B Quiet N Drive
(Banned)
- 220
- GunsRazorsKnifes
So... I have finished most of the A-Spec events and decided to tackle my endurance races. This has always been my favorite part of GT games. I have fond memories of running the 24hr event at Nurburgring in GT4 but this time in GT5; I wanted to make these races competitive. Like a lot of people, I'm always teetering on the line of wanting to make these races challenging but also afraid of putting in the time to run an endurance race, and not winning it, and having to run it again.
I recently ran the 60 lapper at Grand Valley and decided to use my real life car, a Velocity Red Mazda RX-8. I did a little testing in this car to assure that I wasn't going to win too easily but long story short, I still won by over a minute and that's too much. I'm looking for more of a nail biter.
For Laguna I originally looked at muscle cars but they all had too much HP. The "Typical AI" HP was between 400-440 for the top cars. Using my learnings from the Grand Valley event, I wanted to try something in the 250-300 HP range in order to present a proper challenge.
I took my stock RX-8 again, fitted with all three Sport Tire compounds. My plan is to start on Hard tires, which would have me losing 1-2 seconds a lap on the leader and then switch to Medium or Soft in an effort to run the leaders back down before the end.
I ran a little 15 lap test to see how my car stacked up. A little too strong I though, so I knocked my HP down a little with the new power adjustment tool, and I'm good to go.
Lap 1: Starting 7th I get passed by a 4th Gen Camaro right off the line because I'm way down on power. I get around him on the outside of turn 1 thanks to the superior handling of the RX-8 and resumed my chase for 6th. All my passes have to be clean. The game provides you the car for a driving sim, but it's up to you to race realistically... So I'm taking my time planning my passes and trying to get settled in, got a loooong way to go. No point in over driving the car right now.
Lap 1-15: Losing 1-3 seconds a lap to the leader, now about 30 seconds back, I work my way into 4th place. I'm already feeling the weight of 90 laps and starting to think that I'm falling back too far too fast. Maybe I shouldn't have knocked that last 15 HP off of the car... Still making sure to make "realistic" passes to get up to fourth, I know have clear track in front of me and another 15 to 20 laps before I plan to stop for softer tires so I put my head down and went back to work. The RX-8 has a great balance and was a lot of fun to drive, but I was losing time pretty rapidly. 1st -3rd were way, way ahead of me.
Lap 20-35: By lap 20 I was over 45 seconds back. I had begun chasing down lapped cars hoping that any one of them would be the 3rd place car but no luck. Still losing leaps of time to the leader. My tires were worn and my lap times had slowed from 1:44:xx's to 1:46:xx's. I went through a few laps of not losing any further time to the leader but I was hoping that once the tires wore down I'd start making up more time, but it never really happened. Now I'm starting to wonder if they take their stock tire compound by default when they pit...? If any of them (AI) get onto sports soft tires I'm screwed. Lap 35 rolls around and I'm now 1:08:xx back from the leader and my tires are pretty used up. Time to pit. I may not have brought a fast enough car. We'll find out now cuz I'm changing to Sports Softs.
Lap 35-65: At about lap 35 I go in and take on Sports Soft Tires. Directly after my pit stop I was over 2:00 behind. After the leader pit's as well, I'm down to 1:15 seconds behind. I'm running lap after lap on these Sport Soft tires but I'm not making up any time what so ever. This is not going according to plan.
Lap 40 +1:15
Lap 41 +1:16
Lap 42 +1:14
Lap 43 + 1:15
Lap 44 + 1:14
Lap 45 + 1:15
Lap 46 + 1:14
Lap 47 + 1:13
You see my pattern here? I'm now half way through the race, I'm not making up any time on the leader and I still have to make one more stop because I'm on Soft Tires. I'm not sure if the AI is going to make another stop or not. I'm already not making up any time, so another stop would kill me completely. My best bet is to keep my head down and my elbows up and hope that I start making up time when the tires start going away... I'm usually much better than the AI on worn tires.. "Keep going, they'll come to you" I kept telling myself.
It started working. Around lap 57 I started getting 1-3 seconds a lap. By the time I hit lap 65 I had worn them down to a minute. 25 laps to go, 60 seconds back, making up 1-3 seconds a lap... This is playing right into my hands. It just might be the close finish that I wanted.
