(ETZ)Esattezza Autosport! Lancia Stratos "La Italiano" Model added
- Thread starter Spec M
- 453 comments
- 71,209 views
lol). But that definitely sounds like a flaw in the physics on PD's part.
- 1,099
- Texas
- Whiskey345ci
Hello fellow tuners. I want give out a notice that I maybe gone for perhaps a week or a bit longer. Tomorrow night I'm leaving for my trip across the country. We will be leaving Detroit and headed to Arizona, where I will start school at UTI. I'll be on the road for an estimated 30 hours and 41 minutes. I'm not quiet sure when my internet will be available in my new place but I will try to keep you all updated as the transition goes on.
Thank you all and wish me luck! I'll be thinking of you guys
Thank you all and wish me luck! I'll be thinking of you guys
nd 4 holden spd
(Banned)
- 6,142
- GTP_nd4holdenspd
- No, another PSN: nd4holdenspd
Best of luck Soprano.👍
- 2,063
As Holden said, best of luck, mate. Hear from you when you get to the other end and sort out comms 👍.
I'm still working with the SL600 but simply cannot get it to 200 A-Spec all the races in the Dream Cars series. If I don't find a way, which seems likely, I'll post up what I've worked out in a couple of days regardless.
I'm still working with the SL600 but simply cannot get it to 200 A-Spec all the races in the Dream Cars series. If I don't find a way, which seems likely, I'll post up what I've worked out in a couple of days regardless.
- 736
Here's a very brief review of the Esattezza Aston Martin V8 Vantage
I was stuck with extra horses than the listed setup. I’d already done Engine Balance and Port Polish on the car that I grabbed so I dropped the chip and others and still came up 53hp over.
I had lots of fun with this car, even though the extra hp made acceleration a bit difficult. My notes say 3rd gear is great for long drifty corners so when running it last night I just ploughed through the corners and had an awesome time.
I find it quite understeery in many situations but this should be ironed out in practice. At other times I find it twitchy so figure it's about learning about how the car rolls.
Even though there are too many hp on my version it is easy to control under most circumstances and heaps of fun to drive. I like this tune a lot and will build it properly (ie with proper hp and parts) when I get the chance. Thanks very much Esattezza.
I was stuck with extra horses than the listed setup. I’d already done Engine Balance and Port Polish on the car that I grabbed so I dropped the chip and others and still came up 53hp over.
I had lots of fun with this car, even though the extra hp made acceleration a bit difficult. My notes say 3rd gear is great for long drifty corners so when running it last night I just ploughed through the corners and had an awesome time.
I find it quite understeery in many situations but this should be ironed out in practice. At other times I find it twitchy so figure it's about learning about how the car rolls.
Even though there are too many hp on my version it is easy to control under most circumstances and heaps of fun to drive. I like this tune a lot and will build it properly (ie with proper hp and parts) when I get the chance. Thanks very much Esattezza.
- 1,099
- Texas
- Whiskey345ci
Hey guys! I've managed to get a feed off a wireless network (from where? I dont know). But things are great here in Arizona, I just got my place, now I need a car and a job but hopefully that will all come. I have taken some pics and I should beable to upload them in a min to share them with you. Thanks for keeping the shop alive you guys, I should be back to work soon.
- 2,063
Mercedes Benz SL600 (R230)
I set out on this excercise with high hopes that I could fulfil the exacting requirements of the demanding client (i.e. me
) to 200 A-Spec the Dream Cars series using one of my favourite 'cruisers', the Mercedes Benz SL600 (R230).
Initial experiments with the available race grids proved promising, with Grid 6 or Grid 8 offering wins at the required level. However, certain races were very discouraging, especially Tokyo R246 where I limped in third place or worse after being thoroughly beaten up by the other cars in the long, fast corners.
No matter what I tried, I could not make her good enough to win there in 200 point trim.
I had two choices, I could either accept that I would present a 200 point car that could win the series but not all the races or I would see how far I had to go to get top-of-the-podium results in every case. Both are laudible aims but in the end I plumped for the "Win every race" approach, chosing to try to do so against what I reckon to be the toughest grid containing the hyper-speedy Zonda LM (#6 (from reboot) out of the 21 tried).
How far I had to go was a surprise. I hope that others will test out my results to see if it is just that I am hopeless at R246 Reverse and the Beginner Course {
} or of the PD coded AI simply go uncharcteristically like the wind. The other courses proved no trouble at all with the high power levels, despite the handling problems all the power-on understeer caused - in most races the margins of victory were ample.
