BIG Fun...BIG A-Spec Points...LITTLE Credits!

Since GT4 "AI" competition seems to be even more pathetic than in GT3 with the same class ride, I'm always looking for a fun match-up. Quite by accident I found a GREAT ONE! 👍 Started the DREAM CAR CHAMPIONSHIP in the EXTREME HALL as a "Series" Race just so I could compare Lap times. WHY OH WHY can't we QUALIFY EVERYWHERE like we did with GT3? It gives a MUCH Better feeling for what the Competition will do! Any how, the first race looked promising in Practice so I gave it a shot. The opposition I drew for this round included:

NISSAN GT-R Concept LM Race Car '02
FORD GT LM Edition Spec-II '04
MAZDA RX-7 LM Race Car '01
CHEVROLET Camaro LM Race Car '01
TOYOTA RSC Rally Raid Car '02

All of them made sense for this series EXCEPT the Toyota! Come on PD...what were you thinking on this one? A rolling road bloack was all it turned out to be!

Since I've found NO Logical reason to accumulate A-Spec points they mean little to me. I mean...what can you buy with them? "Bragging Rights?" Bah, means NOTHING as you can run high point A-Spec races all day long to "Pad" your stats if you're so inclined! But since they are apparently important to some I thought I'd note that all except the Test "Curse" are 152-154 Points & my least favorite Track in GT4 is good for 200 Points!

Finish = Place / Race Time - Fast Lap. MOV = Margin of Victory (Where applicable!)

Race #1 Opera Paris [Reverse] (154 Points ?)
Qualified 1st / forgot to take Notes!
Finish 1st / 9'24.264 - 1'19.803 (Lap #?)
MOV Less than 1 Second 👍
Was just going to run this one to "Gauge" the competition but it was so close I decided to run the series. Had the big NISSAN in my mirror the whole way. Drove the first Lap a little "Rougher" than I normally do but if they "Push" me I'm not opposed to "Shoving" them Back! BTW: Has anyone discovered a way to "Freeze" the results screen long enough to record the facts? Another feature PD has omitted apparently!

Race #2 Tokyo Rte 246 (154 Points )
Qualified 1st / 1'37.208
Finish 1st / 6'31.634 - 1'35.553 (Lap #2)
MOV 0.253+ Seconds 👍
Another FANTASTIC Race! The Classic "They eat me up on the straights but I'll get 'em back in the corners" scenario.

Race #3 Deep Forest (154 Points)
Qualified 1st / 1'15.650
Finish 1st / 6'08.481 - 1'12.788 (Lap #5)
MOV 8+ 👍
Not at all sure what happened here. Absolutely "Smoked" 'em from the Flag Drop. Most likely because I like the track so well from GT3 even with the changes in GT4.

Race #4 Seoul Central (152 Points)
Qualified 1st / 0'57.4585
Finish 1st / 6'42.691 - 0'56.388 (Lap #5)
MOV 2.97 Seconds 👍
Nothing special...blah, blah, blah..."AI" still doesn't seem to like this one! Wouldn't have been so close but I caught a "Rumbly" & spun once!

Race #5 Hong Kong (152 Points)
Qualified 1st / 1'20.975
Finish 1st / 9'09.655 - 1'09.484 (Lap #5)
MOV 5+ Seconds 👍
Good Race but with the lack of Long Straights the more powerful "AI" couln't make up any ground.

Race #6 Test Curse (200 Points)
Qualified 1st / 1'53.320
Finish 2nd / 4'06.731 - 1'52.233 (Lap #2)
MO "Loss" 9.976 Seconds 👎
I'm sure a better driver could have won this race. I got a terrible launch & missed the draft of the FORD GT LM Edition Spec-II '04 as he passed me & never could catch up. I knew from qualifying I needed to hook-up with him but just blew it. Tried to get the Camaro to team up but he slammed on his brakes at the end of each straight!

Race #7 Beginner Course (152 Points)
Qualified 1st / 0'24.xxx
Finish 1st / 10'01.587 - 0'21.xxx (Lap #12)
MOV 0.5xx+ Seconds 👍
I thought something was strange as in practice I couldn't qualify better than 4th but then realized I'd forgotten to change the settings back from the Test Curse debacle I ran last night. Changed everything back & instantly found a couple of seconds. Almost got dizzy from 27 Laps, passing the TOYOTA at least twice, all the while keeping an eye on the NISSAN looming in my mirror. Stretched out a small 2-3 second lead only to have him close in every time I Lapped the TOYOTA. I can only assume he was getting around the RSC quicker than I was. I will note that the NISSAN is a bit of a "Bully" in this series so keep an eye on him! My Left Front Tyre started to go away about Lap #24 so he narrowed the gap to less than a second at the Finish!

