Top Gear Test Track

  • Thread starter j8mie
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“…they were in England to map out and chart the Top Gear test track for inclusion in the next, even more realistic version.”

We all saw the TG test track in the E3 trailer; they had already done that for GT5. To me "the next, even more realistic version" sounds like Gran Turismo 6
 
IsmokeGT
Im not even impressed with their track. Do you guys want it just because its on TV? there are a lot of tracks that are a lot better than that on.

As for "the stig," I watched him crash a CCX, so either the CCX sucks or he sucks.
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I don't want to harp on this, but the statement is just rather incredible and I can't help but notice that he sounds a bit like Nomino. :banghead:

888 Tuning
Do your research.. the car sucks. I thought that was common knowledge.
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Just... :irked:
 
Now to go to answer a question from earlier, concerning races on the circuit. From "The Big Book of Top Gear" (a bit childish, but a good laugh):
Why don't you do races on the track?
The Top Gear test track is a figure of eight, which makes it impossible to do any sort of meaningful race in qhich the cars might become separated, otherwise there'd be an almighty accident. If we want to have a proper race we use the lesser spotted 'short circuit' which employs only the top part of the track, but it's not as good as the full layout so we rarely bother.
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Now, GT4 had for Motegi the full course, the INDYCAR oval (I call it that because that is all it gets used for), and the west and east short courses. The west course was pretty useless, but you could still race there. GT5 may feature a full track (time-trial) and the short course for racing.
Pure speculation, but it explains how one could hold races at the test track.
 
IsmokeGT, now I am curious, what are you looking for in GT5? You don't want the Top Gear test track? Why not? I fully understand that people sometimes aren't drawn into the sub-society that is the TG community, but surely a circuit designed for testing cars on an even footing would be favourable to say, Suzuka East, which is simply an shortened version of Suzuka. And one cannot argue that Suzuka East has more worth due to it being a real track, as the Top Gear test track is real as well. What do you hold against Top Gear? Was it the US special?
That comment was a joke, do not take offense.
 
senamic
IsmokeGT, now I am curious, what are you looking for in GT5? You don't want the Top Gear test track? Why not? I fully understand that people sometimes aren't drawn into the sub-society that is the TG community, but surely a circuit designed for testing cars on an even footing would be favourable to say, Suzuka East, which is simply an shortened version of Suzuka. And one cannot argue that Suzuka East has more worth due to it being a real track, as the Top Gear test track is real as well. What do you hold against Top Gear? Was it the US special?
That comment was a joke, do not take offense.
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Don't take that back, those of us who watch Top Gear most likely found humor in the US Special, I sure as hell did. 👍

In my opinion, if you take offense to anything Jeremy says you shouldn't even be watching TG to begin with. As for the fool above, I fail to see how wanting a power track in a racing game makes one a fanboy.
 
IsmokeGT
Im not even impressed with their track. Do you guys want it just because its on TV? there are a lot of tracks that are a lot better than that on.

As for "the stig," I watched him crash a CCX, so either the CCX sucks or he sucks.
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I think their track is impressive, very technical, with long straights, and combined with sweeping slow corners.

As for your comment on the Stig, does it really matter? Even Fernando Alonso was impressed with the Stig's skills.
 
Torero82
“…they were in England to map out and chart the Top Gear test track for inclusion in the next, even more realistic version.”

We all saw the TG test track in the E3 trailer; they had already done that for GT5. To me "the next, even more realistic version" sounds like Gran Turismo 6
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GT4 took 4 years, GT5 has taken 5 years, GT6 may not even come. GT5 will be so huge that it will never get old and boring.
 
senamic
Now to go to answer a question from earlier, concerning races on the circuit. From "The Big Book of Top Gear" (a bit childish, but a good laugh):

Now, GT4 had for Motegi the full course, the INDYCAR oval (I call it that because that is all it gets used for), and the west and east short courses. The west course was pretty useless, but you could still race there. GT5 may feature a full track (time-trial) and the short course for racing.
Pure speculation, but it explains how one could hold races at the test track.
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Good point you have there. I wouldn't be suprised if the TGTT came with multiple layouts. It would make more sense as well.

