GRM Project Cars 2 - Series 1: GT3s across 'Murica

Welcome to the (un)official GRM - Project CARS2  series #1.

This is a 6 round Championship series hosted on the PlayStation4. Although highly competitive the main focus of the racing is fun clean racing. Because of this, rough driving is highly discouraged. The Stewards will be watching.

The series will be run on **Wednesday nights at 9:30ET**.

The first race will be on: **November 15th, 2017**

PS+ is required to participate.

Car Class: GT3 - Open Setup

Rounds:

1. Daytona GP (Spring) - 11/15
2. COTA GP (Spring) - 11/22
3. Laguna Seca (Summer) - 11/29
4. Road America (Summer) - 12/6
5. Watkins Glen (Fall) - 12/13
6. Sonoma GP (Fall) - 12/20

Rules:

• Races will be based on time as follows: Practice 30 minutes / Qualification 15 minutes / Race 30 minutes
• Realistic Driving Aids
• Fuel usage is set to Yes
• Tire usage will be set to "Authentic"
• Damage will have a performance impact
• Flag will be ON
• Standing starts
• Track Limit Penalties will be ON
• Drive Through Penalties will be ON
• Ghost cars will be ON
• AI drivers will fill the field and be start at 65%.  This will increase by 5% as needed to keep competitive
• Competitive Racing License will be ON

Points:

• 1st - 25pts
• 2nd - 20pts
• 3rd - 18pts
• 4th through 16th will be -1pt per position with 16th getting 5pts
• AI drivers will take points away from humans
• DNS / DNF / DQ will score 0 points

Championship Standings:

Race Replays:

Round 1: 

Round 2

Round 3:

Round 4 - Part 1 (The interesting one):

Round 4 - Part 2:

Round 4 - Part 3:

Round 5:

Round 6:

Like it.  Race length for pit stops?  PC2 has some cool full animation pit stops.  Worth moving the start time to 9:30pm ET for.  Full fields with AI?  Grid size?  Multi-class racing with some P2 prototypes at the front of the field? (maybe on a later series)

In reply to Argo1 :

TBD. Gotta see what options show up in the actual release. As soon as I can get my hands on it and see what options are available in the online championships, I'll start finalizing the rules and settings. 

We will see on 9/22.

The Long Beach track looks pretty impressive.

I don't know about in the game, but Long Beach is a very narrow walled course, not a great passing track.  Fine for qualify to win (i.e. F1) or strategy races.

In the GT6 races, wider tracks make for much better and more entertaining racing.  We pretty much never use Monico for that reason, and it's pretty similar to Long Beach design wise.

Yea, historically we've not done well on tight street courses. I left it off for that reason. 

We can run it in a practice session. 

Yes, true.  The detail of the circuit is just really impressive if you watch the PCars2 youtube videos.

Presented for your information...

Also for your reference, how to properly set the pressures of your tires in game, using real world guides from the tire manufacturers...

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/car-behavior-and-tire-temps-after-patch-2-0.361962/#post-11989231

More reference....

Project CARS 2 - Optimal Tire Pressures When Tires Are Hot

Road Cars
2.10bar to 2.20bar front and rear (29psi to 32psi)

Light Sportscars (Radical, BAC, KTM, etc)
~1.60bar front and rear (24psi)

Touring Cars & V8 Supercar
2.00bar to 2.15bar front and rear (29psi to 31psi)

Modern GT, Vintage GT, LMP
~1.80bar front and rear (26psi)
As low as 1.60bar (23psi) for a slow track
As high as 1.90bar (28psi) for Circuit de la Sarthe

Formula Cars (IndyCar, FX, FA, FR3.5)
Road Courses: 1.70bar front / 1.45bar rear (24psi / 21psi)
Oval Tracks: Up to 3.10bar on the right side (45psi)

Rules are updated.  Series starts next week.

I wonder if Air and Spool are too afraid to race...  

I have no issue with it other then the fact that I host the GT6 races on Wednesday.  The number of people we get seems to vary.  I might ask Dean to cover for me so I can at least give it a try.

I do need to get more time into PC though.  I find it hard to pry myself away from the old cars in it (e.g. The Lotus F1 cars and those funky even older F1 sprint car looking cars).  The modern, stability / traction control cars just seem numb in comparison.  I guess I just like very dynamic cars.

I have tried part of the campaign in PC (which of course has way more offline content than GTS) with the Cayman cup.  Generally I am not enjoying it though. Part of it is the lack of feel, some of is the lack of sense of speed (I need to work on my viewing position) and some is the "insta-spin" effect whenever I try to get any rotation out of the car (only at low speed of course)

It might be helpful if you and Argo could share you general settings.  I know you mentioned the viewing angles.  I did find that having Autoclutch on is necessary, even with the flappy paddle cars.

Also, Argo, are you using a wired controller for you Drivehub?  The reason I ask is that I can't seem to get the drivehub to work with mine.  I can use the wired controller as a controller, with the wireless one in the drivehub, but it does not have an audio port, so no mic or headset!  I hate to plunk down another $50 just for a controller I don't really need otherwise.

I need to take $1k out of my toy fund and get a ps4 and a new wheel and copy’s of the game. 

Since you used to do endurance racing I think you will likely enjoy the more "real" aspects of the PC.  It seems like there can be a lot of race strategy in it, although I think really long races might get a bit dull (not unlike endurance racing?) since you will not have many car on car duels, but the excitement is in the strategy anyway.

