Renault Sport Megane @ Motegi

For me, this was the most challenging of the three trials this week. Just uninspiring for me but nonetheless with a little tuning Gold wasn't too far off. The thing about this week was that for me, tuning this car to get this gold was the best, it took a little out of the box thinking.

Parts

Mid Turbo

All drivetrain & Brakes

Custom Trans and Suspension

Oil Change

Ride Height

F 90 / R 95

Springs

8.12 / 5.05

Dampers(C)

6 / 3

Dampers(E)

5 / 3

ARBs

4 / 3

Camber

0 / 0

Toe

-0.15 / 0.26

Brakes

8 / 4

Transmission

Set to 130mph

then set 6th gear to 0.847

LSD

25 / 40 / 20

POWER

Dialed to 94.9

BALLAST

+200Kg to position +50

Downforce

+20 to Rear

Suzuki @ Willow

Back @ Tsukuba...er...I mean Willow again this week. Luckily at the Steets course which I happen to like a little better than BIG Willow. The combo here was just as the games paragraph about it states, all about adding power. The little Kei car doesn't need you to reduce the weight anymore, it just needs a stronger engine.Here is what mine ended up looking like.

PS You can adjust the headlights under "Other Parts" in the Aero parts section of GTAuto for this car if thats your thing.

Stats

400Pp

103Hp

690Kg

Racing Hard Suspension

All Drivetrain parts

LSD

10 / 30 / 20

Brakes

F 9 / R 5

Transmission

Set top speed to 106

Mid Range Turbo

Racing Exhaust

Power dialed to 98.9

Pagani Huayra @ Tokyo

I HATE THIS TRACK

Whew, now that thats out of the way. This can prove to be a really fun challenge. The Huayra has maybe the worst sound sample in this game and I say that because the real thing is simply a symphony of incredible noises. Don't believe me? Have a listen...

Now back to the challenge. So the biggest key here really is control of the beast. Tons of power means you much be very responsible with your throttle input. Be sure to avoid the rumble strips around town if at all possible as they easily upset the handling and usually leave you a few seconds slower than you otherwise could be. 

The adage slow in fast out is really helpful here as you quicken your pace. 

A great trick is to start off with a set or two lower than the best tires available and then go back out after thrashing a few laps with the slower tires. You'll find your additional grip provides you what feels like a leg up.

Skyline @ Autumn Ring

The Skyline @ Autumn Ring. This was for me the best of the new seasonals. So much fun with such a great car. This particular car was one of the major test cars for the tuning generator within this app so I've grown very fond of it. 

Stats

2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II Nur

530PP

420Hp

1,248Kg

Fully Custom Suspension

Leave unchanged.

Yep, I know that sounds nuts, just trust me.

One Lap One Gold with this setup.

Racing Brakes

F7 / R9

Custom Transmission

Set to 162Mph Top Speed

Triple-Plate Clutch

Carbon Drive Shaft

Torque Split (My preference)

35 / 65

Weight Reductions

ALL THE THINGS MAX

Downforce

R30

POOOOWEEEERRRRR

Stg3 Engine Tuing

Power 82.2%

GET IT!!!!!

GT350 @ Willow

If you haven't been around this blog much you'll have missed the multiple times I've said this so I'll say it again. The Tsukuba of GT6 is Willow Springs. The only difference for me is that I hate Willow Springs. It is almost too simple for its own good, it simply has a lack of real flow that I'd like. Anyway onto the event. 

You'll be driving a "stock" Shelby GT350 Mustang. This thing isn't so tough around here and honestly it felt like SRF was on the whole time. Maybe that is just me but you'll be surprised how fast you can hit some of these corners. The two biggest tips...on the tallest turn of the course, start wide and cut in hard, you'll avoid the second apex where it is very very easy to go off. For the next turn, the downhill into uphill left hander, get on the gas early. You'd be surprised how much time you loose here when you don't exit hard. 

Other than those two tips, it really just comes down to knowing the track and trusting the Mustang. This car in particular is a great example of a car that is quickly ruined with poor tuning so I'm glad this seasonal forces you to drive the unadulterated original. Enjoy

Evoque @ Eiger W Trail

This event features a car I actually owned before needing it for the trial which is kinda nice. The Evoque also is as far as I can tell, the only car to ever have its name misspelled for the seasonal events. Anyway, on to the trail trial. 

