Final set of 2025 weekly challenges done and right on time as tomorrow 2025 will be no more.
All in all, I've found most of them fairly easy, which is encouraging given the fact that only recently I transitioned to running all the events on hard difficulty and this week has been the first one I completed
all of them on manual transmission. I guess my brand new DD system (RS50 wheel & RS pedals) is pushing me further
Sunday Cup Classic at RBR short layout.
I took my Mini Cooper '65, tuned to the recommended 350PP limit, and quickly made short work of the bizarre mix of cars competing in the event. Driving with one arm hanging out of the window, feeling the fresh Austrian breeze, I suddenly realized it was already the last lap and the big black DS Palas still in P1 had a much higher straight top speed. So the last 4 turns where a lot of fun, squeezing the Mini on the inside of turns only to be passed again on the back straight. Fortunately, I stood my ground on the last turn, forcing the Citroen to loose too much speed at the exit of the turn to avoid going off track. Victory at the first go!
Pick-Up Truck race at snowy Lake Louise
Not much too say about this one. I'm no fan of dirt or snow races in GT7, so I spent more time searching for a nice livery in GT Auto and in the photoshoot to show off my Raptor against the white background than actually winning the race. Love the pics, so definitely worth the hassle.
The
Special On-Make Polestar 5 race didn't feel so special.
Beautiful, powerful car with quite good handle but, lacking real life Gs in my body, I don't enjoy driving EV cars without the feedback of the engine revving up or down. Besides, in this one, the AI has a marked tendency to park the car mid turn which resulted in a win without CRB on this one. A shame, because I love the styling of this model.
Ferrari Challenge at Yas Marina.
After the previous meeting in CGV, I washed and polished my 296 Speciale tuned to the 700PP limit and took it out against the rest of the Ferrari flock. The 296 is too much of a beast for me currently so I took it as easy and smooth as I could. With this car & circuit combo, I (still) don't feel the
flow (similarly to my previous experience with its GT3 brother in the same venue), but man, does it feel plentiful. It took me two tries to win, as I spun the first one around right at the start. Very happy with the win and the CRB ... and even happier to have obtained it with TCS off
(I don't think I could have pulled this one off with my previous T248 wheel, though).
P.S. The yellow 812 Superfast was on steroids; thankfully, I overtook it soon enough and put some other cars in between to build enough of a margin.
WTC900 at Le Mans 24h race track.
I usually lean on my trusty RS5 DTM for these Gr.2-level races but this time I decided to try my Honda NSX Concept GT Gr.2 car. I needed 3 tries for this one. The 1st one a DNF after a couple of spuns and a phone call I had to take, the 2nd one just to test run an initial full-push stint on RS at FM1. I got only 3 laps out of the tank ... and a couple of crashes against the trackside, so I told my race engineer to '
stop inventing' and reverted to a 2-stint on RM tires with a 5/5 split, FM4 on the initial stint and FM2 on the final one.
I run on TCS1 to minimize risks but I still went deep off track a couple of times, then managed to take the lead on lap 7, after the then-leader had to pit. It's been one the first times I've actually enjoyed racing in Le Mans (I guess I'm starting to develop the muscle memory I have for Spá, for example). A nice 15s-gap-to-P2 victory to cap off a nice farewell to 2025 week in GT7.
Happy New Year's Eve to everybody!!
