Mission 18 - Sarthe II Nissan R92CP

[wfooshee]

I've got an NTSC video somewhere, I'll try to get it onto Youtube for ya, Duke. It's pretty close in the NTSC version, passing the Merc into the final chicane. Might be a day or two. . . . Not like it's a holiday wekend or anything.

 

[Duke]

Cool, thanks.

 

[alhajoth]

I don't know exactly how far in front it starts, but at my first-lap T1, around the first third of the Mulsanne straight, I've been about 30 seconds behind. On a few good runs I've been 29.mid" behind at that point. After Mulsanne Corner, I'm around 26 seconds behind.

A video might help - 9':06" is good in anybody's book. Don't kill yourself trying to make the video, but thanks in advance if you do.

Must be an issue of speed then. On PAL, the AI are so slow down the straight, there's not much point in trying to draft them.

Anyways, I just got this DVD-recorder thingy I wanted to try out, so making a video is no inconvienence at all.

A version can be downloaded here, it's 100mb. Hope it helps! 👍
http://folk.uio.no/anderst/bumpercam.mpg


EDIT: Uploaded it to Youtube:

 

[wfooshee]

Wow. No comparison between PAL and NTSC!!! None at all!

BTW, not the cleanest set of laps ever done. Almost crashed in the turn before Tetre Rouge, would have aborted then but decided to go ahead and practice. When I passed the Panoz as early as I did I knew I was OK. Still, completely missed Indianapolis and Arnage on lap1, missed the Mulsanne corner on lap 2, and on lap 3 missed the turn-in to the section with the Porsche curves. Probably watching the Merc, not the track.



This is the same run, a more entertaining point of view. External view, with a picture-in-picture of the driver's point of view.

 

[Duke]

OK, well, after another hour, I've finally cleared this mission. I would have cleared it after about 30 minutes, except the Sauber swerved into me at Arnage on the last lap and gifted me with a 5-second penalty, which he used to run away. I think I'm going to take a loooong vacation from the prototypes and from Le Sarthe. Unfortunately, my next open mission is at Suzuka, which is my least favorite track in all of GT4.

My final time on M18 was 9':09.low" with a margin of +5.mid" over the Sauber. I'd have been on par for a 9':07" run, but I bobbled the very last chicane on Lap 3 and killed my speed right before the finish line.

Thanks to everybody for your advice and videos!

 

[alhajoth]

OK, well, after another hour, I've finally cleared this mission. I would have cleared it after about 30 minutes, except the Sauber swerved into me at Arnage on the last lap and gifted me with a 5-second penalty, which he used to run away. I think I'm going to take a loooong vacation from the prototypes and from Le Sarthe. Unfortunately, my next open mission is at Suzuka, which is my least favorite track in all of GT4.

My final time on M18 was 9':09.low" with a margin of +5.mid" over the Sauber. I'd have been on par for a 9':07" run, but I bobbled the very last chicane on Lap 3 and killed my speed right before the finish line.

Thanks to everybody for your advice and videos!

Congratulations Duke!
And good luck with the Suzuka-mission, I assume you mean nr.26. That is the hardest mission of all on PAL, in my opinion. Twitchy car, and you always seem to catch the AI in the worst possible places..

Wow. No comparison between PAL and NTSC!!! None at all!

Having watched wfooshee's videos, I'm left with the feeling that PD kinda dropped the ball on this mission (In the PAL version). 3 laps at Le Mans, racing Le Mans prototypes, really ought to be one of the highlights of the entire game. Instead, they've made it far too easy, and practically boring..

 

[Popeye]

Ok. Two hours and done it. Never attempted before, and hadn't done the track. Had to cheat, couldn't help it. My steering wheel was shaking so badly going down the long straight, and I wouldn't have been able to go on much longer. Now I have arms like Arnie, and only 34 left. But I will go and do it for the satisfaction cleanly when I get a new wheel. Won by 6 secs.

 

[Cowie]

tbh i found this mission insanely easy. I love the le mans track and have watched Steve McQueen's movie tonnes of times but have never actually driven round the track. Even so i passed the CLK GTR in the early parts of mulsanne on the last lap.

 

[bachy]

I just finally cleared this one. Its been three days trying (off and on really; I've taken breaks and raced other events then come back to it after recharging).

My advice to anyone struggling with this one: I think the most important key points are finding the right breaking point for the first chicane, not losing too much speed on the corner leading to the straight (I've found that tapping the brakes early and downshifting to third and staying as far inside as possible is a good strategy to not have to scrub off too much speed) and finally finding the right line to take thru the Porsche curves (right after the final fast straight section) in order to get thru them with only a few light taps on the brakes.
I found that if you can master those three key points, then you have somewhat of a margin for error in all the other parts (whereas otherwise, there is no margin for error whatsoever).

