Passage to Colloseo: The Write up
- Thread starter Gil
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- 6,977
- old-guy64
Awakening an oldie:
I've been messing with GT3 for a bit, as GT4 tends to be be a bit boring at times.
I was running the Rome enduro, when I got bored and started watching TV.
I was running it this time in one of my Spoon S2000's, tuned to 276hp.
At the rate I was running I would have finished about a lap ahead of the Griffith and Clio.
I need to find another car that is "interesting" to run this in.
It needs to be a solid 1'35 runner. I'm considering the 328i, or maybe building a Fiat Turbo Coupe for the challenge...
I've been messing with GT3 for a bit, as GT4 tends to be be a bit boring at times.
I was running the Rome enduro, when I got bored and started watching TV.
I was running it this time in one of my Spoon S2000's, tuned to 276hp.
At the rate I was running I would have finished about a lap ahead of the Griffith and Clio.
I need to find another car that is "interesting" to run this in.
It needs to be a solid 1'35 runner. I'm considering the 328i, or maybe building a Fiat Turbo Coupe for the challenge...
- 10,549
- Columbia, MD.
- Parnelli_Bones
In another thread somewhere i described my recent races (2 of them) at Rome 2-hour. First was a RUF Porsche 3400-S. That car felt a little over powered, but it was a fun race. Then i tried Rome again in a Nissan Silvia K's 2.0! I forget what my power was but on the regular GT3 page i started a thread called "I just lost the Rome 2-Hour Enduro", you can read what i used. Anyways, it was one of my best GT3 experiences so far: i was going head to head with the Griffith LAP AFTER LAP. I mean, we were so evenly split so far as power, handling, and braking goes. The Renault clio sport would sometimes step into the fray as well, leaving the pits while me & the Griffith caught up..then there would be a 3-way battle.
The Silvia is extremely tail-happy on whatever tires i had to run. I decided to pit WITH the Griffith every 5 laps. Once i decided to go 6 laps and it screwed everything up and made the race a bit boring cuz the Griffith wound up ahead of me somehow. Anyways, find that thread and try it....
I ran the race again in a Cobra Mustang, but it wasnt as good. the Mustang feels too confident or something..i kept trying different tires (sports, stock, T4's, etc), but Rome wasn't as fun as it was in the Silvia.
I blew the Rome enduro!
I got a little overconfident and decided to enter a Miata in this race. It was an almost maxed out J model with 249 horsepower and a PWR of 3.357. I was running on T6's because I wanted to match the Clio's 6 lap pit schedule.
I wasn't initially planning on writing this up, so I'm afraid I don't have a ton of details. But people might enjoy hearing my sorry story, so I'll write it up. Besides it was a close race. (Maybe I shouldn't've given away the ending.)
Both the Griffith 500 and the Clio were there, along with three other cars that aren't very competitive - a BMW, a Fiat, and a Peugeot. I passed those three on lap one. I couldn't catch the Clio, but he wasn't too far ahead. In fact, I could judge how well I took every turn, because if I took a slow line the Clio would move further down the road. And if I nailed a turn, I closed the gap just a little bit. Of course, the Griffith was gone, but I thought I'd catch him with pit strategy.
I finally gained the lead on lap 10 and ran a good outlap on lap 12 to get a 5 second lead. But by the time the Clio and I pitted again on 18, my lead had shrunk to 2.5 seconds.
Lap 30 was significant because the Griffith, myself and the Clio all entered the pits. Grif first, followed by me 2 seconds later, follwed by the Clio another 2 seconds back.
I kept some pretty decent times, but as we approached lap 60 (our next mutual pit stop it was became clear that the Griffith was the bigger threat than the Clio. He was about 20 seconds ahead of me on lap 58. I had to re-evaluate my pit strategy which meant I had to do math while driving. uh-oh
I decided to switch to a 7 lap pit schedule, so that I would pit on 61 and 68, which would mean one less pit stop, but 3 laps on orange tires. Probably worth it and my only chance to catch the Griffith. And here's where I made my bonehead move: I skipped the pit stop on 61, but I spaced and also skipped the pits on lap 62. I don't know why - maybe I was still trying to do math. Anyway that one lap on dark orange tires was really bad. Several seconds worse than my average.
I drove the cleanest laps of the race from lap 62 until the bitter end, and even up to lap 70 I thought I had at least a small chance of catching up. But the Griffith crossed the finish line 5 seconds ahead of me. (Insert smilie of a guy drowning his sorrows surrounded by empty shot glasses.)