Okay, moaning and excuses over; I've covered other annoyances with 'game glitches' in previous posts. Here is the hardware outfit for the Merc:
Stage 3 Weight Reduction
Port Polish and Engine Balance
Aerodynamic Enhancements
Racing Tyres (Grade 2)
Racing Exhaust & Chip
Stage 3 Turbo & Racing Intercooler
Racing Brakes and Balancer
Racing Suspension
Fully Custom Gearbox & Fully Custom Limited Slip Differential
Triple-Plate Clutch & Racing Flywheel
The tuning that I settled on as a compromise that would work at all circuits with no more than an adjustment of the 5th gear ratio was:
Brakes: 3/4
Springs: 12.2/11.2
Ride Height: 104/104
Damper Bound: 4/6
Damper Rebound: 5/10
Camber: 2.7/0.9
Toe: -1/-2
Stabaliser: 4/6
Gears: Autoset 13 @ 2.820 Final
1st: 3.125
2ns: 2.200
3rd: 1.550
4th: 1.150
5th: 0.925 (0.820 for La Sarthe and the Test Course)
TCS: 2
Downforce: 20/21
LSD: 10/24/8
Ballast: 76 @ +20
The car suffered from heavy front tyre wear combined with high power-on understeer. The efforts to get rid of the former made the latter worse but one thing I hate more than fitting Wings to a car is running mis-matched tyres so I lived with it. As I've advised before, if you're patient and wait for the right moment to apply full throttle out of a corner (as well as knowing where zero throttle is the quickest way round) then understeer caused by too much torque (and too few gears) can be worked around.
As befits her Grand Tourer credentials, the SL600 loved La Sarthe, caroused Deep Forest and sailed around the Test Course. The bumps of El Capitan were handled calmly {just moderate your speed out of the Gravity Cavity and into the tunnel
} and the diesel-slicked streets of Hong Kong were conquered once I learned where and how hard she could be braked .
Fast and smooth or twisty and bumpy, she turned out to be a good compromise ... it's just the mystery of Tokyo that has me stumped. Having to pump the horse-power up to 767 says something is amiss
.
Opera Paris
Deep Forest
Hong Kong
Test Course
El Capitan
I set out on this excercise with high hopes that I could fulfil the exacting requirements of the demanding client (i.e. me
) to 200 A-Spec the Dream Cars series using one of my favourite 'cruisers', the Mercedes Benz SL600 (R230).Initial experiments with the available race grids proved promising, with Grid 6 or Grid 8 offering wins at the required level. However, certain races were very discouraging, especially Tokyo R246 where I limped in third place or worse after being thoroughly beaten up by the other cars in the long, fast corners.
No matter what I tried, I could not make her good enough to win there in 200 point trim.
I had two choices, I could either accept that I would present a 200 point car that could win the series but not all the races or I would see how far I had to go to get top-of-the-podium results in every case. Both are laudible aims but in the end I plumped for the "Win every race" approach, chosing to try to do so against what I reckon to be the toughest grid containing the hyper-speedy Zonda LM (#6 (from reboot) out of the 21 tried).
How far I had to go was a surprise. I hope that others will test out my results to see if it is just that I am hopeless at R246 Reverse and the Beginner Course {
} or of the PD coded AI simply go uncharcteristically like the wind. The other courses proved no trouble at all with the high power levels, despite the handling problems all the power-on understeer caused - in most races the margins of victory were ample.Okay, moaning and excuses over; I've covered other annoyances with 'game glitches' in previous posts. Here is the hardware outfit for the Merc:
Stage 3 Weight Reduction
Port Polish and Engine Balance
Aerodynamic Enhancements
Racing Tyres (Grade 2)
Racing Exhaust & Chip
Stage 3 Turbo & Racing Intercooler
Racing Brakes and Balancer
Racing Suspension
Fully Custom Gearbox & Fully Custom Limited Slip Differential
Triple-Plate Clutch & Racing Flywheel
The tuning that I settled on as a compromise that would work at all circuits with no more than an adjustment of the 5th gear ratio was:
Brakes: 3/4
Springs: 12.2/11.2
Ride Height: 104/104
Damper Bound: 4/6
Damper Rebound: 5/10
Camber: 2.7/0.9
Toe: -1/-2
Stabaliser: 4/6
Gears: Autoset 13 @ 2.820 Final
1st: 3.125
2ns: 2.200
3rd: 1.550
4th: 1.150
5th: 0.925 (0.820 for La Sarthe and the Test Course)
TCS: 2
Downforce: 20/21
LSD: 10/24/8
Ballast: 76 @ +20
The car suffered from heavy front tyre wear combined with high power-on understeer. The efforts to get rid of the former made the latter worse but one thing I hate more than fitting Wings to a car is running mis-matched tyres so I lived with it. As I've advised before, if you're patient and wait for the right moment to apply full throttle out of a corner (as well as knowing where zero throttle is the quickest way round) then understeer caused by too much torque (and too few gears) can be worked around.
