- 2,432
- The failed experiment entitled “California”.
FIA Manufactures Race Report
Euro slots:
Slot 1, 9am CA time, B/S lobbies
Door 9. Important Phone call comes in just as warm up starts. Get one crappy qually lap in just as time expires. Q'd 14th or 15th
Green flag flew, important call comes in again, I have to pause and un pause to avoid getting DQ'd, by the time I get off the phone for the update, the rest of the field is gone (as if they weren't gone already with my horrendous qualifying position). Decided to use this race as a practice session under race conditions to mess with my brake bias....and see if it affected tire wear at all. Picked up some spots towards the end as people wadded up. Whatev's...
Slot 3, Door 7, Qualified 2nd
Learning the track the night before (with the help of @Mistah_MCA video), I was able to get my Slophy's Q-time down to 1:25.5 in free practice....Its amazing how good he is on Hards!! I knew I'd be off that pace come game time, and I was. Got held up all 3 laps, but managed to get a tow into the checkers on my final lap to recoup a couple 10ths. Actually, I bump drafted the Jag in front of me into the checkers. Salvaged a 1:26.2. Good enough for 2nd surprisingly. Looking around the grid, its all power cars except for 2 lonely Porsche's buried in the mid pack. Green flag goes, RCZ immediately starts to pull me. We set up for the first left hander and I'm just waiting for a blue dot to close in on me like a Skud missile. It does...but takes out the TT behind me instead. Poor bastard. A BMW takes over 3rd place and the RCZ gets a good exit and starts checking out. From that point, there really isn't much to report. The RCZ kept about a 2-3.5 second gap over me the entire race (depending on wether him or myself made a mistake) and after some fighting behind me that fortunately gave me some breathing room. I maintained a 3-4 second gap over the Corvette that eventually made its way from 7th, through the melee, and into 3rd. Oddly enough my fast lap for the race came at like Lap 12 or something like that. It was actually faster than my Q time. Pretty boring race to be honest.
Final slot, Door 7, Qualified 3
First lap got screwed up when door number 2 held everyone up. Second lap was going well until (what I'm assuming was someone with a late door and slow out lap) was basically just creeping along the apex (ghosted albeit) of the long left hand sweeper at the end. As luck would have it, the friggin' mongoloid decided to unghost right as myself and a Mercedes in my tow were arcing into the turn full throttle. For some reason, my Spidey senses were tingling right before this incident happened, so the only thing that happened to me was I veered wide and ended up on the grass. Luckily I was able to get right back on the tarmac, so the only thing I lost was a solid 6-7/10ths. Our friend in the Mercedes on the other hand wasn't as lucky. His spidey senses must not have been tingling because he swerved waaaaay right, tried to recover and ended up tank slapping for a good 75 yards until he lost it. The same guy was right behind me on his first flying lap, so his time from that crummy lap stood. I think the poor bastard ended up 15th on the grid or something. I made the time at the Checkers by about 10 seconds so I got one more try to get a good lap in. Everyone must've had bad qualifying laps, because right after I crossed the checkers, I glanced at my upper left corner and saw that my 1:26.4 was somehow in 3rd still. I knew I was one of the few guys who got a 3rd lap in...so I poured the coals to my Slophy and let it all hang out. I was on a heater too.... definitely on pace for a very low 1:25 and then I inevitably got a little too overzealous on the exit of the right handed hairpin at the bottom of the hill. Ended up in the sand box and quickly exited my lap so I wouldn't screw up anyone else. Miraculously my 1:26.4 still stood at P-3.
