My Diaries

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

Wednesday November 3, 1999

Grant Tomaso, a Gran Turismo Legend in his own Time^H^H^H^HMind...

In the directory logs I keep several logs of some of my interesting games; the directory now has a sort of interesting form on it that lets you find out what the garage for each game looked like on different days.

The most recent game I have completed is the gold game in which I won all the gold race cups in 100 days of simulation mode.

I also posted to the newsgroup rec.games.video.sony a fictionalized version of that game, as follows:

It seemed as if Grant Tomaso had appeared from nowhere. Nobody had seen him racing anywhere, not even in low-level Spot events, but he just started passing all his B license tests, taking a single attempt for each. Rumours were he made a special deal with the licensing officials, and actually took two tests in a single day when passing his final test.

He similarly flew through his A license tests, one day each, but the rumours were even louder then. If he was that good, why did he not get a single non-bronze time? (except for A7, a low-speed doughnut test, generally regarded by experts as having time limits which are too easy).

The day after acquiring his A license, Grant showed up at the Sunday Cup event in a stock 1993 Honda Civic 3door si, Captiva blue pearl in colour, apparently purchased for Cr8,870--nearly exhausting his his limited financial resources. He opened eyes by capturing the pole for his first race at the Autumn Ring Mini, and won all three races in the Series, although he qualified only 6th at the High Speed Ring, and 4th at Grand Valley East. This accomplishment impressed Mazda Racing so much they offered him a chance to race for them in a Demio Aspec, but Grant left his options open at that point.

Next he showed up at the Clubman Cup series, having apparently modified his car slightly.[1] He won this event, winning two races, from sixth grid position in each case. He came 3rd in the Clubman race itself, as two of his opponents capitalized on slight mistake the second time through the sharp corner. Once again he left his options open after receiving an offer to drive a Camaro for Chevrolet--clearly he had better things in mind.

He had apparently bought and fitted some more parts when he showed up in the same car for the Front-Wheel Drive Challenge.[2] However, experts speculated he was saving some of his resources for something bigger. Nevertheless, Grant won this series cleanly, winning all three races, and qualifying 4th at Grand Valley East, and 1st at Special Stage Route 11. He was not willing at the point to drive a factory-provided yellow Honda CRX.

Speculation mounted when he made only slight additional modifications before showing up for the LightWeight Battle Stage in the same car.[3] Grant won this event too, but not without a little luck. After capturing the pole for the Autumn Ring Mini ii, and winning that race and the Clubman (qualifying 4th), he suffered the second loss of his career, coming only 4th at Deep Forest Racing Way after qualifying 5th. However, this was good enough to win the series 21 to 19. Honda tried again to sign him up, but he did not think the blue Civic racer model was a good deal, but again left the option open.

Yes, he had been saving up for something. Grant Tomaso showed up next at the Normal Car World Speed Contest, in a shiny new red Dodge Viper RT/10[4]. He totally dominated this series, and won the maximum possible Cr400,000. This time he caught the attention of Subaru, but left the orange Impreza as an open option. At this point he was all set to dominate Gran Turismo Racing.

Remaining independent for a while longer, he bought another used car--a passion red 1995 Mitsubishi GTOMR, and modified it to the max.[5] He was lucky to have found this car; for weeks following his purchase they became impossible to find, in any colour.

At this point Grant took a break from racing to obtain his International A License. He did this in the minimal 8 days, but, once again, there was speculation he had special deals with the licensing authority to allow him to try twice in a day.

Grant next showed up at the 4WD Challenge series, making mincemeat of the opposition and sweeping all poles and winning all races. As before, he tabled an opportunity to drive a green Lancer provided by Mitsubishi.

Then, to everyone's shock, he entered the Special Stage Route 11 All-Night I Event with his GTO'95MR--even though he had not modified it for racing. He ran away with this event, and rumours were he would finally take a professional ride and drive a red Silvia LM for Nissan in some future event. However, for the time being he racked up wins in his tuned GTO'95MR, sweeping poles and races in each of the Mega Speed Event, the GT Cup, and surprisingly the international US - Japan Sports Car Championship--once again beating racing-spec cars in a car without racing modification. Team offers from Aston Martin, Toyota, and Dodge were all left open but not accepted.

Everyone eagerly watched as he dominated the Hard-Tuned Car Speed Contest, winning all poles and all races in this five-race series, even the race at the tricky Autumn Ring ii. At the relatively short Special Stage R11 race he even lapped one of the other cars! Nissan offered him a red 1991 Skyline for that achievement, but he did not drive that car, although he did drive a factory-supplied Nissan in his next race.

He showed up with a red Nissan Silvia LM racing machine for the Grand Valley 300km Endurance Race. He won the pole (just) and ran away with the race, beating the Honda/Acura NSX-R LM GT2 by over two laps, clawing his way back from a fairly bad start and a disastrous second lap.

He seriously considered an offer to drive a black Castrol Supra GT in the Anglo-Japanese Sports Car Championship, but elected instead to drive the same red Silvia LM for Nissan. Once again he ran away with all poles and races. Impressed by this, Honda offered him a chance to drive a red delSol LM, but, after so much success it almost looked like Grant was preparing to retire--people began noticing he never entered the same event twice. There were only a few events he had not won in Grand Turismo racing.

He took up on old offer from Dodge, and won the Anglo-American Sports Car Championship in a white Viper GTS-R with blue stripes. Although he won all five poles, he won only four races, as a couple of mistakes caused him to come second at the Special Stage Route 11 Event to a very nimble TVR Griffiths 500.

Dodge still found that performance impressive, however, and Grant next accepted a very interesting offer from that company, as he raced the GT World Cup in their purple Concept Car. This car was so good, the series was hardly challenging at all, but some records, such as a three-lap Grand Valley Race under 4:30, made him quite happy as he won all six poles and all six races. Winning this series earned him the coveted right to set night-time time trial records at various tracks.

He had won a lot. What was there left? Well, he took his old 1995 Mitsubishi GTO MR to the Special Stage All-Night II Event, and dominated that, winning the pole and the winning the race in under 52 minutes, lapping the field three times.

And then someone observed that the only series he had never entered was the Rear-Wheel Drive Challenge. So, he entered that with his old Dodge Viper RT/10--without making any modifications from stock. He captured the pole at the first race, at Grand Valley East ii, but people were somewhat disappointed when he only qualified 2nd at both the Deep Forest Racing Way and Grand Valley ii events. However, he did win the series by winning all three races. Nissan offered him a chance to drive a yellow S13 Silvia Q's, but he turned it down.

Not only that, but, as quickly as he had appeared on the scene, Grant Tomaso vanished from the Grand Turismo racing scene. Just 100 days after he had first appeared, he retired with a small fortune in cash[6] and a garage full of cars[7] to a lead a safe and tranquil life.

Another interesting facility I have created is my findcar facility which allows you to search for cars matching desired characteristics.

[1]Turbo1, weight-reduction1+2, semi-racing tires S/H total Cr25,200 leaving Cr1,430.

[back]

[2]racing exhaust,computer,sport brakes total Cr11,000 leaving Cr26,430 [back]

[3]soft stabilizers, racing flywheel, total Cr1,700 leaving Cr51,230 [back]

[4]cost Cr68,800 leaving Cr6,460 [back]

[5]passion red GTO'95MR cost Cr29,110 leaving Cr377,350; max parts plus some extras leaves Cr101,850 [back]

[7] 19 cars, 3 purchased + 16 won [back]