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So I guess I'll have this double as a "race reports" or more appropriately "stream reports" section. I wonder if I'll use this gallery very often, but I'd like to give it a shot, seeing as how there's a lot of awesome potential shots I can capture in my races. Also, if you're expecting the super-talented photoshop "Oh my god it's amazing" skills, prepare to be sorely disappointed. I don't have ANY talent or knack for that. I'll also need to secure a good way to upload photos somewhere where they'll be able to stay up. Tumblr is a memory-vampire whenever I try to upload, but it'll have to do for now.
My first stream of the full game was wrought with a lot of "figuring things out". Skipping from room to room rarely yielded results, as everyone was either just futzing around or already deep into a 10+ lap race. Because of this, I turned to making my own room. As it turns out, all you need to do to get a bunch of people in your room in a flash is to label your room "Livestream!" and have it on a popular track. Within minutes, I had people pouring in and we ran a good race on the Tokyo Expressway with me losing a whole bunch of positions. This was a common trend, as I hadn't taken enough time to see exactly what sort of settings I could use for the rooms to make everything more balanced. I would want to do certain races, but lost a lot of people because they didn't want to.
I don't have a lot of pictures from the races of that first stream, so here's the first photo I took in the full-version of GT: Sport. This was the first car I got upon popping the disc in, after I already got all my cars from the beta on as well.
On YouTube, I'm known as "Thrasher The Black Stallion". Other than being an embarrassingly cringy name I came up with when I was an eleven year old wanting to rip off "Stryker" from Burnout 3 (and by extension the L.A. based modern rock station KROQ). The Black Stallion bit comes from "my first love" so to speak. I loved the 1999 Ford Mustang Cobra from Gran Turismo 2, and especially liked the 2000 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R that was introduced in GT3. This was one of my go-to cars in both GT3 and GT4, and always remains my favorite car in those games. Black was my favorite color when it came to cars, so I'd always imagine driving one in black instead of the Performance Red it always came in. Come Gran Turismo 5 and Gran Turismo 6, I was able to create the famed Black Stallion in a game, and it was sheer awesomeness in my mind. I loved the car, but there weren't very many times I used it because there were a lot more competitive cars that bested it (Namely, a midnight pearl NSX Type R I nicknamed "Veronica"). Its shining moment in the PS3 era was a battle for "not-last" with @rallymorten on his recreation of the Trial Mountain 2-hour Endurance from GT3.
Sadly though, this PS2-era car has run its course. The Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R hasn't been relevant for well-over 10 years, and when it was one of literally a thousand cars cut from the roster for GT: Sport, it needed a replacement.
Enter The Black Stallion II:
There's still some growing pains to getting used to the new car, but in time, I will have gotten the hang of it, much like its predecessor. I haven't given the base model an actual race online, but I did have some runs with the Gr. 4, Gr. 3, and Gr. B variants with mixed results.
The first part of my first full-version stream was pretty much going through the first line of missions and "driving school" tests, before I turned my attention to general lobbies. I registered as a Ford driver for the season to make up for the fact that I didn't have a Gr. 4 or Gr. 3 Mustang at the time. The first race at the Tokyo Expressway left my Gr. 3 Mustang dropping from the lead all the way down to 6th. The next race on the Nordschliefe with the Gr. 4 Mustang was a better race, but overall boring. In Colorado Springs, the Gr. B Mustang I had managed to claw its way to a second place finish, and our last race on Dragon Trail led to an unceremonious win in a road going version of the Gr. 3 Corvette.
About a week later, (tonight), I got the idea to modify my livery, since it was breast cancer awareness month. I did have a girlfriend (ex with whom I'm good terms with) who survived her bout with breast cancer, and while it may be cringy to do something commemorative in a video game, I figured it would be a good excuse to change up the livery a bit. Having all four Mustangs I could obtain through non-prize car means, I switched the colors from black, red, and "gold", to white and pink for those four cars, along with a (crude) pink ribbon on the quarter panels.
The first two races with the Gr. 4 Mustang ended with me being left far behind a buddy of mine in a McLaren 650S and another guy in a Porsche Cayman. This was before I figured that turning the boost and performance leveling off was going to end with me in the dust of both the drivers who upgraded their much more competitive cars. The Gr. 4 Mustang suffered two distant last place finishes, one on Willow Springs' Big Willow, and the other at Lago Maggiore.
In the Gr. 3 Mustang and with more balancing mechanics established, the racing was closer, more competitive, and more importantly, more fun. We also had a few more people join us. Lots of good battles were had. The crowing moment of awesome during my stream came towards the end of the race at Interlagos. My friend's AMG GT was already crossing the finish line, but going three-wide was my Mustang, a color-shift NSX, and a sticker bomb Beetle on the last corner of the last lap was exhilarating. Went from 4th to 2nd here. Reminded me of how Lewis Hamilton took the 2008 F1 World Championship from Massa that one time, only this time it wasn't raining.
