NimRud and I were shooting the sh!t on the server and and thought it would be fun to run a challenge series. I hope he doesn't mind me claiming his endorsement, he may want to distance himself from such an endeavor!

The plan is to post a different challenge on a regular rotation, and anyone up for it can make the attempt and post his top result. Let's say run it for a week, and everyone can make as many attempts and submissions as they want to. Mix up the sim, car and track combinations over time so everyone can get a shot in his favorites.

So let's give it a go and see


SimHQ Hotlap Challenge Event #1

2018 Bentley Continental @ Brand's Hatch

Assetto Corsa Competizione

Event Winner : NimRud



Run the lap in Hotlap mode to give everyone the same conditions. Lap must be valid. No other restrictions on this one.

I have yet to drive the Bentley and watching Frank inspired me to give it a go. I picked a car/track that requires no DLC (I hope)

Good luck! New event starts in one week's time.

Had a little time to kill before the F1 race and gave this a go. I set this up for the 2019 Bentley, which I don't think is a thing. So 2018 Bentley then.

Quite a shift coming from the 991, and I struggled with both entry understeer and exit oversteer with the safe setup. The longer sweepers, like the exit to the final turn on to the pitstraight were difficult to put the power down without kicking the rear out a bit. The steering wheel's on the wrong side too

I dialed out some of that bad stuff and managed to be running low 28s, but there's still quite a bit of the bad stuff in it.

I'll give it another go after the F1 race and post up what happens.

The Bentley gives me some trouble, hard to tame, or not well suited to my hamfistedness. But this is fun because it will give me reason to try all sorts of cars and work out the setup challenges. Here's my submission 1:27.987


Distilling the many laps down like this in the UI does show your fastest lap in the session (green), but all the sector times are your best, even if they weren't in this fast lap. It's better than showing all 13 laps or whatever. So the purples would be theoretical best (1:27.560 in my case), but green is the actual fast lap from the session.

Mine was 1:30.6 something... I have had trouble with that Bentley... not getting on with it at all...

Well the Bentley Is supposed to be the best stable and beginner friendly car In ACC. Just goes to show that all this Is subjective. Same goes for what was good then Is now something of the past.

We might have played a ton of Ghost Recon In 00, and be real good at It, but does It compare to what Is on the market now? Just a example...

Nice work Troop! Brand's Hatch is a tricky track and the car isn't an easy one to tame. Good lap mate!

I think part of why this car feels tricky is what you're used to. I'd bet if we'd been lapping a lot in say the BMW or Mercedes the Bentley would feel much more familiar. But if you've been driving some of the other cars, especially the ones with their motors in a different place, it feels a little foreign. My first laps in the Bentley felt like I was driving an articulated truck, the rear end is it's own separate part, whipping around back there

But that's after a couple hundred laps in the 991 and the feel is quite different. I attempted to set it up to feel closer to what I want and anyway that lap I put up is just three-tenths off my PB here.

Come on gentlemen, give it a shot.

Brands Hatch is the first track I got 3 stars on, followed by Snetterton... I know the tracks pretty well from playing PCars 2.
I think my laps in the Bentley were a mess really. I'm sure my best time was a fluke as I've not been able to replicate it, lol!
Still, it's all good fun with a good learning curve!

Did a quick run with the Bentley and noticed afterwards Derek was using the fast track setting. That´s quite a different feeling from optimal settings.

Managed to reach a high 1:25 with that setting somehow.

Nice one Frank!

OK yeah good point. My track was hotter and I had wind. I thought if we all did Hotlap mode it would be consistent. What's going on? Is it because I have dynamic weather enabled? I thought Hotlap was laboratory conditions. Which conditions do we want? Maybe I can go faster!

1:25 I cannot touch!

Yet....

Thanks for giving it a go gents.

I hadn't been paying close enough attention, and didn't bother to consider conditions would be different depending on settings until NimRud pointed it out.

So I gave this another go yesterday, but turned off dynamic weather, which dropped the temp a couple degrees and killed the breeze. Of course that breeze might have been a tailwind down the longest straight, I dunno. And I chose optimal track. So I was set to crank out a new PB but I only managed to beat my submitted lap by a few hundredths.

So any thoughts on conditions for the challenges? Is it important to have a level field here? No changes for this week, but thinking about the next one. Feel free to suggest cars, tracks and sims for the rotation. One week's probably too long so I'll put up the second installment in the next couple of days. But anyone coming along later is still eligible for any that came before I'd say. Just post up the proof

OK, with zero feedback

Winner of event number 1 is our very own NimRud. great lap man. I've turned several hundred at Brand's Hatch and can't touch that lap time. Great driving.

SimHQ Hotlap Challenge Event # 2

2017! BMW M6 GT3 @ Spa

Assetto Corsa Competizione

Event Winner : NimRud

With no feedback I'll leave the conditions settings open, optimal track is fine. No restrictions. It's all for fun and you can make the track and weather as optimal as desired. Good luck!

Well, I am not shy am I?

Since I bought the wheel in the end of April I have not used it much.
But when I have I`m having a good time.
Genuine newbie I am.

So I have never been on SPA.
I drove around the track 3 times just to learn it quickly. Then I recorded a time.

I realise it is very weak, but considering my status I select to post it here for the record.
The reason is that I can go back here and hopefully see how much I have progressed since rthe start.

