TITLE: Guide for the Simulation mode races of Gran Turismo 3. Filename: gt3simguide100.doc DESCRIPTION: This FAQ is a general guide for the Simulation mode races in Gran Turismo 3, for the PS2, US version. FAQ version. 1.05 11/30/01 author: Alex Dang This FAQ is only found at http://www.gamefaqs.com and should not be found elsewhere. ========== DISCLAIMER pt. 1 Gran Turismo is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. All manufacturers cars, names, brands, as associated imagery featured in this game are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. All right reserved. Copyright 2001 Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. "Playstation" and the "PS" family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc Copyright 1999 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. pt. 2 All information in this "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) document are the ideas of the author and do not represent the ideas of GameFaqs, or SCEA. It is not the author's intention to make profit or gain from the information provided in this document. Any possible infringement upon any other person, company, foundation, etc. is accidental not intentional. This FAQ is provided "as is" for the recreational purposes. By reading this document, you indemnify Sony, GameFaqs, and the author from any harm caused by this document. In other words, the author is providing this for free and it should given to the reader for free without any trouble. ========== NOTE: If you want to use this FAQ for anything, you may. Just make sure you give me credit. Alex Dang ========== TABLE OF CONTENTS DISCLAIMER NOTE I. INTRODUCTION A. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THIS FAQ. A1. What this guide will cover A2. What this guide will not do B. STEP BY STEP, MY WAY C. HISTORY OF THIS FAQ II. SOME NOTES BEFORE YOU DRIVE A. ABOUT CHANGING YOUR OIL B. ABOUT QUALIFYING III. THE GUIDE A. RACING WITH NO LICENSE A1. Using the Mira A2. Using the Vitz B. RACING WITH A B LICENSE B1. Tuning options C. A TASTE OF COMING ATTRACTIONS C1. Racing with an A license and tire damage in Amateur League C2. Racing without ASM and TCS C3. Racing with an IB license and more tuning options in Professional League C4. A taste of a FR transmission C5. Racing with a Rally license D. SOME SPECIAL RACES D1. Two 4WD races and both Stars and Stripes D2. Evolution meeting, a rally, Boxer Spirit, and two more NA races. D3. Two MR races, a Spider/Roadster, and a FR race. D4. Normal races and the S license. E. Unrestricted Races E1. Unrestricted Series races. E2. Unrestricted non-series F. Specific Races and etc. IV. Miscellaneous THANK YOUS SECTION ========== I. INTRODUCTION. A. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THIS FAQ A.1. What this guide will cover: - Which car to use with which race in the simulation mode. - What cars to buy and what cars you need to win. - What enhancements to get for certain cars, and how to tune some of the items. A.2. What this guide will not tell you: - how to tune cars in general. - what codes to use for your gameshark - how to beat the arcade mode. - How to beat the license exams. - A listing of all the prize cars. - Machine test help There are other FAQs on the Gamefaqs site, www.gamefaqs.com that do this job quite well. B. STEP BY STEP, MY WAY This is not an all inclusive guide. Rather, it is a skewed guide of how to complete all the races in a specific order. If you read my previous simulation disc guide for Gran Turismo 2, then this should be similar. Reading this FAQ out of order may and probably will cause confusion. But such occurrences happen with other FAQs too. I'm not going to tell you how to win all the races with the best cars. I'll just tell you what worked for me. Surprisingly, people tend to agree with me. Comments are welcome. . C. History of this FAQ: Ver 0.1 8/19/01 started this FAQ by basing it on my previous gt2 sim walkthrough. I noticed that this game is different! ver 1.00 10/31/01 (posted - or so I tried) I'm leaving it incomplete for now. I'm a little short on time, and I'll finish the details another time. Ver 1.00 11/25/01 (posted) Nothing new. I must note that when you upload something, you should zip it up with winzip! Ver. 1.05 11/30/01 Made some minor corrections (like grammar) and added a few things. Since I'm here, I might as well put in a little bit more info. ========== II. SOME NOTES BEFORE YOU DRIVE A. ABOUT CHANGING YOUR OIL The more you drive your car, the more wear and tear your oil takes. When your oil is dirty, it cannot cover for the wear and tear on your engine. When you see the oil lamp go on, then your engine will start loosing power, amongst other things. Be sure to change your oil before starting a series event (the kind when you enter, you have a set of races to complete before you finish.). Check your oil every 