Winnig the European ClubmanCup 600 @ Nordschleife

[A_Higher_Place]

Hard, same goes for these too:

Okay, so an extra 30 seconds needs to be made up between the difficulties roughly by the looks of it. That's...a lot even at the 'ring.

 

[Pigems]

Maybe we can start a list of cars under 550pp that are potential winners for both Normal and Hard difficulties.

Does anyone know Gallo's race times between the two difficulties so we can compare?

My race was on Hard, so his P1 times in the race results I posted above would be his Hard times. 👍

 

[specops]

Something a bit different. Aimed for 535pp with an older H-pattern car, and this just got it done.

 

[LSFDRX]

This thread made me want to find out for myself how biased this race is. Just like the other Clubman Cup 600s, that crazy Alfa just doesn't make any sense. Every race boils down basically ignoring all the other AI cars and focusing on passing it while it incompetently takes corners, only to get obliterated on the straights and have to put up with it all over again.

Regardless, I went and built a GTI specifically for this race because I wanted to take down some exotics in a FWD, and knew it would be a little bit more of a challenge. I see now that @specops did it in a 535PP Renault, so this 590PP GTI seems like overkill in comparison. It easily got around every car but the Alfa by Youtube corner, but I hadn't even seen it at this point. It took until that point on the next lap to catch him, and a couple corners to pass, but I didn't build enough of a gap and he blitzed me on the straight which forced me to do an aggressive dive on it in the final corners. With some suspension tuning and not going in the grass twice it may have been a more solid victory.

So, yeah, it's definitely doable in a sub-600 car, and even closer to 500, but it's still ridiculous. I might have to copy specops R5 and see how it goes.

 

[specops]

This thread made me want to find out for myself how biased this race is. Just like the other Clubman Cup 600s, that crazy Alfa just doesn't make any sense. Every race boils down basically ignoring all the other AI cars and focusing on passing it while it incompetently takes corners, only to get obliterated on the straights and have to put up with it all over again.

Regardless, I went and built a GTI specifically for this race because I wanted to take down some exotics in a FWD, and knew it would be a little bit more of a challenge. I see now that @specops did it in a 535PP Renault, so this 590PP GTI seems like overkill in comparison. It easily got around every car but the Alfa by Youtube corner, but I hadn't even seen it at this point. It took until that point on the next lap to catch him, and a couple corners to pass, but I didn't build enough of a gap and he blitzed me on the straight which forced me to do an aggressive dive on it in the final corners. With some suspension tuning and not going in the grass twice it may have been a more solid victory.

So, yeah, it's definitely doable in a sub-600 car, and even closer to 500, but it's still ridiculous. I might have to copy specops R5 and see how it goes.

This was something that I had on my list too, so I need to point out: my Renault 5 is not FWD. It's the rally homologation MR model. I'm pretty sure that gives it an overall advantage when it comes to low PP performance on the Ring. Otherwise I 100% support your observations. My traditional Tokyo grind is much less frustrating since the turns are so much simpler than on this one. The AI cars drive absolutely horrendously through the complex corners. But I suppose you could take this as some sort of practice for the absolute worst imaginable touristenfahrten nightmare. It's still Nordschleife, so kinda good even when it's bad.

 

[LSFDRX]

This was something that I had on my list too, so I need to point out: my Renault 5 is not FWD. It's the rally homologation MR model.

Oh yes, I'm very familiar with the R5 Turbo and the later Clio V6. I've always had a love for them.

I have two in game, one to keep stock, and one to mod. I just haven't got around to doing anything to one of them yet, but I have driven them in stock form quite a bit and love their oversteery nature.

The next time I get a chance to play, I'll tune one up and see how I fare here.

 

[Meythia]

Which difficulty were you on?

While the easier settings are easier on average, the time delta between fast and slow AI times per difficulty are already huge enough to make a car a "sometimes" win in case it is barely competitive.
It might even be more difficult on lower settings because the other AI cars are blocking you for much longer.

 

[A_Higher_Place]

While the easier settings are easier on average, the time delta between fast and slow AI times per difficulty are already huge enough to make a car a "sometimes" win in case it is barely competitive.
It might even be more difficult on lower settings because the other AI cars are blocking you for much longer.

Possibly, yes. But then you'd have to argue that Gallo is held up more on lower difficulties too.

The biggest factor I'm seeing is that Gallo is 30 seconds faster between normal and hard difficulties. That changes a 'maybe' win to a large loss pretty quickly.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Tried with a bone stock Z8 (PP 535 I think, or around there) and Gallo beat me by a minute (Hard). The race I did Gallo started in first, so my chances weren't great. I think I could take 10 or 15 seconds off each lap...but 30 seconds faster per lap seems alien-level. I still beat 2nd place by 20 seconds.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Something is seriously up with Gallo in this race. I just did a round of it today, beat Gallo by about 5 seconds and then watched the replay. On the first lap, Gallo gets up to around 210mph on the main straight - quite fast! The car I was running just about matches that speed (at 700hp, though Gallo still walks me on the straights). However, on the second lap, Gallo hit an astonishing 225mph on the main straight, far enough back that he wasn't drafting me. So as a test, I bought a Giulia GTAm and tuned it up to 800hp. On the same straight, I could only manage 205mph. Now this race is supposedly limited to 600pp - my Giulia on SH tires was at 630pp with no other modifications, and was still slower than Gallo's on the straight. So Gallo's car seems like it's in the region of at least 900hp, if not 1000 (which is beyond what a player can tune a Giulia to) and very likely 700pp or greater. Meanwhile, the slowest car in the race is barely hitting 135mph on the main straight. Come on PD...what is this ****? It's not even plausible that the Giulia in this race is meeting the supposed entry criteria.

 

[Meythia]

Meanwhile, the slowest car in the race is barely hitting 135mph on the main straight. Come on PD...what is this ****? It's not even plausible that the Giulia in this race is meeting the supposed entry criteria.

Almost all races have cars that are incredibly slow to no reason compared with its leading AI, maybe they thought this is more realistic, or maybe they thought this increases fun, or maybe this is just a way to make sure players have a shot at 3rd place which often is enough to clear the menu books.

As for the Gulia, the races with a suggested PP can be won at the suggested PP, and some cars are obviously tuned otherwise, maybe to make it a bit more entertaining, maybe to show a bit of variity, maybe they did a wrong setup, whatever.
My main sting here is that we just dont know not a single setup of any AI car to have something comparable at all.
Like the Gallo NSX on Tokyo 600 - I dont know how to create a setup with Sport Soft tyres that looks like performing as the AI cars and I assume this one also overshoots the PP limit, yet the setup is one of those "run-away-AI" that cant win because of pitting.