Spanky's Mission (and "Guess the Paint" rules)

[dredawg83]

Shipped the coffin back to MS Yesterday.  I have an error in my profile with xbox.com so I can't track it online and they can't fix it till I get a new serial number.  I can only track by phone, so no I have no idea when I'll be back

I know that feeling, I had the same problem when my box had to be sent to the warehouse of death. Good luck getting a straight answer from customer support over the phone. Estimated time of process-4 weeks       Actual time- 10 weeks!

[fndrbndr]

I'm in a similar boat with the wheel, Whiz.

[Fit4aking]

Whiz and Dredawg, 2 familiar names.  I know its a bunch to take in.  I had a hard time with some of it originally but its become old hat.  Also I've contributed lots of useless questions here so don't be shy, there are no stupid questions, only inquisative idiots.  Just kidding.  If something seems odd or its not makin sense hop in and ask, noone will give you a hard time or call you slow.  Like some other sites.  There is a thread over in the Drivers Lounge as sort of an intro.  Add or just get familiar with it.

Hope there's some help here.

[Whizard72]

Pretty much the best way I know how to tackle it, is read it, try it, read it, try it, and so on.

My advice to a newbie would be to transition over to MANUAL shifting ASAP, it gives you much finer control over your car IMHO. When I used to run automatic, I would curse many times over the auto down shifting in the corners too far and on a high torque car, that's a BAD thing. Plus shifting down can help you brake and you can control your corner speeds easier with manual.

I realize a complete beginner at driving Forza 2 with a controller may not care for the steeper learning curve with the controls (I sure didn't) but after awhile I tried manual and what do you know, I don't see myself driving automatic tranny again.

I could test my lap times with automatic vs manual, but what's the point, everyone knows manual is faster if you know what you're doing.

There is one thing I noticed in the career races in FM2, the professional series has a D,C,B,A class of races for those class of cars only, well the courses include twisties as well as the long straight courses (NY) so while I can kick ass with either the Lexus or Cobalt, They suck no matter what I do on NY and have loads of trouble on Sebring even. Best I've come in B-class Sebring short is 2nd with no chance of beating the leader.

Whiz and Dredawg, 2 familiar names.  I know its a bunch to take in.  I had a hard time with some of it originally but its become old hat.  Also I've contributed lots of useless questions here so don't be shy, there are no stupid questions, only inquisative idiots.  Just kidding.  If something seems odd or its not makin sense hop in and ask, noone will give you a hard time or call you slow.  Like some other sites.  There is a thread over in the Drivers Lounge as sort of an intro.  Add or just get familiar with it.

Hope there's some help here.

[dredawg83]

Thanks for the welcome fit. I learned alot from your thread on the forza forums. Hoping to improve on that as the weight bias tuning has really opened some doors to some cars I previously found "uncontrollable". Thanks for all the info and all the hard work guys

[Fit4aking]

Its been quiet around here cause of my real world commitments but don't think Spanky's gone. 

I've been getting a lot accomplished over on the daught net, with the free tune database.  Not because I was bored or dissapointed here, but because it was about due.  Too many people were scalping tunes and noone was helping the new guys.  Mission accomplished over there as I was even mentioned in a pitpass report. 

I've branched out a bit and filled a couple of holes in my garage.  My A-class has grown a bit and I have an observation.  Now that I have several really good cars I think I'm suffering from "the worst of the best" syndrome.  I now have the desire to retune some of my previous favorites.  I also have several useless cars.  This game is never ending.  A-class has been good to me but B-class is still lacking so I'm moving down a bit. 

I also burned through some of the Exhibition races with my new cars to test them against you guys in a race setting.  Turns out I put together some decent cars and rolled out mostly top 200 times.  None of the cars hae been built specifically for the tracks only what I wanted to drive.  Noones overall time is in trouble as I have no desire to power through the classes that don't interest me. 

I have a few tunes completed and one last thing occured to me.  I'm only an okay tuner.  None of my cars are great.  I do pretty good setting cars up but I don't take the time to really go through and squeeze every ounce out of it.  Maybe I'm lazy but when the gains start to only increase in the hundredths I consider it done.  I may tweak it a smidge but with out wholesale gains I can't keep adjusting for the sake of very small gains. 

Lastly I have a few requested tunes to put op with a couple shop stories to spice things up.

[gs shyner]

Hear hear,  I to am not a OCD tuner.

I set it up, run it, see what it needs for me and make the adjustments.
I'm happy and that's all that matters! 

Besides, I'm sure the car is driver limited

[Blooze]

Lately I find myself making wheel nut changes before anything else.  For instance, after having spent a good deal of time getting used to how MR and RR cars (Biased light on the front) work and feel and have found that now they don't require anywhere near as much tuning as they used to.  I fear that much of my tuning was compensation for my serious lack of driver skill.