Even if I hadn't missed that pit stop I might still have lost. But damn, that would've been a close race.
Maybe I should go back with the same car, and plan on switching to a 7 lap pit schedule halfway through. Or pit every 5 laps with the Griffith - maybe T7 tires would let me keep up with him. That'd be cool, cause we'd both have to pass the Clio several times during the race.
I got a little overconfident and decided to enter a Miata in this race. It was an almost maxed out J model with 249 horsepower and a PWR of 3.357. I was running on T6's because I wanted to match the Clio's 6 lap pit schedule.
I wasn't initially planning on writing this up, so I'm afraid I don't have a ton of details. But people might enjoy hearing my sorry story, so I'll write it up. Besides it was a close race. (Maybe I shouldn't've given away the ending.)
Both the Griffith 500 and the Clio were there, along with three other cars that aren't very competitive - a BMW, a Fiat, and a Peugeot. I passed those three on lap one. I couldn't catch the Clio, but he wasn't too far ahead. In fact, I could judge how well I took every turn, because if I took a slow line the Clio would move further down the road. And if I nailed a turn, I closed the gap just a little bit. Of course, the Griffith was gone, but I thought I'd catch him with pit strategy.
I finally gained the lead on lap 10 and ran a good outlap on lap 12 to get a 5 second lead. But by the time the Clio and I pitted again on 18, my lead had shrunk to 2.5 seconds.
Lap 30 was significant because the Griffith, myself and the Clio all entered the pits. Grif first, followed by me 2 seconds later, follwed by the Clio another 2 seconds back.
I kept some pretty decent times, but as we approached lap 60 (our next mutual pit stop it was became clear that the Griffith was the bigger threat than the Clio. He was about 20 seconds ahead of me on lap 58. I had to re-evaluate my pit strategy which meant I had to do math while driving. uh-oh
I decided to switch to a 7 lap pit schedule, so that I would pit on 61 and 68, which would mean one less pit stop, but 3 laps on orange tires. Probably worth it and my only chance to catch the Griffith. And here's where I made my bonehead move: I skipped the pit stop on 61, but I spaced and also skipped the pits on lap 62. I don't know why - maybe I was still trying to do math. Anyway that one lap on dark orange tires was really bad. Several seconds worse than my average.
I drove the cleanest laps of the race from lap 62 until the bitter end, and even up to lap 70 I thought I had at least a small chance of catching up. But the Griffith crossed the finish line 5 seconds ahead of me. (Insert smilie of a guy drowning his sorrows surrounded by empty shot glasses.)
Even if I hadn't missed that pit stop I might still have lost. But damn, that would've been a close race.
Maybe I should go back with the same car, and plan on switching to a 7 lap pit schedule halfway through. Or pit every 5 laps with the Griffith - maybe T7 tires would let me keep up with him. That'd be cool, cause we'd both have to pass the Clio several times during the race.
You have my sympathy Bulldozer. *pat on back* Very good sportsmanship to fight right to the end against the Griffith! I'd never forget the Griffith as the big bad AI that banged walls all the time but just brushed it off so easily with its sheer straight line accel. Yep, I got a bitter story of my Rome enduro to tell as well....
I used a stock Trueno SS with a driveshaft upgrade and T6. Even though it's got only 213 hp with new oil, the downforce, lightweight, and T6 made it handle like a dream. Though its ridiculously wide gearbox ratio with peak hp at redline meant it wasn't even delivering 213 hp most of the time.
Before I actually went into the race, race reports (this thread included) told me the lead AI Griffith would finish 73 laps in 2 hrs. I then did a test run and observed the T6 can last me 8 laps no problem, making a nice pit schedule. After doing some math and forecasting that I'd win, albeit with a <1 minute margin, I went with this and ran the race.
Details omitting, throughout the 2 hrs I was swapping lead back and forth with the Griffith, usually during one of our pit stops. I was still in good shape going into lap 73, with a 4 sec margin or something. Though with that bit of margin I knew my forecast calculation wasn't as reliable as I initially thought.
Anyway, at that point if I can hold Griffith off finishing the front straight, then in the upcoming colosseum left and 2 square-right turns there'd be no chance for him to build up a pass. After that would come the IA-6 license section where I can actually build some lead through the chicane.
