GRM - Gran Turismo 5 Racing League - Series 4

The new series should be in 3 weeks. You don't really need the download pack, there are a number of TC in the game already and if you need to practice Spa there are a lot running it online, or you get into a participants Lobby (they will likely be doing a lot of Spa the week before that race). Don't worry if you can't make all the races (a lot don't anyway), I think we all enjoy having as many "reasonable" driving participants as possible.

If you can't make the TC series, the Shuffle series is definitely "drop in ready" (it will run after the TC race). You can even drop in in the the middle of and event, just jump in and wait for the next race to start. Lack of practice will not be a as big a deal with this one since you car will change each race, and the slow drivers get the better cars.

A standings update, accounting for the 2 allowed drops. Grea pretty much gets hosed in both series. He is the only one to show up for all the races in both classes and didn't have any really bad finishes. Hunter gets a big boost since he missed a few races but almost always finished 1st or second.

GT is basically a lock for Hunter unless he doesn't show next week. Saloon is still pretty close and could easily result in some sort of tie if someone other then me wins. Bael and Mini's competition could be interesting next week. Assuming neither wins, if Mini beats Bael he will at least tie him.

I should have my tracks shared, or at least one, I guess it only allows for only one to be shared.....I wanted to share the others and as far as next series.....yeeeaaahhh, NO CLUE for if i'll be competing or not, it all depends on my interwebs lol

I downloaded the Bob Costas Racepark. Very nice track, and we do need a good shorter track, but it doesn't have a pit (I did the same thing with Little Sh*te. If you can rebuilt in on a non-kart track as close to that as possible that would be great.

Theoretically you could submit more than one track. You can only share one at a time, but I could download each one when it is shared. No limit to the amount I can have.

If F40 can stop being such a Bob Costas and get us a legal track ( ). We will have 7 (Grea can pick which of his tracks he wants to use). That leaves up 3 open slots, one of which is for Spa. Do we have any one else left to submit a track?

I have two others, not counting the new revised Costas Racepark

aircooled wrote: Grea can pick which of his tracks he wants to use.

Let's use Origami Road.

Update on track list:

(F40 has a potty mouth)

I can confirm that I won't make this weeks race. I know it is a shocking revelation. Gonna be on a plane to Amelia Island.

ohhaha that's nothing! and i'll post my others lol

I will hold on to Bob Costas Racepark. Maybe we can use it to test the shuffle timing after the race tomorrow. I need to figure out if 2 min between races is enough time for me to take a snapshot of the results and get back in and get some sort of familiarity with the new car.

Also, I am curious if setting the shuffle ratio to 10 might be a bit extreme. It will certainly make the overall scores close, I just wonder if some of the races will be less interesting with a really large spread of cars.

If someone wants to do some testing with shuffle ratios and let me know what you think, that would be great. I really don't want too go really low with the ratio (to keep good variation), but I am worried about going too high (super cars with economy cars).

BradLTL wrote: I can confirm that I won't make this weeks race. I know it is a shocking revelation. Gonna be on a plane to Amelia Island.

Work or pleasure? Either way not a bad trade. Hope you enjoy it either way too.

Fuji Speedway GT - 18 laps Tonight.

The track is a slight variation to the other Fuji configuration, basically it just removes one of the set of hairpins, so it a bit quicker.

The GT series is pretty much a non-issue unless Hunter, Grea or I don't show.

The Saloon is a bit more interesting. Assuming the standard M5 parade of 1,2,3 lots of chances for ties. If I win, it stays as is. If hunter wins and I finish 2nd, tie. if Grea wins, Hunter 2nd, then tie for second.

So Grea has to win to get to 2nd, Hunter has to win to get to 1st. The worst I can do is 2nd (assuming I finish in the top 3)

RealMini also has to beat Grizz to tie for 4th.

He has a good chance tonight. Skyrim eats time like a machine, so I have no practice whatsoever.

