Reefer Madness! Saturday Classic Racing 10pm GMTOpen

[Venari]

Because I'm feeling super-specially-Christmas generous, I'm sharing my Golf setup. Now, I'm not the best at setting up FFs, I don't seriously race them a lot. However, I spent a bit of time with the Golf and compared it to my old Civic CX setup, and have made both faster because of it.

I'm very pleased with the Golf for me, but I don't know if it'll work for you. Have a play:

'76 VW Golf GTi (Suzuka tune)

RH 80 / 80
SR 2.40 / 3.00
DC 10 / 9
DX 9 / 10
ARB 5 / 7
CT 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Race Brakes 6 / 7

Trans, after power modifications, set max Final, min Speed then:
First 2.650
Second 1.925
Third 1.425
Fourth 1.125
Top 0.940
Final 3.400

LSD 25 / 50 / 20
Plus triple clutch.

Power, no oil change, 100%
Stage 3 tune,
Sports Computer
Race Exhaust
Iso Manifold
Sports Cat
Intake Tune
Mid-RPM Turbo
Makes 226hp @ 6,500rpm, 27.0kgfm @ 5,900rpm, change at 7 in high gears (4th to 5th) stretching towards 7,500 in low gears (1st-2nd/2nd-3rd).

Body stage 3 lightened, window weight reduction,
132kg ballast @ +50% = 851kg with 51:49 balance.

This is a powerful car for the weight, and seriously, I'd make it heavier if I could (for top-end speed) but the power curve with the High-rpm turbo is crap. This thing drives well all through the critical 4,500-7,500 range and you can see why from the power graph. (On reflection, oiling this car and ballasting it up a little more might work!) As for the suspension, the theory is to not transfer weight to the rear under acceleration. I started with a lot more on the front to begin, and the car felt good, but it killed the front tyres so I moved it as far back as I dared and started making the car work a bit harder back there under brakes. It's not perfect but it's not bad - it's good off the line this way, which susprised me. It's definitely a different drive to the FRs, you have to be patient and steady, but it's surprisingly quick out of the corners and not too shabby in terminal speeds. Pick a draught up and you're really harrying the other guy.

 

[buybon355]

Anyone else having tyre wear issues? Just can't get them to last!

 

[Venari]

It's veerrrrrrrry tricky. This will be an interesting pair, make no mistake.

 

[reefer]

Thanks for letting us know gerber. Have a good night

I'll be trying your tune in a minute Venari to see if it mitigates any of the horrible tyre wear buybon mentioned. I'm down to 2 at the end of 20 minutes, but I've got a plan!

Good luck to all in the final race of the Championship

 

[buybon355]

What a meeting! Absolute nail biting end to the championship, never thought it would turn out like that!

Been great hard clean racing all the way guys. Thanks to Joe for putting together a fantastic series with some awesome cars to choose from. Great competition from the usual suspects, been a pleasure racing with you all.

Here's to the next series!

 

[reefer]

Race 1 Report​

Goodness me, what to say when Claudia Schiffer walks in the room!

It was down to the last meet of the winter calendar to decide our GT6 Classic Car Championship winner for 2015. Any one of the four protagonists at the top of the leaderboard could take the title and today it would be decided.

As the seven drivers polished their race craft during practice, anticipation grew. Who was in what car? What was their strategy? To pit or not to pit? The gathered spectators were getting edgy. "Let's get on with it. There's a championship to be won," they chanted. OK, start the quali we did. But a section of the crowd weren't happy as they'd just seen IfAndOr come online. "Oh, but hold on a minute, where's If? We can't start without If!" "Okay, you're right, let's wait for Mr If, he should be along any minute.... now!" So restart it was. We'll give him a couple of minutes.. tick, tick, tick.. "10 seconds guys..." BINGO.. up pops If.. and into the room he saunters. "Thanks for waiting peeps." The crowd are happy, "Now you can start, our hero is here," they exclaimed." With that small delay all the nervous energy had started to dissipate, but the possible permutations of who had to finish where to still be in with a shout remained.

