pulls ahead into 7th, but at the very first corner I dive past him to take 7th back. Thomas passes Yanez and Kikuchi and Berg passes Jansen and Yanez on the back straight. I sit in the draft to keep up and then pass Hensen on corner 3. Durham is up to 9th and coming up behind me. I pass Jansen on the straight and then Yavez for a first lap of 49.449.

Thomas is now leading, I pass Berg on the first corner and draft Kikuchi along the straight and pass into corner 3. On the straight I draft Thomas, hitting 380 km/h (6500 RPM) and pass him in corner 1. Lap 2: 43.778

Thomas passes me right back again on the straight, I pass him back again on the corner and then on the next straight I am jumped by a gang! Kikuchi, Thomas, Berg, Durham and Yanez swarm me! Into the 4th corner Thomas gives me a big shunt from behind, I catch the sideways drift at 320km/h, he loses time and the others cruise past onto the straight. Thomas passes me on the straight too, now I'm back in 6th place. Lap 3: 44.274.

I pass Yanez on the straight again Lap 4: 45.076. Then I pass Kikuchi and Pratt on the corner. Lap 5 43.002.
I was getting a bit annoyed with being bumped around and my tyres wouldn't be enjoying all the evasive action I was taking. I was probably saving a bit of fuel in the slipstream though.

Pass Berg on turn 2 and I'm right behind Thomas and Durham on the straight and pass them into the next corner. lap 6: 43.595. I put my head down to try to get a lead. I'm lapping quickly, 43.768 and 43.732, but their greater power means they are catching me at the end of the straight each time. I'm hugging the left on the straight and after lap 9 (43.615) I have managed to pull out 0.6 of a second ahead at the line, but they decide to work together and take turns in the draft, and catch me again. The order behind me is now Pratt, Durham, Thomas, Kikuchi then Berg. Yanez has dropped back, and all the remaining cars are in another group about 11 seconds back.

Even though I'm driving on the left on the straight so they can't draft me so well, the first group are still taking turns and then catching me on the straight each time. I'm pretty consistent: 43.800, 43.789, 43.667, 43.707, 43.837 but not making much progress. The gap is 0.096, 0.502, 0.302, 0.293, 0.224, then a line of cars comes past me on the straight, blocking in the corner and do a 44.765 and they are past. Now I'm 0.7 s behind in the pack again. Heavy contact with the thugs costs me in the corners again (lap 16: 45.396), and now I'm 1.633 behind Pratt and Thomas in the lead who are now doing high 43s.

I follow Thomas and this gives me a good run of drafting without being blocked on the corners, doing a best lap of 42.883 on lap 17. I'm getting good at judging the entry into the corner when arriving at high speed after drafting, not slowing too much but also not trying to take the corner too fast. It depends a lot on whether the opponents get in the way on the corners, typically I'm slower when lapping traffic, not faster.

I'm just 0.556s behind and catching him on lap 18. Then it all starts again, with Thomas and the pack catching me on the straights, me sitting left to avoid giving them a tow, and it's neck and neck at the line each time around, 44.733, 44.739, 45.374, 44.092, 44.674, 44.521, with the gap just 0.027 at the line on lap 22.

Then, suddenly, on lap 23 and 24, the elastic breaks and I start to pull ahead. I guess their tyres are starting to go off, and the whole pack is now running 44-45s laps and I run a 43.713 on lap 24 and the gap gets out to 1.4s, now I can run the best lines and back into the high 43s and low 44s - 43.729, 43.610, 44.023, 43.819, 44.218. By lap 29 the gap is out to 6.625 s.

On lap 30 I see the second group up ahead, they are lapping in the 46s. Laps of 44.232 and 44.099 and I'm over 8 seconds ahead of 2nd place, then just as I catch them on lap 32 the second group breaks up and Henson and Jansen block the corner heavily - I laps at 47.527 and 45.619 and the lead drops to 5.6 s. Then I'm past and back into the low 44s: 44.165, 44.344. I catch Nieto Silvestri and Kaya on lap 35 for not much loss, and Yanez on lap 36.

I'm not lapping so fast now, 44.801, 45.591, 44.175 and 44.096. Durham, Thomas, Berg, Pratt and Kikuchi are still together and they catch the remains of the second group on lap 39. Berg's tyres are toast and he pits early. My lead is out to 12.6 s on lap 40 when Yanex pits. I pull some faster times 44.240, 43.951, 43.752 and now I have 16 seconds as Silvestri pits on lap 42.

