- 523
- Florida
I just did the 300km race a couple days ago and I wanted a challenge.
I knew from checking the Matrix that most of the cars in the race were in the range of 4.5 kg/hp and I knew I wanted something a little worse off based on how easy the AI is when you use an equally capable car. So I went down the list until I found something that I already owned in the 5.0 p/w range. I found the Skyline Sedan 350GT Type SP which I had bought for one of the early Seasonal Events to be a good fit with a p/w of 5.1. It was sitting in the garage covered in dust; untouched since the Seasonal Event and was completely stock save for the SH tires I had installed. I jumped in the car and changed the oil before heading off to the race.
I decided to use the cockpit view, with everything on the screen turned off, for a few reasons. I figured I should give cockpit view a shot (I won't go into why I think gauge view is way better, but that's normally what I use) and what better way to acclimate myself to this new view than a 2 hour race. And because I have been playing GT5 at least a couple hours every day since launch on a plasma, I am suffering image retention of the gauges, driver list and other things on my tv so I wanted to avoid 2+ straight hours of these things on screen. This presented me with an interesting situation, because in addition to driving an underdog of a car on harder tires than the competition I also couldn't see when my tires were going or where my fuel level was (turns out the fuel gauge in the car doesn't work). Also interesting was that for the most part I had to say on my toes and keep track of what lap I was on and I didn't always know what place I was in or how far away I was from my competition (I did pause the game and check on these things once in a while though).
Let me tell you it was THE most challenging race I have ever done in GT5 offline or online. It ended up requiring lots of strategizing and more luck than I originally though I would ever need. I was assuming the AI would pit every 20 laps (after discovering this post with a search). So I had intentions of staying out till lap 30 and only pitting once. Well of course things didn't work out as planned...
The grid included a couple of Z32s, an S15, a couple Subarus from the 90s, a Skyline 350GT Coupe and it's Infiniti sister the G35, a Mitsu GTO, a Celica GT-Four, a Supra RZ and then my real competition: the RX-7 Type RS.
Of course I started 7th on the grid of 12. By the end of lap 1 I had easily passed a 300ZX and Subaru Legacy and I was in 5th and hot on the heels of the RX-7 which started in 4th. At the beginning of lap 2 the RX-7 overtook the Infiniti G35 Coupe which had fallen from a starting position of 2nd and I followed suit at the hairpin a few turns later. The 2nd lap ended and I was already in 4th with the RX-7, Silvia S15, and Fairlady Z32 all just ahead of me. I thought to myself that this might be too easy and I sure didn't want to be bored for the next two hours; I considered changing to CS tires but decided to see what panned out over the next few laps. I managed to squeeze my way around the RX-7 halfway through the 3rd lap and with a little excitement I decided to hang the back end out around the tight S-turn at the end of the lap. A little overzealous and nobody immediately in front of me I overshot the braking zone for the first tight right on lap 4 and pitched it into the sand. The RX-7 happily took 3rd place back and I managed to get the car back on track before anyone else caught up to me... the rest of the field had really fallen behind the front runners already. I did spend the next few laps playing catch-up though.
Crossing the line beginning my 9th lap I passed the Fairlady Z32 who had dropped from pole position and was now relegated to 4th. I couldn't see the RX-7 or the S15 so they must have gotten into a groove and disappeared on the poor Z. Coming back onto the main straight I could see them, they had already crossed the line and were heading into turn 1. I spent the next handful of laps chasing a little red speck, slowly but surely closing in as it was a little larger each time I reached a straight. By lap 14 I was close enough to tell that it was the Silvia and NOT the RX-7 as I had hoped—he must have been so fed up when he got passed by me in my sedan that when I parked it on the beach he just smashed the gas and didn't look back. He was long gone, I couldn't even see him at the end of the long straight each lap. I passed the Silvia on lap 16 through turn 4 but made a mistake braking for the tight S-turn and he got back by me. I passed him back again on the next lap in the same spot I passed him last time (the AI seems to be very slow through the sweeping turns 3 and 4) and made another small mistake at the tricky downhill double left-hander; he got around me again briefly but I passed him once again at the entrance to the first tunnel. I had secured 2nd place, but he filled my mirror for the next couple of laps giving me a good run for my money as his lighter weight and softer tires helped him keep up with me and my long brake zones.
