My Diaries

A Lurid Tale of Obsession, Depravity, Wits and Attempted Wit

Mon Jul 19, 1999

Life Beyond Gran Turismo

If you concentrate on spending less time playing Gran Turismo, you really can get more done.

Saturday I finally began the process of looking for a new real car, but that was somewhat discouraging. Auto makers and dealers seem to be conspiring to no longer sell the sort of useful small cars that I like.

Saturday night I decided to go to bed early, having played none since Friday, and was able to get up at 6:00am. I got on my bicycle shortly after 7, and went for a little spin to Fergus and back (about 75km total) and got some much needed exercise.

The trouble is, Gran Turismo can produce some of the same endorphins as physically exercise, but without the real benefits.

I got back on Sunday at about 11am, and there was still a lot of the day left.

I decided to drive the NSX-R LM GT2 (Honda special model) some more. I won the GT-I Cup with it, but with a little help from the best AI car which showed up--a Nismo GT-R LM; it placed first of the AI in all races except the last, where it dropped back a further place. Now, I only won three races, so if that had not happened, we would have tied, but instead I won 45 to 43.

I've definitely got the NSX-R LM GT2 in better form than when I lost the Grand Valley 300 with it, but it's still sort of weird. It's the only car with which I have a difficult time winning at the High Speed Ring, and that really gets the GT-I Cup off to a bad start. I won Trial Mountain, but went off on the first hairpin on the last lap of Grand Valley and had to settle for second. I won SSR5, but was glad to manage second at the dreaded Deep Forest. SSR11 was a relatively easy win.