Gran Turismo 2 Driving and Tuning FAQ Version 0.9 By Dave Yingling 01/26/00 loser81@ignmail.com Copyright 2000 by Dave Yingling Do NOT put this FAQ on any other web site without my permission. And do not reproduce it on a CD, magazine or any other means of distribution without my permission. If you wanna put it on a web site it must be complete with copyright notice and you must tell me. ______________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents 1.Disclaimer 2.Updates 3.Introduction 4.How do I accelerate properly? 5.How do I Brake (decelerate) properly? 6.What are FF cars? 7.What are FR cars? 8.What are MR cars? 9.What are RR cars? 10.What are 4WD cars? 11.What is the difference between drifting and sliding? 12.How do I drift? 13.How do I control a slide? 14.How do I countersteer to avoid a slide? 15.What are understeer and oversteer? 16.What is weight transfer? 17.What is a "apex"? 18."Slow in, Fast out", What is this? 19.How do I corner a basic L-turn (90 degrees)? 20.How do I corner an S-turn? 21.How do I corner a Hairpin (U-turn)? 22.How do I corner Multiple S turns? 23.How do I corner miscellaneous turns? 24.What is the emergency brake for? 25.How do I Rally race? 26.General Tips 27.What are the best parts to buy? 28.How does tuning effect my car and how can I use it to my advantage? 29.Credits 30.Links ______________________________________________________________________ 1.Disclaimer Gran Turismo is a trademark of SCEA (Sony computer entertainment of America). All manufacturers' cars, names, brands, and associated imagery featured in this FAQ are trademarks and or copyright material of their respected owner. ______________________________________________________________________ 2.Updates Version 0.5 first draft. I'm going to add the tuning section later. Version 0.7 second draft. I added the parts section. Tuning will come soon. I also corrected my e-mail address; it's loser81@ignmail.com 3.Introduction Gran Turismo 2 is the best racing game ever created. What makes it a great is that everything so realistic and different. The graphics are pretty good especially the opening cinema on the arcade disc. If you look at any game on the N64 or Dreamcast their graphics are a lot better. This is because Playstation is almost 5 years old and N64 and Dreamcast are a lot newer. The sound is great. There are realistic car sounds, and great music by known artists. The gameplay is excellent. There is a ton of replay value. But there are a lot of bugs. I created this FAQ because I was bored and I think that gamefaqs needs a great Driving and tuning guide for Gran Turismo 2. I hope that you enjoy it and find it enlightening. ______________________________________________________________________ 4.How do I accelerate properly? Automatic Transmission In an automatic transmission all you need to do is push X, right? Wrong you must have the gear ratios set up properly so that you can avoid wheelspin and redlining too much. If you have your gear ratios set up properly you will blow away your competition and every race will be easy. If you just don't touch the settings section you will lose most of the harder races. Manual Transmission In a manual transmission you need to upshift whenever the RPMs hit the redline. And you will also need to downshift when you brake of let off the gas for too long. When you master this you can do all sorts of inventive things such as not downshifting so that you don't accelerate too much and shifting gears before the needle drops in the redline. After you master all of these things you will be able to beat anyone you want. Tapping Why would you tap the gas or brake? When you get good you will realize that if you tap gas and brake instead of holding it in you will be faster and get better times. This will also prevent you from spinning out in powerful cars. It also decrease your chance of getting oversteer and understeer. So experiment. This really helps out on the license tests. So use it. ______________________________________________________________________ 5.How do I Brake (decelerate) properly? Braking is THE most important aspect of racecar driving. You must master it. It is not an option. SO PRACTICE, PRACTICE, AND PRACTICE MORE. There is more to braking but I will give you that information later in this FAQ. ______________________________________________________________________ 6.What are FF cars? FF stands for front engine front wheel drive. This is the most popular drivetrain in production cars, especially in America. Cars with this type of drivetrain have good handling but they also have severe understeer when accelerating full throttle out of a corner. All FF cars are cheap. This makes them real good buys when you start out with a whole 10 grand. These cars are usually not good. This is because if you fully mod a civic and compare it to any FR car the FR car will always be better. FF cars also have crappy acceleration. This is due to too much weight transferred to the rear that the front has no traction to accelerate. If this happens to you just don't give it full throttle the whole time, tap gas. ______________________________________________________________________ 7.What are FR cars? FR stands for front engine rear wheel drive. These cars are very popular for sports cars and also racecars. If the car is built right it can have an ideal 50 to 50 weight ratio (front to rear) this means that the car will have a neutral feeling when you go around