posted 05-22-2005 02:53 PM         

Joining us today for an exclusive interview I’m pleased to welcome Miko, a relative newcomer to the global GT auto-world, but who has just stunned circuit officials with a remarkable lap in the infamous Mercedes ‘catch-up’ event.

Bissom: Welcome Miko. How does it feel to have just won the glorious Nissan R89C Race Car?

Miko: Thanks Grissel. I’m obviously delighted to succeed in this event, especially as the brake lines on my McLaren SLR had been cut prior to the race, and somebody had switched my tires for Wal-Mart re-treads. At one point my primary objective was to merely survive the lap, but to actually win is more than I could have hoped for. The fact that I walked away at all is still amazing to me, but to walk away with 50,000 credits and the R89C is a dream come true.

Bissom: Well, we’ll get to the credits you won in a little while, I just want to remind you at this point of all of the free publicity that you’re getting through this interview with the most famous auto commentator ever – me! – and that this will inevitably lead to major sponsorship deals in the future – some consideration is clearly required.

Miko: Uh!

Editor-in-Chief: Careful Bissom or you vill pay.

Bissom: Getting to the race itself can you describe your feelings as you sat on the start line and had to wait for a full two minutes and three seconds while 5 Mercedes from through the ages took to the track?

Miko: The wait at the start seems like an eternity and to see these hallowed vehicles getting the green light so long before you do is somewhat intimidating. I had to resist the urge to push too hard at the beginning and trust to driving smoothly and cleanly as off-road excursions and penalties can wreck any chance of closing the 2’03 gap to the 300SL Gullwing.

Bissom: I understand PAL racers get a full 8 second advantage at the start of this race and begin the chase only 1’55 behind. How do you feel about this?

Miko: Well, assuming that all other things are equal, I had completed this race a number of times within 8s of the lead and on every one of these occasions I rued the fact that I was an NTSC’er and not a PAL’er. However, now that I have completed this event I derive great satisfaction from the fact that I did it under the harshest of conditions. It is no mean feat for anybody, anywhere, in any format to succeed here but fellow NTSC’ers should perhaps derive the greatest sense of satisfaction.

Bissom: During the first half of the race you appeared to be driving quite cautiously. Is that a wise approach to this event?

Miko: Looks can be very deceiving. I felt as though I was pushing very hard but the fact of the matter is that the SLR needs to be treated gently, with early braking and smooth acceleration through the turns. The Flugplatz in particular needs to be taken very carefully with a small amount of braking and throttle lift required at the jump prior to the turn, otherwise the high speed carried at this point will just throw you off the circuit. If you can carry 115 to 120mph through this turn you are doing well. Likewise the curve prior to Adenauer Forst requires much earlier braking than would be normal in order to stay on the tarmac and set up for the turn itself. I managed to clear the Metzgesfeld turn at over 110mph which is just enough to leave a stain in the underwear.

Bissom: Your T1 to T4 deficits were +1’49.210; +1’40.928; +1’32.171 and +1’20.830. Were you concerned at this point that you had too large a gap to make up?

Miko: To be honest Grissel I was concerned the whole race that I wouldn’t be able to make up the deficit but my T5 split of +1’08.362 was just about where I wanted it, even though on my previous run I had cleared T5 at +1’06.486, as I knew the second half of the course contains sections where my speed advantage should come to the fore. This was confirmed as I managed to pull back over 10s before the Mutkurve where my T6 time was +0’56.998.

Bissom: You caught the AMG SL65 as you approached the Karussell and I’m sure I noticed that you engaged in a little wall riding here. We had a photographer stationed here who took this shot. Can you elaborate on this?

Miko: I wanted to exit the Karussell ahead of the SL65 and had a choice of either following him through the curve on the banking, or passing him by running wide and riding the wall. I know that this risks a 5s penalty if hit wrong but is worth the risk as the exit speed is so much higher. Of course I would be disqualified if traditional OLR rules were applied but, apart from conscience – which I can deal with – the only disadvantage is the post-race panel beating and re-spraying that’s required – and the 50,000 winnings more than cover that. To be honest the whole of the run was a little untidy, especially compared to some of my previous runs, and I put some ruts in the grass in at least three places. At some point I intend re-running this Mission with a view to making an ‘OLR clean lap’ and may be at that point I’ll do a race write-up for the GTBN Resource Section.

Bissom: GTBN? – Never heard of it. However, I’m glad you mentioned the 50,000 credits again as this is kind of what I had in mind for my fee in return for all of the positive exposure that I’m giving you.

Miko: Huh!

Editor-in-Chief: Bissom – zis is your last varning – cut it out or pay ze ultimate price – dum schiessekopt (sp.)

Bissom: Yeah! Yeah! Moving on Miko you gained quite rapidly on the SL500 with a T7 split of +0’39.609 and passed him nice and cleanly on braking at the Eiskurve where your T8 time of +0’31.900 looked to put you in with a chance of catching the Gullwing. Again our excellent cameramen were on the spot to capture the moment.

Miko: That’s right Grissel. I was hoping to be within 30 to 32s of the SL300 at the Eiskurve as I knew this gave me a chance. My T9 split of 0’25.532 after Sprunghugel was again where I wanted it to be and I was able to pass the 190E on exit from Galgenkopf , which really put me in a good position.

Bissom: That was a beautiful pass and again we had a man on the spot.

As you entered the Dottinger Hohe you really began to wind the McLaren SLR up and your T10 split of +0’13.831 was really quite impressive. We have a great shot from just after T10 showing the distance you still had to make up on the 230SLK and 300SL.

We caught you on the speed gun at over 190mph and you passed the SLK230 at the Tiergarten where your T11 time was +0.05.630. Although you ran very wide here when passing the SLK and ended up putting a couple of wheels in the grass – see photo below – you managed to hold it together and carried a lot of speed into the chicane. What were you feeling at this point?

Miko: Well I knew I had a chance at this point as I could see the SL300 entering the Hohenrain Schikane. I nailed the right-left-right before the start-finish straight and had perfect speed to pass the SL300 just before the line to win by 0.168s. My final time was 9’13.045 and I can’t tell you how good it felt to cross the line in front – after so many attempts at this race I had finally achieved something that I thought would forever elude me. The prize money and prize vehicle were merely icing on the cake.

Bissom: Well I’m glad you said that Miko. As a memento of your achievement I m pleased to present you with a couple of photographs of the last few turns and of you crossing the finish line ahead of the SL300. What do you think?

Miko: That’s great Grissel. I am surprised at your generosity. Thank you.

Bissom: Oh, think nothing of it - the price by the way is a mere 50,000 credits.

Miko: Uh! But…

Editor-in-Chief: Zat is it Bissom. You ver varned.

