GTP Spec Miata Racing Series : Season 1 Complete; Season 2 Soon!

[BrosifDuder]

As a matter of fact, I think I'll Spec out another car tonight using that kit and see where it'll put us.

And try sport medium tires while you're at it.

 

[Jay_B_II]

Last night was great, my car has finally hit the 138hp mark so I was able to run a little more competetively. I was amazed I was able to keep up with Spyhunter, TT and Turbo in the first couple of laps of that last race. Thanks Spyhunter for the help the other night, it's really paying off.

 

[CodeRedR51]

And try sport medium tires while you're at it.

Will do.

Last night was great, my car has finally hit the 138hp mark so I was able to run a little more competetively. I was amazed I was able to keep up with Spyhunter, TT and Turbo in the first couple of laps of that last race. Thanks Spyhunter for the help the other night, it's really paying off.

I noticed that. Good work. 👍

 

[Motor City Hami]

👎 I really like the ability to tune the cars to our driving style. Just not happy with the game adjustments without the LSD. Seems GranTurismo has made the LSD the most powerful tuning adjustment. It's your series and I am just practicing in it, so take my comments for what they're worth.

I'm not going to allow the differential at the moment. And starting to think that next season (maybe) we will probably switch to the Fixed Sports suspension kit.

 

[Motor City Hami]

Last night was great, my car has finally hit the 138hp mark so I was able to run a little more competetively. I was amazed I was able to keep up with Spyhunter, TT and Turbo in the first couple of laps of that last race. Thanks Spyhunter for the help the other night, it's really paying off.

Jay - I have been having a blast racing with you. We are almost identical in lap times and having one big brian fade per race.

 

[Jay_B_II]

Jay - I have been having a blast racing with you. We are almost identical in lap times and having one big brian fade per race.

Yeah it's great having someone to actually race with because the past practices I was usually out back by myself. It makes the racing a lot more fun when you have someone to battle with.

 

[CodeRedR51]

👎 I really like the ability to tune the cars to our driving style. Just not happy with the game adjustments without the LSD. Seems GranTurismo has made the LSD the most powerful tuning adjustment. It's your series and I am just practicing in it, so take my comments for what they're worth.

I'm not using it, for the same reason I may switch to the fixed suspension. Less adjustments means a more even field.

Edit: Would any of the Group A members be mad if I dropped you into Group B towards the end of the week? Might do a small shuffle to make each group more "even". You'll keep your current points from the first race.

 

[GrahamTurismo]

Less adjustments means a more even field.

Thank you! This is the point I've been trying to make all along. There are some people that get suspension tuning and others (like me) who are probably making it much worse for themselves playing guessing games. Upon the initial concept of this series (I don't know anything about Spec Miata in real life) I was just assuming we'd all be running bone stock cars... that's what I always thought was the best way was to leave out all variables except driver skill for the closest racing.

Would any of the Group A members be mad if I dropped you into Group B towards the end of the week? Might do a small shuffle to make each group more "even". You'll keep your current points from the first race.

Not sure how I feel about that. Closer racing would be nice for sure, but then what was the purpose of all the effort to qualify in the beginning of the series? Also; what makes you think that the 'slower' people from one race will be slow in the next race? If you're going to rearrange groups based on results then you might as well have a full qualifying session for each race and then sort people into groups based on the qual times for each track.

 

[EL_ZISSOU]

Thank you! This is the point I've been trying to make all along. There are some people that get suspension tuning and others (like me) who are probably making it much worse for themselves playing guessing games. Upon the initial concept of this series (I don't know anything about Spec Miata in real life) I was just assuming we'd all be running bone stock cars... that's what I always thought was the best way was to leave out all variables except driver skill for the closest racing.

Not sure how I feel about that. Closer racing would be nice for sure, but then what was the purpose of all the effort to qualify in the beginning of the series? Also; what makes you think that the 'slower' people from one race will be slow in the next race? If you're going to rearrange groups based on results then you might as well have a full qualifying session for each race and then sort people into groups based on the qual times for each track.

Agree on all points. 👍

 

[CodeRedR51]

Upon the initial concept of this series (I don't know anything about Spec Miata in real life) I was just assuming we'd all be running bone stock cars... that's what I always thought was the best way was to leave out all variables except driver skill for the closest racing.

Read the rules link in the first page. Basically stock cars, minus some suspension tweaks. The 1.6 cars in real life are allowed a cone filter so they can keep up with the restricted 1.8 cars. We can technically run full racing exhaust, (minus the manifold) but sport exhaust sounds better.

Not sure how I feel about that. Closer racing would be nice for sure, but then what was the purpose of all the effort to qualify in the beginning of the series? Also; what makes you think that the 'slower' people from one race will be slow in the next race? If you're going to rearrange groups based on results then you might as well have a full qualifying session for each race and then sort people into groups based on the qual times for each track.

