Sardegna Leaderboard: Grind Times for 45 Cars, Strategies, Tunes & FAQ's (post 1.31)

  • Thread starter BobDx123
  • 595 comments
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Instead of the Jaguar, I decided to try the 787B again, an average run if I do say so myself, a looooot of the field was spread out for whatever reason in the 2nd stint, so much so that my best lap was on lap 3 where I was slightly saving fuel. Not a single clean lap without traffic on the last 7 laps which was really frustrating.

This 787B is the worst car for turns of the Gr.C bunch, I found myself sometimes even lifting on T4 if I didn't take the ideal racing lines, but it makes up for it with fairly good fuel consumption and is nice on the tyres, and it also has a lot of acceleration and top speed.

The setup is pretty much the same one I used for the Sauber C9 but with a bit more ballast and more horsepower:

20 Ballast / -19 Ballast positioning
765BHP (Power Restrictor at 77)

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PS: Looks like another record for the 787B but I can definitely improve this by easily 3 seconds if the traffic is nicer on me. Wind was at a good 2-4 m/s across the race.
 
Been a while since I last posted here. I've been trying to get my R92CP time down, but it feels like I am near to my limit there, only managed to do 22:49 twice, both times doing consistent laps rather than really fast ones. I've encountered a lot of slowly going AI as well in several attempts (those that you lap once every two laps) which is really annoying.

Nissan R92 CP '92
22:49.244
FL 1:28.146
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Seeing some of you post their tunes for other cars, I wanted to expand my under 23 minutes car collection. Managed to do it in both 962C and Sauber C9. Sauber was very pleasant to drive, but heartbraking at times cause I finished with 23:00 twice. Porsche drives OK, but its hood camera is roof camera for whatever reason so requires some time getting used to it for me.
Credits to @Larzi- and @Grimm6Jack for tunes.

Porsche 962 '88
22:59.471
FL 1:28.709
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Sauber Mercedes C9 '89
22:59.330
FL 1:28.870
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Last but not least, two entries into the 23 category.

Toyota TS050 Hybrid '16
23:55.956
FL 1:32.523
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Porsche 919 Hybrid '16
23:57.589
FL 1:32.848
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(I wrote this yesterday, for whatever reason it didn’t post)

Absolutely 👍

+1 on @kowalski__1 advice.

As I was saying before, “Lap Time Challenges” in time trials have a big payout, for simply completing a single lap without the pressure from other cars on the road. The car for the challenges can be provided for free, you dont have to buy it. They are usually only one or two minutes laps but can go up higher. Essentially you race around a course as much or little as you want and upon exit it automatically uses you best lap for your current time. While the events are still ongoing/open, you can go back as much as you like to try again without the risk of losing any previous times. They are only overwritten when you exit with a better lap time.

The day each event ends, your time will be compared to the current fastest driver (all times get better over the course of the event). If your best time is within 3%, 5% or 10% of the best (when its over/closed) you will be rewarded 2 million, 1 million or 250k credits respectively. If you were close to a cutoff, its a good idea to check back the day it ends to see if your time got bumped back as it may have changed last time you saw it.

Btw, before entering the challenge, If you check the current leaderboard many of the top spots have videos of their race you can watch to learn all the braking points, throttle gear changes etc... You can even load a ghost for that car to drive alongside while you drive for feedback.

Regarding the circuit experiences:
They are almost the same thing, with the differences being that the times to achieve rewards are preset and the lap is done twice; once broken down into small sections to help you learn the track and once in its entirety. You can do them whenever, in part or full and do as many as you want. Unlike the TT, there’s no limited number available each day. However there’s a flag at the end of the lap so you have to “retry” to go for better times. Again, retrying doesn’t overwrite or jeopardize any already achieved, like before they’re only switched out if they are better.


Circuit Experiences, the lap times and payout listed below from that link we talked about:
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Lastly, on Sardegna:

The WTC800 at Sardegna is for the most part solely a grind for making money. It’s currently the highest earning event in the game, rewarding at a rate of 1.5 - 2 million credits every 60 minutes (25k-32k every 60 seconds) depending on how fast you finish.

With the ability to “de-tune”, we can bring cars to the race that are not even slightly a challenge. It’s not really a big deal which car you pick or if its expensive because you’ll earn it back very quickly. The gr.1 (group c) cars and the Escudo in sold at legendary dealer are the fastest for the coarse but only the the Escudo is available at the moment. As fast as it is, Its a love/hate car though and a lot of people don’t like it.

