GT 300 Championship

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After more than a 20 year absence, I got back into GT2 a few months ago. When I reached the GT 300 Championship, I was shocked how difficult it was, having previously blown through the game with ease two decades earlier. The first race at Grand Valley East is a real eye opener, as the AI cars are very fast on this course and don't make mistakes. The first car I managed to beat it with was a [R] Viper RT/10, but this was more due it having a horsepower advantage than skill on my part. Since then I have tried several other cars, ratcheting up the difficulty as my driving skills have improved.

For anybody that still plays this game, what are your favorite cars to run in GT 300? Here's a list of what I have tried:

[R] Viper RT/10 577hp/2835lbs: This was the first car I tried. As my driving and tuning skills were still pretty weak, this was surprisingly hard at first. Sometime I will go back and re-tune the car and retry the championship with less of a horsepower advantage. A competent driver shouldn't have much challenge.

[R] RE Amemiya RX-7: This was the second car I tried, while I was still relearning the game. I had some difficulty at first, but managed to beat the whole championship. I need to go back and tune the car and retry it, as I have no doubt my results would be much better.

[R] '98 MR2 GTS: I ran mine maxed out at 500hp/2300lbs. It was terribly hard to handle until I watched TeaKanji's Ultimate Guide Video. I learned some valuable tuning tricks. Once the car had better gearing and was correctly setup, it totally came alive and ate up the AI cars.

[R] '99 3000GT MR 581hp/3143lbs: It is a bit of a pig in the corners, especially at Deep Forest, but still manages to get the job done.

[R] '89 Skyline GT-R 588hp/2691lbs: With a little tuning it murdered the AI.

[R] Sileighty 387hp/2299lbs: Despite what might appear mediocre power numbers, this car was surprisingly fast and quick in the corners. I beat the entire series with ease. Give this car a try!

[R] '99 Silvia Spec-R Aero 467hp/2332lbs: Like the MR2, this was another attempt at a 'homemade' GT300 car. I had a similar experience to the Sileighty; the car handles excellent and seems to go much faster than it's power numbers would indicate, breezing through the championship.

[R] '90 Mazda RX-7 Infini III 391hp/2358lbs: It seemed to struggle a little bit on long straights, but was fast enough in the corners that the AI could never really challenge it.

[R] '96 Mazda RX-7 A-Spec 493hp/2398lbs: Honestly, this one is overkill against GT300 cars.

[R] 83' Mazda RX-7 GT-Turbo 433hp/2003lbs: I remember trying this one out on Grand Valley East, but don't remember if I went through the whole series yet. The setup wasn't quite where I wanted it, so I didn't have the speed through the corners I wanted. I definitely need to revisit this car, as I know with a proper setup it should have no problems.

[R] '91 Supra Twin-Turbo R 443hp/2859lbs: So far, all I have done is try this car out on Grand Valley East a few times. You really feel the weight of this car. It just feels very heavy and unresponsive in the corners, making it hard to carry speed out onto the long straight. With some more tuning, I am sure it could be a serious contender. I think my best finish so far has been 2nd place.

I have also tried out a [R] '69 Corvette and a [R] '96 Camaro at Grand Valley East. Right now I am playing around with a [R] '93 Mazda Miata and a [R] '91 Silvia K's 2000cc.
 
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Interesting idea. I tested out a few cars and I can confirm that it's possible (but very difficult) to beat all 5 races with a 295hp car. The S2000 and RX-7 Type RB '98 were able to clutch out wins on Grand Valley East by overtaking on the last lap, and I trust the other S-tier 295hp cars (Concept Car, Stratos, Europa, Civic VTi '93, Lancer Evo V RS, FTO GP Ver. R, NSX Type S Zero, S15 Spec R Aero) could do it too.

You really need to push these cars to the limit: setting up close gears while avoiding turbos/NA tuning that heavily affect the power band, applying the ride height trick (min front height, max rear height) for extra acceleration, dialling in extreme oversteer with the suspension and LSD, and just driving well without making mistakes. It's pretty intense, as even a minor slip-up can give the AI enough time to catch up and overtake. As well, from my experience at least, getting a line-up without the Cusco Impreza makes Grand Valley East a bit easier. Otherwise you need to consistently drive 1:02's to keep up the pace, or you have to rely on some dirty overtake manuevers, cuts and/or blocking the AI on the straights.

Glad the guide helped by the way! The MR2 GTS is pretty tricky to tune in this game, as setting up the LSD properly isn't easy with how sensitive it is. Close gears helps its acceleration a lot though.

Edit: just beat race 1 against the Cusco Impreza with the ZZ-S Coupe, 279hp. The ride height trick gels extremely well with this car, improving its stability and acceleration all at once. Was a very close call...

Screenshot from 2022-12-21 17-29-48.png

Edit 2: the Concept Car proves once again that it's the best sub-295hp car. After a lot of attempts, I managed to get a win at Grand Valley East with just 249hp. Had a bad 5th lap but I got lucky AI and they kept their distance. They can really screw with your lines, so you constantly need to be checking your rear mirror so they don't get in your way.


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I never tried the championship in many self made racers other than the Tsuchiya MR-2 race mod. I think I managed to win but it was tricky.

What really annoyed me was never being able to win with the Weds Sport Celica and only occasionally again with the Momo MR-2 even though they were ready made GT300 cars and they seem to be quite competitive in the AI's hands.
 
Does anyone how to fix that seizure effect on the Weds Celica? Or is it just a programming bug?

I did the championship with an MX-5 long time ago, finished 3rd I think, it was super hard but fun. :)
 
I never tried the championship in many self made racers other than the Tsuchiya MR-2 race mod. I think I managed to win but it was tricky.

