My Diaries

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

Friday January 14, 2000

I Use LSD in Gran Turismo 2, and Maybe I am a Dope!

Well, last night I tried the Gran Turismo World Series with the Arta Zexel Skyline, a prize from the GT500 Series. If you want to see how my garage progresses, you can look here.

For instance, here is my main garage up to but not including January 14th, 2000. And here it is, as up-to-date as it gets.

The first race was Trial Mountain. The best AI car seemed to be the dreaded Oreca Viper. I didn't seem to be able to go as fast as I expected with the Skyline--I just couldn't get traction, e.g. during the initial esses, nor throughout the GT1 "A-4" section. But I worked my way up to second, and, as often happens, the Viper slowed down for the very last corner. I slipped by its side, but then lost control and hit the wall. I was lucky to finish third, but so frustrated, and afraid the Oreca Viper would dominate the series, that I reset the game and started the series over again without saving the loss.

The second time through, the best AI car was (generally) a GT40. I spent some time tuning my car, reducing the spring rate, and tweaking the front and rear LSD (limited-slip differentials), and did seem to make it go a bit faster. In general, I find you want the limited slip "initial" setting higher than the default. But still I did not seem to go as fast as I thought I should, and it was a bit of a struggle to win the race.

Laguna Seca was a washout. I never really could catch the first three cars, and the Lotus Elise squeaked by me on the last corner.

Apricot Hill was a walkover for me, of course. As a human you can take a short-cut through the esses near the end that saves you about two seconds a lap. The AI cars cut it fairly aggressively, but not as aggressively as you can, and seem to slow down more than they ought to even for the line they do take.

Then came the dreaded Long Course at Rome. I tested and tested, but could not quite reliably break 1:20. Then I realized something. Yes, indeed I had been running on "normal" tires. I switched to super-soft and went somewhat faster. (Though not startling so). It was enough to lead the race from start-to-finish, though. I even relaxed at the end, my lap time going up by 2 seconds, and still won by 2.890 seconds.

When I started the series the second time, I had noticed that I was not using maximum aero at Trial Mountain. That should have clued me in. I now realize I mistakenly thought I had raced this car before because I had raced the white "Zexel" Skyline, but not this mostly red "Arta Zexel" Skyline.

Anyway, on with the report.

Midfield is a funny track. Basically easy to beat the AI cars at, but with two tricky spots where you can blow it. The first bad spot is the 180 after the first tunnel. It's very bumpy and can exacerbate any understeering or oversteering tendencies a car may have. It's a lot easier in a four-wheel-drive car, however. The second tricky spot is the sharp left-hander going into the second tunnel, together with the eeses preceding it. Oh well, the race seemed easy and I must have won by a good few seconds.

Once again I was ceremoniously presented with that gold trophy! And then, when I went to check my garage, there, finally, after my sixth win in the series, was the funny-looking, yet powerful, and powerful-looking 1998 Toyota GT-ONE. With the red and white (or is it white and red?) colour scheme it looks to me like a squished eyeball. It also looks somewhat like a cockroach, somehow.