My Diaries

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

Mon Mar 15, 1999

Passing tests and winning races by 0.000 seconds!

On the weekend I did a little more inventory, and test drove some of the interesting daily picks.

The first of two day 50 picks was the super clear red S14 Silvia '95 Q's appearing for barely more htan half its more usual value, at Cr9800. 216bhp and 2733lb FR, this looked like a promising pick. And, as usual, it won the Sunday Cup easily although its qualifying runs were lousy. The game jumbled the other points around the most I have ever seen, and I went into the last race, Grand Valley East, leading 18 to 9. That is, I could not lose the series. But I won the last race anyway, after a little bit of a fight with a hard-driven Demio.

After that I took my winnings and bought the other pick, the warm white 2tone S13 '88 Silvia K's 1800cc, 172bhp but only 2469lb. This car was Cr7990; I could have bought the super black one for CR5540, but since I wanted to try it stock, I opted to spend extra money for a colour I find easier to see and follow.

Going once again to the Sunday Cup, this one I qualified 4th at the Autumn Mini. I took a long time to get into first place, but I did finally win, beating the time of the previous car. A Starlet Glanza was the car giving it a hard time. It was like no-one had told him that his was not supposed to really race in this series. At the High Speed Ring, I won, but the Glanza took the lead from me at the second time through the esses. I got the lead back, and the Glanza hung behind, waiting for me to make a serious mistake. But, since I made only minor mistakes, I won the race. After these challenges in these two races, I was somewhat surprised when I won Grand Valley East with ease. The Glanza challenged once again, during the second time through the hairpin. But that was it.

Both these cars handled well, and encouraged steering with the gearshift. That is, you can set up for the turn, and, when you need it, provoke a little oversteering drift by downshifting.

After that I went back to day 30 to try out the < Cr10000 4wd Nissan I had previously overlooked. This is an R32 Skyline GTS 4, in dark blue pearl, 212bhp, 3130lb, for only Cr9310. It is only Cr9810 at day 40, too. I practised less with this car, but it did not seem quite as fast as the S13 '88 Silvia K's. But yup, it qualified last but won all three events easily. I found this car very stable under braking, and, yet, for a 4wd, it had delightful tendency to skitter its rear end around the corner after it. (ie. you could provoke oversteer).

On day 60, I discovered another good Nissan Skyline, the dark blue pearl(?) R32 Skyline GTS-t Type M, 212bhp and only 2777lb, which finally dipped below Cr10000 at Cr9670. Day 60 is a little late to be buying a car in a game, but you can always finesse a car back to an earlier day via a "Memory Card Trade". In the Sunday Cup test drive of this car, I actually qualified first at the Autumn Mini. One again it won all three races easily although I qualified last in the other two. On a good day I think I could qualify it first at Grand Valley East. This car was so stable I actually mistook it for 4wd. (So many Skylines, it gets confusing). This car is essentially a more powerful version of the GTS25 Type S, a car readily available for under Cr10000 on most days of the game. Even though it is not 4wd, I think it is the "best pick" for days 60-69 (ignoring the usual Toyota Supra MA70, etc.--The GTS-t TypeM is the "best unusual pick")

Anyway, I promised to tell you tales about passing and winning by a margin of 0.000 seconds, didn't I?

Well, I got exactly 32.000 for A-5 (during a days-wasting session of retries) That is a pass. It says "time limit is 32 seconds", so I guess people would be upset if it was not... The least I've ever failed a license run by is .006, I think.

And along similar probabilistic lines, I tied for first place in the last race (Grand Valley East) of Sunday Cup. You see, I took a stock prize Civic Racer out, and was leading okay on the last lap, when I thought, I haven't seen the brake lights on this car. So, in that esse coming out of the tunnel I dab the brakes for a bit too long just to see the lights (they're small and not very bright, perhaps even orange, that's why I hadn't noticed them), and shortly after that Mr. Demio sneaks by. So I seem to be gaining on him going to the finish line, and I pull up beside him. I almost get by at the finish line, but, no, even after the finish it says "2nd".

Then comes the time screen. I'm 70% sure it showed me as second at "+0'000" (I'm 100% sure it showed +0'000, and I'm 70% sure that was in turquoise). But then it goes to the next screen, the points screen, and it had given me the full 9 points! I don't think it had awarded extra points (ie. two 9's) but it was too hard to tell. Strange, if you tie in points in a series, I think you are never awarded the championship. At least, whenever I have tied in points for the first place in a series, I have never been awarded the championship. Anyone else seen evidence to the contrary?

When I played the replay, it would show 2nd, even after the finish, but then went to the "result <gold>1st</gold>" screen. Since a saved replay shows neither the finishing times, nor the "result" screen, I did not save the replay. (And I had not been recording the race on my VCR

I also discovered that at day 1760(!) the Subaru used car stock *does* have not just one, but *two* exact duplicates. (model and colour are the same), visible on the same day. Specically, it has two "feather white Impreza '95 Wagon WRX-Sti Ver II", and also two "light silver metallic Impreza '94 Wagon WRX". So perhaps one day I'll catch those two red MA70's on the lot at the same time. It does appear that each manufacturer has long list (in Nissan's case a very long list) of all cars possibly available, with some function which makes them visible or not visible on each day (or actually, each set of 10 days; day X0 to X9).

So on Saturday I'm in Canadian Tire, eh, where they no longer carry PSX stuff, but they have a huge rack of magazines. And, like, I sees this issue of "Official Playstation Magazine" promising "First Pictures of Gran Turismo 2".

And, so I buy, it open it, take it home, read it, look at the pictures. And all I have to say is...

Oh yes. I also tried the Tuned Car Series again. I broke most of my records by 10 seconds or so (that is only 2 seconds a lap), but still finished fifth overall--the same result as before. This was in an '89 Skyline. I ran without an intercooler most of the time, using it only at the High Speed Ring, and used a semi-racing exhaust. The most disappointing race was SSR11 where I had two time-consuming accidents and so finished 2 seconds slower than the time I had set in the Cerbera, even though I had demolished the "test run" fastest lap.

I discovered that simulation mode time trials can be somewhat addictive. Right now, I'm trying to use a Cerbera LM to beat a time I set with a racing-modified '89 Skyline. I almost did it. I was leading on the finishing straight, and lost by .077 seconds. It is very hard to beat a ghost replay when it can outdrag it on the final straight. Gee, if you could make Cr doing that, I might not do much else.