Gran Turismo Spec IV Thread: Autumn Ring, Sugo Circuit, and More

[Seikenfreak]

The spying machines put this in my youtube feed the other night. Watched it while going to bed. Super Taikyu should give people an idea of why GT is what it is and the sort of cars they've had in it since the beginning. It's a great production based racing series. Also plenty of the Best Motoring drivers in there.



Maybe it's just me but certain sections of Sugo remind me of Autumn Ring. Coincidence? I would say not.. perhaps Sugo inspired the Autumn Ring design way back when before they were doing licensed tracks? Laguna Seca was GT2 and only one I think? I'm sure people will say many corners are like other corners across various tracks, but from my memory playing it and watching the race(s), I think they have a great and similar flow. But they will probably look pretty different so don't freak out people.. "Omg they are adding two tracks that are basically the same thing!"

Sorry for the primitive quality. Paint is the only image editor I have on this PC 🤷‍♂️

It's amazing how quickly we all forget. Until GT Sport, ALL rooms were run totally without any auto stewarding. That's a mere nine years ago. A lifetime maybe for a young teenager, but it seems like yesterday to those of us that have been playing GT (and other racing games) for decades.

It might, given where driving standards have gone in Sport Mode, be very difficult to imagine this, but once upon a time we used to have a MASSIVE user lobby system that was run by hosts. Yes, there were organized leagues, but of course, you had to race at their schedule, in their car and track choices. But the 'casual' lobbies weren't all wreckfest demolition derbies. How was that achieved?

Firstly, you titled your room. Clean, no rules, stock, tuners, Shuffle, whatever. Secondly, back before the horror of Spirt Mode, the de facto standard for clean racing was the GT Planet Online Rules (GTP OLR). And even there, in casual rooms, a bunch of the more league focused rules were ignored.

But the primary contact rules were easy to understand, and revolved around SELF stewarding. The rules usually expected the driver to return position for passing with contact, cutting track, forcing another driver off, etc.. Not a timed ghost penalty. Return position. Easy to understand, easy to serve. Flagrant violators got kicked and the lobby system blocked their re-entry for 24 hours (if the lobby stayed open that long!).

There were rules that governed defense (no weaving, no moving in the braking zone, one defensive move only) that are completely ignored in sport Mode and quite honestly, completely break any degree of realism to the sport of racing! It's like a soccer game that allows players to pick up the ball and throw it in the net... It might be a video game, but it sure as heck ain't soccer!

The real tragedy is that there is a new generation of sim racers that can't even CONCEIVE that a community could police themselves in casual lobbies and provide years of good clean racing. I can only assure you that we did. And I feel sorry for those so lost in the current travesty they can't see themselves doing it again.

This sounds pretty great as someone who never played GT5 or 6 online except occasionally with my one other friend who played it and we'd just drive around and talk.

That being said: it seems like Lobby network performance is garbage compared to Sport mode from the handful of times I've tried it. Also done it with just my friend and I driving around for hours. I'm assuming Sport mode is on dedicated servers and Lobby is locally hosted and thus feels much harder to have close racing i.e. vehicle proximity and collision detection.

Second, I imagine the GTP community actively playing it online was small compared to Sport mode now (which is still small relatively speaking I think) and thus only the most dedicated players where self-stewarding is possible. Sport mode is likely any joe shmo looking to pick up a controller and play. Dip in and dip out other than the Driver Rank and Safety Rating. I'd hardly expect people to self-steward except in the highest rank tiers where you actively see regular competitors, get to know them per say, and also it may be broadcasted or whatever.

I will say I haven't really actively played Sport mode for awhile (I did actually do a couple races last weekend; went smoothly) and I don't think I ever really had a problem with the penalty system. But I also don't see how they could make a perfect system that always makes the "right" decision. People are often upset even with humans making the calls. It'd be cool if there was more to Sport mode. The current event system is kinda lame IMO. They should have like multiple active themed (early 90s Group A, 90s F1, Modern GT3, Vintage, Super Taikyu, etc) championships running simultaneously and each championship has a race per week at least. And maybe a championship runs for 8 events over 2 months and then resets with randomly selected tracks or track order. But then IMO they need a bunch more tracks to support that much racing. So many tracks in GT7 I have no interest in.

