Random Again - C Class Infiniti G35

[fndrbndr]

Um, wow.  Just.....wow.   

[Spiny Anteater]

The flowing build is up, although I admit with a bit more time I could have been a bit more detailed with the tune.

Looks like I've flummoxed you with the design - although I think that probably says more about my lack of artistic skills than anything else. I'll put the answer up for anyone who's interested tomorrow.

Unfortunately, my driving skills seem to have deteriorated over Easter (just ask anyone who has been unlucky enough to be in the same room as me the last couple of days), but as the times for this one were set before that, they should be reasonably valid. The PR for the car was 207.025 while the FR turned out at 157.958. I don't have anything to compare it to, but I have a feeling the Power Rank could be quite handy. The Flowing Rank meanwhile is closer to my Camaro SS than to my '07 Civic which strikes me as a good thing (I think!).

[fndrbndr]

Hm....I see the colors and Think McDonalds...guessing that's not it, though?

[Spiny Anteater]

No. You're best clue will be the white numbering (lettering on the product) on a red background with the darker drop shadow. The blue varies depending on the variety (and seems to be greener on the American product), but the striping is another hint. The yellow/gold stripe is present, but is more of a feature on the car than the product. (HKS and Nismo don't sponsor the product in question either )

[gs shyner]

Spiny,
For reference (like spiny's gonna use me as a reference  LOL)

Stock power, Race all except no wgt reduction (tranny 3.54: 3.79, 2.32, 1.62, 1.27, 1.00, 0.79 - Diff 29/39)
DOT Toyo's, Full width upgrade
ONLY Forza front bumper (50lbs) and Rear wing (75lbs)
on a BloozeTonka 5667 tune

HBR Infinity G35      just for grins G35 no aero(same tune - felt fast but just a feeling)
QR=203.816           204.517                       
TR=155.561           156.725
FR=157.967           159.385
PR=208.817           208.999  (beat the aero version at Seb II, Sun Inf II but the loss at Silv N was enough to make the diff)

Gonna start the Free Run fill in for all tracks in C-Class using the Infinity.
It QR'd better than 350Z(#2 -0.187), Carrera(#3 -0.396),  Cupra 07(#4 -0.571), 944T(#5), 430SCV(#6), RX-8(#7), Crossfire(#8)



As for the inspiration of your Paint, I can't think of the product.

[Spiny Anteater]

Actually Shyner, it's great to see what other people are getting out of the car. I'm especially impressed with that flowing rank time - it's only about 1/100th of a second slower than my FR, and I thought I was using the optimum strategy (i.e. least weight) on those tracks. It seems that I should have majored more on grip...

In fact, seeing your times there, and with my experience in the Ferrari where the Twisty and Flowing Tunes were pretty much identical has got me thinking that maybe I should just look at having a grip build/tune and a power build/tune (plus the Speedway build of course) . I'll persist with 3 tunes plus the Speedway for now, but your times at Mugello, plus this FR bombshell you've just dropped have certainly got me thinking

I've only done Laguna and Silverstone International of the Twisty tracks so far, so can't compare that one. But, I would say you've got a good car under you with that Infiniti of yours. I look forward to seeing it on the track

And, as for the paint. I suspect that I may not have stuck close enough to my inspiration, or that my artisitic skills are severely lacking, but here it is:



 

[fndrbndr]

Love it!   

[Spiny Anteater]

I am right in thinking you do get Colgate in the States aren't I? Or did I just set an impossible competition?

[fndrbndr]

No, we have Colgate.  If it was impossible, it's only because we use Crest in our house...lol

[Spiny Anteater]

On a non-Colgate topic, I tried the Infiniti at Mugello with full aero. My best lap in the car ended up dropping down from 2:04.252 to 2:03.489 so quite a difference there. That change is more than the gap which now stands between the Infiniti and my best time in any car (Acura Integra) so that should give an indication of the improvement.

I then went and ran the car in the Exhibition race. The improvement was of a similar order, with almost 5 seconds being knocked off the race time and a 20 place improvement on the leaderboard. I also had the pleasure of going around that Cadillac on the first corner, which is almost worth the admission money on its own

I think it's fair to say that in my mind Mugello Long has changed from being a Flowing Track to a Twisty Track.

[gs shyner]

"full aero"

does that mean ALL THE PIECES
or
Both sliders to the MAX 125/150

I've always tried to refrain from Full Downforce but....
Hmm, must be a reason "RACE" cars have wings and front aero and diffusers on em?   


