- 10,558
- Columbia, MD.
- Parnelli_Bones
I just finished my first GT4 enduro, the Grand Valley 300 KM! 
Although the 1000 Miles! events are technically endurance races, the GV300 is my first official endurance so here goes.
My weapon of choice: a silver '03 Dodge Viper SRT-10. I bought a Team Oreca Viper a couple days ago, which means i spent a million credits, but the Oreca turned out to be overkill, whereas the regular SRT-10 was about 250 pounds heavier but more closer to the Ai. Plus the dealer-bought Viper SRT-10 is more fun to drive and sounds better than the Oreca! I gave the "SilveR GhosT-10" full weight reductions and a wing kit.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Springs: 9.5 / 11.8
B. Dampers: 4/6
R. Dampers: 2/8
Ride Height: 99 / 123 mm
Camber: 4.5 / 4.0 degrees (an effort to allow trail-brakes).
Toe: none
Stabilizers: 4/6
Brakes: 9/16 with racing pads, rotors, calipers etc.
TCS/ASM: zero zero zero
Differential: stock
Transmission: stock with dual-clutch & semi-racing flywheel.
Carbon shaft
Wing settings: 30/24
Tires: All R1 super-hard
That last decision was a crucial one. The Ai at the GV300 is running on R2 tires. I could only get about 8 laps on R2's since my car was several hundred pounds heavier than them. R1's could go 10 or 11 laps. I pushed them to 12 once but this was dangerous.
As you can see i left the transmission and limited-slip stock. My gearing was therefore not always the most efficient choice, but the Viper's torque tends to negate any downtime here; and i personally hate all that "gear whine"! A stock SRT-10 sounds magnificent, and i wanted to hear all 60 laps in all their V10 glory!
So before the race i did some practice runs, which was a good idea not just to get my car set-up, but also to brainstorm the course, which has been completely re-done in some areas as we all know. As it turns out, my Viper was a bit slow compared to the rest of the Ai cars due to its extra weight and harder tires.
So i'd have to formulate a game-plan and get master some corner tricks. which go as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
turn 1: I consider this to be the slight left-kink. The brake indicator would scream at me to start braking before i entered this famous area, but i would typically wait a half-second and then brake just before 100 meters! In practice runs i (of course) screwed up a few times and wound up in the sand. Can't have this in GT4! The Ai gets this perfect every time now...no more Ai cars sliding into the sand . Fortunately in I got this part perfect 60 times in the actual race.
Turn 2: the famous 180 degree hairpin. In earlier Gt games, i'd occasionally get sideways here in Vipers and even go for a full-on drift. Can't do that anymore!
GT4 ensures i'd get understeer instead if i tried to trail-brake into an actual drift, even with 4 degrees of camber on the rear tires 
WTF?
Turn 3: Easy. This is a gentle left-hander. Just take it full-on.
Turn 4: ugh. This right-hander used to be gentle...now PD has made it a bit sharper so that you actually have to slow down with brakes instead of fly thru. But, this turned out to my advantage! 💡 The Ai has a habit of playing it safe here, and brakes fully to about 103-105 mph....i found (especially with my screwed-up rear camber) i could just tap the brakes, flick the steering, and run thru this bend a full 10 mph faster than the Ai!!! 
turn 5: This turn is the same as in previous GT's...a right-hand hairpin. The only difference is (again) i couldn't trail-brake into a slide/drift like i wanted
instead i'd only get understeer and maybe a half-baked pivot.
The esses part one--turns 6, 7, 8: Here's where things really go nuts. Turn 6 is almost the same like it was, but you have to attack it different nowadays since Turn 7 is now a lot sharper! In previous GT games i would always gain massive time here since the Ai would often brake 3 times into these turns. Now, i could still save some time but not as much as in previous games. Fortunately i found i could brake hard into turn 6, cruise a bit, and then dive-bomb into turn 7. On the left hand side of the track there's now a concrete pad...i would occasionally drive onto this pad to get a better angle into the sharp right hand kink. In the replay i found i could get a bit faster than the Ai here, but only slightly so.