Anyway, big ramble. Could go on and on but it seems off topic and I need to make dinner.

 

[hawkeyez]

There's some correlation & association. I think I maybe influenced if not convinced Kaz to do some improvements, that many players here & other social media sites also wanted. There's not much on the specifics, I guess it is rather framework aspects + some type & sort kinda thing, aka similarity factors. I think I'm the only one in the world [gaming world] who believes this, and I'm fine {& fun} with it.

There’s a saying… “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile”

But since you’re on a roll, can you get them to finally bring a Ford Capri to the game?

 

[05XR8]

That's pretty much what PD should be referencing about GR.4.

Gr.4 is more Super Taikyu, than GT4 minus the GT3 and super mini(Fit, Demio) cars.
Exactly mixing the 4WD, RWD and FWD classes. Easy fix to award separate class wins and overall win.

The main thing with Gr.4, it's pretty much been Super Taikyu since GT Sport. I can't see the Groups being split into sub categories. So glad for Custom Races though.
It's just funny PD have made Gr.4/TCR FF only GT Sport Daily races. Yet, haven't bothered to utilise their own features anywhere else.

The WRX is essentially the S-Tai car.
View attachment 1295897

Along with the Evo.
View attachment 1295898

The main reason for the confusion was to even have Tom read that the class is equivalent to GT4. Should have just said equivalent to Super Endurance(Taikyu) racing or production race car series around the world.

Still drives me batty how PD made a pseudo Super Taikyu Crown. They know about the GreenBrave car and it’s such an awful tease. Just wish they’d have put the real car in the game.
View attachment 1409858
View attachment 1409859

Toyota Crown RS(ARS220) Super Taikyu ST-3 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave #52 2020

Engine: 8AR-FTS in-line 4-cylinder 2-liter direct injection turbo Power: TBD Weight: TBD Transmission: X-Trac 6-speed sequential Feature on why the Crown RS was chosen and more insight about the Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave team https://gazoo.com/feature/supertaikyu/20/12/29/

www.gtplanet.net

PD are have always been interested in Super Taikyu. Past games have had cars like the Spoon S2000, Super Endurance Skyline and Lancer racing modifications and the current Mazda Spirit Racing cars and those Mazdas with replica S-Tai liveries.

PD even made a Saitama Toyopet Green Brave inspired build using the Crown.

I've got pages upon pages relating Gran Turismo to Super Taikyu. When I got my second Best Motoring video after Drift Bible, (other than a couple Tamiya models)it's when I finally got to see the real life Super Endurance cars that I had been playing with in the game.

 

[Seikenfreak]

That's pretty much what PD should be referencing about GR.4.

I've got pages upon pages relating Gran Turismo to Super Taikyu. When I got my second Best Motoring video after Drift Bible, (other than a couple Tamiya models)it's when I finally got to see the real life Super Endurance cars that I had been playing with in the game.

Gr4 probably is the modern equivalent but something about it is different for me. Gr4 cars seem super stable, forgiving, and easy to drive to me. Lots of traction. I like that it's more production based but I still don't drive them that much. It feels like they've all been engineered, or in this cased BoP'd, and in turn removed any "character". Gr3 is about the same but faster. Less forgiving on curbs I suppose.

Super Taikyu cars, and all the older race cars even in game I guess, have that character to me. They feel like "tuned" street cars. So even if they just made Gr4 versions of older cars, I don't think it'd be the same. Now, if you just had a series that had players self-BoP the tuned road cars in the game.. That would be pretty cool. That goes back to the GTP community league conversation.

