Area E? What about Areas A through D you ask? Well, heh, I guess I got my ideas coming in the wrong order lately. The grand plan to restart GT3 from scratch was hatched a few days before the idea of blogging the project, and I've already completed the first four Arcade Areas in the game. It's a pity in a way - there were some pretty nice races in there, and I did actually consider redoing them for the sake of blog completeness, but.. nah.

So anyway, on with the show. Here's Area E, all set out nicely, despite the vaguaries of the rather suspect GS WYSIWYG Editor. You work with what ya got, eh?

Race 25 | SS Route 11 | Viper GTS-R Team Oreca

Ah, Route 11 - how I missed this awesome technical track in GT4. And how unready I was for it! First run through I managed a third behind the screaming 787B and the Zonda Race Car. This served to remind me of the track layout and left me primed for a rematch.

Gotta admit I was a bit concerned, but as it turns out I managed to beat out the 787 with a best lap of 1'47.96. Plenty of room for improvement, but it was nice to feel the track knowledge slowly coming back.

9'17.140 Viper GTS-R Team Oreca (1'47.960)
9'18.137 787B
9'20.308 Zonda Race Car
9'21.873 Viper GTS-R Team Oreca
9'25.003 Vertigo Race Car
--'--.--- GT40 Race Car

Race 26 | Deep Forest II | NSX Type S Zero

No problems here really, but God I'm rusty! A spinout after the back straight on lap 2 saw my NSX Type S Zero passed by the second and third placed Corvette Grand Sport and Supra RZ, but it wasn't much trouble to pass them up again, particularly due to the awful lines the AI take through the two tunnels.

7'21.692 NSX Type S Zero (1'24.727)
7'23.540 Corvette Grand Sport
7'24.311 Supra RZ
7'26.168 Mazda RX-8
7'27.663 Lancer Evolution VI GSR
7'30.273 3000GT VR-4 Turbo

Race 27 | SS Route 5 II | Denso Sard Supra GT

An absolute walkover. Usually you expect JGTC races to be fairly close, but this was not one of those. I hit third place by the first turn, and slid into first right after the double chicane. Kinda disappointing, but it was still nice to be back at Route 5, one of my fav GT3 tracks. I'll make a note here to come back and retry this one at Professional level.

6'45.582 Denso Sard Supra GT (1'18.693)
6'55.821 Castrol Tom's Supra GT
6'57.804 XJ220 Race Car
6'57.958 Calsonic Skyline
6'58.549 Castrol Mugen NSX
6'59.734 Falcon XR8 Race Car

Race 28 | Seattle II | S2000 Type V

After repeated unsuccessful attempts in the Corvette C5R (against the GT-One and R390) and then in an Alto Works (damn you New Beetle!), this one was far too easy in the Honda. Gotta love the chassis on the little S2K - it handles like a wet dream.

9'31.140 S2000 Type V (1'52.389)
9'37.140 S2000 Type V
9'39.925 Integra Type R 98 Spec
9'41.851 200SX
9'42.510 Legacy Touring Wagon GT-B
9'44.035 Silvia K's S13

Race 29 | Cote d'Azur | Impreza WRX STi

This race was run pretty much solo, aside from the obligatory argy bargy at the first turn. The nimble little Impreza just eats up this track, which is not something you can say about the AI at Monte Carlo, regardless of what they're driving. This has to be my fav track of all the GT3 courses, and I immediately fell back into the Cote d'Azur 'zone', repeatedly realising I was actually thinking of other things while the car seemingly drove itself. That's a nice place to be.

9'37.038 Impreza WRX STi (1'53.489)
9'42.560 Skyline R33
9'43.437 NSX Type R
9'48.133 3000GT VR-4 Turbo
9'48.527 300ZX
9'49.901 Lancer Evolution IV GSR

All in all, a pretty tough Area, especially those C5R races. Prizes forthcoming were the Ruf RGT (yay!), Tuscan Speed 6 (hohum), Esperante GTR-1 (it'll do for now) and the mighty Nissan R390 GT1. Not a bad haul.

Back To Introduction | On To Arcade Area F