Weekly Challenge Discussion Thread

[RACECAR]

American FR Challenge 550: Chevy Camaro ZL1. First proper Race for my GT4 build and its a another solid one.
The Silvia Sisters: Nissan Silvia (S15). Same tune from some time ago, with abit of modification.
Hypercar Parade: Ferrari FXX-K. Ole reliable.
World Touring Car 700: Toyota Supra GR.4. Basically just felt like showing off my livery while doing this race.
Honda Civic One-Make: The traffic was a pleasant, if slightly scary, surprise.

 

[hyperspeed980]

The addition of traffic made the Civic race a blast to run and, quite frankly, a breath of fresh air. We absolutely need more of this type of thing showing up!

 

[05XR8]

Yes. More please.

 

[jlbmel]

All wins on hard difficulty:
1. Pontiac GTO "The Judge" '69 - 550pp,SH
2. Nissan Silvia spec-R Aero (S15) '02 - 560pp,SM
3. Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition (FK8) '20 - 550pp,SH
4. Aston Martin Valkyrie '21 - 875pp,SS (stock)
5. Subaru Impreza 22B STi '98 - (swap engine),688pp,RS (no rain)
All cars except the Valkyrie had tunes by @praiano63.
The Subaru is a beast at WTC 700 LeMans event. High top speed and great fuel mileage.
Daily workout gave me 6* engine ticket - L4-Focus Gr.B worth 325,000 credits.
6* ticket gave me 1M. credits.
Not bad for 55 minutes of racing.

 

[CTRL Garage]

Red Bull Ring provided a good race against the AI coming through the field in a maxed out Stratos.
Just no idea how Yamanaka gets so far ahead.

 

[Fuzzi0n]

Good week, bunch of fun races with a few that can be a challenge. Laguna is really easy with how slow the AI is through turn 6, can be pretty far under the suggested PP and win. Willow is difficult in a stock Silvia, you can do it if you treat the track limits like it's a GT3 race. The special event this week really is a highlight, great layout at night with some rain, AI has a bunch of interesting cars including a Spoon replica and there's even AI traffic like it's Tokyo Xtreme Racer. Had a lot of fun with this one and I should probably run it a few more times in different cars. Hypercar Parade looked easy but wasn't, once the Veneno is in the lead it runs low 1:37s or quicker so you'll need something fast, quite a few cars on SS tyres too. WTC 700 is a similar story with Yamanaka running RS and ending up 10+ seconds ahead of the rest of the field while running 1:38s. I only had a tiny bit of rain and pitted on lap 5 for fuel using my K24A swapped 86 GT and won pretty easily, turns out they slow down a lot after their pit stops. Maybe if you get a lot of rain you can win in a much slower car, otherwise you need to run under 1:35 every lap.

Cars for the week:

 

[2cam16]

Again another so-so week. Maybe it's because I've ran all these races before except for the Civic of course. Anyway....
RBR was in the Gr.3 Porsche. Yamanaka in his Supra was way ahead and it took me a bit to catch up. Took first when he pitted. I pitted after the 8th and came out about 4 seconds up. Won by around 10 seconds.
Red Bull Ring_ (19) by 2cam16, on Flickr
You say Hypercar I say always my FXXK. Same car I used to win this race awhile back. Too easy. It was over even before the 2nd lap ended. lol
Autódromo de Interlagos__1 (3) by 2cam16, on Flickr
The Civic special was the most exciting for me specially with the "traffic". Plus some of those other Civics killed me on the straights! Went out in my EK TC with Rock-it Cargo livery that I had entered in a recent livery contest. Won by about 5 seconds. We need more of the traffic!
Tokyo Expressway - East Clockwise_ (5) by 2cam16, on Flickr
Silvia Sisters was in my main choice. Even with a big off I still won by a few seconds.
Willow Springs International Raceway_ Streets of Willow Springs_ (3) by 2cam16, on Flickr
Laguna Seca was in my classic Chevy. 549pp.Easy win.
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca_ (17) by 2cam16, on Flickr
Got the 2016 Audi R18 which I already own one of but still going to keep it.

 

[A_Higher_Place]

I have a few Toyota Hi Ace vans in my civic event. What's going on? It's like weaving through traffic while racing. Pretty neat, very neat.

@05XR8 you got your traffic (beta lite version) that you've always wanted

 

[rheinaoi]

RACE 5 - WTC700 at RED BULL RING
Slow and steady gets 2nd place

The time has come for me to race my other R33 – the ‘normal’ one that has a 10,000rpm redline.