The way I see it is GT (both 6 and Sport) is a bit like AutoX, PC is a bit like track racing.  AutoX is comparatively a show up and run kind of event, not a lot of prep or practice involved.  Track racing is all about the prep, practice, qualifying and strategy.  The driving is more a matter of consistency. So, a quick race in GT will likely be more fun, a full race event more fun in PC, I am thinking.

Oh, one more thing that is throwing me with PC, that I don't think will be an issue for you is they do not have the brake/gear warning in the game (or at least not on by default), so you have to figure out / memorize the braking points yourself.  I think you do that already in GT.  I am not used to it, so I will likely get out braked a lot.  But, that does add that tactic to the races.

Now, throw in no traction control, stability control, ABS, and use the clutch, you will be spending a lot more effort just driving the car and have a lot more potential mistakes for others to take advantage of (which I honestly think makes for some of the most interesting racing)

And yes, the money piles up rather quickly.

I think that is a pretty good analogy. You certainly have to put more effort into PC. That’s one of the things I like about it. 

I don’t think there is an “insta-spin” bug, or at least not that I’ve encountered. PC is punishing on tires temps, pressure and contact patch; as well as brake temps and bias. That is the first thing (usually the only thing) I end up tuning. You’ll get some temp after a lap or 2, but usually you’ll need 4-5 laps to get a feel for the true behavior of the car. Good news is for the race your tires are already at operating temp. It really just messes with Practice and Qualifying.

I’ll take pics of every setting I have in the game, including my setup for the GT3 series. Whatever I can do to help you get up to speed and enjoying the game. 

I look at as it a s WAY WAY less money than going real racing and the fact is I will probibly  get 1000X the seat time that that money would buy me in my real race car. Hell 1k is less than it costs for one weekends hotels food and fuel for the truck. Never mind entry fees tires race fuel misc consumables. 

Your comments interest me Air. I don’t use any of the aids in GT6. It is all speed and distance judgment.  How I drive for real. As soon as I stopped using them I got faster in GT6. 

I try and find  good brake marker on the side of the track. Too often I find myself using the distance markers before a corner. They are actually fine... right up to the point where someone takes them out and now you have no marker. 

Or you are in a pack and can not see them.  I try to use something a bit back from the track. 

Ok... Here's every setting I have:

And for my R.S. 01 setup:

The other thing you have to watch out for is this:

Track conditions change everything.  The temp of the track changes the compound of the tire you need to run.  Hot = Hard, Cold = Soft.  It doesn't have anything to do with how fast the tire is like in some other games.  Run Softs in high heat and they become balls of grease and you slide every where.  Run Hards in the cold and you might as well have stones on your wheels.

After you've got the right compound, now you have to work on pressures.  There's a reference above, but I've found I'm fastest in a GT3 car at about 30psi.  You have to compensate for the heat in your starting pressures.

After that it's time to tune the brakes.  I've found I like a significant more rear bias than the default, so I usually move it back to about ~55/45.  Then you have the manage your brake temps.  So, adjust the opening on the brake vents.  Lots of hard braking, open them up.  A lot of long straights, close them down.  You want (as much as possible) to keep your brakes at an ideal temp.  

So how the hell do you manage all this stuff?  Well, the HUD helps a lot and you'll need to use it.  Here's the 2 HUDs that I use.  The first is my customized view that I use 90% of the time.  The important parts are in the lower left.  It shows the tire temps / pressures and brake temps.  (Notice I remove the wheel from the cockpit view, that makes a world of difference)

The second view is for more detailed testing.  When you get more advanced and are looking at dampers and bump stops, etc. there is this telemetry view:

Does that help?  What else do you want to know?

In reply to aircooled :

Air, I use a wireless controller for the drive hub.  I don't own a wired one.

I will miss the season opener as I am on a business trip all next week. 

Air, did you ever purchase Asseto Corsa?  Do me a favor: spend 20 bucks and give me your thoughts on it.

Well, that's a hell of a summary, thanks.  I think I can safely say, you are going to kick my butt in a big way!  I will just use the 911 because, well, you know.  It looks like I have a lot of tuning to do.

Yes I need to pick up AC. It looks like the base game has the Yellowbird, so that will make me happy.  I am curious to see how different it is than GT6.

I don't think you have a G27 wheel, but what are your wheel button setups? Currently I have left, right and rear view, but I am not sure what are important for the other 3.

I actually haven’t done a lot of tuning on the car. Just some basic things. Actually looking at the screenshots I see an error. I went the wrong way on TC. I wanted to turn it down, but the setting is opposite my assumption (so, I actually turned it up). 

The 911 is pretty good out of the box. Also, most cars come with 3 setups for you: default, stable and loose. Just hit the “Load Setup” button. You can also steal setups from other drivers in the Time Trial mode. 

Once you understand what the tires and brakes, you’ll get a lot faster and won’t cuss as much. 

Here’s my tuning “checklist”:

1. Tire compound
2. tire pressures
3. Brake bias
4. Brake ducts
5. Brake pressure 
6. Fuel load
7. Rollbars (for car balance)
8. Aero
9. Engine braking
10. TC
11. ABS

I haven’t really done much with the other settings. I’ve got to improve my driving before changing anything else will matter.