SCC - Ferrari 348 Challenge Series - Series Complete - Results Posted!

[MannyMoenjack]

Hi folks.

This is my third day of being the proud owner of SCC and I thought I'd prepare myself for next Sunday's race. I've been doing laps of Virginia and I seem to not be able to do better than a 1:43:XX. I was just wondering if you guys had any tips on how to get that time down. I'd be happy with a 1:35:XX but I just can't seem to find those elusive seconds. The corners that seem to catch me are Nascar, Uphill and Roller Coaster. I either play things too conservatively or else fly off the track. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm using a DFGT, vanilla car settings, all assists off, Steering Sensitivity at Medium, Pedals and FFB at High.

Hi! Read post #461 (above) by Allen. I don't think you'll find a better description of how best to drive this track.

In spite of how chopped up this track seems to be at first impression, you need to concentrate on stringing these turns smoothly together one after another. Avoid all dramatics. (i.e, getting sideways) Vompatti said it best when he said the fastest laps come when you don't seem to be trying so hard. Smoothness will bring your times down very quickly.

 

[NihilismOnToast]

Somehow I missed that post of Alan's. Thanks for showing me it! And as for setup? What do most people here race with? Controller or Wheel? Thanks again for the reply.

 

[MannyMoenjack]

Somehow I missed that post of Alan's. Thanks for showing me it! And as for setup? What do most people here race with? Controller or Wheel? Thanks again for the reply.

I think most people use a wheel (about 70%). I use a G25. Generally we don't give away our exact setups before a race, but I'll give some hints.

The front and rear camber settings are close to, or at maximum negative. The toe settings people are using seem to vary according to what feels right to their driving style. I'm using moderate toe out on the front and slight toe in at the rear. (You'll have to experiment to see exactly what feels right). Most people seem to be using a soft spring setup, with hard dampers and roll bars, but I may be mistaken about that. As always ride height in front is at or near full negative and at or near full positive in the rear which seems to develop the best straight line speeds.

Although some people seem to take some pleasure from having force feedback set to High, I find that wrestling with the wheel over 20 laps simply contributes to my mistakes, so I set mine to Low. Even on low it still gives me plenty of information about what the car is doing.

Hopefully this helps you setup your car and gets you up to speed quickly. Of course, there is no substitute for practice so feel free to add me as a friend on PSN and hit me up for a race or two online. Good luck!

 

[NihilismOnToast]

Many thanks again for all your help. See you on the track!

 

[Biggles]

N on Toast - 3 days is not a lot - especially when SCC has such a different feel from most other racing games. VIR is a very tricky track. Keep practicing so that at least you are very familiar with the track - at that point you should be down in the 1.35 area. After that, you can start working on the nuances of your racing line...

 

[hm66]

Hi guys
Well it seems like my settings have been corrupt,but it should be alright now.I had to start all over as now the car has slightly different breaking distance and the grip in corners is also different.I've just checked half my cars regarding setup and there was a couple of strange settings i.e some of them were to high.I got a video of my 599xx settings that had ride hight f/r +0,90.I'll upload it when I get home along with a lap at VIR.

 

[Alan_G]

N on Toast - 3 days is not a lot...VIR is a very tricky track...

Yeah, seriously you'll have no problem. In the races we did (Monza, Redwood), you were very strong for someone who just got the game. Virginia is the most difficult circuit with which to get used to the game, at this early stage for you. But after this, when you try out other circuits, you'll be an extra step ahead of where you would have been had you not practiced with this tough circuit.

(The lack of "Insert Quote" option on posts is a bit annoying)

Henrick: "...I've just checked half my cars regarding setup and there was a couple of strange settings i.e some of them were to high.I got a video of my 599xx settings that had ride hight f/r +0,90..."

Remember following the previous patch where they changed the ride height range? The old settings will not automatically change. Actually yesterday I did a 360GT race and the setup was a pre-patch setup. So after this I just decided to take 20 minutes, go through all the cars and change the ride heights to the valid range.

I know there may have been a problem with getting a patch to modify locally stored data. But there's ways around it; they could have put a check at the car selection screen so if the ride height values were invalid, just prevent the user from progressing to the track. Probably they just missed the side effect of existing ride height values being invalid. Groan.

 

[hm66]

HI
I know alan but that dosn't explaine why my settings on the 348 was suddently wrong.I have been changing it alot

Here it is.Video slightly out of focus at some point.
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[vompatti]

I'm using a DFGT, vanilla car settings, all assists off, Steering Sensitivity at Medium, Pedals and FFB at High.