As befits her Grand Tourer credentials, the SL600 loved La Sarthe, caroused Deep Forest and sailed around the Test Course. The bumps of El Capitan were handled calmly {just moderate your speed out of the Gravity Cavity and into the tunnel
} and the diesel-slicked streets of Hong Kong were conquered once I learned where and how hard she could be braked .Fast and smooth or twisty and bumpy, she turned out to be a good compromise ... it's just the mystery of Tokyo that has me stumped. Having to pump the horse-power up to 767 says something is amiss
.Opera Paris
Deep Forest
Hong Kong
Test Course
El Capitan
Last edited:
Dotini
(Banned)
- 15,742
- Seattle
- CR80_Shifty
I set out on this excercise with high hopes that I could fulfil the exacting requirements of the demanding client (i.e. me
Initial experiments with the available race grids proved promising, with Grid 6 or Grid 8 offering wins at the required level. However, certain races were very discouraging, especially Tokyo R246 where I limped in third place or worse after being thoroughly beaten up by the other cars in the long, fast corners.
No matter what I tried, I could not make her good enough to win there in 200 point trim.
I had two choices, I could either accept that I would present a 200 point car that could win the series but not all the races or I would see how far I had to go to get top-of-the-podium results in every case. Both are laudible aims but in the end I plumped for the "Win every race" approach, chosing to try to do so against what I reckon to be the toughest grid containing the hyper-speedy Zonda LM (#6 (from reboot) out of the 21 tried).
How far I had to go was a surprise. I hope that others will test out my results to see if it is just that I am hopeless at R246 Reverse and the Beginner Course {
The car suffered from heavy front tyre wear combined with high power-on understeer. The efforts to get rid of the former made the latter worse but one thing I hate more than fitting Wings to a car is running mis-matched tyres so I lived with it. As I've advised before, if you're patient and wait for the right moment to apply full throttle out of a corner (as well as knowing where zero throttle is the quickest way round) then understeer caused by too much torque (and too few gears) can be worked around.
As befits her Grand Tourer credentials, the SL600 loved La Sarthe, caroused Deep Forest and sailed around the Test Course. The bumps of El Capitan were handled calmly {just moderate your speed out of the Gravity Cavity and into the tunnel
Fast and smooth or twisty and bumpy, she turned out to be a good compromise ... it's just the mystery of Tokyo that has me stumped. Having to pump the horse-power up to 767 says something is amiss
Sukerkin, you are neither hopeless at R246 nor is there anything amiss. I duplicated your setup and tried it, and the car handles simply superbly. You have taken the heaviest luxury car in the game and tuned it into into a competitive race car against an AI rabbit race car, the Zonda LM, on one of the games hardest venues. You have taken on the tasks of Sisyphus, or at least Don Quixote, and won. Most of us would have used the 190E Touring Car for this problem, or accepted the organizer's white-wrapped gift box on the outer edge of the Shuto Ko Expressway (wallride).
Last edited by a moderator:
- 2,063
Your kind words mean a lot, Dotini 👍. This one has been as much of a 'hair-puller' as getting the Ford GT '05 Prize Car to behave at the Nurburgring.
Two weeks of trials against the first 21 grids of the series was a bit much, even for a determined, methodical engineering, minded fellow like me.
R246 Reverse became a nightmare for me, as time and again the Zonda would tuck inside me at the Shuto Ko on lap 3 and push me off-line as if I weighed nothing before shooting off into the distance to crush me by ten seconds
. Even with the high power I ended up on, that race was still tight at the end .
- 1,099
- Texas
- Whiskey345ci
Simply phenominal work sukerkin. I'll be getting back to work today on my final Benz (for now). I've been in a Bavarian mood lately, I just bought an 320i (E21) in real life, so for the last few days I've been researching and soaking up knowledge of the vehicle. After my next presentation I'll be presenting its older brother.
- 2,063
Mercedes Benz SL 65 AMG (R230) '04
After spending a couple of weeks fettling the SL600 (R230) '04 into fighting trim, game 'features' notwithstanding, to take on the Dream Cars series, I decided to up the ante and turn my attentions to the AMG enhanced version, the SL 65.
Whereas the problems with the SL600 centred around artificially choked acceleration and top-end, with a frisson of doubt about the aerodynamics implementation, the SL 65 added in an odd 'broken chassis' feel under braking.
It was actually advantageous on slow, tight, courses in some instances but was a real problem when attempting to dive into corners carrying any large amount of speed. I tried every suspension trick I could think of to cure it and did have some success in calming it down, so that you weren't going sideways into the corner before both ends hooked up again. But I didn't stop it completely until, out of desperation, I tried using the brake balancer with the settings dialed down to levels that ordinarily would be thought too weak to be any good. I'd tried her early on with normal brakes and no balancer and that hadn't really helped so I can't explain why these settings work but they do. Looking around 'after the fact', I found that I was not the first to come up with this work-around - take a bow Holden.
