- 1,051
- London
- JohnsonCapote
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, those of you still hanging around the GT2 forums, I bid you welcome, on this New Year's Evening here in the downtown district.
The sun has gone down, the streetlights are lit, and we are ready to race here tonight, in the first ever...
GRAN TURISMO
RACE OF 1000 YEARS
at
Special Stage Route 5
(The usual thanks for AMG for the track map.)
Race Distance: 50 Laps, 117.35 miles.
Tonight, we will ring in the new year in style - with a fast and furious 50-lap race through the Route 5 highway and downtown streets. This race, contested down the years by some of the fastest cars and drivers GT has ever seen, has had it's fair share of giant-killing moments - and tonight, to see in 2011 with a bang, I aim to add my name to the list of giant-killers.
My weapon? A touring car.
Car: 1998 Audi S4 [R]
Engine: 2.7L V6 DOHC
Horsepower: 496hp
Weight: 1289kg
Drivetrain: 4WD
No, I've not gone completly bonkers. Famously, A.A.Z. pulled off a shock victory with a touring saloon car - in his case, an Alfa Romeo 156. So there is precedent for this. That doesn't stop most of the paddock absolutely howling with laughter as my Audi wheels off the trailer and gets ready to race. The general concensus is that I've been on the New Year's Eve drinks spree too early, and I actually overhear a few people discussing what I've actually been drinking to make me do such an insane thing. Absinthe? Copious amounts of Jack Daniels? I won't deny I might be a little bonkers, but I wouldn't enter if I didn't think I had a chance. Nevertheless, I'd be lying if I tried denying the fact that my heart is racing as I roll onto the grid, to face a fiercesome lineup:
1. 1999 Toyota GT-One LM Race Car
2. 1969 Ford GT40 LM Race Car
3. 1997 Jaguar XJ220 GT Race Car
4. 1994 Vauxhall Calibra Touring Car
5. 1998 Nissan R390 GT1 LM Race Car
So, here we go. I'm bracing myself. The revs rise to a crescendo, wailing, roaring, snarling (and hissing, in my turbocharged case). The crowd, who for the most part probably have been having a little tipple, roar and cheer in anticipation. The Race of 1000 Years is.........GO!!!
Laps 1-25
The field charges towards the turn 1 tunnel, with me struggling to keep pursuit off the line. However, my handling advantage (and bravery/stupidity under braking) means that, as we exit the tunnel, I'm right on the Calibra's exhaust pipes.
A ferocious 3-way battle between him, the R390GT1 and the Jaguar is swiftly interrupted by me in paint-swapping fashion, as I squeeze by the Calibra AND the R390GT1 on the rumble strips at T3! 
With one door mirror already the worse for wear, I leave them behind and hunt down the XJ220, who falls with another audacious move, this time on the OUTSIDE at turn 10! No wonder people think I've been drinking pre-race!! 
I can only watch the GT40 and GT-One surge away into the distance as we fly down the frontstretch to complete lap 1, and I end up having to pull off quite the rearguard effort as the XJ220 attempts muscling up the inside at T1, clearly quite upset (and perhaps embarressed) that he got taken on the outside by a repmobile! But I hold my own, and ease away from him through the next few corners.
I then set my sights on the GT40, and we end up shadow boxing through the rest of the lap as I catch him at T7, a corner I appear to be quite strong at compared to the opposition. After the usual eating of opposition dust down the front stretch completing lap 2, I stalk the GT40 through the opening corners, and, despite some intimidation, I sneak by at T3! 