So, eight we were.... (but not for long Tom!) and before racing in earnest a reminder of the points at the top was offered, as was good luck and wishes to all.

The points standings at the top before commencing today's racing:

Venari________235 minus nothing = 235
joe___________235 minus 18 = 217
buybon________235 minus 22 = 213
bloodyboyblue__208 minus nothing = 208

*The best 14 results from 16 races (8 week championship/2 races per meet minus the two lowest scoring races) will count towards the driver's total points score.

Venari needed to win

• 33 points to secure the title. 1st and 6th to win the championship / or a 2nd and 3rd

buybon355 needed to win

• Two 1sts and hope that Venari doesn't pick up more than 27 points
• 1st and 2nd and hope that Venari doesn't pick up more than 20 points / joe doesn't pick up 43 points

joe needed to win

• Two 1sts and hope that Venari doesn't pick up more than 32 points
• A 1st and 2nd hope Venari doesn't pick up more than 25 points
• Two 2nds and hope Venari doesn't pick up more than 17 points / buybon doesn't pick up more than 40 points

bloodyboyblue needed to win

• Two 1sts and hope Venari doesn't pick up more than 22 points / joe doesn't pick up more than 40 points / buybon doesn't pick up more than 44 points
• A 1st and a 2nd and hope Venari doesn't pick up more than 15 points / joe doesn't pick up more than 33 points / buybon doesn't pick up more than 37 points

Looking at the figures above, surely the favourite Venari couldn't lose! Or could he? Was all that talk of premium grade fuel running through his pipes really true? Or was he human after all? Bloodyboyblue was on a high after his two wins last weekend and had the bit between his teeth, buybon had been consistently good throughout and was looking strong in the points with every chance of pushing Venari to the end, and I was there or thereabouts but knew full well others were faster on Apricot Hill. Or would newcomer VEXD throw a spanner in the works? Would Suts, Tom and IfAndOr have something to say about it? All would be revealed in the next 20 minutes.

Or so we thought.....

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to play we go.......

venari, from 5th, makes a move on bloodyboyblue edging ever closer to the title in lap 1

but blue is a fighter and still has a chance of the championship himself. "go Bluebird, go!"

while just up ahead, buybon in 2nd place has a big moment and I yell, "Oh, $***" before heavily impacting buybon's beautifully turned out Stratos

and VEXD in the lead is oblivious to all the carnage behind, "ah, great, clear roads today, lovely day for a Sunday drive." he enthuses

"Tooma here, lock your up your daughters cos here I come," hails Tom as the madness sees him in the RUF wanting in on the action

but buybon isn't finished yet and doesn't need a RUF up his bum(per) "No way José", he thinks, "there's a championship to be won and I've got the inside line on Venari!"

after buybon overtakes me and venari, Mr venari decides to keep true to form and give me hard time. "there's a championship to be won, let me by", he thinks, while I'm thinking, "will this man ever leave me alone!" I love him really, just not glued to my bumper, and anyway, "I've got a championship to win," I'm thinking, or maybe I'm dreaming?

"not so fast son," says the red-hot favourite. so I was dreaming then!

meanwhile, buybon up ahead is chasing down the leader VEXD before pitting

and just prior to pitting, Tom and I thought it best to play follow the leader. "You go first Tom, I'll follow."

allowing IfAndOr to emerge from the smoke into 5th place

"well, whatjaknow, buybon in the pits and Joe falling back!" says blue. "c'mon Venari, I've got a championship to win, cut me a break man."

"nope, that's my championship, no can do blue, and anyway, I can smell a fast-approaching Stratos behind me."

"was that the smell of fear from behind you caught a whiff of Mr venari? I'm feeling good and smelling fresh on new tyres, so oota ma way, if you don't mind - there's a championship to be won."