Lap 65-80: Over these 15 laps I just kept going as hard as I could. No time for mistakes, luckily this RX-8 is an excellent and forgiving car because I've had her sideways time after time, trying to ring every second I could out of each lap. I knocked the lead down to 55 seconds, then 50 seconds, then 45, then 40, etc... I was catching the leader but I was quickly running out of time. Finally I passed a car that turned out to be the 3rd place car. Then around lap 70-ish I passed the second place car. Still driving my butt off, I had knocked the gap down a few seconds a lap, slow but steady. After working the gap down through the 30's, down through the 20's, and under 10 seconds I could now see the leader. A yellow Dodge Viper. Coming up to the last corner I was planning when I would catch him, when he ducked into the pits.
Lap 80-Finish (Lap 90): This left me with the lead but I knew I still had to pit as well. I was VERY relieved when I saw the AI pit though. I was finally about to catch him and my Soft Tires weren't going to last until the finish. They were getting a little slidey, but that's the way I like'em!
I fly into the pits. I know that I'm about to lose the lead though. Watching the course map, I can see the Yellow Viper's little blue triangle coming to reclaim the top spot. 10 laps to go. My brain was frantic. I had to get out in time to have time to catch the Viper. No gas this pit stop, I got enough gas to finish the race back on my first stop, just tires and I'm out. My crew let's me go just as the Viper passes me on the long front stretch to my right. The AI took what felt to be a million years to get my car back out to the track down that LONG pit road exit at Laguna.
Finally, I was out of the pits. I could still catch the Viper. He was 8 seconds ahead of me, 9 laps to go. I couldn't have planned it any better. About 3 hours of racing, coming down to the final laps. It took me all race to catch him. Brand new set of Sports Softs underneath me, it was time to "get up on the wheel and make it happen" as they say.
I drove the RX-8 for everything it was worth, but I was pretty exhausted myself. The Viper was getting bigger and bigger. 8 seconds back, 7 seconds back. For a couple of laps I made up no time at all, then started getting a second or more per lap again. Finally on lap 96 I caught him between the cork screw and the final turn. He passed me back on the straight but I held him off in turn one. Over the last few laps I pulled into a 6 second lead setting my fasted lap, a 1:40:xx on my last lap, to take the checkers.
6 seconds is my closest enduro yet!
Next challange is the 4 hours of Nurburgring!
(For those who care, I race with assists off with the exception of ABS, on 1. Using a Driving Force GT Wheel)
Any close Enduros in your past?
I recently ran the 60 lapper at Grand Valley and decided to use my real life car, a Velocity Red Mazda RX-8. I did a little testing in this car to assure that I wasn't going to win too easily but long story short, I still won by over a minute and that's too much. I'm looking for more of a nail biter.
For Laguna I originally looked at muscle cars but they all had too much HP. The "Typical AI" HP was between 400-440 for the top cars. Using my learnings from the Grand Valley event, I wanted to try something in the 250-300 HP range in order to present a proper challenge.
I took my stock RX-8 again, fitted with all three Sport Tire compounds. My plan is to start on Hard tires, which would have me losing 1-2 seconds a lap on the leader and then switch to Medium or Soft in an effort to run the leaders back down before the end.
I ran a little 15 lap test to see how my car stacked up. A little too strong I though, so I knocked my HP down a little with the new power adjustment tool, and I'm good to go.
Lap 1: Starting 7th I get passed by a 4th Gen Camaro right off the line because I'm way down on power. I get around him on the outside of turn 1 thanks to the superior handling of the RX-8 and resumed my chase for 6th. All my passes have to be clean. The game provides you the car for a driving sim, but it's up to you to race realistically... So I'm taking my time planning my passes and trying to get settled in, got a loooong way to go. No point in over driving the car right now.
Lap 1-15: Losing 1-3 seconds a lap to the leader, now about 30 seconds back, I work my way into 4th place. I'm already feeling the weight of 90 laps and starting to think that I'm falling back too far too fast. Maybe I shouldn't have knocked that last 15 HP off of the car... Still making sure to make "realistic" passes to get up to fourth, I know have clear track in front of me and another 15 to 20 laps before I plan to stop for softer tires so I put my head down and went back to work. The RX-8 has a great balance and was a lot of fun to drive, but I was losing time pretty rapidly. 1st -3rd were way, way ahead of me.
