- 762
I read a number of threads in which people indicated that you needed stage 4 turbo, super hard tyres, changing the gearing and things of that nature on the R8, Minolta (even 787) to win this series. There were a few posts that vaguely indicated you could do it with a stock car but they weren't many and did not elaborate much on how.
Since I am trying to go through the game without spending much money I was concerned this was going to be expensive. So I previewed a few of the races and saw the usual suspects : C9, 787, R92C, r89C, R8 and a couple of new faces: Gillete, R390.
They didn't look like anything I hadn't seen before. I had done 2/3 of the Sarthe II enduro in a-spec (in the stock R8 against the C9, R89C, Minolta, & 787) so I knew that I had a few cars that could do this series with some decent driving and a good pit strategy.
THE PLAN:
1. Qualify on pole for every race
2. Do enough practice laps to get real familiar with the circuit/car combo
3. Do enough practice laps to get familiar with the opossition's pit strategy and with the tyre wear on my chosen ride
4. Win all the races!
THE RIDE:
Since I was going to use the car completely stock, including tyres and all other default settings (tranny gears, drving aids, etc) the list of cars I could use (only choosing from the ones I already owned) wasn't too large.
Formula GT: Did the Sarthe I with it. Wanted to save it for the Formula GT championsip... no need to put more miles on it.
R92C: Blows through a set of tyres on 1 1/2 laps at sarthe II. It is my fastest car after the F1 but tire management is paramount in this series... no dice!
Minolta: Almost as fast as the R92c but I have seen it has only marginally better tire wear.
Jaguar XJR-9: Slower than the Minolta, R92C and R89C but much better tyre wear and easier to handle in some tracks. Shortlisted.
Nissan R89C: Faster than the Jaguar and much, much better tire wear than the R92C. Doesn't seem to be a popular choice though. Shortlisted.
Audi R8: Next fastest after the R92C (only 0.229 slower than the R92C on my Sarthe II test). Has excellent tire wear and great handling. Unfortunately I used it for the Sarthe II and already shows the 'chassis wear' issue, not to mention the HP loss after 24 hours of Sarthe II. This car is pretty much retired in my books.
AMG CLK '98: I thought this car could be a contender because of the superior tyre wear and good handling. But after doing some tests I concluded that there would only be a couple of races where I could get away with no pitting and since in all but one race I would have to pit only once this car was off the list.
Bentley Speed 8: Next fastest after the R8 on the Sarthe II test (only .4 sec slower), fairly good tyre wear and handling like it is on rails. Shortlisted.
In the end I decided to use the Speed . I concluded that in all of the three possible cars ( R89C, Jaguar, Speed 8) I would still have to pit once in all races (twice in one). So it would be better to have the fastest of the three. My decision was also influenced by the fact that it seemed to be the one that was the easiest to handle on badly worn tires (the R89C being the worst). This would prove to be a very wise decsion.
THE COMPETITION
R92C
R89C
Minolta
Gillete
AMG CLK '98
This line-up gives 62 points in each race agains the stock Speed 8.
THE RACES
Race 1 - Tokyo R246: Overtaken by the Minolta and R92C at the start (standing start) it took me about 5 corners to be back in the lead. Pitted at the end of lap 6 with a 3 second lead. The others (bar the gillete and AMG) pitted on the next lap. I made a few mistakes on cold tires and the R92C came out of the pits 2 seconds in front. Another 6 turns later I was in the lead. Won by 6.51 seconds.
Race 2 - Motegi Super Speedway: Fairly straight forward race. Pitted at the end of lap 11 with a 4 second lead. The R89C showed off its tire wear abilities by staying out another 3 laps. I took the lead back whilst the 89c was in the pits. Won by 4.234 seconds.
