Driving for Fun

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bringtherain

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If any of you are like me and the best feature of the GT series is just plain driving/tuning for fun, I offer a little "passtime/break from competition." As my GT4 completion % goes up, I start to loose a sense for the compitition, and just get cars, tune them and drive them. I still race, but I focus more on driving to pass the time with my autos. So, here's my idea. It would be something kind of like the weekly race but only for fun, without divisions or competition. Any way, I would pick a car, fast, slow, ugly, sweet, doesn't matter. Tune it however you want, upgrade it, race whereever you want. I pick it, you drive it and write a review, lap times, settings etc. If desired I could even post the best lap times for tracks with that car of those replied. So if you're intrested let the postings begin. The first car I randomly chose was the '98 Nissan 300ZX 2seater (Z32).

If your want to participate go ahead, but I would appreciate a PM letting me know that you're doing it.
 
If you're looking to pass the time, run any family cup with the dodge ram on -10 setting. It's great fun to ram those small cars into the air and off the road :)
 
This is a great thread.

I just love free-running the RUF yellow bird around the 'ring totally stock, S2 tires. Always very enjoyable, just to challenge myself. I like cars that have a distinct character in their handling - usually some flaws that can be learned so the car is still fast but a bit demanding and unpredictable initially... I find the newer RUFs too predictable and 'safe' in their ride...

The Ford GT40 fits the bill for being a bit flawed but fun in its handling too... very fast when learned.

Cars with beautifully composed, balanced handling (not ever under/over-steery) tend to leave me a bit cold because they are so easy to drive fast - BMW M3s, newer RUFs, most 4WD skylines, F1 cars etc. They just don't feel like you need to 'wrestle' them at all. I like to feel I am doing some 'work' to get this lump of metal around the track fast...

Also cars that can lose it easily over crests of hills etc are smiled upon for the challenge...

Sorry there's no settings but I generally just enjoy the flaws of certain cars instead of trying to 'perfect' the car. Getting stock cars around different tracks as quickly as they can is my game... because you need really different techniques for certain cars and tracks. If you iron out the flaws too much the cars all seem to try and fit your idea of the perfect composed race car and that makes it less interesting! (IMO:))
 
I'm kind of doing this, but not so extream as to write down settings. I'm testing out a brand new stock car for one lap around Nurburgring, then writing my opinion on the car and my laptime.
 
I'm one of the first to have GT4, but so far i'm only 50% through the game. Because after that halfway point, the races don't seem enjoyable as before. They feel long and tedious, and money is no longer as issue. I want to have to work hard to be able to afford that car I wanted, but money is so easy to come by it doesn't feel satisfying.

I've pretty much just moped around, buying a bunch of cars and driving them around and tuning them. I'll still race, but playing at this slow pace keeps the replay value up, instead of busting 100% in a few weeks.
 
Lotus 111R is my most fun car. Its just so nimble, and theres always that slight bit of oversteer to battle with!
 
I think this is a good idea but as James2097 says some cars are to easy to drive. Why don’t we pick “flawed” (aka more challenging) cars like the stratos, Peugeot 205 or Alpina. Those are great fun. I’m still to finish a lap in the ring with the stratos with two wheels on the track. The 205 is well balanced between fun and drivability.
 
My favorite is the Jensen Interceptor MkIII tuned to 400HP and chrome rims,love that car(Got the black & red)
 
Sure. I honestly just picked the 300zx randomly. Randomly picking a car and driving it has worked very well in the past for me. I have discovered many cars that are fun to drive, but I would never have driven them wihout me randomly picking it. So I though it could be fun for others and I to just randomly drive a car, talk about it, and move to another random car. It's all for fun, so I really have no requirments.
 
My best "rides for fun" are still the ones with a stock Alfa GTA '65 and a stock BMW 2002 Turbo '72.
 
This thread should give some really fun options for people to try out when they get bored with the easy racing etc... must try that Interceptor - didn't look like it had that much power! (All of a sudden more interesting...)

A lot of the old US muscle cars are interesting to drive, but they are all too similar in the way they are 'bad' at braking and cornering. The Buick Special (fully tuned, holy crap man!) is just insane and can somehow corner decently? Why is this?
 
I used to do this in GT3 all the time! Of course, this is pretty much a whole different game insofar as handling and car characteristics.