Here's hoping both of our interwebs hold out tonight, I want it to be entertaining.

yeah, hope my internets works as well. I also had no clue what the track was so thanks Air haha

I revised the Racepark, so if you want that I can share that. I also got two more tracks if you want them. I had a new one posted for you

On the rules, I'm attempting a last minute build as a loaner. Are the current Saloon rules as stated in the OP?

Grizz wrote: Skyrim eats time like a machine

No kidding! I have to put myself on probation when I work from home!

mndsm wrote: On the rules, I'm attempting a last minute build as a loaner. Are the current Saloon rules as stated in the OP?

Yes, with the addition that controller users can use ABS = 1

BradLTL wrote:

Grizz wrote: Skyrim eats time like a machine

No kidding! I have to put myself on probation when I work from home!

Ain't it great? I realized yesterday that I spent six hours wandering around the wilderness with a character I had just made.

Alrighty, on to the race and my complaints.

I, yet again, have ruined my cars for the entirety of the series only to discover and fix the issue in the last damn race. Final drive was way too damn high in the DB9. I bumped it down from 4.100 to 3.900 and lo and behold, not only did I have acceleration in the top end, I could actually keep up with Grae and Air enough to catch a draft and my car cornered better. My attempts at pit strategery failed yet again, had I not pit I think it would have been back and forth between Grae and I until the end.

In saloon I bumped the final drive down, same numbers as the Aston, only I started the race in 3rd gear so I was doomed from the start. Really uneventful race for me, first no damage races ever.

Did some TC testing, even brought out my two real choices instead of sticking with the giant smokey distraction that is the speed 12. Still won with it a couple of times though.

It's a toss up between the 63 Z06 race car and the Impreza Super Touring Car. After tonight I'm leaning towards the Impreza. The Vette is fast at 625, I can hit a 1:05 at ashole, but the Impreza is easier to drive and still competitive, even at 601 pp.

Most of the courses seem to be smaller, so I think I'm going to go with cornering prowess and low end acceleration instead of outright speed.

Final Results:

And we have a tie.

Quick summary for me:

GT: I was doing some pretty good dueling with Grae and Hunter, but got a bit to aggressive drafting Grea and slammed him big time at the end of the straight. Destroyed my car, hopefully it didn't hurt Grea much. He seemed to be doing pretty good afterwards.

Saloon: Had a number of good laps on Hunters butt, then picked up a HUGE draft and got slingshot big time into turn 1! Did a massive 4 wheel slide into the turn and lost Hunter from then on. I should have just laid back, but that draft was too tempting.

I am going to be out of town until next Tuesday, so I will check in then. N

Next week, NASCAR.

Did anyone have fun last night? I sure did! I sure did get lucky at times though. Again two of the best races we've had IMO. Air, I'm sure you can agree about the first 5 laps of GT. Lap 5 T1 is when the tap occurred. Yes, slight damage showed on the LR corner of my car but it didn't affect the way it handled . . . until the last lap. The first 5 laps were really fun though. Drafting, late braking, digging and scratching for traction, advantage, dissadvantage, it was all there. The whole time Hunter's icon was kept in the picture though he was slipping away. After the damage Air got Grizz and my battle continued until lap 9 with many posistion changes. Even though we lost sight of each other the battle still continued but it then consisted of my saying, "should I pit? Can he catch me?" and, I'm sure, him saying, "can I catch him? Why didn't the bastard pit? Is he ever going to pit? E36 M3! Attempts at not pitting in these two series was always chancy but this time it worked. I managed to keep it on the track but you can imagine how difficult that was. And yes, the LR damage showed up slightly on the last lap causing the car to pull to the Rt. The replay shows the LR wheel bouncing F to R. When I saw Grizz's icon show up on my track map I saw that if I kept it on the track that I had a shot of pulling off 2nd. place. It worked this time.

Grizz and Air great race those first 5 laps. That's the kind of racing that makes this all worth it.

