GTPlanet Weekly Rewind: 60 Years and Still Going Strong

This past Sunday, the 13th of January, the entire world witnessed the official unveiling of General Motors’ next generation iconic American sports car, the Corvette. The new C7 reasserts the “Stingray” moniker and looks the part just as well, with a hint of not only the Stingray concept that was introduced not long ago, but also concepts of previous generations, such as the Mako Shark and the Aerovette – the end result, while not revolutionary was indeed a necessary evolution in the brand’s lineage. So, here’s to the 2014 Stingray!

Quite the proactive week it’s been on both the GT5 and GTP fronts; the C7 making it’s way into the game in it’s ‘Final Prototype’ guise and yet another Acura NSX trailer, not to mention the appearances of two original GT tracks held in high regard: Seattle Circuit and Apricot Hill Raceway. If you haven’t seen the video then I’ll kindly redirect you to it here. Both of which have been greeted with celebratory cries, questions and of course photos. Here’s to hoping we get more this year leading up to E3, rather, here’s to hoping we get more regardless of E3.

And now on with the festivities for the week!

GTPlanet Picture of the Week

What happens when you place two cars in one place? You get this week’s featured vehicle, coming to you via recommendation by dice1998 and is courtesy of Ariesps and places the spotlight on this Nissan 370Z  pair at what appears to be Circuit De La Sarthe in all of their photogenic splendor.

Have a suggestion for next week’s featured image? Drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Picture of the Week” and fill it out with your two choices and they’ll be featured in upcoming Rewinds. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

[Guide] So You Want to Drive Without ABS…

If you recall ‘Arcade Love’ featured in the 11/30 edition of the Rewind (“The Odds All Stand Beneath Me”) then you’ll also appreciate this as it can be considered a follow-up to that piece of advice to encourage players to find new ways to enjoy GT5.

Once again recommended by our very own ncrthree, the guide promptly describes the intentions as allowing GT5 to take on an entirely new dimension. You’re instructed through a serious of steps and recommendations how best to go about gaining a particular affinity for driving the mass variety of vehicles in GT5 without the assistance of ABS, thus allowing you to enjoy the game in ways that you never have or were reluctant to try before.

Take these words to heart by thread creator FordMKIVJS in order to persuade you further:

“What you have to realise when beginning driving with no ABS is that no car has the same braking characteristic. Some will be supremely stable (generally speaking FFs), some will react violently to trail braking (generally 4WDs and MRs) and some will have very little threshold before the tyres lock (Camaro SS ’10 etc.).

First things first, brake balance is your friend. The GT5 standard 5:5 brake balance will send you into a spin the first time you touch the brakes. Because of this, you have to adjust the brake balance to suit each vehicle’s individual characteristics, both through the overall braking power (how high your values are) and the ratio of front to rear bias. Generally speaking a bias at which the front locks before the rear is desirable, as in the case of lock up, you’ll plow into the corner, rather than going in taillights first.

Technically having a brake bias where you can lock the brakes at any speed is best because you can reach the threshold at any speed, however I’ve found it to be faster and certainly more consistent to set so you can hold 100% for a few seconds (i.e. you’ll lock up below 100mph). This is also a lot more realistic and a lot more fun.”

For the entire thread and all of it’s potentially game-extending information, be sure to stop by the thread here and absorb as much of what’s being said as possible and be sure to post up your own contributions.

GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week

This week’s featured vehicle, courtesy of QuikSlvr223, features the legendary Ferrari F40, the last car to be developed under Enzo Ferrari’s direct supervision before his passing. Following in the footsteps of the 288 GTO, the F40 was powered by a longitudinal, mid-mounted turbocharged V8 that produced 478 horsepower.

The F40 was very light having been constructed from advanced composite materials, a sparse interior and no power assistance for the steering or brakes, this supercar was about functional simplicity. Having generated as much publicity it quickly became the icon for Italian performance and such was extended to it’s successors, the F50 and the Enzo.

Have a suggestion for next week’s featured image? Drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week” and fill it out with your two choices and they’ll be featured in upcoming Rewinds. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTPlanet Tune of the Week

This tune, courtesy of our very own praiano63 of Praiano’s Tunes, instantly grabs your attention by asserting the car to be as quick as the Premium RX-7 in this configuration. The rear end was purposely left a little loose for those wanting the additional mobility, but the tune itself is still perfectly tamed and allows for relatively fast driving.

Should you have any questions about this week’s tune have a look here.

Exactly like the Picture and Vehicle of the Week features, if you have any suggestions for the upcoming Rewinds be sure to drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Tune of the Week” and let me know. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

evo Diaries – Lotus Elan Sprint

After the introductory segment being so well received why wouldn’t I continue this further? The Lotus Elan Sprint, an extremely light sports car capable of standing it’s own ground in this day against cars with more horses and wider tires really shows the ingenuity of the late great Colin Chapman. Tune into the video of evo’s own Harry Metcalfe and his Elan Sprint and you’ll quickly discover why this 40-year old David can still pick off Goliath.