Lap 20-35: By lap 20 I was over 45 seconds back. I had begun chasing down lapped cars hoping that any one of them would be the 3rd place car but no luck. Still losing leaps of time to the leader. My tires were worn and my lap times had slowed from 1:44:xx's to 1:46:xx's. I went through a few laps of not losing any further time to the leader but I was hoping that once the tires wore down I'd start making up more time, but it never really happened. Now I'm starting to wonder if they take their stock tire compound by default when they pit...? If any of them (AI) get onto sports soft tires I'm screwed. Lap 35 rolls around and I'm now 1:08:xx back from the leader and my tires are pretty used up. Time to pit. I may not have brought a fast enough car. We'll find out now cuz I'm changing to Sports Softs.
Lap 35-65: At about lap 35 I go in and take on Sports Soft Tires. Directly after my pit stop I was over 2:00 behind. After the leader pit's as well, I'm down to 1:15 seconds behind. I'm running lap after lap on these Sport Soft tires but I'm not making up any time what so ever. This is not going according to plan.
Lap 40 +1:15
Lap 41 +1:16
Lap 42 +1:14
Lap 43 + 1:15
Lap 44 + 1:14
Lap 45 + 1:15
Lap 46 + 1:14
Lap 47 + 1:13
You see my pattern here? I'm now half way through the race, I'm not making up any time on the leader and I still have to make one more stop because I'm on Soft Tires. I'm not sure if the AI is going to make another stop or not. I'm already not making up any time, so another stop would kill me completely. My best bet is to keep my head down and my elbows up and hope that I start making up time when the tires start going away... I'm usually much better than the AI on worn tires.. "Keep going, they'll come to you" I kept telling myself.
It started working. Around lap 57 I started getting 1-3 seconds a lap. By the time I hit lap 65 I had worn them down to a minute. 25 laps to go, 60 seconds back, making up 1-3 seconds a lap... This is playing right into my hands. It just might be the close finish that I wanted.
Lap 65-80: Over these 15 laps I just kept going as hard as I could. No time for mistakes, luckily this RX-8 is an excellent and forgiving car because I've had her sideways time after time, trying to ring every second I could out of each lap. I knocked the lead down to 55 seconds, then 50 seconds, then 45, then 40, etc... I was catching the leader but I was quickly running out of time. Finally I passed a car that turned out to be the 3rd place car. Then around lap 70-ish I passed the second place car. Still driving my butt off, I had knocked the gap down a few seconds a lap, slow but steady. After working the gap down through the 30's, down through the 20's, and under 10 seconds I could now see the leader. A yellow Dodge Viper. Coming up to the last corner I was planning when I would catch him, when he ducked into the pits.
Lap 80-Finish (Lap 90): This left me with the lead but I knew I still had to pit as well. I was VERY relieved when I saw the AI pit though. I was finally about to catch him and my Soft Tires weren't going to last until the finish. They were getting a little slidey, but that's the way I like'em!
I fly into the pits. I know that I'm about to lose the lead though. Watching the course map, I can see the Yellow Viper's little blue triangle coming to reclaim the top spot. 10 laps to go. My brain was frantic. I had to get out in time to have time to catch the Viper. No gas this pit stop, I got enough gas to finish the race back on my first stop, just tires and I'm out. My crew let's me go just as the Viper passes me on the long front stretch to my right. The AI took what felt to be a million years to get my car back out to the track down that LONG pit road exit at Laguna.
Finally, I was out of the pits. I could still catch the Viper. He was 8 seconds ahead of me, 9 laps to go. I couldn't have planned it any better. About 3 hours of racing, coming down to the final laps. It took me all race to catch him. Brand new set of Sports Softs underneath me, it was time to "get up on the wheel and make it happen" as they say.
I drove the RX-8 for everything it was worth, but I was pretty exhausted myself. The Viper was getting bigger and bigger. 8 seconds back, 7 seconds back. For a couple of laps I made up no time at all, then started getting a second or more per lap again. Finally on lap 96 I caught him between the cork screw and the final turn. He passed me back on the straight but I held him off in turn one. Over the last few laps I pulled into a 6 second lead setting my fasted lap, a 1:40:xx on my last lap, to take the checkers.
6 seconds is my closest enduro yet!
Next challange is the 4 hours of Nurburgring!
(For those who care, I race with assists off with the exception of ABS, on 1. Using a Driving Force GT Wheel)
Any close Enduros in your past?
