- 1,051
- London
- JohnsonCapote
Okay, well I wasn't initially going to report this race as it was done to simply warm me up for bigger challenges, but after having one of the most thrilling battles I can ever remember, I feel I HAVE to share this with you in full. So take a second to sit back and enjoy this bite-size race report from:
GRAN TURISMO
ALL STARS: RACE 2
at
Special Stage Route 5
(The usual thanks for AMG for the track map.)
My car for this race was my humble [R]Audi S4, which I'd dragged out of retirement and was warming up for some future enduro assaults:
Car: 1998 Audi S4 [R]
Engine: 2.7L V6 DOHC
Horsepower: 496hp
Weight: 1289kg
Drivetrain: 4WD
Tyres: Super-Softs all round.
Up against the following grid of some of the very best the Gran Turismo universe could offer:
1. 1997 Nissan R390GT1
2. 1998 Lotus Elise GT1
3. 1995 Venturi Atlantique 600LM
4. 1992 Jaguar XJ220 GT Race Car (wow, as opposed to what - a lawnmower or something?!
)
5. 1999 Dodge Viper GTS-R Team Oreca
So, not expecting much on my return to full-on competitive racing (having spent the last few months messing around in starter cars), I tensed in readiness for the start, unaware of the five laps of mayhem to come...
Laps 1-5
I got a half-decent start on the Viper next to me, and hung tough with it and the Jaguar through the first few corners. I swarm the back bumper of the Jaguar from corner to corner, before sneaking by at the T9 hairpin and holding it off for the rest of the lap, where it blatted past along the never-ending front stretch. I was quickly back by through the T1 tunnel, and was flung straight into a furious dogfight going on between the Elise, Viper and Venturi - and boy were they going at it! I felt like I was in the middle of a pack of wild dogs! I ground past the Venturi through T7 and 8, before he stuck the nose in and went to pass again in the T9 hairpin - as I was making a move on the Viper!!
Somehow fenders ground and banged and I made it out the other side, before chasing down the Lotus through the esses and slithering up the inside out of the long final turn! 
Time for defensive mode once again along the straight, but once again it was useless - the Lotus, Dodge and Venturi both swept by effortlessly, with the Lotus and the Dodge going either side of me to make it 3-wide once more! Christ guys, which one of you has the deathwish?!?


The pendulum swung back to me as soon as everyone hit the brakes, though, and I repaid the favour by shooting the gap between the Lotus and the Dodge through the T1 tunnel. Then came a furious skirmish with the Venturi, with the Dodge in hot pursuit still - the sod just won't give up! I clear the Venturi down at the T9 hairpin, and a nice flat run through the T12 complex puts the R390GT1 in sight at last. Well, not for long - someone leans on the fast forward button off the final turn, and he disappears from view, as once again I'm swarmed by a hungry pack of motorised piranhas!
By now the Lotus and Jaguar have faded, but the terrible trio of my Audi, the suicidal Dodge and the persistant Venturi are now ganging up on the hapless Nissan! I sweep round the OUTSIDE of the Venturi and Dodge off of T6, and my new-found bravery means I pull off the perfect divebomb move on the leading Nissan! He seems so stunned that he's just been passed by a repmobile that he swiftly looses 2nd to the Viper too! I swear I must've done something to annoy that Dodge, as he just WON'T let me get away!!
One lap to go then, and this time the Dodge bump-drafts me down the front stretch before he, the Venturi and the Nissan once again swoop by. For the final time, we pile into T1 like one big swarm of angry wasps, and I somehow emerge on the other side back in the lead once again! Now the tension rises, as I have to somehow put enough distance between me and the relentless Dodge before the dreaded final straight. No matter what I did, throwing my Audi through the corners at speeds a four-door saloon was never made to go, the white-and-blue shape didn't leave my rear mirror. Like some sort of four-wheeled Terminator, it just kept coming.
I fly through the final T12 complex and catch a bit of understeer through T13, just nudging the wall coming off. Now my heart is racing faster than my Audi's engine. Where is he? Where is he?!
Here he comes. He feints to the left, then gives my back bumper a barge before swinging right. Surely I've not got enough left?! I move to block, but his nose is already there! Door panels grind desperately and the engines scream to a crescendo - just a little bit further Audi, you can do it!!!
0.017s.The distance between victory and second place was just 0.017s.
I'd snatched the unlikeliest of victories by about the same time it takes to blink.
Now you see why I just HAD to share this all with you.
My previous closest ever finish was 0.043s, in a fantastic nail-biting last-corner dash in the Turbo Car Cup at Test Course.But this was something else. It's taken me half an hour, a cold shower and a cup of tea to calm down after the finish to this one. What a brilliant race.
Thanks for reading guys, I hope you enjoyed it
And one last thing - feel free to share in this thread YOUR thrilling finish stories as well. I'd love to hear them, and see whether my 0.017s finish is some sort of GT2 record...I doubt it is, but I'm not going to go back and attempt to beat it!
Haha!
Cheers again folks. Now, time for the rest of the GT All-Stars...
GRAN TURISMO
ALL STARS: RACE 2
at
Special Stage Route 5

