Gran Turismo World Series (Nations Cup 2025 Exhibition Season 2: 26 Feb - 8 Mar)

[GTWolverine]

Weird issue in slot 3, after an error in slot 1 and a couple spins in slot 2. I dumped the brake after the lights went out as normal but the kart just... didn't want to go? Like it was stuck in neutral and just rolling down the hill. The replay shows me in 1st gear and full throttle, as I should be, but it took letting off for a bit to get the kart to actually accelerate. Somehow, despite falling from 4th to 11th before T1, I managed to come back for 3rd (in top split, I think!) This was a really good combo for me, could have somehow been even better...

That happened to me in a practice race (and I was using the handbrake), and there were also at least 3 other people in Slot 2 who had the same issue using the regular brakes. I guess it's just another PD thing...

Looking forward to warming up for the last Nations race by doing the Time Trial at Suzuka in the Super Formulas, before doing a quick daily race A at Suzuka in the Super Formulas to get some race pace down before I enter the GTWS race at Suzuka in the Super Formulas.

We get it PD, the real series is at Suzuka this weekend, we know already.

I also did a league race in SF at Suzuka 2 weeks ago, and I'm doing another one in 2 weeks again...at least it's a fun combo this time; usually when PD repeats something this obsessively it's complete garbage.

 

[watto79]

Looking forward to warming up for the last Nations race by doing the Time Trial at Suzuka in the Super Formulas, before doing a quick daily race A at Suzuka in the Super Formulas to get some race pace down before I enter the GTWS race at Suzuka in the Super Formulas.

We get it PD, the real series is at Suzuka this weekend, we know already.

It's nuts isn't it. In Sport Mode we have 3 daily races, 2 time trials and 1 Championship. 50% of those are currently the exact same car and track combo. We have over 500 cars and near 40 track layouts to choose from.

As pointed out though, at least its a good combo but still.....

 

[stpatty]

I didn't think I was going to have time to run yesterday so I didn't bother practicing. I didn't have time but I had a go anyway. Logged on at 10 to 4 with a questionable internet connection. I did one lap of practice (1:11.9) then couldn't leave the pits in qualifying, so started 15th. I was up to 8th by turn 2. I ended up last after turn 5 after a guy spun out and collected me. Finished 10th.

Went again in the last slot. Started 6th, should have been 2nd if I'd gone a tenth faster. Had quite a lot of fun and was in 4th following 2nd and 3rd very closely for a while (1st was a smurf) before I went too deep into the first corner on lap 7 and ended up 9th. Made up some places and finished 6th as other people spun out. I managed one lap in the 1:09s and was usually comfortable in the low 1:10s. It was more enjoyable than I was expecting and I don't think the karts were quite as twitchy with a wheel as I was expecting either. I was using TC at 1 and ASM though, so I might just have been cheating.

I tried the send of the millennium in the last corner but just ended up doing some rallying to cross the line. Bonus points if you recognise the livery.

 

[Nakano219]

Manufacturers schedule is out:

• 12 laps at Fuji, RH, x1 tyres
• 15 laps at Tokyo South CCW, RS, x2 tyres
• 16 laps at Autopolis, RH+RM (both required), x5 tyres
• 5 laps at Nürburgring Endurance, RH, x6 tyres

Fun fact: This is I believe the first race we've had in Sport Mode at Tokyo South - in either direction - since the game came out.

 

[dazdilly75]

Manufacturers schedule is out:

• 12 laps at Fuji, RH, x1 tyres
• 15 laps at Tokyo South CCW, RS, x2 tyres
• 16 laps at Autopolis, RH+RM (both required), x5 tyres
• 5 laps at Nürburgring Endurance, RH, x6 tyres

Fun fact: This is I believe the first race we've had in Sport Mode at Tokyo South - in either direction - since the game came out.

Love all those combos except Autopolis. Can't believe we finally have Tokyo as a combo and luckily for me, it's the layout I'm strongest at. CCW South has such an incredible flow to it. We could see rain at Fuji?
Any layout of Nurb I'm comfortable with. Now I just have to decide who to pick. Lambo was great in EX1 but this season I may well go with the prancing horse. Which will be my first time driving for Ferrari.

 

[Fezzik]

Manufacturers schedule is out:

• 12 laps at Fuji, RH, x1 tyres
• 15 laps at Tokyo South CCW, RS, x2 tyres
• 16 laps at Autopolis, RH+RM (both required), x5 tyres
• 5 laps at Nürburgring Endurance, RH, x6 tyres

Fun fact: This is I believe the first race we've had in Sport Mode at Tokyo South - in either direction - since the game came out.