 

[05XR8]

Gr4 probably is the modern equivalent but something about it is different for me. Gr4 cars seem super stable, forgiving, and easy to drive to me. Lots of traction. I like that it's more production based but I still don't drive them that much. It feels like they've all been engineered, or in this cased BoP'd, and in turn removed any "character". Gr3 is about the same but faster. Less forgiving on curbs I suppose.

Super Taikyu, and all the older race cars I guess, have that character to me. They feel like "tuned" street cars. So even if they just made Gr4 versions of older cars, I don't think it'd be the same. Now, if you just had a series that had players self-BoP the tuned road cars in the game.. That would be pretty cool. That goes back to the GTP community league conversation.

The Mugen Civic might have that old school feel. It shouldn't be as glued to the tarmac like the higher downforce Gr.4 FF cars. Maybe closer to the Civic TC.

 

[Old_Setzer]

Who holds the license for the Tommy Kaira? I know that they were bought out a while back.

If I'm not wrong (Please correct me if I am), Autobacs bought Tommy Kaira in 2001. So I understand that the license is held by Autobacs.

 

[kjb]

If I'm not wrong (Please correct me if I am), Autobacs bought Tommy Kaira in 2001. So I understand that the license is held by Autobacs.

I thought it was Autobacs but I wasb't exactly sure. Thanks for that!

 

[ZZ-II]

I miss the Tommy Kaira ZZ-II 🥺

Absolutely, it was my favourite car in the past.

 

[LeMansLambo14]

If I'm not wrong (Please correct me if I am), Autobacs bought Tommy Kaira in 2001. So I understand that the license is held by Autobacs.

I believe this is still the case too. Last I heard they were planning some sort of revival as recent as 2022, with Tomita wanting to enter it into limited production again. Tommykaira on Wikipedia

It was also called the ASL RS01

 

[ScottPuss20]

I would totally lose it if the Tommy Kaira ZZ-II returns.

 

[LeMansLambo14]

I would totally lose it if the Tommy Kaira ZZ-II returns.

Same here, although it's a pretty obsolete car for PD to (A) notice and (B) restore to a premium model

Out of the cars they have had in the series in the past I would totally vouch for the Mazda Furai

 

[Ferraridriver27]

I haven't been much active on the forum lately, but catching the first glimpse of Autumn Ring brought back some great memories...
Hurling the 155 DTM through the chicanes in GT4, close battles in shuffle races in GT5 and floating around each corner like a raft during a tropical storm with the Leaf in the GT Academy preview of GT6 (maybe that one was not so great).

Looking at the trailer I noticed some things during the areal shot of the circuit:

1) The water feature between the chicanes section appears to still be there.

2) Gazebos, perhaps lining the side of the shortcut of the Mini layout.
3) Billboards and a small section of track.
4) The grandstand that lined the whole start-finish straight and the first corner, however here it is cut short, perhaps where the new layout (5) will branch off.

This is where it gets interesting:
After, what I suppose to be, the new layout going straight on from the old T1 there's a double righthander.
6) There appears to be a guardrail on top of the cliffside, so the track might continue here and snake into another section further beyond (8), where there's another gazebo (7).

Anyhow, I'll have a stroll down memory lane and get out the 155 DTM come December.

 

[Gt2344]

I mean the Stepwgn Is obviously going to be realised in their Japanese spec and yes you heard my the Hybrid thats like the crv and will be a slow tune that i shouldnt do

 

[Greycap]

Maybe it's just me but certain sections of Sugo remind me of Autumn Ring. Coincidence? I would say not.. perhaps Sugo inspired the Autumn Ring design way back when before they were doing licensed tracks?

More than likely, and it's not the only one of its kind.

What's a track with a double apex sweeper first corner, followed by rolling esses, then a hairpin and eventually a sweeper leading into a chicane before the main straight again? Many people will say Suzuka. I'd say Apricot Hill.

