GRM - Gran Turismo 5 Racing League - Series 3

I had an interesting night. I showed up at the last minute for the vettes, put in a few quick qualifying laps (which Apex promptly beat) then got to racing. I followed Apex for about half a lap then overcooked the braking in 7 I believe. I was pretty deep in the sand and got passed by pretty much the whole field.

I worked my way up in the field to get near Apex and Grea. Apex messed up somewhere and I got past him, then someone blasted the hay bales at the chicane (14,15) and Grae got a big cut penalty which allowed me to get up on him. Fortunately someone noted earlier how when the bales were gone it was very easy to cut, so I was paying attention to that, it can be quite deceiving.

I followed Grea and made what I thought was a pretty interesting pass. He came into 2 and 3 a bit hot (very easy to do) which was going to set him up to be tight on 4 with a good straight to follow. Seeing this I made a careful slower tight turn into 3 to swing wide and got a good blast into 4. This set me up to charge him down. I ended up going to his left on the grass a bit, but it worked. I should have gone right, but it was a last second kind of thing. After that I just went for a steady pace and finished without incident.

HH was a bit more exciting. I got an OK start, got into turn 1 going a bit wide (to try to stay out of the way), but Apex got inside me and I got one of those lovely tap penalties with front damage as a bonus. This put me in the back of the "pack" (and I mean it in the group of wild dogs sense). I did not mind this because it would give me a good view of what would almost certainly end badly. Sure enough, turn 7 (lots of things happened here) most of the pack goes sliding into the sand. This I believe put me behind T.J (10mpsi), with Grae in the lead by a good bit.

I sliced it up a bit with T.J for a bit but in that same damn corner (7), I slide a bit wide in the corner and got the same tap penalty. T.J. was nice enough to notice this, and the fact that I was running faster then him and let me by a few corners later, thanks for that. I then proceeded with running down Grae.

I started with about an 8 second trail on Grae, slowly moving up. After 5 laps or so, I think he was loosing tire because I was gaining quicker. I finally got right up on him and commenced operation "wait and intimidate". This did not work well with Grae, he apparently is un-intimidatable, he refused to make mistakes. We had some serious close racing for a number of laps, but I was in no hurry to try and get past him, I figured I would let him do all the work and just wait him out.

Grae pitted on lap 8 or so, I came a few seconds after him and we ended up coming out of the pits bumper to bumper. So I followed, and I followed, waiting and waiting. About lap 13 or so, I got a good run down the straight and got past him with a good tight turn into turn 1 (slightly cutting it). Grae made a rare mistake behind me and got a corner cut. I took it easy in front of him, and he eventually caught back up. I got lazy in the 12, 13 area (if I remember correctly) and he got past me (he seemed to brake better into 14).

So it came down to the last lap. I was right on his bumper. When to pass, when to pass... The smart answer was to wait for the last turn and just draft past him at the end (making for a great finish). But I ended up getting a big run on him in the 12,13 area and figured I would give it a try. Sadly I ended up going outside and caught the sand, letting him get away for the win. Chock that one up to "not following a good plan".

I also want to note that I experienced some amazingly clean racing with Grae. In one case I didn't get on the brakes fast enough in 7 (!!) and slide wide into the corner and Grae was nice enough not to hit me. It may have looked like a pass attempt, but it was just a mistake. Another time I got a run on him in 12, 13 so I went next to him on the inside. After doing that I though "what the hell am I going to do now"? I was stuck on the the inside, I knew he was better on the brakes and I had a harder braking situation, so I just did the best braking job I could to keep from sliding into barriers or him as he went into the corner. Somehow he got around me... that was close.

Anyway, great racing Grae, I still can't believe you can do all that with a controller. If we did controller only racing, you would kick my butt big time.

T.J. wrote: Oh, Aircooled, I wasn't trying to make a pass at the hairpin when I hit and you got the penalty...

I totally understand, as noted, I did the exact same thing with Grae, but slide outside instead of inside. For some reason that corner was a killer.