I added some paint to the Infiniti to break up the monotonous green.

[Spiny Anteater]

Full Aero does include all the pieces, including the rear bumper (I like that because it gives you speed as well as grip, even if it does cost you a few PI). And, in the Flowing & Twisty tunes, the sliders were set to the max (125/150) as well. I must say, Feuerdog's v.5.11 does a good job of accomodating changes to the aero.

Ever since my epiphany with the Ferrari at Sebring Short, I have tended towards putting on as much aero as I can without excessively compromising top speed. With the Infiniti, this has meant all Flowing and Twisty Tunes (I suspect that may be some of my problem with the Flowing Tunes) as it is naturally a powerful slippery (if heavy) car which could use some more grip. Now, if I was running an MR-S I expect it would be a different story

I've also just noticed that I never really specified this in my post above, but the improved time at Mugello involved a change to a Twisty Build (to come later) from a Flowing Build and wasn't just due to jacking up the aero. But I honestly feel that more aero can help. As an example, at the 'Ring, I initially tried it with minimum aero, but had a terrible time keeping it on the track. Adding just a few pounds Front and Rear (they were added in proportion to the minimum settings) made the car so much more controllable that I could make up time through the corners easily while only losing a couple of mph on the straight.

[Spiny Anteater]

Now most of the times are in (9 tracks left to go to finish C Class, and all the ranking times are in now), I think it's time for reflection. The first thing to do is to see how my playing around with the building and tuning has affected the car in relation to a car run with a single tune/build (thanks to Shyner for posting his times here - it's a good comparison). His build seems to be very similar to my Twisty build, which further helps matters.

Car	PR	FR	TR
Shyner	208.817	157.967	155.561
Spiny	207.025	157.958	154.350
% Difference	0.865%	0.0057%	0.656%

Unfortunately, the results of this table appear to suggest that my tuning has been a waste of time If we take the gap on the TR as being representative of driver differences, this shows that there was only a marginal improvement adding power to the tune for the PR compared to using Shyner's grip car. Even more alarmingly, my changes to the Flowing Build actually seem to have made the car worse. So what went wrong?

The first thing which struck me is that Shyner's grip tune is actually a very good allrounder, possibly as a result of the car not being short of power in the first place, so adding the power (and you couldn't add a lot - 56bhp max, and that was only achieved by adding the Forza wings which would reduce the straightline speed somewhat) was of limited benefit on all but the most power-oriented track. But, that doesn't detract from Shyner's car being good at any track (just look where he's placed it in Exhibition), whereas mine will only be useful in online racng at whatever type of track it's currently built for.

Probably the biggest lesson I'll take from this is that taking weight off isn't always the best approach to the flowing tracks. In fact, I would say for the heavyweight cars, adding grip should probably be done here before removing power - that is certainly suggested by the closeness of the FR times. I mentioned this weight theory to Fender regarding his Mercedes, but Fender suggested that neither solution had really worked for that car. Even so, if the random car method throws up a similar scenario in future, I think I may have to look at using my Twisty Track Build on the Flowing Tracks instead.

[fndrbndr]

I wouldn't try to draw too many conclusions from my Mercedes project, Spiny.  Not only are our driving styles different, but I was intentionally working on a car that's well outside my comfort zone.  That makes two degrees of separation, if you will (my difference from you and the car's difference from me), from the kind of work that we can really draw conclusions from.  I am messing with what makes a car a good twisty or flowing car, since there doesn't seem to be as much overlap as one would expect.  I'll start a thread in my garage using the Tiny Terrors, which are my strong suit, and we'll see what happens.

[Spiny Anteater]

Even taking your Mercedes comments into account, there was another factor in my wondering about the worthwhileness of having a separate Flowing Tune. When I built up the Ferrari, the Flowing Tune ended up being the same as the Twisty Tune. I put that down to the lack of upgrades in R Class. The results with the Infiniti (and more especially how they compare to Shyner) really brought that into focus for me. It'll be interesting to see how the Tiny Terrors show.

I know Blooze said that the QR isn't valid when different builds are used, and I would tend to agree. However, I think it still can offer some value, even if it's just to show what that particular car is capable of - it's just that I don't think too much can be read into it in these circumstances. So, I will offer the QR, just with the caveat that it will almost certainyl be overstating the car's potential. The QR for the Infinit is 202.783s

I've also updated the Twisty Tune post - the build is the one I've used for Malayan Krait, but to be honest the only differences between the Twisty Tracks is the gearing.