Gran Turismo World Series discussion (2026 Manu Cup Exhibition 1: Apr 25 - Jun 6)

[VTEC Driver]

I've had a chance now to try each of the five cars a Lago Maggiore in a full-field custom race...
View attachment 1487870
My impressions and observations:

• The Citroen and Peugeot lasted the longest on RS tires, at 15 laps. The Alfa was close, at 14. Followed by Ford at 13, and VW at 10.
• I had my fastest lap in the Alfa, but the Citroen and Peugeot were pretty close.
• The Citroen also has the best start from the grid start, easily blasting past all of the others. The VW was also pretty good off the line. The Ford was the worst.
• The front left tire wore out the fastest in all the cars.
• I use an app to monitor tire temperatures. Most of the cars were seeing temps in the mid-80s on the front left tire. The VW was the outlier, reaching temps in the mid-90s. I imagine this is why it burned through the RSs so fast.
• In my custom race settings, I had the conditions set to afternoon with S08 weather. That puts the time of day for the race at 17:30. The time of day for Free Practice is 13:30. That's a significant difference.
• I tried a few laps with the VW in Free Practice to see if the tire temps would match what I saw in my practice races, and it seems like the temps don't get quite as high. I could only get the front left to 90 there. I suppose part of that is because there is no fuel weight in free practice, but I'm guessing the main reason is because it is slightly cooler. That's just a guess, though, since I have way to measure the track temperature.
• It looks to me like the Citroen is going to be the META, but the Peugeot and Alfa might also be decent. I'm feeling like the Ford and VW, probably not so much.
• Just to make the load manageable, I think I'm going to focus my strategy testing on the Citroen, Peugeot, and Alfa. Sorry, VW and Ford fans.

I just tested 4 cars (no VW because I never liked) in free practice with only medium tires (the worse one available).
I am faster with the Ford but I am driving with automatic gear so most probably its engine and its gear ratio are matching better then the others or simply I am faster with that.
Citroen seems the fastest but you need to drive with good driving skills or at least is more demanding than the Ford.
Peugeot is really balanced and easy. I need to give another try.
Alfa seems faster than the Peugeot but require a more refined driving style.

What need to be tested is the tyre and fuel consumption to understand if one car can have an advantage to the others.

Being a low B driver it is really important to be comfortable with the car chosen because when fighting with the others the car has to be a friend and not another enemy…

 

[Wilsonson]

I did a single lap in the Citroen (slapped a Sebastien Loeb livery on for some support) following the top ghost and to my big surprised immediately got a gold time (within 3% of WR). Personally the first part of the full track is the hardest for me. Now only banky boy and the final corner are really tough for me.

I am not sure what to make of this. What do you all think? Will it be a very tight race with lots of fighting? Is it easy to overtake here?

And what about strategy? I am thinking of going 6M-14S in the Citroen to be somewhat on the safe side. Going the other way round and finishing the race with relatively fresh mediums could be an interesting choice too.

 

[Moose78]

And what about strategy? I am thinking of going 6M-14S in the Citroen to be somewhat on the safe side. Going the other way round and finishing the race with relatively fresh mediums could be an interesting choice too.

I still have a fair bit of testing to do, but as it currently stands, for me, the fastest strategies for the three cars I'm testing are these:

Manufacturer	Model	Strategy
Peugeot	RCZ Gr.3	9RS-11RM
Citroën	GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)	7RS-13RM
Alfa Romeo	4C Gr.3	10RS-10RM

I'll put up a more detailed post once my testing is done.

 

[KAlex122]

Tried some laps for Wednesday.

The Ford GT is for me not really slower than the Alfa. Peugeot a bit faster i guess. Sadly it seems that the Citroen abomination is potentially the fastest. Potentially as I'm not good at driving something that is alternatingly over- and understeery in every other corner. Hate the feeling of that car.

 

[ZEE]

Hey you guys, this took me a while to upload, much less time than to edit, but here is my race highlights of GTWS NCUP Round 4 race at Grand Valley. It was a fun but tough race noticably for the pit manouver spinout on lap 6 or 7, please check it out and would love all your support on my videos. Looking forward now to Round 5 and this is a good reflection on long stint racing and how to move for the next two races in the nations cup exhibition.

