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GRUMPY BRITISH RACING CLUB
INTRODUCTION
Let me first introduce ourselves. We are GBRC - Grumpy British Racing Club.
Like many GT5 communities, GBRC was first established right here on GTP back in Late 2010 just after the launch of Gran Turismo 5. GBRC was the brainchild of GTP member Lunchbox and was initially set up to cater for mature GT5 racers based out of the UK, guys who were looking for a mature community for clean and competitive racing.
3 years have now past, lots has changed. Still GBRC is a community primarily of racers based out of the UK, though we also have and welcome many racers from other parts of the world, as If you can make our scheduled race dates and share a passion for clean and fair racing you are more than welcome to be part of a very established and experienced group of racers.
We have a very solid core of experienced racers that have raced together now for 3 years and have taken part in thousands of casual online races and more than 200 official club event races. In our heyday we had more than 100 active racers but like many groups, we have contracted as many have moved on to different games or grown tired of Gran Turismo 5.
Like with any new release, GT6 will bring a wave of new enthusiasm, with many new racers being introduced to the franchise, as well as familiar faces returning. Now is a great time for you to join a successful Gran Turismo Racing Club.
Gran Turismo 6 will have a great emphasis on the community and will likely be a huge leap over what GT5 offered. Establishing a Club will be possible as well as creating real online events/championships all within the Gran Turismo World. This new community focus of Gran Turismo 6, now likely with robust online tools will see a huge jump in Gran Turismo club creation. It will be more important than ever for those wanting clean competitive racing search out a reliable, friendly and clean group of racers for their online racing kicks.
For GT6, being a member of a Gran Turismo club will become much more important for those wishing to race online enjoyably. Now it will become easier for those wishing to organize and grow a community/club, as GT6 will provide club leaders with more tools to create and manage their communities and events, which will mean less work and effort for those who organize and those who take part, and less of a reliance on Forums to manage all club affairs. Joining the right community will be the difference between enjoying GT6 online or not. Those clubs that offer the best experience for their members will be the clubs that prosper, and the clubs that the aspiring racer want to be a part of. To be a member of a successful GT6 club, you as a racer will need to tick all of the right boxes, as I can envisage trials and the like, memberships that are invite only, so raising your game and knowing the right people will be very important during the course of GT6's life span.
At GBRC we have allot of experience gained over the past 3 years. We structure our events and series a little differently to most, choosing to schedule our events over a competitive 16 week season. GBRC events always occur on Sunday's and Thursdays at 8pm BST/GMT. There are normally 5-6 events that span the 16 week season. Our 16 week season is announced 1 month before it's start, with an announcement showing all event specifics and dates. All members are required submit a qualifying time. The qualifier is also announced 1 month prior to any season start and members have as many attempts to better there time. This TT qualifier is used to determine the division you race out of should events span multiple divisions and is designed to ensure competative racing across many levels.
We also like to keep a record of race results ans stats from all seasons, this is a great way to compare your success with those of your competitors. Our race stats (GBRC Stats) are compiled of all race results from all members over the past 3 years spanning all seasons.
GBRC Stats as of Q3 season
(Now on Q4)
(Now on Q4)
We also have created some very successful racing car classes that cater for all levels. These car classes have been continually revised over the 3 years and are often used for events. The classes are split into 2, Clubman Class cars made up of road cars, and one make car classes made up of mainly race cars and some stock road cars. As a member you will have an intimate relationship with your favored cars from each class and will use them when you also race casually and in events.
We try our best to run a very organised and structured club, this can be daunting for new members but once settled in it all makes sense.
We also run all of our races and testing out of some dedicated private lounges. These lounges have been created to make it more simple to meet and race with your fellow club members.. (more info om our lounges later)
Who we are looking for
Racing Etiquette
To run a successful community where racing competitively and cleanly is the main crux, it is vitally important that all members share the same view on racing competitively and share the same ideals of race craft. An imbalance of ideals or simply put, couple of bad apples in a group can spoil it for the rest, causing unwelcome issues and squabbles between members that we would all rather do without. Many that take part in competitive online racing will put allot of time into practice prior to an event so the thought of being punted off on the first corner, ruining a race can be quite traumatic for those unfortunate. Clean racing among GTP communities is a hot topic with a disparity among the standard of etiquette between competitors is a hard task to approach and manage. Many event/club organizers will sympathize at how difficult it is ensuring that all that take part in their events are reading from the same book of race craft.
Being a clean racer is very subjective. Many like to call themselves "clean" but from my experience this claim is rarely lived up to by many in most cases. Allot of GT5 racers who think themselves as clean often judge their cleanliness based upon a different standard, often a standard that they have become accustom to, perhaps established from regular racing with in public lounges or from a few they may race with and loosely know, where racing is carried out in a certain way. Most are as clean as those they choose to race with, so sometimes you can understand why people race the way they do, and perhaps they would race cleaner if racing with a more respectful group.
