i would like to apologise for the state of the tables below. it took me longer to try and format them than it did to race the enduro, and write this article! i have tried all ways to get them properly formatted, but to no avail. if anyone knows how to do this, please could you pm me with a 'how to' or something like that. here we go.
thought id better put my money where my mouth is and race the enduro myself. first thing i want to say is - there is no challenge here. on the face of things kodiaks achievements look impressive, but looks is all they are, the race is far too easy. read on, and i will tell you why.
hehehe! i nearly put my foot in it earlier, by challenging this thread. i just posted my first impressions, without even thinking about what kodiak had written. after i read the post a second time, i was mildly concerned at what i had done. i have never raced the seattle endurance with an alto works, and to top it off, i was claiming it could be done with a setup that was inferior to kodiaks! thought i was going to lose face by not being able to back up my counter-claims with actual results.
anyway, i dusted off my alto works (it had bever been raced - in anger or otherwise), added some parts, and headed for the seattle enduro. i had to have a setup that was 'worse' than kodiaks, with less racing modifications, to make things harder for myself (as if i hadnt already done so!)
kodiak used all race modifications and weight reductions except, he chose to use a stock flywheel, and sports intercooler, he ran T4s all around and he had 242bhp.
my alto works had sports suspension, sports brakes, sports muffler, sports rom, stage 3 turbo, racing intercooler, full racing transmission, single plate clutch, sports flywheel, fully customised lsd, carbon drive shaft, and T3's all round. i did not use the VCD, but the chasis had weight reduction stage 3 applied. my engine was also fully modified (port polish, engine balance etc). maximum bhp was 224 (car had zero km), which rose to 227 by the race end, and after oil change was 239bhp.
as for the settings, this race was so easy, that it didnt really matter what settings i used, i only spent 5 minutes with mine, and i dont think they were optimal.
Settings comparison:
...........................kodiak.........myself
Springs.................4/20............not used
Ride height...........96/145.........not used
damper.................not used......4/4 (sports suspension)
Shock bound..........4/7..............not used
Shock rebound.......4/7...............not used
Camber.................3/1..............1.0/0.7 (sports suspension)
Toe.....................-2/2..............not used
Stabilizers............7/7.............. not used
Brakes.................12/24............not used
LS init..................5/5...............5/5
LS accel...............5/60..............20/20
LS decel...............5/5...............10/10
Gear....................auto set........auto set
..........................level 16.........level 21
final....................3.300............final 4.705
ASM....................off................off
TCS....................off.................off
VCD...................50%...............not used
my fastest lap was 1:42.165, whilst kodiaks was 1:39.985 - almost 2.20 seconds faster. my average lap was 1:43.xxx, kodiak never stated his. before the race i did about half a lap qualfying to check out my car setup, made a few tweaks and hit the road.my total race distacne covered was 1498(x10m) or 149.8km. my total mileage tachometer read 0151km. my finishing time was 1:10'41.980 (70'41.980) with my final lap being 1:44.087.
race results
kodiak........................................myself
alto works.......1:0842.907..........alto works.....1:10.41.980
vette z06......+1 lap.....................viper gts.....+0'49.508
svt Cobra........1 lap....................svt cobra......+0'51.957
viper gts.......+1 lap...................vette z06......+0'53.692
camaro ss.....+2 laps.................camaro ss......+1lap
cobra:............2 laps........................cobra......+1lap
analysis
dont be fooled, this race is easy - even more so when you think that kodiak had more racing modifications than i did. i was never really troubled, and i once gained the lead (on lap 15), i never relinquished it. do you want to know a secret? gran turismo gets easier the longer the races are - plain and simple. the toughest races in the game are the 3 and 5 lap races, anything longer and the ai struggles. add tyre wear, and the ai is so uncompetitive, it might as well not be there.
this brings me to the reason why this enduro was so easy. the ai will pit on average every 7 or 8 laps in this race. not counting the ac cobra, which pits more often. on the other hand the camaro ss, pits every 15 laps or so. in my race, the viper gts, corvette zo6, and the svt cobra all pitted in laps 7, 15, 21, 29, and 35. thats 5 times in 40 laps. i had to match kodiak for pits stops, so i too stopped every 10 laps (10, 20, 30 respectively). right away, you can see the difference, i have two clear opportunities within the race to increase my lead significantely. if you look at the pit-stop spread between laps 1 and 21, and laps 20 to 35, you will see that i pitted twice, whilst the cpu pitted 3 times in both brackets. it takes about 15 to 16 seconds for a pit stop, so i was 30-32 seconds up without even having to move the car a single yard!
the ai racers also have further handicaps. the tyres on their cars have to warm up just like ours, and so the cpu races very conservatively for the first 1 or 2 laps depending on the type of tyres they are using. add to this, the 'wear' that occurs affects their tyres before they pit in, and you see that there is only a window of maybe 4 or 5 good laps per pit stop where the cpu is even trying to race at anything near its full potential. now multiply the ammount of pitstops by this 5-lap window, and you get 25. thats 25 laps where the cpu is possibly racing at near its full potential. in reality, the number is close to 20 laps - thats only half the race. can you see the advantages yet?
