GT5 Specials: Grand Tour

Gran Turismo is Italian for "Grand Tour." This Grand Tour takes you mostly through central and southern Europe in a series of five events. Placing well in these races lend you money as well as new Photo Mode locations. Can you complete all five Grand Tour events? Can you complete this two-country tour? Welcome to John's Gran Turismo Space as well as another post regarding GT5's Special Events. And in my opinion, the best-executed of the Special Events in GT5.

--- Grand Tour ---

^ Five races in five places with five fabulous cars. Welcome to Gran Turismo's Grand Tour!

"Go on tour and take part in a series of events stretching from Bern all the way down the Italian peninsula to Rome."

Of all the Special Events, perhaps the most fun and creative Special Event is the Grand Tour, taking you on a tour through mostly central and southern Europe. You begin in Switzerland at the Eiger Nordwand Short Track. Afterwards, you head into Italy. Along the way, you will unlock more Photo Mode locations and compete in a number of different challenges. It is a very fun and well-executed Special Event series. Challenges range from time trials to races. Best of all, no car in your collection is needed for any of the given challenges.

I think this is perhaps the best-executed of the Special Events. I want to blog more about the concept of this Grand Tour in a future post or two. This one is a lovely Special Event. I think you will enjoy this one if you haven't played it already.

Grand Tour: Briefing.

The tour goes like this. Each of the individual cities are in normal letters, and the racing venues are all in CAPITAL letters:

Bern - EIGER NORDWAND (short track) - Luzern - MONZA - Siena - TOSCANA (Tarmac) San Gimignano - TOSCANA (Rally) - San Galgano - ROME

Each stage of the Grand Tour features a brief video. Your Grand Tour begins in Bern, Switzerland. You set out to drive to the Eiger Nordwand Short Track for your first of five racing stages. The rest of the Grand Tour takes place in Italy. This is a racing tour that takes you from the mountains of Switzerland to the streets of Rome. What happens along the way is a magical racing journey that puts you into some sweet cars and intense competitions.

FIXTURES:
• cars will be provided for you- no need to purchase a certain car beforehand.
• You must be at Level 13 or higher to compete in any event in the Grand Tour.
• You will be disqualified in the time trials (first and fourth events) if you have a hard collision at any point of the races.

--- Gran Turismo 5: Grand Tour (Level 13) ---

So let's look at the individual stages of the Grand Tour. Your journey begins in Bern, Switzerland; as you cross through a gate to drive over to Eiger Nordwand Short Track. The crowd cheers you on as you begin your fantastic voyage.

Now that I have set up the Grand Tour, it is time to talk about the five stages of racing action. Let's begin!

Eiger Nordwand Time Trial.

The beautiful Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione is your first car to race with in this series. You are asked to take this car around Eiger Nordwand Short Track in a Time Trial. How you handle the super-slow hairpins and rather narrow roads determines success or failure. The entire course is tricky to master, so if you want the best time, you will need to be creative and take a few chances to try and post a fast time. The uphill switchback usually catches me out every time I race this course. Hard collisions and going off-course here will disqualify you.

OBJECTIVES:
• Bronze: 1:25.000
• Silver: 1:19.000
• Gold: 1:17.000

Monza Circuit 2-Lap Battle.

After clearing Eiger Nordwand, the remaining four races all take place in Italy. The first Italian challenge takes place at Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Your car here is the 2007 Ferrari F430 Scuderia. Your task is to race two laps around Monza trying to finish as high as possible against 15 other Ferraris. Monza is a high-speed playground with a few technical corners to throw your car off-balance. It remains a fun track, though. Let that Ferrari sing at speed as you try to pass as many cars as possible to advance to the next stage of the Grand Tour. Go ahead and play dirty if you like- there are no penalties for collisions or going off-course. Just bring your best driving effort when battling against the other Ferraris. They won't know what hit 'em once you dance all over your opposition! :)

OBJECTIVES:
• Bronze: Finish 3rd.
• Silver: Finish 2nd.
• Gold: Win the race.

Tuscan Night Race.

This is a race that happens at night on the tarmac of Toscana. The atmosphere this race provides almost seems like New Year's Eve- the time goes from late sunset to deep into the night with fireworks going off in the background. You have yourself another Italian car for which to try to clear the challenge with. Your car happens to be an orange Lamborghini Murciélago, and your job is to pass the five cars on the track you share with. Getting Gold is going to be an intense challenge. It may sound annoying and repetitive for me to say this, but it is true- you need to keep driving mistakes to a minimum. You have to find ways to make up about a 20-second gap on a rather long point-to-point tarmac course. Prepare to do this race many times (especially for Gold) until you finally get it right. Finish as high as possible!

OBJECTIVES:
• Bronze: Finish 5th.
• Silver: Finish 2nd.
• Gold: Win the Race.

Tuscan Time Trial.

Of all the Grand Tour races, this is the only Grand Tour stop that does NOT feature an Italian car, and it is also the only one that features a proper race car. You will be asked to run one lap around the Toscana rally course in a Ford Focus WRC. This course is not easy to master. It is a rather long rally course with a set of troublesome switchbacks. You will find yourself stumbling quite a bit until you finally get a grip on this course. Put your Focus into focus and focus on delivering a solid lap time around Toscana. You will be disqualified for hard collisions.

OBJECTIVES:
• Bronze: 2:10.000
• Silver: 1:56.000
• Gold: 1:54.000

Rome City Course Street Battle.

With only one lap, you are behind the wheel of the beautiful Lamborghini Miura. Only one lap with 12 other cars on a 2.16 mile street course determines victory or defeat. One thing to be careful of is that the rear view from inside the car is not very clear. So it's best to use some other camera view if you want to look behind. Do everything you can to complete this Grand Tour on top! No penalties will be given for hard collisions or leaving the course.

OBJECTIVES:
• Bronze: Finish 3rd.
• Silver: Finish 2nd.
• Gold: Win the race.


If you've completed all five events, congratulations! You've cleared the World Tour! Even more respect if you managed to win all five Grand Tour events with Gold.





Congratulations- the Grand Tour is complete! Be ready to take on the next Special Event, which will put you back in the realm of rallying. This time, the rallying is done with a guy who's... a pretty big deal. This next one will NOT be easy. Remember that I want to do a blog post about something similar to the Grand Tour you've just read about. So stay tuned! Thank you for reading!

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