My Diaries

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

Thursday May 24, 2001

My Almost Total Deconstruction of Gran Turismo 1

I am finished the GT1 proper game (maybe here) and, based on that I feel I have almost totally deconstructed the game.

Yes, I verified that if you allow yourself to sell prize cars, it is reasonably easy to complete GT1 simulation mode doing all the races in proper license order without entering any race twice.

The tricky part is winning the 4WD Cup before you've entered the big-money races.

But it's not that difficult.

In tests done in the fiji game (maybe here) after completion, I found I could just barely win the series with a roughly Cr50,000 Impreza. (1994 Impreza Wagon tunes up to the highest power when maxed, and so is a favourite--it's also one of the cheapest used Subarus available). (Cr17,500 plus turbo spec 2, soft racing slicks, and hard stabilizers giving Cr47,800 in total), but, since I ended up with more cash in the proper game I made the car more than Cr80,000--making it easier to win this series and also making it better prepared to win the Clubman and even the GT Cup. (Principally, I used turbo spec 3 instead of turbo spec 2; that way I would not need to replace it; I also bought a maxed muffler as well as a maxed intercooler as well as hard stabilizers).

The Nissan Pulsar '91 GTI-R, seems like another good possibility for the 4WD series but, although it can be tuned to win the 4WD series for about the same money, it is pretty well maxed then and has little scope for future racing.

Another thing I did was essentially trade the prize Demio for a used Mitsubishi FTO GPX.

The latter is only a little more expensive than the Cr12,000 you get for the Demio, but is more powerful and responds better to tuning money.

By starting with a powerful FR car, I had a reasonable car ready to win the FR Series.

Starting with a cheap MA70 Supra, which easily wins the Sunday Cup in stock form, I managed to get all the poles as well by using weight reduction stage 1 and a racing flywheel. A further Cr13,500 modifications (Racing muffler, Turbo Spec 1 and hard semi-racing tires) allowed it to win the FR Series.

In the proper game (maybe here) I also made extensive use of the Subaru Impreza WRX-STi version III (prize from the Normal Series) in this game.

It's a wonderful little car in tuned and also in race-modified form.

Cars to win the Normal series are key.

The Viper RT/10 is a shoe-in, and also relatively cheap. It's fun to spend more money if you can get it, and use a TVR or NSX. Other options are the Supra '95 RZ, or an Impreza of some sort, but many people, myself needed, will usually need to ensure the AI NSX is not in the field.

When you win the Normal Series, you should have about Cr300,000 or more with which to build-up a good car to win the Mega-Speed Cup, or the International Series (USvsJP, etc) before going on to the IA level events, for which the only new car you might need would be one for the Hard-Tuned Series.

In fact, once I've won the Normal Series, I feel like I'm coasting through the rest of the game, just finishing it up. This was especially true in the games where I did not bother finishing in license order.

Sticking to license order, you can run short of money through the International series, especially if you avoid using prize cars; in fact to save money I used a tuned Griffith (without race-mod) for the Mega-Speed Cup as well as the UKvsUS Series, and later the Hard-Tuned Series and the All-Night I.

On the other hand, if you use the Chaser LM (GT Cup prize) for several races, it saves a lot of money. But once you've mastered this seemingly awkward beast, it does get boring using it in every game.