450pp Street Car Tuners Club -- Nightly 9:45-12:00 EDT

The rules are simple and the challenge is to build fast cars at this limited power level. Some drivers will fully modify a low level car, others will pick something that is a close match in stock trim, and still others will use ballast and power reduction to sneak in a more powerful car. It's all good and makes for great conversation and racing. Different themes are used to keep the competition close and to force drivers to switch up their rides. Races are held nightly from 9:45PM Eastern to 12:00AM.

How to find us?
Friend the host listed for the nightly event and wait for the room to become available on their community page.
Lobby is usually open around 9:30-9:45PM EST/EDT. First race typically starts at 10:00.

Rules (unless otherwise stated for nightly event):
* 450 Performance Points, but occasionally themes call for 400pp or 500pp.
* Sport Soft Tires, but occasionally we run comfort soft, dirt, snow, and rain tires.
* No Race Cars / Race Modified Cars / Rally Cars
* Read Lobby title for additional vehicle restrictions
* US/Canada drivers preferred due to lag issues with drivers from other continents
* Mics preferred, but not required
* Penalties: Weak to reduce punting and grass mowing on most tracks. Off on tracks where it isn't an issue.
* Driver Aids: All off except ABS
* Damage: Light (aka temporary)
* Tire Wear: On
* Boost: off most nights.
* Driving Etiquette: GTP OLR clean racing rules should be followed but this is a public lobby and I can't police everyone. Unintentional contact is to be expected but repeat offenders will be warned and kicked from the room if they don't smarten up. If I hear multiple complaints and you are warned, take it as a hint that you should not touch a single car for the remainder of the race. If you can't handle clean racing, find another group of people to race with.
* Punting is strictly prohibited. What is punting? It's failing to brake for a turn and ramming the car in front of you to slow down, thus punting them off the track. To avoid punting, be prepared to brake early or take a different line when following another car, especially on the first lap when tires are cold and cars get stacked up.
* Contact Etiquette. Just as GTP OLR states, if you cause an accident or make inappropriate contact during a pass (punting, pit maneuvering) please pull to the side and let the driver pass you back. Try again to make a clean pass. There is nothing more frustrating than getting pushed off the track by someone behind you so if it happens by accident, show good sportsman like conduct and wait for the driver to re-enter the track.

Format:
When the lobby opens, free run will go for 15-20 minutes. Most nights drivers are trying out different cars before they choose the one they want to race for the evening. Races are typically around 10-15 minutes in length (about 5-10 laps on most tracks) but occasionally we run longer races when the competition is tight. After the first race, free run will run long enough for quick tuning and qualifying.

Your time vs. Top Time
In Free Run you will see a time on the top right corner of your screen. This is the fastest lap for all drivers in the lobby. It is not necessarily your time. Below the top time is a list of your lap times. Compare your times with the top time to see how well you are doing. If the top time says 1:31.xxx and your times say 1:36.xxx you've got some work to do.
In Race the time you see at the top right corner of your screen is YOUR best time. People may ask, what was your fastest lap as the race is ending. Compare other's times with your time at the top.

Theme Nights
80's Night (Cars from 1980-1989)
Truck Night (Pickup Trucks only)
Roadster Night (Rag top roadsters only)
Hot Hatch Night (Front wheel drive hatchbacks)
Classic Muscle Car Night (American cars from the 60's and 70's)
Modern Muscle Car Night (American cars from 1980 to present day)
90's JDM Night (Japanese cars from 1990-1999)
Vintage Festival (Pre 1975 lightweights)
Rally Night (4WD cars on dirt and snow)
Classic Muscle Rally Night (fender banging fun)
Endurance Night (Extended length races)
Same Make/Model Nights (All drivers purchase and mod the same car)
Free Selection Nights (anything goes as long as its 450pp)

Same Make Night Winners:
chuyler1 -- Lancia Delta @ DFR
Nic -- Audi TT Quattro @ Nurburgring GP/F
Nic -- Nissan Silvia K's DIA Selection (S13) '90 @ Suzuka
chuyler1 -- Acura NSX '91 @ Suzuka
chuyler1 -- Volvo C30 R-Design '09 @ Trial Mountain Circuit
grenadeShark --Alpha 147 TI 2.0 TWIN SPARK '06 @ Cape Ring Periphery
Bowtiekid -- TVR Tamora @ Trial Mountain Circuit
WiiFreak -- VW Samba Bus @ Daytona Speedway
chuyler1 -- Suzuki Cappuccino @ Autumn Ring Reverse
Yuritardid -- Fiat 500 @ Monza
Yuritardid -- Mazda RX8 @ Fuji
iForce -- Honda S2000 @ Nurburgring GP/F
chuyler1 -- Jaguar XK @ Grand Valley Reverse

Subscribe to this thread for updates and join us from 9:45-Midnight in-game!

can i still join??

