"NEW" " NEW" GT3 Getting Started Guide!!

  • Thread starter Ghostrider
  • 25 comments
  • 15,102 views

Ghostrider

***Moderator***
Staff Emeritus
4,590
This list originaly provided by IGN.com

Edited by ghostrider

This information is posted for Newbie's, Amateur's and anybody else that needs to know one of the best ways to get started in the GT3 Game. I used this information listed here for my own game expericence as well and found it very useful.

Posted date 9-10-01 by ghostrider
If you have any question or comments about this posting or any other related question to this, please, Click here to email me.



----GETTING OFF TO A FAST START:

Whether you're a GT veteran or a first-timer, the first thing you should do once you start the Gran Turismo Mode is to jump into the License Center and try to earn the class B license. But don't just stop there. You really ought to spend the time, which will probably take you at least two to three hours, to get all gold medals in the B license because it'll make starting the game about 100 times easier than if you don't.

Not only will this make you a much more skilled driver, but for getting all gold medals you are rewarded a Mazda Miata MX-5. While this car isn't really any better than what you can buy at the start of the game, the fact that you didn't buy it means that you can use that initial 18,000 credits to buy a LOT of upgrades -- enough to make playing through a good amount of the Beginner League races without much to worry about.

Also you should try to get the A, International B, International A, Super license and Rally license, because the skills you learn here will definitely help you out in the game.

Conversely, we fully understand that not all of you may have the skill or patience to get all gold medals in the B License Test or might simply be more interested in getting right into the game. If you fall into this category, you'll have to use your 18,000 credits to buy yourself a car.

Since GT3 no longer has used cars, the list of purchasable cars at the beginning of the game is pretty short and the selection isn't really all that exciting. Here's a full list of all the cars in the game that fall under the 18,000 price range, along with each car's price and initial horsepower rating:


--++ Daihatsu Mira TR XX Avanzato R (11,140 Cr., 63 hp, FF)
--++ Daihatsu Storia X4 (13,900 Cr., 118 hp, 4WD)
--++ Mazda Demio GL-X (14,660 Cr., 98 hp, FF)
--++ Mazda Miata MX-5 (16,900 Cr., 128 hp, FR)
--++ Mazda Miata MX-5 (17,000 Cr., 118HP, FR)
--++ Suzuki Alto Works Suzuki Sports Limited (12,220 Cr., 63 hp, 4WD)
--++ Toyota Vitz Euro Edition (12,880 Cr., 86 hp, FF)
--++ Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT Apex (13,550 Cr., 128 hp, FR)
--++ Toyota Vitz RS 1.5 (14,530 Cr., 108 hp, FF)
--++ Chrysler PT Cruiser (17,980 Cr., 149 hp, FF)
--++ Volkswagen New Beetle 2.0 (15,930 Cr., 115 hp, FF)

Of these, we actually have two that come highly recommended -- the Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT Apex and the Chrysler PT Cruiser. With the Trueno, you get a decent amount of power for a relatively low price. Plus, after you buy it, you'll have enough cash to purchase a Semi-Racing Muffler & Air Cleaner upgrade for 2,800 credits and a Racing Chip upgrade for 1,000 credits, which will push you over the 135 horsepower mark and make winning the first few tournaments a breeze.

Likewise, the 149 hp Chrysler PT Cruiser, even without upgrades, is powerful enough to destroy the initial competition. And despite the way it looks, the FF (front engine, front wheel drive) design helps make it fairly easy to drive.

Even though these are the cars we recommend picking up first, you can actually get away with buying any of the initially available cars and still have a shot at winning. The first few races can be won with any of the initially available cars, it's just going to take a little more skillful driving with these than with either the Trueno or PT Cruiser.

When it comes time to buy a second car, you with something that you can get a lot of horsepower and a high to speed out of (for a reasonable price) like the Mitsubishi 3000GT or Nissan Skyline. Use it to run as many different races as possible until you can pretty much max out its various upgrades. One you have it fully tuned, widen out the gears and use it on the Professional League Like The Wind race that has you battle it out on the Test Course.

What do you get out of this? Well, not only do you get a lot of cash for very little work, but you also win a Mazda 787B, which is probably the best non-F1 car in the game. You can use it to win just about every single race that it's eligible for.


----TUNING YOUR CAR:

The first upgrades to your car should either be a Muffler & Air Cleaner, Racing Chip or Weight Reduction to your car. The first two give a good amount of horsepower boost for a minimal investment and reducing the weight of your car helps its handling and acceleration.