German Hitman: Phut Phut

posted 05-22-2005 04:22 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sukerkin:
I've worked on the assumption that negative numbers are making the front relatively lighter compared to the rear.

---

posted 05-22-2005 05:39 PM         

I can only confirm that the effects I've observed were that -ve numbers gave more oversteer (particularly noticeable on corner exit).

The slide in the interface is labelled 'Front/Rear Balance' which suggests that a -ve number means less weight at the Front and more at the Rear. The VCD slider works in a similar way i.e. a lower number means more torque to the rear wheels (or at least it used to work that way ?!).

posted 05-22-2005 09:56 PM         

I hate you.

Sincerely,
- James // Santiago22

P.S. I really, really hate you.

</jealousy>

posted 05-23-2005 10:42 AM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Santiago22:
I hate you.

Sincerely,
- James // Santiago22

P.S. I really, really hate you.

---

posted 05-23-2005 10:43 AM         

T1: +1’49.210
T2: +1’40.928
T3: +1’32.171
T4: +1’20.830
T5: +1’08.362
T6: +0’56.998
T7: +0’39.609
T8: +0’31.900
T9: +0’25.532
T10: +0’13.831
T11: +0’05.630
T12: -0’00.168

posted 05-23-2005 10:47 AM         

Enjoying the ASL JGTC so much I took it to Suzuka for the 1000km endurance. Fitted with an S3 turbo and R1 tires (and also the reduced power), the race was rated 128 points against a Cerumo Supra, Pennzoil Zexel GT-R, Motul Pitiwork Z and both versions of Opel/Vauxhall Touring Cars.

The 172 lap race lasted just over 6 hours and was led from lap 2 until the end. It was actually a relatively close race between the ASL and the Pitiwork Z, which I didn’t lap on the road until lap 165 (this equates to only a little over half a second per lap). Some data are shown below with the fastest lap times being those recorded at the end of the replay on lap 30. My fastest lap by the end of the race was actually 2’02.499.

Car	Margin	F/L	Pit-stops
ASL Arta Garaiya JGTC ‘03	6:02’35.198	2’03.418	12
Nissan Motul Pitiwork Z JGTC ‘04	+1 lap	2’04.148	13
Toyota Au Cerumo Supra JGTC ‘01	+3 laps	2’05.603	13
Opel Astra Touring Car ‘00	+3 laps	2’06.330	11
Nissan Pennzoil Zexel GT-R JGTC ‘01	+3 laps	2’06.005	13
Opel Calibra Touring Car ‘94	+9 laps (?)	2’10.899	14

The prize was 350k credits and a Lister Storm V12 Race Car ’99.

Following this I re-ran a couple of races at the Nürburgring in the European Hall for points. I really am getting quite good at this track – and it’s only taken me about 300 laps or so of racing there!

After this, and seeing that a lot of my remaining events would be against Class C Race Cars, I went to the showrooms and bought a Pescarolo Courage C60 Race Car ’03 (the lesser of the two Pescarolos). The 4.5m credit outlay depleted my funds to below 4m, but hey! I can’t take it with me.

For a try out I ran the Pesky in the last race of the Professional Hall, 4 laps of Sarthe I, against the Minolta 88C-V; Nissan R92C and R89C; Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car and the Gillet Vertigo. A-Spec rating was 132 on R1 tires and the win was by over 11s. Lugnut – if you want to try something different for the ‘Real Circuit Tours’ you could do a lot worse than try this – stock power is 800hp (without an oil change) with a PWR of 1.124. This compares to the AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car of 837hp (after an oil change) and a PWR of 1.195.

Status update on game day 938…

Completion: 96.9%
A-Spec points: 45,027
A-Spec mileage: 12,837
B-Spec points: 0
Trophies: 579 (I know that I have 18 events left to complete therefore I have completed 505 events – this means that I don’t have to keep track of re-runs)
Cars: 158 (prize), 210 (total)
Credits: Almost 4m

A-Spec point average = (45,027-8,500)/505 = 72.3

By the way, there was no prize for 45,000 A-Spec points – it must be at 50,000

posted 05-23-2005 12:25 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by miko:
[b]Lugnut – if you want to try something different for the ‘Real Circuit Tours’ you could do a lot worse than try this – stock power is 800hp (without an oil change) with a PWR of 1.124. This compares to the AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car of 837hp (after an oil change) and a PWR of 1.195.[/B]

---

I appreciate the tip. At present, I have just not quite 4.5m credits in the bank. I do, indeed, want to generate other options for all three of these race series that are being dominated by the handful of 'killer cars' of the Class C racers. Towards that end, I was planning on B-Specing the two Sarthe 24 hour races to get the two cars from those efforts. IIRC, the Bentley and Audi are the prizes for those races, and both of those have made respectable showings when driven by the AI. And, of course, the extra prize money from those races would put me in position to buy a 4.5m credit car, too.

quote:

---

In the first post of this diary I commented that one of my goals was to achieve 40,000 A-Spec points. My revised target is 50,000 (trying to keep Lugnut at bay but suspecting I’ll fail) and this requires me to increase my race average by about 7½ points while at the same time completing events where high points are very unlikely, namely SC hard at GC and the Ice Arena. We’ll see how it goes – I also have 6 enduros to complete including the two Sarthe 24hr races and the ‘Real Circuit Tours’, which I’m saving for when I have a bigger selection of Class C Cars and can experiment a bit.

---

You're giving me a lot of credit, but I fear you are shadow boxing. I'm at roughly 38,400 A-Spec points, but there isn't a lot of game left. 40,000 A-Spec will be easy for me, but 45,000 would be an awfully tall order without a lot of reruns. One big difference between us is that I've got almost no A-Spec from the Endurance Hall, where I expect you'll have gotten over 1000 points. That's a lot of ground for me to make up elsewhere.

posted 05-24-2005 12:05 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lugnut:
One big difference between us is that I've got almost no A-Spec from the Endurance Hall, where I expect you'll have gotten over 1000 points. That's a lot of ground for me to make up elsewhere.

I also have to give you your props. I'm of the opinion that you're just plain better at this than me. Especially when it comes to tuning and having an eye for the car that works. You are both creative and detail oriented, not to mention enormously patient. All my best ideas were stolen from others, but at least I'm good enough to know where to hang out for the best ideas to steal!

---

Luckier may be - better, I think not. With regard to selecting the right car - it's as much about selecting the right competition for the car you want to enter and the points/difficulty you want to achieve. I'm pleased that PD had the foresight to program a large selection of entrants for each race/series so that entering and exiting a number of times gives you more options.

Tuning is trial and error and 'detail oriented' is also known as OCD. I am very patient and luckily have a very patient wife when it comes to putting up with my GT4 excesses. She finds it particularly amusing when I spend so much time taking notes and then watching replays for hours on end to extract as much information as possible - all for the purpose of this diary.

