This is how I am doing in GT6. It’s been a while since I wrote about it so here it is.
GT Progress
This is my current status in Gran Turismo 6. I think I’m doing ok.
Whoops!
I hit some cones after cutting a blind corner too much. This was then end result!
Racing Approach
I probably do it all wrong. I’ve no idea what other people do. It’s not what should be done in real life.
I recently started a line of communications looking at my progress through GT6. There’s a definite pattern to my play. I have made the following conclusions:
- Try to get a steady lap time recorded to ensure I have an idea of:
- Control under braking
- Control under power
- How much under/oversteer
- Corner speed
- Gearing
- Try to increase speed at the first few corners, normally coming off a lot.
- Try to increase start speed.
- Try to maximise corner speed on all corners, normally with one or two bogie corners.
- Crash a lot.
This approach isn’t what should happen in the real world. No-one could afford to pay me to drive and crash as much as I do. If I was driving in real life I would need to have an innate understanding of where the limit of traction and how to improve speed around a track. I would also, I hope, have better reactions to control the car. To get such a deep understanding I would need to have been driving and undertaking purposeful practice for a long time. It’s no surprise that the world’s best racers in any of the top formats started racing and driving when they were young and so effectively know no different.
To learn to race a car as fast as possible would require a certain number of crashes and offs, but not as many as afforded me in the console game. There’s no danger to life in the game, I just press restart.
There are some of you who might be thinking that I need to change my approach and that you want to tell me I don’t do it the right way. To you I say, “maybe” and “I know”. It’s something to work on in the future.
GT6 Birthday Present
If you sign into GT6 on or after your birthday you get a present. The car you receive is from the year you were born. I will remain grateful for the present but surely there were other cars released in 1972!
Super Licence S-5
The last of the Super Licence tests and it’s to Ronda in Spain and the Ascari race circuit in a Bugatti Veyron. A big heavy car with loads of power.
Times required:
- Gold 2:14
- Silver 2:16
- Bronze 2:20
Here’s the car at the start line [I’ve been playing with the photographic settings within GT6].
A map of the track:
The start line is inbetween KZ1 and Rafael.
Progress was as follows:
Lap 1 – 2:30:848
Lap 2 – off 1/4 of the way around (Copse).
Lap 3 – Off at Rafael.
Lap 4 – Off 2/3 way (Sebring).
Lap 5 – Off KZ1, too fast on exit.
Lap 6 – 2:18:833 Bronze.
Lap 7 – 2:16:873.
Lap 8 – Off at Copse.
Lap 9 – Off at Senna S.
lap 10 – Off at Copse.
Lap 11 – Off at The Screw.
Lap 12 – Off at Oulton.
Lap 13 – Off at Sebring.
Lap 14 – Off at Brundle.
Lap 15 – Off at Senna S.
Lap 16 – Off at The Screw.
There now followed 6 laps where I didn’t record my progress. I was getting frustrated and just wanted to keep trying rather than write down everything.
Lap 23 – 2:14:526 Silver.
Again, there is a recording intermission of 6 laps of frustration.
Lap 30 – 2:13:583 GOLD.
I have all GOLD for all my Super Licence tests. Good job.
I did get some reward cars, but didn’t note them down. The next time I turn the PS3 on I’ll have a look and try to remember to write them down here, because you care about that sort of thing.
All the pictures on this page came from my fastest lap. I do like how I got airborne at Rafael (the first corner). After watching the replay I can see plenty of apexes I missed and areas to improve my time if I so wished, but I probably don’t.
Super Licence S-4
Part of the continuing series in trying to develop a parameter as an example to use in teaching a topic I might not teach for a while. It’s an extremely feeble excuse, I know. This is a record of my attempts to pass the S-4 Super Licence in Gran Turismo 6.
This test is a timed lap of the Brands Hatch GP circuit in Kent, UK. The car to be used is the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4. The only car adjustments that can be made are to the TCS and ABS systems.
GT6 needed to perform an update before I could play. It was a “light” one coming in at 100MB. I had to wait a short while before I could start the game.
The required times were:
- 1:34:5 Gold
- 1:36 Silver
- 1:39 Bronze
Lap 1 – 1:43:258.
Car seems stable in the corners and not too much oversteer on exit when putting the power down. Now time to find where I can increase corner speed, especially exit speed on Surtees and Stirling’s.
