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GT Karting Experience














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Beginner

Level needed: 1

Tracks: Tokyo Bay, Eifel Kart Track

Note: For an extra hardcore challenge, try racing your kart without a map, without any music playing, and turn off the HUD altogether!  After all, no kart would ever be equipped with GPS, a stereo, or any sort of computerized equipment! 

Description
After attaining level 1, we attain a Go-Kart. Yah! This little buzz bomb can give an early jump in experience and credits. Many real-life racing drivers, amateurs and professionals alike, race karts or have raced karts in the past. Many of them also started racing with karts, which puts an interesting twist on the game because this gives us the chance to play this role of an emerging driver who starts at the very bottom.

Both the Sunday Kart Race at Tokyo Bay and the Weekend Cup at Eifel are pretty easy. For some reason, they award an amazingly high amount of money (12,000 cr each) considering they're just two laps apiece. We only win this money once, though.

I haven't figured out where the heck we're allowed to practice at either Tokyo Bay or Eifel, but these races are pretty easy. If you need practice, Autumn Ring Mini or one of GT's downloadable karting tracks are good places to try. Do some Time Trials, and then try a race.

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Note: One thing I noticed recently is the intermediate tracks recently changed with the latest updates (1.06 or 1.07). Keep this in mind.

Intermediate


Level needed: 7

Participants: 16

TracksClubman Cup Eifel Kart Track, Tokyo Bay

Description:
The pace is picked up and the opponents drive with more confidence than they did at the Beginner level. Each race is now 5 laps instead of 3. Again, these two events award an incredible amount of cash....34,000 credits per win. These credits can only be won once, but who cares? Do real-life karting events really pay this much? I doubt it.  

A couple tips now. The only modification possible to perform on karts is to adjust the transmission's final drive. This is something to consider. For more top-end, scoot the slider to the left. To go faster in a shorter amount of time (acceleration) scoot it to the right. Problem with this is we don't want to go too far right, this winds up bringing overall speed too low.  

When drafting other karts down longer straight sections, the engine can possibly hit its RPM limit, losing a bit of speed, especially if the transmission has been keyed this way. A limit is to cut back throttle down those straights. Some opponents too make their top-end ceiling a little too easily, and we can get by them easily down longer straight areas.

Tip #2: Power can not be tweaked with parts, but we can get an oil change for a small boost.

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Advanced

Level needed: 17

Participants: 16

Tracks: Tokyo Bay (time change), Autumn Ring Mini


Not much difference between the Intermediate and Advanced Karting Experiences, to be honest. The main diff is it becomes even more necessary to take both tracks flat-out 90% of the time, only using brakes or releasing the throttle only when absolutely necessary. An incredible amount of money is won from both tracks. 119,000 cr each!* For karting? It just doesn't seem possible! 

* Edit: After update 1.06 or 07 or 08, this is now 167,000 cr each!

At the Advanced level, the Ai finally seems to near mastering the art of cornering, drafting, and keeping up with us, but they still make mistakes. Take advantage of these mistakes, get ahead of them, don't let them draft, and keep on that fuel! Now for some tips.

1). Again, one can get an oil change if they're needing a bit of help. We can also tune our kart's gearing to be higher or lower, but only in an actual garage, outside of the race track. So exit the race and return to your garage if you'd like to do some tuning here.

2). Take the tightest area of Tokyo Bay (I guess you'd call it a chicane) in as straight a line as possible while braking. Once you're deep in the chicane, flick the steering so the kart pivots just so, get it lined up properly, and then give all the gas you can. The Ai screws up this particular turn, often taking it way too hot and smashing into each other. Once you're ahead of them, you hopefully won't have to worry about them knocking you out of place.

3). Try and keep OFF the rumble strips of Autumn Ring Mini. Even a slight bump on one can cause the entire kart to bOuNcE. No suspension, remember? These bounces can be deadly, skewing the kart into the wrong racing lines. Or at worst, making you spin. Again, the Ai tends to get a little over-eager at times, driving off track, taking mysteriously bad racing lines, and getting into minor scuffles with one another. Keep those racing lines proper, keep off those rumblies, and there isn't much to worry about.    
















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