Badger's GT5 endurance races

[b_adger]

Suzuka 1000 Race report, second stint:

The weather is looking quite overcast, but no sign of rain yet.

Things are looking good, I managed to complete a 29 lap stint and am still on 5 stops, Fuel load is a little lower, so maybe lap times and tyre wear will be better in future stints? I'm also starting to come up on lapped traffic which may slow me down a little, but the same will happen to Meyer and Mathews and it seems they are much worse at it than I am.

After leaving the pits I notice the better grip right away, even on cold tyres, and see that the gap is now only 6.5s from Meyer who has been putting in some good times on fresh tyres. He has now done 5 laps and taken the edge off them so I should be able to stay ahead. My out lap is 3:01.277, just under 59s of time lost for the pit stop.

On my fresh tyres I try to be smooth and fast, and for nine laps I average 2:06.73 (2:07.021, 2:06.800, 2:07.069, 2:05.989, 2:07.143, 2:05.859, 2:07.135, 2:07.019 and 2:06.691). At lap 36 I'm out to 8s ahead.

From lap 40 I start to lose some time as the tyres lose grip, not just lower corner speeds, but also adjusting to the braking not being as effective and missing the apex if I brake at the usual spots. A few times I run wide at the hairpin and Casio. This makes my times a bit inconsistent: (2:09.975, 2:07.254, 2:08.298, 2:07.287) but I'm still making time on Meyer who is now 13.7s behind.


On lap 44 I have a little spin, applying full power just a little before the tyres have the grip on the exit of the hairpin and drop to a 2:09.832, and then on lap 45 I'm daydreaming and drift wide to the left on 200R and end up in the grass, recovering ok, but the lap is 2:10.667.

I berate myself for lapsing in my concentration and put in a couple of nice laps: 46,47 and 48 I hit 2:07.094, 2:06.436 and 2:06.817s. I'm now over 23s ahead of Meyer who then pits at the end of lap 48, leaving me 1:20 ahead but on tyres that very unhappy.

My lap times are now suffering, 49 to 52 are 2:08.515, 2:08.384, 2:08.218, 2:07.873, but I'm still gaining on Meyer who is also wearing his softer tyres, I'm 1:24 ahead, and then lap 53 was quite untidy, blowing out to 2:11.933

I lap three cars on lap 54, not losing too much time with a 2:09.829, but then on lap 55 I totally miss the apex of 1st curve and end up out on the grass instead of turning into 2nd curve, the three back markers slide past me, and I have to pass them all over again, finishing the lap at 2:16.393 and now only 1:06 ahead of Meyer who is making good time on fresh tyres. Lap 56 isn't much better, 2:11.788 as I struggle to find grip.

My crew chief comes on the radio as I start lap 57:

"Badger, you're losing a lot of time on these worn tyres. Pit in now and we'll switch to a 6 stop strategy, so you only run 23 laps in each remaining stint. You'll only lose about 35 seconds with the extra pit stop, not have to run the last 5 or 6 laps of each stint on old tyres. You'll be faster overall if those laps on fresher tyres are 1.5s or more faster per lap."

"I thought my lap times have been ok?" I wasn't sure I was doing that badly, although some slip ups had hurt my lap times.

"We've done the numbers, your average lap time for the first 24 laps of each stint was 2:07.5, and for the remaining laps, even excluding the spin on lap 55, the average is 2:10.1. You are losing over 2.6 seconds per lap at the end of these long stints."

"Ok, I'm coming in on this lap."

Into the pit at the end of lap 57, I roll over the line on the way to my box for a 2:12.48 after a pretty clean lap. There is 7L of fuel left, and while I'm planning on only doing 23 laps per stint from now on, the fuel guy hasn't caught up with the news and puts in another 72L to give me more than enough for 29 laps.

I roll out of the box, and Meyer flies past on the straight while I'm on the limiter out of the pit lane, putting me back into 2nd place. I'm back on the track, again happy with the extra grip even on cold tyres, out lap is 3:06.749, and I find I'm 6.35s behind Meyer. I have fresh tyres, his are a bit older, maybe I can catch him!

 

[b_adger]

Suzuka 1000 Race report, third stint:

After changing my strategy, I'm less cautious about saving the tyres, so I set to work to catch Meyer. My out lap is 3:06.749, and I'm making up time on every split as Meyer struggles to do 2:07s on 10 lap old medium tyres. The gap drops to 6.05s, then 4.8s, then 3.5s as I lap in 2:06.766 and 2:07.596. I draft Fujimoto down the back straight and pull out my fastest lap of the race, 2:05.349 and now the gap is just 1.75s.