Hi, nice to see another newcomer and another DFGT user! What comes to wheel settings, I'm with Manny on the FFB strength. To me, the dead zone seems to be/or feels bigger when using higher FFB. That's why I like it better on low as I feel I can drive more accurate. Steering sensitivity I use on High. Pedals are a bit of a problem, at least with DFGT. I would like to use High setup there, but then it seems that 95% of the throttle travel has no effect at all and last 5% is what you use to control the amount of inputs. Medium is almost the same. It's far from optimal. Then on the other hand when set to Low, controlling throttle is easier thanks to longer travel but the pedal response isn't quite on the level I would like it to be. How ever when training to Mont Tremblant I found that I was able to put out quicker laps with pedal sensitivity on Low. So, my setup with DFGT is: Pedals: Low, Steering: High, FFB: Low.

Remember following the previous patch where they changed the ride height range? The old settings will not automatically change.

There have been some problems even with newcomers that haven't ever driven without the latest patch. If you browse couple of pages back, you'll find that I had problems with corrupted setup too (ride height, camber etc.) even though I got the game 3 weeks ago.

 

[jjaisli]

Welcome to Virginia...

And welcome to the 4th round of the "1994" Ferrari 348 Challenge Season from the North Loop Circuit of Virginia International Raceway (VIR).

This event will start at 20:00 GMT on Sunday, May 23rd. Remember, GMT does NOT take summer time into account so please double check your local time!

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QUALIFYING: 2 laps - conditions 50% dry/wet chosen at random. * see below for details.
RACE 1 (Feature Race): - 20 Laps - Dry
RACE 2 (Sprint Race): 15 Laps - Wet

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This information is already posted on the first page but I'm also reposting it here for the convenience of any newcomers. If you're not familiar with the rules for this event, please read carefully! Please also remember that GTPlanet's OLR Rules apply. Please click here to read them in their entirety. Some of the rules listed do not apply specifically to this game. But most of them should be simple common sense.

I will first open a PSN Text Chat room under my PSN ID: jjaisli approximately 5~10 minutes before the event starts and will first send invites to those on my buddy list who are on-line and have expressed an interest in joining this series. You must first join the text chat to take part in the race. If anybody new would like to join, provided there's space in the lobby (16 players or less), you're more than welcome. Just send me a PSN message and I'll send you an invite in return. However, considering the points will carry over from one event to the next, I would like to encourage those who want to join this series to try and show up for every race. Once everybody is securely in the text chat room, I will open a private lobby in Supercar Challenge and then send invites to those already in the text chat window.


LOBBY CONDITIONS
TC: Off
ABS: Off
SC: Off
RL: Off
Transmission: Automatic (which will allow you to choose manual, semi or full auto)
Collisons: Off after penalty except during qualifying (see below for details)
Penalties: unlimited
Setup Restrictions: NONE! You're free to set up the car as you wish.
Grid Order: * see below


QUALIFYING
We will have a two lap qualifying session before the feature race in order to determine grid order. For the first lap, please start off immediately to avoid a penalty but then drive moderately until you build a gap of a least 4~5 seconds to the car in front of you. However, I ask that the first person on the grid, set off at a 'quick' pace to avoid stragglers on his flying lap, who are still trying to build a gap. The second time time across the start/finish line will be your one and only qualifying lap. Collisions will be off during qualifying. If for some reason you have an accident or fall off the track, PLEASE continue your lap and do not go back to the lobby. The following Sprint Race will be run in reverse finishing order from the feature race! Qualifying could be run in either wet or dry conditions and will be chosen at Random before the event starts. Keep it on the track and try to avoid RED laps, which will relegate you to the back of the grid.


POINTS
Points will be awarded as follows:
Feature Race
1st place: 25 points
2nd place: 20 points
3rd place: 16 points
4th place: 13 points
5th place: 11 points
6th place: 10 points
7th place: 9 points
8th place: 8 points
9th place: 7 points
10th place: 6 points
11th place: 5 points
12th place: 4 points
13th place: 3 points
14th place: 2 points
15th place: 1 point
With an additional 1 point going to the fastest lap holder.

Sprint Race
1st place: 12 points
2nd place: 10 points
3rd place: 8 points
4th place: 6 points
5th place: 5 points
6th place: 4 points
7th place: 3 points
8th place: 2 points
9th place: 1 points
With an additional 1 point going to the fastest lap holder. Watch your red lines.

As a final word of warning, larger lobbies almost always suffer some kind of connection problem, the most common being 2 or more players not being able to successfully connect together in the lobby. However, there is a work-around. I encourage EVERYBODY to read through this thread and take appropriate steps. Even if you believe your connection is fast/secure/quick/trouble free, etc, you may unwittingly be preventing somebody else from joining.