FIA intro begins, and I'm once again the only Slophy on the grid. One of only 3 MR cars. The rest are power cars with a lone WRX sitting on the pole. Green flag flies and the TT is immediately on the Scooby's slip. WRX telegraphs that he's going defensive into the first left hander with a middle line in the braking zone. The TT concludes this is the perfect opportunity to give the Subaru a nice "forearm shiver" up the inside into first. Myself seeing what is a mere second from taking place, checks my rearview mirror to make sure nobody's gonna dive bomb me; and when I see that the RCZ has filed in nicely behind me, I take a nice arcing line into turn 1 to hopefully capitalize on impending doom ahead of me.....nail the exit and slingshot into the lead. The TT wrecks the Scooby, driving him into the sand. I eye the apex and literally stand on the throttle going into the turn. The RCZ behind me decides to follow suit.... duck out at the last second.... and knocks me into the sandbox with Scooby!!
I recover back onto the track and in 6th position. The Scooby gets reset and is right behind me. For whatever reason, the Subaru driver thought that I was the one who punted him, and he goes for the punt at the 90 degree left. This time I see it coming a mile away; I hit the brakes hard and he sends himself to the shadow realm. Rest of the mudpack his hot on my tail, and surprisingly I don't get taken out on the right at the bottom of the hill. We file in and nothing really happens for the next 4 laps, although despite my best efforts, the Slophy can't get out of its own way once we get to the home straight.
Come lap 5, the mood of the room is reading that the train of 4 power cars behind me are growing weary of them gaining MASSIVE AMOUNTS of time on me on the home stretch, only to lose it once we get to the handling portions of the track. The German in his BMW behind me, decides he's the man for the job. With all the pent up anger left over from WWII, he locks me in on his iron sights.....and goes full Blitzkrieg on me at the bottom of the hill. I'm not even sure he touched the brakes.
This time I get reset back to 10th place, and now I have the window lickers bringing up the rear hot on my trail. I'm able to evade them for 3 laps until I make a bobble in the chicane before the home stretch, allowing a Corvette to get in my slip...and with that, an open invitation to punt me. The Spaniard is successful in his conquest. He gets 10th position. I don't get a reset and I dig trenches in the gravel back up onto the tarmac and firmly in 16th. As the laps dwindle down, I gain some positions back as guys crash out. Finish the race in a disappointing 13th with a measly 58 points in total for round 2.
N/A Slot 1, Door 5, Qualified P-3
I was apprehensive about logging in on my main and doing a slot, being that 2 of my 3 last races were anything but clean. But I felt that my Ferrari was going to be very strong at this track and I wanted to test my newly minted "A" status in an FIA lobby. Besides, I really liked this track! I went in with extremely low expectations for myself and the quality of the race, but somehow managed to land P-3 on the grid with a very conservative 125.8 in my Raider's endorsed Ferrari. Couldn't believe it. First "A" lobby in FIA and I'm somehow upfront. Was a bit nervous!!
Green flag waves and all of us start doing light arcs to warm up our tires going into the first turn - no amateurs here. We all file in as we take conservative braking points and a nice wide arc into the turn to compensate for our cold tires. I give my radar a quick glance just before the apex..... AND ONCE AGAIN, I see that P-4 decided that this was perfect opportunity to cut out of the conga line early and pick up an easy position. I don't get knocked off into the sandbox this time, but his intentions were clear as he was on the gas as he was shoving me out of bounds. Coming down the hill, I got barge-passed by a Brazilian at the bottom of the hill before ascending back up. With my anger from the last race still fresh in my mind, I thought of getting him back at the 90 degree right hander at the top of the hill....but thought better of it and decided to play the long game. That didn't seem to matter to his fellow countryman in P-6 that saw me get moved aside the first half of the lap...because he followed suit and gave me a forearm shiver up the inside instead. At this point, I had steam coming from my ears as I had lost 3 positions with no consequences in 3/4 of a lap. I caught the Brazilian's slip going down the main straight and contemplating sending him into orbit on turn 1, but cooler minds prevailed and I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that he simply made a mistake.
