Falcon787Bs GT2 Race Diary

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Falcon787B

Falcon787B

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GT2 Race Diaries

I started this way back in 2007 to inspire a race reports scene to kick off here on GT2, and I've revisited it time and again down the years. So here, all in one place, are ALL my race reports from my adventures and shenanigens in the awesome world of GT2! Happy reading folks :cheers:

Some of these race reports are in separate threads, but are linked in the contents for continuity and so they're all in the same place :)

Contents
1. 14/9/07 - Apricot Hill 200km I - Honda Prelude 2.2 VTEC (report is below in this post)
2. 22/7/08 - 'Supra Showdown' Turbo Car Number 1 Cup (Test Course) - Tom's Supra
3. 2/8/08 - 'Is Power Really Nothing Without Control?' Trial Mountain 30 Laps I - Nissan SilEighty
4. 13/8/08 - 'Jaws, GT2 Style' Apricot Hill 200km II - Mazda RX7 GTC
5. 20/5/10 - Trial Mountain 30 Laps II - Nissan Silvia Q's 2000cc
6. 23/5/10 - Laguna Seca 200 Miles I - Alfa Romeo 155 Touring Car
7. 31/12/10 - 'Race of 1000 Years' Special Stage Route 5 All-Night Endurance - [R] Audi S4
8. 24/2/11 - 'The Generation Game' Seattle City 100 Miles - Dodge Challenger
9. 6/11/11 - 'The CLOSEST Finish in my GT Career' - GT All Stars, Special Stage Route 5 - [R] Audi S4
10. 9/11/11 - 'Unfinished Business Part 1' Trial Mountain 30 Laps III - [R] Mini 1.3
11. 27/8/12 - 'Rags to Riches, Part 1' Trial Mountain 30 Laps IV - Nissan Silvia K's 1800cc
12. 17/01/19 (!!!) - 'JAWS RETURNS!' Apricot Hill 200km Endurance III - Datsun 240Z


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Apricot Hill 200km

Ok so theres not much in the way of race reports round here so I thought Id start...with an interesting race Im in the middle of here at Apricot Hill. I have my trusty 1991 Honda Prelude, tuned to 279hp, with various suspension and brake mods, plus some weight reduction and transmission upgrades. My opponents:
Honda NSX
Toyota Supra RZ '97
Shelby GT350
BMW 850i
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI GSR

So, the story so far: First 4 laps had an interesting battle with the NSX, so there I was thinking 'great, a close race' but no. By lap 10 I had an easy 10-second lead on him and I was moving away rapidly, albeit hindered by having to dodge the stationary 850i at T1 every few laps. But on lap 19 I did something really stupid - I left the game on and forgot to pause, so when I came back, I was sitting in 5th place, 2 laps down on the 4 cars ahead of me. This is where you join me now.
Lap 20-30 is my fastest laps so far, and the Prelude is really recieving a battering - Im not wasting any time at all, and after I pit on lap 25 (first pitstop lap 13) I've made up a lap on the front 4. By lap 32 I pass the Supra for 4th place, and on lap 35 Ive regained my lost laps off the NSX - the gap is now showing at about 1:35. 4th is lost again on lap 36 but regained by lap 38. The gap is now showing 1 minute 25 to the leader. With 12 laps to go, it's all to play for...
3rd place is gained whilst the 3rd place car is in the pits on lap 39, and by lap 40 the gap is 1:11 -forget the 3-lap battles of GT4, this is more challenging! Ive not put a foot wrong so far, apart from the minor off here and there, but I have managed to keep my laptimes consistently below 1:31, which is good for me - Im famously very inconsistent.
By lap 45 the gap is just 30.6 seconds. I gain 2nd on the previous lap when 2nd place pits - something which I dont plan to do before the end. I can't afford to. By the next lap its just 21 seconds. I'm going to catch the leading NSX, the question is, will I have enough left to pass him? Then suddenly in the first time trap, the gap is just 5 seconds. Im actually in sight of the NSX. What happened? A spin at T1 perhaps? Whatever it was, I could smell him, and I was hungry. So at the start of lap 47, I was just 0.3 seconds behind and ready to pounce in T1. And pounce I did. In fact so weak was the NSX in the final laps that he dropped behind the Evo too. Final results:
1.Me - 1:21:46
2. Lancer Evo +35.164
3. Honda NSX +39.291
4. Shelby GT350 +1:12.524
5. Toyota Supra RZ +1 lap
6. BMW 850i +6laps
So there we go - if you want to make an enduro challenging, give the leaders a 2-lap head start - guarenteed to make you run smoothly and without mistakes! Thanks for reading :D
 
