What a fun week! I wasn't expecting this much entertainment from this weeks' selection. For a bit of fun I thought I'd pick cars I've never, or rarely used. All won easily and uneventfully, on hard difficulty, with the exception of an ugly incident at Sardegna...
This weeks' underappreciated (by me) quintet...
Sunday Cup: Mazda Atenza XD '15 - Stock. I thought I'd start this weeks' challenges with something I'd never driven, and probably won't again anytime soon. Nothing wrong with it, just a dull family wagon. Job done and move on.
Japanese FR Challenge 450: Suzuki Cappuccino '91 - full race spec, except stock brakes and no weight reductions, CS Tyres. Having selected a car I'd not used before for race 1, I thought I'd continue the theme for the week. Last week I was browsing the UCD and spotted that I didn't own a Cappuccino, so I bought one and gave it a build. After a quick spin round Brands to get the setup right, I parked her up and thought no more of it…until today. With modest power and lightweight she handled amazingly well even on comfort soft tyres.
Schwartzwald League: Audi R8 V10 Plus - Stock with 'Sport Soft' tyres. Another gift car I'd never used, this handled the torrential rain of the ring with ease, taking the lead on the exit of the Karussell and cruising to victory. My only issue with this race is with the tyres. I don't know what tyres the Sport Soft is modelled on, but I can only assume it is the most aggressive road-legal track tyres available, like Toyo Proxy R88's and Yokohama AD09's. Whichever tyre they used I find it hard to believe a tyre of this nature would be capable of dispersing water as well as I was experiencing, in the torrential rain.
FTO Special Event: Lightly tuned from stock, with Sports brakes, pads, air filter and exhaust, Mid turbo and Sports Medium tyres. Had a quick try with a completely stock version, but quickly realised that with my lack of talent and limited knowledge of Autopolis, neither a win nor a podium was likely. A mild 'street' tune-up later, a fun and competitive race was won.
WTC 800: Renault Espace F1 '95 - Stock with just some suspension and aero settings tweaks. FM6, 1 stop at end of lap 7. Having completed this race more time than I care to remember, while grinding for credits, I thought I'd go for something I've never used here, and only driven once or twice, the Espace. After quickly realising how thirsty the Espace is, I turned to FM6 for a 1 stopper. I was unsure if I had the pace to make it work but when most of the field stopped on laps 5 and 6, I realised most were on a 2 stop strategy, and the race would come to me if I could squeeze out an eight lap stint 2. Pitting from 1st an the end of Lap 7 I felt pretty confident that the race was mine to win, however this was about to be thrown into doubt...
After receiving fresh medium tyres and a full tank of fuel, at almost the exact moment I was off auto drive and while still in the pit lane exit, I was sent spinning across the track having been rear ended by Lopez. Fortunately, I was able to quickly regain control and proceed, without being hit again or losing too much time. IRL, in some series, cars on track are allowed to cut across pitlane entries and exits while not using the pits, but they must do so WITH CAUTION, so as not to interfere with vehicles legitimately using those lanes. That PD hasn't coded this into their AI behaviour is pretty poor, given the 'Real Driving Simulator' tag. Hopefully, we'll see some significant improvements to AI driver behaviour in GT8...
Anyway, having survived my brush with Lopez, it was a simple exercise of taking opportunities to pass as they presented themselves, while waiting for everyone to pit for a second time, and fuel saving through short shifting and lift-and-coast, to eek out 8 laps, for the win.
6-Star roulette spin yielded at Ferrari 296 GTB. Not bad but could've been better!
My 'Pic of the Week’ goes to a a rain-soaked Nordschleife...
Who can guess what's about to happen here?...😂
