Suzuka 1000KM in Aspec. Car suggestions?

[Matty Ryan]

Just thought I'd post the line-up for the Suzuka endurance before I start. I am using the WedsSport Celica and I got this line-up at the first attempt.

Honda TAKATA DOME NSX
Toyota ESSO Ultraflo Supra
Alfa Romeo 155 2.5 V6 TI
Opel Calibra Touring Car
Opel Astra Touring Car

 

[EvilToast]

Watch out the alfa is a beast.

 

[DarkKni9hT]

I know I'm a little late into this thread, but for my two cents, if you want to compete in a high points a-spec on said course, my money would be on the 350Z LM concept. This was my favorite of the early prize cars and handles like a charm without burning up wheels. I ran it for ages without ever even tuning it beyond default except to put rear tires up by on levl inhardness as oppsed to the fronts. I've yet to lose with this car in a fair fight.

 

[jdw]

I know I'm a little late into this thread, but for my two cents, if you want to compete in a high points a-spec on said course, my money would be on the 350Z LM concept. This was my favorite of the early prize cars and handles like a charm without burning up wheels. I ran it for ages without ever even tuning it beyond default except to put rear tires up by on levl inhardness as oppsed to the fronts. I've yet to lose with this car in a fair fight.

I'm afraid you won't get too many points with the 350Z LM. Not in this race anyway. Maybe 10-20?

Beautiful car.

However, with a Turbo upgrade you can get high points with this car in ANY of the races against Group C/LMP cars (GT World, All Stars, Real Circuits, etc).

 

[lil Josh]

Better late than never, so i suggest you use that Impreza super touring car, or the Toyota Altezza touring car, both are pretty good. Using the german cars, ull get a massive A Spec score of - 1

 

[Matty Ryan]

I managed 11 laps before I got bored. I was in 3rd place going into the first corner and took 1st place on the long left bend near the end of the course. I was gaining 3-5 seconds a lap on the ESSO Supra and I got a lap time of 2:02:401 on my 5th lap. This was with Super Hard Racing Tyres at front and rear and a Stage 3 turbo. I had Nitrous equipped but didn't use it. On my 11th lap I realised I wasn't going to enjoy another 5 hours of that, so I reset the console and B-Specced it instead.

 

[JParker]

"snip"
Also, did you win Sarthe and Seoul at Dream Car??? I used a stock M3 GTR with R2s for that race and it worked well... except for those two tracks and I'd been struggling to find a 200p that can win the last 2.
"snip"
My most seriously competitive endurance race was at Grand Valley against an RX-8 LM driving a Subaru Touring Car w/ R1s. I tried previously against an RX-7 but it didn't look good. I do love the Suby

Yea, I was working on Dreamcar last night trying to see what would yield the highest points and be a winnable matchup. You have to enter and exit a dozen times or so to get an all LM matchup without the stupid rally car. I ran the LeSarthe last night with the Pitworks Z, but it was only 120 someodd points. I ran a couple individually at Dreamcar with the Viper concept. With Custom LSD, Custom tranny, Medium slicks, if I remember right it is 200 points, I also think you can add stage 1 tuning and still be 200. It is quite an undertaking with stock weight. The Viper handles great to be such a goliath. It takes a lot of finesse. It would be a great drifter car if I was into that. LOL. I also ran the Test Track with the Viper at 700 horses with sport mediums for 200 points, and El Capitan with stock power and Mediums slicks for 200. I'm going to try a few more with the Viper. I think LeSarthe could be won with it.

I ran the Grandvalley endurance with the Merc 190 touring car for around 160 points. I made the mistake and left medium racing slicks on. I would gain a couple of seconds per lap, but had to pit twice as often. The lead was back and forth between me and the RX 8 LM. On the last lap I lapped the Ford race car and had a little over a 1 second lead on the RX8. I was on orange tires and the RX 8 was in the zone. The Ford I lapped slowed down the RX8 and allowed me to take the lead by a little over 2 seconds. It was quite the rush.

