A-License... how?

  • Thread starter bur
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bur

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Okay, please don't laugh, but I simply cannot beat the A4-course. I'm not even close to the needed time of 39s, but my best was 39.8s and average is ~40.5s What's so frustrating about this is that I finished all B-license races and now I absolutely need the A-license to keep playing.

I know it's hard to give tips through the internet, but I'll try explaining how I drive this track:

I accelerate from the start all the time, then through the tunnel, speed is about 115km/h (70mph) in the tunnel. Then comes a right-curve and I guess that's my main problem. I don't know if I can drift through it w/o braking or if I need to brake. If I brake I get too slow, if I don't brake I hit the walls... how do you take this curve?

After that I drift w/o braking through the coming s-curve, then another small tunnel and then a sharp left-curve where I brake and drift. After that it's straight ahead to the finish... just 1-2s too late.

Any ideas very welcomed...
 
No drifting? I drift in all racing games, can't do without it... :) Okay, that means I'll have to break until I can do the curve without drifting? Sounds like another night-session of GT1...
 
Yeah, Gran Turismo games are relatively strict about this. GT1 in particualar seems to have very little leeway when it comes to the license tests. They want you to drive for grip...to imitate Andretti and all the great drivers.
 
Hello, Bur. And don't worry. I won't laugh at you for your transgressions and struggles with A-4. I can tell you from experience that this license test frustrated me when I first played through it. If you played Gran Turismo 3, this is basically the B-License Final. The deciding factor between the two experiences is that GT1's driving dynamics are much different, more like arcade. While it's fun to slide around in corners (I did with my 930hp Mitsubishi 3000GT/GTO!), you'll need to be a Grip driver. The best advice I can let you in on is in the final corner. Rather than stay away from the yellow lines, drive right into the yellow lines and watch your entry speedd into the tunnel. Remember, if you smack a wall hard enough, you will be disqualified. So watch your speed. With practice, try studying your racing line after each run. If you think you are making some unnecessary manuvers on track (for example: sliding into corners too much, braking too hard/too often into corners, improper car control technique, etc.), then make those changes and drive a little better.

Another thing to note is that this is Gran Turismo 1, so you don't have the luxury of having ghost replays or easily-accessible demo runs. This will only add to the challenge of completing a license test like this one. When I first played Gran Turismo 1, I was so scared of racing powerful rear-wheel drive cars, because there was always that risk of spinning out the car and ultimately losing the race. But after a while, I got accustomed to rear-wheel drive in GT games. Even in some recent GT games, I've disabled ASM and toned TCS down to 1. Not turning it off, but down to 1. I've become a better racer having done this. Believe me. This test isn't too hard once you get the hang of driving the Skyline around Trial Mountain. If you never reached the A-License final, then that will be your next challenge as %60 of Grand Valley Speedway will be used, and you'll have a Mazda RX-7. So, make it happen! And good luck!
 
I remember trouble, but not an enormous amount, passing it. And I did have difficulty with my licenses (especially since I used a Barracuda II controller, which had a "dead spot" in the analog sticks).

Many months later, (no longer using the Barracuda II) it was the last GT1 gold I got, and here are some of my gold tips which might help for bronze.
http://www.geocities.com/gt2toxs/gt/diary/2001-10-14.html

Similar (GT3 B-8 ) ...
http://www.geocities.com/gt2toxs/gt/diary/2004-01-13.html
http://www.geocities.com/gt2toxs/gt/diary/2004-01-24.html

When I refer to "drift" there, I mean sort of "front(mostly) wheel slippage". I.e. the car doesn't quite hold the arc you might be aiming it on; I don't mean a tail-slapping power-slide dorifto.
 
umm is this the one with the skyline? all my video games and or systems were lost 3 years ago.. i beat all races in gt1 besides 2 of them! and all in gt2! :) well yea the one with the r33 gtr in trial mountains really hard. took me 3 hours. well i just like drove naturally. sorry no tipz. u can find me on NFSUG2 online as RALLYE64 where i have a 3 percent win rate b/c of my slowass computer. and whenever i win its in coal harbor. well sorry and good luck...
 
Hi bur,
I also had a lot of trouble with this one. Be sure to check out SportWagons site, it has lots of good info. I think what helped me was getting lucky going through the left-right combo that comes before the short tunnel, and then turning in a bit early on the next left and carrying a lot of speed into the straight in the long tunnel. Whenever I got through that section without loosing a lot of time/speed I would choke on the next corners, but one time I made it through and didn't screw up after and it got the the bronze. I don't know if I will ever go back and try for golds (actually, I know I will at least try, "gotta get them all")

Good luck and let us know when you pass it so we can celebrate with you.
 
In the final corner, you make up an enormous amount of time if you go over those hash marks. (i.e. you lose a lot if you keep swinging wide of them) I think the perspective isn't quite right there, and so you really do get a much better line through the corner going over those hash marks.

Backing up, it's important to carry a lot of speed through the blind esse.
(But don't try to go too fast, or you scrub the speed all off).

This test becomes a bit of running joke in later versions of GT, actually.
 
SportWagon
In the final corner, you make up an enormous amount of time if you go over those hash marks. (i.e. you lose a lot if you keep swinging wide of them) I think the perspective isn't quite right there, and so you really do get a much better line through the corner going over those hash marks.

Backing up, it's important to carry a lot of speed through the blind esse.
(But don't try to go too fast, or you scrub the speed all off).

This test becomes a bit of running joke in later versions of GT, actually.
Click to expand...

Why is it a joke in later games? I find that of all the B-license tests in GT3, B8 is by far the toughest. I can usually get gold on all the others in 1 or 2 tries nowadays.
 
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True, it's not the players who find it funny . . .

Okay, so maybe "recurring theme" would be more apropos than "running joke", but I'm sure the developers chuckle a little every time they decide to have a test with a Skyline running that section of Trial Mountain.
 
SportWagon
True, it's not the players who find it funny . . .

Okay, so maybe "recurring theme" would be more apropos than "running joke", but I'm sure the developers chuckle a little every time they decide to have a test with a Skyline running that section of Trial Mountain.
Click to expand...

Gotcha.
 
lol dont feel dumb about not being able to beat that. I got GT when I was about eight and i dont think I got my last licence until I was eleven or twelve
 

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