Power Pack Race Reports – Starting Out – Gran Turismo 7 Power Pack DLC
[Music] Hello chums and welcome back to the Gran Turismo 7 power pack. I recently uploaded an introductory video explaining the basics of the DLC and I’ll continue covering the DLC in this series of race reports. As I mentioned in the last video, there’s six prize cars up for grabs and my priority was the Toyota Supra GT road car. That means I need to dive into the tuning branch of this pseudo skill tree. The first race is a roughly 300 horsepower front-wheel drive event that feels very vaguely similar to the BTCC if you squint while drunk. You’re given a choice of three cars which represent your difficulty slider. The fastest is the Mazda 3 group 4 race car. The middle option is a cracked looking Civic and the slowest option is a Hyundai Elantre which looks like it was styled with a crumpled bin bag. Now, I’ve got all golds on the license tests, driving missions, and the circuit experiences without totally losing my [ __ ] So, I assumed that the hard option wouldn’t be too difficult, right? So, I took the pale blue bin bag. Once confirmed, I was spat out of the pit in a 60-minute practice on the Dragon Trail Garden Circuit. Oh, this is a shite track. Why couldn’t they have used Dragon Trail Seaside? What a piss tape. Now, this isn’t my favorite track. It feels like something Herman Tilka would [ __ ] out on a quiet Tuesday. The only nice thing is the background. So, it goes without saying I haven’t spent much time here, so this practice session was much needed. While I’m not going to defend the idea that we can’t use our own cars in this DLC, there is some credit to be given because this Hyundai actually drives very nicely indeed. It has excellent brakes, sticks to the road like glue, and is generally very easy to place. That may be because it’s not exactly presenting much of a challenge to the laws of physics. It basically has stock power combined with wide slick tires and lots of arrow. So, you bloody hope it drives nicely. It took me a while to get into the swing of things, but on my fifth lap, I set a 1 minute 42.087, which was just enough to beat Tacuma Mia Sophie, who was driving a much nicer looking bin bag. Satisfied with practice, I skipped the rest of it and headed into qualifying mode, which is pretty much exactly the same thing, except you have 10 minutes. My first full lap was a 1 minute 42.198. I figured this should probably be enough to secure pole position since Miazono’s best time in practice was a 1 minute 42.3. Oh, never mind. Oh, for [ __ ] sake. While he did go on to improve his time even more, I eventually managed a 1 minute 41.9 to secure pole position and I returned to the pit. Yeah, shove that up your artificial backside. After waiting for qualifying to end, it was time for the main event. Interestingly, the Volvo V40 at the back was over 10 seconds per lap off the pace, which can’t be right because five cylinders are better than everything. Either way, I was treated to a jaunty camera graphic showing off all of the cars I was hoping to beat. Frick. I put my close ratio gearbox in second, turned on the traction control, and hoped for a good launch, and I was left standing. What the hell? I’m going to assume that Miazono’s bin bag must have about 50 horsepower more than mine. So, with the last sector of the track being two bloody great straight lines, I’m rather going to struggle, aren’t I? Like an absolute Lando Norris, I made some mistakes on the first lap. Hang on, he’s just won the world championship, hasn’t he? Anyway, I gave myself some work to do catching up to the rocket powered bin bag. [Music] By the end of the first lap, I had pretty much got myself clear of the Mazda 3 and chased down everybody’s favorite NSX driver from the Tokyo 600 race. It took most of lap 2 to get within sniffing range, but I eventually managed to make a move and drag myself up to second, where I pretty much spent the rest of the race watching the rabbit run away from me. Every time there was a hard corner, Neozono ran away on the next straight. [Music] Much more frustrating was the half hexagon at the start of sector 3 on this circuit. I got a good exit speed on the final lap and I was pretty much within a car’s length. So, I also had very good slipstream and it still wasn’t anywhere near enough. Well, this has taken the piss, isn’t it? I was tempted to just pass a Maldonado the be Jesus out of the final corner to try and get ahead, but decided against it in the end. This race was over. And to salt the wound, that damn car soldered right off into the distance on the final straight. Oh well, bye then. Not content, I grabbed the Mazda 3, lazily shat out a 1 minute 41 dead, and qualified on pole again. With 100 horsepower more than my blue bin bag, I wasn’t left for dead on the race start. Rather, my opponents matched me on straight line