I set my heart on 200 A-Spec'ing the Dream cars series with this lady and no darned Tea-tray on the back either this time
. Sadly, as with much in life, I did not completely succeed. Two races eluded my grasp. Inevitably, Tokyo R246 Reverse was one of them and equally predictably the Beginner Course was the other.
In the case of Tokyo, I had to pile on the horses to take the win, so reducing the A-Spec haul to 164 against Grid 6. Even so, you need to make a good start and 'accidently' trip up the Zonda so that he gets stuck behind one of the Fords for a bit. For the Beginner Course, altho' I beat the other 'rabbits', I had to pit whilst the Camaro LM and the 'cheat car' Nissan GT-R Concept did not. R1's might do the trick here but I haven't tried it yet .
The 'baseline' hardware changes to the car are as follows:
Stage 1 Weight Reduction
Chassis Stiffness
Racing Tyres (Grade 2)
Racing Brakes & Balancer
Racing Suspension
Fully Custom Gearbox
Triple-Plate Clutch
Racing Flywheel
Carbon Propeller Shaft
Fully Custom LSD
For all races except R246 Reverse, the horse-power related modifications are:
Racing Exhaust
Racing Chip
Stage 1 Turbo
Sports Intercooler
That gives you 714HP to play with
The R246 Reverse 'conundrum' race (why do they go so fast there?) requires:
Racing Exhaust
Racing Chip
Stage 2 Turbo
Racing Intercooler
A hefty 805HP under the right foot.
I developed three set-ups for the series. One I call Opera 'A', the second is R246 'B' and the third is El Capitan 'C'.
Opera 'A' will be fine for eight of the races but I'd recommend using the other two for the races they are named for. Also, the Brake Balance for the Opera 'A' suite can be played with a bit to see if more entry oversteer suits the course or not e.g. 3/3 actually works fine at Opera Paris for getting the car around the very tight corners by kicking the back end out.
Okay, enough talk. The settings are as follows:
Opera 'A'
Brakes: 2/1
Springs: 10.0/8.0
Ride: 108/108
Damper Bound: 5/5
Damper Rebound: 8/9
camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: 0/0
Stabaliser: 5/5
Gearbox: AutoSet 13 @ 2.650
1st: 3.210
2nd: 2.300
3rd: 1.560
4th: 1.135
5th: 0.830
TCS: 1
LSD: 10/36/12
Ballast: 0 @ 0 (now that's a rarity on one of my cars)
Tokyo R246 Reverse 'B'
The starting 'swarm'
Taking a lead early is important
Holding off the Zonda is even more important
.
Brakes: 2/1
Springs: 12.6/14.0
Ride: 113/113
Damper Bound: 5/5
Damper Rebound: 6/9
camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: -1/+1
Stabaliser: 3/6
Gearbox: AutoSet 13 @ 2.650
1st: 3.661
2nd: 2.303
3rd: 1.603
4th: 1.185
5th: 0.929
TCS: 1
LSD: 10/30/12
Ballast: 103 @ +20
El Capitan Reverse 'C'
Flying by on the Start/Finish line
Catching a little 'air-time' off the Gravity Cavity and into the tunnel
Brakes: 2/1
Springs: 10.0/11.1
Ride: 113/113
Damper Bound: 4/4
Damper Rebound: 9/7
camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: 0/0
Stabaliser: 4/5
Gearbox: AutoSet 13 @ 2.650
1st: 3.210
2nd: 2.300
3rd: 1.560
4th: 1.135
5th: 0.830
{Note the box has not been optimised for the circuit and could be improved a touch}
TCS: 1
LSD: 10/36/12
Ballast: 0 @ 0
As a happy closing shot, one of the easiest races in the series, La Sarthe. This is about the only time you'll see any of the AI cars.
After spending a couple of weeks fettling the SL600 (R230) '04 into fighting trim, game 'features' notwithstanding, to take on the Dream Cars series, I decided to up the ante and turn my attentions to the AMG enhanced version, the SL 65.
Whereas the problems with the SL600 centred around artificially choked acceleration and top-end, with a frisson of doubt about the aerodynamics implementation, the SL 65 added in an odd 'broken chassis' feel under braking.