I’ve found the Peugeot L750R Hyrbid to be the next fastest. Its also a gr.1 and available at brands central for 1 mil. I posted a tune for it few pages back

Click for Peugeot L750R Tune

Edit:
You can also give the Hyundai N 2025 VGT Gr.1 a try that @Chikane_GTR just posted about with a great time, tune included in the post above this


Again you’ll be making so much money you can keep trying others whenever you want.

Doing the same race in the same car can get a bit boring after a while. I made this thread to help break up the monotony of grinding the same course over and over for credits and try for all of us to come up with new options and/or time goals to try to keep things interesting.

—————————-

@Chikane_GTR Smokin Time with the N 2025, Great Job. Will definitely have to check out the new tune.
Welcome to the 23 Club !!
Thanks so much, really appreciated, thanks for your patience.
Indeed today I tried Sardegna twice, both times with the 458Italia GR3 cause I'm really short at money and had no other great car available...just used the settings found in other topic and tried with fuel map setted at 4 and hard tires.
2 pit-stop, 5th lap and 10th.
First time at easy, it was really easy, and I won :)
But loved it so much (my first pit stop ever in GT) that after that I tried at Normal...well, after a while I had a couple of big crashes and that destroyed my attempt, I need to refine how I handle the couple of slow turns in the track, so I finished second, but had so much fun, this time used the soft tires at the last stint and moved the fuel map to 3 cause I had enough to finish.
After that lastly I completed the track experience for Sardegna, won silver and bronze with the gorgeous Audi for LeMans, a beast. I'll try again in the next days.

A question: if I skip a change of tires or a refuel the pit stop would obviously be faster as in the real life, isn't it?
And...I'm driving with TCS at 1, is it ok or would be better to disable it?

I'd need to find a good explanation for all the settings that is possible to make to a car, like the various suspension height and so on...they really change how a car drives.

Thanks again for the patience
 
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Looking for Tunes for more cars Click Here (No more up yet…)

Nissan R92CP

Videos

Sub 22:40 Race by @Turbodatsun




Tunes

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Testing New Format: Combining all tunes for 1 car in single post

*I was set to use the 2nd post on the 1st page with links for all the tunes. I thought it would be much easier to access, compare and keep better organized if those links directed to a single post, rather than the 9 separate it would have been for the Nissan in last post. To keep it clean, i’ve copied the settings to my own car and titled the tune with the name of the member that posted it





Suzuki Escudo Pike’s Peak Tunes
 
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Another sub 23 minutes for me with a Mazda 😁. This brings me to inevitable question now - is anyone willing to share his XJR-9 tune? I've been playing with it a bit today, but yet to find perfect one. Had to go for the medium tyres, as softs were almost dead after 6 laps and I was ice skating. Still missing couple seconds to get under 23 minutes with it though.

Mazda 787B '91
22:58.561
FL 1:28.975
356183382_1782017498863268_4316457130100843615_n.jpg
 
Looking for Tunes for more cars Click Here


Audi R18 TDI ‘11

Videos (not yet)

Tunes & Strategies

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Looking for Tunes for more cars Click Here


Toyota GR010 Hybrid ‘21

Videos (not yet)

Tunes & Strategies

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Looking for Tunes for more cars Click Here


McLaren MP4/4 ‘88

Videos (not yet)

Tunes & Strategies

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For a while i’ve wanted to add something specific for engine swaps to keep things interesting. Not 100% sure what that will be yet but maybe we can have something “time based” and another counting the number of swaps people have won with. If anyone has ideas, I’m all ears.

I thought it might be helpful to provide some info to help with the number of choices available. Since I already made similar scrolling spreadsheets for another thread these are just photos, for a larger view of everything. Hopefully whatever compression the site uses for photos will keep them legible. We will see shortly I guess.

Below are two lists and a key/legend. Btw, cars that have 2-4 numbers for max hp and torque are the figures for each turbo/supercharger from low to ultra, which is specified in the forced induction column.

The first has all of the engine swaps with “race engines” and is ordered by group (highlighted as “fuel usage type”), ending with regular race and pro tune. This one includes the cost of the car and engine. Unfortunately I haven’t finished adding the costs of upgrading all parts yet so I omitted it.

The second list has all of the engine swaps but is ordered by power to weight ratio (assuming everything upgraded to max) and only includes engine cost to keep it smaller. I added this because there are plenty of road cars capable of winning the race.