Suts and If, great buddies, had a good ol' dance together while..

buybon's freshness sees him pass blue for 2nd

but the best buybon, blue, venari and myself could manage was a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th with Tom stuck in the pits! Oh boy. VEXD kept the heid and took the chequered with a great drive in the Esprit. congrats VEXD on a fine win. "where did that leave the title contenders," we wondered? time to bring in the number crunchers..

Simply put, with buybon finishing 2nd and venari finishing 4th, blue and myself were out of contention and only buybon could challenge venari for the championship in Race 2! Buybon had to win and hope that venari would finish 6th or lower. Surely impossible? "Of course!" went the cry, except for one. And the mathematicians.

The form book said Venari was hot favourite as he had never been outside the top 3 in any race he'd taken part in. But buybon was no slouch being the second most consistent man in the championship, and having had his fair share of wins was in confident mood. After 8 meets and 15 races, nine points separated them. It was down to the very last race and the sensible money was going on venari - you'd have to have been on the laughing juice to have bet otherwise.

"Let battle commence, after all, there's the small matter of a championship to be won!"

At this point, I'd like the championship favourite, Venari to describe what happened in Race 2 from his perspective.

//

 

[Venari]

Way to put me on the spot. Bit of a blur without watching the replay so I'll edit this later. (I think the following is broadly correct.)

I had noticed people were changing tyres in the first race. At this point I had the choice of the late-model Skyline, the Gordini and the Audi. The Golf and E-Type had already been relegated.

I knew from testing the the Europa would do a 20m23 race without a pit, and the Skyline a 20m25 with one. The Gordini felt great in practice and was me remaining choice for a run without a pit, although I'd done no long term tyre testing in it. It's 850-odd kg weight meant it could probably survive 13 laps OK.

And so, with talk of 'pit bugs', I bucked my plan and went with the Gordini, but with fair confidence of holding a reasonable place.

I got a fair start and harried blue's RUF until he succumbed and I was into third. Now it was just a case of tyre management and keeping it on the rock. Smooth smooth smooth was the order of the day. By lap 7 the tyres didn't look too bad so I decided to stay out on track. With people pitting around me I think I was briefly up to second, but faster cars were coming left and right and the Gordini was suffering for grip by lap 10.

I saw VEXD's RUF spin at the 100mph hairpin so I gingerly eased the car through and settled in for the run to the line. I think on lap 12 or 13 I screwed up the entry to turn 1 and ran onto the grass. Losing grip fast, I gave up fifth place to VEXD heading for the final complex, checked my tyres and with a 1 on the right rear I smoked them going for the line.

And then... lap 14? What? Oh gods. The last lap was clinging on for dear life, but the damage was done. While some discussion had been had that sixth might be enough, it was not, so the damage was already done. The last corner spin was a final insult, but I managed to get just enough traction to retain the place from If and... (suts?)

So... had I been in the Skyline I would have faster, with a pit and decent tyres, it would have lasted. I made the wrong choice!

Well done Colin for doing what needed to be done. I'm going to kick your ass next season though.

 

[gerber]

What kind of lap times you were getting in the qualifying?

 

[bloodyboyblue]

What kind of lap times you were getting in the qualifying?

Best lap of the weekend was 1:28.9 I think run by buybon in the 2nd race

 

[reefer]

Race 2 Report​

Race 2 was off and vexd in the red RUF got a great start, but buybon in the Stratos got an even better one

turn 1 of lap 1 sees buybon's Stratos taking vexd's RUF for the lead

with blue 3rd in the other RUF and venari 4th in the Gordini. we're all off to a clean start

suts in the handsome Jag decides to pick up the rear

venari, with a championship to win, strategises that an early pass on blue is the way to go. "got to stay near the front," he thinks

but venari won't find any favours from those around him and he's going to have to work extra hard as it's still only lap 1 and the Gordini is smokin' 'em already

and it looks like venari's not alone in lighting up the Gordini's tyres. on lap 1 in the other Gordini ifandor, not wanting to be left out, has a moment just in front of suts

but venari is the king of smokes: end of lap 1 sees him trying to throw his pursuers off the trail - will he pay the price later?

