Mercedes’ GT5 Live Race Video Recap and Photos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVgBFBNyxS0

In case you missed the live stream of the Mercedes Live Race yesterday, here’s a video recap of what went down at what turned out to be an enjoyable event to watch.

GTPlanet staff member “daan” was also on-hand for the event, and put together this excellent behind-the-scenes look at how it all went down at Mercedes-Benz World.

David Coulthard eventually came on top against the live racers who were not able to best his real-world lap time of 1:16.32. That time quickly fell, though, once the corresponding Seasonal Event went live in Gran Turismo 5. There was initially confusion over the Seasonal Event’s availability in North America, though I am now happy to confirm it is available in all regions. Head on over to our GT5 Seasonal Events forum for more discussion.

Let’s hope the success of the event inspires Mercedes and other automotive manufacturers to use Gran Turismo as a creative and interactive marketing platform. Congratulations once again to Jason Birt, winner of the trip to the 2011 F1 Brazilian Grand Prix, and all who took part!

 

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Comments (51)

  1. Greennarcotics

    Even though David was given some advantages I think it was only done to make the competition interesting. With the weather conditions david was at a big disadvantage and did well to do 1.16.3 even though he cut a few corners.
    This time is beatable as many GT5 players have proved this online I seen people do low 1.15 without cheating, I myself got 1.16.683 which is pretty close to davids time and I’m no Michael Schumacher. I know it would have been alot harder on the day with the pressure of the competition but I think Davids time could have been beaten with some better GT5 players.

    Whats really annoying me is all the the people cutting corners online in the seasonal event it’s a joke. It’s the 1st time trial where you couldn’t run off and buy a race car and limit it to regs. Thought it would have been fair but now every person in top 10 has cheated… FAIL

  2. Koolway

    (oops i pressed the wrong key)…The way it should… But you just won t be quick enough…

    The truth is “you re just not as good as you think you are” ;-)

    Look at the way dc spun on the last corner. He was at 80kph max…
    Now try to spin like that with sport tyres. Unless you do it on purpose, really hard to imagine the dc is such a bad driver.

    Conclusion: comfort soft are quite a good match

  3. Koolway

    For those who complain on the confort soft tyres they should just try to go near full throttle irl in a sls where traction control is off, abs is off, suspension set to sport+ and esp off to see that it can match the slipery felling of gt5.

    “there s no way a sls behave like this!!”
    Put all driving aid on and to max in gt5 and i think you ll get the feeling that the sls behave exactly

    1. funrun

      Exactly, people who think the car cannot be this wild in real life should think about what 570hp really means.
      I have faith in PD that they are truly striving to get the physics and tire combos right, even if that means redoing parts of their 1000’s of split second calculations going into the physics engine.

      So information collected at competitions like this really help out PD with improving the future of this game. I don’t see other sims doing this.

    1. SpeedTrap

      How can he get better grip if the times are the same??

      DC was driving smoother in real life so gets the impression of better grip

  4. Stu

    Would have been better to see DC do a lap using GT5 and compare the times…

    If anything I think it shows a flaw in tyre categorisation. Because there is no way a $300,000 car would come standard with what I would categorise as comfort soft tyres. I think we all imagine in its standard form it would use sports medium/hard in which case GT5 gives a much quicker time than reality.

  5. Normalaatsra

    Did you know just yesterday, History’s Top Gear (TG US) did a Time Trial event at Infineon Raceway where Adam Ferrara and Rutledge Wood both drove Lexus LFA’s exclusively on a Forza 4 demo, and challenged Tanner Foust to beat their time in a real LFA in the real track.

    Its ironic TG US and Turn 10 did this after the David Coulthard challenge, but it’s more suited as a re-attempt of the GT4 challenge Jeremy Clarkson did with the Acura NSX on Laguna Seca on both virtual and reality.

  6. Sputnik

    DC is quite a cheater, they removed all cones and tires so he can cheat freely, cutting corners is not the way of the champion David!