My Evoque was only slightly upgraded.

Custom Transmission set to

143Mph Top Speed

Triple-Plate Clutch

Carbon Drive Shaft

Torque Split to 50/50

Racing Brakes

F9 / R7

Intake Tuning

Full Weight Reduction

Carbon Hood

Window Weight Reduction 

Ballast

+200kg to position +50

Power 98.3%

Stock Suspension

Totals @ End

430PP

260Hp

1,513KG

MX5 @ Cape Ring

The MX5 @ cape ring was fairly hard for me. Frustratingly hard. I tried the 07 which everyone and their mom seemed to do well in and couldn't come closer than .300 seconds behind. Granted...I changed a lot of settings before going and I think that ruined it a bit. Anyway. Switched to the 04 and made a few slight adjustments and boom, victory at last. 

Racing Hard Suspension

Racing Brakes

8 / 5

Stg 2 Engine upgrade

Stock everyting else

Clio R.S @ Brands Hatch

Wow, annoying but guess what...You basically can't win this challenge without Skid Recovery Force set to ON. I know, I know, you want to bet that you can but no...not really. I mean, you can get close, and hey, maybe you'll make it but I couldn't get anywhere closer than about half a second behind and on such a short track, that's a lot of time.

Here is my setup

Ride Height

70 / 75

Springs

8.63 / 10.26

Dampers(C)

4 / 1

Dampers(E)

2 / 1

ARBs

7 / 7

Camber

2.9 / 2.8

Toe

-0.05 / 0.06

Racing Brakes

10 / 7

Transmission

Top set to 118

LSD

60 / 60 / 20

Stg 3 weight redux

Add power as necessary.

Easily beat the gold time once I added SRF

Tesla Roadster @ Tsubkba

Oddly enough, the easiest of the challenges this week came in the form of the Tesla Roadster at Tsukuba in the wet. The course proved to be much more forgiving than you might think. Try to drift through the turns a little and you'll find that you save time. I managed a 2 second improvement on Gold with this setup.

Ride Height

75 / 82

Springs

5.24 / 8.15

Dampers

3's across all four

ARBs

3s

Stock Camber and Toe

Racing brakes

8 / 7

Standard LSD

Full weight redux

15 downforce on the rear. 

Diablo @ Grand Valley

So I love Lamborghini, and my favorite car ever is the Diablo so guess who was excited about this challenge. Well I was, and then I saw that you needed to compete with HARD SPORTS TIRES!!!!!!!!!!

So just to put that in perspective, the XNR challenge at willow this week also uses this tire and is more than 100PP less than the Diablo, not to mention that the XNR has the power to break the tires loose. What were they thinking? The Diablo wants to kill you.. that's why we love it, that's why it's so much fun...but on sports hard tires???? It's essentially suicide. 

I had real trouble reigning in the devil and resorted to good friend and supporter Silver Dragon Tuning for their gear setup. While I found their suspension to be a little different from my preference, the transmission settings are bang on and really, they smoked my time by 2 seconds to good on them. 

My suspension settings were

Ride Height

F 60 / R 70

Springs

F 19.00 / R 20.41

Dampers(C)

F 6 /  R 5

Dampers (E)

F 5 / R 3

ARBs

F 5 / R 3

Camber

F 1.2 / R 0.3

Toe

F - 0. 20 / R 0.13

Transmission Settings

Check out Silver Dragon Tuning

Top speed was 186 mph for me.

LSD

5 / 5 / 20

Power

Stg 2 Engine

Racing Exhaust

Sports Cat

Max Downforce

Stg2 Weight redux

Ballast = 77Kg @ position -50

Plymouth XNR @ Willow

Willow is totally becoming the Tsukuba of GT6. In any case here was my winning strategy this week. 