Race #8 Circuit de le Sarthe II (152 Points)
Qualified 1st / 3'39.823
Finish 2nd / 7'17.769 - 3'38.883 (Lap #2)
MO "Loss" + 0.342 Seconds 👎
With the Rolling Start all went well & I was slowly pulling away from the field. I was slightly quicker thru the turns & they made some of it up on the straights.I think My ride would have been better suited to the "Chicaned" version. They were makin' up 2+ seconds on the Mulsanne! Managed to be in the lead exiting the corner after the monster straight on the last lap but the NISSAN put me in the dirt right at the "Indianapolis Corner" pushing me back to third again. Was able to get by the FORD but not the "Bully" by the Finish Line!

Race #9 El Capitan [Reverse] (152 Points)
Qualified 1st / ??????
Finish 1st / 7'00.366 - 1'41.355 (Lap #2)
MOV 0.709 Seconds 👍
Got a bad start & dropped to second immediately but managed to regain first when the NISSAN grazed the bridge over the Merced River. "Looped" it over the "Hump" right before the tunnel on Lap 3 & the NISSAN regained the lead. Took a whole Lap to put him back in second but not by much. VERY Close Finish!

Race #10 Cote d' Azur (152 Points)
Qualified 1st / 1'31.702
Finish 1st / 10'41.862 - 1'0.450 (Lap #3)
MOV 15+ Seconds 👍
"Cote" is one of my VERY Favorite Courses so I figured I'd "Show 'em the short way Home" but was a bit surprised that it was a 15+ second blow out. Will have to check the replay & see what was going on behind me.

FINAL RESULTS:

NISSAN GT-R Concept LM Race Car '02 // 61 Points
FORD GT LM Edition Spec-II '04 // 42 Points
CHEVROLET Camaro LM Race Car '01 // 32 Points
MAZDA RX-7 LM Race Car '01 // 23 Points
TOYOTA RSC Rally Raid Car '02 // 10 Points

Prize Car: NISSAN GT-R Concept LM Race Car '02 immediately sold for 318,749 Credits. 👍

Oh yeh...My Ride!!!
TOYOTA "WedsSport" Celica (JGTC) '03 // 92 Points
Purchase price is 500,000 credits & the only "Add-On" was a Stage 3 Turbo for 45,000! I even ran the Stock Tyres! Even allowing for NOT sweeping the series I'm near even after selling the Prize Car.

"BIG Fun"... I'll say!!! Five Races WON by LESS THAN 1 SECOND EACH!!! BIG A-Spec Points... Somewhere around 1550 "If" you win 'em all!!! LITTLE Credits...545,000 Investment & you're likely to get it all back! 👍

Final Mileage (+2 Laps @ Most venues for warm up & qualifying) 243 Miles.
THANX for wading thru this & hope it will help someone out. Let me know if you spot a mistake, I'm VERY adept at using the EDIT Function! ...O.G.

lol, nice write up but i think it would have been better with pictures aswell

man, PD should have made the A spec points useful, maybe like unlocking bonus cars, or unlocking tracks or something >.<

Great write up's as usual!! Very informative and educational as well. 👍

Great write up.
Maybe the reason you were racing for 200 A spec points at the Test Track was because you lowered the down force all the way down to 0.
Can you confirm?

Uncle Harry

Great write up.
Maybe the reason you were racing for 200 A spec points at the Test Track was because you lowered the down force all the way down to 0.
Can you confirm?

Click to expand...

GREAT Observation Uncle Harry! 👍 I never thought of that but YES the DF was set to "Minimum" at both ends...O.G.

I have been wondering what the underdog series was... now I know

👍 NICE JOB!!! Again... 👍 But, then again, I have come to expect this from you

phattboy

O.G., that Celica really suprised me as well. When I ran my test, I was expecting the RX-7 to be the best and was thinking the Celica would be 4th or 5th, so when the Celica topped the list I had to look at some more numbers. That's when I discovered that it had the best p\w ratio in stock form. I notice your 1'09 at Hong Kong and you bet that intrigues me. I've been wondering just how quick a lap I'll be able to turn there with the stage 3 and that gives me an idea (or goal, if you prefer). I've pretty much decided to keep a set of this group stock and buy another set to build. I put between 31.6-31.8 miles on them for my test, not even enough for an oil change, and I've had to force myself not to drive them. Every time I see the Celica in my garage I'm thinking "I know I can beat you in the RX-7 or the Garaiya", but it just sits there twirling around and looking pretty, saying "come on, you know you could have drove me better". I'll be finding out soon, it's been three days since I drove them and I've got to get them back out for some more testing just to answer my own questions. Great group of cars.