I opted for a one-stop strategy: Racing Mediums, Fuel Map 6 and short shifting because over-built roadcar. I hopped to the slow work of remembering how to navigate the Red Bull Ring as well as reeling in Yamanaka in the Supra who may as well have been on the other side of the country with his 20 second head start.

Though my fuel economy was hopeless, my tire life was amazing – wow, I could probably run the whole race on these tires, I thought. Keep that in mind for later…

Over the next five laps, I cut Yamanaka’s lead to 5 seconds, only to hand it all back with a bonus when I made my pit stop at the end of lap 5. I took fresh tires and an entire tank of fuel – the gauge said I’d get 4.9 laps. Splendid 🫠

Later, I realized that Yamanaka had been running Racing Soft tires. He set laps in the 1:38s. Behind him however, was the dark horse [bull] of the race: the Haywood Hurican; quietly following me up through the pack.

Please forgive the Time Trial style use of track limits

He was flying with 1:35s… On Racing Hard tires . Both of them dived into the pits at the end of lap 6.

At the end of lap 7, I passed the Haywood Hurican. And then into Turn 1, I put Yamanaka’s Supra behind me. My brain flipped to Time Trial mode and I pulled away for a 1st place finish, with a 20 second lead on Yamanaka.

I see you...

GET OVER HERE!!!

So, did my speed create that final gap? Nope!

Yamanaka loved his set of Racing Softs so much that he never changed them. He did 10 laps on Racing Softs!

Hardest race done. Now on to the fun stuff. My body and soul are ready for that Civic race.

 

[Chris30]

RACE 5 - WTC700 at RED BULL RING
Slow and steady gets 2nd place

The time has come for me to race my other R33 – the ‘normal’ one that has a 10,000rpm redline.

View attachment 1449655

I opted for a one-stop strategy: Racing Mediums, Fuel Map 6 and short shifting because over-built roadcar. I hopped to the slow work of remembering how to navigate the Red Bull Ring as well as reeling in Yamanaka in the Supra who may as well have been on the other side of the country with his 20 second head start.

View attachment 1449656

Though my fuel economy was hopeless, my tire life was amazing – wow, I could probably run the whole race on these tires, I thought. Keep that in mind for later…

Over the next five laps, I cut Yamanaka’s lead to 5 seconds, only to hand it all back with a bonus when I made my pit stop at the end of lap 5. I took fresh tires and an entire tank of fuel – the gauge said I’d get 4.9 laps. Splendid 🫠

View attachment 1449660

Later, I realized that Yamanaka had been running Racing Soft tires. He set laps in the 1:38s. Behind him however, was the dark horse [bull] of the race: the Haywood Hurican; quietly following me up through the pack.

View attachment 1449661 Please forgive the Time Trial style use of track limits

He was flying with 1:35s… On Racing Hard tires . Both of them dived into the pits at the end of lap 6.

At the end of lap 7, I passed the Haywood Hurican. And then into Turn 1, I put Yamanaka’s Supra behind me. My brain flipped to Time Trial mode and I pulled away for a 1st place finish, with a 20 second lead on Yamanaka.

View attachment 1449657
I see you...

View attachment 1449663
GET OVER HERE!!!

So, did my speed create that final gap? Nope!

Yamanaka loved his set of Racing Softs so much that he never changed them. He did 10 laps on Racing Softs!

View attachment 1449659

Hardest race done. Now on to the fun stuff. My body and soul are ready for that Civic race.

Awesome thorough race stats you provided for us, well done! Keep up the progress.

 

[ROCKET JOE]

I'm through with this batch of races since yesterday and it's been a bit of a mixed bag for me. Three of the races were really easy with first try clean race victories, including the Silvia event on the infamous Streets of Willow. On one hand, I had the impression the competition here wasn't quite as fierce as in the other Silvia challenges before, on the other I ( you all know me by now ) I really like this track and I got my car flying around everything in my way.
The Civic race was fun too, really enjoyed the traffic that honestly came quite surprising. Well and Interlagos with my de-tuned Valkyrie ... race over at the beginning of lap three.