corners. This neutral feeling will make going around corners easier for amateur drivers but if you’re a professional go MR. FR is the most popular drivetrain choice for racing and sports cars. You'll see it everywhere, in Nascar to The actual Gran Turismo racing. ______________________________________________________________________ 8.What are MR cars? MR stands for mid-engine rear wheel drive. This is when the engine is in front of the rear axle. Some stupid people and car magazines call it rear engine but its not. Rear engine cars have the engine behind the rear axle. This drivetrain is used in Formula 1 and CART racing. This makes the car have very great handling because most of the car weight is in the rear, which makes the front very light. This allows the front wheels to turn very easily. These cars are very hard to drive because they turn very easily. ______________________________________________________________________ 9.What are RR cars? RR stands for rear engine rear wheel drive. This type of drivetrain is not very common. The only manufacturer that I can think of that still uses it is Porche. Cars with this drivetrain have great handling but they can spinout (loop) easily. These cars also can sometimes have huge understeer. This occurs because the front wheels loose traction (too much acceleration) and when this happens the steering wheel does not respond much. I think that the only racecar that uses this drivetrain layout is the porches in GT racing. ______________________________________________________________________ 10.What are 4WD cars? 4WD stands for four wheel drive. This is very common in production cars today. Subaru only makes cars that are 4WD. This is very common in rally racing because of the low traction. It also is good for driving on normal roads. If you suck at this game buy a 4WD because of its great ability to resist spinouts. ______________________________________________________________________ 11.What is the difference between drifting and sliding? Drifting is when you hear the tires screech but your in no danger of spinning out. Let's just say that your in your new NSX and your going around the corner on the test track and you turn the car left and you hear the tires screeching, This is drifting. Sliding is when the rear of the car is sliding uncontrollably and you're in a huge risk of spinning out. The only way that I can think of how to explain it is to have you do it. Here's how to do it. Get in a viper (or other powerful rear wheel drive car) and go to the test track. Accelerate as much as you can. When you reach the 1000m-mark tap circle (emergency brake) and turn the car right or left. Then release the hand brake and push X (gas). The car should spin or slide uncontrollably. Do this many times to master it. You don’t need to master it but it'll help you when you learn to countersteer. When you master it try doing it but turn the opposite way (countersteer). This should bring the car back under control. Remember practice makes perfect. ______________________________________________________________________ 12.How do I drift? Drifting is something that you must learn how to do eventually. The easiest way to drift is on the B license tests. Just watch the demo on any of the cornering ones. In order to do it just brake to around the apex. Then accelerate full bore. You'll hear the tires screech. This screeching is the sound of drifting. Learn to recognize this sound because when it gets to loud and noticeable, you're close to sliding. Master this and you can beat almost anyone. ______________________________________________________________________ 13.How do I control a slide? Controlling a slide is really hard to do right. It's real hard because every single car is different and there's a huge difference in handling with each drivetrain layout. In order to do it right I will tell you how to do in each drivetrain layout. FF - In this drivetrain layout you don't need to do it often so just turn a little bit in the opposite direction. FR & RR - Sliding is pretty common in these cars. You'll need to turn the opposite direction more than in a FF car. MR - In MR cars you'll need to do it constantly unless you set your dampener really high. You'll have to do almost every time you go around a corner. In this drivetrain layout turn the car as much as you do in FR and RR cars. 4WD - In these cars you don't have to do it at all unless you set up your car wrong or you're in an insanely powerful car. I always have problems with this. I always overcorrect and hit the wall or even spinout. I've lost a ton of races because of this. So only do when the car is sliding a t an angle of more than 25 to 45 degrees. ______________________________________________________________________ 14.How do I countersteer to avoid a slide? This is hard but all you have to do is just turn in the opposite direction of the slide. The real hard part is how far should you turn? This is a question that I cannot answer because every car is different and track is different. So just practice until you master it. ______________________________________________________________________ 15.What are understeer and oversteer? Understeer is when the front wheels loose traction and the car does not turn enough. It is also known as "push." When this happens just don't use as much throttle. When you become very good you will be able to manipulate the throttle whenever you think that the car will understeer. You