The GT-One has pulled out a handy advantage at this stage, and I'm 2.9s down at the T7 checkpoint. However, the soft tyres from under me are gripping the road with relentless determination, and my Audi sets about eating into that gap - 2.5s by the underpass checkpoint just before the turn 12 complex, and amazingly it's under a second by the time we reach the checkpoint a lap later (lap 4). I can imagine the GT-One driver doing a double-take in his rear view mirror in disbelief as I swarm all over his rear wing through the T1 tunnel! Instead of coming under pressure from a Nissan LMP car, or a GT car...it's a glorified company car?! What gives?!? I must admit, I'm surprised just how strong my S4 is doing so far, but that doesn't distract me, as I begin a tense duel with the big red Toyota, shadowing his every move and sticking my nose in at every half-gap, much to his annoyance - he's still trying to comprehend being chased by a saloon car, let alone being PASSED by one!
In actual fact, it even surprises me how easily I pass for the lead, snatching it cleanly under braking for T7, and I quickly set about trying to pad a lead. Fresh from being hunted down, the GT-One is now struggling to keep pace! You can almost hear the crowd going wild as they see me leading the high-powered sportscar machinery! However, this period of relative dominance (I manage to build up around a 9-10s lead) ends around lap 11, as my tyres begin to fade badly. This is where the race will be won and lost - I have to match my opponents' tyre strategy, and they pit twice during the race (the GT-One on laps 18 and 36), but on the other hand, my tyres fall off badly after just 14 laps. In ideal circumstances, I'd be pitting every 15 laps, making it a 3-stop race, but that's out of the question here, so I have to strain 17 laps at a time out of my tyres in order to pit at laps 17 and 34.
It's a calculated risk, and could proove to be my downfall - should I have strapped on super-soft tyres to give myself more of a margin? It seems so, as by lap 14, there's a big red shape filling my mirrors ominously...
I have a fierce duel with him through lap 15, but I'm powerless to let him blast by on the straight, and I struggle badly through laps 16 and 17, laptimes nosediving (from consistant 1'20s to 1'23s-1'25s), before diving into the pits end of lap 17 with my poor Audi practically begging for new tyres!
It's also worth noting that midnight UK time comes up whilst I'm in the pits, so...
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
Anyway, with that brief celebration done, I zoom back out onto the track, 26s down on the GT-One. We've already left the rest of the field behind - a dot that I'm assuming is the R390GT1 tails me relatively closely on the map for a few laps until he pits, but after that and for the rest of the race, it's a two-horse race between myself and the GT-One. The GT-One pits at the end of lap 18, right on schedule, and sweeps majestically back out onto the circuit - right in front of me! Time to renew aquaintances methinks
I actually take the chance to relax a little and try to save tyres for the next, crucial stint, but the GT-One appears to be pyschic, and uses that as an invitation to try and run away with the race! That snaps me out of any conservation strategy I had going, I can tell you that!! I swiftly give chase, and snatch back the lead on the outside of T10, in a mirror of my earlier maneuver on the Jaguar! The GT-One driver is getting more and more enraged by the lap, so I decide to try and make good my escape, and I hit halfway with a 3.4s lead over the GT-One.
Laps 26-50
I don't have many laps in order to build up a lead before the tyres begin screaming in pain again and the GT-One sniffs blood, so around 6-7s is the maximum margin I can achieve here, before it's all-hands-on-deck time to try and steer the good ship S4 through the troubled waters of swiftly eroding tyres! I cling on to the lead for as long as possible, but the GT-One breezes by at the end of lap 31, which leaves me with a dilemma. I'm loosing time badly, sacrificing 6s alone on the next lap, so I decide to gamble, and pit a lap early, limping into the pits on tortured rims that I'm amazed actually have any rubber left on them!
With the fresh rubber beneath me feeling like mana from heaven, I tear back out onto the track, and proceed to knuckle down and blaze out my fastest laps of the race, with the zenith being a 1'20.202 on lap 39. In amongst all this, the GT-One pits for the final time on lap 36, and this time, when he rejoins the race, the view in his rear-view mirror is empty - because I'm long gone! I've got a decent jump on him, and we're seperated by around 5s at the end of his outlap. I'm slowly coming to the grim realisation that, unless I put some serious distance between us pronto, the GT-One will hunt me down mercilessly as my rubber disintegrates in the final five laps.