Followed that up with yet another second place finish at Brands Hatch, thanks to the gentlemen in the sticker-bombed Beetle and the NSX biting off a little more than they could chew in the corners.
It was time for me to show off Group B, to which the others in the room didn't care for. As it turns out, they didn't like dirt tracks, and actually didn't have a Group B car yet. I gave them time to go and get one. Funny enough, they both got a Group B Nissan GT-R from their daily workout roulette. The track was Colorado Springs, which gave me a lot of flashbacks to Swiss Alps in GT3 and GT4. Another guy joined us driving a chrome NSX, and at the beginning of the race, it was easy to dispatch him as he took the first corner awfully wide. There's one corner on the back half of the track that most people seem to approach unwisely. It's a big right-handed banked turn that leads to a much narrower route among piles of lumber. People always underestimate exactly how much braking time they need and always sail right into the outside barrier. The key is to brake early, and then angle so you have a straight-shot into the narrowed pathway. I sailed past my friend in his solid gold GT-R and found myself sandwiched uncomfortably between two GT-Rs on a narrow track. Things got hairy.
One false step from the orange GT-R ahead of me, and like that, I was in the lead, and while the other GT-Rs were persistently in my rear-view mirror, neither of them got close enough to snag the win from me.
I don't know what it is about dirt tracks, but on those stages, I feel like I'm several levels more competent than I am on tarmac.
It was getting late. All but my friend and myself left the room, and I still wanted to run one more race before I wrapped up the stream. Part of it was also because Tokyo Expressway was the next track. I happen to like that track, despite having almost no passing room, but it brings back memories of SSR11 and Tokyo Xtreme Racer as well. It was a duel between my Mustang and my friend's gold GT-R. I started with the upper hand, and one little goof in one of the tunnels on the second lap had me trade some paint just as my friend was passing. He was about to give the position back up when I told him to go ahead and take it, since he would have been on track to pass me even if we didn't make contact. Another lap I spend right on his bumper trying to figure out where a good and safe passing point would be. Thankfully on one of the right hand corners, he had a habit of running wide, an opportunity I snagged easily. He gained on me and passed me on the last tunnel, but had a terrible line. He overcooked it, slammed onto the outside wall where I dove for the inside and eventually found ourselves running side-by-side having switched our original lanes from the approach.
This was the last sector of the last lap, and on the last straightaway, I had better exit speed, and took another victory.
This was a fun past night of streaming. It was a small, but solid group I ran with, and I look forward to more races with them in the future. My Stallions have gone back to their original regalia, so hopefully we'll have some awesome stories and pictures in the near future!
My first stream of the full game was wrought with a lot of "figuring things out". Skipping from room to room rarely yielded results, as everyone was either just futzing around or already deep into a 10+ lap race. Because of this, I turned to making my own room. As it turns out, all you need to do to get a bunch of people in your room in a flash is to label your room "Livestream!" and have it on a popular track. Within minutes, I had people pouring in and we ran a good race on the Tokyo Expressway with me losing a whole bunch of positions. This was a common trend, as I hadn't taken enough time to see exactly what sort of settings I could use for the rooms to make everything more balanced. I would want to do certain races, but lost a lot of people because they didn't want to.
I don't have a lot of pictures from the races of that first stream, so here's the first photo I took in the full-version of GT: Sport. This was the first car I got upon popping the disc in, after I already got all my cars from the beta on as well.
On YouTube, I'm known as "Thrasher The Black Stallion". Other than being an embarrassingly cringy name I came up with when I was an eleven year old wanting to rip off "Stryker" from Burnout 3 (and by extension the L.A. based modern rock station KROQ). The Black Stallion bit comes from "my first love" so to speak. I loved the 1999 Ford Mustang Cobra from Gran Turismo 2, and especially liked the 2000 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R that was introduced in GT3. This was one of my go-to cars in both GT3 and GT4, and always remains my favorite car in those games. Black was my favorite color when it came to cars, so I'd always imagine driving one in black instead of the Performance Red it always came in. Come Gran Turismo 5 and Gran Turismo 6, I was able to create the famed Black Stallion in a game, and it was sheer awesomeness in my mind. I loved the car, but there weren't very many times I used it because there were a lot more competitive cars that bested it (Namely, a midnight pearl NSX Type R I nicknamed "Veronica"). Its shining moment in the PS3 era was a battle for "not-last" with @rallymorten on his recreation of the Trial Mountain 2-hour Endurance from GT3.
Sadly though, this PS2-era car has run its course. The Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R hasn't been relevant for well-over 10 years, and when it was one of literally a thousand cars cut from the roster for GT: Sport, it needed a replacement.
