Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Long wanted by a number of Gran Turismo fans, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is one of the most legendary and most challenging race courses in the world. This downloadable course for GT5 is the first real-world downloadable course in Gran Turismo history. At 4.35 miles (or 7 kilometers), it is the longest active course on the Formula One World Championship schedule. This blog post is all about Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Gran Turismo 5.

NOTE: I am basing my experience around Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps based on the recent Dream Car Championship Seasonal that features Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. You can still race on any Downloadable Content (DLC) course in a Seasonal, even if you don't have the track in question. That is unless PD starts changing up things to where you need to have purchased a DLC track to be able to use it in races. I have NO DLC material of any kind as of this post's initial date.

--- Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps ---

^ Belgium's timeless racing challenge awaits you in Gran Turismo.


Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps has been one of the most requested tracks among many Gran Turismo gamers. It is a difficult track to master with it many corners and its grinding 4.35 mile length. What offends me in how this track is described is in it being "popular." I consider it legendary and one of the last great classic Grand Prix motor racing circuits, but more would praise the Nürburgring Nordschleife much more than a track like Spa-Francorchamps. Almost as if Spa-Francorchamps is not as formidable a racing challenge as I am making it out to be. Or maybe people think Spa-Francorchamps was better, especially the Regardless, this is no cakewalk. It is a beautiful race course with the Belgian countryside surrounding you. You are blasting through forests surrounding either side of the course. Many elevation changes will upset the balance of your car as well as play with your timing of getting every corner taken properly. There is even a joke about weather at Spa-Francorchamps: "is there a chance of rain? Yes." In other words- there is a pretty good chance of rain to make racing this 4+ mile course interesting. Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps even has a Weather Change version, so if you are too good racing under dry conditions, you can try racing this track in the wet. Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps: Belgian racing Heaven.

Lap Description.

Spa-Francorchamps has two starting points- the starting area before the super-sharp right hairpin, and then the one after the super-sharp hairpin. You start off before the super-sharp hairpin. The hairpin is a right-hander that is fairly blind, so judge it properly to avoid screwing up big time here. Blast down the other front straight on to the exciting Eau Rouge. It's flat out through this uphill left-right chicane in an F1 car, but just let off the throttle in most other fast cars. After Eau Rouge is a brief smooth left. The road ahead progressively bends to the right and is all about flat-out speed. After a romp through the forestry, be ready to pound the brakes hard to negotiate an uphill right followed by an uphill left. Be careful not to overshoot either corner here. After the left is a brief straight that leads into a moderate right-hand corner. The road ahead progresses downhill as you approach the next section- two right-hand corners that slightly progress downhill. Another moderate corner follows, only this one is a left-hand corner. Up next is a straightaway with a right-hand kink. Two long left-hand corners come up after this high-speed romp. After the two long lefts and the straightaway that follows, three fairly sharp corners await. The first is a right-hand corner with a fairly wide radius followed by a left-hand corner with a somewhat lower radius. A brief straight leads to the third of these corners, a right-hand corner with about the same radius as the turn you just cleared in this section. Next up is a full-speed blast! This high-speed romp begins once you clear the long (and somewhat sharp) right-hand corner. A series of smooth corners await as your car screams down the track at speeds north of 300kph (or about 170+ mph). One of the smooth corners requires either a little braking or just letting off the throttle. After one more smooth corner, get ready to brake absolutely hard to negotiate the super-slow chicane. Once you pass this section, floor the gas to the finish line to start another 4.35-mile adventure!

One-Lap Video.

You did a whole lot of reading! Now do you want to see a video lap? Of course you do! Have a look:


(NOTE: This lap was performed with a DLC car.)

Enjoy your racing around Spa-Francorchamps!

--- Cross-Promotion ---

Read my post on "John's Blog Space" for more about this track:

• "Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps" - John's Blog Space

Thanks! :)





Remember- this is a downloadable track. So if you want to race this almost any time you like, download this track from the PlayStation Store. Thank you for reading!

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Red Rock Valley Speedway

Red Rock Valley Speedway in Gran Turismo 2 can be thought of as a road course that features two ovals. This course is a high-speed course with a nice rhythm to it. It has never been featured in any other GT besides GT2. So what you are looking at is a course that offers the thrill of high-speed racing but with a few extra corners to make things interesting. In reality, the course is essentially like a modified oval all the way around. If you have never played Gran Turismo 2, this is one of the better tracks in GT2. This blog post is a look at Red Rock Valley Speedway.

--- Red Rock Valley Speedway ---

^ Red Rock Valley Speedway is a unique road course with two ovals intertwined and some smooth corners.

Red Rock Valley Speedway has two ovals in its design. While they are not two proper ovals conjoined to form one race track, the track feels like you are racing two ovals connected by a series of other roads. A track like this would have been a perfect track to race on for Gran Turismo 5 with the NASCAR stock cars. The action takes place at sunset/dusk. Its setting is not far away from some sort of suburban or downtown district as there are some tall buildings in the background.

One-Lap Description.

The first two corners ride like your average superspeedway oval with high banking. There is no need to do any sort of braking through the first two corners. You will clear Intermediate 1 after clearing the first two corners. The next two corners are two long and smooth corners going left and right in the Normal direction. This left-right complex has some modest banking, good for attacking the absolute inside of each corner. The two corners that follow afterwards are banked right-hand corners. The radius of these corners of the shorter oval are about half the radius of the first two corners. Two more highly-banked turns await at the end of the straightaway. These two banked left-handers lead into a tunnel. At the end of this tunnel, you are faced with a very blind right-hand corner followed by a completely visible left-hand corner. The road out of the tunnel progresses uphill as you exit the tunnel. Finally, two banked left-hand corners are the only things separating you from blasting down to the Start/Finish line.

The course rides a lot like an oval, only that this is not a traditional oval track. It is probably best to go for a high-speed setup, but don't immediately go for the highest turbo. Remember that you still have some smooth corners to set your car up for despite the speedy straights and banked corners. A setup along the lines of high-speed with a handling package for smooth corners will yield great results for you tuners.

One-Lap Demonstration.

Here is a one-lap demonstration of Red Rock Valley Speedway. Get ready for one blindingly fast lap!:

(embedding was disabled by request. Click this sentence to see the YouTube video.)

You like? I sometimes wonder what this track would be like if it remained a mainstay of Gran Turismo. Imagine what this track would look like in Gran Turismo 5, for example. Or... would you Gran Turismo fans love to see this track come around again in the series?





Since this is the first 2012 post for JGTS, happy new year! :) Thank you for reading!

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