GRM Project Cars 2 - Series 8: Not bitter at all...

So, if we are moving this to Saturday.  What time?  Should we shift earlier to finish at the normal time?  This would allow you longitudely challenged people to get your beauty sleep and allow me to finish at a reasonable time for dinner.

Starting at 8 est/5pst works for me, but any earlier would be tough. 

T.J. said:

Starting at 8 est/5pst works for me, but any earlier would be tough. 

 

That's where I am, any earlier and Sauce Jr the 1st won't be in bed yet. 

I still have not done more than a few consecutive laps, but have most of the track figured out now.

There is a section after the Karussell where there is a series of medium speed corners. Some I take in 3rd some in 4th and those ones I haven't memorized so I tend to take it easy through there for a handful of corners until it gets to the banzai part where you can go flat out for heading into the second smaller Karussell.

The rest of the track it is just a matter of staying focused and not making mistakes. Also, I have not tried any laps in the dark yet.

The strange artifacts on the bottom half of my screen and rear view mirror are irritating. Still haven't figured that out.

EDIT: I just ran 8+ laps with AIs. I started at 2100 and ran with time at 10x, so raced through the night. First lap is the hardest due to traffic and trying to avoid damage. Once things spread out a bit it was easier. A couple of the AIs had decent pace and the three of us were out in front of the gaggle. I ended up pitting for tires at the end of lap 6. I came out of the pits in 3rd, but only 12 seconds behind the leader and was back in first before the end of lap 7. The AIs mostly pitted at the end of lap 7 or at the end of lap 8, so it seems they are better on their tires than I was.

I only changed front tires since the rears were much less worn, and that combo took a little getting used to as the balance shifted and the car was more oversteering with the old tires on the back. I think to be on the safe side, I will change all four tires instead of trying to save a few seconds.

The crazy artifacts on my screen are the worst at dusk&dawn where the road ahead turns blue like it is made of water in certain places. My rearview mirror this time showed that the road behind was dirt with no pavement.

Should be fun Saturday.

FWIW, restarting my PS4 fixed my artifact issues.

EDIT: I was happy to run two consecutive 9:07 laps while at the same time being gently on my tires. If I can manage tire wear to that level, a one stopper may be possible after all. I want to experiment with Dark King's super softly sprung setup some more. I think it has promise.

EDIT EDIT: The softly sprung setup is more comfortable to drive and I may end up using it, but there are a couple turns where it doesn't work as well as my other setup and I end up understeering off the outside of the track. I'll mess around with it a bit more to see if I can settle on a final setup in the next day or two.

Yea, though I drive through the valley of the shadows of left, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy torque and thy traction circle they comfort me.

T.J. said:

Yea, though I drive through the valley of the shadows of left, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy torque and thy traction circle they comfort me.

My much softer setup that I put together last night has issues with pushing in slower sharp corners.  I may try correcting this with some sway bar adjustments.  I also backed the engin braking down so this could also be contributing to less initial rotation on turn in.  However once the car takes a set it is fantastic through and out of corners.  Other than that it is MUCH better and is almost immune to curbs and the occasional run through the grass.

I really wish I had tried this setup early on in the series.

The down side is I am only able to get laps in the 9:47 - 9:50 range so I don't know if it is the driver or the car or both.  It would help if I actually knew the track better.

The valley of the lefts start at about the 55 sec mark and end at the 1:20.  This was the one track that I really respected.  All the other ones we raced at were great and all but this one the margin for error was the smallest and you were going to get hurt if you did get it wrong.   I really miss this track.  

In reply to dean1484 :

I tried some bar changes as well, but I may try one click stiffer on the front springs and see how that is.

EDIT: I moved the front springs one click stiffer, so now they are two clicks from full soft. I think that is where I will leave them. I did manage to pull off three consecutive sub 9:00 laps in time trial mode, but there is no tire wear or fuel depletion, but tire temps seem to act the same. Not sure if it a useful practice tool or not for this track, but it forces you to stay on the track if you want to register a laptime.

