Car of the Week | Mazda RX-Vision '15

It's been a while since I've written a substantial review about any of the cars featured here, including my own submissions. I figure I should start with the Volvo 240 SE and the unusual challenge I laid out for that car.

What sparked off that challenge was a conversation that I had with @XSquareStickIt the week prior, discussing some of the intricacies of my hearing loss and how it intersects with my desire to race and drive fun cars. The long story short is that the absence of many audio cues when driving without hearing aids makes things difficult for me when I don't have visual aid. And when I do have my hearing aid in, it produces different results based on how I'm configured.

To demonstrate this to Square, I made a series of videos with the audio adjusted to show how the sound balance plays out for me in various states of equipment.

Hence why I made the Volvo challenge in such a way that you'd have to look for cues other than the engine noise to shift without slamming into the rev limiter. I honestly hope more than one or two people tried it out, it'd mean a lot to know the actual # of people who tried. The challenge didn't have anything to do with the car, so I apologize if it seemed like I was shoehorning something in.

===

Moving on to the car. The 240 SE is a bog standard commuter car, family car... Whatever phrase you'd use to describe the cars around you on the freeway. Interestingly enough, this is the SE's first appearance in Gran Turismo. The 240 that was in previous Gran Turismo entries was the 1988 GLT Estate model.

Which, fun fact, was massively overweight in its GT depiction. It was listed at a whopping 1820 kg when the real car had a kerb weight of 1340 kg.

1719098343053.png


It's important to make that note about the 240 being an everyday car because it's going to be set up as an everyday car. The suspension is tuned for ride comfort and ease of use, the gearbox configured for everyday driving and fuel efficiency, and the engine only produces as much power as it needs to without compromising its fuel efficiency.

In other words, the 240 will get you from A to B safely, but it won't engage you on the way there.

Without a real one on hand to reference, I can't really attest to things like the driver and passenger comfort, safety features, reliability, fuel economy... Nor can I really speak to how it feels on rough, awful Massachusetts roads. Essentially, everything that makes the 240 a family car.

With that noted, you'd think the 240 would be out of place in a racing game... But it really isn't here. Gran Turismo has always tried to include everyday economy cars to contextualize its much nicer selection of performance cars - after all, you can't appreciate even a simple sports car like an NA Miata without knowing what cars it was concurrent with. Context drives understanding, understanding drives appreciation. It's a bit of a lost art these days.
(Stares at Forza Horizon 5's car roster)

Anyways - I figured the best way I could get a feel for what the 240 brings in terms of drivability would be to... [shudders] Join a cruise lobby and spend some time with it in a casual context before I start trying to beat it to death at a race track.

To sum it up:
First lobby didn't last long. The "Sheriffs" had even less control of their cars than the racers did, and a bunch of drivers blocking the road caused a pile-up that I got caught in the middle of.
Second lobby: I got repeatedly harassed by a Renault Gordini, Dodge Charger and another 240 who even purposefully rammed me. I left not long after.

Never doing that again. And on that terrible disappointment, back to the car! Driving it around at 100 kmh, it felt really simple. It also had pretty good visibility in VR. To get it to pick up speed at anything more than a crawl on the highways, you need to be in 3rd for quite a while. I'd say they got the day to day driving down pretty well.

Now to beat on it and see what it does when asked to do something outside its job description. And for that, we are taking this European spec 240 to the most accessible track in the world: the public toll road known as the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

1719103051922.png


The very things that make it such a solid commuter car should, on paper, be a hindrance to it on such a demanding road. So the question is: Is the car hampered by its setup?

Surprisingly, no! The high ride height and somewhat soft setup actually helps it on such a bumpy, demanding road. The brakes are perfectly capable for what they are, and I didn't have any issues with instability under braking. The car was also surprisingly stable - I had more than a few moments on the lap where the back of the car threatened to step out, then immediately changing its mind and complying with what I was asking of it. It's, obviously, a very slow car, but it's a slow car that is surprisingly cooperative when driven fast. It'll only use four of its five gears in hard driving, but to be fair, 5th gear is an OD gear for a car like this.

And just on that bit of merit alone, I appreciate this car that much more.

My bridge-to-gantry time on the Nordschleife was a 9:41.540, which I imagine is fairly reasonable for a car of this nature.

I can't find fault with the 240 in stock form. I know it gets much, much better once you take it to Understeer Engineering / GT Parts shop to get some parts installed. Just keep in mind that it's a station wagon and was never meant to be pushed to the ragged edge like a Miata or Corvette would be. It is, as a station wagon, shaped like a brick. It'll have some drag issues at higher speeds.

But at the end of the day, it's also a fairly light FR with solid potential.

1719105228972.png


In my book, it's a Sleeper.
 
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It's been a while since I've written a substantial review about any of the cars featured here, including my own submissions. I figure I should start with the Volvo 240 SE and the unusual challenge I laid out for that car.

What sparked off that challenge was a conversation that I had with @XSquareStickIt the week prior, discussing some of the intricacies of my hearing loss and how it intersects with my desire to race and drive fun cars. The long story short is that the absence of many audio cues when driving without hearing aids makes things difficult for me when I don't have visual aid. And when I do have my hearing aid in, it produces different results based on how I'm configured.

To demonstrate this to Square, I made a series of videos with the audio adjusted to show how the sound balance plays out for me in various states of equipment.

Hence why I made the Volvo challenge in such a way that you'd have to look for cues other than the engine noise to shift without slamming into the rev limiter. I honestly hope more than one or two people tried it out, it'd mean a lot to know the actual # of people who tried. The challenge didn't have anything to do with the car, so I apologize if it seemed like I was shoehorning something in.

===

Moving on to the car. The 240 SE is a bog standard commuter car, family car... Whatever phrase you'd use to describe the cars around you on the freeway. Interestingly enough, this is the SE's first appearance in Gran Turismo. The 240 that was in previous Gran Turismo entries was the 1988 GLT Estate model.

Which, fun fact, was massively overweight in its GT depiction. It was listed at a whopping 1820 kg when the real car had a kerb weight of 1340 kg.

View attachment 1367020

It's important to make that note about the 240 being an everyday car because it's going to be set up as an everyday car. The suspension is tuned for ride comfort and ease of use, the gearbox configured for everyday driving and fuel efficiency, and the engine only produces as much power as it needs to without compromising its fuel efficiency.

In other words, the 240 will get you from A to B safely, but it won't engage you on the way there.

Without a real one on hand to reference, I can't really attest to things like the driver and passenger comfort, safety features, reliability, fuel economy... Nor can I really speak to how it feels on rough, awful Massachusetts roads. Essentially, everything that makes the 240 a family car.

