Mercedes-Benz GT5 Challenge

Dav

Hello all,

Some of you may know about this competition but did you know there's a Boardsie by the name of Guy Foster in the finals?

You can see the details here:



Further to all this, Guy has kindly agreed to field any and all questions you might have about the competition and how he got involved, as well as what he does in general - all he asks for is a "Like" on his profile on the Facebook Page above if you can spare a moment Guy competes in Autotesting and you can see more details of that here.

Just to give you a wee sampler of some of what Guy can do, have a look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8oUStk3oIU

So any questions or good wishes etc you might have may follow.

I'll get the ball rolling:

I recently had a chance to meet Darren McNamara who's currently third in the Forumla Drift championship in North America (and is a real gentleman it must be said) and we spoke about his involvement in the recently released Need For Speed Shift 2 game. Given the video we've seen above of you giving it socks in your Mini, how does autotesting compare with drifting (assuming you've given it a go) and even regular racing? I would imagine there are a lot of very similar skills, but maybe a lot less looking out the side window

Another very obvious question I suppose: do you find GT5 to be a solid representation of the reality of racing a car?

Finally: do your friends and family think you're mad?

Thanks for taking the time out of your practice schedule and good luck with the competition!

guyfo

Dav wrote: »

I'll get the ball rolling:

I recently had a chance to meet Darren McNamara who's currently third in the Forumla Drift championship in North America (and is a real gentleman it must be said) and we spoke about his involvement in the recently released Need For Speed Shift 2 game. Given the video we've seen above of you giving it socks in your Mini, how does autotesting compare with drifting (assuming you've given it a go) and even regular racing? I would imagine there are a lot of very similar skills, but maybe a lot less looking out the side window

Another very obvious question I suppose: do you find GT5 to be a solid representation of the reality of racing a car?

Finally: do your friends and family think you're mad?

Drifting is a pet hate of mine. So many people say to me that if i want car control i should switch to drifting. It just isnt true. I havnt competed in a drifting competition but i have drifted rally cars etc before. I can quite easily say there is no comparison. All drifting involves is getting a rwd car and strapping the powerful engine to it that you can. The more power you have the easier it is to drift. I know of 2 occasions when rally drivers who have never sat in a drift car before being invited to take part in competitions by competitors with good cars and winning first time out. There was a 14 year old winning events in the ni cham last year just because his dad bought him the best car ffs. That has never happened in an autotest. People like drifting because it looks cool and generally some twat looses control and crashes his car which excites the masses. I would call drifting the motorsport equilivent of rhythmic gymnastics (minus the skill of course) lots of ponsing around but not getting anywhere quickly. I would compare autotesting to showjumping. A complex course against the clock that takes huge skill and penalties for hitting obstacles. It takes huge skill and lots of practice to become good. Generally with autotesting it takes 4-7 years to improve to the best level you can, the video above is the culmination of 3 years and over 120 events and im just knocking on the door of the top drivers now.

Ok rant over.

I would call gt5 a very good representation of a real car. Different cars handle differently and if you push it you can feel the tyres give beneath you and the detail of the tracks is second to none that coupled with over 1000 different cars makes the game the most complete driving simulator to date.

My family and friends are pretty much used to me by now! Although i was slagged for wasting my life while i sat inside playing gt5 for a month and a half but guess who's laughing now lol

brian plank

how did they run the competition? i could never understand why they did it in b-spec.

best of luck with it, its a great prize.

guyfo

brian plank wrote: »

how did they run the competition? i could never understand why they did it in b-spec.

best of luck with it, its a great prize.

I was a bit disappointed myself to begin with. But when you think of it gt5 is split 60/40 a-b spec, every other comp in gt5 has been run in a-spec so its about time there was a b-spec comp. The way it was run was 5 tracks: Indy, High speed ring, Tusucba, Monza and Sarthe. 5 laps each apart from 10 for Tusucba and 3 for Sarthe. You started last of 16 (or 15 i cant really remember( in each. you specked up your b-spec driver to lvl 40 and the worked out the fastest way through the field. Lowest total time over the 5 tracks won.

4g92mit

Isn't first prize a real life Mercedes SLS AMG? How would any of the competitors afford to keep a car like that?

Well done getting this far & good luck.

guyfo

4g92mit wrote: »

Isn't first prize a real life Mercedes SLS AMG? How would any of the competitors afford to keep a car like that?

Well done getting this far & good luck.

Yea it certainly is! I haven't really thought about that. Ill overcome that problem if it arises

squishykins

Just so people know, Guy is flying over to Austria to compete in this competition tomorrow, I'm sure everyone is rooting for him! If you haven't already, please show your support by liking his tab on facebook (click the pic in my sig), thank you

squishykins

UPDATE: Guy did really well and came 2nd in the competition, losing out by nearly no time at all, half a second. Delighted for him to do so well

May as well lock this thread now, thanks