Grindelwald

The beauty of Switzerland is experienced in Gran Turismo 2 with Grindelwald. This one-hit wonder is one of the most challenging and most unique city courses featured in any GT. I find this course to be fun to race with classic cars or even touring cars. Could you imagine if this course was featured in future GT games? Of course, Gran Turismo 5 would feature Eiger Nordwand, which is mostly in the same vicinity of Grindelwald. This blog post is a look at Grindelwald in Gran Turismo 2.

SPECIAL NOTE: Official 50th post to JGTS! :D

--- Grindelwald ---

^ It was in only one Gran Turismo, but it is one of the best racing challenges in GT2.

I think Switzerland is a beautiful country. One of Switzerland's lovely locales is this one here. The Grindelwald track is a city course. While it may not be an urban jungle like some traditional street courses, there are still a great number of corners and sections that make it feel more like a permanent race course than a traditional temporary street course. In fact, you could basically take away the buildings and the barriers, and you'd basically have a permanent race course. The setting is beautiful for Grindelwald. You gaze at beautifully blue skies as well as seeing the Swiss Alps in the distance. As for the track itself, there is a bit of banking and some crests that accentuate this course. Certainly a bad idea to go with soft suspension and low ride height here.

This track begins with a little kink. A smooth and long left follows that goes uphill upon exit. A smooth transition uphill follows along with a rather sharp and blind right. Some banking in the road follows after that as you clear Intermediate 1. Some more banking follows as a moderate-speed right is met with a moderate-speed left. Clear the moderately sharp left that follows to blast down the backstretch at full speed into Intermediate 2. This road ahead is smooth with high-speed roads. You will notice train tracks to your left. When the train tracks disappear from your view, get ready to be confronted with a moderate speed left-right chicane followed by a sharp left-hand hairpin that slowly goes downhill. As you cross Intermediate 3, the biggest drop in elevation around the whole track is experienced in a downhill left-right chicane. Banking in the road that follows lead to a blind right-hand corner followed by a smooth left-hand corner. That left-hand corner gets a bit long as the road to the Start/Finish line is ahead. Go full speed afterwards and hold nothing back to complete a lap in this Swiss alpine paradise!

Here is a video lap around this lovely locale (you may need to turn down the volume a bit):


Don't you wish this course could have been featured in future GT games? Even though other Swiss venues have been featured since Gran Turismo 2, Grindelwald was still a fantastic circuit to feature in a Gran Turismo game. I've only recently began to appreciate just what it was like to have a track like this in the Gran Turismo series. There was just a certain character about having this course.

Since GT2, there have been the Swiss Alps rally course, Eiger Nordwand (tarmac), and Eiger Nordwand (rally), and the Photo Mode location at Lucerne in GT5. Racing this track is still worth plenty of reason to play Gran Turismo 2 again.





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