Might see if I can sneak my Toms chaser in for a few races. Racing Meds are ok?

Yeah racing medium is fine...but you may not be able to keep up. Room will be open in a minute.

lll be there after i tune a car or 2

Oh...racing softs are okay as well. I just now decided to read OP

lol i will figure out that understeer problem before i go to bed, seems to be an exception tune ive got going except for any corners with a 80mph+ approach

Yeah, that back turn at Trial Mountain is a killer. Sometimes you just need to slow down. The mid engine cars tend to understeer when you're on the gas and oversteer when you're on the brake. The secret to curing the oversteer is running front bias on the brakes. 6/4, 7/3, etc. The secret to curing the understeer is adding weight to the front. Well, at least that's the only way I can figure out how to solve the problem. I've tried camber and toe and various spring/damper settings but adding weight to the front makes it all just snap.

yea i just threw 200 on the front and cut a sec off my times, think the car is just too heavy to begin with though. will screw with some cambers for a while.

up side to all this is im grinding the hell out of that FF trial mountain seasonal so if all else fails ive got tons of cash to throw into a lightweight

200 is a bit overkill. Look up the weight distribution on Google for the car and do a little math...
Lets say the car weighs 1000kg and it has a distribution of 45/55 (front/rear).
1000 x 0.55 = 550
1000 x 0.45 = 450
Difference = 100kg
Add 100kg to the car and set the balance to -50 (all the way to the front)

Then go into your suspension settings and make everything equal front/rear. Start with soft dampers and rollbars (like 2-3) and make a few practice laps on Trial Mountain in practice mode. You'll know right away as you go over the rumble strip of that turn before the start/finish line whether your spring rates and ride height are optimal. Mess with height/spring until you get things close. Then mess with dampers, and finally rollbars. Keep toe at the default setting and put camber around 0.5-1.0 during this entire experiment. It should take about 15 minutes to start running quick laps. Your goal at 450pp is 1:30.xxx at Trial Mountain...but if you can get down to consistent 1:32-1:33 and the car feels good, switch to messing with performance mods to make the most of 450pp. You want peak torque and hp in the high rpm range. Also mess with transmission settings. 137mph max speed is typically good.

PS, I added a video of last night's first race to the top. I should start at the back more often. Makes it more of a challenge to fight to the front.

Any chance of you guys ever running sport tires? I love the 450pp level, but really dont like to use racing tires.

Sounds like fun, an nice change from the high powered series I'm in. I'll try to make it (Cappuccino ftw ).

87lc2

Any chance of you guys ever running sport tires? I love the 450pp level, but really dont like to use racing tires.

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I agree. And great racing last night Boosted

diabolicwyvern

I agree. And great racing last night Boosted

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Yea, that was good 420pp racing last night on sport hards. You can Nightengale are great guys to race with.

I'll check this out tonight if everyone bails after the Cappuccino race. Sounds like fun and my kind of racing 👍

I've thought about sport soft tires, but in a pub lobby people have enough trouble staying on the track as it is. I've tried it in the past (prior to the 1.06 patch) and just got frustrated at the lack of respect people have for other drivers. I don't enjoy getting punted from behind in the first turn and the racing tires seems to lessen that a little.

I know the racing tires removes some of the driving challenge but it has some benefits too. Sports tires usually give 4WD cars an unfair advantage especially when there aren't enough performance points to add downforce to other drive types. Sports tires also give lighter cars an advantage because they can corner quicker. Performance points balance power to weight for straight line acceleration but I don't think the equation works well when trying to balance cornering grip.

Switching to racing tires lessens the advantages of drivetrain and weight to the point where the right suspension setup and selection of performance mods can give just about any car an advantage over another. I've tried many different cars FF, FR, MR, 4WD and they all run similar times (+/- 2 seconds).

That's really my goal. No one wants to see an Elise and NSX win every race. They want restrictions that level the playing field. But with that said, some cars still don't fare very well even with a perfect tune. There aren't a lot of performance points to go around so you want to mod your car so that peaks in hp and torque in the higher rpms. A car with great midrange or low end torque will not help you on most tracks so pay careful attention to the torque/hp chart when picking mods.

chuyler1

I've thought about sport soft tires, but in a pub lobby people have enough trouble staying on the track as it is. I've tried it in the past (prior to the 1.06 patch) and just got frustrated at the lack of respect people have for other drivers. I don't enjoy getting punted from behind in the first turn and the racing tires seems to lessen that a little.