 

[jdw]

Yea, I was working on Dreamcar last night trying to see what would yield the highest points and be a winnable matchup. You have to enter and exit a dozen times or so to get an all LM matchup without the stupid rally car. I ran the LeSarthe last night with the Pitworks Z, but it was only 120 someodd points. I ran a couple individually at Dreamcar with the Viper concept. With Custom LSD, Custom tranny, Medium slicks, if I remember right it is 200 points, I also think you can add stage 1 tuning and still be 200. It is quite an undertaking with stock weight. The Viper handles great to be such a goliath. It takes a lot of finesse. It would be a great drifter car if I was into that. LOL. I also ran the Test Track with the Viper at 700 horses with sport mediums for 200 points, and El Capitan with stock power and Mediums slicks for 200. I'm going to try a few more with the Viper. I think LeSarthe could be won with it.

Yeah... the Viper has no downforce, that's why you're getting so many points.

At Test Track, you don't need it. I used a stock Nardo and a '63 Vette Race Car with a widened tranny there. But could the Viper (or another car trading downforce for power) take Sarthe? Is the tradeoff the right one there? Be nice to find out! And then there's Seoul...

Perhaps this will help... perhaps it won't. I've been working on a FAQ for a long time now. So happens I included some info from testing cars for Dream Car.

From Dream Car Test:
VS --- RSC Rally Raid, Zonda LM, Suby TC, RX-8 LM, GT LM Spec II

171 Subaru TC
168 Calibra TC
165 Alfa Romeo
131 FTO TC
111 M3 GTR TC
108 NSX-R LM
86 GT40 Race Car (42 w/DF Max)
82 Calsonic Skyline
78 Mercedes CLK TC
56 Motul Pitwork Z
46 RX-8 LM
36 Lister Storm
18 Nissan 350Z LM
9 Camaro LM
8 Ford GT LM Spec II
6 Zonda LM


How does this help?

Lineup changes are simply a +/- operation for a given race.

So... say you took the Motul vs. Lineup A == 120p
Calsonic Skyline vs. Lineup A == 146p
BMW M3 GTR LM vs. Lineup A == 175p
FTO Touring Car vs. Lineup A == 195p

Say you chose the M3 GTR. Now, if you changed down to R2 tires you should be up to about 193p. Make sense?


(NOTE: these points should be compared when you're starting from stock cars)

I ran the Grandvalley endurance with the Merc 190 touring car for around 160 points. I made the mistake and left medium racing slicks on. I would gain a couple of seconds per lap, but had to pit twice as often. The lead was back and forth between me and the RX 8 LM. On the last lap I lapped the Ford race car and had a little over a 1 second lead on the RX8. I was on orange tires and the RX 8 was in the zone. The Ford I lapped slowed down the RX8 and allowed me to take the lead by a little over 2 seconds. It was quite the rush.

Awesome!

Did you find yourself racing better? That is, because the competition so close, did you find yourself concentrating more on the race?

 

[JParker]

Yeah... the Viper has no downforce, that's why you're getting so many points.

From Dream Car Test:
VS --- RSC Rally Raid, Zonda LM, Suby TC, RX-8 LM, GT LM Spec II

Say you chose the M3 GTR. Now, if you changed down to R2 tires you should be up to about 193p. Make sense?

Did you find yourself racing better? That is, because the competition so close, did you find yourself concentrating more on the race?

With the Viper, yea the lack of downforce is definately a major weight in the points, but have you looked at the weight,,ouch. It is a behemoth!

At the Dreamcar Champ, I enter and exit until I get a lineup without the Rally car. It will give you one with a Japanese touring car, but also an all LM race car lineup. But it does take quite a few entries and exits. On the majority of my races when returning to circuits to increase Aspec points, I will typically enter the races individually to get the lineup of AI in the same group of cars. Recently though, I have found if you exit and enter enough you can typically get the same lineups in Championship mode. But if you loose, then you must rerun that particular venue again, or restart the PS2, but who has the time for that. I'm not pressing my win ratio as much as maximizing my Aspec as much as possible

I think I definately race a lot better with much more concentration when the pressure is on. At Grandvalley I made very few mistakes, because I knew a few seconds in mistakes could make it a wasted 2 hours. LOL. At Suzuka I had such a strong lead going into the final 15 laps or so that I dropped from a minute lead to 30+ seconds.

 

[jdw]

With the Viper, yea the lack of downforce is definately a major weight in the points, but have you looked at the weight,,ouch. It is a behemoth!
.

Ahhh... yup.

Still, can it win Seoul with no downforce and the extra lbs? I'd tend to doubt it.

