The Gran Turismo 3: A-spec Apocalypse Zone
How to Get Round Corners (and Other Short Stories)
The art of driving:
In this guide I’ll run through the different types of car and brush over how to set-up your lovely automobile.
Car types
There are 5 car types in the game, indicated by the rather cryptic lettering FF, FR, MR, 4W and RR. Each has it’s own driving style, benefits and flaws as follows:
- FF - Front-engined, front wheel drive
In these cars, almost all of the weight is concentrated over the front axle (the bit that joins the wheels together). Under braking these cars can achieve nearly 85% of the weight of the car over the front tyres and so often they’re equipped with really sturdy front brakes and barely existent rear brakes.
The main plus points for FF cars is that they are really rather stable and easy to control. I always suggest that, if you’re new to racing games in general (or the GT series in particular), start off with an FF car until you get used to the whole thing.
FF cars do have one or two serious flaws though. Firstly, if the power of the car exceeds 200hp it will squirm about a great deal, especially under heavy acceleration. This is due to the front wheels not only trying to put the power onto the road, but steering as well. Higher powered FF cars (Fiat Coupé - 220hp) are equipped with Traction Control to stop the car pulling to one side under acceleration. But the main flaw with FF cars is that they are prone to understeer. This means that, if you approach a corner too fast the car will just carry straight on no matter how much you turn. FF cars thus do not make good "fast" cars, although there are a few pretty quick ones.
- FR - Front-engined, rear wheel drive
Generally speaking, the best layout of drivetrain is FR. However, unlike FF cars these are fairly easy to spin, so although the temptation is to buy the game and hop straight into a 320hp Supra, beginners should stay well clear. That said, by the time 20-25% of the game is through you should be at least getting used to them, if not flying past old lap records.
With the front wheels only occupied in steering, FR cars can have as much power as they can get - my Viper has 1101hp at the moment and it doesn’t mind a bit.
FR cars tend to be the quicker road cars, but not necessarily the quickest cars on the track or in the game. This is left over to the two more exotic drive types.
- MR - Mid-engined, rear wheel drive
By placing the heaviest component of the car (the engine) in the middle - usually defined as being between the two axles - the car has an ideal 50:50 weight distribution ratio (i.e. half the weight over the front axle and half over the rear). This means the car is incredibly easy to turn - it’s no coincidence that the GT1 class cars and Formula 1 cars are all MR.
This comes at a price however. Easy to turn means easy to turn even when you don’t want to. Drive a Motorsport Elise (Exige) and you’ll see what I mean...
- 4W - Four wheel drive
A simple idea - give the power to all four wheels. 4W drive cars have incredible traction and have 0-60 times unequalled by other cars of similar power. They can hold on tight in corners at higher speeds and accelerate out safely sooner too. Give the idea to the boys at Nissan and Mitsubishi and they graft on four wheel steering as well (Skylines, 3000GT/GTO and Lancer Evolution models) for even quicker cornering. Some manufacturers include fancy computerised things that detect slippage in a given wheel and direct power and torque away to the others until it grips hard again.
Again there’s a price though. Chuck an FR car into a corner too fast and you can simply slide your way out of trouble, using the accelerator to steer the back of the car. Try it in a 4W drive car and you’ll just understeer off, just like an FF. None of the wheels wants to break traction so you just keep on going. The cleverer cars like the Skylines and the more powerful ones like the WRC cars aren’t quite as bad - the Skyline GT-R drives just like an FR until you need it - but try it in an Audi TT.
- RR - Rear-engined, rear wheel drive
This merits a category even though there’s only one in the game - the Ruf RGT. RRs are like FFs except not. Well that’s clear then.
RRs require a very specific driving technique, as follows:
- Drive very fast.
- Brake in a straight line for a corner.
- Accelerate as you turn into the corner.
- Drive very fast.
The pendulum motion of the rear end will literally slingshot you round the corner, and with all that weight sitting on the rear axle you don’t have to worry much about turning the car round by accident.
What’s the downside? If you’re not spot-on with your technique you’ll be passed by everything else including the Demio. And if you lift off the brakes too quickly, you’ll be passed by your own rear end...
Tuning and set-up
Not just yet, Tiger...
Go back to the GT3 index.
