Gran Turismo World Series 2024 Thread

[Bojador]

I had 2 cracks at the race yesterday down in GT3, 7:00pm and 8:00pm GMT. Race 1 I opt for to drive the 650s. Heading out lap for qualifying, I think I was 6 or 7 out the pits, on the out lap I leave a gap of about 1-1.5 seconds to the driver ahead, to make space for a flying lap. Then at the hairpin, someone named Jorge, in Martini liveried Alfa 155 ( Hi Jorge 🖕), decides to just punt me out the way, like he's in a hurry to get somewhere! My 2 quali laps were average at best, placing me 4th despite it being 2 seconds off my best practice. Horrible start, got swallowed by the pack at turn 1, the bumped and pushed all the way down to 13th. regained several places before eventually finishing 11th.
After such an appalling race one, I jumped straight back in, but this time in the 458. Managed a slightly better QT but again started 4th. This time my start was good, and avoided any T1/T2 carnage. Found myself in third with a 4 second gap to 4th within the first couple of laps. P1 & P2 were clearly faster, but P2 kept making mistakes allowing me to catch and pass, only to be repassed, a lap or 2 later. Fortunately our duel was clean and kept it interesting for the length of the race. Happy with a 3rd, I called it a day.
I checked the leagues this morning and hilariously my measly 33 point haul has me 66th in the UK after round 1!

I forgot that was even a thing. Currently 3rd in NY even though I'm based more than 5.000km away 😆

 

[Hoani Tuati]

They Nerfed the Toyota GT86, which was already struggling. Not sure what PD were thinking with that one. Looks like Porsche is the Manufacturer to go for now.

Always has been for us die-hards.

 

[Nakano219]

Looks like they've finally done low, medium and high speed BoPs separately

At a glance reactions:

• The R8 Evo is going to be very very good at combinations with low tyre wear settings.
• That's not enough of a buff to the BRZ, and given the WRX got buffed again too I'd probably tell Subaru drivers to run the WRX to be honest.
• Both the Gr.3 Genesis and the Gr.4 Mazda/Ferrari/McLaren taking well deserved nerfs. I think the AMG and 911 are going to be the "default" Gr.3 choices, no idea for Gr.4 to be honest
• They still didn't improve the M4 Gr.4! What does that car have to do to not be awful.

 

[Moose78]

Looks like they've finally done low, medium and high speed BoPs separately

And almost all the Gr.3 and Gr.4 cars have seen changes in at least one of those levels.

I've spent quite a lot of time lately profiling the Gr.4 cars. I expected that a BoP update was going to come eventually and I'd have to retest some cars, but this is bigger -- much bigger -- than I had thought. From a testing perspective, we have effectively tripled the number of cars in the categories with the separation of the BoP levels. Not sure if it is even worth it to re-run the tests that I had. It might be better to throw them out and start from scratch. That will have to wait until after the GTWS season, though.

For the immediate problem of selecting a manufacturer for this season's Manu Cup -- where I'm trying to pick between the three least popular makes in Canada: Alfa Romeo, Renault, and VW -- I'm looking at having to do quite a lot of retesting if I want to base the decision on up-to-date data. I had run a bunch of tests last weekend, but it seems much of it has been invalidated with this update. All three of those manufactures have seen their Gr.4 cars buffed. Renault is the only Gr.3 car that hasn't changed. Maybe I'll just punt and go with the stale data. Not sure what I'm going to do here.

Anyways, it feels like this is going to have a big impact on sport mode.

 

[PMK]

TIL that the new Exhibition Series had already started. FML lol

 

[Bojador]

For those not running Rd2, what is Rd3 like? Is it a Mercedes CLK Cup Series race?

 

[AdxRE]

My first race in World Series after switching to a wheel, and got myself a surprise win!

Was in GT1 and the trusty 650S. The car handles weirdly at Suzuka - at one corner I had no front end and understeered, on the next one the turn-in was so good as if I was under driving the car - very confusing.

Got pole in Slot #1, very slow off the line but managed to keep 1st going into the esses. Turned in at the usual spot at Degner 1 and suddenly I had all the front end grip in the world, clipped the curb a bit too much and then slid across the inside grass. Came out of Degner 2 in 5th then defended from a quick Supra for the next few laps until he decided to bump me off track at the esses. Then got bumped again at Degner into the grass.

