Weekly Challenge Discussion Thread

[rheinaoi]

This round of events looks fun. The Evo race is a challenge with the short race length and odd track selection. Also, the AI are taking this one seriously. They're running Sport Soft tires, widebodies with aero, and likely have more power than stock.

The Mazda One Make might be another great race despite the limited car selection. The race length is about right, and (finally) the starting gap between you and first place is much smaller than usual. My 600pp swapped NA Miata overwhelmed the field, but I think some great racing could be had around the 550pp+ range.

I've hyper-fixated on the Road Atlanta Prototype race before. Not sure I have the attention span for it now. That one is a tough, but fun, race.

I had a really fun one (kind of a gun to a knife fight, but I digress) at BH with my M2. This car is a lot of fun... It likes to step out so hard but when you find the rhythm it's an absolute weapon. Just under 600PP with SS tires and although it's a razor, it's also a HOOT to drive. I took the time trial route on the last lap and it looks a little squirrelly, but it was a riot. I don't always find the groove when I play but this day I did. 😂

Awesome run! It's a breath of fresh air seeing this car eat corners; as opposed to being the rocket sleds we see in the Race of Turbo Sports. OK, fine, you've convinced me to stop sleeping on this car

Is it me, or is the Road Atlanta race quite tough?

Second that. The Gr.1 race at Road Atlanta is definitely tough. The AI run a mix of strategies effectively and they're all generally quick. Some stay out forever (edit: Mizazuno in the Mclaren VGT is the car to beat, sometimes the R92CP), but then Wilik in the Peugeot VGT runs a brutally quick sprint build. Road Atlanta is also a crazy track (in a good way).

 

[CommanderBond]

Man, that Mazda one make at Suzuka is a handful with a 787b swapped roadster. now THAT was fun.
Gr 1 race was the Toyota GR010 - RH tires and FM 6. I made it on two stops for fuel only.

Parts ticket - High lift camshafts for an Aston Martin Vantage
Car ticket - Nissan GTR NISMO GT3 (2018 - the maroon Gr 3 model)

 

[MidnightRun85]

Man, that one make is a handful with a 787b swapped roadster. now THAT was fun.

Does this mean the NA Touring Car is eligible for this race?? AFAIK, the Roaster NA (not the Touring Car version) only gets the 13B from the RX-7...

 

[DriveSpark]

For the Road Atlanta race I tried the Porsche 919 (highest PP endurance car I have), soft tyres, FM5. Wong (leader) stopped on Lap 7, I had fuel to go to 9, stayed on Fm5, he stopped again at 14 and I ran until 18, was steadily catching during this stint, went FM4 then 3 after a lap but Wong had to do a short stop to make it, still couldn't catch him, was 8 seconds behind with a lap to go. Someone faster - at least more consitent than me might be able to make it, the AI seems expecially crap here, I got sideswiped in the esses and copped a penalty for it, also got ran in to the back of at T7.

Abanonded the prototypes and went with the SF23, same as above, FM5, until 2nd stop then went 4, 3 after a lap or two then 1 on last lap. easy enough win, despite a spin coming out of T7. Strange thing is fastest lap in the race and overall pace was a tad slower using this car over the porsche, but much easier win - feels like cheating though. imho neither the VGTs or SF cars should be eligible

Edit: Sooo, noticed a couple of things, first the 919 didn't have the fully customised gearbox, whiuch also led me to discover it didn't have the turbo upgrade, went from 902 to 913 PP. I also took a look at the tuning section here and used the suspension settings from Exeter Tuning's thread despite it being for RM tyres. Didn't change downforce or gearing.

Big difference, traction much better and the 11 PP turbo upgrade really helps on the long straight. FM5 again, first stop at the end of lap 8, 10 mins ot so in. Continued with FM5 until 2nd stop at end of lap 16, I think I was 14 seconds down on exit, Forget who the leader was but he pitted quite quickly and it became apparent Hizal was the competition, he pitted end of lap 20, dropped to FM6 to ensure I had fuel to get to the end, on the last lap it said I had a 29 second lead, not sure exactly how it panned out as the classification showed I lapped everyone.

Anyway, a properly upgraded 919, FM5, Soft tyres is the way to go. More fun to drive than the SF too.