You're probably right. Think we'll keep it as-is for now. I've got a few people running a second qualifier to get into the series, so I'll just put them in Group B.

 

[GrahamTurismo]

Read the rules link in the first page. Basically stock cars, minus some suspension tweaks.

Was that always there or did you put it in during an edit a couple days after the thread was started? Regardless, like I said; upon my first seeing this thread I just thought it would be stock cars. Of course I learned quickly that it wasn't, but that was just my initial impression.

Some of the best races I've had online were ones that restricted the car to one of the garage available ones. Sure everybody used racing soft tires, but everybody had the exact same machine... and the racing was the closest ever.

So yeah... I definitely support going to a less adjustable suspension to bring everyone to a more even level of competition.

 

[Motor City Hami]

If you do go with no suspension mods, then your series really should be called SSM - Showroom Spec Miata. That class does exhist in SCCA and runs more stock components, including sealed crate motors.

Maybe I'll have to start a NASA Spec Miata series and make the rules slightly different than yours, just to make this even more like real life. <--- this was supposed to come across as a funny sarcasm, in case anyone didn't pick that up.

http://www.nasaproracing.com/rules/spec_miata_rules.pdf

 

[CodeRedR51]

Was that always there or did you put it in during an edit a couple days after the thread was started?

It's always been there. You're supposed to be keeping an eye on on the first page for news anyways.

If you do go with no suspension mods, then your series really should be called SSM - Showroom Spec Miata. That class does exhist in SCCA and runs more stock components, including sealed crate motors.

Maybe I'll have to start a NASA Spec Miata series and make the rules slightly different than yours, just to make this even more like real life. <--- this was supposed to come across as a funny sarcasm, in case anyone didn't pick that up.

I didn't say no mods, I said "fixed sport". 👍

Also, yeah it's a good thing you were kidding.

Edit: and other than the suspension, I don't know how more "real" I can get. I followed the rules to the T pretty much. People are just being picky.

 

[Motor City Hami]

I have been spreading the word on the Spec Miata boards and other racing threads that I visit. Two Spec Miata racers didn't know how to find the room last night. I gave them direction on how to type in the digits. Hopefully we'll have more joining us for your practice rooms. Are you planning to open one tonight?

 

[CodeRedR51]

Tonight I planned on watching the two replays from last Sunday and snapping some photos to create an after-race report. If someone else wants to set up a room, have at it. I'm pretty content with my settings so don't need much practice.

 

[Wardez]

I find that in GT5, things that would send my real world car spinning out of control, don't do much in the game. Have you tried setting rear toe to maximum toe out -100? Or front sway bar to 1 and rear to 7? Or front toe to maximum out -100? I even tried front shocks to 1 compression and 10 rebound to make it act like a real world Nascar front shock. I basically tried evey setting to the max that would give a real world car lots of front grip and no rear and the car responded very little. That is my frustration.

In GT4 the same tuning issue existed for most of the cars. You could max out logical tunes to change front/rear grip and cars would still push. The singe best tuning aid in GT4 was the adjustable diff. Once you added the diff and got it adjusted well, the other suspension adjustments started to respond and became the way to "fine tune" the car.
.

Yeah. Each game seems to like this and no racing title, sim or otherwise can escape inconsistency when it comes to tuning efficacy.

Forza had some settings backwards, iRacing has people forced to use the most unrealistic tunes because they're simply faster. If you try to mirror real life settings you're just not gonna be fast enough. So what we all end up having to rediscover in something like GT every time is that we need to tune to the game's quirks and what IT says is understeer and oversteer.

So right now after piecing over some of the concerned posts I've gleemed a bit of this: there's a few settings that are just whacked out backwards or seemingly backwards at least. First problem's the spring rates. It's not as simple as stiffening them by clicking the number higher, oh no. It's in reverse. Seems to be confirmed by a few people that raising the spring rate value actually make it softer, not stiffer. But you can try that for yourself 'cause some people still say that it's not backwards. AHHH.

Dampers could be a different deal.

Also to note. Some of the guys in different threads noticed that most of the top guys in the leaderboards are using some... different set ups that are a bit counter-intuitive. For instance, ride height. The fastest guys are using a much higher front then rear and getting phenomenal times. Could be another quirk of the engine, or the car.

I think going to a fixed set up might be advisable until everyone figures the ins and outs of the current system.

 

[Motor City Hami]

For instance, ride height. The fastest guys are using a much higher front then rear and getting phenomenal times.
.

Yep. Last night I slammed the rear as low as possible and raised the nose as high as possible and could actually spin the car out. I relaxed that a bit, but now the nose does ride higher than the rear a bit.

 

[BrosifDuder]

People are just being picky.

Yeah Turbo this series sucks camel dong! I don't know what you were thinking when you created this half-arsed series that you are trying to pass off as Spec Miata. How dare you!

