Well sounds pretty cool. The only problem I can see is the track. Why Trial Mountain? That seems like an incredibly strange choice. Tuning a car for trial mountain would mean the suspension will be soft, the LSD and such wouldn't be accurate for other places. I can understand the need for only one track for time and simplicity's sake, but why not a more general track that would provide a more general tune? Suzuka, Nurbugring, really anything in my opinion would be better than trial mountain.
Anyway, just my thoughts. There must be a reason for the track choice that I am not aware of, just was wondering.
Why Trial Mountain? Well, a few reasons. First off, it's familiar to everyone and their dog. That way, the drivers can focus on driving. Second, Trial has some great characteristics for tuning:
1) Great variety of corner radii
2) A near perfect variation of differing height, great for suspension travel testing
3) Rumble strips are at a good height
4) Decent straights, with one at the end of a high speed corner, which is critical
5) Short enough so that garbage laps aren't too frustrating to re-do
You say Trial Mountain would result in a soft suspension, but then you suggest the Ring hehehe. The Ring is the ONLY track in the game where you need to raise ride height and soften suspension, so I think you might have that backwards.
Suzuka is a great option, but it doesn't have any characteristics that Trial does not, with the exception of that one hairpin. Not only that, but Suzuka is extremely flat, so it won't be a good test of the car's handling of the loss of grip due to negative G's after a hill (unlike the second turn at Trial).
If the tuners have an issue with Trial Mountain as a course, then please, I encourage all of them should let me know. I'd happily hold a tuner poll to select a track for testing. However, from what I've heard hanging around tuning forums since GT3; Trial Mountain is the best, single-track test of chassis dynamics.
There is the possibility...
Since you are going with the 'rounds' option, that each round is performed on a separate track. This still adds complexity to the tuners, without taxing the drivers, because the amount of laps run, will remain the same. Round 1 is Trail mountain, then the top 4 that transfer to round 2, get taken to the next track. Then the top 2, to the final track. This way the tuners are still challenged by multiple tracks, the drivers don't get bored running 300 laps (200 timed + 100 warm up) of the same track, and also we don't end up with 14 Car tunes that all work great for a single track and are useless elsewhere.
Great for a single track and useless elsewhere? Oh I dunno about that mate. Tune a car for Trial and it's good pretty much anywhere, as Rotary Junkie attested to below. Hell, that's why it's called "Trial"!
Trial masks nothing; if the car understeers you'll notice it in the times... Excessive amounts of sideways? Same deal. It doesn't focus on any given speed range, albeit with a lack of truly low-speed corners, so the only real place it'll be less than perfect at is a track like Eiger short or Tsukuba.
Agreed!
I understand the driver commitment part but it doesn't necessarily have to equate to more laps for them, as I understood the format; first round - many tunes - 10 laps - tire wear off; second round - finalists - 10 laps - tire wear off; merely suggesting perhaps the second round be shifter to tire wear on, laps required dependent of the car and tire grade chosen for the contest, but even 10 laps of tire wear on can be revealing to the ride quality of a tune in an endurance event. Tunes skirting on the edge of loosing traction may post consistently faster on the first lap, or repeatedly with wear off, but may see diminishing average lap times more quickly than others.
Hmmm. So how many laps would you suggest for the second and final rounds? Keep in mind that people are submitting their fastest 10, and it's impossible to enforce the fact that they must be a CONTINUOUS 10. People could just set the lap time, exit out, then set another, negating tire wear. That's why I think we should forget tire wear altogether. But if you have a plan to put it into play effectively, let me know!
Actualy Im retracting from this. Dont have enough time to mess with serious tuning.
I'm sorry to hear that but I understand completely. Thanks for letting me know.
One question, why Trial Mountain and not Deep Forest? The reason I'm asking this is because, the last two turns you can cut through and cheat the time. There's no place to do that on Deep Forest.
- Jeramy
Well, our drivers have volunteered their own time to help test these cars. If they were forced, I could see them cheat. But the very fact they're doing this with their own time, uncompensated, means I'm pretty sure they won't be cheating. Plus, GT5 invalidates their lap times on the leader-board if they do. Considering the leader-board is the easiest way to get their fastest 10 laps, that should be enough of a deterrent.