Now the other two challenges weren't that easy. At Laguna Seca I've been fighting with my RS500 Cosworth, the issue was I lost it many many times while turning due to a sudden complete grip loss. I thought it's got to do with weight balance and weight transfer but I don't understand these things. I fiddled a lot with the settings and I finally found something that made this car a bit more predictable and stable enough to finish first. I'm thankful for any tips regarding this car behavior ... although I won't drive that thing again any time soon.
At RBR I needed two attempts for the win. Made the wrong compound choice at my first run when the rain came after lap 4. Went with full wets but the rain didn't last, I wasn't quick enough for a second stop nor could I save tires to reach the line. Second attempt was almost dry, one stop after lap 6 for fuel and tires and quite a comfortable winning margin at the end. Side note : What Yamanaka does here is on the same nonsense level as Gallo's Giulia imo.

I'm now planning for something I call "the destroyer tour".
Four of the cars needed are ready to go. It's a Challenger Demon, a Civic FK8, the now fully tuned Silvia S15 I've already used and the maxed out Valkyrie. I'm still looking for a car for the WTC 700. Any suggestions ?

Will report how things turn out, maybe with pictures.

 

[Famine]

I have a few Toyota Hi Ace vans in my civic event. What's going on? It's like weaving through traffic while racing.

So does everyone - and it's not just HiAces:

On the face of it there’s nothing too odd about a Honda Civic One-Make race — for any Honda Civic road car in the game — at the fast Tokyo Expressway East Clockwise course, but six of the 20-car field is literally just traffic. You’ll encounter these slow-moving vehicles, comprising HiAce vans, a Mazda Atenza, and a Prius or two, midway through lap three of the four, which might make getting the clean race bonus tricky — as will the persisting rain.

 

[rheinaoi]

I'm now planning for something I call "the destroyer tour".
Four of the cars needed are ready to go. It's a Challenger Demon, a Civic FK8, the now fully tuned Silvia S15 I've already used and the maxed out Valkyrie. I'm still looking for a car for the WTC 700. Any suggestions ?

Here's a quick tune for the Nissan R34 GT-R with the Group C engine swap.

Pit Strategy
One stop, Fuel Map 1 maximum attack.

EDIT: Results

You get ~7 laps at full power, revving to the stratosphere Your tire wear is great too, and you have AWD GT-R grip in the wet. The bonus is angry V8 noises.

Wide Body, Wide Wheels
Custom Parts: Rear Type B, Custom Wing
The custom rear wing gives more rear downforce, while the splitter gives more overall downforce and decreases drag

OTHER DESTROYER CANDIDATES

• Jaguar XJ220 with the Group C V12 Swap
• R32 and R33 GT-Rs with the Group C V8 Swap (5-Speed gearboxes though)
• Evos with the Gr.B Rally Engines
• Gr.3 Swapped Road Cars - BMW M3s and M4 with the Z4 GT3 Swap
• Mitsubishi Evo Final Gr.B and the Group B rally cars in general; if you are OK with their inherent oversteer on braking

SUDDEN GRIP LOSS
- Your ride height may be too low, and your springs may be too soft
- Raise ride height and increase spring rate

Additionally, if you are using analog sticks on a controller, check the calibration. You may be suffering from "stick drift" I had a similar issue back during the Group C events. I disassembled and cleaned my PS4 controller to fix the issue. I'm not sure what to do for PS5.

 

[ROCKET JOE]

Here's a quick tune for the Nissan R34 GT-R with the Group C engine swap.

Pit Strategy
One stop, Fuel Map 1 maximum attack.

EDIT: Results
View attachment 1449742

You get ~7 laps at full power, revving to the stratosphere Your tire wear is great too, and you have AWD GT-R grip in the wet. The bonus is angry V8 noises.

Wide Body, Wide Wheels
Custom Parts: Rear Type B, Custom Wing
The custom rear wing gives more rear downforce, while the splitter gives more overall downforce and decreases drag

View attachment 1449736

View attachment 1449737

View attachment 1449738

View attachment 1449739

OTHER DESTROYER CANDIDATES

• Jaguar XJ220 with the Group C V12 Swap
• R32 and R33 GT-Rs with the Group C V8 Swap (5-Speed gearboxes though)
• Evos with the Gr.B Rally Engines
• Gr.3 Swapped Road Cars - BMW M3s and M4 with the Z4 GT3 Swap
• Mitsubishi Evo Final Gr.B and the Group B rally cars in general; if you are OK with their inherent oversteer on braking

SUDDEN GRIP LOSS
- Your ride height may be too low, and your springs may be too soft
- Raise ride height and increase spring rate

Additionally, if you are using analog sticks on a controller, check the calibration. You may be suffering from "stick drift" I had a similar issue back during the Group C events. I disassembled and cleaned my PS4 controller to fix the issue. I'm not sure what to do for PS5.