Or one with fast esses over a hill, a hairpin at the bottom of a hill, some changing direction 90-ish degree corners and blue metalwork? Yeah, that's Watkins Glen. Might be the original Grand Valley too.

A long left hander into a rolling slightly blind left-right-right-right-left section in a dense forest? Nürburgring, from the Karussell onwards. Or Deep Forest from the main straight, nowadays the first corner even has concrete added to the inside.

I doubt those are all coincidences. When licensing and the original PlayStation's limitations are taken into account it makes a lot of sense.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

I haven't really talked much in this thread, but outside of the cars and tracks. The features I'm oddly enough more interested in are the Car Concierge and of course finally having a car viewer. I hated the fact a Forza Vista like feature was restricted to PSVR2 for so long as I really don't want to buy that thing. I don't care for VR. So, it'll be nice to finally be able to have a close look at cars in my garage without the need for one of those headsets.

The Car Concierge interests me on finally having a better way to collect the used and legend cars instead of having to keep track of the dealerships all of the time. Granted, I have every car in the game now basically. But this will be great for when I decide to replay this game from the start in the future. Plus if I just want to buy a certain car in a different color, it would be cool if I can see the colors they come in. I technically have a way to do that now, but I want something more conventional than just saving stock liveries in GT Auto.

 

[Old_Setzer]

I know we don't know yet but, will be a difference between this new feature "View" and the free cam mode in the livery editor?

I mean, sure it'll be more easy and quick to use it but I'm curious to see if we'll can make something more than just move the cam around the car.

 

[05XR8]

Hopefully, players can use the feature like VR Showroom. Being able to sit in the cars and move around 360° and all ways those of us with the headset are able to move.

Not to pump the VR tyres, but though it still can't compete with VR(seriously, VR Showroom with a headset is too real), if players can use the same environments as VR and a few of the options like turning lights on and off and time multiplier, I think that'll be a start to keep players happy.

 

[mr_pepps]

This is incredibly controversial, but personally I'm v happy with being able to play the full Autumn Ring layout, plus a new expansion. I never really enjoyed the mini layout as much as the GT masses.
Whichever we end up with it's going to look stunning with GT7 rendering.
Cannot wait!

 

[forzaturismo]

I know we don't know yet but, will be a difference between this new feature "View" and the free cam mode in the livery editor?

I mean, sure it'll be more easy and quick to use it but I'm curious to see if we'll can make something more than just move the cam around the car.

I think it will be almost the same like the Livery editor, because in GT7, we cannot open Doors etc..... We can only "fly" above the Cars like a Bee 😁 🚗🛻🏎️🚓🚑🚕🐝

 

[Dave A]

This is incredibly controversial, but personally I'm v happy with being able to play the full Autumn Ring layout, plus a new expansion. I never really enjoyed the mini layout as much as the GT masses.
Whichever we end up with it's going to look stunning with GT7 rendering.
Cannot wait!

The Mini layout was a great foil for lesser powered cars. If you want to race slower cars you typically want appropriate circuits to race them on, the full tracks with really long straights and long, sweeping corners are typically designed to be raced at higher speeds. So, while I agree, the Mini layout in isolation is far less iconic than the full layout, it is still good to have some shorter tracks to give more variety for the right cars/races.

 

[mastretta_mx]

I think it will be almost the same like the Livery editor, because in GT7, we cannot open Doors etc..... We can only "fly" above the Cars like a Bee 😁 🚗🛻🏎️🚓🚑🚕🐝

I think the main differences will be that the game is going to use the highest LOD model with ray trancing( if is active) and the ability to choose among a wide variety of backgrounds

 

[IngWeltschmer]

More than likely, and it's not the only one of its kind.

What's a track with a double apex sweeper first corner, followed by rolling esses, then a hairpin and eventually a sweeper leading into a chicane before the main straight again? Many people will say Suzuka. I'd say Apricot Hill.

