Sorry if this is a bit wordy... I'm just so excited to have won it for 200 points!
Roadster 4 Hour Endurance
Lineup (I was not picky about it, as you can tell by the starting position of the 1800 RS; this one happened to come up relatively soon):
Mazda MX-5 Miata VR-Limited (J) '95
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (J) '00. Pitted on laps 38, 73, 108, 144, and 181.
Mazda MX-5 Miata J-Limited II (J) '93
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1.8 RS (J) '98
Mazda MX-5 Miata V-Special Type II (J) '93
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1600 NR-A (J) '04 (me): all nonpoint upgrades, sludge for oil (9000+ miles), rigidity refresh. 113 HP. Start on N1/N3. Pit stops on laps 1 (swap to N3/N3), 38, 74, 108, 144, and 174.
Suspension: springs 9.0 - 2.8, ride height 89 - 89 (yes, it's slammed, but it worked well enough), damper bound 3 - 6, rebound 5 - 9, camber 2.0 - 0.0, toe 0 - 0, stabilizers 4 - 7.
Transmission (don't ask me how I got this, but for reference, it hits the limiter in 5th at 102 mph): 3.368 - 2.340 - 1.724 - 1.339 - 0.879. Final 4.800. Auto 1.
LSD 10 - 40 - 20, brake balance 20 - 24, NOS 100,
167 ballast at +35, no aids.
I never thought I'd say this about a race I won, but
it's all about the setup. The setup I used for my numerous failed attempts was copied straight from SuperCobraJet. Sorry, SCJ, but it just didn't work for me. The tires went bright red well before the 1800 RS pitted, and it just didn't feel right. Too little roll and too much understeer. So, using his tune as a base, I threw some adjustments at it, based solely on qualitative information from tuning guides about what increases oversteer, and did all of three test laps. While this is obviously a very unrefined setup and probably sucks, it worked much better for me. It's "floaty" and maneuverable, allowing you to glide slightly sideways into the corners and drive through smoothly. I suggest moving the ballast weight forward if the car is too sideways or wearing out the rears too fast (my first renewed attempt yesterday ended with a spinout on red tires with too much rear toe and the ballast at +50).
I used NOS from the start to not fall behind, and drove through the grass inside the second hairpin to punt the 1800 RS (1 bar of NOS used). It only fell to 5th, but that was still good enough. I pitted from 4th on lap 1 to change to N3s, coming out 30 seconds behind, and then used the NOS in 1 to 2 second bursts every lap coming out of the last hairpin (which I cut almost every lap of the race, a big help for the long straight to keep the 1800 RS from passing you). I got by the 1800 RS, which was trapped behind the 1.8 RS in 3rd, on lap 9 coming out of that same hairpin. From there I decided not to use any NOS now that I was past the main competition, although I had only used 3 bars of it, and passed the VR-Limited for the lead on lap 15.
From there it was relatively simple. The 1800 RS caught me around lap 20 or 25, and I had to block it frequently, mostly at the end of the long straight and going into and coming out of turn 1, until we pitted together at lap 38. Thankfully, it wasn't difficult to keep it behind me. On the six or so occasions during the race that it got past, I used a short spurt of NOS to get up to speed and then just rammed him in the rear in the next hairpin, usually the first one, but sometimes the second. About four of those times, it got parked backwards and took a few seconds to get its bearings and get pointed in the right direction, but it managed to get going discouragingly quickly the other couple of times. The race progressed pretty normally through our next couple of pit stops, until lap 144.
The key part to my win was the 1800 RS getting trapped behind slower cars. It really struggled to pass the 1.8 RS a couple of times (like the first few laps, which allowed me to get in front of it for good), and for 15-20 laps just after our lap 144 pit stop, it could not manage to pass the slowest car in the field, the V-Special. That made it fall back to a whole 27 seconds behind
, and allowed me to have him a minimum of 13 seconds behind the whole rest of the race! 👍 Actually, the way I decided to run it, I pitted for the final time seven laps earlier than the 1800 RS, from 22 seconds ahead, when my tires were just turning orange, allowing me to get the most out of both sets. That put me 5 seconds behind coming out of the pits, a gap that grew to 12 seconds when it pitted at lap 181. When it came out, I had a 13 second lead, which grew slowly to 17 seconds, where it remained for several laps until about 5 to go, when its tires warmed up. I still finished with a comfortable margin and 6 bars of NOS left, even doing the last lap with all 4 tires completely on the pavement, just to not feel like a complete cheater.
Finishing order:
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1600 NR-A (J) '04. 196 laps in 4:00'16.794.
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1800 RS (J) '00.
+13.341 seconds. Biggest 200 point MOV in this race ever?
Mazda MX-5 Miata VR-Limited (J) '95. +2 laps?
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1.8 RS (J) '98. + 2 laps?
Mazda MX-5 Miata J-Limited II (J) '93. +2 laps.