 

[Zorz]

Looks like I'll be in the Peugeot myself on Wednesday. I was originally looking at the Alfa since I've had a good Manufacturers season with it before, but then thought I should give the other cars a go.

The VW is useless as expected and I just don't get on with the Ford. The Citroen seemed marginally faster for me than the Alfa in free practice but comes with the enormous drawback of being a nightmare to see out of in VR. The big banked hairpin is practically blind once you're partway through it because of the shape of the windscreen and the very far back seat; all you can see is tarmac once you turn in. It's kind of a guessing game for putting your foot down at the right time then hoping you don't understeer off.

Then I tried the Peugeot and shaved 3 tenths off my free practice best, and I can regularly set 1:21s in it. Clear winner.

I'm still trying to work out tyre strategy though. I've done a 10M-10S run in the Alfa and a 11M-9S run in the Peugeot. The Mediums actually feel pretty good IMO, and the last couple of laps on the Softs just feel scrappy. Kind of leaning towards trying 12M-8S or 8S-12M depending on where I start.

 

[VTEC Driver]

I did 2 races simulation against 15 GT3 cars.
Started at P13 with first the Peugeot and then the Alfa.
The main purpose was to understand how much Soft could last.
In both cases I pit at end of lap 13.
The 2 last laps are quite difficult even if the tires are around 25%, but the performances are getting worse.
However Medium are very close to soft, at least for my capability.
I am running with auto gear and TC2 in both cases. ABS weak.
Best lap at 1.23 and lapping very often at 1.24.
Races are completed at around 28.xx minutes with some crashes or sand experience.

The first three laps (at least) will be a wheel to wheel battle and, if the AI drivers are quite polite, I expect bad behaviors from the real race.
There are several places where you can be spun out of the track loosing a lot of time or several situations where you cannot overtake someone or where you are potentially closed by 3-4 cars not having any clue about where to go to get out from there…

So I think that this race beyond the trainings and capabilities will be highly dependent by other drivers behavior.
Being a low B driver in GT2 will be a mess for sure.

Good luck!!!

 

[Moose78]

Got all my tests done. I did two stints for each tire compound in the Alfa, Citroen, and Peugeot -- afternoon, S08 weather. From each pair of races, I stitched together an 'optimum' race, picking the best lap from each. Here are the results...

RS tire times:

Manufacturer	Model	Tire compound	Laps	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Alfa Romeo	4C Gr.3	RS	14​	1:23.256​	1:23.471​	1:24.360​	19:41.039​
Citroën	GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)	RS	15​	1:23.071​	1:23.071​	1:23.907​	20:58.609​
Peugeot	RCZ Gr.3	RS	14​	1:22.896​	1:22.983​	1:24.106​	19:37.477​

RS tire tread levels and temps at finish:

Manufacturer	Model	Tire compound	laps	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right	Front left temp
Alfa Romeo	4C Gr.3	RS	14​	0%​	40%​	25%​	35%​	85​
Citroën	GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)	RS	15​	10%​	30%​	20%​	30%​	84​
Peugeot	RCZ Gr.3	RS	14​	0%​	40%​	20%​	35%​	84​

RM tire times:

Manufacturer	Model	Tire compound	Laps	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
Alfa Romeo	4C Gr.3	RM	15​	1:23.651​	1:23.761​	1:24.399​	21:05.988​
Citroën	GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)	RM	15​	1:23.396​	1:23.407​	1:24.081​	21:01.213​
Peugeot	RCZ Gr.3	RM	15​	1:23.582​	1:23.814​	1:24.229​	21:03.430​

RM tire tread levels and temps at finish:

Manufacturer	Model	Tire compound	Laps	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right	Front left temp
Alfa Romeo	4C Gr.3	RM	15​	50%​	70%​	60%​	70%​	87​
Citroën	GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)	RM	15​	60%​	70%​	60%​	65%​	86​
Peugeot	RCZ Gr.3	RM	15​	55%​	70%​	60%​	70%​	87​

Lap times:

If that's too messy for you to read, you can find charts for the individual cars in the SPOILER below.