Like I said, the matter of clean is very subjective, and it depends on who and where you race with and at what level. A clean public room in most cases will never come close to a clean private room where all racers likely know each other and one another's driving styles intimately. Even looking back at old replays from several years ago of my own races, I am shocked at how bad and inconsiderate my driving was, and yet back then I thought I was clean.
I can't say that GBRC are the cleanest bunch on the internet, as I am sure there are many talented and respectful racers and communities out there but most importantly we at GBRC strive to race correctly and with respect at all times for the fellow racer. Our core members have raced together for 3 years, so there is a great respect given to fellow members. Our culture is clean at all costs rather than win at all costs and it approach has served us very well over the years. We often have races where there is zero contact, but when mistakes or poor driving does occur from time to time we have vigorous systems in place that penalize any driver deemed to race inappropriately. Our biggest problem has been introducing new members who take a little while to adjust their driving styles and race craft as often many of these guys come from clean public lounges where the driving etiquette can still be a little dog eat dog and rough around the edges compared to what we are used to. Some really rise to the occasion and improve while others sulk and move on after their racing is brought into question. Of course some new members have taught the old dogs a lesson or 2 about how to race as even our cleanest have room for improvement . Every race and scenario is a learning curve for everyone, and that's how we like it to be..
We are not perfect, and are all still learning despite 3 years racing together. The key for us is that we have raced together for 3 years and all know each other by 1st name, so this is a massive advantage over guys fresh from public lobby racing. Our familiarity with each other is what has contributed to our racing being of a high standard.
We are looking for guys that want to race without fear of being bumped off the track at the first corner. If your attitude to racing is right then you are who we are looking for but the right attitude to racing is the most important, as skills mean nothing if you are not conscientious towards your fellow racer. And that is what we look for.
Despite many a conversation about etiquette and race craft, I have concluded that being a clean racer is not as complicated as it is made out to be. Of course you need a degree of machine control as without being able to control your vehicle, the best intentions will not save you from an incident. So machine control is must which I guess if you are still playing GT5 that is something you should have mastered by now. The next most important things to being clean is being conscientious, self aware and understanding cause and effect. If you have a good grasp of the prior and a desire to constantly improve then that is the kind of racer we are looking for. Of course you have to be a nice chap, and a good sense of humor will go along way.
We do not profess to be the best but we are always trying to surpass and challenge ourselves with our ideals of racing etiquette. After all a respectful racing environment is an enjoyable place to be and race out of, and it benefits all that take part in events and only encourages more to get involved and stick around.
Event Participation
It is really important if you race with a community/club to be as reliable as possible. There is nothing worse than a championship starting out with a full grid for the first race, only for numbers taking part to diminish race after race. This kind of thing has a snowball effect, the more that fail to take part in a race they have committed to, only encourages others who loose enthusiasm for an event due to poor numbers. Event participation and reliability is something that I have pushed strongly over the 3 past years and thankfully as a community our members are among the more reliable but this reliability has not come easy. There are many reasons behind this but most importantly our core members understand the important of being reliable, as failing to make races you have committed has a negative effect on your club. We all want to race with like minded people, but poor event reliability is one way to erode away and hurt your community.
We all understand that we all have lives and have to live, sometimes life throws up distractions whether it be work or family. We all agree that our work and family come first over any game. We are not all able to commit to all the races we put our names down for but what we expect from our members is honesty and little for thought before signing up to a series and putting your name down. A series over 5-6 weeks by nature requires a level commitment.
Also, our Admins do take allot of time out of their busy schedules to organize events for the enjoyment of all members. It is common courtesy to acknowledge this and to be as reliable as possible. Admins do not get paid to manage and organize a professional and enjoyable racing experience for you.
So yes, we expect our members to have an appreciation for the above and to be as reliable as possible. Not all of our events span weeks, so if you are a more pick up and play when you can type, there is casual racing to be had also. If you like to race set dates and plan your evening around a good night of racing, then we are the guys for you and you will fit right in.
How To Get Involved
We have almost finished our current season (Q4) and have one more event to run which starts in a little while. It's one of our more prestigious events that has been run every season for the past 3 years. Its called KOTR (king of The Ring) which is self explanatory :-)
This season will be our last with the venerable GT5. We have had so many memorable races, many I look back on in awe and with a smile on my face. I am sure those of you that race in a club will know what I am talking about, great racing with people you can call friends is hard to find. Unfortunately for me I have not raced with my group so much recently as I am now currently In Australia so the time difference sucks a little.