Coming onto the straight at the end of lap 19 my tires were not holding the line they once could. I had been aware that I was slowly losing grip but the final turn always made it blatantly obvious. I couldn't keep the car off the grass at the exit of the turn and with my long wheelbase car sliding across the turf I managed to clip a barrier with the back end of the car throwing myself into a counter-clockwise spin. With only one rotation I ended up back on track and pointing the right direction as the Silvia quickly shrank down the straightaway. I got back on the throttle with very little panic from the spin with the good faith that I would catch back up easily as this was lap 20 and the AI was sure to pit. At this point I knew that I wasn't going to make it 30 laps on these tires but maybe I could shoot for 25 to allow me to catch the lead.
Lap 20 came and went; the red speck in front of me didn't go in. I'm pretty sure that was the Silvia, but what of the RX-7? Did he pit? Did I pass him? I wasn't sure, but I knew from the understeer that my tires were significantly slowing me down at this point. By lap 22 the tires just couldn't take it anymore—if I wasn't horribly understeering off track then my cornering speeds were much slower. I headed towards the pits at the end of the lap, pausing it before going in to check things out. Sure enough my decision to pit was a good one; my back tires were half gone and the fronts had maybe 1/6th of the indicator left! My fuel was down to about half as well, but I decided to only take 12 liters as I didn't want to spend forever in the pits—it turned out to be just enough fuel for the tire guys to do their job. I still managed to hear 3 cars whiz by while I was in there and when I came out of the pits and into turn 2 I heard a noise behind me. Once I made it through the turn I noticed two cars in my mirror; I had dropped to 6th during my pit and had nearly been dumped back to 8th! It seems like none of these guys pit after lap 20 like I was anticipating. Oh man, I've got my work cut out for me now…
Three laps later, on lap 25, I passed the 350GT Coupe just before the first tunnel for 5th and I took 4th from the Fairlady Z32 just before crossing the line. It wasn't until lap 29 that I caught up with 3rd place, which turned out to be a WRX sedan that originally started the race in 11th! He had swiftly caught up with the Silvia, which I managed to squeeze past on the outside of the final turn to take 2nd place back for the start of lap 30. Now I had nothing but the open road ahead of me and the relentless drive to catch that RX-7. But, as fate would have it, that open road would provide plenty of traffic just two laps later. I managed to get by the 4 stragglers within a lap given some difficulty being that they were all pretty close together. Lap 36, however, would yield a major surprise; a red car in my rear view mirror. Could it be? I looked back but I couldn't tell what it was. By the next lap it was clear that it was the RX-7. I had passed him! He must have pit around the same time I got caught up with lap traffic. The excitement of being in the lead wore off in a hurry as the RX-7 filled my mirror within just a few turns. Panic began to set in as he was driving up my tailpipe trying to get around me—I held him off for a few laps as best I could while making a slew of minor errors.
Remembering that I, rather than my competition, was on a two pit schedule I decided that since I made it 22 laps on a set of tires before, I should be able to do it again. That would put me in the pits on lap 44 and give me 16 laps left on the new tires: leaving me with a bit more rubber should I need to push it towards the end. I managed to hold the RX-7 back all the way through lap 42, albeit with a good bit of swerving and some downright dirty blocks. On lap 43 I had a little too much understeer through turn 4 and my car found it's way into the wall, allowing the rage of the RX-7 that I had been bottling to come bursting forth. I didn't lose too much momentum from the accident, but I sure lost a lot of ground in a hurry. The turbo on that thing was more than enough to make up for the 35hp advantage I had on him. I decided to go ahead and pit instead of staying out one more lap, this was it; do or die time…
I emerged from the pits to find an empty track; nobody had passed me and nobody was anywhere nearby. I was still in 2nd place and I had the rest of the race to catch the RX-7. With 15 laps left to go, I started to think I wasn't going to be able to catch him. But with each lap taking more than 2 minutes, I had more than half an hour to make up the difference and I needed to remember that towards the end of the race he's going to be on poor tires. There was hope for me yet. By the end of lap 50, that hope had faded. I haven't seen any sign of another car in 15 minutes. I had to check, I couldn't help myself! I paused it as I crossed the line leaving me with 10 laps remaining and I brought up the map. I couldn't tell where the RX-7 was, but I could see a cluster of arrows in turn 4. Looks like traffic—hopefully the RX-7 is caught up in there somewhere. The closest car behind me is all the way back at the S-turn, so I don't have to worry about any competition sneaking up on me, I just have to hope the RX-7 gets held up in traffic long enough for me to catch him.