100 miles or so. If it is no longer green, then you should change it. Your first oil change will get you a small change in HP. I'll try to remind you when to change your oil. B. ABOUT QUALIFYING Most of the time, you don't need to qualify. You don't get any extra money for qualifying. When you need that extra edge on a track, go ahead and qualify. On those races where you will need to change your tires, you may want to run the qualification just to see when the cars start to change their tires. But be warned, qualifying for endurance races, or certain series races might be bad for your car. This is because you can't take your car out of the series/endurance race for maintenance without starting over. So don't add extra mileage to your car unless you really have to. However, for a non-series race, you may want to run the qualifying portion of a single race to help break in a new car. You get the idea . . . I hope. ========== II. THE WALKTHROUGH A. RACING WITH NO LICENSE A1. Using the Mira Day 1. Go to the Car Dealer, JPN, Daihatsu and buy a Mira TRXX for Cr. 11,140. Get in. Then go to the Tune Shop. Buy and install: Racing chip and Turbo kit stage 1. I chose this car because it is easy to get started with this car. Go Race - Beginner League Sunday Cup. Your only competition will be either a CRX or a Civic. Race and win all 3 races. You will win a Trueno only once because this is a non series race. I'll explain the series race later. Sell the Trueno. Polyphony improved the brain slightly for GT3. For some races, if you have a weaker car, then you will race against comparable weaker cars. Keep in mind that if you choose a different car, you may have to rerace certain races over and over again for money. This is Polyphony's way of getting you to practice these tracks over and over again. Buy and install a Racing Muffler and a Racing Intercooler. Note your HP at your garage. Go to GT Auto for an oil change. Even though your oil is not dirty, you want to get an oil change. Your first one will increase you HP slightly. All other oil changes are purely for maintenance. Go back to your garage and note the change in HP. Race and win Beginner League Lightweight Sport Cup, which has three races. Just watch out for the Laguna Seca. It is difficult for the uninitiated. Practice the track as needed. Qualify for 1 or 2 if you have to. You will win a Mini Cooper. Sell it. Rerace the same Lightweight Cup two more times. You should have around Cr. 26,000. Buy a Toyota Vitz RS. Do not buy the Vitz Euro Edition. Get in. A2. Using the Vitz Take your Vitz RS to the tune shop. Buy and install: Racing chip and lightweight stage 1. Go Race and win Beginner League Clubman Cup. The Rome full course will have some tricky parts. You will win a Mazda Mx-5 Miata. A nice car, but sell it. The Vitz is heavier than Mira TRXX, but it can hold more horsepower, so you can go a little faster. Buy and install Sports Suspension. Go Home, Run and Setting, choose any track (except for Swiss) and set the your Suspension: shock front 4 and rear 7. Just my advice. Try to figure it out yourself. Race and win Beginner League FF Challenge. They are the same three tracks from the Clubman cup, just a different order. Note how your car handles. You will win a Vitz RS. Sell it (the prize car, not yours). Buy and install Racing Muffler, Triple plate clutch and racing flywheel. Enter and win Beginner League Vitz race (a series race), but note: You may want to practice Tokyo R246 and SS Route 5 before entering. Congratulations! You win another Vitz RS. Sell it, not yours. As a series race, you can re-race this for more prize cars (one of four. For this one you will always get a different color Vitz), but don't do it now. Get an oil change. Your car should be breaking in by now. You should have around Cr. 40,000. Get your B license. B. RACING WITH A B LICENSE B1. Tuning options Buy and install Sport Brakes, Racing Transmission, Lightweight Stage 2 and Turbo Kit Stage 2. Tune your transmission to auto level 24. Enter Beginner League, Race of Turbo Sports. Win Midfield II. Win the Test Course with the auto transmission of 29. Then leave the Racing area and head to the Tune Shop. You can do this because you are not in a series race. Buy and install Full Engine balancing. Then head back to finish the third race - SS Route 11 - which you will need to set the auto transmission back to 24 and qualify for first or second place. For this track, you really should know how to cruise around tight corners at slow speeds. Don't let the GT 3000 intimidate you. Bump him off as soon as possible, and grab and hold the lead. You will win a Mira TRXX. Sell it, not yours. Next, buy and install NA tune stage 2 for your Vitz. Your HP goes down, but there is a different feel to notice. Race and win Beginner League NA Sports. You get a CRX Del Sol. Save it. Goto run and setting