So, with gritted teeth and total focus I rip through the laps, pushing on desperately trying to eke out a lead. I don't think it ever gets any higher than 10-15s, and as my tyres begin to fade around lap 45, I'd wager I have around 12s in hand over my nemesis. Will it be enough?
Quite simply, no. My tyres begin to fall apart at a rapid rate, and as I push on with grim determination, I suddenly realise that, by lap 47, the gap has more than halved back to 2nd. And the game is finally up when the familiar sight of an angry GT-One fills my rearview mirrors with 2 laps still to go. It's a lost cause. There's no way I can hang on for two more full laps.
But that doesn't stop me trying.
My knackered tyres scream in agony as I outbrake him into T1 on lap 49, and I somehow manage to keep him behind me through the rest of the lap, despite my car spending most of the lap skidding and sliding rather than gripping the road. It's not often I resort to outright blocking, but it's the only way I can keep him behind me down the frontstretch. He's veering left and right desperately as we cross the stripe for the final lap, but I somehow - somehow - keep him at bay. Can it really be possible?
No.
We go side-by-side through T1, fenders banging, panels denting furiously. I'm not giving this up without a tooth-and-nail fight. He somehow stays alongside through T2, and finally squeezes through on the inside at T3.
With that, my chances at the race win are gone.
I give chase desperately, but I know it's a lost cause - my car, and more importantly, my tyres, have absolutely nothing left. I try one last outrageous lunge up the inside at the T9 hairpin, but it's hopeless. The GT-One sweeps to victory, and I struggle across the line 5.6s after him.
Final Results
1. 1999 Toyota GT-One LM Race Car 50 laps in 1'11:09.421
2. 1998 Audi S4 [R] +5.621s
3. 1998 Nissan R390 GT1 LM Race Car +36.563s
4. 1994 Vauxhall Calibra Touring Car +58.421s
5. 1969 Ford GT40 Race Car +1 Lap
6. 1997 Jaguar XJ220 LM Race Car +1 Lap
I'm totally drained. It's bad enough that it's nearly 1am UK time here by the time I finish, but to loose on the final lap...I slump back into my chair, toss the controller to one side, and allow the adreneline coarsing in my veins to slowly ebb away. I gave it my all, and it wasn't enough. Just.
However, in spite of everything, I cannot really blame my performance. Despite it being in defeat, that was one of my best races ever in terms of consistant running, with only one or two major mistakes throughout the 50 laps. Not much to celebrate you may think, but I've long been very inconsistant and skittish in my driving, so I'm happy with this run.
I also can't blame the car at all. It performed way above expectations from the get-go. Considering the fact that, despite all it's many modifications, it's still in essence a heavy executive saloon (it started out weighing nearly 1600kg), it performed really well, and stuck it to the prototypes on pretty much an equal footing. For a long time, I've shyed away from the big executive saloons, seeing no use for them before, but now I've stripped one down and taken it racing, the big ol' Audi has entered my affections alongside my other GT2 favourites.
In fact, the only thing I would've really done differently would be tyre selection - I thought wrongly during my testing for this race that super soft tyres would make the race too easy. I'm almost certain that the difference between softs and super softs would have equated to more than the 5.6s I lost the race by. You know what this all means then, don't you? I have the perfect excuse to come back here and settle the unfinished business at a later date!
As Arnie once said..."I'll be back!"
However, for now, I'm off to polish off some Jack Daniels and ring in the new year. Once again, a happy new year to all of you, I hope 2011 is an awesome year for you all, and thanks for reading!
(On an aside - the name of the race comes from a race that was run on December 31st, 2000, in Adelaide as a finale to the 2000 ALMS season. It was named the Race of 1000 Years, and was scheduled to finish bang on midnight. Read more about that race here
)
The sun has gone down, the streetlights are lit, and we are ready to race here tonight, in the first ever...
