Gran Turismo World Series (Manufacturers Cup 2025 Exhibition 3 season: 12 Nov - 29 Nov)

[KAlex122]

Such different but about same speed group of cars. Such thoughtful grids...

... would also be great for the single player races.

 

[DK]

I qualified 3rd, only for some chud to punt me off in the Esses because I had the temerity to outdrag his Pennzoil Skyline in my Porsche. I ended up 6th after fighting back from 14th, but 2 of those gained positions were thanks to others getting punted off.

I'm just so fed up of the meta of punting people off wherever there's a gravel trap.

 

[Pakiti]

I qualified 3rd, only for some chud to punt me off in the Esses because I had the temerity to outdrag his Pennzoil Skyline in my Porsche. I ended up 6th after fighting back from 14th, but 2 of those gained positions were thanks to others getting punted off.

I'm just so fed up of the meta of punting people off wherever there's a gravel trap.

I understand you, these people who like to push into the gravel from the outside are just annoying!
How was the weather, no rain?

 

[Bondwhar]

Interesting comments above and confirms my choice for today. The NSX for me is a slower but better drive and the faster cars will be harder to control especially if the rain comes. Better to finish mid table than not at all 😝

 

[DK]

I understand you, these people who like to push into the gravel from the outside are just annoying!
How was the weather, no rain?

Yeah, it was a dry race. All that happened weather-wise was that it got cloudier as the race went on.

 

[Moose78]

I've done a fair bit of driving of the GT500 GT-R in wet conditions -- probably more than the odds of rain warrant -- and I've decided that I don't like it, especially after trying some of the MR cars out. It isn't surprising, I suppose. It is a turbo-charged car, which are always more difficult to handle in the rain.

Even so, I'm still going to drive in my race. I can't match its dry-lap pace in any other car. My best lap right now is 2:03.7, but mostly I'm doing low- to mid- 2:04s in Free Practice.

One tip if you do get a race with rain. If the radar is showing that you are going to get any dark blue or heavier on the track, expect the moisture to get into the top third of the moisture gauge within a lap or two. Better to go straight to Ws than hope that it stays in the mid-range where IMs work.

Good luck to everybody who has yet to race!

 

[TAU_GTP]

7pm GT1 mid-A slot. Qualified P4 in the GT-R, started on slicks despite a horrendous forecast. Could have taken the lead, but was too impatient and got shuffled wide after the Esses, dropping to P14.
Torrential rain started while the field was heading down the back straight and wouldn't let up until lap 10. Pitted for full wets and fought my way back up to P5 for 156 points.
There was/is potential for more, but with my points now at 338, I'm not getting greedy and decided it's one and done.

 

[hyperspeed980]

7pm GT1 mid-A slot. Qualified P4 in the GT-R, started on slicks despite a horrendous forecast. Could have taken the lead, but was too impatient and got shuffled wide after the Esses, dropping to P14.
Torrential rain started while the field was heading down the back straight and wouldn't let up until lap 10. Pitted for full wets and fought my way back up to P5 for 156 points.
There was/is potential for more, but with my points now at 338, I'm not getting greedy and decided it's one and done.

I believe I was in your race? I was the Diablo that ended up winning in the end.

Sucks that you got punted wide, but I'm happy to see you here!

 

[TAU_GTP]

I believe I was in your race? I was the Diablo that ended up winning in the end.

Sucks that you got punted wide, but I'm happy to see you here!

Yup. We touched on lap 1 which sent me wide. As I said 100% my fault for being too impatient. Congrats on the win!

 

[stpatty]

7pm GT1 mid-A slot. Qualified P4 in the GT-R, started on slicks despite a horrendous forecast. Could have taken the lead, but was too impatient and got shuffled wide after the Esses, dropping to P14.
Torrential rain started while the field was heading down the back straight and wouldn't let up until lap 10. Pitted for full wets and fought my way back up to P5 for 156 points.
There was/is potential for more, but with my points now at 338, I'm not getting greedy and decided it's one and done.

