9 hours of Tsukuba - Only for Masochists and the Penitent

I never wanted to do the A spec enduros.

I looked at the prizes and figured they were all purchasable, given enough B spec grinding.

Okay, so some cost more than others, so maybe a little hard work here and there might be on the cards.

And the Nurburgring 4H looked like it might be fun, given the right car.

Well, here I am half way through the 9 hours of Tsukuba. I didn't go for the 'grab an X2010 and finish in 5 hours' strategy, but neither did I go for the 'gut it out in a kubelwagon on comfort hards, just to prove a point' method either (that last one might be something of an exaggeration, who knows?)

Instead, I saddled up my Elise 111R with full racing mods, 309 bhp of pure racing fun. The car setup is fairly basic, with heavily dropped suspension and geared to 149 mph (vMaz 128mph), so it's hitting the 'change up' light just into the braking zone of the last corner. Racing soft (perhaps a little indulgent) give 40 laps before a stop is required and 35 litres of fuel is plenty. Not that it's critical on such a short track, but it helps build up the routine.

And routine is what you will need for this Sisyphean effort (go on, look it up).

I promised myself a break at half time (just exiting the first corner on lap 286 - about 5,100 gear shifts and 7 pit stops) if I could beat my lap 84 best time of 53.586 which I duly did on lap 246 (53.432 without checking), although I'd already paused for an hour to watch the Melbourne Quali (Vettel, what genius, although it pains me to say it) and so I find myself typing out this missive, this plea to all you GT5 addicts out there. If you feel yourself needing to pay penance for something heinous (running over your girlfriend's lhasa maybe) then maybe you should give this one a go.

I ask myself, "Do I really need to hit level 40?" and the answer is yes.
Then I ask "Do I really need to complete all the race series?" and the answer is still sadly in the affirmative. With this answer comes the realisation that I'm going to have to do both the remaining 24 hour races, one of which comes after I can no longer level up in any case. What's more, it feels like there's a clock ticking on it now, because what kudos will these massive virtual endeavours carry once the in race saving fix is implemented?

Do you forever want to be taunted by "Of course, I did the lot before they made it too easy" comments?

I will report again once this race is over, but only so you all know I made it back out the other side.

Thanks for reading.

Well, it's over, and yes, I won by a mile (29 laps), but at least I drove it to the end. Fastest lap 0:53.267 on lap 300 out of 573.

The Elise 111R RM was a joy - I can't recommend it enough. Even on RS there's still some play at the back that can drop you into perfectly controllable 4 wheel drifts when they get a little old and unless you totally outbrake yourself, you can pick whatever line you like through any corner - especially useful when constantly passing backmarkers!

No doubt there are better or fairer ways of completing this dullathon (sorry PD, but the track is way too short for enduros) but at least it's over with, despite the fact I can still see every braking point etched on my eyelids.

Good to know that theres a another Lotus fan here! I can't wait to do this race my self, and I guess I could go with the Lotus RM'd.

Definitely not looking forward to this one. The 4hours were bad enough because it's so short. Nice job sticking it out though.

Like you i used RM Elise with RS tyres and it wasnt too challenging ,and im not even that consistant i still managed to spin off from time to time,though fatigue might have helped that.The Elise for the most part handles likes its on rails but i kept trying to beat my lap times when i really had no need to push the car to its limits every lap.My fastest lap wasnt quite as fast as yours high 0:53.XXX only once ,with plenty 0:54-55's.And a few much slower laps for good measure.
At least with such a short track you're passing traffic on a regular basis.
Still it was more enjoyable than Suzuka Enduro

i've also been putting this race off for quite some time. i think i'm finally going to attempt it this weekend, since the wife's gonna be at work both days. i should have plenty of time. i'll probably go with the x1 so i can build up a nice lead and head to teh gym for a little while as the ai catches up. i really have no desire to race the full 9 hours on that **** track

saintadjg - I did the Suzuka using the X2010 cos I figured "If I can bronze the Vettel Challenge..."

Lost count of how many offs & collisions I had - just glad it didn't rain. Took me just under 4 hours, I figured more like 6 with a comparable car.

bimmer3002 - I thought about using the X2010 myself (see above) but thought it might be more frustrating, due to lapping/offs/collisions. Mind you, I am interested in how fast a clean lap would be. My guess is you'll lap everyone every lap. If I had to do it again (and it would take some very serious threats) I'd probably go the X route, although the extra time saved would be spent in therapy....