Stock Suspension

Racing Brakes

set at

F 5 / R 2

Custom Transmission

set at

149MPH top speed

Triple plate clutch

Carbon Drive shaft

Intake tuning

Stg 1 Engine tuning

and thats it. This was good enough for more than a second faster than the GOLD time and and honestly you could do more and go much faster. I didn't want to change the suspension because part of this being a cool old car is the old suspension and the wacky handling. It was a good fun trial. 

Elise @ Brands Hatch

This weeks challenge at Brands Hatch was pretty easy really. Not a lot you can do to your Lotus race car to begin with and most adjustable parts are already on it so lets go to the Suspension setup.

Ride Height

F 50 / R 60

Springs

F 8.75 / R 8.72

Dampers (C)

F 4 / R 3

Dampers (E)

F 4 / R 2

ARBs

F 5  / R 4

Camber

0000000000s

Toe

F -0.08 / R 0.26

Transmission

Top Speed set to 

137Mph

LSD

Stock

Downforce

MAX

Brake Balance

F 9 / R 5

Added parts

Stg2 Engine tuning

Oil Change

G37 @ Willow

Oh Willow, you've become the Tsukuba of GT6. How tired I am of this track. Not because of anything bad, I'm just rubbish on it. In any case I managed GOLD and here is the tune I used. 

Suspension

RH F 50 / R 60

Springs F 13.34 / R 9.15

Dampers(C) F 5 / R 8

Dampers (E) F 4 / R 5

ARBs F 5 / R 4

Camber F 1.0 / R 0.9

Toe F 0.00 / R 0.15

Brakes F 7 / R 3

Transmission

Final - 3.692

Top Speed - 168

1st - 3.602

2nd - 2.486

3rd - 1.842

4th - 1.429

5th - 1.160

6th - 0.987

LSD

6 / 11 / 20

Stg 3 Engine Tuning

Low RPM Turbo

Semi Racing Exhaust

Power Turned down to 77.4%

Stg 3 weight redux

Downforce @ Max

200 / 500

Rocket @ Suzuka

WOW this was fun. What a beast of a little car. This thing rides on rails and requires the utmost precision in terms of throttle and steering touch. Truly a challenging and fun trial. 

Suspension

RH F & R 60

Springs F 3.50 /  R 3.26

Dampers (C) F & R 10

Dampers (E) F 8 / R 9

ARBs F 2 / R 1

Camber F 1.0 / R 0.3

Toe F -0.15 / R 0.40

Brakes F 10 / R 8

Transmission 

Set to 149 Max Speed

Set gears

1 -  2.834

2 - 1.956

3 - 1.636

4 - 1.236

5 - 0.911

Final 5.937

LSD

7 / 10 / 20

STG 3 Engine Tuning

Done

Kill IT!!!!

Managed a 2:11:489 with this setup.

Lancer @ Chamonix

So this race I found to be quite challenging. On the face of it, it seems very simple. AWD Lancer, average power on a fairly quick snow circuit. The truth of it is though, that you have to treat it more like a high speed track than anything else. Leaving the corners quickly doesn't mean much here since you have such little grip to begin with so here is the optimal setup. You'll be slow in the tight corners but you'll make the GOLD time. 

1999 Lancer Evo VI GSR T.M. SCP

Suspension

Ride Height  F 100 / R 115

Springs   F 4.95 / R 4.75

Dampers 3 all around

ARB 3s again

Camber and Toe also Stock

Transmission

Set top speed to 180

Then

Set 5th all the way to the right 0.874

Set 4th to 1.060

Set 3rd to 1.314

 leave others alone.

Set brakes to F 8 / R 10

Set 4wd torque to F 45 / R 55

Added 154Kg of Ballast to +50

Added wing and 70 Downforce to the rear.

The biggest key here is to nail the lines. Snow racing requires a lot of balance and trust in the car as well as reading the road and turning in before the turn. Get your lines right here and with this car and tune the win is easy. 

86 @ Trial Mountain

This trial was also trying for me. The Jag seasonal I actually found a smidge easier. Again, it seems that braking has really been adjusted and because of that, it is hard to know exactly where the proper braking point is for each turn. The key I found was really just practice. Push the limits, don't underestimate the cars grip. It's light and quick in the bends. 

