GRM - Gran Turismo 5 Racing League - Series 4

@ Air, HAHAHA....sorry, I got a chuckle when Grizz said that! Ain't it a great feeling?!

but WOOOW haha to say the least, sounded eventful. Sounds like everyone got caught up and Ben leaving doesn't surprise me Saloon, it's ALWAYS the M5's doing the battling for top spot

Hunter, what I was trying to say is that I use the left stick to steer and the triggers for gas and brake. I use the rt. stick to look left and right.

Yeah tonight had to be a let down for most. Good to see Brad on track for the first time in a while. I was hoping T.J. would show up too. Can you imagine that track with 16 determined racers having at it.

Not a lot to say about these two races. I made a mistake in GT when I pulled out in front of Grizz coming out of the pits and got rear ended and had to go back in the pits the next time around for repairs. It didn't affect the results though. I made another mistake in Sal. when my eyes saw sport hard tires and my finger selected accept while my brain was screaming NO! I had decided to try to learn to drift on them but decided pretty quick not to. Then air was getting bored in P1 and told me to get on the right tires which I did. He drove in slo/mo while I got within about 8 sec. of him. We stayed within sight of each other for the first 14 laps. Air, I really thought you were just mirror driving, trying to give me a thrill.. Then again I'm not sure but it seemed that your car almost got away from you about 3 times. I also noticed your lines begin to tighten up like mine did when your tires started going away. The first 14 laps of saloon and the first two of GT were actually quite fun.

Celica, I think I'd like to try to drive your Supra after this series is over. It must be overpowering the chassis on this track.

I do not remember rear ending you Grae.

GT: For the first lap or so, I was right on Brad and Graes asses trying to find somewhere to pass them cleanly. After one too many close calls I decided to stay back a bit and see if they would give me a chance to pass. Brad did first, sliding into the sand, and I hung back a few seconds behind Grae and just went into tire saving mode. Had I not gotten damage on lap 19, I think I could have stayed out on one set of tires and grabbed second place. BUT, went into a corner, touched grass and the back of my car hit a wall. And then my power went out. Car was great, no issues, did manage to string some fantastic drifts together during practice.

Saloon: I dunno, the car was alright, I was tired and hungry. I was already a lap down or close to it when I got fed up and went to eat. Came back just as the race ended.

In reply to Grizz:

It was when I re-entered the track after stopping for tires, @ the beginning of L15. I thought I had room but my line into the L turn made me slow more than you. My car was so bad I pulled over and let you by before making the next pit stop. It was a bad decision on my part I should have slowed down and let you by especially since I was on cold tires.

Oh, I forgot to mention something. Around lap 23 or so in GT, my screen began to jump back and forth and soon after that my car began to drive with the back end off to the right becoming worse lap by lap. I've never seen anything like it. It caused me to become very dissoriented trying to keep it on the track. Did anyone else see anythink like that? It was like there was an earthquake and my car got damaged. I kept expecting the server to boot me but it obviously didn't. Very; strange.

Graefin10 wrote: In reply to Grizz: It was when I re-entered the track after stopping for tires, @ the beginning of L15. I thought I had room but my line into the L turn made me slow more than you. My car was so bad I pulled over and let you by before making the next pit stop. It was a bad decision on my part I should have slowed down and let you by especially since I was on cold tires.

I think I know when you're talking about. I'm at fault too, I went way too hot into those corners instead of slowing down and passing properly. A hit never registered on my end though, I hopped the curb exiting and almost clipped the wall, but I think it cleared me out on my end when I was near you.

As for the other thing, I don't think I got back in until L25 or so, and I didn't watch the race at the end, so I didn't see anything.

NickF40 wrote: @ Air, HAHAHA....sorry, I got a chuckle when Grizz said that! Ain't it a great feeling?! but WOOOW haha to say the least, sounded eventful. Sounds like everyone got caught up and Ben leaving doesn't surprise me Saloon, it's ALWAYS the M5's doing the battling for top spot

Ah well.... after another 11 hour day at work, i wasn't really in the mood to battle with a car that for all intents and purposes, seems to handle worse than a Reliant Robin.

The suspension tweaking doesn't make any sense to me in this game either. Car doesn't seem to react to changes the way it would in real life.

Graefin10 wrote: Celica, I think I'd like to try to drive your Supra after this series is over. It must be overpowering the chassis on this track.

I'll gift it to you tonite, actually, if you want to check it out. It's quite good on the longer faster tracks, seems to have a high level of grip for the faster corners, but tight corkscrews, it's not having any of it.

I'm 100% serious when i say my fastest laps on last night tracks were when i was just drifting EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, that meant i went through a set of tires every two laps.

Something seemed weird with that track to me anyways... I couldn't get any traction at all in 2nd gear even when pointed straight until i geared it to do 90mph in 2nd. And then it STILL spun until about 60. I didn't have that problem on any other track so far.