Laps of 44.472, 43.911, 43.800 see me with a 21.25 s lead as Durham, Thomas and Kikuchi pit on lap 45. It looks like I can make 50 laps before pitting, so surely the race is in the bag with a lead and one less pit stop than the leaders.

Lap times are creeping up as my tyres wear down, 45.436, 44.494, 44.594, 44.285, 45.058, and on lap 51 the red fuel light is on.
I'm taking the last corner to pit, and take a bad line on worn tyres and touch the grass on the inside, spinning in the pit entrance lane! Luckily I quickly recover, no damage done and into the pit box for 99 L of diesel and another set of racing hard tyres. Pit in lap is an eternity - 2:15.350.

As I'm leaving the pits, Berg flies past on the straight and at the end of the lap he's nearly 10s ahead. Where did he come from? I thought I was racing Thomas and Durham for the win?

Seems that on fresh tyres after his early pit stop he's been doing low 44s and has now caught me on the overlap. I'm back in the groove once my tyres are warm and I'm soon doing high 43s and catching him.

Laps 53 to 55 I'm taking chunks out of his lead: 43.898, 44.779, 43.609, but behind me Thomas is only 2s behind, also lapping in the mid to high 43s waiting for me to make an error.

The next 7 laps I average 43.62, and catch Berg on lap 62, but Thomas is still lurking, just 3.5 s behind me, I'm not getting away that easily...

 

[b_adger]

Part Deux:

It's now lap 64, I am back in the lead, about 2s ahead of Berg, who is about 3s ahead of Thomas. Durham and Pratt are another 8 seconds back, and Kikuchi is still on the lead lap, but about 30s behind me. Yanez and Silvestri are together one and a half laps behind, Kaya, Henson and Nieto are about 1 and 3/4 laps behind, and I've just lapped Jansen a second time.

I have empty track ahead of me, and reel out lap after lap in the high 43s, until I catch a group of traffic on lap 71 and lose a couple of seconds. Thomas has been lapping in the low 44s and I'm now only about 4-5 seconds ahead.

On lap 75 I catch and pass Yanez and Silvestri and now the whole field are in the same segment of the lap behind me. Behind me, Thomas' tyres are slowly going off, and now he's lapping in the high 44s, with everyone behind him in the 45s.

I now have a long run of 15 laps with no other car in sight. I get into the groove and hit 11 laps in a row under 44s.

Finally on lap 90 I catch Jansen (who I pass) and Pratt (who dives into the pits from second place). Durham and Thomas have already pitted the lap before.

I don't lose too much time passing the swarm of backmarkers, they are fairly nicely spread out. Berg has got the overlap on Thomas again, but it doesn't take long for Thomas to pass on his fresh tyres.

At lap 98 I'm just over 2 laps ahead of Thomas, who is a few seconds ahead of Durham, who is a few seconds ahead of Berg. Thomas is catching me by about 0.75 s per lap as my tyres are old and his are fresh, but in a few laps I'll be pitting. My tyres aren't as worn out as they were on the first stint, avoiding all the fighting in this stint.

On lap 101 Thomas is about 1 lap and 30s behind, and I have a long pit stop to do. The fuel light goes red in turn 2, I lift the throttle on the straight, take the last 2 turns and into the pit lane with fumes left! I put in 100L of diesel, 4 fresh hard tyres and out again. Pit in is 2:09, pit out lap is 1:03, and then I'm back out. I'm dawdling down the pit lane exit, watching to see if Thomas goes past, but he doesn't make it, and I'm still 11s ahead!

I put my head down again and pull out lap after lap, 13 in a row under 44s, weaving in and out of the traffic and slowly build up my advantage: 13s, 15s, 17s, 20s ahead, gaining as Thomas' tyres wear out.

At lap 122 Thomas is 25 s behind, Durham catching him 5 s further back, Pratt is 20 s behind Durham, now a full lap behind me, with Kikuchi another 15 s behind Pratt. The rest are more than 2 laps behind. I'm in the middle of my stint, still lapping under 44 s, with an occasional slower lap as I pass the traffic.