Lap 2 – Hit cone on inside of Hawthorn’s trying to cut corner and get power on along the Derek Minter Straight.
Lap 3 – 1:38:825 Bronze.
Lap 4 – Off at Paddock Hill Corner.
Lap 5 – Off at the exit of Druids, too wide.
Lap 6 – 1:37:999
Lap 7 – Off at Hawthorn’s, lost rear of car on inside of corner.
Lap 8 – Off at the exit of Hawthorn’s, too wide, too fast.
Lap 9 – 1:36:428
Lap 10 – Off the exit of Sheene.
Lap 11 – Off at Paddock Hill exit.
Lap 12 – Off the exit of Hawthorn’s, oversteer on the entrance of the corner.
Lap 13 – Off at Hawthorn’s entrance.
Lap 14 – Off at Westfield.
Lap 15 – 1:35:599 Silver.
Lap 16 – Off at Hawthorn’s, oversteer.
Hawthorn’s appears to be my plague corner. It’s a high speed entrance, just after Pilgrim’s Drop and a good exit speed is needed to keep at low time along the Derek Minter Straight. It’s no coincidence that this is the corner I get wrong the most.
Lap 17 – Off at the exit of Graham Hill’s.
Lap 18 – Off on the entrance to Paddock Hill.
Lap 19 – Cut the corner and hit a cone at Hawthorn’s.
Lap 20 – 1:35:241 I was one second ahead until Sheene Curve where it went a little “scrappy”.
Lap 21 – Off along the Cooper Straight [can’t remember what happened there, but it would have been hilarious to watch!].
Lap 22 – Off at Graham Hill exit.
Lap 23 – Hawthorn’s again.
Lap 24 – Sheene Curve caused an exit from the tarmac.
Lap 25 – Hawthorn’s.
Lap 26 – Paddock Hill Corner.
Lap 27 – Sheene Curve exit.
Lap 28 – 1:35:006 a very scrappy lap.
Lap 29 – Druids, the *force* was used to push my car wide.
Lap 30 – 1:33:970 GOLD. Job done.
This was a very satisfying test to complete.
Here’s a shot of the car coming around Graham Hill Corner on my fastest lap.
Super Licence S-3
I’ve a feeling these communications will not prove interesting to most of my readership, but then again, I’m not sure what would interest my readers and this website isn’t for them anyway.
This is my progress through the Gran Turismo Super Licence S-3. The test is a lap of the Silverstone Stowe circuit in KTM X-Bow R. This is a picture of the track with the double blue lines showing where the start and finish line is. The chicanes circled in blue aren’t part of the GT6 circuit.
The challenge times were:
- 1:04:00 Bronze
- 58:50 Silver
- 57:03 Gold
The car is interesting. Here’s a shot as I headed down the long straight.
As this is a licence test adjustments can only be made to the traction control and anti lock brakes settings. My session went as follows:
Lap 1 – Off, first corner, oversteer.
Lap 2 – Collision corner 2, hit cones placed on inside to stop cutting the corners.
Lap 3 – Off last corner. No time set so far.
Lap 4 – Cut corner 1. Restart.
Lap 5 – Cut corner 2.
Lap 6 – 58:913 Bronze.
Lap 7 – 58:072 Silver.
Lap 8 – Off, last but 1 corner.
Lap 9 – Off at the end of the straight, too fast into the corner.
Insert here about 5 offs which I neglected to record.
Lap 15 – 58:137 Silver.
Lap 16 – 57:370. Close to Gold, 0.07 off.
Lap 17 – Off corner 4.
Lap 18 – Off corner 1.
Lap 19 – Off about half way around.
Lap 20 – 57:437.
Lap 21 – 57:121 Gold.
Job done. Here’s an arty shot:
Super Licence S-2
This is a communication about keeping track of my attempts at timed circuits in Gran Turismo 6. This particular test is part of the Super Licence. I had already completed the first part of this before I started this record keeping and so this is licence S-2. Generally the Super Licence requirements in all the GT games is to complete a single lap within a certain time limit and without leaving the track or bumping into a wall or Armco.
This licence test was at night time (hate it) at Willow Springs Race Circuit in California. I have done some other stuff at Willow Springs in the dark and so kinda knew what to look for in terms of braking points. The time requirements were:
- Gold 1:27:8
- Silver 1:29:5
- Bronze 1:33
The car was an Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale. The only adjustments to the car that could be made were the traction control and ABS settings. As it was a licence test there were no options to adjust the suspension or gearing ratios.
