In the Process of Beating the Formula One Series

[RichRacer81]

I'll try to be as descriptive as possible, but because my car is currently racing my GT4 vocab will be a little limited.

I did a lot of testing to see the best way to approach this series seeing as how it's the most difficult on the game.

First, it's almost impossible to race the car yourself; the tracks take almost 2 hours each if not more, and you're competition is almost flawless, so you might want to consider B-Spec'ing.

So I tested first on a track with barriers - Tsukuba, I may have spelled that wrong - up until tire failure with the speed at #5 and with passing mode on. I also did the same on Laguna Seca since it has no barriers near the track. What I found is the computer almost mimics your moves based on what happens to your car in a certain area - sometimes. Especially on Laguna Seca; all of the cars will wipe out in the same exact spot, only, your car seems to recover a lot easier whereas the AI will go flying all over the place.

After testing, I tuned, and then tested again with better results. The tune that "I" found to give decent results was to leave everything at the default specs except for:

Transmission - the only thing I altered here, was the ticker at the very bottom; I set it to #18, to allow my car to reach around 206mph topspeed since that's where the AI seemed to be topping out at when i tested.

Brakes - i tried leaving them at the default of #6, but found that when the tires were considerably worn, my lack of breaking power didn't help as much as hoped for, so I tweaked both the front and back brakes to #8 to hopefully add just a little more braking power, but still permit some controlled slide in the event of going off the course.

I'm currently on race #6 with 5 golds so far. I've left my car at full speed with passing mode, and it seems to do the trick.

If anyone has any advice as to how better to approach this Series, feel free to share.

 

[OZZYGT]

First, it's almost impossible to race the car yourself; the tracks take almost 2 hours each if not more, and you're competition is almost flawless, so you might want to consider B-Spec'ing.

Really? That's weird because I just raced everything on A-Spec for the third time. You should try it on A-spec because is not like all the other races where you might get tired of doing the same lap over and over. It's a bit more competitive since all oponents have the same power and the aerodynamics of the Formula GT makes it a real cool experience. Specially race number 12 at the Green Hell . It's a waste to do it on B-Spec.

The tune that "I" found to give decent results was to leave everything at default

Nope, actually you should rise the spring rate and lower the height of the car but only a little.

Try these settings:

SR 17.7 / 17.9
RH 49 / 52
SB 6 / 6
SR 8 / 8
Camb 2.0 / 1.0
Toe 0 / -2
BB 4 / 5

LSDI 15
LSDA 45
LSDD 45

Downforce: Everything.

No Driving Aids except on TCS..give it a 2

Note: When you're up to the Nurburgring, reduce the spring rate and raise the height of the ride. Soften down the suspension in general and set the transmition to 18.
At La Sarthe:Keep the suspension at the setting I gave you, raise the transmition to 19 and add a few clicks to 6th and 7th gears.

Transmission - the only thing I altered here, was the ticker at the very bottom; I set it to #18, to allow my car to reach around 206mph topspeed since that's where the AI seemed to be topping out at when i tested.

Leave the transmition at 17 and move the ratios of 6th and 7th gear a few clicks to the right.

Brakes - i tried leaving them at the default of #6, but found that when the tires were considerably worn, my lack of breaking power didn't help as much as hoped for, so I tweaked both the front and back brakes to #8 to hopefully add just a little more braking power, but still permit some controlled slide in the event of going off the course.

See above.

I'm currently on race #6 with 5 golds so far. I've left my car at full speed with passing mode, and it seems to do the trick.

I'd highly recommend reduce the pace to 4. Trust me on this one.





Ciao!

 

[RichRacer81]

hey thanks. I'm going to re-adjust the tuning on the next race and see what happens. And also trying turning the speed down to #4.

As far as A-spec'ing...I get lazy and like to go off and do 2 things at once, but, I can beat the Tsukuba track and the high speed ring and 2 other ones, when I'm just messing around.

The only thing I hate, is using the controller for prolonged periods. I'm thinking about getting a wheel; I've heard it makes GT4 a lot more enjoyable. I'd definitely start A-spec'ing more if I had one.

 

[OZZYGT]

The only thing I hate, is using the controller for prolonged periods. I'm thinking about getting a wheel; I've heard it makes GT4 a lot more enjoyable. I'd definitely start A-spec'ing more if I had one.

Now that's a good Idea




Ciao!

 

[BobK]

I have run this series twice, here's how I did it:

I left all tunings/settings stock except rear toe was changed from -6 to -2, and on Monaco only I changed the gearing to auto 11.

I qualified for all races except Nurburgring the first time. This makes a big difference, if your car can start in first place instead of having to work its way through the pack. The second time, on Nurburgring, I tiptoed slowly around the track for the warmup lap lest I do the last half of the timed lap on red tires; if the clock had been running for the warmup lap my time would have been around eight or nine minutes.