Lastly is the legend/key to clear up the abbreviations for each cars part list.

Anyway hope some of you find it helpful and we’ll see more of the swap races soon 👍


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New car into the 23”
Nissan GTR R34 with engine swap
(In your face “race cars” hahahah)
Race time
23:53.188
Fastest lap
1:32.097
 

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Another sub 23 minutes for me with a Mazda 😁. This brings me to inevitable question now - is anyone willing to share his XJR-9 tune? I've been playing with it a bit today, but yet to find perfect one. Had to go for the medium tyres, as softs were almost dead after 6 laps and I was ice skating. Still missing couple seconds to get under 23 minutes with it though.

Mazda 787B '91
22:58.561
FL 1:28.975
View attachment 1271975
I would also love to see someone's tune for the Jag. My best time in it is 23.48, I can't for the life of me understand how to knock 48 seconds off. Could just be a matter of me being slow of course, my fastest lap is 1.29.4 but I can't short shift and replicate that sort of pace in order to eke it out to one stop. Sub 23 blows my mind!
 
92cp_2238.jpg

Nissan R92CP '92
22:38.420
1:27.202

Small time update. I think there is couple seconds to improve. I constantly went little wide on the hairpins and last fast chicane was awkward too many times.

After this race, I bought the last car (Ferrari 250 GTO) from Legend cars dealership that I didn't own yet. Before that I have bought McLaren F1, 917K, 300 SL, 8C Touring Berlinetta. Those are all 20M cars. Top of that 13M Barker S Tourer and several 1 to 3 million cars from the Brand Central.

Thanks @BobDx123 for making this thread. I've done well over 100 million credits in the last 1.5 months and I haven't done this because of grinding once (okay maybe this last race was one more time to afford the Ferrari). It's just been fun to try new cars, compare their performances and times with others here on the forum. I had only driven this race once before this thread and I probably wouldn't have bothered to drive just for the money.
 
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Nissan R92CP '92
22:38.420
1:27.202

Small time update. I think there is couple seconds to improve. I constantly went little wide on the hairpins and last fast chicane was awkward too many times.

After this race, I bought the last car (Ferrari 250 GTO) from Legend cars dealership that I didn't own yet. Before that I have bought McLaren F1, 917K, 300 SL, 8C Touring Berlinetta. Those are all 20M cars. Top of that 13M Barker S Tourer and several 1 to 3 million cars from the Brand Central.

Thanks @BobDx123 for making this thread. I've done well over 100 million credits in the last 1.5 months and I haven't done this because of grinding once (okay maybe this last race was one more time for the Ferrari). It's just been fun to try new cars, compare their performances and times with others here on the forum. I had only driven this race once before this thread and I probably wouldn't have bothered to drive just for the money.
@Larzi-
Congrats on both the new time and finishing the car collection! I picked up the majority of what I wanted awhile back so I understand. I did skip over the 20 mils except the McLaren, allocating those credits for tuning, extra car copies and engine swaps. All of which added up way more than I would have thought.

Don’t be a stranger though, hope to still see you around. You’ve been a big part of upping the competition here and I’m sure have helped plenty on here (including lurkers/ those that just read certain posts) with advice, sharing strategy, tunes etc... You still hold the record for 21/22 different cars and so far the only one to get all six cars under 23 minutes 👍

Btw, I just introduced (still setting up) something called “Swap Kings” for more fun/engagement to test out that new part of the game. Maybe you haven’t bought many engines yet 👿 and need more credits…lol

————————————————

Everyone,


I added something called “Swap Kings” to the first page with the leaderboards. I still need a bit more info/data to set it up. My original idea was to have two separate components.

1. A list that keeps track of the number of swaps that completed the race on “hard”??? difficulty. Or, in order to not jeopardize the first place prize for cars that may cut it close, we could just use the equivalent time ie. 26 minutes. Then, everyone could race on normal or easy difficulty if they choose to guarantee the 727,000 credits.

2. A section that acknowledges cars completed something very difficult. For example, there could be a standard for each engine type (gr.1, gr.2, gr.3 etc…) to complete the race in a certain amount of time. Ideally the goal would be the same difficulty, whether it was a gr.1 engine or a regular non-group race engine.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’m 100% open to new ideas, constructive feedback, changes etc… All input is welcome
 
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For a while i’ve wanted to add something specific for engine swaps to keep things interesting. Not 100% sure what that will be yet but maybe we can have something “time based” and another counting the number of swaps people have won with. If anyone has ideas, I’m all ears.