If you haven't passed the Panoz by the end of the Mulsanne on the first lap, the Bentley by the time you've reached Porsche curves on the second, or the Toyota by the first chicane on the third, then you might as well not waste your time and go ahead and restart.

 

[GTvsForza]

I also cheated. I spent hours trying to do it correctly, but I just couldn't seem to put 3 perfect laps together. I was too slow on the series of higher speed bends toward the end, but every time I tried to push on those curves I would go off the track. I just got sick of it. I did exactly what meister_dan did.

Same here

 

[JohnT64]

Easy mission. But I love Le Mans so know every inch of the track.

Coming out of the corners gentle on the gas.
Cut the corners of the last chicane tight (on the red zone), it will give you more room to speed up the finishingstraight.

 

[Wombat1965]

Funny how some missions seem easy as pie, and some absolutely kick your arse for weeks on end...

I had one or two tries at this, and noticed that I could, *ahem*, cut a couple of corners...but I didn't think this was actually saving me much time as you slow down over the sand and grass. Sticking mainly to the track I found I was catching the lead guy by the beginning of the third lap. I realised this was one of the "easy as pie with a little effort" missions.

Four tries at this mission and I had him on Mulsanne straight easily.👍

Of course the GT40 at Laguna Seca and the Paris course with the horrendously handling Puegeot are still in the "kicking my arse for weeks at a time" level...

 

[SportWagon]

I'll probably complete this mission soon. I don't think I'll have anything to contribute.

But at Wikipedia I did find this excellent picture of the map of the course at the course. Even tells you where Karting is .

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Circuit_De_La_Sarthe_map.JPG

P.S. The reference http://www.racingcircuits.net/France/LeMans87.html in https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=68814#post1824786 seems dead.

P.P.S. Lots of info at Wikipedia; start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_de_la_Sarthe

 

[Wiegert]

I felt that this was one of the easiest missions in the game. I remember completing it in my first attempt not long after the game was released.

I thought that it was one of the more enjoyable missions, seeing as the R92CP is one of my favourite cars in GT4, plus driving it around Le Sarthe is always fun 👍

 

[SportWagon]

Note the extra 15 seconds required to pass NTSC version versus PAL.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Note the extra 15 seconds required to pass NTSC version versus PAL.

PD did this with Mission 34, too, if I'm not mistaken. PAL is many seconds easier than NTSC/America

 

[BobK]

Yep, you need to be about 12 seconds quicker in the NTSC version of Mission 34. But for whatever reason, the SLR Mac is about three seconds faster in the NTSC version. At the New York mission, the shoe is on the other foot; you have to be about 4 seconds quicker in the PAL version than the NTSC.

This is the first I've heard of a difference in Mission 18 though. Interesting.

 

[SportWagon]

Um. I managed to get the previously mentioned random glitch this morning. Sauber scraped into the wall on the main straight and dropped into second place. I managed to hang on and beat the GT-ONE with a mediocre time. (Still better than I could have done when I first started). Actually, the Sauber crawled back into second place before the finish, too.

Since summer is coming, I saved the game and accepted by dubiously-earned Tank Car. These threads definitely did help.

P.S. The glitch happened on the first run after a restart, too...

Update

Well, I kept trying. Once I came second by a hair with a time just under 9:12.
But not much later I came first by almost half-a-second with a time just over 9:12.

But very soon after that I came first by over a second with a time under 9:11.

Sadly, that is cutting the last chicane as was suggested. But not the first chicane. Only other dubious action is sometimes slicing right over the "sidewalk" on the inside of the Mulsanne hairpin. And perhaps a little grass at Tertre Rouge.

For a long time I was braking too severely for Tertre Rouge, and fixing that seemed to get me home, although at the same time I kept going smoother and smoother through the Porsche Curves.

I went to S15 and took almost 4 seconds off my previous time, although sadly that left me about 1.7 over gold. I might give it another bash sometime. There's also the World Circuit race to try.

Update April 6, 2010
I persisted with S15 and got gold. I came close to the demo time, but didn't quite beat it.

 

[Sp3edst3r]

At the first and last chichanes, if you get the right angle, you can go straight through than and win quite easily, I passed the sauber halfway through 2nd lap by doing that 

 

[wejhvabewjty]

GT4 was actually my second GT game, and at that time, I was just a kid, so today I decided to play again (Completing iA license I wasn't able to finish with 3 tries). I just participated in this mission, and look what happened in my very first try!

I won by 0:00:000!!!​

 

[EddieHimself]

The simple advice I have for mission 18, the IA graduation test, Special Licence Bentley run, basically any time you're driving one of the fast cars around CDLS is not to be a pussy. These cars generate huge amounts of downforce, and you will find you can actually go pretty damn fast around the corners.

 

[listerstorm2009]

This was, so far the easiest mission I've completed...
I didn't make perfect braking or anything like that, but still won by more than 9 seconds...