A-spec Expert Level Race Car Challenge: Circuit de la Sarthe 2009

[Biebs74]

Used the Pescarolo and won the second time (first time I had two 3 second penalties from collisions). I didn't use any specific tune, as it wasn't necessary. I overtook the lead Pescarolo easily enough during the second run, and I would have easily won the first run (Sauber was the rabbit) if I hadn't of received the penalties (my fault, I was a bit too aggressive).

Second run was a perfect run, sizzling down the track! Overtaking two cars side-by-side (at over 300+ kph), just barely squeezing by, avoiding a collision or boundary penalty by only inches...delicious!

I am a bit puzzled about the difficulty others are having. Perhaps I just got lucky?

It could be luck, but it sounds like you're a pretty good racer too.

From reading the replies and from trying several things, here is what I suggest for anyone struggling. The three fast AI cars I have seen for this race are the Sauber, Minolta, and the C60. If you're having trouble, try exiting back out to the events screen and reload the race until you get only one of these cars. I have found this event difficult with all three, easier with two, and very easy if only one of them are there.

 

[MarcusQ]

GT6 patch 1.10 now live! 2GB

 

[iainoflo85]

It could be luck, but it sounds like you're a pretty good racer too.

From reading the replies and from trying several things, here is what I suggest for anyone struggling. The three fast AI cars I have seen for this race are the Sauber, Minolta, and the C60. If you're having trouble, try exiting back out to the events screen and reload the race until you get only one of these cars. I have found this event difficult with all three, easier with two, and very easy if only one of them are there.

Perhaps that's why I struggled - I had all three most of the times I tried but the Minolta was always the rabbit.

I think in the Spa race it was the Pescarolo usually that took the lead even if it wasn't starting in front - this time it's third if the Merc and Minolta are in front.

 

[JogoAsobi]

GT6 patch 1.10 now live! 2GB

Thanks for the heads up 👍...
...got the place holder threads created for the new VGT seasonals.

---------------------------------
I will post in detail later guys after this update is done.
But based on replies have some ideas why different people experienced different stuff.

And seems as if there are a couple of curve ball grids that rotate.
I updated my previous post about this Seasonal to include that info.

More later, I am going to wait and check out if 2GB update changed stuff 1st.

 

[Biebs74]

Perhaps that's why I struggled - I had all three most of the times I tried but the Minolta was always the rabbit.

I think in the Spa race it was the Pescarolo usually that took the lead even if it wasn't starting in front - this time it's third if the Merc and Minolta are in front.

Yes indeed, I don't know if you saw my earlier post but I struggled too, 4 tries with the best a 3rd place. Nice bit of cash though

 

[iainoflo85]

Yes indeed, I don't know if you saw my earlier post but I struggled too, 4 tries with the best a 3rd place. Nice bit of cash though

Yeah, you're not the only one - this seasonal stumped a few of us.

Yet to the person who compared it to the Lexus @ N24 TT - I found that way easier.

 

[shepzki]

Umm...won with the R8 '01 Race Car, sort of. Having a good race, was 2 seconds behind the leader (pescarolo) somewhere around the porsche curves and I caught grass and spun. Got going again, minolta passed me for 2nd place, had nothing to lose I thought so cut all remaining corners (got time penalties of course but was going so fast it didn't matter )and overtook 2nd & 1st place. 👍 A hollow victory, much like Nico Rosberg at Monaco so will do it again later fairly I suppose.

 

[cbarbosa]

Just took a win with Praiano tune for the Pescarolo C60 Hybirde, with the following grid:

1. Sauber Mercedes C9
2. R92CP
3. R89C
4. Courage C60
5. 2013 DeltaWing
6. Speed 8
7. 787B
8. R8 Race Car 01
9. 908 HDI FAP Team Oreca
10. R8 Audi Playstation
11. GT One
12. (Me)

Passed the leader on the Porsche curves.

Hope it helps. 👍

 

[Lewis_Hamilton_]

Didn't see a single car crash in any of these new seasonal events or get rammed from behind, but that was about the only pleasant change for this week. Took a tuned Ford GT Test Car and won first time with that, AI seemed to be sandbagging an awful lot on the straights with the way I was catching/passing in an inferior car, with the Minolta as the lead car.

