Formula GT - need help!

[Duke]

Originally posted by live4speed
I had that problem, I was wearing mytyres out far too quick to stand a chance of winning, you need to try to be a smooth as you can, and minimise the wheelspin.

This is correct. As has been suggested, set TCS to, say 2 or 3. Using the F094/H with TCS at 1 I was able to get 9 laps out of my tires. Brake earlier, and be smoother on the throttle. I pit of laps 9, 17, and 25 (losing the lead every time) to the F094/S). He pit on 9, 18, and 27, which wasted a lot of his last set of tires. I won this race by 6.low" (I'm not a fast driver) which was my lowest margin, I believe.

The other thing I suggest is that you switch to manual at least for the F1 cars. You will find you have better control, and you can stay a gear higher than the suggested gear, to keep the back tires under control.

 

[phattboy]

If you are wearing your tires out prior to six laps, with that setup and still running an automatic transmission (I concur with Neon_Duke about switching to manual trans but just in case you aren't comfortable with that) I would suggest you do five more things in addition to what has been suggested here:

1) Drop the LSD back down to 10/20/10 (5/5/5 would be better but with automatic trans, some LSD helps) In so doing, you will need to "feather" the throttle more exiting corners that are sharp. Even if you don't like the way it feels, try to get used to it. Turning up the ACS as suggested will help with getting used to it.

2) Drop your final gear down to at or below 3.25. (I know you will give up some acceleration but you need to go more for smooth....)

3) After you drop your final down, you need to go up to first gear and set it all the way to the left. ( This will give you the highest possible first gear and when the automatic shifts down to that gear just when you are turning, it will give you the best opportunity to not have the car try to spin out because of just shifting into first)

4) You should try to adjust the way you are cornering. For instance, brake in a straight line before you ever turn the wheels. Try and find a rhythm around the track where you brake earlier than you are coming to the corners, coast a little to the apex of the corner and then accelerate out after the peak of the apex. You also need to adjust your line around the track so you aren't making sudden turns but gentle easy apexes through the corners. That car with that setup will go around those corners a lot faster than you think it will if you are smooth about it.

And... stay off going over the curbs cutting the corners especially in the corkscrew. It is okay if you are just going up on them a little at the apex of the turn but I would suggest not going over them. It wigs out the line of the car exiting the corner.

5) Don't believe those who told you Laguna is hard... That is what is making it harder for you... You get flustered when they come up behind you or whatever and then you are worrying about the AI cars etc. Put aside being anxious. Focus on the track. Drive your own race. Don't get mad.

Literally, I think you need to run 1'06.xxx or less lap times to win the race on a 7-8 lap pit schedule. Play around in qualifying long enough to find a smooth line around the track that is that quick and the race is handily yours. It isn't that hard.

Edit: I just want to clarify that 1'06 or better on 7-8 lap pit schedule. You actually need to average 1'08.xxx on 7 lap schedule for 8-10 second win margin. However, that average I think needs to include the extra time for pit stops etc. All this will vary depending on your pit schedule. Obviously if you pit every 7 laps=need faster laps.

phattboy

 

[Duke]

Great advice from phattboy 👍

phattboy's numbers add up correctly. I averaged 1':08.447" with 3 pitstops as described above (9, 17, and 25). My fast lap was 1':03.563" and my MOV was +6.241" without qualifying.

 

[Polyphony001]

Thanks for all this help, guys, I'm going to give it another go tonight, after trying out some runs on the qualifying...

 

[phattboy]

I believe you can do it! 👍

I did some more thinking about this last night and thought of a couple more things for you.

Let me preface by saying, what got me thinking about it was the statement I made about "It's not that hard". That sounds a little arrogant and I didn't mean it to. The way that should be said is "I don't have to struggle with it nearly as much now that I have been through the game several times." When I was thinking about that last night, I remembered the frustration I was having trying to win this series the first time and it got me to remembering I still had that original card somewhere. I dug it out and looked for the setup I know I used back then to win and found it. You might want to give it a try...