Using the standard D-Pad controller for the PS3 I recorded a time of 1:33:857.
The next day I used the Logitech GT Driving Force Pro steering wheel system. Progress was as follows:
Lap 1 – 1:31:548 Bronze.
Lap 2 – Off at Castrol Corner. Adjust the TCS to 1.
Lap 3 – Off at Sweeper about 0.5 seconds ahead.
Lap 4 – 1:30:109 even with a near off where I had to slow to correct the car.
Lap 5 – Off Rabbit’s Ear (-0.2 s).
Lap 6 – Off Budweiser Balcony.
Lap 8 – Off turn 3 (-0.2 s)
Lap 9 – Off, cut the corner at Budweiser Balcony.
Lap 10 – 1:28:802 Silver
Lap 11 – 1:27:692 Gold
Now, you only need a bronze to pass the licence but there’s no fun in that. I feel as though I have to get Gold in everything.
Here’s the Willow Springs S-2 Licence Glory Shot (remember it was a night run):
Willow Springs
This communication is about more research for my Poisson Distribution data, let’s see how long I can keep this going. For more information see this communication.
The next GT6 Seasonal Event to complete or participate in [there are some challenges where I have achieved a Silver Award but not quite the Gold, I might return to those] is to race the Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster 1960 at the Willow Springs Race Circuit in California, USA. Willow Springs is a new track to Gran Turismo and I’m not that keen on it. There are a couple of off camber and over-the-crest corners that make it pretty tricky along with most of the races on the track being rear wheel drive because it’s in the USA.
Aerial Shot:
This is a diagram of the circuit with the corners named:
Here’s a picture of the car:
Right, here’s some information about the car and laps. It turns out that I already owned this car and didn’t need to buy it, I can’t remember when I won it but at least that’s some money saved. Once into the set up section I upgraded the following parts, which improve the car’s handling but don’t affect the power or performance points:
- Uprated the suspension to “racing hard” and fitted racing brakes
- Fitted a 5-speed close ratio transmission unit
- Fitted limited slip differential and racing flywheel
- Fitted triple plate clutch, carbon fibre driveshaft
I also increased the power by adding or improving the following engine settings:
- Racing ECR
- Isometric exhaust system
- Intake tuning
- Sports catalytic converter
These items took my Performance Points over the allowable limit and so I limited the engine output to 94.4%.
The lap times required were:
- 1:42:00 Bronze
- 1:36:00 Silver
- 1:33:00 Gold
My lap progress was as follows:
Lap 1 – off at turn 5.
Lap 2 – off at turn 3.
Lap 3 – 1:37:360 Bronze level achieved.
Lap 4 – off at Castrol Corner, outside of exit, too fast on entrance and understeer pushed car out.
Lap 5 – spun, lost control of rear at Budweiser Balcony.
Lap 6 – spun off at Castrol Corner, too much power on exit [restart entire lap rather than finish this one].
Lap 7 – off at turn 9 before I had even started the lap.
Lap 8 – 1:35:311 Silver Award.
Lap 9 – 1:33:889.
Lap 10 – off at Castrol Corner.
Bought the fully customisable transmission and changed the gear ratios to meet the top speed more efficiently.
Lap 11 – off at Castrol Corner.
Lap 12 – 1:43:338.
Lap 13 – 1:32:960 Gold Award Achieved.
Job Done.
Glory Shot:
Keeping A Record
I made up an example for a lesson where we needed to approximate the Poisson distribution using the Gaussian distribution. I told the class that the average number of attempts I need to complete a Gran Turismo 6 Seasonal Event Time Trial was 20 [I needed a number greater than 10 because Poisson tables go up to a parameter of 10].
20 attempts seemed a reasonable value. I find the newer challenges on GT6 pretty hard and I’m not sure if they are meant to be or whether I am getting worse at the game. So, this is a record of my attempts to get a Gold Time on a seasonal event.
I chose to do the latest seasonal event using a Lotus Elise Race Car around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. The required times were:
- Gold 1:30:00
- Silver 1:33:00
- Bronze 1:40:00
I bought the Lotus Elise Racing Version tuned by Gran Turismo.