I'm afraid I don't recall any specifics except one but generally I won the races with a better pit strategy, calling him in a lap early on some races, ordering him to do an extra lap on others. On the first race on the Sarthe I pitted on laps 5, 10, 15 and 19 instead of every four laps like the AI did. This gave me my largest MOV for the series except Laguna Seca, since they made one more pit stop.

Generally I left the pace at 3. At Nurburgring I set the pace to 5 until my car took the lead, then dropped the pace back to 3.

At Laguna Seca I left the pace at 3 until halfway through the corkscrew then dropped the pace to 1 for the next two turns, kicking it back up to 3 for the final turn. My driver never spun at either turn, the AI of course was all over the place. This strategy gave me a 2-lap win .

The second time I did the series I drove the first shift myself in A-spec mode, on every race except Monaco and Nurburgring. This meant I turned the car over to my B-spec driver with a huge lead, usually 30 seconds or better, from which point he coasted to easy victories.

I use a DFP, MUCH better for me than using the DS2.

My B-spec driver is 10000/100/100/100.

 

[OZZYGT]

I qualified for all races except Nurburgring the first time. This makes a big difference, if your car can start in first place instead of having to work its way through the pack. The second time, on Nurburgring, I tiptoed slowly around the track for the warmup lap lest I do the last half of the timed lap on red tires; if the clock had been running for the warmup lap my time would have been around eight or nine minutes.

This is a great advice that I forgot to mention 👍

This gave me my largest MOV for the series except Laguna Seca, since they made one more pit stop.

Laguna Seca is bar far the easiest one, the AI will go off the track on their last lap before going into pits. Usually after the corkscrew.

I loved that one.

Generally I left the pace at 3. At Nurburgring I set the pace to 5 until my car took the lead, then dropped the pace back to 3.

Why didn't you just leave it at four?

My driver never spun at either turn, the AI of course was all over the place. This strategy gave me a 2-lap win .

Yup, what I just said.

except Monaco and Nurburgring.

You really missed out some fun there.

My B-spec driver is 10000/100/100/100.

........





Ciao!

 

[RichRacer81]

My power just went out so I have to start back at the high speed ring race #2...but I was able to try ozzy's setup. It didn't quite work for B-spec(it was good for second place, but couldn't quite pull for first - just observation on one race), but when I sat in on a full tire run on A-spec, it worked fairly well.

I ended up switching back to stock specs for New York but altered the toe and lowering the TCS and lowering the speed to #4.

 

[OZZYGT]

What can I tell ya, I ain't no expert on B-Spec

BTW, Welcome to GTP 👍






Ciao!

 

[BobK]

My power just went out so I have to start back at the high speed ring race #2...but I was able to try ozzy's setup. It didn't quite work for B-spec(it was good for second place, but couldn't quite pull for first - just observation on one race), but when I sat in on a full tire run on A-spec, it worked fairly well.

I ended up switching back to stock specs for New York but altered the toe and lowering the TCS and lowering the speed to #4.

Ah, man, my sympathies on that. But that's partly why I saved the game after every race.

Incidentally, the B-spec driver ignores the TCS and ASM settings.

 

[RichRacer81]

yeh....i try to take EVERYTHING into account. I have about 50 cars I use a lot that i've spent atleast an hour each, tuning to make it near perfect for racing.

My favorite new car that I just tuned is the Mazdaspeed 6 touring car(yellow/blue). Awesome car with decent speed, but it seems to lose a lot of speed when cornering hard, and doesn't quite pick back up like rwd's do. I barely beat an NSX on one race....had to juice it.


Thanks, by the way, Ozzy...

 

[Alfaholic]

Advice: When you move on to Next Event (or next race or whatever), check the grid lineup. If the cars that are closest to you in the championship are at or near the front of the grid, do a qualifying lap. You don't even need to do a flying lap, just go out of the pits, complete the circuit and pull straight back in. When you then look at the grid it will be all mixed up and the most competitive cars should be near the back of the grid. They rarely recover

For other advice, have a look in the Race Reports section. There are plenty of FGT series reports in there and some cover b-spec. Here's a shortcut to my experiences. Some of the tips may be useful.

http://gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=68103&highlight=alfaholic+FGT

Good luck!

 

[Smallhorses]

Over the past few weeks, I've been competing in this series.
I wanted maximum A-spec points with a stock Formula GT, which means minimum downforce. At 127 A-spec points per race, it's not been too difficult, just requires the ability to lap almost perfectly for almost 2 hours at a time, since the low downforce increases tyre wear, and I've invariably had to pit more frequently than the AI.
So far the races have been enjoyable to a point, although there are certain venues where the AI isn't too careful about ramming you into the sandtraps, but hey, that's nothing new for a GT game, right?
I do plan on going back after 100% complete with the black Formula GT for 200 points in each race by using some ballast weight too. 👍

Don't know anything about B-spec. Haven't ever used it.