I'm lapping nicely, 2:06.732, 2:06.661 and 2:06.077 and on lap 63 I pass Meyer in spoon. Soon I'm 7.5s ahead, I'm gaining 1.5 to 2.5s on Meyer in the first part of the lap, but losing about 1s in the middle part which is all about power, although it would be worse if he didn't coast on 200R and slow down so much on 130R. Laps 65 to 69 are 2min and 8.942, 7.107, 6.293, 7.629 and 6.218. On lap 69 I pass Hirano easily, and Meyer is now 15.8s behind lapping in the 2:09s as his tyres have gone off, but my tyres are starting to fade a bit, and I'm getting a bit tired too - I've been in the car coming up to three hours.

On lap 70 it starts to unravel a bit, I drift off the track on 200R again, letting Hirano catch me again. He drafts me up to 130R and under pressure I'm too keen out of Casio and spin on the exit, letting Hirano sail past while I post a dismal 2:17.192.

On lap 71 I have to catch and pass Hirano again, and I'm now only 8.5s ahead of Meyer: 2:09.138. Lap 72 is better, 2:06.946, and behind me Meyer pits for fresh tyres and more fuel. The tyres (or driver?) aren't good enough to take 130R at full throttle any more, and I drift wide on the exit during lap 73 and spin again, 2:14.151 and now Meyer is 1:17 behind me and on fresher tyres.

Laps 74 to 76 are without major incident, but just not very fast as I struggle to find grip: 2:08.059, 2:09.706 and 2:10.886. I jump on the radio to the crew to find Meyer has made up 7 second to be just 1:10 behind.
"Badger, we think you should pit now and change strategy again. With 20 laps on the tyres the car is much slower. I ran the numbers and for the first 19 laps your average time has been about 2:07.5s, and from lap 20 to 24, about 2:09.2. You're losing over 1.5s per lap during those laps, I'm also concerned about you binning it. If we run 19 lap stints from now you'll be about the same overall time, plus you'll be on a lighter fuel load"

I think about it, it's a chore fighting the car on every corner, and there have been several major spins already, I'm probably lucky not to have hit a wall and be out of the race.

"OK, let's do it, I'll pit in this lap". At the end of lap 77 I pit for 2:13.506 over the line, there is 25L left in the tank and I now only need enough for 20 laps per stint, so we put an extra 32L in the tank, change the tyres and off once again.

 

[b_adger]

Suzuka 1000 Race report, fourth, fifth and sixth stints:

As I pull out of the pits on lap 78, the short fuel fill means I'm still well ahead of Meyer, my lead is 23.5s and the out lap is just 2:41.881.

After pushing my tyres too early on the last stint, I'm a bit more cautious in the early laps, trying to be nice and smooth through the esses and Dunlop. The gap back to Meyer stays at 23s as he is on fresh tyres too, Laps 79 to 83 are 2:07.153, 2:07.282, 2:08.092, 2:06.368 and 2:06.381. Then Meyer's tyres start to fade and it's 25s, then 26s. Laps 84 to 89 also go well: 2:06.542, 2:06.341, 2:07.928, 2:08.228, 2:08.274 and 2:07.225. I'm over half way and looking pretty good for the win!

I'm in a good rhythm but the tyres don't want to play ball anymore on lap 90 and I can't get the front tyres to grip and understeer off exiting the last ess into Dunlop, leaving me spinning off into the gravel with a huge time loss: 2:19.361. My gap to Meyer reduces from 27s to 16s!

Lap 91 is similar, but in the middle of Spoon, understeer off after the first part of the corner and another spin, a lap of 2:16.153 and my lead is now just 10s...

Meyer is also struggling on tyres, and I claw back 3s with 2:08.393 and 2:08.544 on 92 and 93. Then on lap 94 I scrub wide again on Spoon, no spin but 2:12.349 puts me back to 8s ahead. Lap 95 is 2:08.611 and lap 96 I dive into the pits again for 2:11.394.

Behind me Meyer also pits, and I have 6L left and the team put another 50L in to give me 21 laps. Meyer has a longer stop and I exit 26s ahead with an out lap of 2:56.238.


