Gran Turismo World Series discussion (2026 Manufacturers Cup Exhibition 2: Aug 22 - Sep 12)

[Moose78]

Is it worth changing tires on the mandatory pitstop? I did some tests in the Honda NSX Gr.3 and Genesis X GR3 to find out.

In short, yes, changing tires was faster in both cars, but the difference was smaller than I expected for the NSX.

I did full 15-lap tests in custom races using C02 late morning weather settings. I pitted at the end of lap 7 in all my tests, changing my tires, or not, depending on which strategy I was testing. Since the first 7 laps are effectively identical strategy-wise, I used the best times from across both strategies for those laps. That way, all the differences we see in the times are in the second stint.

Summary:

Mnufacturer	Model	Strategy	Laps	Opt time	Best time	Avg Time	Total time
Genesis	Genesis X GR3	Tire Change	15	2:04.862	2:05.347	2:07.152	31:47.273
Genesis	Genesis X GR3	No Change	15	2:05.639	2:05.429	2:07.759	31:56.380
Honda	NSX Gr.3	Tire Change	15	2:06.457	2:07.004	2:08.941	32:14.120
Honda	NSX Gr.3	No Change	15	2:07.018	2:07.352	2:09.148	32:17.218

Lap times:

Spoiler: Lap times - raw data

Lap	NSX Tire Change	Genesis X Tire Change	NSX No Change	Genesis X No Change
1	2:09.074	2:07.159	2:09.074	2:07.159
2	2:07.687	2:06.005	2:07.687	2:06.005
3	2:07.352	2:05.429	2:07.352	2:05.429
4	2:08.034	2:06.068	2:08.034	2:06.068
5	2:08.162	2:06.243	2:08.162	2:06.243
6	2:08.084	2:06.122	2:08.084	2:06.122
7	2:22.573	2:20.697	2:22.573	2:20.697
8	2:10.167	2:08.551	2:09.384	2:07.334
9	2:07.222	2:06.220	2:07.989	2:06.629
10	2:08.529	2:05.923	2:08.538	2:06.792
11	2:07.904	2:05.347	2:08.454	2:07.065
12	2:07.004	2:05.486	2:07.904	2:07.501
13	2:07.058	2:06.022	2:08.459	2:07.174
14	2:08.106	2:06.036	2:07.379	2:08.033
15	2:07.164	2:05.965	2:08.145	2:08.129

Tire tread levels at pit:

Manufacturer	Model	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
Genesis	Genesis X GR3	70%	65%	80%	75%
Honda	NSX Gr.3	80%	75%	75%	70%

Tread levels at finish:

Manufacturer	Model	Strategy	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
Genesis	Genesis X GR3	Tire Change	70%	60%	75%	70%
Genesis	Genesis X GR3	No Change	30%	15%	40%	35%
Honda	NSX Gr.3	Tire Change	75%	70%	70%	65%
Honda	NSX Gr.3	No Change	45%	30%	35%	25%

In the Genesis, it is clearly faster to change tires. I was really struggling to get the car stopped and around the corners as those front tires wore out toward the end of the race.

The NSX is much closer. I didn't feel the tire wear nearly as much. The effects of the worn tires seemed to be offset by the reduced fuel weight. Depending on how I qualify on Saturday -- which I can't expect will be very well given that I'm roughly 2 seconds per lap slower than the Genesis -- I might consider diving into the pits on lap 1 to get some clean air and reduce the risk getting into incidents with other cars.

 

[VillaJ100]

That BoP gap vs the Genesis is wild, how are others supposed to compete!

 

[dazdilly75]

That BoP gap vs the Genesis is wild, how are others supposed to compete!

We're not. That's why Hyundai must have given PD an almighty bag to make their cars absolutely ridiculous. I'm getting trounced in my Renault, and the fact Mount Panorama is a High Speed BOP track, only compounds the issue. The only thing I can hope for is that there aren't a lot of Hyundai drivers in my split.