Starting nearly 40 seconds behind seems ridiculous to me especially when you can make that time up in a car that has a lot less acceleration and a lower top speed by +20mph. It just wasn't a fun race seeing that happen, more saddening if anything.

 

[JogoAsobi]

Just took a win with Praiano tune for the Pescarolo C60 Hybirde, with the following grid:

Great idea!! 👍 They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Here is one of the grids I am consistently able to P1 with comfortable margin when turning 2:21 average laps.
Done on RH tires, 900º W, no assists, 0 ABS. So if you do RS tires, assists of pref, ABS, should be doable.
If you are on a controller, I am in awe, and salute you. 👍

Starting grid:

01. Pescarolo C60 Hybride
02. Nissan R92CP
03. Peugeot 905B
04. Nissan 89C
05. 2013 Delta Wing
06. Pescarolo Courage
07. Mazda 787B
08. Audi R8 Race Car '01
09. Peugeot 908 HDI FAP
10. Audi R8 PLaystation
11. Toyota GT One
12. Audi R8 Race Car '01, Me (700PP tune by @praiano63, see OP).

---------------------------------
Overtake sequence, time, lap, where car was passed, and strategy.

Overtake sequence:

01. Toyota GT One, 0:19.100/L1, Overtake prior to entrance of Dunlop Chicane.

02. Audi R8 Playstation, 0:36.500/L1, Overtake at Tertre Rouge exit (good to suck draft for a sec or so).

03. Peugeot 908 HDI FAP, 0:53.000/L1, Catch up around 150 M before 1st brake marker for Mulsanne chicane 1.
I have found I gain better time/less risk too by tucking in behind, then wait to overtake just after Mulsanne chicane 1.

04. Audi R8 Race Car '01, 1:30.000/L1, suck the draft for a sec. then overtake just after exit of Mulsanne chicane 2.

05. 2013 Delta Wing, 1:37.200/L1, Overtake on Mulsanne prior to downhill section.

06. Mazda 787B, 1:42.700/L1, Overtake at crest of Mulsanne downhill.
If arrive any later, best to tuck in behind, wait to overtake at exit of Mulsanne right elbow (less risk).

07. Pescarolo Courage, 2:23.000/L1, catch coming out of Indianapolis into Arnage.
Tuck in behind, and then overtake exiting Arnage right elbow.

08. Peugeot 905B, 3:16.000/L1, catch up Ford Chicanes entrance, tuck in behind.
Overtake exiting Ford Chicane end of L2, 2:20.000.

09. Nissan R89C, 0:19.200/L2, Overtake prior to entrance of Dunlop Chicane.

10. Nissan R92CP & Pescarolo C60 Hybride, 1:41.000/L2, Catch up around 1st brake marker
for Mulsanne right elbow turn, tuck in behind, suck the draft down the straight leading to Indianapolis.

P1 & P2 Notes:

Sometimes P1, or P2 (92CP & Pesc) will play in the sandbox at end of Mulsanne...
..in which case its a slam dunk pass before 1st kink on straight leading to Indianapolis...
...if P1/P2 stay on track, then P1/P2 can be draft n' passed prior to Indianapolis entrance.

The only variable I found after multiple runs of this grid was P1/P2 AI behavior.
The rest seem to be cast in stone.

Hope this helps those running into problems.

 

[skeagracing]

Just ran this with Audi R8 '01 & @praiano63's 700PP tune.

Walk in the park even on RHs, no corner cutting, all clean passes.
900º Wheel/no wheel or driving assists/0 ABS/RH, I do have the RPLs.

Like the Spa event, its in the math, if you turn close to 3:23s you can do it.
Lower than 3:23s will give you more time to deal with the AI.
UPDATE: There does seem to be a curve ball AI grid ^ doesn't apply to.

Draft draft draft is your best friend on this one.
Should be easier with RS.

View attachment 191331

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Most of @praiano63's 650PP/700PP LMP tunes should do the trick.
See the OP for tune links.