pace. While I did like how the Hyundai handled, this Mazda is an abhorrent machine to drive. It has roughly the same cornering ability as the Elantre, but that feels quite under steerie when you have an extra 100 horsepower. But the worst part of this torid thing is the ride. If you even look at a curb, this car tries to do a backflip. This caught me out to such an extent on the first lap that it gave the white Civic a chance to push me out of the way. Go away, you discount for stappen. Once I was clear of him, though, the rest of the race was more or less plain sailing. Though I never built up a lead of much more than a few seconds. Either way, it was enough to win. Well, I’m glad that’s over. Next up, it was the Willow Springs event. Same choice of cars. Mazda it is. Willow Springs is another track where I’m certainly not at my best. Most of the time is gained or lost on the final corner, and I’m quite rubbish at it along with the rest of the track. I skipped straight to qualifying and left the pits. On this track, the Mazda feels even worse than before despite the lack of curbs from which to perform back flips. Either way, I set a very average first lap and waited out the rest of qualifying because I couldn’t be bothered to do anymore. It wasn’t the best lap, but I supposedly have the fastest car, right? Well, our friend in the bin bag went almost a second faster. Oh, for Christ’s sake. Later on in qualifying, he went back out for a second attempt, and he knocked off another 10th again. Oh, you’re taking the piss now. Great stuff. So, it was now time to enter the race. So, I have what is supposed to be the easy car. On the launch, I just about had the measure of Miazono’s bin bag. But as soon as we hit the first corner, he completely left me standing. What? This and the next corner are probably the most frustrating experiences I’ve had in all of Gran Turismo. I’m turning as hard as my poor person controller will allow me to. And the opponents are cruising past me like I’m not even moving. We’re all on the same tires with what I would assume is similar downforce levels. So, this simply shouldn’t be possible. I’m sure a steering wheel controller would probably allow for more steering angle and make things slightly less offensive, but as it stands, this really just rubbed me the wrong way. I had to reel the opponents back in again on the straight because it’s the only place that I had even the slightest advantage on this track and it was just about doable. But of course, the first sector comes around again and so much time is lost, it makes for a pretty annoying experience. This particular event did not feel like a genuine challenge because the opponents have such a massive grip advantage, it’s like they’re on soft tires. It felt artificial at best, whereas the previous event at least resembled something genuine. In the end, I got bored of Miazono and decided to dispatch him. Go on, piss off. But such is the car advantage. He caught up again two laps later. Surprise, [ __ ] Now, I know plenty of the more unique personalities among you who have already posted a comment blathering on about me having skill issues, but I’m going to preemptively tell you to be quiet. Gran Turismo is supposed to be accessible. I’m not actually completely awful at this game, and I picked the easy cut. All of those things should count for something. As someone who’s managed to gold all the circuit experiences, I should at least be able to wrangle the easy car to first place, you know, semieasily. The medium car should be something of a challenge, and the hard car should be pretty tossing hard. So, a season top 1000 player would have something of a challenge. But for this event, I already know it would be literally impossible for me if I picked the Civic or the Hyundai. Now, I’m sure for some people the follow-up argument will be, “But that’s how it’s supposed to be.” No. No, it’s not. As of recording my voice over for this video, I’ve done several other events in the easy car and won by 20 seconds plus in every single race. This event is almost definitely an outlier. So, do with that what you will. Anyway, that’s the first episode of the Power Pack race reports. Join me next time where I’ll be tackling the next two events at Grand Valley and Mount Panorama. I hope you enjoyed my suffering. Like, subscribe, [ __ ] post in the comments, all that good stuff. Take care of yourself and tra
Welcome to episode 1 of Power Pack Race Reports. For this series I’ll go through the Power Pack DLC and give you something of a highlight reel of my exploits, since I have a habit of making a tit of myself. With this series, you can get a better understanding of the Power Pack DLC if you’re still on the fence, and hopefully you’ll have a jolly good laugh at my expense in the process.
00:00 Intro
00:27 FF Tuning Battle Dragon Trail
05:27 FF Tuning Battle Willow Springs