My Diaries

A Lurid Tale of Obsession, Depravity, Wits and Attempted Wit

Fri Apr 16, 1999

I now have all my cups, even if two are not so shiny

Last night I tried the "Hard-Tuned Car Speed Contest" again. I used a GTO twin turbo again, but did better this time, coming third and thereby at least getting a trophy (bronze) on the race page. I learned to discern the effects of tweaking camber; this almost seems like the non-racing equivalent of aero adjustments, but there is no clear maximum, you have to determine the "maximal" setting.

The other cars shuffled their points around a bit, but, in spite of that, I managed to get bronze (third place).

The Clubman R5 win was especially encouraging, even though it depended heavily upon wall-grazing. The series was a bit strange in that a Civic was entered; I don't remember a car quite that lightweight entering before.

Encouraged by this, I went on to try the SSR11 All-Night ii again.

q4th 2:01.165rec

My time was 59:12.631rec, with fl lap 21 1:51.617rec

Pit Stops were 8,16,23; the AI pit strategy was weird. I did take an initial lead, but had to pit when I did and dropped back because of it. The car could do with four pitstops, but then there won't be enough laps to make up the time lost. Eventually the other cars pitted, and I did lead again, but my third pitstop dropped me back too far. As you can tell, I "could've" come second--I did hold second place occasionally on the last lap--but I didn't manage to keep my concentration well enough. Oh well, it's encouraging, because I was not way out of it. Less than half-a-second a lap, as you can see.

Nonetheless, I think I'll try tuning up a Mitsubishi Galant, since it is lighter. This might make it more maneuverable, and should be easier on tires. It won't avoid a pit stop, but might mean I the three pit stops will happen when the tires are still in good shape, so I'll lose less time to driving on worn tires.

I really should keep more details notes of tuning settings I use. It seems you're always better to use turbine Spec 4 without an intercooler, rather than going with a reduced turbine Spec. I use racing flywheel except at the Autumn Ring. Stabilizers 4/4 except 5/5 at High Speed Ring, if I remember. I settled on camber of 0.8/0.8 after testing.

After this, I hoped I could go to the MegaSpeed Cup, and win some quick cash and a car (hopefully the last remaining "normal" prize car, a red-orange Soarer VVT-i). Oh well. It took me three tries to win. And even the win was not decisive. I kept coming second in the first race, putting me at a disadvantage, and I had trouble at the Test Track, also coming second. Eventually I remembered to tweak my ratio at the test track, and use stabilizers set at 5. And I won the series, but not decisively. I had a spectacular crash at the Test Track, and had to come back to third; a disappointment after qualifying fourth. I had also, because of practice, qualified well at the High Speed Ring, winning that. A win at High Speed Ring ii gave me 24 points, but, (I think) because I had lost the series twice previously I only won an Aston Martin.