Gran Turismo World Series (Nations Cup Exhibition Season: Jan 22 - Feb 1)

[watto79]

I started the game in Dec/2024. Can I 'rent' a car to join these races, or do I have to 'own' the car to participate?

You can rent them.

 

[Norbsthebald]

I started the game in Dec/2024. Can I 'rent' a car to join these races, or do I have to 'own' the car to participate?

You can rent for these. Advantage of renting is that not only the car, but all the tyres you'll possibly need are included in the rental. If you own the car you would need to buy all the tyres as well, and if a race turned wet and you didn't own W or IM tyres tough luck. Rental users will have those by default.

Only disadvantage of rental is being stuck with base liveries.

In my opinion, these races are much better to be in than dailies. Good luck!

 

[Famine]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

2025 Gran Turismo World Series Begins With a Nations Cup Exhibition Season, Starts January 22​

Along with some upcoming changes to the 2025 Gran Turismo World Series, Polyphony Digital has announced a short Nations Cup Exhibition Season will get underway this month...

 

[timekiller001]

In my opinion, these races are much better to be in than dailies. Good luck!

Same here. I recall seeing old GTWS seasons in GT Sport that had 20+ races in them. I would like that back. More variety, more options to skip if you don't have time. Probably unpopular for those trying to qualify for the World Finals but I'd prefer that.

 

[stpatty]

FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships 2019 Series Overview - gran-turismo.com

www.gran-turismo.com

GT Sport's 2019 FIA-Certified Nations Cup Stage 1 Starts Today

If you want to emulate Igor Fraga in 2019 and stand on the top step of GT Sport's Nations Cup podium, your chance starts this weekend. The massive, 40-race season gets underway on Saturday March 23, with the "Stage 1" series. The best drivers, as scored by their best three rounds, will then get a

www.gtplanet.net

40 Nations races from March to September. Halcyon days.

 

[Moose78]

Only disadvantage of rental is being stuck with base liveries.

Another one. If you are inclined to practice for the races, you will have more challenges if you don't own the car. The built-in Free Practice mode has fuel consumption and tire wear disabled. If you want to figure out the best times to pit for new tires/fuel, you need to do that in custom races or lobbies where you need to own the car.

 

[Norbsthebald]

Another one. If you are inclined to practice for the races, you will have more challenges if you don't own the car. The built-in Free Practice mode has fuel consumption and tire wear disabled. If you want to figure out the best times to pit for new tires/fuel, you need to do that in custom races or lobbies where you need to own the car.

Very true. You'd think I'd remember that, seeing as that's my main way of preparing for a GTWS race, wouldn’t you?

 

[newmedia_dev]

While the repeat mostly of the races and shortness of the seasons are a little

I do welcome longer format races and some strat elements especially as I only play Sport mode dailies and TTs now.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

If I had been a conspiracy person I would think PD set those times to boost NA participating, since everyone in Europe with a job and family will have to race in NA to be able to race at all.
Silly time slots

 

[tankuroded]

Countersteering Assist is banned for this season (for all leagues) - a heads-up:

 

[newmedia_dev]

Countersteering Assist is banned for this season (for all leagues) - a heads-up:

Seems an interesting choice to still allow ASM and for the GR2 cars they don't have massive oversteer issues normally?

 

[ZEE]

Seems an interesting choice to still allow ASM and for the GR2 cars they don't have massive oversteer issues normally?

I find this a bit odd, so all cars will be going sideways in the race becuase drivers will be very eager to correct and apply to much countersteer themselves.

But lookin forward to these new GTWS cup races, slightly shorter race days so here goes!

 

[Nakano219]

Seems an interesting choice to still allow ASM and for the GR2 cars they don't have massive oversteer issues normally?

I'd assume it's just a flat rule for the season (and probably 2025 as a whole) rather than something they're doing for the Gr.2 race specifically.

 

[Marky264]

I'm gutted, I'm away over Saturday 25th and it's on my favourite track combo at Red Bull in GR.3's 😭 Hoping Manufactures will start promptly after this finishes up. I'll hopefully have the new MOMO x Logi wheel on the rig by then too.

 

[MIE1992]

I think this is like, the third time we’ve had a Gr.2 race at Sardegna A, but what I find especially interesting is that the lower-downforce, late-90s GT1/LMGTP cars aren’t allowed this time. Instead, it’s just the two GT500 trios plus the RS5 DTM.

