Gran Turismo 6 Supercar Shootout

"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake) 03/01/2015 at 20:55 • Filed to: None

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I was bored, so I drove a bunch of cars to see how they compare. Needless to say the winner was quite surprising...

THE TRACK

The newly released Midfield Raceway. A track made for fast cars

It's a relatively simple track, but an absolute hoot to drive. There are some challenges though. Turn 6 has a bump in the track that upset the balance of some cars. The chicane at turn 8 leading into the hairpin at turn 9 creates quite a weight shift that induced some understeer in the heavier cars as well. Overall though an easy and fast track, great for comparing some fast cars.

THE CARS

The cars tested were as follows, in the order I drove them. All cars were stock with Sport Soft tires. No traction control, no stability control, ABS set to 1.

Corvette ZR1

Viper SRT10 ACR

Ferrari 458 Italia

McLaren MP4-12C

Mercedes SLS AMG

Mercedes McLaren SLR

Audi R8 V10

Lamborghini Gallardo

Lamborghini Murcielago SV

Lamborghini Aventador

C7 Corvette Stingray

Nissan GTR Nismo

I totally meant to drive the Ford GT and completely forgot...

THE TEST PARAMETERS

As mentioned above, cars were left stock on Sport Soft tires. Track conditions were left as perfect. Each car had 3 hot laps to set a best time, but in a few cases I wrecked or felt like I didn't have a clean lap so I drove the car once or twice more. No tirewear, unlimited fuel. Manual transmission. No traction control, no stability control, ABS set to 1. I play using a Driving Force GT wheel.

THE RESULTS

Definitely some surprises. Cars listed from slowest to fastest

12. C7 CORVETTE - 1:16.596

Not really surprising, but despite being overpowered by all competitors and out PP'd by 100PP the Corvette still put down a decent time. The car is well balanced, but has a bit more body roll than ideal for a track car. Traction is very good, torque is plentiful. Tends a little more to understeer than oversteer but overall is easy and fun to drive. I would really like to see a C7 Z06 in GT6....

11. AUDI R8 V10 - 1:15.123

Again, not a huge surprise. The Audi should be faster though, and I think I could be faster given a few more laps. The reason is it's incredibly loose. So much so I kept glancing at the tire display making sure I really had Sport Soft. It loves to powerslide. That kept the times slow, but it was an absolute hoot. Sounds really good too.

10. MERCEDES SLR MCLAREN - 1:14.834

Bet you weren't expecting that, eh? Maybe you were. I don't know. But I was expecting it to do better. It's a fun car, but it's big. It feels big. It tends to understeer, and it doesn't like its weight being thrown around. For how big it is it drives extremely well, but it's too heavy to really compete here. Another one that sounds oddly good for GT.

9. MERCEDES SLS AMG - 1:14.752

This was basically a wild card for me going into it. I honestly had no idea what to expect as I rarely drive it. I partly expected better, but mostly didn't know what would happen. It's fun to drive, but feels relatively heavy. As I drove it I kept thinking it was like a German ZR1. Powerful, handles well for its size. Too bad it isn't as fast as a ZR1...

8. DODGE VIPER SRT10 ACR - 1:13.854

Now we're getting interesting. No, I did not sandbag. The ACR is fast, but the power and torque disadvantage it has to the ZR1 was very apparent on this track. The times are quite close, but it felt very low on power compared to the ZR1. I suspect it's capable of faster times, and I think tire grip was giving out well before aero grip. It's relatively fun, but in GT it doesn't sound very good which is a downright shame. I expected better, but I'm also glad it didn't beat the Corvette...

7. LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO - 1:13.833

This was interesting. I ran it right after the R8, and it basically felt like a slightly faster R8. Still liked to powerslide. I did not expect a time this good at all, and frankly that may have been one of my best laps all day. I'd probably put it in the top 3 fun to drive on the day as well, it was a hoot. Oh, and the sound on this one is actually quite good.

6. NISSAN GTR NISMO - 1:13.748

I know what you're thinking. "Jake, you're a Corvette fanboy. There's no way these cars didn't beat the Corvette". I swear on my cat's life I did not sandbag. I even drove the GTR for 2 more laps because I thought it would be faster. These times are so close that given a different driver you'd see a different result, but they are what they are. The GTR is interesting. It feels big but it drives fast. It makes fun turbo noises. It's surprisingly fast, but also disappointingly slow. It has so much grip but it really could use a weight savings to get it faster out of corners and down straights. On a tighter track it would have had a real shot at winning this comparison, but on the big open Midfield Raceway it can't pull it off.

5. CHEVROLET CORVETTE ZR1 - 1:13.709

See? I didn't just make the Corvette win. The Corvette is really good though. It's my second favorite to drive. Incredibly composed. Pulls hard out of corners. Tends to understeer though in stock form. Take out some weight though and the Corvette shaves off as much as 2 seconds. It's damn good, and if GT is as good of a simulation as it claims to be it's absolutely remarkable that it runs this well in this pack. You can get a ZR1 for $60,000 that runs toe to toe with a brand new $150,000 GTR. I don't think people give the ZR1 the credit it deserves as a track monster. It's more than just a powerful Corvette. There's a reason I plan on owning one in the future...