Between the Euro and N/A slots, I went out to the garage to work and had @Tidgney's stream from earlier in the day playing on my laptop in the background. I got inspired by his ability to be aggressive while also being clean - backing out if he doesn't for sure have a clean pass. So I decided to follow Tidgney's example and I showed the Brazilian a wheel at every opportunity the next two laps just to see how he reacted and if I could force him into a mistake. On lap 5 I finally got a real good run on the Brazilian's Huracan down the hill. I went inside of him at the right hander and made a clean pass with no contact on my end. He went for the pit maneuver but I was already arcing back to the right to set up for the left hander at the top of the hill. Since I had raced him cleanly for the past 3 laps, I thought he'd do me a solid and not dive bomb me so we can work together and get back up to the front. My expectations were too high I suppose as I saw him darting inside once again for the barge-pass. I backed out and let him have the spot because I was absolutely gonna blow my top if I got taken out yet again. Think Pulp Fiction where Jules gives the guy his wallet at the end so he doesn't have to kill him. Plus it was sonly lap 5 and we had a ways to go...and I figured it was a matter of time before the Brazilian wrecked himself.
We then played cat and mouse the rest of the race. I clearly had more pace than him, so I was beginning to get concerned that the mid pack was going to catch us with our battling. Lucky for us, there seemed to be some fighting behind us that kept the mid pack a few seconds back. I had several opportunities to barge my way past, but it was fun to have a nice, clean competitive race. However when ever I would get real close on him, he would make sure to run me as wide as possible or pinch me in. It wasn't blatantly dirty driving, but it seemed like he knew what he was doing. As the race wore on, I 110% expected the Huracan to make a mistake, but to the Brazilian's credit, he defended superbly and never cracked. We finished about 2/10ths apart, with P1-6 all finishing in the space of 5 seconds. Good race.
Post race chat, there was a lot of bickering amongst the mid pack. The Brazilian thanked me for a clean race. I thought of making a snide remark back at him. I didn't. He then sent me a friend request. Guess in his eyes, the race was squeaky clean. Whatever...it was still a blast!
Couple observations:
- There was a lot of bellyaching going on last week about Sardegna B being ran backwards. Lots of complaining about the turns closing off, the braking points being awkward....blah, blah, blah. Now I get it. But y'all are still a bunch of whiners!! Sardegna B normal way is a super easy track. It actually turns into a purely power track when ran the normal way. Sardegna BII is a 50/50 split between power and handling at least. FWIW, I preferred the track from last week!! It felt like it raced a lot better and there were more lines through the corners. Plus the added technicality added a greater chance of your opponent crashing out. Sard.BII rewarded patience more it seemed.
- With the current "penalty" system, the "B" class might as well be the "C" class. There's literally no difference. Its so easy to get to the B's these days.....that you get the same "video game" mentality coupled with general inexperience. The qualifying is a mess. The racing is a mess. I was in the B's for a very long time and I never remember it being this bad. We need the old system back!!
- The Ferrari is my new favorite Gr4 car. Sucks for Manu because the GT3 car blows, but the the GT4 car is the perfect blend of power and handling
The Megane Trophy tire’s wear like iron. Everyone knows that. However, the superior tire wear does you zero good on a non technical track with low tire multipliers. Everyone knows this too...
- The Megane Slophy is Soooooooooooo sllloooooooooooooooow. This car has the friggin' power spread of a weed whacker. No bottom end whatsoever. The only way for it to be competitive is to constantly be on the ragged edge at all time, bouncing off the rev limiter. Downhills with a tailwind help too. Mistakes from others around you are necessary as well. Like I said last week; if you're faced with a straight longer than a football field.... you're a sitting duck. Some guys can make it work. Just like James "Bubba' Stewart could make a 125 2 stroke work against 250's. His secret was he never let off.....EVER. Bubba crashed a lot, but damn was he talented!
- OH YEAH....... who else noticed that in the N/A slots, everyone from America had 3 bars of connectivity while anyone with a South/Central American flag was all green? Haven't seen that before.
