Hi all,
I got to thinking, just about the only thing missing from this thread is some descriptive content from drivers describing how their cars are behaving for given tracks and how their modifications were chosen and how effective they have been. I wrote a small lap description of Suzuka but didn’t have time to do one for Laguna Seca, thought you might be interested in my 3 cars in the wet though..
Starting with the Alfa it was immediately obvious that getting power down was a big issue, on my first exploratory laps in Laguna trim the wheels just kept spinning and spinning. Lap times were down in the 1’26s region and the handling was, nervous to say the least. The Alfa is a fly weight as standard and with just 155bhp it motors along nicely enough, my decision to fit a 1 way lsd to work on the car when accelerating was I think the right thing to do, with more power it will work in the dry also where the Alfa has already showed potential to spin a single wheel exiting tight 2nd gear corners. Best way to attack the wet Tsukuba circuit was with a gentle approach, remembering this is an old car and doesn’t brake aswell as modern machinery, approaching the first right hander brake very early using engine braking down into 2nd and turn in, the cars beautifull balance is just as evident in the wet, when the exit is in sight apply power gently in all gears, approaching the next left hairpin again early braking and turn in 2nd gear, the exit of this corner is difficult, too much power too soon is deadly. A short burst into 3rd and hold that gear for the tricky right under the bridge, taken with a bit of kerb and a whiff of oversteer on the exit as the car trys to get away, full power down to the final right hand hairpin. Same again brake early and turn in, apply gentle throttle until in 3rd gear when traction is good, then full power hitting approx 95mph before braking into 3rd for the final long right which seems to take forever, if your brave enough some power early will see you hit the rumbles on the left with quite a showcase sideways angle, its not quick though and being patient will result in a quicker exit. As usual when settled into a flowing rythym the Alfa is great, not the fastest but with just 155bhp it holds its own.
I chose to give the Clio more power in the form of a stage 1 NA tune, taking it to 203bhp, weight reduc didn’t remove much and the car genuinely felt like it needed more power, even on a wet track with FF? Scaffs advice to use a slow entry speed is critical here with understeer being the order of the day, although I must mention the Clio has excellent brakes, outbraking the 5 and the Alfa by a good car length everywhere. Once the apex is cleared the power can be applied quite soon, it is tricky at high rpm with a tendancy to spin the wheels in 2nd, I found changing up at about 5000rpm in 2nd helped here.
Down to the left hairpin and again brake late and turn in, no throttle, feel the back end sliding, apply throttle – torque steer, too soon ease off, back on again and into 3rd. Picking the right spot to apply throttle in the Clio is difficult, some understeer is inevitable but you can drive it quite hard like this…Quick dab of the brakes and turn in for the right hander under the bridge, hit the rumbles on the exit and immediately get the car left again for the sweeping left hander, a quick lift might be needed mid corner depending on how good the previous corner went! Brake late again and turn in, traction issues again in 2nd but once in 3rd hold it flat out to the redline, into 4th 100mph easy as the brake marker flashes, braking stupidly late for the long right would get me either killed or at the least in the Armco in real life but im happy to take advantage of the gt4 physics here! Steady throttle until the exit is in sight, over the rumbles and cross the line for a 1’16.500 two seconds quicker than the Alfa.
The Turbo 5 has so far been my favourite car, it has immense traction in the dry, allowing the driver to apply power very early and coupled with its lift off oversteer character cornering is a lot of fun. At Tsukuba wet I decided that more power would be welcome but would certainly induce problems with wet tarmac, so I opted for a stage 2 weight reduction taking overall weight reduction down to 911kgs from 970!!
The driving style I ended up with was to set the car soft on its dampers and raise the ride height a little, traction to the rear wheels improved greatly exiting corners. Like both of the other cars it was 2nd gear that caused the problems and a carefull throttle was required. I started out too heavy hitting the rev limiter before changing into 3rd but ended up just using about half to three quarter throttle in 2nd and found I was much quicker, gaining on all of the three hairpins. The tricky right under the bridge was preferable with the car forced into a bit of understeer as oversteer slowed the exit and made it hard to get it turned left for the fast left sweeper down to the last hairpin. The final bend was taken quite quick power on maybe a bit too early with a bit of angle onto the exit rumbles and over the line for a 1’14.7 lap which I didn’t think was possible a few days ago!!
Hope that was an interesting addition to the thread, I will endeavour to get replays up tonight of all three clean laps
Regards
David
(times updated)
I bet that was real satisfying. Gotta go to work now, I'll update the leaderboard tonight.
@ track officials' bulletin....I'm guilty of that one.
ill see everyone at Infineon Sportscar Course sometime on tuesday 
