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GTR
'the most authentic racing simulation ever'
 Developer: Simbin Development Team
Publisher: Atari
Category: : Simulation driving
Platform: PC
Might look like: /
Date posted: 2 September 2005
(Updated with more in-depth details! - 3 pages)
Official website: here
Written By: Fretbol
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Introduction
"Spa-Francorchamps, early in the morning. I'm in a pit box looking out onto the pit lane of the legendary circuit. The autumn sky is dark and grey and it looks like the rain will fall down any minute now. I'm in the cockpit of a Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello, one of GTR's finest GT cars.
Suddenly, the silence on the track is broken by the typical sound of a V12 engine starting. A couple of moments later, a black Lamborghini Murcielago drives by my pit box and goes onto the circuit.
As I'm adjusting my seat, I can hear the lambo screaming uphill towards Eau Rouge. Once my seat is in the right position, it's time for me to go out.
I press the starter button and a moment later the 600 bhp engine becomes alive. I can feel the vibration on the steering wheel, and when I gently press the accelerator pedal, the revs go up immediately. I instantly feel this isn't a regular street car.
I select first gear, release the clutch pedal and the car rolls out onto the tarmac. As I'm driving towards the end of the pit lane, the pit limiter keeps the speed at 60 kmph. As soon as I've passed the white line at the end of the pit lane, I switch off the pit limiter and put my foot down on the accelerator. From this moment on, the monster becomes alive. The needle on the speed dial goes up as I'm shifting through the gears towards Eau Rouge, and I'm at the top of Raidillon in no time.
I can feel the weight of the car moving, the work of the suspension and the sounds and vibrations inside the cockpit make me feel like I'm driving a real car.
As I'm approaching the chicane at Les Combes, I hear another car approaching. When I check my mirrors, I see a yellow Saleen closing in real fast. As I'm preparing to brake for the chicane, the Saleen passes me.
I hesitate for a second, then I start braking. I'm watching the yellow Saleen going through the chicane, when I feel my brakes lock up. The next moment, the car goes into an uncontrollable spin and slides into the gravel trap. I can hear the gravel scraping under the car and in a cloud of dust and gravel it hits a tyre barrier ... game over ! "
My first GTR experience was over after 3 minutes. I immediately knew this was not a game like all other race games.
According to the box cover, the game offers anything to "GET REAL". The official GTR website opens with "The most authentic racing simulation ever!"
In my opinion, these aren't just clever marketing slogans, this game really is as real as it gets !
Developer History
GTR, the first commercial game of the Simbin team, is the result of the work of a few sim racing fans, slowly building up a team over the last few years.
The history of the SBDT developer team began a couple of years ago, when the game "Sports Car GT" was a tremendous hit among sim racing fans.
The game was easy to mod, and the SCGT community released hundreds of cars and tracks. In 2001, Marco Demontis and Locutus, both well known modellers in the SCGT community, were porting a lot of GT cars from SCGT over to EA's new F1 2001. Neil Walker took care of the physics and the first FIA GT mod was born.
During the same period, Ian Bell and Stephen Smith founded a website dedicated to sim racing and modding. The website was called "The Simbin". Over the next couple of months, a group of talented sim racers found each other and the SBDT was slowly forming.
The first release of the FIA GT mod was followed by a second version, which offered physics from Doug Arnao, setups from Ian Bell, and a user friendly installer and in game icon menu screens and icons.
In March 2002, the Simbin Development Team ( SBDT ) was formed. After a lot of hard work, the team released a third version of their GT mod. The mod was a great success, but failed to please the most hardcore sim racers, who still praised Papyrus' Grand Prix Legends as the best race game out there.
After the release of EA's F1 2002, which had a new physics engine, the SBDT started to develop GT Racing 2002. All cars were rebuild from scratch, new models were included, music and sound effects reworked and the mod offered a total new look and feel.
Since its release, GT Racing 2002 became an instant success, and was downloaded by more than 200.000 people. The SBDT won several rewards, and their mod became the most popular F1 2002 mod ever.
The success of their work convinced the guys at SBDT they could create a real FIA GT game.
The "SBDT AB" was formed in Sweden, and the team got together with Henrik Roos, owner and racer of the Roos-Optima Racing Team. Henrik immediately believed in the success of a commercial FIA GT game, and offered the team a lot of support.
The team had a lot of experience with EA's F1 engine, and decided to take a licence on Image Space Inc's (ISI) new engine. With the help of Henrik Roos, the team was able to obtain an official FIA license. This license gave the team access to all teams and tracks. Motec, the official telemetry provider, was able to deliver all necessary telemetry of the 2003 season. From this moment on, the SBDT had everything it needed to create their dream.
2 years later, the team released GTR, the most authentic racing simulation ever.
Game Overview
One of the first things you notice when you start playing GTR, is the fact that all cars and tracks are available from the very beginning. No need to win several races, no need to collect hundreds of cars, they are all there.
This is the first indication of the type of game GTR really is : a no-nonsense hardcore simulation of the FIA GT racing series. Nothing more, nothing less.
All the cars of the real FIA GT series are there : Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Corvettes, Vipers, Saleens, Porsches, Lotuses etc.
Each real-life team of the 2003 season is present in the game, and you can choose any car you want. There are more than 70 cars in the game, and with the additional download of the Spa-Francorchamps 24 hours, all the cars present at that race are added as well.
  
All 10 tracks of the FIA 2003 season are in there, including F1 tracks like Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Barcelona, Magny-Cours and Monza. Other tracks include Brno, Estoril, Anderstorp, Oschersleben, and Enna Pergusa.
With the addition of the Spa-Francorchamps 24 hours, this particular track even has dusk, dawn and night versions, making it possible to drive a 24 hour endurance race. You can save the game at any point, so there's no need to go out and get some extra coffee ;)
All the tracks in GTR are modelled accurately using real-life GPS technology, so each bump in the real track is there in the game as well.
Another great addition is the implementation of Live Track Technology. This feature causes changes in the course conditions as the race progresses. If you have the time to cover a whole race weekend, you will notice that the grip becomes better after a couple of sessions. The more laps you do on a certain track, the more rubber there's left on the track. You can not only feel this as you are driving, you can actually see the race line getting darker throughout the race weekend.
The weather conditions are variable as well, so you might start a race in dry conditions, to find yourself struggling with the rain a couple of laps later.
The game offers an Arcade and Semi-Pro mode, but the main focus was the Professional mode. This doesn't mean however, that the Arcade and Semi-Pro modes are simplified additions to the game. In fact, GTR is not only of the best race Sims out there, it's also on of the best arcade racers.
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