Reverse tracks underappreciated/underutilized

grannyshifter

grannyshifter

57
United States
United States
I'm making this thread to hopefully bring some awareness to what are some of my favorite tracks in the game.

I can only base my assumptions on my online experience, and I have found that some of these tracks are never chosen!

I understand people want to use tracks they are good at, so here my friends is a list of my recommended tracks for you to (hopefully) start practicing on.

I have rated each reverse track out of 5 thumb ups. Criteria include:
1: Quality of track layout (flow, rhythm, challenges etc);
2: How track compares to the "regular" version;
3: Other subjective matter which may or may not be based on my biased opinion.:P

👍👍👍👍👍 Special Stage Route 5[R]
Its hard to believe just how much better this track is in reverse. Easily one of my favorites. This track flows so well, and even brings back memories of SSR11. The night time scenery is also wonderfully showcased, and the feeling of flying through the city at night is amazing. The building lit up with the GT logo is just a bonus!

👍👍👍👍👍 Eiger Nordwand Short Track[R]
Climbing up those hairpins will make you feel like this track actually belongs in the Swiss mountains. Where the regular version feels rushed and sloppy, this track will test all your abilities, from unstable braking zones to those steep uphill hairpins, this track is a treat to master. Note the relocated start/finish line.

👍👍👍👍👍 Deep Forest Raceway[R]
Perhaps one of the only reverse tracks I have seen used online, this track we can all agree is fantastic in both directions. Great flow, fast corners, and lots of elevation change. My favorite part of the reverse track is the down hill leading to the last corner. If you have enough speed you will feel the track jump out from under your car as you pass over the crest!

👍👍👍👍 London[R]
This track gets a very good score mainly because it is so much better than the regular version, which is not a great track. What once was a slow, tedious track, becomes a fast flowing track that does the city of London (and its beautiful in-game scenery) justice.

👍👍👍 Tokyo R246[R]
I almost gave this track 4 stars, as I am personally not very fond of the regular version, but I realize I may be in a minority on that. This reverse version smooths out a lot of awkward corners, and the hard downhill braking zone at the first corner promises to make a man out of you afterall!

👍👍👍 Autumn Ring[R]
Very challenging track that is difficult to carry speed through. Probably would be rated higher if the regular version wasn't so good.

👍👍👍 Edit: 👍👍👍👍 Rome[R]
The forum has spoken! The high speed bottleneck is no longer an issue on this reverse layout! If you never liked the regular version, give this one a try!

👍👍👍 High Speed Ring[R]
A scenic version of the High Speed Ring. Finally a great view of that wonderful bridge! Watch out for those tight S curves exiting the tunnel!

👍👍:tup:Grand Valley East[R]
Very challenging first corner, overall a very fun short track.

:gtplanet: Gtplanet award: Trial Mountain Circuit[R]
By far the most controversial rating on my list, this track comes highly recommended by several members as a track that's great for tuning as well as racing. Mastering the racing line here is your key to victory!

The remaining reverse tracks received too low of a score to further evaluate them.
Trial Mountain Circuit[R]
Grand Valley Speedway[R]
Circuito de Madrid[R]
Clubman Stage Route 5[R]
Autumn Ring Mini[R]

Still in evaluation:
Apricot Hill Raceway[R]

Dirt tracks were not tested.

I hope you enjoyed this review and find it useful. Please share your thoughts and opinions, and give these tracks a try!:cheers:

Edit: updated some ratings
 
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Rome reverse is clearly better than the normal one.

Why? Because of that horrible chicane of walls that you do at high speed in the normal one and its downhill aswell, when racing closely with other cars, theres an enormous chance of collisions and crashes, one of the most controversial corners in all GT5/6. On the other hand, in the reverse one, you do it slower and its uphill, its far less dangerous.
 
I see that you have Apricot Hill R in evaluation - I had some good fun flying around that the other day and it made the experience quite different indeed.