It was actually advantageous on slow, tight, courses in some instances but was a real problem when attempting to dive into corners carrying any large amount of speed. I tried every suspension trick I could think of to cure it and did have some success in calming it down, so that you weren't going sideways into the corner before both ends hooked up again. But I didn't stop it completely until, out of desperation, I tried using the brake balancer with the settings dialed down to levels that ordinarily would be thought too weak to be any good. I'd tried her early on with normal brakes and no balancer and that hadn't really helped so I can't explain why these settings work but they do. Looking around 'after the fact', I found that I was not the first to come up with this work-around - take a bow Holden
.I set my heart on 200 A-Spec'ing the Dream cars series with this lady and no darned Tea-tray on the back either this time
. Sadly, as with much in life, I did not completely succeed. Two races eluded my grasp. Inevitably, Tokyo R246 Reverse was one of them and equally predictably the Beginner Course was the other.In the case of Tokyo, I had to pile on the horses to take the win, so reducing the A-Spec haul to 164 against Grid 6. Even so, you need to make a good start and 'accidently' trip up the Zonda so that he gets stuck behind one of the Fords for a bit
. For the Beginner Course, altho' I beat the other 'rabbits', I had to pit whilst the Camaro LM and the 'cheat car' Nissan GT-R Concept did not. R1's might do the trick here but I haven't tried it yet .The 'baseline' hardware changes to the car are as follows:
Stage 1 Weight Reduction
Chassis Stiffness
Racing Tyres (Grade 2)
Racing Brakes & Balancer
Racing Suspension
Fully Custom Gearbox
Triple-Plate Clutch
Racing Flywheel
Carbon Propeller Shaft
Fully Custom LSD
For all races except R246 Reverse, the horse-power related modifications are:
Racing Exhaust
Racing Chip
Stage 1 Turbo
Sports Intercooler
That gives you 714HP to play with
The R246 Reverse 'conundrum' race (why do they go so fast there?) requires:
Racing Exhaust
Racing Chip
Stage 2 Turbo
Racing Intercooler
A hefty 805HP under the right foot.
I developed three set-ups for the series. One I call Opera 'A', the second is R246 'B' and the third is El Capitan 'C'.
Opera 'A' will be fine for eight of the races but I'd recommend using the other two for the races they are named for. Also, the Brake Balance for the Opera 'A' suite can be played with a bit to see if more entry oversteer suits the course or not e.g. 3/3 actually works fine at Opera Paris for getting the car around the very tight corners by kicking the back end out.
Okay, enough talk. The settings are as follows:
Opera 'A'
Brakes: 2/1
Springs: 10.0/8.0
Ride: 108/108
Damper Bound: 5/5
Damper Rebound: 8/9
camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: 0/0
Stabaliser: 5/5
Gearbox: AutoSet 13 @ 2.650
1st: 3.210
2nd: 2.300
3rd: 1.560
4th: 1.135
5th: 0.830
TCS: 1
LSD: 10/36/12
Ballast: 0 @ 0 (now that's a rarity on one of my cars
)Tokyo R246 Reverse 'B'
The starting 'swarm'
Taking a lead early is important
Holding off the Zonda is even more important
.Brakes: 2/1
Springs: 12.6/14.0
Ride: 113/113
Damper Bound: 5/5
Damper Rebound: 6/9
camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: -1/+1
Stabaliser: 3/6
Gearbox: AutoSet 13 @ 2.650
1st: 3.661
2nd: 2.303
3rd: 1.603
4th: 1.185
5th: 0.929
TCS: 1
LSD: 10/30/12
Ballast: 103 @ +20
El Capitan Reverse 'C'
Flying by on the Start/Finish line
Catching a little 'air-time' off the Gravity Cavity and into the tunnel
Brakes: 2/1
Springs: 10.0/11.1
Ride: 113/113
Damper Bound: 4/4
Damper Rebound: 9/7
camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: 0/0
Stabaliser: 4/5
Gearbox: AutoSet 13 @ 2.650
1st: 3.210
2nd: 2.300
3rd: 1.560
4th: 1.135
5th: 0.830
{Note the box has not been optimised for the circuit and could be improved a touch}
TCS: 1
LSD: 10/36/12
Ballast: 0 @ 0
As a happy closing shot, one of the easiest races in the series, La Sarthe. This is about the only time you'll see any of the AI cars
.
Last edited:
killer450235
(Banned)
- 647
- dawright96
GT-S Review
I have mixed reactions about this car.It still has its horrible braking yet I can take 'er around the Nurb cleanly.The car has good Accel and speed was never a problem but you made it turn better:tup:
7.5/10
I have mixed reactions about this car.It still has its horrible braking yet I can take 'er around the Nurb cleanly.The car has good Accel and speed was never a problem but you made it turn better:tup:
7.5/10
killer450235
(Banned)
- 647
- dawright96
GT-R Review
This is the tune ive been trying to get for a long time.This Ford Gt can Brake better!It also can take most of the track ive tried without having to change settings.I like it
8/10
This is the tune ive been trying to get for a long time.This Ford Gt can Brake better!It also can take most of the track ive tried without having to change settings.I like it
8/10
killer450235
(Banned)
- 647
- dawright96
May I request a car?The car I'd like tuned is the DB7 Vantage Coupe.R3's all round all power.
