Beater or Sleeper? GT6 Car of the Week Thread

Zoom Zoom... Relatively Speaking!

Well last week, we played with the MX5 Touring Car. Sure, it's not that hard to name a slew of race cars that have WAY more power, but there are actually quite a few that have even less power than this Mazda. Cup cars come immediately to my mind anyways. There's even a Honda FITT race car. :lol: Let that sink in a bit people...

One of the instant pluses would be the drivetrain. Front engine, rear wheel drive is ALWAYS a benefit. Well for me it is. It's just more fun. The fact that the Miata TC is actually fun wasn't a surprise to me, as it's been featured in a few Quick Match events over the past couple years. This time around it's showcased at Monaco... clean races are fun there, but as we all know, clean QM racing can be a challenge to find. But when you do, it's memorable.

This race car has multiple choices for "optional equipment" too. All 3 versions of turbo chargers can be had, or the supercharger. Not too many race cars have both available. It's paintable. There's custom wings to choose from. It's one of the only truly topless cars. The list goes on. Sure, you probably won't need a neck brace after racing, but there's more good than bad attributes... rare, especially when compared to the last race car. Remember the Storm???

Sleeper and a Keeper rating from me!!!

Cheers
 
Nice work, and thanks for the choice of BorS for this week @Nismonath5 :D

The TR-XX was a car which I instantly fell in love with after first noticing it way back in....Top Gear magazine. Yeah, not a Gran Turismo game, although it did feature of course on GT2 (my initiation into the franchise at age seven). But I didn't really see this car until I read a 'Top 100' style issue of Top Gear magazine, where they listed it as one of the greatest lightweight performance cars of all time. I have always had a huge respect for what Japanese engineers were capable of accomplishing with the modest spec limits which they were allowed to work up to, and the 8.5 second 0-60 time of the AWD version (the TR-XX R4) with only 63 tiny horses to work with immediately impressed me, especially when paired with off road ability and excellent fuel economy.

What made me really fall in love with the Cuore however (along with its more manic older brother - the Storia X4, and even more understated sibling - the Move SR-XX), was the same thing that make both the Ferrari FF and the Savage Rivale GTS my dream cars - when performance truly meets practicality. Not just token practicality, such as in the form of the claimed 2+2 seat layouts of endless sports cars which should have just stuck to 2 (unless your rear passenger is Douglas Bader of course).

No, this tiny turbocharged peanut can actually deliver performance which would shame countless euro hatches with two or even three times the power, while simultaneously allowing enough headroom for a 6'3 bear such as myself to comfortably fit in and drive.

In the world of racing games, it is easy to feel underwhelmed by the slower cars that a game has to offer, and although the Cuore may not be an all-conquering Q-Car, the Gran Turismo franchise has always treated the incredible world of Kei cars with care, respect and attention. And I love that GT truly captures the larger than life spirit of this Chihuahua of the performance car world....this ''B Road Baller'' if you will :D
 
Mighty Mira!!!
No pics this week, reason to be told soon..

At the start of the week, I asked a simple question about the Mira. Cheap and cheerful, or cheap and nasty? I think the answer is.... cheap.

Conforming to kei car regulations, the Mira packs a 650cc motor good for 63bhp, and weighs a teeny tiny 700kgs. It does however have lots of grunt for such a small car! It has enough to almost-but-not-quite smoke up the front tyres off the start line, and get up to speed before boring you to sleep. Being under 100bhp, you're given comfort medium tyres to race on, which actually isn't too bad considering it's never going to pull any major cornering forces.

Racing it is actually pretty enjoyable, it's cute and zippy with no danger of the car betraying you. It's FF after all, oversteer is basically impossible. Understeer, now there's your problem. But that's to be expected from front wheel drive cars! It has a non-threatening, beginner-friendly appeal to it, and although it seems like nothing more than a economical city runabout, it can deliver some thrills! Most of the tracks we raced on were smaller, simpler, tighter tracks. Which was fair enough given the nature of the Mira. However when we eventually were taken to a track with a wider, longer and faster nature (Mid-Field, of course!), the Mira didn't exactly lose any appeal! Granted, it was still pretty slow in comparison to other cars, but it was fast enough to make a pretty intense race!

