GRM - Gran Turismo 5 Racing League - Series 3

BradLTL wrote: I've had better weeks. Z06 - the wife and baby were attacking me during the race. They came down to watch for a bit, sat on my hip and my boy kept kicking, grabbing and head-butting me during the race. Needless to say, I made a few mistakes. HH - Attack of the wrong tires. It wasn't comforts, it was Sports Hards. Not sure if I actually started the race on them or not (I'll have to check the replay) but I picked them up on lap 2 during my pit stop. During lap 1 I got tapped in the rear at some point and had some damage I figured I could live with. Going up the hill towards 130R, I was drafting ac and we were about to pass apex... my car got a sudden pull. I put wheels on the grass, and slammed into the wall at about 160. That sent me bouncing off the guardrail the other direction and I collected apex in my mess. Sorry about that apex, but I really didn't have any control at that moment. Pit stops came and as I entered, I read the tires as "Sports...." and clicked ok. I was in a hurry because I wanted to apologize to apex for ruining his race. After the pit, I just couldn't get in a good rhythm. I would hit my brake points and slide off the track, the car was twitchy and all over the place. I started to watch my lap times and I was running in the 2:35-38s, or almost 20 seconds slower than practice and qualifying. I figured that something must be up with my tires, so I pitted again. This time I got the softs on and the car became much more drivable; although at this point it didn't much matter. If anyone is wondering, SH tires do not last longer than SS. They actually seemed to go off much faster probably because the lack of grip meant that I kept doing massive burnouts in every corner.

T.J. wrote: Brad, what was your secret anyway?

To make 3rd gear really long so that through the esses you are always in your power band.

Graefin10 wrote: Did anyone know who "One fast C6" is? He entered and ran most of the HH race tonight in a blue Focus. I watched him on replay a little bit and doubt he had much experience in it.

Yes, he is a friend of mine, his name is Nathan. He didn't have any experience in the car or racing online. This was his first online race. In fact, I was on the phone with him walking him through buying it and setting it up in the break between the Z06 and HH race. I gave him my setup from my RS, I figured it had to be better than the default settings. It seemed pretty quick.

It was quick because he was running ABS.

Tell him i apologize for tapping him a couple times, his braking zones were WAY different than mine and i shouldn't have been following in-line right behind him. Purely my fault.

You did, but then I passed you back on the front straight (I'm guessing you were gone at this point). Then I turned into T1 and your car rocketed across the nose of my car slamming into the wall. It hit so fast it actually beat me to T3 riding the guardrail.

Brad I set my ratios up so that I had to shift back and forth between 3rd and 4th through the essess. My powerband is narrow I don't think I could've found a single ratio to get through there without a lot of gear changing.

I must've done 100 laps in practice at that track in the DC5 and maybe 10 laps in the vette. Haven't ever spent much time trying to fine tune my vette setup.

Another interesting night. Not as close as Fuji in HH for some reason but still lots of drama!

Z06: Much more challenging car to drive on this course then the HH btw, I can see how Apex faded. I worked my way towards the front on the first lap and watched Brads child induced trip to the 8-9 sandbox. This almost got me also, I half spun but didn't hit anything. After that it was pretty much pacing until Apex's brain gave up. That turn 8-9 was pretty much a constant fear every lap.

I did get a good (maybe even some draft?) run on Grea in the back straight at one point. I tried to get as much draft as possible but got to close and bumped him a bit, I hope I didn't mess you up there. He was nice enough to clear the outside for me to get an angle on the turn 14.

HH: Pretty epic. Believe it or not, I was actually on the phone for about half that race (speaker phone). I was quite amazed I could even drive while on the phone and there is NO way I could have done it in Z06. So I basically paced for the first half (probably a good thing). The start was fun to watch, I think I jumped 5 spots from the over runs on turn 1.

I did catch Griz on the front straight and he slid wide with a classic "catch the rear wheel and go back the other way" maneuver. Unfortunately as noted, that brought him right back to me on the inside. It didn't seem like much of a hit to me (no damage to me), I figured he got one of those B.S. tap penalties.

Mostly though, I BLAME NICK . That bastard decided not to pit so I figured I would wait him out... and he NEVER pitted. Not really the strategy I was planning for. If I was I would have driven a lot more carefully at the beginning. With about 2 laps left, my tires are less then 25% but start to quickly fade (it's very easy to spin the tires at that point). Nick is not an issue, he seems to be fading by the lap, but on the last lap...

...I notice Grae pass Nick, uh oh! If he has fresher tires I could be in trouble (I had no idea if anyone pitted other then Nick). On the last lap, I literally had a very thin line of tire showing! Grae was charging fast, there really was nothing I could do. In turn 8-9, Grae was on my butt and the just wouldn't turn, so I hit the sand. I was basically prepared for him to pass me at some point so I wasn't that mad about the off. Coming around to the back straight I did notice another car coming up (T.J.) but I managed to hold him off. Even with sliver tires, the car accelerated fairly well. A pretty dramatic finish I would say.