On lap 129 Durham catches Thomas, and they start to fight it out. They pit in together for tyres, but Durham has used more fuel in that stint and loses a few more seconds in the pit. Thomas exits right behind me as I'm passing Kikuchi and gains a little more time in the slipstream but Durham is on a blinder and gets a good draft to catch us. By lap 136 Thomas, Durham and I are fighting it out, and it's just like the start of the race, with me passing on the corners and being caught on the straights. This continues for 10 laps, then as my tyres go off, Durham pulls away, still lapping in the 43s while Thomas and I continue to fight it out.

On lap 151 the red fuel light comes on and I pit again, 99L and fresh hard tyres. Durham has 4 s on Thomas.

As I exit the pits, Durham and Thomas go past on the straight, to unlap themselves, and I'm just 30s ahead at the end of the out lap.

Durham's margin over Thomas is now about 6 seconds. I'm catching them both on fresh tyres, and at lap 164 I'm right behind Thomas. I get some good drafting and do a new best lap of 42.852 on lap 166 and pass Thomas. I'm soon up with Durham, careful not to bring Thomas with me, and go past to take a lap as his tyres are nearing the end of their life. Durham pits on 173, but Thomas who saved fuel sitting behind me stays out a bit longer.

Durham leaves the pits just in front of me on the track, I catch him, but he's done a short fill for the run to the finish, and I can't pull ahead on my older tyres. Thomas has come out of the pits about 5 seconds behind us.

On lap 181, Durham comes up to lap Pratt and Hensen, and gets blocked in on the straight. This allows me to catch up, but I'm also delayed by the trio and Thomas flies past all four of us on the straight to get a good gap. Pratt is quite fast on fresh tyres and low fuel, so Durham and I lap together with him for the rest of the race. All this time Thomas is making hay, Thomas is lapping in the mid 43s and we can't quite match the pace. Durham, Pratt and I trade places, trying to work together, but Thomas gains time, pulling out over 6 seconds by the end of the race.

Over the line for another 500 miles victory, in 2:32:40.166.

D Badger: R10 TDI Race Car '06 (Best lap 42.852)
M Thomas: R8 Race Car '01 (red) (-2 laps and 37s, 43.004)
C Durham: R8 Race Car '01 (yellow) (-3 laps exactly, 42.730)
J Pratt: R8 Race Car (Audi Playstation Team Oreca) (-4 laps exactly, 43.038)
D Berg: C60 Hybride - Judd Race car '05 (-5.9 laps, 43.404)
Y Kikuchi: V12 LMR Race Car '99 (-6.2 laps, 43.256)
M Kaya: V12 LMR Race Car '99 (-7.3 laps, 43.508)
O Jansen: Courage C60 - Peugeot Race Car '03 (-7.5 laps, 44.471)
L Nieto: Courage C60 - Peugeot Race Car '03 (-7.5 laps, 44.495)
T Silvestri: Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04 (-7.8 laps, 43.871)
O Hensen: R10 TDI Race Car '06 (-7.9 laps, 44.026)
P Yanez: Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04 (-8 laps, 44.006)

 

[b_adger]

Thoughts on the 2nd Indy 500:

1. This one was more entertaining at the start, it was a bit frustrating to be faster on the lap but not to be able to get away until the opponents medium compound tyres went off, but that added to the suspense. Drafting played a bit part in the AI outcome, but wasn't much of a factor for me, I spent a lot of time lapping on my own.

2. Even though the standard R10 with less power had a much slower lap time, maybe 3/4 s per lap, the total race time was only 37s less (=0.185s a lap!) than the first race. I haven't actually tested the car at 625 hp, but at 633 hp, my best practice lap time was about 43.350. The difference was the lower lap times with all the fuel saving I did in the first race, but with the standard R10 and the lower power setting I could just drive flat out the whole race and still had plenty of fuel left - probably 6L left when I went over the line.

3. It wasn't close in the end, mostly because of one fewer pit stop. I was on hard tyres which lasted longer than the AI's mediums even with the AIs magic tyre saving powers, but being able to do 50 laps on fuel and avoid a stop is huge, even though a splash and dash at the end wouldn't take as long as the 100 L fills did - it literally costs a whole lap to fill the car up.

4. It would be interesting to do this with a lot less power and see if it can be won by drafting most of the time to keep up and then gaining the time with fewer pit stops. The main problem was that getting blocked by one slower AI car and falling out of the group would ruin your race. As it was I couldn't catch up with Thomas/Durham when they were on good tyres after their pit stops.

 

[b_adger]

Ok, enough on the indy 500. Now I'm properly preparing for the Suzuka 1000.