 

[Moose78]

I've been trying out some of the Gr.2 cars in free practice and custom races to figure out which one to take to the race on Wednesday.

After some light testing, I decided to focus on these three:

1. Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM '19
2. Honda NSX CONCEPT-GT '16
3. Lexus RC F GT500 '16

I've run two tests with each car -- a 7-lap race on RS tires, and a 13-lap race on RM -- to see how they do under race conditions. Both tests were done as a custom race against a single AI driver (starting behind me). Here's how they went.

7-lap RS tire test (ordered by Total time):

Manufacturer	Model	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	1:34.882	1:35.069	1:36.209	11:13.461
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	1:35.662	1:35.662	1:36.856	11:17.991
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	#N/A	1:34.716	1:38.183	11:27.284

RS tire tread levels at finish:

Manufacturer	Model	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	25%	1%	15%	5%
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	25%	5%	20%	10%
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	25%	5%	5%	0%

13-lap RM tire test results (ordered by Total time):

Manufacturer	Model	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	1:35.135	1:35.502	1:36.430	20:53.591
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	1:34.842	1:35.377	1:36.497	20:54.457
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	1:35.753	1:36.030	1:36.857	20:59.144

RM tire tread levels at finish:

Manufacturer	Model	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	30%	15%	25%	15%
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	30%	5%	25%	15%
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	35%	15%	20%	10%

Full details are in this spreadsheet.

Initial impressions:

Audi: It has the best front-straight speed of the bunch thanks to DRS. Its a bit of nuisance to use the DRS, though. I have to remember to get on the button out of every corner. I'm able to drive it fairly consistently, without making too many mistakes, which is more than I can say for the Honda.

Honda: Looking at the leader boards, this seems to the meta car. Great in the corners, but slowest on the front straight, and the worst on tires. It can be fast around the track if I drive it just right. I've posted my fastest lap with it in Free Practice. It is very unforgiving, though. In custom races with fuel consumption and tire wear, I'm neither fast or consistent in it. Worst of the bunch for me.

Lexus: In between the Audi and Honda in top speed, but I find it very forgiving and easy to drive, so I'm consistently getting decent lap times out of it. If I had to choose a car today, this would be the one.

 

[newmedia_dev]

I've been trying out some of the Gr.2 cars in free practice and custom races to figure out which one to take to the race on Wednesday.

After some light testing, I decided to focus on these three:

1. Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM '19
2. Honda NSX CONCEPT-GT '16
3. Lexus RC F GT500 '16

I've run two tests with each car -- a 7-lap race on RS tires, and a 13-lap race on RM -- to see how they do under race conditions. Both tests were done as a custom race against a single AI driver (starting behind me). Here's how they went.

7-lap RS tire test (ordered by Total time):

Manufacturer	Model	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	1:34.882	1:35.069	1:36.209	11:13.461
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	1:35.662	1:35.662	1:36.856	11:17.991
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	#N/A	1:34.716	1:38.183	11:27.284

RS tire tread levels at finish:

Manufacturer	Model	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	25%	1%	15%	5%
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	25%	5%	20%	10%
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	25%	5%	5%	0%

13-lap RM tire test results (ordered by Total time):

Manufacturer	Model	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	1:35.135	1:35.502	1:36.430	20:53.591
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	1:34.842	1:35.377	1:36.497	20:54.457
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	1:35.753	1:36.030	1:36.857	20:59.144

RM tire tread levels at finish:

Manufacturer	Model	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	30%	15%	25%	15%
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	30%	5%	25%	15%
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	35%	15%	20%	10%

Full details are in this spreadsheet.

Initial impressions:

Audi: It has the best front-straight speed of the bunch thanks to DRS. Its a bit of nuisance to use the DRS, though. I have to remember to get on the button out of every corner. I'm able to drive it fairly consistently, without making too many mistakes, which is more than I can say for the Honda.

Honda: Looking at the leader boards, this seems to the meta car. Great in the corners, but slowest on the front straight, and the worst on tires. It can be fast around the track if I drive it just right. I've posted my fastest lap with it in Free Practice. It is very unforgiving, though. In custom races with fuel consumption and tire wear, I'm neither fast or consistent in it. Worst of the bunch for me.

Lexus: In between the Audi and Honda in top speed, but I find it very forgiving and easy to drive, so I'm consistently getting decent lap times out of it. If I had to choose a car today, this would be the one.

This has confirmed my initial knee jerk reaction, in race trim and lobbies where the pace might be fairly close the NSX is the car, not a good thing or a bad thing but an obvious choice.