On lap 98 I'm taking it easy on cold tyres for a 2:07.379, but I can see there is a lot of traffic up ahead. Out of the hairpin into 200R I easily catch and pass Gottlieb, not sure why he was so slow as he must have 70 or 80 hp more than me. Nice lap, 2:05.847.
Janssens, Wilkinson and Koike are up ahead on fresh tyres, so it's taking me a while to catch up. Laps 100 an 101 are 2:07.096 and 2:08.374
The gap back to Meyer is now 29s, I'm slowly catching Jannsen with a 2:06.198, then on lap 103 I pass him easily on the esses, 2:08.613. The gap back to Meyer stays at 29-30s, laps 104 to 109 are 2:06.378, 2:06.338, 2:07.012, 2:06.697, 2:07.842 and 2:07.939.

The tyres are just starting to lose grip and I put a wheel off the kerb on the exit of Degner 2 and spin! Janssens is on my tail again after 2:14.225. Another poor lap on 111 with a spin at turn 1, 2:11.594 and Meyer is now only 19s behind. 112 is better at 2:07.391, but I'm struggling on the worn tyres and do 2:09.586 and 2:10.027 on 113 and 114. How did I manage 29 laps on the first stint?

I pit in on lap 115, in lap is ok at 2:11.285. Fresh tyres, and something is wrong with the fuel fill - we should be putting in just enough to get 20 more laps, but the fuel guy is still behind the car putting fuel in long after I should have left, and the lollypop is still in front of me. I jump on the radio: "What's going wrong?" "I don't know, I'll check..." Finally the lollypop goes up and I'm away. Crew chief comes on the radio "Sorry, the fuel guy got the wrong info and did a full fill for you". I'll need the fuel to finish the race, but it would have been better to put it in at later stops and run lighter.

My out lap is a glacial 3:22.698, and I'm now 56s behind Meyer, and Mathews has also passed me for second place. With the car full of fuel and tired after over 4 hours of driving, I'm quite a lot slower than in the first stint...

Wilkinson is just ahead of me as I come out of the pits, and is going quickly. I spend quite a few laps chasing him, and while my lap times aren't great at 2:08.314, 2:07.132, 2:08.231, 2:08.716, I'm catching Meyer and the gap drops to 48s before Meyer and Mathews pit on lap 120. The car is sluggish being full of fuel and now the tyres are starting to complain, and I'm missing apexes and only 21s ahead of Meyer.

Meyer is now on fresh tyres, and I'm struggling to get into the 2:07s, laps 121 to 124 are 2:09.098, 2:07.330, 2:08.942, 2:07.478, and the gap to Meyer drops to 18s, then 16s. I pull out a couple of better laps, a 2:06.726 and a 2:06.277, but the gap is still falling, now just 13s. On lap 126 I see a lot of traffic up ahead. This will slow me a bit, but should be worse for Meyer.
127 and 128 aren't bad as I pass Wilkinson and Jorgensen, 2:07.973 and 2:07.933.

On lap 129 I catch the sister Bandai being driven by Hattori at 130R. I give him heaps of room but he slows more than I expect, so I go around him on the outside and put one wheel on the grass. Suddenly I'm sideways at 200 km/h, passing in front of him and onto the gravel. I somehow avoid a spin, keep it out of the wall and recover to finish the lap in 2:11.164. Meyer is now just 9s behind, and while I'm struggling to lap quickly (2:08.751, 2:08.275, 2:07.588, 2:09.756), his tyres must also be getting worse as I'm still 4.5s ahead when I pit in on lap 134 (in lap 2:11.017). I've used 52L in that stint, so I just put in 13L, keeping the fuel load down for the next stint.

 

[b_adger]

Suzuka 1000 Race report, seventh and final stints:

After pitting at the end of lap 134 I am now on the home stretch, just 38 more laps to go... With the shorter fuel stop my out lap is just 2:33.733, I've stayed ahead of Mathews and I'm now 22.4s behind Meyer, who is lapping in the 2:08s and 9s.

I put my head down and get on with it, laps 136-142 are much better than the last stint: 2:07.241, 2:07.395, 2:07.686, 2:06.465, 2:05.575, 2:08.651, 2:06.283
The gap to Meyer drops steadily, 19, then 14, then 9 then 7.3 seconds.

On lap 143 I rip out a 2:05.725 and now I'm just 1.7 seconds behind Meyer. I catch up through the esses on lap 144, get a great run through Dunlop and pass him into Degner 1. I can see there is a lot of traffic up ahead, but Meyer avoids it by pitting in at the end of the lap while I continue on to do a 2:07.015.