Thanks very much for your hints regarding the Cossie and for the GT-R tune, will try this for sure. The R34 is in the UCD right now, looks like I'm lucky.

What I've done and found so far is, I've bought one of my all-time favorites ...

... and swapped in a Nismo GT500 engine.

If it doesn't rain at Spielberg you can do a non-stopper on RH tires and FM3. I was able to pull 1.33 - 1.32 laps with a single dip into the high 1.31 ( could for sure be faster with a proper tune ) ...

It's a start at least !

Question : Did you have rain in the race you posted above ?

 

[rheinaoi]

Question : Did you have rain in the race you posted above ?

The R34 race turned wet after lap 4. Essentially PD said after my fastest lap, OK, that's enough. No 1:29.9 for you

 

[CTRL Garage]

View attachment 1449640

Red Bull Ring provided a good race against the AI coming through the field in a maxed out Stratos.
Just no idea how Yamanaka gets so far ahead.

View attachment 1449638

Made some setup changes and added a rear wing and went faster more consistently.

 

[Fuzzi0n]

He was flying with 1:35s… On Racing Hard tires . Both of them dived into the pits at the end of lap 6.

Now you mention it I should've checked the Lamborghini's laptimes, it went all the way through the field, easily caught Yamanaka and I didn't seem to be pulling away that fast running 1:33s. Another one to watch out for then if you're going to try to run lower PP cars, I did try my NGTC Focus but it wasn't quick enough on the straights, could probably win with a bunch of rain though.

 

[jesse100190]

The R34 race turned wet after lap 4. Essentially PD said after my fastest lap, OK, that's enough. No 1:29.9 for you

i had rain in the middle of the race so i went to the pits half way to change to inters and to refuel to last the rest of the race. lap 6 caused 3 ai to slide into the sand pit at once. could of easily made it to end of lap 7 if the rain did not play a factor to refuel.

 

[ROCKET JOE]

Here's a quick tune for the Nissan R34 GT-R with the Group C engine swap.

Pit Strategy
One stop, Fuel Map 1 maximum attack.

You get ~7 laps at full power, revving to the stratosphere Your tire wear is great too, and you have AWD GT-R grip in the wet. The bonus is angry V8 noises.

Wide Body, Wide Wheels
Custom Parts: Rear Type B, Custom Wing
The custom rear wing gives more rear downforce, while the splitter gives more overall downforce and decreases drag. ...

Yep, it's very much a DESTROYER ! An expensive one ... but a DESTROYER !

Guess I had a similar race that you had, full mess Alpensturm after lap 4. Was in front on my fifth lap, pitted for full wets and brought it home. Had lapped a couple, been 57 sec in front of Haywood.

Great suggest !

 

[smoothbore12]

I see some are obsessed with Ring so am not the only one 😂 .

I did 4 races today after testing the Toyota TSO 30 .
Non stop races ( pit only once from weather ) FM2 till lap 7 and FM1 after .
Amazing handling, can pass from the inside, outside, upside and very safe .
Running at 35's -34's depends on traffic and CRB hunting.

I don't know why i " stuck " there but seems like a virus spread and affect us.
Must try @rheinaoi tuning tomorrow to add some variety.

 

[jesse100190]

i used the fairlady z34 '08 with a gr 2 engine swap it is under rated but quick and can last a while on fuel map 1 i would of made it to lap 7 on fuel map 1 if the track was dry.

 

[kjb]

Did the challenge last night.

Took replica black Castrol Supra to easy at RBR for 1st win. Normally I use the Valkyrie for the Hyper car but I decided to take the Genesis VGT instead for a nice romo.in South America

Then I used the RCR Honda at Tokyo
It was fun blowing by the traffic

Then I used the 02 Silvia on the Streets of Willow race I hate this track but not as much as Big Willow 🤣
Finally I used a stock Challenger. I will probably at least change to sports transmission because I was topping out about 110. I ended up by a 1000th of second. Got a 6 ⭐ ticket for marathon and got 1.5 million credits

 

[GTvsForza]

Good week. Loved the gimmick in the Civic race.