Towards the middle of lap 54 I'd caught up to the traffic and by the end of the lap I could tell that the RX-7 was stuck in the middle. I passed the Celica that was in last place, putting him 2 laps down, just before beginning the 55th lap. On the approach to turn 2 as I neared the Supra between me and the RX-7 I noticed that my nemesis has hastily stuffed himself up the inside of the G35 coupe in front of him, no doubt in a panic after seeing how quickly I was closing in on him. As he pulled away from the Infiniti I made my way around the outside of the Supra through the turn and zipped quickly past the Infiniti on the small straight before turn 3. He was obviously a little frazzled by the aggressive attack from the RX-7. I knew I had to be swift and I feared that my competition was clear of all the traffic and was now free to run away from me again. But upon reaching the hairpin shortly thereafter I noticed that the 300ZX was still an obstacle for my rival. Just a few turns later he made quick work of getting around the Z before the S-turn.
On to lap 56; I'm pushing as much as I can, right on his butt after the hairpin. Apparently I had a faster line than he did at the tight 2nd gear left-hander just before the first tunnel, and that is where he gave up the ghost. [As most of us are aware, in one of the recent updates PD has made the AI significantly more spineless and now they will just slow down when they sense you are going to pass them.] I was hoping for him to fight back as he did 20 laps before when he wanted to pass me, but he did not. He stayed pretty constant in my mirror for the remainder of the race and I even made a couple slight mistakes because I was too focused on watching him, hoping he would put the pressure on, but to no avail. I guess he just knew that he stood no chance on his worn tires and that I would pass him again anyway. So I spent the last 2 or 3 laps in celebration mode, hanging the back end out around the S-turn and the tight left-handers near the tunnels; just covering him in clouds of smoke as if to taunt him and beg him to try and pass me. He did seem to get a little fire going with 4 turns left on the last lap but unfortunately for him it was too little, too late and I crossed the finish line with him 4/10ths behind me. Still, an incredibly close finish for a 2 hour race!
150,000 credits and 250,000 xp. Not bad for a couple hours ofwork fun! Definitely one of the most enjoyable races I've taken part in. 👍
I knew from checking the Matrix that most of the cars in the race were in the range of 4.5 kg/hp and I knew I wanted something a little worse off based on how easy the AI is when you use an equally capable car. So I went down the list until I found something that I already owned in the 5.0 p/w range. I found the Skyline Sedan 350GT Type SP which I had bought for one of the early Seasonal Events to be a good fit with a p/w of 5.1. It was sitting in the garage covered in dust; untouched since the Seasonal Event and was completely stock save for the SH tires I had installed. I jumped in the car and changed the oil before heading off to the race.
I decided to use the cockpit view, with everything on the screen turned off, for a few reasons. I figured I should give cockpit view a shot (I won't go into why I think gauge view is way better, but that's normally what I use) and what better way to acclimate myself to this new view than a 2 hour race. And because I have been playing GT5 at least a couple hours every day since launch on a plasma, I am suffering image retention of the gauges, driver list and other things on my tv so I wanted to avoid 2+ straight hours of these things on screen. This presented me with an interesting situation, because in addition to driving an underdog of a car on harder tires than the competition I also couldn't see when my tires were going or where my fuel level was (turns out the fuel gauge in the car doesn't work). Also interesting was that for the most part I had to say on my toes and keep track of what lap I was on and I didn't always know what place I was in or how far away I was from my competition (I did pause the game and check on these things once in a while though).
Let me tell you it was THE most challenging race I have ever done in GT5 offline or online. It ended up requiring lots of strategizing and more luck than I originally though I would ever need. I was assuming the AI would pit every 20 laps (after discovering this post with a search). So I had intentions of staying out till lap 30 and only pitting once. Well of course things didn't work out as planned...
The grid included a couple of Z32s, an S15, a couple Subarus from the 90s, a Skyline 350GT Coupe and it's Infiniti sister the G35, a Mitsu GTO, a Celica GT-Four, a Supra RZ and then my real competition: the RX-7 Type RS.