It would be nice to get a video of one of these races. I may try setting up a camera to record the screen and see if I can get a reasonable quality version on YouTube.

aircooled wrote: Mostly though, I BLAME NICK . That bastard decided not to pit so I figured I would wait him out... and he NEVER pitted. Not really the strategy I was planning for. If I was I would have driven a lot more carefully at the beginning. With about 2 laps left, my tires are less then 25% but start to quickly fade (it's very easy to spin the tires at that point). Nick is not an issue, he seems to be fading by the lap, but on the last lap... ...I notice Grae pass Nick, uh oh! If he has fresher tires I could be in trouble (I had no idea if anyone pitted other then Nick). On the last lap, I literally had a very thin line of tire showing! Grae was charging fast, there really was nothing I could do. In turn 8-9, Grae was on my butt and the just wouldn't turn, so I hit the sand. I was basically prepared for him to pass me at some point so I wasn't that mad about the off. Coming around to the back straight I did notice another car coming up (T.J.) but I managed to hold him off. Even with sliver tires, the car accelerated fairly well. A pretty dramatic finish I would say. It would be nice to get a video of one of these races. I may try setting up a camera to record the screen and see if I can get a reasonable quality version on YouTube.

HAHAHA yeah I was steady in second, but yeah I definetly should have pitted. I was actually going to see when you would go in because my tires were still good when I saw TJ and Grae dip in.

my tires were GONE by the second to last lap, started to fade by lap 10 and 11.

Air, I can't even imagine talking on the phone while running anything faster than a stock Daihatsu Midjet @ Suzuka. I leave my phones in another room on Wed. night and tell anyone who might do it not to knock on my door unless it's a life or death situation. Talk about multi-tasking.

Brad, same goes for you. I can just hear you now saying, "look, see the cars, watch the cars, be still now, don't bump daddy, he's racing, see that silver car in the gravel trap? That's daddies car."

Nick, I looked @ your tires on the replay and you get the trophy for tire use. I was litterally when I watched you tiptoeing around on the last lap.

Re. posting the replays on YouTube: isn't there a quick easy way to do it directly from the PS3. So many people are doing it, surely there's a way.

I think the only way to post a replay on youtube is to either use a camera and tape it from your tv or use some sort of video capture card and record it onto a computer. The game allows you to export replays, but it doesn't save them as a video that can be played. It saves them as the data files of what each car did and is only watchable from within GT5 since the game takes the data and renders the video as it goes. I think that is why you cannot fast forward or rewind replays - the game saves the car data and the inputs and essentially runs the race again for the replay.

I think I'll have a good car for Indy next week. Did a few laps this morning and need to make some small gear ratio adjustments, but running what I think will be ok times already.

Graefin10 wrote: Re. posting the replays on YouTube: isn't there a quick easy way to do it directly from the PS3. So many people are doing it, surely there's a way.

I believe you would need a video capture card with HDMI input for your computer, or some sort of HDMI capture box. Also, I think the PS3 uses an HDMI format that is harder to capture. Pointing a camera at the screen is cheaper.

My races... pulled in to the house at 10 till 9 just getting back from a 4 and a half hour round trip drive to Pittsburgh to pick up my girlfriend (after a full day at work) operative word, tired.

Was doing alright in the Zo6 race, qualified .07 off Allair. Brain faded and I couldnt cope with the tires going down, thought new tires would be beneficial, found out I was just toast. Called it a race.

HH, figured I would give it a shot. Heavy crash damage from Brad, but I never would have lasted anyways. No real harm. Pug is definitely the better car compared to the FTO.

aircooled wrote: I did catch Griz on the front straight and he slid wide with a classic "catch the rear wheel and go back the other way" maneuver. Unfortunately as noted, that brought him right back to me on the inside. It didn't seem like much of a hit to me (no damage to me), I figured he got one of those B.S. tap penalties.

I got a tiny bit of damage to the right front, which proceeded to get considerably worse the longer I stayed out.

Which I didn't know happened.

Here is a few quick tries at doing a camera record of GT5. It is a bit grainy, but you can get the idea. I may try doing some processing and cropping on them later.

This is only the first lap from my car (I worked through the field on the first lap).

Hot Hatch Race - Susuka - 1st Lap

I have another one from the small bore series, but YouTube is having issues with it, maybe later.

Edit: Here is the small bore race at Trail Mountain (1st lap):

Small Bore - Trail Mountain

The videos are a bit "contrasty"

Hell, that looks pretty good, air.

T.J. wrote It took me a lap or two to catch back up to RealMiniDriver in his cool coppery Volvo with matching coppery wheels (what color is that BTW - I like it).

"Pearl Brown" Dunno what it came from, but I had two of them, to do the monochromatic scheme.

I only did a few practice laps with the HH, and even some with the Zo6. Mrs rmd had other plans for my early evening, so I couldn't make it for the Zo6 race, though. It felt good to actually "race" a few laps with TJ/M10 and Grizz/Bael, instead of sucking wind three laps down.

