Yesterday was a pretty good GT4 day - I think I put in a solid 7 hours, and I'm now at 10.0% completion. As far as I can remember, this is what I've done.
Licenses
Started out taking the free B/A licenses from the GT3 data transfer, then earned the IB and IA licenses with mostly bronzes. One of the IA license tests was following the pace car around the Ring, which meant you couldn't really go off-track at all. I kept up a reasonable pace though, and ended up getting a silver on that one by a couple seconds. I'll probably hold off on the S license for a little while, as I don't really need it for anything yet. Prize cars for the IB/IA licenses were the Nike One and a Nismo 270R.
Beginner Hall
I used my 95 RX7 to beat the Sunday Cup, and start to get a feel for the GT-world physics again. Then bought a Civic Type R for the FF Challenge, but only did a couple before I got tired of that (this was a couple days ago). I got back in the RX7 and beat the FR challenge, though I was having some trouble controlling the car. I never really got the whole smoothness thing worked out until I did some of the IA licenses, where I really had to work at staying on the racing line. I think now I'm finally at a point where my lap times in the RX7 with the Stage 2 turbo are faster than with the Stage 1, or even stock. :-P I went off and did some other races, winning other cars to use in the 4WD Challenge and Light Weight K Cup. I originally thought the limit for the K Cup was 3800mm cars, so I bought a CRX, thinking I could use that for the K Cup and the Compact Car Cup in the Japanese Hall. I was wrong though, it was 3400mm. Doh! I ended up using an old Honda S800 race car to win the K Cup, and a Nismo 400R for the 4WD Challenge.
Japanese Hall
These seemed like a logical place to go, given that I had pretty much nothing but Japanese cars (as they're almost the only cars available in the used car lots). I started with the Compact Car Cup in my turbo CRX - the prize? 1972 Honda Life Step Van. Something like 30hp, great. I used my RX7 (pre-smoothness) to attempt the Japanese Championship, as the prize car was a Fairlady Z LM car, and LM cars are just awesome. This actually took me 3 tries! In GT3, you could quit in the middle of a race and start it again - not so in GT4, when you're in a championship series. You just get zero points and move on to the next race. I had a lot of trouble with a couple tracks in particular. I finally replaced the Stage 2 turbo with a Stage 1 turbo, and that helped driveability a lot - at least until my driving got smoother. Once it did, no problem. The only issue I have now is with R246 in reverse. I can't make it all the way down the straight, because a kink towards the end always puts me in a wall. Doing this in a later car, it turns out I just need downforce, and that can be purchased at the wing shop. :-) I then used my RX7 again (post-smoothness) to clean up in the 90's Challenge, and get the 400R I used in Beginners Hall.
Professional Hall
I believe I started with the Race of Turbo Sports here. I intended to do the NA race in my Fairlady Z LM, but that's when I found out it had a turbo. :-P Turbo race it is! Won an older RX7, the 410hp Falken D1GP car, which sounds like it's a drifting car. Next, I used the Z again to win the Tuning Car Grand Prix, which was the first race I had done that actually allowed race tires. Won the Option Stream Z there, which has something like 700hp. Finally, I brought back the CRX to win the World Compact Car Race, and get the Honda S800 race car I mentioned earlier.
At one point, I was looking for cars that I could use for lightweight/small car races, so I checked out what the UK had. That's when I saw the Caterham Fire Storm, which looked perfect - I could use it for the British Lightweight race, as well as a number of compact car races. So I bought it for 60k, added about 20k in mods, and went racing. Or at least, I tried to go racing. Denied! The Caterham is considered a "special car", and can't be raced in any of the actual racing series! 80k down the drain. >:-O
At this point, I don't quite know where I'm going to go next. I could go with a high-power NA car for the NA race, or a convertible for the roadster race, or maybe a WRX variant for the Boxer race. I'm thinking I might go that way, as I could build it up for the Boxer race, and if it's not fast enough (like if a RUF is running faster), I should be able to use it for a bunch of the rally races. WRX's are plentiful in the used car showrooms, so that might be a way to go. Regardless, at some point I'm going to have to put down some money for a decent American or European car.
Posted by Ben at March 2, 2005 7:22 AM