With that noted, you'd think the 240 would be out of place in a racing game... But it really isn't here. Gran Turismo has always tried to include everyday economy cars to contextualize its much nicer selection of performance cars - after all, you can't appreciate even a simple sports car like an NA Miata without knowing what cars it was concurrent with. Context drives understanding, understanding drives appreciation. It's a bit of a lost art these days.
(Stares at Forza Horizon 5's car roster)

Anyways - I figured the best way I could get a feel for what the 240 brings in terms of drivability would be to... [shudders] Join a cruise lobby and spend some time with it in a casual context before I start trying to beat it to death at a race track.

To sum it up:
First lobby didn't last long. The "Sheriffs" had even less control of their cars than the racers did, and a bunch of drivers blocking the road caused a pile-up that I got caught in the middle of.
Second lobby: I got repeatedly harassed by a Renault Gordini, Dodge Charger and another 240 who even purposefully rammed me. I left not long after.

Never doing that again. And on that terrible disappointment, back to the car! Driving it around at 100 kmh, it felt really simple. It also had pretty good visibility in VR. To get it to pick up speed at anything more than a crawl on the highways, you need to be in 3rd for quite a while. I'd say they got the day to day driving down pretty well.

Now to beat on it and see what it does when asked to do something outside its job description. And for that, we are taking this European spec 240 to the most accessible track in the world: the public toll road known as the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

View attachment 1367036

The very things that make it such a solid commuter car should, on paper, be a hindrance to it on such a demanding road. So the question is: Is the car hampered by its setup?

Surprisingly, no! The high ride height and somewhat soft setup actually helps it on such a bumpy, demanding road. The brakes are perfectly capable for what they are, and I didn't have any issues with instability under braking. The car was also surprisingly stable - I had more than a few moments on the lap where the back of the car threatened to step out, then immediately changing its mind and complying with what I was asking of it. It's, obviously, a very slow car, but it's a slow car that is surprisingly cooperative when driven fast. It'll only use four of its five gears in hard driving, but to be fair, 5th gear is an OD gear for a car like this.

And just on that bit of merit alone, I appreciate this car that much more.

My bridge-to-gantry time on the Nordschleife was a 9:41.540, which I imagine is fairly reasonable for a car of this nature.

I can't find fault with the 240 in stock form. I know it gets much, much better once you take it to Understeer Engineering / GT Parts shop to get some parts installed. Just keep in mind that it's a station wagon and was never meant to be pushed to the ragged edge like a Miata or Corvette would be. It is, as a station wagon, shaped like a brick. It'll have some drag issues at higher speeds.

But at the end of the day, it's also a fairly light FR with solid potential.

View attachment 1367038

In my book, it's a Sleeper.

Did you manage the 09.41 with a bone stock CM tyres car?!

now-attention.gif
 
I will need to double check to make sure, but I believe yes.

Note: This is the Tourist layout and the time I'm reporting is from the bridge to the gantry, which omits the entire Dottinger Höhe straight.

Ohhh okay gotcha
 
The winner of last week's Special Challenge, creating a GTWS Nations livery for the X2014, is SPD! Granted, they're the only one who did it, but I have a strong feeling they'd have won even if others attempted it... Don't ask me why now :)

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We're getting close to the start of July, and for a few of us here at COTW, that's a very special time, because that's when the HOW DARE YOU!!! meme originated from the FH5 COTW thread. To summarise, SPD had taken quite a liking to the Mini JCW Countryman in Forza Horizon 5, often featuring in his reviews as a sort of "scout car" to feel out the course and act as a benchmark before the feature car took the spotlight. They were building up to nominate it for Car of the Week, only to have the nomination sniped by Vic, resulting in SPD's Countryman review laden with sporadic "HOW DARE YOU!!!"s :lol:

Since then, I've tried to annoy SPD a few times by choosing what few Minis we have in the game. They didn't even seem mildly annoyed by that. So I thought I'd take a page out of Obelisk's notes this year... :mischievous:

This week, I'm pulling rank and nominating the Lamborghini Miura P400 Bertone Prototype '67 for Week 63 of COTW!

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The story of the Miura's legend is too lengthy to recount here, but it was one of the very first rear mid engined road cars ever produced, which was a layout previously consigned to racecars. It immediately launched the relatively obscure Lamborghini brand into the limelight, where it shone brightly (partially because they tended to catch fire really easily). The example we have in the game, chassis 0706, was supposedly only the second Miura built, and this Gran Turismo Trophy winner went for a whopping 15 million credits in previous GT games, though that thankfully has taken a nosedive down to sub 4 million in GT7 games. Nowadays though, you'll have to wait for it to become available in the Legends Car Dealer to be able to buy it, though...

Whether or not you happen to have an eligible Miura to join us for our weekly lobbies, you're welcome to join us for our weekly lobbies!


Weekly Lobbies

Our weekly lobbies are ongoing as usual, and anyone (not a dick) is welcome to join us in racing Miuras under BoP conditions!

Click on the hyperlinks to convert the times to your time zone, and feel free to add the hosts as friends on PSN to make searching for the lobbies easier!

The Americas Lobby

The Asia/Oceania also kinda European Lobby​

BoP/Settings Disabled: On (temporarily reverts cars to bone stock; WIDE BODIED AND ENGINE SWAPPED CARS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE!)
Tracks: Randomly selected by lobby participants (~10 mins practice, ~10 mins sprint)
PP Limit: 574
Car: No Limit
Tyres: No Limit


~Special Challenge!~

Continuing on with the theme of SPD's suffering, anyone interested can try to replicate SPD's misadventures during Week 58 by fitting Racing Hard tyres onto an otherwise bone stock Miura and trying to run it as quickly as possible around the full layout of Fuji Speedway (the one with the chicane)! Fastest lap wins, but the person who manages to retain their sanity might be the bigger winner... :mischievous:



Of course, we always welcome opinions, tunes, liveries, photos, videos, or stories about the car here on the thread!
 
Managed a 07.35.691 with it, at least in GT Sport stock on SH tyres.



GT Sport Tsukuba comparison:



GT 7 drag race battle:

 
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I don't have the Miura and I can't buy it as it's not in the legends dealer.
That's fine! You can bring any car for comparison as long as it fits under 574PP under BoP. Tyre selection is open on Saturday, so you can play around with that as well.
 
Okay, okay, I can take an obelisk–sized hint. I've a spare Volvo 240 Estate; it fits in the boot.

