SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Review: GTR: FIA GT Racing

So what can we deduce from that? I'd say that there are several factors deciding whether a track feels right than I'd initially suspected when starting this experiment:

The sense of the car's size relative to the track will influence your evaluation.
The speed sensation you get in different game engines will influence your evaluation.
The game engine you use will influence your evaluation.
The type of car you use will influence your evaluation, i.e. faster cars will make the track feel smaller.
TV broadcasts should not be taken as ultimate evidence as the camera-positions and the optics of the camera tend to distort distances.

So, relying on GPS data alone is probably only taking into account perhaps 50 percent of the equation. Luckily, SimBin have indeed made meticulous studies of each and every track in GTR, collected their own photographic records and consulted all available information on track surface and peculiarities, including real life telemetry from FIA GTR cars on those tracks.

This is a rather long winded way of saying that yes, the tracks in GTR are very accurate and no, unless you're extremely familiar with a certain track in a specific car and have had the chance to drive that same car in a sim, on the same track, you'll never be able to decide objectively if that particular track is modeled most correctly in a sim.

For what it's worth, I think that Spa-Francorchamps in GTR is very close to "spot-on". It's the best modern Spa I've seen yet.

The 24 hour Spa race is made possible with 4 versions of the track; Day, Dusk, Night and Dawn. This means that the transitions are fairly noticeable as the game needs to load a new track when it switches between the different timeslots.

Driving around Spa at night, you would have to have ice in your veins if you didn't appreciate the beauty of it all. This track is extremely beautifully rendered. Some tracks like Magny-Cours seem to be not quite up to there with the beauty of Spa.

Speaking of nighttime racing, can you spot what's missing in the following pictures?

For some reason light cones from the cars' headlights seem to have gone missing here. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if the light on the track is at that stage where you wouldn't be able to see distinctive light cones anyway. Be assured that the light cones do work as they should.

Spa-Francorchamps is a great track to drive, but the excitement is too short-lived IMO, as so many tracks these days are stop-and-go tracks that put the emphasis on acceleration and braking, and if you get it wrong the worst you'll fare is the embarrassment of an unscheduled trip to the sand-trap.

There are high speed tracks like Monza and Enna, in GTR. There are also parking lot like tracks as Oschersleben, and there are tracks that I dare you to call classics; such as Estoril and Magny-Cours, and there are tracks like Anderstorp, which IMO is just plain uninspiring to drive in any sim.

Enna has some nice high speed passages where you have to find the fastest speed through long sweeping curves, and a "blood-or-guts" section when you have to drive through narrow and fast chicanes with great precision. The latter is a bit like the Monaco chicane in GPL, where you have to brave yourself not to lift off.

Downloading some of the community created tracks like Le Mans, the Nordschliefe, or Imola 1994, brings back memories of how it is to dig deep into your mental reserves and hold the pedal to the floor in top gear through a corner like Tamburello before it was made safer.

The LiveTrack feature which is a first in simulations, will ensure that as the session progresses and more and more rubber is laid down on the track, the grip improves on the racing line. The other side of the coin is that if you get off-line, you will find the amount of grip greatly reduced.

This feature is available on the tracks that are included in the sim, but not on most of the tracks you download as unofficial add-ons. Recent announcements lead me to believe that add-on tracks might support the LiveTrack feature.

Cars

There are a lot of cars in GTR and most of them are used by different teams so with the different team liveries, cars are in abundance. In the GT class we have: Chrysler Viper GTS-R, Saleen S7-R, Lister Storm, Ferrari 550 Maranello, Ferrari 575 GTC, Porsche 911 GT2, Porsche 911 GT3, Porsche 911 Turbo, Gillet Vertigo, Mosler MT 900, Seat Toledo, Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT, Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, and the Morgan Aero. The Seat is really hot and you must try it out!

I find the Saleen the easiest to drive. The Gillet Vertigo, despite its odd shape, is a very nice driver's car too. the Seat which was added to GTR with the 1.4 patch a great car and absolutely a blast to drive. The Porsches are tricky in the sense that they like to swap ends when you need it the least. Especially you have to be careful to match revs when downshifting.

In the NGT class you can choose from the following cars: Ferrari 360 Modena, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, BMW Z3M and Lotus Elise. Here the Elise is my favorite, it is a very nice car even if it probably the slowest of the lot.

Hope I didn't miss any cars!

Each car handles differently as they should, and the car models are really exceptionally good. Tires need to be warmed up as do the brakes before you can push. The handling changes in correspondence to the amount of fuel you have onboard in the tanks.

GTR ships with several interesting options for spec. racing: You can set up a field of Elise's as well as spec races consisting entirely of Italian, or American cars, or races with only Porsches should you wish to do so. These are great options that I hope a lot of sim racers will try out.

Go To Page 6

Click here to go to top of this page.