Time Trial Discussion

[zjn]

I have the data saved in a different file format than excel, but here is a link to a text file with time, DR, and time trial ID https://we.tl/t-dVYTqyNcFt

It's 31 MB which was too big to attach directly on here. Guessing you'll have trouble opening the full file in excel since it's 2 million rows, but you can split it by the time trial id to get individual ones.

Not sure how half_sourly gets the data, but I just do it by running a python script and using a package called selenium. If you're interested in this kind of stuff you can get it up and running pretty quickly by just following some tutorials online for web scraping.

Not sure if there's a quicker way to get the data since it is dynamically generated through JavaScript on the website, but if anyone knows of a way please share.

I did have a brief look at the code PD use on their site back when I set the script i use up, but one look was enough to realise it would take more manual effort to decipher that than just get a script to open each page of each time trial and download the data.

Interestingly though if you capture the responses from the website using tools that do that there is more data available than what they display, including which car people use. I just haven't had time to sit down to see if I can automate capturing that data automatically, but might do that in the future if I have nothing to do at work cause I think seeing car specific leaderboards for the gr.3/4 trials would be interesting.

Thanks, much appreciated

If I'm getting it right the row data is
167.561 : time in seconds
C: DR rank
5014: TT ID as per PD web page link

This evening I will search for a good long movie on Netflix and will start playing with it

 

[2Quickrides]

Is the concensus of opinion to buy all tuning parts and then use the power restricter to then reduce the bhp, or is that a waste of credit and does it not make any difference how you get your car to the max bhp allowed?

In cars that have very little low/midrange torque and struggle to get out of a turn in higher gears there is a huge advantage to overpower it and use the restrictor as it keeps a lot of the torque that way. But in a car like this that already struggles to put the power down (Despite the lack of crowds around the track) doing that can just make it that much harder for most people to feather the throttle coming out of turns. If you end up copying a tune that does that and you are struggling out of turns, switch back to a lower power level with less torque and see if it helps you set a more consistent lap.

I follow you totally about alien tunes but Praiano's tune makes a basis on which I try to build.
The 3 easiest changes, if I follow you correctly, are :

• down force
• break balance
• ballast position

?

Yup. Nothing wrong with starting with someone else's tune, but so many people copy a recommended tune and then are frustrated why it isn't perfect for them. If you are copying a tune and not touching it, then it's best if you study every aspect of their lap as well and try to use their driving style, but not everyone can do that.
See this all the time on track. Someone sets up their bike or car to exactly what somebody told them to and then struggles to ride or drive with it as it wasn't designed with them in mind.

 

[half_sourly]

Not sure how half_sourly gets the data

I use free software called ParseHub. That limits me to 200 pages at a time (unless I pay), so getting all the data for a TT takes a while, but it is only once a fortnight and I run it on my personal laptop while I work. Also only scraping name and time means it is a bit quicker than scraping for all data.

 

[rheinaoi]

I came into this frustrated, but I'm doing... OK.

The Mustang is a pig that struggles to put the power down. But it could be much worse: We could be driving 700pp Superbirds.

Points to PD for picking a shorter track to make testing easier, and extra points for setting the weight limit so that we all can move ballast around to get the car driving to our preferences.

Admittedly, I'm not helping the traction problems by running the low end supercharger (because irrational bias toward low end torque ❤️).

Oh, and the brakes are atrocious. My optimal braking points are seemingly in the Shadow Realm between the braking boards. I had to double check to see if I'd forgotten to fit the racing brake kit and pads. The brakes are so bad that I have to treat the high speed left after the corkscrew as an extension to the complex rather than it's own corner.

Turn 3 is stupid and I hate it.

Sitting at a shaky gold.

1:29.1x

I'd like to get into the 28s before this is over.

 

[djolliea]

Not my favorite combo but I like the tuning aspect. Made my own tune and secured gold with 1:28.492. Pretty sure it will hold.

 

[Dan_Tes]

Not my favorite combo but I like the tuning aspect. Made my own tune and secured gold with 1:28.492. Pretty sure it will hold.

Interesting. Did you use the high-RPM supercharger? I just gave @Mistah_MCA 's tune a go and I think it's made it even more talehappy to the point of very difficult to drive. I set a nice sighter of 1:29.360 but without really looking at gearing/shifting points. It sounds MENTAL in the replay though, that was worth adding the supercharger/race silencer alone

I'm going to stick with CS Strong for now to get used to the braking points on this barge. I know I'm going to love this one, Laguna Seca is one of my favourites and when you get it right it flows really nicely (except the last corner, the last corner can go to hell)

 

[Nebuc72]

Not too bad actually, thought the car might be a handful but really it's fine. Certainly driven worse cars.

Did a handful of laps and set a 1:28.5 - might go back for more if I feel like it, as there's definitely a high 27 in it for me, but I would be surprised if that didn't hold for gold.

 

[Lomic]

Not too bad actually, thought the car might be a handful but really it's fine. Certainly driven worse cars.

Did a handful of laps and set a 1:28.5 - might go back for more if I feel like it, as there's definitely a high 27 in it for me, but I would be surprised if that didn't hold for gold.

👽

 

[SPL170db]

Unfortanately it looks like Mistah_MCA's tune isn't going to work for me on this one. Praiano's with a little more tweaking I've dropped some more to a 28.8 and a little more comfortably gold for now. I kind of like this one as it requires a good bit of finesse to get this dumptruck to go quick but not slide around all over the place

 

[djolliea]

Interesting. Did you use the high-RPM supercharger?