The strange thing is that the contact is SO slight, it is ridiculous. Realistically, you might have been better off ramming me. It seems like the game will now ghost you (me in this case) in most rear ramming situations. Rear end ramming penalties seemed to have disappeared.

I came away from Monaco thinking that I'll never really get the hang of this game. I was so wound up it took me a long time to go to sleep. You just can't relax @ that place. I guess it was Thur. or Fri. I had to go to Walmart and looked for the storeage device to use to download pictures to. As it turned out, they had a steering wheel in stock. I bought it, and found out it wasn't compatable with GT5. It's going back tomorrow. So I set my mind to trying to find another level with the controller. Trying to smooth it out more like air and Apex drive when I "ride" with them on the replays. Over the days leading up to Last night I actually did find ways to step it up. I even found some minor setup changes that helped. However, I went in to last night with hope for a better finish for not high expectations. I think I qual. 3rd. in Z06 and got away well enough and then dropped both L/side tires off in the dirt. That may have been just what I needed to keep me away from the pack. It didn't take long before I had worked my way up as virtually everyone else had problems. Later in the race I saw that air and Apex were gaining and I didn't compenste enough for my tires going off and when I saw that I was going to have to stop for tires I began a tire saving program and sure enough they caught and passed me. I don't recall what lap but I tried a late race pass on Apex and braked too late requireing me to do a 110 degree half spin/ slide to keep from running into him @ 1. I want to try to run with them but do it clean. We all three managed to do that in both races, and as air said, there was quite a lot of very close racing with some very close calls. The race was fun and I was satisfied with my 3rd. place. I had done my best.

T.J. was right about a fast lap in qual. for HH. I was inspired by him being so close and I wanted to see if I could pull away, The answer was NO! He was stuck to me like glue. I think my lap was a 2:13 something. That was my best ever in the HH. At the start I stuck to the inside and had to slow a lot to keep from going wide and running into someone. Coming out of T2 I could see Apex behind me and I expected him to do really well on this track. The reason I didn't choose the FTO, DC5, or Focus RS is that I couldn't make them turn. Apex did make it turn @ Monaco. Brad and T.J. have made their cars turn quite well too, but it seemed last night that the FTO wasn't responding as well as it had been. Apex. can tell his own story if he wants too but I think he got frustrated with it and by lap 4 he hung it up for the evening. I knew I was going to have to stop for tires and I had pushed so hard to stay in front of air I took my stop @ L8. He followed me into the pits. His boys finished a secon or two before mine and he was right on my bumper on pit out. My mantra was "race the track, race the track". I tried to make sure my glances to see where he was were super fast and not to get caught up in it. I've screwed up doing that too many times. When he got by me I didn't give up and toward the end he was coming back to me. I suspect the Focus is more dependent on front tires than the "brick". That car accelerates so well it's amazing. I noticed on L15 that he dropped the L side tires in the dirt approaching the last chicanne and as he stated he did it again on L16 trying to get a run on me. If he had stayed on track his pace would undoubtedly carried him by.

Last night was as big a surprise to me as it probably was to everyone else. I just hope I can be competitive @ Fuji. Most of the turns there seem to require very specific lines to be your fastest. I just hope I can find those lines.

BradLTL wrote: Sounds like good racing last night??????

You get the message mit zee results?

BradLTL wrote: @Grizz... http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=198067

Bah! I will continue to grope blindly in the dark! I don't want to embarrass you guys every week

BradLTL wrote: I think for series 4 we will go to weak on the penalties. Too many BS penalties and 10 seconds is a long time.

That might be good, I got a 20 second penatly when my damaged car slid through a corner last night.

E:. there are moments when I wonder what is wrong with me. I was messing with the Vette, when I looked in the brake balance, since my biggest issue has been with sliding under braking unt locking em up. 7f 5r. In a car with no ABS.

E Number Dos: Turns I like the cars when they have a stronger brake balance. My C4 was at 5/4, I moved it down and was running alright times, but I was going way too fast for most of the corners. Turns out even bumping the strength down one point means you have to go almost full braking to slow down properly, which raises the chances of me locking up. I moved the brakes back to 5/4 and rarely have to go past half braking to slow down. Haven't tried the Vette yet.