and reinstall your Turbo stage 2. Viola! Your Hp returns to 289 or so. C. A TASTE OF COMING ATTRACTIONS C1. Racing with an A license and tire damage in Amateur League Get your A license. Buy Medium-Slick tires for your Vitz. For most races that have 5 or more laps, there is tire damage to worry about. Cold tires are blue and have growing traction. Worn tires are orange and have some traction left. Red tires mean that you have no traction and that you should have changed them before they turned red. Usually for the five lap races, you do not want to pit. Enter and win Amateur League FF Challenge. Just watch out for Rome Circuit II. You will need to be familiar with this track. You will win a Celica. Keep it for now. C2. Racing without ASM and TCS Turn off ASM and TCS for your Vitz. Re-race Beginner League Vitz Race. Notice how the handling differs. ASM and TCS are free beginner level driver helpers. They are not too helpful for highly tuned cars. So turn them off for your highly tuned cars and race cars in future. When you drive bad with a monster car, you drive bad irregardless. ASM and TCS will limit your car's ability to reach its full potential when it is highly tuned. But turn them on if you really need help with the car. Anyway . . . Sell the prize car. At this point, I will let you know which cars to keep. Other prize cars are kept at your discretion. C3. Racing with an IB license and more tuning options in Professional League Next, get your IB license. Buy and install Full Customized Suspension, Brake Balance Controller & Lightweight Stage 3. This is the one time I will give my detailed explanation on how I tune this car. Other times I may not. This is how I set my suspension: Spring Rate: 8 and 11, Ride Height 98 & 100, Shock Bound 5 & 5, Shock Rebound 7 & 8, Camber 2.0 and 1.0, Toe 0 and 0, Stabilizers at 3 and 3. Brake Balance at 14 and 12. Try to adjust your car to what feels right for you. If you are not sure how, you can read the scrolling menus provided by Polyphony. Demon Slayer's general GT3 FAQ on Gamefaqs has typed out what goes on the screen if you want to look at that instead. She did a good job here. Also there are plenty of other FAQs that help you tune your car on Gamefaqs. Check there. Anyway, your car should be just about warmed up at 293HP or 294HP. Change your oil. Enter and win the Professional League Vitz race. Each race will consist of 10 laps, as are most of the races in Professional League. Two of the more difficult tracks are Rome Circuit II and SS route 11 II. For the first two races in the series: Rome Circuit II and Laguna Seca, change your tires at the end of 5 laps. For the Test Course, set your gears to 29, and do not pit. For SS Route 11 II, set the gears to 24, change your tires at the end of 4 laps. Save at the end of this race. For the last race. Change tires at end of 4 laps. Eventually, you will want to figure out when to change tires on your own. For series races, like this one, you probably want to watch out for your oil level. If you did any qualifying during the series, your oil light will come on. Of course, your HP already goes down when your oil gets really dirty, so you can feel it. So make sure you change your oil before and after most series races. And if you do not change the oil on the Vitz or any other car, it will stay at that lower HP and the engine will be ruined. Note that series races also provide you the opportunity to win multiple cars. You can re-race them for cars and for bonus money. To get a specific car from a series race, save at the end of the fourth race, if out of five. Or save at the end of the ninth race, if there is ten races. Make sure that you can win the series. Finish the last race and see what car you get. If not, then reset and try the last race of the series again. Anyway, if all went well, then you will win a Altezza Racecar. If you won Tom's Supra Racecar, that's great too. Make sure you have one of both. Yeah that means re-racing the Pro league Vitz Race. Tom's Supra is one of the better cars in the game. I don't know why the creator of GT3 likes the Evolution so much when Tom's Supra is featured in the the opening sequence AND in ending #1. So to summarize what I just said, race the Professional League Vitz Race twice to win both Tom's Supra and the Altezza LM. Its good money for now. C4. A taste of a FR transmission Get into the Altezza race car that you just won (from the Pro League Vitz race). Be sure to turn off the ASM and TCS for more power. . . but as you will find out, some cars just are not as controllable without it. It is up to you if you want it on or off. But leave it off for now. One of the nice things about a racecar is that most of the tuning items Are already installed. No need to tweak this car yet. This will be your first set of races with a FR car. These FR cars are more difficult to