Can I get an opinion about whether adding tuning parts to a car starts to erode its individuality?

[benjoi84]

I have asked the question in a comment within another random thread somewhere but it got lost in unrelated replies.

One of the things that I love about Gran Turismo is the unique feel of (nearly) all of the cars. Obviously this comes from each vehicle being assembled differently. Engine parts/weight distribution/power delivery, amongst many other factors, contribute towards the feel of driving and it's why I play the game.

What I'm curious about, thanks to some negative experiences "beefing up" some cars in the game, is when we install aftermarket parts to our cars, are we not kinda making them more similar to one another? It makes me reluctant to tune cars (which is also a longer term aim for my game), although it's a lot of fun.

So far I've tried to limit myself to basic upgrades like weight reduction and brakes on my favourite cars because I don't want them to lose their personality.

Can anyone relate?

 

[CTznOfTime]

There are no rules, and that's the beauty of the game.

You can do anything to your liking.
You play your own game.

To each its own.

I have thought the same, and as much as I want to keep them stock, I have my own preference on how a car should behave so I end up tuning all of my cars to behave the same way.

Edit: similar to @MatskiMonk said below:
I too try to either buy two or multiple cars and keep at least one stock, or have stock tunes saved so it can be reversible.

 

[Jump_Ace]

I have asked the question in a comment within another random thread somewhere but it got lost in unrelated replies.

One of the things that I love about Gran Turismo is the unique feel of (nearly) all of the cars. Obviously this comes from each vehicle being assembled differently. Engine parts/weight distribution/power delivery, amongst many other factors, contribute towards the feel of driving and it's why I play the game.

What I'm curious about, thanks to some negative experiences "beefing up" some cars in the game, is when we install aftermarket parts to our cars, are we not kinda making them more similar to one another? It makes me reluctant to tune cars (which is also a longer term aim for my game), although it's a lot of fun.

So far I've tried to limit myself to basic upgrades like weight reduction and brakes on my favourite cars because I don't want them to lose their personality.

Can anyone relate?

I can relate and maybe you are referring to their identity? I personally just install non-hp parts with rare exceptions. I feel if I want a faster car, I'll just pick out a faster car vs. beefing up the current car.


Jerome

 

[MatskiMonk]

Where possible I have two of each car, one tuned/modded, one stock. I kind of agree with your point, people will tune cars to their taste, which does rob the car of some of it's character.

 

[hawkeyez]

I like to try and keep a stock one on hand if I have the money. But some cars aren’t that great stock and others can be ruined if tuned and setup.

I believe you can drastically change the way a car handles with certain parts. One thing that helps retain the character is if you boost horsepower a fair amount, just go one better tire. I’ve got a 904 at 600pp on sports soft and if feel really close to the tamer stock version. I think suspension makes the biggest feel in handling characteristics.

You’re right, you can rob the car of its character but some cars actually become better. Pick and choose or keep one stock and the other tuned.

 

[Greycap]

The main thing I try to avoid is excessive weight distribution changes. Many people use it as an easy way to get rid of undesirable handling characteristics but if you put 200 kg in the nose of a Porsche to stop it handling like a RR naturally does, it's not a Porsche anymore and pretty much shows that the tuner ran out of skill to make it behave with actual settings.

 

[CTznOfTime]

The main thing I try to avoid is excessive weight distribution changes. Many people use it as an easy way to get rid of undesirable handling characteristics but if you put 200 kg in the nose of a Porsche to stop it handling like a RR naturally does, it's not a Porsche anymore and pretty much shows that the tuner ran out of skill to make it behave with actual settings.

Guilty as charged.... Sad for me...

I usually lighten the car and put back weight to make the car as close to 50/50 to make them easier to drive....

Looks like I might have to play the game the correct way and remove all the weight distribution....



This thread has made me realize that I may have negatively altered the way I should be driving on GT

 

[hawkeyez]

I will say a fully modded Camaro with engine swap and all parts thrown at it with a tweaked suspension feels nothing like the original one. I have one tuned up reminiscent of the trans am Camaro, I found a bunch of specs online, and it still feels like a Camaro to me. My fully modded one, does not. lol

 

[newmedia_dev]

I have asked the question in a comment within another random thread somewhere but it got lost in unrelated replies.

One of the things that I love about Gran Turismo is the unique feel of (nearly) all of the cars. Obviously this comes from each vehicle being assembled differently. Engine parts/weight distribution/power delivery, amongst many other factors, contribute towards the feel of driving and it's why I play the game.

What I'm curious about, thanks to some negative experiences "beefing up" some cars in the game, is when we install aftermarket parts to our cars, are we not kinda making them more similar to one another? It makes me reluctant to tune cars (which is also a longer term aim for my game), although it's a lot of fun.

So far I've tried to limit myself to basic upgrades like weight reduction and brakes on my favourite cars because I don't want them to lose their personality.

