GRM - Gran Turismo 5 Racing League - Series 3

Room is up 1472 4711 0038 4896 4948

I give up.

The second Brad started the race, I lost connection to the lobby. I'll run practices with you guys, but you might as well take me off the list for the races. I don't even understand why it happens, I'll join almost full rooms and run all night with no issues, but this refuses to work.

In reply to Grizz: Sorry to hear that Grizz. I see that Nick didn't even try tonight.

I'm beat, but still wired so I may as well get my weekly race journal out of the way while it's fresh on my mind.

After practicing this week I developed a race strategy that I thought might work for tonight. Z06: Use RS tires and drive conservatively. Qual. toward the back of the pack and try to run 54s. I had run almost a full 39 laps to see if I could actually run the full race length and found I could if I short shifted and didn't spin the tires much. I think the problem is that I did it off line and the on line differece caused my plan not to work. I had practiced standing starts but forgot to add a little revs before the start and bogged getting in Brad's way. Sorry about that Brad. You did an admirable job driving abround me. Soooo, I got passed back by the guys who pitted once or twice because It felt like I was on ice for about the last 5 laps.

The strategy for HH worked a little better. I planned a one stopper & limited my power to preserve the tires. I could run fast laps by burning them off with the power set to full but would have had to stop @ least twice. I did the math and figured I'd finish 3rd. I did. Well, part of the plan came together. Good job T.J. running me back down. I got excited when Cam came out of the pits and ran into the sand. I still don't think I could have held you off though. You finished about 11 sec. in front of me.

Tonight was fun but very tireing. That's why I only ran a couple of qual. laps and parked it. It's kind of fun to watch qualifying anyway.

Good job tonight aircooled.

One more thing, I thought Real Mini Driver's Vette looks great. Good choice.

Dammit! Power went out. Not that it mattered much for me. On to of that, smartphone was dead, AC charger is at work, so I had to let it sit in the car to charge up a little.

I can pin down a, single, random, good lap, once in a while. Now if I could only string a few together.

Thanks for the compliment, Grae. After seeing two other orange Vettes last week, I needed to change mine. 8)

My Z06 race ended on the last turn of the first lap when my outside rear tire lost traction on the curbing and I went off and hit the wall. Limped around with damage and pitted. After that I just drove around trying to put down some laps, but I was mostly just waiting for the hh race. I did get ahead of Brad for a fraction of a lap or so at one point later in the race, moving up a spot, but by then my tires were shot and he quickly took the spot back. Oh well, there is always next week.

The hh race I enjoyed. Here are some pics and my recap:

Aircooled qualified on the pole, but since the vette times were still up, I had no idea what his time was. I started 2nd, which I prefer on this track as it reminds me to stay to the inside on T1 and not repeat what I did last season in the SBC race. Graefin, Apex, Brad, CAM, and RMD made up the rest of the field.

Aircooled did his usual good start and had a bit of a lead at T1. Here we are going in - note my inside line plan in action. My goal was to not get passed on the inside on T1 and it worked.

However, Apex pulled up beside me and was about a half a car length behind me heading down to T4 hairpin. We had a little contact and Apex ended up in the sand. I slid a bit, but stayed on track and suffered no damage. Just because you have an extra 100 hp does not make that T2-T3 area a good place to pass.

After that things settled down for a bit. Aircooled was off in his own world with about an 8 sec lead, then me, then Graefin and Apex about 8 seconds behind me. Seems like the two of them had some battles. I busted out my best lap of the race on lap 2 and still lost ground to Aircooled. I knew I would be doing good to finish 2nd at that point.

Then, on lap 6 (I think), this happened (note a certain gray DC5 in the distance): It was enough for me to almost catch up to Aircooled, but not enough to get by. I followed him around for several really fast, clean laps. I think at one point I had three laps in a row in the 1:00's, but really couldn't threaten his position. (Aircooled's car inspired me to pick the DC5 over the other 2 cars I was considering because it already had the inverse aircooled paintjob.)

Eventually, coming off of T6 and heading to the T7 hairpin I went a little wide and my rear tire went into the dirt/grass. And resulted in this (note, to add insult to injury, I earned a 9 second shortcut penalty for cutting the corner while sliding backwards across the track into the sand on the outside of the turn.)

Aircooled marched off into the sunset at that point. I pitted for my planned mid-race tire change, and clicked away on my controller without thinking and took on four fresh new Comfort soft tires. At this point Graefin was behind me, but I wasn't sure by how much. Watching the replay it turns out he also pitted on the same lap for tires, but made a better choice and took on 4 sport softs. He entered his pit box as I pulled out of mine. I did a minute and a half lap on the comfort tires and pitted again. Graefin passed me while I was in the pits to take over P2. Then Apex came by to drop me into P4. I came out right on Apex's heels, but I had fresher tires. He ended up in the T1 sand a lap or two later and I was back to P3 and chasing graefin down. I think there was something like 10-15 laps to go and he had about an 8 sec lead on me. I could see him when I exited T1 as he went around T4 and again on the back straight. I was gaining, but only in a tenth or two a lap, and then around lap 30 or so, Brad came out the pits right in front of Graefin and even though he was ghosted it led to Graefin going into the sand at T4. I just managed to get by Graefin as he re-entered the track and drove right through the Brad ghost. From that point on I just tried to not make mistakes and tried to get a little gap on Graefin. I had some good laps following CAM around, but I couldn't pass him even with him being ghosted.

