INTRODUCTION

I raced extensively in UK Saloons and Single-Seaters in the early 90s (1990-1994) and worked as an instructor for Jim Russell school at Donington Park. I started back racing and instructing again last year, did about 17 races in various saloon championships including most of the EERC races (European Endurance Racing Club) including the famous Willhire event at Snetterton. Only 6 hours last year but 9 hours this year and hopefully soon back to it's 24hr format.

GTR related in that we raced with a number of Marcos Mantis' in the EERC events. Not sure what I'll be doing racing wise next year yet apart from I will definitely be doing the Willhire, hopefully some other rounds of the EERC AND another 24-hour endurance race at Snetterton - in a .. erm .. well ... it's a Citroen 2CV - about as far away from a GT car as you can get but the event should be a blast and racing is racing. I may be racing a Tomcat 220 Turbo in the Mod Prod Saloons for some races plus whatever else crops up.

Also GTR related one of my intructing jobs runs Supercar Days where we get to drive Diablo's, Vipers, various Ferrari's, Jag XKR, Noble M12 GTO, Lotus Exige, Maserati 3200 GT etc. - and get this ... we get paid for it.

An instructor buddy of mine (Nick Leeson) races a Diablo in the Supercar Challenge and he often uses it for circuit rides at various events and I'm hoping to drive it myself next year.

Can't wait for the season to start.


HOW REAL IS GT RACING 2002?

Trying to evaluate a "sim" as to how good/complete it is and compare it to other sims is no simple tasks as there as so many elements that can and perhaps should be taken into account.

For instance. GTR2002 has weather effects where others sims (GPL, Nascar Heat) do not, so GTR2002 can be said to be more complete in providing another real world "effect". There are also elements such as brake wear/heat that also make GTR2002 more complete. There are also things like cockpit views, track accuracy etc. etc. It's a very long list in fact.

All I am really going to comment on is the handling side of the sim and how close it is to real life. In trying to do this I have to take into account the much reduced sensory input you get from a sim vs. real-life. I am 110% in favour of using a Force Feedback wheel as I believe useful Force Feedback is a major requirement of a sim.

My major interest in sim driving as a professional race driver, instructor and driver coach, is for it's usefulness as a training aid for real life drivers. Of course, I am also into the sheer fun aspect of driving these sims even though they may not prove that useful in real life, most driving sims can provide this.

Ideally, I should be able to fire up a sim with a car format I'm familiar with, at a track I'm familiar with and drive in the same way as I do in real life, feeling totally comfortable with the car and the way it handles and responds to control input. I wouldn't expect this from a previously non sim-driving real-life driver as they must get used to the lack of sensory input and rely much more on visual cues - that takes time, but as a fairly experience sim driver I feel I am fully used to that.

No sim I have ever driven allows me to do the above and I have driven pretty much all that are out there. So, if we consider realism to be a yes or no then neither GTR2002 or any other current sim is realistic.

However, it is more useful to consider realism as a sliding scale and to try and give degrees or percentages of realism - that too is difficult as I couldn't write a paragraph that would explain what specifically is "wrong" with a particular sim, it's just that it does not react as I'd expect.

There are some things that I can specifically point to as not feeling right, such as low-speed grip in GPL, pitching in GTR2002 (more later).