Stock Seasonal Time Trials #4 (Scirocco, X-Bow, NSX - 1/15 to 2/12)

[Hastatus]

As the title states I thought I would try starting a thread series for the seasonal time trials that focuses on completing the challenges (i.e. beating the gold target times) with stock versions of the cars. This means that instead of maximizing your PP with upgrades and focusing on getting the fastest laps on the in-game leaderboard, you are attempting to complete the challenges with the bare minimum amount of 'car' and money-spent as is possible. So far it appears to me that PD has been setting gold times by approximately what the stock versions of the cars are capable of. It's also the cheapest way to complete the events because running stock means you do not need to spend any money on your car and the cars that PD has been using so far have been prize cars (apart from the three AE cars). I do not intend to include the time trials where PD provides the car because those gold times are rather forgiving.

This thread is for people to post their lap times who have used the following limitations:

1) Car must be stock: no upgrades to cars are permitted (this includes upgrades that do not increase PP such as transmissions).
2) Oil changes are not permitted since they increase a car's HP and PP.
3) You must use the original tires that the car came with.
4) No SRF is allowed.

I have started naming this series of threads as #4 because this is the fourth set of three time trials that has been released to date.

Stock Seasonal Time Trials #4:

Volkswagen Scirocco R Super Lap: target 1:30.000
KTM X-Bow Street Super Lap: target 1:10.000
Acura NSX Super Lap: target 2:33.000

 

[Hastatus]

I was able to just barely beat the target times (automatic transmission; with a wheel):

Scirocco R '10 - 438pp - CS - 1:29.988
KTM X-Bow Street '12 - 518pp - SH - 1:09.248
NSX '91 - 433pp - CS - 2:32.569

 

[Sudenkorento]

Scirocco i could not do stock, too hard for me..
KTM X-Bow No helps time 1:09.672...
NSX Type R 02 No helps.. time 2:32.477

 

[Skython]

KTM X-Bow - TCS 0, ABS - 0, Tires - Whatever tires it comes with stock: 1:08:770
Volkswagen Scirocco - TCS 0, ABS - 0, Tires - Whatever it comes with stock: 1:30:426
Acura NSX (the premium one) - TCS 0, ABS 0, Tires - Comfort Soft: 2:33:435

Scirocco has two times. I'm not sure about oil changes and if they count as an upgrade, but I needed one to get gold, but I remember my best time before oil change.
Before oil: 1:30:426
After oil: 1:29:660

Woah, I just realized that two of my times have a double digit followed by a 0 in the milliseconds.

It's great to see that people are doing these things with stock cars too. It's always so irritating when people tune because then it takes the fun out of driving for a great lap.

 

[Hastatus]

I'm not sure about oil changes and if they count as an upgrade, but I needed one to get gold, but I remember my best time before oil change.

Nope. Oil changes count as an upgrade because they give your car extra HP and PP. I'll amend the first post to make that clear.

I too like when everyone is using the same car without tuning: it means you have to adjust your skill level and driving style to the car, rather than adjusting a car to fit your skill level and driving style. I also find it more satisfying to have a difficult time reaching a specific lap time than endlessly trying to compare my lap times on the leaderboards.

The Scirocco lap is by far the most difficult of the target laps in my opinion as there is no room for even the slightest of errors anywhere (at least with an automatic transmission). It took me a little while to learn how to handle the NSX but I never stopped finding places where I could make up time due to the length of the Ascari track...but then again the length and complexity of that track also increases the chances of eventually losing control of the car...which I did many, many times.

 

[Skython]

Nope. Oil changes count as an upgrade because they give your car extra HP and PP. I'll amend the first post to make that clear.

I too like when everyone is using the same car without tuning: it means you have to adjust your skill level and driving style to the car, rather than adjusting a car to fit your skill level and driving style. I also find it more satisfying to have a difficult time reaching a specific lap time than endlessly trying to compare my lap times on the leaderboards.

The Scirocco lap is by far the most difficult of the target laps in my opinion as there is no room for even the slightest of errors anywhere (at least with an automatic transmission). It took me a little while to learn how to handle the NSX but I never stopped finding places where I could make up time due to the length of the Ascari track...but then again the length and complexity of that track also increases the chances of eventually losing control of the car...which I did many, many times.

I thought that may be the case, thanks for clearing that up. I still haven't quite gotten the hang of the NSX after trying today, still sitting on silver (with the old premium Acura NSX).

 

[hessi]

Nope. Oil changes count as an upgrade because they give your car extra HP and PP. I'll amend the first post to make that clear.
I too like when everyone is using the same car without tuning: it means you have to adjust your skill level and driving style to the car, rather than adjusting a car to fit your skill level and driving style. I also find it more satisfying to have a difficult time reaching a specific lap time than endlessly trying to compare my lap times on the leaderboards.

I like the premise of your thread(s) (assuming you keep this for future Seasonal Events), but I disagree on the Oil Change. The PP/HP value of the car without Oil Change is somewhat arbitrary depending on former usage of the car, so my (personal) opinion is that "Stock" refers to a car with Oil Change, since it can always be set back to that value.