Mazda MX-5 Miata V-Special Type II (J) '93. +3 laps. Stress-free aspect of last hour and 45 minutes all due to this one! 👍
Practice is key in this race. I had already gotten plenty of practice ramming in my failed attempts, and plenty more in cutting the last hairpin, although I could have made it even easier for myself if I had practiced lapping with my setup. Nevertheless, I was able to go faster than the 1800 RS on cold tires, although it outpaced me by 1-1.5 seconds per lap on warm ones when unobstructed. My fastest lap was 1'11.620, with NOS, in the first few laps. Normal laps early in the race, with a full fuel tank, were 1'12.3-1'12.8. Very good laps then were 1'12.1. With low fuel, later in the race, normal laps were 1'11.9-1'12.4. I managed a best NOS-free lap of 1'11.702.
With a good setup, I no longer believe this is the hardest 200 point race in the game.
EDIT: Below is my recommended NTSC plan of attack for the race, and probably will not work for PAL drivers. I had failed many times trying to keep up with Group Cs with minimum downforce and pit only once, as has been recommended, but that just does not work in NTSC, where the cars pit only twice.
Super Speedway 150 Miles
Lineup:
Pescarolo Courage C60/Peugeot Race Car '03
Nissan R89C Race Car '89. Pits 41, 82.
Nissan R92CP Race Car '92. Pits 38, 77.
Bentley Speed 8 Race Car '03
MINOLTA Toyota 88C-V Race Car '89. Pits 39, 77.
Mazda 787B Race Car '91 (me). Pit stops 36, 68. Black, used, no oil change, rigidity refresh, R1 tires, 40 ballast at 0. Setup: see post #135, with the following changes: Downforce 63/63. Gearing: Auto 15, final 3.800. Aids 0/0/3: TCS is a huge help not to spin out if you hit the wall wrong.
I rode the wall at the tighter end of the track every lap, and occasionally the wider end. From the start, I was quicker than the others on cold tires and drafted to the front. I stayed in front for a while, but was only about equal in pace to the three fast cars (88C-V, R92CP, R89C), and unfortunately was getting around the wider end differently: with the lowered rear downforce, I braked earlier and powered through the whole corner, while the others had the idea of not braking until the middle of the corner (and sometimes another tap near the exit), meaning they kept whacking me in the rear on entry. So around lap 13, I started letting them by in the wide end and then passing back on the next straight or the tighter end. In fact, on this very same lap, I pushed up a bit alongside the R92CP going into the second corner set, and he overcorrected for no apparent reason and spun headlong into the wall. He caught back up, though.
On lap 20, the R89C slid up the track and hit me with his right rear, causing him to nose himself into the wall in front of me and give the 88C-V the lead. For the next few laps, I tried to get back in the lead by attempting to dive-bomb the corner and crash him, but just ended up skewing myself sideways and losing both 2nd place to the R92CP and time to them both.
I pitted at lap 36 with orange tires from 3 seconds behind, got new R1s, topped up to 60 fuel units or so, and came out a lap down. The R92CP pitted on his lap 38, and the 88C-V, who actually tried to pit with the R92CP but had the Bentley on his inside as he tried to come down and subsequently rode along the inside wall for a bit, glanced off the pit wall with red rears on his way in but made it in, stopped on his lap 39. The R92CP came out 6 seconds behind me and the 88C-V several more down after his incident after pitting from 1st.
The lead dwindled slowly to 3 seconds at lap 68, when I pitted to bisect the remaining laps. I topped up to 52 fuel units and got more R1s. I came out 27 seconds down, and got lapped at lap 75. Both of the leaders (R92CP, 88C-V) pitted at lap 77, cleanly this time, and I was left in 2nd, 7 seconds behind the R89C. He hit the pit wall when he came in at lap 82, leaving me 11 seconds ahead of the 88C-V. My margin over him stayed between 12 and 13 seconds for the whole rest of the race, except on the last lap, where, if you've read my other endurance race reports, you will have guessed that I did not wall-ride. The R92CP crashed like a doofus into the turn 1 wall trying to pass the 88C-V on lap 93 and ended up far behind him.
Finishing order:
Mazda 787B Race Car '91. 50'45.699.
MINOLTA Toyota 88C-V Race Car '89. +10.7xx seconds.
Nissan R92CP Race Car '92. +about 22 seconds.
Nissan R89C Race Car '89. +3 laps?
Pescarolo Courage C60/Peugeot Race Car '03. +3 laps.
Bentley Speed 8 Race Car '03. +4 laps?
Throughout the race, especially when the fuel got lower, a normal lap was between 29.4 and 29.5. In the draft, I managed a 29.073 for my best lap of the race. If you get good at wall-riding, this race should be fairly easy. It should be noted that since the AI cars run almost identical lap times to you, the difference in the race is really made by two things: AI mistakes (crashing, hitting pit wall, etc.) and the AI filling to a full fuel tank every pit stop. If I filled the tank every time, I may have lost. Those 20-30 units you leave empty really are tremendously valuable.
shortcut. Am I correct in assuming what i have done to the map is the cut we all talk about. Or is there somewhere I am not seeing.
when i have the lead on N1's 
But, if I read correctly, the power drop for a new car without an oil change is very slight. It goes for over 1000 miles before power drops off. (Of course, there's never (hardly ever?) any point in doing an oil change when going for A-spec points). Combined with learning, that could explain why it felt like power was increasing. In many other races, not going for max A-spec points, I would do an oil change, and then feel the quick deterioration.
