Dodge can be decent, especially if there is a round at Daytona. It might be better now with the new physics, even.
The Suzuki... not so much. It needs to be short shifted. I could never get it to go anywhere near as fast as the other Gr.3 cars. Maybe it was an issue with my technique, and maybe things have changed with the new physics, but I would not recommend it. I know the aliens can get some pace out of it. I never could. Of course, if you are looking for a challenge, you'll find it in the Suzuki. It is, if nothin else, a challenge.
The Exhibition 2 for the Nations Cup of the 'Gran Turismo World Series' 2026 will be held from Saturday, 19 September to Saturday, 17 October.Please click on 'Read Full Text' for detailed information on the racing schedule and the race details for each round.
www.gran-turismo.com
Nations schedule is up. Round 3 looks a potential classic, the others the usual Gr3/Gr1 & Red Bull nonsense.
Still no changes to the slot times -- at least in North America. They hour later than the Manufacturers Cup ones, as usual, which means the first GT1 slot is at 9PM EDT. That's too late for me. I guess I'll run this season in my DR B alt account so I can take advantage of the earlier slots.
Looks like it could be a fun season.
The only strategy decision in this first round is whether to change tires. Judging by the 5x tire multiplier, I'm expecting changing the tires will be the way to go. I don't know if I'll have time to test all the available cars, though. I'll probably just focus on the two or three cars with the best single lap times in Free Practice.
The second round -- Gr.1 at Fuji -- looks like it could be interesting. It has RS and RM tires available but no tire requirements or mandatory pits. Maybe we'll get some rain. Or maybe it will have that hidden 'required type change' requirement.
No strategy for the classic car race in round 3.
The final round requires all three tire types, so it should have lots of strategy options. I'm looking forward to that one.
The Exhibition 2 for the Nations Cup of the 'Gran Turismo World Series' 2026 will be held from Saturday, 19 September to Saturday, 17 October.Please click on 'Read Full Text' for detailed information on the racing schedule and the race details for each round.
www.gran-turismo.com
Nations schedule is up. Round 3 looks a potential classic, the others the usual Gr3/Gr1 & Red Bull nonsense.
I would love to join this Nations Cup Exhibition Series but I have a family gathering in Cleveland during the second round. Sounds fun though, especially that third round!
EDIT: I might still do as many rounds as I can, if only for whatever credits I can get from my final result.
I didn't notice that round 2 is the LMH/LMDh gr1s. Will have to finally learn how to keep the battery charged.
Also, 27 laps ?! Flippin heck, that's a long race especially if it rains.
I've started doing some strategy testing. So far, I've done full length test races in the Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren pitting for fresh tires on lap 10. There will be more details to come, as usual, but I wanted to share one interesting finding: I'm doubting that a no-change strategy is going to be viable for any of the cars, at least for me. The Audi and Lamborghini both had tread levels below 50% when I pitted, and the other two had tires with tread levels just a hair higher that 50%. If I can get any of the cars to the finish without changing the tires, there will only be a sliver of tread left.
I've started doing some strategy testing. So far, I've done full length test races in the Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren pitting for fresh tires on lap 10. There will be more details to come, as usual, but I wanted to share one interesting finding: I'm doubting that a no-change strategy is going to be viable for any of the cars, at least for me. The Audi and Lamborghini both had tread levels below 50% when I pitted, and the other two had tires with tread levels just a hair higher that 50%. If I can get any of the cars to the finish without changing the tires, there will only be a sliver of tread left.
And which of these you are finding more pleasant to drive?
Last update should have nerfed Ferrari and Porsche performance, but I haven't tried yet.
I was wondering if a more recent car should provide a better performance in any case, or the BoP has made all of them at the same level so the choice is more related to our own driving style.
The Exhibition 2 for the Nations Cup of the 'Gran Turismo World Series' 2026 will be held from Saturday, 19 September to Saturday, 17 October.Please click on 'Read Full Text' for detailed information on the racing schedule and the race details for each round.
www.gran-turismo.com
Nations schedule is up. Round 3 looks a potential classic, the others the usual Gr3/Gr1 & Red Bull nonsense.