For me the frustrating part is that I often feel as though I'm talking to myself here - you are the exception and you commented in an earlier post that we are a kind of a mutual fan-club. Well I have to confess that if it hadn't been for your excellent diary and your interaction here, I would probably have given up on this endeavor a while ago - and may be have even completed the game by now. As it is, and being within a few percent of completion, I'll try to follow this through to the end and trust you'll be there with me.

posted 05-24-2005 12:10 PM         

Once again, as has become my masochistic way, I forego the high end race cars and enter in the Nissan GT-R Concept LM Race Car that I had only used for a couple of races in the All Stars Championship. After a few enter-exits I got a field that did not include one of the ‘big 4’ and lined up on the grid behind a Chevrolet Corvette C5R (C5) ’00; BMW V12 LMR Race Car ’99; Toyota GT-One Race Car (TS020) ’99; Jaguar XJR-9 Race Car ’88 and a Dodge Viper GTS-R Team Oreca ’00. Putting out the oil change power of 657hp (616hp in the replay) and on R1 tires, the race, of course, is rated 200 A-Spec points.

After 1 lap I’m in second place behind the BMW at +0.905s and moved into the lead on lap 2. The AI here are very cautious when on new tires for approximately 4 laps and this is the best opportunity to buffer a lead. At the 10 lap distance the Nissan is ahead by 4.393s over the Beemer, with the GT-One at +8.768s, the Jaguar XJR-9 at +8.844s, the Viper at +1’06.275 and the Corvette last at +1’21.595. The Corvette was lapped on lap 12 which was the same lap that the Jaguar made his first pit-stop.

At my first pit-stop on lap 15 the lead over the BMW was down to 2½ seconds. I emerged from the pits in third place and promptly lapped the Viper, but was nearly 24s behind the BMW with the GT-One in second. The Toyota was passed in the pits on lap 16, at which point the BMW’s lead was 25s, but this was relinquished (just) when he made his first pit-stop on lap 17.

The lead on lap 20 was 9.511s over the BMW, the GT-One third at +22.640s and the Jaguar fourth at +22.874s. The Jaguar was probably the fastest car on the circuit but tended to have a major wipe-out every 10th lap and this coupled with the shortest pit cycle put him out of contention. And so the race progressed. I would put 8 to 12 seconds on the BMW during his first 4 laps on new tires, hold this for 4 to 6 laps, and then lose around half a second per lap for the next 5 to 7 laps. The good thing is that this meant I gradually increased my lead as the race progressed which was especially important as some rough calculations indicated that the Beemer would make one fewer pit-stops than me.

The fastest laps below were recorded at the 43 lap mark when the replay recording ended. At the end of the race 1’23.866 was still the fastest lap of the Nissan and was actually 1 of only 2 sub 1’24 laps that I managed to run. The final winning margin was 26s (at the last checkpoint) with the GT-One being lapped on lap 114 after the 2hrs 45mins had elapsed. Basically this was a damned close race with the final margin equating to around 0.2s per lap, although this does include one less pit-stop for the Beemer.

Car	Distance	F/L	Pit-stops
Nissan GT-R Concept LM Race Car ‘02	114 laps	1’23.866	7
BMW V12 LMR Race Car ‘99	114 laps	1’24.349	6
Toyota GT-One Race Car (TS020) ‘99	113 laps	1’24.815	7
Jaguar XJR-9 Race Car ‘88	113 laps	1’24.271	9
Dodge Viper GTS-R Team Oreca ‘00	107 laps (?)	1’30.601	7
Chevrolet Corvette C5R (C5) ‘00	104 laps	1’32.428	7

All-in-all this was a very close and enjoyable race, especially to beat three Class C cars with a LM car (albeit quite a special one), and to get 200 A-Spec points to boot. The prize was 500k credits and, wait for it, yet another Ford GT , this time a Ford GT LM ’02. This makes 5 different Ford GT’s that I have won as prizes – how many do I need and what is the relationship between Ford and Polyphony Digital?

posted 05-24-2005 03:09 PM         

I for one keep up to date with your entries and find them very useful as a source of data that allows me to make informed decisions as to what cars to use for which races etc.

I don't know how you chaps find the time to both race and produce such eloquent epistles. I'll be typing up some of my notes tonight (whilst VBH runs the Nurburgring 24 Hour for me) but it'll mostly be bare bones numbers and facts rather than the pleasant reading your diaries are.

posted 05-24-2005 04:36 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by miko:
For me the frustrating part is that I often feel as though I'm talking to myself here - you are the exception and you commented in an earlier post that we are a kind of a mutual fan-club. Well I have to confess that if it hadn't been for your excellent diary and your interaction here, I would probably have given up on this endeavor a while ago - and may be have even completed the game by now. As it is, and being within a few percent of completion, I'll try to follow this through to the end and trust you'll be there with me.

---

Oh, I'll be around and reading, don't worry about that. I don't know what you plan after finishing the game, but I hope you at least check back in from time to time. I plan on continuing to work my file, even after the game completion hits 100%. I'm going to go back to the beginning and start putting slick shoes on cars, and sandbags in the trunk, running them on black oil and engaging in all other sorts of abuse--all of which I plan on dubbing "Miko-ing" the file. When I do crack your last reported A-Spec total, you can be sure I'll be back here to tell you about it.

You've given me a new perspective on enjoying the game of racing solitaire. That's worth a bucket of car tips.

On the subject of your audience for this effort:

First, I chose this site for this kind of attention and effort in a deliberate quality over quantity calculation. I’d rather be able to count my readers on one hand, but have them be folks like Miko, Sukerkin, Santiago, etc., than get 10,000 hits from semi-literate kids. I suspect your own priorities might be rather similar.

Second, you can never tell who is really reading you, or when. I did some strategy article writing for a hobby website years ago, and I still get email from people who are newcomers to that site, read what I wrote, and want to talk to me about it. This, even though I last wrote anything for that site about four years ago. My wife jokingly refers to such emails as my ‘fan mail’. Sometimes it’s kids. Sometimes it's an economics professor at Princeton. As I wrote upstream in your diary, I’m constantly amazed at who I ‘meet’ on the ‘Net. Occasionally, I’ll even meet them in person. Once you put yourself out there, you never know what connections you’ll make.

That former experience, along with what I saw as an obvious need, was what motivated me to distill my diary posts into a more concentrated set of strategy articles that I posted here. They seem to have garnered little attention so far, but that’s OK. A few people seem to value them greatly. A year from now, there might be a few dozen that got something out of them. My next one is going to point people to your own diary for a Mission 34 breakdown. Whatever few people actually use my IA guide are going to be thunderstruck if/when they take up my advice to view Miko’s diary.

posted 05-24-2005 04:44 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sukerkin:
I don't know how you chaps find the time to both race and produce such eloquent epistles.

