World's Top-Rated Race Course: GT5 or Real Life?

[John Funk]

World's Top-Rated Race Course: GT5 or Real Life?

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The Nürburgring's Nordschleife race course in Germany is considered by many to be the world's best racing track. How does GT5's version hold up against the real thing?

Gran Turismo 5's whole shtick is its authenticity. The game boasts hundreds and hundreds of real-life cars meticulously modeled over many long years of development time, designed to be driven on many real-life racetracks where they will handle very much like their real-life counterparts.

One driver decided to test just how authentic it was.

The video you see here is of Denis Malevanyi, a wheelhound who does professional driving instruction and coaching at the Nürburgring course in Nürburg, Germany [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCrburgring] - considered by many racers and enthusiasts to be one of the best-designed and most difficult racetracks in the world. In both parts of the video, Malevanyi drives the Nordschleife course inside a a BMW M3 E92. The difference is that one is fiction and one is reality.

No matter how good Gran Turismo 5 looks, it becomes evident that it's still just a game when you compare it side-by-side to the real thing (though that may just be a side effect of it being a gray day in reality - and Malevanyi's windshield being kind of dirty). That said, one can't fault GT5 for its accuracy in sculping the Nordschleife racetrack. That thing is spot-on.

No wonder it took them so long.

(Thanks, Alai!)

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[Onyx Oblivion]

I fucking hate that track in every racing game. Almost as much as I hated LeMans in GRID.

 

[Danpascooch]

It's funny that it's so accurate, yet the game probably won't be that much fun.

Prioritize guys, nobody (well, maybe a few) is going to say "LOOK HOW ACCURATE THAT IS! I don't even care if I enjoy it, IT MUST BE MINE!"

 

[CardinalPiggles]

the trees are different.

 

[Delusibeta]

Didn't Top Gear do something similar with GT4?

 

[Jesus Phish]

Didn't Top Gear do something similar with GT4?

Yeah, they played on Laguna in a corvet, then Clarkson went over to the real track to see could he match his time from the game in real life. He couldnt because of the sheer terror he felt on some of the corners, that didnt have an effect on him in the game.

I know they're really pushing for it to look as real as they can, but I couldnt help notice the grass looked like a single mass of green paint.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

I wonder why Polyphony didn't make a few of these?
With the camera viewpoint at the drivers helmet and some kick ass cars...
Would've been relatively cheap yet cool footage for marketing.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Thats actually looks very accurate.

I must show this to my father and his friend tonight. Both have driven on the actual track, and this will be a neat vid to show them.

 

[BlackStar42]

I hate the Nordschleife. I can't get round without crashing in any game.

 

[mjc0961]

No matter how good Gran Turismo 5 looks, it becomes evident that it's still just a game when you compare it side-by-side to the real thing (though that may just be a side effect of it being a gray day in reality - and Malevanyi's windshield being kind of dirty).

Indeed. I'm reminded of this picture that was being passed around a while back of the insides of two cars. One was the GT5 version of the car, and the other was the real thing. Someone was bragging about how you couldn't tell the difference, but to me it was obvious which one was the game.

Actually putting the game and someone driving side by side would only be more obvious, of course.

 

[Avaholic03]

Didn't Top Gear do something similar with GT4?

Yeah, they played on Laguna in a corvet, then Clarkson went over to the real track to see could he match his time from the game in real life. He couldnt because of the sheer terror he felt on some of the corners, that didnt have an effect on him in the game.

It wasn't a Corvette, it was a Honda NSX.

 

[DA_MAISTA]

The key to not crashing on the Nordschleife is to start slowly and then learn the course progressively in sections. Its not that hard. Both in a game and real live. Granted, it's certainly more complicated than Bristol Motor Speedway, you Nascar-spoiled philistines! ;-)

Aside from that... the track is actally not that good for racing in terms of overtaking, especially with faster cars. It's almost more fun as a pure time-attack circuit.

 

[DA_MAISTA]

Ooops, double tap

 

[cerebus23]

And clarkson used a controller rather than a wheel, makes a world of difference in gt.

And i love the ring it by far the most grueling difficult tracks to drive well, just because it is so huge and has so many turns and blemeshes in the road that can toss a car off if you do not account for them, amazing track i love to drive it period game or not .

Really impressive he was almost exactly paced with the game to real life until he came up on that one car that he had to wait on to move over then they got out of synch but up till then it was almost dead on the same. Just puzzling why no quote form him or anything about how the car "felt" in the game vs real life, and if he used a wheel or a controller.

Set a 7:15 in my Italia ferrari in gt5 today, one off racing medium slicks and some slight tunes, Set a rather shakey 7:40 something in a totally stock italia no driver aids on in either case, cept abs at 1.

And no the grasses do not look that great if you stare at it nor the trees but the track itself is spot on accurate, minus grafiti profanity that sony took out lol.

 

[SaintWaldo]

I have a friend who races Miatas who borrowed my copy of GT4 to practice Laguna Beach. He claims it helped him time his corners for the day he was on the real thing. He won the league he races in this year, so I kinda believe him. I'm hoping that with the track editor, we can put together a good facsimile of our home track, PIR.

If you're commenting about the look of the grass, you're looking at the wrong part of the screen.

 

[Brotherofwill]

Wow, that looks amazingly accurate. Just amazing.

I'd say something about dreading the Nuernburgring but in reality Icdread most courses in GT even the simple circle ones XD. I don't know, my hands find it very hard not to crash, then again I've never used a wheel.

You know how most good professional drivers like Vettel grew up having Go-Karts and racing with them? Maybe we'll have a few new racers in the 2020s that grew up with GT5.