Weekly Challenge Discussion Thread

[Famine]

On Normal difficulty (saves encountering issues like the Tsukuba 1hr thing), I beat Gallo's Giulia by three seconds in a 580PP Radical SR3 SL on Sports Softs. Can't hold a candle to me in the bends, and it's just a case of making up the gap (and getting past the roadblocks) so that he doesn't catch up before the end of the straights.

When I first encountered it at Spoon, the Alfa was in 12th. I passed it in the second-last of the Esses in 7th, and I grabbed 1st at the same spot on the last lap. The Alfa took second somewhere between the hairpin and Spoon and made up four seconds before the finish line...

Has anyone attempted to play from a different console

Yep. Same account, different console, still affected - as you say, unsurprising with the server-side saves.

You can just leave your console in an advanced time zone if you want to play early each week. It's just the changing time that triggers it, rather than the wrong time entirely!

 

[ou1fanjeff]

Yep. Same account, different console, still affected - t's just the changing time that triggers it, rather than the wrong time entirely!

Thank you so much for the information. The issue was driving me crazy! And yes - lesson was learned. And it was a painful one.

 

[Boxster]

Is it possible to win the R4 race with a stock R4? Finished 4th, 5s behind leader on normal difficulty.

I could drive a bit better but to the point of getting first, I doubt.

I can't anyways. I needed sport computer and CM tires to win.

 

[Eggstor]

Those Renaults are definitely modified. On normal difficulty, I needed the full-custom computer, all the bolt-on racing engine/exhaust/intake parts and the racing clutch/flywheel (184.17 PP/41 HP/63.9 ft-lb) to pull off a 3.5-second clean win in 6:47.1.

It sounded like the AI were running semi-racing exhaust as I didn't hear the same shift noise as I had, but they're also running custom transmissions as they're shifting to 4th at 58 mph at the same 4600 rpm I am shifting at 61 mph. Also, it seems like the AI have lighter cars; they're pulling away from me on the hill.

At full-tilt (510.43 PP/119 HP/120.6 ft-lb/1396 lbs/medium turbo/RS tires/150 rear downforce, racing transmission auto-set to 150 km/h, which yields a theoretical 5th gear speed of 214 km/h), with no suspension optimizations or nitrous, I set a 4:48.4 race time, with a 2nd lap of 2:22.5. Given I'm usually close to 5% off the pace in the online time trials, adjust for your driving skill accordingly, but for me, with resets on the PS5, that's just short of 1,000,000 Cr. per hour.

Of course, it's a 253,050-Cr. build with the front/rear bumper and side trim deletes and roll cage, and you would have less than 6 days (or less than 5 if, like @Famine, you set your clock to GMT+25) to benefit from this round.

Here's hoping that Daylight Saving doesn't mess things up for those of us guinea pigs in the US next week, or for most of the rest of the world over the next month. As that is, theoretically, a different time change than a fully-manual one, it might not screw things up.

 

[Famine]

less than 6 days (or less than 5 if, like @Famine, you set your clock to GMT+25)

Only one of my clocks. I have... others

Edit: Just checked my Six-Star (Car) Ticket's contents. I have: Aston Martin Vulcan (I; 3.3m), Ford GT LM Spec II Test (1.2m), Nissan GT-R GT500 '16 (800k), Red Bull X2019 Competition (3m), and Toyota TS050 (#6 livery, 1m) - and it spits out the Red Bull.

Might hang onto it for after the next update, but the X2019 is currently selling for 1.7m...

 

[MIE1992]

Just did the Gr.1 Prototype Series race at Daytona, it felt pretty easy, but still a decent challenge since my difficulty is set to normal.

I used the Hyundai N2025 VGT Gr.1, starting on Racing Hards. More importantly, I immediately put the fuel map all the way to 6 as soon as I started. I pitted halfway through at the end of lap 5, didn’t even bother getting a new set of tires, and took on a little more than enough fuel to get me to the finish.

Got a clean P1 by well over ten seconds, and consistently had lap times of about 1:34. I even almost had caught up to the guy in last place by the time the race was over.

 

[Eggstor]

Edit: Just checked my Six-Star (Car) Ticket's contents. I have: Aston Martin Vulcan (I; 3.3m), Ford GT LM Spec II Test (1.2m), Nissan GT-R GT500 '16 (800k), Red Bull X2019 Competition (3m), and Toyota TS050 (#6 livery, 1m) - and it spits out the Red Bull.