10/10
65/65
3/6
3/6
1.7/1.3
0/0

brakes 22/20

LSD 7/16/7

Transmission(Automatic)

Tranny trick as previously described, Final 3.25 then set first gear all the way left (should give a ratio of 4.525)

Full DF 1/1.5

Then here is the kicker and I know that some will call this sacriledge but too bad for them if it works:

ASM/TCS 3.0/5.0

Now, I just tried this setup out running an automatic transmission. I reduced the HP of my F094s to match where it would be after running several of the races in series, qualified in first and then ran 9 successive laps before pitting in my first time... My first couple laps were a little faster than 1'06.xxx until I could get adjusted in sector times to run consistent 1'06.mid laps. When I pitted at lap 9, my tires were orange, the AI leader was approximately 15 seconds behind me and beginning his pitstop as my jacks went down and I started out. I ran consistent 1'06.mid laps until lap 17 for my second pit. My tires were still somewhat yellow when I went into the pit meaning I could have stayed out another lap no problem. The AI leader was almost 20 seconds behind me at that point. I came out of the pit just ahead of him. I ignored him and focused on my line on the track. He was unable to pass me and pitted on the next round (lap 18) as I passed the start/finish with a 1'09.high lap. That gave me back my 20 second lead. I stayed the course at consistent 1'06.mid laps for two more laps gaining almost or better than a second a lap on the AI leader.

Decided the rest would be history so I quit out but not before testing the setup for what happens if you put the hammer down for two laps. Ran one lap at 1'00.xxx and the next one went sub 1 minute at a 59.xxx. I'm not bragging (well maybe a little but bear in mind, I have raced this series no less than 15 times over the last year) but only trying to let you know that if you find the line with this, you really can do it.

phattboy

 

[truenodrifter]

i found that series fairly easy.. i mean harder then most im not going to say it was simple or anything. i think i used the f094/h but im not sure, it was a while ago.. all i have left in the game is 1 vitz race from pro. mode and then some arcade bull****.. im like 83.3 percent i think... and i havent used any codes.

 

[Polyphony001]

I was busy that night but I'm going to do Laguna Seca NOW, but if it helps I might switch over to manual if it helps on the Monaco Endurance race at the end. it depends how well I do with your setup, (I only often used manual when i was doing endurance races but thrashing the opposition, and as you well know that is veryt edious and boring so I used manual literally to keep me awake)

Whoever keeps saying SMOOTH SMOOTH SMOOTH is right, i Know, but I do need a decent setup in order to make it smooth, so in a way, it is quite a lot about setups!

 

[Polyphony001]

Well i calculated that my average lap time (including laps where i pitted) was 1.08.3 but my good laps (fresh tires) were down to 1:02, Oks at 1:05. I beat the 2nd place car by about 35 seconds. 7 down, 3 to go!

 

[Polyphony001]

but Phatboy, ypour setup was a godsend, the car slid round the corkscrew really easily, whereas before I would be struggling to get round, and the extended first gear did me a few favours too. Thanks a bunch! By the way, did you use that for the whole series or just that race?

 

[Polyphony001]

er, you mean to say you've ran the formula gt championship more than fifteen times? Not suggesting anythinng here, but WHY? Surely you don't still enjoy i after over 5000 laps worth of racing?
If you do, I apologise, but it does seem a little masochistic to me.

 

[phattboy]

Originally posted by Polyphony001
but Phatboy, ypour setup was a godsend, the car slid round the corkscrew really easily, whereas before I would be struggling to get round, and the extended first gear did me a few favours too. Thanks a bunch! By the way, did you use that for the whole series or just that race?

I am really glad it was helpful!! But you earned this one... I still say it is more about driver being smooth and in control than it is about setups (although you're right, setups do set a tone). Good Job!!! 👍 I knew you could do it!!! Thirty five seconds is a pretty good MOV buddy and that with some pretty quick laps at 1'02.xxx and winning 1'05.xxx in betweens! 👍

Pretty much used it for the whole series as I recall with only minor modifications. I think you will find it will work well at Monaco too.

Good Luck!

phattboy

 

[phattboy]

Originally posted by Polyphony001
er, you mean to say you've ran the formula gt championship more than fifteen times? Not suggesting anythinng here, but WHY? Surely you don't still enjoy i after over 5000 laps worth of racing?
If you do, I apologise, but it does seem a little masochistic to me.

It does now that you mention it and now that I see it in print!

Actually, in the version I have, there are six F1 cars: F686, F687, F688 (your poly002), F090s, F094h, and F094s (your poly001). I had decided to beat the series with each after my first time through the game running an automatic transmission. Then, when I switched to running manual during another time through the game, I decided to beat it with each one again with manual transmission. Plus, I have been completely through the game three other times making the fifteen.

Actually, that means more than fifteen times because, after that, I decided I wanted to give it a go with a GT-One... Then with the R390... currently I have a game save somewhere that is mid-series in the 787B (not done yet will get back to it sometime)... After that, someday, I am am going to give the Denso a go at that series... Not sure if that is possible or not for me.