On lap 145 I deal with some traffic for a 2:09.056, and after he has pitted I'm 1:07 ahead of Meyer, getting down to 2:06.043 on lap 146.

After 10 laps of hard work my tyres are fading a little, braking isn't so good, laps not so clean, but I still make time on Meyer on his fresh tyres - is he in traffic? Laps 147 to 149 are 2:09.100, 2:08.271 and 2:06.195.

I'm trying hard to keep it smooth, but I miss the turn in to 130R and spin, losing heaps of time to finish with 2:23.566 on lap 150, now just 48s ahead of Meyer.
On lap 151, on the exit of Degner I lose all power for a few seconds, and when I get the car started again the car has already rolled onto the grass on the inside of the hairpin causing a big spin that costs me even more time, lap is 2:20.277, now I'm just 35s ahead of Meyer. Am I going to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory?

The next lap is much better, 2:08.623, and I'm feeling so good I forget to pit in and keep going to do 2:07.815 on lap 153, I'm now 32s ahead of Meyer.

I pit in on lap 154, my in lap is a great 2:10.57 and I add 45L for the final run to the chequered flag. My out lap is 2:51.145 and I come out just 13s behind Meyer, who has done 10 laps on his medium tyres, so I should be able to make up the time and take the win - as long as I don't spin or crash!

I start out taking it easy, Laps 156 to 163 are pretty good: 2:06.717, 2:07.503, 2:08.272, 2:08.160, 2:06.541, 2:06.354, 2:07.149 and 2:06.224.

The gap is dropping steadily, Meyer is lapping in the 2:08s and battling with traffic, 11.5, 6, 4, and then just 0.954s at the line starting lap 164. I pass him into the first ess, and then push on to do a 2:07.365.
We catch some more lapped traffic, I sail through with 2:08.326 and 2:07.843, but Meyer is held up a lot, my 2s lead becomes 4s, then becomes 9 seconds. Fighting through traffic slows me to 2:09.941 on lap 167, Meyer isn't bothered as the backmarker pits from in front of him, and he claws back half a second to be 8.5s behind at the end of the lap.

I'm pretty sure I can stay ahead of him for the remaining 5 laps, even though my lap 168 is a bit untidy at 2:09.075. Suddenly I see Meyer's gone from the timing board, and I realise he's killed his tyres trying to catch me and has been forced to pit in with only 4 laps to go! He doesn't need any fuel and comes out 33s behind, but victory is now out of his grasp.

I've got it in the bag as long as I don't crash, so I switch to safety cruising mode, and the remaining laps are slow but steady at 2:10.923, 2:08.863, 2:09.404 and 2:11.029.

I'm over the line after 172 laps and 6 hours, 14 minutes and 2.733 seconds.

The standings at the end of 1000km:

Badger: BANDAI DIREZZA SC430 '06 (6h14m2.733s, best lap 2:05.349)
M Meyer: ARTA NSX '06 (+19.854s, 2:05.333)
F Mathews: TAKATA DOME NSX '06 (+45s, 2:05.720)
Z Wilkinson: WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R '08 (1L + 40s, 2:06.359)
N Janssens: XANAVI NISMO Z '06 (1L + 45s, 2:06.221)
R Koike: ENEOS SC430 '08 (2L + 1:45, 2:08.161)
R Gottlieb: XANAVI NISMO GT-R '08 (3L + 1:25, 2:08.616)
Y Hirano: MOTUL AUTECH GT-R '08 (4L + 1:09, 2:08.957)
N Fujimoto: PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 '08 (4L + 1:45, 2:09.722)
M Hattori: BANDAI DIREZZA SC430 '06 (5L + 1:13, 2:10.012)
G Doyle: DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 '08 (5L + 1:20, 2:09.978)
N Jorgensen: YellowHat YMS Supra '05 (5L + 1:44, 2:10.153)

I'm pleased that Hattori in the more powerful Bandai sister car has managed to finish better than last, but even more pleased I held it together for over 6 hours to take the win!

