GRM - Gran Turismo 5 racing League - Series 2 (begins 3/2/11)

NickF40 wrote: I wish this all of a sudden it kicking me out of PSN would stop.....

I was having problems tonight, as well. Reset my modem and it seemed to help.

I did that already, I dunno maybe i'll try it again

I got a chance to do a few lapse on the Daytona road course. That turn 1 is a beast! There is pretty much no way to do a straight approach on it, so everybody better start practicing there braking while turning (which can be pretty trick in some of the SBC cars). My fasted lap involved a full sliding drift through 1, not easy to replicate.

On the good side, the banking seems to make high speed cornering a non-issue and the track is pretty wide in some spots.

I am also suspecting there will potentially be a lot of shortcut penalties for the bus stop chicane. I think if you keep one wheel on the yellow you are fine (?).

Yeah I did some laps yesterday in practice. There are no penalties there, but if you go off course your lap is invalidated. If that equates to the penalties I need to practice the bus stop some more as I will be in penalty danger often. Exit speed from the bus stop seems to be the most critical point for a good lap time. I can go through T1, T4, or T6 off my best line and still get around the same lap time, but if I don't get the bus stop just right I loose out to my fastest lap. Not sure racing my own ghost is all that helpful though.

Wow turn one is a NIGHTMARE in the SBC cars.

I'm down to 2:26 in the Celica, 2:20 in the MX5.

I've managed a 2:22 a couple of times in the Marcos.

Sigh.

I shared the Celica, go drive it!

If i accepted the fact that i may have to drift some corners i'd probably be a bit faster, but there's no way i'd be able to nail the drifts every lap. I think i can hit 2:26 consistently and maybe not wreck once. (Like last week, but hopefully faster!)

That is a good approach. I'll be happy if I can manage to pull off a string of clean and consistent 2:24-2:25 laps. I cannot hope to make it an entire race at the same pace as my best lap. I would end up in a wall or on the grass. My inability to consistently drift without looping around is the main reason I abandoned my first few SBC choices and went for a FWD one.

My MX5 is "true red", if I need to change it tell me what general colors aren't taken.

No need to change it unless you want to. There are a lot of bright obnoxious colors to choose from and you get to paint your wheels as well if you want. Just make it how you want it and go with that.

They look really good white on white.

just

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:

I took the mighty pink celica for a spin while I was home for lunch today. Got a 2:27 on the only lap I did. I think you might want to stiffen the front shocks/springs/sway bar a bit. I shared my Lancer if you want to check it out. Not sure how well the settings would translate, but the cars should be fairly similar.

Stiffen MORE? Damn!

I think i'm running like... 11k springs up front or higher now. I'll give it a shot, though.

Was it a pain in the ass for you to drive with a wheel? Or was it somewhat docile. Every time i drive it i feel like it's actively trying to commit suicide. Doesn't help that it doesn't get full traction until 3rd gear, and if you start spinning in second and don't wait for the tires to cool off, you'll find yourself doing 4th gear rolling burnouts.

I'll bump it up when i get home and see what's up. I'd like to chop 2 seconds off my time consistently. Think that would probably put me in the top half at least, providing i can stay clear of traffic.

Thanks for the input!

I don't have a wheel. It seemed fine to me, just a little too oversteery. Any RWD car with 200 Hp on comfort medium tires will be able to oversteer if you want it to with the gas pedal, but yours seemed like it wanted to oversteer even without the throttle more than I would like. Of course I only drove it for a couple minutes. If you think the front is already as stiff as you want to go, maybe soften up the rear a little bit. I'm not good enough at drifiting to do multiple laps in it as is without spinning it. My car is the same way in that there is no traction till 3rd. I get wheelspin coming out of corners with even the slightest touch on the gas, so my strategy is to just light them up and do long smokey burnouts coming out of every 2nd gear corner. Sorry for the smoke clouds, but I am faster doing it that way then trying to modulate the gas to not spin.

did a short test session in the Elan and in a handfull of laps was running pretty consistantly in the 2:23's with a best so far of 2:23.0.

gonna be hard for the race as there isnt any reference point I can find for the braking point for the bus stop.

Apexcarver wrote: did a short test session in the Elan and in a handfull of laps was running pretty consistantly in the 2:23's with a best so far of 2:23.0. gonna be hard for the race as there isnt any reference point I can find for the braking point for the bus stop.

I'm having a hard time staying on track on that really narrow section after turn... 3 i think it is? Flanked by big lawns on either side, nice and slick. I can either exit really slow, or take my chances on holding a drift and not touching the grass.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Every time i drive it i feel like it's actively trying to commit suicide. Doesn't help that it doesn't get full traction until 3rd gear, and if you start spinning in second and don't wait for the tires to cool off, you'll find yourself doing 4th gear rolling burnouts.

THAT right there is so much awesome lol

haha see, told you to stiffen her up! Never listen to me!

Apexcarver wrote: gonna be hard for the race as there isnt any reference point I can find for the braking point for the bus stop.

If you look carefully there are 3 2 1 number markers on the outside wall. They are small and hard to see because they blend in, but they are there.

NickF40 wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Every time i drive it i feel like it's actively trying to commit suicide. Doesn't help that it doesn't get full traction until 3rd gear, and if you start spinning in second and don't wait for the tires to cool off, you'll find yourself doing 4th gear rolling burnouts.

THAT right there is so much awesome lol haha see, told you to stiffen her up! Never listen to me!

I did!!!! Apparently not enough, though.

I feel like i need to learn how to tweak the LSD effectively, too...

in the Elan, 2nd gear is burnout on demand, 3rd gear must be settled and straight or it lights up and you have to modulate the throttle to regain grip.

For the Elan I found that stiffer made it worse. in initial tuning it was awful, the car just wouldnt take any set whatsoever and wanted to slide no matter what I did.

In frustration I returned the car to the stock suspension to just see what would happen. Suddenly, the car, while not a complete peach, was able to be driven and my times were faster/more consistent. So I reset the tuned suspension to the stock settings and added a touch of stiffness and arrived at what I am running.

I am sure I am sacrificing some lateral grip for control-ability, but that is an easy choice for these races.

I'll look for those turn markers. So far the only thing I have been doing is counting 1 one thousand 2 one thousand 3 then brake after the 2nd scoreboard passes from view (or whatever that big black tower thing in the infield is).

Rule Question:

In MX5, are we allowed to rebuild the engines?

I ask because I am a bit down on power. If we don't allow them, that is OK. I just want to make sure I am not handicapping myself.

I do and did, usually after every 3 long races i'd rebuild, just to keep the power up

I have rebuilt mine once.