On a recent thread about arcade races people were comparing arcade versus garage cars performances and that made me wonder what exactly we get when you choose the Racing Setup in arcade.
With this in mind, I decided to run a few laps at Midfield with the Mazda RX-8; first I chose the arcade car and the Racing Setup (which I dont know exactly what it is); the car had 246hp in the arcade screen (as in the dealer), 277hp in the save file, and 281hp in the data logger. After a few laps I realise I wont be able to get under 124 and end up with a series of high 124.xxx and low 125.xxx laps; my best is 124.615.
I then jump into my RX-8 (stock, oil change, T5s, 25km driven) which is 295hp in my garage but the same hp as the arcade car, both in the save file and data logger.
First assumption: arcade cars have the oil change and the break in extra hp since the RX-8 is a prize car and so Im assuming it comes with the break in hp.
Anyway, with my RX-8 Im around two seconds faster, coming up with a best lap of 122.341. The gear ratios seem shorter and the cars reaches around 15km higher top speed at the end of the straight and its overall performance is much better. I then change the tyres to Normal and sure enough Im again doing 124.xxx, a bit better than with the arcade car Id say but maybe just because Im getting more used to it; my best lap was 124.114.
So, my second assumption, the Racing option in arcade cars gives you Normal tyres (though Im sure you get T5s with racing cars)!
This is probably old news to most of you, but maybe somebody else like me didnt know it
Anyway, I remembered I had tested this car at Midfield in GT Concept and discovered a clean lap save of 120.896 with the stock settings (in GTC you can set a number a things like suspension, gear ratio and tyres, and therefore make some quite radical changes to some cars).
After watching the replay I realised it wasnt even a very good lap, there were more than a couple of poor corners. The car is 246hp like in GT3, though theres no hp in the data logger or save file but its stored in the "Concepts" and seems the same car. So, maybe this was the improved physics in GTC or could it just be better tyres? In GTC you get to choose between Hard, Normal, or Soft tyres. One would assume these were T2, T5, and T8s (or T4-T5-T6s), but maybe theyre T6, T7, and T8s!
The only way to test tyre damage in GTC is in 2 player mode, so I parked the other car to one side, centred as much as I could the upper part in my wide screen and began testing the 3 different tyres (quite annoying as you have to go back to free run every time to do the changes);
But I was puzzled with the results: even though you get a different performance with each tyres 4 to 6 seconds difference from soft to hard all 3 tyre types last more or less the same 6 odd laps! (And I tried other changes to make sure you could change the car at all in this game mode!) The hard tyres are even the first to go, as you tend to skid more and generally take more time to do the laps; theyre back and front nearly full red as you enter lap 6!
This made me question if much of the improved car handling in GT Concept isnt due to the tyres PD put in the cars (and then hide this by preventing us from knowing how long they really last?!). I remember some first descriptions of the game where people said it felt like GT3 in super-soft tyres; Im not questioning the graphics improvements, theyre quite obvious; but sticking T8s in all cars sure is one way of making GT easier to play by children and newcomers!
Or maybe its just the slightly improved physics
With this in mind, I decided to run a few laps at Midfield with the Mazda RX-8; first I chose the arcade car and the Racing Setup (which I dont know exactly what it is); the car had 246hp in the arcade screen (as in the dealer), 277hp in the save file, and 281hp in the data logger. After a few laps I realise I wont be able to get under 124 and end up with a series of high 124.xxx and low 125.xxx laps; my best is 124.615.
I then jump into my RX-8 (stock, oil change, T5s, 25km driven) which is 295hp in my garage but the same hp as the arcade car, both in the save file and data logger.
First assumption: arcade cars have the oil change and the break in extra hp since the RX-8 is a prize car and so Im assuming it comes with the break in hp.
Anyway, with my RX-8 Im around two seconds faster, coming up with a best lap of 122.341. The gear ratios seem shorter and the cars reaches around 15km higher top speed at the end of the straight and its overall performance is much better. I then change the tyres to Normal and sure enough Im again doing 124.xxx, a bit better than with the arcade car Id say but maybe just because Im getting more used to it; my best lap was 124.114.
So, my second assumption, the Racing option in arcade cars gives you Normal tyres (though Im sure you get T5s with racing cars)!
This is probably old news to most of you, but maybe somebody else like me didnt know it
Anyway, I remembered I had tested this car at Midfield in GT Concept and discovered a clean lap save of 120.896 with the stock settings (in GTC you can set a number a things like suspension, gear ratio and tyres, and therefore make some quite radical changes to some cars).
After watching the replay I realised it wasnt even a very good lap, there were more than a couple of poor corners. The car is 246hp like in GT3, though theres no hp in the data logger or save file but its stored in the "Concepts" and seems the same car. So, maybe this was the improved physics in GTC or could it just be better tyres? In GTC you get to choose between Hard, Normal, or Soft tyres. One would assume these were T2, T5, and T8s (or T4-T5-T6s), but maybe theyre T6, T7, and T8s!
The only way to test tyre damage in GTC is in 2 player mode, so I parked the other car to one side, centred as much as I could the upper part in my wide screen and began testing the 3 different tyres (quite annoying as you have to go back to free run every time to do the changes);
But I was puzzled with the results: even though you get a different performance with each tyres 4 to 6 seconds difference from soft to hard all 3 tyre types last more or less the same 6 odd laps! (And I tried other changes to make sure you could change the car at all in this game mode!) The hard tyres are even the first to go, as you tend to skid more and generally take more time to do the laps; theyre back and front nearly full red as you enter lap 6!
This made me question if much of the improved car handling in GT Concept isnt due to the tyres PD put in the cars (and then hide this by preventing us from knowing how long they really last?!). I remember some first descriptions of the game where people said it felt like GT3 in super-soft tyres; Im not questioning the graphics improvements, theyre quite obvious; but sticking T8s in all cars sure is one way of making GT easier to play by children and newcomers!
Or maybe its just the slightly improved physics