I managed to hold it all together (on orange tires) and was still seeing Griffith behind me going into the IA-6 section. Pass the chicane and into the back straight I thought I'd have a breather, when too suddenly the devil just flashed in my rear-view and had passed me to my left!!!! I was frozen in shock and breaking a cold sweat.
I wasn't willing to accept it, but I knew all hope was lost. On the upcoming 2 left handers my orange tires didn't help a bit. I lost, passing the finish line 1.8s behind Griffith. A 1.8s that was lost to Griffith AFTER the 2hr mark and only during the last 3rd of the last lap!! Talk about a bitter defeat! Now that was 2 full hours wasted....On 2nd attempt I used the same car, stretched the T6 to a 9 lap pit schedule and tweaked the rear downforce a bit. I concentrated on my driving right from the beginning and in the end just won by 8 sec I think.
To this day I still don't know how the Griffith can pass me at that back straight when on all other laps that was where I could build up a gap. I didn't recall any slowdown during the chicane right before. Maybe Griffith was close enough to catch my draft and that gave him the extra pull.
One definite disadvantage that the player (I) had was that my pit location was way down at the end of the pit lane. That makes one pit stop at least 1-2 seconds slower than an AI whose pit stop is right at the beginning of pit lane.
Here's a short one. Not much of a race, I'll just post it in case anyone is interested in running a ZZ-S at Rome.
I was looking for a close race so I thought I'd try the ultra-light ZZ-S with low hp. Fully lightened it weighs 596 kg, and my hp was 196 after oil change. I wanted to match the Griffith 500's five pit schedule, so I picked soft tires (T7's). You could actually go much further that 5 laps on T7's - I'm not sure exactly how many.
Well, it didn't turn out to be a close race after all. I was gaining a couple seconds over the Griffith from the very beginning. And I shaved a couple more seconds off my time after I got used to the car.
Here's what I learned about lightweights: I already knew I should go easy on the brakes so I wouldn't lose too much speed through the corners. I also found that turning too hard would scrub off speed too, so I had to be gentle with the steering wheel as well as the brakes. Also, hitting some of the curbstones too high would pitch me sideways, which also wasted a ton of speed. But when I drove smoothly, the car carried a lot of speed through the turns and had great exit speeds. And the top speed was pretty good, in spite of the low hp.
My best lap time was 1'30.6xx. On the last lap I slowed down to finish just over 2 hours. I'd already done 74 laps and didn't need to run a 75th. (lazy)
This might be a good car for someone to run "out of the box" with no oil change and on normal tires, although I'm not sure how many laps those tires are good for.
BTW, I finally won the Lancia Delta Rally car.
I was looking for a close race so I thought I'd try the ultra-light ZZ-S with low hp. Fully lightened it weighs 596 kg, and my hp was 196 after oil change. I wanted to match the Griffith 500's five pit schedule, so I picked soft tires (T7's). You could actually go much further that 5 laps on T7's - I'm not sure exactly how many.
Well, it didn't turn out to be a close race after all. I was gaining a couple seconds over the Griffith from the very beginning. And I shaved a couple more seconds off my time after I got used to the car.
Here's what I learned about lightweights: I already knew I should go easy on the brakes so I wouldn't lose too much speed through the corners. I also found that turning too hard would scrub off speed too, so I had to be gentle with the steering wheel as well as the brakes. Also, hitting some of the curbstones too high would pitch me sideways, which also wasted a ton of speed. But when I drove smoothly, the car carried a lot of speed through the turns and had great exit speeds. And the top speed was pretty good, in spite of the low hp.
My best lap time was 1'30.6xx. On the last lap I slowed down to finish just over 2 hours. I'd already done 74 laps and didn't need to run a 75th. (lazy)
This might be a good car for someone to run "out of the box" with no oil change and on normal tires, although I'm not sure how many laps those tires are good for.
BTW, I finally won the Lancia Delta Rally car.
- 10,549
- Columbia, MD.
- Parnelli_Bones
I blew the Rome enduro!
I got a little overconfident and decided to enter a Miata in this race. It was an almost maxed out J model with 249 horsepower and a PWR of 3.357. I was running on T6's because I wanted to match the Clio's 6 lap pit schedule.
I wasn't initially planning on writing this up, so I'm afraid I don't have a ton of details. But people might enjoy hearing my sorry story, so I'll write it up. Besides it was a close race. (Maybe I shouldn't've given away the ending.)
