Weekly Livery / Time Trial / Race GT Sport competitions with 27Racers - all welcome!

[samoht]

Shortly after lockdown first started last Spring, a bunch of motor journalists & PR people started a friendly & informal weekly competition on GT Sport. A car and track is announced, everyone then goes to make a livery for the car, with historically linked racing liveries being popular. There's then a timetrial to set your best lap time, with a deadline of 7:30pm UK time Thursday. The timetrial acts as a 'pre-qualifying' for the online race from 8pm Thurs, although extra overflow rooms are established for anyone who misses the cut. There's then qualifying followed by one or more races.

I've been enjoying it for a few reasons. It's varied and not too serious, you can drop in and out each week depending. The TT rules are fairly relaxed, and once online people make their best effort to avoid bumping others but don't get too bitter if things do go awry. The participants are mostly our kind of age, and include some names like Dan Trent & Nick Trott that may be familiar if you read Pistonheads or Evo magazine, as well as car industry PR people. We've had a few visits from truly talented racers, but generally the field is competent but not crazy-quick - I usually end up mid-pack. There's quite an interest in historic motorsport, both in racing older cars and adapting classic liveries. Doing the livery is more fun when there's a theme and people are going to see it, and pounding round the track trying to shave off tenths then becomes invaluable in staying on the track for the race itself.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EruqzR1XUAMcJfR?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErKVuTQXcAE8e_O?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqqNzr0XMAYa_V9?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Er2uUaqXAAE_N9m?format=jpg&name=large

If anyone's interested, sign up at https://27racers.com/start (https://27racers.com/start) , this week's challenge is the MX-5 at Suzuka East (see last pic for my R100-based livery). I appreciate that 8pm UK time (currently UTC) won't work for many here, though.

[Cam]

That sounds (and looks) pretty cool. :cool: Alas, I have not raced GT since I sold my PS2 in 2005. :lol:

[Rare White Ape]

Ok, I’ve signed up! I wish I could use my wheel - controller only for me at the moment.

And your 8pm is my 6am, so it isn’t too horrible. The cats wake me at sunrise to be fed anyway :up:

What day of the week do the races usually occur?

[samoht]

Ok, I’ve signed up! I wish I could use my wheel - controller only for me at the moment.

And your 8pm is my 6am, so it isn’t too horrible. The cats wake me at sunrise to be fed anyway :up:

What day of the week do the races usually occur?

Awesome! Races are generally on Thursdays (that sounds like Friday morning your time?) I'm on a dualshock too and running mid-pack, I don't feel I'm losing out too badly with it.

[Rare White Ape]

I’d better paint a car and submit a lap time.

It feels like a good low-effort way to enjoy a spot of racing. Aside from the race itself, I don’t want to spend more than an hour on it.

(Watch me practise for an hour but spend three hours in the livery editor :lol: )

[Rare White Ape]

I did my requisite hour of practise and I'm on the leaderboard for the MX-5 race in 11th!

Not bad.

Behold the glory.

https://www.gran-turismo.com/gtsport/photo/8214578991773779456_0.jpg

[samoht]

Great stuff with the livery & the time both!

Follow @27Racers on twitter for info, but I think we need to friend request ‘norramot’ PSN handle to get into Room 1 - have requested but am still waiting.

[samoht]

Now in Room 1 hosted by 'chauspain', see you there

[samoht]

Gutted that we couldn't get you in today! No idea why Chauspain didn't see your request.

[Rare White Ape]

Thanks for trying though. I'll have another shot next week.

Checking the pics now on Twitter and it looked like an epic time :up:

[samoht]

So Alpines tomorrow at Sardegna. Bloody tricky things to drive, seem to drive like a poorly-made firework, highly unstable!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsXtYaCXIAAFY24?format=jpg&name=large

... inspired by the Group B A310 ...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsXtl36XYAANqlP?format=png&name=small

[Rare White Ape]

Hey the leaderboard is finally up.

I have my ugliest French livery I could find slapped on and ready to go. I gave it a test drive on Monday and found it... tricky. Judicious and careful application of the right finger is required.

I shall give it the requisite hour of hotlapping later today.

https://www.gran-turismo.com/gtsport/photo/8358695273054111232_0.jpg

https://www.artcurial.com/sites/default/files/styles/840_width/public/lots-images/2017-10-03-12/3118_10586604_23.jpg?itok=OVRZ0EKg

[Rare White Ape]

Oh man. 1:33.759 is all I could be bothered with this week :lol:

See you in room 2.

[samoht]

That looks fantastic!

My recorded time flatters my (in)ability to keep this peeled poire pointing anywhere near the track, so am anticipating a few visits to the armco tonight.

Incidentally, I found that short-shifting up to 6th when starting the run down the hill helps to reduce the car's desire to jink into the lovely red and white tyre wall on the outside of the first kink.