To recap, the ~Special Challenge~ for Week 60 was to take a Volvo 240 SE Estate, modify it to give it a redline higher than its 7,000rpm tachometer can go, and drive it with very low (or no) audio around the Nürburgring with the in–game HUD switched off. This aims to replicate the experience of being a deaf driver in VR. I put said parts on my Volvo and nothing else, which gave me a car with the specs you see below:

full


Aftermarket Parts Installed:
  • Full Control Computer
  • High–Lift Camshaft S
  • Racing Air Filter
  • Racing Exhaust Manifold
  • Racing Muffler/Silencer

Power: 149HP | 111kW (+40HP)
Mass: 1,324kg | 2,919lbs (±0kg)
Rev Limit: 7,519rpm (+1,019rpm)

So, you know how I said I didn't enjoy driving the stock Volvo 240, and that it was a rather dangerous drive in my review of the car? Yep, I just gave it more power, and did NOTHING to its suspension and tyres to cope. I then took off my earphones so as not to subject my ears to the infernal groanings of a 149HP Volvo trumpeting through a racing exhaust, and went from my preferred bumper cam to the usually ill–advised cockpit view. I can't see how this will turn out badly at all—

I can't see a damn thing on the dash.

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...which isn't so much of a problem when you can hear the engine and needn't duck under speed cameras, but when you can't hear nor feel a car's acceleration and need to shift the car manually, the tachometer and speedometers are your only tells as to when to shift. Obelisk has also specified to avoid short shifting as much as possible, and with the dash darker than the souls of masochists who actually enjoy this spilled snake intestines of a track, I can't even tell if I'm short shifting the car or blowing it up.

Yeah, I haven't even driven fifty metres, and I already need to cheat.

full


Nürburgring, with no sound, a car I don't gel with, in complete darkness! Just so I can see the dash! I set up a custom race with stock One–Make opponents and me starting in the lead so I can just sod off with my tuned 240, but it went so badly that I was at risk of being overtaken by the can't–even–use–full–throttle AI with stock Volvos before I spun it and died at Aremberg. The problem with driving a souped–up Volvo in the dark is that it squats so much on power that the headlight beams lift clean off the road surface. I can only see the road when I get on the brakes! Not to mention, I can't feel much either from the wheel because the soft suspension eats up the tall kerbs of the Nordschleife as though cotton candy, so I can't do the blind thing of groping about in the dark either. I simply don't know The Green Hell well enough to wing it like this. I can't see, I can't hear, and I can barely feel a thing. What am I supposed to do, smell the rev limit? Taste the rubber on the racing line?

Twilight, the next day. I can see the dash and the road. I should've just done this to begin with, but I'm about as bright as Foxhole at midnight. It's an achievement enough for me that I'm smart enough to know how to inhale and exhale and alternate between them.

full


A method I already have prior to this challenge is to shift the car not with the tach, but with the speedo. I do this with cars that are extremely picky with their revs and demand to be shifted at very specific points, like the Atenza Gr.4 for example. What I do is that I memorise each shift point in km/h instead of rpm, and so for the Atenza, it goes something along the lines of: DON'T, 122, 156, 196, and 235. Helps that km/h is a finer unit of measurement than mph, as if I needed another reason to feel lucky being born in a sensible part of the world. Back in hell with the Volvo: being an old car, its dash may be hard to read in strong sunlight, but otherwise, its analogue dash is no–nonsense, clear, and responsive, not like the garbage screens of cars today with their awful refresh rates prone to burning–in. I brought the car up to its rev limit in 2nd, which topped out at just shy of 120km/h, and 3rd was good for just over 180—not that this soggy brick will see those speeds often, even with upgrade parts thrown at it and the boss themes of the Winds of Destruction backing it. The chances of needing 4th gear with the 240, even on a track with some of the longest straights in motorsport, was lower than the chances of encountering a full–odds Shiny Pokémon with Pokérus and a competitive nature. 1st gear almost proved useful for the rare tight sections like Yokohama-S and Wehrseifen, but was ultimately too short to be worth it, topping out at a mere 60 km/h. Requiring only 2 gears for the entirety of the 25.4km (15.8mi) track (hopefully not needed a third in reverse), having an easy–to–read speedometer in the dark, and being a typical 80s car with plenty of glass to help give it excellent visibility, I think it's safe to say that the 240 is the "easy mode" for this challenge.

And I still struggled with it immensely.

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Sure, being able to upshift optimally is one thing, but that still requires taking my eyes off the road to take sporadic glances at the speedo—it's distracting, to say the least. That, and I'm still helpless on braking zones; I don't know when it's safe to downshift, meaning I can't just abuse the absurdly powerful engine braking in this game to my advantage. The first few times I braked without audio, it felt as panic–inducing as sitting down on a chair, only to find that the chair isn't there when you're already falling. It's really amazing the things we take for granted. Of course, there's no penalty to downshifting too early, since engine damage and failure isn't simulated. Heck, in some of the fastest runs in Online Time Trials, players actively downshift early and bang the limiter to slow the car faster, but it's not something I've ever liked doing, not to mention it's against the spirit of the challenge I suspect. Also, I downshifted into 1st with muscle memory into Turn 1, and my 240 SE suddenly became halfway proficient in Japanese, thinking that the Yokohama-S needed to be taken fully yoko. Not being able to hear what revs the engine is doing and with the wheel blocking most of the dash, I can't tell if the NA engine is awake enough to give me the torque to hold a slide, or if it's already banging the limiter uselessly, making slides a whole different dimension of scary. With paddle shifters, I can just click in the left paddle late on braking to be safe, but if I were driving with a stick shift like I wish I could, I don't even know how I'd gauge the amount of throttle blip I'd have to give the car to rev match without audio.

full


Driving deaf also meant that I had to manually count the gear I'm in and always keep it in the forefront of my thoughts as I drove, because I don't have that automatic "cheat" of hearing an engine dozing off to know I ought to downshift. A lot of times, I take tight corners in low revs in 3rd, realising I'm in the wrong gear only when it dawns on me that it's high time I needed an upshift, long after the wrong gear became the correct gear. It's like how sarcasm doesn't come across well in text, and without the tone, volume, and context to set it apart, sometimes even the most brazen exaggerations can come across as genuine, and that's the closest analogy I can draw to driving a manual car deaf, having been able to hear my whole life. With enough practice, I can turn the lap into a routine: brake here, stay in this gear for this turn, go, brake there, that turn needs a downshift, etc.. In other words, I can't drive as reactionary as I'd like, and instead have to make it a choreographed drive, much like the high–downforce cars I detest. The Döttinger Höhe deserves special mention, as it's the longest straight in the lap, consisting of a downhill into a valley before an uphill roughly in the middle of the straight, and my car was pretty much on its 182km/h limit in 3rd gear on the downhill. I can't tell if my car is at the rev limit, and shifting into 4th just asphyxiates the car come the uphill section. It's bloody frustrating not knowing, and with seemingly no way to know until I check the replay.