---

posted 05-24-2005 06:03 PM         

The Merc Mission was great as was the Garayia write up for the Nurby 4 hours.

posted 05-24-2005 06:20 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by miko:
For ease of reference, and so interested parties don’t have to wade through the lengthy post above, here are my splits for Mission 34 – note that these are for the NTSC version where the start-line wait is 2’03.000.

[b]T1: +1’49.210
T2: +1’40.928
T3: +1’32.171
T4: +1’20.830
T5: +1’08.362
T6: +0’56.998
T7: +0’39.609
T8: +0’31.900
T9: +0’25.532
T10: +0’13.831
T11: +0’05.630
T12: -0’00.168

The T12 time is at the finish line. Total race time including the start delay was 9’13.045. Good luck [/B]

---

I consistently run under 9:20, and I'm finishing 11 secs. back in third! WTF!?!? I know that my T2 time is usually around a 1:35.xxx...

posted 05-25-2005 12:55 AM         

Hopefully this will make you feel a little less alone, and encouraged enough to keep up your tales of fact and derring-do. As has been mentioned, this site is so much more about quality of information and conversation, and we are all the better for the contributions of yourself and so many others who are constantly keeping me up late reading, when I should be sleeping. Like right now!

posted 05-25-2005 01:28 AM         

a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations

House Rules:

Gran Turismo Diaries
This is a place to record your game's progress. Post current days and progress through GT1, GT2 and GT3. Please keep your discussions to a minimum, as you should only post in your own diary.

Anyway, I would never admit to poking my nose into someone else's diary.

( Edit: ok, someone tell the noob how to insert underlines )

[This message has been edited by player2 (edited 05-25-2005).]

IP: Logged

posted 05-25-2005 04:28 AM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by miko:
For me the frustrating part is that I often feel as though I'm talking to myself here - you are the exception and you commented in an earlier post that we are a kind of a mutual fan-club. Well I have to confess that if it hadn't been for your excellent diary and your interaction here, I would probably have given up on this endeavor a while ago - and may be have even completed the game by now. As it is, and being within a few percent of completion, I'll try to follow this through to the end and trust you'll be there with me.

---

Miko -

I know I don't post much in your diary - or anyone else's for that matter - but I would like to state for the record that I have read every single word you have posted in this thread.

Same goes for everyone else with a GT4 diary here. That's part of why I don't post much - I'm too busy reading.

But I wouldn't read it if it wasn't of some value to me.

- Santiago22
(who underlined his name by going <u>Santiago22</u> )

------------------
Santiago22
Button's Brigade - GTRCLite 2004 CHAMPIONS - The team's the thing.
[ aim: levin racer 22 | web: http://www.santiago22.com/ ]
GTBN IRC Chat | GTBN Volume 4 Info | GTBN World Clock

[This message has been edited by Santiago22 (edited 05-25-2005).]

IP: Logged

posted 05-25-2005 11:47 AM         

Being somewhat at a hiatus in the game (evening sessions are not long enough to run any of my remaining enduros – Sarthe I and II, Motegi 8hrs, Tsukuba 9hrs and Fuji 1000km – and I’m saving the ‘Real Circuit Tours’ until last) this only leaves me the two remaining SC Hard Events – GC and Whistler – to choose from (and I abhor both of these courses).

Luckily I was able to complete the Ice Arena Event in the Mitsu CZ-3 Tarmac Rally Car reasonably painlessly, and even though total points for the forward and reverse direction only amounted to 25, I thankfully never, never, never have to run this course again. On to Grand Canyon and as a warm-up I re-run the reverse normal event where previously I had only achieved 2 points – well that’s now up to 5 and that’s all I can take. The hard event is a different matter and despite trying nearly every rally car in my garage I have met with a singular lack of success in winning here. If only PD had included 24hr endurance events at Grand Canyon in each direction, I might have actually learned the circuit Enough of that, I'm getting too frustrated and trying too hard, both of which are hurting my times. The ’03 Mitsu and ’03 Scooby Doo Super Rally Cars that the AI enters here are both lightening fast and also appear to be running on some sort of hidden rails – one of which I can’t do (yet) and the other of which I can’t find. Mission 34 is a piece of cake compared to these races

Not wanting to chew on razors for any longer, and with Lugnut’s tremendous guides in hand, I go on a quick A-spec points hunt and run a second-hand Imprezza WRX in the Race of the Pleiades where I increase my points total from 26 per race to 116 – a nice 450 point injection. I also get 125k credits for the Championship Series and a nice new Imprezza Touring Car (in white) to make up for the one I wrecked in the Nurby 24hr race.

posted 05-25-2005 12:00 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by GTer:
I consistently run under 9:20, and I'm finishing 11 secs. back in third! WTF!?!? I know that my T2 time is usually around a 1:35.xxx...

---

Firstly I assume you're running NTSC. I ran this event many times and never saw the 300SL get a faster time than 9'12.9xx. Your experience indicates that the AI can run at sub 9'09 which is 4s faster than anything I saw. May be everybody drives faster in Florida to avoid the hurricanes With regard to your T2 time this is exceptionally fast - I could not get any where near this - are you sure this is not a T3 time?

Edit note: I should add that T2 is just before the Arembergkurve (as you are going up the hill) and T3 is just after the Adenauer Forst chicane - at least that's where they are on my version.

posted 05-25-2005 12:50 PM         

GC General: It will help to go back to the license tests that involve pieces of GC and repeat them until you can consistently low silver/gold them ‘by the book’. The other rally courses aren’t designed to make drifting skill overly critical, and can be beaten without big drifts. I didn’t beat GC on ‘hard’ until I finally got a knack for throwing the car sideways and holding it, and getting into and out of the throw with some modicum of grace. As I’ve said before, but it bears repeating, the start of every turn comes way, way, way before you think it does, and usually before you see it. There is no substitute for memorizing the course. You have to be fully in the drift before the corner arrives. A caveat: Forget ‘OLR clean’. ‘Some modicum of grace’ for getting into and out of drifts involves tolerating kicking your tail off of a lot of walls over the course of five laps. The program allow pretty hard tail-only contact without risk of penalty. There’s a reason why, methinks. I expect that if I actually were willing to put a near-infinite amount of time into technique, I’d get through laps without wall-touches, but AFAIC anything that doesn’t trigger the penalty—and isn’t a wallride—is fair.