I was in this race and had an absolute shocker. I was still eating my dinner by the time qualifying started so got one lap. Never actually got a lap because I spun coming out of the final corner, so I started last. Started on inters, had to switch after two laps. I ended up pitting twice, the leaders didn't pit once.

Unsurprisingly, I'm going again.

 

[ZEE]

GTWS | Nations Cup Exhibiton 3 | Round 2 | Suzuka Circuit | GT500 cars | HONDA NSX GT500 (Castrol) | B/S Class lobby

Well this was a funny race at first as I tried to do the 6pm slot in the UK time slots, for the B lobbies, but I accidently choose wet tyres before the race start, as it looked very patchy on the radar right before tha race, loe and behold the game betrays me and resets the weather and it all dry, so i end up running so slow falling to the back of the pack on wet tyres, I just ended up using this race to practice my lines and finshed it in 12th.

Then I came back to try again at 7pm and then achieved a really good result with the Solid and Fast HONDA NSX GT500, It was a tense battle and will uplaod a video clip soon on my channel to showcase the close battling I had with the Calsonic R34 GT500 skylines and Carrera RS Porsches, tis was a very enjoyable battle for 2nd place, also I couldnt quite acheive this as the Porsches straight lien speed wwas good, but still got a podium 3rd place! Netted some nice points and onto the next one lads!!!

Spoiler: Round 2 RACE photos - ENJOY!!!

 

[stpatty]

Qualified 2nd, finished 2nd, behind another GT-R. I drove hard but was pretty isolated there. A Diablo had a squabble behind me over the first two or three laps then made a mistake on lap 8 or 9, he might have come close but that was it. 178 points. Race was completely dry, I finished 5 seconds behind the leader who was a 24:45.

 

[KAlex122]

Oh, this was a nice one. Kind of.

Started 7th, finished 6th.

A lot of people pushed to pass. I was in an NSX and didn't even try to get around a very immature Diablo any more. Then in lap 7 another one of these kids in a GTR came from behind (it's always frustrating when you can't pass a bully and they come close behind you - but this sometimes presents a solution too) and tried dive-bombing me in the final chicane. Saw it in the radar, avoided him and he saved it perfectly and got close to the Diablo.

Then it unfolded perfectly like it sometimes does: The GTR pushed the Diablo into the gravel in the first sector and got a 3 second penalty himself. I just had to stay behind him, passed him in the penalty zone which got him close enough to the furious Diablo which took him out in the final chicane. They ended up 14th and 15th.

 

[Wilsonson]

I just had my first ever fully wet race. No stopper on full wets. A lot of fun and quite the challenge.

GT2 B lobby for 115 points.

I had only limited time to practice. My first few laps in the Diablo went miserable 2 days ago. Therefore I tried the GT-R GT500 in the 30 minutes I had before the race started. It went much better which was a relief.

Qualifying went very well putting me P3 behind two other GT-Rs.

The race was quite a spectacle. The difference in straight line speed and cornering ability between the Diablo and the others made it wild yet fun.

The pre race radar showed a lot of pink patches. Therefore I went better safe than sorry and slapped on the wets. It turned out to be the correct call.

(You can't quite see it in the screenshot but it was pouring.)

I never fully binned it, only going a bit wide here and there which added up. I regularly outbroke myself before the final chicane however. One of those resulted in this (unintended) mega send up the inside of two cars which surprisingly actually worked. I just made the apex going no further than the middle of the circuit at my deepest point. While I wouldn't do it intentionally I was very surprised that this worked out.

I led the lap from about lap 3 to 8 but I had too many mistakes and arguably all of those finishing ahead of me had slightly better pace too. I am satisfied with P5 for 95 points.

Unfortunately I have some contributions to the subpar driving standards discussion too. Been abused as welcome rail guards twice and attempted to get pit maneuvered (mayyyybe unintentionally) once.