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As the session wore on, reset after reset, I just grew frustrated. I hated the car. I didn't fancy the track. I just want to string together a safe and slow lap just to get it over and done with, just to be able to say, "I did it". I just wanted to hear again, god damnit! And the very immediate realisation following that—that that isn't an option for some people—really made me feel heavy. And this is just in a game, wherein I'm running by myself! I don't want to imagine what it must be like to drive deaf in a competitive setting, or in real life, where motorcyclists like to straddle lanes to snake past cars. A lot of times the only way I'd know a motorcycle was in my blind spot is if I heard it, because Singaporean riders do NOT care about being safe or seen, despite being in the position to lose the most in the event of contact. I may have strung together two laps of the Nürburgring 24h, but I don't feel like I've gotten how to drive deaf—at all. I don't even want to count how many times I've smacked the limiter of 2nd. The replay is shared here, if you're interested, with the tags #cotw #w60 #deaf

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After that, I put back on my earphones, put Korn - Did My Time on full blast, and took my RX-8 screaming around Streets of Willow at 9,500rpm. God, being able to hear is amazing.

~ ♫ I REALLY TRIIIIIIIED

I DID MY TIIIIIIME! ♫ ~

cAr Of ThE wEeK w64 sPeCiAl ChAlLeNgE dRiVe BlInDfOlDed
 
If you think about it, it's a pretty bloody amazing miracle that we human beings are capable of operating motor vehicles; after all, our fleshy prisons were never developed to be able to propel itself to dizzying speeds like 30km/h, and yet our brains can process audio, visual, and sensual information quickly enough to go way faster than that. Of course, without rigorous and routine training like the ones Formula drivers undergo, our spiteful mortal vessels will start to give out past certain g levels, but even the fastest of sanctioned racing machines can only pose a moderate challenge to our neural processing power through a screen. I can still notice things like grip limits, understeer, oversteer, differential locking, downforce imbalance, or, hell, even zonk out and daydream a little on the straights when driving an F1 car in a simulator.

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Style edited from Nations Styled - Singapore by SomePlayaDude
#singapore #nations #gtws

Absent any building costs, fear of pain, and the rulebooks that result from the hinderances of reality, the Red Bull X series of racecars seem purpose–built to challenge that mental limit of processing speed in us sim racers, to seperate the truly gifted freaks of nature from the ones that simply work hard and dedicate. Even though the X2014 model is tamer on paper than the X2011 that preceded it, it's still capable of mind–bending speeds that is well past what my brain can handle. I am utterly incapable of even thinking to myself when attempting to drive it, let alone try to put any of it into words.

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I cannot fathom where its grip limits are, let alone how to explore and find them in a safe manner. Don't ask me where it makes healthy torque; I don't even remember how many gears the thing has. Straights in most racetracks pass by faster than I can let go of thoughts of the previous corner; every bend feels like consecutive corners in the X2014, and it'd take a straight as obscenely long as Fuji's home straight for me to take a deep breath or two in before the madness begins anew. Yeah, the brakes work. The brakes work so well that it might not just be the car they stop. This thing has so much downforce that it can literally oversteer up Eau Rouge—no, I'm not talking about the back end of the car stepping out—I mean, the car can literally turn too much and hit the right hander apex of Eau Rouge at a 45° angle doing 320km/h if you thought common sense things like steering resistance and laws of physics would stop the X2014. Trying to drive this thing with common sense and experience with other cars will completely neuter the X2014—its magic is allergic to common sense. Just know it. Trust it. Keep the throttle pinned. Steer it into that corner flat out, but don't expect the steering weight to fight you, so be surgeon precise with it at 300km/h. Following another X2014? Cope, I guess. Death is just a restart, not an end.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240629154108.png


Every microscopic twitch and imperfection of my input is magnified and displayed faster than I can even realise my mistakes. An imperfection that might have resulted in dipping half a wheel past asphalt in a typical Gr.3 racecar will see the X2014 taken clean off the circuit. At the end of each drive, I am drenched in sweat, I am breathing heavy, and I can hear my heart race, not at all unlike having just been through a life–threatening fight. This thing drives almost as though it were taken from some arcade racer, and yet it has more rooting in reality than your typical Vision Gran Turismo faff, easily vacuuming the track of marbles with utterly bonkers sci–fi make believe contraptions like the laser–propelled 2X. It's only at low speed corners where it starts to resemble a sane, normal formula racer, absent the downforce–generating fan of the X2011. At speed, though? Don't even bother with the default panning mode of Mode 2 when shooting photos of the car, lest you get an indistinguishable blur. Either bump up the shutter speed or use Mode 3.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240629154101.png

Mode 2 panning at 1/60s shutter speed at Maggiore's Banky Boi corner. The X2014 was doing 140km/h.

The fact that there are people out there with the mental processing speeds to handle the X2014 and even the Tomahawks really made me realise just how hopelessly average I am, and it'd be a pretty depressing thought if that sadness wasn't mostly drowned out by respect for both the machine, its creators, and the people actually capable of doing it justice.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240629183517.png


And then there's the 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400 Bertone Prototype. While the X2014 overwhelms with unreal capability and immediacy, the Miura almost literally swings the entirely opposite direction. Packing a "mere" 349HP (260kW) and weighing in at just 980kg (2,161lbs) in–game, it's certainly not fast in the grand scheme of things, but I would still argue that it, much like the X2014, is a magnifying glass for driver skill that greatly exaggerates even microscopic skill gaps between players. I say this because this is one of, if not the most difficult cars in the game to drive, giving drivers microscopic margins for error and demanding an unreasonable amount of knowledge and precision in its driver. In the hands of someone like me, it's downright hazardous to drive even at middling speeds with every precaution taken.

