Okay. With Brap Brap fully specced out, it's time to finally finish Group B.
It's taken a bit of practice, but I've started to figure out what I'm doing wrong when it comes to shifting….
...Let me demonstrate on this Corolla...
Yeah! Take that! Under 10 seconds baby! 9.84 vs 10.44
So, as some of you aludded to - there's an optimal shift point for each gear to get the best power / speed ratio.
This is why you used to see people purchase these aftermarket tachometer - which had a big globe that would flash a bright in the drivers face to say “SHIFT NOW”.
If only I could buy one of these in the game.
In Zero4Champ, red line is at 7k, but the car revvs way higher. And there's no punishment for hitting the limit (other than losing potential speed).
To figure it out what the best RPM to shift at - was to watch the speedometer. There's more obvious ‘tells’ of the speed increasing slower at particular intervals, and that is the best time to shift.
I believe this varies per car, and per modification however. It's also really important how quickly you get into second after launching.
For my best times, once I take off, I almost immediately switch to second gear. Then, into third, then fourth at gears respective, and for fourth and fifth I basically ride out the full range.
What this looks like from a stepped technique was:
Rev it up to full rpm whilst waiting for the light, bouncing off the limiter.
Dump the clutch immediately when the light turns green and switch to second at 30kph / 8,000 rpm, (almost immediately).
Switch to third at around 90kph / 6500rpm
(Note, only about four seconds have passed at this stage.)
Then switch into fourth at around 120kmph / 7,500 rpm
Ride out fourth all the way till about 8,500 rpm / 170kph before shifting into fifth, and letting that go on till the end of the race.
You would think less gears would be faster (i.e 4 speed should involve less shifting and more time in the power band) but this is not the case in this game it seems. The four speed is slower.
Problem with this technique thus far is I don't always get consistent results …
Let me demonstrate on our next target, this MR2.
We won by a good margin, but we’re back above 10 seconds again. This is what I mean by it not being exactly consistent. It really relies on me nailing each hit, every time.
However, it's enough to get us through the other 5 or so races in Group B….
:
Yay, this is going well!
Well... it was going well...
:
Your opponent in the finals is me.
:
You're Fujiwara Daisuke!
:
This time I'm gonna beat you!
:
You're still all talk.
:
Well, do your best.
:
Don't bore me.
:
He's still annoying as ever.
:
But I won't lose today.
Boy, they really are getting some mileage out of that same set of dialogue, huh?
:
Taro-san, it's about time you got to the starting line.
Ok. We're squared off against Daisuke once again. We're faster than we've ever been before. Surely this is the time…
Gah! HE STILL WON!
This is what, the fifth time we've been defeated by this prick?
We even managed to get our fastest time of 9.84 seconds.. but it's still not enough!
:
I lost…
:
You're still all talk. Hahahaha
:
Why don't you just stop doing zero-yon?
:
Damn it! Next time, I'll beat you!
:
I'm looking forward to it.
Man, they really are getting their money's worth on this interaction.
I shouldn't be surprised, really, that the game would pull this on us again... But since we're going into Group A, I had assumed it might be time to move on from Daisuke and focus on the biker dude.
:
Taro-san. The prize money is 750,000 yen. That's great!
Well. We still haven’t managed to defeat Fujiwara yet, but at least we have finally finished Group B, after however knows how many tries - and we are exactly rank 51. Just one more series to go…
Now, we can’t lose site of our end goal here. We’ll have to clever and plan out how we attack Group A.
No distractions!
Oh god, not again…