GRM Project Cars 2 - Series 4: Ugly Ducklings

I did a few laps at Sugo. I had practice turned off by mistake, so my first ever lap at the track was my out lap during Qualli. My first timed lap which was my first full lap ever at the track was good enough for P3, so it seems that this one is not a favorite of the AIs. I started the race and did about 3 laps and got into the 1:31's which tells me the leaderboard is not really useful for these cars at this track since after 5 laps with no setup work I got a lap in the top 6 times.

There are some medium speed corners that we can slide around like a couple of the faster turns on top of the hill at Bathurst, so that could be fun.

Sugo is one of favorite tracks. Lots of different corners, elevation changes, straights and good flow. It’s not my best track, but one of my favorites to drive. 

I think I remember that track.  Pretty straight forward.  I think I tested the 911 on this track.  The T5 chicane can be fun (good spot for a spin) if I remember correctly since you are still curving out of T4 and the AI tends to stop for a coffee when they see it.

BradLTL said:

In reply to dean1484 :

The guy who rage quit wants the race to not count, and punish the other racers who fought through the challenge?

You should have finished off the last 4 minutes of the race. You may have ended up 2nd. We all made up a bunch of places on the final 2 laps. 

We are going to keep the results. While I agree that rain at that track was painful and not fun, it was only 12 minutes of it. I’m not sure if the bad behavior is related to the cars or the track, but this event was supposed to be a challenge. We’ll return to normal service next week. 

I will try and post the replay tonight. I am curious to see the last couple laps and how TJ, Air and I climbed from 10-12 to 4-6. 

It was not a rage quit I was not mad at anyone.  I was just not having fun and found it stupid to continue. Big difference Brad.  I have rage quit when I get mad or I do stupid things. (Usually I am tired and I probibly should not be racing)  This was none of this.  Don't paint a picture of me that is not true.

In reply to dean1484 :

Just poking fun at you, didn’t mean to offend. Sorry. 

aircooled said:

I think I remember that track.  Pretty straight forward.  I think I tested the 911 on this track.  The T5 chicane can be fun (good spot for a spin) if I remember correctly since you are still curving out of T4 and the AI tends to stop for a coffee when they see it.

Ohhh I think we tested at this track.  I think I remember this being a fun track.

BradLTL said:

In reply to dean1484 :

Just poking fun at you, didn’t mean to offend. Sorry. 

We are all good.  

Got stuck at work. Didn't get to play. Out of town next week.

Ran a few laps,  this is a fun track but definitely takes some getting used to.  With some tweaks to my last tune I'm at a mid-29. 

Definitely not one of the stronger tracks for the AIs. When you can pass a Ferrari on the front straight, you know they are not really driving it all that well.

I haven't done a whole race yet, but what I am finding is that this track lulls me into complacency and then bites me. It seems easy and one that doesn't require full concentration, then I find myself with an off. It is fast and flowy though, I just have to learn to stay focused.

Points updated, replay still won't embed.  I assume that it is the forum software needing a patch, but it's linked anyway.

Did a sugo practice race at 95/30 and lapped five AIs. Of course two were 240Zs, so they don't really count. 

Since Brad mentioned the possibility of a Group A series I'm planning on playing around with them tonight. From the leader board I think I know what the ringer may be, but I'm not sure if it will prove faster over the course of a 30 minute race with fuel and tire wear. I'll send invites in case anyone wants to join. 

In reply to e30Matt :

It’s the Ford. Not sure if the DLC cars balance anything out though. 

BradLTL said:

In reply to e30Matt :

It’s the Ford. Not sure if the DLC cars balance anything out though. 

Um, yeah, about that.  The Skyline is 2 seconds quicker than the Ford when spot checking at Nurburgring GP and Laguna Seca and 3 seconds quicker at Hockenheim.  

e30Matt said:

BradLTL said:

In reply to e30Matt :

It’s the Ford. Not sure if the DLC cars balance anything out though. 

Um, yeah, about that.  The Skyline is 2 seconds quicker than the Ford when spot checking at Nurburgring GP and Laguna Seca and 3 seconds quicker at Hockenheim.  

Well... thinking about it... given your username, I would assume that you would run the M3. That might make the front more attainable to use mere mortals. You know, hypothetically speaking...