If you want to get involved now is the time to join, get to know our members, take part in some casual racing and see if we are the group for you. From now until GT6, it will be a little quiet but once GT6 is released we will all familiarize ourselves with the new physics and new online features what ever they may be. Once we are comfortable with the possibilities as there are still many unknowns, GBRC Admin will announce the qualifier and work towards our new 16 week Q5 season.
We hope to see many new faces as well as a return from some old and look forward to some quality and competitive racing.
Like I said, we race out of a collection of Private Lounges. This is a concept we have used for some time now which is very simple and makes meeting with your fellow team mates easy, and means that you do not have to send FR to all GBRC members to actually race with them. To race with GBRC all you need to do is send Friend requests to these PSN Accounts. Befriending each PSN Account will gain you access to that Private Lounge of that account.
The PSN accounts which we name GBRC Lounges are not real people, but are PSN accounts that are managed by GBRC Admin. GBRC Admin will manage the Friend Request and as I said all racing takes part out of these Lounges, whether Casual or Official events.
It is important to understand that these PSN Accounts will never be online but access to the lounges of these PSN accounts is always possible.
GBRC ACCOUNTS/LOUNGES
GBRC_Casual
GBRC_TestNtune
GBRC_Lobby_1
GBRC_lobby_2
GBRC_Lobby_3
GBRC_TestNtune
GBRC_Lobby_1
GBRC_lobby_2
GBRC_Lobby_3
GBRC were the first club to adopt this simple Private Lounges set up. I came up with the idea not long after the release of GT5 and spread the word across GTP. The success of these lounges has been limited as many have failed to realize the potential but at least for GBRC they have proven a huge success and made organizing and introducing new members a whole lot easier then other methods.
Specific PSN accounts, created for the purpose of hosting Casual and Official races, makes for meeting up with your club members, as well as integrating new members into your club a hell of a lot easier. There is no necessity for all of your members to add each other as friends, just the club specific PSN Accounts.
All casual racing, testing and official GBRC events for any season will take place in GBRC's dedicated lounges. It is mandatory that all GBRC members send FR to all GBRC lounges.
All GBRC members will need to be added as friends to the lounges so that you can gain access to lounge to race.
PLEASE NOTE:
The GBRC Lounges will never be online. As the lounges are not online, they will not appear online via GT5's community tab and you will not see the yellow dot besides the coffee cup that normally indicates that the lounge is occupied. Despite this always click on the coffee cup of the specific lounge as there will likely be fellow GBRC club members inside. We often have guys in the lounges racing most evenings, in particular GBRC testNtune and GBRC_Casual If you are confused how these lounges work or have any questions please ask.
Each Lounge has a function
GBRC_Casual
For casual racing, anything goes, majority vote or whoever is first in and hosting the lounge
GBRC_TestNtune
For those that do not want to race, but rather test for an upcoming event, or to determine a class of car through testing.
GBRC_Lobby_1
GBRC_Lobby_2
GBRC_Lobby_3
Above Lounges would be used for official events, most races would take place in Lobby 1, but for popular or Divisional events where Lobbies are split, each lobby would correspond with how the event has been split. These lobbies can also be used for casual racing when GBRC casual is full or if some members want to race something else other then what is being raced in GBRC_Casual.GBRC_Lobby_2
GBRC_Lobby_3
Say you want to head to GBRC_Casual... once it's FR has been accepted, click on the GT5 homepage 'Community' tab, then click on GBRC_Casual, then click on the coffee cup and join lounge.
In between events you will normally find members racing casually in GBRC_Casual and perhaps testing for events in GBRC_TestNtune. Lounges normally occupied from 17:00pm GMT onward. DO not be afraid to be the first person in a Lounge, if you are seen there others will follow you in.
Finally
After you have sent friend request to the GBRC account please subscribe to this thread and lookout for dates as I will arrange night of casual racing so new members can get acquainted with GBRC's existing members.
Also you must acquire some GBRC Clubman Class cars and tune them to specification. For now you are required to purchase cars from 3 GBRC Clubman car classes. The variety from each class is huge and all are very competitive. Please by all means purchase many cars from each Clubman Class and test the ones you enjoy most.
We will use these cars from our slower classes during casual nights racing, starting out in the Class K Clubman class of car. Racing in slower cars really helps build race craft, which is especially important when meeting and racing with new people. As new members familiarize themselves with each other, we can up the pace and introduce faster car classes like Class C and B. We also race with low powered stock once make cars like minis etc.
At a later date I will introduce you all to Class A, D and S but this will not be for sometime.
Below are the 3 Clubman Car classes, please purchase cars fitting the class specifications
All cars are allowed to be tuned to the max providing they fit the specifications of each class. Ideally we encourage members not to limit/detune engines to fit spec, but rather tune them to the max level allowed for each class.