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Being the prototype of the first road legal rear mid engined road car, it's understandable that a lot of rear mid engined quirks and tendencies feel completely unaddressed and unmitigated in the P400. Even mild trail braking with default ABS will pull the rear end out screaming and thrashing, and there is absolutely zero safety measures in place to keep the Miura from swinging its tail out as though trying to whip itself if a driver turns too much on the brakes. Long, sweeping corners with deep apexes, such as... oh I dunno, the entire last sector of Fuji, are an utter nightmare to find and meet while babying the Miura's rear end. It forces drivers to have a smidge of throttle applied almost immediately after peeling the steering wheel off–centre for a corner—well before the apex—to keep some weight pressing over the rear tyre, more than a smidge if the revs are low. But be ready to ease off that throttle pedal when the car straightens out and the revs climb, because once this prehistoric NA V12 engine wakes past 7,000rpm, you'll get... you guessed it: explosive, barely containable oversteer.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240629205228.png


According to the game, the Miura has 0 downforce front and rear. That's a lie: it has less than zero downforce—it has lift. The production Miura is notorious for being extremely floaty at speed in real life, and in the game, it's one of the very select few cars that is both old and fast enough where lift becomes a real problem. The steering wheel goes noticably numb and muted in just third gear at around 150km/h, and the car will aquaplane on thin air in 4th and 5th, with the steering wheel light enough to turn 90° on the final left kink of Deep Forest Raceway after the pit entry while the car understeers into the outside barrier. The Miura needs to be tipped into a turn earlier and earlier with alarming increments once it hits its stride in 3rd gear, and lifting just a hint, even for a barely noticable moment, gets the car pointy again thanks to its soft suspension (and hopefully full tank of fuel). But of course, be wary of doing this as well, because the rear end of the car doesn't get any friendlier at speed. In GT Auto, the only aero parts available to a Miura are custom rear wings that completely desecrate the look of the car, which means that even if you wanted to, there's no fixing the airy front end of the car; it can only be made worse.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240629205213.png


The Miura is a completely impractical car, even in the context of a racing game, not just because it's a pricey LCD exclusive, but also because it requires a skill level so high that none but the most skilled drivers can find any consistency and speed with it. For plebs like me, a modern day car with less power and more mass, like an NSX-R, would be much faster over a few laps. There's an old saying that goes, "work with the car, not against it", but to do what the Miura wants to do would be to tap dance on a minefield with the devil himself after you cucked his wife in secret. For everyone else, the Miura has to be fought vehemently as though their virtual lives depended on it. If you can manage it, or even exploit its tail happiness, I can't help but to suspect it's unreasonably, unethically fast. It presents itself as an unreasonably tough test for drivers that might be bored of more mainstream offerings, almost akin to the demonic Kaizo Mario levels in the gaming world. I have a torrid time driving it, but at the same time, I find it difficult to dislike the Miura: it's a car that asks of its driver to be so hyper aware of everything that is going on with the car, from weight shifts, revs, yaw angles, speed, and traits like that are often associated with the best drivers' cars.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240629183511.png


That is to say, instead of me critiquing the cars, the past few weeks have flipped the table, and the cars have criticised me instead. And, you know what? Both those cars, for polar opposite reasons, made every other car feel slower to drive; the X2014 with raw, sheer speed, and the Miura with how quickly it lapses the window of forgiveness to its driver. I might even be brazen enough to say that these two cars have made me a better driver.
 
The results for last week's Special Challenge, taking a stock Miura with Racing Hard tyres around Fuji, are in!

BaronBlitzRedVic Reign93
1:48.1341:45.928

Congratulations yet again to Vic for pretty much being the only person who can handle the Miura winning yet another Special Challenge!



Last week, I attempted to piss off SPD by Week 34–ing him, only to end up pissing myself in the Miura.

This week, SPD has used his free birthday pick he gained back on his birthday in March. He picked this week to use his free pick because it's the 2nd anniversary of FH5 Week 34. I think he sees more value in Week 34 than his actual birthday, but eh.

For week 64 of GT7 Car of the Week, we're featuring a very recent favourite of SPD, the Alfa Romeo 4C Gr.3!

Gran Turismo® 7_20240629205153.png

SomePlayaDude​

Since we've run out of modern MINIs, we will be taking the Alfa Romeo 4C Gr.3. A relatively lackluster Group 3 car that had a hint of meaning thanks to the Group 4 car's niche that's already died. And you know.. Group 3 4C.. that's a divine message that harkens to me as if it's fated, I know it!

(I'm not quoting the part of the message where he calls me "big daddy"— oh wait...)

Launched in 2013 to a small, but passionate fervour, the 4C marked Alfa Romeo's return to the US market in nearly 2 decades, and is a long overdue splash of sportiness for the brand steeped in motorsports heritage. A racing version of the 4C seems as foregone s conclusion as being offered with a manual gearbox, but neither have come to pass, surprisingly—at least, in real life. In Gran Turismo Sport and now here in Gran Turismo 7, we get a rough approximation of what a 4C GT3 would look like with the fictional 4C Gr.3, and it even comes with a homologation road going special variant as well!

Let's see what modern Alfa is capable of when unleashed on a racetrack!


Weekly Lobbies

Our weekly lobbies are ongoing as usual, and anyone (not a dick) is welcome to join us in racing 4C Gr.3s under BoP conditions!

Click on the hyperlinks to convert the times to your time zone, and feel free to add the hosts as friends on PSN to make searching for the lobbies easier!

The Americas Lobby

The Asia/Oceania also kinda European Lobby​

BoP/Settings Disabled: On (Gr.3)
Tracks: Randomly selected by lobby participants (~10 mins practice, ~10 mins sprint)
PP Limit: No Limit
Car: No Limit
Tyres: Racing Hard


~Special Challenge!~

SPD challenges anyone interested to beat his 4C Gr.3 lap time around Goodwood, but you won't be trying to beat it in a 4C Gr.3 yourself...

SomePlayaDude​

1:14.6XX: before anyone asks: this is my typical clean 650pp Alfa Romeo 4C Gr.3 lap time around Goodwood using Racing Hards. Don't question why this exists.

Simply put: match it. Not tough at all.

There's a twist: NOT with the Group 3 car. Instead, you are only allowed to use your own self tuned Group 4 or the road legal 4C (not the Group 3 road car) on the same ruleset: 650 on Racing Hards, no nitro.

For the road going car: wide kit OK, swaps no.
The fastest wins.


Of course, we always welcome opinions, tunes, liveries, photos, videos, or stories about the car here on the thread!
 
The results for last week's Special Challenge, taking a stock Miura with Racing Hard tyres around Fuji, are in!

BaronBlitzRedVic Reign93
1:48.1341:45.928

Congratulations yet again to Vic for pretty much being the only person who can handle the Miura winning yet another Special Challenge!



Last week, I attempted to piss off SPD by Week 34–ing him, only to end up pissing myself in the Miura.

This week, SPD has used his free birthday pick he gained back on his birthday in March. He picked this week to use his free pick because it's the 2nd anniversary of FH5 Week 34. I think he sees more value in Week 34 than his actual birthday, but eh.

For week 64 of GT7 Car of the Week, we're featuring a very recent favourite of SPD, the Alfa Romeo 4C Gr.3!

View attachment 1368811


(I'm not quoting the part of the message where he calls me "big daddy"— oh wait...)

