Developing Race Cars in Gran Turismo?

One of my past ideas was to think of developing parts for racing cars rather than purchase parts to make them better. Imagine putting down money to make a race car better without having to purchase "aftermarket" parts for a race car to make it better. I want to know how you'd feel about an idea like this. So please be sure to send me some comments with your own ideas.





--- Developing Race Cars, Than Buying Parts for Them ---
Current Practice (since GT3): Purchase upgrades for race cars
Different concept: spend money developing parts of a race car, rather than purchase upgrades
Inspiration: (not sure... MAYBE Enthusia Professional Racing and MotoGP 4)

Some people feel that race cars shouldn't be upgraded any further because they are race cars. And race cars shouldn't be upgradable in any sense. Now, I'm talking about proper race cars, not street cars highly modified for racing. An idea I had is... what if you were to DEVELOP race cars rather than purchase parts for them? Let me give you an example.

Pretend you had the Toyota GT-One from 1999. The car is already capable out of the box. If you wanted to enhance its performance more, you could basically spend your money towards developing better parts. There are some key areas in developing a race car:

* Engine Development. Developing the engine can yield to more horsepower, a more efficient engine, stronger engines, and more. It is also possible to make various engines specially catered to
* Chassis Development. Developing the chassis can lead to a stronger, more rigid car.
* Aerodynamic Development. Development of the car's aerodynamics, including the wings and other body parts, can lead to better airflow at speed.
* Handling Development. Developing of suspensions and various other internals can lead to better overall handling.
* Drivetrain Development. Develping the transmission, axles, and more will lead to more enduring and better-performing parts.

There are many other things that can be developed, but I just made a so-so list of things that can be developed to make cars better than their current form. To make things interesting, imagine if certain series disallowed seriously enhancing the performance of race cars. Again, this is just an idea I had on race cars. The development process comes in levels. The levels of development determine what all can be done to a race car's characteristics to enhance it all the further. When development of a certain race car's characteristics is at full, you can't develop it any further.

A system like this would require you to spend more time with your car like you would in a Forza Motorsport game to make it better.



--- What If GT5 Brought Back Racing Modifications? ---
The Racing Modifications of GT1 and GT2 were essentially about taking a stock car and giving it a racing makeover. The parts can still be bone stock, but excessive lightening of the car can make it worlds better. Since you're taking a street car and turn it into a race car, I'd imagine that development still becomes a priority. A true Racing Modification would make this car completely not street-legal with racing-spec parts. A kinder alternative would be like the SCCA's Showroom Stock classes, in which they are still racing-type cars, but are not some kind of silhouette GT car or something.

With a street car turned into a race car, purchasing racing-spec parts IS your development of the car. It would be very interesting to see what would happen if something even close to the Racing Modification suite (or something much better) were to make its way into Gran Turismo 5.





What do you make of developing a race car in GT5 rather than purchase parts for it? Do you think it would work? Again- envision actually spending extra money on an already-prepared race car to make it better. Even real racing teams try to develop race cars as best as possible to make them become solid contenders. That's even if they have to purchase turnkey customer race cars.

Comment away, players!

Gran Turismo Runoffs?

Inspired by the SCCA Runoffs, imagine if Gran Turismo 5 had something similar to the SCCA Runoffs. For the uninitiated, the SCCA Runoffs is an American competition whereas competitors race a variety of different cars in racing competition. Competition is set to take place between about 40-45 minutes. The big key to the Runoffs? Most of the competitions are GRASSROOTS series. The racing takes place on a proper racing course (meaning, no temporary courses of any kind). There are classes that allow for cars to be tuned of a certain level. You can't max out your car's power and handling characteristics, so there'd have to be a cap on certain levels of tuning. How would you define the different classes? Here is my input...



--- Building the Gran Turismo Runoffs: Events and Classes ---
Classes have to be very decent. There are no pit stops in these races, so the rate of wear of tires and fuel shouldn't compromise with the level of racing. All of these classes are solely based on production cars. It would be too sketchy to come along with proper race cars in this model. Here are some ideas:

* Front/FWD Class. This class is reserved only to front-wheel drive cars. Production cars only requiring Standard/Sports tires.

* Front/RWD Class. This class is reserved only to front-engined, rear-wheel drive cars. Production cars only requiring Standard/Sports tires.

* Mid/RWD Class. This class is reserved only to mid-engined, rear-wheel drive cars. Production cars only requiring Standard/Sports tires.

* 4WD Class. This class is reserved only to four-wheel drive cars (regardless of engine placement). Production cars only requiring Standard/Sports tires.

* American Sedan. This class is reserved to American sedans, and is inspired by the actual American Sedan class in the SCCA. Production cars only, American sedans only, and requires Standard/Sports tires.

* American Muscle Cars. This class is reserved to American muscle cars. It is reserved to mostly classic muscle cars, but also modern muscle cars like the latest Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger. American muscle cars only with Standard/Sports tires required.