I know the racing tires removes some of the driving challenge but it has some benefits too. Sports tires usually give 4WD cars an unfair advantage especially when there aren't enough performance points to add downforce to other drive types. Sports tires also give lighter cars an advantage because they can corner quicker. Performance points balance power to weight for straight line acceleration but I don't think the equation works well when trying to balance cornering grip.

Switching to racing tires lessens the advantages of drivetrain and weight to the point where the right suspension setup and selection of performance mods can give just about any car an advantage over another. I've tried many different cars FF, FR, MR, 4WD and they all run similar times (+/- 2 seconds).

That's really my goal. No one wants to see an Elise and NSX win every race. They want restrictions that level the playing field. But with that said, some cars still don't fare very well even with a perfect tune. There aren't a lot of performance points to go around so you want to mod your car so that peaks in hp and torque in the higher rpms. A car with great midrange or low end torque will not help you on most tracks so pay careful attention to the torque/hp chart when picking mods.

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I like that reasoning, it definitely makes sense. Ill throw racing tires on a few 500pp cars and join when I see the room up. Look forward to it.

Great! Send a friend request to 'chuyler1' if you want to find the room a little easier.

BTW, I wish i could join you guys for the Cappuccino races...but I can't log in until after my wife heads to bed which these days is around 9:15-9:30 because she gets up way earlier than I do.

Sounds like fun. I will try to hop on after the Cappuccino Race is done.

I'll definitely be looking into this, always love racing with a variety of cars. It brings out the better tuner's for certain vehicle types, which is always fun to watch.

Yeah, last night was a blast. I love finding a fast car, then trying to make another car in your stable just as fast. For example, right now my Toyota MRS (MR2 Spyder) is extremely fast on most tracks. However I like running my '86 MR2. I've been trying to match lap times with it but it just doesn't have the get-up.

I'm uploading a video of the tight competition we had at Suzaka East and will post it soon.

Video from Suzaka East last night. If we do this track again, I will definitely up it to 10 laps. It was real tight and loads of fun. Not many opportunities to pass. I got a little sideways at the end and the two cars behind me jumped on the opportunity to get around.

oh man, ive been tuning almost all week straight. finally got a FF car for yo azzes. hitting 1:30.8 lap times on Trial Mntn

took me 5 different cars and multiple tunes to figure out the anoying understeer, but i think we're good now

wont make it sunday but will be on monday night

Nice! I've been tuning all evening. I got a few more cars tuned this evening. 512BB, DeLorean, NSX...and my prize car is an RX8 that will do 1:29s at Trial Mtn! Not sure how they will behave on other tracks but at least I know they can run quick.

may be i drop by this nights

i was looking for this room but found some others running 400-600 pp, lots of fun and variety in cars. I wish the PP system was a little better balanced. I'd like to see more variety and get tired of seeing the same cars at the front of the pack every race. Hope you get a room up tonight

Do you race every week day? I love race when I get home around 11pm and 5pm on shortdays at work. Also you host a race tonight?

Yes the room was up tonight hosted by a friend. I jumped in for a few races but it got a little rough. There is a much cleaner group of racers on week nights.

I am online hosting a room almost every week night 9:30EST until about midnight. If I don't start the room, one of my friends usually does. Just keep your eye out for a room with 450pp as the restriction or send a friend request to 'chuyler1' so you can easily find the room.

polizei

I wish the PP system was a little better balanced. I'd like to see more variety and get tired of seeing the same cars at the front of the pack every race.

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I agree with you. Which is why I occasionally turn on boost. However with boost on, people get very aggressive about passing so I have a love-hate relationship with it.

There's about a dozen different cars that I've seen run quick, and another dozen that are still competitive. But you can't expect a 450pp dodge ram to keep up with a 450pp Lotus Elise on a twisty track, it just ain't gonna happen. Sporty cars do better for a reason. They have better p/w ratios and engines that are designed to run at high rpms. Over-modding a family sedan or commuter hatch back will make it quick, but unless you are a top notch driver don't expect to take on super cars.

I love these settings! The racing is competitive and I can't wait to race again. Let's just say I spent so long tuning the car I plan to use that I needed an oil change afterward because my horsepower dropped.

I think racing with you guys will be good for me because you all seem laid back but respectful when it comes to clean driving. I take this game too seriously sometimes.

The rolling road block brake check by the Silverado and tank car was something else entirely though.

Lol yeah, racing at TGT was a first for me with this group. I was just trying to keep my car on the road. We usually get some good racing in on the wider tracks more suitable for wheel to wheel racing. Grand Valley, Autumn Ring, Cape Ring, Suzaka, etc. Deep Forest and Trial Mountain are great for time trials but rough racing at the start usually spreads the pack out. Occasionally I set the number of laps to 10-15 to allow the quicker drivers a chance to battle back after a few mistakes.