That Tokyo race will be quite fun if only for the location of the pit lane. It'll make qualifying and the required stop a bit interesting.

 

[bduddy]

For some reason PD really loves sprints at Fuji. Tokyo South is something different, at least. Autopolis... meh. And will this be the wet-dry custom weather at the Ring for like the 4th time? Signs point to yes...

 

[Zorz]

Pleasantly surprised to see Tokyo Expressway, but still very likely to just continue skipping seasons in protest at the Wednesday slot times.

Fingers crossed they sort that out for the official season...

 

[Talon16]

Rounds one and three look like repeats. Tokyo, though, is new! That will be fun. And Nord is always welcome! Wondering if it'll rain at Fuji (guessing no) and Nord (guessing yes).

 

[Moose78]

Nice to see the new season of Manu announced. I can already foresee Fuji and Autopolis will be a struggle. I never do well at either of those tracks. Tokyo could be interesting. And I always enjoy driving Nord regardless of how well I do.

Since it is another short season, I'm thinking I'll try to get one of the lesser manufacturers that I haven't yet driven out of the way. Not entirely sure which, but my short list is:

1. Audi
2. Chevrolet
3. Jaguar
4. McLaren
5. Mitsubishi
6. Renault

As for tomorrow's race at Suzuka, I've been doing some tire wear tests. I wrote yesterday that I thought I had figured out how to drive the track faster in RS tires in Free Practice, but when I tried in a custom race with fuel consumption and tire wear enabled, the improvements were pretty small. Meanwhile, I'm burning through the tires way faster. Only able to get 10 laps out them, where before they were lasting 13.

Anyways, here are my latest results (details in this spreadsheet):

Tire Compound	Laps	Opt time	Best time	Avg time
RM	15	1:37.274	1:39.941	1:40.796
RS	10	1:36.237	1:39.768	1:41.248

Tire tread level at end of test:

Tire compound	Laps	Front Left	Front Right	Rear Left	Rear Right
RM	15	45%	50%	60%	65%
RS	10	1%	10%	40%	40%

Using these lap times to simulate different strategies (by fastest):

Strategy	Total time
7RS-13RM	33:27.563
6RS-14RM	33:28.011
8RS-12RM	33:28.455
5RS-15RM	33:28.589
9RS-11RM	33:28.969
10RS-10RM	33:29.923

It's looking like 7RS-13RM is my best option. That might change as I do more tests and smooth out the data. I'm not sure how much more testing I'll do, though, as I'd like to get more practice on the track against other drivers, in custom races and in Daily Race A.

Good luck to everybody racing!

 

[Famine]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Gran Turismo World Series 2025 Manufacturers Cup Exhibition Season Begins March 12​

As we’d expected, Polyphony Digital is squeezing one final Gran Turismo World Series Exhibition Season in before the start of the official championship, with a Manufacturers Cup event beginning soon...

 

[Talon16]

Interesting that all the races are the same for GT1 and GT2 except Nord, which is five laps and three laps respectfully.

With this exhibition season starting in short order, followed immediately by the official season...

 

[Moose78]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Gran Turismo World Series 2025 Manufacturers Cup Exhibition Season Begins March 12​

As we’d expected, Polyphony Digital is squeezing one final Gran Turismo World Series Exhibition Season in before the start of the official championship, with a Manufacturers Cup event beginning soon...

@Famine, can I suggest one small correction:

Firstly, fuel degradation and tire consumption remain switched on in GT1 League qualifying

Only tire wear is enabled in qualifying. Fuel consumption is not. And I'm guessing you meant fuel consumption and tire degradation.

 

[Famine]

@Famine, can I suggest one small correction:



Only tire wear is enabled in qualifying. Fuel consumption is not. And I'm guessing you meant fuel consumption and tire degradation.

No, I like degrading my fuel. YOU WORTHLESS HYDROCARBON.

 

[Hasnain282]

Schedule tables

GT1

GT2/3

 

[Talon16]

I like that fuel consumption is off for quali. If PD aren't going to let us pick the amount we put in the car, it should just be off. Otherwise, quali often turns into a one-shot deal as one's last lap will be the quickest due to the lighter load. Of course this depends on the multiplier but it's definitely happened in the past.