 

[b_adger]

Thoughts on the Suzuka 1000:
1. The track is quite technical and was hard work for over 6 hours. I did the race in 2 sessions, up to lap 134 on Sunday afternoon (4h 51m), then the final 38 laps (stints 7 and 8) the next evening. Here are the average times and best laps for the first 18 laps of each stint (add 2 minutes for each lap time):

stint	Average	excl spins	best lap	Fuel load
1​	7.065	7.065	5.633	100
2​	7.466	7.466	5.859	82
3​	8.268	7.507	5.349	79
4​	9.013	7.526	6.341	57
5​	8.149	7.769	5.847	56
6​	8.217	8.033	6.277	100
7​	8.943	7.321	5.575	61
8​	8.217	7.885	6.224	53

I was getting tired and making more mistakes as the hours passed, and my times were a bit slower in the later stints on low fuel loads than my times in the first stint with full fuel. I should have got a bit better at the circuit as time went on - I certainly improved on 130R which I found tricky to judge the turn in - once I managed to take it at 239 km/h without sliding, but most of the time I turned in a bit too hard and lost speed at the apex. I'm not sure I ever got Degner 1 exactly right, it was hard to judge the braking spot and turn in for that one too.

2. Two technical glitches (user error?) - I'd been doing a suspend each time in the pit to save my progress, then immediately going back to the race and selecting my fuel load, but on lap 115 as I hit the X button to select "suspend" I saw the cursor moving back to "ok", giving me a full fuel fill instead of suspending. On lap 151 I pressed pause to take a screenshot, but hit the PS button instead (they are right above each other on the G29). For some reason (!) this doesn't pause the game, so the car just rolled while I tried to press pause (didn't work) then find the PS button again, which I managed to double press, having to press it a third (fourth?) time to gain control of the car again, by then I was off the grass at turn 10, and in the wall for significant lost time. That sure made it exciting as I was losing time to Meyer and he was faster than me on fresh tyres.

5. Suspension tuning: This time, since I didn't know Suzuka really well, I started running the 5 lap Japanese championship with the stock suspension tune and just made a few small changes after each race based on how it felt - which was actually very good right out of the box. I just lowered the car a little, changed the toe and camber and adjusted the spring rates to dial out a little understeer. Once my lap times had stabilised a bit (from 2:08 to 2:05) I set about seeing if I could get a good tune at 400 hp.

I tried out a few published tunes and the GT5 quiktune spreadsheet, and the best tune I found was this one: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...as-toms-sc430-super-gt-08.191631/post-5016131 which gave me a 2:05.5 at 400 hp. I tried a few adjustments to dial out a touch of understeer but couldn't gain any time.

I used GT5 quik tune for the gearing settings, as not having realised the car was a 6 speed, I'd been getting near the limiter at the end of the straight in 5th gear! Using the quik tune gearing settings saved 2 tenths in acceleration 100-200km/h, and also meant I could sit in 4th gear through the esses for a nice smooth run.

In the end I couldn't really improve on HaoleHatingWRX's tune and went with these settings:

Ride Height	F:-5 R:-5
Spring Rate	16.8 |17.8
Damper Ext	F:8 R:9
Damper comp	F:5 R:5
ARB	F:6 R:6
camber	F:3 R.1.5
toe	F: -0.01 R:0.05
LSD IT	12​
LSD AS	22​
LSD BS	8​
BB	4|5
aero	35|60
1st	3.475​
2nd	2.475​
3rd	1.943​
4th	1.579​
5th	1.33​
6th	1.145​
final	3.28​

4. The odometer of the car only shows 1064.8km and 5 wins, even though I did 15 x 5 lap races, 2x10 lap races, 19 laps of the 1000 (didn't count because I quit out?) plus the completed 1000 plus 50+ practice laps. Just the distance of the 18 races I completed would be over 1550 km, and in total I drove at least 1962km in the car. Not sure what's up here?

5. At the end of the race the power was the same 400hp as when I started, but my laps times are clearly slower, even when I wasn't tired in the second session but I did have much lower fuel loads. Was it that the chassis of the car was getting worn/loose? Did the practice km contribute? I'm pretty sure the engine increased in power during those practice laps as per the usual run in so those km have some effect.

 

[b_adger]

Yesterday I picked up my international driving permit for an upcoming trip to Europe, time to think about the Nürburgring 4 hour!

As usual, I'm trying to pick a car that is in theme for the race, which means I'm looking at German marques, ie Audi, BMW, M-B and VW.

My initial thought was the Audi RS4 wagon (Avant), since I came very close to buying one in real life. I think it will need to lose a lot of weight to be fun to drive and not chew tyres and drink fuel. I'm also looking at lighter cars: the '82 Quattro, A3 3.2 and the S3.

For BMW, I don't think I can get the 2002 turbo fast enough but it is worth a look, the M3 GTR-race car (detuned? Too much power) or the normal M3 GTR, 320i TC, and the Concept 1 series tii look ok.