After reading OG's account, I said to myself "hey this car does not belong here, it should race against other JGTC cars". So there I go, racing the "all GT japan championship" in the same Celica. But, in my overoptimistic view of events to come, I didn't notice that OG used a stage 3 turbo. So I ended up racing the whole series using a completly stock car (except for an oil change and R3 tires instead of the R1 it is delivered with). Here's how it all turned out:

(all races are worth 185 A-spec points approximetly, as I forgot to take notes on laptimes and point standings be indulgent with my write up please)

Opponents:

Nissan pitwork Z
Cerumo Supra
Penzoil Skyline (can't remember the exact model)
Sard Supra
Raybring NSX

ROUND 1: R246 :
Qualified 3rd
Finish 2nd 10 sec behind leader

After qualifying I knew I would go down the hard way. I like the track but it is really too fats for a 300 hp car against those 500 hp monsters . Nevertheless, I took the start, which was not a rolling one to my relief. I was fourth at the end of the straight, pulled out a great inside line on the first left hander, and caught the second place, 0.300 behind the leader . I was able to maintain roughly the same gap until the end of the first lap, but I made a mistake in the first esses and got 1"000 behind the leader but still had nearly 2 sec on the rest of the pack. And then their tyres started warming up. The leader just pulled farther away at every intermediate time and the others started to catch me back. Now I just hoped to stay second for the rest of the race. I barely made it, I closed all doors but the Cerumo supra was all over me and thanks to its stupidity, it gave a push while trying to overtake me in the final straight.

Round 2: Suzuka east
Qualified first
Finished 1st with an eight sec lead 👍

After the first race my confidence shattered, I was on the verge of quitting but I gave Suzuka east a try. I knew the track would be an advantage as it is slow with only one long straight. And I was right I noticed one change though, the "Z" which blew me away on the first race only managed to qualify 3rd, the Cerumo supra would be my chief oponent. Off we go and the supra took the lead until the first turn, I braked late, kept the inside and cruised to an easy win.

Round 3: Seoul Central
Qualified 1st
Finished 1st with another 8 sec lead

nothing special about this race, I took the lead on the first hairpin and gently pulled away with consistant laptimes around 58"000.

Round 4: Fuji Speedway 90's
Qualified 1st
Finished a lucky 1st with a 0"097 lead

I was surprised with my qualifying. The begining of the race was easy, I took the lead on the first turn and started to create a 5sec gap by the end of lap 3. That's when their tyres warmed up and the Z (a devil on fast tracks) started to catch me back. On lap 6 at the exit of the last chicane my lead was down to 0.500, with the long straight still to come, I knew i had little chance to make it. However, the Z caught my draft exiting the last turn and I decided to play it dirty, changing my lines when he was trying to overtake me. Thus he gave me a gentle push to pass the line in first place.

Round 5: Twin Ring Motegi - Super Speedway:
Qualified 3rd
Finished 3rd

Remember mission 23? 💡 Time to put it into practice. I'd like to thank the skyline for offering me its slipstream during practice. Basically nothing to mention, no chance at all to win. I fought with the skyline and the denso supra all the time. I entered the last turn in 5th place but both of them went wide in that turn. So I slipped inside, emerged third on the straight and kept in the middle of the track to avoid being overtaken. Second victory of the Z, Cerumo Supra took 2nd.

Round 6: Laguna Seca Raceway:
Qualified first
Finished first

Easy win as it is not an high spedd track. As always in those cases the Cerumo Supra finished second and the Z third.

Round 7: Hong Kong:
Qualified first
Finished 1st with a 1"500 lead

I hate this track. I pushed hard while they were warming their tyres. Had a 5 sec lead by the end of lap 3. A couple of mistakes later and the gap was reduced to 2 sec by the end of lap five. Entering lap 9 (final one) the gap shrinked even further (0"500) . I decided to focus and regained a full second in the last turns.

Round 8: Twin Ring Motegi - Road Course:
qualified first
Finished first

Well, well, well... lots of straights, lots of sharp turns. It seems we've got a match. I led easily the first 3 laps and then the cerumo caught me back, I could feel the pressure during the rest of the race but I managed to keep him at a distance and win. An interesting race though as I really had to give my best to win.

Round 9: Fuji Speedway 2005 GT:
Won easily

I planned to give B-spec Bob a shot in that race and by mistake I ended up racing it. I didn't make the qualification, so I started last but took the lead at the first corner. I expected a remake of the fuji 90's race due to the endless staright but it seemed I was a lot faster than them in all those wide turns. Nothing special in short.

Round 10: Suzuka Circuit:

Did not start. I plan to give it a try with another car in a near future.

Thank to OG for giving me that idea and a lot of fun, as it was quite challenging to keep in front of those monsters, especially when their tyres are warm.

KOOL! GREAT Write-Up! 👍
I figured that would be a fun Series for the Celica...now I'll have to give it a try as well. Still can NOT believe PD didn't give us a series specifically for the JGTC300 Rides! ...O.G.

Defkon

After reading OG's account, I said to myself "hey this car does not belong here, it should race against other JGTC cars". So there I go, racing the "all GT japan championship" in the same Celica. But, in my overoptimistic view of events to come, I didn't notice that OG used a stage 3 turbo. So I ended up racing the whole series using a completly stock car (except for an oil change and R3 tires instead of the R1 it is delivered with). Here's how it all turned out:

(all races are worth 185 A-spec points approximetly, as I forgot to take notes on laptimes and point standings be indulgent with my write up please)

Click to expand...

Great writeup Defkon. I also ran this series in the Celica. It was a real blast. I also changed to R3's, I believe we could've gotten 200 Aspec's if we had used r1s or r2s. This car is a blast to drive, must be the light weight.

Thanks to both of you for reading.