Both the Griffith 500 and the Clio were there, along with three other cars that aren't very competitive - a BMW, a Fiat, and a Peugeot. I passed those three on lap one. I couldn't catch the Clio, but he wasn't too far ahead. In fact, I could judge how well I took every turn, because if I took a slow line the Clio would move further down the road. And if I nailed a turn, I closed the gap just a little bit. Of course, the Griffith was gone, but I thought I'd catch him with pit strategy.
I finally gained the lead on lap 10 and ran a good outlap on lap 12 to get a 5 second lead. But by the time the Clio and I pitted again on 18, my lead had shrunk to 2.5 seconds.
Lap 30 was significant because the Griffith, myself and the Clio all entered the pits. Grif first, followed by me 2 seconds later, follwed by the Clio another 2 seconds back.
I kept some pretty decent times, but as we approached lap 60 (our next mutual pit stop it was became clear that the Griffith was the bigger threat than the Clio. He was about 20 seconds ahead of me on lap 58. I had to re-evaluate my pit strategy which meant I had to do math while driving. uh-oh
I decided to switch to a 7 lap pit schedule, so that I would pit on 61 and 68, which would mean one less pit stop, but 3 laps on orange tires. Probably worth it and my only chance to catch the Griffith. And here's where I made my bonehead move: I skipped the pit stop on 61, but I spaced and also skipped the pits on lap 62. I don't know why - maybe I was still trying to do math. Anyway that one lap on dark orange tires was really bad. Several seconds worse than my average.
I drove the cleanest laps of the race from lap 62 until the bitter end, and even up to lap 70 I thought I had at least a small chance of catching up. But the Griffith crossed the finish line 5 seconds ahead of me. (Insert smilie of a guy drowning his sorrows surrounded by empty shot glasses.)
Even if I hadn't missed that pit stop I might still have lost. But damn, that would've been a close race.
Maybe I should go back with the same car, and plan on switching to a 7 lap pit schedule halfway through. Or pit every 5 laps with the Griffith - maybe T7 tires would let me keep up with him. That'd be cool, cause we'd both have to pass the Clio several times during the race.
Hey you can't win 'em all! My personal strategy has usually been: if you're winning too many races in a row, you're getting too good Parnelli.
Then the imaginary race-marshalls start enforcing limits on my car. 
Nobody wins all the time. Not Petty. Not Schumacher. Not Mansell. Not nobody!
- 375
I was going through a bunch of old prize cars, testing them out at Rome in hopes of finding something interesting for this event. WRX wagon, Celicas, EVO VII, Spoon Civic and I even revived "Piglet" the pink Vitz for the tryout. The Vitz was pretty fast but I don't feel like wrestling it for two hours. I finally thought, "This is Rome, I should drive something Italian!" I bought the Alfa 156 and have been tuning it. Boy does it need tuning! I'm still not turning the times I figure I'm going to need and I think I'll need a little TCS to keep the front skins on. I've been testing a Stage 1 turbo, but I'm wondering if NA tune ups might save me tire wear with a smoother band of power.
In real life with the FF cars I've driven, I've done most of my braking in a straight line and then powered through the turn. This beast just wants to torquesteer straight. By the way, I'm trying the 1.5 way LSD for the first time in the game. I went cheap and got the Semi-Race suspension too which may have been a mistake cause I want to mess with the rear toe now.
In real life with the FF cars I've driven, I've done most of my braking in a straight line and then powered through the turn. This beast just wants to torquesteer straight. By the way, I'm trying the 1.5 way LSD for the first time in the game. I went cheap and got the Semi-Race suspension too which may have been a mistake cause I want to mess with the rear toe now.
- 10,549
- Columbia, MD.
- Parnelli_Bones
- 375
Last Saturday Night I was messing with the Alfa again. (Wow. It's been more than half a year since I posted in this thread.) I went for the one-way differential. Fully adjustable suspension and the Turbo. I was able to tweak the suspension enough that I could keep tires on it for more than 5 laps. I never got the Alfa to where I was what you'd call pleased with the handling. I was having to tap the brakes in a lot of higher speed bends where I normally wouldn't, otherwise it would understeer too much. I needed to be mostly through of the turn before I gently squeezed on the power. But boy does it go down the straights.