I think I am going to go start a Spec Neon series but we will have to use a PT Cruiser due to the non-existence of Neons in Gran Turismo world. They share the same platform so they have the same handling characteristics, right?

On top of that, I am going to start my own original spec series. In keeping with the Chrysler theme the series will utilize the Crossfire and will be called Spec Misfire.

Atrocious, simply atrocious.

 

[Motor City Hami]

Read a little more closely. I wasn't picking on your series. I was pointing out that I was unhappy with the tuning in GT5. I think you'll find about ten posts from me saying how much fun I am having driving with you guys and that I have posted this on seven other racing forums to get more people to practice with.

 

[GrahamTurismo]

I think I am going to go start a Spec Neon series but we will have to use a PT Cruiser due to the non-existence of Neons in Gran Turismo world. They share the same platform so they have the same handling characteristics, right?

Actually the SRT-4 is in the game.

 

[SAMHAIN85]

I joined a lobby someone had up late last night, I dont remember who hosted; I was dead tired and only did 1 race then fell asleep. I definitely need to put some time into this track, theres still a few turns that I know I can be faster in. 1:49xx was my fastest lap, I'm hoping to at least get into the 48's, possibly 47's. What times are you guys running right now? I also realized this is going to be one long race, wow! Lets say we average 1:50 per lap x 40 laps = thats like 1hr 10 minutes! I like it!

 

[Duke]

Read a little more closely. I wasn't picking on your series. I was pointing out that I was unhappy with the tuning in GT5. I think you'll find about ten posts from me saying how much fun I am having driving with you guys and that I have posted this on seven other racing forums to get more people to practice with.

I got this part, at least.

I agree that some of the settings are weird, though. However, setup is part of racing. I don't think we should drop back to a non-adjustable suspension setup.

 

[SpyHunter]

My fastest last night was 1:48.1. I don't think anyone has broken into the 1:47s, yet. It is possible though, I am sure.

 

[Dapper]

So let me get this right: Lowering the rear more than the front makes it turn more? If anyone ever wonders why I despise tuning, this is it.
Last I checked, trucks that are setup to carry a ton in bed are the only vehicles that get lowered more in the rear than in the front to help handling.

 

[CodeRedR51]

My fastest last night was 1:48.1. I don't think anyone has broken into the 1:47s, yet. It is possible though, I am sure.

I won't be doing it without some drafting help. Right now my car isn't all that fast, but it's comfortable for me, especially given how long the race is.

Also, should we put certain regulations on the required pit stop? For instance, you must take 4 tires, but fuel is optional?

 

[Wardez]

Also, should we put certain regulations on the required pit stop? For instance, you must take 4 tires, but fuel is optional?

Yeah, the lighter the better. There'd be no reason to take on fuel since a full tank would easily make the 90 mile+ race.

 

[filphil89]

You can just buy the suspension part and use it. It doesn't require us to buy a whole new car or anything. lol.
If anything, it'll make it all the more spec and reduce the gaps in tuning once more making it a purer driver vs driver competition.

My fastest last night was 1:48.1. I don't think anyone has broken into the 1:47s, yet. It is possible though, I am sure.

Was this with a draft?

I joined a lobby someone had up late last night, I dont remember who hosted; I was dead tired and only did 1 race then fell asleep. I definitely need to put some time into this track, theres still a few turns that I know I can be faster in. 1:49xx was my fastest lap, I'm hoping to at least get into the 48's, possibly 47's. What times are you guys running right now? I also realized this is going to be one long race, wow! Lets say we average 1:50 per lap x 40 laps = thats like 1hr 10 minutes! I like it!

My fastest is 1:48:3 in practice mode. I know you can get there too.

Room is up
GTPlanet Spec Miata
1472 - 6399 - 8880 - 6896 - 1690

Go to the room Turbo posted below. 👍

 

[kona309]

Hey guys. Great room last night hosted by TT. A message to all the Group B drivers, even though i missed the first race, I could keep up with and even keep ahead of the winner of the first Group B race. ( im in group B and i had the 3rd slowest Qualifying time) this shows how close this group is and how much of a difference a little extra effort can make. Dont worry if you were slow at Suzuka because the 'ring is a totally different beast.

Also set up wise on my '91 im running a very close to stock setting on the suspension but i made some MAD changes on the camber and toe. It makes a huge difference if you fiddle with these if you get close on suspension. I for one have almost ZERO wiggling under braking and use almost no tire even when im pushing hard. Which will be great for enduro races.

And finaly, if your having a hard time with the chicane, JUMP THE CURBS. It amazingly makes the car easier to drive through there.

 

[CodeRedR51]

And finaly, if your having a hard time with the chicane, JUMP THE CURBS. It amazingly makes the car easier to drive through there.

To a certain extent, yes. Cutting the corner is a no-no.

 

[filphil89]

Yeah, as long as atleast 2 wheels are withing the boundaries of you won't be red timed in practice mode.