Same driver deliberately drives into the side of me (clear from the replay) in consecutive laps:

A second driver tried the pit maneuver:

 

[MIE1992]

Q2/P9, I really should’ve started on the Ws rather than IMs. Maybe I’ll try another round later tonight. On the other hand, 89 points isn’t too bad, either.

 

[Zorz]

I'm only doing that once. I thought I was going to be off the pace and my prediction came true. I reckon the '95 McLaren might have been good in the wet but I just wasn't gelling with it in the dry. It's also the car I found myself most comfortable and fastest with by a fair margin. This is not my type of race.

Qualified P9 with a 2:03.226 which was better than expected. Most of my free practice laps have been high 2:03s, although I did have a fluke 2:02.798 at one point.

Seeing the sky turn dark between qualifying and the race briefly got my hopes up for some rain, but this is what the recent weather radar showed. All of that heading northwest and not touching the track.

The difference in car characteristics off the rolling start was an unwelcome eye-opener. P11 was a Spaniard I've picked up a fairly negative perspective of over the last couple of seasons due to being very aggressive and prone to push-to-pass moves that take people out. He was in the Diablo with a Supra between us. When the race started, he blew past the Supra as though it wasn't there and was right up my rear bumper into turn 1. Let's just say I was a bit paranoid for a while after looking in the wing mirror, seeing the Diablo and realising what had happened.

An NSX up ahead pulled over through the S-curves giving me P8, and on checking the replay it was due to starting on Wets. Oops.

The NSX may have saved me quite a bit with that mistake. It caused a bit of a fight between the Spaniard, the Supra and a second Diablo that opened up a bit of a gap on lap 1, giving me some breathing room. The second Diablo was beyond rapid however, and closed it by Spoon on lap 2, blazing past me on the run down to 130R. I got P8 back at the end of the lap when a French driver in the Diablo lost control going past the pit entry and veered left into the gravel. After that I ended up gradually losing the group in front, with the Spaniard slowly reeling me in.

He caught up on lap 12 and I only just held him off into 130R. I knew he got very close, but upon watching the replay I feel like I got very lucky considering past run-ins. This strikes me as being a particularly ambitious move followed by a narrow escape:

​

P8 for 184 points which is a very good result considering how much I was struggling, although more luck than anything since I deserved to go backwards with my pace. Clean race at least.

​

 

[Moose78]

I ran the 12PM EDT GT2 slot in North America in a mid-B DR lobby. There was a good mix of cars, but fewer Diablos than I was expecting. I was in door #2, driving a BLUSTRADA Nissan GT-R GT500 '99 with 99 points up for grabs.

Qualifying was perhaps the most eventful part of the race. On the outlap, I made a mess of Spoon which brought the Diablo behind me right up to my bumper as we headed into the first flying lap. Unsurprisingly, there was contention -- then contact -- at T1, which pretty much spoiled both of our first flying laps. I let them take the lead from there and followed them through the Esses. He went wide at Degna 1 into the sand, which gave me a clear track for the rest of the lap. I only just managed to get across the line before the timer expired for a second flying lap. This one went well. I posted a 2:03.504, which was a tenth faster than any lap I've done in Free Practice, in any car. That landed me Q2. Nice!

Checking the radar before the race, I saw that we were within a light-blue bubble, but the 'Surface moisture' level on main screen showed 0%, so I stayed on slicks.

The race got off to a clean start, at least from my perspective (the shot above was taken from the pole sitter's roof). For the first lap, the leader seemed to be taking it really slow. It wasn't until they pitted at the end of Lap 1 that I realized they had picked IMs to start. Well, that put me in the lead.

It didn't last long. One of the Porsches got by me at the Casio Triangle at the end of the second lap. For the next few laps, I followed the Porsche. I caught up to them in the Esses. They pulled away on the straights. Midway through the race, they lost it at the hairpin and I regained the lead, only to lose it again soon after to the other Porsche, who passed me on a straight.

I chased the new Porsche for the rest of the race, but didn't get any opportunities to challenge them. Brought home P2, for 95 points and another 4% DR gain. I'm happy enough with that. Wasn't about to test my luck.