Gave it a 2nd try in Slot #2, qualified 2nd less than 0.1s off pole. The guy on pole jumped the start and I held 1st til the end of the race. Got lucky especially when 2nd, 3rd and 4th guy fought hard in the early laps which allowed me to pull away.

Happy Day!

 

[dazdilly75]

With that group of drivers around you, I'd say you're on the verge of hitting A+?

 

[AdxRE]

With that group of drivers around you, I'd say your on the verge of hitting A+?

I think I am about 75-80% DR A but I will probably be dumped straight back to A once I hit A+

It was a 221 points race btw.

 

[dazdilly75]

I think I am about 75-80% DR A but I will probably be dumped straight back to A once I hit A+

It was a 221 points race btw.

You had some decent guys in your race, so I think you might be underestimating your skill level. Gg's

 

[SPL170db]

Just ran a few laps in the cup o' coffee @ Road Atlanta. I was a little weirded out when I saw I was about 4-5 seconds off pace of my friends lol.

Got my legs under me a little better and managed to turn a best lap of 1:53.9, so that's a little bit better. Not even sure if I can run this race on Saturday. At best I might be able to run the first slot before headed out for dinner w/ some friends.

 

[Yard_Sale]

Won’t get to touch the update for another 24 hours. Did the diet help the handling of some of those twitchy MR cars?

 

[Spider-Racer]

2023-2024 Nations Exhibition // Season 3 - Round 1
Suzuka - Group 4 - McLaren
DR A+/S Lobby

Slot 1
Feels like its been forevor since I raced last. My kid took over my PS5 and I had to save some bills so I could get him one for his birthday. Then, I could have mine back, LOL. His birthday was the 26th, so it was just in time for Nations. Practice went well Monday and Tuesday, but I couldn't decide which car, but finally pulled the trigger on the McLaren since I didn't run off track as much in the Macca.

Before going out on course, I saw I had @Pigems and @Spider-Racer in the lobby along with many other familiar screen names including one infamous driver. I was surprised when a certain name that rhymes with SLY wasn't the culprit in Pigems video above. During qualy I was able to manage a 2:10 flat and was pretty shocked to find myself in P2 to start the race. This quickly turned from an expected mid pack finish to a possible battle for a win!

I had an amazing launch and took the lead in T1. After a failed pass by p2 in Casio and another racer running off track at Spoon, I found @Spider-Racer filling up my rear view mirror. I wasn't stressing as bad as I usually do in the lead, but I couldn't seem to shake my ghost in P2. I managed to hold on with no errors and under constant pressure until lap 9 when @Spider-Racer channeled his inner Sena and put his car in the gap at the hairpin. It was a fair move, he squeezed that sucker right under me. I left too much space and didn't defend early enough after getting lulled to sleep by Spiders kindness, lol.

Not long after that, I lost P2 to in Spoon battling with Spider. With one lap to go, I had no answers for the two in front. Their race pace was just better. In fact, I had to hold off p4 in the final turns to take home the final spot on the podium. I know a lot of folks had a boring race. Not the case for me! It was a great race and really enjoyed it regardless of losing the lead. Congrats to @Spider-Racer for his P2. Well done. Sorry @Pigems wasn't right there with us. Would've enjoyed seeing your door next to mine. 285 points and a podim, so I called it a night.

It was my pleasure racing you. Especially in McLarens!
I was equal parts happy we finally were battling on track and worried I'd miss a brake marker somewhere and punt you.
Took just two shots from this race, one of them is from my "If gap, car" moment. I had two wheels on the grass, but I'm glad it worked 😅

I'll come back for Rounde 3 and 4, probably!

 

[Talon16]

I have a really dumb question:

Since daylight Savings time begins here in the States on March 10th (spring ahead so we 'lose' an hour) and the first set of Manu races starts on March 13th, can I assume the times shown in game today for the first race will be off by an hour come actual race day? Or, are the times shown in game today going to still be valid come race day?

I am thinking the former since there are only like 20 countries that do Daylight Savings and presumably UTC time isn't effected but wanted to verify.