Of course I started 7th on the grid of 12. By the end of lap 1 I had easily passed a 300ZX and Subaru Legacy and I was in 5th and hot on the heels of the RX-7 which started in 4th. At the beginning of lap 2 the RX-7 overtook the Infiniti G35 Coupe which had fallen from a starting position of 2nd and I followed suit at the hairpin a few turns later. The 2nd lap ended and I was already in 4th with the RX-7, Silvia S15, and Fairlady Z32 all just ahead of me. I thought to myself that this might be too easy and I sure didn't want to be bored for the next two hours; I considered changing to CS tires but decided to see what panned out over the next few laps. I managed to squeeze my way around the RX-7 halfway through the 3rd lap and with a little excitement I decided to hang the back end out around the tight S-turn at the end of the lap. A little overzealous and nobody immediately in front of me I overshot the braking zone for the first tight right on lap 4 and pitched it into the sand. The RX-7 happily took 3rd place back and I managed to get the car back on track before anyone else caught up to me... the rest of the field had really fallen behind the front runners already. I did spend the next few laps playing catch-up though.
Crossing the line beginning my 9th lap I passed the Fairlady Z32 who had dropped from pole position and was now relegated to 4th. I couldn't see the RX-7 or the S15 so they must have gotten into a groove and disappeared on the poor Z. Coming back onto the main straight I could see them, they had already crossed the line and were heading into turn 1. I spent the next handful of laps chasing a little red speck, slowly but surely closing in as it was a little larger each time I reached a straight. By lap 14 I was close enough to tell that it was the Silvia and NOT the RX-7 as I had hoped—he must have been so fed up when he got passed by me in my sedan that when I parked it on the beach he just smashed the gas and didn't look back. He was long gone, I couldn't even see him at the end of the long straight each lap. I passed the Silvia on lap 16 through turn 4 but made a mistake braking for the tight S-turn and he got back by me. I passed him back again on the next lap in the same spot I passed him last time (the AI seems to be very slow through the sweeping turns 3 and 4) and made another small mistake at the tricky downhill double left-hander; he got around me again briefly but I passed him once again at the entrance to the first tunnel. I had secured 2nd place, but he filled my mirror for the next couple of laps giving me a good run for my money as his lighter weight and softer tires helped him keep up with me and my long brake zones.
Coming onto the straight at the end of lap 19 my tires were not holding the line they once could. I had been aware that I was slowly losing grip but the final turn always made it blatantly obvious. I couldn't keep the car off the grass at the exit of the turn and with my long wheelbase car sliding across the turf I managed to clip a barrier with the back end of the car throwing myself into a counter-clockwise spin. With only one rotation I ended up back on track and pointing the right direction as the Silvia quickly shrank down the straightaway. I got back on the throttle with very little panic from the spin with the good faith that I would catch back up easily as this was lap 20 and the AI was sure to pit. At this point I knew that I wasn't going to make it 30 laps on these tires but maybe I could shoot for 25 to allow me to catch the lead.
Lap 20 came and went; the red speck in front of me didn't go in. I'm pretty sure that was the Silvia, but what of the RX-7? Did he pit? Did I pass him? I wasn't sure, but I knew from the understeer that my tires were significantly slowing me down at this point. By lap 22 the tires just couldn't take it anymore—if I wasn't horribly understeering off track then my cornering speeds were much slower. I headed towards the pits at the end of the lap, pausing it before going in to check things out. Sure enough my decision to pit was a good one; my back tires were half gone and the fronts had maybe 1/6th of the indicator left! My fuel was down to about half as well, but I decided to only take 12 liters as I didn't want to spend forever in the pits—it turned out to be just enough fuel for the tire guys to do their job. I still managed to hear 3 cars whiz by while I was in there and when I came out of the pits and into turn 2 I heard a noise behind me. Once I made it through the turn I noticed two cars in my mirror; I had dropped to 6th during my pit and had nearly been dumped back to 8th! It seems like none of these guys pit after lap 20 like I was anticipating. Oh man, I've got my work cut out for me now…
Three laps later, on lap 25, I passed the 350GT Coupe just before the first tunnel for 5th and I took 4th from the Fairlady Z32 just before crossing the line. It wasn't until lap 29 that I caught up with 3rd place, which turned out to be a WRX sedan that originally started the race in 11th! He had swiftly caught up with the Silvia, which I managed to squeeze past on the outside of the final turn to take 2nd place back for the start of lap 30. Now I had nothing but the open road ahead of me and the relentless drive to catch that RX-7. But, as fate would have it, that open road would provide plenty of traffic just two laps later. I managed to get by the 4 stragglers within a lap given some difficulty being that they were all pretty close together. Lap 36, however, would yield a major surprise; a red car in my rear view mirror. Could it be? I looked back but I couldn't tell what it was. By the next lap it was clear that it was the RX-7. I had passed him! He must have pit around the same time I got caught up with lap traffic. The excitement of being in the lead wore off in a hurry as the RX-7 filled my mirror within just a few turns. Panic began to set in as he was driving up my tailpipe trying to get around me—I held him off for a few laps as best I could while making a slew of minor errors.