Race 3 - Hong Kong: This was the race most people complained about being hard to win. I kept thinking about this and it caused me to have a 'brain fart' and pitted one lap too early (end of lap 8) with a 10 second lead. With almost gone rear tires the last lap was pure chinese torture. Luckyly I had a 16 second lead at the begining of that lap and the Speed 8 is very forgiving on worn tyres. Won by 5.315. I had to let the AMG CLK unlap itself (lapped it on the previous lap) half way through.
Race 4 - Seoul Central Reverse: This is one track I have never warmed up to. Needed extra practice laps to learn it better (not featured in many compos). Other than that it was a piece of cake. Pitted at the end of lap 12 and came out only 8 seconds behind the R92C and 2 behind the Minolta (which hadn't pitted). Almost cought up to the R92C by the end of the lap but he pitted (So did the Minolta). Won by 30.010 seconds
Race 5 - El Capitan: I love this track. Mostly because the AI is very cautious around it so they make easy pickings. Jumped by the R92c and Minolta at the start (standing start) was back in the lead after 3 turns. Pitted on lap 6 and came out of the pits 1 second behind the R92C. Back in the lead after two turns. Won by 36 seconds.
Race 6 - New York: Another piece of cake. I didn't write down which lap I pitted on but it was the first race I came back out of the pits still in the lead. Won by 58.917 seconds.
Race 7- Opera Paris Reverse: Another one that I read horror stories about. Once again I kept thinking about it through the whole race and made plenty of mistakes (but no big 'brain farts' like at Hong Kong). Pitted on laps 7 & 15. Came out after the last pit stop 10 seconds behind the R89c who was once again showing off his tire wear abilities. The R92C pitted at the same time I did both pit stops and was never more than 5 seconds behind (until the last pit stop when he either faded away or I stopped making so many mistakes). The R89C pitted at the end of the second last lap when I was about 4 seconds behind. Won by 11.501
Race 8 - Suzuka: One of my favourite tracks. Determined not to let the Minolta and R92C jump me at the start (standing start) I 'dropped the clutch' - sort of- and kept the Minolta behind me and the R92C on my right. We then proceeded to do 3 turns side by side in a high speed game of 'You break first- No YOU break first Mofo!' . He caved and I went on to push as hard as I could. At the beginning of lap 6 I had an 8 second lead. But I was pushing too hard and the tyres were bright yellow. So I went off track twice squandering most of the lead. Pitted at the end of that lap with a 1.2 second lead. R92C and Minolta also pitted on that lap but I was too worked up about blowing the lead so I had another 'brain fart' and selected 'B-spec' instead of 'No refill'. My jaw dropped to the floor when I couldn't steer the car after the pit stop.
I quickly put the pace on setting 4 with no overtake (the R89C was 20 seconds ahead and both the Minolta and R92C were 2 seconds behind) and yelled at bob "You better don't loose this race you bastard!". He basically just lapped at the same speed as the others so we won by 2.540 seconds. I celebrated by changing my undies
Race 9 - Grand Valley: Another High speed walk in the park. Pitted at the end of lap 6 and came out 6 seconds behind the R89C (R92C and Minolta pitted in the same lap as I did). Back in the lead half way through the lap. Won by 37 seconds.
Race 10 - Sarthe I: Pitted at the end of lap 2 with a 9 second lead. Strangely enough the Minolta and R89C decided to press on as did the rest of the field. So I came out of the pits on position 5, 2 seconds in front of the Gillette. But the joke was on them as both the Minolta and R92C wore their tyres out in the middle of the lap. I drove past the Minolta when it was in one of the sand traps and the R92C pitted with a 2 second lead on the R89 and 3 second lead on me.
The Gillete and AMG didn't pit at all. This paid off for the Gillete as it managed to finish 3rd 0.045 seconds behind the R92C (it was overtaking just before the finish line). The AMG's tyres gave up 2/3 into the last lap but still managed to finish 5th ahead of the R89C. I won by 29 seconds.
CONCLUSION
It has probably been done before but it felt I was one of the few winning this series back to back on a stock ride. Or at least this is the only (detailed) post about it I have seen about it.