See you soon... 👍

 

[jjaisli]

HI


Here it is.Video slightly out of focus at some point.

Looking at this video, you and I are taking almost exactly the same lines, Henrik! 👍 Although I'm really jealous how smooth you are. I just can't be that precise, lap after lap. I guess I should just relent, forget about using the H-Pattern Shifter and turn the Force Feedback down a bit. But, I'm a bit of a masochist in this.

 

[MannyMoenjack]

Looking at this video, you and I are taking almost exactly the same lines, Henrik! 👍 Although I'm really jealous how smooth you are. I just can't be that precise, lap after lap. I guess I should just relent, forget about using the H-Pattern Shifter and turn the Force Feedback down a bit. But, I'm a bit of a masochist in this.

Yes, and imagine how I feel! I use the paddle shifters and FFB set to low already!

I take the same lines as well, but I'm far from being that smooth. Nice driving Henrik! Maybe this week I'll get more practice time. I've got something like 450 total laps on this track with 1/3 from online races so I think I better knuckle-down a bit.

 

[arvore]

Yes, and imagine how I feel! I use the paddle shifters and FFB set to low already!

I take the same lines as well, but I'm far from being that smooth. Nice driving Henrik! Maybe this week I'll get more practice time. I've got something like 450 total laps on this track with 1/3 from online races so I think I better knuckle-down a bit.

You guys should stop complaining you're already in the low 29's

That's a appanage of us slow snails

Henrick,great driving ,as expected:tup: I was really looking forward your tutorial to try to figure out what I was doing wrong and improve my racing line.But now I see I would never make it
I can never ride those curbs whithout spunning ,break so late and yet manage to keep the car on the track-last corner and uphill as well as nascar bend strike my mind-and the overall stability of your driving and the way you keep the car always with optimum grip without oveersteering are just noticeable and beyond my poor driving skills

 

[hm66]

Hi

turn the Force Feedback down a bit

Why whould you do that.I'm on high.
And this isnt my fastest lap.I'm down to 1:28:72 witch i sat just after I turned
the video off.Maby this week I can race some of you as I didnt had any to pratice with last week.

 

[Biggles]

I have to say my 1.29.48 lap seemed absolutely perfect. It came together like magic - each turn led smoothly into the next turn with the additional speed being generated immediately obvious. 👍

However, I have never been able to repeat that lap. 👎

Furthermore, even that "perfect" lap was 1.5 seconds off Alan's fastest pace. 👎

When you're pushing hard at VIR there are so many places you can screw up a by the slightest misjudgement of the weight-transfer, & the consequences of screwing up are a lot of lost time because of the long run-off areas (no bumping off the barriers & carrying on). This should make for an interesting race this weekend.



I am addicted to the H-shifter, but it definitely adds to the risk factor - you have to keep taking your hand off the wheel & a few missed shifts each race are inevitable & can be very costly ...

 

[Pamarac]

Hi guys
I got a video of my 599xx settings that had ride hight f/r +0,90.I'll upload it when I get home along with a lap at VIR.

Hi hm66,

now I'm glad that I could keep up with you at least on some tracks in our races yesterday.
I also use a DFGT settings all high. FFB is simply too good to turn it down.

 

[jjaisli]

I did see your name up on the leaderboard, Pamarac! Some impressive times there, well done. It's good to see that so long after it's release, SCC is still recruiting new players.

 

[hozes]

i goes on vir at 1.32.68 with a little setup changes..but i can improve it about 1-1.5 sec lower...i do this time again in a 9 laps quick race against 7 ai...may be in time trail i can goes to high 1.30.xx )

my total laps on vir is now on 155..all of them are in quick races...but i cannto join the race on vir alhtough i have lots of practice on it and although i have to join the race on vir too much..i am out home at weekend (

 

[NihilismOnToast]

I also use a DFGT settings all high. FFB is simply too good to turn it down.

I could not agree more. With SCC, I get the feeling that I am wrangling a car around a track with the FFB set to high. Lap times might be better of course with it set to low, but I just find the feel of high FFB to be more rewarding.

When the FFB goes limp after crossing the finish line on the last lap, you can really appreciate the FFB!

 

[vompatti]

I just spent a long, very frustrating practice session in Virginia. I really couldn't get the car at all the kind of I would like it to be. It understeers too much, or it oversteers too much, or it's otherwise good but too lazy to go into corners, or terrible over curbs, or then it's good in every other place except the last corner combination, where it's so unbalanced that losing the car is too likely for a race setup. Argh!

