What's the design decision behind standardised fuel tank sizes?

[Famine]

I'm curious what the design decision is behind standardising the fuel tank sizes in Gran Turismo - and making it a really very large tank indeed?


Ever since GT4, all vehicles have had the same size fuel tanks - 80 "units" (which seemed to be approximately litres) in GT4 and 100 litres in GT5 and GT6.

Of course the real cars that GT6's are based on have a wide range of fuel tank capacities, from a tiny 35 litre tank in the FIAT 500* up to the massive 105 litre tank in the Ferrari 599. Very few non-SUV road cars actually exceed 70 litre tanks, though. Even LMP1 race cars don't hold more than around 70 litres, depending on the regulations for the race - this year's three major players at Le Mans, the Porsche 919 (68.3 litres), Toyota TS040 (also 68.3 litres) and Audi R18 (54.3 litres) won't even come close to 100 litres!

Real data is available for most road cars and race cars have to fit the regulations (which may, admittedly, differ from event to event in the case of performance offset equalised series like FIA WEC). With variable fuel tank sizes, you could add an extra dimension to endurance and online races, as drivers have to factor in tank range to their pit stop strategies.


*Filling up GT6's 100 litre tank in the FIAT 500 would make it 47.5kg heavier than the real car with its 35 litre tank - the equivalent of carrying around a teenager!

 

[gitslautriv]

Driving with an extra 47.5kg is easier than driving with a teenager

Joking aside, surely tank sizes would have a major impact, especially over long distances.

 

[IngRobNy]

I'm curious what the design decision is behind standardising the fuel tank sizes in Gran Turismo - and making it a really very large tank indeed?

Ever since GT4, all vehicles have had the same size fuel tanks - 80 "units" (which seemed to be approximately litres) in GT4 and 100 litres in GT5 and GT6.

Of course the real cars that GT6's are based on have a wide range of fuel tank capacities, from a tiny 35 litre tank in the FIAT 500* up to the massive 105 litre tank in the Ferrari 599. Very few non-SUV road cars actually exceed 70 litre tanks, though. Even LMP1 race cars don't hold more than around 70 litres, depending on the regulations for the race - this year's three major players at Le Mans, the Porsche 919 (68.3 litres), Toyota TS040 (also 68.3 litres) and Audi R18 (54.3 litres) won't even come close to 100 litres!

Real data is available for most road cars and race cars have to fit the regulations (which may, admittedly, differ from event to event in the case of performance offset equalised series like FIA WEC). With variable fuel tank sizes, you could add an extra dimension to endurance and online races, as drivers have to factor in tank range to their pit stop strategies.

*Filling up GT6's 100 litre tank in the FIAT 500 would make it 47.5kg heavier than the real car with its 35 litre tank - the equivalent of carrying around a teenager!

Maybe it's because pholyphony digital have way to many cars in Gran Turismo? And they don't have the time or don't want to set the right fuel level in each and every car?
I would personally wish pholyphony digital to have less cars in Gran Turismo, quality over quantity would i say. They would have better time for more detailed cars if they had reduced the number of cars (I think ).

 

[Famine]

I wouldn't buy that it's a case of time requirements - the information is basically available for any road car on the same stats sheet you get engine size, length, width, height, track, power and weight from. As an intrepid car newshound I've got access to the fuel tank size (and a whole host of other data, including towing limits and luggage capacity!) of any car on sale in the UK today in three clicks as part of my journalistic resources. In fact spring settings are much harder to find, and they do... most of those to some degree of faithfulness.

It's clearly a design-led decision - I'm just not sure why given the obvious benefits to having the real data vs. effort of recalibrating the pit stop refuelling function to each different tank.

 

[gitslautriv]

Maybe it's because pholyphony digital have way to many cars in Gran Turismo? And they don't have the time or don't want to get the right gasoline level in each and every car?
I would personally wish pholyphony digital to have less cars in Gran Turismo, quality over quantity would i say. They would have better time for more detailed cars if they cut down the number of cars (I think ).

I remember thinking during my first GT2 endurance race that there was no fuel gauge. I guess with so many cars, research data has been limited to the original database divisIons due to a lot of recycling of data.