GTPlanet Photomode Competitions

In Week 112 of the Standard and Advanced competitions you are to put your best foot forth and show the community just how seriously you take your in-game photography. All you need to know is as follows:

Week 112, Standard: World Circuits vs. Course Maker – This week it’s the world vs. that which is created; take your best photo involving either a world circuit or one created/generated from GT5’s Course Maker. Take advantage of the weather should you choose the path of the creator to give your shot that extra bit of “oomph”, and of course the shot has to contain at least one vehicle.

Week 112, 2.0 Advanced: Heavenly Light – Heavenly light, what dost thou mean? It means whatever you interpret it as, basically. Whether it be sunlight, headlight, taillight, light from a light, artificial lig—you get the idea. The light, whatever it may be, has to be very visible that it has a strong effect on the photo taken.

For all of the relevant information pertaining to this week’s challenges be sure to stop by here and here.

Closing Thoughts

Next week I’m hiring an assistant to feed me cookies whilst I write and perhaps to have these things planned out for me in advance so they’re not all practically spontaneously put together. There’s nothing wrong with spontaneity, but you guys and your activities… STOP. At least for one day. Until next week keep racing!

GT5 Photomode images by NBDESIGNZ and [Nor]MclarenF1.

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Comments (30)

  1. whiskyecho96

    Great stuff thie weekly rewinds. Nice info good packed.

    Maybe a chance to make the topics of older versions searchable, e.g the tunes of the week ?
    Great would be as well a version of the tunes with a downloadable and good printable picture, nearly like the praiano version.
    Only my 2ct to improve it maybe.

    1. Terronium-12

      Not a bad idea at all, whisky.

      The issue of archiving is already taken care via the article tag and/or categories – simply click on one and you’ll be presented with every single Rewind written to date, and by extension all of the respective tunes of the week. I don’t remember which week the segment itself began but it always follows after the Picture of the Week.

  2. TokoTurismo

    Love this weeks Weekly Rewind. I jumped in glee when I saw the C7 Stingray the first day, having Willow Springs in the trailer. Than, another NSX Concept showed up but contained two classic tracks from the old GTs, and hope to see them come in GT5 in another update soon. :)

    Well done on this weeks Rewind T-12, I again enjoyed. :) *Love that Ferrari F40.*

  3. m8h3r

    When my new PS3 gets here I’m gonna put GT5 on and go through all the rewinds, trying out all of these tunes. They must be good if you’re picking them as a weekly features tune.

  4. FordMKIVJ5

    Thanks a lot for the no ABS thread shout out. And also to ncrthree for the recommendation.

    Nice to get your work recognised.

    Feel free to pop over there and share your own ABS 0 tips and tricks or maybe drop in for some advice.

    1. The Prodigy

      when u said to help wt the abs I was like this OMG

      anyways a good trick if using a dualshock controller is to switch x with R2 and square with L2: therefor u have more throttle control with the car. this also comes in handy while braking cause some cars will brake in a lock @ 85% braking force and when using x and square its hard to get the decent response your looking for.

      HOPE THIS HELPS

      :)

    1. Terronium-12

      That was purposely done. I love Corvette’s but having yet another article feature the C7 would be a bit of saturation.

    2. Pit Crew

      Agreed Terronium-12 The C7 has gotten more then enough attention here for the past 3 months (since it first showed up in the in-game demo trailer) :tup

    3. biftizmo

      Pit crew…we absolutely need to give it as much coverage as poss…here and on the web…this was a one of the first of many promotanal deals….lets help them do this…it will only surly give us a better game with more free stuff in the end

  5. ANNIHILATOR90

    Nice work Terronium-12, was indeed an interesting week for GT5 fans, also because a lot of the information was unexpected.

    It takes some time, but I think anyone can drive without ABS (with a good button layout for DS3), it’s worth it. I don’t think I’d be playing this game at this day if I hadn’t turned off all aids at some point.

    1. HuskyGT

      It is a lot of fun playing without ABS. And it’s easy even with DS3. I use the right analog for accelerating and braking, so it’s easy to modulate the brakes. It’s all in the brake balance as well.

      All my race cars and old street cars have ABS off. More people should try it, it makes a difference in “realism.”

  6. ncrthree

    Thanks for posting up the No ABS thread T12. Maybe GT5 isn’t a full on sim due to physics and tire modeling etc… but leaving off ABS inches it closer. Combine that with the latest physics update and it’s gotten much more realistic with road tires.

    FordMKIVJS did a great job on the primer. Amar also had an excellent write up as well. It prompted me to read up on real life braking techniques that weren’t needed when ABS was on.

    Arcade races helped a lot with ABS off. Following the AI got me some practice in learning to not lock up and getting a better visual feel of distance behind a car. I’m still a noob but I like that. Gives GT5 a longer shelf life.

  7. JeremiahTB

    Thank you for calling the Corvette a sports car and not a muscle car. Too many people make the mistake of thinking any and every powerful American car is a muscle car.

    And I would say that the Rewind is both a blog AND news. It’s kind of a blog, but there is also a lot of great news featured. If it were in a newspaper, I think it would be more of a column than a journalism story; but that is just my opinion…I love the Rewind no matter what people call it.

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