 

[GTWolverine]

Finally they use my favorite Tokyo layout (as in, the only one I even like). And it's on grippy tires, and my car of choice should be pretty strong there. Maybe this means they'll remember BMB one day too!

 

[MIE1992]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Gran Turismo World Series 2025 Manufacturers Cup Exhibition Season Begins March 12​

As we’d expected, Polyphony Digital is squeezing one final Gran Turismo World Series Exhibition Season in before the start of the official championship, with a Manufacturers Cup event beginning soon...

I actually might be able to do this one, barring the round on the 15th since I’m spending that day with my two best friends. Looks like a fun set of venues, too!

 

[stpatty]

Nice to see the new season of Manu announced. I can already foresee Fuji and Autopolis will be a struggle. I never do well at either of those tracks. Tokyo could be interesting. And I always enjoy driving Nord regardless of how well I do.

Since it is another short season, I'm thinking I'll try to get one of the lesser manufacturers that I haven't yet driven out of the way. Not entirely sure which, but my short list is:

1. Audi
2. Chevrolet
3. Jaguar
4. McLaren
5. Mitsubishi
6. Renault

As for tomorrow's race at Suzuka, I've been doing some tire wear tests. I wrote yesterday that I thought I had figured out how to drive the track faster in RS tires in Free Practice, but when I tried in a custom race with fuel consumption and tire wear enabled, the improvements were pretty small. Meanwhile, I'm burning through the tires way faster. Only able to get 10 laps out them, where before they were lasting 13.

Anyways, here are my latest results (details in this spreadsheet):

Tire Compound	Laps	Opt time	Best time	Avg time
RM	15	1:37.274	1:39.941	1:40.796
RS	10	1:36.237	1:39.768	1:41.248

View attachment 1434206

Tire tread level at end of test:

Tire compound	Laps	Front Left	Front Right	Rear Left	Rear Right
RM	15	45%	50%	60%	65%
RS	10	1%	10%	40%	40%

Using these lap times to simulate different strategies (by fastest):

Strategy	Total time
7RS-13RM	33:27.563
6RS-14RM	33:28.011
8RS-12RM	33:28.455
5RS-15RM	33:28.589
9RS-11RM	33:28.969
10RS-10RM	33:29.923

It's looking like 7RS-13RM is my best option. That might change as I do more tests and smooth out the data. I'm not sure how much more testing I'll do, though, as I'd like to get more practice on the track against other drivers, in custom races and in Daily Race A.

Good luck to everybody racing!

How are you making it to 10 laps on softs? I can barely manage 6. I had to check all the settings were correct.

 

[Revengel]

How are you making it to 10 laps on softs? I can barely manage 6. I had to check all the settings were correct.

Spoiler: The Reason . . .

 

[Moose78]

How are you making it to 10 laps on softs? I can barely manage 6. I had to check all the settings were correct.

No idea, really. It was the same thing when we had these SF cars at Catalunya last year. A lot of GTPers were surprised that I could get the tires to last as long as did. If I had to guess, I'd put it down to the habits that tend to make me a slower driver: braking earlier than I need to and getting on the gas later than I should. But really, I'm as surprised as anybody to find out I can do something well in this game without really trying. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Deni323]

I don't have any experience with man. cup. So this is maybe a noob question! please don't judge.

But I wonder since M6 Gr3 is a car to go in Gr3 races, at least last recent BOP Gr3 daily races, how do you chose your manufacturer? like why to even go with any other than BMW?

Is there a different kind of BOP in these races or what?

 

[Moose78]

But I wonder since M6 Gr3 is a car to go in Gr3 races, at least last recent BOP Gr3 daily races, how do you chose your manufacturer? like why to even go with any other than BMW?

There are a lot of different ways to choose a manufacturer.

The different cars have different strengths and weaknesses, even after the BoP has been applied. The BMW M6, for whatever reason, is really good at Watkins Glen, but it isn't the fastest at every track. Some cars are better at handling, or have a higher top speed, or are better on fuel or tires. Better at some tracks than others.

A lot of drivers have a favourite car and they just pick the same manufacturer for every season. They've found a car they like to drive, that suits their driving style, and they get really good a figuring out to get that car to go fast on any track.

Myself, I'm on a mission to try out all the manufacturers. Each season I pick a new one. I'm working my way through them from least popular to most.

You can spend a lot of time testing different manufacturers to see which one is the best choice for a coming season. Once the race details are announced on the GT7 website (US, UK, AU), it is pretty straightforward to translate them into Custom Race settings, where you can run laps with the same fuel consumption and tire wear multipliers that you'll see in the race. You can try different cars. Compare lap times. Compare overall race times. From there, it is up to you how deep you want to go.