Another reason is that it can show other newbies that you have to start somewhere. And accept it.
The enjoyment is about improving.
I have raced Brand`s Hatch a little.
The moment I improved the lap with 5 seconds was really satisfying.

Now I will try and improve on Spa.

Your turn Sir!

Awesome! Great job mate. How's the car around Spa? Haven't tried it myself but will later.

Two tips.... drop the fuel for just some laps, I like to set out with 30-35l for hotlapping, and nudge those pressures up about a one full psi. Well do as you like, but I think there's time to be found in those two adjustments

As your pace improves the pressures will come up too, so it's something to constantly monitor and adjust as you get faster.

You are in a practice session if you can run with that much fuel, which is OK. By the way I wanted to mention, because it's important, that in hotlap mode your tires reset every time you come across the line. It's just the way it is, but it means that the standard advice to set pressures low enough that they come up in to the window is bad advice in that mode. They should be set for one-lap pace from the off for hotlap mode (which Wigean is not in)




Agreed. Good luck!

Sorry.
The laptime is from Spa today.
The car feels good tome.
A liittle challenging for me when timing brakes/throttle, especially in the downhill section .

Yes, not sure what you mean? Let's leave this up to any session, and slipstreaming is now a thing for the hotlap challenge at Spa!

Which car did you drive? When I set these I'm not at home so search for a list of cars in ACC on the web to make a selection. The thing I saw today said 2019 BMW M6 GT3. But now that I've gone to give this a go, I choose Open and have no such car? Do I not have all the DLC? There's a 2017 version of the same model and I'll drive that. I clicked through all series and yes, I don't have this car. I've now failed to set an actual car for the challenge both times. I chose a car I don't have in the first one too.

Do you guys have the 2019 version? Which series is it supposed to be in? And all would be available in open right?

I have the 2017 version only DB.

Sorry if I goofed the Hotlap challenge.
Couldn`t find the hotlap mode so I did a training session.
You could lead me to it, or I will find out tomorrow.

Anyway, I`ve watched some sports and news from Ukraina, plus a glass of wine. I will continue tomorrow.

Wigean out.

When I originally put this thing up I thought Hotlap mode would be a good setting to put everyone in the same conditions -- weather and track. But it soon became evident (thanks Frank) that there was plenty of latitude even in this mode.

Which got me to thinking about it, and I like the idea of just allowing any old mode. Let the people who do it play how ever they would like, in any conditions. If you get a tow from the AI and still turn a good lap, all the better and well done for setting your fast lap with AI on the track! So this can keep evolving but for now at least I'd say all modes and conditions to crack one out for the Hotlap challenge. All feedback welcome of course.

The mode you're in there Wigean is free practice, no AI. Hotlap mode adds a ghost car (if enabled) which can give you good feedback in real time as you go around the circuit, seeing where you improve or lose time over the course of the lap. I'm sure you know what a ghost car is haha, but I mean to point out the advantage it gives as you learn a track. Of course the hotlap mode is a bit artificial with the resetting tires across the start finish line. And that reminds me to say my advice before about pressures is wrong probably. The screen you took there is probably with cold pressures, meaning they would come up in free practice, and actually are probably about perfect for hotlap mode. I aim for 27.5.

To swap modes click the game modes on the left of the main screen and you can toggle through all of the single player event options. Hotstint, Superpole, Quick Race etc. One other advantage of hotlap mode is you start on the track a turn or two before the start line, so you can get more laps in than starting in pitlane.

The 2017 BMW M6 was not the car I had in mind really, and I gave it a go earlier tonight and was just terrible. I could barely complete a lap without spinning it. Felt like a top. Came back later, customized it for the mojo (all-black Black Nine Racing number 9 ) and gave it another go. To settle it down I needed to stiffen the front suspension and knock down the rear. Then it was more hooked up but I'm still vulnerable to an ambitious right foot and slide on exit. This is a fast car on the straights. And it looks amazing, great looking race car.

Overall I rather enjoyed the M6 at Spa once I got it settled down. Didn't feel like I put one together, quite, and I'll give this one another go to see if I can find some time. First submission

Thanks for the post and tips DB.
That was a very good time.
I found the Hotlap mode after my last post.
I have been busy driving around without investigating the sim itself.
I will do some laps later today and see if I can make some progress.

I guess a problem by using training mode is that it takes a lot of time to start a new lap if you make an error. In Hotlap you can restart the lap without having to go all the way around.

I also found the car difficult in the exits, almost like the track was wet.
For my part I will need more driving time before I start to experiment with the set-up.

Yeah, I had a lot of trouble with spinning on entry and sliding on exit so I tried to dial some of that out. Here's the setup I used and maybe you could try it out if you want. No guarantee it won't be worse!

Essentially the front end is stiffened through springs and bars, while the rear is softened through the same things. I may have adjusted ride height in a minor way. ABS and TC at default.

Oh shoot I can't attach the file type.

Front ARB 5
Rear ARB 2
Front Spring 166000
Rear Spring 136000

Save it as custom setup

This should make entry more surefooted and kill the oversteer on exit to a certain degree, but it doesn't eliminate it. Rear ARB at 1 or front at 6 would settle it some more, but makes it more sluggish through the turn as the rear tries to catch up with the front. I have the differential preload at 90 which can be tweaked to dial it in.