The biggest issue with this course is going to be the first corner. Turdbeast hits 166 on the straight before I need to start braking, and there were quite a few laps where I miss timed it or wasn't paying attention and went sliding into the sand. However, best lap so far has been a 1.54.

Fun fact: I changed the oil and went from 445hp to 468hp, I'm hoping like crazy my tires will hold out .

Vette race.

Although I qualified well I really could have used more pratice on this track. I hadnt even fired up GT5 since last weeks race. The vette was running well, I was trying to settle into a pace in the lead to conserve tires and messed up with a spin. Later I was in the chicane at the end and someone had rearranged the bales and I cut to avoid hitting them. I should have just hit them. The resulting penalty put me in 3rd place and I was able to keep trucking to catch up to Grae, not quite able to catch Air who finished about 5 sec ahead of me. (if not for the bales... )

HH race

The FTO has amazing straight speed once you wind it up. Thing is that traction in 3rd gear is iffy and it BURNS tires when set up to use it. The other option is the mid-turbo that I used at Monaco. It worked for me there, but would be too slow to be competitive at a track like this weeks. To make the FTO handle you have to pitch in into a turn and power out. Hard to do consistently on a track you dont know like the back of your hand and hard on tires. Ended up messing up and tires were well off by lap 4. It is a very frustrating car to drive. I should have chosen the Pugoet or the DC5, not gambled on power with the FTO. A mistake I will not make in the future.

I dont know if I want to finish in the FTO, its too frustrating to drive. Do I not run or take an auto DQ and run one of my other cars? (is it ok for me to take the DQ and run as long as the car is legal?)

testing on 4 door saloons has commenced.

Question on the GT catagory.. 2+2.. is a 4 seat 2 door vert legal?

In reply to Apexcarver:

What amazes me is that you didn't make it look like you were pitching the FTO into the turns @ Monaco but @ Nurb. clearly it wasn't rotating for you. I had a feeling you hadn't practiced there. I'm sure you would have been in the thick of it even in the FTO if you had.

Apex, you were clearly faster than me in the straights. Even with a solid draft I could not stay with you.

Switching and DQing should be fine, that is what I did with the 2002 in the small bore series.

Apexcarver wrote: Question on the GT catagory.. 2+2.. is a 4 seat 2 door vert legal?

That would not be a Grand Touring car, so no.

aircooled wrote: Switching and DQing should be fine, that is what I did with the 2002 in the small bore series.

Confirmed. You can run, just not score points.

I did a few laps at Fuji last night. That straight is so long that there is no way I'll be competitive in the DC5 on that track unless I can get pulled along in someone's draft every lap. I don't know the track well enough to post a decent lap at this point. Already looking forward to Suzuka - at least I like that track eventhough it won't be the best for my car.

In reply to T.J.:

Your best bet is to stretch out 6th gear and hope to catch a draft. Or do you just not have the upper oomph to go much faster than a certain speed?

Grizz wrote: In reply to T.J.: Your best bet is to stretch out 6th gear and hope to catch a draft. Or do you just not have the upper oomph to go much faster than a certain speed?

Remember what he said about drafting off of me to get the pole for HH.

Welp, I have to delete and reinstall the game data. Freezes constantly and locks up my PS3.

Already have the save data backed up just in case. took about 5 minutes just to delete the game data.

I can draft just fine. I think at LeMans I hit in the upper 180's following Apex. My issue is lack of torque I think, so at high speeds my acceleration is a bit glacial. At least I think it will be compared to some of the other hh's. My guess is the FTO (if Apex runs it), the Foci (either one), the Volvo, and the C4 will all have 10 mph higher speed at the end of the straight than me. I think my car will have an advantage over CAM's civic on top end. During qualli for last race running in Grae's draft I was 2-3 seconds faster than my best ever lap. Fuji that should be even more prounounced since the straight seems longer. I don't think I'll be able to make up much time in the twisty sections since I really don't know the track all that well.