* Japanese Sports Cars. This class is reserved to Japanese sports cars, such as the Skyline family (including the latest GT-R), the S2000, the NSX, the Supra, the RX-7, and the like. Japanese sports cars only with Standard/Sports tires only.

* European Sports Cars. This class is reserved mostly to economy and low-level sports cars from Europe. This includes cars from all European nations, and not just relegated to certain nations. European sports cars only with Standard/Sports tires only.

* Showroom Stock. Inspired by the actual SCCA series, the series calls for cars no older than five years. So assuming the game is released in 2010, no cars older than 2005. Unmodified ECONOMY production cars (meaning no sports cars) with only Standard or Sports tires allowed.

* Heavyweight Sedan Class. This class is relegated to heavy (3500 lbs. or heavier) coupes and sedans (no sports cars) with no weight modifications. Production cars only with Standard/Sports tires required.

* Compact/Lightweight Class. This class is relegated to compact cars. No Kei/mini cars allowed. Production cars only with Standard/Sports tires.

* Touring Car Class. This is a class reserved to coupes and sedans tuned for racing. You are allowed more tuning options including weight reduction and some racing modiciation (mostly adding wings). No sports cars allowed, and only Standard/Sports tires are allowed.

* Grand Touring Class. This class is reserved to sports cars tuned for racing. Production cars only with no tire regulations (meaning you can use racing tires). No supercars allowed.

* Tuner Class. This class is an exciting style of racing where anyone can bring any production car with unlimited levels of tuning. Only requirement- it must be a production car.



Can you think of any more fun classes to comprise a Gran Turismo Runoffs series?

GT Academy... Rather Than License Tests?

NOTE: This blog post is vastly outdated and will be replaced with a new post on my Gran Turismo-exclusive blog, John's Gran Turismo Space. This topic will be further updated and enhanced there.













Sources: playstationlifestyle.net (first picture), gtplanet.net (second, third, and fourth pictures), and digiads.com.au (third picture)



Gran Turismo games do a good job of getting you active in the racing process. But in the act of considering alternatives to current GT practices, one such thing has to change. To me, you have to practice your skills before considering the license tests. Think about it. When you were in grade school (or if you are in grade school), do you take a test BEFORE getting the lesson? Taking a test before being taught the lesson doesn't result in learning anything. Gran Turismo Academy was something I thought of as expanding the greater scope of the License Test facilities to include practicing certain aspects rather than just taking the license test cold turkey.



--- How Would This Work? ---
For each license test and all the different tests, going to this GT Academy will allow you to practice certain tests. Once you have a license test unlocked, you can have a chance to practice certain elements. The issue at hand here is how to integrate this feature to make it useful in addition to taking license tests. With a good system in play, you will be given advice based on racing line, acceleration, braking, and things like that. The Analyzer allows you to analyze your runs in GT games since GT3. What has to happen is that this feature has to be expanded upon to make for better practice and to allow tips on improving your driving skills in Gran Turismo 5.



--- Gran Turismo... University? ---
Yeah, GTU! A plan I thought of was having certain racing schools in Gran Turismo to help out with enhacing driving skills. Each racing school encompasses a different element of racing. There are racing schools on topics like these:

* General Skills (basic skills like acceleration, braking, handling, etc.)
* Advanced Skills (application of basic skills in racing situations)
* Extreme Skills (advanced techniques)
* Oval Racing (oval racing technique (yes, there is actual skill in oval racing!))
* Road Racing (applying skills to road racing)
* Rally Racing (rally racing on various surfaces, including rally techniques)
* Drag Racing (skill in acceleration and in timing shifts)
* Drifting (application of car control in extreme driving, and also practice in Drift Trials)

Imagine if you could enroll in these schools. If you enroll, you can get some formal training in certain elements of Gran Turismo. The cars featured are specially-tailored to the given racing school. These even include certain cars you will be unable to own. Imagine racing go-karts, low-level formula cars, and things of that nature. You will have a variety of school-supplemented cars tuned specifically for each school.

There are even some racing series you can enroll in to give yourself experience racing and even make some money early. Think of the Skip Barber Racing School, in which you pilot these Dodge-powered Formula cars in amateur-level competition. A great aspect of this is that you can actually feel like you're establishing yourself as an actual racer in the Gran Turismo series rather than be just a no-name racer who somehow has all kinds of cars in GT. It points things more towards a career while not really being a career-oriented game. By the way, no racing license needed for any of these.

When you feel you're ready to really take on racing, you can then take your racing school experience to try to pass the license tests. It prolongs the game sure enough, but at least you feel like you can grow confidence towards passing GT license tests.





Would you be open to the idea of introducing Gran Turismo Academy in GT5 to represent a practice field for GT license test subjects? Comment away!

Event/Championship Generator Idea

Fans of Gran Turismo 2 may recall the Event Generator. The Event Generator allowed you the opportunity to race in a random event against a bunch of cars. This is a great way to just go out and race. Gran Turismo 4 allowed you the ability to go to a race and compete in Family Cup races. What if this was re-introduced for Gran Turismo 5 and made better? A key inspiration for this topic has to do with what I've learned with Gran Turismo PSP.