Doing this series in two days really takes it out of you! (specially if you do as many qualifying laps as I did).
Since I am trying to go through the game without spending much money I was concerned this was going to be expensive. So I previewed a few of the races and saw the usual suspects : C9, 787, R92C, r89C, R8 and a couple of new faces: Gillete, R390.
They didn't look like anything I hadn't seen before. I had done 2/3 of the Sarthe II enduro in a-spec (in the stock R8 against the C9, R89C, Minolta, & 787) so I knew that I had a few cars that could do this series with some decent driving and a good pit strategy.
THE PLAN:
1. Qualify on pole for every race
2. Do enough practice laps to get real familiar with the circuit/car combo
3. Do enough practice laps to get familiar with the opossition's pit strategy and with the tyre wear on my chosen ride
4. Win all the races!
THE RIDE:
Since I was going to use the car completely stock, including tyres and all other default settings (tranny gears, drving aids, etc) the list of cars I could use (only choosing from the ones I already owned) wasn't too large.
Formula GT: Did the Sarthe I with it. Wanted to save it for the Formula GT championsip... no need to put more miles on it.
R92C: Blows through a set of tyres on 1 1/2 laps at sarthe II. It is my fastest car after the F1 but tire management is paramount in this series... no dice!
Minolta: Almost as fast as the R92c but I have seen it has only marginally better tire wear.
Jaguar XJR-9: Slower than the Minolta, R92C and R89C but much better tyre wear and easier to handle in some tracks. Shortlisted.
Nissan R89C: Faster than the Jaguar and much, much better tire wear than the R92C. Doesn't seem to be a popular choice though. Shortlisted.
Audi R8: Next fastest after the R92C (only 0.229 slower than the R92C on my Sarthe II test). Has excellent tire wear and great handling. Unfortunately I used it for the Sarthe II and already shows the 'chassis wear' issue, not to mention the HP loss after 24 hours of Sarthe II. This car is pretty much retired in my books.
AMG CLK '98: I thought this car could be a contender because of the superior tyre wear and good handling. But after doing some tests I concluded that there would only be a couple of races where I could get away with no pitting and since in all but one race I would have to pit only once this car was off the list.
Bentley Speed 8: Next fastest after the R8 on the Sarthe II test (only .4 sec slower), fairly good tyre wear and handling like it is on rails. Shortlisted.
In the end I decided to use the Speed . I concluded that in all of the three possible cars ( R89C, Jaguar, Speed 8) I would still have to pit once in all races (twice in one). So it would be better to have the fastest of the three. My decision was also influenced by the fact that it seemed to be the one that was the easiest to handle on badly worn tires (the R89C being the worst). This would prove to be a very wise decsion.
THE COMPETITION
R92C
R89C
Minolta
Gillete
AMG CLK '98
This line-up gives 62 points in each race agains the stock Speed 8.
THE RACES
Race 1 - Tokyo R246: Overtaken by the Minolta and R92C at the start (standing start) it took me about 5 corners to be back in the lead. Pitted at the end of lap 6 with a 3 second lead. The others (bar the gillete and AMG) pitted on the next lap. I made a few mistakes on cold tires and the R92C came out of the pits 2 seconds in front. Another 6 turns later I was in the lead. Won by 6.51 seconds.
Race 2 - Motegi Super Speedway: Fairly straight forward race. Pitted at the end of lap 11 with a 4 second lead. The R89C showed off its tire wear abilities by staying out another 3 laps. I took the lead back whilst the 89c was in the pits. Won by 4.234 seconds.
Race 3 - Hong Kong: This was the race most people complained about being hard to win. I kept thinking about this and it caused me to have a 'brain fart' and pitted one lap too early (end of lap 8) with a 10 second lead. With almost gone rear tires the last lap was pure chinese torture. Luckyly I had a 16 second lead at the begining of that lap and the Speed 8 is very forgiving on worn tyres. Won by 5.315. I had to let the AMG CLK unlap itself (lapped it on the previous lap) half way through.