4. FERRARI 458 ITALIA - 1:13.560

Okay, Corvette circle-jerk over. The Ferrari is the most disappointing car to me in this test. Not that I wanted it to do any better, I hate Ferrari, but I expected it to be faster. I tried really hard to get it there too. I drove some of these last night and the Ferrari was one, so I knew it well. It's just underpowered. It has plenty of grip and it's extremely well balanced, but its brakes aren't great and it really doesn't accelerate out of corners very quickly. 4th place isn't bad, but the sound it makes in GT is pretty terrible. Definitely not one I'll come back to often.

3. LAMBORGHINI MURCIELAGO LP670 SV - 1:12.478

Yeah, it's not first. I'm as surprised as you are. Note the gap between 4th and 3rd though, a full second faster. If it wasn't for the GTR I'd think Gran Turismo just makes all AWD cars loose, because this one also really liked to powerslide. That kept it from doing much better, tough to get the power down out of some of the corners without just sliding off the course or spinning. It's actually pretty damn tough to drive quickly, I did 3 or 4 extra laps simply because I thought it could be faster, but I couldn't get it there. Weirdly long gearing didn't help.

2: LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR - 1:11.720

I told you there were some interesting results. For those of you keeping track you'll know who the winner was, but I'll get to that in a second. The Aventador is fast. Really fast. I don't know why it didn't win. A slight tendency to understeer is probably to blame, it pushed around a few corners a bit too much. Brakes aren't great either, I feel like it needs much better brakes to truly unleash its potential. If the Aventador wasn't fastest, then what was? No, I swear I'm not making this up...

1. MCLAREN MP4-12C - 1:10.934

Yes, you read that right: in an absolutely stunning upset the winner was the McLaren MP4-12C by nearly a full second over the Aventador. The McLaren is so good . It has vaulted itself to the top of my favorite cars list in Gran Turismo. It's insanely well balanced. It's crazy fast. It has an ungodly amount of traction and some of the best stock brakes in the game. If you want to understand what reviewers mean when they say a car inspires confidence, drive this in Gran Turismo: you will feel like the Stig, it's that good. It sounds hysterical with tons of turbo whine and blow off. This might just be the best hidden gem in GT6. I could not believe the lap times it was putting down, consistently running 1:11.2ish before landing a gob-smacking 1:10.934. This is a stock McLaren, I swear.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

This was a lot of fun, and honestly had more surprises than I expected. The McLaren came away the winner on this track, but I'd really like to take it to something tighter and see how the results change.

Did you like this post? If so leave a recommend and a comment and I'll do more like it. If you have any suggestions for cars to compare let me know.

hike > Jayhawk Jake 03/01/2015 at 21:06

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I've done similar, but on the Eiger Nordwand track. It's short enough that I can get a lot of laps in, but also very fun. The Nordwand favors handling more than power so my results have been a bit different. I still always found it fund comparing cars on the same track!

claramag, Mustaco Master > Jayhawk Jake 03/01/2015 at 21:12

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Some say he can hear the color red, and that he doesn't believe in air. All we know is, he's called the Jayhawk!

I do question the whole "no traction control" element for something such as the GTR, considering it's computer control is so tied in with it's identity. Not necessarily against you or the list, though! Keep it as even across the board as you can. I mean, as far as the simulation of the vehicle in-game goes. *shrug*

Really did like the article, woo go mp4!

nafsucof > Jayhawk Jake 03/01/2015 at 21:25

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nice comparo! Was driving that track today, 48:xx.xxx with the senna f1, lol any how, why no viper gts? Would like to see those times in this comparison! Great track were you running forward or back?

nafsucof > Jayhawk Jake 03/01/2015 at 21:26

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just wondering, did or didn't you do oil changes? I'm going to see how I compare to your times, also, wheel or controller?

djmt1 > Jayhawk Jake 03/01/2015 at 21:34

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I'm shocked about everything except the McLaren.

To think I used to do shootouts all the time on NFS U/U2/MW but despite owning 7 of them I've never done it on Forza which actually has legit lap timers.

I should rectify this.

Jayhawk Jake > nafsucof 03/01/2015 at 21:56

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I did not do oil changes. I use a wheel

Jayhawk Jake > claramag, Mustaco Master 03/01/2015 at 21:57

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Yeah, traction control may be more accurate but I never use it so this made it fair.

Jayhawk Jake > nafsucof 03/01/2015 at 21:57

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Forward

Vicente Esteve > Jayhawk Jake 03/01/2015 at 23:45

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Im actually surprised the Gallardo went that far.

DConsorti > Jayhawk Jake 03/03/2015 at 21:10

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Nice!!!

Going to try something similar to this, but with classic cars (I`ll try to do all of them untill 1985), just to keep a 30 year rule. no racing.

I`ll do the same standard as you did, so no traction control, SS tires, etc. Wich track do you guys think I should do it?

Btw, I`m thinkingod doing 3 laps in each car,just to keep fair!

Edit: also, no race cars, so no jag, cobra daytona... (I`m regreting this already!!!) LOL

MultiplaOrgasms > Jayhawk Jake 03/18/2015 at 15:56

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Way back when they released Circuito de la Sierra I did a similar thing, I wanted to make a three-part Comparo-Car-Track-Review mini series with tons of photomode highlights from the respective replays and got as far as making the first introductory post, but unfortunately my PS3 crashed thanks to a 4-player splitscreen CoD zombies session and a bunch of my gamesaves (including GT6) got corrupted and the replays got lost. My Shootout ended with a similar result, the McLaren being so much faster than anything else. Much of that was due to GT6 physics giving certain mid-engined cars an overall speed advantage (the Dino 246 for instance). Oh well.