Pescarolo has better front end grip.
Minolta is stupid fast on Mulsanne.
Chaparral is legal cheating.

Nice little credit dispenser for Le Mans practice, thanks PD!

Did you make any changes to the R8 tune by Praiano?

 

[ALB123]

Wow. I just ran my first attempt at this event in my Toyota Minolta. I had 3 penalties and finished in 2nd place by 12+ seconds!! I better get my ass in gear if i want to Gold this one. What is the general opinion of the Toyota Minolta for this race? I'm not so good, so I can use any help I can get if there is a better car out there to use. Thanks...

 

[JogoAsobi]

Did you make any changes to the R8 tune by Praiano?

Only B/B for ABS 0. Pretty sure I do 3/1 for that car.
May have adjusted FG a hair for long straights.

I'll check later today.

Wow. I just ran my first attempt at this event in my Toyota Minolta. I had 3 penalties and finished in 2nd place by 12+ seconds!! I better get my ass in gear if i want to Gold this one. What is the general opinion of the Toyota Minolta for this race? I'm not so good, so I can use any help I can get if there is a better car out there to use. Thanks...

Minolta is stupid fast on straights, but can be twitchy when getting on gas.
Same goes for the Audi R8 '01, Sauber, Bentley, Toyota One.
The Pescarolo C60 has phenomenal front end grip.
The 2J sticks better than anything and is fast.

Best to go with type of car you feel most comfortable with.
Tunes for all are in OP and in this post.

 

[skeagracing]

Only B/B for ABS 0. Pretty sure I do 3/1 for that car.
May have adjusted FG a hair for long straights.

I'll check later today.



Minolta is stupid fast on straights, but can be twitchy when getting on gas.
Same goes for the Audi R8 '01, Sauber, Bentley, Toyota One.
The Pescarolo C60 has phenomenal front end grip.
The 2J sticks better than anything and is fast.

Best to go with type of car you feel most comfortable with.
Tunes for all are in OP and in this post.

Thank you!! Let me know when you get a chance to look.

 

[ALB123]

Holy crap, I just got lucky and won the Gold with lap times of 3:29 and 3:22 (I got a penalty and went into the sand a tiny bit during lap one). I bought the Pescarolo C60 Hybride. It has much better grip than the Toyota Minolta I tried my first lap with. I also turned the brake balance down to 4/3 - I tend to be a little heavy with the brake foot, I think, so this helped me. I had another teeny screw up in the Porsche Curve area on lap 2 and I thought that blew my chances, as I was rapidly gaining on the leader up until my miscue. Luckily, I braved on with my foot to the floor and I was able to catch back up to him and slam on my brakes as hard as I could, I thought I would go shooting through the Ford Chicane and lose the race due to me driving off track, but my tires bit into the pavement at just the last second and I was able to turn in and go through those last two chicanes and capture the checkered flag.

I definitely liked the Pescarolo C60 Hybride better than the Toyota Minolta for this race. Praiano's Tune worked very well considering I just bought the car and had no experience driving it. I won Gold on my 2nd race attempt with the C60 Hybride, third attempt overall. This is definitely the most challenging seasonal A-spec race, for me, so far. I like that the AI doesn't just let you catch up anymore. You have to fight for your spots.

 

[SD180sx]

I used and won with both the 2J and Toyota GT-ONE.

2J Laps
Lap1-3:27
Lap2-3:22

GT-ONE Laps
Lap1-3:29
Lap2-3:25

I notice on both race after watching the replays that the leading cars messes up big time which enables me to pass them and win the race. While using the 2J, on lap2 the two leading cars decided that they didn't need to brake at Mulsanne Corner and crashed hard. Then a similar situation happened when I used the GT-ONE, second place car went off at Musanne Corner again and the leading car went off on Indianapolis.

 

[JogoAsobi]

Thank you!! Let me know when you get a chance to look.

My B/B for 0 ABS on Audi R8 '01 LMP.

RH: 4/2
RM/RS: 5/3
No change to FG.

OP link for tune update with correct one.