Class K
Power Weight
107bhp 700kg
Class K is an entry level class, and like all GBRC Clubman Classes is designed to cultivate the skills necessary for very close racing with a variety of competitive cars. Class K is ideally suited to any racer, from novice to experienced, who wish to hone and develop solid race-craft, allowing for extremely close racing but without the steep and often harsh learning curve demanded from a faster and more powerful class of car.
Class K like all GBRC Clubman Classes have power and weight limit restrictions, as well as restrictions based upon the base car you start with.
Any Car can be used that fits the below unless the cars has been banned from the class.
Class K cars, as stock, must weigh more than 700kg
K Class cars, as stock, must have less than 107bhp
Recommended tyres: Comfort Soft
All Drivetrain types are allowed in Class K
Rear wing aero modifications are banned
Class K cars, as stock, must weigh more than 700kg
K Class cars, as stock, must have less than 107bhp
Recommended tyres: Comfort Soft
All Drivetrain types are allowed in Class K
Rear wing aero modifications are banned
Tyre choice For Class K is Comfort Soft. Any aero that effects the PP of the car is banned in Class K.
There is huge diversity of choice within Class K. All drive-train types (with the exception of 4WD) are well represented. Class K cars have their strengths and weaknesses, depending on the track type and layout. It's surprising how fun an eco box can be; but saying that, within K Class there are some nice little quirky classics that make for an entertaining drive.
Class C
Power Weight
177bhp 900kg
Class C was formed to utilise cars we see every day on the road, ranging from the Mazda MX-5 to the Nissan March, and like all GBRC Clubman Classes is designed to cultivate the skills necessary for very close racing, with a variety of competitive cars. This class allows for extremely close racing with greater power than Class K, and for racers to improve their racecraft and car control when racing in a close pack. Class C is ideal for novice drivers and pros to improve their skills with a mix of drivetrains - theres something for all driver levels within power levels. Class C cars are generally easy going on their tyres, reducing the effect of tyre degradation, and thus not impeding easier cars to drive like the FFs during longer races.
Class C like all GBRC Clubman classes have power and weight limit restrictions, as well as restrictions based upon the base car you start with.
Any Car can be used that fits the below unless the cars has been banned from the class.
C Class Cars, as stock, must weigh more than 900kg
C Class Cars, as stock, must have less than 177bhp
Recommended tyres: Sports Hard
All Drivetrain types except MR are allowed in Class C
Rear wing aero modifications are banned
Class B
Power Weight266bhp 1100kg
Class B is the mid level in the Clubman range, with a good balance of power and weight, making it extremely popular in casual racing. These cars require a moderate-to-high level of driving skill, and while variety of cars is huge, drivers are encouraged to choose their cars carefully. For longer races, picking a car which is easier to drive may be preferable to one with greater outright performance, but greater difficulty. Nevertheless, Honda Integras may be seen in close combat with Nissan Silvias and VW Golf R32s.
Class B, like all GBRC Clubman Classes, have power and weight limit restrictions, as well as restrictions based upon the base car you start with.
Any Car can be used that fits the below unless the cars has been banned from the class.
Class B cars, as stock, must weigh more than 1100kg
Class B cars, as stock, must have less than 266bhp
Recommended tyres: Sports Medium
All Drivetrain types are allowed in Class B
Rear wing aero modifications are banned
Banned cars: Toyota 86 GT; Mazda RX-8
Class B cars, as stock, must weigh more than 1100kg
Class B cars, as stock, must have less than 266bhp
Recommended tyres: Sports Medium
All Drivetrain types are allowed in Class B
Rear wing aero modifications are banned
Banned cars: Toyota 86 GT; Mazda RX-8
There is huge diversity of choice within Class B, FF, FR, MR and 4WD are well represented as well as even RR. Class B cars have their strengths and weaknesses, depending on the track type and layout. The FR cars lend themselves to the more experienced drivers, and FF for the novice as it allows a much more stable platform to race closely, but there is fun to be had in any type you may choose.
OK...
Before you put your name down, please self reflect, we want active members, guys that will regularly take part in casual and official events, and more importantly members who hold racing cleanly and fairly in high regard. We will not tolerate rammers or members who hold little regard and consideration towards to enjoyment of others. New member that show little respect or willing to improve will be given ample warning, chances and encouragement but in the end GBRC Admin reserve the right to delete members from the GBRC accounts, thus terminating access to our private lounges.
If you are new to online racing, please do not be put off, as long as you have the right attitude and willingness to learn you will be warmly welcome.
OK See you all soon and keep an eye on this thread for further updates
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