Also, just when you think the Porsche 922 finally got nerfed, the 2017 911 RSR makes an almighty comeback. I managed a 2:03.991 in free practice making me (provisionally) the fastest Renault driver in the world. They must have all got disheartened and given up at this point. PD need to fix this because it's a much bigger issue than the new physics/tyre wear model. 😭😭😭

 

[FlapJackFlash]

Agree, I can not be competitive in the NSX here at all. Was thinking an early pit might be a nice strategy to get clear laps as the only thing it has going for it is minimal tyre wear, but have a feeling I will be the traffic more than I will be held up by traffic. Then again, I didn't pick Honda to be competitive but wasn't expecting it to be this slow!

 

[dazdilly75]

Agree, I can not be competitive in the NSX here at all. Was thinking an early pit might be a nice strategy to get clear laps as the only thing it has going for it is minimal tyre wear, but have a feeling I will be the traffic more than I will be held up by traffic. Then again, I didn't pick Honda to be competitive but wasn't expecting it to be this slow!

What is even more tragic, is that the top split guys just automatically run to the meta for fear of not being competitive. It completely takes the fun out of picking a different manufacturer, when the meta is almost in a class of its own. Then everybody follows what they do, and you just have Hyundai' dominating every single round. PD really need to show more integrity in how they balance their BOP system because pay to win (on a corporate level) isn't the way forward, in my opinion.

 

[Met Entso]

It's our choice to participate or not in this charade.

 

[Fezzik]

There have always been metas, sometimes sponsors, sometimes not. I don't care, I just do this for fun and mostly race the slow crappy cars.

 

[Moose78]

For all you Honda drivers out there...

I wasn't happy with my performance on the NSX tire-change strategy so I did a second round in that car. Now it is showing ~8-second difference between the two strategies, which in my mind renders the no-change strategy unusable.

Here are the updated numbers:

Manufacturer	Model	Strategy	Laps	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Genesis	Genesis X GR3	Tire Change	15	2:04.862	2:05.347	2:07.152	31:47.273
Genesis	Genesis X GR3	No Change	15	2:05.639	2:05.429	2:07.759	31:56.380
Honda	NSX Gr.3	Tire Change	15	2:06.079	2:06.319	2:08.561	32:08.421
Honda	NSX Gr.3	No Change	15	2:07.018	2:07.331	2:09.072	32:16.075

Lap times:

Spoiler: Lap times - raw data

Lap	NSX Tire Change	Genesis X Tire Change	NSX No Change	Genesis X No Change
1	2:08.968	2:07.159	2:08.968	2:07.159
2	2:07.687	2:06.005	2:07.687	2:06.005
3	2:07.352	2:05.429	2:07.352	2:05.429
4	2:07.331	2:06.068	2:07.331	2:06.068
5	2:08.162	2:06.243	2:08.162	2:06.243
6	2:07.750	2:06.122	2:07.750	2:06.122
7	2:22.573	2:20.697	2:22.573	2:20.697
8	2:10.167	2:08.551	2:09.384	2:07.334
9	2:07.222	2:06.220	2:07.989	2:06.629
10	2:07.433	2:05.923	2:08.538	2:06.792
11	2:07.022	2:05.347	2:08.454	2:07.065
12	2:06.986	2:05.486	2:07.904	2:07.501
13	2:06.968	2:06.022	2:08.459	2:07.174
14	2:06.481	2:06.036	2:07.379	2:08.033
15	2:06.319	2:05.965	2:08.145	2:08.129

No changes to the tire tread levels. See my earlier post above for those.

 

[AEther]

Bathurst has always tried my nerves with so many opportunities for minor mistakes turning into ruined laps. A minor mistake here always means a love tap with the wall. The resulting splitter damage takes the whole lap to repair under championship limits.

I expected the Alfa’s maneuverability to be an asset here. But what the corners giveth when I can avoid a screw up, the mountain climb and straights taketh away from the poor wheezy turbo 4.