Can anyone relate?

I share a similar sort of view, I stopped tuning cars back in GT5, in the early games it was a fundamental part of the game play and I was a much younger player back then.

Now I'm slightly older and just have more experience of driving, and cars I personally just try to appreciate them for what they are which for 99% are unobtainable like the Escort Cossie or a sub £100k E30 M3 etc

I don't have a view on whether it spoils them tuning them or not but for me it keeps closer to the authentic nature of the car. I do upgrade tires and brakes occasionally.

I think there is a huge place for tuning in the game be it the whole Max Power/Fast and Furious side of the car culture as a whole through to full on Resto Modded cars that essentially just look like the original.

There is also a huge part of the car culture that is about pristine un modded/molested examples that offer the purest sense of the car from when it was new years ago etc.

This sort of thing is all about the eye of the beholder and personal preference for me at least.

 

[hawkeyez]

I share a similar sort of view, I stopped tuning cars back in GT5, in the early games it was a fundamental part of the game play and I was a much younger player back then.

Now I'm slightly older and just have more experience of driving, and cars I personally just try to appreciate them for what they are which for 99% are unobtainable like the Escort Cossie or a sub £100k E30 M3 etc

I don't have a view on whether it spoils them tuning them or not but for me it keeps closer to the authentic nature of the car. I do upgrade tires and brakes occasionally.

I think there is a huge place for tuning in the game be it the whole Max Power/Fast and Furious side of the car culture as a whole through to full on Resto Modded cars that essentially just look like the original.

There is also a huge part of the car culture that is about pristine un modded/molested examples that offer the purest sense of the car from when it was new years ago etc.

This sort of thing is all about the eye of the beholder and personal preference for me at least.

Most people tend to run rooms at 50pp intervals or 100pp intervals and have their cars/tunes tweaked to maximize the performance. Usually fully modded, but then stripped of parts and tweaked to perfection at each useable pp limit.

I tune cars differently. Sometimes I just wake them up a little with 10-30hp and maybe better brakes. But I think I have stock of every car I own because those I always come back to at some point.

Unfortunately not a lot of rooms run stock vehicles.

 

[Adwinistrator]

I like how @benjoi84 put it when he said "individuality"

I think that when each car has lower power, and less grip, the more the driving characteristics of each shape/layout/balance are able to determine how grip is utilized.

As power and grip increases, and the suspension stiffens, the tire model becomes more important in the way grip works. The way that feels to drive is more consistent across cars, so it can lead to making them feel like the cars have less individuality.

I know I usually keep a stock version of the cars I like, because I enjoy driving them more than the tuned up race versions. I think it's because I want to play the S13 nordsclief game, not the 500 hp vs sport hard tires game.

 

[Mafio]

For this very reason, if I like a car, I'm buying one to tune and one to keep stock.

 

[Def-Infinity]

Sort of.

Stiffer springs and dampers speeds up weight transfer, so you are getting to the 'final state' of cornering, acceleration and deceleration faster. That transition is felt more when the car is set up softer and its a lot more noticeable when you're going past the limit.

You can't really change details of the chassis apart from car width (widebody) and rim width/diameter/offset, so truly stripping a car from its individuality would be impossible, even if every other detail was the same.

Regardless, in racing a car is just a tool. You make it work for you rather than the other way around, usually.

 

[CTznOfTime]

I guess it is a spectrum between:

1) I want to enjoy the cars as they were initially/originally designed for (OEM self enjoyment philosophy)

And

2) I want to enjoy the cars in the best most potent and effective version for race or drifting or fastest time as possible regardless of how it was new (#1 at everything, beat everyone, full customization philosophy)

 

[newmedia_dev]

I guess it is a spectrum between:

1) I want to enjoy the cars as they were initially/originally designed for (OEM self enjoyment philosophy)

And

2) I want to enjoy the cars in the best most potent and effective version for race or drifting or fastest time as possible regardless of how it was new (#1 at everything, beat everyone, full customization philosophy)

And there is the flexibility for us all to do that 🍻

And you don't even have to sit in one camp or the other, nothing wrong with having a Top Secret Supra replica in the garage next to a mint condition CSL 3.0 and a Singer Porsche 911 resto next to them as well. Happy days

 

[Mafio]

I also enjoy the occasional "Tastefully/Realistically" modified vehicle. IE Intake, headers, exhaust, MAYBE cams depending on the car.

 

[benjoi84]

Great to see this discussion getting some action.

What was bugging me was (in purely gaming terms) the idea that once you start tuning a car in GT7, doesn't it just gradually become more alike to another car with the same mods? Never identical, for sure, but a stock Clio and a stock Mach 1 for example, are much more far apart in terms of performance than the same two cars with fully kitted-out tuning parts. They become kinda a pair of Frankenstein's monsters of aftermarket parts as if the body parts were taken from a pair of identical twins.