GT300 with under 300hp?

[jeffgoddin]

I've tried out a few cars, and while I haven't run through the series with any of them yet, there were two which stood out as possible candidates for winning the GT300 with under 300hp, both could do laps in the low 1:03's at GV, both kept up with the competition off the line, and both could take the lead with extremely clean driving (though one mistake and it's really tough to make up those last 2 seconds on the Amemiya and Cusco...)

My candidates:
Dodge Concept Car
Lotus Europa

Nothing else came close.

Was just thinking about this for some reason, I remembered a while back in a discussion about the Civic '93 or whether you could win all events with just FF's it was brought up that somebody didn't think they'd ever tried to win the GT300 with under 300hp. So I tried. Haven't succeeded, but I think it's possible.

Anybody ever do this? Any other cars you think could pull it off? If you have done this, any comments on settings which helped? I'm thinking there's a balance point with DF, to not sacrifice too much handling and at the same time to get top speed up as much as possible.

 

[Kingofweasles]

Hmm...Have you tried a Race-Spec Lotus Elise?

 

[jeffgoddin]

Yeah, but the 264hp just isn't enough for under 1:05 laps, or if by some freak of nature you are leading going into the home stretch, to keep you in front of the push the other cars have down the straight.

The Concept Car, while much heavier, has a nice NA poweband at 299hp tuning, and the Europa's turbo powerband at full 299hp tuning isn't too bad either. The Elises powerbands are pretty steep unfortunately, and without the DF the Motorsport as the only Elise to reach 299hp also isn't competitive, though it can get into the 1:04's.

(All times at GV East, the 1st event of the GT300)

 

[Kingofweasles]

Yeah, but the 264hp just isn't enough for under 1:05 laps, or if by some freak of nature you are leading going into the home stretch, to keep you in front of the push the other cars have down the straight.

The Concept Car, while much heavier, has a nice NA poweband at 299hp tuning, and the Europa's turbo powerband at full 299hp tuning isn't too bad either. The Elises powerbands are pretty steep unfortunately, and without the DF the Motorsport as the only Elise to reach 299hp also isn't competitive, though it can get into the 1:04's.

(All times at GV East, the 1st event of the GT300)

Huh..I would've thought that a superior power-to-weight ratio could've offset that...I guess I'll have to do some research of my own then.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

The Dodge Copperhead might work. The Europa would be a pain in the 🤬 to get it handling right. Assuming you could do so, it would become a candidate, too. I remember the Europa being extremely difficult, though, and the Ai in the GT300 drives about as good as it gets in GT2, which means you'd really have to be on your game.

 

[jeffgoddin]

The Europa is a little floaty, but as with most MRs can be tamed by setting front bound and rebound to 2 or 3 while leaving the rear at 5 or 6, and the race mod DF helps a lot of course. Still, even with this, one missed line which takes you over a curb can send you flying irrecoverably, and as I said before, if either of these cars can win, it's only on a clean run. The Copperhead will certainly be more forgiving in that respect.

Too bad there's no option to save in the middle of a race!

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Does the GT300 have a HP/power limit? I'm forgetting. GT300 is one of the few set of races in GT2 that is really, truely hard, so far as trying to stay on your game, etc.

 

[crooky369]

Is the Ford GT40 under 300hp? If so that car was very quick.

 

[jeffgoddin]

Is the Ford GT40 under 300hp? If so that car was very quick.

The GT300 as well all know in real life has a 300hp limit, thus the name GT300, but the game sets a 591hp limit, so this is just an attempt for the fun (or frustration) of it!

The GT40 you buy has 305hp stock, so if we're a little forgiving of the 300hp self-imposed limit, and considering that the GT40 appears in the historic race which has a 295hp limit, certainly it would be the best candidate with 305hp or less to win the GT300, and if I can't do it with the Copperhead or Europa I'll give it a try next.

 

[jeffgoddin]

Found two more that can run in the 1:03's and so are potential contenders in the hands of somebody who's both an excellent tuner and an excellent racer:

Stratos - hell to handle, though
MX-5 '93 - surprisingly easy to handle and consistent, faster than I thought it would be after looking at its powerband. As the lightest 1.8L Miata I'm guessing it has the best chance.

The Civic '93 was in the low 1:04's, nice, but not good enough.

The Spoon Civic and Integra both did pretty well for themselves since they have no R mod available, but only just barely into the 1:04's for me.

Tried the Elise 190, too, but couldn't tame it well enough to say for sure. It didn't get up to the same speed by the end of the main drag as those running in the 1:03's, though, so I don't think even in more expert hands any of the Elises would have a real chance.

 

[Ravicale]

I know that this is an old thread but did you try any of the low range TVR's? They are a pain to handle but they are ludicrously fast.

 

[jeffgoddin]

The Chimaera 4.0 and 4.5 are the only two TVR's under 300hp stock, but neither get the race mod, so though I didn't try, I suspect they won't handle well enough. And they're heavier than everything else I was looking at, believe it or not, though I know their awesome power curves will make up for that somewhat.

Haven't ever gotten back to this. I bet somebody can do it with the Copperhead, but again, they'd have to be awesome tuners and racers and even still try 20-30 times.

 

[karelpipa]

With the Concept Car you mean that car you win after all gold A licence?
I might try that, looks like fun. All i need is to win this car. :-)

 

[adam46]

Is there a race spec MR2? I know the JGTC-spec one in GT3 has 295BHP.

 

[karelpipa]

I first must say, GREAT idea !
This is what ive been looking for, competitive AI...But with 100hp+ cars :-(

Grand Valley 1st
fastest lap 1:02.099

 

[jeffgoddin]

Nice! You're fast enough to do it! I'm guessing you didn't have much trouble golding your A license tests to get the Concept Car.

And yes, you really have to run a near perfect race over 5 whole laps to win even so, but I know it's just barely possible. I only made it into the low 1:03's at GV and even with that I was in the lead at some stage of the race, I just couldn't maintain that quality of driving all the way to the finish in the 8 or so times I tried...

Yeah, as we all know the AI at GT300 is near flawless, and with so much more hp than you, even though you're a lot lighter and so pretty close in weight to power, that extra hp will see them catch you on most straights. Your handling should be slightly better, and human control is still better than AI at working out track strategies.

 

[karelpipa]

You are right, on the straights they are so much faster, but in turns/braking zones they are so bad. Like in every GT.
I won the championship on 2nd try !
At 1st try i spun-out on GV East and rage quit the race :-)

Apart from Grand Valley it wasn't that hard at all. I did quite a lot mistakes in races. Maybe some 270 HP would be truly hard. I might try it tomorrow.

But the Licences A1,A2 and A9,A10 were pain in the ass to achieve gold. Especially first ones.

Did it with (R) Dodge Concept Car 294 HP. 5 wins. Very enjoyable car to drive !
I can send you my game save with replays if you want (on PS3). Forgot to save Deep Forest race.
Or if you only want my setup, lets ask :-)

I also accidentally found a way to copy the Concept Car via trading to same game file. You all probably know this way, but i didn't :-) Only down is, that you have to pay 100% value of the car, but this only worth Cr100,000.

My fastest laps
GVE 1:02.099
Laguna 1:19.789
Deep N/A
Midfield 1:09.764
Apricot 1:17.038

Jeffe, just try the other races, they are easier than the short Grand Valley.

Is there a race spec MR2? I know the JGTC-spec one in GT3 has 295BHP.

I raced against red Momo Corse MR2 GT, is this the car you mean ?