GC Forward: I discovered that, for the portion of the course that occurs after the long straight (about the last quarter of the lap), you can get away with being enormously aggressive charging up the hill and going through the switchbacks. Outside of the extra-tight hairpins, throttle and lift, don’t throttle and brake, and don’t lift a lot either. The lines are there for full-power drifts for most of the last quarter. I discovered that I could exceed the AI by 5-7 seconds in this part of the course alone every lap. What happens when I run this course now: I’ll lose three seconds or so to the AI on the first lap, pass him in this section, get repassed somewhere in the second lap, pass him here again on lap 2, then get far enough in front that the last three laps are all mine. The AI runs this uphill section with the same pattern of throttle and brake as all others, sacrificing bags of time you can make up on him by being aggressive and using gravity as your brake.

GC Reverse: I’ve discovered a strange quirk of the programming, in that there is a lot more grip than there should be on the downhill slopes of the course, when run in reverse. Methinks I’ve discovered a bit of a ‘cheat’ that the PD programmers used to simulate ‘gravity’ on the course. But give kamikaze style late braking on the downhill runs at turns a try and see if you don’t agree that there is stopping force there that shouldn’t be, and that you can get away with stuff you shouldn’t be able to get away with. Maybe I just talked myself into being more aggressive on the downhills that way, but if that’s all my advice amounts to, it should still work. You can be much more aggressive going downhill than you think, and than the AI is.

Whistler: I’ve never discovered a better strategy than what I call ‘tiptoeing’ around the course. The first rule is “No Drifting”. The second rule is “See the First Rule”. Straight line brake into the turn, lift, track the car around the turn on momentum alone, or a very light throttle/feathering, and don’t get fully back on the gas until you are fully facing the direction you want to go. The AI drifts all turns, some very much to its detriment, where you will be able to track through on the inside using this technique and a steely patience. I golded both S License tests involving snow/ice using this technique. It is as fast as drifting and much, much, much more consistent, containing almost zero risk of spinout or wall contact penalty. The problem is keeping your hindbrain from screaming at you to go faster and step on the gas too soon and/or too hard.

posted 05-25-2005 01:29 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by Lugnut:
My unsolicited advice for these last rally events:

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posted 05-25-2005 01:59 PM         

------------------
eggmann
Ghostbustin'!
My GT4 Diary
All the negativity in this town sucks!

posted 05-26-2005 11:33 AM         

Armed with a wealth of excellent advice, and a positive mind, I ran a few practice laps at GC, in both directions, in the Mitsubishi CZ-3 Tarmac Rally Car, fitted with a stage 3 turbo and putting out 409hp. With a new found confidence, and after locking Hyde in the closet, I head off to the races and enter GC Hard where in the forward direction I’m matched against a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Rally Car ’03. A-Spec points are only 9 but this will do for me. The key factor in reducing lap times, quite significantly I might add, is summarized in a snippet taken from Lugnut’s post above and quoted below…

quote:

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Originally posted by Lugnut:
There is no substitute for memorizing the course. You have to be fully in the drift before the corner arrives.

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The race went off a treat - +0.247s after lap 1, +2.073s after lap 2, +2.545s after lap 3 and +3.686s after lap 4. Despite being over 3½ seconds down at the start of the final lap I wasn’t that concerned as I knew I had been driving conservatively and cleanly and knew that there was a lot more in the tank. This was the first time I’d been within striking distance at the start of the final lap and now was the time to put everything I’d learned to good use. First a few snapshots from the early stages…

On lap 5 I closed the gap quite rapidly and passed the Evo when he went wide just before the second ‘straight’ (see next photo) only to have him dive into the side of me, even though I had the racing line, and stick me with a 5s penalty. Fortunately the gentleman you see standing on the left saw everything and he has signed an affidavit stating that this was not my fault. This however left me with a two second deficit that I again closed and again passed the Evo, this time at the switchbacks, and then drove away and win by 1.183s.

Fastest lap for the CZ-3 was 2’32.056, which was lap 5, and would have likely been a sub 2’30 time had it not been for the penalty. Fastest lap for the Evo was 2’32.462. Total race times were 12’49.981 and 12’51.164 respectively.

As a warm-up for the GC Hard Reverse race I first re-entered the Normal race in the road version of the CZ-3. Remember that my previous highest points (in the CZ-3 Rally Car) were 5. Well now it is 53 and I drove away from an Evo IV GSR ’96. Fastest lap was 2’40.672 which is more than two seconds faster than my previous best in the CZ-3 Rally Car – with a stage 3 turbo and almost twice the power – go figure!

posted 05-26-2005 01:39 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by Lugnut:
Do I calculate correctly that all you are left with now are enduros?

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Not quite. I have 5 Enduros – Sarthe I and II 24hrs; Motegi 8hrs; Tsukuba 9hrs and the Fuji 1000km. I also have the Real Circuit Tours to complete which I’m hoping to either intersperse with the Enduros or leave fully until the end, mainly because I want to do a lot of experimentation with a variety of cars. Therefore I have 13 races to complete.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lugnut:
Will you be attempting to A-Spec another 24 hour race?

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That is my intention but I reserve the right to change this. It would however be a shame to get this far without using Bob/Malcolm at all and then use them when within a couple of percent of completion.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lugnut:
Have your thumbs forgotten their pain?

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LOL! Yes (kind of) but my memory is not fried enough yet that I have forgotten. I’m balancing the pros-and-cons of using the DFP per GT3mich’s suggestion but fear that all this will really achieve is add about 30s to my lap times. I may give it a go for an hour or so as a trial before I make a final decision of DS2 or DFP.

quote:

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Originally posted by GT3mich:
I found the GC reverse to be harder for me but I didn't upgrade the hp. I just ran with an oil change.

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posted 05-26-2005 02:20 PM         

First up was the Mitsubishi Evolution Meeting where I entered a 6.2 mile, Dandelion Yellow, Lancer Evo III GSR ’95 with full transmission, brake and suspension upgrades, but no power or weight modifications. I think I’ve mentioned this before but I’ll mention it again. The ‘Original’ suspension upgrade that can be bought from the Tuner Village (and I think can only be applied to some second-hand vehicles) is a killer and IMO is superior to the ‘Fully Customizable’ upgrade. The first race at SSR5 Clubman was improved from 26 points (I originally did this in the Evo IV Rally Car ’97 as this was the only Evo I had) to 169 and the second at Fuji from 30 to 168. The third race however, 1 lap of Tokyo, is just too fast and too short to win against the upgraded AI, and required the addition of a chip, racing exhaust, racing intercooler and S3 tires. This still resulted in a point upgrade from 30 to 110.

