#1 Audi S4 - the curse of the Leaderboard car

[Spiny Anteater]

Well, it had to happen sometime, I just didn't expect it so soon. The random number generator has picked out the Audi S4 from R4 class. If I remember the Turn 10 bit right, this is the most leaderboardish of all the leaderboard cars. It seems I have no excuse for a sucky time.

The first thing to notice about this car is that it has tons of grip - in the Ferrari I mentioned that the best bet was to use full downforce on all but the highest speed tracks. In this car, it seems like you want minimum downforce on all the power tracks except Motegi West. It also seems to need minimum downforce on the 'Ring, but I've not managed a good lap on there yet. There are at least two seconds on my current best (7:25) and the Exhibition race was marred by two spins - I think I'll have to rerun that one.

On the bright side though, being a leaderboard car I can get an indication of where I stand in hotlapping compared to others. So far, the results range from in the 90's at New York down to in the 500's for Laguna. However, with a pleasing amount sitting in the 100's, I feel I've managed to set better times that I expected. Now, all ( ) I have to do it translate that across the board to beat Blooze, and hopefully most of the rest of my friends list too.

[Spiny Anteater]

Tyres: 29/29
Gears: FD: 3.91, 1-6: 3.15/2.01/1.44/1.10/0.89/0.74 (Nuerburgring)
Camber: -0.9/-0.7
Toe: 0/0
Caster: 5.4
ARBs: 15.05/17.87
Springs: 418.1/502.5
Rebound: 7.1/8.0
Bump: 4.7/5.4
Aero: Min (36/85)
Brakes: 47% Front/110% Pressure
Diff: Front 23/0, Rear 75/40,  Centre 30F/70R

I think this works well on tracks with few highspeed corners (such as New York). Unfortunately, I don't have the skills to be consistent on tracks with a lot of fast corners such as the 'Ring. Having said that, it's still quicker than a full downforce set-up - I just need to find some consistency in my driving

[Spiny Anteater]

The High Downforce Tune (as used on all Flowing & Twisty tracks with the exception of the 'Ring)

Tyres: 28/29
Gears: FD: 3.91, 1-6: 3.15/2.09/1.52/1.23/1.03/n/a (Inland Taipan))
Camber: -0.9/-0.6
Toe: 0/0
Caster: 5.4
ARBs: 15.05/17.87
Springs: 431.1/533.0
Rebound: 7.0/8.1
Bump: 4.7/5.4
Aero: Max (109/255)
Brakes: 48% Front/110% Pressure
Diff: Front 25/0, Rear 75/40,  Centre 30F/70R

The 4WD certainly helps a lot on the twisty stuff - it almost feels dishonest the way you can mash the loud pedal out of corners This car has also just got me my highest track-board position (provided that the currently erratic scoreboards haven't lost it) at Inland Taipan.

[Blooze]

You'll probably put a good whuppin' on me with that car.  Not only are you faster than me, but I think I ran most of R4 with either the Acura or the Volvo.

Good luck with it...

$

[Spiny Anteater]

Thanks Blooze. To be honest, I think I won't put this one in the "Beat Blooze" thread, because I feel like I would be a bit of a fraud bringing this to bear on your Volvo and Acura (and I'm sure I've seen some Viper times in there too).

One thing this car has really shown in the value of paying attention, and the value of diff settings. When I first tuned it to Feuerdog's settings, I forgot to change the front diff setting (i.e. it stayed at 40%). As a result, the car tended to 4-wheel drift under heavy acceleration. After running a few tracks, I realised and changed that to 25% (I didn't have the PC running so couldn't see what FD runs for AWD). The car feels much better now as the nose tends towards the inside of the corner under heavy acceleration. It wasn't bad for times either. The only comparison track so far was New York - and I got a gain of 0.7 seconds there, or over 1%. Not bad for what seemed like a relatively minor change. Every track I've run since then the car has placed in the top 200. I might not be able to keep that up, but it shows that even minor error can have major consequences

[Blooze]

Yessir, I checked and I have 4 times that were done with one or another of the Vipers.  Funny part is that the TT track the #23 runs on isn't one of them.