I thought it might be helpful to provide some info to help with the number of choices available. Since I already made similar scrolling spreadsheets for another thread these are just photos, for a larger view of everything. Hopefully whatever compression the site uses for photos will keep them legible. We will see shortly I guess.

Below are two lists and a key/legend. Btw, cars that have 2-4 numbers for max hp and torque are the figures for each turbo/supercharger from low to ultra, which is specified in the forced induction column.

The first has all of the engine swaps with “race engines” and is ordered by group (highlighted as “fuel usage type”), ending with regular race and pro tune. This one includes the cost of the car and engine. Unfortunately I haven’t finished adding the costs of upgrading all parts yet so I omitted it.

The second list has all of the engine swaps but is ordered by power to weight ratio (assuming everything upgraded to max) and only includes engine cost to keep it smaller. I added this because there are plenty of road cars capable of winning the race.

Lastly is the legend/key to clear up the abbreviations for each cars part list.

Anyway hope some of you find it helpful and we’ll see more of the swap races soon 👍


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Just outstanding work. Its much appreciated. Thank you.
 
Great work @BobDx123 with the engine swap chart that will help me pick which ones to spend money on trying first

Btw the top 50 car list needs updating with my nissan r92cp time and the GTR 34 time (it just show that with the hp and fuel economy of the gr1 engines even in a road car is overpowered against even racecars) placing top 12 on the leaderboard
👍
 
@OldandSlow & @Turbodatsun

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback 👍 I’m happy to do these things as long as I’m sure people continue to find them helpful or fun in some way. Obviously they take a bit of time so glad to know they are being used/appreciated

————————-

So Turbo….

Thanks for bringing the times to my attention.
I figured out what was going on with the leaderboard because I was certain I wrote them down. A short while ago I setup a filter function (only the top 50 so far) that will reorganize the order with the click of a button after I type in the times. However, before I altered the first one I created a 2nd page to test it out with so I didn’t lose anything by accident. The top 50 list has had 2 tabs at the bottom since then, one with the original and the one I was testing with. Apparently, somehow I added your and @AlexWilmot ’s most recent times to the other test list by accident, so it only would have appeared by clicking the the second tab for to display the other list.

Anyway, I believe I correctly merged the times to the original and made the other sheet hidden to hopefully avoid this issue going forward. There is still some additional info I plan to add to the other lists as well.

One other thing… How many of the Top 6 cars have you raced now ( 5 group C + Escudo)? I have you down for 3 because I think you brought up racing 962C the 22:55 but didn’t get on the regular boards. I can put it up as that figure, the FL is not necessary if you don’t have it but figured would ask in case you had others as well
 
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@OldandSlow & @Turbodatsun

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback 👍 I’m happy to do these things as long as I’m sure people continue to find them helpful or fun in some way. Obviously they take a bit of time so glad to know they are being used/appreciated

————————-

So Turbo….

Thanks for bringing the times to my attention.
I figured out what was going on with the leaderboard because I was certain I wrote them down. A short while ago I setup a filter function (only the top 50 so far) that will reorganize the order with the click of a button after I type in the times. However, before I altered the first one I created a 2nd page to test it out with so I didn’t lose anything by accident. The top 50 list has had 2 tabs at the bottom since then, one with the original and the one I was testing with. Apparently, somehow I added your and @AlexWilmot ’s most recent times to the other test list by accident, so it only would have appeared by clicking the the second tab for to display the other list.

Anyway, I believe I correctly merged the times to the original and made the other sheet hidden to hopefully avoid this issue going forward. There is still some additional info I plan to add to the other lists as well.

One other thing… How many of the Top 6 cars have you raced now ( 5 group C + Escudo)? I have you down for 3 because I think you brought up racing 962C the 22:55 but didn’t get on the regular boards. I can put it up as that figure, the FL is not necessary if you don’t have it but figured would ask in case you had others as well
Surprised you added the Cappucino on there since I didn’t get 1st
 
Hi guys, I've only been registered here for a few weeks, but have been visiting the forum at random intervals for years. I've been playing GT7 since release, the last few months mostly TTs. Unfortunately, this always brings only 2 million credits.
Since grinding is therefore probably inevitable, if you want to buy all the cars, I was looking for the necessary portion of "extra motivation". And here I am right.
In the meantime I have tried three cars and I have to say that I like the Mazda the most (but I have only driven 4 races with it).
Here are the times (since I still need about 70 million for the Legend Cars Dealer, I still have over 90 races ahead of me, a lot to improve):