I had fun... I've missed racing with you guys.

We'll start with Saloon... I just was way too out of practice to make that much power work on that little of tire. I did learn a new trick though. The Merc Hammer has enough torque to slide the front tires at full lock and full burnout. I don't think I messed anyone up, I did manage a full tire smoking burnout down the entire front and back straights before I dropped off.

GT... I'll grade myself a C+. Not bad considering that I came into the race with 0 practice and 0 tuning. I didn't bother looking, but I am pretty sure that I was running the SSR7 setup on both cars. I took all of qualifying to just remember how to drive. I think my best lap was a 1:24. When the race started, I somehow managed a good jump and was chasing Spy. He was clearly faster, but I was just trying to follow his line and keep up with him as best I could. Grae came by first. We had a good but brief battle. He got by, I passed back, and then he went by again. As I was trying to build some momentum to make another run at him, I went off and watched Grizz go by as well. So I settled into trying to take time off my laps. I was pushing hard through corners (over driving) trying to lower my lap times and catch back up to Grizz and wore out my tires quicker than I would have liked, then I made another mistake. I pushed the loud pedal a bit too quickly and slide into a wall doing a bit of damage. That track and theses cars don't play nicely with damage. So I pitted at lap 10. My best shot at making a pass was to conserve tires and hope to catch Grae / Grizz when they cycled through their stops. I started running a bit more conservative, short-shifting and not taking as much of the curbs and settled into a nice 1:22 pace. Spy pitted first, he came out just in front me (a lap down) I followed him for a lap until his tires warmed up and he left me. Grae pitted next, I was hoping to catch him, but he had enough of a gap and came out probably 6-8 seconds ahead of me. The next lap Grizz pitted and I was able to overtake while he was in the pits. I knew that I had his out lap to buld as much of a gap as possible and this it was going to get interesting to see if his fresh tires would give him enough to get by me. I watched him through in my mirror through a couple corners and then his power went out. So I just ran the rest of the laps hoping that Spy and Grae would run into each other. The didn't.

My assessment of last night:

GT: I tried to set myself to the back of the pack because of my torque "issues", by leaving and coming back in, but that didn't work. I still ended up starting 2nd, so I just let everyone pass. Looked like I was going to have fun dicing it up in the pack then BOOM!! In turn 8 Car ploded' and I was done. Later investigation of the wreckage relieved bomb fragments that had some writing on them, but only 2 letters could be made out (dramatic music)..... the number 4 and the number 0 the investigation continues.

So, after being blown into small pieces I ate dinner and watch the rest of the race from "heaven". Tire wear seemed pretty even. The two back runners were a bit worse, but not bad. I saw Spyhunter cut a corner for a penalty (I bet you though no one would notice) and I saw Brad do some barrier inspection.

Saloon: A lot more interesting for me. Got a good start, Grea on my butt. The rest of the field eventually faded, (and completely disappeared at some point!). I tried to set a somewhat tire conservative pace and Grea was on me the whole time, sometimes on my bumper, sometimes a few cars back. As my tires wore down I did mess up a few times coming out of the hairpins. Adding power too quickly and doing a good tail slide. If Grea was right on me at any of those times, he probably could have passed me.

I was wondering if Grea would pit before me, but eventually pitted on 14 (Grea was clearly waiting for me to pit and pit with me). We came out of the pits pretty much on top of each other but he was gone by turn 8. I suspected over driving cold tires, but he messaged that he put on SH! Poop!, it was looking like it was going to be a fun finish. A few laps latter I pitted again and suggested Grea do the same.

He was a good half lap down by that time (about 30 seconds) so I went in to super tire saver mode to let him catch up a bit and knowing that if he did I would likely easily out run him with much fresher tires. He managed to close to less then 10 seconds on the final lap, so at least it was somewhat interesting.

Generally the track is very bad for passing, too slow, too narrow. Baring mistakes, the only passing opportunities seem to be when the tires start to go.

Well, Rome is up next week, did a few practice laps after the race. Biggest change? WALLS! This track will get pretty scary when the tires start to go! Trail braking into the two tight corners and the chicane seemed to be one of the secrets to speed, but will also get you wall if you don't time it right or your tires are going.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

Graefin10 wrote: Celica, I think I'd like to try to drive your Supra after this series is over. It must be overpowering the chassis on this track.

I'll gift it to you tonite, actually, if you want to check it out. It's quite good on the longer faster tracks, seems to have a high level of grip for the faster corners, but tight corkscrews, it's not having any of it.

All you have to do it put it online and he can borrow it. Or do you want him to mess with it to improve it? (I've done it before, I sent my Z06 to a freind to see if he could figure it out.)

