I've had a chance now to try each of the five cars a Lago Maggiore in a full-field custom race... View attachment 1487870
My impressions and observations:
The Citroen and Peugeot lasted the longest on RS tires, at 15 laps. The Alfa was close, at 14. Followed by Ford at 13, and VW at 10.
I had my fastest lap in the Alfa, but the Citroen and Peugeot were pretty close.
The Citroen also has the best start from the grid start, easily blasting past all of the others. The VW was also pretty good off the line. The Ford was the worst.
The front left tire wore out the fastest in all the cars.
I use an app to monitor tire temperatures. Most of the cars were seeing temps in the mid-80s on the front left tire. The VW was the outlier, reaching temps in the mid-90s. I imagine this is why it burned through the RSs so fast.
In my custom race settings, I had the conditions set to afternoon with S08 weather. That puts the time of day for the race at 17:30. The time of day for Free Practice is 13:30. That's a significant difference.
I tried a few laps with the VW in Free Practice to see if the tire temps would match what I saw in my practice races, and it seems like the temps don't get quite as high. I could only get the front left to 90 there. I suppose part of that is because there is no fuel weight in free practice, but I'm guessing the main reason is because it is slightly cooler. That's just a guess, though, since I have way to measure the track temperature.
It looks to me like the Citroen is going to be the META, but the Peugeot and Alfa might also be decent. I'm feeling like the Ford and VW, probably not so much.
Just to make the load manageable, I think I'm going to focus my strategy testing on the Citroen, Peugeot, and Alfa. Sorry, VW and Ford fans.
I just tested 4 cars (no VW because I never liked) in free practice with only medium tires (the worse one available).
I am faster with the Ford but I am driving with automatic gear so most probably its engine and its gear ratio are matching better then the others or simply I am faster with that.
Citroen seems the fastest but you need to drive with good driving skills or at least is more demanding than the Ford.
Peugeot is really balanced and easy. I need to give another try.
Alfa seems faster than the Peugeot but require a more refined driving style.
What need to be tested is the tyre and fuel consumption to understand if one car can have an advantage to the others.
Being a low B driver it is really important to be comfortable with the car chosen because when fighting with the others the car has to be a friend and not another enemy…
I did a single lap in the Citroen (slapped a Sebastien Loeb livery on for some support) following the top ghost and to my big surprised immediately got a gold time (within 3% of WR). Personally the first part of the full track is the hardest for me. Now only banky boy and the final corner are really tough for me.
I am not sure what to make of this. What do you all think? Will it be a very tight race with lots of fighting? Is it easy to overtake here?
And what about strategy? I am thinking of going 6M-14S in the Citroen to be somewhat on the safe side. Going the other way round and finishing the race with relatively fresh mediums could be an interesting choice too.
And what about strategy? I am thinking of going 6M-14S in the Citroen to be somewhat on the safe side. Going the other way round and finishing the race with relatively fresh mediums could be an interesting choice too.
The Ford GT is for me not really slower than the Alfa. Peugeot a bit faster i guess. Sadly it seems that the Citroen abomination is potentially the fastest. Potentially as I'm not good at driving something that is alternatingly over- and understeery in every other corner. Hate the feeling of that car.
Hey you guys, this took me a while to upload, much less time than to edit, but here is my race highlights of GTWS NCUP Round 4 race at Grand Valley. It was a fun but tough race noticably for the pit manouver spinout on lap 6 or 7, please check it out and would love all your support on my videos. Looking forward now to Round 5 and this is a good reflection on long stint racing and how to move for the next two races in the nations cup exhibition.
Looks like I'll be in the Peugeot myself on Wednesday. I was originally looking at the Alfa since I've had a good Manufacturers season with it before, but then thought I should give the other cars a go.
The VW is useless as expected and I just don't get on with the Ford. The Citroen seemed marginally faster for me than the Alfa in free practice but comes with the enormous drawback of being a nightmare to see out of in VR. The big banked hairpin is practically blind once you're partway through it because of the shape of the windscreen and the very far back seat; all you can see is tarmac once you turn in. It's kind of a guessing game for putting your foot down at the right time then hoping you don't understeer off.
Then I tried the Peugeot and shaved 3 tenths off my free practice best, and I can regularly set 1:21s in it. Clear winner.
I'm still trying to work out tyre strategy though. I've done a 10M-10S run in the Alfa and a 11M-9S run in the Peugeot. The Mediums actually feel pretty good IMO, and the last couple of laps on the Softs just feel scrappy. Kind of leaning towards trying 12M-8S or 8S-12M depending on where I start.
I did 2 races simulation against 15 GT3 cars.
Started at P13 with first the Peugeot and then the Alfa.
The main purpose was to understand how much Soft could last.
In both cases I pit at end of lap 13.
The 2 last laps are quite difficult even if the tires are around 25%, but the performances are getting worse.
However Medium are very close to soft, at least for my capability.
I am running with auto gear and TC2 in both cases. ABS weak.
Best lap at 1.23 and lapping very often at 1.24.
Races are completed at around 28.xx minutes with some crashes or sand experience.