GRAN TURISMO
RACE OF 1000 YEARS
at
Special Stage Route 5
(The usual thanks for AMG for the track map.)
Race Distance: 50 Laps, 117.35 miles.
Tonight, we will ring in the new year in style - with a fast and furious 50-lap race through the Route 5 highway and downtown streets. This race, contested down the years by some of the fastest cars and drivers GT has ever seen, has had it's fair share of giant-killing moments - and tonight, to see in 2011 with a bang, I aim to add my name to the list of giant-killers.
My weapon? A touring car.
Car: 1998 Audi S4 [R]
Engine: 2.7L V6 DOHC
Horsepower: 496hp
Weight: 1289kg
Drivetrain: 4WD
No, I've not gone completly bonkers. Famously, A.A.Z. pulled off a shock victory with a touring saloon car - in his case, an Alfa Romeo 156. So there is precedent for this. That doesn't stop most of the paddock absolutely howling with laughter as my Audi wheels off the trailer and gets ready to race. The general concensus is that I've been on the New Year's Eve drinks spree too early, and I actually overhear a few people discussing what I've actually been drinking to make me do such an insane thing. Absinthe? Copious amounts of Jack Daniels? I won't deny I might be a little bonkers, but I wouldn't enter if I didn't think I had a chance. Nevertheless, I'd be lying if I tried denying the fact that my heart is racing as I roll onto the grid, to face a fiercesome lineup:
1. 1999 Toyota GT-One LM Race Car
2. 1969 Ford GT40 LM Race Car
3. 1997 Jaguar XJ220 GT Race Car
4. 1994 Vauxhall Calibra Touring Car
5. 1998 Nissan R390 GT1 LM Race Car
So, here we go. I'm bracing myself. The revs rise to a crescendo, wailing, roaring, snarling (and hissing, in my turbocharged case). The crowd, who for the most part probably have been having a little tipple, roar and cheer in anticipation. The Race of 1000 Years is.........GO!!!
Laps 1-25
The field charges towards the turn 1 tunnel, with me struggling to keep pursuit off the line. However, my handling advantage (and bravery/stupidity under braking) means that, as we exit the tunnel, I'm right on the Calibra's exhaust pipes.
A ferocious 3-way battle between him, the R390GT1 and the Jaguar is swiftly interrupted by me in paint-swapping fashion, as I squeeze by the Calibra AND the R390GT1 on the rumble strips at T3! With one door mirror already the worse for wear, I leave them behind and hunt down the XJ220, who falls with another audacious move, this time on the OUTSIDE at turn 10! No wonder people think I've been drinking pre-race!! I can only watch the GT40 and GT-One surge away into the distance as we fly down the frontstretch to complete lap 1, and I end up having to pull off quite the rearguard effort as the XJ220 attempts muscling up the inside at T1, clearly quite upset (and perhaps embarressed) that he got taken on the outside by a repmobile! But I hold my own, and ease away from him through the next few corners.
I then set my sights on the GT40, and we end up shadow boxing through the rest of the lap as I catch him at T7, a corner I appear to be quite strong at compared to the opposition. After the usual eating of opposition dust down the front stretch completing lap 2, I stalk the GT40 through the opening corners, and, despite some intimidation, I sneak by at T3! The GT-One has pulled out a handy advantage at this stage, and I'm 2.9s down at the T7 checkpoint. However, the soft tyres from under me are gripping the road with relentless determination, and my Audi sets about eating into that gap - 2.5s by the underpass checkpoint just before the turn 12 complex, and amazingly it's under a second by the time we reach the checkpoint a lap later (lap 4). I can imagine the GT-One driver doing a double-take in his rear view mirror in disbelief as I swarm all over his rear wing through the T1 tunnel! Instead of coming under pressure from a Nissan LMP car, or a GT car...it's a glorified company car?! What gives?!? I must admit, I'm surprised just how strong my S4 is doing so far, but that doesn't distract me, as I begin a tense duel with the big red Toyota, shadowing his every move and sticking my nose in at every half-gap, much to his annoyance - he's still trying to comprehend being chased by a saloon car, let alone being PASSED by one!
