GT7 Daily Race Discussion

[Dep Fishtail]

I gotta admit, I sat down yesterday and ran a few laps of B, couldn't get below a low 58 then remembered that partial tuning is on and lost all will to continue.
I had 2 hours, I don't want to spend them finding a setup then spending tomorrow qualifying then maybe get to race Thursday when everyone has become even faster.

I guess I am going to call it a week without a single race.

I got home from work late and didn’t have much time tonight but tried going back and setting the damper compression 20 front and 40 rear leaving expansion alone on multiple cars. As few here have used this and found it useful so I gave it a try.

I felt like it clicked really great and every car was easier to get lower time than yesterday. Watched my fastest lap replay as I ended my night and gasped to see that I had asm and cs strong turned on the whole evening 😂 (had used it in the TT last night and didn’t reset it.)
I think that helped make cars stick more than the tun but maybe just a good combination 🤷🏻‍♂️

Keeping momentum and staying in the higher gears pays big and a in a few places short shifting helps too.

20/40 damper compression, TC 0 with asm and cs strong can yield at and under 1:57 in many cars even with average abilities.

I’ll see what happens with the assists turned off tomorrow night but if the cars become really loose, I have my accidently discovered recipe to go race with and feel confident about turning my Q time consistently.
Hopefully this info helps someone get on with their fun in B race.
Cheers

 

[D_Dragline]

Race C is good this week. Brands is a fun track and you can push the Gr4 cars hard on the soft tyres without many problems (other than the occasional dipping of a tyre onto the grass in the usual places.

What I can't quite wrap my head around though is the car choices. I have done 9 races and won 7 no-stopping in the Jag (8 races starting from pole). I'm seeing large numbers of Alfas, Slophys and Supras. Also a few Citroens about. I've barely seen another F-Type.

I get that the 4C and Slophy are good on tyres, but their lap times with fresh rubber mean I can get a BIG gap before the tyres become an issue. Everyone in the Supra is one-stopping and that's not viable.

Am I going crazy thinking no-one is running the meta, or could I be doing even better in one of the lightweights?

 

[TheNormsk]

Oh my, I am in trouble. I am just not fast enough for DR A/A+ lobbies. I got my B time to a 1:57.074 and I just can't get it into the 1:56s but I figured I try a couple of races.

Race 1 and I QT in 11th. Not terrible but I am the third slowest QT with three others posting no QT. I lost a place in the first turns but held on in 12th. It was apparent from the get go that I do not have the same type of lap to lap performance a most of the others but I noticed that the pack ahead of me would often slow as they would fight amongst themselves. I would say that this lobby was full of fast but scrappy drivers. I aimed for a strategic race, biding my time... The RCZ catches up in the twisty stuff but loses out to the high power stuff on the straights. I punted P10 on turn 2, lap 2 which was annoying as I lost my CRB but I was much quicker through that corner and did not expect hm to come to almost a complete stop. No places were exchanged so all good in the end. I was still P11 half way through lap 3 when things started to change. Some attrition ahead had me gain two spots but the second one, I had to slow to avoid, which seemingly gave the car behind an excuse to use the side of my car as a wall in the last corners .

Karma caught up with him though as in lap 4 while being scrappy with two other cars in front, he was hit while another car careens off track, after being punted by a third, allowing me to jump to 8th. The car that punted got a 5s penalty and he's in front of me. But, while I keep tags on him, I get punted from behind but hold it. Heading into turn 1, last lap there are three cars on my tail and in the radar I see another car come it like a missile and flys off. Not sure what was going on there but it looks like someone was going for a revenge attack and missed 🤷‍♂️. Luckily, missed me.

I think that "missile" threw off the others and they dropped behind leaving Mr Penalty to me. Passing him, I was able to finish in 7th. A gain for 4 spots in my first true DR A race!

I did one other race. This lobby was worse. I QT 14th as the slowest qualifier on the grid and with P1 a whole 1.3+s faster than me. I am in double trouble..