In reply to dean1484 :

I see why they made it a golf course, the sand traps were already there 

Looks like most of the driving is done in the rough.

That was some rough pavement. I've driven on smoother gravel roads. I did recognize the valley of the lefts though, it is very reminiscent of the ring.

I’ll be on tonight if any one wants to practice. 

I wasn’t originally too excited for this race, but that changed after I did enough practice to learn the track well enough.

I've just been informed by SWMBO that I may have alternate plans Saturday night. It is weather dependent though. Rain means I race, good weather and then I have to take the family for a Christmas thing. 

I'm appointing TJ as alternate host if something comes up. I'll provide a weather update Saturday afternoon and let you know how it's looking. 

In reply to BradLTL :

Sunday night works for me if you want to push a day. Not sure if it would work for anyone else or not. 

Looks like rain is going to be here at 4pm. So it may end up being a non event. 

Ok. I'm officially in for tonight. Rain has cancelled the event. Please resume your normal programming. 

Ok so what time?  

Pushing to next week is ok with me. I could use more time practicing anyway. 

7CT / 8ET

The rest of you have to math it for yourselves. 

In reply to BradLTL :

Good deal. 

That was fun, but I don't want to do it again, at least not right now.

I was planning on two stops with the first one at the end of lap 6, but a run in with a barrier on lap 3 got me 25% aero, 32% suspension and 20% engine damage, so I had to pit at the end of the 3rd lap. I wanted to add 40L of fuel twice, but since I stopped on lap 3 that messed up my strategy, so I just did repairs. I went in in 3rd and came out in 11th not too far in front of Air. I was making it back through the AIs and then DarkWing( ) died. I caught up to him the same time as an AI and made it past both in one move. I think that was lap 5. I pitted again at the end of lap 9 for a set of tires and fuel. Then near the end, pitted a 3rd time because I had minor damage, had a gap to 3rd to make it a free stop, was so far behind Sauce that I had no chance of catching up and needed a break. From there to the end it was a matter of just doing laps and not seeing any other cars.

I'm with TJ, that was fun but I'm not in a hurry to repeat. 

My "strategy" for the race was to have a bunch of different pit strategies and then see what happens. I knew avoiding damage was going to be key but also almost impossible to avoid for the duration. I expected a 2 stop was going to be the best choice if damage allowed, but the timing was uncertain. 

TJ, Dark King and I ran in a pack for quite a while, swapping positions as we each made minor mistakes. I went off twice in the same spot but managed to only end up with 7 total damage, 5 front and 2 rear, but that was enough to lose a few tenths to Dark on the straights. 

Fast forward to lap 5, Dark had opened up a 5s lead but loses it at the end of sector 2 and I'm on his bumper. Then on lap 6 he spins at the exit of the hairpin on the GP portion (not T2, the other one). He dropped a wheel to the outside and spun across to the inside. I held my line and stayed outside, but I think Dark stayed on the throttle and came back across again and I hit him hard. At that point I had 8 suspension damage and 20-something damage to the front. My tires were still fine, but I lost 20 seconds or so on the damaged lap the timing worked out perfectly for a 2 stop strategy so I went that route. 

After that I managed to get into a rhythm and just cranked out laps. The lower temps at night kept the tires from getting too hot or wearing too fast, so I was able to run at a pace faster than expected. I pitted again at the end of 12 just to stay on strategy, and closed out the race picking up significant time as the fuel load got low. 

I just looked at my data as I was curious about some of the deltas and whatnot, but apparently it quit logging for laps 5 and 6 and then only recorded personal data after that.  I was mostly curious as to how much time Dark lost on his 100 damage escapade, but oh well.  Amusingly since it quit recording times for everyone else on lap 4 I was the only one given my actual finishing position, everyone else shows as they were on L4 and Dark was given P2.