I think I'll do this in arcade mode so as not to waste my precious funds like I did yesterday. *see updated signature, you'll know where the money went*
 
James2097
I just love free-running the RUF yellow bird around the 'ring totally stock, S2 tires. Always very enjoyable, just to challenge myself. I like cars that have a distinct character in their handling - usually some flaws that can be learned so the car is still fast but a bit demanding and unpredictable initially...
Click to expand...
Yes, Yellow Bird, I love it! It's so fun at the Nurburgring. My game completion percentage is increasing quite slowly because I just love to take my favorite cars to Free Run at Nurb' and drive them to their limits. But that's the great thing in GT, it really doesn't mean that there's nothing left to do when you've achieved the 100% mark.

Here is a RL-video showing the RUF Yellow Bird at the Nurburgring:
RUF Yellow Bird -video
 
I'm doing this right now as well. I have 2 memory cards with GT4 data. On 1 card, I got ALL of the U.S, Japanese, Korean & austraillan cars. On the other, I got all of the European cars. I have every car in the game. All 700 +. Right now, I'm just hooking up the looks of the cars with Rims, Color, ect. Then I'm fully tunning all of them. Then I take a car to the family cup. Works for me 👍
 
I'm mostly done with the game already so i'm just testing different cars on various tracks. So far my fav track is the East Motogei(sp?) and Autumn Ring. I do about 5-15 laps per car and try to get the best times I can. I only run production cars but I fully mod them. The cars I always test are the RS4, M3, M5, Tommy Kaira, Skyline, RX-7, Speed 12, SLR, Z06 and the Viper. The RS4 is always the slowest of the bunch, the M5 does excellent for a familiy sedan, the Z06 is dissapointing and the Viper almost always is on top. All of them drive soo differently. My top Viper time is 1 minute 9 sec or so for the E. Motogei track. There is plenty of room for improvement of the time, I'm sure I can shave off another 2-3 seconds but then the game would be very tedious and I'm more interested in testing out the charcteristics of each car.
Am I missing out on any other fun cars? I still have trouble extracting max performance out of the mid or rear engine cars. The RUF's are a handful. One thing I love about the rear and mid engine cars is how they use thier rear weight bias, claw down and acclerate so strongly out of a turn. More practice = more fun.

Scott
 
that yellow bird vid looks like what it feels like to drive it in the game! Not exactly, but the feeling seems pretty right! Cool!
 
I just started doing this also,because like some of you said,I'm at the point where the races take so long and are either too boring or too stressful for me to enjoy all the time.

I just bought about 4-5 used cars that I ignored this time but have loved in the past or in real life(Galant VR-4,Miata 1.6,Integra and Civic Type-R,etc) and tuned them up to what I feel is perfection for them(around 250hp,better suspension,some wheels for looks,racing brakes) and took them around Motorland to tune them.I ended up doing time trials with each,and really seeing where the cars needed improvements.

One car I was surprised with was the R30 Skyline RS Turbo...I put a Stage 2 turbo on it along with some other mods for around 277hp,not maxed but enough.I also set the front springs to fully dropped,the rear to about half,and put 3.0 degrees of negative camber on the rear wheels...and it was pretty neutral and quick around the track! I put the rear camber back to 1.0 degree and dropped the rear springs,and it seemed less stable! It may be my driving style or something,but it was surprising how that setup worked on that car for me.

Another thing I love about just driving the cars is the sounds they make.I shut all music off,and find the best exhaust setup for the car and enjoy.
 
Nice to see I'm not alone. My completion percentage stalled out for this very reason. Picking random cars from my garage (total cars = 180. Cars actually driven = 46) and taking them for a spin around the Ring, though lately I've started doing Sarthe II instead. Nailing your foot to the floor (or finger to X button as it were) along Mulsanne is fantastic. Always fun to see just how, exactly, the car will handle under braking at the end.

I should really drive more of my cars.:)
 
I recommend all of you to buy and tune a Suzuki Cappuccino. 👍
Can't belive they built in so much fun in one little package!
 
Well I've just completed all the Professional races and I reckon I won't even look at the Extreme races (except Like the Wind maybe). I'm another drive-it-for-the-fun-of-it racer. I've been running all my production cars around Tsukuba, Autumn Mini, and Nurb' and only touch the fast cars for the photomode comps.

I've always found it funny that I'd rather drive an MX-5 with a supercharger than a LM racer - go figure!
 
It's interesting.... I feel the same way about the game after you get to a certain point, and I find myself doing the same as all of you...I'll let you know if I'm going to participate.
 
81.x% complete... but I've stalled any progression for playing around. The old Lotus Elan, tighter suspension, better exhaust and NO TC is a blast.
 