control than FF cars, but have more power. In these races you will blow out the competition, but use these opportunities to get used to racing a FR car without ASM and TCS. Go to beginner League Altezza Race. Next, race and win Amateur League Altezza Championship. Now change your oil, before I forget to remind you. C5. Racing with a Rally license Get your Rally license. Buy rally tires for your Altezza. Race and win Rally Events Smokey Mountain Rally. Be careful about this car, it is not meant to be a rally car. On the sharp turns, turn and coast, but do not over turn. You will win a Ford Focus Rally Car. D. SOME SPECIAL RACES D1. Two 4WD races and both Stars and Stripes Get into the Focus Rally car you just won. Race and win Beginner League 4WD challenge. Change your oil. Race and win Beginner League Stars and Stripes. Buy and install Turbo kit stage 1 and Medium slick tires. Enter and win Amateur League 4WD Challenge and Stars and Stripes. You will win a spoon s2000. Keep it. Next race and win Rally Events Smokey Mountain II. You will get a Evolution VI Rally Car. Keep it. D2. Evolution meeting, a rally, Boxer Spirit, and two more NA races. Get in the your Evol VI rally. Enter and win Beginner League Evolution Meeting. Then buy and install Turbo Kit II. Race and win Amateur League Evolution Meeting. Change your oil. Then enter and win Rally Events Tahiti Maze II. You will win an Impreza Rally Car. Get in. Race and win Amateur League Boxer Spirit. Change oil. Buy and install Turbo kit II and Slick Tires. Tweak it out however you want. Race Professional League Boxer Spirit. Your competition will either be the RUF CTR2 or the RUF RGT. (buy one of them if you are having a lot of trouble). For Deep Forest, qualify for fourth place or better. Change tires at the end of lap 5 and be sure to be under 20 secs behind after pitting and you'll be fine. For Rome Circuit, don't pit. And hold on. For Super Speedway, change tires at then end of lap 10 or 11. Remember, this is professional league, so don't take anything for granted. You will win a RUF RGT. Keep it. Okay, get in the RUF. Buy and install Medium Slick tires. (if not, use Spoon race car, buy and install NA stage 1). Race and win Amateur league Race of NA sports. Change oil. Buy and install NA level 2, racing chip, custom suspension, racing muffler, lightweight stage 1, triple clutch, racing flywheel, sport breaks, break balance and port polish. You should have about 606 HP. I'm feeling nice, so here's some of my opinion for tweaking the car: SR 10 and 13, RH 76 and 80, SB 3 and 3, SRB 7 and 8. Leave rest of suspension alone. Brakes: 12 and 12. Race and win Professional League NA Sports. Okay, maybe your car was a little too powerful, but you'll win anyway as long as you pit at the end of lap 5 for each race. You will win a Zonda C12S. D3. Two MR races, a Spider/Roadster, and a FR race. Get in the Zonda. The Zonda is a bullet car. A standard FR car that drives fast in a straight line and only turns on a dime when you are almost stopped. Okay, that is exaggerating (but wait until you soup this guy up with heavy mods). Just be careful with what you modify this car. You will need to take off some parts later. Do not modify for now, except for the built in ASM, TCS, and downforce. Race and win Beginner League MR challenge. Buy and install Medium Slick tires and custom transmission. Do not buy Engine Balancing, Port Polish, or any Lightweight Stages. Enter and win Amateur League MR challenge. Change the oil. Next, get in your CRX Del Sol (won from Beginner NA races). Buy and install Racing Chip and NA Tune Stage 2 (buy a muffler if you need more power). Race and win Beginner League Spider and Roaster. Win and keep a Mazda Miata LS. Now, get into your Mazda Miata LS. Buy and install: Sports Suspension, Racing Chip, Racing Muffler, and NA Tune Stage 3. But do not buy Engine Balancing, Port Polish, or any Lightweight Stages. Turn off ASM and TCS and make other adjustments as necessary. Race and win Beginner League FR challenge. Change the oil. D4. Normal races and the S license. Remove your modifications from your Mazda Miata LS and your Zonda by going to Run and setting. Just keep the Medium Slick tires on for both cars. Normal races require stock cars with out modifications. A note about Endurance races: do not bother qualifying in Endurance Races, because you will put more wear and tear on your car. You cannot change oil in the middle of an Endurance race, so try to make it last. Also, the prize car you win from an Endurance race is completely random, one out of four. One of the four will be a F1 car. If you want a different car from an Endurance race, you have to race it all over again. Now, get into your Mazda Miata LS. Race and win Endurance Race Roadster Endurance. You may want to change your tires at the end of 7 laps or so. This is the general rule for