The esses part 2--turns 9 and 10: This is the sharp right/left twist before the tunnel. My 2,800 pound Viper could only follow this line and hope nobody was following too close to ram me cause my car really would get slow here! Fortunately the Viper could haul out into the tunnel with that massive 525 foot-pounds of torque. Didn't matter if i was in 1st or 2nd gear, i'd always get an edge over the Ai.
Turn 11: The thrid hairpin. It seems this turn is slightly earlier than it used to be...could be my imagination. All i know is i used to brake after the tunnel (typically) as i entered here. Now you gotta start braking while you're still in the tunnel
Turn 12 Here's the dreaded sweeper thru the 2nd tunnel. It's pretty much the same as in previous Gt games--just maintain the speed and don't hit any walls!
turn 13: The loooong 3rd tunnel. Many of the Ai machines have better downforce and could get a better run thru here. If i happened to be in front of a sim car as i crossed the bridge, i'd sometimes actually let them in front of me here. Hey,it's better than getting smacked in the rear and mess up the rest of the turn! Plus, i knew i could get ahead of most of them in a draft-run down the straight again. 👍
Turns 14 & 15: The famous chicane. Again, the Ai had better brakes/less weight going in, but the Viper's sperm-whale torque could take care of that going out. Plus, Polyphony Digital now has added another small concrete pad on the left-hand side of the track...i would occasionally drive onto if if i needed some extra leverage blasting past a stubborn car.
Turn 16 The final sweeper. The Ai (with better downforce again) has a habit of braking a bit, and then maintaining about 115 mph thru. With my lesser downforce/more weight/harder tires i had to do another out-in-out steering pivot. I would maybe be going slower on the inside, but (again) i've got 8.3 liters of all-aluminum V10 madness to take care of that mess.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. '02 Red Bull Abt Audi TT-R
2. '01 au Cerumo Toyota Supra
3. '93 Calsonic Nissan Skyline GT-R
4. '01 Castrol Tom's Supra
5. '01 Xavani Hiroto Skyline GT-R
6. '03 Dodge Viper SRT-10
sorry folks, i'm not going to go in a lap-by-lap description here. I didn't write any of that stuff down so i'll just summarize instead.
In the beginning melee into those first few early turns, i simply hung back for awhile. The au Cerumo Supra got an edge and began to pull ahead of the 2nd-place Audi TT-R, with the Xavanai/Hiroto Skyline right behind.
This is how the front-lines remained for awhile...the Audi and the Skyline traded places a few times while the Supra maintained about a 3 or 4 second lead ahead of both.
I managed to work my way ahead of the 5th-place '93 Skyline GT-R, which i could tell would be the "slowpoke" of the event. Yes...this car is being driven by Frenchman Louis Zehr (Lou Zehr...get it??? ) and he even pit way earlier than me (lap 9). Goooooodbye. I managed to get by the 4th place Castrol Supra being driven by Japanese drift-God Keiichi Kohld at some point (don't remember the Castrol Supra at all during this race...it seemed for most of the time to be invisible matter of fact as i never passed or saw it again).
Like i said, i had to pit earlier than i woulda liked. By lap 10 my front tires were yellow-going-on-orange and by lap 11 i had no choice. So there goes my 4th-place. The Castrol Supra passed me but the '93 Skyline was so far behind at this point i was guaranteed 5th place as i left the pits. Before my first stop, i was about 6 seconds behind...now i was almost 40!!
But i made a decision during this pit that i believe saved me during the rest of the race: i decided not to refuel! And hence the name of this thread. I don't care what anybody says....i really believe a car with a half-tank is a bit faster than one with a full tank.