Might hang onto it for after the next update, but the X2019 is currently selling for 1.7m...

You're not going to do much better than that in any re-roll. Sell while you have the hot market.

 

[coryclifford]

Renault stock on Hard level P3
Not bad. Took a few tries
Renault w/med turbo P1
Clean race 90k
💪🗿

 

[DanteRaiden]

the car violently cut power at a pretty good angle forcing me to then recover from something unexpected

I did experience that power cut in the 350z during a slide and sent me to the offroad dirt (luckily didn't hit anything else). It was awful. At the edge of tire adhesion, it's true that TC is a true hindrance.

Top players prove that TC is a hindrance to ultimate speed and control.

I never doubt that at all. I am no where near anybody at the top. LoL
But I often touch the limit of TC in older cars.

My right foot is conditioned to be my traction control,

I totally agree with this. There is nowhere for me to test my "natural organic TC" besides the tracks with huge run-off. I bring the street setup into the game because that's 99% of my driving conditions. But you brought up a good perspective; we can be very adventurous in the game without any penalties. Perhaps, I am just dancing around TC way too much. LoL

 

[Nebuc72]

Bit of a bummer that they obviously put effort into tuning and painting the Renault 4's for the special event, just for it to be gone after a week. I don't see why they can't keep these interesting ones permanent.

 

[Snake55wildcat]

For the first weeklies post February I used the following vehicles, while using PSVR2 and hard AI;

• Renault R4 GTL which I tuned to just below kei level power...turns out this was a bit too much as I had the lead by about halfway through the first lap, oops
  
• Alfa Romeo 4C Gr3 road car - downtuned with the Suzuki VGT Gr3 engineswap (I'd sneak in something VGT in this damn weekly if my life depended on it) the AI on this one are brutal, that damn alfa guilia is ridiculously fast, managed 3rd but could have had 2nd.
• Ferrari 500 Mondial - fun and sprightly light weight inline 4 Ferrari that is fully modified (with all ultimate parts) - an absolute joy to drive with stupid performance figures, but this thing was much more happy wanting to drift it's way through catalunya...oh and it's brakes aren't good either despite being so light so yeah that was a problem too, got 3rd here too because I also had bad ai car lineups with fast ferraris up top.
• Porsche 917K - mainly chose this one to give some use to this hardly ever used car I own, even went so far as to make a livery for it too, easy victory here thankfully despite running it on sport softs.
• X2014 - I HATE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE SO MUCH. SO MUCH SO I'D BLATANTLY GO OVERKILL JUST TO GET IT OVER WITH.

No VR clip of a race this time, but I did record one earlier this week of me using the Mondial in a drift session

 

[Nakano219]

I may have only been half-paying attention during my first go at the Renault 4 race and gone straight on after the banked corner as if heading for the big rollercoaster hill. It was a nice crash.

In my defence, they use Test Course Reverse all the time, and they never ever seem to use Village (in either direction), so I think it was just muscle memory or something.

 

[ROCKET JOE]

Ok, that's been pretty straight forward this week - maybe because I didn't go for the weakest possible contenders but used what was there, or needed. This is my selection of cars :

Race 1


As mentioned earlier today the R4 has full stock settings, however, I mounted a nitrous system ( why ? because I don't know what else to do with all of my money ). I did not use it excessively, only about 10 percent of the bottle for the whole race. Enough for the win though.

Race 2


Since we had that race a couple days ago I knew what to expect, especially from the Alfa GTA of course. And although I had won this with my 600 PP DP-100 last time, I picked the new 650 PP GT3 Porsche. Having that ridiculously insane Alfa on my rear bumper for almost a lap was thrill enough today.

Race 3


If I remember correctly the 512 was the only car I could afford when a Ferrari was required the very first time. And since then I never used another Ferrari from my garage. Don't get it wrong though, guys, this one's a fully tuned beast which made the Catalunya challenge a breeze.

Race 4


If you need to be extremely careful with your throttle inputs to not lose your car's rear - in fifth gear - it's the AMG C 63 S. Anyway, I followed PD's suggestion from the race description page. Fortunately there's people like @praiano63 who can tame such cars and make them drivable. And at 700 PP the AMG's been a safe win at St. Croix.