In actual fact, it even surprises me how easily I pass for the lead, snatching it cleanly under braking for T7, and I quickly set about trying to pad a lead. Fresh from being hunted down, the GT-One is now struggling to keep pace! You can almost hear the crowd going wild as they see me leading the high-powered sportscar machinery! However, this period of relative dominance (I manage to build up around a 9-10s lead) ends around lap 11, as my tyres begin to fade badly. This is where the race will be won and lost - I have to match my opponents' tyre strategy, and they pit twice during the race (the GT-One on laps 18 and 36), but on the other hand, my tyres fall off badly after just 14 laps. In ideal circumstances, I'd be pitting every 15 laps, making it a 3-stop race, but that's out of the question here, so I have to strain 17 laps at a time out of my tyres in order to pit at laps 17 and 34.
It's a calculated risk, and could proove to be my downfall - should I have strapped on super-soft tyres to give myself more of a margin? It seems so, as by lap 14, there's a big red shape filling my mirrors ominously...
I have a fierce duel with him through lap 15, but I'm powerless to let him blast by on the straight, and I struggle badly through laps 16 and 17, laptimes nosediving (from consistant 1'20s to 1'23s-1'25s), before diving into the pits end of lap 17 with my poor Audi practically begging for new tyres!It's also worth noting that midnight UK time comes up whilst I'm in the pits, so...
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
Anyway, with that brief celebration done, I zoom back out onto the track, 26s down on the GT-One. We've already left the rest of the field behind - a dot that I'm assuming is the R390GT1 tails me relatively closely on the map for a few laps until he pits, but after that and for the rest of the race, it's a two-horse race between myself and the GT-One. The GT-One pits at the end of lap 18, right on schedule, and sweeps majestically back out onto the circuit - right in front of me! Time to renew aquaintances methinks
I actually take the chance to relax a little and try to save tyres for the next, crucial stint, but the GT-One appears to be pyschic, and uses that as an invitation to try and run away with the race! That snaps me out of any conservation strategy I had going, I can tell you that!! I swiftly give chase, and snatch back the lead on the outside of T10, in a mirror of my earlier maneuver on the Jaguar! The GT-One driver is getting more and more enraged by the lap, so I decide to try and make good my escape, and I hit halfway with a 3.4s lead over the GT-One.
Laps 26-50
I don't have many laps in order to build up a lead before the tyres begin screaming in pain again and the GT-One sniffs blood, so around 6-7s is the maximum margin I can achieve here, before it's all-hands-on-deck time to try and steer the good ship S4 through the troubled waters of swiftly eroding tyres!
I cling on to the lead for as long as possible, but the GT-One breezes by at the end of lap 31, which leaves me with a dilemma. I'm loosing time badly, sacrificing 6s alone on the next lap, so I decide to gamble, and pit a lap early, limping into the pits on tortured rims that I'm amazed actually have any rubber left on them! With the fresh rubber beneath me feeling like mana from heaven, I tear back out onto the track, and proceed to knuckle down and blaze out my fastest laps of the race, with the zenith being a 1'20.202 on lap 39. In amongst all this, the GT-One pits for the final time on lap 36, and this time, when he rejoins the race, the view in his rear-view mirror is empty - because I'm long gone! I've got a decent jump on him, and we're seperated by around 5s at the end of his outlap. I'm slowly coming to the grim realisation that, unless I put some serious distance between us pronto, the GT-One will hunt me down mercilessly as my rubber disintegrates in the final five laps.
So, with gritted teeth and total focus I rip through the laps, pushing on desperately trying to eke out a lead. I don't think it ever gets any higher than 10-15s, and as my tyres begin to fade around lap 45, I'd wager I have around 12s in hand over my nemesis. Will it be enough?