and now he's running wide allowing blue through for 3rd. still, it's only lap 4 and I'm sure venari would settle for 4th at the end

nope! never trust the V-man to settle for anything less than a podium finish. "gotta keep on keeping," he thinks. "gotta chase down vexd and buybon."

but blue was having none of it

and fights back to regain his place

then venari was 5th as I squeeze through and buybon thought, "did I just see V dropping to 5th? come on tom (6th), I need you!"

..and V was back to 4th again. buybon thought his mind was playing tricks and it was only lap 6. "must keep on pushing as I know the venari / Gordini combo is gonna hurt those tyres."

and so it was.. the Gordini was struggling to stay on the hard stuff and I went 4th pushing V down to 5th

meanwhile the Statos had a commanding lead and buybon's choice of car was paying off. vexd, 2nd, seen in the distance, was surely gonna pit. blue was 3rd, I was 4th and venari was 5th. tom, who was 6th, was gaining on venari. it was getting exciting now! ifandor and suts were 7th and 8th respectively. lap 7 saw buybon, tom, blue, if and suts all pit for new boots. vexd (now in the lead), venari and I all took our chances and stayed out. pitting dropped the increasing confident championship contender buybon back to 4th

lap 10 and I round turn 1 to see vexd skidding sideways into the gravel. "I should have pitted," he thought

and as the RUF can't recover quickly enough and buybon takes 2nd (with venari 4th). "if I can just hold on for on for 3 more laps I should be okay," venari thinks

and then the Stratos had me for dinner... "1st now, but what position is venari in?"

passing vexd for 3rd as he loses it again

while if entertains suts with some home grown smoke

the end of lap 12 sees grip-challenged venari passed by blue. Mr V was 4th again. he muses, "one more lap. my rear right is at 2 and the 6th placed man, vexd is half a lap behind. just let me hold on for one more lap."

but.. at the beginning of lap 13 it all starts going pear shaped....

and tom, now on fresher rubber, wants a piece of him. so, with half a lap to go, tom drops venari to 5th but vexd losing it at the start of lap 13 gives venari some respite from behind. buybon still leads but needs venari to drop one more place to take the championship title

but V is now in the last complex and 5th would be enough.. if he can just keep going!

"...last corner of the last lap now, some oppppoositte lock please..and then we'll straighten up for the chequered and the title." but buybon had other ideas.

Buybon355 had screamed over the line at the end of 13 laps with 1.5 seconds to spare to extend the 20 minute endurance race to 14 laps. Venari, with his right rear now down to 1, thought it was all over and had done enough to secure 5th place and the championship. But, what? ...one more lap! How come? He now realised he had to suck it up for one more lap, stay in 5th, then he could go home with the silver. With his right rear totally obliterated it was always going to be a big ask. However, never having been out of the top 3, surely today of all days wouldn't be the day to drop to 6th? Surely not on the very last (forced) lap of the very last race of the championship. After all, his mate, 6th placed vexd, was a full home straight behind. He could never catch up on such a short lap. Could he? Stay tuned to find out...

 

[reefer]

..lap 14 Race Report cont.

so into lap 14!! we went. buybon continued to push and was well ahead of his championship rival, venari. but if V stayed where he was in 5th he would take the title. there was nothing going to stop buybon's charge for the line but it wasn't going to be enough. he needed VEXD to overtake the Gordini but it was 18 seconds behind it. all V had to do was keep some kind of pace about him and stay on the track

easier said than done when your right rear just turns to zero

and now VEXD, running on fumes by now, appears in V's mirrors through the Gordini's smoke

and takes the Gordini with ease..

there's nothing V can do. buybon has crossed the line, VEXD moved into 5th and the Gordini hobbles around the last corner and across the line with a dead right rear and a knackered driver

what a race!

and what a drive by buybon to take the chequered and steal the championship title


The Brilliant Buybon is a most worthy winner of the inaugural GT6 Winter Classic Car Championship 2015. Commiserations to the Venerable Venari who could do no more on the last lap to protect 5th. After 16 races (with 14 results counting as scoring points) one point separated first and second place. In fact, congrats to all and thanks for taking time out of your busy days to attend! I believe it was a successful championship.