The first three laps (at least) will be a wheel to wheel battle and, if the AI drivers are quite polite, I expect bad behaviors from the real race.
There are several places where you can be spun out of the track loosing a lot of time or several situations where you cannot overtake someone or where you are potentially closed by 3-4 cars not having any clue about where to go to get out from there…
So I think that this race beyond the trainings and capabilities will be highly dependent by other drivers behavior.
Being a low B driver in GT2 will be a mess for sure.
Got all my tests done. I did two stints for each tire compound in the Alfa, Citroen, and Peugeot -- afternoon, S08 weather. From each pair of races, I stitched together an 'optimum' race, picking the best lap from each. Here are the results...
RS tire times:
Manufacturer
Model
Tire compound
Laps
Opt time
Best time
Avg time
Total time
Alfa Romeo
4C Gr.3
RS
14
1:23.256
1:23.471
1:24.360
19:41.039
Citroën
GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)
RS
15
1:23.071
1:23.071
1:23.907
20:58.609
Peugeot
RCZ Gr.3
RS
14
1:22.896
1:22.983
1:24.106
19:37.477
RS tire tread levels and temps at finish:
Manufacturer
Model
Tire compound
laps
Front left
Front right
Rear left
Rear right
Front left temp
Alfa Romeo
4C Gr.3
RS
14
0%
40%
25%
35%
85
Citroën
GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)
RS
15
10%
30%
20%
30%
84
Peugeot
RCZ Gr.3
RS
14
0%
40%
20%
35%
84
RM tire times:
Manufacturer
Model
Tire compound
Laps
Opt time
Best time
Avg time
Total time
Alfa Romeo
4C Gr.3
RM
15
1:23.651
1:23.761
1:24.399
21:05.988
Citroën
GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)
RM
15
1:23.396
1:23.407
1:24.081
21:01.213
Peugeot
RCZ Gr.3
RM
15
1:23.582
1:23.814
1:24.229
21:03.430
RM tire tread levels and temps at finish:
Manufacturer
Model
Tire compound
Laps
Front left
Front right
Rear left
Rear right
Front left temp
Alfa Romeo
4C Gr.3
RM
15
50%
70%
60%
70%
87
Citroën
GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)
RM
15
60%
70%
60%
65%
86
Peugeot
RCZ Gr.3
RM
15
55%
70%
60%
70%
87
Lap times:
If that's too messy for you to read, you can find charts for the individual cars in the SPOILER below.
Using all these lap times, I could simulate various strategies. Here are the fastest three for each car (by total time):
Manufacturer
Model
Strategy
Total time
Citroën
GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)
11RS-9RM
27:57.715
Citroën
GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)
10RS-10RM
27:57.822
Citroën
GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)
12RS-8RM
27:57.965
Peugeot
RCZ Gr.3
9RS-11RM
27:59.473
Peugeot
RCZ Gr.3
10RS-10RM
27:59.728
Peugeot
RCZ Gr.3
8RS-12RM
27:59.768
Alfa Romeo
4C Gr.3
7RS-13RM
28:03.810
Alfa Romeo
4C Gr.3
8RS-12RM
28:03.976
Alfa Romeo
4C Gr.3
9RS-11RM
28:04.008
It seems I'm fastest overall in the Citroen, so that will be pick on Wednesday.
I had some faster laps in the Peugeot on RSs, but I just couldn't match the RM pace of the Citroen.
As for the Alfa, I don't know what it is about that car, but I just can't ever seem to get it to the same pace as other Gr.3 cars. It's a shame because I do enjoy driving it.
If I don't post again before Wednesday, good luck to everybody racing!
I've done custom race twice in Citroen. Currently I'm low B driver, manual gears, low abs, tcs 0.
1st - 11RS/9RM time 29:19 and 2nd - 9RM/11RS time 29:09. Best lap times around 1:24:5 (once on RS, once on RM) while in training I have 1:22:5 so definitely those time differences are skill issues, not tires. RS at 11th lap in both cases seems bit worn off so I think I'll go 10/10, just a matter how qualifiers will go. Top 5 then RS/RM, lower than this - RM/RS.
I second that on RS and RM tires feels almost equally good on this track in this car. And Citroen handles very predictable, I feel good in it. Bots are very gentle and easy to overcome even with pitting, definitely won't be a case tomorrow in a race with people. I expect some spectacular crashes, especially in this turn downhill
Wonder if it'll be any rain or same as last time it's not implemented on this track?
BTW. Wish that we could command bots to pit in a race or use this or that compound.
Nope. It can't rain at Lago Maggiore, either. It isn't implemented there.
There is a possibility of rain for the final round at Le Mans, and the race settings -- a single slick compound and low tire/fuel multipliers -- suggest to me that there is a good chance we'll see some. We'll see, of course.
Nope. It can't rain at Lago Maggiore, either. It isn't implemented there.
There is a possibility of rain for the final round at Le Mans, and the race settings -- a single slick compound and low tire/fuel multipliers -- suggest to me that there is a good chance we'll see some. We'll see, of course.