Race 4 - Seoul Central Reverse: This is one track I have never warmed up to. Needed extra practice laps to learn it better (not featured in many compos). Other than that it was a piece of cake. Pitted at the end of lap 12 and came out only 8 seconds behind the R92C and 2 behind the Minolta (which hadn't pitted). Almost cought up to the R92C by the end of the lap but he pitted (So did the Minolta). Won by 30.010 seconds
Race 5 - El Capitan: I love this track. Mostly because the AI is very cautious around it so they make easy pickings. Jumped by the R92c and Minolta at the start (standing start) was back in the lead after 3 turns. Pitted on lap 6 and came out of the pits 1 second behind the R92C. Back in the lead after two turns. Won by 36 seconds.
Race 6 - New York: Another piece of cake. I didn't write down which lap I pitted on but it was the first race I came back out of the pits still in the lead. Won by 58.917 seconds.
Race 7- Opera Paris Reverse: Another one that I read horror stories about. Once again I kept thinking about it through the whole race and made plenty of mistakes (but no big 'brain farts' like at Hong Kong). Pitted on laps 7 & 15. Came out after the last pit stop 10 seconds behind the R89c who was once again showing off his tire wear abilities. The R92C pitted at the same time I did both pit stops and was never more than 5 seconds behind (until the last pit stop when he either faded away or I stopped making so many mistakes). The R89C pitted at the end of the second last lap when I was about 4 seconds behind. Won by 11.501
Race 8 - Suzuka: One of my favourite tracks. Determined not to let the Minolta and R92C jump me at the start (standing start) I 'dropped the clutch' - sort of- and kept the Minolta behind me and the R92C on my right. We then proceeded to do 3 turns side by side in a high speed game of 'You break first- No YOU break first Mofo!' . He caved and I went on to push as hard as I could. At the beginning of lap 6 I had an 8 second lead. But I was pushing too hard and the tyres were bright yellow. So I went off track twice squandering most of the lead. Pitted at the end of that lap with a 1.2 second lead. R92C and Minolta also pitted on that lap but I was too worked up about blowing the lead so I had another 'brain fart' and selected 'B-spec' instead of 'No refill'. My jaw dropped to the floor when I couldn't steer the car after the pit stop.
I quickly put the pace on setting 4 with no overtake (the R89C was 20 seconds ahead and both the Minolta and R92C were 2 seconds behind) and yelled at bob "You better don't loose this race you bastard!". He basically just lapped at the same speed as the others so we won by 2.540 seconds. I celebrated by changing my undies
Race 9 - Grand Valley: Another High speed walk in the park. Pitted at the end of lap 6 and came out 6 seconds behind the R89C (R92C and Minolta pitted in the same lap as I did). Back in the lead half way through the lap. Won by 37 seconds.
Race 10 - Sarthe I: Pitted at the end of lap 2 with a 9 second lead. Strangely enough the Minolta and R89C decided to press on as did the rest of the field. So I came out of the pits on position 5, 2 seconds in front of the Gillette. But the joke was on them as both the Minolta and R92C wore their tyres out in the middle of the lap. I drove past the Minolta when it was in one of the sand traps and the R92C pitted with a 2 second lead on the R89 and 3 second lead on me.
The Gillete and AMG didn't pit at all. This paid off for the Gillete as it managed to finish 3rd 0.045 seconds behind the R92C (it was overtaking just before the finish line). The AMG's tyres gave up 2/3 into the last lap but still managed to finish 5th ahead of the R89C. I won by 29 seconds.
CONCLUSION
It has probably been done before but it felt I was one of the few winning this series back to back on a stock ride. Or at least this is the only (detailed) post about it I have seen about it.
Doing this series in two days really takes it out of you! (specially if you do as many qualifying laps as I did).
So it was truly a "brown trouser" moment? Hope you were wearing bicycle clips too!!!
.
...O.G. 