My Volvo will only do 160 Having said that, can you imagine haveing a real HH that would do 160 or 166 in Grizz's car

I can't even imagine a Citroen having that much power without exploding at startup.

I don't know if anyone else caught some of the F1 race on network TV this weekend, but it was at Nurburg GP/F. It was interesting to watch on a track we just raced on. Seeing their lines is also interesting.

I didn't watch for long, but the track seems to be pretty well recreated in the game.

The chicane was very different though, no bales!

I caught it. There times were a bit quicker than us too.

In reply to aircooled:

Yeah, I saw most of it. The in-car footage made me appreciate how well the designers did for GT5. I also noticed the fact that there were no bales. IIRC, I heard it said that you couldn't overtake by going over the curb and you also risked damaging the car because the curb was so high.

I also noticed that they didn't lift in the T8 esses (Schumacher curve). I love to see an F1 car running straight @ the camera and then suddenly turn hard and dart out of the picture. I've tried running in a few GTF1 races and I'm far from being ready for an F1 series. There's no way I could drive it without using TC and ABS, and even with it the AI cars are in a parallel universe. Actually, that was with the F1 Ferrari I just bought.

Best quali laps were 1:30 or so. Race laps were as slow as 1:36 or so for the fast guys. A bit faster than us. I noticed the Schumacher S's without lifting as well. It wasn't the lack of the hay bales that made the chicane so different - it is the lack of the concrete barrier. The track is a pretty good reprsentation in the game though. Even the threatening clouds are spot on. Thought it interesting that there is a tunnel under the real track that is not in the game at all, but they went and put in details like the roller coaster.

In reply to Graefin10:

I used to like to run the F1 races in GT3 against the AI cars. One little mistake and the race was gone though. Haven't really driven the F1 car in GT5.

Ran a few laps at Fuji last night. Not sure I like this course much. It's going to be really hard to be easy on tires here. I think one of the critical corners is #3. You can carry a lot more speed if you cut it right and because of that I think it will have good potential to cause a few penalties.

Pit stops are going to cost you a LOT of time on this course since the pits are in the middle of an almost 200 mph straight.

The last part of the course (10-16) might best be described as "irritating". There are some very slow corners in there that all seem to be blind. I am especially un-impressed with 16 which seems to be a decreasing radius corner right before a huge straight!

The good news is there are lots of non-sand run off areas. I am not sure (I suspect not) if they generate any penalties by using them, but I am guessing they will be used a fair amount.

I know Apex was planning on dropping the FTO drag rocket for this one, but it does seem like it would do good on the straight here (probably have 20-30 mph on most of use). Of course, it would be a nightmare on the last part of the course.

P.S. - I can't believe Brad made us run this course in high HP rear drive cars with comfort tires! What a sadist!

aircooled wrote: P.S. - I can't believe Brad made us run this course in high HP rear drive cars with comfort tires! What a sadist!

If I recall correctly, it was a big plum of smoke and a lot of ghosted cars in T1.

I've gotten enough practice laps at Fuji to know that I still haven't really figured out turns 6, 10-11, 13, 14-15, or 16.

Every once in a while I get one just right, but it is a rare thing and I have trouble repeating it. There seems to be a decent chance of finding a JGTC GT500 race at this track in the open lobby as long as you look worldwide and not just in the US. I did an online race that was limited by PP using my DC5. It was only 5 or 6 points less than the limit, but the guy insisted on Sports hard tires. I don't think he understood english and I couldn't read his Japanese comments. He ran a GT-R and another guy came and ran a Ferrari. I had 2nd by a good bit coming out of the final turn on the last lap, but the Ferrari caught me right at the line and I got 3rd (last) by less than a tenth.

I cannot really detect any drafting benefit here on the straight. Not sure why, but it just doesn't seem to matter. That last turn is a killer for me since it is essentially a mile long drag. I did mess with my vette setup a bit last night and now I think I should just focus on that race for a change.

Well, if we are going to see any drafting effect, it will be on this course. We might see more in HH then Vettes, since the HH should make more of a "hole" in the air.

The only time I have really noticed drafting was when we ran Indy.