 

[VTEC Driver]

EMEA 22:00, GT2, Q10 P5

Thanks for your suggestions and the NSX is definitely a very pleasant car to drive.
Total Dry race.
In qualifying and during the race I was lapping at 2:05 and being consistent and avoiding crazy drivers was the best strategy to get P5.

No time to practice at all, so I take this result and I move to the next one.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

That was a fun one!

I only got half a dry lap of practice in before the lobby started but I used the Porsche when this was the daily race a few months ago so still remembered it's little quirks, somehow that was enough to start up in P3. The race was fully wet with heavier showers passing through, in hindsight the wet tyres looked better than the inters but the pace went one way then the other, at the end it dried out a little just before a pack of 5 on the wets caught up. P2 for 313 points (it should've been 3rd but a R34 disconnected after using the wets to come from last up to P2)🥳

On the final lap I wanted to push for FL, bad mistake and I'm a lucky boy!

 

[KAlex122]

For the next one at Monza:

Do you guys accelerate out of the Lesmos in 3rd gear or 2nd gear?

Plus: the typical content creators i watch don't really do prep videos for the GTWS. Any guides i could watch?

 

[Pakiti]

What a crazy race! Qualifying was dry, but I only finished 10th, putting together a decent lap. The field was really strong for me. The race started in pouring rain, with the indicator already over 2/3 blue. It was the last time slot, and I just had to get through it, no heroics. As expected, someone picked the wrong tires at the start, and I immediately dropped to 9th. A couple more laps later, I climbed up to 5th, solely by spinning out the cars in front. The only overtake I made was over a Diablo, around lap 6. I can't imagine how he managed to get there for so long in that rain. Around laps 7-10, I had to fight off two SUPRAS, which was really scary, because in that kind of weather, they can easily just knock you out. I hope I wasn't too aggressive in defending, managing to hold on to 4th place. The whole race, all 12 laps, the rain only occasionally dropped below 2/3, an extremely difficult race, I don’t understand how by some sixth sense I knew how much to press the gas to stay on the track.

 

[Wilsonson]

For the next one at Monza:

Do you guys accelerate out of the Lesmos in 3rd gear or 2nd gear?

Plus: the typical content creators i watch don't really do prep videos for the GTWS. Any guides i could watch?

Unfortunately I don't know of anyone doing GTWS guides regularly. Mik Hizal sometimes does some but not regularly.

What I do is look through this Australian guy's stream in the hours before my (European time) races to watch for scripted weather but also to take something away from his laps. I usually skip to the qualifying if I feel like I am still unsure on what lines to take. He is a solid A/high B kind of driver which is good enough for me to learn a thing or too.

LJ Sandwith

Sim racing, streaming, and having a laugh. No egos, just racing and good vibes. Like, Subscribe & come hang out! Stay Rad 👽

m.youtube.com

 

[Moose78]

Plus: the typical content creators i watch don't really do prep videos for the GTWS. Any guides i could watch?

This combo was a time trial a few weeks (months?) ago. If you are just looking for tips on how to get around the track faster, you should be able to find some guides.

Here's @Tidgney's:


There doesn't look like there will be much in the way of strategy for this round. With 2x tire wear and 2x fuel, I'm guessing this is just going to be a no-stop sprint.

I haven't tried it myself yet, but I'll be setting up a Custom Race soon to give it a go. It's nice to be able to finally be able to practice outside of Free Practice for a change.

Edit (update): Yep. No strategy needed. The tires and fuel easily last to the end of the race.

Also, for all you other Canadian drivers on the thread, I made this:

Feel free to use it, if you like. Shared with the tags #canada #mapleleaf #nations.

 

[Zorz]

This combo was a time trial a few weeks (months?) ago. If you are just looking for tips on how to get around the track faster, you should be able to find some guides.

Here's @Tidgney's:


There doesn't look like there will be much in the way of strategy for this round. With 2x tire wear and 2x fuel, I'm guessing this is just going to be a no-stop sprint.