Part way through lap 1 and I am already in last place. The two behind must be the "let's drive from the back and try to win" brigade as they flew past me in the first turns like I wasn't even there. Then action happened. Seems the two with no QT don't mind playing bumper cars in their attempt to pass. Attrition happened (to others that initially started higher than me) and by lap 2 I was 14th only to slip back to last by lap 3. This was painful..

At the hairpin one of the A+ drivers crashes out giving me the opportunity to be ahead of an A+ car for the first time by random luck.. A bit latter one of the no QT guys also slides on out. I'm now P14. Lap 4 and I catch up with a pack of 4 fighting and slowing themselves up in the opening corners. I take one on the downhill straight, only for them to switcher-a-roo on me and take me on the uphill but I had the inside line and taken them again going into the esses; which I manage to keep. That was a good bit of racing. At the hairpin the second no QT guy goes off to play in the sand and I now get P12. Perhaps I can save this race after all? My goal is to always try to finish in the top 10. Could I do it?

No. I finish P12. In the end I ended the night where I started from a DR perspective. +2% in the first race and -2% in the second. All in all it could have been much worse.

The real take away from all this is that I am still driving at a mid-top tier B level pace and not a A level pace. You would think that a few DR points that transition you from one level to the next would not equate to a leap in driving pace, and that it would be more incremental but it is not. These folks were all significantly faster than what I can pull out on this track for now. Not sure I can really race until I can figure out how to drive in the 1:56s on this track.

Or, perhaps I give up on B and switch to C and try Brands with the Jag...

 

[bone_tone]

Don’t know what’s happening tonight but I just got glitch-gifted a win.

Race C. I did my no-stop in the 4C. French Ferrari on a 1-stop was fastest, zoomed away at the start and passed me for the lead on lap 7 with fresh softs.

It stayed that way until the end. They cruised the last lap and let me catch up on the line (but still in 2nd).

View attachment 1288368

The post-race results shows us P1 and P2 as everyone finishes, then they disappear from the top 10 and I get this

View attachment 1288370

The real winner was 13th on the race results with a -00.374 time gap.

My connection was showing red all race so maybe I unfairly snatched a win somehow.

The guy in P1 either quit, or his game crashed, before everybody had completed the race.

 

[MetalApe]

Or, perhaps I give up on B and switch to C and try Brands with the Jag...

I'm very much like you in Race B, a newly promoted A, and I don't have the pace to compete there properly. In race C it's different, I've got good competitive pace there and have finished 6th, 7th & 8th amongst a field of A's and A+'s.

But don't try the Jag in race C, it shreds it's tyres too quickly. It's good for qualifying, but switch to the Alfa 4C for the race.

 

[Fezzik]

I found the Alfa is too slow in race C now I’ve been promoted back up to DR B. Switched to the Citroen. Got my quali time down into the 29s, so starting top half and the car can just about manage a no-stop. Front left dies on the last lap but it’s still driveable.

 

[r_epp]

I did a bunch of qualifying in Race B this morning, bringing my time down from 1:56.394 to 1:56.099. Optimally, I could get 1:55.704 or so, if I can put together all my best sectors. I'm gonna get it yet.

More importantly, lots of reps is producing more consistency in my lap times.

 

[benjoi84]

I still haven't tried any Race C yet, but I can't keep doing Race A because I'm worried about my SR. It's still stuck in A but without any way of knowing whether it's going up or down I have to fear the worst.

I do have a 1.29.000 quali in the Jag for Brands Hatch which as of bedtime yesterday was No.208 on the leaderboards. Stupid question for everyone about tuning... which direction is "stiffer" and which is "softer"? I couldn't find a straight answer anywhere. I've been working on the assumption that towards the left is stiff, but I keep second guessing myself. In truth, my best time was set with default settings but I think it would be good to know.

NB: the Race A quali leaderboards have really started getting misleading.

 

[Barney Da Dog]

I've been trying to improve my Supra time on Race C but I think I've been driving the 4C so much in the races that I can't get close to my Supra's personal best. I did manage to somehow improve on my US account by going faster in the 4C than I can in the Supra 😂 I'm just more confident in throwing it in to corners now.

Apart from the occasional Supra it's always the Alfa 4C and Citroen GT out front if the racing is clean.