2:07.7 is the best I could squeeze out of it with an optimal of 2:07.3. It’s going to be a long tough race.

 

[Moose78]

The resulting splitter damage takes the whole lap to repair under championship limits.

Yeah. This 'championship' mode damage is brutal. Can easily add a couple seconds to a lap here.

The interesting thing about the championship damage is that the bumper damage, at least, seems to be location based. It self-heals when you reach the point where it was incurred. I wonder what it does on longer circuits like Nurburgring and Le Mans. I'd hate to carry damage around for a full lap there. Has anybody tried this week's Race C at Le Mans? Does it use championship damage mode? How long does bumper damage last?

As always, good luck to everybody racing tomorrow!

 

[Freeman_Cruz]

Upss

 

[Blade_Rudder]

The interesting thing about the championship damage is that the bumper damage, at least, seems to be location based. It self-heals when you reach the point where it was incurred. I wonder what it does on longer circuits like Nurburgring and Le Mans. I'd hate to carry damage around for a full lap there. Has anybody tried this week's Race C at Le Mans? Does it use championship damage mode?

I haven’t raced it, but have just checked race details and mechanical damage is set to ‘Light’.

Edit:
I tested some custom races with championship damage at Nordschleife and Le Mans. I dinked the bumper at the start and the damage lasted for just over 1 minute 40 seconds at both circuits.

 

[Moose78]

I tested some custom races with championship damage at Nordschleife and Le Mans. I dinked the bumper at the start and the damage lasted for just over 1 minute 40 seconds at both circuits.

Interesting. Well now I'm starting to doubt myself. Maybe it is 1m40s everywhere and it just seemed like it was lasting a full lap. However long it is, it is too long.

 

[dazdilly75]

Interesting. Well now I'm starting to doubt myself. Maybe it is 1m40s everywhere and it just seemed like it was lasting a full lap. However long it is, it is too long.

I think it's around 90 sec. I Tested Championship damage at Bathhurst, and if I teetered around on a damaged outlap, it would recover after about 90 sec. So I do think it's time specific.

 

[BBerlingo]

These curbs are so brutal. Kinda need to touch them for rotation, but they can hook and spin you so fast, at least in my Jag. 4 min quali means only 1 lap, hard to find a balance with risk vs speed.

I think the race will be easier than the quali, keeping it safe and clean. Letting the impatient ones go.

 

[Skidude88]

Fanatec hotfix in place, Fingers (& wheel) crossed!

1st adventure in the A league.

205 lobby.

1st out the gate (soooo nice!), but did a poor lap despite the clean track. There's a load of scaffolding end of S/F straight to T1. After 15laps, I still couldn't re adjust for braking point reference.

Did a 05.3, disappointed not sub 05. Got me Q4 .8 off pole. Top 5 covered by 1.2secs

Clean race.

Lap 5 , porky infront went on an excursion exiting The Chase

Ran P3 until tyre stop. Pitted end of L8 and got undercut, drafted on pit exit down Mointain straight. No point fighting. Took it easy behind for a couple of laps, then backed off for an easier life and points as there was no sign of P5 in mirrors

Finished where I started, 10 secs behind the winner and 8sec ahead of P5

185 cup points and 733 Dr

 

[FlapJackFlash]

GT2 EMEA 2nd slot B lobby 132 up for grabs, Door 14

Qualifying you only get 1 flying lap so use it wisely. I decided to ignore that advice and caught a few walls (one on the hairpin before the big straight) so put in a 2.08.952 for 12th on the grid.

Come the race I start picking up spots from others mistakes (and losing 1 or 2 from mine) and get up to 7th before the pitting on L7. Wondered about not changing tyres as still had plenty of grip left but though it would jump me a few places those cars were all faster than me so would have been a stressful 2nd half on worn rubber so switched tyres.

A few more mistakes up ahead and I end up in 4th with 5th getting very very close on the last lap. Just managed to hold them off to the line to bring it home for 115 points, which is much better than I expected - think slow and steady did me well here!