    1. daics69

      to be fair, if we didn’t have the cones we’d be taking the same ‘perfect’ line. so its not DC’s fault. peace

    2. BlindZenDriver

      They didn’t remove them the cones are never there IRL.

      I think the event was fun but very flawed if it’s to be meant as a virtual vs. real life comparison.

      The list is endless but here are some of the issues as I see it:

      1. Differences in tracks eg. missing cones, lines, markers in the game.
      2. Cutting corners allowed more freely in real life (not including the cheating lines now seen online).
      3. No way was DC driving with the equivalent of comfort soft. I’m betting the car was on road legal race tires.
      4. The driver selection. DC is a pro race car driver and thus selected for his driving talents between many many drivers. The GT5 drivers was the best of a random selection plus they were set in an unfamiliar setting.

      To summarize. Fun but there is a reason for no full onboard DC lap or for that matter the lack of spectator access to the TG track. I bet they were even prepared to cheat in order to let DC win.

  7. Eddie

    Wow that was a quick lap by DC. Is is the same configuration as the top gear show?if so that would put him third fastest in the top gear power board.I think this car had some soft compound tires otherwise heck of a lap.

  8. Sederholm

    They should do something with that recording technology they showed before the game was released. They could’ve recorded his exact ghost replay.

    But as some pointed out, would’ve been awkward watching DC plow through all the cones on the track.

  9. im_from_ny

    i have to say,the event was official…its nice to know how real is this game…they should do an event like this in USA!!!

  10. blackjack

    I sure hope there’s some footage of “DC” in “cockpit” mode to be found somewhere. The winner sure looked like he had to work that wheel alot at the level he was driving. I’d like to see how hard DC was working to stay in front!

  11. killa_kandy

    They should have got the Stig to do a time also…actually…what was the time set by the stig when top gear reviewed the car?

  12. VR30

    Proving once again just how realistic they’ve made this game. Gaming technology has made such huge leaps and bounds over the last 30 years. It’s really quite amazing. Feels like yesterday I was playing my first round of Pong.

  13. HPUnleashed

    I’m really glad they put this seasonal event up for the U.S. It’s very challenging if you’re using a controller. So far I’ve managed 1:18.3.

    1. hansawlo

      We qualified with Sports Hard.

      Once the top 6 were announced we then got told we would be changing down to Comfort Softs.

      Think they were worried DC couldn’t get his time down to our qualifying times!! LOL

    2. A_Higher_Place

      Awesome! You were in arcade mode then? Stock SLS? I’mma try to compare to times. What were all the regulations? ABS? TC? etc?

    3. hansawlo

      Setup at Mercedes Benz World was as follows:

      COMFORT SOFTS
      TRACTION CONTROL – NONE
      ACTIVE STEERING – NONE
      ASM – NONE
      ABS – 1

      Everything was turned OFF bar the ABS

  14. Lambob

    I always guess at my braking point in the last highspeed turn going back to Gambon (Bacharach), DC had brake markers , GT5 only has your luck at the wheel.

    1. CMB

      I SAW THAT! but unfair for people who managed to compete against him, think it was the left hander before Chicago I saw him cut where as on the game there are cones there? oh well, good event anyway, wish I could of taken part!

    2. grog

      I’ve noticed this with almost every top gear lap. If you watch a top gear power lap you’ll see how turn 2 opens up into the entire track width unlike in the game where the cones force us to the right side.

      Not to mention the fact that the stars in a resonably priced car get to cut the last corners with no penalty, Clarckson will even say “nicely cut there”

  15. InsomniaDreamer

    Awesome viewing really hope they can do something similar in the future, shows how close to reality GT actually is.

    1. Fred Elliot

      The line that the competition “winner” took in the last corner is impossible to take at the same speed using the SIXAXIS controller. Flawed competition.

    2. Razor

      Fred Elliot > who cares about sixaxis controler when both, DC and GT5 winner were using wheels? What ps3 controler has to do with all this simulation comparison?

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