Maybe @Mistah_MCA is Gran Turismo's James Stewart!?
Euro slots:
Slot 1, 9am CA time, B/S lobbies
Door 9. Important Phone call comes in just as warm up starts. Get one crappy qually lap in just as time expires. Q'd 14th or 15th
Green flag flew, important call comes in again, I have to pause and un pause to avoid getting DQ'd, by the time I get off the phone for the update, the rest of the field is gone (as if they weren't gone already with my horrendous qualifying position). Decided to use this race as a practice session under race conditions to mess with my brake bias....and see if it affected tire wear at all. Picked up some spots towards the end as people wadded up. Whatev's...
Slot 3, Door 7, Qualified 2nd
Learning the track the night before (with the help of @Mistah_MCA video), I was able to get my Slophy's Q-time down to 1:25.5 in free practice....Its amazing how good he is on Hards!! I knew I'd be off that pace come game time, and I was. Got held up all 3 laps, but managed to get a tow into the checkers on my final lap to recoup a couple 10ths. Actually, I bump drafted the Jag in front of me into the checkers. Salvaged a 1:26.2. Good enough for 2nd surprisingly. Looking around the grid, its all power cars except for 2 lonely Porsche's buried in the mid pack. Green flag goes, RCZ immediately starts to pull me. We set up for the first left hander and I'm just waiting for a blue dot to close in on me like a Skud missile. It does...but takes out the TT behind me instead. Poor bastard. A BMW takes over 3rd place and the RCZ gets a good exit and starts checking out. From that point, there really isn't much to report. The RCZ kept about a 2-3.5 second gap over me the entire race (depending on wether him or myself made a mistake) and after some fighting behind me that fortunately gave me some breathing room. I maintained a 3-4 second gap over the Corvette that eventually made its way from 7th, through the melee, and into 3rd. Oddly enough my fast lap for the race came at like Lap 12 or something like that. It was actually faster than my Q time. Pretty boring race to be honest.
Final slot, Door 7, Qualified 3
First lap got screwed up when door number 2 held everyone up. Second lap was going well until (what I'm assuming was someone with a late door and slow out lap) was basically just creeping along the apex (ghosted albeit) of the long left hand sweeper at the end. As luck would have it, the friggin' mongoloid decided to unghost right as myself and a Mercedes in my tow were arcing into the turn full throttle. For some reason, my Spidey senses were tingling right before this incident happened, so the only thing that happened to me was I veered wide and ended up on the grass. Luckily I was able to get right back on the tarmac, so the only thing I lost was a solid 6-7/10ths. Our friend in the Mercedes on the other hand wasn't as lucky. His spidey senses must not have been tingling because he swerved waaaaay right, tried to recover and ended up tank slapping for a good 75 yards until he lost it. The same guy was right behind me on his first flying lap, so his time from that crummy lap stood. I think the poor bastard ended up 15th on the grid or something. I made the time at the Checkers by about 10 seconds so I got one more try to get a good lap in. Everyone must've had bad qualifying laps, because right after I crossed the checkers, I glanced at my upper left corner and saw that my 1:26.4 was somehow in 3rd still. I knew I was one of the few guys who got a 3rd lap in...so I poured the coals to my Slophy and let it all hang out. I was on a heater too.... definitely on pace for a very low 1:25 and then I inevitably got a little too overzealous on the exit of the right handed hairpin at the bottom of the hill. Ended up in the sand box and quickly exited my lap so I wouldn't screw up anyone else. Miraculously my 1:26.4 still stood at P-3.