In reply to RealMiniDriver:

Thanks. I have one Pearl Brown and it can be bought as a color on a LFA. I've already bought two of those dumb cars for paint (my Z06) so maybe I'll buy a pearl brown one as well. That car comes in a rainbow of colors.

An interesting thing to look for when watching the 1st lap of the HH race above:

1. Remember that I am on the phone (picture the driver on a cell phone), so I am only partially paying attention, semi-oblivious to what is going on around me.

2. Note that pretty much every one I pass goes off the course for some reason, leaving me in 1st (or 3rd ) by the end of the lap, with no real effort on my part. (Brad predicted this BTW)

3. The only person who didn't make a mistake, Apex, as noted previously, gets taken out by Brad accidentally in the back stretch (you can see the start of it on the replay above).

I think the replay needs some Mr. Bean music or something.

aircooled wrote: An interesting thing to look for when watching the 1st lap of the HH race above: 1. Remember that I am on the phone (picture the driver on a cell phone), so I am only partially paying attention, semi-oblivious to what is going on around me. 2. Note that pretty much every one I pass goes off the course for some reason, leaving me in 1st by the end of the lap, with no real effort on my part. (Brad predicted this BTW) 3. The only person who didn't make a mistake, Apex, as noted previously, gets taken out by Brad accidentally in the back stretch (you can see the start of it on the replay above). I think the replay needs some Mr. Bean music or something.

AC, are you still on the phone? In that replay, you are in 3rd at the end of the clip, not 1st. BaelGriz was still out front, then me, then you. Sure neither of us stayed there for long, but we are out front for the duration of your video. I think the video looks pretty good - can't really tell it is from recording a TV. I wouldn't make a lap if I was trying to talk on the phone during a race, not on that track. Some tracks I think I could, but not many.

I like how my car was barely included in that video. Tells me exactly how fast T3rdbeast was those first few laps. :D

I'm liking Indy Road Course so far. Although I made an online room last night and the only people who would come in just wanted to drag race on that long straight in the infield. I don't get the point of that in a game like this. I had a hard time even running laps with two cars driving back and forth on that straight so Ieft it to them.

I'm NOT liking the Indy Road Course so far, . Well, actually the Volvo doesen't care for it much. This car seems to do well on medium speed tracks. This is a go kart track with a long straight. So the two elements that the Volvo doesen't do well on are present. I've changed about every setting on this car very slowly and methodically and everything that worked @ Suzuka and Fuji doesn't work well here. The car is very unstable but turns faster laps than any setting combo. I've done so far. I'll try raising it back up a little to see if that will cure the instability a little and get serious about setting up the Vette. I predict that Apex, T.J., and the 98 type R Civic (that's Cam I think) should do well here. Although Air and Brad are always fast, I'm not too sure about the Fords on this track. Should be interesting.

No one has said a word about the upcoming MSR champ. race. I've got two cars that run within a second of each other. I still can't hit Brad's suggested target time of 2:30 though and I think I'm about at my limit to keep it on the track. Some of those turns are so easy to get confused with others that it can trick you into going in way too fast or slow. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone brings to this race.

I keep having ideas for other series pop into my mind. Top of the list is one I've lobbied for a couple of times already but I think it would be a good one. Basically a GT 300 series built to a PP number (around 330 hp) that would hopefully include the 4wd rally cars. RH tires. There are so many cars in the game that would fall into this category. Cars that I really like to use. The other series would be tuner cars and concepts. This would include factory specials like Nismo and TRD. NOT race cars but close. I'd have to experiment to see what tires would be best. Probably race tires though. These cars too would be built to a PP no and would be faster than the other series. The reason for this is that all drive train configurations would be allowed. If you plan to win all 10 races you better build 10 cars, because the winner of each event must use another car in the next event. If you finish last, without dropping out, loosing internet connection, or without parking it till the end of the race, you may select another car for the next race. A little twist that should add an interesting element to each event. So what do you think?

I think I've done part of one lap at Moonshiner's run so far. The ROC is so off my radar that I haven't put any thought or effort into looking for a car for it.

Just started the process to raise holy hell at ATT.

We'll see what happens. If they don't play this right, i'll likely be without internet this week while i work out legal details to get money back from them and have Comcast installed i guess. (HATE Comcast.)

hahaha mine just decides to work, when it feels like it

and Air, saweet SBC replay haha i'll have to take a video of some of my replays

My TV apparently died last night from a lightning strike somewhere really really close to the house. Nothing else plugged into the same surge protector had an issue, and the power didn't even flicker, but the TV is dead. Not sure if I'll be in this week or not. Hard to play without a screen.

Watching the SBC replay was fun. You can see when I got penalized for contact with Apex when he came inside on me on a turn near the end of the lap. I got lucky and later on in the race I did the same thing to him and he got a penalty. Nick's tire smoke and drifting at the turn at the end of the backstraight is a bit of foreshadowing for what was to come in that race. Fun times.

T.J. wrote: You can see when I got penalized for contact with Apex when he came inside on me on a turn near the end of the lap.

I did set the penalty to "weak" for this race as a test, so the penalty shouldn't have been as severe. Was it?