most endurance races. Longer tracks may have your pitting at the end of 4 laps. But this also depends on the tires you have. Change the oil for your Mazda. Now get into your Zonda. Race and Win Endurance Races Trial Mountain. Change your oil. Then get your S license. Then Race and Win Professional League Polyphony Cup. Change oil after the endurance race. E. Unrestricted Races You are going to need money for the other restricted races. So in the mean time, let us try our hand at the unrestricted races. Most of them are series races. As for the car to use . . . when you drive a car too much, it wears down and gets slower. So try not to use just one car. I suggest first using the Altezza LM for a bit and then use Tom's Supra. When you find other great cars to use, use them so that these cars do no wear out. Of course if they do, then you should know where to win another one. You probably do not want to over use a unique prize car that you cannot win again. But it's up to you. Use the Altezza and upgrade the engine when necessary with Turbo stages and buy tires Medium Slick, Slick, or Super Slick as necessary. Do the same for Tom's Supra. *** More details in a future version of this FAQ *** E1. Unrestricted Series races. Race and win Beginner League GT World Cup This is the easiest series race and the one you can re-race easily for the most money in a short time. Plus also, you can save in between. Race and win Amateur League Japanese Champ, American Champ, Euro Champ, and German Champ Races. Then, GT World Champ, Gran Turismo All Stars, All Japan GT, and Dream Car Champ. Then race and win Professional League GT World Champ, Gran Turismo All Stars, All Japan GT, and Dream Car Champ. *** More details in a future version of this FAQ *** E2. Unrestricted non-series Continue with Professional League British GT and Like the Wind. Use the Ford Focus or your rally car of choice to finish the rest of the rally races. When you do, you will win an Escudo! Keep it. Again, use your car of choice for the other Endurance races. I'll suggest Tom's Supra, Pennzoil Skyline, or for abuse -- use the Escudo. *** More details in a future version of this FAQ *** F. Specific Races and etc. Now that you have a lot more money and cars from the unrestricted races, you can try your hand at buying and upgrading cars for the restricted races. But, first check to see that you have prize cars that may work. My suggestions: use the Skyline R32(won from Beginner League GT World Cup) for both 80s races in Beginner and Amateur League. I don't know if this car will succeed in the Professional League 4WD race. You might want to try the Skyline R32 special edition won through the Amateur League also. The American Version of GT3 gives this car 10HP more than the previous Skyline R32 prize car mentioned. Of course the Skyline R32 prize car from Beginner League GT World Cup has 10HP more than the one you can buy from the dealer. And its not that they are broken in that they have more HP. All cars have to be broken in, whether it is prize car or a car from the dealer. Oh yeah, you might want to try your hand with the Skyline R32 for the Red Emblem races. I didn't get around to testing it fully yet for this race yet, but it should work. Use a Mitsubishi FTO (won through Amateur League Japanese Championship) for the FF races, or find that FF Beetle. You can use a TT (won from American Championship Amateur League) for the TT races. Note: Some of the prize cars referred in this section are won through series races, (which means you have to get lucky . . . one out of four). The restricted races I have not covered yet in Simulation Mode are: Legend of Silver Arrow, Type R, Beetle Cup, Zonda Race, Elise Race, Clio Race, Speed 6 race. Also more transmission races, Spider/Roadster, and Turbo Races. Most of these races usually involves spending more money to buy a car and to possibly max out the car. So, if you run out of money, re-race some of the unrestricted series races. May I suggest the Beginner League GT World Championship? It is a nice series race to break in your car too. If you like the punishment, you can re-race an Endurance race or also you might want to re-race them to get a certain car. *** More details in a future version of this FAQ *** Now you should have finished all the races in Simulation mode by now. If not, drop me a line and let me know which part I missed. ========== IV. Miscellaneous Thank yous: CjayC - for maintaining Gamefaqs and for hosting this FAQ. Message Board at Gamefaqs - I got some ideas from there as well as some notes of some possible glitches. Thanks for a referenced FAQ: Demon SLAYER A great general FAQ that covers more of GT3 than what I have here. I referenced that FAQ for the tuning guide and some prize car listings. Please read her FAQ!!! And she does reply to fan mail ^_^ I hope I didn't miss anyone else.