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I'm 100% serious when i say my fastest laps on last night tracks were when i was just drifting EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, that meant i went through a set of tires every two laps.

The Aston was actually the same, my fastest laps in practice were full throttle crazy sideways action. I was a good second or so slower driving normally, and last night I was probably five seconds off everyone elses lap times for most of the race.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Something seemed weird with that track to me anyways... I couldn't get any traction at all in 2nd gear even when pointed straight until i geared it to do 90mph in 2nd. And then it STILL spun until about 60. I didn't have that problem on any other track so far.

Haven't had that issue with the DB9, but the Commodore has to be thrown into 5th or 6th to stop any traction issues quickly. Last night I noticed exactly how short the first four gears are in that car, I've tried stretching them out, I've messed with the top speed and final gears, and I still run through them really quickly.

I'm thinking I made a mistake with the Commie, my theory with GT was that a slightly heavier car would be able to put the power down better, and it's been proving me right with how easy the car is to drive. I was going to pick a heavier car for Saloon, but then I found the holden and bumped it up to 1400 even and really close to 50/50. I'm thinking my 300C would have less traction issues, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't much over 1400kg itself(1417?).

I dunno, the XFR would have been nice, but 650 was basically just stage 3 engine and a couple of bolt ons, and I never liked how it drove with that. I prefer bolt ons and superchargers to make most of the power because the car seems to perform better. If I could have gotten my hands on a stock one that's what I would have run, but they're kinda rare.

"I saw Spyhunter cut a corner for a penalty (I bet you though no one would notice)" Purely accidental. And, yes, I figured, with as many people that had dropped out, someone would see. LOL.

hey, hey aircooled!! I wasn't even at home last night yeah it does suck though doesn't it, now you know how I feel haha by the sounds of it though, I do wish I would have raced!

I love Rome, this is gonna be......fun for some lol

Yeah Air, that really did suck accepting the wrong tires. How hard would it have been for them to write into the program to offer the same tires that had been on the car and you could change to another if needed? That's caught several others out as I recall. Since I knew you were waiting on me I tried to oblige but ended up catching 2 sc penalties and pushed a bit too hard a couple of times which worked against me. For the first few laps I kept expecting you to disappear off into the distance as usual so when you didn't I decided to try to hang with you and have a go at passing if I could do it without causing either of us damage. The instant my thumb hit accept I yelled "oh no", did you hear me? I too was looking forward to the second half of the race.

Celica, don't gift the Supra until the end of this series. I barely have time to practice and prepare for the next week's race right now. It looks like a handful but goes like stink on the straights. Rome has a lot of fast straights so that car might work well there. Take advantage of it if you can.

I'm bored, so here are some random photos for inspiration

Red Miura in the Alps, where have I seen that before? What happens when the same Miura goes full throttle through an off camber corner on Race tires. Artsy Fartsy This car is insanely fast in the snow.

I joined a room last night that was supposed to be clean racing. It was set @ no damage and weak penalty. I was amazed at how adept several of the competitors were at issuing perfectly timed bumps to put you off course so they could pass. So many on-line racers have a "win at all cost" mentality. They seem to thrive on the thought they they and only they HAVE to win every race. I totally understand doing everything possible to win a race but not at the intentional cost of ruining someone elses. If I finish behind a guy who just out drove me I respect his ability. I don't get all bent out of shape and feel like my masculinity has been challenged no matter where I finish. I guess I just have less testosterone coursing through my veins. I ended up winning several of the races when I first started with my trusty old black C30. The fact that they were running cars that should have beat that one got to a couple of them I guess. So the answer to that is to change the pp#. I pulled out an old IntegraR and still ran up front. I may have made a new friend though. The guy who had the room and I almost always were bumper to bumper. I could tell he was of the same mentality as myself so sent him a request. I'll invite him to the series if he accepts.

I think that competing in the GRM series has vastly improved my ability but there are guys on-line that are incredible. I'm getting used to the squirrels I encounter there and expect every full room to be inhabited by at least 75% of them. The challenge in one of those rooms is to get out front of them and see how you do with the front runners. I always learn something new.

I have had very similar experiences. I have pretty much given up on any American rooms, those people are idiots, I can't imagine what the rest of the world thinks of us.

I ended up in a great room full of New Zealanders last night, it was great, very civil. I normally hate open mikes, but these guys were hysterical to listen to. They all sounded exactly like you would expect, called girls "sheilas" and one guy kept calling the other "Bruce" (of course, that may have been his name).

The guy running the room and I were bumper to bumper for a lot of races, it was very close, much more fun then some a-hole rear ending me at every turn. Shuffle races can be especially difficult, they seem to be a magnet for a-hole ism'.

Also, it seems like 90% of the rooms are running the Nurberg Ring!!, what the hell!?!? Half the Japanese seem to run Tsukuba! There is a large list to pick from, come on!

