I’m feeling wiped out this evening, but these cars aren’t gonna race themselves! And they help me get my mind of the daily grind. So let’s get a few races in! We take Roxanne to the RX-7 Meeting at Apricot Hill Speedway. A yellow FD and an FB!? give us a surprising amount of trouble. Way to go old thing! No matter. Roxanne takes first place.
Next we take Sylvia to the Luxury Sedan Cup’s High Speed Ring race. There’s a 591hp limit! But Sylvia is made for the race track. I do a double-take at the Taurus SHO and the Dodge Intrepid. As usual with Sylvia, we blow past everyone and finish well ahead of the pack.
That’s it for the Luxury Sedan Cup. We get a prize car that is really strange. Nismo apparently took a 400R and turned it into a four-door? I’d rather drive the Stagea, but this is still pretty neat! This car will be called Blake.
Next up is the Grand Touring Car Trophy race at Grand Valley Speedway. A 493hp limit means Sylvia will easily clean up. Sylvia wins again with an instant lead and wide open track after.
I was not expecting the next prize car to be so potent! It’s a Mugen NSX GT! Good lord! That’s some power! And a gorgeous livery! This is Sofia! Sofia takes over as the most powerful car in the garage! Sofia has no information screen.
Sofia is too powerful for everything on the first couple of pages of the special events, so we take Desmond over to the 80s Sports Car Cup Seattle Circuit race. Being a rally car, Desmond has so much suspension travel that I feel like I’m playing Driver or something. I blame Sylvia for being so planted. Still, suspension travel is a good thing in the Seattle streets.
We take first, but the 394hp limit means it’s not so easy to break away from the pack. The Nissan March and the Toyota Sprinter Trueno are both close behind to remind us every time we make a small mistake.
And with that win we get another prize car. This one is a Mugen Integra Type R. I’m not super excited for yet another Mugen FF car, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t love to drive one of these in real life. We’ll call it Steve. It just looks like a Steve to me.
Fully agree, just read up on the history behind it,
The 406 was pitched to Fiat, and Peugeot got it?
That explains a lot why i like both… but i digress: Sounds you are soon almost as likely as I am to wonder whether you should have bought one when there were 1st owner examples available that weren’t treated badly
re Dodge Intrepid:
I was digging its design two decades ago, but after seeing a retired couple showboating their Chrysler Sebring (iirc same platform? ), in a glorious bordeaux metallic paint job, through a roundabout, it clicked (well, maybe being 20 years older is a requirement to enjoy Lexuseseses, Chryslers and Cadillacs, cars for the middleaged salarymen, retirees and daring novice drivers graced with mum’s keys (but better be back at 1000pm sharp, sweetie!))
Sebring > Intrepid!
A life in beige and brown, the bestseller of 2022, only on SB #PlzHitLike&Subscribekthxbye
The Sebring coupe was built on a Mitsubishi Motors platform shared by the Eagle Talon, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Mitsubishi Galant, and Dodge Avenger. They share a great deal with their Talon sibling, including much of their dash and instrument panel along with most mechanical components.
Ok so it’s part DSM. That’s kinda cool! Still can’t get over an FF boat hanging out with an AMG Merc.
We’re still chipping away at those special events. Tonight we aim to complete the 80s Sports Car Cup and maybe something else. The Deep Forest race there has a 345hp limit. Mia falls under that, so let’s get Mia out on the track! A white FC RX-7 gives us a bit of trouble for the entire first lap (even rudely clipping into Mia!), but the race is all ours after that! I take too many shots because Mia’s color is gorgeous!
Another special event win, another prize car. This one is a Mugen Civic Type-R. Meet Stevie! These Civic hatches are legendary handlers. I am not in love with the front aero.
Next we get Desmond over to the only race in the 80s Sports Car Cup we have not conquered at Tahiti Road. This course is a great fit for Desmond as it feels almost like a rally stage. Desmond pulls ahead right away and wins first easily.
That’s the 80s Sports Car Cup done! And a prize car that rocks! It’s a Skyline R30 Silhouette “Foumula”. I call it Lamar. Look at that color and that livery! Lamar has no info screen.
I’m really curious to try out Lamar, so we head to the Pure Sports Car Cup race at Trial Mountain. This race has a 591hp limit. Once again we are bringing a bazooka to a fist fight. Driving Lamar is like piloting a UFO. The functional aero makes us stick to the track like glue. There are even little spoilers coming off the rear spoiler! Lamar’s engine note is higher pitched than anything I’ve heard in game yet. This just adds to the alien feel of the car.
That completes the Pure Sports Car Cup. Our prize car is a TVR Tuscan Speed Six! TVRs sometimes have these great pearlescent two-tone paint jobs. Sometimes it’s hard to tell until you get the car out in the daylight. So we’ll see down the line! I’m sure this car has a future in the Euro-centric races as long as I can keep it under control. This is a truly exotic machine. We name it Margaret.