Launched in 2013 to a small, but passionate fervour, the 4C marked Alfa Romeo's return to the US market in nearly 2 decades, and is a long overdue splash of sportiness for the brand steeped in motorsports heritage. A racing version of the 4C seems as foregone s conclusion as being offered with a manual gearbox, but neither have come to pass, surprisingly—at least, in real life. In Gran Turismo Sport and now here in Gran Turismo 7, we get a rough approximation of what a 4C GT3 would look like with the fictional 4C Gr.3, and it even comes with a homologation road going special variant as well!

Let's see what modern Alfa is capable of when unleashed on a racetrack!


Weekly Lobbies

Our weekly lobbies are ongoing as usual, and anyone (not a dick) is welcome to join us in racing 4C Gr.3s under BoP conditions!

Click on the hyperlinks to convert the times to your time zone, and feel free to add the hosts as friends on PSN to make searching for the lobbies easier!

The Americas Lobby

The Asia/Oceania also kinda European Lobby​

BoP/Settings Disabled: On (Gr.3)
Tracks: Randomly selected by lobby participants (~10 mins practice, ~10 mins sprint)
PP Limit: No Limit
Car: No Limit
Tyres: Racing Hard


~Special Challenge!~

SPD challenges anyone interested to beat his 4C Gr.3 lap time around Goodwood, but you won't be trying to beat it in a 4C Gr.3 yourself...



Of course, we always welcome opinions, tunes, liveries, photos, videos, or stories about the car here on the thread!
Is this any group 4 car?
 
This one's on the wilder side, just like the stock street and the Gr.4 version. Managed a 06.39.725, in GTS at least. One of the slower Gr. 3 offerings.



Verdict: neutral
 
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Here be the list..

1) Yes, it's with the street legal 4C and the 4C Gr.4 car for this challenge. Before anyone thinks its a challenge: that time's now a placeholder and I've improved on that time to some extent, probably more if I decide to produce another episode of SPD taking yet another fruitless weekly challenge too seriously. Oh, should that even happen, I'll be cheating, by using the Gr. 3 car that I restricted, and we're going to see how far am I cheating.

2) The 4C has become what the JCW Countryman soughts out to do with a definite weekly appearance each week. I.. guess nobody sees that since it's in the supplementary story writing that I'm guessing nobody reads with gumption. It breaks my heart a bit to realize that as I write this, but I'm used to this so it's par for the course!

3) No, the Miura coming last week wasn't my idea. A good portion of me last week was recovering from a nasty case of influenza, and yes: I was gonna be mad about it, but after watching the disastrous events unfold, there's only one thing a certain SickPlayaDick can say: who's laughing now?
 
I made a livery
Alfa Romeo Puss Racing 4C 1 by Devin Macdonald, on Flickr
Alfa Romeo Puss Racing 4C 2 by Devin Macdonald, on Flickr

I honestly thought that the car would be a complete disaster to drive with the tiny wheelbase. Gran Turismo hasn't always done the mid-engine machinery justice and back in the days of GT Sport, they were a pain in the arse to drive. Horribly balanced, subject to sudden snaps of oversteer and picky at low speeds, I could not get the speed or consistency I wanted. Luckily, this has been remedied and the Alfa Romeo 4C Group 3 is a case in point. Great handling, great balance, easy to find grip... it's one of the best Group 3 cars in the game and loves a technical track like Maggiore GP. It may not have the best sound but it inspires confidence at every turn.
 
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As COTW regulars and readers might well already be familiar with, the wildly popular 4th–generation Suzuki Jimny is equipped with a 658cc 3–Cylinder engine churning out just 63HP (47kW) to conform to Kei class limits in its home market of Japan—you know, the very limits that Suzuki themselves were wink wink "pushing" as early as 1995 with the facelifted Cappuccino?

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240630224759.png


Safe it is to say then, that Kei cars today are very clearly kneecapped straight from the factory, and for customers who don't enjoy driving on automotive crutches, the Jimny is also offered with a 1.5L 4–Cylinder engine producing a halfway–decent 100HP to lug around its near 1.1 tonne body. This grade of the Jimny is known in its home market as the Sierra, and is the sole engine offered in export markets. Here in PDLand, Kei–compliant Jimnys are instead offered an option to swap their R06A engines for a meaty K14C 1.4L Turbo 4–Cylinder sourced from a 2017 Swift Sport, perhaps serving as a pastiche of the Sierra trim to go along nicely with the wide body fenders that don't go quite as far out as the ones bolted onto the Sierra. At 109,180 Credits, it may be the single cheapest heart transplant in the game, but said operation is still largely locked behind the prohibitively expensive task of being Collector Level 50, and when combined with the cost of a base Jimny, the package is still VX Viper levels of money, all for a car that tops out at 168km/h (104mph) at Suzuka's relatively short home straight. Is it worth it?


As is very often the case with engine swaps, simply carving out a car's original engine, throwing in a more powerful one in its place, and leaving everything else as–is creates a lopsided contraption that isn't very wieldy nor useful. In the case of the Jimny, it already has troubled and suspect on–road handling even with its original engine, and so dumping in an engine that produces some 217% more power only serves to highlight and exaggerate all of the car's original problems, plus heaping on new ones such as "the original gearbox is way too short for this kind of power". That said, the base 63HP Jimny does have a hard time reminding its driver of the respect it requires when being driven, and giving the Jimny well over double that finally makes it feel like a "real" car—one that I'm much more awake driving and in turn, readily respect.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240705141837.png


Needless to say then, a heart transplant begets much more costly trouble down the line, involving specialty aftermarket parts like suspension, gearboxes, differentials, and tyres, to say nothing of the hours of tinkering and testing required to get the maladjusted car to drive right. At this point, one must ask themselves the question of: "Why would I even bother swapping the engine if I can pour in the same amount of effort into the car with its original engine?" After all, the Jimny's smaller original engine weighs less, and if given a performance limit achievable by both engines, why bother spending that kind of money on an engine swap to begin with? It's not like the K14C engine of the Swift Sport is a racecar engine with unreal fuel efficiency.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240630224728.png


Yes, the larger K14C engine weighs more than the R06A engine—21kg (46lbs) more according to the game, to be precise—but said increase doesn't have nearly aa big of a hit in–game as it arguably would in real life, because the mass increase from engine swaps in this game don't affect the mass distribution of the car at all—it's just magically distributed across the car evenly, meaning that a big, hulking engine up front isn't going to cause the car to push much more with understeer as one might expect. With the mass disadvantage made almost irrelevant, the K14C engine I find is just a better engine for track use, simply because I find its torque to be much more evenly distributed in the mid to top end, where track cars spend all their time, and is so much more pleasant to drive for it. The R06A engine on the other hand, was set up from the factory for low end torque to facilitate crawling and climbing on harsh terrain, and the game simply doesn't give us players enough tools to meaningfully change that, relegating it to always being a short–shift engine. Helpful if the event heavily rewards fuel efficiency, but overall it's just slower everywhere else, even when tuned to roughly the same PP level.