Enter The Black Stallion II:
There's still some growing pains to getting used to the new car, but in time, I will have gotten the hang of it, much like its predecessor. I haven't given the base model an actual race online, but I did have some runs with the Gr. 4, Gr. 3, and Gr. B variants with mixed results.
The first part of my first full-version stream was pretty much going through the first line of missions and "driving school" tests, before I turned my attention to general lobbies. I registered as a Ford driver for the season to make up for the fact that I didn't have a Gr. 4 or Gr. 3 Mustang at the time. The first race at the Tokyo Expressway left my Gr. 3 Mustang dropping from the lead all the way down to 6th. The next race on the Nordschliefe with the Gr. 4 Mustang was a better race, but overall boring. In Colorado Springs, the Gr. B Mustang I had managed to claw its way to a second place finish, and our last race on Dragon Trail led to an unceremonious win in a road going version of the Gr. 3 Corvette.
About a week later, (tonight), I got the idea to modify my livery, since it was breast cancer awareness month. I did have a girlfriend (ex with whom I'm good terms with) who survived her bout with breast cancer, and while it may be cringy to do something commemorative in a video game, I figured it would be a good excuse to change up the livery a bit. Having all four Mustangs I could obtain through non-prize car means, I switched the colors from black, red, and "gold", to white and pink for those four cars, along with a (crude) pink ribbon on the quarter panels.
The first two races with the Gr. 4 Mustang ended with me being left far behind a buddy of mine in a McLaren 650S and another guy in a Porsche Cayman. This was before I figured that turning the boost and performance leveling off was going to end with me in the dust of both the drivers who upgraded their much more competitive cars. The Gr. 4 Mustang suffered two distant last place finishes, one on Willow Springs' Big Willow, and the other at Lago Maggiore.
In the Gr. 3 Mustang and with more balancing mechanics established, the racing was closer, more competitive, and more importantly, more fun. We also had a few more people join us. Lots of good battles were had. The crowing moment of awesome during my stream came towards the end of the race at Interlagos. My friend's AMG GT was already crossing the finish line, but going three-wide was my Mustang, a color-shift NSX, and a sticker bomb Beetle on the last corner of the last lap was exhilarating. Went from 4th to 2nd here. Reminded me of how Lewis Hamilton took the 2008 F1 World Championship from Massa that one time, only this time it wasn't raining.
Followed that up with yet another second place finish at Brands Hatch, thanks to the gentlemen in the sticker-bombed Beetle and the NSX biting off a little more than they could chew in the corners.
It was time for me to show off Group B, to which the others in the room didn't care for. As it turns out, they didn't like dirt tracks, and actually didn't have a Group B car yet. I gave them time to go and get one. Funny enough, they both got a Group B Nissan GT-R from their daily workout roulette. The track was Colorado Springs, which gave me a lot of flashbacks to Swiss Alps in GT3 and GT4. Another guy joined us driving a chrome NSX, and at the beginning of the race, it was easy to dispatch him as he took the first corner awfully wide. There's one corner on the back half of the track that most people seem to approach unwisely. It's a big right-handed banked turn that leads to a much narrower route among piles of lumber. People always underestimate exactly how much braking time they need and always sail right into the outside barrier. The key is to brake early, and then angle so you have a straight-shot into the narrowed pathway. I sailed past my friend in his solid gold GT-R and found myself sandwiched uncomfortably between two GT-Rs on a narrow track. Things got hairy.
One false step from the orange GT-R ahead of me, and like that, I was in the lead, and while the other GT-Rs were persistently in my rear-view mirror, neither of them got close enough to snag the win from me.
I don't know what it is about dirt tracks, but on those stages, I feel like I'm several levels more competent than I am on tarmac.
It was getting late. All but my friend and myself left the room, and I still wanted to run one more race before I wrapped up the stream. Part of it was also because Tokyo Expressway was the next track. I happen to like that track, despite having almost no passing room, but it brings back memories of SSR11 and Tokyo Xtreme Racer as well. It was a duel between my Mustang and my friend's gold GT-R. I started with the upper hand, and one little goof in one of the tunnels on the second lap had me trade some paint just as my friend was passing. He was about to give the position back up when I told him to go ahead and take it, since he would have been on track to pass me even if we didn't make contact. Another lap I spend right on his bumper trying to figure out where a good and safe passing point would be. Thankfully on one of the right hand corners, he had a habit of running wide, an opportunity I snagged easily. He gained on me and passed me on the last tunnel, but had a terrible line. He overcooked it, slammed onto the outside wall where I dove for the inside and eventually found ourselves running side-by-side having switched our original lanes from the approach.
This was the last sector of the last lap, and on the last straightaway, I had better exit speed, and took another victory.
This was a fun past night of streaming. It was a small, but solid group I ran with, and I look forward to more races with them in the future. My Stallions have gone back to their original regalia, so hopefully we'll have some awesome stories and pictures in the near future!