I've been driving the 2008 Lexus Bandai Direzza SC430 in the Suzuka race of the Japanese championship. Bit unfair on the standard cars in that race, but it gives me 5 laps to practice the circuit as well as try some casual suspension tuning and 18k XP each time.

Can't really compare this race to the enduro as tyre wear and fuel use are turned off, but it is helpful to learn the circuit as well as some extra XP (I've now hit level 32).

Power has been increasing as the engine runs in, at 470 hp now and my best lap is 2:05.305, with a best 5 lap average of 2:06.733. Not sure if that is too fast or not fast enough! Falcon787B's best lap was a 2:05 in his win, and I calculate that with a 6 stop strategy I'll need to average better than 2:07.3 to match the best AI car in that race, and I'm not that consistent yet...

I started reducing the power once I hit 2:05, 460 then 440, now at 400 hp where best lap times are in the 2:07s as I get better as the circuit. Trying to see if I can do 130R without braking, the turn in point seems to be critical.

I also did 11 laps in practice with tyre wear/fuel turned on plus a test pit stop. 31L required after 11 laps = 484 L for 172 laps.
Total pit loss was 43 s including the 31L, so about 35s for a tyre+min fuel stop, plus 1s per 2L above the min (13 or 14L?).

More work to go, not sure if I'll be ready to start the 1000 this weekend.

 

[b_adger]

Final update before the race report:

I really didn't have a good idea of how fast I needed the car to be to be competitive but not too competitive. The best report is from Falcon787B, and he said he was regularly lapping in the 2:05s and only won by 35s in the end. But with the total race time, the average clear lap needed to be in the 2:06s or 2:07s depending on the number of stops.

I was able to pull out a 2:05 with a perfect lap but only by pushing so hard that I regularly drifted off the track and lost several seconds recovering. My average lap times were high 2:07s and 2:08s, so I bumped the power up to 420 hp and tried it out - this got me into the 2:04s for the first time.

I also realised I needed to do some practice on a wet track and test the wet tyres. I did some runs with the track 100% wet. On Wet tyres I did a 2:24. I then tried Inters and had more grip, 2:18 fairly easily. I decided to try Racing soft, and did a 2:19, although it was a bit twitchy. Clearly no need for full wet tyres. I also tried on a 50% wet track, Inters lapped at 2:15, and so did racing hard tyres. I should be ready if it rains.

I'd been practicing the track and earning some XP on the Japanese championship, but no realistic racing against the much slower cars. I realised in the extreme races there is a super GT Series, including 10 laps of Suzuka against the same cars as the 1000. I had a couple of goes, in the first I easily got to the front in the first lap on cold tyres. The AI cars are very slow through the Esses, I could just pass on the outside. However once the Raybrig NSX got into second place after starting in 6th, he started catching me quickly. Looking at the replay, he averaged 2:05 with best of 2:03.780. My best was 2:04.445, and only him battling through the traffic for 5 laps stopped me from being caught.

In the second super GT race I bumped the power to 430 hp, and the ARTA NSX was my main rival from pole position, but I still easily carved through the field on cold tyres to take first place by the end of the first lap. The ARTA sat behind me for a while but I managed a 2:04.246 and other laps in the 2:05s to pull ahead. On lap 9 I had a little excursion through the gravel, dropped to 2nd, but managed to catch the ARTA on lap 10 to take the win by 1.5 seconds...

Looking at the replay, I saw the AI in this series were on Racing hard tyres. I did a test start of the 1000 and found the AI were on Racing Medium tyres. Mediums for me are worth about 2s per lap, so even though I knew they would lose grip and slow down during their stint, I decided to start the race with 430 hp, pp of 579, as I was expecting the NSXs to be able to do 2:02s and 2:03s on fresh tyres.

However, when I started the race, after 19 laps I was well in the lead from the ARTA NSX - over 16 seconds ahead and gaining every lap.
It turned out that the AI are not 2s a lap faster on medium tyres! I have also noticed that there is a distinct loss of grip/lap times in races with tyre wear when compared to the shorter no tyre wear races (also in practice).

The ARTA's best lap was 2:05.897, much slower that the 2:05.267 from the Super GT race, and a full second slower than my fastest lap. Also his lap times dropped off into the 2:07s and 2:08s rapidly.

I stopped the race, turned the power back down to 400 hp (pp = 570) and restarted, hoping for a more interesting race.