If going all–out on tuning, of course the K14C Swift engine will have a higher power ceiling than the diminutive R06A Jimny engine, and it's in this application where the costly heart transplant goes from an expensive statement to a bargain kit car: throw the full catalogue of GT Auto parts and works at it, and you end up spending more or less the asking price of a standard Gr.4 car for something that will not only comfortably outrun any Gr.4 car, but will do so while severely undercutting their PP ratings. Take for example Suzuki's own Gr.4 entry: the Suzuki Swift Sport KATANA Edition: it's one of the fastest Gr.4 cars rated at 652.00PP fresh from the Brand Central. My full works Jimny with the K14C engine will wallop that from Streets of Willow to Bathurst on the same Racing Hard tyres, while sitting at a mere 583PP!

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240630224807.png


Just... uh... watch out. The Jimny was never built to handle those speeds, and even with our very tame COTW Saturday–spec tune, the Jimny already shows more than a few hints of sudden and abrupt tail happiness on braking that my inexperienced tuner hands can't even mildly assuage, and it's a trait that will haunt the Jimny more and more the faster it goes. GT Auto's aftermarket parts are all aesthetic and give zero downforce benefits, which means that the Jimny can end up with acceleration well exceeding those of Gr.4 machinery, but with none of the downforce, all while having Kei car wheelbase and pushing aside enough air at speed to alter climates. It struggles past 240km/h (149mph), and it's stuck with five forward gears even with aftermarket gearboxes, making the grind races of both Tokyo and Le Mans a struggle if the AI feels like being selfish and doesn't leave the "I" part of AI at home. For folk wondering if the Jimny swap is a worthwhile investment, they might be better served trying out custom races for their money making scheme: a Jimny with a maxed out K14C engine and a full diet can still slip under 300PP for the Custom Race bait–and–switch method, and with just a quick and simple setting sheet switch, turns into a Gr.4–devouring menace, making it quite appealing in that regard.

Gran%20Turismo%C2%AE%207_20240630224745.png


Fuel economy aside, I'm willing to go as far as to say that the K14C Swift Sport engine is a straight upgrade over the original R06A of the Jimny in every aspect. Engine swaps may usually be pretty Frankenstein combos with lopsided results, but it's not like the base Jimny has much finesse to lose. Yeah, it's difficult to drive at speed, but what better flex is there than to beat purpose–built racecars with a shoddy DIY contraption falling apart at the axles? If that isn't your cup of tea, I think the Jimny swap is one of the most grounded and most usable engine–swapped cars, requiring only light adjustments to be a good drive. In short, I think it's a highly versatile swap that has something for almost everybody.

Jimny: 18,000
Wide Body: 5,000
Engine Swap: 109,180
Roll Cage: 2,500
Wheels: variable, but let's just say 4,000?

Mass Reduction 1: 3,000
Mass Reduction 2: 5,000
Mass Reduction 3: 6,000
Body Rigidity: 12,000

Tyres | Racing Hard: 12,300
Suspension: 2,100/3,100/4,500/12,000

Power Restrictor: 800
Ballast: 500
Air Filter: 600/2,000
Silencer/Muffler: 1,400/5,250/7,000
Exhaust Manifold: 2,450
Full Control Computer: 3,500
Turbos: 9,700/11,500/17,200
Anti Lag: 3,800
Intercooler: 1,800/3,100
Bore Up: 4,500
Crankshaft: 10,000
High Lift Cams/S: 4,500/8,000
High Compression Pistons: N/A
Titanium Conrods & Pistons: 10,000
Stroke Up: 14,000
Engine Balancing: 17,500
Port Polish: 12,600

Gearbox/Transmission: NA/4,500/11,000/14,000
Torque Vectoring Centre Differential: 12,500
LSD: 3,100/3,100/5,250
Clutch & Flywheel: 3,100/5,100/6,400
Carbon Propshaft: 3,500

Brake Pads: 300/1,000
Brake Systems: 1,000/3,000/10,000 (lmao lmao lol don't)
Brake Balance Controller: 1,500

Nitrous (Not Used): 100,000

My full works Jimny: 351,780
Swift Gr.4: 350,000
 
Ok, so at next week's COTW on saturday the last race HAS to be Nordschleife (2 laps), or I'll riot lol. I WILL be there. I also have a feeling I might participate in the next week's special challenge and I also have a feeling I might be somewhat competitive at it.

tenor (13).gif
 
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Ok, so at next week's COTW on saturday the last race HAS to be Nordschleife (2 laps), or I'll riot lol. I WILL be there. I also have a feeling I might participate in the next week's special challenge and I also have a feeling I might be somewhat competitive at it.

View attachment 1370424
I'll just quote a small section of our DMs...

Alex p.​

Even Vic should have a hard time beating this lap time.

kipmapg-gif.1370428
On behalf of everyone here not Vic, I humbly apologise for my severe lack of foresight and judgment in setting the Special Challenge...
 
Last week's Special Challenge tasked us with tuning a 4C Road Car or a Gr.4 car to 650PP on a maximum of Racing Hard tyres, then setting a hot lap around Goodwood! Here are the results!

Obelisk4C Road Car1:13.720
RX8 Racer4C Road Car1:13.180
SPD4C Gr.41:12.Sundowner

Wait, SPD won the challenge that SPD set? This isn't how Special Challenges work, right? Oh whatever, go home and be in touch with your inner child to wash away the anger like the good old days after Shadow Moses... or something.

ace-attorney-hold-it.gif

Vic Reign934C Gr.41:12.735

Man, I sure do love it when Vic submits a Special Challenge entry literally 20 minutes before this post was supposed to be published! Screw you why can't you be this slow when we're actually racing Well done!

1000014443.jpg

Meme stolen from RX8 without permission. Send your anime lawyers after me if you dare.



@ScottPuss20 showed up one day and showed us Saturday lobby dwellers some instant speed with the X2014 and 4C Gr.3, even sharing with us a livery they made for the latter and leaving a review for it!

For their quick contributions, they've been selected to choose the next car to feature on Car of the Week, and oh boy, they do NOT play around! They went for a car owned and highly praised by Gran Turismo director Yamauchi Kazunori, the Porsche 911 GT3 (996) '01!