Now, I know what you're thinking! Is the Mira useful even in non-kei car events? (Wait, you weren't thinking that? Oh.)
Well, it depends. Even maxed out, it's only really suitable for races up to National A level, beyond that and you'll be better off upgrading to a Suzuki Swift Sport or a Daihatsu Sirion X4. It can punch above it's weight on technical tracks like London or Autumn Ring, but will suffer on tracks with long straights, as with pretty much all kei cars. Despite it all, I can't help but feel as though it's a little bir boring. It's a simple, standard kei car with not much going for it in terms of uniqueness besides boasting a bit more torque. There's nothing exactly wrong with it as such, it's just a bit dull. It's not cheap and cheerful, nor cheap and nasty, just cheap. In all honesty, I'd recommend saving up a little more for the Sirion X4.
Beater.

Now, the reason there's no pics this week is because I've been hard at work on the car I'm entering into the 24hr LeMons. We've just bought a new seat and clutch for it, only needing a fuel cell, diff and some paint work and it's ready! Also, I accidentally deleted the recording I made for Playing With TT's... oops. I'll re-do that when I get the chance.
Back soon with the new car!
 
Before I announce the new car, here's the TT vid, re-recorded and ready!


Anyways, BIG NEWS this week. TVR's back from the dead with an all-new Griffith! It's a real "manly" car, with a traditional stick shift, V8 FR layout, and no assists except TCS and ABS! And this week, we'll commemorate that by racing one of their finest works! (No, not the original Griffith. We did that already.)

This was Ryk's idea, so Congratulations @Ryk!!!

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It's the 2000 TVR Tuscan Speed 6!!!!!

With a certainly unique look and no shortage of weird and wonderful colours to choose from, the Tuscan certainly looks eye catching! Will it have the performance to match? Let's see!!!

This week's Playing With TT's will be at Cape Ring full circuit, with plenty of twists and turns to test your talent!

Also, one more thing. I mentioned basically the same thing over at DOTW, so if you frequent both of the threads you'll know what I'm bout to say.
I've noticed that the thread's starting to quieten down. Again. Yes, there are quiet times and bustling times, but this time it's been really quiet for weeks now. And while we can all blame the upcoming GT Sport for taking the spotlight away from GT6, and fair enough too since GT6 has had as long a run as it has, I can't help but think that it's also partly to do with people feeling compelled to write lengthy reviews and stories on the cars.

Let's be clear. You don't have to. :)

This thread's for discussion, and you can talk about absolutely anything to do with the car, from "I like the wheels" to a full on detailed write up. In fact, the more minor comments are made, the more discussion gets going, and that's what keeps a thread alive! So come on! Let's show everyone that GT6 Car Of the Week isn't dead yet! Even if you can't attend the races, attempt the TT! Even if you can't do that, then just free run the car a bit and tell us of your experiences! Let's inject another dose of life into this club, and get some more discussion/banter/trivia going!
:gtpflag:
That being said, see you Tuesday!
 
Here's the officially unofficial results for the "Being topless makes it convenient when" Playing with TT's event...

Victory_Reign93: 0:57.815

G_ASHER: 0:58.201

Nismonath5: 0:58.326

BaronBlitzRed: 0:58.701

THG-WHEELER34: 0:59.258

And the "Do you look at the Mira Mira on the wall when you're" Playing with TT's event...

Victory_Reign93: 0:30.409

BaronBlitzRed: 0:30.795

Nismonath5: 0:30.958

Cheers
 
One of my pet peeves with the Tuscan is the dashboard. One comically oversized speedometer, and the tach's basically just two numbers that rapidly increase and decrease. I mean, I can see what TVR were trying to do there, but while racing it just doesn't do it for me. :indiff:

Also, I won't be racing this week. I gotta get this Commodore prepared, we have two days and a to-do list with about eight major points left. Late nights ahead! (Hopefully gonna make a vid on it, so stay tuned)
 
Long story short, I've tried finding times to give the Tuscan a thrashing, all week I've probably only had a total of 15 minutes. And all that time, it's jumped, fought, and wrestled with me. Not exactly a fan, so beater from me..