 

[Famine]

presumably UTC time isn't effected

UTC is a time standard, not a time zone, and remains unchanged by considerations of daylight savings for reference purposes - that's why it's used by the military and the International Space Station (where it's called Zulu time).

The race times currently listed in-game and on the website are in the standard time zones, so when the clocks change to daylight time zones you will indeed be an hour out: a race set to take place at 1600 PST will take place at 1700 PDT.

 

[dazdilly75]

Just ran a few laps in the cup o' coffee @ Road Atlanta. I was a little weirded out when I saw I was about 4-5 seconds off pace of my friends lol.

Got my legs under me a little better and managed to turn a best lap of 1:53.9, so that's a little bit better. Not even sure if I can run this race on Saturday. At best I might be able to run the first slot before headed out for dinner w/ some friends.

The Cappuccino actually handles like a dream, once you get to grips with the sensitive rotation, due to its short wheelbase. There is a bit of short shifting required from 3rd to 4th gear, and it's a momentum car, so keeping the revs high to prevent it bogging down is essential. I've managed to get a 1:52.772 after spending an hour of TT yesterday, I think my optimum is probably a 1:52.5xx but a few very minor errors killed my speed in the last sector. I don't understand why PD haven't made the car available is the used car dealership, so people can at least run practice lobbies outside of Sport mode.

 

[Moose78]

I have a really dumb question:

Since daylight Savings time begins here in the States on March 10th (spring ahead so we 'lose' an hour) and the first set of Manu races starts on March 13th, can I assume the times shown in game today for the first race will be off by an hour come actual race day? Or, are the times shown in game today going to still be valid come race day?

I am thinking the former since there are only like 20 countries that do Daylight Savings and presumably UTC time isn't effected but wanted to verify.

The times posted in the U.S. announcement are:

GT1 League
・Saturday: 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. (PST)
・Wednesday: 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. (PST)

GT2 & GT3 Leagues

・Sunday: 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. (PST)
・Thursday: 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. (PST)

While everything @Famine wrote is technically correct, I'd be willing to bet that the use of PST here was an oversight -- much like the 'Sunday' and 'Thursday' labels for the GT2/3 races. The first Saturday slot of the GT2/3 races in the past two seasons was always at 7AM Pacific Time -- whether Daylight Saving or Standard time was in effect. I expect they meant PDT here, not PST, but to know for sure we'll have to wait until the time changes to see what it says in the game.

Edit: As for GTWS preparations, I've been splitting my time between practicing for the Cappuccino race and retesting the cars from my short list of unpopular manufacturers (Alfa, Renault, and VW) after the BoP update.

On the Cappuccino front, with some practice chasing one of the top ghosts in Free Practice, I was able to crack into the 1:53.9s. That was enough to get me ahead of @GlockPants, @fardoche, and @flip6981, so I was feeling pretty good about it. They'll no doubt all be showing me up soon, though. I still have to take the training wheels off and do some laps without the aid of a ghost.

On the retesting side, nothing too exciting there. The cars that got buffed are faster, as expected. The biggest difference I saw was with the Alfa 155. It is about a second faster in opt time on both GVH and DF versus the 1.42 BoP. So far, though, it hasn't really affected the relative standings of the manufacturers.

 

[SupaflyIRL]

I’m only at the point where I leave using auto transmission on simple races like ovals or the Jimny lake Louise race. Looks like it’s needed here for the Cappuccino so I’m going to have to dig deep and remember my manual car I drove in high school over 20 years ago.

The analog levers and switches on the console of the AE86 give me flashbacks of it.

 

[SPL170db]

The Cappuccino actually handles like a dream, once you get to grips with the sensitive rotation, due to its short wheelbase. There is a bit of short shifting required from 3rd to 4th gear, and it's a momentum car, so keeping the revs high to prevent it bogging down is essential. I've managed to get a 1:52.772 after spending an hour of TT yesterday, I think my optimum is probably a 1:52.5xx but a few very minor errors killed my speed in the last sector. I don't understand why PD haven't made the car available is the used car dealership, so people can at least run practice lobbies outside of Sport mode.

Yup, I just realized my shifting points were all off for sure. Gonna try practicing a bit more, should be able to bring it down a bit.

