1886 Motor Carriage around the 'ring! (in about 2 days)

[James2097]

Did it over the last weekend. I just wanted to prove that it could be done. People seem to find it greatly amusing which means my weekend was well worth it for personal satisfaction. Some people go fishing, and don't catch anything, and just dangle a rod for days. I did this challenge. There's no way I would do something like this again dude! Why am I justifying it, I am a nut-case and it was great fun.

 

[IlfordDave]

It has made me chuckle, its just another thing to do, something to challenge you between the main course of the game.

 

[ND4SPD]

Damn too bad you can't use this car in 2 player. Just imagine you and your buddy on the mulsanne straight you in the motor carriage and your bud in a 600+hp race car pushing you down the striaght at over 180mph.

 

[James2097]

Damn too bad you can't use this car in 2 player.

Bugger thought that might've been the case. Awesome image in my mind though!

 

[Flanker]

Someone claimed that he did this in 1 hour 30 mins. Somewhere in the "post your top speed" topic... Can you get NOS on this ****?

 

[MDT]

i still have a few more motors to go around yet (Honda Life Step Van - wonder if it'll fall over?)

Honda Life Step Van at the 'Ring, you say?
Here's a pic of my experience.
Fully modded, front-end digging in due to lowered front end suspension (for that "mean" look).

 

[UW]

I normally just look at these forums but youve inspired me to actually post. Dude, you are mad yet possibly the most dedicated GT4'er i have ever seen. I commend you .. its people like you who make this world worth living in But really dude, me and my friends have never laughed so much. Cheers, youve made my month

 

[63AvantiR3]

(Edited)

... Up Hills:
Oh dear. You kind of need to use a very laborious 'pendulum' motion. Picture the 'Carriage' perpendicular to the track (or more accurately parallel to the hill gradient line, so that its neither pointing up or down). Okay, now accelerate getting it up to about 5km/h or hopefully more if you go down-hill very slightly initially. Now very smoothly turn to drive up the hill for about 1 metre if your lucky (usually less if it's a bugger of a hill ). Then when you come to a complete stop due to the, ah, hill - CAREFULLY let it roll backwards slowly whilst turning full lock, braking to ensure traction (and precious distance up the hill) isn't lost. Carefully get it to a spot again perpendicular (or VERY slightly pointing down hill) to the track and with the rear wheels just nearly touching the grass. You should be where you started, but a few centimetres higher up the hill ready for another 'swing'. Its kinda like a pendulum motion, being slightly powered in one direction of the motion, which means you can very slowly make your way higher up the hill! Sometimes it can feel like you're not getting higher though! Persistance is the game and eventually you'll get to the top which is sheer bliss. ...

Or you can use a "tack" technique. Don't drive straight up a steep hill. You've only got 'X' amount of power; power that will not increase or decrease. However if you tack, you start eating a smaller amount of hill at a time while using 'X' amount of power. If you go straight up a hill, it may take more power than you have to climb. However if you tack, which is turning left to right and going up at angles, you can climb the hill with the power you have. It will take more time to tack up a hill, but it will be effective.

 

[SmellyBroom]

OK hers an update on my progress. I went out and bought a couple of 4packs of red bull. I had a little shot earlier and got stuck on the first big hill, heck even the first bit before the start line was tough, but I've got the hang of it now. Started 5 mins ago and im almost at the top of the first hill. This requires some serious concentration, way harder than i thought it was but hey, im getting there.

 

[standard235]

May the force be with you young Skywalker... seriously though, if you have a the attention span to do that then more power to ya!

 

[UW]

OK hers an update on my progress. I went out and bought a couple of 4packs of red bull. I had a little shot earlier and got stuck on the first big hill, heck even the first bit before the start line was tough, but I've got the hang of it now. Started 5 mins ago and im almost at the top of the first hill. This requires some serious concentration, way harder than i thought it was but hey, im getting there.

The only way to keep me motivated for 48 hours is with alcohol .. yeah I may pass out a few times but thats part of the risk in motorsport Good luck .. got a camera so you can give us updates?

 

[SmellyBroom]

OK thats about 1796 zig zags so far.... Ill need to go get my phone back tomorrow morning so i can take a couple of screenies. A little trick i found, backing up onto the rumble strip and rolling off it again gives you that little extra momentum...

 

[Mt. Lynx]

I´m not 100% sure of this, but I think you can freewheel forwards, if you tap the handbreak. By doing this the car freewheels until you either accelerate or break. Thought that might come handy downhill...

 

[ProOne]

And here I thought my nearly 2 hours, one hour, 50 minutes, and 33.883 seconds to be exact, with the Prius using only the battery was the longest anyone would endure attempting to do a single lap on this famous track. You are my hero.

 

[Omnis]

I remember someone stating that it was "impossible" to get the Daimler-Benz motor carriage around the Nurburgring due to the steep hills encountered. However they obviously weren't as persistent, nor as insane in the membrane as me! Two days of carefully zigging and zagging up the hills finally got me a lap time of 47 hrs, 50 mins. Seconds and split second denominations are kinda irrelevant. Wish I had a digital camera to prove it! I know some will doubt my claim, and commitment and sanity!