 

[Famine]

Does this mean the NA Touring Car is eligible for this race?

It is - that's why it's in the thumbnail for the race, and why I put that in the article.

 

[MidnightRun85]

It is - that's why it's in the thumbnail for the race, and why I put that in the article.

Full disclaimer: I hadn't read your article this week. My bad, homie! Good to know though...

EDIT: I have now.

 

[Chris30]

This is strange, I was able to beat the Lancer Evo Meeting race a couple days ago in first, now after the Weekly challenges started my best run has been 4th-5th place, I even got all the turbo boosts and modifications in the tuning shop. Maybe I need to focus more and use my slipstream well behind my opponents. It will give me an advantage of passing them quicker.

 

[330_D]

This round of events looks fun. The Evo race is a challenge with the short race length and odd track selection. Also, the AI are taking this one seriously. They're running Sport Soft tires, widebodies with aero, and likely have more power than stock.

The Mazda One Make might be another great race despite the limited car selection. The race length is about right, and (finally) the starting gap between you and first place is much smaller than usual. My 600pp swapped NA Miata overwhelmed the field, but I think some great racing could be had around the 550pp+ range.

I've hyper-fixated on the Road Atlanta Prototype race before. Not sure I have the attention span for it now. That one is a tough, but fun, race.

Awesome run! It's a breath of fresh air seeing this car eat corners; as opposed to being the rocket sleds we see in the Race of Turbo Sports. OK, fine, you've convinced me to stop sleeping on this car


Second that. The Gr.1 race at Road Atlanta is definitely tough. The AI run a mix of strategies effectively and they're all generally quick. Some stay out forever (edit: Mizazuno in the Mclaren VGT is the car to beat, sometimes the R92CP), but then Wilik in the Peugeot VGT runs a brutally quick sprint build. Road Atlanta is also a crazy track (in a good way).

It loves gentle. But it hammers if you can find the finesse. Loves to swap ends... 😂

 

[Kurlee66]

Just did the Road Atlanta race in the GT-R LM NISMO 🤣🤣. Took five laps to get used to the handling, was getting smoked then the race came to me at the end finishing third 😅. At least I got this car out of the garage 👍🏻

…and yes, I got the shaft!

 

[Moose78]

I got four of these done this morning. I had some definite challenges with some of the cars I picked (normal difficulty).

BB Raceway - Mazda Damio XD Touring '15 - Nothing to see here. I added some aero to dress the car up, but no other changes. Easy win. First ticket achieved.

Autopolis - Honda Integra Type R (DC2) '98 - I didn't realize that this race was on a different layout until I saw some of the cars ahead turning right at the end of the back straight instead of left. No real problems though. Aside from some aero to dress the car up, I made no other changes to car. It was an easy win.

Kyoto - Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final '15 - What is this layout? This took a couple tries. On the first, I bought some SS tires, but left the car otherwise stock. I barely got by one car. Went to the tuning shop and added the sports-level parts. Jumped back in the race and I was still just barely keeping up. Then I noticed that I was still on the SH tires. I exited out, switched the tires, then tried again. I was finally making gains on the leaders. It was a close race to the end, but I managed to take the lead in the final corner. A win for the second ticket.

Suzuka - Mazda Eunos Roadster (NA) '89 - This took quite a few aborted attempts before I had the car enhanced enough to be competitive. Had I known yesterday that the Touring car would be eligible, I'd have picked it instead. The standard road car was only going to work for me with substantial modification. I went with all the sport-level parts, level-2 weight reduction, and mid-RPM turbo. It was still a challenge. I was in P4 going into the final lap, but somehow managed to squeeze by all three cars ahead of me to take the lead in the esses. It was an easy drive to the win from there.

 

[jrbabbitt]

i totally forgot that the Road Atlanta race was a 30 minute race....

 

[smoothbore12]

I had never race this race at Atlanta, pick an Audi TDI spin couple of times and quit .
Then i pick my trusty Bugatti gr1 ,put RH and FM 6 and change difficulty to easy level 😁 .
Managed to win and definitely is the first and last time am doing this race .