I saved the game (I could chicken out easily that way) and went straight into the race to try my tuning adjustments. I found I could run better than the Clio when my driving was tidy. It was after midnight so I figured I ought to end the test soon. After the TVR and Clio pitted, I was at least able to tast the lead. I pitted two laps after the Clio and that was a bit much for my tires. I kept going and found at times I could even run with the TVR. It was hard to tell if I was going to be able to pull this off as a win. Once I hit a half an hour I found I could still take the lead during the pit stop shuffle. At this point I decided to "go for it". At 1 Hour I was still swapping positions during the pit stops. My laps were mostly 1:35s and 1:36s. Early on I got a couple of 1:34 somethings that I couldn't seem to duplicate later. I had some lousy laps too that made the endeavor iffy. At the 100 minute mark I pitted without losing my lead. Things were looking up. I felt confident I could win it at that point. I pitted for the last time at 116 minutes. I was downright shocked to have the TVR take the lead with less than 4 minutes left. I must have had some pretty sloppy laps. I was seriously focused on clean laps. The TVR pitted the next lap but was still closer than I was comfortable with. The last split I saw had the TVR a little over 10 seconds back. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think we only completed 72 laps.
I finished after 2 am. I was seriously dissapointed to get the Zonda Racecar as my prize. Hardly worth the effort of wrestling that car for two hours.
I saved the game (I could chicken out easily that way) and went straight into the race to try my tuning adjustments. I found I could run better than the Clio when my driving was tidy. It was after midnight so I figured I ought to end the test soon. After the TVR and Clio pitted, I was at least able to tast the lead. I pitted two laps after the Clio and that was a bit much for my tires. I kept going and found at times I could even run with the TVR. It was hard to tell if I was going to be able to pull this off as a win. Once I hit a half an hour I found I could still take the lead during the pit stop shuffle. At this point I decided to "go for it". At 1 Hour I was still swapping positions during the pit stops. My laps were mostly 1:35s and 1:36s. Early on I got a couple of 1:34 somethings that I couldn't seem to duplicate later. I had some lousy laps too that made the endeavor iffy. At the 100 minute mark I pitted without losing my lead. Things were looking up. I felt confident I could win it at that point. I pitted for the last time at 116 minutes. I was downright shocked to have the TVR take the lead with less than 4 minutes left. I must have had some pretty sloppy laps. I was seriously focused on clean laps. The TVR pitted the next lap but was still closer than I was comfortable with. The last split I saw had the TVR a little over 10 seconds back. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think we only completed 72 laps.
I finished after 2 am. I was seriously dissapointed to get the Zonda Racecar as my prize. Hardly worth the effort of wrestling that car for two hours.
- 10,549
- Columbia, MD.
- Parnelli_Bones
Yay! Rome and the MX5/miata race were my 2 favorite GT3 enduros. I liked Stupor Speedway and Grand Valley, too. 👍 Which Alfa did you use? Was it the 156? Man, that's one thing i dont think i tried: driving a front-drive in the Rome enduro...i did use a Civic once at the Speedway enduro, though.
- 375
Yes, it was the 156. I think that's the only alfa in GT3. I could think of several FF cars that would've been less painful to drive, but I wanted an Italian car to race at Rome that wasn't overkill. I even bought it in red and installed gold five-spoke wheels to complete the theme. I probably should've searched around for some tuning setups for the 156 here since I really wasn't happy with the handling. I watched a little of the replay and the TVR Griffith was able to be full on the throttle a whole lot earlier than I could. I'm much prouder when I don't have to rely on massive power down the straights.
I've enjoyed the Miata and Trial Mountain Enduros the most so far.
I've enjoyed the Miata and Trial Mountain Enduros the most so far.
- 10,549
- Columbia, MD.
- Parnelli_Bones
- 6,977
- old-guy64
Ok, I've built up a Fiat Turbo Coupe.
However, it redlines at only 6000 RPM, and even with a 4.11 final drive it needs right at 300 HP to consistently turn 1:36.xxx's. (That is a top end of only 125 MPH)
I still haven't quite sorted out the handling yet either.
But I'm working on it. My real life, and some video game boredom are causing slow progress, but I will get to it...eventually.
However, it redlines at only 6000 RPM, and even with a 4.11 final drive it needs right at 300 HP to consistently turn 1:36.xxx's. (That is a top end of only 125 MPH)
I still haven't quite sorted out the handling yet either.
But I'm working on it. My real life, and some video game boredom are causing slow progress, but I will get to it...eventually.