I am excited for this, hopefully I can fair better in this NATIONS CUP for ol'blighty than I did in the Manus cup. SO here goes and lets crush that Round 2 with the Gr.1 cars at FUJI, should be fun!!
But I don't get the old man oldy cars race at Round 3. That seems more suited for a Daily Race as we never get oldy cars race in dailies and spending alot of digi creds money on classics. Alas good luck to everyone!!
Right now, in my tests the Audi and Porsche are neck-and-neck in terms of overall race time. Of the two, the Porsche feels like the more stable car. The Audi (and Lamborghini especially) can get a little squirrelly in places if you use too much of the kerb. The Porsche, I guess because of the weight of the engine being toward the back, doesn't seem to suffer from that effect as much.
The McLaren is also pretty nice to drive, but it is the slowest of the bunch in my tests so I wouldn't recommend it.
The second Nations Cup Exhibition Season of 2026 is on its way, with Polyphony Digital announcing a four-round calendar that gets underway on Saturday, September 19 and runs through October 17.
Very much doing Rounds 2 and 3 (Gotta do some testing). Round 1 car selection is..confounding. I get three of the cars as The Audi R8 is still being used (Even if its mostly in Asia) and the Ferrari 296 GT3 and Porsche 911 GT3 R are pretty much no brainers being quite current. But for that same reason, why the Mclaren 650S GT3? This thing is not even remotely being used outside some classic GT3 car meeting. Why the Lamborghini Huracan GT3? Its not even the Evo II (The one with the Roof intake), its the original base model which also hasn't been used in a while. Sure you could argue "Well the 2019 Audi R8 GT3 Evo isn't being used either" True...but guess what? Through GT Auto, you can turn it into the car that IS still being used (As you can with the real thing, hence why its called an "Evo package") while that isn't even remotely an option for Huracan (Though lets be real: The Huracan Evo II isn't even based on the base road car, its based on the Road Going Super Trofeo model called "STO" so its not even the same thing anymore). Why are both the Merc and Lexus not even choices? Both are still competitive and still being used (Hell, both are in the WEC AND Super GT AND IMSA for crying out loud along the 296 and 911). And of course, we can't forget that both are still showing up at the Live Events. MAYBE you can make that case for the Huracan as it still shows up too (Somehow), but you can't even argue this for the 650S in Real life or the World Series.
Another one of those choices where the more I look, the more I ask:
The second Nations Cup Exhibition Season of 2026 is on its way, with Polyphony Digital announcing a four-round calendar that gets underway on Saturday, September 19 and runs through October 17.
Okay. I think I've done as much testing as I'm going to do for this round.
For each of the five cars, I did a full-length 20-lap race pitting on lap 10 for fresh tires in a Custom Race against one other competitor. I followed GT-Engine's recommendations for weather settings and used evening S13.
It is very much looking like a no-change pit strategy is not going to work for any of the cars I'm considering driving because they all burned through more than half of their tread before reaching the pits. So I haven't even bothered testing that.
I did two rounds of testing in the Audi, Ferrari, and Lamborghini because I had some spins on the first round. In the lap times below, for each lap I picked the faster one from the two rounds of tests. The Porsche and McLaren only had one round.
