Project Pulsar - How Far Can One Car Go? (27.39% Completion 06/05/14)

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Falcon787B

Falcon787B

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JohnsonCapote
Good evening ladies and gents, great to see the humble little GT2 forums still going strong! :)

So I'm back once again, and I still feel like I have unfinished business in GT2. I never really have felt like I've 'completed' a GT game, often getting too distracted with trivial stuff or re-running the same races over and over. And one thing I've always loved in this game are 'rags to riches' stories - starter cars which have the potential to be giant-killers, and can do great things in the game from their starting position in the lowly used car lots.

One car I reviewed back in the day as part of a starter car review thread was the 1991 Nissan Sunny (Pulsar) GTI-R, a humble hatchback packing serious heat in the shape of 225hp and 4WD right off the bat despite only costing around 7,000 credits in the used car dealership. So I decided for a challenge; how far can this little car take me through the GT2 universe?

Here she is; a classic Q car, not really showing much performance on the outside. Perfect ;)

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The rules are very simple:

- I must use the Sunny for as many races as possible, within reason. Obviously there will be races the car physically cannot enter, such as drivetrain-limited races, races with an 197hp horsepower limit (it comes with too much HP stock), manufacturer races and so forth. But if the entry requirements do not prohibit my little Pulsar, I am there :)

- I can only spend money on the car when I feel it is needed. For example, if I am breezing easily to victory in races, then upgrades are not yet required. But if I come up against stiff opposition, then I'm allowed to use the money I've earned so far (both credits and funds from selling prizecars) to upgrade and tune up the Sunny.

- I will chronicle the progress as much as possible in this thread, therefore keeping me coming back here and not disappearing off again as I have a tendency to do...sorry about that :rolleyes:

So the journey begins here for me and my Sunny - whom I shall name Nancy. Not entirely sure why, just seems to fit in my mind 💡

Enjoy the ride folks! :cheers:
 
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So things got off to a flying start for me and Nancy as we overpowered round 1 of the Sunday Cup with ease, dismissing a bunch of Kei cars easily in the sunny confines of Tahiti Road. Not even the PD AI's desperate rubber-banding could keep them in touch - nor could a bout of surprise understeer which nearly pitched me into the pits coming off the final corner! Talk about ways to reintroduce yourself after two years of not touching the game :dunce:

Things got a lot tougher in Sunday Cup Round 2 however, as the opposition had stepped up to include sports compacts and coupes which could match Nancy for horsepower and have a few more handling tricks up their sleeves. An epic race was had, with me and Nancy scrapping for the lead versus a '97 Silvia and a '99 Integra, and after a 3-wide drag race off the final corner, here's a shot from onboard the Silvia of how close it was at the flag - 0.090 seconds!! :eek:

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So after that, I figured Sunday Cup Round 3 at Red Rock Valley would be a bit of a step too far. So let's scope around for a few more races more in Nancy's immediate ballpark...ahh, here we go, US Championship Round 1. Laguna Seca (cue some of you at the back going 'what? I thought the US didn't know about right corners?' /predictable joke), one of my favourite tracks in GT and the place where I first met Nancy, testing her for the starter car review thread.

And my opponents? Pah. Easy. A bunch of utter rubbish like the Ford Ka & Puma, Dodge Intrepid & Neon...need I go on? This will be easy.

Except it really isn't - I lead most of the way but the Neon and Puma harass me the whole way, and then out of nowhere I get mugged off by the Ka on the last corner - beaten into 2nd place by 0.1 seconds, by a KA!! Well, this is a bit embarrassing :grumpy: :embarrassed: :dunce:

So Nancy's record stands at 2-1 so far. Not bad, but time to use some of the money I've amassed so far to beef her up a bit. 8,800 credits are spent on new sports tires, ECU and a race flywheel. Job done 👍
 
So once the upgrades were strapped on, the American Championship Round 1 was dispatched easily - the kamikaze Ka and company were no match now :)