From M-B only the 190E looks interesting (probably the TC, the stock version probably won't be fast enough) although I'd love to try it in the '54 300 SL I doubt it can lap fast enough and might be a bit terrifying to drive...

VW have a few to try:
New Beetle Cup Car '00, New Beetle RSi '00, Golf IV GTI (RM?) and the Scirocco R '10 could be ok.
I really enjoyed the Lupo cup in the professional series, so I'm going to see how much I can tune up the Lupo cup car '00 - should be a hoot!

Based on the 4hr Companion thread, I'll need to be able to lap right on 9 minutes for the non-rabbit fields. Famine managed it with a PP of about 480 on racing soft tyres, but I think I want to run harder tyres to have some extra speed in reserve if needed. So I'm aiming for a PP of about 520-530. Let's see what happens.

I'll also run through the AMG Academy for some XP and also to help re-learn the track...

 

[b_adger]

Update on car selection and what I've tried out so far (all on racing hard tyres):

• Lupo cup car, couldn't get enough power with mods, max PP was only 424 and lap time was well over 10 minutes. I'm not good enough to win with this one. Not sure if it is just the Type V version, but the ring is a lot bumpier than I remember, the car was jumping around all over the place.
• New Beetle cup car: Limited power increase and weight loss options, ended up with 1160kg, 291hp, 468pp for a lap time of about 9'30 - probably not fast enough
• Golf IV GTI RM: Also limited power and no weight loss: 980kg, 282 hp, 490pp, lap 9'30ish.

Then I looked at the similarly specced A3 3.2 quattro '03, S3 '02, New Beetle RSi '00 and Scirocco R '10. I decide to try the Scirorro first since it is the lightest (but FF):

• Scirocco R '10: after weight reduction + mods I got 1169kg and 402 hp for 524 pp and a 8'58 lap. A contender, although I'm a bit concerned about front tyre wear - the rear tyres never fully warmed up during the lap. Room to tune the suspension too.

Next I tried the BMW M3 GTR '03, as being RWD it should share the tyre wear better:

• M3 GTR '03: 1124kg, 384 hp (can add more power), also 524pp. This clearly has better grip than the Scirocco (although I haven't tuned the suspension on the VW) as I pulled ahead on the GP track's tight corners, but lost lots of time on the straighter bits - maybe due to the lower power? It has only 18 hp less and the top speed seems similar but the ghost of the Scirocco is catching me at Aremberg, passing around Mutkurve and off into the distance at Dottinger.
• I also had a hard time keeping it on the track as the front seemed to be crashing over every bump and curve. Reducing spring rates, damper settings and ARB didn't help much. I then tried a tune from SolidSnake7735 (https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...uning-touge-wangan.217626/page-5#post-6504045) and even though everything was set harder it drove better than my initial tune (based on Motor city Hami's base tune) but still crashes over the bumps quite a lot. I ended up with a best lap time of 9'04 with a slight excursion along the armco. Unless I can improve things this car may be too much of a pain for a 4 hour race...

I have a few 4WD Audis to try: S3 '02, TT Coupe 3.2 quattro '07 and the TTS 09 are similarly specced. I've started on the TT coupe, but max power is 386 hp (not run in) for 510PP so it may not be fast enough - Will try a lap next session.

I also have the RS4 wagon in the wings, min weight is 1318 kg, so a bit porky compared to the others, but no problem with available power! My main concern is that will use more fuel and more tyres, but I can probably manage it and it's the one I really like.

I'm also likely to improve as I learn the GP part of the track and re-learn the rest of the ring at this pace. I might have a go at Schwarzward B Nordschleife race for some practice, although I don't know if I'll be fast enough to win in these cars...

 

[b_adger]

Update on car selection testing:

I tried a few more cars during the week:

TT Coupe 3.2 quattro '07: This one modded to 1169kg, max 386hp, 510pp. But when I drove with a basic 4WD suspension tune from Motor City Hami it wasn't nice to drive, understeered and oversteered at the same time. Much slower than the Scirocco. Might be able to save it with a good tune?

I then moved to the RS4: at 1318 kg, 420hp, 513 pp I managed a 9'01. It was a lot nicer to drive than the TT coupe. I didn't like how much power was required to push the extra mass around, not good for fuel economy, so I put it to one side for now.

