My Diaries

A Lurid Tale of Obsession, Depravity, Wits and Attempted Wit

Wed Jan 13, 1999

More success!

Based on mail to Nick.

I'll try to keep this brief.

Finished all Normal and got the Credits yesterday! So I guess I shouldn't give up. Trial Mountain "C" was the last "normal" I got.

Lots of subtle places on that course to wring speed out of the Civic. Game doesn't let you save the replay of the win, because it goes straight to the credits then back to the menu.

Done some Difficult. A-B-C on High Speed Ring and Clubman R5. And a couple of others "A" only (where Viper works well I finally realized that position relative to #1 is more important at all times than your position #. E.g. expecially on Arcade Grand Valley full circuit where that HUGE bump before second hairpin means other cars are likely to knock you out of control. At "normal" level, at least, deliberately staying behind (or fifth) before each navigation of that bump seemed to help. Computer cars seem to be expert jumpers.

Impreza in general seems urealistically easy to control.

Oh. And I finally completed A-3. Using automatic. Qualified by only .006 seconds; closest I came without qualifying was .008 over. Don't know whether my skill level will ever get to where cost/benefit analysis would justify drifting all such corners habitually, although the exercise has probably reduced my time for that stretch by 3 seconds even without totally drifting the corner.

Handbrake helps all starts with engines with low low-speed torque, e.g. for a second practice run where they don't operate your "clutch" for you, or if you spin to a stop anywhere, not just up hills.

Like two identical purchased cars, two identical prizes can share parts (e.g. two Demios , but a prize, e.g. Civic(Racer) cannot share parts with a purchased Civic(Racer).

But Gran Turismo knows that you need to purchase separate e.g. port polishing and weight reduction for each, and allows it.