Likewise, if you have a car that can get a Turbo upgrade, you should be able to get a fairly substantial horsepower upgrade with the racing intercooler without shelling out an obscene amount of dough.

Since the super-soft racing slicks are so much more expensive in GT3 than they were in GT2, this isn't something you can upgrade that early, but once you get to the point where you can buy some, it'll make a huge difference in the way your car will handle. However, since some of the Amateur and all of the Professional League races have mandatory tire wear, these tires will only benefit you in the Beginner League races and the ones in the Amateur League that don't yet force you to race with tire wear.

After this, it's really all about doing what you want to do and just experimenting with what works best for you. The racing flywheel is a good purchase since it helps the engine rev more freely and deliver power far better and upgrades to the suspension or anything to help get your more horsepower will definitely improve your car. Getting the full customization for your gears is also a very worthwhile investment because once you get to a race that
forces you to race on the Test Course, you'll want to have the ability to adjust your gear ratios because you might not be able to win otherwise.


----CHEAP HORSEPOWER UPGRADE:

If you want a very quick and inexpensive horsepower upgrade for a new car that you've either purchased or won as a prize, look no further than the GT Auto Car Maintenance Shop and the Oil Change. For 250 Cr., you can change the oil in your new car and get an immediate HP boost. If it's something in the 900+ horsepower range, it's not too out of the ordinary to see this simple little task push the total over 1000.

This is only a recommendation and the honest truth is that you should go with whatever car you feel comfortable with, as you have a lot of choices and all of them are really good ones to make. Trust your gut and go with a car that you think fits your style.

TIP: For an even easier start, you can just take the stock Toyota Trueno and immediately race it on the Trial Mountain race in the Sunday Cup of Beginner League. It should be a relatively easy win, which will give you 5,500 credits and enough money to put a Turbo Kit upgrade and oil change, which will bring your horsepower to around 170 HP. This will make winning the first few cup races as easy as pie.


----THE QUICKEST WAY TO EARN CREDITS:

Thanks to some reader submissions, the best way that we've found to make a lot of money quickly is to enter the Amateur League European Championship. It's a five race with only three laps per race, so it can be completed in less than 20 minutes. You need to finish first in the first four races, earning 7,500 credits per race, then save your game. Enter the fifth and final race and simply quit out of it to end the series. If you finished first in the first four races, you'll win the series, more prize money (30,000 Cr.) and one of four random prize cars. If you get the Gillet Vertigo Race Car, you can sell it for 300,000 credits, thus bringing your 20-minute prize total to 360,000 credits. If you don't get the
Vertigo Race Car, just re-load your saved game and exit the race until you win the Vertigo. Doing this, you can net yourself nearly 1,000,000 credits per hour.

The only problem here is that you're going to need a car that's at least 500 HP in order to compete. For those at an earlier stage in the game and looking for an easy way to make some
bank, here's another suggestion. Get a car that you've tweaked out to where it's around the 300 HP range and pretty quick. Enter the Super Speedway race in the GT World Championship in the Beginner League. The race will take you a little less than four minutes and you're awarded 10,000 for finishing first. This'll net you an easy 150,000 in about an hour, which should be enough for you to buy something that you'll be able to tweak enough to race on the Amateur League European Championship.


----CHEATERS ALWAYS PROSPER:

For some, this has been the Achilles heel of the Gran Turismo series -- because of the game's lack of a damage model; it's easy to use overly aggressive and unrealistic cheat tactics to win games. What we mean by this is that you can use the walls or other cars to help you around turns quicker than you could if you properly slowed down and took a realistic racing line. For example, if you're heading towards a 180 degree turn and are
towards the back of the pack, instead of braking the way you should, head in to the corner full steam and ram into the side of cars in front of you. You'll be able to use that car to slow you down and get you around the corner ahead of it.

While it's possible to cheat like this in GT3, it's not something we recommend that you do. It's so much more rewarding to learn how to correctly drive and to win races with skillful racing techniques instead of just using the game's weaknesses to your advantage.


----SORT YOUR GARAGE:

Now that the game allows you to up to 200 cars in your garage, the sort feature is as important as ever. When in your garage, you can press start and the sort your garage based on options like Acquire Order, Name, Make, Color, Value, Mileage, Power, Drivetrain, and NA/Turbo.