Quite simply, no. My tyres begin to fall apart at a rapid rate, and as I push on with grim determination, I suddenly realise that, by lap 47, the gap has more than halved back to 2nd. And the game is finally up when the familiar sight of an angry GT-One fills my rearview mirrors with 2 laps still to go. It's a lost cause. There's no way I can hang on for two more full laps.
But that doesn't stop me trying.
My knackered tyres scream in agony as I outbrake him into T1 on lap 49, and I somehow manage to keep him behind me through the rest of the lap, despite my car spending most of the lap skidding and sliding rather than gripping the road. It's not often I resort to outright blocking, but it's the only way I can keep him behind me down the frontstretch. He's veering left and right desperately as we cross the stripe for the final lap, but I somehow - somehow - keep him at bay. Can it really be possible?
No.
We go side-by-side through T1, fenders banging, panels denting furiously. I'm not giving this up without a tooth-and-nail fight. He somehow stays alongside through T2, and finally squeezes through on the inside at T3.
With that, my chances at the race win are gone.
I give chase desperately, but I know it's a lost cause - my car, and more importantly, my tyres, have absolutely nothing left. I try one last outrageous lunge up the inside at the T9 hairpin, but it's hopeless. The GT-One sweeps to victory, and I struggle across the line 5.6s after him.
Final Results
1. 1999 Toyota GT-One LM Race Car 50 laps in 1'11:09.421
2. 1998 Audi S4 [R] +5.621s
3. 1998 Nissan R390 GT1 LM Race Car +36.563s
4. 1994 Vauxhall Calibra Touring Car +58.421s
5. 1969 Ford GT40 Race Car +1 Lap
6. 1997 Jaguar XJ220 LM Race Car +1 Lap
I'm totally drained. It's bad enough that it's nearly 1am UK time here by the time I finish, but to loose on the final lap...I slump back into my chair, toss the controller to one side, and allow the adreneline coarsing in my veins to slowly ebb away. I gave it my all, and it wasn't enough. Just.
However, in spite of everything, I cannot really blame my performance. Despite it being in defeat, that was one of my best races ever in terms of consistant running, with only one or two major mistakes throughout the 50 laps. Not much to celebrate you may think, but I've long been very inconsistant and skittish in my driving, so I'm happy with this run.
I also can't blame the car at all. It performed way above expectations from the get-go. Considering the fact that, despite all it's many modifications, it's still in essence a heavy executive saloon (it started out weighing nearly 1600kg), it performed really well, and stuck it to the prototypes on pretty much an equal footing. For a long time, I've shyed away from the big executive saloons, seeing no use for them before, but now I've stripped one down and taken it racing, the big ol' Audi has entered my affections alongside my other GT2 favourites.
In fact, the only thing I would've really done differently would be tyre selection - I thought wrongly during my testing for this race that super soft tyres would make the race too easy. I'm almost certain that the difference between softs and super softs would have equated to more than the 5.6s I lost the race by. You know what this all means then, don't you? I have the perfect excuse to come back here and settle the unfinished business at a later date!
As Arnie once said..."I'll be back!"
However, for now, I'm off to polish off some Jack Daniels and ring in the new year. Once again, a happy new year to all of you, I hope 2011 is an awesome year for you all, and thanks for reading!
(On an aside - the name of the race comes from a race that was run on December 31st, 2000, in Adelaide as a finale to the 2000 ALMS season. It was named the Race of 1000 Years, and was scheduled to finish bang on midnight. Read more about that race here
)
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But when I calmed down, I realised that I had enjoyed a good, hard race, and I wasn't far away from claiming a shock victory. Like I said before...I'll be back 
And he'll mysteriously resurface again in another 6 months or so. 
And one of my tenets for reviewing a car properly is to properly test it first in the quarter-mile and 1,000 meter-dash. 