The Convertible Car World Cup has a 345hp limit race at Grindelwald. Lance the Stagea has 343hp! Being so close to the power limit makes me feel smug. I forget that Lance isn’t so small and nimble. We get humiliated by the field of light and powerful 'verts and take fourth place. I knew we were boned when I saw my beloved GT1 Dodge Concept Car out there! Oh well! It’s good to be brought back down to Earth after a string of easy wins.
The Sebring looked like an Intrepid cousin to me, though as I found out now, that’s a class above the Sebring, i.e. rather 300M-levels of real estate.
So, physically, Sebring < Intrepid, I concede…
That Tamiya....Tomica-paintjob on that R30 skyline racer is ace, would love to see a GT-R (R35) gen take on the same Foumula 😏…
Tonight is Sylvia’s night! We’re going to get into some more serious races, but nothing too serious! We are also going to start running out of races to do with our current license.
So let’s hit the Super Touring Car Trophy! There are five courses here with a 493hp limit. The first race is at Apricot Hill. It’s cool racing against other race cars! Sylvia is much faster than the competition though! I appreciate the colors in this Civic’s livery, but we get ahead of the pack too quickly to admire it for long.
This race yields us a prize car. It’s a TRD 3000GT. Not to be confused with the Mitsubishi GTO/3000GT, this is a Toyota Supra. We call it Paul and only assume Paul lives life a quarter-mile at a time.
The next race in the Super Touring Car Trophy takes place at Trial Mountain. In a lot of ways, Sylvia feels made for this track. Once we get used to the boost threshold, we can time our full-throttle corner exits a little early to where we’re pointing straight just as the turbo kicks in. It’s another clinic. We do get to see that cool Civic wearing a slightly different color livery this time!
The prize car ends up being another TRD 3000GT. Two Pauls in the garage! We’ll sell the dupe later. There are three more races to tackle in this series! Next up is Laguna Seca. Sylvia stomps everyone else once again for first.
The next two races go exactly as one would expect. Sylvia takes first in race four at Deep Forest Raceway and first in race five at the Rome Circuit. For our troubles, we win two more prize cars, and they are both TRD 3000GTs! We end up with four Pauls in the garage. Three of them get sold off.
It’s Friday night! You know what that means! It’s time to race! Just like every other night!
We take Lamar with 555hp to the GT300 Championship. This is a series of five five-lap races with a points total at the end. The winner is the car with the most points, so you don’t have to get first in every race. A 591hp limit means we should be competitive. We are more than competitive here. We take first in every race and win the championship. There are a few action shots here, but we just rush out in front of the pack on every race and stay ahead.
I’m always curious how a particular car feels on the corkscrew. Lamar is pretty good as long as you brake before the blind hill. If you don’t, you’ll probably end up in the wall.
We get a trophy! And a new car! It’s a “Xanavi Arta” Silvia. Another Silvia is always welcome in the garage! We’ll call it Jason. Jason has no info screen. I wonder if they planned to include more but just ran out of time.
Next we take Paul to the second Convertible Car World Cup race at Grindelwald that’s been giving us trouble. Paul is heftier than these 'verts, but we manage to slide our way to victory! A street car feels like such a tank after driving a weapon like Lamar. It’s a different kind of car control. I can dig both!
We win a prize car. It’s an MR-S concept car. I believe it is lighter weight than Darius. After a couple of weight reduction mods it may end up being lighter! This is Iva. Iva also has no info screen.
is a youtube/podcast discussing tuning parts waiting to happen.
Sponsored by Dom’s Family Business, of course.
(btw, Arta x Xanavi in GT300? The latter ended up on the famous red car in GT500, the former is synonymous with the ARTA AUTOBACS NSX in dayglow(?) orange.
In any case, the Xanavi-bit carried over to the Skyline, and, imo, is one of the liveries that will be remembered for a long, long time, in all its guises and model swaps inbetween…
It takes twelve minutes to pass all the tests. As expected, this is the toughest set of tests so far. Some are failed multiple times. We get our first golds in some of them.
We’ve done it! There are now no more restrictions on races we can enter aside from layout and power limits.
It’s time to start cleaning up special events that require the I-A license! We take Lamar to the Convertible Car World Cup’s Trial Mountain race. Lamar is untouchable here and wins the race. All these TVRs are cool as hell!
Prize car time! It’s a Dodge Concept Car LM Edition! This was essentially my cheat code car in GT1. We’ll see how it does, but 526hp in a 1984lb car sounds absolutely terrifying. Freddie seems like a fitting name. Freddie has no info screen.
For some reason, the Muscle Car Cup requires an I-A license. We have one of those now! Time for Sofia to absolutely destroy some boomers. Sofia does just that at each race. First is the Seattle Short Circuit. I can’t even get a decent shot of the competition before we pull away.
The prize car here is a Chrysler PT Spider. A cool MR concept car that gave me a bit of trouble in the MR races. I wonder how controllable it is. I name it Yvonne.