Ah, go ahead and post it against the "Chase Blooze" thread.  It'll give me something to shoot at when comes time to chase back...

$

[larryCR]

When we're driving similar cars Blooze and I have similar lap times. Based upon his performance in the Volvo and mine in the Audi I would say the cars are fairly well matched. The Audi has a slight advantage in P/W ratio but both of them should be capable of wiping the field in the twisties. If Blooze will pass me his Round Tuit some day I'll give the Volvo a try. In the meantime you should try the Volvo and see if maybe the Audi isn't quite the invincible force it seems to be.

The other nice thing about the Volvo is that Derek Bell thought it a ride worthy of his stature.

[Blooze]

I think I remarked on it before; but the performance of the Volvo is pretty well disquised, almost as if on purpose.

$

[Spiny Anteater]

I have a feeling I've run the Volvo before. Granted, that would be a long while ago, and the tuning was probably crap. But the times I set in it were nothing special. If you're getting similar times to the Audi in that, I suspect that it was my tune at fault.

@Larry - incidentally, that time of yours at Road America is a stormer. It took me 15 laps to beat it, and then not by much. I hope that shows how realistic the game is and how well modelled Road America is bearing in mind your experience around the real track.

[larryCR]

@Larry - incidentally, that time of yours at Road America is a stormer. It took me 15 laps to beat it, and then not by much. I hope that shows how realistic the game is and how well modelled Road America is bearing in mind your experience around the real track.

Glad to hear you had to work at beating that time. 

The game's version of Road America is remarkably similar to the real track. A car gets a bit lighter and has less traction coming over the crest of the hill into 6, and there is a slightly later turn-in for 13. Other than that it is right on the money. As soon as I start driving it my mind's inner tape loop starts running and it all feels very natural. And since I don't need to worry about hurting myself or my car I sometimes manage a pretty good lap.

[Spiny Anteater]

...and as I move further into R4, it looks like you have a pretty good set of times all round in there.

[Snyder005]

I believe for the speed tracks i used almost minimum downforce, which seemed to work the best.  I can't remember but i think front was minimum, and the back had about 1/4th downforce on it. 

[Spiny Anteater]

This is just a quick 'notice-post' to draw attention to the twisty tune being up.

Having nearly run through with this car now (has it really only been 2 weeks - it feels much longer!) I'm pleased with how it's shaping up on the leaderboards. With just a few snakes to go I think I'll be challenging for the top of my friends list in it, although I should really admit that the main reason for that is Land's habit of just running a singular hotlap on some tracks 

[Spiny Anteater]

And it's done...

The car seems to love the twisty stuff, it really comes alive in the snakes, although in some of the switchbacks it almost likes to turn too much (this is not one of your ordinary understeering Audis ) - there have been times where I'm just willing it to straighten up so I can take the next one.

But, that 4WD and relatively light weight certainly make for a good car - I can see why it's atop so many leaderboards. All it lacks is a bit of top end speed on the faster tracks, and even there it doesn't lose out by too much (say half a second on the Speedway, and I'm not the best there anyways). So, all that remains for me is to put up the final set of times, then head for Toyota-land...

Total time: 1hr 8:42.950 (enough for 85th-87th in R4)

QR: 174.988
PR: 178.416
FR: 136.608
TR: 134.611

[fndrbndr]

A quick question about the random project.  I've wondered about this for a while, but it's probably worth asking.  (If I've already asked, just say so)  With the non-R-class cars, you seem to be restricting yourself to the cars' initial class.  Any reason for this?  I just wonder because some of the cars are just OK in their own classes, but stellar when upgraded.  The Mugen Integra and Toyota 2000GT come to mind, but a lot of the cars are just so close to the ceiling in their initial class, especially in D.