From all the races the Suzuka -mazda compo is the most entertaining and very well payment for less than 10 minutes race.
Although i never get the CRB and the 3 times i race no matter how careful i was 🤨 .
I really don't understand why am losing it .

 

[mynameis66]

This is strange, I was able to beat the Lancer Evo Meeting race a couple days ago in first, now after the Weekly challenges started my best run has been 4th-5th place, I even got all the turbo boosts and modifications in the tuning shop. Maybe I need to focus more and use my slipstream well behind my opponents. It will give me an advantage of passing them quicker.

I found this race a little testy aswell.Mind you I picked the Evo with the Escudo engine swap,kept it at 600pp same as for tokyo,but due to the massive turbo lag and the nature of the track it was hard work.

 

[JDMKING13]

This is strange, I was able to beat the Lancer Evo Meeting race a couple days ago in first, now after the Weekly challenges started my best run has been 4th-5th place, I even got all the turbo boosts and modifications in the tuning shop. Maybe I need to focus more and use my slipstream well behind my opponents. It will give me an advantage of passing them quicker.

I beat it when it first came out with my Evo 9. Semi-Racing exhaust, High capacity Intercooler, Medium RPM Turbo SM Tires. Used the same car and took an Easy 3rd 1st and 2nd were long gone lol. Event was crazy fun though!

 

[Fuzzi0n]

Decent week, Evo meeting was a challenge with a WRC spec Evo V but the AI has some real issues through the esses. Roadster race was cool but I over estimated how fast they would be and my Roadster Touring Car was 30 seconds up the road, will play around with some tuned road cars for the next one I think. I like that they did the Gr.1 race given it's Petit this weekend but I hated it for a while, was trying to use the '11 R18 and it's easily quick enough but I got wrecked out of the race by the AI >15 times, so many brake tests, pit moves, cars swerving and spinning, bad rejoins and worst of all cars driving around with no fuel. Changed to the '16 R18 instead and suddenly they behaved, won first try on RS/RS/RS on map 3, setup wasn't great so I tested some changes after I won and ended up running low 1.06's which would've easily blown the field away. I don't like the change they made to the hybrid systems on the LMP1 cars, it's just unrealistic now with how little it boosts. Some of the physics changes have shifted aero balance around and the braking is a lot better than it used to be without ABS. However I think this race with some AI tweaks would be a lot of fun, the day night transition is really cool too.

Cars for the week:

 

[benjoi84]

I tried it so you don't have to...

The VW ID-R electric vehicle only lasts 1 lap around Road Atlanta.

You're welcome.

 

[kjb]

I tried it so you don't have to...

The VW ID-R electric vehicle only lasts 1 lap around Road Atlanta.

You're welcome.

Man you saved me 🤣 I was planning on buying that just for that race 😁

 

[2cam16]

Pretty fun week of races. I opted to skip RA as I remember attempting this race some months ago and was way off the pace of the AI.
BB Raceway
Used the Copen on CS I ran at Willow Springs some weeks ago. Just over the suggested PP. Easy win.
BB Raceway_ by 2cam16, on Flickr
Autopolis took a bit to figure out . Used the Mazda 2 which was one of the first cars I ever bought when I started playing the game. It only had sports suspension and SS and way under the suggested PP. Only made it to second place as the Integra Type R was just too fast. Went for some mods and still keeping it under the suggested. Had an exciting last lap with two Civic Type-R's and won by a few seconds.
Autopolis International Racing Course - Short Course_ by 2cam16, on Flickr
Kyoto I had already raced a couple of times after it was added to the races so I used one of the EVOs I won with. Easy win.
Kyoto Driving Park - Yamagiwa+Miyabi Reverse_ (2) by 2cam16, on Flickr
Spec Miata race was fun trying to figure it out. I thought I'd need one of my Miata tourers. I had this mildly modded turbo Miata. Tried it first on SS but only finished 3rd so threw on some RS and that was an easy win. I'll try it with a TC next.
Suzuka Circuit_ (5) by 2cam16, on Flickr

 

[Chris30]

I'm halfway done, this is a really great challenge to grind credits on, think about it. 180,000 every 10 minutes. A person can accumulate 1,080,000 million credits per hour. Do I even dare? I'm going for it when I have extra time from my household chores and responsibilities. It wasn't intense but racing at Suzuka makes it nerve-wrecking sometimes. I had to cut corners in some areas in order to get past my rivals quicker. So enjoy looking at this. I'll have to fix the spelling error later, I typed too fast.