 

[Eggstor]

I have a really dumb question:

Since daylight Savings time begins here in the States on March 10th (spring ahead so we 'lose' an hour) and the first set of Manu races starts on March 13th, can I assume the times shown in game today for the first race will be off by an hour come actual race day? Or, are the times shown in game today going to still be valid come race day?

I am thinking the former since there are only like 20 countries that do Daylight Savings and presumably UTC time isn't effected but wanted to verify.

If memory serves, it's not quite how @Moose78 remembers. The round that ran into November 2023 "changed" the first start time for the GT3 league from 9 am CDT to 10 am CST (still 14:00 UTC) as my local time went from UTC-5 to UTC-6.

 

[Finch2090]

Never really race with manual transmission but I realised the only way to set a decent time in practice for the cappuccino race is to use manual on my controller

Managed to get a 1.54.00 and seem to be struggling to find where I’m losing time now. The back straight is crucial, Any tips on what sort gear changes I should be doing through the two corners at the top of the? Few of the replays I’ve watched drop into 2nd and some just stay in 3rd

I’ve also decided to bite the bullet and just stick at manual transmission now. As I think I’m reaching my ceiling in terms of driving with automatic now. Did a few offline races in a few different groups and I have to say I’ve gotten to grips with it pretty quickly. My only issue is I’m not sure on downshifts? How do people figure that out ? Is there any good tutorials for understanding which gear I should be dropping to or is it just intuition?

Either way, I enjoy the cappuccino at Road Atlanta, really have to extend the track as much as possible and I feel like avoiding penalties is going to be the key to winning that race as that penalty line halfway down the straight is brutal

Edit: I’m also losing time in that sharp left hander at the end of sector 1. Can’t seem to find a line through there and my exit speed from there ranges from costing me a few hundredths to almost a full second. (I don’t know the corner names / numbers at this track)

So any tips for sector 2 I guess?

 

[icycls]

Watch a top ghost replay - I found it is pretty much 4th gear through the whole track, third in only a couple corners. Provided, of course, you keep your momentum up as someone here mentioned. Momentum, momentum, momentum. Don't brake too hard (you don't need too) and don't slide around! You will lose whole seconds is this happens.

 

[FluxWildly]

Yep 4th gear 90% of the time. Only time you need to drop back to third is T7 and T10 at the start and end of the long straight. Some people drop back to 3rd for T6 but I don't and feel it works well in both gears. Also short shift into 4th as soon as you see red on your rev meter.

 

[SupaflyIRL]

and always remember:

Dodge Duck Dip Dive Dodge

 

[Fezzik]

Did some practice and remembered that I loathe most road cars in this game and also this track, so skipping tomorrow.

May do Wednesday’s race on a different account than round 1 - I don’t have a CLK on all of them and custom liveries make you faster (scientifically proven).

 

[Finch2090]

Could be a dumb question

I have a wing attached to my Capuccino… Is that aesthetic only? Or does it actually create drag / downforce on the car compared to a wingless Capuccino? Lol

 

[CMB350]

Did some practice and remembered that I loathe most road cars in this game and also this track, so skipping tomorrow.

I’m usually of the same opinion. However the Cappuccino is actually kinda fun. Road Atlanta is one of my favorite tracks too. I typically hate “comfort” tires, but this car is so lightweight and underpowered that they seem to work okay with it.

I also missed round 1 on my main account so I’ll do this one just for the heck of it.

 

[Moose78]

Could be a dumb question

I have a wing attached to my Capuccino… Is that aesthetic only? Or does it actually create drag / downforce on the car compared to a wingless Capuccino? Lol

I expect it is nullified by the BoP, but I've fitted my car out with aero parts, too, just in case.

 

[GlockPants]

I have to say, I'm enjoying throwing the Cappuccino around Road Atlanta. Looking forward to the race tomorrow, but I'll be sad after the FP is over.

 

[Interemptor]

Just finished the first Cappu race. Started P6 and finished P3. Pretty happy.

The last 3 laps the guy behind me was faster and closed the gap to .2 s in the last lap. Switched my lane once on the straight to defend the inside of turn 10 and closed the door to the right under the bridge before the finish line to stay ahead and finish p3.

After the race the guy said it was a "nasty push". Got clean race and there was no contact. Kinda think I may have been a bit too aggressive but should I have just let him pass?