 

[TheCracker]

Over the past few weeks, I've been competing in this series.
I wanted maximum A-spec points with a stock Formula GT, which means minimum downforce.

Does lowering your downforce give you more A-spec points?

 

[Smallhorses]

Does lowering your downforce give you more A-spec points?

Oh yes, Dan!
With a stock FGT, entering this race at maximum downforce puts your car on par with all the other entrants, and as we know, entering an identical car to your opponents always yields 60 A-spec points.
If you enter the FGT but reduce downforce, the A-spec point value will increase (to a maximum of 127 A-spec points) according to how much downforce you remove.

There are 3 major factors which affect A-spec points, power, weight and downforce.
Increasing power decreases A-spec points. (And vice versa)
Increasing weight (adding ballast) increases A-spec points
Increasing downforce decreases A-spec points.

There's another simple test you can do to prove this.
Take a car which has a one make race series. e.g. Triumph Spitfire, or Audi A3 3.2 Quattro. Enter the car in absolutely "out-of-the-box" stock form. You will be given 60 A-spec points for winning.
Now add a wing to the car, but touch nothing else. Enter the same race. Against the same field of opponents, your A-spec points on offer will have dropped, since you now have downforce and they don't!
If you go into settings, and adjust the downforce levels from maximum to minimum, you should see a difference in A-spec points on offer.
If you have chance, try it and let us know what the different point values are.

 

[AMG.]

Does lowering your downforce give you more A-spec points?

Yes it does and so does adding extra ballast and using different ('worse') tyres on front wheels. The last cant be done on that car but I take it you already found that out. Come on over to the 200 A spec race threads (stock or tuned) and read up on it .

Edit: treed.
AMG.

 

[TheCracker]

Oh yes, Dan!
With a stock FGT, entering this race at maximum downforce puts your car on par with all the other entrants, and as we know, entering an identical car to your opponents always yields 60 A-spec points.
If you enter the FGT but reduce downforce, the A-spec point value will increase (to a maximum of 127 A-spec points) according to how much downforce you remove.

There are 3 major factors which affect A-spec points, power, weight and downforce.
Increasing power decreases A-spec points. (And vice versa)
Increasing weight (adding ballast) increases A-spec points
Increasing downforce decreases A-spec points.

There's another simple test you can do to prove this.
Take a car which has a one make race series. e.g. Triumph Spitfire, or Audi A3 3.2 Quattro. Enter the car in absolutely "out-of-the-box" stock form. You will be given 60 A-spec points for winning.
Now add a wing to the car, but touch nothing else. Enter the same race. Against the same field of opponents, your A-spec points on offer will have dropped, since you now have downforce and they don't!
If you go into settings, and adjust the downforce levels from maximum to minimum, you should see a difference in A-spec points on offer.
If you have chance, try it and let us know what the different point values are.

I see! - you learn something new every day (2nd time i've said this today )

 

[Grayman222]

are all the FGT races 60 a-spec points or do they vary based on how hard the AI tries? I just got the FGT and the few races i did in arcade mode for 60 points were very easy, even with a few minor offtracks I got first place. If I can gain 6 seconds in 3 laps with offtrack moments on midfield i'd be worried about how pointless the championship would start to feel if I aspeced it.

 

[rob__t]

For me, Formula GT-series has been it's first two races positive surprise, I'm using Duck's setup for Formula and I've been able to let competitiors two laps behind me and eight laps in Motegi oval. For me, GT-All Stars series with Nissan R92CP with all best parts without nitrous was much harder to win when worst competitior had also R92CP.

 

[JTSnooks]

My strategy was to drive A-spec for the first pit interval, which allowed me to build about a half-lap lead on the AI or more (they're really slow). Then, let Bob drive for about 2 pit intervals (my Bob's slow) until the AI has almost caught up, then take back over and build up a lead, give it back, etc. I usually finished about a lap ahead (although I think I ran the whole TRM oval in A-spec and finished almost 10 laps ahead) by the time it was all said and done.

Had I done the whole races in A-spec (I did a few), I would've been 4-5 laps ahead on every track. The AI really drives those cars slow, I don't know why. Of course, that's probably why they can go 3 laps longer on their tires than I can

 

[rob__t]

I suggest you to gain enough points before Nurburgring to win championship even you got 6th position, that track is abolutely horrible to drive with Formula , you have to push hard all the time if you want to keep AI's behind you and there's countless number of bumpy high speed corners where the car can suddenly wheelspin and there's nothing to do even running with good setup. Luckily I managed to gain 110pts before that green hell so I can just watch right now how my foolish b-spec driver messes around there.

Sorry, I was wrong, there are 15 races, 3 more after Nurburgring.