Remembering that I, rather than my competition, was on a two pit schedule I decided that since I made it 22 laps on a set of tires before, I should be able to do it again. That would put me in the pits on lap 44 and give me 16 laps left on the new tires: leaving me with a bit more rubber should I need to push it towards the end. I managed to hold the RX-7 back all the way through lap 42, albeit with a good bit of swerving and some downright dirty blocks. On lap 43 I had a little too much understeer through turn 4 and my car found it's way into the wall, allowing the rage of the RX-7 that I had been bottling to come bursting forth. I didn't lose too much momentum from the accident, but I sure lost a lot of ground in a hurry. The turbo on that thing was more than enough to make up for the 35hp advantage I had on him. I decided to go ahead and pit instead of staying out one more lap, this was it; do or die time…
I emerged from the pits to find an empty track; nobody had passed me and nobody was anywhere nearby. I was still in 2nd place and I had the rest of the race to catch the RX-7. With 15 laps left to go, I started to think I wasn't going to be able to catch him. But with each lap taking more than 2 minutes, I had more than half an hour to make up the difference and I needed to remember that towards the end of the race he's going to be on poor tires. There was hope for me yet. By the end of lap 50, that hope had faded. I haven't seen any sign of another car in 15 minutes. I had to check, I couldn't help myself! I paused it as I crossed the line leaving me with 10 laps remaining and I brought up the map. I couldn't tell where the RX-7 was, but I could see a cluster of arrows in turn 4. Looks like traffic—hopefully the RX-7 is caught up in there somewhere. The closest car behind me is all the way back at the S-turn, so I don't have to worry about any competition sneaking up on me, I just have to hope the RX-7 gets held up in traffic long enough for me to catch him.
Towards the middle of lap 54 I'd caught up to the traffic and by the end of the lap I could tell that the RX-7 was stuck in the middle. I passed the Celica that was in last place, putting him 2 laps down, just before beginning the 55th lap. On the approach to turn 2 as I neared the Supra between me and the RX-7 I noticed that my nemesis has hastily stuffed himself up the inside of the G35 coupe in front of him, no doubt in a panic after seeing how quickly I was closing in on him. As he pulled away from the Infiniti I made my way around the outside of the Supra through the turn and zipped quickly past the Infiniti on the small straight before turn 3. He was obviously a little frazzled by the aggressive attack from the RX-7. I knew I had to be swift and I feared that my competition was clear of all the traffic and was now free to run away from me again. But upon reaching the hairpin shortly thereafter I noticed that the 300ZX was still an obstacle for my rival. Just a few turns later he made quick work of getting around the Z before the S-turn.
On to lap 56; I'm pushing as much as I can, right on his butt after the hairpin. Apparently I had a faster line than he did at the tight 2nd gear left-hander just before the first tunnel, and that is where he gave up the ghost. [As most of us are aware, in one of the recent updates PD has made the AI significantly more spineless and now they will just slow down when they sense you are going to pass them.] I was hoping for him to fight back as he did 20 laps before when he wanted to pass me, but he did not. He stayed pretty constant in my mirror for the remainder of the race and I even made a couple slight mistakes because I was too focused on watching him, hoping he would put the pressure on, but to no avail. I guess he just knew that he stood no chance on his worn tires and that I would pass him again anyway. So I spent the last 2 or 3 laps in celebration mode, hanging the back end out around the S-turn and the tight left-handers near the tunnels; just covering him in clouds of smoke as if to taunt him and beg him to try and pass me. He did seem to get a little fire going with 4 turns left on the last lap but unfortunately for him it was too little, too late and I crossed the finish line with him 4/10ths behind me. Still, an incredibly close finish for a 2 hour race!
150,000 credits and 250,000 xp. Not bad for a couple hours of
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