Last edited:
- 1,099
- Texas
- Whiskey345ci
I can start piecing one together within the next couple days.
Like sukerkin said it would be better if we know what type of track you're primarily interested in (I will use it as my test and developement course).
killer450235
(Banned)
- 647
- dawright96
I mostly drive on Susuka so there maybe?
- 2,063
Mercedes Benz SL500 (R129) '98
One of my favourite 'real' GT cars.
A shame that the game won't let you run her with the top-down.
Especially when the suns out
I've ever had a love affair with the drop-top Merc SL's. For me, the SL500 is one of the most effortlessly beautiful cars ever built. There's just something about it's clean, sleak, lines that I like.
However, as very often seems to be the case, the PD 'reality' of the car is a little lacking. Our client wanted to take her to the All Japan GT Championship with the hope of being competative there for decent points rewards.
We duly set to work with the spanners and did a complete overhaul on the car. I don't think that we've yet so race-prepped a vehicle as this one. The costs were high and we knew without question that we'd have to mar the beauty of the car with a Wing but we gritted our teeth and went ahead.
As appears normal, we wore out the chassis a couple of times trying various settings and load-outs and in the end came up with a pretty nicely handling car for it's weight and length.
The real problem came when we started to run some races in her - first gear wheelspin was incredibly bad. We worked on it some and came up with a suite of ratio's in the box that seemed good ... other than for starts. If you feather the throttle you can get away cleanly but not with any blistering pace. Indeed, we found that it was actually possible to get better lap-times on some tracks with the factory box than our supposedly honed one.
Moving some weight to the rear helped but this fault was never truly defeated - we just learned to live with it.
The second big problem was unequal tyre wear. The fronts wore away very quickly and yet the cars major handling flaw was entry understeer i.e. the schitzophrenia of acting like all the weight was at the front and all the grip was at the back. As well as the rearwards weight shift, the cure for this came from adding rear brake bias, softening the front rebound and unwinding the front stabaliser. Running R3's, as we did at Tokyo R246 (with reduced downforce), the front wear is still too prevalent but with R2's is effectively dealt with.
The third problem was out of our hands as it was the A-Spec reward for the races in question. 120 was the best we could do and guarantee winning the series. Also, it must be emphasised that not every race will be won, so a driver must be prepared for this.
The hardware modifications are simple to list here - the best of everything (with the exception of running a stock gearbox if you wish). Port Polish, Engine Balance, Chassis Refresh and Stiffening and even an oil change have been done (to get a round 500HP). Full Weight Reduction was another necessity. Tyres were R3 for Tokyo R246 and R2 for everywhere else.
The set-up was:
Brakes: 2/4
Springs: 12.0/10.0
Ride: 112/112
Damper B: 4/5
Damper R: 6/9
Camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: 0/0
Stabaliser: 3/6
Gears: 17@2.760 (or Stock factory Gearbox)
1st: 3.410
2nd: 2.300
3rd: 1.600
4th: 1.220
5th: 1.000
Downforce: 30/30 (22/20 at Tokyo)
TCS: 1
LSD: 10/34/18
Ballast: 43 @ +25
If you can knuckle down and just enjoy the driving and the racing rather than being angered by not winning every race, this can be a very enjoyable combination of series and car.
In the full run through versus Grid 5 that I did, for example, I had to place higher in the last race at Suzuka that the Au Cerumo Supra. Winning didn't matter, I just had to beat him to win the series. Having grown accustomed to winning every race for 200 A-Spec, once the 'right' car was found, I had forgotten how much fun it could be just to race and work at getting enough series points to take the Top Step.
The usual state of a Supra on my tail in the first corner - Seoul this time.
Cruising away from the pack at Seoul.
This car loves Hong Kong - the AI just fell away as the laps mounted.
Took an early lead from the rolling start at Twin Ring Motegi
Twin Ring Motegi, Supra Attacks my lead two corners later
Managing to hold on
Taking the lead at Fuji '90's.
Suzuka. Pushing too hard can go horribly wrong - Sukerkin in near 4-off incident shock!
Suzuka. Sometimes the gap you want just isn't there and you have to wait ...
... because sometimes patience (and a little touch of skill) is rewarded.
One of my favourite 'real' GT cars.
A shame that the game won't let you run her with the top-down
.
Especially when the suns out
I've ever had a love affair with the drop-top Merc SL's. For me, the SL500 is one of the most effortlessly beautiful cars ever built. There's just something about it's clean, sleak, lines that I like.