Race 5

Came up with a stupid strategy for Daytona that actually works on hard difficulty.

• Hyundai VGT (non Gr. 1 - yes, the EV).
• Pit every 3 laps, so laps 3, 6 and 9.
• Switch from racing hards to mediums on lap 6, skip the tyres during the other stops.
• Recharge fully on laps 3 and 6, only need about 30% for the last lap. Even though there is no UI that suggests so, you can actually interrupt the recharge by pressing X while the car is recharging, which allows to cut down the final pit stop.

The car is stupid fast and can make up the pit stop delta within the 3 laps between the pit stops. My fastest lap was a sub-1:27 and got a total race time of 15:45 and that was a very messy run with several penalties.

Worked for me too. ... I had never driven that car before and I have to say it's a real pleasure. Insane acceleration, well balanced and very stable under breaking, the sheer speed compensates for three pitstops needed in this race. Thanks mate for suggesting this.



P.S.
The 6 star prize car was a Toyota TS050 Hybrid.

 

[GlockPants]

I used these cars this week.

• Renault R4 was straight forward. I gave a couple tries stock but I could only manage 5th. Put some Comfort Soft tires on and walked away with P1.
• European Clubman Cup in the RUF was fun. That car is a missile but Gallo's Alfa is an ICBM. I had to block and defend hard for the win.
• This F40 was overkill for Barcelona. It was engine swapped and had Racing Hard tires.
• Saint Croix pretty straight forward with a stock Strassenversion.
• Daytona Gr.1 race was a bit of a challenge. I didn't realize it before, but my best record was only 3rd before today. The SF19 was quick through the infield but struggled to keep up on the banked turns. No matter, a one stop race using Racing Soft tires was enough to get a win by a slim, 3 tenths margin.

6-Star car ticket rewarded the Porsche Living Legend. A car that I hadn't gotten yet, which is nice. It is only valued around 300k credits, which is pretty low for some other cars you can get.

 

[skydragon49]

2nd round of weekly races, my cars choosen for the task:

- Red Bull X2019 (Gr1 at Daytona) RH - FM1. Pit stops at lap 3 and 6. After lap 6 I put FM up to 6 for a lap or two so I could manage to finish the race. No tyre change. I finished P3 but I believe I could've won if i hadn't gone off track big time during the last stint. This just served to remind me how I hate this track.

- Renault 4L (special event) fully built and tuned as Praianos63 suggests. CH tyres, easy win. Alsace reverse is just strange. Very strange.

The 6 stars ticket gave me a Peugeot VGT which I sold right away for 500k and change. There were other 3 VGT cars and a Delorean in the roulette.

 

[Talon16]

Done and done. Got one of the Tomahawk variants in the ticket. I didn't already have it so that ticket was worth 1mil. Very nice.

 

[Fuzzi0n]

Fun races this week, few are challenging too. Not sure if it's possible to win the one make race completely stock, they're faster down the straights by quite a bit, ended up running CS tyres and easily won with an otherwise stock car. Suzuka is mostly hit and miss because of the AI not always wanting to overtake. You can probably win in cars a decent amount under the PP limit, including the recommended car, but you have to get lucky with the Alfa getting stuck in traffic. Sometimes the TVR will get into the lead early too and that can be hard to catch, won easily with a stock F430. The other 3 I overpowered but I wanted to use some cars I don't get to drive often. Daytona can be tricky if you don't have the right car or strategy, previously I'd won with a stock Gr.1 Mazda VGT, this time I used the full VGT instead and won by 30 seconds. RM/RM on fuel map 1, worst thing is the oversteer on the brakes, even -5 isn't great.

Cars used this week:

 

[2cam16]

This week's first batch of arsenal of choice. I just wanted to get these races done then I'll revisit with less lethal cars. Still have to figure out the Gr.1 race though:
Alsace - Village Reverse__2 by 2cam16, on Flickr
Gallo was no match for my 911. Left him behind in lap 2 and won by 20 secs.
Suzuka Circuit__1 (3) by 2cam16, on Flickr
De-tuned Italia
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya GP Layout_ (2) by 2cam16, on Flickr
Detuned RSR
Circuit de Sainte-Croix - B_ (2) by 2cam16, on Flickr

 

[HotLimit]

Finished all 5 this week -

Daytona - LM55 VGT - had one bad start but got first on the second try. Arguably the most fun race as I'd never completed it before.