Taking what I know from the dailies the NSX wear isn't as much as you had but it's dailies so you can't rely on that.

I'd like to give the Lexus ago as I think my driving style might be able to do something with it, but only 50% confident in that.

 

[Zorz]

As far as cars go, I'm normally one to try resist the meta and pick something unusual. In this case, it can't be anything other than the NSX for me. I've been able to get into the 1:32s with it in free practice, but haven't been able to get close to that with anything else.

I'm honestly wondering if this race might have a heavy dose of survival in it thanks to that 8x tyre multiplier. The tyre wear in the NSX is rough just running alone in a custom race, and I'm finding the lap times really drop off towards the end of each stint as there's very little life left after 12 laps on Mediums or 6 on Softs. I have to significantly change my approach to turn 13 (the left-hander at the start of sector 3) over the course of each stint too because the grip is just gone by the end. Genuinely a little concerned that any kind of fighting at any point will kill the tyres off completely.

 

[05XR8]

I haven’t participated in Sport Mode for a long time, but it’s a shame GT1 Manu has not had Gr.4 races.

 

[benjoi84]

I think I'll give the Audi a punt, thanks to @Moose78 research. That and the fact I have countless attempts around this circuit in the same car, and my tyre conservation skills are C- at best.

That's if I'm free on Wednesday, we'll see.

 

[Moose78]

The more practice I do, the slower I seem to get. And I was pretty slow to begin with. I'm not getting anywhere close to my fastest lap in Free Practice with any of the cars. Without a fast ghost to chase, it seems I'm just lost on this combo.

Anyways, I did another round of tests with the same three cars as yesterday -- Audi, Honda, and Lexus -- to see if I could smooth out the data a bit. Here are how things look when I construct an 'optimal' race of the fastest laps across both attempts.

RS tests (7 laps):

Manufacturer	Model	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	1:35.327	1:35.450	1:36.651	11:16.556
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	1:35.547	1:34.716	1:36.531	11:15.719
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	1:34.882	1:35.069	1:36.153	11:13.072

RM tests (13 laps):

Manufacturer	Model	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Audi	RS 5 Turbo DTM '19	1:34.842	1:35.377	1:36.211	20:50.747
Honda	NSX CONCEPT-GT '16	1:35.712	1:35.854	1:36.617	20:56.023
Lexus	RC F GT500 '16	1:35.135	1:35.502	1:36.286	20:51.723

There weren't any differences in tire tread levels from yesterday's test so I won't repeat them here.

Now that I have slightly cleaner data, I can simulate some different strategies by summing together laps from the 'optimal' races. There aren't many viable strategies, at least in GT1. Here's what they look like for me:

Strategy	Audi	Honda	Lexus
5RS-13RM	28:52.108	28:55.828	28:50.692
6RS-12RM	28:51.809	28:55.306	28:50.098
7RS-11RM	28:53.723	28:57.889	28:51.653

The numbers are telling me my best option is the Lexus with a 6RS-12RM strategy.

Full details are in this spreadsheet.

 

[newmedia_dev]

That surprises me that the Audi is actually race competitive with Strat introduced.

I felt the Lexus was probably the quickest stable car but I didn't imagine it would be the optimum.

Just looking at the results I will go out on a limb with my anecdotal thought is that in race pretty much all of the cars are actual contenders but it will be how the race plays out that is going to be the biggest factor.

Thank you for your continued work @Moose78 ❤️

 

[Talon16]

I did a few laps in the Audi and that's it so far... 33.9 but there's a lot there. I am not super familiar with Gr2.

Based on Moose's laps, if the Audi is better on tires it might actually be a contender, especially in GT1 where saving tires will definitely be part of the equation. That being said, a lot of GT1 drivers are good at tire managing and I'd be surprised if it wasn't 90%, if not all, Acuras (the NSX will always be an Acura to me).

 

[newmedia_dev]

I'd be surprised if it wasn't 90%, if not all, Acuras (the NSX will always be an Acura to me).

It's going to be the NSX (brand agnostic )

It's just the faster car consistently, tires can be managed a little and who knows what race chaos will happen.

I'm gonna go Lexus and risk it (which is nothing lol)

 

[Nakano219]

I just noticed that the last round isn't shorter for GT2/GT3, it's still 27 laps of the X2019.

I'd love to see the stats afterwards for what percentage of GT3 drivers actually see the end of that race.