- 208
It's not the sexiest of races, but it was fun for me.
I set myself the goal of completing all "nonlicenced" races. That means several manufacturer races, including the Suzuki Concepts race. This is a 3-track race using one of exactly two models, the Suzuki GSX-R/4 or the Suzuki S-3 Concept. Unfortunately, the GSX-R/4 is only available by winning the SCC, so I had to get an S-3 Concept.
The S-3 concept is available by winning the Suzuki K-Cup, which is a 3-race series of Suzuki's smaller cars. I bought a used cappucino and sunk about $25k into it on various "standard" upgrades, like R2 tires, a racing chip, lightweight stage 1, and a wing (just for fun).
The SKC race was an easy victory. I crushed the competition, gaining $5k per race, and winning an S-3 at the end (red). The S-3 is a concept, and thus can't be sold.
After the cakewalk in the SKC, I thought it'd be another 30 minutes and I'd be in bed with my new car in the garage. Oh, how wrong I was.
I took the S-3 to the tuners and bought several upgrades, expecting a little stiffer competition. I bought R2 tires, a sport exhaust, racing chip, turbo2 (max), close transmission, stage 1 wt reduction.
Went into the first race (9 a-spec points) at montegi and was crushed. Ended up trying an NA upgrade, lightweight 2, and port polishing. Lost a 7 point a-spec race, largely due to pushing too hard since I was still overpowered.
I added NO and racing brakes, and finally won the Montegi short by 4 seconds, grunting the whole way.
Finally, I thought to myself, I've got the car set up good enough to win. 20 more minutes, and to bed.
HA!
I walked into seattle and got spanked by nearly 30 seconds. It seems that the long stretches of seattle are really well suited to the GSX-R/4. Ouch. Add in the fact that I hadn't raced Seattle since GT3, and... well, it just wasn't pretty.
I returned to the turbo, thinking I'd want more HP at the high end. Drove better the second time in Seattle, but still lost by 22 seconds! I simply couldn't win with my current configuration.
I went and bought what I knew I should have bought all along, a full-custom transmission. It's the single best buy you can make for any vehicle that you're going to have to really work with, and I knew that. Dropped it in, chose a medium setting, and went back to Seattle.
And lost by 14 seconds.
It was getting pretty late. I noticed that with my increased speeds, I was starting to shake badly. I went and picked up a sports suspension and lowered it as far as I could. At this point I was running out of money ($100k into this car), but there was no way I was going to go to bed until I had won the races.
Went back to seattle, and lost twice in a row by 15 seconds, tweaking the transmission and my NO usage each time. In all of these races, there were 3 groups of cars. The lead GSX-R/4, my S-3, and then behind me by 5 seconds, all the other cars. The lead was just chewing up the track.
I decided to try Tsakuba, thinking that Seattle was just being unlucky for me.
I lost at Tsakuba by 9 seconds. Argh!
I went back to my garage and sold some cars, so that I could buy a new clutch and some other miscellaneous upgrades.
I tuned again, and lost in Seattle by only 6 seconds. I was getting there! Soon the race would be mine!
I realized that the driving aids (yes, I use them) were probably hurting me at this point more than helping me, so I turned them down quite a bit, as well as tuning just a little more.
Went back into Seattle and.... WON! by 3 seconds. Finally, I found the key to winning with this car. Thank goodness I'll never race it again after this series.
Took it to another race at Tsakuba, a 6 point race, and won by 5 seconds. Woohoo!
I've never been so happy to get a car as when I got my yellow GSX-R/4. With the stock setup, it nearly wins the races in SCC, MR Challenge, and cleans up in several other places. Plus, you can race it with the top down!
Thanks for reading all of this!
I set myself the goal of completing all "nonlicenced" races. That means several manufacturer races, including the Suzuki Concepts race. This is a 3-track race using one of exactly two models, the Suzuki GSX-R/4 or the Suzuki S-3 Concept. Unfortunately, the GSX-R/4 is only available by winning the SCC, so I had to get an S-3 Concept.
The S-3 concept is available by winning the Suzuki K-Cup, which is a 3-race series of Suzuki's smaller cars. I bought a used cappucino and sunk about $25k into it on various "standard" upgrades, like R2 tires, a racing chip, lightweight stage 1, and a wing (just for fun).
The SKC race was an easy victory. I crushed the competition, gaining $5k per race, and winning an S-3 at the end (red). The S-3 is a concept, and thus can't be sold.
After the cakewalk in the SKC, I thought it'd be another 30 minutes and I'd be in bed with my new car in the garage. Oh, how wrong I was.
I took the S-3 to the tuners and bought several upgrades, expecting a little stiffer competition. I bought R2 tires, a sport exhaust, racing chip, turbo2 (max), close transmission, stage 1 wt reduction.
Went into the first race (9 a-spec points) at montegi and was crushed. Ended up trying an NA upgrade, lightweight 2, and port polishing. Lost a 7 point a-spec race, largely due to pushing too hard since I was still overpowered.
I added NO and racing brakes, and finally won the Montegi short by 4 seconds, grunting the whole way.
Finally, I thought to myself, I've got the car set up good enough to win. 20 more minutes, and to bed.
HA!
I walked into seattle and got spanked by nearly 30 seconds. It seems that the long stretches of seattle are really well suited to the GSX-R/4. Ouch. Add in the fact that I hadn't raced Seattle since GT3, and... well, it just wasn't pretty.
I returned to the turbo, thinking I'd want more HP at the high end. Drove better the second time in Seattle, but still lost by 22 seconds! I simply couldn't win with my current configuration.
I went and bought what I knew I should have bought all along, a full-custom transmission. It's the single best buy you can make for any vehicle that you're going to have to really work with, and I knew that. Dropped it in, chose a medium setting, and went back to Seattle.
And lost by 14 seconds.
It was getting pretty late. I noticed that with my increased speeds, I was starting to shake badly. I went and picked up a sports suspension and lowered it as far as I could. At this point I was running out of money ($100k into this car), but there was no way I was going to go to bed until I had won the races.
Went back to seattle, and lost twice in a row by 15 seconds, tweaking the transmission and my NO usage each time. In all of these races, there were 3 groups of cars. The lead GSX-R/4, my S-3, and then behind me by 5 seconds, all the other cars. The lead was just chewing up the track.
I decided to try Tsakuba, thinking that Seattle was just being unlucky for me.
I lost at Tsakuba by 9 seconds. Argh!
I went back to my garage and sold some cars, so that I could buy a new clutch and some other miscellaneous upgrades.
I tuned again, and lost in Seattle by only 6 seconds. I was getting there! Soon the race would be mine!
I realized that the driving aids (yes, I use them) were probably hurting me at this point more than helping me, so I turned them down quite a bit, as well as tuning just a little more.
Went back into Seattle and.... WON! by 3 seconds. Finally, I found the key to winning with this car. Thank goodness I'll never race it again after this series.
Took it to another race at Tsakuba, a 6 point race, and won by 5 seconds. Woohoo!
I've never been so happy to get a car as when I got my yellow GSX-R/4. With the stock setup, it nearly wins the races in SCC, MR Challenge, and cleans up in several other places. Plus, you can race it with the top down!
Thanks for reading all of this!
one. tuned that, and won the blue 
tuned it, then ran the race again. got a bluey 