190 E 2.5 - 16 Evolution II '91: I really like the 190E touring car, but didn't want to do this in a fully modified race car, and I realised I could try the road car version. I tried it out with a tune from here, but it was awful! Rear stepped out under power on the first corner... So I went back to Motor City Hami's advice and got a much nicer tune. I'd stayed soft on the spring rates + ARB to help with the bumps.
Initial tune was very nice to drive, but I could only mod the car to maximum of 1115kg, 356hp, 481pp. Can't add a turbo? You can add one for the touring car... This gave me a lap of 9'18 which is a bit too slow, and while it's likely I could pick up some time with a better tune and better lines through the back section, I doubt I'll be good enough in this car... Maybe my second attempt?

TTS 09: I went to the Audi dealer and grabbed one of these in orange. Modified it to 1173kg, 386hp, 518 PP and set up the suspension similar to the RS4. I didn't have time to do a full test lap but it was easily faster than the RS4 was at 420hp for the first third of the lap. I'll have another go at it with it tuned down under 380 hp. I notice the torque curve is very flat which will help, and this one seems pretty promising.

 

[b_adger]

Car selection update number 3:

I've picked the Orange TTS '09. To tune the suspension I wanted to do some races, but there aren't many race in the earlier series that allow a 4WD German car to enter. I ended up running a few rounds of Tokyo Route 246 in the Schwarzwald League A. I started with Motor City Hami's base 4WD tune, then tried the base quiktune setup. The car is still gaining power as it runs in, and I was also learning how fast I could take the corners on the track in this car, which makes it harder to pick if lap times are getting better due to tuning. I went back to previous tunes a few times to check if the changes were actually faster...

I ended up using a combo of the tunes plus a few tweaks to get something that handled nicely to end up improving my first lap time of 1:54.9 to 1:51.5 with 381 hp.

I then moved to Nurburging Type V, but knew I didn't need so much power. Reduced power to 377 and got 9:01. I was making small errors focusing on the ghost car (Scirocco 10 @ 8:58) instead of the track, so I reloaded the track and started a clean go.

I'd put a wing on the car, but probably don't need it, I turned the downforce down from 15 to 10 and ran a nice clean lap, ended up with 8:54.528 with higher terminal speeds on the fast bits. Too fast now, so I turned the power down to 366 and the wing to 5 and pulled a 9:01 but with a couple of excursions into the grass. Trying again I managed 8:59 - still maybe too much power?

I'm pretty confident now, so I'm running the car in the Schwarzwald League B on the Nordschleife, it's a pretty easy win but helping me to get some more experience - I'm still not 100% on all the corners from Wipperman to Galgenkopf.

I need to do a few laps for tyre and fuel testing, but soon I'll be ready for 4 hours...

 

[b_adger]

Preparation for the big race:

As usual, I'm being thorough in my preparation:

I've been racing in the Schwarzwald League B and getting consistent laps without crashing or spinning. Lap times about 7'34 which seems about right, add about 1'25 for the shortened GP circuit part. I had been driving with the driving line assist turned on, mostly for braking points reminders (often the line is not "right" anyway), but I've I turned it off and still do the same lap times. I also adjusted the gearing, using the quiktune recommended ratios, but making 5th and 6th a little longer, as the peak power on the TTS is well below the red line of 7600, peaking below 6000 RPM, so it makes some sense to have 6th gear a bit longer so I'm still in peak power at 270km near the end of Dottinger Hohe, not nudging the rev limiter where the power is falling off again.


I felt pretty confident I remember the track now and I wanted to have some idea of tyre wear and fuel use, so went back to practice to do a longer run on the Type V track, this time with tyre wear and fuel turned on. I'd forgotten that this reduces grip and so even though I know the track a bit better, my best lap time (#4 of 5 laps) was 9'05.769, far below the 8'59 I'd previously run at this power level (366 hp). For 5 laps I used 53L of fuel (10.6L/lap) and I worked out that pit in and out with 15L of fuel takes about 34s. The Racing hard tyres were only about 1/3 worn after 5 laps, but as soon as I started the 5th lap I could feel the grip starting to go away and my 5th lap was about 8s slower than my best lap, although the difference for just one lap isn't very good statistically, there are so many corners where you can lose time - my second lap was 9'11.511, 6 second slower than my best lap, two of the others were 9'07s, so time lost due to the tyres is tricky to estimate - from 2-8 seconds? Comparing to my Suzuka race on the same tyres, at the equivalent distance (4 laps = 17 laps of Suzuka) I started lapping about 1% slower = about 5.5 seconds on a 9'05 lap.