The next race in this series takes place on the Seattle Full Circuit. I take a shot of the other cars this time inside the first 10 or so seconds that they are visible. We win. That Superbird is cool! These cars had no idea the gas crisis was coming for them!
Our prize car is a 427 Cobra. I can’t even fathom what it’s like to “lay rubber past 100 mph” in a lightweight roadster. Another car that would actively try to kill you I’m sure. This is Christine.
Let’s take care of the final Muscle Car race so these boomers can get back home for 4:30PM dinner. The next and final race is at Laguna Seca. First place for Sophia.
When the prize car text said “Phaeton”, all I could think of was the Volkswagen Phaeton. Apparently Chrysler had a concept car that was called the Phaeton! “Fast touring in extreme comfort” would definitely apply to the VW as well. That’s pretty cool! This is a pretty cool looking machine with a goofy joker face! This is Heath!
The last beat down of the night comes courtesy of Lamar in the last Grand Touring Car Trophy race at Midfield Raceway. Another win is achieved despite an annoyed Viper’s attempt to ram us off the track. Another event is completed.
We end the night with a prize car that is an absolute monster. This Unisia Jecs Skyline GT-R GT is now our most powerful car with 702hp. Welcome Eden to the garage!
It’s time to find out if Freddie has the same good stuff from GT1. We take Freddie to the Tuned NA Cup. There are three races here with an unlimited power restriction. First up is Autumn Ring. When I see what we are racing against, I realize we have it in the bag. Freddie easily wins this race. Just like in GT1, this car cuts through turns like a scalpel. Third gear hairpins? Sure! This protovipe would have made a way more interesting car than the Viper!
Our prize car for winning is a Spoon Civic Type-R. Spoon are incredible tuners, and this Civic apparently has a B16 that’s been stroked out to 1.8 liters and an 11,000 RPM redline! Max power is made at 10,000 RPM! I bet it sounds like a street bike! 212hp from a 1.8L engine with no turbo is unheard of. This is Yoshi.
Our prize car is another Yoshi. I can’t bring myself to sell a Spoon Civic for 7,500 credits. We’ll just keep two identical Yoshis in the garage!
The third and final race of the Tune NA Cup takes place at Laguna Seca. Let’s see how the concept car does on one of my favorite tracks! It’s another easy win. Even the corkscrew is no big deal for Freddie. The brakes are incredibly effective on a sub 2000lb. car.
That’s it for the Tuned NA Cup. Our prize car is a real oddball. What looked to me like some kind of weird Porsche Boxster is actually an MX-5 Miata C-Spec. Apparently this is based on the first generation Miata. There are extensive body modifications here. I’m still trying to decide if I dig the way it looks. I definitely dig the 2.0 liter 197hp engine! We’ll call it Nancy.
The Tuned Turbo Car No. 1 Cup is up next. Like the NA Cup, there are three races. I haven’t tried to enter NA cars in the turbo cup or turbo cars in the NA cup. Eden has a turbo! Let’s get Eden out there!
The first race is on Special Stage Route 5. Eden wins the race and looks great doing it! This Skyline handles very well and doesn’t suffer from too much understeer. An easy car to drive fast! And that’s good, because Eden is FAST!
Eden has too much power, but Gerald falls under the limit for that last race in the 4WD Challenge. We take a quick detour there to get that challenge completed. Gerald takes on a lot of Imprezas at Laguna Seca. Driving a street-ish car version of a pure race car is always an odd transition. You can really feel the extra 1000 lbs and street tuned suspension. Gerald does a fine job and wins at Laguna Seca. We only mess up the corkscrew on the first lap
For completing the 4WD Challenge, we win another prize car. It’s… another Mine’s Skyline? But this one is an R32.5. The power level is identical to Gerald’s, but the weight is a bit lower. We call this one Geraldine
Back from our detour, we move on to the second race in the Tuned Turbo Car No. 1 Cup at the Test Course. This is just an oval track, so pure speed will win here. We never touch the brakes. Eden hits a hair under 225MPH just before we run out of straightaway. We only slow down to about 205MPH or so in the turns. Eden is a force of nature!
I wish I could get another look at that HKS Drag 180SX. HKS has the best livery!
We win a Nismo 400R prize car. We already have a Nismo 400R prototype, but this one is slightly different. There are people who complain that Gran Turismo has too many Nissan Skylines. I see their point, but they don’t call the GT-R “Godzilla” for nothing! Anyway, we’ll call this 400R Kevin.
i’ve always felt like the people who make a big deal about this are missing the point of gran turismo. there are all these info screens literally explaining what makes all these niche variations significant and interesting! how can the passion not be infectious!
), in a glorious bordeaux metallic paint job, through a roundabout, it clicked (well, maybe being 20 years older is a requirement to enjoy Lexuseseses, Chryslers and Cadillacs, cars for the middleaged salarymen, retirees and daring novice drivers graced with mum’s keys (but better be back at 1000pm sharp, sweetie!))