of course i had some of the same pitfalls, but because i am free-thinking, i am able to work around them and minimise the time i spend with poor grip. i was using T3's, so they were up to full green after 1 lap. and by the time i was pitting (10 laps later) they were only on mid-yellow. i could of raced them through 15 laps, but i would of been losing a litle time on every lap. in total (including the first lap of the race) i was within acceptable 'poor grip' conditions for only 6 or 7 laps as opposed to the cpu which was in the same conditions for 10 to 15 laps. i could of increased this bias even further if i had decided to use T2s instead. i calculated i could race the endurance with only 2 pit stops. the first at lap 15 and the second at lap 30. just losing one pitstop would give me another 15 to 16 seconds lead over the competition, but with grip issues and tyre wear, it would be closer to 10 seconds.
yet more analysis
looking plainly at the pit stop strategies that the cpu employs is only one aspect of this investigation, other factors conspired to insure that kodiak had no way of losing this race. below is a list of the cars that appeared in both our enduros. luckily, we both had the same compliment, so it simplifies the comparison. the list is sorted in descending order.
................power/...torque/...max......vehicle....torque
car............weight...weight....power...weight....kg/f.m.....disp.
cobra.........2.202....0.163.....485bhp...1068kg...66.40.......6997cc
alto...........2.640....0.195....242bhp*...631kg....32.20.......657cc
viper..........3.409....0.229....449bhp....1531kg...67.70.......7997cc
vette.........3.717....0.288....379bhp....1409kg...49.50......5665cc
svt............4.448....0.310.....384bhp...1628kg....53.20.....5409cc
camaro.......4.785...0.326.....325bhp...1560kg....35.70.....5665cc
* from kodiaks post, i assume that his car was already at 242bhp. my car started at 224bhp, and rose to (or fell to - depending on how you look at it) 227bhp.
from the list, we are able to draw some obvious conclusions. the alto works, whilst seeming to be a weak car is infact the second strongest on paper in the group. the cobra is the strongest, but due to pitting strategy and poor tyre choice is uncompetitive. that leaves the viper, vette, svt, and camaro ss. generally throughout the race these four will stay within the same order that they are in this table, only shuffling during pit stops, or player interaction. its my opinion that the competitiveness of the ai in gt3 is based soley around the power to weight ratio. i will talk about my conclusions in another post on gt3s ai.
conclusion
i would of been more surprissed if kodiak had stated that he had not came first. his 'remarkable' win was inevitiable. he could not of lost the race unless he went out purposely to do so. on the face of things his win was awsome, but if you look closer, you will see that he was never in any danger of actually losing anything at all. come on be honest, how many of us go into endurance races not knowing if we aregoing to win? not many i will tell you straight. we are all guilty of using overpowered cars to thrash the opposition. i dont think kodiak would of risked not winning the enduro so that makes his achievement look just a little ordinary in my mind. sorry mate.
the real challenge
so i guess your wondering what constitutes a tough race at the seattle enduro? well if you race seattle often enough, you will start to notice that the same cars turn up time and time again. from my observatios i have noticed these:
...................power/.....torque/.....max........vehicle.....torque.....
car...............weight.....weight......power.....weight......kg/f.m.......disp
cobra............2.202.......0.163.......485bhp....1068kg....66.40...6997cc
viper gts.......3.409.......0.229.......449bhp....1531kg....67.70..........7997cc
vette z06......3.717.......0.288.......379bhp....1409kg....49.50..........5665cc
svt cobra.......4.448......0.310........384bhp....1628kg....53.20......5409cc
vette gs........4.533......0.321.........330bhp...1496kg......47.00.......5665cc
camaro SS.....4.785.......0.326........325bhp....1560kg......35.70.........5665cc
camaro z28...5.477.......0.353.........285bhp....1561kg........44.90.......5727cc
now look at the table above. it is clear to see which are the fastest and which are the slowest in this endurance race. if you go by the power-to-weight ratio like i suggest, you can tailor your car to make it easier or harder to win this race. take any of the cars listed above we can see that the slower cars have a bad power-to-weight ratio, whilst the fastest naturually have lower power-to-weight ratios. now, choose any car, and tailor its power-to-weight ratio to fit into this grid, the nearer the top it is, the faster it will be, the nearer the bottom, it is, the slower it will be. for a real tough challenge, tailor the ratio to a number below the camaro z28.
infact, this principle can be applied to all the races in gt3. it is a better barometer than anything else in the game to find out how easy or hard a race will be. simply make a grid like the one above, collect the info about the cars and make comparisons. some of your finding will surprise you.
dude, take it easy!
👍
............ Im in disbelif...
err nuff respec.... Very impresive
For future reference, all you have to do is go down to the "Admin Options" box in the lower right-hand corner, and choose "Edit thread".
Imma try that enduro and see what weak car I can do it in. Maybe my drift Miata if I tune it for grip 💡