As for Ismoke, you really like starting arguments don't you?:ouch:
 
To all you guys reading between JC's lines (what's not there):

JC never mentions WHEN this encounter with Yamauchi-san happened. Could have been last year for all we know. That would perfectly explain why we have known for months that the TG-Test Track will be in GT5. (TG themselves claimed that way back)

For JC, the "next even more realistic version" of GT, for sure is GT5. Not GT6, not GT27, ok?!

The fact that Yamauchi happened to be in England for Goodwood recently might just as well be a coincidence. Hey, maybe JC met him there again and was reminded of this story when he had to deliver a column for the Times. Nothing so mysterious about that.
 
snowgt
To all you guys reading between JC's lines (what's not there):

JC never mentions WHEN this encounter with Yamauchi-san happened. Could have been last year for all we know. That would perfectly explain why we have known for months that the TG-Test Track will be in GT5. (TG themselves claimed that way back)

For JC, the "next even more realistic version" of GT, for sure is GT5. Not GT6, not GT27, ok?!

The fact that Yamauchi happened to be in England for Goodwood recently might just as well be a coincidence. Hey, maybe JC met him there again and was reminded of this story when he had to deliver a column for the Times. Nothing so mysterious about that.
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You didn't read the full article, did you?
And that’s why, later in the day, when I was approached by a group of Japanese people, I never gave my slogan a second thought.

It turned out they were there from the company that makes the incredible Gran Turismo computer racing game, and they were in England to map out and chart the Top Gear test track for inclusion in the next, even more realistic version. Of course, it was very important that I met the boss.
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McLaren
And you can drive a 800Hp RWD car around better?

Oh really? How so?
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Well, the car has a lot of problems downforce wise, thats also why they made 2 runs in TG. You should watch the episode (if you heavent seen it so far), but saying it "sucks" is also not right, the car is still great, but not perfect (like all hypercars, the Veyron has a lot more failures for example).
 
I have to ask, and this may just be a regional thing, but why do people keep saying you can't race on the Top Gear track because it is a figure eight?

When I was younger my dad used to take me out to Louisville Motor Speedway every Saturday night for the figure-eight racing. Ovals were on Fridays and figure-eights were Saturdays. They had multiple heats of about 10-20 cars (small track) and then the podium finishers were in the last race of the night.

Heck, one time they even opened the season at an indoor arena with monster trucks there too. Between that and once at the main LMS track I have even seen monster trucks race in figure-eights, where they jumped the cars over the middle, making a collision extremely dangerous. They even had them race in opposing directions to make it more dangerous.

Was it dangerous? Yes. Was it awesome? Yes.

So, please excuse me if it seems odd to everyone else when I say: I want to race on Top Gear's track because it is a figure-eight. Figure-eight racing is what got me first interested in racing.

You Tube to the rescue:

This is why I love racing, this is why I picked up Gran Turismo, this is why I am on GTPlanet, this is why I drive 8 hours to watch Petit Le Mans.
 
Figure Eight races could work yes, but hell no with LMP cars. :lol:

I think i remember Yamauchi mentioned, ~2 years ago in an interview, that there will be dirt racing and midget cars, i dont know how true this is though.
If we get stock cars (and i dont mean NASCARs), then it would be possible.
 
G.T.Ace
Figure Eight races could work yes, but hell no with LMP cars. :lol:
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Well, no. It would be small compacts, but if there were no racing purely because of the figure-eight layout I would personally be disappointed. I understand why Top Gear doesn't do it. Most of the cars they use are too nice to risk it. Figure-eight cars are wrecks from the oval series, and then a figure-eight wreck gets an opportunity to run in the couple demolition derbys they hold each year.

If damage is implemented in all cars then it seems fitting for a figure-eight race.

Also, if we can race it online, I think punters will have a place that they can love away from our more serious races.