Here's what the numbers are looking like for me:
Manufacturer
Model
Strategy
Laps
Opt time
Best time
Avg time
Total time
Audi
R8 LMS Evo '19
Tire Change
20
1:33.566
1:33.850
1:35.782
31:55.636
Ferrari
296 GT3 '23
Tire Change
20
1:33.427
1:33.743
1:35.696
31:53.911
Lamborghini
Huracán GT3 '15
Tire Change
20
1:33.953
1:34.111
1:36.024
32:00.470
McLaren
650S GT3 '15
Tire Change
20
1:34.393
1:34.583
1:36.720
32:14.405
Porsche
911 GT3 R (992) '22
Tire Change
20
1:33.488
1:33.883
1:35.839
31:56.779
Lap times:
Lap
Audi
Ferrari
Lamborghini
McLaren
Porsche
1
1:35.912
1:35.926
1:36.225
1:36.912
1:35.909
2
1:34.217
1:33.986
1:34.444
1:35.479
1:34.500
3
1:34.469
1:33.743
1:34.508
1:35.432
1:34.165
4
1:34.111
1:34.343
1:34.713
1:35.292
1:34.218
5
1:34.773
1:33.921
1:34.793
1:35.437
1:34.300
6
1:34.205
1:34.178
1:34.777
1:35.316
1:34.401
7
1:34.567
1:34.765
1:34.491
1:35.493
1:34.865
8
1:34.710
1:34.295
1:34.898
1:35.063
1:34.175
9
1:34.479
1:34.400
1:34.878
1:36.431
1:34.497
10
1:54.313
1:53.709
1:54.168
1:54.295
1:54.470
11
1:41.408
1:40.791
1:41.541
1:42.141
1:41.474
12
1:33.850
1:33.958
1:34.925
1:35.100
1:34.403
13
1:33.956
1:34.172
1:35.481
1:34.583
1:34.742
14
1:34.546
1:34.256
1:34.412
1:35.107
1:34.230
15
1:34.601
1:34.162
1:34.362
1:35.278
1:34.028
16
1:34.689
1:34.092
1:34.111
1:35.392
1:33.883
17
1:33.967
1:34.779
1:34.517
1:35.632
1:34.996
18
1:34.163
1:35.307
1:34.225
1:35.365
1:34.239
19
1:34.374
1:34.569
1:34.574
1:35.415
1:34.619
20
1:34.326
1:34.559
1:34.427
1:35.242
1:34.665
Tire tread levels at pit:
Maufacturer
Model
Front left
Front right
Rear left
Rear right
Audi
R8 LMS Evo '19
65%
45%
60%
40%
Ferrari
296 GT3 '23
55%
45%
65%
45%
Lamborghini
Huracán GT3 '15
65%
50%
60%
40%
McLaren
650S GT3 '15
65%
55%
70%
50%
Porsche
911 GT3 R (992) '22
60%
45%
65%
45%
Tire tread levels at finish:
Manufacturer
Model
Front left
Front right
Rear left
Rear right
Audi
R8 LMS Evo '19
65%
50%
65%
40%
Ferrari
296 GT3 '23
55%
50%
65%
50%
Lamborghini
Huracán GT3 '15
70%
50%
65%
40%
McLaren
650S GT3 '15
65%
60%
70%
55%
Porsche
911 GT3 R (992) '22
60%
45%
65%
45%
It seems I'm fastest in the Ferrari at the moment. I'm not sure how I feel about that. For one thing, like most of these MR cars, it feels like the Ferrari is always looking for a way to kill me. Another thing is that there were a few laps in the second stint -- laps 17 and 18 in particular -- where it was inexplicably slower in the second sector. I felt like I was hitting all of my usual braking points, but somehow I was down 7 or 8 tenths in the second sector. It was like that for both rounds of testing I did. Considering the car was lighter from reduced fuel, I'd have expected to be faster in the second stint.
I'm still not decided on which car I'll choose. I might still do another round of testing in the Porsche to see if I can improve my time, but also to see if I still like driving it better than the MR cars.
Hope this helps. If I don't post again before Saturday, good luck to everybody racing!
Did my race, pace seemed really high for a low B lobby with top qualifiers getting low 1:33. I qualified 10th with 1:34.2. Kept things clean but didn't really have the pace to challenge many drivers ahead. Finished P7 from a couple of spins ahead, around 30 secs behind the winner.
Did my race, pace seemed really high for a low B lobby with top qualifiers getting low 1:33. I qualified 10th with 1:34.2. Kept things clean but didn't really have the pace to challenge many drivers ahead. Finished P7 from a couple of spins ahead, around 30 secs behind the winner.
I think there isn't enough people driving so far in the Nations cup. I had a look at the Driver rating because the points awarded for a win was much lower than my usual Manufacturers lobby. And there was a mix of high Bs and low Bs in a single lobby.
I did the EMEA GT2 SLOT 1
Qualified P2 with a 1.32.9xx. In the race, P1 and myself had 7-8 seconds gap to P3 by the pitstops. P1 made a mistake and I took the lead and kept it till the end. Got 84 points for P1.
Did my race, pace seemed really high for a low B lobby with top qualifiers getting low 1:33. I qualified 10th with 1:34.2. Kept things clean but didn't really have the pace to challenge many drivers ahead. Finished P7 from a couple of spins ahead, around 30 secs behind the winner.