Edit: Errr... In my defense... It isn't like I did these all in one sitting or anything, I've been toying with this game for some time now. Also, for about a year, my job took me to a bunch of small towns with nights in motels with not a lot else to do.

phattboy (probably needing to alter his life now that I think about it)

 

[Polyphony001]

yeah but i appreciate how addicteive the game can be. Good luk doing it in a 787B! By the time you've finished that championship eighteen times you will have done 6894 laps in that championship alone, which is getting toward 20,000 miles!

ANyways, going to try Apricot Hill later If I have time. Since I know I can do the course quite well in other races I shouldn't have any trouble.

 

[phattboy]

And like I keep telling my wife... "I could be wasting time AND money sitting at a bar somewhere."

phattboy (bellying up to the PS2 instead of)

 

[Polyphony001]

I wouldn't be wasting money at bar anyway, given my age. (Date of Birth 5/5/1988)
But yeah, I managed Apricot HIll in an average lap time of 1:05.806 which I thought was astounding since I made lots of mistakes during the race.
However, one interesting tactic I employed was this:

I needed to pit every 5 laps (yeah, I know it's lame but the CPUs only do 7) and 5 doesn't go into 27 a nice number of times, so to make up more time i decioded to pit one lap early (after only 4 laps) once so that was one less lap I had to do with reasonably worn tires. I could have done it twice but the thought only occurred to me later on. I managed to get a MOV (whatever that means, I think it means time by x seconds faster) of 25 seconds over the 2nd place car. I lapped all three P002s once. I think I may skip the final Monaco race (since I don't need to do it for the championship) and maybe do it later on to fill it in, possibly with a different car, just for variety. I filled in the Test COurse one with the escudo wheelie trick before i started, so i could skip that too.

 

[phattboy]

No... I don't suppose you would be at the bar

Ya done good at Apricot Hill 👍 Now you are lapping cars!!! Looks to me like the name of this thread no longer applies to you! 👍

See ya around kid! (I can say that as my date of birth is wwwaaayyyy before yours young-un)

phattboy (going to take his geritol)

 

[Duke]

Good work! Definitely skip the Test Curse, but you should run Monaco. It's fun!

MOV = Margin Of Victory.

 

[Polyphony001]

gotcha. Well i might run Monaco but it really depends if i can find the time for like over an hour and a half of racing. Trouble is, I did the Mistral 78 endurance in the endurance league already with this exact same car!!

The races I have left to do after formula GT are as follows:

Fill in gold on the pro league GT world Test course race (that was the only race in the cup i came 2nd on)

All of the FF cup in pro league ( any particular car?)
The spider/Roadster cup in pro league ( ditto)
The boxer spirit race (does the RGT count as boxer, if so ill use that!)
Italian avantagarde (oh yay)
Elise trophy
Yaris/Vitz race (ive done that already but didnt win it!)
plus finishing the races that i skipped in other tournaments like the GT all stars races.
As you can see ive got a fair amount of work to do, but then i haven't had the game as long as other people (i got it for xmas 2002) and i dont really devote my time to it, being currently in the exam period (oh the guilt)

 

[Polyphony001]

Ra Tokyo R246 with a 14 second MOV. Pitted every 6 laps (CPus 7) except on the 24th lap when i should have pitted there was only 1 lap let so i just skipepd that pit stop.

 

[Polyphony001]

is that deliberate or coincidental that you have said "test curse" rather than test course, neon duke?

 

[phattboy]

Originally posted by Polyphony001
gotcha. Well i might run Monaco but it really depends if i can find the time for like over an hour and a half of racing. Trouble is, I did the Mistral 78 endurance in the endurance league already with this exact same car!!

The races I have left to do after formula GT are as follows:

Fill in gold on the pro league GT world Test course race (that was the only race in the cup i came 2nd on)

All of the FF cup in pro league ( any particular car?)
The spider/Roadster cup in pro league ( ditto)
The boxer spirit race (does the RGT count as boxer, if so ill use that!)
Italian avantagarde (oh yay)
Elise trophy
Yaris/Vitz race (ive done that already but didnt win it!)
plus finishing the races that i skipped in other tournaments like the GT all stars races.
As you can see ive got a fair amount of work to do, but then i haven't had the game as long as other people (i got it for xmas 2002) and i dont really devote my time to it, being currently in the exam period (oh the guilt)

What car to use on the FF cup in pro is a question that everyone asks because it seems like first time it is hard. The answer for an easy victory is to use the Xsara Rally Car. I don't include the Spoon Civic because, although it would handily win this series, it is the car you win from this series. However, if you want to make this series competitive, you should choose an alternate car such as the TRD, Integra, Acura RSX, Mitsu FTO or Vitz. Depending on how good a FF driver you are, anyone of those can be made to be very competitive depending on what modifications you add to them. For example, a decked out Vitz will walk this race if you can drive FF effectively.