FIA intro begins, and I'm once again the only Slophy on the grid. One of only 3 MR cars. The rest are power cars with a lone WRX sitting on the pole. Green flag flies and the TT is immediately on the Scooby's slip. WRX telegraphs that he's going defensive into the first left hander with a middle line in the braking zone. The TT concludes this is the perfect opportunity to give the Subaru a nice "forearm shiver" up the inside into first. Myself seeing what is a mere second from taking place, checks my rearview mirror to make sure nobody's gonna dive bomb me; and when I see that the RCZ has filed in nicely behind me, I take a nice arcing line into turn 1 to hopefully capitalize on impending doom ahead of me.....nail the exit and slingshot into the lead. The TT wrecks the Scooby, driving him into the sand. I eye the apex and literally stand on the throttle going into the turn. The RCZ behind me decides to follow suit.... duck out at the last second.... and knocks me into the sandbox with Scooby!!
I recover back onto the track and in 6th position. The Scooby gets reset and is right behind me. For whatever reason, the Subaru driver thought that I was the one who punted him, and he goes for the punt at the 90 degree left. This time I see it coming a mile away; I hit the brakes hard and he sends himself to the shadow realm. Rest of the mudpack his hot on my tail, and surprisingly I don't get taken out on the right at the bottom of the hill. We file in and nothing really happens for the next 4 laps, although despite my best efforts, the Slophy can't get out of its own way once we get to the home straight.
Come lap 5, the mood of the room is reading that the train of 4 power cars behind me are growing weary of them gaining MASSIVE AMOUNTS of time on me on the home stretch, only to lose it once we get to the handling portions of the track. The German in his BMW behind me, decides he's the man for the job. With all the pent up anger left over from WWII, he locks me in on his iron sights.....and goes full Blitzkrieg on me at the bottom of the hill. I'm not even sure he touched the brakes.
This time I get reset back to 10th place, and now I have the window lickers bringing up the rear hot on my trail. I'm able to evade them for 3 laps until I make a bobble in the chicane before the home stretch, allowing a Corvette to get in my slip...and with that, an open invitation to punt me. The Spaniard is successful in his conquest. He gets 10th position. I don't get a reset and I dig trenches in the gravel back up onto the tarmac and firmly in 16th. As the laps dwindle down, I gain some positions back as guys crash out. Finish the race in a disappointing 13th with a measly 58 points in total for round 2.
N/A Slot 1, Door 5, Qualified P-3
I was apprehensive about logging in on my main and doing a slot, being that 2 of my 3 last races were anything but clean. But I felt that my Ferrari was going to be very strong at this track and I wanted to test my newly minted "A" status in an FIA lobby. Besides, I really liked this track! I went in with extremely low expectations for myself and the quality of the race, but somehow managed to land P-3 on the grid with a very conservative 125.8 in my Raider's endorsed Ferrari. Couldn't believe it. First "A" lobby in FIA and I'm somehow upfront. Was a bit nervous!!
Green flag waves and all of us start doing light arcs to warm up our tires going into the first turn - no amateurs here. We all file in as we take conservative braking points and a nice wide arc into the turn to compensate for our cold tires. I give my radar a quick glance just before the apex..... AND ONCE AGAIN, I see that P-4 decided that this was perfect opportunity to cut out of the conga line early and pick up an easy position. I don't get knocked off into the sandbox this time, but his intentions were clear as he was on the gas as he was shoving me out of bounds. Coming down the hill, I got barge-passed by a Brazilian at the bottom of the hill before ascending back up. With my anger from the last race still fresh in my mind, I thought of getting him back at the 90 degree right hander at the top of the hill....but thought better of it and decided to play the long game. That didn't seem to matter to his fellow countryman in P-6 that saw me get moved aside the first half of the lap...because he followed suit and gave me a forearm shiver up the inside instead. At this point, I had steam coming from my ears as I had lost 3 positions with no consequences in 3/4 of a lap. I caught the Brazilian's slip going down the main straight and contemplating sending him into orbit on turn 1, but cooler minds prevailed and I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that he simply made a mistake.
