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Hands-on with Gran Turismo Sport
We go off-road in the new racing sim, and fall in love with the new Bugatti.
A dream to race in GT Sport: The Bugatti Vision
© Sony
Gran Turismo Sport is all about intensity, realism, and challenge. When we went hands-on with Kazunori Yamauchi's racing simulator at the Geneva Motor Show last week, some of these tracks felt more like boss fights than mere racing simulations.
Let's take the new dirt track, Fisherman's Ranch, as a powerful example. This is rally in the truest sense, with very tight corners, almost no grip on the very rough surface and a Subaru WRX struggling to keep up with the demands. But don't get us wrong: it's so much fun because it is challenging.
We have to put in the strength of our arms to control the Guillemot Thrustmaster wheel in front of us, which spins out of control here and there. It's working against us, so we have to push it hard to the left and find the balance between braking and accelerating while learning to master this demon course. The Subaru is not a subtle car; the acceleration is fast, so finding the right balance presents a challenge.
Fisherman's Ranch is also the most challenging track of the line up presented at Geneva Motor Show because it has a lot of small jumps. To be clear, this is not Forza Horizon 3; there are no long jumps and the tires aren't in the air for a long time, but it's tough to maintain a good balance when touching down. You have to perfectly balance out the car because if you touch down with the left or right front tire, it totally breaks your speed and will lose you places in a race.
On this rally track, there are also close to no long stretches and it's very windy. That means that the car is rarely stable and prone to drifting to the right or left. So you have to constantly adapt, play with the wheel – don't go too hard, but also not too soft. If you've seen the Dakar Rally on TV, it's that kind of driving experience, just on a closed track.
Kazunori Yamauchi, watching over our shoulder, is pleased that it took us some time to master his new track. "Fisherman’s Ranch is not about speeding through, it's about breaking balance and designed to present a nice challenge," he says.
Racing the simulation genre closer to reality
What we particularly like about Gran Turismo Sport is that cars feel like they do in the real world – at least, the ones we've been fortunate enough to take for a spin. It's not over-dramatic like in other games: GT Sport is a game bound to realism.
If you've even driven a Maserati, this is a car that's designed to be comfortable. It's for a target group, much like a Porsche – people who want a fast car without having the discomfort of, say, a Lamborghini. The Maserati in the real-world and in Gran Turismo is fast, but, and this is key, it doesn't feel that way when you're driving. It almost feels slow, because there's no vibration and the engine isn't giving you a very aggressive sound.
The most challenging track: Fisherman’s Ranch
© Sony
Now, that is a feature that's not liked by all racing fans, but it makes sense. Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bugatti are building cars with very loud engines designed to impress the driver and of course everyone around him or her. So when we switch from a fairly calm Maserati to the Bugatti Chiron, which is part of the Vision Gran Turismo line up for the new game, the feeling inside the car is very different.
When a 1,650 horsepower engine screams, that's when the fun begins. Less than two seconds are needed for the Bugatti to accelerate to 100mph, and soon we're pushing close to the 270mph mark, which is more flying than driving. Granted there are not a lot of tracks where you can do this – just Nürburgring has a couple of good stretches where this baby can unleash its inner tiger.
Yes, you can drive Yamauchi’s BMW M6 GT3
© Sony
Bugatti excellence: Chiron Vision is the perfect selfie car
Kazunori Yamauchi is a huge photography fan. He takes his Sony Alpha everywhere, on country walks, on tracks, and he also uses it to take a lot of pictures of his favourite cars at the Geneva Motor Show.
His own interest in this field of art sparked a new feature for the franchise in Gran Turismo Sport: Scapes. It effectively brings screenshots to the next level, at least for the racing genre – options not limited to the actual location you are in.
Want to take a selfie of the carbon fibre dream Lamborghini Veneno directly at the Las Vegas Boulevard, with all the crazy lighting? Just set the location, the lighting, the colouring and you're good to go. The same goes for 100 more locations at launch including, for example, Monument Valley. Driving a Le Mans supercar in the desert wouldn't be very healthy, but you can stage a shot for Facebook, Instagram, and the likes in GT Sport all the same, and we love it.
You’ll be stunned how authentic every wheel looks
© Sony
There are also a good variety of locations: the Kaminari-mon is Kazunori's favorite temple in Asakusa, Tokyo, but there's also the beautiful shoreline of Mount Cook in New Zealand to park up without annoying the locals. If you want to park your Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in front of a beautiful, victorian mansion, there is Tortworth Court in Gloucestershire.
Needless to say, GT Sport looks stunning on a 4K HDR-TV: the aggressive LED spotlights, the aerodynamic body and the perfectly laid out chassis of a Bugatti leave quite an astonishing impression racing a track in direct sunlight like Brands Hatch or the Willow Springs International Raceway. When can we have a release date, Polyphony?
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