The Drift of Air

DeLorean DMC-12, foshie, 2007

Is there anything I haven't said about Gran Turismo 5 yet? I know it's an open-ended game, but you'd think with the impending arrival of the sixth instalment of the series I wouldn't be approaching ten thousand words about playing this game. It has been six months, though, since I last waffled on about activities prolonging my interest in the game beyond the core of beating A-Spec mode. I've gone through several phases of losing interest only to buy a new car and bring life back into using the wheel and pedals: I didn't play much after beating the 24 Hours of Le Mans until I dabbled with muscle cars last November and continued along with the novelty of the wheel and pedals, then designing eight custom tracks. After that, GT5 lost out to other concerns for a number of weeks. My interest came round again when I decided to try out some rides amongst Gran Turismo's copious garages. Perhaps you can guess.


Much of the key to GT's boundless possibilities is the sheer number of vehicles on offer. That's not without its problems, however, as any player can see. Want to drive, say, a Lamborghini Countach? You click on the new car dealership icon, select Lamborghini... and it's not there. Oh, but the Ferrari 512BB is available in its respective dealership and it's from the 70s. Then you realise 'new' and 'used' dealerships are actually the wrong terms. 'Used' and 'new' is really 'standard' versus the 'premium' models (that have, most noticeably, interior textures) - and by 'standard' I mean they're models ported over from Gran Turismo 4, which is why replays won't let you zoom in and you can't take them into photo mode. It leads to two feelings. That Polyphony Digital never completed making the game despite having five years; and that there are less cars in the game than reported, because the standard models are in the majority and locked behind the rota system of the used car dealership. Thus I've spent the past six months waiting for one of the most exciting cars in the game - the RUF Yellowbird - to appear. It will be Sir Not Appearing In This Post. The negative feelings I, and others, have of the visual deficiencies of the standard models was only overcome by a confusion over the status of the Caterham Super7.

Back in January Oink8383 made a video on how to perform the heel-toe technique. This was great help to me having recently acquired the Logitech G27 and hoping to put the clutch to use. The car in the video was the Caterham which looked like great fun. I went into the new car dealership and was bewildered as to why I couldn't find it anywhere. I gave up until a few months later I learned it was a standard model, despite seeming to have a dashboard texture. Of course, it was not available in the used dealership, but luckily I had already won it in some event. It did indeed have minimal textures, mostly owing to the open-top nature of the Super7 which would have made GT5's usual practice of presenting you with the unadorned interior model look even more shabbier. Within a few corners the lack of HD textures on the hazard light button didn't bother me anymore - so long as the physics of the car were well simulated it was more than enough to entertain me around Nürburgring and Monaco. The way the Super7 drives would later be key to unlocking some other aspects of GT5, and it removed the stigma of the standard models.

DeLorean DMC-12, GT5

Having ignored all the standard model cars I had won while progressing through A-Spec and found the Caterham amongst them, I wondered what else I had shunned. I was still looking out for the Yellowbird when I noticed some other RUFs in my garage. The CTR looked old school, but four-wheel drive was annoying. I wanted proper rear-engined rear-wheel drive. The RGT '00 would have to do, despite being the wrong colour, heavier, and thirteen years older. In spite, it was a handful in a good way. The back ends of these RR cars are really squirrelly under braking, especially with ABS off as I prefer, yet there is nothing better than accelerating flat out of a corner aided by the swing of that engine block (haven't dared try it in the rain, though that gives me an idea). It's the total opposite of the infuriating understeer of front-wheel drive cars (which have their own stigma in GT). The RGT was enjoyable, yet it was time again to keep things fresh with another ride. I wanted another with the RR layout and I had just been watching Back to the Future. Lo behold I had the DeLorean. I had used it only once in GT4 for the novelty and recalled it being quite sluggish. Keep in mind they dubbed a more impressive engine over the DeLorean's in BTTF. It's a cultural icon, no doubt, yet any commentator will tell you it's underpowered and falls short of John DeLorean's vision. There were times taking it around the Nürburgring 24 Hours track that it started to come alive and achieve the kind of wheelspin and oversteer the RGT took for granted. At others I realised I couldn't get it out of fourth gear and above 120mph with stock transmission. Bittersweet is the word I'm looking for - it's so close to living up to the legend but falls short.