------------------------------------
One more win-friendly grid, won with C60, Audi '01, and Minolta.
Same settings as my previous post on 900ºW/no assists/RH/0 ABS.
Able to pass lead rodent before Indianapolis L2 with average Lap times of 3:24.xxx

01. Toyota Minolta
02. Mercedes Benz Sauber
03. Nissan 92CP
04. Peugeot 905b
05. Jaguar XJR-9
06. Bentley Speed 8
07. Mazda 787B
08. Peugeot 908 HDI FAP
09. Peugeot 908 HDI FAP
10. Audi R8 Playstation
11. Toyota GT-One
12. C60/Audi '01/Minolta, me. (All cars 700PP tuned by @praiano63)

Ran grid 3 races, no sandbox antics by any AI including P1/P2, perhaps v.1.10 tweak?

 

[ALB123]

I haven't been able to run another lap since my Gold Medal time about 6-7 hours ago, but I did look at the replay a couple of times after posting in here. I didn't notice anything particularly crazy about the AI cars in front of me except the AI Pescarolo C60 driver seemed to come to a stop after the 90+ degree turn Arnage, maybe 200-300 feet from the corner. Other than that, I didn't see any strange flying off into sand pits or anything.

The two races I ran before achieving Gold were a little different. Unfortunately, I didn't save the replay's to those races but I do remember seeing a couple of cars go into the sand after Mulsanne. There must have been some other type of craziness going on because there were also cones strewn all over the track at one point. Luckily I saw them with enough time to avoid them.

 

[skeagracing]

My B/B for 0 ABS on Audi R8 '01 LMP.

RH: 4/2
RM/RS: 5/3
No change to FG.

OP link for tune update with correct one.

Th\

------------------------------------
One more win-friendly grid, won with C60, Audi '01, and Minolta.
Same settings as my previous post on 900ºW/no assists/RH/0 ABS.
Able to pass lead rodent before Indianapolis with average Lap times of 3:24.xxx

01. Toyota Minolta
02. Mercedes Benz Sauber
03. Nissan 92CP
04. Peugeot 905b
05. Jaguar XJR-9
06. Bentley Speed 8
07. Mazda 787B
08. Peugeot 908 HDI FAP
09. Peugeot 908 HDI FAP
10. Audi R8 Playstation
11. Toyota GT-One
12. C60/Audi '01/Minolta, me. (All cars 700PP tuned by @praiano63)

Ran grid 3 races, no sandbox antics by any AI including P1/P2, perhaps v.1.10 tweak?

Bravo, very nice. Thank you.

 

[Pizzle13]

used the stock bentley with no aids other then abs and won it the first time
since then ive been repeating it a few times for some cash/fun
goes about 400kmh with drafting

 

[cbarbosa]

One more win-friendly grid, won with C60, Audi '01, and Minolta.

In line with JogoAsobi friendly grids:

Car: Audi R8 Race Car 01 (Praiano tune)

1. Minolta Toyota 88C
2. Sauber Mercedes
3. Pescarolo C60 Hybride
4. R92CP
5. R89C
6. Courage C60
7. 2013 DeltaWing
8. Courage Judd GV5
9. R8 Race Car 01
10. 908 HDI FAP Team Oreca
11. 908 HDI FAP Team Peugeot
12. Me

A clean race is needed, but you can still manage to pass the leader in Arnage.

 

[The Russian]

this game is absolutely brilliant n crap at same time, how can you be racing full speed in a straight line side by side and get a 4 second ramming penalty? Never moved off line n got done for nowt, struggling with this race though, always do, end up going through tune list till i get gold lol, in just an average driver though

 

[Sadioki]

For anybody struggling , don't give up if you are familiar with the track and have a nice tuned car, you'll win after a couple of races, I don't think that lineup does affect the difficulty of the race, it's all about the change of the behavior of AI in each race, the first two rabbits sometimes drive perfect and fast, and some other times they run slow at 2nd lap , or one of them makes a stupid mistake and slow down race, which gives an easy win, in my opinion it's about luck.
Also this event is not good for grinding, it's unpredictable, and not worth the pressure, the Redbull standard is still the best for credit rewards.and more fun.
Good luck everyone !