(The usual thanks for AMG for the track map.)
My car for this race was my humble [R]Audi S4, which I'd dragged out of retirement and was warming up for some future enduro assaults:
Car: 1998 Audi S4 [R]
Engine: 2.7L V6 DOHC
Horsepower: 496hp
Weight: 1289kg
Drivetrain: 4WD
Tyres: Super-Softs all round.
Up against the following grid of some of the very best the Gran Turismo universe could offer:
1. 1997 Nissan R390GT1
2. 1998 Lotus Elise GT1
3. 1995 Venturi Atlantique 600LM
4. 1992 Jaguar XJ220 GT Race Car (wow, as opposed to what - a lawnmower or something?!
5. 1999 Dodge Viper GTS-R Team Oreca
So, not expecting much on my return to full-on competitive racing (having spent the last few months messing around in starter cars), I tensed in readiness for the start, unaware of the five laps of mayhem to come...
Laps 1-5
I got a half-decent start on the Viper next to me, and hung tough with it and the Jaguar through the first few corners. I swarm the back bumper of the Jaguar from corner to corner, before sneaking by at the T9 hairpin and holding it off for the rest of the lap, where it blatted past along the never-ending front stretch. I was quickly back by through the T1 tunnel, and was flung straight into a furious dogfight going on between the Elise, Viper and Venturi - and boy were they going at it! I felt like I was in the middle of a pack of wild dogs! I ground past the Venturi through T7 and 8, before he stuck the nose in and went to pass again in the T9 hairpin - as I was making a move on the Viper!!
Time for defensive mode once again along the straight, but once again it was useless - the Lotus, Dodge and Venturi both swept by effortlessly, with the Lotus and the Dodge going either side of me to make it 3-wide once more! Christ guys, which one of you has the deathwish?!?
The pendulum swung back to me as soon as everyone hit the brakes, though, and I repaid the favour by shooting the gap between the Lotus and the Dodge through the T1 tunnel. Then came a furious skirmish with the Venturi, with the Dodge in hot pursuit still - the sod just won't give up! I clear the Venturi down at the T9 hairpin, and a nice flat run through the T12 complex puts the R390GT1 in sight at last. Well, not for long - someone leans on the fast forward button off the final turn, and he disappears from view, as once again I'm swarmed by a hungry pack of motorised piranhas!
By now the Lotus and Jaguar have faded, but the terrible trio of my Audi, the suicidal Dodge and the persistant Venturi are now ganging up on the hapless Nissan! I sweep round the OUTSIDE of the Venturi and Dodge off of T6, and my new-found bravery means I pull off the perfect divebomb move on the leading Nissan! He seems so stunned that he's just been passed by a repmobile that he swiftly looses 2nd to the Viper too! I swear I must've done something to annoy that Dodge, as he just WON'T let me get away!!
One lap to go then, and this time the Dodge bump-drafts me down the front stretch before he, the Venturi and the Nissan once again swoop by. For the final time, we pile into T1 like one big swarm of angry wasps, and I somehow emerge on the other side back in the lead once again! Now the tension rises, as I have to somehow put enough distance between me and the relentless Dodge before the dreaded final straight. No matter what I did, throwing my Audi through the corners at speeds a four-door saloon was never made to go, the white-and-blue shape didn't leave my rear mirror. Like some sort of four-wheeled Terminator, it just kept coming.
I fly through the final T12 complex and catch a bit of understeer through T13, just nudging the wall coming off. Now my heart is racing faster than my Audi's engine. Where is he? Where is he?!
Here he comes. He feints to the left, then gives my back bumper a barge before swinging right. Surely I've not got enough left?! I move to block, but his nose is already there! Door panels grind desperately and the engines scream to a crescendo - just a little bit further Audi, you can do it!!!

0.017s.The distance between victory and second place was just 0.017s.
I'd snatched the unlikeliest of victories by about the same time it takes to blink.
Now you see why I just HAD to share this all with you.
My previous closest ever finish was 0.043s, in a fantastic nail-biting last-corner dash in the Turbo Car Cup at Test Course.But this was something else. It's taken me half an hour, a cold shower and a cup of tea to calm down after the finish to this one. What a brilliant race.
Thanks for reading guys, I hope you enjoyed it
And one last thing - feel free to share in this thread YOUR thrilling finish stories as well. I'd love to hear them, and see whether my 0.017s finish is some sort of GT2 record...I doubt it is, but I'm not going to go back and attempt to beat it!
Cheers again folks. Now, time for the rest of the GT All-Stars...
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