I also tried a lap on Medium compound tyres: a bail-out strategy in case I need to make up time. It was tricky to judge because all the braking points were a bit different with the extra grip, but on a single lap I did just under 8'58. I lost time in the GP track on cold tyres compared to my ghost lap - to about 1.5s down? Then once the tyres were warm I made up time, to finish at least 8.5s per lap quicker if I started on warm tyres. I can probably manage 4-5 laps on these tyres too.

So the question is, what's the best pit strategy? On fuel I can manage 9 laps maximum, but if I'm losing time on every lap after 4 or 5 it might be better to pit early like I did at Suzuka. I whipped out my trusty spreadsheet:

With fuel costing 0.5s/L after about 15L, out laps cost 1.5 to 2s starting on cold tyres, lap 5 costing 5.5s extra, and then guessing at losses for laps 6 and 7 (8 and 10s?) then it comes out remarkably similar. From 3 to 6 stops the total delta over 4 hours is only 27 seconds with a base average lap of 9'07. The sweet spot is between 4 or 5 stops (4,5,5,4,4,4 or 5,6,6,5,5), both end up nearly the same total time.

I haven't accounted for slightly faster laps on low fuel, nor time lost by making mistakes (on worn tyres, or otherwise).


The million dollar question, is a best lap of 9'05.8 at 366 hp fast enough to win? It depends on the opponents! I've been carefully studying the The Nürburgring 4Hr Companion & Competition thread, and it is a treasure trove of info, however with the updates changing tyre wear over time, some info is out dated as the opponent cars pit on different laps and whether they run too many laps in a stint and lose time on worn tyres can make a huge difference...

I'd considered von Stiefel's special mystery grid (2nd N4 after GV300 and LeMans 24 x 2) which has the similar BNR GT-Rs for competition but I'm not currently high enough level to enter the LeMans 24H race to pick that one.

Standard Grid 1 looks good, with many cars with similar paces according to the summary in the first post and the fastest of them being the HKS CT230R, averaging 9'17.692 for the race, just ahead of the HPA TT and the S2000 GT1:

lineup 1	Avg lap 9m +
Mine's BNR34 Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1 Base '00	19.231​
HPA Motorsports FT565 twin turbo Audi TT	18.35​
Amuse S2000 GT1 '04	18.654​
Nismo 400R '96	45.6​
HPA Stage II R32	24.808​
HKS CT230R '08	17.692​
(player)	#N/A​
Nismo Skyline GT-R R-tune '99	24.808​
Nismo Fairlady Z Z-tune (Z33) '03	19.038​
Mine's BNR34 Skyline GT-R N1 base '06	21.538​
Nissan Gran Turismo Skyline GT-R '01	33.5​
Amuse Nismo 380RS Super Leggera	30.846​

Attempts by Dotini (Jan 2013) with another grid with the HKS starting last have an average lap time of 9'18, but that grid didn't have the S2000 GT1 or any other car close in speed to the HKS C230R - a bit boring. According to the list the s2000 GT1 has an average lap time a bit slower than the HKS, but I am a bit suspicious that may not be the case.

Reading on to more race reports, two attempts including the S2000 GT1 by kmkp show, after the last tyre update (v2.10), the S2000 GT1 no longer runs a slow lap on toasted tyres, and instead completed 27 laps in under 4h5m, for an average lap time about 9m'6, significantly faster... kmkp had to run best laps in the low to mid 8'50's to win.

However, Tarkata has run grid 1 in 2013 and the s2000 GT1 came 8th... Maybe GT5 was not updated?

Looks like my options are to run the car faster = more power, or to try to find a grid without the s2000 GT1 - although I have no idea how fast the other cars like the HPA TT, HKS CT230R or Fairlady Z tune might be either...

The only real way to tell is to start a race and see, but I think I need to tune the car up to hit well under 9 minute laps with tyre wear on. Probably need to turn up the power to 380 hp - I'll see how I go.

 

[b_adger]

I bumped the power up a bit to 282 hp and ran a couple of laps with tyre wear on. Not very tidy laps, but I managed just under 9:01, although I should be able to run under 9 minutes. Just to be sure I added 3 hp more to run at 385hp, PP of 517.

Nothing for it but to try it out, so I loaded up the Nurburgring 4 hours (Grid 1) and started a test run. It seems I didn't need to worry s2000 GT1 being so much faster, as I was able to get to the front and the racing has been quite good. The GT1 and one of the BNR GT-Rs are mere seconds behind me after 8 laps. I'll put up a full race report once I'm finished, but it might take a few days to get the stints done.