Might have to give it a break tonight though as my thumbs are getting sore holding on to the Fanatec McLaren wheel - hopefully the BMW one will arrive soon.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

The real take away from all this is that I am still driving at a mid-top tier B level pace and not a A level pace. You would think that a few DR points that transition you from one level to the next would not equate to a leap in driving pace, but that it would be more incremental but it is not. These folks were all significantly faster than what I can pull out on this track for now. Not sure I can really race until I can figure out how to drive in the 1:56s on this track.

I'm having trouble racing this track this week also, and it has nothing to do with DR. People just seem to be better at driving the track during the actual race than I am, and I suspect you're seeing the same thing - and it doesn't have anything to do with DR. It's just a different race this week - different from what we're used to.

 

[MetalApe]

What I can't quite wrap my head around though is the car choices. I have done 9 races and won 7 no-stopping in the Jag (8 races starting from pole). I'm seeing large numbers of Alfas, Slophys and Supras. Also a few Citroens about. I've barely seen another F-Type.

I get that the 4C and Slophy are good on tyres, but their lap times with fresh rubber mean I can get a BIG gap before the tyres become an issue. Everyone in the Supra is one-stopping and that's not viable.

Interesting comment. The very first race C of the week I raced the Jag from pole and won fairly unchallenged. I put it down to no one else having a clue on the tyre saving required or hitting other problems than it being the Jag that gave me the win. I was certainly taking it very very easy for the last half the race to keep the tyres alive. I assumed against anyone who knew what they were doing they'd have breezed past me, but from your comment maybe not.

I found the Alfa is too slow in race C now I’ve been promoted back up to DR B. Switched to the Citroen. Got my quali time down into the 29s, so starting top half and the car can just about manage a no-stop. Front left dies on the last lap but it’s still driveable.

I just gave the Citroen a try and liked it, it has good potential. I could probably have been on for a top 5 if it wasn't for the car being let down by the nut behind the wheel, so ended up 9th after a couple of off road trips. Front left still had a little life left for me at the end.

 

[TheNormsk]

But don't try the Jag in race C, it shreds it's tyres too quickly. It's good for qualifying, but switch to the Alfa 4C for the race.

I was going by @D_Dragline 's comment.

What I can't quite wrap my head around though is the car choices. I have done 9 races and won 7 no-stopping in the Jag (8 races starting from pole).

But he may have a really smooth driving style the saves the tires.

I've done well with the Suzuki Swift before at Brands and I think someone above said it went well this time. But how does it manage it tires? Any insight to that?

 

[D_Dragline]

Interesting comment. The very first race C of the week I raced the Jag from pole and won fairly unchallenged. I put it down to no one else having a clue on the tyre saving required or hitting other problems than it being the Jag that gave me the win. I was certainly taking it very very easy for the last half the race to keep the tyres alive. I assumed against anyone who knew what they were doing they'd have breezed past me, but from your comment maybe not.

I just gave the Citroen a try and liked it, it has good potential. I could probably have been on for a top 5 if it wasn't for the car being let down by the nut behind the wheel, so ended up 9th after a couple of off road trips. Front left still had a little life left for me at the end.

I was going by @D_Dragline 's comment.

But he may have a really smooth driving style the saves the tires.

I've done well with the Suzuki Swift before at Brands and I think someone above said it went well this time. But how does it manage it tires? Any insight to that?

I have now answered my own question. I ran a couple more races in the Jag and a couple in the 4C. My race times are basically identical in both.

I can run a low 29 in the Jag in race and mid/high 29 in the 4C, but the Jag’s front left is dead by the end of lap 10 and the 4C still has about 30% left at the end.

The real story is that the BoP is doing a great job on this combo. I’ve seen competitive drives in the Ferrari, Citroen, Slophy and SLS as well as the two mentioned above.

 

[benjoi84]

Well, I'm consistently terrible on tyres.

I can run fairly quick laps in the Alfa but once I ease off away from the limit I get swallowed up in minutes.