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Falcon787B
2. Lancer Evo +35.164
3. Honda NSX +39.291
4. Shelby GT350 +1:12.524
5. Toyota Supra RZ +1 lap
6. BMW 850i +6laps
So there we go - if you want to make an enduro challenging, give the leaders a 2-lap head start - guarenteed to make you run smoothly and without mistakes! Thanks for reading :D
Click to expand...

Or you can make sure the Ford GT40 shows up. In a Prelude with just 279 hp, you should be guaranteed a better battle and you won't need to pull off-track to do it. 💡
What tires did you use? With that line-up (NSX fastest car) i would be on normal tires. Or i'd use sports if the GT40 was present. In any event, i've done the Apricot Hill enduro in many cars, everything from the Cappucino to a 4-door AMG Benz! 👍 It's cool to read an actual GT2 race report! :)
 
Oh wow, I never knew the GT40 turned up in this race...Ive race modded my prelude and maxed it out to 302hp now, so maybe I'll retry this race on normal tyres. For this race I used sports tires. I'm still pondering which cars to use for the other enduros, any suggestions would be greatly appriciated - in my first run thru GT2 in 2002, I used a GT40 race car for the Apricot Hill enduro and a Plymouth PT Spyder for the Trial Mountain enduro (yes this was back in the days when I overkilled every race...now I prefer more of a challenge :D)
 
Well Trail Mountain and Apricot were my 2 fave enduros in GT2, those are the 2 i did over and over. At Trail you have the Lotus Elise as your top Ai car. You can keep resetting your game till it shows up (it's tough) but i've managed to beat it in a Kei car....the Subaru Pleo. Other than this, i know off the top of my head i've done Trail in a Datsun 240Z, Prelude, and many other cars. The Elise only takes one pitstop, usually on lap 18.

Yeah unfortunately you may have to keep resetting the game till the GT40 shows up, and then you won't actually know if it's shown up or not because GT2 doesn't include a pre-race lineup :mad:, so you have no way of knowing which cars are in the race till you pass them. If you see a car getting far ahead of everyone else on the map, that's most likely a GT40. 💡
 
Awesome, yeah they are great enduros...both are challenging but not overly difficult tracks. Ive had an idea for both....how about my two new prizecars won from the FR Challenge - the Nissan Sileighty (201hp) for Trial, and the Nismo 270R (264hp) for apricot hill? Both will have standard horsepower, but may have some handling upgrades, eg suspension, brakes, weight reduction, depending on how competitive they are.
 
Nismo 270R has a strong oversteer, the Sil80 too, so you must change several settings to get a good handling...
The GT40 is a very fast car, but it's hard to control even if you have super-soft tyres ( it has a very strong oversteer at high speed)
 
Falcon787B
Awesome, yeah they are great enduros...both are challenging but not overly difficult tracks. Ive had an idea for both....how about my two new prizecars won from the FR Challenge - the Nissan Sileighty (201hp) for Trial, and the Nismo 270R (264hp) for apricot hill? Both will have standard horsepower, but may have some handling upgrades, eg suspension, brakes, weight reduction, depending on how competitive they are.
Click to expand...

A Sil80 on normal tires up against the Elise sounds like a great challenge. That Elise drives harder than you might think. And the Nismo 270R up against a GT40 at Apricot? :scared: i'm not sure it has enough power at 264...but you could give it a try. 👍
 
I had a go for about 6 laps on the Trial enduro in the standard Sil80, the Elise was lapping at around the same pace, or i was about a second faster here and there, and I knew that Id have to pit twice, maybe 3 times to his one, so I bailed out of the race at that point and grabbed some Sports tires, and also some sports suspension, but i dont think the sports suspension will be needed...loulou221 I agree about both cars having healthy oversteer - only last night i was flinging my Sil80 nearly fully sideways round the turn before the tunnel on Red Rock Valley :D As for the Nismo 270R at Apricot...that might be slightly trickier, Im certainly gonna upgrade the Nismo, probably make sure I at least have a horsepower advantage over the GT40, but not much, because this will be the minimum i need to overcome the deficit I'll have in the corners to the MR GT40.
Any advice on any other close match-ups in the enduros?
 