 

[Biggles]

That last corner is a doozy - you can lose a lot of time there by not being aggressive enough, but push too hard & stick your wheels in the grass & it's a long cross country detour.

 

[MannyMoenjack]

That last corner is a doozy - you can lose a lot of time there by not being aggressive enough, but push too hard & stick your wheels in the grass & it's a long cross country detour.

That's the only corner that I'm not happy with, and it's easily the most important. I'm certain it's not my setup, but my braking/turn-in point and how I accellerate out of it. If I had to guess, I'd say I get it right about once in ten tries. I don't usually go off there anymore but I frequently take it too tight and suddenly it's "Dukes Of Hazard" time!

 

[hm66]

Hi hm66,

now I'm glad that I could keep up with you at least on some tracks in our races yesterday.
I also use a DFGT settings all high. FFB is simply too good to turn it down

.

Hi pamerac
Good races the other day.It's always nice to race with good clean drivers.And also after all that pratice in the 348 Challenge it was great to race in some other cars.And yes the FFB in this game is what
makes it so good.

 

[MannyMoenjack]

Well, my master plan to lull Alan_G into a false sense of security by allowing him to repeatedly whip my a** at VIR while he breaks into the 1:27's is going perfectly... just perfectly.... Muuuuhhhaaaaahahaaaa!

 

[arvore]

Well, my master plan to lull Alan_G into a false sense of security by allowing him to repeatedly whip my a** at VIR while he breaks into the 1:27's is going perfectly... just perfectly.... Muuuuhhhaaaaahahaaaa!

Me,Manny and Kemp drived so well last night that we Forced Alan into the 1,27,xx

 

[bullie77]

I am considering to start with an online petition to prevent Jeff from ever using this "thing" he believes its a track again, in future events! Honestly... impalation wouldn't be a punishment fair enough to the guy(s) who ever design this after a free-drink night at the pub! They should be impaled and forced to see repeatedly all the series that features in vampires and werewolfs, so much in-fashion these days at the same time!

On a seriously note, I fear this event will become a little of a wreck and frustration for all drivers. The pace differences are enormous (with me on one side and Alan on the other... 6 seconds per lap faster!). A clean overtaking in this track is as likely as someone winning the lottery twice in the same week without actually buying any tickets.

No matter how fair all of us are, some puntings will definitively occur. I've noticed this yesterday while racing with Alan, Arvore and Manny who I have no doubt in consider them clean drivers. I started in 1st position and kept it during the first lap. However the braking points (and distances?) are very different on this track from driver to driver. Brakign into turn 1 and 2, Alan hit me in the back twice. Coming round turn 2, Arvore was pushing me to the inside of the corner - he had to otherwise he would bewide off-track himself! Then while I took Nascar and was aiming for the apex, Manny flyed through there making a small contact, but enough to unbalance my car which, led me to loose speed and, while recovering back the balance then Alan also flyed through causing again the car to get unbalanced...

I'm not holding against you guys, please don't understand me wrong! But I get from yesterday's practice that this race can become quite a mess if WE ALL (ME INCLUDED) don't approach it with due caution. Don't rush in for what on any other track might look like a clean pass shot - while it might be true, other tracks do allow for small mistakes to be easily corrected, but not here.

PS - I wonder if qualifying shouldn't be ignored on this track for both races, and just use the personal's fastest laptimes for setting the grid - faster guys in front, slower in the back.

 

[jjaisli]

I will say this, for all your complaints about VIR, and I share some of them--it's not my favorite track by a long shot, I still say it's much, much better than Paul Ricard--a track I consider to be Dante's Inferno on earth. And if it makes you feel any better, neither will be among the tracks featured in the upcoming F355 Challenge event.

What I was trying to do with this event was recreate the real life series as closely as possible. And in doing so, there will always be tracks we like or we don't. VIR and Infineon were both on the table. Some tracks that were also part of the real Ferrari Challenge series from back in the mid 90s don't exist in this game, so I wasn't too worried about following history exactly. I didn't want to use both VIR and Infineon as they have a lot of similarities. Both are VERY technical tracks that require a lot of practice to learn their unique idiosyncrasies and force you to be very precise to extract the most from your lap. Both have corner sequences where if you get the first part wrong, the rest of the sequence is ruined as well. But the main difference between these two tracks, is that baring any major mistakes from the leading car, VIR has two legitimate passing opportunities where as Infineon has just barely one and it's not a very good one.