 

[MineralBlurb7]

NA Cup race was so good. That should be a proper 10 race championship.

Japanese FF was fun too. I hadn’t driven my EG in a while.

And no Eiger!

 

[OldandSlow]

Decent week, Evo meeting was a challenge with a WRC spec Evo V but the AI has some real issues through the esses. Roadster race was cool but I over estimated how fast they would be and my Roadster Touring Car was 30 seconds up the road, will play around with some tuned road cars for the next one I think. I like that they did the Gr.1 race given it's Petit this weekend but I hated it for a while, was trying to use the '11 R18 and it's easily quick enough but I got wrecked out of the race by the AI >15 times, so many brake tests, pit moves, cars swerving and spinning, bad rejoins and worst of all cars driving around with no fuel. Changed to the '16 R18 instead and suddenly they behaved, won first try on RS/RS/RS son map 3, setup wasn't great so I tested some changes after I won and ended up running low 1.06's which would've easily blown the field away. I don't like the change they made to the hybrid systems on the LMP1 cars, it's just unrealistic now with how little it boosts. Some of the physics changes have shifted aero balance around and the braking is a lot better than it used to be without ABS. However I think this race with some AI tweaks would be a lot of fun, the day night transition is really cool too.

Cars for the week:

I, too, ran the Audi. I ran it on FM1 and RS, making it a four-stop race for fuel. I took tires twice. I was in the lead on the last lap and was having so much fun, I ignored the fuel gauge, ran out of fuel just past the pit entrance and wound up finishing second. Fun race.

 

[MidnightRun85]

Three races done.

I used the Suzuki Swift Sport '07 for both the Sunday Cup and the FF 450 races. I'd never driven it before, but decided to give it a mild tune on SS tyres (including widebody) and it was easy work.

Then decided to tune up my recently purchased Roadster NA to nearly 250hp and 808kg. This thing received a pretty hefty tune overall, as I figured the Roadster TC would have a mild tune in the race too. Turns out I needn't have tuned it quite so far...

The NA race was really good fun. I think I'll give it another go with both of my Roadster TCs (one which has the 787B swap maxed out) and with my 13B-swapped NA as well.

Rewards were nothing to write home about...

 

[GlamFM]

Just did all the weeklies in one go.

I would vastly prefer if they just stuck to one theme every week and turned it into a small championship instead of trying to offer a little bit of everything.
5 DTM races last week (one being an endurance race because why not) and 5 mx5 races this week would have been awesome.

 

[sejtur]

Just did all the weeklies on one go.

I would vastly prefer if they just stuck to one theme every week and turned it into a small championship instead of trying to offer a little bit of everything.
5 DTM races last week (one being an endurance race because why not) and 5 mx5 races this week would have been awesome.

5 races at Eiger reverse would be amazing <3

 

[GlamFM]

5 races at Eiger reverse would be amazing <3

In a Tesla

 

[Chris30]

Just did all the weeklies in one go.

I would vastly prefer if they just stuck to one theme every week and turned it into a small championship instead of trying to offer a little bit of everything.
5 DTM races last week (one being an endurance race because why not) and 5 mx5 races this week would have been awesome.

Wow, great, I'm hoping to finish the last 2 events by tomorrow night. The Suzuka event is a good moneymaker. You get 180,000 credits for getting a CRB. I chose the Mazda Touring car and passed all opponents on Lap 3.

 

[DriveSpark]

I'm halfway done, this is a really great challenge to grind credits on, think about it. 180,000 every 10 minutes. A person can accumulate 1,080,000 million credits per hour. Do I even dare? I'm going for it when I have extra time from my household chores and responsibilities. It wasn't intense but racing at Suzuka makes it nerve-wrecking sometimes. I had to cut corners in some areas in order to get past my rivals quicker. So enjoy looking at this. I'll have to fix the spelling error later, I typed too fast.

You'd get 1.65m doing the 700pp Lemans race twice in an hour, piece of cake in a Group 3 car

 

[Moose78]

Got the last one done.

