As many of you know, the testing mule C7 is available on Gran Turismo 5. Some of you will laugh, but right now I think that comparing it to the C6 on the PS3 is the best way that we CURRENTLY have to get any kind of useful info about the Vette. Chevrolet is promoting the fact that the car is on Gran Turismo 5, and I believe that they have shared some of the perfomance info with the game makers that has not been released to the public... this is the only way that they could be accurate when making the digital version of the car. That being said, I drove a 2006 C6 Z06 and the C7 test mule back to back on Cape Ring race track, my favorite and maybe the most challenging high speed track on the game. I drove these car with "soft sport" road tires on them. I could probably squeeze a couple more seconds out of both of them with practice.

C6 Z06: As we know about early Z06 cars, they tend to be a little more twitchy than the later ones with GM suspension tweaks. The car wanted to snap loose on some of the slower curves, but was much more steady at speed. That might partly be because of its awesome power, which we are also all aware of. My lap time was 2:54.

C7 Test Mule: First of all I want to say that this car looks shorter and more narrow on the game. GM has suggested that the C7 will be smaller and lighter, and it looks it on the track. Driving impressions were very good... Handling was better than the C6 Z06. The C7 was easier to point and it held its line in the curves better. It felt like a lighter car with better (magnetic) shocks. Power felt just a little down versus the C6 Z06, but nothing too dramatic. My lap time was 2:53.

So there you have it... it's basically what I expected given the info we had on the C7. Based on what I saw, I'm guessing that the C7 base car will be slighty faster than an early C6 Z06 on a road course, but maybe slightly slower than a later C6 Z06 with the Z07 handling package. Next I'm going to compare it to a ZR1 and see what I find.

 

another fun thread thanks

 

I never really played the games as I prefer to enjoy the real car..real world yet I imagine your insights have some foundation I tend to believe the c7 will be slightly slower and slightly deficient compared to the almighty c6 z06.

Your game analogy was interesting.

Thanks for sharing.

 

I'm curious if anyone here really knows how the dynamics of the cars are ported to the game? How can they be porting the dynamics of all the different cars in the game and how do they really relate to actual car performance.

 

If we could do that then we can bring an end to all war....... just need someone to enforce the outcome as seen on PS3

 

I don't 'really' know. But I know enough to be confident it's total bulshit.

 

Having dabbled with GT5 enough to make my own tuning spreadsheet, I can confidently state that vehicle modeling is a kludge at best. The most obvious example is weight distribution, for the vast majority of cars they seemingly pull this vitally important stat out of a hat. One of the Mustangs is 65/35, not even close to reality. I've also noticed randomly selected stock spring rates, wrong gear ratios, and inaccurate curb weights among other things. That said, it's still better than nothing. Just keep in mind when doing C7 comparisons in the game that the weight is likely artificially inflated to 3300 lbs and the gearing seems totally fabricated.

 

Several of the posters at the following thread view it quite differently:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-g...r-results.html

 

I have a pretty good idea how these simulators are programmed. They're really good at putting humans in almost realistic situations. So it's not surprising that professional drivers use them for practice. I'm pretty good myself at this, but that's just because it gives me nine lives. Anyway, it's all about the playing human, not the accuracy of physics, despite the impressive 'simulator' term.

 

Several there believe Gran Turismo is advanced enough to be called a simulator when used with the proper hardware---- I take it you totally disagree?

 

I own this game and have played it (and similar games) extensively.

There is a general resemblance to real life (a 458 Italia will be faster than a Civic), but I would not call Gran Turismo an precise indicator of vehicle performance.

 

It's a 'simulator' in the sense that it properly prepares the human in facing situations that may occur in real life. That's possibly what they mean. That's easy to agree with that. As to whether it simulates the real car performance, I highly doubt it.

 

Thanks stic, very, very interesting stuff.

 

So I drove both the C6 Z06 and the C7 mule for another hour each. I was able to trim several seconds off of the Z06... got it all the way down to 2:48. I was only able to bring the C7 down to 2:50. However, I also found that while my best lap was faster in the Z06, it was harder to keep that pace on average. In short, the Z06 is harder to drive, but faster when you get it perfect.

 

I hate to bring this up......But when my C7 starts up in the garage, I hear a little valve clatter...... ONLY at first start up, then it goes away. Anyone expect this to be warrantied? LOL!

I'll get a video of it later and see if it captures.

 

yes c6z06 wins gran turismo.

 

I will agree that the "fear factor" is removed from the experience, but the simple fact is, when I am road racing in reality, I don't drive with fear, I drive with confidence and preparedness. The same applies to when I drive on the game. I approach the cars limits and truly, very RARELY wreck on GranTurismo if I am running a grip based line.

As usual, I'm going to refer to my split screen vs Jim Mero. I encourage you to look at the speeds in various turns, listen to the shift points, observe the braking points, look at where we both lose adhesion.

If the game is this crude representation of performance, only merely making a Ferrari faster than a Civic, then how do you explain this level of accuracy?

When I first set this lap, I can honestly say I was SHOCKED when I created the video. When I was able to see the comparison, pausing it at various points, my belief in this games physics/programming/etc doubled. I was sold....I don't see how anyone cannot be sold by watching the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9wuX...=results_video

 

Very good assessment and I agree. If you are driving these cars bone stock, unmodified from purchase, the Z06 is faster, but it is a harder car to drive faster. It also feels heavier in the game, and as many have stated, appears to have a significant handling advantage. The separation in performance truly comes down to the hp advantage, and the one fact is...the game isn't revealing the true hp figure we all expect to see, nor does it reveal the proper gearing/transmission. I think this base car is a C6Z killer on a road course, or it's at minimum gonna be a dogfight.

 

I must say that your video is very convincing. I learned to do these things in the late nineties. At the time, physics accuracy was not possible, and a lot of work has been done on that since then. So it seems they've attained the Holy Grail. It's not so surprising given the computational power of the PlayStation.

 

As far as accuracy goes, if you do a quick search on YouTube you can find comparisons of cars in game on tracks to real life times.

Here's one, a Turbo Miata on Laguna Seca:

Gt5 lap time - 1:42.925
Real lap time - 1:42.9xx

http://youtu.be/31bH2t2X95g

Seems pretty accurate to me.