will only be able of doing this from practice. So practice a lot. Oversteer is when the rear wheels lose traction. It is also refered to as "the car is loose "This causes the car to turn too much and the car slides in the same direction that the car is turning. You need to countersteer whenever this happens (see above section). _____________________________________________________________________________ 16.What is weight transfer? Weight transfer is when the weight shifts between each tire, while the car is moving. The more weight you have on each tire the more traction that tire will have. Weight transfer causes both understeer and oversteer. These are caused when the weight is shifted off the wheels that need it. For example let's say that you're driving around a corner as fast as you can and the car understeers and you smash into a fire hydrant. Now you're sitting in the hospital wondering what happened. First of all you accelerated way too much when you reached the apex of the corner. This accelerating cause too much weight to transfer to the rear but the rear did not need the weight. The front tires needed the weight because they needed more traction to turn the car but didn't get it. You will need to master this to win the hard races. _____________________________________________________________________________ 17.What is a "apex"? The apex it the closest part to the inside of a corner and It is in the middle of the corner. _____________________ / / / ____________________ / A / | / | | | | A=apex | | | | _____________________________________________________________________________ 18."Slow in, Fast out", what is this? This is a concept that you must learn to be decent at GT2. It is pretty obvious what it is. It means that you brake in to the corner (Slow in) the when you reach the apex you accelerate (Fast out). Master this and you will be up in the pack with the pros. _____________________________________________________________________________ 19.How do I corner L-turns? (90 degrees) L-turns aren't very common but you will need to learn how to do it. I will explain it with the help of the diagram below. _______________________________ / c / / | b ______________________ | / | | | | | | | | |a | | | | | | | This diagram shows a basic "driving line" (racing line). A driving line is the imaginary line that shows the fastest path around each corner. When cornering a corner like this one brake hard, then ease up as you get closer to point b. This is called "trail braking". When you reach point b, which is the apex, start to accelerate toward point c. _____________________________________________________________________________ 20.How do I corner S-turns (shackains)? S-turns are a pain. You usually have to brake allot and they're really hard to do right and get the fastest time possible. ____________ a \ \ \ \ _________ \ \ b | \ | | | |c | | | | | | \ | d \____________ \ \ \ \ \____________e_ Start around point a, then brake (trail brake if necessary) as needed to point b. At point b slightly accelerate if necessary to point c. At point c stay on that same side of the road, do not merge left as you normally do!!! Then merge right to point d. At point d accelerate to e. Try different variations to get the fastest times out of every S-turn you encounter. _____________________________________________________________________________ 21.How do I corner hairpins? Hairpins are one of the hardest corners to corner properly. In very powerful rwd cars you can spinout very easily so tap gas when you reach the apex only if you're in a rwd car. When you're out of the corner or when you think that you can floor it, floor it. There are 2 different ways to corner a hairpin. I'll explain both of them. For the first one ignore the capitol Z and X. In the second explanation ignore point c. ________ / \ / \ / Z \ / _b_ \ | / \ | | / \ | |a | | c| | | | | | | | | | | | X| | | | | | | | | | | | | Brake when it's necessary. I'm saying this because every hairpin in the game is different and the length of track between the hairpin and the preceding turn is also different. So the only way to know when to turn is through practice. At point a brake to point b (try letting of the brake for a second the brake again, this helps a lot you're doing the hard championships and you need to save every second possible. All right at point b accelerate to point c. (Ignore the capitol Z and X for cornering this way. For the faster method you'll want a car with great acceleration and either 4wd or a rwd car that has good traction and not much slip. You can still do it with one but you'll be slower out of the corner. Now tap brake then gas at point A, this will put the car in a drift. Make sure that you turn the car enough so that the front is pointing at the apex (point b). Then just accelerate to point X. The above technique is very hard to do right so just practice and hope y9ou get it right. Remember don't throw your controller at the TV you might break one or the other. So just throw it at the floor, it's a lot cheaper. _____________________________________________________________________________ 22.How do I corner multiple S-turns? When you think that one S-turn is hard try doing like 3 or 4 in a row; that's hard. Here are some pointers. I didn't draw a diagram because I'm lazy. So just live with it. * Stay on the opposite side of the apex, your exit speed will be higher. * Learn every course so that you don’t have