Online though, people are as you say only going to select what they feel they can shine at and they are also cretures of habit. WRC3 and 4 online would rarely utilise different stages, just the first one for each country.

The solution I have found is to make your own lobby and hope that people learn how much fun can be had from that.
 
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NixxxoN
Rome reverse is clearly better than the normal one.

Why? Because of that horrible chicane of walls that you do at high speed in the normal one and its downhill aswell, when racing closely with other cars, theres an enormous chance of collisions and crashes, one of the most controversial corners in all GT5/6. On the other hand, in the reverse one, you do it slower and its uphill, its far less dangerous.
Click to expand...
YES!! Rome Reverse is a much, much more logical and realistic configuration. There was a Ferrari F1 Seasonal in GT5 using Rome Reverse and I was hooked on that track after that.
I always hated Rome Regular because T1 and T3 are bottleneck funnels. Now after racing Rome Reverse, every time I race Rome Regular all I think about is how dumb the configuration is.
 
I have to agree with SSR5. Not a big fan of it, but the track is way better in reverse. I don't know why, but it flows much better.

Deep Forest is also a good track in reverse. It makes you feel like you're going faster for some reason.

Rome is... I don't know.... The reverse version definitely improves the feel of the chicane, but the front straight section feels weird.

Another track that deserves recognition is High Speed Ring. In its reverse version it is a true HIGH speed ring.
 
I'm thoroughly disappoint that you rated trial mountain reverse as too bad to rate!

It's been my test track for a very long time. Always served me well.


Regarding the nordshliefe in reverse.. There was a video posted in another thread of a rally that started on country roads near the track, then joined the nordshliefe at the beginning of the long straight, onto the track in reverse.

This configuration looks like enormous fun, and isn't like running it backwards 'just because'. It gives it it's own appeal.
 
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I'm with @FussyFez, I really like Trial Mountain Reverse much more than the normal configuration. It's my go-to course next to Brands Hatch GP, my top 2 test/tune courses.

Either way, good work! 👍.
 
Interesting you both use Trial Mountain reverse for tuning.

Would you agree its not the best track to race on?

Maybe a special recognition award for best tuning track?
 
I like it because alot of the corners can be taken much faster than you first think.

This track demands the use of correct lines for fast times, somthing you can get away with on some tracks.

I agree, it can be frustrating racing here, as, alot of the corners need the correct line when fully committed, or you will be saying hello to a wall or the grass very quickly. Therefore it can be hard for players to give each other room whilst still maintaining a competitive pace.

I use it as a test track because I think it has lots of different challenges all in one. Long fast sweeper, technical late turn in (blind left hander after the tunnel after the back straight) over crest direction change, and the last section is great for testing balance in compression and extension.

I love it. Won many online races here, just because it's very underused, and quite challenging to get right.
 
I would love for the real world tracks to be available in reverse mode as well. It would be such an easy way to increase the effectively usable track count.

Yeah, I realise not all tracks are officially suitable for it because they lack the crash barriers and gravel traps for such. But honestly, nobody cares about that with street tracks either, so why not?

edit: figured I might as well make an actual suggestion out of this --> https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/all-tracks-available-in-reverse.300938/
 
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I know it makes the course mostly an uphill affair, but I really like Apricot Hill Reverse.. I race it in reverse at night, it almost seems like a totally different track that way! So glad to have it back :D
 
Trial Mountain reverse is one of my all-time favorites. And yes, I mean for racing. I don't tune at all really, but I do test new cars there if I think it'll be a fun car for the track. I know I'm not alone in enjoying racing on the track, either. Because running Shuffle races in GT5, it would regularly get voted as the new track. And it still gets voted in on GT6. It's always good racing too. Some cars don't shine on the track, like 4wd cars (for me). It's definitely a throttle contol track though.

