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

Before the race  I was quite worried about the tire wear differential between the BMW and Megane.  Having run Dean's tune the night before I knew how good it was on tires even when being overly aggressive with it, and him doing 38 laps on a set and still finishing with 25% life shows how good that tune is.  I figured a race pace of 53's was doable in the BMW which was on par wth my Megane estimations, but I thought the BMW might be more consistent and easier to run at that pace for longer. This was based on the fact that I hadn't made it through any of the (relatively) short test races without incident in the Megane, mostly because braking got dicey when the tires were worn.  

However, what I didn't expect was the race pace that I was able to maintain in the Megane.  With qualifying at a 51.3 I expected to be running 53's or 54's with full fuel load and some attempt at tire preservation.  The first couple laps I was just trying to build a gap and get into rhythm, and then on lap 2 or 3 I put down a 51.8 which was way faster than I was expecting to run.  This put me in an odd spot because I was 2 seconds off my target pace, but the car felt great and I was worried that trying to match pace would throw me off rhythm or take the car out of its happy zone.  I decided to keep my foot in it for the most part, but try to preserve the tires in certain areas of the track. 

What I found was that by braking earlier and lighter in some areas I was able to get the car to rotate more gently and earlier.  This let me carry more speed in and through mid-corner, start rolling onto throttle earlier, but then I would also hold partial throttle longer at exit to reduce wheel spin.  The result was that  the slightly higher corner speed with earlier throttle application worked out to being the same pace as the "slow in, fast out, hammer down at apex" I had been doing, but by avoiding lockups and wheel spin the tires got much happier.

COTA is a track that I need some practice on. I find T1 through T9 difficult to get right. I like the tight portion in the middle from T12 to T15, then getting that never ending right hander (T16-T18) correct and the following left (T19) is hard.

I hopefully can make a few tweaks to my setup and/or driving style to figure this out before next week. Did a 2:18 something after a handful of laps, but thinking 2:16's are definitely on the table.

In reply to e30Matt :

What ever you did, it worked. Good race. It looks like you made some sort of error on lap 18 or 19, where Air and I gained about 5 seconds on you, but other than that you were dialed in. Hopefully, I can give you a better run for your money next race.

In reply to T.J. :

T7-8-9 is probably the 2nd most important complex of corners.  You have to work it backwards.  You need to prioritize getting the best exit of 9 and compromise the line in the others.

Dani Ric playing a game: https://youtu.be/7fqndS8TkHE?t=48

Bottas in real life: https://youtu.be/3lgkZpNEYUY?t=28 (watch the cut on 8)

T11 is the most important and deceptively tricky corner on the track.  It's easy enough to get through it, but there is enough room to take a bunch of lines, and the corner invites you to out brake yourself.  A good line and exit make almost a second a lap difference.

In reply to T.J. :

That was my AI nemesis.  I had a run out of T1 and planned to make my move under braking into the hairpin, but he decided to drop anchor right at the kink and I had to take major evasive action to not to destroy the car.  That would have been fine, except he also changed sides of the track after my initial input which caused me to have to swing back the other way and sent me out into the gravel.  I'm not entirely sure how I missed him, but it was almost much worse.

In reply to BradLTL : Here is a lap a lot closer to our speeds than the F1 cars.

T.J. said:

In reply to BradLTL : Here is a lap a lot closer to our speeds than the F1 cars.

Every lap I drive feels like a F1 car

@BradLTL hey what's up? I was looking to compete in the league on Project cars 2 

PSN name: DARK-KING_12

Da_Rock_ said:

@BradLTL hey what's up? I was looking to compete in the league on Project cars 2 

PSN name: DARK-KING_12

I'll vouch for Dark King, though I'm guessing TJ invited him.  Add BradLTL, allaircooled, Dean1484, M10PSI and MMM_Sauce to your friends list, the last 3 usually have practice rooms periodically throughout the week.  

In reply to e30Matt : awesome thanks I will

Got him added. I'll update the scoring sheet later. 

In reply to Da_Rock_ :

Hey, glad to see you here. FYI, Sauce is e30Matt and I am M10PSI to translate between PSN and screen names here. I think everyone elses PSN name is fairly similar to their screen name here.

In reply to T.J. : gotcha thanks for invite as well 

Welcome to the FUN!!!

In the race I got the motor bog so my start was horrible. Air commented on it during qualifying but I had never had it happen. I may have to work with the clutch on the start to see if I can do a manual launch instead of just dropping it in to gear with the throttle matted. 

In reply to dean1484 :

I both bogged and then did a burnout at the start. We should do some of those 1 lap races to work on our starts. 

I should be on Sunday evening. 

So I tested last night with a different Dif and figured out a bunch of things that make the car drive worse and get me slower lap times. 
 

I guess you could call that progress. 

In reply to dean1484 :

Learning what doesn’t work is progress. I played around a bit this morning with camber, tire pressures, brake ducts and brake bias. Not sure any of it really made any improvements.

In reply to dean1484 :

I made a small change to the diff. It improved my consistency without changing my lap times.

Ride height was the change that made the biggest difference. 

I haven’t tried changing aero yet at COTA. Seems to me a middle ground between being fast in the S’s and being fast on the long straights makes sense, but I should try it with both more and less wing to so how it goes. 

I have been adjusting the wing so you can drive the big sweeping series of rights on the inside if l want. I may play with the rake if the car so I can take a bit more aero out. I don't think the rake adds drag. 

I added a few millimeters of more rake last night, but never got around to trying a different wing setting. At this point I may just stick with what I've got.

I did encounter a hustler last night in an open lobby. He came in and did a 2:18 something in qualifying, nearly 2 seconds off my pace (I managed a 2:16.1). I had the room set up for only a 5 lap race since I just opened it to run a long practice session. I was on pole and he was P2. We managed to go side by side from the start, through T1 and T2, through the S's (T3-T6), then had some contact at T7. I lost out and ended up in 3rd. I passed that guy to get back to P2 before T11 and was 4 seconds out of first. I thought, right, not a problem, I have no damage, I am down by 4 seconds, I have 4.5 laps to go and was 2 seconds a lap faster than the guy ahead. At the end of the first lap, I was 3.5 seconds down. My second lap I did a 2:16.4, but the gap went up to 4.2 sec. Lap 3, I managed a 1:16.6 and the gap stayed at just over 4 seconds. That went on until the end of the race. He made a small error on the final lap, so I closed the gap down to 2 seconds at the finish. He ran a 2:15.8 on lap 2 then in the 2:16's laps 3 & 4. Suckered me in, I thought he was a 2:18 guy. Not sure if the sandbagged qualli or just didn't get a good lap in, but he was on good form once the race started. It was pretty funny because it was surprising.

That is funny. Just saw your invite this morning TJ.  I was working on a custom pc build and my phone was on the charger. 

Tried one click higher and one click lower on the wing. Then put it back where it was. I did manage to get a lap in the 2:15's.....just by the slimmest margins...2:15.999.

Lower downforce only netted 1-2 mph at the end of the back straight, but the high speed turns were tougher to not lose the rear. Higher downforce felt better in the turns, but I think I was a touch slower.

In reply to T.J. :

2:15s right?