• American FR Challenge - Mustang GT 🚫
• Silvia Sisters - S14 '96 w/LT5 Swap 🚫
• Civic One-Make - Type-R Touring Car 🔰
• Hypercar Parade - FXX-K 🚫
• WTC700 - Corvette C7 Gr. 4 🚫

Ok rewards:

• ECU for Toyota Crown from 3⭐️ daily (yesterday)
• Dupe Tesla Model 3 from 4⭐️ daily (today)
• 500k from 6⭐️ Ticket

 

[Akers]

A fun week…mostly! All completed on Hard difficulty, with wins in all races, eventually…
American FR Challenge 550: Chevy Camaro ‘69, very modified, SS tyres. A very straight forward but fun start to the set.
The Silvia Sisters: Nissan Silvia K’s Dia Selection (S13) ‘90, fully modded, RH tyres. I don’t normally enjoy visits to Willow Spings, but this was OK.
Honda Civic One-Make: EK ‘97, full race spec SS Tyres. Enjoyed the traffic, but another easy win. Will retry with harder tyre compounds.
Hypercar Parade: Ferrari Enzo, stock with SS Tyres. Feared she may be underpowered, compared the the latest Hypercars, but with stickier tyres a first try win wasn’t hard as expected. Very nice to drive.
World Touring Car 700: 3rd place - Ferrari F430 Scuderia ‘Challenge Series’ spec, RS tyres. 1st place - Alfa Romeo 155 (Gr.4) ‘93
This was the tough challenge of the week. I wanted to complete this with my Challenge build F430, but she was either too thirsty to 1 stop or too slow to catch Yamanaka, when run more fuel efficiently. Best I could manage was a 3rd behind Haywood.
Switched to the Alfa, in the hope of better fuel economy, and was immediately rewarded with a much quicker advance through the field, chasing down Yamanaka on Lap 8, after we both pitted at the end of Laps 6. Alas, any hopes or winning were dashed when the heavens opened on Lap 9. For reasons I can’t fathom, Yamanaka was able to maintain traction out the corners in a RWD Supra, while I slid wildly despite having 4WD. Finally after a couple more attempts I managed a win by a few seconds.
Side note: The driving by the AI in this race was shocking. Several attempts were ruined by AI cars dive bombing at the T3 hairpin, taking out both me and other AI cars. If this is what PD teaches player is acceptable racecraft, is it any wonder the standards in Sport mode lobbies is so low??
Despite this, overall the challenges this week were very enjoyable. My 6-Star ticket ‘winning’ a Cr.1m prize!

 

[2cam16]

Tried out the Gr.4 Ferrari at the WTC race. Pretty decent car. RM,played around with the FM. Had to go in after lap 6 because of the downpour and needed more fuel. Won over Valerio because he pitted on the last lap.

 

[Snake55wildcat]

Well, after a break of two weeklies I thought I'd come back to it after my brief holiday to virtual Mexico (if you know, you know) and as usual PSVR2 with hard AI as always - even added some stipulations this time, though depending on future factors this might be the only time, let's see if you can work out what it is - without further ado, here is the car choices;

1. Moderately modified Firebird trans am on SH tyres - this car was pretty fun to throw about, my time at Mexico has made me better at catching slides too so I was able to keep this baby under control the whole way!
2. Highly modified Silvia Q's on SH tyres - this one wasn't so easy with the turbo'd AI (figuratively and literally) on Silvia races, thankfully I was able to snag the win with my superior handling prowess and insanely short ratio gearing I decided to set on this car - though this one actually took 2 attempts to win.... embarrassingly
3. Highly modified EG civic sir II (no turbo) on SH Tyres this one might have been a tiny bit overkill....even without a turbo and a scuffed gearbox ratio setup made for when this car usually does have a turbo equipped - meaning I lost speed at 5th gear....still it was waaay more than enough
4. Highly modified CX-30 on SS tyres - I ended up scuffing this ones gearbox too....meaning I couldn't really use 6th gear, but this thing proved more than feisty enough around the tight and twisty sections of interlagos to a surprising degree but it wasn't at all easy, I only got `st place by the end of lap 6 having to make sure I didn't do any mistakes on the final lap to secure victory!
5. Bulgari VGT on RM tyres - thought I'd do a chill final race after the hypercar mugging and what better way to do it than with a roofless speedster - I actually quite like driving this car a lot, it's shockingly really good at dismantling wtc700 races in style and ease haha

Here's hoping the next weekly is just as fun as this one was! Though the last time I said that....it wasn't

As for prizes;

1. Daily 4 star 1 - 30k
2. Daily 4 star 2 - 500k
3. 6 star end of weekly reward ticket - 1million...though I nearly had a 2nd bulgari VGT