Best track for car comparisons

[JohnnyFiama]

I've tried out a few of the tracks mentioned so far in this thread and at the moment my favourite is Deep Forest. I think I'll stick with that for the time being as it has most of what I want, some nice flowing bends, some quick stuff, some tight bits and it's not too long. Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[Famine]

Deep Forest's straights are uphill, giving a disadvantage to low torque cars. That's why I prefer Trial Mountain - only one straight to speak of, the other being punctuated by an off-camber chicane and followed by a fast set of sweeping corners...

 

[JohnnyFiama]

Thanks for all the feedback. I've finally chosen a track and am starting to record some lap times. In the end I chose Tsukuba. This seemed best for me for a number of reasons:

- It's short so I can get lots of lap times in my limited playing time.
- It's got a nice variety of quick and slow corners and hairpins.
- It's flat (thanks Famine!)
- It's relatively easy so I can lap very consistently without making mistakes. Within a handfull of laps in each car I'm down to a fairly consistent benchmark times so the lap times are "real" and not dictated by driving errors....

It might not be everyone's perfect track but it will serve me fine! Thanks again for all the input.

 

[Mt. Lynx]

I mainly use Deep Forest. It is superb for suspension tuning, and contains just about everything a good testtrack should have. It´s downside is - like Famine pointed out, it´s main straight.
The other track I use is Midfield. It´s easy to memorize, and also contains pretty much all you need, except that it is very smooth in it´s surface, so it´s not very good for dialing in a suspensionsetup that works on Le Mans or the ´Ring, wich Deep Forest is pretty good for.

 

[hadlou]

I think Deep forest's track looks like Road America with long fast straights and some slow corners

 

[nitrorustler41]

I usually use midfield because it has the perfect mix. high speed S's, good striaght, long sweepers, tight hairpins, banked curve, braking S's and double apex turns too. it works well for me. just my opinion. the best real answer would probaly be the Nurb though. it covers all aspects of driving. it is just not my style. I don't have the patienc for it.

 

[hondalife23]

i use tskuba its short im addicted to that track

 

[mafia_boy]

I've got a couple of tracks I like to use personally.

Nurburgring: For that ultimate test against the road with your handling package.

Tsukuba: For Time Attack runs, NOS & No NOS.

Le Sarthe 2: For Top Speed Slipstream Runs while racing.

Midfield: Shortened Version of Nurburgring, able to judge a lot of characteristics of the car, even in Reverse.

El Capitan: To see how it likes off and on camber corners, to limit drift and wheelspin on circuit tuning.

Motorland: Drift Setup only on this course.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Grand Valley is great since it's been in all 4 Gran Turismos and some of the previews. But I usually vary my track comparisons for whatever I'm about to do.

Take last nite, for instance. I got a '91 Civic from the used lot, and since it hasn't got much speed to begin with, I took it to Autumn Ring, threw some N3s on it, and did a few laps just to deal with really bad understeer (before I mod it up and make it handle better!)

 

[dimplz]

Midfield raceway : mini nurb i hear...no quite but has a great layout
Grand valley east section in reverse : great for drifting..also sorting out oversteer and understeer

 

[CirclesCenter]

I really like midfield personally. Granted it is certainly tilted towards higher powered cars but there are quite a few good opportunities to push the car in long sweepers and with transitions from throttle to brakes whilst turning. I really like the easy right into the tight left after the straight. This part makes it so that any handling issues that occur under braking stare you right in the face.