to think too much. * At some areas you can just drive through the grass, this is a lot faster. * Brake more than you have to. * Don't spinout * Drive through the ones that are just dirt. (Apricot hill) More will be added later as soon as I think of them. _____________________________________________________________________________ 23.How do I corner miscellaneous Corners? I couldn't think of another name for them. They are everything that has not been covered in the sections above. Just read below for some helpful hints. Slight corners: Ex: first corner in high speed ring For these all you half to do is tap on the d pad or turn the stick in the right direction. Some of them get sneaky and the turn starts out slight but gets a lot sharper. For these just remember where they are then brake and corner as explained above. Corkscrews: Ex: Laguna Seca BRAKE, BRAKE, AND BRAKE MORE. For these I recommend that you tap brake once right before the top of the hill. Then brake as necessary. When you get close turn a little then tap brake one more time. Make sure that you turn the car enough. If you don't you'll slam into the tire wall. As soon as you see the bottom of the hill, start to accelerate out of the corner. This corner is a real pain. You have to brake a lot then make sure that you turn the car enough to make it out of the corner. If you master it you will be able to win every time you race on this track. There are other ways of cornering this corkscrew. For example just slide the rear out. Then accelerate out of the corner. This I think is a little harder to do right. You'll have a faster time my way. More to come as I think of them. _____________________________________________________________________________ 24.What is the emergency brake for? The emergency brake is fun to just play with. It saved my life many times. I'll list some inventive uses for it below. Some of these are just plain stupid while others are useful. * If you forget to brake for a tight corner do not fear just pull your emergency brake and slide the car so that It Drifts and does not slide too much. When you have slowed down enough accelerate through the corner. * Use it in rally racing to slide the rear end of your car around to make the corners. * I like to pull 360's to celebrate a victory. So tap brake a couple of times then pull your e brake and turn your car left or right. Wahlah!! More to come later. _____________________________________________________________________________ 25.How do I rally race? I like rally racing. It's kind of fun but it gets annoying when you spinout and lose. I thought about making a section on rallying but I did not because I suck at it. Here are some tips. *Use the e brake. *Learn the tracks. This is a must. *Use a 4WD. You won't spinout as much. *Use the Escudo. It's a lot easier and you will definitely win. *Don't suck. Try not to suck, if this happens just practice more. More to come. _____________________________________________________________________________ 26.General Tips Here are some useful Tips that cover everything. *Game sharks spoil the game. You can use them if you want. *Get all of the licenses before you start. You'll be a better driver. *If you’re a newbie start on the arcade disk first for practice. *If there is a corner you can’t do right don't fret, just watch the replay and do what the first place computer car does on that corner. *On the licenses watch the demos. More to come. _____________________________________________________________________________ 27. What are the best parts to by? Here is a list of the parts that you must buy in order to win consistently. If you're really good then you don't need all of them but I recommend that you use them. You can win all of the races by just having a better car than your competition. Remember this. Mufflers: Any of these are good buys but I recommend that you use the Racing muffler, you'll get more horsepower but your low-end performance will be reduced. You can buy the other ones to reduce your hp so that you can make the race that you want to race in. Brakes: Both are MUSTS. Your braking performance is increased a lot and you can adjust it to one of 24 levels. Engine: All of these are good buys. Performance chip just increases your hp. Engine balancing increases your hp but more importantly it increases you're redline (Ex: without mod, 7,800, with mod, 8,200). Port polish increases your hp and slightly increases your redline. The NA tune will only work for naturally aspirated engines but some small cars can use both. On the highest stage of NA tune your cars low-end performance will decrease. Increasing displacement gives you more hp and better all around performance but it will only work with some skylines. Drivetrain: These too are all good buys. Transmission is one of the more important settings to use correctly (see tuning section), just buy the one for pros unless you're a newbie. Clutches are important; they'll increase you acceleration a little. I recommend the triple clutch, it's the most expensive but delivers the best performance. Limited slip differentials are sweet. I only use the full customization because it offers better performance and it's only a few more grand. Flywheels are the best first mod. They will increase you accel. Only buy the ultra-light flywheel because it's only a few more grand. The carbon driveshaft is a must but for 4WD and RWD cars. It reduces the weight. Turbos: There are 4 different