This race is almost a one stop with me behind the wheel 🤣

For once, my quali outdoes my race performances. Great fun, though.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

which direction is "stiffer" and which is "softer"

Soft on the left, stiff on the right

 

[icycls]

Oh my, I am in trouble. I am just not fast enough for DR A/A+ lobbies. I got my B time to a 1:57.074 and I just can't get it into the 1:56s but I figured I try a couple of races.

Race 1 and I QT in 11th. Not terrible but I am the third slowest QT with three others posting no QT. I lost a place in the first turns but held on in 12th. It was apparent from the get go that I do not have the same type of lap to lap performance a most of the others but I noticed that the pack ahead of me would often slow as they would fight amongst themselves. I would say that this lobby was full of fast but scrappy drivers. I aimed for a strategic race, biding my time... The RCZ catches up in the twisty stuff but loses out to the high power stuff on the straights. I punted P10 on turn 2, lap 2 which was annoying as I lost my CRB but I was much quicker through that corner and did not expect hm to come to almost a complete stop. No places were exchanged so all good in the end. I was still P11 half way through lap 3 when things started to change. Some attrition ahead had me gain two spots but the second one, I had to slow to avoid, which seemingly gave the car behind an excuse to use the side of my car as a wall in the last corners .

Karma caught up with him though as in lap 4 while being scrappy with two other cars in front, he was hit while another car careens off track, after being punted by a third, allowing me to jump to 8th. The car that punted got a 5s penalty and he's in front of me. But, while I keep tags on him, I get punted from behind but hold it. Heading into turn 1, last lap there are three cars on my tail and in the radar I see another car come it like a missile and flys off. Not sure what was going on there but it looks like someone was going for a revenge attack and missed 🤷‍♂️. Luckily, missed me.

I think that "missile" threw off the others and they dropped behind leaving Mr Penalty to me. Passing him, I was able to finish in 7th. A gain for 4 spots in my first true DR A race!

View attachment 1288475

I did one other race. This lobby was worse. I QT 14th as the slowest qualifier on the grid and with P1 a whole 1.3+s faster than me. I am in double trouble..
View attachment 1288476

Part way through lap 1 and I am already in last place. The two behind must be the "let's drive from the back and try to win" brigade as they flew past me in the first turns like I wasn't even there. Then action happened. Seems the two with no QT don't mind playing bumper cars in their attempt to pass. Attrition happened (to others that initially started higher than me) and by lap 2 I was 14th only to slip back to last by lap 3. This was painful..

At the hairpin one of the A+ drivers crashes out giving me the opportunity to be ahead of an A+ car for the first time by random luck.. A bit latter one of the no QT guys also slides on out. I'm now P14. Lap 4 and I catch up with a pack of 4 fighting and slowing themselves up in the opening corners. I take one on the downhill straight, only for them to switcher-a-roo on me and take me on the uphill but I had the inside line and taken them again going into the esses; which I manage to keep. That was a good bit of racing. At the hairpin the second no QT guy goes off to play in the sand and I now get P12. Perhaps I can save this race after all? My goal is to always try to finish in the top 10. Could I do it?

No. I finish P12. In the end I ended the night where I started from a DR perspective. +2% in the first race and -2% in the second. All in all it could have been much worse.

The real take away from all this is that I am still driving at a mid-top tier B level pace and not a A level pace. You would think that a few DR points that transition you from one level to the next would not equate to a leap in driving pace, and that it would be more incremental but it is not. These folks were all significantly faster than what I can pull out on this track for now. Not sure I can really race until I can figure out how to drive in the 1:56s on this track.

Or, perhaps I give up on B and switch to C and try Brands with the Jag...

welcome to that weird place at the low A.... my QTs get me anywhere from p5 to p16 typically, depending on who is out to play. It can be frustrating; I've bounced across BABA more times than I can count and I'm about to do n+1. I actually don't mind too much matching with the A+ regulars I see, for the most part I never see them or they drive clean. It's the overaggresive guys swiping my doors that are driving me insane. It's an effective tactic that I haven't adopted and dont want to. I've come to peace with my placement, however it is much more fun when I'm QTing in the top half.