However, as very often seems to be the case, the PD 'reality' of the car is a little lacking. Our client wanted to take her to the All Japan GT Championship with the hope of being competative there for decent points rewards.
We duly set to work with the spanners and did a complete overhaul on the car. I don't think that we've yet so race-prepped a vehicle as this one
. The costs were high and we knew without question that we'd have to mar the beauty of the car with a Wing but we gritted our teeth and went ahead.As appears normal, we wore out the chassis a couple of times trying various settings and load-outs and in the end came up with a pretty nicely handling car for it's weight and length.
The real problem came when we started to run some races in her - first gear wheelspin was incredibly bad. We worked on it some and came up with a suite of ratio's in the box that seemed good ... other than for starts. If you feather the throttle you can get away cleanly but not with any blistering pace. Indeed, we found that it was actually possible to get better lap-times on some tracks with the factory box than our supposedly honed one
.Moving some weight to the rear helped but this fault was never truly defeated - we just learned to live with it.
The second big problem was unequal tyre wear. The fronts wore away very quickly and yet the cars major handling flaw was entry understeer i.e. the schitzophrenia of acting like all the weight was at the front and all the grip was at the back
. As well as the rearwards weight shift, the cure for this came from adding rear brake bias, softening the front rebound and unwinding the front stabaliser. Running R3's, as we did at Tokyo R246 (with reduced downforce), the front wear is still too prevalent but with R2's is effectively dealt with.The third problem was out of our hands as it was the A-Spec reward for the races in question. 120 was the best we could do and guarantee winning the series. Also, it must be emphasised that not every race will be won, so a driver must be prepared for this.
The hardware modifications are simple to list here - the best of everything (with the exception of running a stock gearbox if you wish). Port Polish, Engine Balance, Chassis Refresh and Stiffening and even an oil change have been done (to get a round 500HP). Full Weight Reduction was another necessity. Tyres were R3 for Tokyo R246 and R2 for everywhere else.
The set-up was:
Brakes: 2/4
Springs: 12.0/10.0
Ride: 112/112
Damper B: 4/5
Damper R: 6/9
Camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: 0/0
Stabaliser: 3/6
Gears: 17@2.760 (or Stock factory Gearbox)
1st: 3.410
2nd: 2.300
3rd: 1.600
4th: 1.220
5th: 1.000
Downforce: 30/30 (22/20 at Tokyo)
TCS: 1
LSD: 10/34/18
Ballast: 43 @ +25
If you can knuckle down and just enjoy the driving and the racing rather than being angered by not winning every race, this can be a very enjoyable combination of series and car.
In the full run through versus Grid 5 that I did, for example, I had to place higher in the last race at Suzuka that the Au Cerumo Supra. Winning didn't matter, I just had to beat him to win the series. Having grown accustomed to winning every race for 200 A-Spec, once the 'right' car was found, I had forgotten how much fun it could be just to race and work at getting enough series points to take the Top Step
.
The usual state of a Supra on my tail in the first corner - Seoul this time.
Cruising away from the pack at Seoul.
This car loves Hong Kong - the AI just fell away as the laps mounted.
Took an early lead from the rolling start at Twin Ring Motegi
Twin Ring Motegi, Supra Attacks my lead two corners later
Managing to hold on
Taking the lead at Fuji '90's.
Suzuka. Pushing too hard can go horribly wrong - Sukerkin in near 4-off incident shock!
Suzuka. Sometimes the gap you want just isn't there and you have to wait ...
... because sometimes patience (and a little touch of skill) is rewarded
.
Last edited:
nd 4 holden spd
(Banned)
- 6,142
- GTP_nd4holdenspd
- No, another PSN: nd4holdenspd
I had always considered doing a race car from that one, nice to see you did.👍 I never did many JGTC cars though (about 3), so it's good to see you did too, especially a German doing it.
- 2,063
Mercedes Benz SL500 (R230) '02
After the travails with it's older sibling, we decided to have a try at the same challenge using the R230 incaration of the SL500.
We applied the same hardware modifications but no oil change and clearly no need for a chassis refresh as the car was new. That gave us a base weight of 1527kg being pushed along by 506HP.
A bit of experimentation showed us that we need to run R2 tyres, 27/27 Downforce and 53kg of Ballast to get the same 120 A-Spec that we gained with the R129.
The engine noise is horrible with this car, we are sad to say and amidst cursing PD yet again a thought occured - maybe the noise was down to our swapping out the stock box and putting in one with straight-cut cogs? Plus, we knew with the R129 that the stock gearbox wasn't all that bad, even tho' it seemed really 'long'.