If I can suggest something, if you don't succed in this race against the GT40, you should try with MR cars like MR2 or NSX, even if they are very expensive.

And I don't think you need a horsepower advantage : the GT40 is a good car, but it has a lot of disadvantages. If you find them, you will be able to win the race.
 
Good idea with the MR cars loulou, true, a main advantage of the GT40 i guess is the acceleration off corners, I guess healthy practice, particularly accelerating off corners would do well. Thanks for the advice guys, I'll see if ican get round to the Trial 30 tonight...report coming later hopefully :)
 
loulou221
And the GT40 has very high speed in corners, it may be very hard to win against it with a 264hp Nismo 270R...
Click to expand...

I'm forgetting how much a 270R weighs...isn't it like 2,900 pounds? I'd be using around 350 hp with sports tires & semi-racing suspension if the GT40 shows up. Messing with your car's ground clearance is necessary imo when up against the GT40 because GT40's have better downforce; and you do not {or at least you should not}). ....I'd use maybe 300 hp without a GT40 present, on normal tires & normal suspension

Falcon787B
I had a go for about 6 laps on the Trial enduro in the standard Sil80, the Elise was lapping at around the same pace, or i was about a second faster here and there, and I knew that Id have to pit twice, maybe 3 times to his one, so I bailed out of the race at that point and grabbed some Sports tires, and also some sports suspension, but i dont think the sports suspension will be needed
Click to expand...

A Sil 80 can win this race...again i'm forgetting how much they weigh...i'm guessing 2,600? You might need 2 pitstops at the most, but it's very possible to win against the Elise...one thing i noticed is that in the initial turns after the start/finish line, the Elise (really, most Ai cars) tend to hit the brakes before entering the next series of bends. I would often brake as little as possible, and then FLY thru these turns to compensate for areas in which the Elise had me smoked.

But as i said, this is an interesting endurance race. Usually, (in GT3 & 4) if i'm battling just one other car lap after lap, it gets boring, but the TM enduro & Apricot are exceptions....maybe because you can do them in nearly an hour. :)

...loulou221 I agree about both cars having healthy oversteer - only last night i was flinging my Sil80 nearly fully sideways round the turn before the tunnel on Red Rock Valley :D As for the Nismo 270R at Apricot...that might be slightly trickier, Im certainly gonna upgrade the Nismo, probably make sure I at least have a horsepower advantage over the GT40, but not much, because this will be the minimum i need to overcome the deficit I'll have in the corners to the MR GT40.
Any advice on any other close match-ups in the enduros?
Click to expand...

YEah, i'd add power. Take the 270R's power, divide it by 7.22, and the final number should be the approximate horsepwer you'll need...and if the 270R weighs 2,900 as i think...i'd be using 350. 💡 And then you can take it from there..if your car is too slow, reset & add a bit of power. I seriously doubt you'll be too fast tho..that would mean you're faster than me!! :embarrassed:
 
...just tried stock 270R (without even racing tires) - easy to beat the rest cars, but GT40 gains up to 2 seconds per sector... for me it's impossible to win.

[upd] tried hard tires on both sides - this became easy, passed the GT40 in 3rd corner and started getting away. guess sports tires is probably the best decision here :)
 
The GT40 with normal tires isn't very fast. But with super-soft tires, this monster can take hairpins and corners as fast as a modern AWD race car.
At Turn 7, my speed at the hairpin exit was about 65-70 mph (exactly 105 kph) and 110 kph with a Pennzoil Skyline.
And I can go over 250 kph in the straight line, this is very fast for a 305hp car.
But I agree with A.A.Z. : the sports tires are probably the best decision here, but we can't say, so I'm going to try immediately...
 