 

[Voodoovaj]

I gotta admit, I sat down yesterday and ran a few laps of B, couldn't get below a low 58 then remembered that partial tuning is on and lost all will to continue.
I had 2 hours, I don't want to spend them finding a setup then spending tomorrow qualifying then maybe get to race Thursday when everyone has become even faster.

I guess I am going to call it a week without a single race.

You just have to stiffen the rear and soften the front. Simply coming to the forum can save you time.

Also, a change of car will get you below 1:58. No offense, but the fastest guys are in the 1:53 - 1:54 range. They aren't gaining 5 seconds because of damper settings.

I'm sitting on a Q time of 1:55.88 with the NSX. Try my setup. Compression 20/40 (F/R) and extension 35/40 (F/R). I also run -1 brake balance.

 

[Raven-Sport]

Done one race C this week but not feeling GR.4. I'm not even considering race A at Monza, in the past thats the only track causing me to drop out of SR S since getting there on sport mode. No thanks. Race B is Maggiore which is an automatic pass as I am useless round there.

I also havent got time for tuning, or searching for a tune for race C as I will only have an hour or so to race until friday night, and then I will be practicing for Saturdays world series race at Deep Forest.

Shame I wont be jumping in for a couple but it is what it is...

 

[Nebuc72]

Done one race C this week but not feeling GR.4. I'm not even considering race A at Monza, in the past thats the only track causing me to drop out of SR S since getting there on sport mode. No thanks. Race B is Maggiore which is an automatic pass as I am useless round there.

I also havent got time for tuning, or searching for a tune for race C as I will only have an hour or so to race until friday night, and then I will be practicing for Saturdays world series race at Deep Forest.

Shame I wont be jumping in for a couple but it is what it is...

It's just damper tuning it'll be a couple tenths per lap at max, and it'll all be down to if you can get 100% out of the car every lap anyway.

I use default settings and am competitive in top split. It's not worth worrying about.

 

[Mercia]

Still love / hate with Brands after all these years.

If there's one thing I do appreciate now I've gotten to know it better is that step by step progression you feel. Nervous at the start, careful through the turns to not go off, but lap after lap just push that extra few inches each time, pick up more and more speed.

It's pretty satisfying.

 

[bone_tone]

Still love / hate with Brands after all these years.

If there's one thing I do appreciate now I've gotten to know it better is that step by step progression you feel. Nervous at the start, careful through the turns to not go off, but lap after lap just push that extra few inches each time, pick up more and more speed.

It's pretty satisfying.

Until you hit that one blade of grass, and then off you go......😆

 

[TheNormsk]

welcome to that weird place at the low A.... my QTs get me anywhere from p5 to p16 typically, depending on who is out to play. It can be frustrating; I've bounced across BABA more times than I can count and I'm about to do n+1. I actually don't mind too much matching with the A+ regulars I see, for the most part I never see them or they drive clean. It's the overaggresive guys swiping my doors that are driving me insane. It's an effective tactic that I haven't adopted and dont want to. I've come to peace with my placement, however it is much more fun when I'm QTing in the top half.

I don't mind the racing with the A/A+ crowd as it will only make me get better. Also generally the quality of driving is better, or at least predictable. Most will generally brake at expected points and be able to hold lines in corners so side to side racing has more potential but there is also the "I know how to use your car to my advantage and not get a penalty" brigade that I just have to accept and, like you, I won't go there.

In these races, it was notable that from 1st to last the finishing gap was a lot closer but it still split into essentially two packs. There was the top split and then a gap and then everyone else. I was in the later. That would be okay if I feel I could just match pace and not have to rely on attrition to not end up at the back.

It'll come but perhaps that will be a race for another week and this just happens to be a bad week to start in A.

 

[benjoi84]

Still love / hate with Brands after all these years.

If there's one thing I do appreciate now I've gotten to know it better is that step by step progression you feel. Nervous at the start, careful through the turns to not go off, but lap after lap just push that extra few inches each time, pick up more and more speed.

It's pretty satisfying.

My feelings exactly! Dingle Dell in particular... something about flirting with that white line with no runoff after flying over the kerbs on the blind corner.