In other news, the Hooncorp Commodore's ready for action, so I'm gonna be a little pre-occupied for the next three days... but while I was painting / detailing, I decided to throw on a touch of COTW on the car :D

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LeMons has pre-occupied my time as you'd expect, so I haven't sorted next week's car. Someone just inbox me with a good enough suggestion and we'll go with that! :D
 
TVR Speed Sexy...

So the past week we got to thrash around in a car I've been lucky enough to drive in real life. One of my beloved English car makers, TVR makes cars done right... light, fast and agile. The Speed Six version of the Tuscan I had rented during a trip I went on, and was the most expensive rental car I've ever done... but it was worth every penny!!!

Done up in glorious Premium status, this TVR was also featured in the movie "Swordfish" starring John Travolta and a few other famous people as well. For me, it's just sexy... looks, sound, performance, it has it all. The black paint job it had was stunning and was hard NOT to notice. Like a black hole, it sucked up any and all attention away from anything else. Now just to convince PD to get us a Sagaris, and I'd be beyond happy!!!

Personally, I don't have any complaints about the Tuscan. I do wish we would've brought the TC version out this week too, but there's that saying about having your cake and something something something. Whether stock or tuned, it's a force to be reckoned with, and in the right hands it's an out and out weapon. Sleeper and a Keeper rating from yours truly!

Cheers
 
TVR Tuscan Speed 6 '00
4.0L
360 hp / 7,000 rpm
309 ft-lb / 5,000 rpm
1,100 kg (2,425 lbs)
500 pp
6.74 lbs/hp



Cars within 0.500 seconds:

1:19.396 - 485 - Honda S2000 LM Race Car
1:19.406 - 510 - BMW M4 Coupé
1:19.452 - 522 - Ferrari California '08
1:19.454 - 558 - Ford Shelby GT500 '13
1:19.460 - 477 - Opera Performance S2000 '04
1:19.461 - 526 - RUF CTR "Yellow Bird" '87
1:19.551 - 512 - Mine's Lancer Evolution VI '00
1:19.573 - 497 - BMW M3 GTR '03
1:19.593 - 486 - Shelby Series One Supercharged '03
1:19.598 - 513 - BMW M5 '08
1:19.743 - 493 - Lotus Esprit Sport 350 '00
1:19.780 - 505 - Lexus Weds Sport IS350 '08
1:19.842 - 505 - Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
1:19.880 - 490 - BMW M3 CSL '03
1:19.885 - 531 - High End Performance G37
1:19.890 - 483 - Spoon S2000 Race Car '00
1:19.894 - 500 - TVR Tuscan Speed 6 '00
1:19.900 - 497 - TVR Tamora '02
1:19.918 - 532 - Jaguar XKR-S '11
1:19.952 - 504 - Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C5) '00
1:19.979 - 468 - Honda NSX Type R '02
1:19.989 - 500 - Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione '08
1:20.207 - 474 - Mazda RX500 '70
1:20.266 - 507 - SRT Viper GTS '99

Its light weight helped give it the edge over monsters like the Viper '99, Corvette Z06 '00, and NSX Type R '02. It's biting the heels of Esprit Sport 350 '00. TVR's own Tamora is virtually identical in performance here at Mid-Field.

I'm giving it a sleeper rating. With even more weight reduction and better suspension/tires, this car could be unstoppable.
 
The Tuscan is just a lovely car. In the GT series there have been a number of cars I liked quite a lot-so much that I rarely drive them. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it's more like the fact that they make other cars look poor by comparison. The Tuscan is one of them. I found a tune here ( don't remember who made it ) but it just drives like butter. Smooth, fast, does exactly what it's supposed to. I have no complaints. Like @Baron Blitz Red says, would have been fun to run the TC too.