I think there isn't enough people driving so far in the Nations cup. I had a look at the Driver rating because the points awarded for a win was much lower than my usual Manufacturers lobby. And there was a mix of high Bs and low Bs in a single lobby.
I did the EMEA GT2 SLOT 1
Qualified P2 with a 1.32.9xx. In the race, P1 and myself had 7-8 seconds gap to P3 by the pitstops. P1 made a mistake and I took the lead and kept it till the end. Got 84 points for P1.
Did my race, pace seemed really high for a low B lobby with top qualifiers getting low 1:33. I qualified 10th with 1:34.2. Kept things clean but didn't really have the pace to challenge many drivers ahead. Finished P7 from a couple of spins ahead, around 30 secs behind the winner.
I didn't notice that round 2 is the LMH/LMDh gr1s. Will have to finally learn how to keep the battery charged.
Also, 27 laps ?! Flippin heck, that's a long race especially if it rains.
I really hope it does rain. So far i have done great in the wet especially the random weather races. I think the extreme conditions level the field nicely. Suzuka and spa events come to mind.
GT2 - North America - 12 PM EDT - Ferrari 296 GT3 '23 - 149 points available - Door #3 - Q2 (1:32.864)
A miraculous qualifying lap -- ~0.6 seconds faster than any I'd done in Free Practice -- had me starting near the front in Q2.
That's where the action ended, really. I never had a chance to overtake or be overtaken. I kept up with the leader until we both pitted for fresh tires on lap 10, then I fell away in the second stint. Crossed the line where I started in P2 for 143 points and a 5.0% boost to my DR B progress taking it to 95.7%. I'll take it.
FWIW, everybody in my race was in the Ferrari except for one driver in the Porsche.
The car in the race was quite different from the free practice. Maybe my ignorance or lack of experience but I feel the car much heavier and my “fabulous” 1:32.6 was a very far memory. I think in free practice is without fuel at all.
Qualified with 1:34.x the pole was 1:32.1
The 16th driver quit before starting so I am the last one in a relaxing position… even too much relaxed.
I spent the first 6-7 laps watching the 3 drivers fighting each other so even if I could be faster I feel very dangerous to overtook any of them.
Then there were some spin in front of me so I am climbing 2 positions.
Now I am behind a Lamborghini (the only one) and I am slightly faster but not confident to overtake.
So the “great” ideas to pit at lap 9 to overtake him. He pitted two laps later and now I am in front of him.
Some one should have spin and left so I am in P11 with the Lamborghini not gaining or slightly losing time to me.
Now I am reaching a group of three cars in front of me but I don’t have confidence with the car neither enough concentration…
I finish in P11 with the Lamborghini at 4 seconds behind.
Next race will be 27 laps… maybe also with rain in and out during the full race… and I don’t know if to be happy or not…
EMEA GT3 - 18:00PM slot - GB - Qualified 3rd - Finished 2nd - Ferrari 296 GT3 - Door no.11 - TC 1 - BB +5 - NO assists!
RACE SUMMARY:
What an interesting first round race. One & Done kaboom....
Overall I started good and managed to get down a decent laptime thankfully to the 10min qualifier that was really generous. So I slotted into P3 that gave me the opportunity to push the 296 quite hard. I did notice similar tyre wear throughout the race especially on laps 10 and 11 at 65% tyre wear on the car, as @Moose78 pointed out. The car got kinda sluggish halfway thru, very odd, maybe due to the BOP not sure. Had a good battle with an south african driver on a real laggy connection for P1, but he managed to evade me despite pushing hard, for the first 10 laps, but then I almost lost control of the car on lap 10 and skimmed the grass on the second to last turn, and then the game decides to give me a 1sec penalty for almost spinning out WTF? SO bizarre.
Then pushed to catch him and I pitted early to see if I could make up time for when he pitted. But his lead grew evermore and only narrowed it down by 3secs when the leader decided to pit on lap 12. I had a steady gap of 6secs from P3, so kept trying to push but ending up settling for a solid 2nd place and a good points start to this season.
Lookin' forward to Round 2!!
Enjoy some photos. Race review will be on my YT channel.
www.gran-turismo.com
