My Diaries

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

Friday October 1, 1999

Race-Modified Toyota MA70 Supra Wins the Grand Valley 300!

The Toyota MA70 Supra GT Turbo Limited. I love this car. It was the one I drove in so many spot races trying to collect a few hundred dollars to allow me to get my next upgrade, etc. Then, when I got my B license, I used it to win enough Sunday Cups to finally buy my dream car; the TVR Cerbera. Later I found it in my garage, took all extraneous parts off (except the permanent weight-reduction stage 1), and found it was still very easy to win the Sunday Cup with it. I bought another one, stock, and discovered I could win the Sunday Cup with that. So this was a revelation of increased skill. That's what makes Gran Turismo so great; it first gives you the means to win the races by overpowering the competition, but lets you later come back and set yourself more challenges by using less and less modifications, (and worse and worse base cars, too).

In some "alternate" games I persisted with the car, and race-modified it. It can win the USvsJP and UKvsJP series fairly easily, and, given a weak field, can win the GT-I Cup. (In GT-Is for warm-ups I won fairly easily against an Impreza and an NSX-R, but after that got thrashed by a Castrol Supra, NSX-R, '91GT-R and an Impreza).

So I really wanted to win the Grand Valley 300, the jewel of Gran Turismo, with this car.

Results:

Coming from behind against this strong field, I got the lead by lap 5. I dropped to 4th at my first pit stop, but past all the cars while they were in the pits, eventually regaining the lead on lap 14.

I barely kept the lead after my pit stop on lap 24, (the Castrol Supra rammed me from behind as I came out).

I lapped the Primera on lap 34, but it got unlapped when I pitted on lap 36.

So then I lapped first the Subaru Impreza, and then the Primera on lap 40. (I guess the Primera was going for a longer shift and therefore stayed ahead of the Subaru).

After my pit stop on lap 48, I had to relap the Subaru, and, as you can tell, I lapped no other cars.

I had a few minor mishaps, but, overall, it was a very pleasant win, especially against such a strong field.

I won Cr300,000, and a black/blue Castrol Supra GT.

I saved the setting too. All the parts were maxed, that is, in particular, I used a racing exhaust, not semi-racing (semi-racing sometimes seems to help give better pickup to highly-turbocharged engines). Similarly, I also used a racing flywheel.

I did record all sixty lap times, but will not enter them at this time, but might do later if I feel like it.

At least now I can say I'm mostly caught up.