What is your "test track"?

  • Thread starter Thread starter RikkiGT-R
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The Nurburgring is way too long for detailed testing, its far too easy to make a mistake and ruin your laptime and it takes forever. It also focuses mostly on a setup which can handle bumps with good turn in and acceleration, which isn't necessarily a great way to setup your car for your average track.
I can see why people would use the 'ring to try out a car however, but to test it and tune it, its too long.

Suzuka became a staple from Prologue and it represents a good balance to create a good average of setups if you aren't keen on creating lots of track-specific setups or looking for a good base to work from with only minor tweaks. Because Suzuka features some fairly lengthy straights as well as important corner combinations and slow and fast speed stuff, a good setup there usually works well anywhere.

I'd have to say Le Mans is the worst track to test on because it is completely unique and almost entirely suits cars which can reach high corners speeds with the help of downforce. Everything else is too slow to really maximise setups at this track and you don't really learn much about your car except its high speed performance...which is only useful at Le Mans. At least developing a setup for the Nuburgring should give a decent street circuit setup, whereas a Le Mans setup wouldn't even work at Daytona or Indy.

Fuji is by far the best for ironing out stability issues and learning some consistencey with a car. You will learn everything at this track! Bar bumpy tracks, if you manage to get a very stable setup at Fuji, it will be very stable everywhere else!
 
I like Trial Mountain. It seems the easiest for me to remember how my car performed each turn on the past setup which is what tuning is all about, comparison. I know a lot of the tracks just as well, I just seem to lose memory of how I performed in that particular turn before for some reason.
 
Tsukuba ,cause I know what times a certain car with certain tires should do there.
For more detailed results I use Grand Valley cause time differences are greater as it is a longer track and it has been my favorite since GT1. :)
 
The one and only Trial mountain.
I have been using it as my "Test Track"
since GT2!
Those were good times...:)👍
 
Ardius
The Nurburgring is way too long for detailed testing, its far too easy to make a mistake and ruin your laptime and it takes forever. It also focuses mostly on a setup which can handle bumps with good turn in and acceleration, which isn't necessarily a great way to setup your car for your average track.
I can see why people would use the 'ring to try out a car however, but to test it and tune it, its too long.
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Ahh, true, however, the reason I use it as my test track is because I can "feel" if my car is tuned correctly or not in a short amount of time, because while the track is long, it compacts all types of things in a relatively short amount of time. The first 1.5-2 mins of the track until the first hairpin in the first sector (such as in the AMG Challenges, just that first sector) compiles many great things that can't be seen in their entirety on other tracks. I don't need to run a full lap to see if my car is running better or not.
 
Ardius
Fuji is by far the best for ironing out stability issues and learning some consistencey with a car. You will learn everything at this track! Bar bumpy tracks, if you manage to get a very stable setup at Fuji, it will be very stable everywhere else!
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I actually detest Fuji. It reminds me of the old F1 track in Buenos Aires - really twisty and complicated to a point where it was almost impossible to find a racing line, or any kind of rhythm. Some of the corners in the final section seem to go on forever, to a point where I'll just release the steering and drive into the nearest wall in frustration. :dopey:
 
P3nT4gR4m
Straight to the Nordschleife for anything other than a race-tuned car - those go to HSR then on to Suzuka.

The ring has pretty much everything a car might encounter, corner-wise. I get a good feel for strengths/weaknesses by doing a couple of laps there.
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Off topic : I hate the bug on your avatar! Just kidding. I thought there was one on my screen.
 
I use Grand Vally. It has a decently long front stretch that I use to test my brake balance, as well as a great variety in turns and a decent elevation change. The 'ring might have more to offer, but I can run two laps at Grand Vally, work on my tune, and do another lap or two faster than I could get around the 'ring.
 
Cape ring is awesom to try your suspension, top speed, downforce and braking. Nordschleife - to feel the car, what it can and how it is overall. Top Gear test track for fun and I've created a track in Toscana, like it. Lots of speed, corners and heights
 
The problem with Tsukuba is it's lack of high speed turns, so it's not really a good gauge of a car's overall cornering ability, but it is an excellent track for tuning for low speed. Nordschieffe would be the best test track, but for me it's just too long and I'm not consistent enough with it.

So I use Grand Valley for tuning/testing, it has a good mix of high speed and tight low speed sections, I particularly like the downhill esses. That section will seperate the diamonds from the rough.
 
Just curious where people take their cars to test them after modifying them. Personally, I like to do the Super Car run at Daytona on Pro level, as it has some (weak) competition and it's a quick $20k. The back stretch is long enough to get a good run up so you can see what the car can do, and the curves aren't so tight as to significantly slow you down. As for corners, the Tsukuba (sic?) track is a nice short one with three hairpins, so I'll usually hit that.
 
my favorite and test track is

Nurburgring GP/F ... love everthing about that track best rack ever in the history of the GRAn Turismo series:yuck:
 
I usually test a car at Laguna Seca before I ever race it. Or if I've got a car just for one race series I'll hit up those tracks to perfect the setup for each track.
 

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