British Cup - Pro - The Write-up

[Der Alta]

British Cup – Professional
Trial Mountain

I’ve been evaluating what car to use for this race for the last month. Wanting to stick with the British companies, I tried out my Vanquish. Even with all the upgrades, I found that it was a pig. So I attempted it with a fully modded Elise 190. No such luck. Gave up on the British companies, Tried out the SLK. Outta luck there too. Gave up, and took my CLK Touring car to the game.

Motor Sport Elise: + 32.400
Tuscan Speed 6: + 48.150
Vanquish: + 1 lap
V8 Vantage: + 1 lap
XKR Coupe: + 1 lap

Best Lap: 1’27.778
Total time: 14’58.324

The Vanquish, Vantage pitted on lap 8, and XKR pitted on lap 9. My front tires were red by the end of the race, but I noticed no change in the handling characteristics of the car. In fact, my fastest lap was my last lap.

Special Stage Route 5
CLK again.

Motor Sport Elise: + 53.390
Tuscan Speed 6: + 1’02.214
Vanquish: + 1’29.790
XKR Coupe: + 1 lap
V8 Vantage: + 1 lap

Best Lap: 1’25.522
Total time: 14’44.869

Not a tough race, More like a blow out.

Rome Circuit II
CLK again.

Motor Sport Elise: + 14.728
Tuscan Speed 6: + 58.264
Vanquish: + 1 lap
XKR Coupe: + 1 lap
V8 Vantage: + 1 lap

Best Lap: 1’27.592
Total time: 15’28.935

The Elise was hooked up on this track. The Vanquish, Vantage, and XKR all took a pit stop on lap 9. My front tires were orange by the finish, but I noticed no change in the handling characteristics of the car, again. The AI on the other hand…Sloppy and all over the place. Rail sliding, bumping, shouldering…slamming each other.

Add one more piece to the puzzle of why PD missed the boat for lack of fore thought. I would have thought that this being a british car challenge, it would have been restricted to British cars. No....Only that you race against British cars. It disappoints me that the AI in the game get lapped by another AI.

It's like the Architecture business. The client never sees all the things done right, they spend 2 hours kibitzing about why the Contractor installed the Front doors backwards. Does the lack of restriction on certain races really have an impact on the overall game?

Anyways...
This nets me 60,000 cr and an Aston Martin Vanquish. Giles Guthrie would shoot me, but I sold it seeing as how I already have one. I kept the white one, and did away with the Red one.

AO

 

[miata13B]

I think the lack of restriction was a huge downside of GT3. GT2 had the race setup great. I miss having a restriction of 492hp and only owning a car that does 510hp or 410hp so you would have to deal with being under powered. Let alone the AI used cars that had around 15 to 30% less power. It still made matters interesting.

 

[Duke]

I agree. In GT3 it is a self-discipline issue, and some people don't care to have any. A real sanctioning body would put very steep restrictions on what cars could run where.

 

[miata13B]

I actually wish there was a setup kinda like what the GT league has. Basically like the game TOCA. All cars need to be made to specific specs and from that tune the car. If this was integrated into a GT format, an evolution would take place to change the way we play the game

 

[Der Alta]

I've gone round and round thinking about restrictions, and limits.

What I've finally settled on is in certain races like the "British Cup" I'd like it to be restricted to "British" cars. Other races, need to have HP limits, like some of the Enduro's. The funnest Enduro's I've played are the Trial Mtn., and the Spider/Roadster.

Then additional races need to have no limits.

My reason for settling on this hypothesis is that there is a vast audience that participates in GT3. For a minority of us, it becomes near obsession. I've typed up nearly 90 pages of text about this game, and am on my third way through it. I haven't take the GT3 disk out of the PS2 in well over 3 months. Other than to through a Shark port disk in to back-up my games saves.

For most people, they play it like any other game. Aim for the highest percentage, by all the cars, mod them to the hilt, then stick it on the shelf to gather dust until the next version. I wonder how many people out there reach 99% and never finish the last few time trials. How many people really go for all golds on the license tests?

After this trip through the game, I'm thinking of picking up a Wheel and aiming for 100% win ratio. The 5th time through I'll shot for the perfect game. Least amount of cars bought, 100% win ratio, and 100% complete.

Unless of course my wife threatens to divorce me over it. In which case I'll mail it to my brother and let it help his marriage.

So all things considered, GT3 came out great, I'd rate it about 95% perfect racing game. 5% accounts for AI stupidity, AI cheating, and the miss on some of the restrictions.

AO

 

[Duke]

Yes, I'm not proposing a limit on every race. There is definitely room for the wide-open 'interperetive' style of playing.

But I think that some of the race series really could have more of a theme to them.

 

[miata13B]

Here is another one for you guys, what about engine swaps??? there is a long list of cars that you can swap engines from, like the chevy 350 block, the honda b&h - series engines, nissan's SR20 series, and Mazda's rotor engines. I think that would add a sweet new twist to the game that would open a whole new level of competition as long as the AI also does it though.

 

[askia47]

got a point there

 

[sukerkin]

AO

Just a quick note as I know you'd really have prefered to do this in a British car. I did this series using a Lotus Esprit.

I don't know if you've tried one out but give it a go. She's fast and handles marvelously well (tho' set-up takes some refining if you go for the maxed HP option).

 

[Der Alta]

Sukerkin:

I hadn't thought to try it out in a Lotus Esprit. I've loved those cars for many years. In building my compendium, I've been trying to buy as few cars as possible. As it stands, I'm over 80% and have only bought one car. The SLK for the silver arrow series. So as such, I don't have one in the garage (yet).

When done properly, I believe, you can do the entire game with only buying two cars. The Merc, and a TVR.

I did make more than a few attempts at running this race in the Elise 190, but it couldn't compete with its big brother.

AO