loulou221
The GT40 with normal tires isn't very fast. But with super-soft tires, this monster can take hairpins and corners as fast as a modern AWD race car.
At Turn 7, my speed at the hairpin exit was about 65-70 mph (exactly 105 kph) and 110 kph with a Pennzoil Skyline.
And I can go over 250 kph in the straight line, this is very fast for a 305hp car.
But I agree with A.A.Z. : the sports tires are probably the best decision here, but we can't say, so I'm going to try immediately...
Click to expand...

right...it was made to the standards of its day (the GT40 was) so at the time it was a bombshell, but nowadays it shows its many limitations--but if you can control it...look out Ai! :D
 
IVe had a great idea for the Trial Mountain 30...Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 anyone? Tuned with mild suspension, brake, weight reduction upgrades, no exhaust, maxxed out engine and gearbox and a small turbo shud give 177hp...I tried it for a while on my PS1, up against 2 elises, 1 i think was a 190, i was leading by about 3 seconds by about lap 6 ish but i wasnt getting away...the lead varied, went up and down...if we say i have to pit twice to their once...should make fora very close race methinks? ill try it later hopefully
 
Falcon787B
IVe had a great idea for the Trial Mountain 30...Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 anyone? Tuned with mild suspension, brake, weight reduction upgrades, no exhaust, maxxed out engine and gearbox and a small turbo shud give 177hp...I tried it for a while on my PS1, up against 2 elises, 1 i think was a 190, i was leading by about 3 seconds by about lap 6 ish but i wasnt getting away...the lead varied, went up and down...if we say i have to pit twice to their once...should make fora very close race methinks? ill try it later hopefully
Click to expand...

I've won that particular race in a Subaru Pleo kei car, so it's very possible to win in a Trueno. I don't think the Elise was present when i drove the Pleo, tho.
 
Your Pleo must be an AWD car doesn't it ?
And a Pleo have 187 hp when you max it out...
Your car had to have a terrible handling to win even if Elise wasn't present when you drove.
 
loulou221
Your Pleo must be an AWD car doesn't it ?
And a Pleo have 187 hp when you max it out...
Your car had to have a terrible handling to win even if Elise wasn't present when you drove.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I know Marseilles does not have English as a first language, but what are you saying? Is it that the Pleo had to be a terrible driver to win? Or is it that the Pleo is still overkill for the race? Or is it something else?

(Thought: This doesn't seem to be flaming. I hope not.)
 
loulou221
Your Pleo must be an AWD car doesn't it ?
And a Pleo have 187 hp when you max it out...
Your car had to have a terrible handling to win even if Elise wasn't present when you drove.
Click to expand...

Actually, no...the Pleo is front-drive. It's one of the only cars in GT2 that has a 7-speed transmission, too (odd but true). And i read my notes on it just now . Turns out i was wrong--i did the TM enduro with full power (187 hp) and the Elise was present. Here's what i wrote a while back...

...At best, a Pleo RS will accept a Stage 2 supercharger and produces 187 hp@7,400 rpm with 149 ft-lbs. of torque at 5,100. And like other keis, the Pleo can go further than some would think and earn plenty of money. For instance, my Pleo cost $12,650 and with about $58,000 in aftermarket parts, i won the Trail Mountain Enduro against the mighty Lotus Elise 190. That's a net profit of $79,350, not including the prize car. Not too shabby.

I don't think 187 in this car is overkill...i don't know what the final tally was (how far ahead i was when i won) but i assure you it certainly wasn't easy. :crazy: A front-drive kei car (a hatchback, no less) up against a mid-engine super lightweight sports car! According to notes, the Pleo doesn't understeer that bad, but i was using sport tires & semi-racing suspension so it could be worse on normal tires.
 
A little kei car is very light and can take the hairpins very fast.
This is why a little kei car can do great things...

PS : My English is very bad, and I'm 13...
 
loulou221
A little kei car is very light and can take the hairpins very fast.
This is why a little kei car can do great things...

PS : My English is very bad, and I'm 13...
Click to expand...

Ah, dont worry about it! Your English is bettter than some folks on this website who actually are english! :D You should see some of the folks in the gT4 drifter section who come here as new members and can barely seem to put a sentence together! :rolleyes:
 

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