I think i remember Yamauchi mentioned, ~2 years ago in an interview, that there will be dirt racing and midget cars, i dont know how true this is though.
If we get stock cars (and i dont mean NASCARs), then it would be possible.
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It really would be awesome if they incorporated some of the small localized racing forms you find in rural areas. Even Top Gear has gone and done field racing.
 
I appreciate almost all real life racing series, so im with you.
I found the Dirt races in ToCA RD3 cool too, i love the look speed and sound (..please PD do them right at least once) of sprint cars etc. 8)

But i believe we will see the TGTT in GT5 only for time trials, license tests and/or special events, similar to the Ghymkana parcour in GT4.
 
Figrue 8 races would be cool, but I doubt they will make it into GT5 somehow. That said, the TGTT (in the format used in the programme anyway) poses an issue even as a "rally" circuit - it has one point where the track crosses over a previous line (after the 'Follow-through') and a point where the same part of the track is used twice (entry into 'Chicago' and 'Bentley'). Presumably this will make it impossible to use invisible walls? Here's a map I made (don't worry, I was doing it for something else anyway ;) ) to illustrate the point...

tgtt800whole2.jpg

So it will be interesting to see how the track is laid out and how they deal with the crossover points anyway. I would have thought that, although other layouts are possible, PD will try to have the track as faithful to the TV format as possible - given their notable attention to detail and faithfulness in replicating other real-life tracks (both in appearance and purpose).
 
Yeah, that's definitely different than the figure-eight I am used to. I wasn't picturing it in my head correctly, and was thinking of an intersection more like the crossed lanes where turn 3 is located.

I apologize for the confusion, but I think I have seen maybe a total of 20 full episodes as I don't get BBC America on my local cable and refuse to torrent them.
 
it will most likely only be for time trials. like you said, they want it to look the same as in real life and the purpose to be the same. the purpose of that full track is for time trial-ing. for racing i amsure they will have the short course.
 
Well theres a lot we can get from this, for instance the track with the lmp1 cars, might have not been the top gear track, OR they only got a little done and showed us that, how long do you think it takes to make a track? hopefully they will be releasing this game in 09. I thought that when he said the next even more realistic game, I imagined GT6. Clarkson either thought that we didn't know anything about GT5, and thought he gave us the heads up. OR he is reffering to GT6. Anyway, GT6 is likely to come, I hope this franchise NEVER finishes.
 
He likely refers to GT5. After all, it's not even released yet. How can “the next, even more realistic version.” refer to GT6, when GT5 has not even been released? It just doesn't make sense to me.
 
FoolKiller
Yeah, that's definitely different than the figure-eight I am used to. I wasn't picturing it in my head correctly, and was thinking of an intersection more like the crossed lanes where turn 3 is located.

I apologize for the confusion, but I think I have seen maybe a total of 20 full episodes as I don't get BBC America on my local cable and refuse to torrent them.
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Can't you watch BBC I-player..likely not because of where you are I guess? I was in Italy the weekend and missed Moto GP and TG but will watch on I-Player after work.
 
PAPPACLART
Can't you watch BBC I-player..likely not because of where you are I guess? I was in Italy the weekend and missed Moto GP and TG but will watch on I-Player after work.
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This is what those of us not in the UK get.

iplayer.jpg
 
FoolKiller
This is what those of us not in the UK get.

iplayer.jpg
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Shame!

As a BBC licence payer who rarely gets his monies worth, would it be bad if I torrented them for you and then allowed you to upload them from me via an FTP client? Take it as an extension of my living room ;-)
 
G.T.Ace
Well, the car has a lot of problems downforce wise, thats also why they made 2 runs in TG. You should watch the episode (if you heavent seen it so far), but saying it "sucks" is also not right, the car is still great, but not perfect (like all hypercars, the Veyron has a lot more failures for example).
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I'm fully aware of the downforce problems, but I don't see how that makes the car suck. That's merely 1 con. most owners will never see.
 
Who knows what PD has up there sleeve, but why would they show us two cars on the track and then just use it for one car time trials?
 

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