turbo levels. The first one gives you the least amount of power. Turbo 4 gives you the most power but you low rpm accel is crappy. I recommend that you buy turbo # 3. This is because turbo 4 is usually too much power for most people and it's way to easy to win. Intercooler just gives you more hp. I recommend that you buy the racing one, it's better. Suspension: This is a important buy for anyone it can shave off the last second or it can cause you to spinout. If you’re a newbie just buy the the sports ones. If your good go for the best one. Tires: Sports tires these are good buy if you low on money and you know that you're gonna needs all of the grip that you can possibly get. For slicks a recommend super soft for short races and either medium or hard for endurance races. Dirt tires are only for rally racing and you can only buy them for certain cars. The simulation tires are kind of cool but they get annoying because their grip isn’t as good as the normal ones. Others: Weight reduction is very important. It makes everything better but on MR cars some people think that if you give these cars too much weight reduction the cars oversteer a lot. All you have to do to stop this is just decrease you dampners and spring rate. (See tuning section when it is added) Racing Modification is the best mod but it's really pricey. It allows you to adjust your downforce. WHAT DOES THE X-AXIS CONTROLLER DO?? If you find a car that can use it please e-mail me at . Active Stability controller releases the throttle when the wheels spin. I only buy this for vipers and other really powerful cars the spin a lot. Traction Stability Controller this setting allows the car to have antilock brakes. If you brake without turning too much the wheels won't lock. This setting is fun to play with. It also decreases the chance of oversteer and spinout. _____________________________________________________________________________ 28. How does tuning effect my car and how can I use it to my advantage? Tuning is without a doubt the most important aspect of Gran Turismo 2. If you set up your car correctly winning will be easier. And if you set up your car totally wrong you will generally suck pretty bad. You almost need a guide or FAQ for tuning because it's so hard and there are so many different settings. I will try to give you the most concise tuning guide that I can. Spring Rate This setting adjusts the stiffness of your springs in both the rear and front suspension. Stiff springs allow for more roll and weight transfer. They also make your ride a lot more responsive and easier to control. Very stiff springs will make your car really hard to control over rough areas (example: sand and grave) and bumps. I strongly recommend that you have softer springs than usual on really bumps tracks like Deep Forest, the Grand Valleys, and especially Laguna Seca. Really soft springs will make your car unresponsive and easier to control but you won't be able to corner as fast. This is a really important setting. I recommend that you test drive your car and adjust this and dampner; their both really important settings and if they are right your lap times will be a lot faster. Ride Height Ride Height is a measurement of the bottom of a bumper of the ground. When the car is lower, it's center of gravity is also lower this allows for more weight transfer which in turn reduces body roll. This makes cornering easier and gives the car more stability. If this is too low your car will bottom out when you go off a bump of ramp. This has never happened to me in this game. This is probably due to the fact that the bottoms of the cars are not rendered. Polyphony Digital probably did this to save space. For Rally Racing you will need to increase this setting in bot the front and back. Dampner bound and rebound When the bound is higher your car will accept weight transfer batter. Rebound is the exact opposite. The higher you set your rebound the faster and harder your suspension will transfer the weight back to it's opposite direction. All RWD cars should have fairly high rebound setting because you want the weight on the front to transfer to the back as fast as possible. Bound settings should be pretty high in the front to accept more weight transfer during braking. Camber Camber is the wheel's angle in relation to the ground. 0 camber means that the wheel is at a 90-degree angle to the ground. When the wheel is negatively cambered it is slightly tilted inwards toward the inside of the car. For example, a viper is going around a corner with 0 camber. When it enters the corner the cars weight on the inside of the corner will transfer to the outside of the corner. Because of this weight the tires will lean outward, positive camber. This is known as "Plowing." 