In the Spider/Roadster cup... I would say pick your poisen and deck it out as much as you want depending on how competitive you want it to be. Lots of choices and all of them capable of winning this series. Spoon 2000, Ruff 3400s, Mazdarati, Benz, Griffith 500... This can be one of the most fun races in the entire game because as I recall, the AI is consistent. That allows you to pick a competitive car to them.

Yep, the RGT counts as a boxer as do the Subies... This one can be pretty fun for about 9 laps if you take the RGT there with only minimal upgrade like tires. Fun to me is tight racing where you could actually loose.

I did a write up on running the Vitz in the Vitz Pro Series, Seattle and Pro FF in the Write Ups section for GT3 here on this sight. I called it "Scrubbing Bubbles" and I think it is still on the first page. It is replete with setup info and stupid stuff like times that might be helpful to those two series for you.

I think of all that you have left to do, the Elise Trophy is the most difficult... Especially if you use a regular Elise. Those little buggers are either "sweet" or "impossible" to drive. A word to the wise: Stay off the curbs and rumble strips.

The Italian Avant Garde... Ah yes, the bumper car series...
Nice job at Tokyo R246. 👍

phattboy

 

[Polyphony001]

yeah thanks, I'm not really focused on competitive racing here, i'm just going for gold at the moment, but I will definitely give 'close racing' a go if i have a lot of time between finishing GT3 and getting GT4. So at the moment, it's fully tuned up RGT for boxer spirit. BUT:

Try this setup, i found it hilarious on the RGT:
(I used it for super speedway and never pitted. I thrashed the opposition but even so I spun it six times. And thats on super speedway!)

Fully tune it (about 1024hp i think with the stage 4 turbo on and all the other stuff)
all the weight reductions etc. etc. EVERYTHING

SUPER SOFT TYRES and dont pit so they go red after like 1 lap.
Minimum spring rate., i left ride height the same, minimum damper levels, camber of 0, Toe of 0, -2 to make it biased, no stabiliser ( ) Leave the brakes alone (9/9), tranny trick at final 2.999, leave LSD, minimum down force, no TCS and ASM. It makes the car handle like "the greasiest of weasels"

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by Polyphony001
Try this setup, i found it hilarious on the RGT:

Fully tune it (about 1024hp i think with the stage 4 turbo on and all the other stuff)
all the weight reductions etc. etc. EVERYTHING

SUPER SOFT TYRES and dont pit so they go red after like 1 lap.
Minimum spring rate., i left ride height the same, minimum damper levels, camber of 0, Toe of 0, -2 to make it biased, no stabiliser ( ) Leave the brakes alone (9/9), tranny trick at final 2.999, leave LSD, minimum down force, no TCS and ASM. It makes the car handle like "the greasiest of weasels"

Or, you can take a Supra RZ, tune it to maximum horsepower, and spend your time trying to get the best-handling suspension setup you possibly can, and it will handle just like that RGT you described.

 

[phattboy]

Originally posted by neon_duke
Or, you can take a Supra RZ, tune it to maximum horsepower, and spend your time trying to get the best-handling suspension setup you possibly can, and it will handle just like that RGT you described.

That would be the proverbial Toyota Tuned POS

 

[INTEGRA818]

During the series race I skipped the test course (which saved the oil a little) but I reran Laguna and won.
. [/B]

How can you skip a race?

 

[Famine]

Start the race, pause, select "Exit", select "Yes". On the race summary screen, select "Next" and you're taken to the next race.

If you exit a race whilst in first place you don't get any points BUT none of the AI cars gets the first place points...

 

[Polyphony001]

don't they? Really? I thought they did. Oh well, just shows how much i know.

 

[phattboy]

He is talking about being "in first place" in the race you are exiting out of. If you are not sitting on the "pole" position in the line up, you are not "in first place". At that point, the AI who is on the pole will get the full first place points. To make this not happen, you must either qualify for the pole position before exiting the race or run the race far enough to get yourself into first position and then exit. At that point, they will not get the 10 points for first.

This is a good thing to know when you are running series races for say strictly the car prize for some reason or another. If you calculate the points properly for your AI opposition, you can often skip out of the rest of the series very early and still take the championship and the prize/cash.

You could even do creative things like race far enough to pass the pole AI, trap him behind you against the rail or something until a certain other car passes. Then quickly pass that car for first and quit out. In so doing, you can often change up the points spreads enough to allow you to quit out even earlier in the series. Do it right and you can often quit a 10 race series in 6.

phattboy

 

[heero 12]

I always just hold X turn left on the super speedway, always won it that way.

 

[phattboy]