Spoiler: Lap times for individual cars

Using all these lap times, I could simulate various strategies. Here are the fastest three for each car (by total time):

Manufacturer	Model	Strategy	Total time
Citroën	GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)	11RS-9RM	27:57.715​
Citroën	GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)	10RS-10RM	27:57.822​
Citroën	GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3)	12RS-8RM	27:57.965​
Peugeot	RCZ Gr.3	9RS-11RM	27:59.473​
Peugeot	RCZ Gr.3	10RS-10RM	27:59.728​
Peugeot	RCZ Gr.3	8RS-12RM	27:59.768​
Alfa Romeo	4C Gr.3	7RS-13RM	28:03.810​
Alfa Romeo	4C Gr.3	8RS-12RM	28:03.976​
Alfa Romeo	4C Gr.3	9RS-11RM	28:04.008​

It seems I'm fastest overall in the Citroen, so that will be pick on Wednesday.

I had some faster laps in the Peugeot on RSs, but I just couldn't match the RM pace of the Citroen.

As for the Alfa, I don't know what it is about that car, but I just can't ever seem to get it to the same pace as other Gr.3 cars. It's a shame because I do enjoy driving it.

If I don't post again before Wednesday, good luck to everybody racing!

 

[Hiponiak]

I've done custom race twice in Citroen. Currently I'm low B driver, manual gears, low abs, tcs 0.

1st - 11RS/9RM time 29:19 and 2nd - 9RM/11RS time 29:09. Best lap times around 1:24:5 (once on RS, once on RM) while in training I have 1:22:5 so definitely those time differences are skill issues, not tires. RS at 11th lap in both cases seems bit worn off so I think I'll go 10/10, just a matter how qualifiers will go. Top 5 then RS/RM, lower than this - RM/RS.

I second that on RS and RM tires feels almost equally good on this track in this car. And Citroen handles very predictable, I feel good in it. Bots are very gentle and easy to overcome even with pitting, definitely won't be a case tomorrow in a race with people. I expect some spectacular crashes, especially in this turn downhill

Wonder if it'll be any rain or same as last time it's not implemented on this track?

BTW. Wish that we could command bots to pit in a race or use this or that compound.

Good luck tomorrow fellow drivers!

 

[Moose78]

Wonder if it'll be any rain or same as last time it's not implemented on this track?

Nope. It can't rain at Lago Maggiore, either. It isn't implemented there.

There is a possibility of rain for the final round at Le Mans, and the race settings -- a single slick compound and low tire/fuel multipliers -- suggest to me that there is a good chance we'll see some. We'll see, of course.

 

[Zorz]

Nope. It can't rain at Lago Maggiore, either. It isn't implemented there.

There is a possibility of rain for the final round at Le Mans, and the race settings -- a single slick compound and low tire/fuel multipliers -- suggest to me that there is a good chance we'll see some. We'll see, of course.

Fingers crossed for some dark clouds overhead. Gr.1 Le Mans is a weak combo for me but I do enjoy it in the rain.

Hell, make it nighttime too. This has already been a season of evil combos, might as well go out with a bang.

 

[FlapJackFlash]

GT2 EMEA 1st slot, mainly A lobby 156 points up for grabs.

Wasn't looking forward to this race as after the last rounds fluke win I knew I would be in a tough lobby and didn't feel competitive in the car (Citroen). Couldn't put together a decent qualifying (getting space can be tricky) and ended up Q8 with a 1.23.5 or so.

Made a very stupid mistake and forgot to switch tyre to M from S in Qualifying so had to be very aggressive to get past all the M runners but there was a lot of argy bargy in the midfield (never go into the fast esses side by side here!). Managed to get a bit of clean air just as the S started dropping but stayed out for another lap and pitted on lap 9. After coming out on M had a lot of space to myself and started passing people in the pits switching to S and up to 6th. Inevitably the drivers on S started closing and lost 2 places to them and then had a huge gap to 9th.

Finished 8th which I was happy with, but then 3 drivers ahead must have not pitted and did the whole thing on M and had 2 min penalties each happily putting me in 5th, so go early if you can!

 

[Hiponiak]

Here, at GT2, dr. B, in Europe I managed to finish 6. Hoped that some peeps will forget to pit or change compound but everyone nailed it right. Very even lobby, only top 3 were like +15 seconds, 4-10 gap was around 2-3 s, so one mistake and you're cooked. Only one yellow flag, and very clean, no one was pushing (at least me) and drove side by side, not on a bumper when it was close.

