Beater or Sleeper? GT6 Car of the Week Thread

Make sure the setup sheet B has any tires other than dirt or snow. When you get to the track, select sheet B and you will notice that you now have regular tires. Make sense?

That's exactly what I did, even though I swapped to the sheet that has CS tires, the wheels are still dirt wheels.
 
The Trans-Am was actually my very first car in GT6 (other than the fit) and I love it to bits.

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Totally a sleeper car that nobody should pass up.

Congratulations CowboyAce57! You've been chosen to select next week's car! Tell us what we've won!

Seems that it has been a while since we have done a station wagon. So this week I choose the...

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It's the 2002 Toyota Caldina GT-Four!

Grab the wife and kids, this is going to be one trip to the grocery store that you won't soon forget. And bring plenty of change... I hear that the Nurburgring isn't a cheap toll road.


Best lap- 8:26.708
 
Taking a break from Katamari Damacy ($1 on the PS Store!) to give this car a go at Mid-Field.

Katamari Damacy for only a dollar!? Where do I sign up for that? I was always intrigued with that traditionally Japanese concept... 💡

And speaking of intriguing, the Caldina should be pretty interesting. It shares many aspects with the rather unsucessful Celica GT-Four that was dealt with recently, but it's actually more powerful. And heavier too, but that's to be expected. How will it fare is anyone's guess...
 
@Niku Driver HC, just log into the PS Store and search for katamari or look for the Flash Sale icon.

Okay so after 5 laps, my best time was on my 3rd lap. How does it compare with the ST205? To the spec sheets!

Caldina
2.0L
255 hp / 6,000 rpm
239 ft-lb / 4,500 rpm
1,480 kg (3,263 lbs)
425 pp

12.8 lbs/hp

Celica
2.0L
250 hp / 6,000 rpm
224 ft-lb / 4,000 rpm
1,390 kg (3,064 lbs)
424 pp

12.3 lbs/hp

The Celica is down by 5 hp and 15 ft-lbs, BUT it weighs 90 kg less and its torque peaks 500 rpm sooner.

And now for the main event. Mid-Field Raceway on Comfort Soft tires! Let's battle!

1:28.445 - Toyota Celica GT-Four (ST205) '98
1:29.577 - Toyota Caldina GT-Four '02

Hey, not bad for a wagon!

Cars +/- half a second:

1:29.337 - Nissan Fairlady Z 300ZX (Z31) '83
1:29.371 - Lotus Elise '11
1:29.592 - Toyota MR2 Spyder (6MT) '02
1:29.774 - Toyota Supra SZ-R '97
1:29.799 - Honda Civic Type R (EK) '97
1:29.908 - Pontiac Firebird Trans Am '78

Hey look it's our buddy, the Pontiac Bandit :)

This car is a total sleeper, by the way. Remove the GT-Four badging (if there is any) and nobody will suspect that under its bonnet contains the phenomenal 3S-GTE.

Side note: the info screen says there is a "N Edition" (N for Nurburgring) which features "sequential shifting, Torsen LSD, suspension upgrades, and Recaro seats." Cool!
 
I hope that's not one of those US-only offers, @SuzukaStar, but I also need to add some money to my PSN account, those Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn DLCs drained my resources, haha. :lol:

Also, pretty surprising to see the Caldina in front of a Supra and a MR2, not bad for a wagon indeed. The engine is good, but I do hope that it can at least show more spark than the Celica. But the Caldina defintely has the Q-car credentials, at least design-wise.
 
Decided to try a race tune on this car (I already have a drift tune on it) and managed to get a 6:47.127 (Racing softs) with 550pp on the nordshleife. The weirdest thing about this car is that the stock transmission has only 4 gears! But that doesn't stop me from loving this soccer mom rocket.

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What did the poppa tomato say to the little tomato???

It's time to Ketchup!

Well since I've gotten so far behind, here's a brief rundown on everything I'm late on...

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The Z cars... I've always been a fan ever since I was a kid. I got a model of a blue '71 Fairlady Z when I was 6 years old and I've been a fan ever since. So much so, I owned one later on. Here in North America, Japanese cars were mostly hated for their small displacement engines, but for those who actually owned a Datsun the love affair was warranted. In my mind there is no such thing as a Beater that has a Z badge let alone a Fairlady Z badge. So, I took a picture of my 2 favourite Sleeper Z's and would recommend them to anyone. Underestimation can be deadly or profitable depending on which car you're racing in! :mischievous:

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The Toyota GT Four... as mentioned before, there are better versions of this car in the guise of previous generations but I didn't think it was as bad as some of the reviews I read. But as always, people had made some good points about their dislikes and I can and do understand those points and even agree with them. This car made me quite a bit in the Seasonal depicted in the pic, but to be honest, having a stock car with a PP rating so close to the race requirements wasn't really that fair to the AI opponents I embarrassed. But even still, I give it a Beater rating, but only just... it has potential, but needs work to the as-is road version as it sits.

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Ahh the Zonda... the super car before it was famous. Well in my mind anyways. Tis no Sleeper as it is an Italian work of automotive art and it's no Beater either as it can hold its own among others. Not my favourite from Pagani but hey, you can't really knock it either. Similar to the Celica, it gets a Neutral rating but only just... it's so close to a good rating but I'd rather the version after it tbh.

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Ahh the memories... between the movie the car is famous for and the Rockford Files which gave so many ideas to test these cars. Yes, Jim drove a different version of the car but time wise... if you were old enough to drive or at least knew someone old enough to drive, these were tested time and again to replicate some of the stunts shown. If I'm not mistaken, the Bandit car even was shown in the tv show C.H.I.P.S.. The fire chicken symbol was infamous in my generation, and it made me giggle when I saw this car here in GT6. But I bought it on sight, as I just had to have one. Sleeper... I love the way it handles stock or modded.

So, not my usual style of reviews but had to give my 2 cents worth. Even if some people would demand change back! :lol: ;)

Cheers
 
Ahhh, the Caldina. I remember my mother used to really want one of these. I still have no idea why to this very day, but I wouldn't blame her. A 4WD, 4-speed automatic MPV, with 255 horsepower coming from the 3S-GTE engine, now in it's 4th and final generation in this car. What's not to like?

......Last I drove this was in GT4, however. Might need to take a look see later this week.
 
I'll attempt Mid-Field again with a 5-speed transmission and see if it's any faster. It's probably been done in real life anyway. I can't believe I didn't realize it's only a 4 speed until just now...

After 2 laps? 1:28.250

Already faster than the Celica by 2 tenths of a second and 1.3 seconds faster than the 4-speed Caldina!

If I go for another 10 laps I can probably see 1:27

A manual swap from the ST205 would be the highest priority for me if I owned this car.

Top speed on the straight went from 125 mph up to 127 mph and the car stays in boost all the time now.
 
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Seems that increasing steering sensitivity on the DS3 could artificially induce scrubbing of the front wheels, possibly. I mean, it helped quite a bit with the understeer problem I had on the Caldina.
 
Seems that increasing steering sensitivity on the DS3 could artificially induce scrubbing of the front wheels, possibly. I mean, it helped quite a bit with the understeer problem I had on the Caldina.
Please try not to double post. Use the edit button instead ;)
 
I honestly thought that the time gap between both my posts would be considered separate, since the recent one was in reference to the meet we had earlier today. But if I must, then so be it.
I didn't notice that there was a gap between the two posts. My bad.
 
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