And to prove it, i immediately began kicking some butt. Yes, i was 40 seconds down, but as my tires were warming, the Viper was now about to stir-fry my competition. 40 seconds became 38, which fell to 32. Now the leaders were pitting on laps 14 and 15. I passed the Castrol Supra (which i never saw since it was in pit road) and within the next lap caught up to and passed the Hiroto Skyline driven by another Japanese guy...forget his name.
Finally, i caught up to the Audi TT driven by former Austrian psychologist Gretta Lyphe. The leading au Cerumo Supra was being piloted by a former cop (Al Pulluova) and he fell under my thumb eventually, too.
Some folks may say "well, that's just the rubber-band effect". Others may say "well, their tires were cold and that's why you were catching up to them" but that doestn't explain why during the rest of the race i could reliably make time and catch the Ai. I therefore chose
1. Not to let Bob take over...such a decision would be dangerous...i knew he would blow it!
2. Kept my tank half-full (or half-empty).
Long story longer, during the rest of the race, my Viper played it out against these 3 others (au Cerumo Supra, Audi TT-R, and Hiroto Skyline). After my 2nd pitstop on lap 22, i was about 26 seconds behind. YES!! As the Ai pitted between laps 28 and 29, i wound up a healthy margin ahead of them! Perhaps, 12 seconds. I think at some point i screwed up because i remember the au Cerumo Supra got ahead of me slightly. But we both pit on lap 42.
Towards the end of the race, i had a dillema: i knew i had one more pitstop to make! Yikes. I was ahead of the au Cerumo Supra by a 9-second margin and by now i was getting fatigued. If i wasn't getting tired, i coulda perhaps kept my cornering spot-on and stretched that lead a few more seconds. But i was getting tired-- I was starting to make small mistakes 
that resulted in heart-stopping bits of understeer in soem of those tighter corners Time to make my final pitstop
I decided to stop in lap 54 going into 55. The questions haunted me:
1. Would the au Cerumo Supra take a pit as well????
2. Would i get passed by 3rd place Audi TT-R?
So it turns out question 2 was answered by a YES.
Fortunately, made another race-winning decision. I switched to R3 medium tires. I only had 5 laps to go after all. 💡
Now i REALLY began to fly. As i left the pits, i was about 19 seconds down! But as my tires warmed, i quickly realized i was all as sudden running an entirely different game. My braking distances could now be shorter. The Viper was no longer plagued by acres of understeer and i could cruise thru the slower turns instead of tip-toeing thru them 👍
Still, the obvious question...would the Supra pit? Would my tires actually last 5 laps?? Well, that's 2 questions.
The awesome thing was i passed the Audi TT-R easily...then Al Puluova's au Cerumo Supra began falling into my clutch lap after lap in huge leaps. 19 seconds ahead...17.....13.....11.....
Finally, in lap 59 my tires were about to GIVE OUT! No they weren't red, but the left-front was turning an angry orange after 4 laps of roller-coaster fun. Even if the Supra hadn't pit (which it did in that final lap) i woulda managed to squeak by it somewhere. But since it was called in by its dumb-ass crew, the GV300 was now guaranteed MINE!
And on an odd note, turns out 2nd place went to the Hiroto Skyline, which was now downfield and a bit of a sleeper. I thought the Audi woulda taken the spot. I wound up winning by 16+ seconds.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. '03 Dodge Viper SRT-10 / Dirk "Meth Hed" Bryant (USA)
2. '01 Xanavi Hiroto Skyline Gt-R / Ariel Slyper (UK)
3. '02 "Abt/Red Bull" Audi TT-R / Gretta Lyphe (Aust)
4. '01 au Cerumo Toyota Supra / Keiichi Kohld (Japanese)
5. '01 Castrol Tom's Supra / Al Puluova (USA)
6. '93 Calsonic Nissan Skyline GT-R / Louis Zehr (FR)
Although the 1000 Miles! events are technically endurance races, the GV300 is my first official endurance so here goes.My weapon of choice: a silver '03 Dodge Viper SRT-10. I bought a Team Oreca Viper a couple days ago, which means i spent a million credits, but the Oreca turned out to be overkill, whereas the regular SRT-10 was about 250 pounds heavier but more closer to the Ai. Plus the dealer-bought Viper SRT-10 is more fun to drive and sounds better than the Oreca! I gave the "SilveR GhosT-10" full weight reductions and a wing kit.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SETTINGS
No oil change/new engine completely stock (507 bhp)Springs: 9.5 / 11.8
B. Dampers: 4/6
R. Dampers: 2/8
Ride Height: 99 / 123 mm
Camber: 4.5 / 4.0 degrees (an effort to allow trail-brakes).