I think I won't be doing t again, although I sacrificed a lot of time for practice. Though results weren't super good - training top lap I had 1:22:6, qualifiers - 1:23:1, best lap in a race 1:23:5, average pace around mid 1:24. Best lap was 1:22:8 and I had a taste to nick it as it was in my range but in a race I'm usually less aggressive.

My strategy was RM till 11th lap, and last 9 on RS. And it worked out well - RM's are very good here while RS managed to remain grip till the very last lap. I play on controller so for you wheeled folks it might be better with RS tires life.

Good luck to all forum racers!

 

[Bondwhar]

Raced in the 09:00 Euro in DRB SRS and qualified 8th as even in the qualifying I was punted off.
Absolute carnage again on the 1st and 2nd corners with folks smashing the crap out of each other and all the mid field drivers reverting to Mr Angry. 😡
Shall go again later and hopefully find some calm and talented drivers who want to race rather than play bumber cars 🚙
Best of luck to all who play today 🥳🫶🏻

 

[tmtk]

First US slot, GT2, mid-to-high B, 113 points for the win

My first thought? This lobby is too fast for me! Like, six names from the GT2 top 50 in the region?
What am I doing here (being 178th)?

And our own the Moose, whom I also met in the testing lobby yesterday (but I was under my alt asian testing account).

Not very fast qualifying (22.9) put me in 7th, seems like people had problems with this combo.

The start. Moose in first rows, thinking: don't hit the Moose, don't hit the Moose!
The Citroens were like a rockets off the line, so I quickly gained positions, but braked early for turn 1, Moose safely in the front 😇

I was like 4th, 5th or something, but starting on mediums I was an easy target and after some touching and shoving (whole armada of cars dived into my inside on the banked tight right) I dropped to 10th or 11th on lap 2.
But people quickly started making mistakes or crashing into each other so lap by lap I picked some places, back into 7th.

Got a slipstream of some fast cars ahead fighting with each other, I was comfortably doing high 23s to mid 24s which was more than ok. To the pitlane at the end of lap 12. Emerged 6th (one car ahead due to pit) and on the remaining laps had a nice battle with the RCZ, I'm especially content with the pass for 4th, I prepared it and executed really precisely. I ofcourse had the advantage of the softs, but still, it was cool.

Finished 4th with a whopping 99 points (last time I won for 88) over 8 seconds behind the Moose (congrats)!

Yesterday during testing I struggled a lot and expected to suffer today, but today the combo felt really fine, strange but more like this!

 

[Moose78]

And our own the Moose, whom I also met in the testing lobby yesterday (but I was under my alt asian testing account).

It was great to see you there! I wasn't sure if that was you yesterday, but now that I know, I'll keep an eye out for that account.

And congratulations on the P4 finish! It seems we both had better results than we were expecting.

 

[Zorz]

That's a one-and-done for me. I could potentially get a better result if I can nail a good qualifying lap and hold on, but I don't fancy pushing for it. I think I've caught something over the weekend and racing with a slight headache and a chesty cough isn't that high on my priority list.

Qualifying was pretty tight other than the polesitter.

​

Turns 1 and 2 were a bit of a mess, but somewhat better than the average Lago Maggiore grid start. I got hit from behind going the outside line and pushed onto the grass, then there was a collision over on the left hand side for turn 2 that spun an Italian. Someday, people will manage to get grid starts right. Maybe not today, but I can hope it'll eventually happen.

The Citroens were rocketships off the line, with the Spaniard in P12 charging straight past me. He ended up being my main focal point throughout the race, which was just a bit unnerving since I've not got the best history with him. He was clean today though, so credit where it's due.

I picked up a few positions from mistakes, although the Polish driver was very fast and recovered from his. We'd managed to break away a bit from the cars behind so I didn't bother fighting his overtake into turn 1. I just wanted to keep with the pack, although the fighting that took place ended up wrecking that plan.

P7 was on the cards for a while after the Spaniard made a mistake, but I caught some gravel at the big banked hairpin on lap 19 which let him get right up my exhaust. I tried defending into turn 1 but he was braver on the brakes than I was, so he took it.