The Setup

Ride Height

120 / 125

Springs

4.43 / 4.95

Dampers (C)

4 / 6

Dampers (E)

5 / 4

ARB

3 / 4

Camber

0.3 / 0.2

Toe

-0.05 / 0.10

Trans

Top Speed set to 115

LSD

7 / 10 / 10

Brakes

7 / 10

I added all aero parts and did all the weight reductions to hit the PP level. Then nailed a considerably faster time than Gold. 1+ seconds faster.

Jag in Rome

So this one was actually pretty difficult for me. Honestly since the 1.04 update, it just seems that I can't get the braking zones right. In any case here are the tips I think are top for this challenge. 

1: The Setup

Ride Height

70 / 85

Springs 

8.75 / 7.90

Dampers

3 all around

Camber 

0.6 / 0.0

Toe

-0.05 / 0.20

Anti Roll Bars

4 / 3

Transmission

Top Speed set to 155

Brakes

7 / 9

Parts

All Aero added, then set to max

Oil Change, then power reduced to meet PP spec

The biggest key I found was the braking, this car was a little prone to understeer oddly enough but when you needed it to get round it would, the trouble was that until I started beating the GOLD time, I was braking far too early into more turns than not. That killed my time till I got it right. It almost feels a little more real as street cars don't brake the same way into every turn lap after lap, and so the slight differences make it feel a little more real and a lot more challenging. 

NSX @ Ascari

This trial isn't really too difficult if you know the course. We suspect PD actually made it fairly easy intentionally as it hasn't been featured before and this is a great way to familiarize yourself with the track.

My solution was simple. 2002 Honda NSX Type R.  I added a wing and left the down force at 15. Then fully adjustable suspension and set it up as follows.

Ride height F 70 / R 70
Springs F 8.24 / R 7.49

Everything else I left alone and clocked in at 2:30.

This was also with the stock brakes.  So yea,  kinda easy which is also why this is posted so late. I can't imagine many folks are having trouble with it.  Enjoy.

KTM Xbow Street @ Eiger

This was a fun if not slightly frustrating test this week. I say frustrating because no matter what I tried I simply could not beat my friends time. Granted my friend is one of the top guys at Silver Dragon Racing so theres that...Of course I haven't got to see his setup yet but if I do you can trust it will be posted here too.

My setup can be found 

HERE

I found myself losing ground in the first few turns and keeping up if not gaining little bits of ground throughout the rest of the lap ultimately coming in about a half a second slower but still winning the Gold. 

Biggest tip here.

Know the course. Know your car. The XBow can slide out if you're not very skilled so take your time and focus on smooth entries and exits.

VW @ Deep Forest

What a wacky seasonal. I personally am far from a fan of VW and this seasonal didn't change that. The car just has trouble getting around without significant tuning adjustments. Biggest tip is to take a few practice laps if you're unfamiliar with the course. Deep Forest is all about elevation changes and dramatic challenging turns that the VW seems to really struggle with.

Best tune BY FAR is from Silver Dragon Racing one of our premiere supporters. You can find it HERE.

Lancia Delta @ Tsukuba

This week's challenge at Tsukuba is quite easy really. I did my best to tune on a budget and picked up a very clean and quick victory here.

I bought the following parts :

Racing brakes set to 6 / 3
Triple plate clutch
Carbon drive shaft
Sports computer
Sports exhaust
Isometric exhaust manifold
Sports catalytic converter
Wing with 20 down force on the rear.

With these small adjustments I was able to gold this challenge. The Delta is just a cool old car.

S2000 @ Matterhorn

This week brings a fun new challenge at one of the track versions at the Matterhorn. This twisty, technically challenging circuit will test even very good drivers especially if you haven't spent much time here.

I used a 2006 S2000.

I did my best to tune on a budget as well.
The only additions I made were :
Racing brakes
Triple plate clutch
Carbon driveshaft
Stage 3 weight reduction
Carbon hood
Window weight reduction

The same results can be had with out the weight reduction if you'd prefer to spend less by adding power to achieve the same PP.

This car made the gold time on my first lap with it. Take a few laps around here before really trying to nail it if you haven't seen it before. A few turns are very blind and will happily disqualify you if you're reckless.