You're going to be hard pressed to find people running anything different than the ring, daytona, ss7, tsukuba, and the top gear track.

As far as clean racing goes, most people who do the bumping and slight taps don't see a problem with it, and generally get pissed when you call them on it. I was running a shuffle race where the vote took us to daytona, I had to kick a guy because he spun me and a couple of other people. After I did I got a very angry message that he was "BUMP DRAFTING YOU DIPE36 M3!" The fact that his bump drafts were borderline pit manoeuvres* and put three or four people out of a race never seem to occur to him.

*My ps3 only has the british spelling it seems.

I think what the super aggressive types are thinking is that they may never encounter you again and what can you do about it anyway. It's not like you can be waiting for him in the pits when he comes in to have a face to face about it. I don't usually even complain about it other than say something like "I thought this was a clean race". I did have fun last night by recovering from a violent rear end bump and ran right back up on the dudes bumper and just stayed there without touching him for most of a lap. It was at Fuji and I used the lesson Air taught me about drafting down the main straight, and that is to hold back until he won't have time to draft back by you. It worked to perfection and I got so far ahead of him that I made the turn and was gone in time to see him overshoot the turn and go off into the gravel trap. I think he was shooting for another "accident" into my back bumper. Got to admit, that was very satisfying.

Had some "good" racing last night. Not perfect. But everyone tried to stay clean. Man, the game is soooo enjoyable when that happens.

Rumor is: The online service of Gran Turismo 5 will undergo maintenance during the following hours:

Start: 10/05/2011 07:00 BST Finish: 10/05/2011 08:00 BST

During the maintenance, it will not be possible to connect to any of the online services.

*Please note that the exact times of the maintenance may slightly vary.

From looking at it, it really shouldn't affect us.

Anyone been practicing? I won't be on tonight, as I will be out of town for work, but I am hoping to get on early on Wednesday to get some laps in.

HunterJP wrote: Anyone been practicing? I won't be on tonight, as I will be out of town for work, but I am hoping to get on early on Wednesday to get some laps in.

I've practiced a little. I'm at the point that I don't know how to go faster and this track starts to get boring at that point. I'll try to join you for some practice. What time is "early" on Wed.? I'd like to know if you're 3 or 4 sec. faster than me. I like to go out early and set my best time then sit back and rest my hands while I see you and Air drop the time by X:XX. Durn your hides.

I agree about how much fun a pick up group can be if they'll RACE you instead of trying to pass by crashing you out. It sure is hard to find a room like that though.

Oh, what time zone is BST? If Wed. evening becomes their standard maintenance time we may have to move to a different night.

Have you guys checked out the Forza 4 threads? Does it interest you? Do any of you have an Xbox? They're talking about starting a series for the game. I really have no idea right now if I'd have time to do another one but the game really LOOKS good. I postponed bringing my Mom home until the 15th. I hope to have time to check out the internet at her house to see if I can successfully play on it. It's DSL, now I'm on Comcast. It's a little iffy but so far I've only been booted from race night once.

Mine tells me the maintenance time will be from 2 to 3.

Graefin10 wrote: Have you guys checked out the Forza 4 threads? Does it interest you? Do any of you have an Xbox? They're talking about starting a series for the game. I really have no idea right now if I'd have time to do another one but the game really LOOKS good. I postponed bringing my Mom home until the 15th. I hope to have time to check out the internet at her house to see if I can successfully play on it. It's DSL, now I'm on Comcast. It's a little iffy but so far I've only been booted from race night once.

Meh, I had an Xbox, it was an unreliable E36 M3pile and froze all the damn time, so I traded it and all my games in for a PS3. Had Forza 2 and 3, haven't watched any of the vids for 4, because I'm never buying another 360.

I hope to be on about an hour early. I will gladly go over some of the things I picked up from running the track in GT Academy. Can't say it was a lot, but I will share it! LOL.

It's Rome (reverse) tonight. I guess we will go with the Lounge thing again, so meet up in my lounge. Hopefully I can keep from sploding' this time. One thing you might want to be aware of:

WALLS!!

Best plan, don't hit them.

I would say the trickiest corner here is the chicane at T4, you can make a lot of time doing it right, you can ruin your day doing it wrong. Turn 3 and the 6,7,8 complex are both trail braking exercises that can make you some time. Doing 6 wrong will get you some wall though.

One thing good about this track in reverse, the pits are a lot better. In the regular direction, the system seems to like to throw you right in front of high speed traffic!

Should be interesting. I will need to do a full bomb inspection of my car this race though...

NEIN!!

Thing to be aware of: Cars do not get traction on cobblestones. I was running with Grae, the commodore couldn't get any traction until 5th gear through corners. Tonight is probably going to be a battle of whoever can keep rubber on their cars and keep out of the wall.