186 points for the round. Now to see if Le Mans will indeed have some rain... 🤞

​

 

[stpatty]

Started 10th on mediums

Survived the start and was clear in 5th after a bit of defending, just behind 4th and even on pace

Pitted on lap 9

Got a penalty for crossing the pit line

Got spun at BBB after serving the penalty

Was in 11th and at one point pressured 10th into getting a penalty at the esses

When he served it I was still too far back to pass him

Eyed up a move on him a few laps later at t1, yellow flag appeared as I pulled out from behind him, no sign of an incident

Spun out at t2 on the last lap while trying to defend from 12th

I may go again

 

[stpatty]

Q5 in a tougher lobby than last time. Game crashes. It's not my night.

 

[ZEE]

Well Round 5 was very eventful today of the GTWS Ncup, I tried to do an early race at 12pm and my pace was ok, but then the race turned out rubbish as bumper cars mentality and poor drivers not using their radar destroyed my race entirely and i went into revenge mode which was not good!

But then took a break, a long one, and returned to focus on a better race, qualified 6th place and then onto the race, focused and collected i battled my way up the field and managed to finish a solid 4th place overall to net some good points, trying to stay a solid B in my DR ranking and progress further up the Nations cup list. SO far so good, onto the last but not least Lemans Round 6 now!

Spoiler: Cool race photos - GTWS NCUP Round 5

 

[Moose78]

As @tmtk mentioned, I was in the same 12 PM EDT GT2 slot in North America. I was in door #6, all B/S lobby, driving the Citroen, with 113 points up for grabs.

Going in, I felt like my pace was way off. When I did some laps in Free Practice yesterday, I could only muster a 1:23.1, which put me around #5000 in the global rankings. I figured I'd be looking at a mid-pack start with maybe a chance to pick up a few positions if I kept out of trouble.

Somehow I qualified with a time of 1:22.748, which, much to my surprise, landed me in Q3, behind a Ford and Peugeot.

I flip-flopped between RM and RS tires for a bit before the race started, but finally settled on RS, which turned out to be a good call.

At the start, the car blasted off the line. I might have been by the Ford before it even started moving. Before I knew it, I was out ahead of everybody.

I got a bump from behind going into T1 (NOT from @tmtk), which knocked me off the track for a bit, but I managed to get back on and stay neck-and-neck with the P2 car to T3, where I eked out a slightly better exit to keep the lead.

And that was the end of the action. From there it was a pretty uneventful race. I managed to pull away from the P2 car. By the time I pitted for RMs on lap 11, I had a 6.8s lead. I came out in P6, but eventually re-took the lead as all the cars ahead pitted.

I wasn't anywhere close to be the fastest on the field. Towards the end of the race, the gap to the cars behind was gradually shrinking, but not enough to matter.

I brought home the win for 113 points and a 5% bump to my DR. No point trying again. I'm not going to beat this on a second try.

 

[MIE1992]

Decided to enter the 4pm slot with a Citroen GT by Citroen Gr.3, and got a clean Q12/P11 that netted me a solid 84 points. It was a pretty tough lobby, too!

 

[Wilsonson]

I had a similar race to the @Moose78 . A win from T1 thanks to Citroen rocket start. In my EMEA GT2 DR B lobby this was good for 129 points.

I qualified 3rd with a 22.5.

Both row 1 cars were Peugeots which is why I hoped to zoom by take the lead and hopefully put up some distance on softs. It worked to perfection. P1 left the inside open for me and I hit T1 perfectly while they didn't.

Down the straight after T3 I was 1.2 seconds ahead and never looked back.

I had one or two small wobbles on medium's but nothing major. While the mediums are quick on this car they are also much more slippery in my opinion.

I ended with a clean race which is rare for me.

 

[Zorz]

Now to see if Le Mans will indeed have some rain... 🤞

Ladies and gentlemen, we have randomised rain at Le Mans. Let the madness commence.

Also, am I imagining things or did the GT-R LM NISMO '15 have an FF drivetrain before? It's 4WD now...

 

[Famine]

Also, am I imagining things or did the GT-R LM NISMO '15 have an FF drivetrain before? It's 4WD now...