Is there a different kind of BOP in these races or what?

Every car has three different BoP settings - High speed, Mid speed, and Low speed -- that adjust the power and weight of the car. Which one is used in a race depends on the track. Every track is similarly categorized as High speed, Mid speed, or Low speed. You get the BoP adjustment that matches the track. You can find a detailed listing of the BoP settings on GT-Engine.

These are the same BoP adjustments that are applied in Daily Races and the Gr.3 events in single-player mode. There is also a BoP setting that you can enable for custom races, so you can drive your car there just like you would in the real race.

As I understand it, the top racers competing in the World Series live events get BoP settings that are customized for each race, which boggles my mind, but isn't relevant to the majority of drivers.

 

[A1an]

Any tips and advice for the F1 Suzuka race, does it rain anyone know?

 

[Moose78]

Any tips and advice for the F1 Suzuka race, does it rain anyone know?

I'd be very surprised if we get rain. Typically, in races that require two compounds of slick tires, we don't see any rain. I haven't done the race myself, so I'm just speculating, but I wouldn't expect any.

 

[Norbsthebald]

Any tips and advice for the F1 Suzuka race, does it rain anyone know?

Start on the mediums unless you qualify right up front, also be aware that the performance difference between mediums and softs isn't that great, so although your softs will still be showing plenty of life left after 7 or 8 laps, that is actually the optimum lifespan and going any longer will be slower than being on mediums. Most folk in my 15-lap GT2 race were doing 7M/8S or 8M/7S. Those that started on mediums came out better (like me, Q7, punted to DFL at T1, ended up P4). The one exception was a guy who punted his way to the front from Q10 or so, pitted after 8 laps, punted their way to the front again, then started to crash of their own accord, ended up behind me in P6 or so then got 2 minutes pen for not reading the rules (he'd gone 8S/7S and not used RM) and ended up DFL🤣.

EDIT: No, dry all the way
DOUBLE EDIT: Oh yeah, boost button (as below)

 

[Famine]

Any tips and advice for the F1 Suzuka race

Yep, it's Super Formula not F1 so you've got an "overtake" boost feature to use. Make sure you have a button mapped for it (overtake/DRS/nitrous) or you'll be leaving half a minute on the road.

 

[stpatty]

Frustrating race. Qualified 2nd, used softs and boost to take the lead and stay there until I pitted on lap 7. Came out just behind a guy then had a moment behind him at 130R on that lap which let someone else through. Ended up stuck behind him for a lap because he kept defending, then I lost it coming out of turn 2 on lap 10. No idea even how, I accelerated as normal and the car just went round.

Ended up 11 seconds off the lead losing 12 seconds from that spin. My result is good enough to stick with but also I can clearly do better. Hmm.

 

[PapaLegba]

Frustrating race. Qualified 2nd, used softs and boost to take the lead and stay there until I pitted on lap 7. Came out just behind a guy then had a moment behind him at 130R on that lap which let someone else through. Ended up stuck behind him for a lap because he kept defending, then I lost it coming out of turn 2 on lap 10. No idea even how, I accelerated as normal and the car just went round.

Ended up 11 seconds off the lead losing 12 seconds from that spin. My result is good enough to stick with but also I can clearly do better. Hmm.

Boost?!?… dang. Thats what i forgot. Finished 7th, and in my lobby that was only 5 nations points less than first. I’ll take it.

 

[stpatty]

Attempt 2: Held off from boosting all the way through my first lap because I wasn't happy with it. Ended up with a penalty at Degner 1 on the second lap. Whoops. Started 8th.

I was up to 6th after the first lap and picked off a few places in the first stint. Some people pitted, I ended up in 1st by lap 6. I was so focused I actually stayed out a lap longer than I realised and briefly held up a guy in a Toyota, but it was fine.

When I came out the pits one of the leaders was right behind me after pitting a lap earlier. I let him past because I wasn't sure what tyres he was on. Once the rest pitted we gradually ended up in 1st/2nd but I was consistently about 1.5 seconds behind him. Eventually a guy on softs caught up to me, I let him past at the end of lap 17 so he could have a go but on lap 20 he did this

I cruised round for 2nd and ended up I think 2.3 off the lead. With hindsight I should have fought for my places a bit harder but it was still a fun race in the end.