My Diaries

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

Sunday, October 14, 2001

I Finally Get Gold on A-4 and Get the Very Last Prize-Car in Gran Turismo 1

I actually got my last Gold on the remaining A License test, and won the TRD 3000GT!

So I was alone Sunday evening, and stayed up later than I intended. I'd almost given up on passing the A-4 license test that evening. So maybe I relaxed a bit, and passed by a clear margin.

Here are my final standings for my A-4 license test.

Note that, to keep a fairly wide variety of results, and avoid using up too many game days, I reload my game when I have done too many tries which get "on the board" without setting a new personal record (silver) time.

Nonetheless, my top two times above were done with no other times between them.

That is 0:37.484 was the closest I got to passing without passing, and 0:37.344 was my first pass. So not only was it a clear pass, it was quite a bit faster than my previous best.

Key to this test seemed to be the first right-hand corner. My gold replay showed I had taken it a lot faster than in my previous best silver attempts (which I had also saved; when I didn't seem to be driving too well, I would watch them to determine where I had lost time and where I might be able to gain more).

I started with a good warmup as usual, and took a wide smooth arc through the first left-hander through the tunnel, holding it fairly tight, but maintaining 74mph; I shifted to third late, after the exit. On my exit I didn't go all the way to the outside of the road, but pulled myself back to prepare for the hard right-hander. I turned early for that, after just dabbing the brakes, and barely went below 66mph, using drift to avoid hitting the inside rocks, and just barely missing the outside.

The next sequence was one I had studied hard about a year ago for IA-6, which I found to be the hardest IA test. You don't seem to have time to go to the right side to set up for the slight left hander, so I just stay on the left make the slight left turn, but turn in a little early for the right hander which is a little sharper than it looks. You must feather the throttle to avoid too much tire squeal; go too fast, and tire slippage actually reduces your speed. My minimum touched in the corner was 85mph; entry was at just barely 92mph. (That requires the good fast exit from the right-hander).

This took me into the tunnel rather quickly. I hit 93mph, then began turning left sharply, appearing to head for the inside wall, but having drift pull me to the right. I seemed to need no brakes for that turn; the action of turning combined with a little fine throttle control slowed me enough. I drove right through the yellow hash lines--this is another place where you must feather slightly to avoid the deadly tire squeal. The minimum speed touched was 87mph. I then accelerated as early as was safe, used all the road on my exit and sped to the finish line.

A key to all the corners before straights on this test (in fact all such corners on all tests) is to arrange to mash the gas just a little early for the exit, so as to maximize your speed on the straight. To achieve that, you must apex a little late, which means turning just a bit later (going in a bit deeper) for the corner than a perfectly symmetrical line would require. But also on this test you have to account for a lot of drift which pulls you out from the line you might otherwise think you would be taking.

Here's a summary of my A license test standings now:

The above shows again how I save my name in license tests records. It indicates the date I got gold on each test.

So, as I said before, I use a Dual Shock, with analog gas/brake, manual transmission using R1/R2. Handbrake is L1, but I never use that. All my left hand does is steer with its thumb. Or very occasionally look back with L2.