Yes.

 

[2Quickrides]

Before even trying it I'll throw out the guess. WR around 1:26.3, making Gold 1:28.8. But saying that, now an alien will fly a ship into the 25's.

 

[SPL170db]

Before even trying it I'll throw out the guess. WR around 1:26.3, making Gold 1:28.8. But saying that, now an alien will fly a ship into the 25's.

Last I checked the gold threshold was 1:29.6x

 

[Leon Kowalski]

I got extremely frustrated on my first laps. Six seconds from gold and no idea how to get more than maybe one second faster? What the hell am I doing wrong?




Then I realized that tuning is on. I'm a complete idiot.🤦‍♂️🤣

 

[2Quickrides]

Last I checked the gold threshold was 1:29.6x

Right now it is, but there is 2 weeks to go.

 

[787Bee]

There is most definitely an exploit cutting the corkscrew.

Slight cut = 1 second penalty
Severe cut = 0.5 second penalty

But there are certain moderate cuts in between which go completely unpunished

 

[Vule]

I thought that I'm going to hate this, I don't like this track, never did, I don't like driving road cars on anything other than racing tyres, but actually, this is very fun, I'm liking it so far

The car is very interesting to drive, it's slidey but the slides are easily controllable, you can throw it in the corner and just mildly powerslide it without losing time, actually gaining. This is me for tonight, but I'm definitely going for those 27s in the next 2 weeks

 

[Lomic]

I'm going to have nightmares about this lap time challenge.

Thanks for your tune and lap guide! Went from 1:36:687 to 1:33:188 on the first try 🙏🤪

1:33:101 now, and room for improvement. I have hope to reach silver !

 

[sdi_03]

Had time for few laps and start my own tune.
1:28.3 atm. 👍
27s are there, just kept making some small mistakes here and there. 😂

 

[Darrenersmit]

On it on this one, my tune, my rules. 1:32

 

[MidnightRun85]

After a few aborted laps, then some fiddling with @praiano63 tune, I managed to find a 1:29.9, dipping into silver territory and currently in the top 1000! Won't be like that for long though...

Hopefully Sonic can see me into my second gold in a row.

Thanks to @Drex124 for helping me out with the decal!

 

[sirjim73]

If anyone needs some tips on best driving lines for Laguna Seca, this probably won't help much...



(recorded in October 2001!)

 

[Leon Kowalski]

Tuning seems to help a bit:

Not sure yet if that will hold up, but there might still be some improvement to be had. Fun car on a track that is slowly growing on me a bit (still hate it though😆).

 

[Blayney]

DISCLAIMER, - I am not a set up kinda guy. This seems quite off compared to others... but it worked for me to get into gold for now. Lap towards the end. I reckon I can get into the 28s... might adjust my tune more inline with the experts and see if it helps me

 

[snc]

Am I missing something here or this is one of toughest tt ? :d I probably will be fine with silver this time :d

 

[TumeK5]

Am I missing something here or this is one of toughest tt ?

Not at all. I set a 1:29.3 quite early, in my first 100km. I hadn't touched the settings much, so fine-tuning the car and the lap should get me an easy sub 1:29.

 

[2Quickrides]

Only put in a couple laps and haven’t messed with the tune yet, but managed a 1:31.0 with an optimal 1:30.4. This car is almost undrivable with traction control off, and horribly slow exiting turns with it even at 1.
Good thing I love this track.

 

[Tommy_D]

Well, I'm at a 1:30.008. The car feels pretty good, but I know I've go another second in me if I can just string together all my turns. When I do well on turn 1 and gain over a tenth of a second, I screw up turn 2, then do a mediocre turn 3, good turn 4 and 5, get to about 2 tenths under my best time, then get through the corkscrew knly to slide too much around that sweeping left hander and lose over half a second. Ugg.

Tried this car without TC and it's super sketchy, even with the LSD at full for initial and acceleration. Anyway, I'm enjoying this one more than last weeks. I hope to hit low 29's some time in the near future, but by that time someone will be in the 24's so it will barely be a silver medal by that time.

 

[SPL170db]

Sure enough....gold has been dropped to 1:29.462. Came home from the gym and chipped mine down another tenth to 1:28.780.

 

[Lomic]

Am I missing something here or this is one of toughest tt ? :d I probably will be fine with silver this time :d

I've only begun those Sport Mode TTs with the previous, and I've found it much harder to enter the bronze time and no hope to reach silver, while here, with a proper tune and after watching a lap guide, I am comfortably in the bronze.

I think that my time will remain bronze even if aliens raise the record, and I am optimistic to be able to enter silver times with some training (may be not a silver time that will hold until the end).

I have done like 10 full laps at the moment, so not a lot of training, and I make a lot of mistakes (not always the same).

On some laps, I've already been nearly a second ahead of my record, but I lost it with mistakes later in the lap, so I know I can shave at least one more second by being consistent.

 

[Gomario JSP]

Oef...., first session was alot harder than i thought it would be, i used @Mistah_MCA tune for my start base, but for my use with DS4 it's quite difficult to handle, so i'm playing abit with it, but have a hard time to get the apexes on turn 3 and 4 and exitspeed 4 is key.
So this one is going to take alot of work and finding the right tune for me,
@Blayney i'm going to take a look on your's when i get home!

Thanks guy's for efford here, we all appriciate it!