At the Dreamcar Champ, I enter and exit until I get a lineup without the Rally car. It will give you one with a Japanese touring car, but also an all LM race car lineup. But it does take quite a few entries and exits.

Yup. Notice that M3 GTR was getting 111p against a lineup w/the Rally Raid and Suby TC. That's the car that gave me 200p against a lineup w/all LMs.

On the majority of my races when returning to circuits to increase Aspec points, I will typically enter the races individually to get the lineup of AI in the same group of cars. Recently though, I have found if you exit and enter enough you can typically get the same lineups in Championship mode.

From console reset, the lineups are always repeated. It doesn't matter whether you enter the races individually or through the Championship. You'll see the same set of lineups for a given car.

But if you loose, then you must rerun that particular venue again, or restart the PS2, but who has the time for that..

Well, unfortunately, I find that I have to do a LOT of resetting to keep things consistent 👎

 

[JParker]

Ahhh... yup.

Still, can it win Seoul with no downforce and the extra lbs? I'd tend to doubt it.

From console reset, the lineups are always repeated. It doesn't matter whether you enter the races individually or through the Championship. You'll see the same set of lineups for a given car.

Seoul is more of an acceleration and top speed test IMO. So it may be quite tough. Even with Stage 2 the Viper logs in around 550'ish. Compiled with the massive weight, I doubt it too. But, I'm going to give it a few shots to see.

I was talking about simply entering the race/championship and exiting multiple times to get your desired lineup. Not resetting the PS2.

 

[SirBerra]

Funny thing. Today I just completely B-spec'd Suzuka using a fully-modded Suzuki GSX 4/R (I added a spoiler-it looked rad). It turned laps around 2:03 to 2:06 with med/hard F/R tires. I kept it on 4/Overtake pushed to 5/Overtake when needed to pass the fastest Motul Z. I think the Suzuki has about 245 hp. It got 14 laps per tire change. It won by about 50 seconds or so. For a test I was able to A-spec laps in 1:58 to 2:01 after a few laps. I swear you can win Suzuka with a modded Mazda RX-7 Spirit. I don't get why they have these races that use race cars that can be beat with street cars.

The first time I A-spec'd Suzuka I used a fully-modded street Viper. Overkill to say the least. I'm trying out a whole bunch of little hp cars to see what can humiliate those AI wimps. I tried B-spec'ing a fully modded Lotus Elise but it didn't have enough go juice. I want to test a fully modded Lotus Europa Special next.

Any LMP car can win Suzuka easily by many laps. So take your pick.

 

[All Your Base]

Don't wanna bump a 10-year old thread, but I was wondering if the 205 Turbo 16 Evo2 Rally Car would be a good fit. I did five test laps and I ran times in the 2'01 and 2'02 range. I think those times are competitive enough, but one problem I had was the oversteer whenever I was turning. Other than that, the car was great. I used Racing: Hard tires, I did not tune it outside of the top speed limit (160 mph is too slow, let's be honest), and the car was completely stock. I want to get as many A-Spec points as possible, but I might need a good tune to counter the oversteer.

 

[shotamagee]

Don't wanna bump a 10-year old thread, but I was wondering if the 205 Turbo 16 Evo2 Rally Car would be a good fit. I did five test laps and I ran times in the 2'01 and 2'02 range. I think those times are competitive enough, but one problem I had was the oversteer whenever I was turning. Other than that, the car was great. I used Racing: Hard tires, I did not tune it outside of the top speed limit (160 mph is too slow, let's be honest), and the car was completely stock. I want to get as many A-Spec points as possible, but I might need a good tune to counter the oversteer.

It might oversteer, but it's a 4wd rally car, so, unless you've got a really aggressive set up, I'd have thought front tyre life would be more of an issue.
The Pug would be ok on a tighter track, but the fast flowing corners at suzuka are definitely not what this car was designed for.
Just start the race, and go until the AI first stop, to get an idea of what you're up against, it's the only way you're going to figure out if that car is quick enough for sure. Also check the Gt4 AI pit companion, it can help with that.
If max A-spec is what you crave, the WedsSport Celica or the Asparadrink (SP) Rx-7 are probably a better bet IMO. Both are quite a bit down on the power of the AI you're up against, but they both handle great and get good tyre life as well (don't underestimate how important that is when doing endurance events). You might even be able to run a Stage 3 Turbo, if you remove some wing / add some ballast weight (for 200 points).