Polyphony Digital has announced a short Manufacturers Cup Exhibition Season for online racers, filling in the gap between the final preliminary live event in Tokyo last weekend and the World Finals in December.
As with previous Exhibition seasons this year, it comprises a short, four-race calendar that will run over successive Saturdays through to the end of this month. That should, given the month’s wait for the world finals, allow for another season to follow it.
While we’ve seen previous Manufacturers Cup events allow for both Gr.3 and Gr.4 racing — at least at the lower levels — this season exclusively uses Gr.3 vehicles, so you will need to make your manufacturer selection on this basis no matter which “league” you’ll be assigned:
GT World Series 2024 Exhibition Season 2 – Manufacturers Cup
- Round 1 – October 5 – Dragon Trail Gardens Reverse – 20 laps
- Round 2 – October 12 – Trial Mountain – 22/11 laps
- Round 3 – October 19 – Road Atlanta – 28/20 laps
- Round 4 – October 26 – Nurburgring Endurance – 5/3 laps
Varying race lengths make a return this season, with three of the four events running shorter in the lower GT2/GT3 leagues. The opening round is 20 laps for all, but the higher-level racers will have longer events thereafter — with round two being twice the lap count.
As usual, GT1 league retains the “heavy damage” setting — requiring a pit stop to repair — across the board, while GT2 and GT3 have the self-healing “light damage” enabled. Mandatory tires are enabled for two of the rounds, regardless of league, while the Trial Mountain race features a mandatory pit stop too — and there’s actually two stops required for GT1 racers here. You’ll face stiff time penalties for failing to adhere to any of these regulations.
Timings for the races remain unchanged as far as we can tell, but do be aware that some countries will have a summer/winter time zone change right in the middle of the season. If that includes where you live, it’ll move the schedule an hour earlier in the northern hemisphere and an hour later in the southern, right between two of the races.
There’s ten slots for each round in GT2 and GT3 League, starting hourly across the bulk of daylight hours for the central timezone of each region — from 0800 to 1800 UTC in the EMEA region. The GT1 League players have fewer opportunities, with three slots that start every two hours in the afternoon/evening; that’s from 1400 to 1800 UTC in EMEA.
You will need to remember that while you can enter as many slots as you wish for each round, only the last one you enter counts towards your score — even if you disconnect and score zero. Additionally, only your best two round scores count towards your points total, but you’ll be ranked by only your best single round across R1-3 — so don’t panic if you see grayed-out scores!
The Gran Turismo World Series is a more formal championship than the Daily Races, featuring longer races and a dedicated points system.
Whenever you first enter the series — whether before the first race or the last — you’ll be assigned into a “League” appropriate to your current Driver Rating (DR) rank. Players with a DR of A or A+ go into GT1 League, those with a DR of B make up the GT2 League, and drivers at C and lower slot into GT3 League. Your League will not change during the season, regardless of whether you DR rank does.
Each race awards points according to the average Driver Rating score of the players in that lobby. The formula works out as roughly 5% of the average DR being converted into points for the race winner, with each position worth around 5% less. Naturally that means that GT1 League racers score more points than GT3 League drivers: a win in GT1 League could be worth almost 500 points, while a GT3 League victory might award only single digit points.
Nonetheless, taking part is a good chance to get a bit of a credit boost. You’ll receive a bonus according to your overall League ranking within your chosen manufacturer, as well as your ranking in your primary and secondary geographical areas, and region.
GT1 players could secure up to 6m credits, while GT2/3 players can take up to 3m, and bearing in mind that’s based only on your points ranking for your best two races it’s quite a decent effort/reward return. In fact, even if you only take part in two races you’re just about assured 750,000cr due to the number of players who enter but either don’t race or only race once…
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