A few additional re-runs in the 4WD and MR series nets a few additional points and I even returned to SC Easy and re-ran Citta di Aria in the Lotus Elise Type 72. Here, both forward and reverse races were against the Renault 5 Turbo and the points return went from 10 per race (in the Kusabi) to 56. The ‘Easy’ races in the SC Hall seem to hold good potential for point’s injection – first time around I had a lot of trouble matching the AI cars due to my own limited selection of vehicles. I think that I now have a large enough garage and enough cash to experiment a little on better match-ups. Other than that I’m starting to struggle to see where I can get the necessary increases I need to break the 50,000 point mark.

Lastly I re-ran License S10 (Starion at GC) and improved my lap time on the first attempt by nearly 1s to 2’45.681. There’s a lot more to be had here in terms of time but absolutely nothing else to be gained game-wise.

Status update on game day 975 (re-runs and car purchases are moving this on quite quickly)…

Completion: 97.7%
A-Spec points: 46,339
A-Spec mileage: 13,269
Cars: 163 prize, 220 total
Credits: 4.3m

posted 05-27-2005 10:41 AM         

Next up were the ‘easy’ rally races in the Special Conditions Hall. A quick scan through previous A-Spec bests showed that, with the exception of Swiss Alps, I had rarely got into double digits (9 to 12 points was typical). At Swiss Alps I had realized 87 and 111 points but even this seemed ripe for an addition. I had scored far more points in the ‘Normal’ and ‘Hard’ races (typically 50 to 130) and can only put this down to the fact that I had limited racing resource at the start of the game. I’m not complaining though as this is just what I hoped to find if I am to hit the 50,000 point mark. The only issue now is finding the killer, high point car, for these races.

After various car tests and AI entrant evaluation, I finally found that little diamond-in-the-rough that could give me the points return I was looking for. The car – a Renault 5 Turbo ‘80. The AI in these races comprises various 4WD models from the 80’s and early 90’s. I am convinced now that vintage is a factor in the point’s algorithm. Without going into individual race detail, the points rating for races at Tahiti Maze and both Cathedral variants ranged from 137 to 178 according to opponent, as follows…

'82 Audi Quattro: high 140’s
'84 Toyota Celica: high 130’s
'85 Peugeot 205 Turbo: high 160’s
'91 Lancia Delta Integrale: high 160’s
'91 Toyota Celica: high 170’s

The '91 Celica and '85 Peugeot are tough to best but the others, despite good close racing, are all comfortably beatable.

Swiss Alps Forward saw the same AI as above but the Reverse saw a few additional entrants, a '94 Imprezza WRX, which I could not beat in a 200 point race, and an '02 Ford Focus RS which, although also rated 200 points, I was able to beat. This is my first 200 point rally race

Lastly in this session was a trip to Tsukuba wet, again in the Renault 5 and, on S3 tires, I was able to get a 200 point victory over a top shelf Skyline. This now means that I have 200 points for each of the three Tsukuba wet races.

Next up are trips to Grand Canyon and Paris to see what treasures await me there. I think that the competition is the same so again I should be able to get a good point boost.

As completion has not changed I’ll just give a status update on points…

A-Spec points = 47,822
A-Spec average = (47,822 – 8500) ÷ 510 = 77.1

posted 05-31-2005 10:12 AM         

Race 1: Paris Opera – 6 laps – 371hp – S2 tires – 197 A-Spec points

1. BMW M3 CSL: Winner / 1’29.867
2. Mercedes SLR McLaren: +9.993 / 1’30.590
3. TVR T350C: +22.044 / 1’33.713
4. Mercedes SL65 AMG: +24.624 / 1’33.358
5. Cizeta V16T: - / 1’37.144
6. Audi RS6: - / 1’38.602

Race 2: Grand Valley – 5 laps – 368hp – S2 tires – 200 A-Spec points

1. BMW M3 CSL: Winner / 2’05.550
2. Mercedes SLR McLaren: +15.063 / 2’05.277
3. TVR T350C: +24.655 / 2’08.605
4. Cizeta V16T: +28.003 / 2’10.011
5. Mercedes SL65 AMG: +28.969 / 2’10.270
6. Audi RS6: - / 2’14.751

Race 3: Sarthe I – 2 laps – 362hp – S3 tires – 198 A-Spec points – required drafting & blocking – both SLR and V16T hit 185+ mph on straight

1. BMW M3 CSL: Winner / 4’21.813
2. Mercedes SLR McLaren: +3.437 / 4’23.313
3. Cizeta V16T: +17.697 (spun on lap 2) / 4’29.723
4. Mercedes SL65 AMG: +18.550 / 4’30.476
5. TVR T350C: +19.104 / 4’30.406
6. Audi RS6: - / (4’54.838)

Race 4: Cote d’Azur – 6 laps – 360hp – S3 tires – 198 A-Spec points

1. BMW M3 CSL: Winner / 1’44.738 (should have used S2’s)
2. TVR T350C: +23.742 / 1’47.868
3. Mercedes SLR McLaren: +24.994 / 1’47.737
4. Cizeta V16T: +33.378 / 1’49.485
5. Mercedes SL65 AMG: +39.235 / 1’49.179
6. Audi RS6: - / 1’54.993

Race 5: Nürburgring – 2 laps – 360hp – S3 tires – 198 A-Spec points

1. BMW M3 CSL: Winner / 7’31.218
2. Mercedes SLR McLaren: +1.946 / 7’31.107
3. TVR T350C: +23.950 / 7’40.171
4. Cizeta V16T: +34.812 (spun on lap 2) / 7’52.215 (1st lap!!!)
5. Mercedes SL65 AMG: +39.235 / 7’49.437
6. Audi RS6: - / (8’21.634)

Although I was delighted to beat the SLR McLaren at the ‘Ring, what I really wanted was to win a 200 point race on this course. A few resets saw me lined up against an interesting field…

1. Cizeta V16T
2. Pagani Zonda C12 ‘00
3. Lotus Motor Sport Elise ‘99
4. TVR Tuscan Speed 6 ‘00
5. Audi Nuvolari Quattro ‘03
6. BMW M3 CSL ‘03

For a change there was no Mercedes in the field and the rating was the 200 points I was looking for. Although the TVR pulled over 190mph on the straight it was quite an easy win by over 12s with the TVR in second, followed by the Pagani and Audi, with the Lotus trailing in last due to his inability to stay on the circuit. It’s nice to hit the 200 point mark at Nurby

With that little goal accomplished I headed off to the Endurance Hall and entered the Tsukuba 9hr race in a Lotus Elise 111S ’03. Even though I was giving away over 100hp to most of the field I found that with a stock 164hp I was only about ½ second off the pace to the fastest AI, a Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A (FD) ’02. However with the addition of a chip and racing exhaust, and putting out 179hp, I found that I was ½ second too fast for the race to be competitive. I settled on the exhaust alone and at 172hp was rated 189 A-Spec points.