Anyway, I happen to have times for the Scirocco and the X-Bow Event without Oil Change, so here it goes:

Scirocco R '10 - 438pp - CS - 1:30.268
KTM X-Bow Street '12 - 518pp - SH - 1:09.914

The NSX event I did with an NSX '90 that I've used significantly before, so the PP value is not your definition of stock anymore.

 

[Hastatus]

I like the premise of your thread(s) (assuming you keep this for future Seasonal Events), but I disagree on the Oil Change. The PP/HP value of the car without Oil Change is somewhat arbitrary depending on former usage of the car, so my (personal) opinion is that "Stock" refers to a car with Oil Change, since it can always be set back to that value.

Yep. I hope this series will continue in the future. That's why I gave it a series number. I myself have been doing all the seasonal challenges stock because I have also been taking part in a spend-as-little-money-as-possible challenge; and I kept finding myself needing to search through the other seasonal threads trying to figure out if the gold times could be done stock and it was kind of a hassle: especially if the poster hadn't mentioned whether they used SRF, etc.

As for the oil change: that has been the only place where I have been concerned because I know very little about how they actually work since I have only done 1 oil change since I started the game back in the first week of release. Maybe you guys could help me clarify how they work so the restrictions can be appropriately set.

My understanding of oil changes:

1) A fresh oil change gives a boost in HP/PP. [The NASCAR car I used my one oil change on went from 849 HP to 892 HP; 620 PP to 627 PP...if my memory serves me correctly...]

2) A fresh oil change can allow one to gain some time because of the extra power. [I was attempting to gold Mount Panorama in the GT World Championship and had failed many times (minimum of 15 attempts over several days), but with the oil change I was able to achieve gold on my second attempt.]

3) The boost from the oil change is temporary and soon the car will return to its pre-fresh-oil-change HP and PP. [Within a couple longer races my NASCAR car's extra power was dropping rather quicker than I suspect it would in GT5; but I was not paying much attention to be honest.]

4) The oil change indicator takes a long time before it says you need an oil change. [I have yet to see the oil change needed on any car. When I did the oil change on my NASCAR car it had over at least 1800 miles and I didn't see the oil change icon in the shop change from green (like the rigidity icon does; which always made me wonder if PD accidently swapped the oil and rigidity distances/times? ).]

Anyways, is my understanding of the oil changes accurate or am I missing something? If I did another oil change on my NASCAR car would the HP/PP go up again temporarily?

Would there be a better way to list the oil change limitation? As I know cars will inevitably have had an oil change done in the past; it's just that I'm trying to remove that temporary boost in power from the equation. Would the following be an appropriate way to address that restriction:

"2) Fresh oil changes in order to temporarily increase HP and PP are not permitted. If you have done an oil change recently you should lower your car's power to the non-fresh-oil-change HP level or wait until the HP has returned to normal."

The NSX event I did with an NSX '90 that I've used significantly before, so the PP value is not your definition of stock anymore.

? I'm not sure what you mean here. PP doesn't increase from engine break-in anymore does it? If you are referring to a past oil change, I hope that the above helped clarify things.

 

[Skython]

Oil stuff...

I think that's quite accurate for the oil.

Well because some people count oil change as stock, I think maybe it should be allowed. But it must be stated whether you did your run with an oil change or without. Because oil change is like body rigidity and all that (which is more car maintenance). Sort of like how I did earlier now I think of it.

Before oil: 1:30:426
After oil: 1:29:660

The change from oil is quite a significant change though. Almost a second for me, but then again, I actually had better driving lines that lap also. It's your choice as it's your thread though, so you do what you want.

 

[Ryk]

Was already doing this.
No driver aids - Bone stock. No Oil, No tweaks. Not even a re-spray or a car wash.
Just turned the driver aids off. And let the torture begin!

438pp/252bhp/1410kg
Scirocco @DFR = 1m30.189
--
518pp/236bhp/790kg
KTM Arbalest @ Ogre Nordwand = 1m09.565
--
433PP/266bhp/1365kg
Acura NSX @ Ascari = 2m32.833

 

[hessi]

1) A fresh oil change gives a boost in HP/PP. [The NASCAR car I used my one oil change on went from 849 HP to 892 HP; 620 PP to 627 PP...if my memory serves me correctly...]

See, this is where our view of the Oil Change already differs - you call it a boost (temporary), I'd call it bringing it back to stock. A car with 0 km on the Odometer has not yet reached its potential, so you need an Oil Change first. It will then keep its stock level for a while until it gradually reduces its power.

I have to admit I do not know whether the reduction of power bottoms out at the initial 0 km PP/BHP level or whether it could go further.

Would there be a better way to list the oil change limitation? As I know cars will inevitably have had an oil change done in the past; it's just that I'm trying to remove that temporary boost in power from the equation. Would the following be an appropriate way to address that restriction:

"2) Fresh oil changes in order to temporarily increase HP and PP are not permitted. If you have done an oil change recently you should lower your car's power to the non-fresh-oil-change HP level or wait until the HP has returned to normal."

It all depends on your definition of "normal". In WRS "stock" is considered after Oil Change, because that's a level everyone can reach without doing any "real" modification on the car (I'd consider a reduction of power a real modification, not an Oil Change). But yeah, as stated by Skython, it's your thread, you define the rules. ;-)