Eiger Short track reverse is also one of my favs. I definitely enjoy the switchbacks more uphill than down. And I also agree that Rome is a better track in reverse.

I run Nurb in reverse alot too. The views are much nicer.
 
If you think you know a track, drive it in reverse. Those that can do long windy tracks (like the 'Ring) in reverse at full chat and get low lap times truly have the track down.
 
I definitely prefer SSR5's forward layout. On the reverse layout, the first left turn (last right turn in forward layout) doesn't feel as fun since I have to focus on decelerating through it, rather than accelerating in preparation for the long straight. Also, the left-right-left S (right-left-right in forward layout) is kinda underwhelming since once you've cleared the first left, you just go full-throttle (?) through the next right and left. Going through it forward, all three individual corners challenge you since each one seems tighter (?) than the previous.

Trial Mountain reverse... seems quite good. You approach the first (or last in the forward layout) left-right S much faster, and you'll want to keep as much speed as you can since it's followed by a short straight. The section from the last (or first in the forward layout) tunnel to the start/finish straight is also fun since you're gaining speed through it and running downhill, instead of losing speed and running uphill.

Deep Rorest reverse... The esses after the back straight (or before in the forward layout) work quite well in reverse. At least one is blind, so it's nice to hit its apex.

Cape Ring... doesn't strictly have a reverse layout, but I prefer running UP the circle turn, clockwise around the outer circuit and anticlockwise around the inner circuit. I wish they'd offer all of its layouts in reverse, and maybe even another layout with the twin hairpins on the west side rather than the east side. O.o?
 
I prefer Clubman R5 in reverse a lot more than forward.

You carry more speed down the straight, I find braking for the first right hander more challenging than breaking for the tunnel, you carry more speed through the S-curve, breaking for the sharp right hander is downhill and harder, and you get to do the second part of the tunnel at full throttle.

I love this layout for 400-450pp street cars on sports tires.



Also, from a drifting perspective, both Autumn Ring and Trial Mountain are done in reverse more often than forward. Both offer excellent flow, and have insane entry opportunities.

Autumn Ring Mini is as good reverse as it is forward. I'd say forward is better for tandem, reverse is better for testing.

Suzuka is a blast to drift the full track reverse. Same with Tsukuba.
Motegi East as well.


And of course, the best for last, Stowe and Matterhorne Short are amazing in reverse.
 
Madrid goes from being just about the worst street course in the game to being the best one (my opinion only of course) when running it in reverse. The chicane becomes tricky as hell but far more rewarding to get just right, the annoying high speed kink before the roundabouts (are they actually roundabouts? I've never paid that much attention) is actually fun and the twin roundabout section flows like never before. And the best part is at the end - the rip-your-hair-out braking zone for the first corner becomes a non-issue as it's pure acceleration now. Full five stars from me.
 
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Reverse tracks are a blight on racing second only to user generated tracks. You go reverse around a real race track you'll be banned and if I had my way, you'd be banned from PSN for just loading up a reverse track in a room.
 
By principle, I do not use reverse layouts because it reminds me of a time when Reverse and mirror versions of tracks were only existing to hide the limited content of many driving games.

This being said, playing Gran Turismo with friends in "LAN" then online mode, I have let them convince me to play some GT tracks in reverse.
I have to admit that some are/were awesome:
- Trial Mountain
- SSR5
- Midfield Raceway
- Seattle
- Autumn ring

But for sure, PD made the right decision not adding reverse versions of existing tracks.
 
I tried the Nurburg' in reverse today and it felt like a completely new track. Very challenging.

NSX Type R '02 fully modified (anything between SH and RH tyres) + Nurburg' reverse + G27 = pure fun.
 
I've done just about every track in reverse and enjoyed them all. Like others, Trial Mountain is probably my favourite reverse variation. I also think High Speed Ring is much better in reverse, pretty boring in the right direction, much faster and better flowing in reverse.

For real a world track, Spa is great fun backwards.
 

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