Sardegna-Nissan_R92CP'92_22-47,557.jpg

Nissan R92CP
22:47,557
1:27,917

Sardegna-Mazda_787_B'91_22-48,166.jpg

Mazda 787B
22:48,166
1:27,843

Sardegna-Porsche_962_C'88_22-55,848.jpg

Porsche 962 C
22:55,848
1:28,569

The tunes are all based on Turbodatsun's Nissan-tune (thx for that!), I'm a noob in tuning myself.
 

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Surprised you added the Cappucino on there since I didn’t get 1st
Oh that’s right, thank as for pointing that out. I guess it’s nice as a data point for reference, but I think you’re on the right track that it doesn’t need to be everywhere… Maybe the lists with fastest drivers for each car & the fastest time for every car? I’ve 86’d it from the top 50 list. I can remove it from the others as well if you prefer 👍

Have a question since you’ve done a couple swaps and road cars that really treaded that line to eek out the W.

I’m just writing a few of my thoughts here. I’m open to ALL ideas and we will do whatever all of you want

The Top 50 List: Do you think we should keep this board with a cutoff of 26 minutes (the standard win time)? I don’t believe we’ve entered that territory yet. My initial thoughts were that sometimes the leader finishes a handful of seconds earlier or later and that people could achieve first place with slower times using the same car. I may be wrong, but it always felt random, rather than due to a wind or traffic advantage/disadvantage that affects us the same way. It would also give people the option to drop to “normal” difficulty with cars like that to secure the 1st place prize.

Thoughts?

——————————-

@Pedda

Welcome aboard. Hope this will help pass that grind time for the 70 mil.

Great times right off the bat, very impressive. Pretty crazy for only 4 attempts. Your race times are on the 2nd Leaderboard list (Fastest Racers for Each Car). Congrats on making “the 22 club” as well, that’s listed on the top of the first page.

Did you make any modifications to Turbodatsun’s tune or keep it the same? Btw, if you ever have any tunes to share or video clips of races or fast laps they are encouraged and a very welcome addition. Lap vids from Time Trials are good too but the event setting (12x tire 8x fuel) should be on. They can be really helpful and instructive for others trying to improve or spot where their errors are.
 
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Several tries later - I DID IT! Sub 23 minute with a XJR-9 😎.
Sharing my tune below if anyone needs one. As for myself I guess it is time to handle the Escudo now 😁.
First stint I short shifted around middle or the RPM bar in hood view, second stint between suggested gear and end of the bar.
I saved a replay so will probably come back with my fastest lap replay later on.

Jaguar XJR-9 88'
22:59.166
FL 1:28.884
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@BobDx123 this thread got me almost towards the end of my car collection (missing 10 now, about 16 million away). Nice way to give a meaning to the race with mostly boring AI. Much appreciated.

XJR-9 tune:
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Oh that’s right, thank as for pointing that out. I guess it’s nice as a data point for reference, but I think you’re on the right track that it doesn’t need to be everywhere… Maybe the lists with fastest drivers for each car & the fastest time for every car? I’ve 86’d it from the top 50 list. I can remove it from the others as well if you prefer 👍

Have a question since you’ve done a couple swaps and road cars that really treaded that line to eek out the W.

I’m just writing a few of my thoughts here. I’m open to ALL ideas and we will do whatever all of you want

The Top 50 List: Do you think we should keep this board with a cutoff of 26 minutes (the standard win time)? I don’t believe we’ve entered that territory yet. My initial thoughts were that sometimes the leader finishes a handful of seconds earlier or later and that people could achieve first place with slower times using the same car. I may be wrong, but it always felt random, rather than due to a wind or traffic advantage/disadvantage that affects us the same way. It would also give people the option to drop to “normal” difficulty with cars like that to secure the 1st place prize.

Thoughts?

I think only have results that have won means less work for you to constantly update 😂

I have had instances were back markers have slowed the AI so a finishing time above 26min for a win has happened on the rare occasion.

However happy for whatever you decide is best for the thread
 
Did you make any modifications to Turbodatsun’s tune or keep it the same?
The only thing I've changed was the manual adjustment, and that's the only thing too which I'm not satisfied with :lol:. So I'll test it and if I found some improvements I'll post it here.
 
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