Hello GT Planet!
I’m from the UK, massively into cars, and I’ve been in love with the series since the first Gran Turismo when I was a teenager.
I found GT Planet a few years ago, probably when reading up on GT Sport online. I’ve lurked ever since, but now that GT7 is around the corner I thought it’d be fun to finally join in the discussion.
So, the cars! I passed my test in the late 90s, and not long after that got bitten by the bug. I’ve modified and tuned pretty much every car I’ve owned. I’m a VAG man, absolutely love VW and certain Audis. Over the years I’ve had the following cars…
When I passed my test I drove my dad’s Ford Mondeo estate for a year or so, and then moved onto the first car I could call mine, a red Ford Escort 1.8. After that, I bought a Tornado Red 1989 Audi Coupe 2.2E. 5 cylinder, 10 valve, not that powerful (about 135bhp) but a big step up from the Escort in looks, performance, and SOUND! To this day, it’s one of the nicest sounding engines I’ve ever owned.
After that, an A4 1.8T Sport. Being turbocharged, it wasn’t long before I had it remapped, and it went from 150bhp up to about 200bhp.
Then I bought a Peugeot 306 D Turbo. Again, remapped, not as fast as the A4 but lots of fun in the corners. Terrible brakes though!
After the Pug, I had another brief spell with a Ford - a Focus ST170. This car was a disaster. Very unreliable, noisy, and just underwhelming.
I quickly sold the ST, and bought my first Golf, a mk4 GTTDI 115. Now this is where the modification bug really got hold of me. I did everything to it. Coilovers, wheels, Recaro seats, Cupra R 4 pot Brembos… the list goes on!
I saw another old Audi Coupe for sale, this time a later B4 model with the 2.0 16v, again in red. Unfortunately that car had an issue I just couldn’t fix, so I moved on to bigger and better things…
A mk5 Golf GTI. Again, I went to town on it. Coilovers, genuine VW Clubsport brakes, full Edition 30 front and side skirts, R32 rear, and so on. I also spent lots of money on tuning. 3” turbo-back exhaust, uprated fuel pump, big intake, and a ‘stage 2’ map, and it went from 200bhp to around 275bhp, with LOADS of torque. It was so much fun to drive, liked to spin up in the lower gears, but on a warm dry day it was sublime.
The GTI came to a premature end a couple of years ago, getting a nudge from another car at a roundabout. It was a tiny tap, but insurance declared it a write-off as it impacted the wheel and the list of parts to fix it (damper, steering rack, wheel etc) was too much.
I then bought a VW Bora 1.9TDI 130, just as a stop gap. It’d done a few miles, and the suspension was so floaty it was dangerous. So I improved that with some half-decent coilovers, new alloys, and better tyres. This car was just serving a purpose while I found my next project, and current car…
A mk6 Golf R. The car is a DSG, and naturally I haven’t kept it standard. It’s got a Loba 4XX hybrid turbo, full exhaust, big intercooler, CTS intake with oversize MAF pipe, RS3 low pressure fuel pump, Loba HPFP, RS4 injectors, RS4 return valve, Turbosmart diverter valve. It’s on a custom stage 3 map, and made 460bhp on 28 pounds of boost. Torque is a nice flat line of 400lb/ft all the way up. The DSG was also mapped to increase clutch clamping pressure and provide faster shifts. It’s on KW V1 coilovers, H&R ARBs, Superpro alloy control arms, Alcon 6 piston 380mm 2-piece front brakes, and 335mm rear VBT disc upgrade. The wheels are 19” BBS CH-R, with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.
The 460bhp dyno run was pretty much maxing the car out, so my tuner pulled things back a bit to keep it sensible. I’d estimate it makes around 420-440bhp in its current state of tune.
The car does 0-60 in 3.6 seconds, verified by Dragy.
Unfortunately the R is at the specialist right now. It’s done a piston. But it’ll get whatever it needs, and it’ll be back stronger.
Anyway, enough about my cars! I’m really looking forward to GT7. I’ve played all GTs from the very first except for 5 & 6. I’m hoping they release some more interesting cars with DLC in the future - cars like GTIs, Ford Escort Cosworth etc. It looks like they’ve put a lot of work into the upgrade side of things this time round, which is great news for me!
I probably won’t buy the game straight away, I don’t have a PS5 yet. But, I’m really tempted to get the new Fanatec wheel to compliment the game (once I actually manage to buy a PS5).
Cheers!
I'm busy with them now though!