Fun multiplier x10 when I'm in bumper cam 👿

 

[Childe Roland]

Im having a blast at Brands hatch this week (I love this track since Toca touring cars 2!)

Yesterday, I had a remarkable race with a win on a lobby with an SS player on pole (GTWS finalist Felipe Muñoz from Chile)
Started on P4 and after a few laps of closed battle we took some distance ahead the rest of the field.

On the first 4 laps the fight between P1 and P2 was super clean but really at the limit.
P3 was trying to benefit from this situation adding more "pepper" to the race and at that moment I decided to let them fight and watch them from behind saving tyres and avoiding unnecesary risks.

First mistake came at lap 5 with p1 going wide down the hill and rage quitting.

After that I decided to attack P2 triyng to force some mistake, thing that happened on lap 6 with him loosing the rear over the kerb at Copper Straight (its very slippery if you enter it in the wrong angle).

The remaining car ahead was a very fast driver but on a terrible car choice.
Mustang eats rubber pretty bad and considering he was fighting hard for P1 on the first 5 laps, my strategy here (Im on the 4C) was to put pressure but waiting for a safe moment to pass when his front left abandon him (which was a matter of time).

On lap 7 he decided to pit.
At that moment Im on P1 3.5 secs ahead of P2 and I decided to "relax" a bit triyng to not waste such a beautiful race.

I finally won with a 0.6 gap over him.
Maybe I relaxed too much but it was enough to bring it home

Im not movimg from race C this week.

 

[newmedia_dev]

I don't mind the racing with the A/A+ crowd as it will only make me get better. Also generally the quality of driving is better, or at least predictable. Most will generally brake at expected points and be able to hold lines in corners so side to side racing has more potential but there is also the "I know how to use your car to my advantage and not get a penalty" brigade that I just have to accept and, like you, I won't go there.

In these races, it was notable that from 1st to last the finishing gap was a lot closer but it still split into essentially two packs. There was the top split and then a gap and then everyone else. I was in the later. That would be okay if I feel I could just match pace and not have to rely on attrition to not end up at the back.

It'll come but perhaps that will be a race for another week and this just happens to be a bad week to start in A.

That's the same issue I have this weeks race at B.

I'm finding my feet at consistent A level pace but this race is so knife edge for me when I'm still over driving the car to make the times to be competitive or just keep up in the race.

I think some of that keeping up part for us moving in to the much quicker lobbies is that they don't drive as nervously as I do so they expect everyone to near enough hit their marks and being new to their level i over brake myself and they just don't expect that mostly. This is EU A/A+ lobbies also mostly through the day and early evening where there are regulars and a lot of streamers.

LM feels like a baptism of fire for me!

 

[PhlebMike]

So, Daily C just disco'd. I was in first at the time....So I get points, or is just everyone screwed? Enquiring minda want to know.....

 

[newmedia_dev]

Can I get that elusive sub 1:56.....nope

Edit: every 5 or so laps I have slow down pacing lap hence the regular drops in time all 10 before what you see here followed the same pattern and I did a 1:56:161 on the second lap which has been my delta pace this session.

 

[TheNormsk]

Can I get that elusive sub 1:56.....nope

You mean 1:55 club?

Top times btw!

 

[newmedia_dev]

You mean 1:55 club?

Top times btw!

Tomato's tomatoes sub being less than 1:56

Extremely frustrating in a 100 mile session I haven't improved my actual time but my optimal has dropped even more grrrrr

 

[Voodoovaj]

Since there's controversy over the settings, I wanted to put my money where my mouth is regarding the damper settings and how it's not that big of a deal. I grabbed two cars that I have yet to win a race with to test my approach.

My current pole time was set with the NSX. Damper setting for the front are 20/35 (compression/extension) and 40/40 for both in the rear. I also use -1 brake balance.

I took that exact same set up and used it on the Mazda RX concept, and the Ford GT. I won my race with the Mazda and I finished second with the Ford, but set my fastest race lap this week in the 1:56's. So, IMHO, the discussion over settings is NBD. Set your car up for what feel best for you. I like a car that oversteers and setting up any car to do that seems to be just fine for me.

Your results may vary.