I will state here that I don’t like racing the normal Elise. The car is light and mid-engined which means I have big problems with oversteer braking for corners and accelerating leaving corners. I find the standard Elise very “twitchy”, I can clear some of this behaviour by change the suspension settings but it is a challenging car to drive fast. I was quite careful on my first few laps as I learnt how stable this car is.
Here’s a map of the GP circuit at Brands Hatch so you can see where the corners are, note that Dingle Dell corner was straightened slightly in 1999 and so it’s not quite as severe as it looks here, more a sweeping right turn at the top of a hill.
Here’s my progress.
Lap 1 – off at Clark Curve coming to the finish line.
Lap 2 – 1:39:6 Bronze Time secured. Car doesn’t oversteer as much as the standard Elise. It’s slightly twitchy under braking but accelerates well. No changes to set up yet. Quite a lot of downforce and it squirms through the corners.
Lap 3 – 1:35:1
Lap 4 – 1:32:28 Silver Award secured. Good increase in speed, but now all the low hanging fruit has been taken. Need to find a 2.5 second decrease of time.
Lap 5 – Off at Dingle Dell Corner, outside on exit.
Lap 6 – Off at Hawthorn’s, cut too tight a lost rear on grass.
Lap 7 – 1:33:3 no increase in speed.
Lap 8 – Off at Druids, cut too tight and tyres on inside grass.
Perform some setting changes. Lower car by 50mm front and rear.
Lap 9 – Off at Hawthorn’s on exit, too wide.
Lap 10 – Off Paddock Hill Bend, outside exit, lost car and went across track to RHS.
Lap 11 – Off Paddock Hill Bend, cut corner too much, spun car.
Lap 12 – Off Druids, late braking, didn’t make corner.
Lap 13 – 1:32:199
Lap 14 – Off at Dingle Dell Corner, too wide on exit of corner and spun [lots].
Lap 15 – Off at Paddock Hill Bend, turning while braking, ended up cutting corner too much.
Lap 16 – Off at Surtees. this corner is key to a fast lap as there is a long straight after it. It is also off camber and nearly a blind entrance. I spun after the steering gripped while braking.
Lap 17 – Off at Stirling’s, too wide on exit and lost rear on grass.
Lap 18 – Off at Druids, on inside.
Perform some setting changes, stiffen the spring settings.
Lap 19 – Off at Hawthorn’s after being 0.5 seconds ahead of ghost lap. Too wide on exit, taking the corner at high revs in 4th.
Lap 20 – Off at Clark Curve, annoyed.
Lap 21 – 1:31:531
Lap 22 – Off at Stirling’s. This corner is key.
Lap 23 – Off at Paddock Hill, too wide on exit.
Lap 24 – 1:30:773
Lap 25 – 1:30:643
Lap 26 – Off at Dingle Dell Corner, lost rear on inside of corner, ended up in RHS barrier.
Lap 27 – Off at Druids.
Lap 28 – 1:30:563
Lap 29 – Off at Graham Hill corner, too wide on exit.
Looked to see if settings for power could be changed. Tuned engine to 200 b.h.p. with stage one tuning. Performance Points still below limit.
Lap 30 – Off at Hawthorn’s while ahead by 0.4 seconds.
Lap 31 – Off at Paddock Hill Bend. New power means faster and I haven’t adjusted braking point into Paddock, just going too fast.
Lap 32 – Off at Paddock (again, same problem).
Lap 33 – Off at Surtees, while ahead by 0.5 seconds.
Lap 34 – 1:29:939 GOLD time.
I have finally beaten the GOLD required time by 0.061 seconds. This is perfectly good. I’ve won.
If I left the track near the start of the lap I would restart the lap unless I had just changed some settings in which case I carried on with the lap to see how the car behaved in the corners, it would effectively be a free tuning lap. I think this challenge took around 80 minutes for me to complete, including time for writing down my progress.
Now, if I knew more about suspension and had the time to gradually play with the settings and see how to improve the handling of the car (power is limited) then I should be able to find another two seconds (I like to think). I just don’t have the time to do this.
The online time record is a good 6 seconds faster than me. I had a look at the replay video of the person in first place and they are using more of the track than me (I am too safe in corners) and they also slide the car a little more than me. I like to think that with more practice I could get there, but I have other things to do. As much as I love the game, I also enjoy spending some of my time doing other things.