So, the upshot is that we took out the Fully Custom box and tried her out. What a difference! Standing starts were practically flawless and top-end was not adversely affected (you usually still had 5th gear to go on many circuits). This one of those occasions where leaving well enough alone was a definite advantage.
The set-up was almost identical to the R129, deliberately so, other than the changes to Downforce and ballast to get the points. The Ride Height is lower but the clearance is the same and the tiny spring tweak is more as a 'flag' to us that it's a different car than anything else - we did intend to do more experiments with the springs but time got away from us.
Brakes: 2/4
Springs: 11.9/10.1
Ride: 103/103
Damper Bound: 4/5
Damper Rebound: 6/9
Camber: 2.0/1.0
ToeL 0/0
Stabaliser: 3/6
Geabox: Factory Stock
TCS: 1
Downforce: 27/27
LSD: 10/34/18
Ballast: 53 @ +21
The overall characteristics of the car are that there is a certain amount of braking oversteer and some power-on understeer if you're too early with maxing the throttle. The oversteer is deliberate as it allows for quick rotation into corners on the tight courses in the series but it does mean that you have to watch out if you brake too hard and too late for some sharp corners on fast circuits. It would be possible to work up an alternate set-up but the core reason for this build was to compare like-for-like with the R129 as much as possible.
The results of the experiment speak for themselves e.g. still being in first place after Turn 1 at Tokyo after a standing start.
The R230 took every race in the series with consumate ease ... apart from Motegi Speedway, which our test driver still refuses to talk about (tho' he does mutter something about "The narrow end of the egg!" in his sleep). Some of the Margins of Victory were extreme (15 seconds or more) tho' some were more reasonable at about a second/lap. This says that more A-Spec is possible with the R230 SL500 but I doubt we could overcome the anti-Merc limitations sufficiently to get 200.
After the travails with it's older sibling, we decided to have a try at the same challenge using the R230 incaration of the SL500.
We applied the same hardware modifications but no oil change and clearly no need for a chassis refresh as the car was new
. That gave us a base weight of 1527kg being pushed along by 506HP.A bit of experimentation showed us that we need to run R2 tyres, 27/27 Downforce and 53kg of Ballast to get the same 120 A-Spec that we gained with the R129.
The engine noise is horrible with this car, we are sad to say and amidst cursing PD yet again a thought occured - maybe the noise was down to our swapping out the stock box and putting in one with straight-cut cogs? Plus, we knew with the R129 that the stock gearbox wasn't all that bad, even tho' it seemed really 'long'.
So, the upshot is that we took out the Fully Custom box and tried her out. What a difference! Standing starts were practically flawless and top-end was not adversely affected (you usually still had 5th gear to go on many circuits
). This one of those occasions where leaving well enough alone was a definite advantage.The set-up was almost identical to the R129, deliberately so, other than the changes to Downforce and ballast to get the points. The Ride Height is lower but the clearance is the same and the tiny spring tweak is more as a 'flag' to us that it's a different car than anything else - we did intend to do more experiments with the springs but time got away from us.
Brakes: 2/4
Springs: 11.9/10.1
Ride: 103/103
Damper Bound: 4/5
Damper Rebound: 6/9
Camber: 2.0/1.0
ToeL 0/0
Stabaliser: 3/6
Geabox: Factory Stock
TCS: 1
Downforce: 27/27
LSD: 10/34/18
Ballast: 53 @ +21
The overall characteristics of the car are that there is a certain amount of braking oversteer and some power-on understeer if you're too early with maxing the throttle. The oversteer is deliberate as it allows for quick rotation into corners on the tight courses in the series but it does mean that you have to watch out if you brake too hard and too late for some sharp corners on fast circuits. It would be possible to work up an alternate set-up but the core reason for this build was to compare like-for-like with the R129 as much as possible.
The results of the experiment speak for themselves e.g. still being in first place after Turn 1 at Tokyo after a standing start.
The R230 took every race in the series with consumate ease ... apart from Motegi Speedway, which our test driver still refuses to talk about (tho' he does mutter something about "The narrow end of the egg!" in his sleep)
. Some of the Margins of Victory were extreme (15 seconds or more) tho' some were more reasonable at about a second/lap. This says that more A-Spec is possible with the R230 SL500 but I doubt we could overcome the anti-Merc limitations sufficiently to get 200.
Last edited:
killer450235
(Banned)
- 647
- dawright96
SL 65 Review
I will review all setups but for now here is Opera:This cars seems to understeer a lot.But other then that it is perfect for this track.Good Accel can take on the Zonda.Other then the little understeer this is a good car.
I will review all setups but for now here is Opera:This cars seems to understeer a lot.But other then that it is perfect for this track.Good Accel can take on the Zonda.Other then the little understeer this is a good car.
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