This did indeed turn out be a competitive race and after nine hours of racing, 489 laps, the winning margin over the RX-7 was only just over 1 lap, or around 0.2s per lap. Fastest lap of the Lotus was 1’04.519. The RX-7 was a cut above the rest of the AI with the third placed Mazda RX-8 Type S (J) ’03 completing just 479 laps, a Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II ’00 in fourth, a Subaru Legacy B4 2.0 GT ’03 in fifth, and trailing in last a BMW 330i ’05 at 473 laps.

Prize was 150k credits and a Nissan Calsonic Skyline GT-R Race Car ’93.

posted 05-31-2005 10:19 AM         

From previous races I knew pretty much what I wanted to enter and where, a secondary objective being to get as many points as possible while racing various cars. I had to enter the Sauber C9 in one race as I didn’t have enough cars capable of tackling the various Class C’s found in this series, but I did manage to avoid using the Minolta, Jaguar XJR-9 and Toyota 7. Interestingly this series can be won as much through pit strategy as through car and driving ability, and because of this the higher LM cars have a place. No power modifiers were added to any car. As this is not a championship series each race was started from #6 on the grid which is a particular disadvantage on rolling starts. I only found 1 field that comprised all Class C cars and I used this quite a lot for points maximizing, especially as it didn’t contain the Minolta, the Sauber or either of the big Nissans.

Race 1: Suzuka – 6 laps – Nissan GT-R Concept LM Race Car ‘02 – R2 tires – 200 A-Spec points vs:

1. R92CP Race Car ‘92
2. AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car ‘98
3. Sauber Mercedes C9 Race Car ‘89
4. Nissan R390 GT1 Race Car ‘98
5. Mazda RX-7 LM Race Car ‘01

I moved into third on lap 1 but lost 3-4 seconds per lap to the R92CP and the Sauber C9. Both were passed when they pitted on lap 5 (which the big Nissan spent mostly sideways and the C9 spun) with the winning margin being 7.035s over the R92CP, with the Sauber third, R390 fourth, CLK-GTR fifth and unsurprisingly the RX-7 last. On watching the replay I was surprised to see the AI refilling their gas during their pit-stops – weird!

Fastest laps: GT-R 1’47.932; R92CP 1’45.213; C9 1’45.059; R390 1’51.194; CLK-GTR 1’50.625 and the RX-7 1’59.696.

Race 2: Motegi Road Course – 8 laps – Pescarolo Courage C60 Race Car ‘03 – R2 tires – 123 A-Spec points vs:

1. Toyota GT-One Race Car (TS020) ‘99
2. Jaguar XJR-9 Race Car ‘88
3. BMW V12 LMR Race Car ‘99
4. Playstation Pescarolo C60 Race Car ‘04
5. Bentley Speed 8 Race Car ‘03

The Jaguar went flying off into the lead and had a 10s advantage by lap 4 due to me taking a trip in the kitty litter while battling the Speed 8 for fifth place. I caught back up with and passed the Bentley on lap 3,and then passed the PS C60 and the GT-One on lap 5 to move into third behind the BMW and XJR. The XJR-9 pitted on lap 5, pushing him back to sixth place and elevating everybody else by one place. I finally passed the BMW V12 on lap 7 to take the lead. He promptly pits at the end of the lap along with the PS C60, GT-One and Speed 8. This allowed the Jaguar to move back into second place but as he was over 20s behind at the start of the final lap this became an easy victory.

Fastest laps: Courage C60 1’36.596; XJR-9 1’37.637; BMW V12 1’37.783 PS C60 1’38.648; GT-One 1’39.840 and the Speed 8 at 1’39.817

Race 3: Tsukuba – 15 laps – Nissan R89C Race Car ‘89 – R1 tires – 89 A-Spec points vs:

1. Toyota GT-One Race Car (TS020) ‘99
2. Jaguar XJR-9 Race Car ‘88
3. BMW V12 LMR Race Car ‘99
4. Playstation Pescarolo C60 Race Car ‘04
5. Bentley Speed 8 Race Car ‘03

This is very much a point, squirt and brake race and as such I reduced my transmission to auto-setting 7. It’s a difficult race for passing, indeed the AI never performed a single ‘on-the-road’ passing manoeuvre. I passed the Speed 8 on lap 3, the PS C60 on lap 10, the BMW V12 on lap 12,and the XJR-9 & GT-One while they pitted. Winning margin was over 26s from the PS C60, with the GT-One in third, the BMW V12 fourth, Jaguar fifth and the Bentley again last.

Fastest laps: R89C 0’47.632; PS C60 0’48.145; GT-One 0’48.626; BMW V12 0’48.650; XJR-9 0’48.468 and the Speed 8 at 0’48.869

Race 4: Laguna Seca – 10 laps – Pagani Zonda LM Race Car ‘01 – R2 tires – 200 A-Spec points vs:

1. Chevrolet Camaro LM Race Car ‘01
2. Jaguar XJR-9 Race Car ‘88
3. Pagani Zonda LM Race Car ’01 (AI)
4. AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car ‘98
5. BMW V12 LMR Race Car ‘99

The Jaguar passed the Camaro and started to build a lead while the rest battled for track position. I passed through the field and the Rainey Curve and last corner to finish lap 1 in second place, 5.237s behind the XJR-9 with the BMW V12 in third. I had to hold off a charging Beemer all through lap 2 where he even nudged me in the rear at the Corkscrew, and crossed the line to start lap 3 with a 6.578s deficit behind the Jaguar.

The BMW passed me on lap 3 at the Corkscrew / Rainey Curve using a whole lot of sand – where’s the penalty? – but I actually felt better with him in front instead of behind as this removed the likelihood of him shunting me into the sand at some point. Additionally I was confident that I had him beat on pit strategy. So, at the end of lap 3 the Beemer was in second place 10.383s behind the XJR-9 with me in third at +10.945s. And so the race progressed. I just plodded around in third place keeping my nose clean. When the Jaguar pitted on lap 7 his lead over me was 26.832s, but I passed him nonetheless, moving into second, 12.052s behind the Beemer. He pitted on lap 9 handing me the lead and I just had to stay clean to the end to beat the Jaguar by 3.455s, lapping the Camaro in the process, with the BMW V12 in third.

Fastest laps: Zonda (Miko) 1’19.109; XJR-9 1’15.599; BMW V12 1’16.587; CLK-GTR 1’19.369; Zonda (AI) 1’21.681 and the Camaro at 1’25.395.