I went on a nice little winning streak, taking wins in Sunday Cup 3, Clubman Cup 1 and French National Championship 1, before I jump into action in Japanese National Championship 2. This is a bit of a risk, as it's a 295hp limit, but when I was road-testing the Sunny way back in the day I entered this race and finished a battling 3rd, so a potential upset victory is on...is it? :nervous:

In the end I wasn't far off. A rough first lap leaves me 5th, but some bold moves put me up into the lead halfway through the final lap before I get rudely shovelled out the way by a Tommy-Kaira ZZS (clearly being driven by a Citroen WTCC factory driver), and I can only follow him home to take 2nd. Still mighty proud of my Nancy though :)

That takes my record up to 6-2, and having earned 20,000 credits for my recent exploits, it's time for some more upgrades. Nancy is starting to need a bit more pulling power and a little bit more finesse in the corners, so a fully customisable transmission, F/C LSD and a racing intercooler for the stock turbocharger will do nicely :)

Horsepower has increased to 247, up from the stock 227 :)
 
The adventures continue for Nancy, and its in this section of the game that I end up having some of my very best battles! :gtpflag:

We start by getting payback in Japanese National 2, before sweeping to further wins in French National 2, Italian National 2 (featuring a great scrap with several Lancias), German National 2 and US National 2 (spot a pattern? 💡)

Then comes the REALLY tough scraps. Nancy is starting to become more and more outgunned in terms of horsepower and performance, but her fighting spirit is second to none! We scrap to further wins in Clubman 2 and 3, as well as SOMEHOW taking wins in the 4WD Challenge 1 and 2 whilst up against Lancer Evos, Imprezas and Skyline R34s! :sly:

Then comes British National 2, with a 345hp limit - the highest HP-limit race I've entered thus far with Nancy. This is where I fear we will get blown away, with high-performance Lotuses and TVRs in this one, and I even get bullied for most of the first lap by a fat Jaguar saloon! But yet again I snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a daring 3-wide move at the Trial Mountain hairpin - how long can Nancy keep pulling these Houdini-style great escapes to victory?!

Not much longer, as it goes. Japanese National 3 is where we finally come unstuck again, but not after giving a great account of ourselves in coming home 2nd behind the lead RX-7 - once again it's the Nissan you wouldn't expect leading the way, as Sunny beats Skyline?! :dunce:

My record now stands at 16-3, with game completion at 10.04% so far (that includes all license tests complete). And this great win streak (ten races on the bounce) means I've amassed a tasty 84,000 credits to spend on Nancy! :cool:

This promptly gets spent on a Triple Plate Clutch, Carbon Propeller Shaft, Sports Brakes, F/C Suspension, Racing Muffler, Stage 2 Turbo, Engine Balancing/Port Grinding, and Weight Reduction Stages 1 and 2.

So with 9,900 credits left over, Nancy now packs a whopping 370hp (up from 247hp), and is down in weight to 1159kg. No more being blasted past on the straights now eh? Watch out, big guns, we're coming to get you...:gtpflag:
 
Well, I speculated in the last post that this would be where I start going after the big guns, and Nancy is on FIRE now - usefully the amount of parts we have now means she can be equipped for several levels of races, 246hp/295hp/349hp and 394hp races are all competitive for us (except for one 295hp race...we'll get to that later). Which means wins are ahoy :D

A total of 21 of them as it goes, including all of the National 3s - Japanese, US, British and German - and some of the other Special Events - 3-race sweeps of the Luxury 4-Door Cup, Muscle Car Cup, Global Compact Car Cup, World Open Car Cup and Wagon Cup. Nancy is flying, and with some extra tuning I'm starting to learn the nuances of setup changes. I've only been playing GT games since 2001, so it's taken me long enough :dunce:

So I approach the Historic Car Cup with confidence, taking a good win in race 3 (394hp limit) and beating out a Cobra Daytona Coupe in the process in a great battle. So take some parts off, and drop down into race 2 (295hp) limit, I'm feeling confident.

