Video courtesy of GTPlanet.

This is showing my friend “sweetnuts” driving the “Gran Turismo 5 SLS AMG Driving Experience” at Mercedes-Benz-Museum in Stuttgart.

Because a lot of people wondered about the settings (those where configurable):
Physics: Standard
ESP: On
Steering Aids: Off
Traction Control: 5
Tires: R3/R3

Unfortunately car damage is off (and wasn’t configurable) and there was no penalty for shortcutting

He had a 7:35:545 in his second try (which for that time was the record – if anyone knows the current standings have changed: tell me!)

GTPlanet did some homework and found these three in the top lap times of this years GT Academy competition.

• Kazunori Yamauchi (CEO of Polyphony Digital, and founder of the Gran Turismo Franchise)
• Lucas Ordonez (last year’s GT Academy winner)
• Sebastian Loeb (6 time WRC Champion)

I’m still working on my ranking…speaking of which–

An obvious choice for drifting, and the only D1 GP car in the game.

The Blitz ER34 comes tuned right off the bat for drifting. I’ll often drift using the stock settings, but something neat to try is to turn the power AND weight all the way down.

This brings you a bit closer to an “entry” level drift car (you can even leave the weight where it is or max it out to simulate a car that hasn’t undergone any weight reduction).

Even thought it’s the only “drift” car in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, it’s not my favourite car for drifting. I prefer a custom-tuned Nissan 350z, as it feels a bit closer to my own car (a ‘97 S14).

Without further ado, here’s a video of me drifting the ER34 on the London course. Gotta love that RB sound!

The GT Academy time trial (showing off GT5’s new physics engine) is now available for FREE in the PS Store.

I just downloaded it myself, and am quite impressed.

Better physics, engine and tire sounds, a more polished interface (specifically the horizontal menu bar), and of course, a new track. The Indianapolis GP course is not my favourite track, but the fact that it’s something new is refreshing.

A few things I’m not happy about – full tuning (I guess they wanted to keep it the same for everyone), and the fact that the clutch doesn’t work with my Logitech G25.

You’re seated in a Nissan 370z – both factory and a tuned variant. Surprisingly, they recommend beginners start with the tuned version (where in previous GT games I’ve found the tuned cars to be a bit more “intense”…and usually you start off the career mode in one of the cheapest, stock cars in the game).

After playing for about 45 minutes I’ve been able to achieve a ranking of 650 in the tuned 350z, and 230 in the stock version. I’ll be working on this as much as possible, but I’m not as into as I would be if I had the opportunity to partake in the REAL GT Academy.

Sure it would be great to win 2 tickets to the Indianapolis 500 – but I’m pretty sure I’d rather become a professional race car driver.

For more information, check out GTPlanet’s extensive articles and forums.

As a kid growing up I had always been a huge fan of the Viper – however I lost some interest in the car as I grew a bit older and got into Japanese and European cars. Well, after getting a ride in an SRT10 from a professional race car driver, it got my attention once again.

After going for the ride, I decided to try out the car for drifting in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. At first, I tried drifting with the SRT10, but later got into the seat of the 2002 Viper GTS – a much more raw and vulgar vehicle.

With a bit of practicing, I actually found the car quite fun to drift. After I played with the settings a little bit, I found it to be one of my favourite cars for drifting in the game. Not a huge surprise since they actually use Viper’s in competition.

These are the settings I enjoy using:

Power 550 hp
Weight 1333 kg
Tires N1/N1
Ride Height -27/-22
Spring Rate 5/5
Damper 5/5
Toe Out/In 0/0 (again, still haven’t messed with this)
Camber 1.5/0.5

And of course, a video of me drifting on the High Speed Ring (reverse) to go along with it.

To kick this off, we’ll start with my current favourite:

Ferrari 512BB

Produced from 1973 until 1984, the 512BB was certainly not built as a drift car. That being said, it’s actually very enjoyable to drift. Below are the settings I usually use when drifting the 512BB, although it can change slightly depending on the track.

Power 415 hp
Weight 1190 kg
Tires N1/N1
Ride Height -25/-20
Spring Rate 6/6
Damper 5/5
Toe Out/In 0/0 (I’m still kind of new to playing with Toe in/out)
Camber 2.5/1.5 (sometimes I change it to 1.5/0.5 – still haven’t mastered camber)

Everything else is stock – sometimes I’ll increase the steering angle to about 45 (which should make it better for drifting), however I usually find it messes me up.

Here’s a video of me driving the 512BB on the Suzuka D1GP course (for a competition on GTPlanet).

My apologies for the terrible video capture, but really, it’s not THAT bad.