Sekigahara by Nightingale__
One day, I decided to test my car on a touge track to see how well it'll perform. So I went on GTPlanet and just randomly selected one of the courses with the 'Touge' tag. To my surprise, it was surprisingly fun and made me wanted to do course review. So this is my very first course review, one for the Touge Community!
The Course:
Course Direction: Anti-Clockwise [
Source]
Test Vehicle:
Toyota MR2 G-Limited '97
Specs:
MR / 450PP / SH / Driving Line On & ABS = 1
Course Review:
At the start of the time trial, you'll find yourself going into the straight. First thing this track will greet you is a jump onto the straight! Not a good start I thought. But I got my car ready and went for the first lap, taking it easy, warming up the tyres.
As I finished one lap, I can seperate the track into 3 sections.
Section 1: Hill Climb, Flats, and Downhill
This section will test the balance of your car, whether it is able to cope with both the uphill, flats and downhill secions. You'll be able to drift some of the turns and it's important for your car to be properly tuned.
Section 2: High speed sprints / course divider
You can treat this section as a course divider, dividing the two technical sections. Or you can treat it as a high speed sprint area. After the technical moderate speed turns, you'll have to quickly adjust to a fast sprint. There is a bend which you need to enter into it with the right speed as well.
Section 3: Mainly Hill Climb
Section 3 is a few tight and a lot of s-curves going uphill. There is a long downhill sweep somewhere in the middle followed by another climb till the end. There's also a jump right at the end before the long straight.
In conclusion, this track is really enjoyable to drive and have a good rhythm to it. I find myself sucked into the course. There isn't any nasty surprises on the turns and if you have never driven here before, the racing line will be sufficient to help you enjoy the track. The only flaw is the last turn where it is a jump, but it can be easily overlooked as that turn is the very last turn. I'll visit this track again one day and drive it on the opposite direction.
Time Attack: Not to be revealed to protect my touge machine's specs because of
LotS.
Touge Battles:
I had a couple of battles yesterday with Sports Hard at 450PP. From the races, this course is more suited for the Cat and Mouse battle. The roads are narrow and passing is difficult. Unless the leading car makes a mistake, it'll be hard to pass, we're all talking about racing cleanly. If you have proper tuned cars and drivers of similar skill levels, this is a great battle course.
You can also run all three sections and will still produce a good battle. The only thing to watch for is the last jump, that'll determine whether you'll reach the finish line or not.
Update 04/07/2011: Last weekend, I manage to Touge with Nightingale__ on this course, the course he created. Man, my heart was pumping and the pressure was on. I was leading at the first run and I can feel the enormous pressure. Man, that was my first real battle! And Nightingale__ said that he even wasn't running seriously. On the second run, I was chasing. And it was less pressure but I can see that I must improve and believe on the lines that I take. I have to understand and trust my SW20 more and know it's limits. Then I can bring out it's capabilities during battle.
Summary:
Road Width: Narrow
Course Speed:
- Section 1: Moderate Speed
- Section 2: High Speed
- Section 3: Moderate Speed
Technicality: High
Rhythm: 5/5
TimberW's Rating: 9/10