Edit: After running the TT I've got to change my opinion. Granted, in the career mode with tuning available, the Tuscan is great. Within the parameters of the TT, not so much. This course seemed to bring out the worst in this car ( as with many higher pp FR cars ). It accentuated the cars tendency for understeer on corner entrance and oversteer on power. Brakes ain't so great either. I'll still give it a sleeper-keeper rating, but I'm not quite as fond of it out of the box. As witness to my evaluation, I got 2:53.888 in arcade mode TT ( behind Vic and Baron ) and it wasn't easy.

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Greetings lads! I'm back from LeMons! :D

I'll do a full on write up on GTP of the event, but we lasted the entire weekend and came 17th out of 30 starters! Pretty chuffed with the ol' Commy, not bad for a beater!

Speaking of beaters, it's time to get back to work! I asked you guys to send through some suggestions, and I got a few responses. Those that didn't get picked shall be stored away for a rainy day..

The one I'm going with is Obelisk's choice!
Congratulations @Obelisk (Actually @MidFieldMaven )!!!

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It's the 2002 Plymouth Chrysler Prowler!!!!!!!

It's a retro hotrod, with the shape and styling to take you straight to the 30's. Sadly there's no V8 under the hood, but regardless it's still a pretty damn popular car, on the road and in car shows! Should it belong on the racetrack? You be the judge! This week's Playing With TT's will be at the scorching asphalts of Laguna Seca, so make sure to practise that corkscrew! See y'all Tuesday :cheers:

(EDIT: Why did noone tell me I'd screwed up epic here?! The Prowler was @MidFieldMaven's choice, not @Obelisk's! Apologies Maven, just saw that now!)
 
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May I join in chaps ?
I'm sort of trying out random things to do with GT6 seeing as I'm retiring from track making (sort of). bit of quick match here & there.
What are the rules & is this arcade or private club ? Thanks in advance :cheers:

A good portion of what you need to know is in the first post, but here's the cliff notes..

  • Two meet ups a week in public lobbies so we allow randoms to join, one on Tuesday at 10PM CST(or 4AM for you and me:P) and on Saturday at 3PM CST(or 9PM for you and me.)
  • A TT event in the secondary club hosted by @Nismonath5 is set up each week for the car in question.
  • Rules are as follows,
  • Keep it clean: we allow for minor bumps and scrapes because it WILL happen when you put equally matched cars and somewhat equally matched and competive drivers together, but we draw the line on anything malicious or blatantly obvious. In short and in the words of @McClarenDesign, "Don't be a Dick".
  • We allow all driver aids as we like to accommodate all skill levels, seriously we even had a 6 year old who was the son of a regular racer get in on the act. :D
  • But we tend to all run SRF to ensure everyone can enjoy themselves and be competitive, but you can run any assists you're comfortable with, just don't get all high and mighty about not using SRF as those we've had randoms do that and it just irritates everyone. :ouch:
  • Oil changes, paint, wheels and numbers if possible can be done to your car, no aero parts as that's considered tuning by the game.
  • We run a few warm up races and then we race with the Any Given Sunday rule active, The AGS rule is simple in that if you win a race, you drop a tyre compound for the rest of the night to level the playing field, if you win multiple races you'll drop by as many as you can win and it mostly works.:P
  • But above all that, just have fun with racing.
If you need someone to add to your friends list if you can make it to one or both times, Me, @Baron Blitz Red and Nismo will be your best bets. ;)

If you have any other questions, just let us know.
 
@Vic Reign93. Ta mate, yeh I won't be doing the 4am race that's for sure. I presume the lobby name would be Beater or Sleeper ?

Also I'll speak to @Nismonath5 regarding the TT rules.

Thanks for the info.

The lobby titles will be like this,

COTW (Insert car name here) so this week for example will be COTW Chrysler Prowler '02.

I've only broken that rule on 2 occasions that I'm aware of, with the Honda ACT Z and Jay Leno's Tank Car IIRC. :D
 
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