Gran Turismo® 7_20240705172625.png


ScottPuss20​

The 996 generation Porsche 911 was met with a lot of controversy when it launched over 25 years ago, ditching the famous air-cooled engine and circular headlights. The so-called "purists" weren't happy but Porsche had to evolve for it's own survival, and the 996 marked a paradigm shift for the 911. The car was more refined, more luxurious and faster than ever before with increased reliability, allowing sales to grow significantly. A new trim level, christened the GT3, was added to the lineup in 2000 with a focus on track performance. Our man Kazunori Yamauchi bought one in white, and he must've liked the car a lot because a virtual replica was made for the imminent release of Gran Turismo 3. Unfortunately, the car did not make the official cut but it remained in the game's code and with the help of ROM hacks, you could drive it. 17 years later, the car showed up in a GT Sport update, allowing everyone to sample the car for themselves without hacks. In GT7, this car is one of my absolute favourites with exceptional handling and poise. You can thrash it all day long and it will just keep coming back for more. I love it, and I hope you do too.

The 996 generation of 911s marked a paradigm shift in the storied 911 legacy, making a switch to water–cooling and— wait, oh, Scott's already said all that.

Did you know that in Gran Turismo 3, there was a 996 GT3 in white normally inaccessible by normal gameplay, rumoured to be modelled after Kaz's own ride? ...oh, Scott said that too?

Uh... the initially disliked 996 generation will forever be remembered as the generation that first introduced the linchpin "GT3" trim to 911s— oh god damnit.

Why don't they tell you about how to join our weekly lobbies too, and do my taxes while they're at it? (But seriously though, thanks for that juicy writeup!)


Weekly Lobbies

Our weekly lobbies are ongoing as usual, and anyone (not a dick) is welcome to join us in racing bone stock 996 GT3s under BoP conditions!

Click on the hyperlinks to convert the times to your time zone, and feel free to add the hosts as friends on PSN to make searching for the lobbies easier!

The Americas Lobby

The Asia/Oceania also kinda European Lobby​

BoP/Settings Disabled: On (Temporarily reverts cars to bone stock, WIDE BODIED OR ENGINE SWAPPED CARS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE!)
Tracks: Randomly selected by lobby participants (~10 mins practice, ~10 mins sprint)
PP Limit: 559PP
Car: No Limit
Tyres: Sports Hard


~Special Challenge!~

We have two slightly different Time Trial Challenge for this week!

In Gran Turismo 3's Arcade Mode, there was a Time Trial challenge at every track in the game in Arcade Mode, pitting players in equal machinery against pre–loaded ghosts credited to various members of the staff who worked on the game. The very last, and almost certainly toughest of these Time Trial challenges, takes place at Complex String. The car: a 2000 RUF RGT. The track: Complex String. The driver credited for setting the pace: some guy by the name of Yamauchi Kazunori.

This week's Special Challenge is my small homage to that very special Time Trial. Absent a RUF RGT and Complex String, I've taken a bone stock 996 GT3, dressed it up in grey, and set a hot lap around the closest equivalent to Complex String in my opinion: the Nürburgring Nordschleife. My time? 7:37.183. My fastest lap ghost can be added to your in–game collection and loaded in your Time Trial session if you want the extra immersion of chasing (or gapping) a ghost:

#cotw #gtplanet #w65

The small caveat here is that, true to GT3's Time Trial challenges, you're REQUIRED to use Active Stability Management (ASM) and Traction Control (TCS) for the whole lap. How much TCS you use is up to you.

ASM: On
TCS: 1–5
Tyre Wear: Off
Fuel Consumption: Off
Shortcut Penalty: Weak
Wall Collision Penalty: Weak

To encourage more people to give this a try, I'm allowing players to submit their optimal times! I'm utter garbage at the Nordschleife, so give it a try!

For those looking for much more of a challenge, Alex has a much, much more difficult time of 7:25.452 (:crazy:) to beat if you crave the challenge, though that's done without TCS and ASM. If you're going for Alex's time, the same rules apply, though you're free to turn off driver aids.

Here's their fastest lap replay for you to add to your in–game Collection should you wish for a ghost to chase!

Alex p.​

It's exactly 22:46 pm right now in Germany, Hannover, as I type this and I'm just utterly exhausted. What started off as an innocent ask for a favour from an "internet pal", resulted in me devoting my entire weekend, my entire free time and energy to drive "the perfect lap".
Did I manage exactly that? Of course I didn't, but I came pretty damned close. I'm pretty much exactly 0.5sec off my "perfect lap". While this lap lacks a certain cleanness and "finesse" of quite a few laps I did during the GT 5, 6, Sport and now GT 7 days, I think measured by sheer pace, this would truely be "the lap of my life", as I so tangibly tease in the thumbnail of the video of said (hot) lap.
After having spent all my free time of the entire weekend, having even made exception to my currently strict diet rules (no carbs or sweets), I ate exactly those for the extra brain and muscle power, I have driven exactly 1659,2 virtual Nordschleife kilometers to achieve a more than respectable 07.25.452min. And this is how I basically felt right after:

frodo-its-done.gif


I really wanted that 07.24.x, and I was on a few such laps, but it is SO easy to lose around 0.5sec each and every time you go for that "perfect lap", simply because you are on the absolute limit the entire time of a 20,832km lap!
But how does the lap truely stack up? Well I know a guy on YT named "Coach Rollbay", who is ridiculously quick. Going by his word, he even holds lots of GT7 time trial world records. He even races in real life. Has a really nice channel as well. Well to cut to the chase: I never once beat him in GT7. A few times I was somewhat "close", but I never stood a real chance. After having finished my lap, my by now tired brain send me an important signal: "Alex, hasn't this guy also done a lap with the same Porsche?" And sure enough, there it was: a 07.26.192. Much to my surprise, I found out, that I actually beat "an alien" by about 7 tenths of a second (and it would've been ~1.3 sec with the "perfect lap"), which is a lot, the closer you get to the limit of a car. But his lap is 9 months old, so I reckon he would still beat my time with the current physics. :P

But anyway, now, in fashion of this week's special challenge, it is your turn in trying to beat, what is currently possibly the world record for this car/track combo. I hope it will put up a nice challenge even to Vic. And for the possibly not so unlikely case, that no one manages to beat it, I propose the winner should be the one, who comes closest.

Having said that, I wish you all...

200 (1) (1).gif

I've always loved the Complex String TT so much, simply for its symbolism. It's a game creator coming full circle by buying a 911 GT3 with the success of the GT series, and then giving back to the fans by sharing in that joy of ownership, all while enjoying a game he and his team made. I just wish there were more personal touches like that in modern games.



Of course, we always welcome opinions, tunes, liveries, photos, videos, or stories about the car here on the thread!
 

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