September GT4 Challenge - The Series RETURNS!

I used to host these GT4 races with Duke and dammit, it's time to do it again!

The rules are simple, each month we have a Challenge set forth, usually limiting car choices (new vs. used), budget, and sometimes even something quirky (FWD only, or it has to be yellow). You have to "build" a car to fit the rules and compete in 3 races (2 road courses, usually a short and a long, plus a drag race, though sometimes I'll mix it up for a rally or something). At the end of the month you submit your times and budget sheet (via e-mail) along with a picture of your car for the "Concourse" judging (worth 25% of the total, so each race is 25% also). Top time in each event gets 25 points with slower finishers getting a "percentage". So if the best time was a 2:34.5 they get 25 points, if second fastest was a 2:35.8 (which is 99.166%) gets 24.8 points. As you can see this makes the competition REALLY tight!

Usually I will run two "classes", a Varsity class and a "JV" class. JV has to meet all of the rules for the month's challenge but is generally so oddball/underpowered that it would stand NO chance against the Varsity cars. Think classic cars and trying to nail top Concourse time and you'll get the idea of the JV class.

All challenges are run on "spec" tires, which do NOT count towards the budget, to keep the field level and fair. Lap times must not use [I]any[/I] driver's aids though traction control may be used in the drag race section.

Got the idea? Want to participate? Great!

Because we're starting, right [I]meow[/I].

[B]September 2008 GT4 Challenge![/B]

Dust off your PS2 and fire it up because here we go! This month we feature a fitting challenge for RCC and the series in general, an all-rotary challenge! The total budget is $37,000 Credits (3 Generations of RX-7's, I'm such a dork). The initial car purchase may not be more then half of that number. The car must be bought (no prize cars) and it may be purchased either through the used car lots or the manufacturer lot. The catch is that it must be rotary powered! Granted that limits us a little, but this is to get everybody "into the groove" again.

The tracks are as follows: Las Vegas (dragstrip), Autumn Ring Mini, and Fuji Speedway (80's).

Entries are due by midnight PST on Sunday September 28th. Concourse judging will take place on the 29th and 30th, winners and results announced on the 1st of October.

Any questions?

Let's go!

very cool, I will start...tomorrow.

I'm running the Challenge "simulcast" on Rotary Car Club. We have 4 "entries" over there, plus Maroon and I here. Hopefully with 2 boards competing it will keep interest up.

Can we do something like this with Forza 2 since XBOX Live allows us to actually look at people's times?

wait, I do have gt4, I'm in

The number of people who have PS2/GT4 is about 20x greater then those with an XBOX/Forza 2. Somebody else tried running some Forza 2 challenges on the old board.

Ok, i guess I'll have to jump back into this. What else am i supposed to do now that I'm back at school...

I'm down! I'll probably build one of everything that fits the budget, then pick the best.

I'm in!!

Hard Compound Race Tires are the Spec tire this round.

Looks like we're up to 16 total people on both sites.

Count me in. Sounds like fun. I'll help y'all look good.

A couple of questions:

For concourse... a picture? I don't know how to output an image from my PS to a computer. What are rules for taking the pictures? Do you want us to do like a photoshoot picture at a fancy location? Do you want an action-shot? Or do you want just a picture in the garage?

How many entries is each person allowed?

There's a "Picture" mode under the course options when you go straight to the course (no race). Some people prefer stills, but action shots get the most votes. Save the picture directly to a USB Memory stick in the PS2, and it drops straight onto your PC as a JPEG. Host it and Post it.

We're up to 17 it looks like now, great!

Will purchases at the GT auto count towards the 37k credit limit? Will wings and wheels count, but not oil changes?

GT auto? Been awhile, what is that?

Wings and wheels count, as does your first oil change.

GT Auto is the little shop where you get oil changes, wheels, wings, and car washes. Do car washes count too?

Car wash does not count. Oil changes, wheels, wings all count.

crap, now I need to earn 37K as I blew my 100K "transfer" from GT3 on a 440 cuda, and I only have 200

Edit wait, i get around 11k for each sunday cup when i sell the prize car, wont take too long after all

double edit does having the transmision in auto count as a drivers aid?

Auto trans is not a driver's aid.

Go to the rally/special events and do the Tahiti easy. It nets you some mystical rally beast worth over 100K. Google it, it's a well-known GT4 money-making event.

P71 wrote: Go to the rally/special events and do the Tahiti easy. It nets you some mystical rally beast worth over 100K. Google it, it's a well-known GT4 money-making event.

Even better - do the Capri Rally Easy (the one at the seaside, not the other one). The Toyota Rally RAID car is worth about a quarter mil per shot.

I will second that one. Takes me all of 9 minutes to do both parts of the race and make 260000 + the money you get for winning the race (~10000). I am going to start my build tonight. Is it bad that I have a budget spreadsheet setup for it on my computer? (just like my real project cars budget!)

I might get into this at some point this month. I wish all console games would let you do screen captures and save to usb. At least you can take photos of your cars and put em on usb.

they do... if you are using a tv tuner card in your pc....

I bought one for my laptop for 100 bucks a while back.

It was USB though, and the lag between the controller and the action on screen made games unplayable.

That's the one I was thinking of Duke! Thank you!

Looks like we have 20 interested people, this should be good!

Putting cars together last night, looks like we only get two generations. The first gen RX-7 doesn't seem to be available in the game, and I haven't seen an RX-8 for cheap enough. The earlier rotary cars can only be gotten as prize cars.