Road Atlanta - Toyota TS050 Hybrid '16 - This took a couple attempts. On the first one, I saved fuel too aggressively and had a couple offs. Finished 7th. Knowing then that the race would be 24 or 25 laps, I planned for a 9-8-8 strategy. The whole race I was short shifting at around the 7000RPM mark to save fuel. To stretch out the first stint an extra lap, I bumped up FM to 3. I switched it back to 1 for the rest of the race. I used the same set of RM tires for the whole race. Worked like a charm. I was the only driver to make it to lap 25, with only 13 seconds left on the clock. Drove out the final lap alone for an easy win.

The car ticket gave me a Toyota TS030 Hybrid '12, which I already owned. I sold it for 461,000 credits.

 

[OldandSlow]

In a Tesla

In the Chaparral VGT.

 

[rheinaoi]

This week's challenges are all done with 1st place finishes. I had fun.

NOTE: Everyone, needs to try the Miata One-Make with a 550pp or lower car or stock NA Touring Car. NOW.

All races done on hard difficulty.

I must have run the Japanese FF race close to 10 times trying to get 1st place in a stock Suzuki Swift. I secured victory when I figured out my braking points and realized that I could take the slow corners in 3rd gear.

The 350pp race at Broad Bean was fun in a stock Giulia just because Alfa Romeo. The final boss of my race was a Prius. I love PD's sense of humor

I caught the tuning bug for the Evo race and will keep throwing 600pp grip builds at this one. This event reminded me of the Clubman+ races. I had no idea what I was doing, but I REALLY liked this layout of Kyoto.

The Mazda race, I revisited with a 550pp rebuild of my rotary swapped NA roadster. 550pp on Sports Mediums was still too spicy for the competition. That gave me an idea...

So, I went with a bone stock NA Touring Car. 533pp on Sports Hards. The Touring Car was initially annoying to drive in that Gr.3 way - traction problems on corner exits (for a 205hp car 🙄 ) at the very top of the rev range that punishes drivers for using 100% throttle rather 96%. However, the racing was BRILLIANT. This race had me wake up the one brain cell that I keep in reserve for racing against humans and do some real critical thinking.

The Gr.1 race was... pain. I hadn't done this race in so long that I believe this was the first time I ran it on hard difficulty. Many rage restarts. On my second run, I remembered how to keep the car on the track and avoid the back marker blockers. The AI gave up as the night set in, and I put the whole field a lap down... somehow. I ran FM3 for most of the race because I had ALL the torque.

PD wants you to use a mixed pit strategy with at least one longer stint; otherwise you have to pit on the last lap.

Decent week, Evo meeting was a challenge with a WRC spec Evo V but the AI has some real issues through the esses. Roadster race was cool but I over estimated how fast they would be and my Roadster Touring Car was 30 seconds up the road, will play around with some tuned road cars for the next one I think. I like that they did the Gr.1 race given it's Petit this weekend but I hated it for a while, was trying to use the '11 R18 and it's easily quick enough but I got wrecked out of the race by the AI >15 times, so many brake tests, pit moves, cars swerving and spinning, bad rejoins and worst of all cars driving around with no fuel. Changed to the '16 R18 instead and suddenly they behaved, won first try on RS/RS/RS son map 3, setup wasn't great so I tested some changes after I won and ended up running low 1.06's which would've easily blown the field away. I don't like the change they made to the hybrid systems on the LMP1 cars, it's just unrealistic now with how little it boosts. Some of the physics changes have shifted aero balance around and the braking is a lot better than it used to be without ABS. However I think this race with some AI tweaks would be a lot of fun, the day night transition is really cool too.

Cars for the week:

I echo your sentiment on this week's Gr.1 race. I ran the Peugeot 908 with a maxed qualifying setup and regretted it. Whenever I was beside the AI, they'd out brake me into a corner, only to get in front and brake check me. Even the Group Cs were doing it. A bunch of cars ran out of fuel and became rolling hazards too.

Also, are you doing all your races with ABS off?

i totally forgot that the Road Atlanta race was a 30 minute race....

Yeah... With rage restarts, my first run took 2 and a half hours Whenever a race pays more than 200k credits, PD expects us to work for it.