I haven't tried it myself yet, but I'll be setting up a Custom Race soon to give it a go. It's nice to be able to finally be able to practice outside of Free Practice for a change.

Edit (update): Yep. No strategy needed. The tires and fuel easily last to the end of the race.

Thank you for linking that lap guide. I'd done around 8-9 laps and was getting concerned as I was stuck in the mid 1:27s and wondering what I was doing wrong. Another 5-6 laps after watching that, now down to a 1:26.2 which I'm much happier with.

And of course, thank you @Tidgney for making the guide in the first place.

 

[afc5150]

GT1 North America slot 1 should have gone better. 179 point lobby, door 9.

Surprised myself and beat my dry practice time in the GTR and lined up in Q6.

The weather forecast showed red patches on track but I still forgot to changed tires and that turned out to be a good thing as for whatever reason the race was cloudy but no rain whatsoever.

It was a clean race and I was up to 4th on the 3rd lap, but I just faded throughout the race. No mistakes, just lack of pace I guess.

Ended up in P9 for 119 points. Can't complain really as a top 10 was the goal. Just don't know where my pace went.

Little loss of DR. Hopefully can do round 3, but again, the timeslots aren't great for me.

 

[ZEE]

This is my racing results so far in the Nation Cups exhibiton!!! Sooo far so good, let me keep it going and consistent...

 

[bduddy]

GT1 North America slot 1 should have gone better. 179 point lobby, door 9.

Surprised myself and beat my dry practice time in the GTR and lined up in Q6.

The weather forecast showed red patches on track but I still forgot to changed tires and that turned out to be a good thing as for whatever reason the race was cloudy but no rain whatsoever.

It was a clean race and I was up to 4th on the 3rd lap, but I just faded throughout the race. No mistakes, just lack of pace I guess.

Ended up in P9 for 119 points. Can't complain really as a top 10 was the goal. Just don't know where my pace went.

Little loss of DR. Hopefully can do round 3, but again, the timeslots aren't great for me.

The key to the weather radar, which even some top split drivers seemed to forget, is that what it shows at the very end is the current weather. It's a recording, not a forecast.

I did notice that the Surface Water thing didn't seem to be working. Maybe related to how free practice always started with zero water even in rain? Maybe it was the same in the race but then the grid walk made it wet? Weird issue for sure, it would help if we could actually trust that thing

 

[Pakiti]

The key to the weather radar, which even some top split drivers seemed to forget, is that what it shows at the very end is the current weather. It's a recording, not a forecast.

I did notice that the Surface Water thing didn't seem to be working. Maybe related to how free practice always started with zero water even in rain? Maybe it was the same in the race but then the grid walk made it wet? Weird issue for sure, it would help if we could actually trust that thing

How then can I explain that the weather radar shows it's raining right now, I'm putting on rain tires, but there's no rain at the start? As I understand it, the only way to tell whether it's raining at the start is to look at the track background in the lobby. But how can I tell if it's not raining but the track is wet?

 

[bduddy]

How then can I explain that the weather radar shows it's raining right now, I'm putting on rain tires, but there's no rain at the start? As I understand it, the only way to tell whether it's raining at the start is to look at the track background in the lobby. But how can I tell if it's not raining but the track is wet?

Only what the weather radar shows at the very end of its cycle is what's happening "right now". Everything else is what happened up to an hour ago. Unfortunately, as I said, the Surface Water indicator in the lobby didn't seem to be working, so that was your only reliable way of knowing the weather at the start. But it was reliable, if you waited until the end of the cycle.

 

[Moose78]

Unfortunately, as I said, the Surface Water indicator in the lobby didn't seem to be working

One thing I noticed in Free Practice is that even when the pre-race radar showed the track under rain, when I started the practice session, the moisture gauge would start from zero and immediately start rising. I wonder if the 'Surface Water' indicator was doing the same thing. 🤷‍♂️