The key to driving any track quickly is to get yourself into a comfortable rhythm. And especially here at VIR, where taking the proper line out of one corner is just as important as taking the proper line into the next one, a disruption of that rhythm can be costly and frustrating. I can only assume that by having a different line and different braking points compared to some of these guys, you probably caught them off guard. The fact that this track, like Infineon, has so many uphill and downhill sections, probably makes it even more difficult to drive in this game than it is in real life. No racing sim from my experience really, properly, conveys the sense of vertical movement and what it's like to take off-camber corners. I've never been to VIR but I'm guessing it's actually a LOT of fun to drive around. Within the confines of this game, racing a bunch of other guys, well, maybe not so much. But hey, Alan seems to like it. It's just a shame that he's in the middle of exams and really has NO time to take part in this event. Truly a pity.

Qualifying will take place as normal. Unless people make a lot of mistakes, which is certainly possible, the faster guys will start out front. The sprint race will be another story. Contact is inevitable but it should be avoided at all costs. Don't go running back to the videos now but I can tell you that I was clearly zonked off the track by somebody during one of our previous classic races and the person kept going. It wasn't even a swipe--it was a knock from the rear quarter which threw the car off balance and I wasn't able to make the next corner as a result. But these things happen in real races too. And we'll just have to trust one another.

 

[bullie77]

Contact is inevitable but it should be avoided at all costs. Don't go running back to the videos now but I can tell you that I was clearly zonked off the track by somebody during one of our previous classic races and the person kept going. It wasn't even a swipe--it was a knock from the rear quarter which threw the car off balance and I wasn't able to make the next corner as a result. But these things happen in real races too. And we'll just have to trust one another.

Let me clear that I didn't intend to raise any argues about fair and clean driving. All I'm saying is that this will be a track where due to its extremely technical demand the paces tend to be more differentiated between drivers. Also, and mostly important, this track is a nightmare to overtake, exception made to the start/finish straight but, even there, how you take the last right hand corner and how you come of it it'll be crucial to determined if you're capable of making a pass or not.

So all things accounted the risk of accidents on the race are much higher than in previous ones, and this can potentially ruined an entire race for either a slower guy that gets hit from the back, or the faster guy that sees an opening and makes the pass and is tossed off road by the slow guy who had loose balance, or even for a third guy in the back that has nothing to do with it and gets hit hardly by someone spinning on his front.

My point is that this events are most aimingly for having fun (otherwise, little or no sense would be for me to taking part on them), and cherishing that thought I suggest that the qualify for this event should be skipped so that we could get the faster guys in front of the pack, and the slower in the back, thus lowering (theoretically) the risk of accidents.

I'm sorry if you understand my post has complaint and whinning - it wasn't!

 

[jjaisli]

I'm sorry if you understand my post has complaint and whinning - it wasn't!

That's not how I took your post at all. But I respectfully disagree about your qualifying suggestion. A lot of thought went into the qualifying rounds. And while they're far from perfect, I think we have them pretty much down to a science. Qualifying and grid position should not just be about who was able to do the absolute fastest, flat out lap under prefect conditions on one particular night, 8 days ago. It's about being under pressure and putting in a one lap flyer, faster than the rest, under the same conditions. It's about pointing a finger at somebody and saying, "YOU, perform! Right now!" And that's your chance to put up and show what you have.

This was my whole point with Paulzx's argument about guys who may be running 100+ laps per day practice. Yes, the practice obviously helps, but the only thing that counts is that one lap qualifying (and of course those 35 laps on the track.)

In Miami I totally botched it (red lap). But at both Montreal and Mont Tremblant, I was able to put in a flyer within a few 10ths of my best lap and qualify up near the front. And to me, being under that pressure adds a certain element of excitement and challenge to these events that I feel would otherwise be missing. If we were to revert to 'Fastest Lap' for grid position, the week leading up the event would simply degenerate into a time trial, grid stacking challenge, where everybody tried to outdo each other on lap times rather than worry about race craft and consistency.

If somebody gets a red lap or put in a lap that was too conservative, than they have it all to do and work their way from the back. (Since I was quick to point out my performance in the last two races, I will no doubt, now be among them ) And people working their way through the pack, certainly in the reverse grid sprint race, have to be fair and accept the fact that everybody is there to race and they have to work their way around slower cars cleanly.

 

[MannyMoenjack]

Sergio, I think the race last night that you mentioned was driven a lot more recklessly than I normally drive in the competition events. I think arvore would say the same.

However the points you make are true. The Sprint race in particular is going to be a real test of patience and judgement from the quicker guys at the back. In the races last night on several occasions I found myself holding up Alan who was clearly quicker but he had a difficult time passing me because in order to make it around the track I had to stay on the racing line.

I think the races (and in particular the Sprint Race), this weekend is going to be very interesting and may have the potential to shake things up a bit in the standings.