Tuning Competition Week 10 - RESULTS

[DuckRacer]

Dodge Charger 440 R/T @ Seattle

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stiggs
95

VQuick
99

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Winner: VQuick. Congrats!

Thanks to Dark Elite and gregc for judging this round.

 

[DuckRacer]

Dark Elite's Ratings

This was a rather disappointing week. All of the setups, yes all two of them, had parts omitted from their lists and so, perhaps if both tuners had listed parts correctly, the outcome would've been different.

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TUNER: Stiggs

724bhp ///843ft/lb
Variable LSD not specified – LSD settings ignored

Turn-in = 4. Very heavy and sluggish to turn in.

Mid-Corner Response = 5. Seems rather unwilling to respond when cornering.

Corner exit = 4. Traction control kills exit speed, understeer ruins the line.

Stability = 8. Almost unshakable, also equalling a slightly dull drive.

Grip = 9. Pretty much unassailable due to the excessive traction control.

High-speed controllability = 6. A little twitchy, but otherwise OK.

Handling while braking = 6. Hard braking doesn’t do any favours for the handling – brake very early.

Acceleration = 5. The gearing feels a little odd, all the ratios very close except 6th, which is very wide, and the traction control cuts out a lot of power.

Projected Total = 47/80
-3 points for not listing Variable LSD
Total = 44/80

Final Comments
This car feels rather confused. It uses full tune for power and speed, a wing for control and agility, and LSD for corner control. In fact, the power is taken by the traction control, the speed is lost to odd gearing, the brakes take away control and the suspension setup cuts agility. The LSD wasn’t listed. The result is a car that tries very hard to handle like a race car, but simply won’t. It feels restrained all the time by the traction control, and is no fun to drive.

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TUNER:VQuick

542bhp ///665ft/lb
Variable LSD not specified – LSD settings ignored
Fully Customisable Transmission not specified – gearing settings ignored
Downforce-adjustable aeroparts not specified – downforce settings ignored.

Turn-in = 6. Still quite heavy, but not too terrible.

Mid-Corner Response = 7. Capable of power oversteer, but is held in a little by the traction control.

Corner exit = 6. Sometimes a little wide, and the traction control takes away exit speed.

Stability = 8. Almost unshakable, also equalling a slightly dull drive.

Grip = 9. Pretty much unassailable due to the traction control.

High-speed controllability = 6. At high speed, so to speak, there’s a bit of an oversteer tendancy.

Handling while braking = 7. A little slow to turn on the brakes, but not too bad.

Acceleration = 4. The stock gears are a ridiculous proposition here, limiting a 550bhp car to 125mph and hitting the rev limiter any number of times on the straights.

Projected Total = 53/80
-3 points for not listing Variable LSD
-5 points for not listing Fully Customisable Transmission
Total = 45/80

Final Comments
This car feels good enough in the corners, but might’ve been better if all the correct parts were fitted. The standard four ratios are useless for this car, limiting it’s top speed and thus its laptimes immensely. A decent suspension setup fighting to be heard over other problems.


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The Verdict
Highest Points Score = VQuick
For me at least, this week has no winner. Both cars are far from ideal, and although VQuick's car handles better in corners it is destroyed on straights by its gearing. Errors in listing cancel these two cars out, but as it happens VQuick has one more point this week.

Moral of the Story: Proofread...

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END

This was rather dull, especially without any good, fun cars to lighten things up a bit. I'm disappointed by the tiny turnout of tuners here.

Alliteration aside, I'm afraid I will have to withdraw my request to judge Week 11. My schedule is now so busy that I have spare time close to zero, in fact now almost negative, and I don't even have enough time just to get homework done. I will not be at home all weekend, and Monday I will be fighting to keep up with things missed. I'm sorry, I didn't want to have to take my leave on such a sour note as bailing out of the judges' panel, but I have no choice
Thank you for bringing this great idea to GTP, I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it while I can, and I hope in my nine weeks of judging I managed to teach the tuners a couple of things! 👍
I'll be back someday...

 

[DuckRacer]

gregc's Ratings

Tuner: stiggs

Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 7 - Not bad, but could use a little more bite

Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 8 - pretty good, the line can be adjusted pretty well, and it doesn't ever feel like it's going to snap out on me - the TCS is probably helping a little here....

Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 6 - ...but here, the TCS is crippling it. Nothing but understeer, where normally I could use the throttle and control the line with it.

Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 7 - OK, but too stiff over kerbs and bumps. Good over the jumps on the hill.

Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 9 - no problem here due to the TCS

High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 8 - Fine for the most part, but again a little too stiff over the fast bumps.

Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 5 - not so good here, the car ploughs on. The balance doesn't feel right either.

Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 6 - Again not so good, the ultra close ratios through 3rd 4th and 5th just throw unnecessary changes in.

Missing parts penalty: 5 - F/C LSD not listed

Total Combined Ranking: 51

Final Thoughts: I didn't get on with this car at all, far too much traction control which kills corner exit in particular. Very odd gearing too - 5 wider spaced ratios would have been much better. It's also over damped - kerbs and in particular, the railtracks unsettle it horribly.

Tuner: VQuick

Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 9 - Very good, nice and responsive.

Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 8 - Generally good, just a little nervous occasionally.

Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 9 - almost spot on, beautifully adjustable.

Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 7 - OK, but too stiff over kerbs and bumps. Good over the jumps on the hill.

Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 9 - No problem.

High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 8 - Fine for the most part, but again a little too stiff over the fast bumps.

Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 8 - Still a bit understeery you just miss a braking point, but pretty good.

Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 8 - Good again, never feels stuck in the wrong gear. 6th maybe a bit taller than necessary though.

Missing parts penalty: 10 - F/C LSD, Wing, F/C Transmission not listed

Total Combined Ranking: 54

Final Thoughts: I enjoyed this one a lot, the allotted 10 laps flew by. It's an involving, fun addictive ride. My natural preference is for no TCS, however here I didn't find it too intrusive - as an overall package this is a very well put together piece of work.

Final comments:

Firstly, it's a real shame that there were only 2 entries this week. Yes, it's a tricky car to tune, but that's half the fun. Anyway, of the 2 entries, for me VQuick's car was the clear winner - he's turned a hard to handle, soft, floaty beast into a sharp car that's great fun to drive.

However.... once again the curse of the missing parts. In this case it's taken a good score, and dropped it by 10.

Guys, take the extra 2 minutes before you send that PM and double check you've included everything. It'll keep your scores where they should be, and you end up with happy judges too 👍

 

[gregc]

No change to the leaderboard this week, as neither entrant has yet completed three competitions - here it is for the sake of completeness anyway...

Spreadsheet

Sorry you can't carry on for now DE - thanks for giving up so much time for this - your comments have been very helpful to me at least 👍 Looking forward to seeing you back here judging (or even taking part - maybe I can return the curse ) when you have the time.

[rant]I'm going to say it again - CHECK YOU'VE INCLUDED EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR SETTINGS. It hardly takes any time, and it means you get rated on merit, not on what you missed.[/rant]

 

[Dark Elite]

Sorry you can't carry on for now DE - thanks for giving up so much time for this - your comments have been very helpful to me at least 👍 Looking forward to seeing you back here judging (or even taking part - maybe I can return the curse ) when you have the time.

[rant]I'm going to say it again - CHECK YOU'VE INCLUDED EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR SETTINGS. It hardly takes any time, and it means you get rated on merit, not on what you missed.[/rant]

Me too, me too... My life suddenly exploded into a massive list of things I need to be doing, whereas my time in which to do it has, if anything, decreased. So, perhaps I will be back sometime in the future when everything calms down a little, we'll see. Maybe I won't take part as a tuner, it's too risky with you on the panel 👍

(Oh, just let them get things wrong and penalise them. With a few exceptions, they won't do it again. That's just my weary and cynical view. Hmm, time for a title change!)

DE

 

[stiggs]

Congrats ! VQuick

and thanks to the judges also.
Shall have to wait and see how i fair'd with the zonda.
I double checked the parts list this time as i had a little more time and was'nt heading out on a long weekend, that said i may still of omitted parts as im still new to this sort of thing.
week 12 should be intresting too

Reguards Stiggs

 

[VQuick]

Wow, I didn't realize Stiggs and I were the only ones who participated. Good job, Stiggs!

It's too bad there weren't more entries. Just because the competition is for a car you don't like, that shouldn't stop you. At least try it, and see how it comes out. If it sounds difficult, then good! You'll be able to improve your tuning and problem solving skills. I didn't make Week 11 with the Pagani, but I hope to enter Week 12 and remember to add all my parts.lol

I didn't think I'd do that well, but once I got to messing around with the Charger, it wasn't half bad. I started out using a supercharger for power, an thought the torque was a bit excessive(power oversteer with TCS on 3!!). I went with a Stage 2 NA Tune instead, and it seemed to have a more tractable powerband and sportier character.