I could see Celica and RMD's icons often looking like one car for much of the race. Lot's of smoke, eh Celica?

Gratz to Hunter! Another well earned victory and Championship.

Fuji always seems to be one of the tracks we race well, that's why it shows up a lot. Sounds like it was fun, wish I could have joined.

I figured the Purple People Eater Battle Doriftu Wagon wasn't going to have the power i needed for Fuji, so i swapped to an RS4 BattleWagon.

Wish i had just used that car from the start. It's OBNOXIOUSLY fast. Even though i drove stupid and cemented myself in last place, (More later) that crazy-ass launch made it all worth it. 6th place to 1st place in 2 seconds? YES PLEASE.

And then i promptly lost it at the turn. I wasn't expecting to already be going 120mph by the time the hairpin came at the start.

Then i figured i could drive it like the Purple People Eater, and drift everything. Tons of fun, but it seems to eat tires faster than the Purple People Eater. Had to pit. Twice. And i got 40 seconds of penalties.

I believe if i had driven more conservatively, i would have been able to pull off 5th. Oh well, live and learn. I saved the replay, though... i got a couple AWESOME slides through the last corner going onto the straight carrying a LOT of speed.

GT, i kindof did the same thing. I figured i didn't have a chance in hell at winning, so i went through tires too quickly. Then i messed around on the last lap losing at least 30 seconds. Come to find out that RMD only beat me by 30 seconds. D'oh!

Oh, and then of course... right after the race, i checked the used car lot, and what happens to show up that i've been looking for the whole time for this series? The Nissan Stagea 260RS and the Toyota Chaser X540.

ARG.

Saloon: I came out of T1 in P1 then overshot T2 allowing Hunter through. He later over shot the 180 degree sweeper allowing me back to P1. The main straight was an M5 train up front with some interesting drafting going on. Going into T1 I couldn't tell where Hunter was and REALLY didn't want to have contact with him again, took my eye off the apex for an instant resulting in my first SC penalty. Air and Grizz also got by but Grizz went off @ the sweeper allowing me back into P3. Grizz lost the draft and the race was set. I checked top speeds on his and my cars and found the Commie to be a little down on top speed. If he could have stayed in the draft . . .

The only mystery left for me to fathom was why Air kept falling back to me a couple of times. SC penalty, damage?? Kept my hopes up but I checked and didn't see any damage. He was probably talking on the phone again.

Another well earned win Hunter. Grizz we had two good runs going on. Your driving has steadily improved and I'm convinced that the changes you have made to the cars worked for you. Celica and RMD, again you two had it going on. Good race for all from what I could see. Too bad T.J. and mdsm couldn't have stuck around.

Well, I can finally change oil and wash these two bad B'mers, max them out, stick some RS tires on them and use then again from time to time for open room comp.

So NASCAR next week. I STROOOONNGLY suggest as many of us as possible get together to practice this one. The more practice we get drafting and finding our way through the turn-a-rounds and kinks the better. Loose the draft in this one and it's over. I may be available after 8:00 or 8:30. Air mentioned earlier about He, Hunter, and I practicing @ SS7. I experience both staying in the draft and loosing it. Staying in it is better.

BTW, I'd like to see Brad and T.J. show up for the ROC. Oh and let's pass the hat and send Nick some Gorrilla Glue to apply to his internets so he can compete. Remember Nick, you made it through GT the first time we ran there.

Forgive me if this is just too obvious but if any two of us do loose the draft of the front runners don't race each other but slingshot each other back toward the front pack. I'd like to see that work and under certain circumstances it could.

Another thought to consider is it just MIGHT be possible to compete heads up with Hunter in this one. We just need to be as fast as he is at each end and through the kinks. With a little luck . . . who knows what could happen? I'm sure he'd appreciate some stiff competition. I'm afraid he's going to get bored with us. We don't want to let that happen.