Good luck to all!

 

[Fezzik]

Well that was a rollercoaster.

3rd race, 3rd different BMW. Felt the M6 was a bit more stable coming down the hill. Door #16 in all C/S GT3 lobby. Qualified a surprising P3 with not a fast lap. I guess waiting for the free air helped a lot.

My strategy of keeping it clean and steady went out the window straightaway. On lap 1 slip my way through the Esses/Dipper and stuffed it in the wall. Had to reverse into the wall behind which left me with a lot of damage and headed for the pits.

Mama didn’t raise no quitter though so I emerged on fresh tyres for a long lonely chase. Had reasonable pace, was just off the back of the pack by lap 7. Passed nobody, just made up places when others crashed or pitted.Tyres help up well for the 14 laps. Lap 14 was just a tenth off my fastest of the race.

Brought it home for a satisfying P8 (and somehow a clean race, I guess hitting the wall 3 times doesn’t count).

 

[VillaJ100]

May have to skip this one as router has bricked. New one should come later today. Tried on hotspot but connection died at lap 10 while running 8th

 

[Skidude88]

Well that was a rollercoaster.

3rd race, 3rd different BMW. Felt the M6 was a bit more stable coming down the hill. Door #16 in all C/S GT3 lobby. Qualified a surprising P3 with not a fast lap. I guess waiting for the free air helped a lot.

View attachment 1563224

My strategy of keeping it clean and steady went out the window straightaway. On lap 1 slip my way through the Esses/Dipper and stuffed it in the wall. Had to reverse into the wall behind which left me with a lot of damage and headed for the pits.

View attachment 1563225

View attachment 1563226

Mama didn’t raise no quitter though so I emerged on fresh tyres for a long lonely chase. Had reasonable pace, was just off the back of the pack by lap 7. Passed nobody, just made up places when others crashed or pitted.Tyres help up well for the 14 laps. Lap 14 was just a tenth off my fastest of the race.

View attachment 1563227

Brought it home for a satisfying P8 (and somehow a clean race, I guess hitting the wall 3 times doesn’t count).

View attachment 1563228

Is the damage showing on the roof, did you roll🤣😁

 

[VillaJ100]

Any brake balance advice? Am pretty slow here so need all I can get. Currently running on -2 (towards rear). Lapping around 2:08.

 

[VTEC Driver]

EMEA GT2 - Q2 P4

Qualified in P2 with 2:07.1 I started very carefully with not real good tire feeling and after 5 laps I was in P3 leaving a faster car to overtake me.
At lap seven P1 and P2 changed the tires and I decieded to stay on the track for one lap in clean air.

Changed the tires at lap 8 I went out in P3 but having the guy that overtook me before now behind me.
So now we have in P2 someone else that I thought didn't changed the tires but at the end he didn't get any penalty, so he had to change the tires quite early and gained all the postiions till P2. Smart race from this guy.

I kept P3 till lap 14 when I thought to not fight with the Porsche that already overtook me at lap 5 and now he is attaching me again.
He is faster for something like 0.3 per lap so if I want to keep my position I have to play dirty...a and I don't see the reason.

To finish in P3 or P4 doesen't matter to me.

Quite happy with the result with almost zero training, a critical circuit for my capabilities and, with the sixt heat wave hitting italy, it was heavier than expected.

See you in Barcelona and good luck to all the drivers racing in the next hours!

 

[Fezzik]

Any brake balance advice? Am pretty slow here so need all I can get. Currently running on -2 (towards rear). Lapping around 2:08.

My advice is not worth much as previously shown, but I was running 3 to the rear and it seemed to help with the tyre wear at the very least.

 

[afc5150]

Currently waiting out my misery in the pits in America's slot 4 in GT2.

Ever since the latest update my Fanatec wheel just doesn't want to work correctly. I had 2 complete full lock and have to disconnect in the first 10 laps. Needed to reboot the wheel in order to continue.

