My Diaries

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

Mon Jun 7, 1999

More about the Abormal Series

Someone asked me why I call the "Hard-Tuned Car Speed Contest" the "Abnormal Series".

Well, it's on the screen there right beside "Normal", and, well a 900+ bhp mid-range Japanese 4wd sports car does seem somewhat "abnormal".

I also wasn't explicit about "the trap" at the first corner in Clubman R5ii.

If you leave that first corner too late, you can end up in the blocked-off straight which would lead to SSR5ii. In addition to facing a flat wall of tyres, if you move along the wall there is a ridge on the edge where the wall for the corner meets it, but juts out beyond it, making it even more difficult to extricate yourself. To add to the confusion, the game's (er, simulator's) drawing routines get a bit confused when you're there. I'm beginning to realize, though, you can see this corner coming, even at > 200mph in a GTO by watching for the lane markers to appear on the right.

Now talking about the SSR11 circuit, and the deadly chicane near the end, in the "Abnormal Car" Contest you're going around the SSR11 circuit backwards, so that is actually near the beginning of the circuit. In both cases, if you're out on your own, you can gain lots of time by braking early, turning early, and thereby making the second corner as wide and fast as possible.

If an AI car is near you, it will sometimes try to tempt you into braking too late, and/or will obnoxiously knock you off course even if you brake properly. If you take it easy, however, although you might end up behind it going through, you just *might* be able to get by again when the AI car screws up its exit. You might need to take it really easy, though, so you can smoothly veer far left around a spun-out AI car. It's best to be far ahead enough of the AI cars that you can brake comfortably.

Talking about regular SSR11 (clockwise), I think if you are ahead of the AI cars going into the final chicane they will not bother you *unless* you screwed up the previous corner (slipped too much). There are two thresholds in most races, best illustrated by that track, such that if you exceed the first but not the second, you might as well not try any harder if you don't want to risk an accident. In particular, watch the central barrier chicane. In the USvsUK series, as long as you go through there somewhere close to 100mph, the AI cars will not bother you, but go any faster, and they still stay just as close. In USvsJP and UKvsJP, however, you can more easily get way ahead on that race, e.g. by negotiating those barriers really fast.

As far as the chicane at the beginning of the reverse-course SSR11 ii goes, it seems the AI cars generally give you a lot of room there, compared to the normal direction. You can brake comfortably early in the previous corner, speed up only a little for the short straight, and then brake early so as to be able to negotiate the chicane smoothly. And, if you do it smoothly, the AI cars don't seem to bother you.

I did win with the Tuned Cerbera, actually, but I only got 30 points, so the game "helped me win". It didn't help me win at Clubman Stage Route 5 ii, though; there it insisted on sneaking by at the last corner of the last lap, even though I thought I had everything under control. And I spun out at Grand Valley, reducing a certain second or possible first to 4th. And well, then there's the Autumn Ring. At least I posted my best time so far there, and finished 4th. So I entered SSR11 needing (barring a miracle) to win, and I did. The Cerbera was Cooper Green Metallic, by the way.

It won a *red* Skyline, so now there's only a yellow Skyline and a pink Trueno to go in the race prize cars.