I had my fun with that, daily, yet again set GT5 aside for a few weeks. July gave way to August before I randomly decided to fill some time in arcade mode. Back when I had been messing around with the Caterham at Monaco I noticed it had a tendency to drift through corners by initiating power oversteer on entry. I had some disdain for drifting, being the kind of pointless extravagant behaviour beholden of boy-racers that this utilitarian and his stripped down virtual F40 look down upon. So I tried drift mode to see what the game thought of the way I took the Super7 round the corners of Côte d'Azure. I racked up a few thousand points and improved with each lap. Then I had an idea. I tried to recall a car that might be more suited. Something with enough power to stay out of the barrier while lighting up the tyres sideways. I recalled the Toyota Supra way back in GT1 being prone to severe power oversteer to the point I wouldn't drive it. That was the days of the controller, now I had the wheel. And right then it was in the used car lot. Challenge accepted.

Some have said it's easier to drift with a controller. In my opinion, it's just too hard to finely control the throttle without pedals. The steering is admittedly hard when you're at opposite lock round Grand Hotel Hairpin and have to straighten up in an instant. The wheel work is quite tiring and there are still times when the car is unbalanced enough that you can't react fast enough to stop it spinning. Once it lurches and you catch it, twice it lurches the other way and you catch it. Thrice is throws itself the first way again and a spin of the wheel can't prevent it. The trick you learn is to enter slowly and work the throttle. The wheels just have to be pointing in the direction of the corner exit. By controlling the power you prevent your sideways vehicle from succumbing to inertia and flying backwards into the barrier. Too much throttle sends you forward into the other barrier. I found comfort medium tyres had the ideal grip limit for my taste. It's about following the racing line on a tangent, like a comet going round the sun - tail flowing out with the solar wind. It led me to a realisation, and to understanding the other driving mode - rallying. If drifting was all about being able to break traction on tarmac, then rallying was just the same but with traction already broken.

I didn't have any premium rally cars I liked, and didn't want to go with the predictable Impreza or Evo, so I picked up the Ford RS200 from the online collection dealership. I think I was attracted to it because I faintly recall having a toy one (along with an Audi Quattro, I think). I reviewed Valdudes old rally video in which he encourages the use of the handbrake to initiate slides, but that hadn't worked for me in the past. I found it far better to use the same techniques from drifting - to initiate the slide by powering into the corner while turning and adjusting the throttle and steering accordingly. Heel-toe helps to keep the revs in the power band and accelerating into the turn also means power is already on hand, whereas I thought using the handbrake killed the power to the rear wheels that would be critical in the coming tenths of a second. I nailed Toscana within a dozen laps and moved onto the far more demanding Eigernordwand K Trail with relative ease (4:26 lap record, if I recall). The steep downhill section is still very difficult. I've also found on dirt as on tarmac, that I prefer a 25/75 toque split on four wheel drive vehicles. That may be because the default Limited Slip Differential settings in Gran Turismo in fact hinder the operation of four wheel drive, and I just haven't bothered tweaking the LSD.

It shows, though, that the nature of the car can come through despite the lack of high definition texturing and interior cockpit. The DeLorean was a compromised vision on the long road to production, while the RS200 was a Group B beast that never had its day (and there are plenty of factors you can blame for Group B's demise). Get used to it though, because Gran Turismo 6 is still going to have standard model cars. Frankly, to me that's unforgivable. The GT4 textures are nearly a decade old and a system generation behind, which should be embarrassing for Sony this late into the PS3 lifespan. If I get GT6 for Christmas, then great, but I'm not going to head out and buy it even if it fixes the many issues of GT5. And that's because I believe GT5 is an incomplete product that was rushed out because it looked like it was going to become the next Duke Nukem Forever. 'Did Not Finish' would have been so apt.

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