Between the Euro and N/A slots, I went out to the garage to work and had @Tidgney's stream from earlier in the day playing on my laptop in the background. I got inspired by his ability to be aggressive while also being clean - backing out if he doesn't for sure have a clean pass. So I decided to follow Tidgney's example and I showed the Brazilian a wheel at every opportunity the next two laps just to see how he reacted and if I could force him into a mistake. On lap 5 I finally got a real good run on the Brazilian's Huracan down the hill. I went inside of him at the right hander and made a clean pass with no contact on my end. He went for the pit maneuver but I was already arcing back to the right to set up for the left hander at the top of the hill. Since I had raced him cleanly for the past 3 laps, I thought he'd do me a solid and not dive bomb me so we can work together and get back up to the front. My expectations were too high I suppose as I saw him darting inside once again for the barge-pass. I backed out and let him have the spot because I was absolutely gonna blow my top if I got taken out yet again. Think Pulp Fiction where Jules gives the guy his wallet at the end so he doesn't have to kill him. Plus it was sonly lap 5 and we had a ways to go...and I figured it was a matter of time before the Brazilian wrecked himself.
We then played cat and mouse the rest of the race. I clearly had more pace than him, so I was beginning to get concerned that the mid pack was going to catch us with our battling. Lucky for us, there seemed to be some fighting behind us that kept the mid pack a few seconds back. I had several opportunities to barge my way past, but it was fun to have a nice, clean competitive race. However when ever I would get real close on him, he would make sure to run me as wide as possible or pinch me in. It wasn't blatantly dirty driving, but it seemed like he knew what he was doing. As the race wore on, I 110% expected the Huracan to make a mistake, but to the Brazilian's credit, he defended superbly and never cracked. We finished about 2/10ths apart, with P1-6 all finishing in the space of 5 seconds. Good race.
Post race chat, there was a lot of bickering amongst the mid pack. The Brazilian thanked me for a clean race. I thought of making a snide remark back at him. I didn't. He then sent me a friend request. Guess in his eyes, the race was squeaky clean. Whatever...it was still a blast!
Couple observations:
- There was a lot of bellyaching going on last week about Sardegna B being ran backwards. Lots of complaining about the turns closing off, the braking points being awkward....blah, blah, blah. Now I get it. But y'all are still a bunch of whiners!! Sardegna B normal way is a super easy track. It actually turns into a purely power track when ran the normal way. Sardegna BII is a 50/50 split between power and handling at least. FWIW, I preferred the track from last week!! It felt like it raced a lot better and there were more lines through the corners. Plus the added technicality added a greater chance of your opponent crashing out. Sard.BII rewarded patience more it seemed.
- With the current "penalty" system, the "B" class might as well be the "C" class. There's literally no difference. Its so easy to get to the B's these days.....that you get the same "video game" mentality coupled with general inexperience. The qualifying is a mess. The racing is a mess. I was in the B's for a very long time and I never remember it being this bad. We need the old system back!!
- The Ferrari is my new favorite Gr4 car. Sucks for Manu because the GT3 car blows, but the the GT4 car is the perfect blend of power and handling
The Megane Trophy tire’s wear like iron. Everyone knows that. However, the superior tire wear does you zero good on a non technical track with low tire multipliers. Everyone knows this too...
- The Megane Slophy is Soooooooooooo sllloooooooooooooooow. This car has the friggin' power spread of a weed whacker. No bottom end whatsoever. The only way for it to be competitive is to constantly be on the ragged edge at all time, bouncing off the rev limiter. Downhills with a tailwind help too. Mistakes from others around you are necessary as well. Like I said last week; if you're faced with a straight longer than a football field.... you're a sitting duck. Some guys can make it work. Just like James "Bubba' Stewart could make a 125 2 stroke work against 250's. His secret was he never let off.....EVER. Bubba crashed a lot, but damn was he talented!
- OH YEAH....... who else noticed that in the N/A slots, everyone from America had 3 bars of connectivity while anyone with a South/Central American flag was all green? Haven't seen that before.
Maybe @Mistah_MCA is Gran Turismo's James Stewart!?
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