--- Event Generator in Retrospective ---
When unlocked in Gran Turismo 2, the Event Generator allowed you the opportunity to just go race anything. You can choose between Easy, Medium, Hard, and Professional Levels. The Easy-Hard Modes just let you enter one race, and the Professional races are a championship series of five races. The randomness of everything makes the racing action so interesting. Unfortunately, all races in every generated event lasts only two laps. The random aspect also pertains to whether you're racing in the normal configuration or the reverse direction.



--- Gran Turismo 4 and Gran Turismo PSP's Respective Influences ---
The Family Cup races in GT4 are more like an Event Generator where you can control where you want to race at and choose cars based on difficulty. Really, I think the difficulty is based on the performance of your car rather than against more aggressive opposition.

Gran Turismo PSP gave you control in the Single Race mode with how many laps to run and if the race should be limited to a certain manufacturer. Longer races (I think up to 99 laps) yield more money than most shorter races.



--- Reviving This Idea for GT5 ---
When it comes to reviving this idea for GT5 and improving on it, I've put out a few different ideas. I also want to implement something different for this.

Implementing the Feature. The first thing to note is that you have a few options. You could go completely random with everything, or you can specify certain things. You can make everything completely random- cars and tracks. Or, you can specify a certain track or a certain manufacturer.

Customizing the Event Generator. A number of different fields can be customized. These are areas among many others that would make customization fun for this feature:

--- Tracks and Races ---
* Single Race, Championship, Drift Trial - determine what kind of action will transpire. A SINGLE RACE applies to just a single event with a set number of laps or a time distance. A CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES can be anywhere between three races and 15 races. A Championship Series requires at least three races. DRIFT TRIALS relate to either a single race or for a makeshift drift championship. The key here is on drifting.

* Championship Format - choose a format of different races, multiple races at one course (like in the British Touring Car Championship or the Australian V8 Supercar Series), or a format of sprint and feature races (like in the A1GP), or a double-race weekend. The double-race weekend can involve inverting the order for the next race or inverting certain drivers.

* Weekend - select whether or not to implement a proper race weekend. A basic weekend consists of a practice session (or two), qualifying, warm-up, and the race itself.

* Qualifying format (if Qualifying is allowed) - pick a qualifying format for each race or for certain races. Your options range between the following:
1.) hotlap - after taking to the track, you have only one lap to determine grid position. Make it your best!
2.) solo limited - a solo run limited to either laps or time.
3.) solo unlimited - a solo run where you have unlimited time and laps to get the best possible time.
4.) mixed unlimited - all cars are on the track at once for an unlimited amount of time.
5.) mixed knockout - qualifying with multiple rounds. Lowest qualifiers will have their position locked while the fastest drivers will continue to compete for the pole.
6.) mixed shootout - after mixed qualifying, the fastest qualifiers will have a single hot lap to determine pole.
7.) heat racing - specify a number of heat races to determine the qualifying order for the main race. Those who don't do well have one last chance in the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). A bonus option would be to pay a cash bonus to whomever (among qualified racers) wins a quick exhibition race among qualifiers.

* Pits - longer races likely mean pit stops. However, mandantory pit stops can be specified on certain laps or requiring you to make any number of pit stops (usually anywhere between one to maybe 3-5). This is ONLY for long races and longer tracks.

* Race Purse - select a suitable race purse. This all depends on the length of the race and championship, plus the level of the cars being raced against. So a race against supercars means a greater sum of money than a race against sport compacts. However, a series of factory-spec street cars will pay out less money than a series featuring highly-tuned or unlimited cars.

* Prize car and others - Bonuses after races (especially championships and endurances) can range between extra money, prize cars, free parts/services for a car, or whatever. This can also be for any online races.


--- Cars ---
* manufacturer(s) - imagine staying with one manufacturer or a rivalry series against other manufacturers.
For example: limiting a generated race to only Nissan, or making a generated race between Nissan and Toyota.

* car(s) - limit a generated race between variations of one car (including/excluding racing variants) or of certain variations of different cars. For example: a race limited to Chevrolet Camaros and all Ford Mustangs.

* car specifications - limit competition to types of cars based on certain specifications. For example- drivetrain, engine aspiration, displacement levels, nationality, car type (muscle car, kei, supercar, rally cars, etc.), cars from a certain decade(s) or cars up to a certain decade, and the like.

* distance - limit a race to a certain number of laps, time distance, or laps and time.
Examples: five laps around Grand Valley Speedway, a ten-minute race around Special Stage Route 5, or 60-lap or 2:45:00 race around Tokyo R246 (whichever comes first).

* tuning - decide how well the cars are tuned, whether to match your level



Specify a race, track(s), cars, and more. It's the best way to go do your own racing when you get bored racing the championships and races supplemented by Gran Turismo 5.





Comments are welcome (but not hate/racism)!