Gran Turismo Strategy Guide Company: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Product: Gran Turismo Anti-Lock Brakes One of the MOST common problems gamers will have with Gran Turismo is the ease with which you can spin out and lose control if you apply brakes on a corner (and if you don?t, you?ll hit the wall...) One solution I suggest is to play using a controller that allows you to set an ?auto-fire? on the brakes. This is essentially what cars really do to avoid locking the brakes and sending the car into a skid. Don?t hold it down for long, and try to slow down right before hitting the turn. Easiest Setup Gran Turismo is a great game, but can be daunting for some gamers who are not used to the difficult handling of some of the cars For a fun, easy first race, choose Arcade mode, Single Race, Easy... then select Mitsubishi, and find the FTO ?94 GPX. (This car is an all around good choice, and handles very well.) Use Automatic transmission, and when it says ?Standard or Drift,? choose Standard. Then select the racetrack that shows up first. Good luck! If possible, utilize the ?Anti-Lock? method described on this page just before your turns, and try the ?Killer Start? method also on this page to get a good start. Killer Start One frustrating aspect of ANY race game is watching everyone else pull off quickly, leaving you to play catch-up from the beginning. Some racing games have this built-in, and the best you can HOPE for is a DECENT start. Here?s a neat trick to get a great start in Gran Turismo... Using the ?Anti-Lock? brakes method described on this page, hold down your brake and accelerator buttons all the way. (Your car?s tachometer should be red-lining and your brakes should be flashing on and off quickly. If they?re not, check your brake?s turbo settings.) As soon as the race starts, simply release the brake. Play with your timing: The race has to have started, but you don?t have to wait any time after that before letting the brake off. The rapid pulsing of the brake essentially ?softens? the start, preventing your tires from losing traction and peeling out. Tight Turn Trick On tight turns, such as the one on the Grand Valley East track (yes, the hairpin one), the anti-lock trick helps, but just doesn?t do the whole job. If you lose traction, you typically will end up offroad, in loose ground -- a real time waster. If you let go of the accelerator to slow down, you might stay on the road, but you will lose a LOT of speed in this turn The best trick I?ve found for turns like this one is to INTENTIONALLY go offroad, into the loose ground on the INSIDE of the turn. With luck, it will slow you down a bit, and your spin will match the curve of the turn. If you lose traction in THIS case, your car slips ONTO the track (and THAT?S okay, right?). Easy Banked Turn Method When racing in a pack, it?s difficult to avoid hitting the cars and the wall on banked turns, while still keeping up your speed. Then, if you hit the wall, everyone else takes off, leaving you behind We?ve already noted that these cars stay factory fresh no matter what you put ?em through, so let?s play a little dirty... On turns, while in the pack (especially near the back), go down to the inside of the turn. When you start losing traction, allow your car to lightly bump into one of the cars higher in the turn than yours. Since they?re traveling at about the same speed you are, the impact won?t slow you down as drastically as hitting a stationary wall. In fact, if your vehicle is slightly ahead of the car you glance off of, you may actually be sped up (as the other car pushes you forward, losing some of its speed). The other cars will be braking to maintain the curve, typically allowing you to significantly increase your position. ?I have used this several times to go as far as from 6th place to 1st place at the end of the curve. Actual Results May Vary? - the Geck0 -Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins Related Links: Gran Turismo Review