What really annoyed me was never being able to win with the Weds Sport Celica and only occasionally again with the Momo MR-2 even though they were ready made GT300 cars and they seem to be quite competitive in the AI's hands.
Actually, these two cars are not competitive at all in the AI's hands, as TeaKanji's screenshots demonstrate. But, I totally agree with your frustration. Between the lack of horsepower and the unrealistically high weight, these cars are useless for most people. This is especially bizarre considering the Momo MR-2 was the 1999 GT300 Champion. It seems so strange the developers would deliberately handicap a car that was quite successful in the real world. I personally don't understand why they didn't try to match all the GT300 cars to a similar lbs/hp ratio, that way the whole field would stay fairly close and produce better racing for the player. This would also mean the difference between faster and slower cars would be close enough that the average player would have a realistic chance of success with any GT 300 car.
 
Momo MR2 and Weds Celica both seem to use their road going equivalent's stock weight, most likely a mistake.

I always thought it would either be a case of that or the cars were measured with all of their success ballast intact from being successful. A less likely scenario I realised a while ago.
 
Does anyone how to fix that seizure effect on the Weds Celica? Or is it just a programming bug?
Alongside the inaccuracies Submaniac mentioned, the Weds Celica is one of the worst victims of the game's 25FPS / 30FPS handling bugs I've seen yet, up there with the Ford GT90. It's slightly better on NTSC than PAL, but no matter what, the car is going to stutter up to 3rd or 4th gear and its acceleration will be crippled. Using some unspeakable black magic that raises the game's frame rate beyond 25FPS / 30FPS, the car drives perfectly fine, it's good enough to win at Gran Turismo All Stars actually, let alone GT300.

It does handle like a boat though due to its weight. You can loosen the front springs and lower the rear camber, but that puts the car at risk at ground effects making the car lose grip during sudden elevation changes (eg. the last corner at Grand Valley East). I found that lowering the rear downforce to 0.74 helps it turn into corners a bit easier. The stock gears are also pretty horrible, as they're too wide and the car has a very narrow power band. I suggest setting the final gear to 4.500, then setting auto setup to 1, then setting the final gear to 2.500, then pushing 1st left, then 4th, 5th and 6th right, then moving 3rd about 2/3's to the right. That'll give the car a decent launch while making sure it's always in that high-power 6500-8000 RPM zone. Along with setting the LSD to 1 / 1 / 1 and toe to -0.20 / 0.20, it's a decent car to drive IMO.

In any case, the Weds Celica and Momo MR2 are going to be fixed in the next version of GT2+, per pez2k's latest post on the thread. Will be interesting to try out more 'accurate' versions of each car.

TeaKanji, your results are extremely impressive! My hat is off to you!
It's nothing. All I really did was exploit everything the game allowed me to do to push it to the limit 🤠
 
Bringing this thread back again as I revisited GT 300 Championship over the weekend to try out different cars that can win it. The 260hp Corolla Levin AE86 was just fast enough to beat the Impreza and RX-7 in race 1 at Grand Valley East, so I recorded it and posted it on my channel:



You can see how brutal the AI can be, with them constantly shoving you and getting in your way. Took a lot of attempts to get a (mostly) clean run where we weren't smashing into each other every corner. You can't let the Impreza and RX-7 maintain a lead, or they'll take off and it's very difficult to catch up. They slow down a bit in the sections before and after the tunnel, and you have to be aggressive and drive as fast as possible to overtake them.

Enjoy; hopefully this inspires more people to take on this challenge with underpowered cars in one of GT2's most intense events.
 
I am getting my ass handed to me at these races. Bought the s2000 GT1 for it but maybe bought a bad car? I'm still new to the racing genre
 
Pretty sure this is insanely harder on a dpad, because til now the speeds been manageable, but now there's no time to tap my way through a turn, and if I slow down enough that there is, even with crazy acceleration I'm getting dusted.

Playing on a Go so I have thr option to blutooth a ps3 controller, but then I get substantially less battery life :(


Any car recs thst are hard to spin out thst can do these turns on dpad?
 
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It's rare i hear somebody having trouble with a GT2 evekt like this but maybe try a 4wd car?
The power restriction is super lenient and the GT300 cars are mostly in the mid-400hp range.
Ideally i'd say try tuning a R34, or use a rally car like the Lancer Evo or Impreza WRC.
Alternatively you can try offsetting the tire compounds to increase understeer.
Set super softs at the back and hard at the front for example.
The opponents are all on their standard tiresets, which is racing mediums.
 
I'm racing game noob besides being Mario Kart, and proper braking and Racing Lines don't really exist in that universe.

I ended up getting it with the Vauxhall Calibra, great car if ur stuck on dpad. Impossible to spin out unless ur in dirt.
 
I just recently started playing GT2 again, but been doing it pretty excessively. GT300 is a lot of fun.

Using the opponent’s cars, I had the most fun in the Weds Celica. In my opinion, that car is terribly underrated. Sure, it’s heavy as a boat. But, it’s one of the most neutral handling cars in the whole game, since it allows for mid corner corrections via throttle like very few others.

By now, the challenge seems almost to easy to me. And I‘m competing with a modified 320 Ci.

But, if you’re kind of in the middle of getting to know the game, the Celica strikes me as the perfect tool to learn the proper lines.

And it’s so much more rewarding, having to struggle first and finally master a challenge, which unfortunately is very rarely the case in GT2.
 
I switched to analog controls a day after this post and it was an absolute game changer.

Not only is it easier to control, but its straight up fun and unique.
 
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Oh, had i known you were using digital mode i'd have suggested it hah. Glad it's become better, i'll never go back to playing digital on any racing game if i can x)
Twin sticks controls ftw
 
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