Was running a comfortable P5 when it happened the first time, too. 😔

I guess I'm done until the issues are fixed.

 

[VTEC Driver]

Currently waiting out my misery in the pits in America's slot 4 in GT2.

Ever since the latest update my Fanatec wheel just doesn't want to work correctly. I had 2 complete full lock and have to disconnect in the first 10 laps. Needed to reboot the wheel in order to continue.

Was running a comfortable P5 when it happened the first time, too. 😔

I guess I'm done until the issues are fixed.

There wasn’t a news just one or two days ago that Fanatec has released an update to correct that?

 

[Blade_Rudder]

Currently waiting out my misery in the pits in America's slot 4 in GT2.

Ever since the latest update my Fanatec wheel just doesn't want to work correctly. I had 2 complete full lock and have to disconnect in the first 10 laps. Needed to reboot the wheel in order to continue.

Was running a comfortable P5 when it happened the first time, too. 😔

I guess I'm done until the issues are fixed.

The issues are fixed. Jordan even did an article.

https://www.gtplanet.net/fanatec-releases-hotfix-for-gran-turismo-dd-pro-issues-in-gt7-20260904/

 

[afc5150]

Thank you guys, I didn't realize there was a fix that had to be manually updated. I'm updating now and will try slot 6 tonight. Thanks again.

 

[Skidude88]

Thank you guys, I didn't realize there was a fix that had to be manually updated. I'm updating now and will try slot 6 tonight. Thanks again.

(Possibly a bit late to help)...Fyi....Took me two attempts to install. 1st time, I did a complete removal and fresh hotfix install.The app wanted to calibrate shifter, which a don't have and there was no option to calibrate wheel. Resulted with no wheel visible in gt7🙇‍♂️. Rolled back to the July release.

Tried again Friday night, and updated....which worked OK(ish). Both times the install gives a message not to exit the install, when clearly the installs have completed, (see fanatec hotfix forum thread, there's info and screen shots of this)

I had same issues as you last weekend. Today's race was fine with hotfix👍

 

[thumbbandit87]

First post in a while. The little beetle that could. It's depressing how many people don't go off meta in the MANUFACTURERS CUP. That was all my pace and a near perfect race apart from one tiny brush with the wall that gave me damage for a lap. Actually surprised it did anything. Very clean racing from all around. I will say, qualifying is so refreshing from daily races. So many players who just pound qualifying suddenly go to pot in a race or one shot qualifying and it adds to the thrill

. What a truly excellent race track Panorama is and races like this are what it is all about!!! Great racing all around!

 

[Moose78]

Could've been worse...

GT2 - Americas - 11 AM EDT - Honda NSX Gr.3 - 132 points available - Door #5 - Q9 (2:07.590)

As usual the first few laps at this track were pretty chaotic -- including being bumped from behind into the car ahead at The Cutting on lap 2, with the requisite front and rear bumper damage -- but by the time lap 3 rolled around, I found myself in P7 with a nice cushion ahead and behind.

The cushion grew as the laps went on. I pitted at the end of lap 7 for fresh tires. I came out behind another car, but they went into the pits the following lap before I could catch them. Then it was back to driving in the gap. P7. 4 seconds ahead. 7 seconds behind.

On lap 13, I passed a car that was recovering from a crash. They must have had engine damage because they were terribly slow. Up to P6.

On lap 14, I came upon a BMW that was recovering from a crash. I attempted to get by at The Cutting, but got it wrong and hit the wall. I chased them over the mountain, getting a much better exit on to the Conrod Straight and easily got by. Up to P5. They must have been struggling worn tires because the gap behind just kept growing over the final lap.

Finished in P5 for 110 points -- best result so far in this NSX. That gave my DR B progress a 2.7% boost to 89.1%.

Now it's back to playing the waiting game until I can run the Genesis in the first GT1 tonight. I feel like I have some decent pace in that car, so I'm looking forward to it.