Toe: none
Stabilizers: 4/6
Brakes: 9/16 with racing pads, rotors, calipers etc.
TCS/ASM: zero zero zero
Differential: stock
Transmission: stock with dual-clutch & semi-racing flywheel.
Carbon shaft
Wing settings: 30/24
Tires: All R1 super-hard
That last decision was a crucial one. The Ai at the GV300 is running on R2 tires. I could only get about 8 laps on R2's since my car was several hundred pounds heavier than them. R1's could go 10 or 11 laps. I pushed them to 12 once but this was dangerous.
As you can see i left the transmission and limited-slip stock. My gearing was therefore not always the most efficient choice, but the Viper's torque tends to negate any downtime here; and i personally hate all that "gear whine"! A stock SRT-10 sounds magnificent, and i wanted to hear all 60 laps in all their V10 glory!
So before the race i did some practice runs, which was a good idea not just to get my car set-up, but also to brainstorm the course, which has been completely re-done in some areas as we all know. As it turns out, my Viper was a bit slow compared to the rest of the Ai cars due to its extra weight and harder tires.
So i'd have to formulate a game-plan and get master some corner tricks. which go as follows:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE CORNERS
turn 1: I consider this to be the slight left-kink. The brake indicator would scream at me to start braking before i entered this famous area, but i would typically wait a half-second and then brake just before 100 meters!
In practice runs i (of course) screwed up a few times and wound up in the sand. Can't have this in GT4! The Ai gets this perfect every time now...no more Ai cars sliding into the sand . Fortunately in I got this part perfect 60 times in the actual race.Turn 2: the famous 180 degree hairpin. In earlier Gt games, i'd occasionally get sideways here in Vipers and even go for a full-on drift. Can't do that anymore!
GT4 ensures i'd get understeer instead if i tried to trail-brake into an actual drift, even with 4 degrees of camber on the rear tires WTF? Turn 3: Easy. This is a gentle left-hander. Just take it full-on.
Turn 4: ugh.
This right-hander used to be gentle...now PD has made it a bit sharper so that you actually have to slow down with brakes instead of fly thru. But, this turned out to my advantage! 💡 The Ai has a habit of playing it safe here, and brakes fully to about 103-105 mph....i found (especially with my screwed-up rear camber) i could just tap the brakes, flick the steering, and run thru this bend a full 10 mph faster than the Ai!!! turn 5: This turn is the same as in previous GT's...a right-hand hairpin. The only difference is (again) i couldn't trail-brake into a slide/drift like i wanted
instead i'd only get understeer and maybe a half-baked pivot. The esses part one--turns 6, 7, 8: Here's where things really go nuts. Turn 6 is almost the same like it was, but you have to attack it different nowadays since Turn 7 is now a lot sharper! In previous GT games i would always gain massive time here since the Ai would often brake 3 times into these turns. Now, i could still save some time but not as much as in previous games. Fortunately i found i could brake hard into turn 6, cruise a bit, and then dive-bomb into turn 7. On the left hand side of the track there's now a concrete pad...i would occasionally drive onto this pad to get a better angle into the sharp right hand kink. In the replay i found i could get a bit faster than the Ai here, but only slightly so.