$

[fndrbndr]

I think Shyner and Blooze are onto something there.  I built out the Tiny Terrors and QR'd all of them.  I thought I was down to a fair representation of the cars.  Then, Drift built out a couple and totally SMOKED my times.  Like, by over a second.  I think the replay value of this game is in the fact that, like in the real thing, there's always room for improvement.

[Fit4aking]

A while back I gave my MkII to Blooze during a purge.  I didn't want to drive a LB car and wasn't gonna be tempted.  Well I've changed my thinking a bit and built one again.  Using all my knowledge and tuning know-how I made a very fast car.  More practice in it and I'm sure to improve but after I built it and used Ske's Universal FF tune I took it online to set a baseline.  I was in a room on Tsukuba with a couple team guys, Okay I only entered that room because the host was s team guy, DKR I think.  Anyway I didn't see that colisions were off so I broke early in turn 1, the car was fast enough to go from last to second in 7 out of 10 laps.  I was closing slowly on the leader and had the fastest time.  Another shot and I would have won but in an untested car I'm exstatic about the results. 

Now I truly think that my improving driving skill along with track knowledge made the race turn out like it did.  I doubt the car was really that good out of the box.  Sure its fast but "I" didn't tune the car, its not tailored to me yet.  If its set up specifically for me and its already fast than watch out.  However when I get in a car that isn't very fast and try to tune it to be faster, I'm only tailoring a slower car to suit my style.  It may make the car a bit faster but ultimately its still a slow car.

My build philosophy has changed.  I no longer put all the goodies on a car and hope for the best, I actually have been taking the time to build a car.  Partly due to Blooze parts testing, partly because of Ske's SEAT build, and partly due to having my theories confirmed in practice.  Flowing track cars don't need great brakes of lightweight drivetrains, they are momentum based and once up to speed the trade off rears its head.  Power cars don't need low weight or even the widest tires, just smooth power delivery.  Twisty track cars are the one's that need the most careful builds because you need to balance the build well between good brakes, low weight, and good grip.  A solid build doesn't need a comprehensive tuning to make huge changes in driveability it's pretty good to begin with.

Same night as the MkII running I brought out my 2000GT and requested we run on Maple Valley.  That car was built for that track.  I was off to a slow start as usual but made large leaps in position by lap 2.  By lap 3 I was 500 meters out front and pulling away.  In front of Mugens, Peugot's, and a few randoms I know that the masses had platformed the cars to full race, slapped on tires, lost weight and went racing.  I know that my builds helped, and I want to not only retune but rebuild some of my cars now.  I'm gonna be busy.

[fndrbndr]

I'm curious...what class for the 2000GT?  If I have one built for MV and so do you, I feel a duel is in order....lol

[bimmerlovere39]

IMHO, big brakes are never bad.  For what is a relatively small PI hit, you get a big safety net - think of all the times you have overcooked a corner, or somebody went off and came back on right in front of you.  For racing, I just cannot justify not upgrading the brakes.

Just my '02 cents

[Fit4aking]

My 2000GT is in C-class.  Its a screamer and its proven itself several times on Maple Valley.

Bimmer, I've been playing around with leaving parts off of cars to free up PI.  On my latest go round I left off Brakes and anything not adjustable in the platforming section.  It allowed me to run full weight reduction as well as the widest slicks.  I'll take that as a trade off any day.  The car is light enough that I don't need the brakes now anyway.  It stops well and since its specifically for flowing tracks I won't be stopping in a hurry anyway.  I'll take traffic as it comes and as long as I know the limitations of my car I should be okay.  I hope.

[fndrbndr]

Yeah, the 2000GT makes a great flowing track car in C, as well.  I've got one built for the Tiny Terror project, and it does quite well in online rooms, at least thus far. 

[Fit4aking]

Its a start of a new era for the Forza crowd.  The second installment was wonderful and it lasted all the way up to the bitter end and will remain a constant in my xbox library.  For sentimental reasons at least.  The green light is about to flash on V3.0 and I'm chomping at the bit to have a go with all of the new and upgraded features.  While I've been saddened that the real world has pulled me away for so long the virtual speedshop is still standing and I'll be dusting the place off in hopes of a fresh start.  This is the best crew around for intelligent tuning conversation as well as complete challenges that develop cars not just pit them randomly against tracks.  Regardless of what the game itself brings to the table having a place like forza-tuning.net will indeed extend the useful life of the disc and I'm positive will lead to it being permanently stuck in the box for at least a few months.  Look forward to good things from Spanky as he embarks on this adventure with or without the help of his employees but expect some old rivalries to heat up. 

As for the current list of cars and threads in my little slice of the forum, hmm.  I will be locking most of the threads in hopes of having them remain as reference to the way things were.  Other than the real world transmission ratios most will not be able to be added to very soon.  This should free up plenty of space and remove distractions when new cars for the new game come about.  Trust me when I say that I will be documenting this trip very well and you will have full access to notes and settings.  I applaud the tuning marketplace but I won't be keeping any secrets here, well at least not after a challenge is over.  Happy motoring, remember to keep the rubber side down, and that the race isn't just to the first corner.

-Spanky