Or one with fast esses over a hill, a hairpin at the bottom of a hill, some changing direction 90-ish degree corners and blue metalwork? Yeah, that's Watkins Glen. Might be the original Grand Valley too.

A long left hander into a rolling slightly blind left-right-right-right-left section in a dense forest? Nürburgring, from the Karussell onwards. Or Deep Forest from the main straight, nowadays the first corner even has concrete added to the inside.

I doubt those are all coincidences. When licensing and the original PlayStation's limitations are taken into account it makes a lot of sense.

Imho you skipped the most obvious of them all: how do you call a track with a long straight followed by a right hander at slower speed, fast high curvature radius corners in the mid section and then long curve to get on the back straight? Here most would call it High Speed Ring, but...

(Although I just learnt today that Fuji's last turn was not banked, while the banked section that possibly inspired High Speed Ring is th old 1st sector that was closed down in 1974)

 

[hawkeyez]

The Mini layout was a great foil for lesser powered cars. If you want to race slower cars you typically want appropriate circuits to race them on, the full tracks with really long straights and long, sweeping corners are typically designed to be raced at higher speeds. So, while I agree, the Mini layout in isolation is far less iconic than the full layout, it is still good to have some shorter tracks to give more variety for the right cars/races.

Oh man autumn ring mini was such a good break the back end loose around those last few corners and incredible fun in the go karts. I can’t control the content but I will be disappointed if we don’t get that layout. It was soooo much fun. We actually don’t have too many small tracks for lesser powered cars. Eiger but the hills some have trouble getting up. Got the maggiore layouts but still, autumn ring mini was such a blast. We even used to run it in the AC Cobras just for those last few turns/chicane. Crazy drifts!

 

[hyperspeed980]

It took me a while to figure out how to write this, because there's just so much I could say about this update but I wouldn't know how to put it concisely.

Shuffles are ****ing BACK, baby! Without a doubt this is the most important part of this update, and arguably what GT7 was lacking more than anything before they were announced to be returning. Since launch this game has sorely needed an accessible, varied, and above all else FUN online mode to keep players coming back, because God knows the dailies aren't varied or fun 99% of the time, and online tuning lobbies require prior tuning knowledge combined with enough in-game money to build dozens of cars for different PP limits.

It just goes to show how important Shuffles were for GT's online ecosystem when you have dozens of old-school GT fans not just here on GTP, but all across social media who have returned after years of inactivity to voice their hype for this mode's comeback.

If PD get this right, it'll do more to revitalise the online community than just about anything else they could have done. There'll be no excuse not to jump in and try out some Shuffles, no matter who you are or what side of GT you prefer, and it'll absolutely cause you to fall in love with some cars you wouldn't have even thought about before giving them a spin. I've been participating in custom shuffle lobbies using Discord bots to select the PP range and tyre compound for years now, but the upfront cost of having to own every car you roll stopped a lot of people from trying it out. Now, though, the best racing that Gran Turismo has to offer will be free for absolutely everyone to try out. (Just as long as you have PS Plus. )

The two tracks they've chosen to add are also absolutely phenomenal picks, especially compared to the two tracks we got in Spec III which really didn't inspire much excitement or drastically change GT's ecosystem.

Sugo will naturally be a fantastic track for hotlapping and racing just about every tier of car, from Best Motoring-style road car showdowns to Super Taikyu to JGTC and Super Formula. Since it's located in Japan I do hope it'll be the first post-launch track to have rain, though I obviously have my doubts.

Autumn Ring on the other hand I absolutely could not have seen returning so soon, but my God I'm happy to see it back in an absolutely gorgeous level of detail. It's gonna be an absolute blast giving some lower-end cars a spin around the classic track, especially if Mini also returns alongside it. The addition of a brand new extended layout is also pretty curious, I'm hoping it'll be similar to Grid's Okutama circuit where the main circuit branches off into a winding path through the surrounding forest, instead of it being a more Sport-friendly layout. That being said, even if that is the case, I'm happy we get both instead of them butchering the original circuit to add overtake zones, like what happened to Deep Forest.