Good job Aircooled.

I set up my gear ratios to only use 3-6th at this track. I found it easier and easier and easier for me to not mis-shift at some point going all the way down to 2nd for the hairpins. It also helped control my wheelspin a bit. I noticed Graefin took that approach to the max and pretty much used 5th and 6th only. Of course the Volvo makes a lot more torque than my car and at lower revs, but that surprised me how well it worked watching the replay.

I don't think in 39 laps of hh racing I really ever passed anyone other than getting by when people were in the sand or by driving through them when they were ghosted. I do not recall a single actual pass I did in the whole race.

My races both sucked due to the driver.

In the Z06 race, I was doing pretty good, leading the race for a couple laps. Then made a small mental error watching my rear view mirror and looped it. That got me out of rhythm, and then I over thought my strategy. I ran RS for the race. After a quick test session, I couldn't get comfortable on the RM or RH tires in the braking areas and was 4-5 seconds slower a lap. Back to the race, after giving up P1 I convinced myself that pitting for fresh tires was the right way to go, so at lap 20 I dove for the pits... at 100% throttle in 6th gear. I was hoping that auto-drive would catch me and I could minimize the time in the pits. Turns out, that isn't what happens. Auto-drive took control and prompted me for tires, but then the speed I was carrying couldn't make the turn into pit lane and shot me straight off across the track, through the sand trap and into the barrier. At that point I selected my tire choice and was given control back of my damaged car. I cut directly across the track, jumped the grass and back into the pits, where I selected tires for the second time and actually got the stop done. By that point I had lost so much track position and time, I think I came out in dead last. I worked back up to 4th, but had several other moments when I was over driving my car.

@Apex... how did you pull off braking so late going into T4? I followed you in there (a lap down at that point) and tried to match your brake point, I ended up locking up my brakes and going into a half spin. My brake point for that turn was the apex of T3.

Hot Hatch was a series of disasters. First I started on the wrong tire. I was on SH, not SS. This played tricks on my brain. I was running 1:00-1:01s in practice all day long without issue, but at the start of the race I was struggling for grip and was off pace. I compensated by trying harder, which resulted in an off... damage... pit stop. This is when I discovered I was on the wrong tires. Switching to SS, I figured that if I could just run clean, I could climb back up the order some on my fresh tires. That worked, until I messed up again, and again, and again. I think I pitted 2 times in the first half of the race, than I wrecked and damage my car 2 mores time, but refused to pit. I ran the last 20-ish laps with damage on FL and RR corners which made high speeds and braking very interesting. Oddly, I did manage to get into a good flow even with the damage and was running 1:03-1:05s which I figured was good. I was able to hold Apex off for 4th for about a lap, then he got past and cleared me by about 40 seconds.

Really not a good effort on my part. I blame my dad. He is visiting and decided to spectate the race... I guess I couldn't handle the pressure.

BradLTL wrote: I blame my dad. He is visiting and decided to spectate the race... I guess I couldn't handle the pressure.

LOL....My wife watched me race for the first time last week at Monza. She stayed away last night and it was better.

Yes, distractions are bad.

My Z06 race started with the typical qualifying battle with Apex. I got a good time early then took a phone call, eventually Apex bettered me. After the phone call I could only get one good lap in, and I am pretty sure there was traffic, I think it was Apex. Ended up nabbing the pole with about 4 seconds left by a couple tenths of a second! Totally sniped Apex on that one.

At the start of the Z06 race a tried to protect the inside of turn one but went a bit too far and ended up with an Apex bumper attachment going into the hairpin. I tried to brake as late and deep as possible, but Apex tagged me, putting me into the sand with severe rear damage. I am suspicious that Apex's connection (he was the one that was glitching for me last week) may have contributed to this, and maybe the super late braking Brad was seeing.

Anyway I struggled a bit with the rear damage, but did catch back up with Apex at the same hairpin, got to aggressive going wide this time, slid inward and tagged Apex (I believe we both got damage on this one). I struggle more after that and ended up pitting around lap 12. I just paced after that staying on the same tires, the lead 2 were way to far ahead, so I just settled in for 3rd.

Also, have they completely eliminated ramming penalties? Apex hitting me, me hitting Apex. No penalties. I remember someone passing through me in one of the hairpins, no contact, no damage, no penalty, it's kind of strange.

HH is a bit if a strange one for me, but it seems to be working. I dislike the way the cars drive so much, I have spend a fair amount of time tweaking the car... apparently it worked in my favor. I got the pole, got a good star, built up a lead (almost broke 1 min with a 1:00.3 on the 3rd lap), and settle in to conserve the tires as much as possible. Then T.J. shows up in my rear view mirror...

