So, I wasn't around when this Time Trial happened, and completely missed out on it, but, given that Tsukuba is the track I know best in the entire game, I was really grouchy about missing out on this TT, and decided to see kind of vicariously roughly how fast I could've been, by trying out a WRX at 500pp with one of the setups from this thread in Test Drive mode on Tsukuba (not perfectly scientifically accurate I guess, since it's weather-variable) (by the way, the reminds me, does anyone know what the exact temperature and time of day was for the official Time Trials event for this?)
Anyway, so, so far I've only tried one setup. Natty Tom's setup (the Spec C '09), except I just used the stock transmission, since I couldn't get his gear ratios on it.
On my very first lap, I ran a 59.0. 2nd lap was another 59.0, and 3rd lap was a 58.7. Was kind of a wakeup call to me of just how huge of a difference it can apparently make if you know a track really really well going into it, compared to if you don't. I mean, 3 minutes into attempting it, I was already getting close to a Top 250 time, on my 3rd attempted lap.
Then it took about half an hour and dozens of lap attempts to beat that 58.7, though (lol), so, that calmed me down a little and brought me back to the real world, hahaha. For a second I was thinking I'd just be lapping my way down to a 56.9 or something by a few laps later, with how easily those fast laps were coming right off the bat.
Only did about a 45 minute session for day 1, and then had to stop, since my funnybone sensation in my arms was already acting up by then.
On the 2nd day, did a half hour session, and got down to a 58.33, and then quit after that lap, since that was a pretty good improvement over my next best of that day, which was like a 58.7 or something.
3rd Day I did about a 1 hour session, and ran a whole bunch of laps in the 58.3-58.5 range. I could tell from the sector times that I already had around a 57.8 in me, just based on adding the best sector times together, though, but never put together a really good lap with 3 great sectors, so, didn't improve my time beyond 58.3 on that day.
I think I didn't do any runs on day 4 or maybe day 5 or so, but yesterday, which I think is around day 6 or 7, I decided to try to address my transmission issue, and didn't bother looking for a really detailed gear setup on here, but at least went from using the literally stock transmission the car comes with from the dealership, to using the fully customized transmission and adjusting the "max speed" setting down to like 150-something (I think the stock one was the equivalent of it being set to 190 or something ridiculous, lol).
This seemed to instantly make an important difference (like, on the exit of the first corner, I had a scenario where my fastest lap ghost was pulling ever so slightly away from me in the first 20 meters or so out of the curve, but then m car slowly reeled it back in and pulled ahead of it, just purely from accelerating faster than the ghost car with the super loose gearing ratios, so, that right there tells me just how much I was giving up by having a crappy transmission, lol).
Only put in about a 20 minute session with the new transmission, because my funnybone nerve sensation thing happened really quickly this time unfortunately, but, was already able to drop to a 58.2 with the new trans, and best of all, it made a big difference in how fast my new fastest sectors are. Like, I was usually running a 13.9-14.1 first sector, with my fastest being a 13.8 first sector, on the old transmission, whereas on the new one I was AVERAGING around a 13.80-flat on the first sector, and had multiple laps where I had a 13.7-low on the first sector, and even had a 13.6 one time. Also faster on the 2nd and 3rd sectors, to where now if I add all my fastest sectors together, it comes out to faster than the #1 time that won the TT! (57-low!). Holy crap!
Still haven't even tried any other setups yet either, so, I guess I'll probably first try to see if I can get my sectors together and get a 57-mid on this thing, and then after that, assuming the last couple tenths after that are gonna start getting a lot harder to get, I might start trying out some other setups and fine tuning the gearing a lot more and everything.
I guess once it gets to where I'm consistently doing 57.x laps, I might have to go set up a camera so I can record a youtube vid where it shows that my car is actually set to 500pp and is the one I'm using in the Free Run lap, so that if I set a record lap, people won't have to wonder if I was cheating and using like 520pp or something, or softer tires or whatever, lol.
Anyway, this was a pretty big wakeup call. I had no clue that I was capable of being anywhere near that fast on the DS3, with only being able to put in such short sessions cuz of the nerve thing. I guess I underestimated just how important it is if you already know a track really well before a TT event begins for that track, compared to if you learn it from scratch starting when the TT starts. Like, on that 450pp GT-Arena TT from last month, I went into it not knowing that track at all, and it took me a TON of sessions and a ton of lap attempts just to even get below 33 (not even Top 1,000) seconds, and then even a gazillion more just to get down to finish the event with a 32.0 (Top 650 or so), and my fastest sectors still only added up to around a 31.1 or something I think, which wasn't even top-10 worthy even if I had put them all together in one great lap.
Whereas, on this one, I was already doing better than my best lap of the entire month long TT of that GT-Arena thing on my THIRD LAP I ever ran on this event (well, re-creation of the event, technically), 3 minutes in, lol. Wtf!
So, I guess I'm realizing now that, in theory, if I get to know some of the other tracks as well as I know Tsukuba, in theory, I could potentially have a Top 10 time within me, even if I can only put in these 30 minute, 45 minute types of sessions once per day or once every other day.
Really happy about this, because for a while I was kind of bummed out, and was the reason I didn't even bother playing much these past few years until just starting up again these past couple months, because I just assumed that, given the whole arm-nerve problem stuff limiting how long/many attempts I could put in, the best I'd ever be able to do was maybe a barely-top-250 type of time, even on a track I'm good at.
But, now I'm starting to think this might not be the case!
I guess I should try to learn some more tracks as well as I know Tsukuba, so that if one of the future TT events ever happens to use one of those tracks that I know really well, I'll be able to put up a really high result hopefully.