Suzuka - Classic Slime Green AMG GT R that I used to beat Need for Speed Heat, lol. I did this right after the Daytona race so I was trying to run it like a VGT... definitely the most aggressive I've driven a road car in the game.
Barcelona - F430

Saint-Croix - FXX K (as revenge for not being able to use it in the Ferrari race)

Maxed out tuning on the Renault because I wasn't about to waste any more time after the other 4 races, lol.

Got a WRX STi for the daily ticket (I believe I already had this one) and Genesis VGT for the 6-star ticket (it seems like other people got this free at some point - I did not, so this is brand new for me)

 

[Tommy_D]

Ran the 2nd account tonight

Race 1 at Alsace Village - Stock Reno R4. Best I can do is 3rd place on hard difficulty. Every time I get faster the leader increases their speed and I actually end up further behind them despite my total race time being faster. I may be able to get 2nd if I grind this race, but it’s not necessary. I got my 100k ticket and this is just a special event, so no need to get 1st. Fastest lap was a 3:27.377.

Race 2 at Suzuka - Lightly modded Ferrari 308 GTB ‘75 on Racing Medium tires - 599.95pp. Wow, this was a tough race in this car. It took me about an hour of going through the race over and over again to figure out just which way I needed to pass one back marker, then how to pass the next. How do I get past Gallo and how do I keep him stuck in traffic? With blocking, of course. In the end, Magnum PI prevailed and won with a 4 second lead. Gallo got stuck in traffic and only managed 6th place.

Considering how much time I spent on this one race that’s all I got done tonight. Gallo’s car has front and rear aero, wheels, a racing exhaust and that’s all I can visually see. Now on to speculation: He has an upgraded turbo. Likely a medium or high rpm. His boost gauge goes higher than a stock Giulia so a bigger turbo is definitely on the car. Probably has full bolt-ons and engine mods because that engine revs much faster than even a lightly modded one with a mid rpm turbo. He may have some weight reduction as well, but maybe not. He doesn’t corner all that quickly and his braking isn’t that impressive even though the Giulia has the brakes of a F1 car on it from the factory. Last but not least, he could have N2O but it’s not on his display in the race replay, so that’s the biggest speculation I got. Suffice it to say, he’s probably around 650-675pp in this race. Probably near 700hp in that car. My little 308 has just 265hp.

 

[Islaygaz]

Finished all 5 this week -

Daytona - LM55 VGT - had one bad start but got first on the second try. Arguably the most fun race as I'd never completed it before.

Suzuka - Classic Slime Green AMG GT R that I used to beat Need for Speed Heat, lol. I did this right after the Daytona race so I was trying to run it like a VGT... definitely the most aggressive I've driven a road car in the game.
Barcelona - F430

Saint-Croix - FXX K (as revenge for not being able to use it in the Ferrari race)

Maxed out tuning on the Renault because I wasn't about to waste any more time after the other 4 races, lol.

Got a WRX STi for the daily ticket (I believe I already had this one) and Genesis VGT for the 6-star ticket (it seems like other people got this free at some point - I did not, so this is brand new for me)

How did you manage to enter an Italian car in a German race???

 

[DriveSpark]

I used:

Special Event - Obvious, mine is modded so easy win
Clubman Cup 600 - '01 911 GT£ @ 599pp, probably a bit overpowered
Ferrari Challenge - 458 Italia GTE '13 Gr3 @ 698pp, I think I'm going to start going in at 50pp less than the suggested. Not driven this much but it was quite compliant and easy to induce a little oversteer when needed
Schwarzwald League - Cayment GT4 Clubsport Gr4 @ 699pp, again need to dial down the PP from suggested as this was quite a bit quicker than AI, like driving this car, especially on softs.
Prototype Series - Used the SF '19, not my favourite. Did try with the TS050 @888pp but need to engage brain better out of slow corners as I always spin on throttle so switched to the SF to get it done.

Ticket gave me some VGT or other than I've already forgotten about, all the cars in the pick were VGTs, meh. Give us racing cars PD!

 

[ROCKET JOE]

How did you manage to enter an Italian car in a German race???

