Completed all 71 races of AC challenges on alien level

Rusty911 · Feb 13, 2022

It took me a few months but I finally completed all 71 races of the Assetto Corsa challenges at the alien level. It was fun to do and I can recommend it to anyone. It will force you to drive cars and tracks that you otherwise won't drive often or even at all and that will make you a more complete driver. Also, if you try to win the races against the highest AI levels, you have to modify the default setups and that way you can learn a few things.

For anyone who would like to win the races at the highest AI levels I have a few tips:
- Make sure you nail the start. The races are short and if you don't have a good start, you might run out of laps to make it to first. Make sure you have just enough wheelspin to keep the revs up. For some cars you have to use the clutch. Don't hesitate to restart the race if you didn't nail the start.
- For cars with ABS, use it and set brake power to 100%. I used to set ABS to off and theshold brake, but I noticed that you can often brake a lot later when using ABS and brake power on 100. (Heusinkveld Sprint user here).
- The setups I used to win at alien level often did not differ a lot from the default setup, so if you make changes, change one thing at a time and do it in little steps. Experience the behaviour of the car first before you make any changes to the setup!
- Always use the softest tire compound (except for the F1 cars and 10 lap LMP races I believe). After compound the single most important setup parameter (and that was new for me) is tire pressure. Tire pressure is more important than tire temperature as long as the tires don't overheat (cold tires is not so much a problem). The optimal tire pressure is the one that has the best trade off between grip level and rolling resistance. For cars that have limited setup possibilities, you can use tire pressure to change the balance of the car (front lower pressures for more oversteer). If a track has way more corners to the right than to the left, you could increase pressures on the right side of the car to lower the rolling resistance and thus increase the speed of the car, without sacrificing a lot of corner speed.

Let me know if you have any difficulties with a particular race. Maybe I can help you. Have fun!

Rusty911 · Feb 16, 2022

Just completed the drag races as well. Some tips I would suggest:
- Pay attention to the engine sound of your opponent. You can almost guess when the light will turn green.
- Keep your revs optimal in first gear. Just enough to keep them high without spinning the wheels too much.
- Know when to shift. The optimal shift point is not always at maximum revs.
- Setup adjustments (for rear wheel drive cars): Fuel = 1 L, Tire compount = softest, Toe = 0 (front and rear), Rear camber = 0, Front tire pressure = max, TC = off, Rear suspension = softest.

Rusty911 · Aug 30, 2022

I started drifting a few weeks ago and it is really fun in Assetto Corsa! Just completed all 18 drift challenges with gold.

A few tips I would like to share:

Start by watching some Youtube tutorials on how to drift. Know how to initiate a drift, catch the slide with countersteer and change direction of a drift.

Scoring in Assetto Corsa: try to connect drifts to one-another. That way you make combos and your score will rise faster with each combo. Even when the time counter reaches zero you can raise your score by keeping making combos. Also, the faster you drift and the greater the drift angle, the faster your score will rise.

You can bring your tire temperatures up to drift level in the pits before the timer starts if you slowly put your car against the pitwall and rev your tires.

With some cars I had to make setup adjustments to make te car easier to drift. Before you make any setup adjustments get a feel of the car with heated tires. Make sure you set TC and SC off. To enhance drifting of a car, you can lower front tire pressure, increase rear tire pressure (even to max), lower front rollbars and/or dampers, increase rear rollbars and/or dampers. Most of the time street tires are the best drift tires.

I had the most difficulty reaching gold with the KTM Xbow and the (4WD) Audi quattro S1. The Audi was the only car I couldn't make combos with and I had to use the handbrake to initiate a drift. I found the BMW M3 E30 and the BMW Z4 the easiest cars to drift.