0 camber will cause understeer due to loss of traction. When a tire is negatively cambered it will return to a 0-camber position in a corner due to the extra weight that is on that tire. Toe in and out Tow means that both of the cars wheels are parallel. Toe out moves the wheels farther apart. This greatly reduces oversteer. The more toe out that you have the greater the wear will be on the tires that have toe out in them. If your car is oversteering constantly give the front wheels some toe out and just a little toe in at the rear. If your car is understeering give the front wheels some toe in and maybe some toe out in the rear. I recommend that you just leave this setting alone until your comfortable with changing the cars settings. Stabilizers Stabilizers are usually refered to as anti-roll bars or sway bars. Stabilizers are directly related to the relationship between both side of the suspension. This means that what ever happens to one wheel the stabilizer will make the opposite wheel do the same thing. This will tighten up your car and will body roll. For example, your front left wheel goes over a bump your stabilizer will transfer this to the front right wheel. This upsets the car and causes your car to lose traction and probably spinout. In the preceding example all this person had to do is decrease their stabilizer setting. Brake Balance This should be one of your first buys. This is because you can adjust the cars understeer and oversteer while braking. The higher your front brakes are the more understeer your car will have. The higher your rear brakes are the more oversteer you will have. I recommend that you have higher front brakes than rear brakes. This is because the weight will transfer forward when you're braking so the front brakes can handle more brake power. If you're obsessed with powersliding through every corner just set your rear brakes really high. IF you set your rear brakes high you can even powerslide in a front wheel drive car! Gear Ratios Gear ratios are one of the most influential settings. They determine how much acceleration and top speed your can has. You can set the gear ratios manually but I recommend that you use auto setup until you get the hang of things. In auto setup, the lower the setting the more acceleration your car will have. The higher the setting the more top speed your car will have. When your setting is too high your car will not accelerate in your highest gear. When you setup your car manually, I recommend that you just change the final gear ratio. The lower the final gear ration is the more acceleration you'll have and the higher it is the more top speed you're car will have. The separate gear ratios can also be changed. I recommend that you only screw with them if you have a turbo charged engine. This is because you'll be able to adjust the gear ratios to compensate for turbo lag. I f you have a really powerful RWD car you should increase your 1ST gear ratio to have a faster shift to second gear. If you do this you'll reduce wheel spin. Down Force Down Force is when air moves over the car it is pushed up this pushes the car down giving the wheels more traction. This also increases drag. So when you're trying to get a fast speed and you don't care about handling just reduce your downforce the whole way. The more downforce that your car has the more traction it will have. This extra traction gives the car better handling. I strongly recommend that you have your downforce set to the max. Limited Slip Differential This part is a must if your car is a powerful RWD beast. It reduces wheels spin by transferring less throttle to the drive wheels. The "initial" setting refers to your cars acceleration from standstill. You want this pretty low to reduce your wheelspin. The deceleration setting controls the throttle on the drivewheels when you're decelerating for a corner. A high setting will help stabilize your car but will make it harder to turn. A low setting will make it easier to turn but will reduce your cars stability during braking. The Acceleration setting controls the throttle on the drive wheels when you're accelerating out of a corner. A high setting will give the drive wheels their maximum acceleration but will increase wheelspin. A low setting will reduce your exiting speed but will make it easier to turn. For RWD cars have the initial low, the decel fairly high, and the accel low. For a FWD Just have all of them fairly low. For AWD just use the RWD settings. Yaw Controller This controls the power to each wheel. I recommend that you have this set in the middle so that you don't spinout as much. A low setting will just make this part useless and a high setting will make your car spinout more. This part is only available for the mitsibishi galant VR4. There might be some more cars but I haven't found them yet. Traction Control System (TSC controller) This is a great modd and a must for vipers and other powerful RWD cars. It adjusts the throttle on each of the drive wheels to reduce wheelspin. This is a great buy for all RWD cars. It will reduce the potential for great accel but will decrease wheel spin. Active Stability Controller (ASC) This is like anti-lock brakes because you don't hear the screeching sound. It just controls the braking power to each of the wheels. The higher the setting is the faster your car will slow down. A low setting will just do nothing. I recommend that you experiment and try different settings. _____________________________________________________________________________ 29. Credits I would like to thank jculbert for writing his compendium for GT1. His compendium made me a better driver in GT1 and 2, so check it out. Also check out DanCG's quick cash guide and the other FAQs that are at gamefaqs.com. _____________________________________________________________________________ 30. Links psx.ign.com - Has a ton of GT2 stuff. videogames.com - they have a ton of screens and movies Gamefaqs.com - a kick ass site that has a ton of FAQs for just about every game. _____________________________________________________________________________ The other sections will come later. Copyright 2000 by Dave Yingling