----UPGRADE YOUR CAR FOR FREE:

Here's a little trick you can do to save money on upgrading your cars. First, you must have 2 memory cards. Save your game onto both MEMORY CARD #1 and MEMORY CARD #2. Buy the car that
you want and upgrade it as much as you can (if you have the money, buy every single upgrade you can think of, including every tire type). Now save the game onto only MEMORY CARD #2.

After you've finished saving the game, load the saved game data from the other card, MEMORY CARD #1 (this should be the original save before you purchased anything). Go to your Home and then the Trade section to Load Garage Data from MEMORY CARD #2.
Now you can buy the car that you spent hundreds of thousands upgrading for its original sticker price.

TIP: You can use this at the beginning of the game to get an extra one or two upgrades for your very first car.


----ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS:

Big beginner tip: when cornering, remember the racing adage, "slow in, fast out". It's the key to success. Learn to brake early and get on the power as early as possible so you accelerate out of a bend. Don't brake late -- you'll still be out of control and decelerating deep into the corner, and you'll end up coming out of the corner slowly and quite possibly still not under full control of the car.

So just think: if you're exiting a corner too slowly, it's because you didn't brake soon enough. If you're accelerating out of a corner, you're getting it right. Practice, practice, practice!


For more information on the GT3 series game, you should follow the links below:

The Arcade Mode FAQ v1.3b

U.S. and PAL Official GT3 Prize Car Lists

Posted date 9-10-01 by ghostrider
If you have any question or comments about this posting or any other related question to this, please, Click here to email me.


For even more information on GT3 visit http://guides.ign.com/

Special Thanks:
Kazunori Yamauchi, Polyphony Digital and the folks at SCEA for crafting game that I still desire to play after having already put in well over 100 hours into it and have worked past 3AM every night for the past month working on the guide for it.

Julian "Jaz" Rignall, the author of IGN's Gran Turismo 2 Strategy Guide, which provided the foundation for the Driving 101 and Advanced Tuning sections of this GT3 Strategy Guide.

Plus, Rabi Lahiri, Thomas Ocampo, Mike Bridge, Peter J. Rini for helping provide additional information to the guide.

Guide By: Dave Zdyrko
 
One thing that I would recommend doing at the beginning. I started off with Sprinter won a few races made cheap upgrades and after I had enough money I bought a Lancer, which provides serious HP for the $, after a turbo upgrade, Full Custom Transmition, and Super Slick Tires I went right to the endurance race and did super speedway, not only does this get you a lot of money, but you win some high quality cars. Just make sure you increase the gear ratio. I was about 1/2 way through beginner when I did this and was able to win a C5R, which crushed any competition that I would have used it on.
 
I printed it out then started a new file and man its a great start!The first car i bought was always the PT cruiser!!Won a few races withe then sold it and bought a maita thanks Ghost rider!:D
 
Odd, exactly 24 hours after the original post, everything changed, so to speak. Sorry, just struck me...
 
I would recommend starting out with the 128 HP Mazda Miata. It is lighter and has better gearing than the other cars.:cool: Nice work:)
 
I started w/ the Miata, it's really light and probably a lot easier for beginners to drive than the Toyota Sprinter. The first time I played this game I used the PT Cruiser, didn't like it, and re did the game with the Miata, which I loved. Only problem with the Miata is that it tends to spin out when you add power to it, but that can be tuned out...
 
I have only had two gamesaves, one i started with the Trueno, and the other was the Mx5 1.8i. :)
 
Nice. One thing though. The B license prize Miata is the LS version, which is considerably more potant than the earlier version you can get for 18K credit.

I don't know if I'd put a lot of emphasis on that, personally. Taking the time to get all golds when you first start the game probably takes more patience than I had when I first got the thing. The learning curve for that could get frustrating, too, I think. But still, nice to tell them.

I'd wait to tell people about getting the 787b, too. True, it'll make winning a lot of races easy, but possibly at the cost of learning how to run the tracks better and get frustrated when they face those cars later on. (Same with using an F1 car in anything other than the last series).

Might want to add something about tires. This will probably sound stupid, but way back when I first got to the point where tires wore out, I didn't know if I had only bought one set and would run out of anything other than normals (it seemed an awful ot of credits for one set of tires)
 
well, the actual flat-out best way to start is doing all the license tests (time-consuming, but worth it) and get the prize cars form them. that's a good start.
 
Amen to that brother, I read AO's re-start guide after just getting the game last week, so I went to "get golds in license tests", man its way easier to type than do!! but I did get some golds and the rest silvers in the B test after having the game for a few days. Now I just nail bronzes on the first run and get the license and go race!!
 
Back