The esses part 2--turns 9 and 10: This is the sharp right/left twist before the tunnel. My 2,800 pound Viper could only follow this line and hope nobody was following too close to ram me cause my car really would get slow here! Fortunately the Viper could haul out into the tunnel with that massive 525 foot-pounds of torque. Didn't matter if i was in 1st or 2nd gear, i'd always get an edge over the Ai.
Turn 11: The thrid hairpin. It seems this turn is slightly earlier than it used to be...could be my imagination. All i know is i used to brake after the tunnel (typically) as i entered here. Now you gotta start braking while you're still in the tunnel
Turn 12 Here's the dreaded sweeper thru the 2nd tunnel. It's pretty much the same as in previous Gt games--just maintain the speed and don't hit any walls!
turn 13: The loooong 3rd tunnel.
Many of the Ai machines have better downforce and could get a better run thru here. If i happened to be in front of a sim car as i crossed the bridge, i'd sometimes actually let them in front of me here. Hey,it's better than getting smacked in the rear and mess up the rest of the turn! Plus, i knew i could get ahead of most of them in a draft-run down the straight again. 👍Turns 14 & 15: The famous chicane. Again, the Ai had better brakes/less weight going in, but the Viper's sperm-whale torque could take care of that going out. Plus, Polyphony Digital now has added another small concrete pad on the left-hand side of the track...i would occasionally drive onto if if i needed some extra leverage blasting past a stubborn car.
Turn 16 The final sweeper. The Ai (with better downforce again) has a habit of braking a bit, and then maintaining about 115 mph thru. With my lesser downforce/more weight/harder tires i had to do another out-in-out steering pivot. I would maybe be going slower on the inside, but (again) i've got 8.3 liters of all-aluminum V10 madness to take care of that mess.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE RACE
starting grid
starting grid
1. '02 Red Bull Abt Audi TT-R
2. '01 au Cerumo Toyota Supra
3. '93 Calsonic Nissan Skyline GT-R
4. '01 Castrol Tom's Supra
5. '01 Xavani Hiroto Skyline GT-R
6. '03 Dodge Viper SRT-10
sorry folks, i'm not going to go in a lap-by-lap description here. I didn't write any of that stuff down so i'll just summarize instead.
In the beginning melee into those first few early turns, i simply hung back for awhile. The au Cerumo Supra got an edge and began to pull ahead of the 2nd-place Audi TT-R, with the Xavanai/Hiroto Skyline right behind.
This is how the front-lines remained for awhile...the Audi and the Skyline traded places a few times while the Supra maintained about a 3 or 4 second lead ahead of both.
I managed to work my way ahead of the 5th-place '93 Skyline GT-R, which i could tell would be the "slowpoke" of the event.
Yes...this car is being driven by Frenchman Louis Zehr (Lou Zehr...get it??? ) and he even pit way earlier than me (lap 9). Goooooodbye. I managed to get by the 4th place Castrol Supra being driven by Japanese drift-God Keiichi Kohld at some point (don't remember the Castrol Supra at all during this race...it seemed for most of the time to be invisible matter of fact as i never passed or saw it again).Like i said, i had to pit earlier than i woulda liked.
By lap 10 my front tires were yellow-going-on-orange and by lap 11 i had no choice. So there goes my 4th-place. The Castrol Supra passed me but the '93 Skyline was so far behind at this point i was guaranteed 5th place as i left the pits. Before my first stop, i was about 6 seconds behind...now i was almost 40!! But i made a decision during this pit that i believe saved me during the rest of the race: i decided not to refuel! And hence the name of this thread. I don't care what anybody says....i really believe a car with a half-tank is a bit faster than one with a full tank.
And to prove it, i immediately began kicking some butt. Yes, i was 40 seconds down, but as my tires were warming, the Viper was now about to stir-fry my competition. 40 seconds became 38, which fell to 32. Now the leaders were pitting on laps 14 and 15. I passed the Castrol Supra (which i never saw since it was in pit road) and within the next lap caught up to and passed the Hiroto Skyline driven by another Japanese guy...forget his name.