 

[reefer]

MEET 8: Apricot Hill

Race 1 Results

1st GTP_VEXD_______25
2nd buybon355______18
3rd bloodyboyblue____15
4th GTP_Venari______12
5th joe__kerr________10
6th IfAndOr__________8
7thSutsagrd_________6
8th iamtooma________4

glenn_cullen______DNS
Michael-O-Pear____DNS
Dave76543210____DNS
bcd73___________DNS
JockeP22_________DNS
Eran003 _________DNS


Race 2 Results

1st buybon355_____25
2nd joe__kerr______18
3rd bloodyboyblue___15
4th iamtooma______12
5thGTP_VEXD______10
6th GTP_Venari_____8
7th IfAndOr________6
8th Sutsagrd_______4


glenn_cullen______DNS
Michael-O-Pear____DNS
Dave76543210____DNS
bcd73___________DNS
JockeP22_________DNS
Eran003 _________DNS


updated 26 Dec 2015

Final Driver Standings (after 8 meets/16 races*)

1st buybon355 ______256
2nd GTP_Venari _____255
3rd joe__kerr _______245
4th bloodyboyblue____238
5th iamtooma _______108
6th Sutsagrd_________81
7th IfAndOr__________72
8th dave76543210 ____51
9th Michael-O-Pear____44
10th GTP_VEXD_______41
11th glenn_cullen_____32
12th bcd73 __________26
13th JockeP22 _______12
14th Eran0004 _______0

*The best 14 results from 16 races (8 week championship/2 races per meet minus the two lowest scoring races) will count towards the driver's total points score. All previous results and Driver Standings can be found on post #3 and 4.

Congratulations
to
Buybon
GT6 Winter Classic Car Champion
2015​

 

[reefer]

..and here's your long-awaited prize buybon355.. enjoy..

Crazy Russian Throws Down a Challenge
to Colin, the Fastest Man in the West

​

 

[bloodyboyblue]

I'm working hard on getting my dad, who is recently retired, to buy a PS3 and get into Gran Turismo. We used to play GT1-GT4 against each other when I was a kid and he often beat me, but he probably hasn't played any video games in about a decade. But who knows. He seems receptive to the idea. If he does it and I train him back up to speed, he'll definitely be a part of this series...

 

[reefer]

How cool would that be, to race against your dad! I think I'd love that especially if he was quite competitive.

Also, as it's the first time we've run this championship, I'd just like to say thanks to all again for putting up (with any issues that need ironing out) and turning up (when you could have been out playing). It was good to have you all...cheers
Best wishes for '16... chin, chin and all that Colin, your trophy is in the form of the video above, post #433:tup:

 

[IfAndOr]

Sorry I've not been on GTP since the Madness part 1 finished. So a belated congratulations to @buybon355 on his win - even though he's now gone all next gen console.

And thanks to Joe for running it. The races I managed to make I enjoyed with some excellent company from you all.

Catch you again soon.

 

[buybon355]

Thanks Paul, and yes it's true, I'm project cars all the way now. Simply awesome but very very hard. Hopefully catch up with you all at some point on the other side

 

[reefer]

Are you off to PC Colin? No more GT6?

 

[IfAndOr]

Hi Joe. Not the PC but the PS4. The lure of next gen gaming is indeed strong.
Your crazy Russian guy will have to get a PS4 now.

