Challenge results from the week of June 30 - July 6 2014

All hail Wobbly. Master of the AC =SWF= Weekly Challenge.

Hey hey hey, I got 1:28:903! For once the top three was very close to each other.

Viper: you don't need clutch if you are using the automatic clutch assist. With a keyboard it may be too difficult to use the clutch, since all pedals only have two states: on and off. So changing gears could get really jumpy. I woud advise turning off traction and stability control, but no mere mortal could stay on the track without those assists while playing on a keyboard. A Windows-compatible gamepad shouldn't be too expensive. Wobbly's gamepad seems to be working well for him, although I would of course recommend to buy a steering wheel set. Both a gamepad and a steering wheel+pedals offer a huge amount of control and fun so consider getting one of either.

I just figured out a possible reason for why Wobbly is so fast: he only has to push a thumbstick with his thumb (a range of about 0-20 mm) while Taz and I have to wave both of our hands like maniacs for the same result. And for gear changes, on particular cars with a gear stick, we have to physically move the stick from one position to another while controlling the car with the other hand on the wheel. I'm not complaining, I've just been wondering if the choice of a controller had an effect on performance.

1:54:593 with KTM X-bow on Vallelunga. Right now I'm on second place! As usual, Wobbly is still two seconds ahead of me, no matter how hard I drive.

I also drove the track with the Lotus 2-11 and the Ferrari F40. I wasn't much faster with the F40. The Lotus is so similiar to the X-Bow that the times were prettu much equal. As for next week's challenge, how about BMW M3 GT2 on some track? It has a lot of downforce and it's pretty easy to drive. It would also be the first car with semi-automatic transmission in our challenge. The Pagani Huyara with its 730 bhp and 1000 Nm of torque is also an interesting car...

Do note that this is NOT the same as the special event in the game that has the BMW Z4 GT3, in this week's challenge we are using the BMW M3 GT2. The circuit is Imola. While it is possible to tune this car in many ways, we are using the default settings.

What if next week we tried to get a better lap time with full access to tuning options? Then we could share our tuning and driving tips with each other. Maybe this one (with full tuning) shouldn't be an official challenge, since two of those in a week could be a bit too much and become a chore. I'll do it next week, and anyone else is free to join my attempt to get a better lap time and to learn what do the tuning options do.

Today I saw a 911 Carrera from the 80s, a Carrera 4 from a few years ago, a Ferrari 430 and a Corvette from about 2005. That made me unsatisfied with the 80 horses that were carrying me around so I just had to play Assetto Corsa. BMW M3 GT2 and Imola were already selected, so I was ready to go very quickly. The GT2 car so much downforce that I could go considerably faster in the corners than with a regular car. The BMW has a semi-automatic gearbox (actually it does have a gear stick, but it's one of those that only go forwards or backwards, and my gearstick can't do that) so I was using the paddles behind the wheel. It was only Monday, but Wobbly and Viper already had lap times on the leaderboard. Wobbly's time seemed reachable, for the first time.

I drove as hard as I could, pushing the car to its limit. I noticed that changing down to fourth instead of third gave me the much needed speed in some corners. I also employed the driving technique I had read about on some racing forum: always push either the throttle or the brake pedal. And that's what I did. I always had at least decently high revs. Another important thing was racing lines. At the beginning of the track, drive right next to the kerb on the left, and at the end, stay on the right. At least that worked for me.

And here I have it, the best lap time I could possibly get with the default settings: 1:51:016! The downforce and paddle shifting allowed me to drive more aggressively than in the previous challenges. There may be some time I could cut off from the terrifying S-curve (I'm not sure if you can call it that since it's so small), but other than that, that was as fast as I can go.

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/3 ... CCCD186D793BB063EF720BFD/

Edit: for some reason this post turned into a huge wall of text and the careful paragraphing disappeared.