Finally, i caught up to the Audi TT driven by former Austrian psychologist Gretta Lyphe. The leading au Cerumo Supra was being piloted by a former cop (Al Pulluova) and he fell under my thumb eventually, too.
Some folks may say "well, that's just the rubber-band effect". Others may say "well, their tires were cold and that's why you were catching up to them" but that doestn't explain why during the rest of the race i could reliably make time and catch the Ai. I therefore chose
1. Not to let Bob take over...such a decision would be dangerous...i knew he would blow it!
2. Kept my tank half-full (or half-empty).
Long story longer, during the rest of the race, my Viper played it out against these 3 others (au Cerumo Supra, Audi TT-R, and Hiroto Skyline). After my 2nd pitstop on lap 22, i was about 26 seconds behind. YES!! As the Ai pitted between laps 28 and 29, i wound up a healthy margin ahead of them!
Perhaps, 12 seconds. I think at some point i screwed up because i remember the au Cerumo Supra got ahead of me slightly. But we both pit on lap 42.Towards the end of the race, i had a dillema: i knew i had one more pitstop to make!
Yikes. I was ahead of the au Cerumo Supra by a 9-second margin and by now i was getting fatigued. If i wasn't getting tired, i coulda perhaps kept my cornering spot-on and stretched that lead a few more seconds. But i was getting tired-- I was starting to make small mistakes that resulted in heart-stopping bits of understeer in soem of those tighter corners Time to make my final pitstopI decided to stop in lap 54 going into 55. The questions haunted me:
1. Would the au Cerumo Supra take a pit as well????
2. Would i get passed by 3rd place Audi TT-R?
So it turns out question 2 was answered by a YES.
Fortunately, made another race-winning decision. I switched to R3 medium tires. I only had 5 laps to go after all. 💡
Now i REALLY began to fly. As i left the pits, i was about 19 seconds down!
But as my tires warmed, i quickly realized i was all as sudden running an entirely different game. My braking distances could now be shorter. The Viper was no longer plagued by acres of understeer and i could cruise thru the slower turns instead of tip-toeing thru them 👍Still, the obvious question...would the Supra pit? Would my tires actually last 5 laps?? Well, that's 2 questions.
The awesome thing was i passed the Audi TT-R easily...then Al Puluova's au Cerumo Supra began falling into my clutch lap after lap in huge leaps. 19 seconds ahead...17.....13.....11.....
Finally, in lap 59 my tires were about to GIVE OUT! No they weren't red, but the left-front was turning an angry orange after 4 laps of roller-coaster fun. Even if the Supra hadn't pit (which it did in that final lap) i woulda managed to squeak by it somewhere. But since it was called in by its dumb-ass crew, the GV300 was now guaranteed MINE!
And on an odd note, turns out 2nd place went to the Hiroto Skyline, which was now downfield and a bit of a sleeper. I thought the Audi woulda taken the spot. I wound up winning by 16+ seconds.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WINNER'S CIRCLE
1. '03 Dodge Viper SRT-10 / Dirk "Meth Hed" Bryant (USA)
2. '01 Xanavi Hiroto Skyline Gt-R / Ariel Slyper (UK)
3. '02 "Abt/Red Bull" Audi TT-R / Gretta Lyphe (Aust)
4. '01 au Cerumo Toyota Supra / Keiichi Kohld (Japanese)
5. '01 Castrol Tom's Supra / Al Puluova (USA)
6. '93 Calsonic Nissan Skyline GT-R / Louis Zehr (FR)
I was sweatin' bullets during those last few laps, let me tell ya. Plus, i did a bit of research and my Dodge Viper SRT-10 weighs several hundred pounds more than anything the Ai entered. And i was on harder tires than them! Do you suggest i enter a Cappucino or something? 
Still, that made $25,000 richer. 
Ah welll....i'll try Laguna again soon.