As I said earlier it’s possible to win a race in this series through pit strategy even though your fastest lap is 3½ seconds slower than the AI.

posted 05-31-2005 11:37 AM         

Race 5: Infineon – 9 laps – Sauber Mercedes C9 Race Car ‘89 – R1 tires – Reduced d/f by 5 clicks front and rear – 72 A-Spec points vs:

1. Toyota GT-One Race Car (TS020) ‘99
2. Jaguar XJR-9 Race Car ‘88
3. BMW V12 LMR Race Car ‘99
4. Playstation Pescarolo C60 Race Car ‘04
5. Bentley Speed 8 Race Car ‘03

The C9 is a lovely car to drive and as expected this was an easy win over the Playstation C60 who took second by virtue of the fact that he didn’t pit.

Fastest laps: C9 1’18.966; PS C60 1’22.351; GT-One 1’22.127; XJR-9 1’21.609; BMW V12 1’21.996 and the Speed 8 at 1’22.575

Race 6: Fuji 2005 GT – 8 laps – Mazda 787B Race Car ‘91 – R2 tires – 135 A-Spec points vs:

1. Toyota GT-One Race Car (TS020) ‘99
2. Jaguar XJR-9 Race Car ‘88
3. BMW V12 LMR Race Car ‘99
4. Playstation Pescarolo C60 Race Car ‘04
5. Bentley Speed 8 Race Car ‘03

Moved into second on turn 1, the AI really takes this poorly, especially on the first lap, braking much too early, and into first shortly after. Then it was simply a case of maintaining clean, consistent laps to win by 11.462s over the Beemer, with the PS Pesky C60 in third, the Speed 8 in fourth (hooray – he’s not last this time!), followed by the GT-One and the XJR-9, who were the only cars to pit on lap 7.

Fastest laps: 787B 1’22.599; BMW V12 1’24.076; PS C60 1’24.335; Speed 8 1’25.887; GT-One 1’25.834 and the XJR-9 1’24.353.

Race 7: Sarthe I – 3 laps – AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car ‘98 – R2 tires – 110 A-Spec points vs:

1. Nissan R92CP Race Car ‘92
2. AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car ‘98
3. Sauber Mercedes C9 Race Car ‘89
4. Nissan R390 GT1 Race Car ‘98
5. Mazda RX-7 LM Race Car ‘01

A similar story to Suzuka in that the R92CP and the C9 move into an early lead but with the Nissan pitting on lap 2, and the Sauber blowing his tires on lap 3 (eventually finishing fifth), this becomes an easy win by over 11s from the AI CLK-GTR, with the R92CP in third despite a pit-stop.

Fastest laps: I forgot to record them

Race 8: Nürburgring – 2 laps – BMW McLaren F1 GTR Race Car ‘97 – R2 tires – 200 A-Spec points vs:

1. Nissan R92CP Race Car ‘92
2. AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car ‘98
3. Sauber Mercedes C9 Race Car ‘89
4. Nissan R390 GT1 Race Car ‘98
5. Mazda RX-7 LM Race Car ‘01

Clearly the BMW doesn’t stand a chance against the likes of the R92CP and the Sauber C9, right? Wrong! This is a giveaway 200 points in any car that can run laps of Nurby in around 6’40. Why? The AI is running on R3 tires and ‘cook’ them at various stages of lap 2. If you have a deficit of 30, or even 40 seconds, at the end of lap 1, fear not – just by driving smoothly and cleanly it is likely that you can secure the win.

So, the race itself, and I have to say that the BMW McLaren is an extremely pleasant drive, started by passing the RX-7 after turn 1. For the next half a lap I was climbing all over the back of the R390 but he cagily managed to block all of my clean passing attempts until the back straight. The CLK-GTR was in my sights for the rest of the lap but I didn’t push too hard to catch him as I knew the strategy for winning this race. The big Nissan and the Sauber at this point were away in the distance, their lead being over 20s. No problemo! At the end of lap the positions were as follows (showing margin and 1st lap times):

1. R92CP Race Car: lead / 6’06.035
2. Sauber Mercedes C9: +3.278s / 6’09.313
3. AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR: +17.312 / 6’23.347
4. BMW McLaren F1 (Miko): +22.752 / 6’28.787
5. Nissan R390 GT1: +24.192 / 6’30.227
6. Mazda RX-7 LM: +1’01.069 / 7’07.104

Then all hell breaks loose. The first to be struck down with tire decrepitude is the R92CP, then the two Mercedes and then the R390. You know something is amiss when consecutive checkpoints show you at +30s and then +12s. I had to take major evasive action on three occasions after rounding a turn and seeing one vehicle or another stationary, facing the wrong way, in the middle of the track. All of these are shown in the following photographs, along with my original pass of the R390.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was in the lead about three-quarters of the way through lap 2 and just cruised to victory. To give you an idea of the carnage, and the R92CP definitely got the worst of it, the final margin over the Sauber was over 11s, his lap 2 being 6’59.479, 50s slower than his lap 1. The CLK-GTR and R390 were over 30s adrift at checkpoint 10 (start of the Dottinger Hohe straight), and the R92CP’s shenanigans resulted in the RX-7 catching him before the start of the straight. Unfortunately the replay finished before I saw the outcome of this.

So, for everybody who wants to win a 200 point race at the Nürburgring, this is how to do it I suspect that any number of high end LM cars could win this race and at some point I will experiment with the Zonda, various GT LM’s, Corvette C5, Viper Oreca and even the Camaro – once I recover some cash as I’m now down to 1.3m after buying the Mazda 787B – and especially as the ‘Ring has become my favorite circuit in the game – not something I thought I would ever say a month ago.

posted 05-31-2005 12:12 PM         

Status on game day 1,024

Completion: 99.3%
A-Spec points: 50,003
A-Spec miles: 14,346
B-Spec points: 0
Trophies: 636
Cars: 168 prize, 230 total
Credits: 1.4m

I passed the 50k points mark and got nothing, nada, jack-shit. Brucie wouldn’t like this game as it appears that “Points don’t make prizes – what don’t points make?” Still, at least I have a mega prize awaiting me if I manage to A-Spec the whole game

A-Spec average is 79.96 and my only goal now is to take this over the 80 point mark with my remaining 4 races. This means I need to get at least 337 points from these races. This will put a line in the sand for Lugnut to chase, at which time I may take up the points hunt again. I’m pleased to say that I have gotten this far without driving or even owning the Dodge Hemi Truck, which I understand is the points maker in the Beginners Hall and the SC races. It seems too much like a cheap glitch to me.

My only minor concern at this point is that I should be at 99.4% with 4 races to go, which could indicate that I’ve skipped something somewhere. Is anybody able to confirm their percent completion with four races to go before I go on a hunt across the ‘manufacturers’ to see if I’ve missed anything? Aside from that I still have 8 licenses that I need to upgrade from silver to gold, and that I really feel that I should attempt to do to get full game completion.