How I did it:
Arcade mode, 0.2 extra KW in the 'quick tuning' menu! Whoohoo! Up to a massive 1.2 KW of sheer grunt. I took off some weight also, as much as the game allowed.
Economy tyres for minimal rolling resistence to get max use of rolling up some hills that would've slowed progress severely.

Again very sorry for no pics, no facility for that kind of thing.

that person was me... in my Carriage around the Sarthe thread here: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=57423

and no, i wasn't persistant in conquering the hill that killed me. if i commited to it, i could overcome it. i meant that it was immpossible to do the ring normally without zigzagging or whatever.

i have to give you credit for your accomplishment, however....the whole quick-tuning thing negates a lot of the respect. the fact that you don't have pictures is also a let-down, but i can understand you predicament.

anyway, congrats on getting a thread with tons of people saying how halarious they found this. (though mine has been in the write-ups section for quite some time. )

i dub thee, a fellow Carriage Master.

 

[Emohawk]

We need a "GT4 insane people hall of fame" for this sort of achivement 👍

 

[Omnis]

come to think of it.....shouldn't this be in the write-ups board where i put mine?

 

[MCX]

You will know every bit of track graffiti intimately.

That's one insane challenge. Your record is definately safe with me as well.

 

[ving]

james, you sir are insane...

 

[James2097]

First up: Awesome work SmellyBroom, I hope you have the strength to see it through! I am going to check back on your progress with great interest. You are becoming one with the carriage, running off the rumble strips like that is an integral part of the strategy I forgot to talk about... but they aren't there all the time so I didn't discuss it as a vital technique to getting round the lap.

Also HOLY CRAP I never discovered the handbrake gear disengage trick for forwards freewheeling. Big ups and respect to Team666 for bringing this to my attention & also Omnis for mentioning it in his write up thread about La Sarthe! Awesome work in the ways of the carriage! I hope people give Omnis the respect he deserves as the pioneer Carriage Master!

Yes I would've rather done my run with the carriage totally unmodded, but at the time I didn't know if the lap was possible even WITH the slight boost in power & weight decrease. Looks like the door is open for someone mad enough to do the lap with a totally stock carriage! That would be ultra respect and the ultimate really!

Ok about 'tacking'... in my experience it only works when the hill is flat enough that you can only 'just' not make it up driving normally. When you change 'tack', as the carriage is pointing straight up the hill, you nearly always just stop and are left in an awkward undesirable position on the track (if you're on the 'wrong' side of the track than the side you want to 'swing' back from...), forcing you to back down the hill a bit, losing height. I still believe slingshotting around in a cirlce is the best for these hills as you can gain quite a bit of distance and momentum... also a bonus is you only ever have to be pointing directly up the hill on the side of the track you want to be on for efficiently swinging back for another attack! if others can find more efficient means of attacking certain hill gradients then they are truly awesome and true Carriage Masters.

For the record, I'm sure others can better my time by a GREAT margin. No idea what that margin is though! I was really very unfocused and even freewheeled back and forth between hills when I got bored and nearly gave up before re-focusing! That probably cost me hours! The game was also just left on with a weight on the handbrake button for a long time, during sleeping etc. The aim was to just get around the 'ring, not do it with any notion of time actually passing!

 

[ving]

infact, I personally will sign the certificate to say you are certifiably insane

 

[JBR-Man]

Congratulations.

Now, when will you race some endurances?

 

[CyberDragon]

Congratulations.

Now, when will you race some endurances?

Now there is a challege! Since you can't take the Carriage into any races just pick a track & run 200 or so laps just like an endurance.

 

[mustang_4_ever]

lol props for patients, lol amazing effort 👍

 

[denki]

that was probably the stupidest, and therefore most awesome thing i have read yet about insanity in GT4. what about somebody doing it with EXTRA weight and LOWER power? in real life it might probably run at less power, and how much weight does gt4 add for the driver? what if you were going to take the missus out? it would be better if there was a "get out and push" function...

congrats on this awesome feat; how about Umbria?

 

[James2097]

Umbria just doesn't have the same mystique as the nurb, which is the only reason why I felt compelled to do the lap. It felt more meaningful, being such a famous track and also the longest in the game. You also need a certain amount of track width to be able to climb hills. For example I think Citta di Aria is out of the question... It would be harder I feel even given the short length. I certainly won't be attempting to do more motoring in the Carriage for what are hopefully understandable reasons. I will very much enjoy reading what others do with the old carriage! There are no max speed records yet, which I'd love to see!

 

[goukipau]

James, respect!!!
I never do this, cause it would take toooo much tme, but the challenge is great, and it is something a rare few people will do!

Gouki

 

[MikeCUK28]

You are completely mental... and therefore completely awesome.

 

[James2097]

I'd love to get an update on SmellyBroom's progress... surely he hasn't given up!

Hey as for that guy that claimed he did the lap in 1hr, 30mins or something... he's dreaming! Probably thought that sounded like an appropriately long time when he just made it up! Pretty funny how short of the mark he was...

 

[SmellyBroom]

Well it seems this is way harder than initially suspected. After many attempts i still haven't made over this first hill.

Im pretty sure my tacking technique is flawed because i don't seem to be making much progress. I fear i may have to abandon my lap, it's just too hard.