Generally tho even using a higher gear doesn't help that much, you just get the turbo torque anyway - reminds me of my 180SX in that regard, although of course this isn't nose-led as that was.

Have fun!

[Rare White Ape]

This morning I was finally able to join a lobby, after weeks of network issues and waking up at 05:30 on Fridays for no reward.

I set up a fixed IP for my PS4 and forwarded some ports, and this is the result. A 6-lap reverse grid race with a 3-lap masterclass in defensive driving :D

Everyone behind me was that much faster but I can hold my own when it comes down to it!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1qU1DgVIm8&ab_channel=MickJohnson

Race 4 was also reverse grid. I'd made it to 3rd and for the faintest moment I was in 2nd, but a bad decision on one corner meant that I was ruthlessly filtered down to last by the end of that same lap. Video not available because it is too painful to watch.

[samoht]

Hurrah! I'm so glad that you finally got the chance to join in, after so many fruitless attempts!

I had a similar experience in the other room, successfully holding off the pack in one of the later reversed-grid races. A tricky course to race on, but a lot of fun.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/gt7sp-prod/photo/52/59/01/7214780976359015952_0.jpg

[CudaMan]

Just popping in to say I love the media you guys are sharing from this series. It's such a cool idea and these liveries are amazing!

[Rare White Ape]

Thanks Bryan and thanks Tom :up:

It’s been good, because it’s such a change from the ranked daily races that are full of carnage. Plus GT is just about the only thing I can drive half-decently with a controller.

I just watched my video again, and I’m left wondering how a few of those corners didn’t result in mass death and destruction :lol:

I guess they’ve managed to foster a group of really humble and like-minded racing enthusiasts here. I found myself having to forget the measures you take in public races just to protect yourself, because nobody here is out to put you off the track or ram past in a shitty manoeuvre.

[Rare White Ape]

So this week's race is Blue Moon Infield A, a track that I have literally never raced on. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.

Oh well, head down. It's not like I have no time for practise.

[samoht]

RWA did you decide to give it a miss this week? Or weren't able to find the room? Nick Trott left after the first race, which killed Room 2 as he was hosting it with fixed ownership, so I then spun up a replacement room 2.


http://s3.amazonaws.com/gt7sp-prod/photo/84/71/91/7206393901997917184_0.jpg

I wasn't going to race this week, was feeling not in control of the car - Racing Soft tyres make the MX-5 very twitchy - and that seemed a bad match with the organiser's increasing pleas for clean racing. I logged a dummy time to drop myself to the bottom of the leaderboard to free up my space in Room 1. Then at 8:30 I thought I may as well call in on Room 2, and joined the second race there.

I then leveraged the fact that Dan Trent previously raced an MX-5 at Tsukuba, and proposed we relocate there, which I certainly enjoyed a lot more than Blue Moon Bloody Raceway. Actually really really good fun :D

http://s3.amazonaws.com/gt7sp-prod/photo/88/22/09/7349950538366092288_0.jpg

The racing was pretty good, and in the last race I had four laps of wheel to wheel with the Renown-liveried car, culminating in a last-lap pass around the outside of Turns 5 & 6 for the win. The Clean Race Bonus on top reflected how well everyone was mostly managing to keep it clean and fair.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/gt7sp-prod/photo/92/27/62/7206398290917622792_0.jpg

So having been feeling a bit negative earlier this week, now really enjoyed it.

[Rare White Ape]

Heh, nice :up: Those liveries are hot!

I missed it this week because I was hungover :D I went to lunch with my boss who is having a month of holiday, and things just progressed from there. There's no way I was getting out of bed at 5:30 on a gloomy rainy day in my condition.

Like you, I was struggling to keep the car pointed in the right direction because of some wild snap-oversteer when trying to correct even the gentlest of slides. I appreciate them trying to replicate that video of those Miatas at Daytona but I don't think it was going to happen. Better to use the race-prepped gen-1 MX-5s with the roll cages, I reckon.

[samoht]

Speaking from the plague-ridden wasteland of the West, meeting up for a long boozy lunch with a friend is an excellent opportunity not to be missed :)

Anyway, it's Group 2 (JGTC) at Fuji no chicane this week, which is a good livery opportunity if nothing else!

[samoht]

Spooning it up here
http://s3.amazonaws.com/gt7sp-prod/photo/36/04/57/7206322362431570436_0.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/gt7sp-prod/photo/88/46/15/8070542968535154688_0.jpg

[Rare White Ape]

Ooooh those cars are... tricky to drive compared to the GT3s. They require a complete reset of your driving habits if you only drive them every once in a while.

Luckily 27Racers drives a different car every week!

[JoeW]

I am interested in this as well.