In reply to BradLTL :

Oh I have every intention of running the M3, and from the leader boards it does seem to be slightly behind the other cars, but the Skyline appears to be a monster. 

Guess I need to buy the Japanese DLC to check out the Skyline. . For some reason that is the only one I don't have. 

The Ford and the M3 both have a red white and blue livery option, so I'll try them first. Audi and Merc are the wrong colors. 

I would try the Merc. Since I had the street going version of that car years back.  

At this point I've driven two cars but not in succession. The first was the Merc in a one-make online lobby. It needed some tuning (more than I had time for before the race started) but was still fun to drive and responded well to basic changes. I think with some more time on the suspension it would be a really good car to drive. It wasn't bad out of the box, just way too stiff and would skip a bit over even small bumps. 

The other is the M3, and it also has default settings that are way too stiff and some funky gearing. That said, even with those settings it's a fantastic car to drive. With some suspension calculator and gearing tweaks the car is incredible. Unfortunately, I'm also pretty sure that this is the slowest car in class. I'll be doing some more testing with other cars tonight and see what shakes out. 

In reply to e30Matt :

We ran a Group A series in PC1. I ran the Merc and Argo was in the Ford. The Ford was much faster, especially in a straight line, but prone to some bad habits.  The Merc was easy and consistent to drive.

Here’s the thread: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/simulation-central/grm-project-cars-racing-league-series-1/108177/page1/

If you watch the start of the first race, you’ll have a pretty good idea how much faster the Ford is compared to the rest of the field. 

@Air, after watching the Leipzig replay I now know what happened in T1. I simply turned in on you and left you no room and took us both out. Sorry about that. Also affected Brad as well, but he managed to get by the both of us in the mess.

I think on the straight we were spread far enough apart that I didn't get a warning arrow telling me you were essentially alongside and I thought I was clear of you. I was more worried about Dean and Sauce ahead and what they were going to do through T1 than what was behind me (or in this case, turns out beside me).

Yeah, no big deal (not like I haven' been on the other end of that) I was watching ahead also, and kind of like with Dean the race before, seeing what is next to you is a bit hard to do in this game unfortunately.  I am just glad we took out Brad... uh, I mean, that was terrible also... so there was a decent race at the back for the rest of the race.

Looking at the replay.  It's actually pretty funny.  You managed to get me out of control by hitting my front end, (taking yourself out at the same time), that got me just loose enough to swerve inside and tap Brad JUST enough to knock him out of control!  Good stuff.

Sauce Jr. is sick so I'm at home with him and decided to run a few laps while he napped. I tried the Ford and man is that car ridiculous. It's rated at 390hp in the game, but when driving on the screen that shows tire temps, suspension travel, etc. the power meter was showing 475hp going down the straights. It was also carrying a full 13+ mph advantage over the M3 on the back straight of the Nurburg GP.

That said, it's so difficult to drive that the lap times are about the same as the M3, and I suspect tire wear over the course of a race would become an issue. Now, if someone gets the car really dialed in it could be a monster, but it will take quite a bit of work. 

Ok, ran some laps in the other cars and have driven them all now at the Nurburg GP circuit, same day, time, and with 15 laps of fuel. My impressions:

M3 - 2:10.4, but can definitely get into the 2:09's. Slowest of the bunch but fantastic to drive. Would do well on really tight courses where power is less important, but would get murdered on super high speed tracks. 

Ford Sierra - 2:10.5 but minimal tuning time. Has the capability to be extremely fast but due to the peaky nature is tricky to drive. If someone tames it then they will be very fast. 

Mercedes - 2:09.4, 2:08's are definitely possible without much more tuning/practice. Similar to the M3 it's easy to drive, intuitive, and responsive. The Merc gets better pull out of some corners and overall I think has better gearing and a bit more torque. Slightly faster than the M3 in a straight line, but not by too much. 

Audi - 2:09.2, one flying lap with no tuning other than trimming bump stops. This car has a ton of potential and with a little work I don't think the rwd cars can hang. 

Skyline - 2:07.9, one flying lap with only a gear change. This car is an absolute ringer, out of the box it's running times as fast or faster than any of the RWD cars top leader board times, and according to those there's still another 2 seconds left in it. That said, it's also the easiest car to drive, almost alarmingly so. It does everything exactly as it should. The handling, grip, brakes, traction under power, all so easy a caveman could do it.