It did. There was a change that made it into more what it was supposed to be rather than what it ended up actually being, back in 1.60. Pretty sure I referenced it in the GTWS Exhibition Season article.

 

[VTEC Driver]

EMEA GT2 - 19:00. Q2/P2

Due to the server disruptions during the past races my DR fall quite a lot and now I am at C level.

Starting in P2 my main concern was to not be kicked out at T1 / T2.
I let a couple of cars to pass me and I kept the P4 for a large part of the race.

Started with Medium I kept them till lap 13 giving me the opportunity to do one lap alone and gaining some advantage.
Changed to soft I was in P4 again but much closer to the others.

In front of me they were fighting and one was spun out and the guilty one didn’t get any penalty… very strange.

I was capable to overtake the first driver but at lap 19 I did a small mistake, get 0,5 penalty for track limit, and forced to give my position back to the same driver.

Relatively happy to be P2 in a lower lobby.
I take it and let see what could be wrong at Le Mans…

 

[harryschell]

Set a lap on Monday just under 1:23. Tried chasing it until today on mediums without realizing it lol. Got me pretty good speed and confidence on the mediums and then my free practice times started to fall with the softs today. Tried a no QT trial race in the afternoon, a good time finishing 9th from 15th. Tried again this evening with going for qualifying and got P2. Good start but slipped back to 6th and then got caught up in someone else's spin and went to 11th I think. The pace on mediums was still there after pitting from softs and back u p to 5th just behind the lead pack. Had a huge surprise on the front straight when the race suddenly stopped, I was hyper focused on catching the .5 second penalty in front of me but this was the lap 20 already not 19 and it was checkers! bumped up to P4 on the 1 second coversion. Allez Asterix et Obelix!

For four Nations races in a row I kept getting an error messge saying there was not enough storage to save replays. I did manage to save a much shorter race A in the meantime. I eventually found where the in game storage capacity is shown (console storage is quite well under capacity) and got to 96.7% full from 99.7, should this fix this problem in the future?

 

[Bondwhar]

After a disappointing 1st attempt with all the 'Bumper car kids' 🤡 I had a most enjoyable race at 20;00 last night, even if I blew a podium slot on the last lap. Had a Q time of 1:23.008 to start P3 🥳. After the madness of the 1st 2 corners ended up 5th but the 2 guys who forced their way through ended up grounded in the sand as they reverted to type and decided to join the circus of mayhem. Running on softs I managed to gain 2nd and pitted after 9 laps and this folks is where it goes south ⬇️.
Caught a very erratic driver in 8th and he just would not heed and nearly took me out 3 times. Decided to sit behind him as he swerved and skidded around the track until the opportunity allowed a fast and clean past. Ended up back in 3rd and sitting happy for a podium place........ then I decided to become a 'Ted Striker' 😰 in the scene from 'Airplane' and lost the ability to brake at that right point 🫣. Spun and lost 5 places 😩. As a really new DRB driver I also suffered a little from imposter syndrome 😎 but despite the finish I really enjoyed the race.🏎️.
Onwards and upwards and with a little more confidence better results will come.

 

[Moose78]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have randomised rain at Le Mans. Let the madness commence.

Indeed. I only had a few free minutes this morning to look for myself. I went in to Free Practice and did a few cycles -- maybe 10 -- of entering and exiting. Different weather pattern on the radar each time. Only a couple of them had visible rain drops appearing on the track. The moisture gauge on every attempt was at zero.

I was hoping it might actually be scripted weather, not random. I don't have much luck when it comes to random weather. My races always end up being dry. Maybe this time will be different. We'll see.

 

[Hiponiak]

The final showdown ahead of us! Looking very forward to it - Le Mans is one of my fav grinders so I have some expectations. Plus night and possible rain can make it really interesting...

Wonder your picks in terms of a car. For now my favorite is Porsche (3:32:6 best lap so far but I did like 10 laps in all cars, 2-3 in each) though I see in rankings Nissan leads. I find Nissan bit strange, on the other hand I enjoy Audi and this wind/turbine sound, though a bit afraid it might be slower on straights. Will do some test race later and will share my thoughts.

Moose78 - do you plan to do your detailed breakdown? Really helpful when it comes to pick a proper car