Until I see it. Alongside me on the final row of the grid. THE CHEATER.

Yup, it's everyone's favourite party pooper - the GT40. A car which shouldn't even be in this race (305hp+ in a 295hp race - SERIOUSLY PD?!) and drives like a slot car even in the biblically stupid PD AI's hands. I get a great launch and drive away into the lead and feel hopeful as he's still negotiating traffic - only to see him come out of NOWHERE to barge up the inside of me halfway round the lap, and proceed to sod off :(

I do manage to just about hang with him though, and the final margin of 1.3 seconds is a bit of a misnomer, only coming as I biffed the wall off the final corner and gave some speed advantage. The gap was more under 1 second for most of the race. Perhaps some slick tires and a little more HP tweaking to get as close to the HP limit as possible is the way to go? Either way, this could become a real bogey race for me and Nancy - as it has been for many players down the years. Good job PD - note sarcasm 👎

Anyway, my record now stands at 37-4 very impressive so far from Nancy! And this 21-race win streak means I've amassed some serious bounty - with the sales of prizecars factored in, my wallet is bulging to the tune of 508,000 credits!! :wow: Just think of all the parts we can get with that money Nancy...Nancy?! Wait, what's happening?!?!

NANCY IS EVOLVING!!

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With all that money I've been able to max out the upgrades, so Brake Balance Controller, all compounds of racing slick tires (+ dirt tires, for tilts at rally stages later), Turbo Stage 3 and Weight Reduction Stage 3 and the all-important Racing Modifications are here! Nancy is looking ready for battle! I will buy another Nissan Sunny identical in spec to this one for races where I'll want to run it in non-racing modification spec, i.e. endurance races or so forth, and keep it stock.

For now though...hey GT40? Would you like to play a game?
 
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Great write up, the one thing I would have done differently though, is only buy enough modifications to see you get the wins, so instead of buying 150bhp of goodies in one hit, I would buy one part at a time and re-race until you get the win, and carry on as usual until you get stuck - buy another mod, re race. Thats what I have found myself doing on GT6 recently :D
 
Lexijag
This thread is awesome! Keep it up :)
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Thanks! I was wondering if anyone would notice it, or if I truly was the last man standing in the GT2 forums :P Glad you're enjoying it so far! Currently I'm distracted by my GT5 Suzuka 1000km report (live here), but I will get back to it soon - Project Pulsar is nowhere near done yet :mischievous:

cally-dave
Great write up, the one thing I would have done differently though, is only buy enough modifications to see you get the wins, so instead of buying 150bhp of goodies in one hit, I would buy one part at a time and re-race until you get the win, and carry on as usual until you get stuck - buy another mod, re race. Thats what I have found myself doing on GT6 recently :D
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You're probably right, in hindsight. I was playing it how I used to back in the day - just spend all the money I had at once on upgrades, and I think I didn't quite realise just how much money I'd amass in one 'streak' of wins 💡

But I'm tempted to try that in a future run - I like doing 'rags to riches' stories so I might do this with another starter car. I also have a stock Pulsar GTI-R (same colour and everything!) as Nancy bought, so it can be used for races like the Trial Mountain 30 Laps endurance - Nancy in her current race-ready state would just be overkill :lol:
 
I Started Doing something exactly like this a while back. I haven't gotten around to playing GT2 that much lately, Maybe I'll continue!
My goal wasn't just to see how far i could get, but to fill my whole garage with the model of car i used.

Yep, 100 CRXs, not really sure why, but why not? :D
 
Nancy will be returning! University deadlines meant I kinda went away from GT for a while. But I'm back. Been coming back to this damn game for over 10 years now, I'll never leave it alone :P
 
...you thought I'd left again, didn't you?

...well, I kinda did, university and then being a grown up post university got in the way...bah. BUT IM BACK!! AGAIN!!

Seriously, how many comebacks is this now?! :dunce:

ANYWAY. The adventures of Nancy and Project Pulsar WILL BE CONTINUING! Stay right here and watch this space, folks...
 

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