4 of the 6 cars we've seen so far are also absolute BANGERS. The 2CV and Stepwagon will be perfect for low-end tuning races, especially if we can swap out the Stepwagon's CVT (as it'll be the first CVT in the game that doesn't have any hybrid nonsense attached to it). Meanwhile the Motul Civic and E60 M5 are absolutely brilliant nostalgic picks. You can bet that Civic will be sublime for one-make racing, and I can't wait to hear the heavenly roar of the M5's V10.

Drift trials I absolutely could not have seen coming back, but it'll definitely be fun to see how PD handle those. I can see a lot of frustration brewing if the medals are based on percentage to the highest score instead of having preset scores.

As an overall package though I have to say this is easily the best Spec update this game has seen so far. The previous Specs obviously brought back some cars I absolutely adore (LFA, FTO, Espace F1), but almost all of the content they added was one-and-done. Shuffles alone elevate this one far beyond both of those, as an infinitely replayable form of content that is sure to bring back tons of memories and forge brand new ones too. And arguably the most exciting part? We still don't know the other 6 cars coming... 🔥🔥🔥

 

[Greycap]

Imho you skipped the most obvious of them all: how do you call a track with a long straight followed by a right hander at slower speed, fast high curvature radius corners in the mid section and then long curve to get on the back straight? Here most would call it High Speed Ring, but...

Nah, that was a conscious choice. Everyone can see that with their forehead but the rest are a bit more shuffled around in a "cut to pieces and rearranged" fashion.

Speaking of Apricot Hill, as much as I'd like to see it return and it was even featured in the flashes before GT7 release that also included Deep Forest, unfortunately I don't think it'll happen. For reasons unknown they decided to make another scrambled Suzuka for GT Sport in the form of Kyoto instead of resurrecting it.

 

[Nakano219]

Nah, that was a conscious choice. Everyone can see that with their forehead but the rest are a bit more shuffled around in a "cut to pieces and rearranged" fashion.

Speaking of Apricot Hill, as much as I'd like to see it return and it was even featured in the flashes before GT7 release that also included Deep Forest, unfortunately I don't think it'll happen. For reasons unknown they decided to make another scrambled Suzuka for GT Sport in the form of Kyoto instead of resurrecting it.

I think Apricot Hill (and Mid-Field) are more likely to get the Grand Valley treatment if/when they ever come back.

Deep Forest, Trial Mountain, Eiger Nordwand, now Autumn Ring, even High Speed Ring to a certain extent - all of these had very unique scenery and art direction that is unlike anything else in the roster, so their core concept has survived more or less unscathed, they provide the visual variety that only a good fictional track can add.

Whereas Apricot/Mid-Field/GVS have always been more overtly "here is a standard-looking race track like you'd see in real racing series, just with a fictional layout", which is something you need less out of your fictional tracks when you now have 20 licensed ones doing the same job, so I could see them being candidates for a bigger re-styling.

 

[05XR8]

Just saw this.

I know we just got two Toyotas, but since PD are pulling the 30th Anniversary card early, wonder if we'll see special factory custom Toyotas in the next update.

 

[happycorey]

Only likely vehicle imo would be the GR GT duo honestly.

 

[SoulSilvera]

...especially if we can swap out the Stepwagon's CVT (as it'll be the first CVT in the game that doesn't have any hybrid nonsense attached to it)

The RAV4 we have in GT7 has a CVT as well, and that is a great car that's fortunate to not be bogged down by a stupid hybrid system (my poor C-HR... ).

From everything I've seen, the Stepwgn should have a Manual mode like the RAV4, so I have high hopes for it

 

[Gt2344]

Just saw this.
View attachment 1565060

I know we just got two Toyotas, but since PD are pulling the 30th Anniversary card early, wonder if we'll see special factory custom Toyotas in the next update.

oh please not a bouncing Yaris/Echo