He will be missed - but not by Venari.


Although for GT6 diehards on Tuesday evenings if anyone is free there is @Zolon32 's Trinity Coupe Championship.

 

[reefer]

@buybon355 my crazy Russian friend has noted this and will be after you on ps4 mate. Are you gonna make the leap Paul?

Zolon's times don't suit me - pity really cos it looks like fun

 

[buybon355]

Are you off to PC Colin? No more GT6?

PC project cars on ps4 mate. Unexpected xmas gift. Very hard but very rewarding

 

[IfAndOr]

Are you gonna make the leap Paul

An expensive period involving a new PC and a tablet (and a vet's bill ) has diverted my spending elsewhere. So no, it's still GT6 for me at the moment. The lack of my current wheel support is also another bugbear.



What's the online racing like in PC @buybon355 ? Or are you you playing the single player so far?

 

[buybon355]

I've only had one nights on line racing so far. Was invited to join a room with a guy I used to race with often in gt6- he made the switch about 6 months ago so was good to catch up. Room was good, he always ran a good room with clean drivers. I finished last every race lol. Big learning curve with this game but really enjoying the realism. Think @Venari would be in his element with the plethora of tuning options available.

Like I say, unexpected xmas gift but relishing the challenge. It is mostly race car focused though which doesn't meet my immediate needs necessarily so will definitely switch to gt7 when it comes out, but for now, I'm enjoying the graphics, the physics and the sounds. Ps3 is still there though so might jump on for a wee race at some point

 

[IfAndOr]

Interesting Colin. Thanks.

I'd like the race car focused aspect I think. Racing in race cars always seems appropriate.

Is there an easy or no tune setting? I already find all the sliders in GT6 confusing, more options would push me over the edge.


Hmm, G29 now £160 in the sale at Curry's. It would be a start...

 

[Venari]

I had a brief play of Project Cars on my buddy's PS4. Very impressive. Tricky, rewarding - as Colin says.

 

[bloodyboyblue]

Project cars is a different genre of game to GT6 for me, fills the same niche as the Shift games did on PS3 (I expected PCars to be of the same quality as them, luckily it's a massive improvement). As everyone knows I don't like racing race cars in games so I doubt I'll play project cars much online, but I'm enjoying the career mode so far. I'll probably just play it in organized series once all the gt6 regulars upgrade, or create no-tuning rooms (yes that is an option) and see if anyone joins. I never tune when I race offline, just like I never tuned in GT before I started playing online also and I still don't know anything about it. I'm still sticking with a controller so of course some cars are near undriveable, especially on cold tires (caterham I'm looking at you) but others are really fun, I'm really surprised to be honest. In the Shift games every car was undriveable over 120mph. The handling reminds me of forza a bit, just less forgiving.

(EDIT just looked through the carlist and the fact that the 90's mustang trans am car, aka probably my favourite-looking race car of all time, is on the list means I now wholeheartedly love this game)

In my dream world Gran Turismo would split in two, the GT Sport series would be entirely race cars and GT would be entirely street cars (with the ability to put spoilers and body kits/liveries etc on them). But that won't happen.

Anyways, whenabouts does Reefer Madness II begin?

 

[reefer]

Re Refeer Madness 2: not sure, I'll need to have a think about it. Might just shake up the car list and run same as. Getting up so early for RM 1 nearly killed me though so I'm not sure what to do.

 

[Sutsagrd]

Belated Happy New Year all!
And a very very belated congrats to @buybon355

I'm definitely up for a repeat of this. Personally I don't mind if it's later eg 2300GMT which gives you another hour is bed!
Happy to test some cars if you give me a list?
BW

 

[bloodyboyblue]

You could do it so it's night time in Japan, mid day in uk and morning here, preferably on Sunday if that's the case.

 

[buybon355]

There was some chat about doing some non series race nights before the series started. I'd blow the dust off the PS3 for a crack at that...