I didn't feel like I played that long, but I got a fair amount of races out of the way. First, I finished the Supercar Festival in my M3 GTR. Then it was off to the German Touring Car Championship in my CLK Touring car. I was a bit worried about this race, as the first time I tried it at Brian's house, I lost horribly. Adding just the Stage 3 NA upgrade, it wasn't even a contest, as I won handily. The prize was a CLK GTR race car, which should do nicely when I go for Gran Turismo World Championship.
Of course, you can't run that race until you've completed the rest of the Beginner and Professional races, so I decided to clean those up. Back in the Civic Type R (my second car) for the FF Challenge, and I win a worthless Mazda 6 Concept. On to the Spider & Roadster race....I wasn't sure what I was going to use, until I remembered that I had that SL 65. :-D It shouldn't be possible to win by as much as I did. Got a Prowler after that race, also worthless.
Next I entered the Sport Truck race to finish up the Beginner Hall. I went with the Dodge Laramie 1500, with nothing but power upgrades. I was going to go with the supercharger for $13k, but oddly enough, the $12.8k Stage 2 NA upgrade made a lot more power. So with that, a chip, and an exhaust, I went racing. Stage 1 weight reduction as well. No suspension changes or anything. When I started the race, I was a bit worried when I saw that it was a 190-point race. :-o The most I had ever succesfully completed was about an 80-point race, so I thought I was in over my head. Two turns in, I had nothing to worry about. Cake walk. One interesting thing was that when I went to turn off the driving aids, traction control was set to 7, two notches higher than most cars. Setting everything to zero I didn't know what to expect...maybe with a light back end and 500+hp, I'd be spinning the tires everywhere. Wrong. I don't think I ever spun the tires as long as I stayed on the pavement, and the only time I got the back end out was on Seattle Reverse after going down the hill with jumps, and making a sharp right under braking. Slowest 500hp car ever.
On to the professional races. All I had left before GT WC was the Clubman Cup and the World Classic Car Series. I was all set to use my 300 SL...but to no avail. I just couldn't win the first race, even after entering it three times in that car. The first and third race there was a 1962 Buick in the class that would just fly by on the straights. The second race there was an AC Cobra that did the same thing. :-\ Back to the garage...what other cars do I have? Oh yeah! Supercharged Chevelle SS. :-D I added the race transmission, which gave me two extra gears, and more importantly, adjustability. The stock trans tops out in 4th at around 111 mph. Now I was able to hit about 160 or so, iirc. I have to say, it was a little weird piloting a Chevelle around Nurburgring and Cote de Azure. Looked a bit out of place to say the least. But I won easily, and got an 1886 Daimler Motor Carriage for the trouble.
All I have left is the Clubman Cup, which I've been putting off just because of the time required for minimal reward. I think it was designed to transition people from the Beginner Hall to Professional Hall, as the races are easy, but they're 4-6 laps, and you don't get much money for them. Plus the prize car is a Mazdaspeed 6, and you can't really do anything with that. I'll probably do it tonight though. After that, on to the GT World Championship, and hopefully I'll win that to open up Extreme Hall.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures last night. Partly because I was up to late playing, and partly because the flash drive was in the other room, and I didn't want to get up. ;-)
Posted by Ben at March 15, 2005 06:50 AM