 

[skeagracing]

For anybody struggling , don't give up if you are familiar with the track and have a nice tuned car, you'll win after a couple of races, I don't think that lineup does affect the difficulty of the race, it's all about the change of the behavior of AI in each race, the first two rabbits sometimes drive perfect and fast, and some other times one of them makes a stupid mistake and slow down race, which gives an easy win, in my opinion it's about luck.
Also this event is not good for grinding, it's unpredictable, and not worth the pressure, the Redbull standard is still the best for credit rewards.and more fun.
Good luck everyone !

Truth!!

 

[cbarbosa]

For anybody struggling , don't give up if you are familiar with the track and have a nice tuned car, you'll win after a couple of races, I don't think that lineup does affect the difficulty of the race, it's all about the change of the behavior of AI in each race, the first two rabbits sometimes drive perfect and fast, and some other times one of them makes a stupid mistake and slow down race, which gives an easy win, in my opinion it's about luck.
Also this event is not good for grinding, it's unpredictable, and not worth the pressure, the Redbull standard is still the best for credit rewards.and more fun.
Good luck everyone !

The idea of the friendly grid is not related with the difficulty/way of winning the race. Its info, so that players can learn/check the behaviour of the AI and the diferences between a clean race/race wih penalties.

Also a way to know what to expect certain cars and how they perform in the different line-ups.

EDIT: A fact I have noticed is that if the Pescarolo C60 Hybride starts in 1st, its much harder to catch him (clean race) then other cars (Minolta, Sauber, etc)

 

[GTRufus]

Toyota GTone works great! Here's a video:

 

[JogoAsobi]

The idea of the friendly grid is not related with the difficulty/way of winning the race. Its info, so that players can learn/check the behaviour of the AI and the diferences between a clean race/race wih penalties.

Also a way to know what to expect certain cars and how they perform in the different line-ups.

EDIT: A fact I have noticed is that if the Pescarolo C60 Hybride starts in 1st, its much harder to catch him (clean race) then other cars (Minolta, Sauber, etc)

Guess I consider always doing it clean as a given.
If AI is even brushed, its restart and redo so its clean.

Favorite cars here are LMPs, & Le Mans is one of my favorite tracks...
...but for straight grinding, Red Bull Std. is probably way to go for most.

About the 2nd grid I posted...AI speed does not change relative to my lap times.
If I hustle on the RHs and do 3:19s, I pass the AI earlier than when I turn 3:24s.

 

[Sadioki]

@cbarbosa. Thanks for the interesting informations, you are right for what you said, sorry I didn't mean to underestimate the importance of lineup , I didn't express the idea very well, I just wanted to say that the same exact lineup can behave differently in different races, usually when I see one AI car go to the sand in the first lap, I know the second lap will have another AI accident too, it's a good chance to take advantage .
it's good to experiment with different cars and lineups, watch the AI behavior, and see what works best for each player style. Thanks again.

 

[cbarbosa]

@cbarbosa. Thanks for the interesting informations, you are right for what you said, sorry I didn't mean to underestimate the importance of lineup , I didn't express the idea very well, I just wanted to say that the same exact lineup can behave differently in different races, usually when I see one AI car go to the sand in the first lap, I know the second lap will have another AI accident too, it's a good chance to take advantage .
it's good to experiment with different cars and lineups, watch the AI behavior, and see what works best for each player style. Thanks again.

👍 Please, no need to justify. Expressing opinions and race experiences (like the pattern of AI crashes) is the best way to improve driving style...

 

[cbarbosa]

Guess I consider always doing it clean as a given.
If AI is even brushed, its restart and redo so its clean.

By penalties I mean possible driving mistakes (shortcut). As ramming I also restart... 👍

Favorite cars here are LMPs, & Le Mans is one of my favorite tracks...
...but for straight grinding, Red Bull Std. is probably way to go for most.

Agree. 👍 EDIT: I prefer SPA...

About the 2nd grid I posted...AI speed does not change relative to my lap times.
If I hustle on the RHs and do 3:19s, I pass the AI earlier than when I turn 3:24s.

👍