Same here. I am getting to the point where I am no longer in a hurry to complete the game. I know it is going to take me a long time so why not enjoy the ride along the way. I find it more fun now to try to beat the manufacture's races with a stock production car. Sometimes it takes me 1 try, sometimes 10, sometimes it takes all night just to progress 0.01% in the game! But it is worth it since I am actually learning how to handle and drive each car.
 
I"m only at like 16%, and I'm already taking it SLOW. I love the M3--its funny, but driving the M3 is kinda like playing super mario, or eating comfort food. You don't have to work at it, and you're rewarded for just breathing. I find it really relaxing, after wrestling with some of the other cars. But I like learning my RWD setups--Astons (especially the '99 Vantage or whatever year it is), Corvette, GTO, G35 and 350Z. I definitely prefer oversteer to understeer, and that goes for power on oversteer v/ understeer and/or braking oversteer v/ understeer (but not FF!). I used to love driving my C5R in GT3, but I don't have one yet in GT4. I'll probably buy one once I actually earn the money for it (as opposed to selling the raid rally car 4-6 times). I'm OK earning $$$ that way to do experiments and stuff, but as far as getting things I want that will help complete the game, I'd rather not take shortcuts.
 
Same with me.I have the game since 6 march,and i am just at 44.3 % and i am playing very often.I usually take one of my 140 favourite cars,and either free race it,or family cup it.I like buying a used special (as the 205t16) and tune it slightly just to put it into some races like hatchback cup,or special condition (citta di aria).Also i love racing some classic machines as the 2002ti,alpine 110,yellowbird,etc.I CANT see this game as medal of honor,at which u MUST complete the 100% or else it doesnt make sense..U can just be at 15%,wake up a sunday morning and do 10 laps at laguna seca with your well treated NSX-R,and then just close the ps2...
 
I had great fun doing my Le Mans car test. I was going to do a JGTC comparison, but two guys beat me to it. Still might do it, though, simply because I want to try every one of them.

I've started a "dream car" comparison already, and after that I'll compare the DTM cars.

After all that, I'll try things like Old Geezer does: See if I can win a race or series with an out-classed car.

There are tons of ways to have fun with this game.
 
Simple really.

If the driving wasn't fun, I wouldn't be doing it.

There's nothing quite like taking a car (doesnt matter what it is) and driving around the 'Ring or the Sarthe. No-one on the track, just me, the car, and the clock if I want it. :D
 
Yeah, CRF, that's about how I do it! I mean, I got to 93% in GT3 in like 7 months. GT5 is at least 3 years away. Gee, maybe I'd better slow down. I know where the cars I want are, and I'll get them sooner than later, but the rest of the stuff can wait. Its really nice to NOT be out to save the world. For me, GT4 has turned into a nice SUNDAY DRIVE!
 
James2097
I like cars that have a distinct character in their handling - usually some flaws that can be learned so the car is still fast but a bit demanding and unpredictable initially... I find the newer RUFs too predictable and 'safe' in their ride...

The Ford GT40 fits the bill for being a bit flawed but fun in its handling too... very fast when learned.

Cars with beautifully composed, balanced handling (not ever under/over-steery) tend to leave me a bit cold because they are so easy to drive fast - BMW M3s, newer RUFs, most 4WD skylines, F1 cars etc. They just don't feel like you need to 'wrestle' them at all. I like to feel I am doing some 'work' to get this lump of metal around the track fast...

Also cars that can lose it easily over crests of hills etc are smiled upon for the challenge...

Sorry there's no settings but I generally just enjoy the flaws of certain cars instead of trying to 'perfect' the car. Getting stock cars around different tracks as quickly as they can is my game... because you need really different techniques for certain cars and tracks. If you iron out the flaws too much the cars all seem to try and fit your idea of the perfect composed race car and that makes it less interesting! (IMO:))
Click to expand...

You took the words right out of my mouth. That is exactly how I feel. I've had the game since the release date and I only have about 11% completion on around Day 590 because I've been doing nothing but buying used car gems and taking them for spins around Tsukuba. Track meet is the best thing since sliced bread. I have about 60 cars and only about $4,000 so go figure.

If you want something thats challenging, try taking a stock Ginetta G4 around Tsukuba with Economy tires. 454kgs! (Just over 1000lbs) Good luck trying to keep that thing out the grass. To keep this post on-topic, I managed a time of 1'15.8xx with the Ginetta and Economy tires. Anyone is welcome to try their hand.
 
I think everyone gets to this point
my favorite thing is taking any of the road M3's, stock suspension and engine with oil change, fully lightened, upgrade the drivetrain components, brakes and throw on what ever tires you want and blast around the ring

hella fun
 
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