View attachment 1335449

YOU DEFINITELY don't believe everything you read on the internet! 👍

 

[Lomic]

Got a GT-R Nismo GT500 '16 with the 6⭐

Tried to sell it but it is at its lowest price ever, 259k, so I'll keep it. I'd wish we can filter our cars when selling. Like "Show only duplicates".

 

[ROCKET JOE]

Ran the 2nd account tonight

Race 1 at Alsace Village - Stock Reno R4. Best I can do is 3rd place on hard difficulty. Every time I get faster the leader increases their speed and I actually end up further behind them despite my total race time being faster. I may be able to get 2nd if I grind this race, but it’s not necessary. I got my 100k ticket and this is just a special event, so no need to get 1st. Fastest lap was a 3:27.377.

...

I can second you here. Ran the race for 2 hours now, several different grids, different wind conditions.
The closest I could ever get to P1 was 2.8 seconds, best position was P3. There's not been one single race where I could have had a chance to finish better. First lap was 3.30 on average, second lap 3.27 ...

 

[2cam16]

Ran the 2nd account tonight

Race 1 at Alsace Village - Stock Reno R4. Best I can do is 3rd place on hard difficulty. Every time I get faster the leader increases their speed and I actually end up further behind them despite my total race time being faster. I may be able to get 2nd if I grind this race, but it’s not necessary. I got my 100k ticket and this is just a special event, so no need to get 1st. Fastest lap was a 3:27.377.

Race 2 at Suzuka - Lightly modded Ferrari 308 GTB ‘75 on Racing Medium tires - 599.95pp. Wow, this was a tough race in this car. It took me about an hour of going through the race over and over again to figure out just which way I needed to pass one back marker, then how to pass the next. How do I get past Gallo and how do I keep him stuck in traffic? With blocking, of course. In the end, Magnum PI prevailed and won with a 4 second lead. Gallo got stuck in traffic and only managed 6th place.

View attachment 1335431

Considering how much time I spent on this one race that’s all I got done tonight. Gallo’s car has front and rear aero, wheels, a racing exhaust and that’s all I can visually see. Now on to speculation: He has an upgraded turbo. Likely a medium or high rpm. His boost gauge goes higher than a stock Giulia so a bigger turbo is definitely on the car. Probably has full bolt-ons and engine mods because that engine revs much faster than even a lightly modded one with a mid rpm turbo. He may have some weight reduction as well, but maybe not. He doesn’t corner all that quickly and his braking isn’t that impressive even though the Giulia has the brakes of a F1 car on it from the factory. Last but not least, he could have N2O but it’s not on his display in the race replay, so that’s the biggest speculation I got. Suffice it to say, he’s probably around 650-675pp in this race. Probably near 700hp in that car. My little 308 has just 265hp.

We should just ask the real Gallo what they put in this car.

 

[Nebuc72]

Tell you what, that Suzuka Clubman race is actually good fun.
The pack gets really bunched up on the 3rd lap, and you get a rare GT7 race where it feels like an actual race, instead of seal clubbing roadblocking AI.
600pp Miura build kept it close, was a tight race through the last lap all the way to the end.

 

[HotLimit]

How did you manage to enter an Italian car in a German race???

View attachment 1335449

DOH! Sainte-Croix was the AMG

 

[GTvsForza]

Almost a clean sweep:

• Special Event - Obvious 🔰
• European Clubman Cup - Audi TTS '09 🔰
• Ferrari Challenge - F12berlinetta 🔰
• Schwartzwald League - BMW VGT 🔰
• Gr. 1 Prototypes - Jaguar XJR-9

Rewards:

• 500k from 5-Star Daily (Yesterday)
• 30k from 4-Star Daily (Today)
• Dupe Porsche 918 from 6-Star Car Ticket

 

[OldandSlow]

Tell you what, that Suzuka Clubman race is actually good fun.
The pack gets really bunched up on the 3rd lap, and you get a rare GT7 race where it feels like an actual race, instead of seal clubbing roadblocking AI.
600pp Miura build kept it close, was a tight race through the last lap all the way to the end.
View attachment 1335565

That looks like my Miura. I used it there. Good race.

Ran the last two, using the Strassenversion and the Audi R18 TDI. Got a GT500 ‘08 from the ticket. I already had one, so I swapped it with the motor in my parts bin.