Some Extra Thoughts – 6/3/2014
I described the Lotus Elise Race Car as “squirmy” in the corners. By this I mean that the tyres grip too much and I think I’m losing time in the corners through the tyres not wanting to turn the car. I *think* I could resolve this by adding some toe-in to the wheels and maybe a little extra camber. I am not going to test this remedy I am just mentioning it because that would be the next adjustment I would make to the suspension settings if I wanted to improve my time further.
This picture is me taking Paddock Hill Corner in the Lotus Elise Race Car tuned by Gran Turismo. This photo was taken using the photo feature in recorded replays. This was the start of Lap 14.
This photo is me a little later in Lap 14 where I didn’t get the exit of Dingle Dell Corner correct and lost the rear of the car on the grass. I spun wildly. I haven’t counted how many times I span but it’s around 10.
It looks as though I am still in control but I am not. There were still a few more complete turns to go after this photograph was taken.
Cutting It Close
I love Gran Turismo.
It can be a frustrating game but it is beautiful and thoroughly enjoyable. I have crashed a few times because I looked at the scenery!
I like the Goodwood Festival of Speed section but I have found the course tricky. Although a basic layout the shadows and look of the course change depending on the time of day. The sun has been modelled brilliantly (pun recognised but not intended), the shadows move and change how the course looks depending on the simulation time. This makes finding the braking point quite tricky. I need to find other track markers for braking points. Also turn-in points change because of the shadows. It takes a few runs on the track to find my pointers.
Such an excellent game and I haven’t even mentioned the fireworks and star maps.
I beat this particular trial by 0.004 seconds. Well done me.
Devil’s Interval
So, firstly I’m ashamed of the placing in this result table from Gran Turismo 6. Sixth place is pretty shocking. I hate the Kart races, the tracks are generally tight and small and the Karts are somewhat twitchy. Anyway, I’m glad I snapped this one with the phone because I don’t think it’ll happen again.
6th Place with a time difference of 6.666 seconds.
Suck on that!
One Of My Favourites
Ever since I raced this car in Gran Turismo I have always started the game with the Honda Integra Type R as my first car. I love it. Here’s my latest one from GT6 [just after a car wash]
I seem to remember one game in the series where I had to get a Civic Type R initially but soon bought my Integra.
Not Sensible
Made a coffee earlier and also needed to get into my “race seat” [a sofa and Logitech Driving Force GT Wheel].
Placed my coffee on the steering wheel stand which is not sensible given the way the wheel calibrates itself and checks the force feedback systems!
Luckily I didn’t get covered!
Awesome Drive
Wow, wasn’t expecting this from GT6! I got to drive on the moon!
Here are some screen grabs from my replay.
And another:
Kaz has done a brilliant job.
December 6 2013
Only one week after the release of the Playstation 4 Sony released the latest in the Gran Turismo franchise for the PS3. I understand their decision and applaud it.
I am most looking forward to the GPS tracker uploading app when it arrives so I can drive some routes around my village and then create tracks within the game. It’s just a shame that a Passat Estate isn’t in the car list. I might also upload a route to work and see how quickly I “could” drive that.
What you don’t want to see when you want to play a game. A 1GB update and rural broadband speeds!
A welcome return to the GT series: Apricot Hill circuit. I always really enjoyed this one.
And here’s the track:
And my first win:
My Time
I’ve been spending a little bit of time trying to complete various seasonal events in Gran Turismo. A by-product of this is my collection of cars. It has now surpassed one thousand by some way!
I might have also have been watching a little bit of Tales of the Golden Monkey. One of the stars is a Grumman Goose. Lovely.
1000 Up
It may have taken a while and lots of money but I finally have 1000 cars in Gran Turismo. Who needs another game (or life)?
I’m still not at level 40 in A-Spec though.
Wow, A Castle!
This morning I might have been having a cheeky couple of laps on Gran Turismo 5. I was possibly attempting to win one of the seasonal events (which for some reason I find quite tricky).
While racing around the GT Original track I noticed a castle in the background. I was so fascinated by this that for a few laps I couldn’t really concentrate on the track. The castle is a rather good looking building and really adds to the atmosphere. Sometimes I wonder whether game designers have bets about the most ludicrous things they can add!
Screen #1:
Screen #2
These two screen grabs were taken using the LG remote app on my iPhone that has a capture function!