Can you recall the moment GT hooked you?

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Or the moment you realized that Gran Turismo was really special?

It was either May 12th or 13th, 1998. The first turn I ever took in GT - the first hairpin of Grand Valley East in a Supra starter car. I plowed right off the road, barely beginning to change direction. My fears were confirmed: I knew nothing of how to actually drive. I realized I would have to master the game at that point. So all of the amazing stuff to come was just bonus 👍

Seeing this PCars post on the main page a while ago made me feel nostalgic for GT. I think lots of us get that way when a new GT launch is imminent.
 
GT3. I had started the game a couple of times and not really been able to get into in. A good friend recommended I should start with the license tests. There was this one test at the start of trial mountain that I just couldn't get the gold time on, the car was fighting me at every turn.
Then something just clicked. I worked out the racing line and the car stopped fighting me and felt like it just intuitively went where I wanted it to go. I stopped fighting the car and started driving it instead ;)
I've loved racing sims ever since :)
 
The very first time I sat down with the first game in 98. First track and car combo: Special Stage Route 5 and C2 Corvette. The graphics, the reflections, the shinyness, THE SOUND. It was amazing. I was hooked. I could tell the full story but it's too long. :P
 
This might seam strange, but I was hooked as soon as I picked up GT1 ( it just arrived that week ) off the shelf at HMV looked at the back of the case. It was what I was looking for, for as long as I could remember. I just knew it wasn't going to be a let down. I just had been layed off from my job like literally 30 minutes before and went straight into town and completely forgot about being laid off as soon as I handed over my money. Sadly I'm no longer hooked.
 
Driving the Mini on Smokey Mountain in GT3, loved the sideways action & all those bumps! However, I wasn't convinced to buy it for myself until I tried my mate's setup. He had the very first Logitech FFB wheel with GT branding, & some Logic3 stereo speakers with subwoofer. That's the point when I realised I didn't just want this, I need this!
 
right after I got my PS1, it came with a demo disc and it had a GT1 demo.

the only playable cars were the Corvette C4 and a NSX and the only track was High Speed Ring (a track I think should be mandatory for all GT titles lol).

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this is pure nostalgia, even before I played it, this picture of the Supra jumping was all I needed.
 
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Sometime way way back in 1998 I was on the last hour before finishing work and a mate offered me a lift home.. he stopped at his house on the way to let me have a quick 5 minute look at latest the game he was playing.. 6 hours later I got home :lol:

The next day I bought a copy of Gran Turismo to go with my console and the rest is history :D:tup:
 
My first experience with GT is when I came to my relative and played the first GT driving red Honda Integra DC2. It was love in the first sight. Then, years later I bought GT4 from my close friend at high school he said he didn't need it anymore so I got interested to it. My starter car is silver Honda Civic EK9 and having lots of fun in Career Mode until I found my favorite car, the Jaguar XJR-9. I have a blast doing endurence races, how to do pit strategy and save tyres etc. The longest race I ever done was probably a Miata races in Tsukuba, until I cleared the race an obtained Mazda RX-7 LM. It was fun and all. Until one day I leave my PS2 standby for a day and when I return it is broke... And that's it...

Btw besides GT4 I also got a copy of GT Concept which I bought by myself. It is pretty much like a GT3 in smaller number but it is still fun.

Then my love for GT continues when I found GTS pod on Nissan stand at annual motor show year ago. It was a satisfying experience and for the first time driving through Tokyo Expressway that became my favorite track in GTS. It was such memorable reunion with GT, and with this latest installment would like to say "welcome back GT". Imo this is a proper GT after a difficult era of PS3 and I'm glad PD gain their "magic touch" back, just like in GT4 or other previous GT.
 
I saw a replay of GT4 in a store and realized that the level of realism of the cars was very good. I did not play video games, but because I'm passionate about cars, I thought I could have a museum of virtual cars in my house. And as I said in another thread, my intention was just to look at the cars at the dealerships

So it was the replay at SSR5 that hooked me.
 
I remenber perfectly. It was january 1998, I got another japanese "obscure" racing game. Then I gone to the Arcade mode and picked up a green Honda Prelude in a race in Trial Mountain. The race was fun, but when replay started, I was completely amazed, wordless... Never seen anything like that before, this was the moment GT hooked me.
 
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Gran Turismo 1, which I played at my uncles house. The fact that you could choose from hundreds of different cars, and also the regular street cars and tune them up. All of the racing games at the time, only had maybe 20 different cars, and only the racing-types, with no options of modifying them.
 
PlayStation 1 demo disc I believe it was the first or second Gran Turismo, the track was in a city at night and you could race an NSX and a few other cars. Before that all I had was Need for Speed 2 and that obviously wasn't anything close to sim.. the feel of that early Gran Turismo really set the pace for Motorsport racing in my mind as a kid and I realized how fun it was to compete for first place. Eventually I moved over to Forza and missed out on Gran Turismo four five and six but after playing sports demo I'll be hopping right back in and I'm all too excited, because it feels amazing
 
My parents bought me a PS and GT the summer of 1998 (I was 11-12 at that time). I brought the duo with us on vacation at a beach house. One day it was storming (so, no beach) and so I turned it on early that morning and, by that afternoon, had acquired an RX-7 A Spec. It was red.

Sitting there, rain coming down, everyone else napping, and getting that car. That was it for me.
 
My dad brought home GT1 for him and I to try on our relatively new PS1. Up until that point, I had only really played NFS on the system in terms of racers.

It just seemed so different. We loaded it up and immediately went to go get our licenses. The idea of having to learn this aspect of car control — and be rewarded for it — was so foreign at the time. Sure enough, being a 13-year old kid, I wasn't as good as him at the beginning. I remember he got silver on his first attempt with the Demio, while I struggled a few times to even figure out bronze.

The progression was what drew me in, and owning a garage of cars. It's still primarily what I enjoy about racing games: that sense of escapism.
 
Collecting the Spoon Hondas and racing them was the earliest moment I can remember that got me hooked. I also remember having an some sort of blue RX-7 that was my favorite car ever in GT2.
 
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