Following the Singapore Grand Prix, we ran a Time Trial of the circuit on F1 2010. When I made the original post, I had a time of about 1:45. I managed to get this down to roughly 1:42 and was quite pleased with myself, until I saw the results slowly trickle in. Some of the times were unbelievable! Here are the top 3 and what they’ve won:
- 1st Place – 1.38.429 – Manorhowze – £5 Amazon gift voucher and 100 TSA Pts
- 2nd Place – 1.38.430 – cam the man – 75 TSA Pts
- 3rd Place – 1.38.465 – JamboGT – 50 TSA Pts
All 3 times were brilliant, but there was just one thousandth of a second between cam the man and Manorhowze! Seeing as those all times were so good, I asked them if they wouldn’t mind sharing their secrets and giving some tips to those of us who didn’t do as well. They all responded, so here are snippets of what they said:
JamboGT:
“For my lap I used both ABS and medium traction control, however my biggest tip personally is to learn to race without these. This teaches you to brake and accelerate when the car is straight, so no grip is wasted with the car turning and basically will help you to drive faster. After getting competent with this set-up I then turned on TC and ABS for the time trial and was able to easily take 2 to 3 seconds off my time while still using the same driving style.
Secondly, get a ghost off the leaderboards. I went for a ghost that was a second or so faster than what I thought I would be capable of until I was racing against one of the very top guys. My final tip may not be an affordable one, but if you can afford to get a wheel, get it. You can be so much smoother and progressive with both the throttle and the steering, and it is great fun too!”
Cam The Man:
“The key to me getting a fast lap was trying to master corners 3, 5 & 13, as they made the biggest difference to the lap times. I found that if I braked slightly earlier than normal but slow down less, I could get the power down early, before the apex, which makes a big difference to your speed down the straights. Oh, and don’t take too much kerb, apart from the chicanes, as I spent many a lap spinning after riding them too much.
My set-up was mainly the 2nd from right in ‘quick setup’ with the gears changed to suit the track and a bit extra camber to null the kerbs at the chicanes.”
Manorhowze:
“The assists I used were ABS, Corners only racing line, full traction control and auto gearbox. You can’t (well I can’t) go as fast with traction control off as you are constantly doing donuts. I would use Manual in almost any other racing game but it’s too hectic in this game for me so I stick to auto.
I went through a few different setups but the one I used for my fastest time was a Dry setup with maximum aero and the toe turned right up. I had the engine set to ‘Fast’ and front wing set for more downforce. I chose the Red Bull for the Time Trial purely as that was the fastest car round the real Singapore track (although not the winning car, but that’s a different story).
I found using a friends ghost (or someone off the global leaderboard) helps to get you up to speed with a track and then take a few laps just to find out where you can take liberties with the braking, and more importantly, where you can’t. Once I knew where I could push it, and where I couldn’t, I preferred racing my own ghost and trying to brake a little bit later than the ghost to see if it would still make it round the corner. Oh and as a rule stay off the kerbs With the exception of turns 1 and 10 (although they are both still risky).
There is a lot of time to be made from banzai-ing (Is that even a word?!) a couple of corners, notably Turn 10 (Singapore sling), the first corner and the final corner. If you get it just right you can gain a lot just in those 3 corners. The hardest part of all is resisting the urge to tear your DS3 into pieces, collecting them up and burning them as a sacrifice to the devil when you ruin a good lap. I must have attempted several hundred laps but only ever completed about 10 of them as I would always end up cutting a corner, spinning or hitting a wall so just restart and try again at that point.”
So those are the winner’s tips, I hope you all enjoyed the Time Trial, and have had a look at the TSA F1 2010 Championship, I’m sure that it will be great fun! If F1 isn’t your cup of tea, then check out the Community and Competitions links in the left hand menu for other TSA events that are going on. Thanks to all of you that entered, and once again congratulations to the winners!
This post was written by gazzagb.
icuyesido
I think manors like 27th in the world… well done, I couldn’t get close to them damn scores!
baconsarnie
How amazingly close top 3. Congrats to Manor, Cam and Jambo
Danza Di Fuoco E Ghiaccio
I couldn’t find the time…. curse monster hunter….!
Lfc-Gaz
I did attempt this, but couldn’t even beat gazzagb’s original time.
Thank god none of you 3 are in championship C! :P
Matty
I don’t think i completed a clean lap. How can it disqualify you from your next lap for hitting a wall O_o
Ro6afc11
Great times by all three there. I had been trying and consequently was aware of Manor and Cams times and needless to say I was well down on them. I too hardly completed any genuine timed laps. It was doing my head in to even get a time posted initially. I loaded some ghost laps in too which does help but can also frustrate even more.
I think the most frustrating thing though was that, using the ghosts, I had actually idenitfied a number of places I could improve my times but couldn’t for the life of me do all the right things all in 1 lap. And that I guess is the difference between the great times and the average.
Nicely done, Manor, Cam and JamboGT (who I have to race against on Monday, gulp).
Origami Killer
well done, yet to get this game but looks and sounds awesome but running low on money so this may be for xmas
cam the man
Well done Manor for JUST getting the fastest lap, lol.
Singapore is not the easiest track to set a fast time,most of the laps I did ended with a spin or a disallowed time.
Manorhowze
I think you had a lot less time than me with the game as well so you did really well to get that time.
cam the man
cheers Manor.
Tried a few laps on the Saturday night but couldn’t beat my time so gave up, didn’t know your time then, might have tried a few more, lol.
Manorhowze
I couldn’t believe how close cam had got when I saw his time on the leaderboards and then I found out Jambo had done a 1:38.4 as well. Very close finish but i’m pleased to have JUST come out on top.
Beelzie14
Well done to all 3 of you guys. I thought that I was in with a chance of 1:38,954 or something …. but I will have to go and look for that last 1/2 second! Is it behind the couch? No not there … lol
Unfortunately i have some of you guys in my group tomorrow night! Doh!!!
R1MJAW
Ah, but TT is an entirely different animal to racing … no other cars on track to contend with and usually a reasonably different car setup.
I only managed a paltry 1:40.6 (if i remember correctly), although I could’ve gone sub 1:40 if I could just keep the damn thing from spinning at the most inopportune times.
Oh, and before I forget, a hearty congrats to Manor, Cam and Jambo.
heedbaw
I’d agree with R1MJAW on that, a race is totally different. Having fuel and tyre wear to contend with means going for a balanced setup that will give a consistent time throught the race, as opposed to a banzai setup just for the one hot lap.
Then there’s geting past people, even if you’re much faster the person in fornt may well be a good defensive driver.
Had it happen on Monaco, although that’s hardly an overtaking track, where I was lifting and braking to stop myself from taking out the car in front. Even though I was faster there wasn’t much I could do to get past them.
AshGraham99
Well done to all 3. Very harsh on cam to miss out by a thousandth of a second. I’m not too unhappy at being about 4 tenths off that time. Don’t think I could take doing anymore laps of the track! It was pretty frustrating. JamboGT is in my group of the championship and I’m looking forward to taking him (and everyone else) on. Should be good fun
cam the man
Very harsh indeed :-( but happy to come in top three.