I had run a number of practice laps with him last week, and at that time I was faster then him, but still had a very hard time passing him. Last night he was clearly faster then the practice, so I really did not want him in front of me. I could see the blood lust in his eyes and knew he would not give up easily. I also surmised that I was still a bit faster then him, and if I could stay ahead of him while saving my tires, he would go slick before I did.

The picture shown above of me going wide was the result of me looking in my mirrors (bad, bad me), that cut the interval from about 4 seconds down to about 1 second. We ran very close for at least 5 laps, then he disappeared (see above). I still did not trust him to stay back, so I waited for him to pit, then pitted after him. Then it was just putting in the laps... LOTS of them. The phrase for the race for me: "Be nice to your tires". Any kind of spin or sliding has a HUGE effect on the tires.

I did get right behind Apex at one point. I suspect our tires were of similar wear. He would pull away from me slightly on the straight, but I was much faster in the turns. This is pretty strange since although I have about 10 hp on him, my car is probably 300lbs heavier!!

It looks line Sarthe next week will be for Apex to loose. Of course, I don't know about the top speed difference, but his car is very streamlined.

Next week is Laguna Seca, the week after is Sarthe. I always get nailed with shortcut penalties on the corkscrew - I need to do some practicing to avoid that. I guess I could always just brake a little earlier heading into it, but it is easier said than done for me. I like Laguna, but I've never been very good at that track.

Aircooled, I really did have blood lust in my eyes when I was behind you, but I knew that the only chance I had to get passed you is to hope that you made a mistake before I did. I did waste my tires trying to stay right on you trying to put some pressure on you, but in the end it didn't work out. If I didn't have my tire selection issue and resulting slow lap and 2nd pitstop or my off with penalty, I would've been a bit closer, but still well behind you at the end. I just feel like I got away with one to get 2nd.

looks like a good race paned out Yeah Graefin, I didn't even try, I was at the house but instead skated with a buddy of mine. I figured it was just going to tease me by letting me in and then during the race disconnecting.

In reply to NickF40:

Yea, you've gotten bumped off so many times I can't say that I blame you.

Put me down as an attempt next wednesday, the landlord said he'll try something to fix it.

I'm hoping it works, the turdbeast is a damn fine car and I think I could do well with it. The ZO6.....well, lets just say I'm there to increase the prize money for the front of the pack and leave it at that.

Have you guys gotten your settings for Laguna worked out yet? I went at it with Tsukuba settings and just changed the gearing at first. Didn't work too well! Right now I'm at settings I never would have thought would work but have. At least my lap times are coming down a bit.

Can anyone tell me how to remove the wing? I thought you could just click the little box in the tuning section but it did'nt work. I then went back to the aero mod section and clicked on standard. It made the response beep, but I didn't see if it took my credits or not. Anyway, the wing was still there. I've got it minimized and I think it actually helps under braking. I'd like to try it without the wing to see if it helps it to turn better.

I worked on setup tonight a bit. I started with Tsukuba and a gearing change. Did about 4 laps and got a best in the 1:35's. I wanted to get that down so I started tweaking. After just changes to gearing after about a half an hour I was knocking out 1:37-1:38 laps. I turned on ABS and driving line and got a 1:36. I really can't tell if the difference is me or the settings....I am not very consistent at this track so that makes it hard to tune. I like to go off at turns 3 and sometimes 6, and I routinely mess up the corkscrew....then the Rainey Curve I don't really understand at all, but I think the driving line helped me figure it out a bit.

I scared TJ last night by accident. Forgot i was still running RS tires from breaking in a car and was shortly on my way to a 1:31 at Seca.

That Eclipse is HILARIOUS, though! Heavy fat pig, handles predictably, if a little ponderous through the corners.

But 550hp means that it's MOVING on the straights!

I haven't messed with HH settings yet, but last week took a few laps in the Z06. I was in the low 1:20s. I am really fast through most of the lap, but lose a good amount of time in turn 10 and 11. I brake too much for 10 and lose speed, then tend to brake too late for 11 and end up in a slide. I need practice.

I wish I had better and working internetz

I am not sure what my situation is for this week yet. I know I am out next week. I have yet to do any practice at Laguna Seca.

I do know that for me, turn 6 seems to be a key turn on this track for faster cars. It seems like you can hit it pretty much at full speed if you cut the corner right. If you miss of course, you are in the sand.

Turn 6 is strange. It is hard for me to get it right, so I've taken to taking it a little conservatively and sacrificing a little speed for staying out of the sand.

So far so good, I've been running in online races with nary an issue, we'll see how that goes wednesday.

I haven't even run Seca much with any cars, so I'm gonna have to do a bunch of practice tonight to see how my cars do. My turdbeast does run much quicker at 415 hp as opposed to 445.

And it is FAST with race softs on it.

GT5 censors E36 M3roen, hence Turdbeast.