The Driving Park facility is an area of testing tracks in the Gran Turismo Series. It exists, in part or as a whole, in all mainline versions of the game. Driving Park consists of Test Course, Motorland, Beginner Course, Gymkhana Circuit, Circle Courses, Complex String and The Karting Tracks.
Test Course[]
- Main article: Test Course
Test Course is a 10 km oval circuit with two 2.5 km straight sections separated by two 180° banked corners. The circuit is designed to bring out the highest speeds of each car. A shorter version of Test Course, with a 1-km straight, appears in Gran Turismo and Gran Turismo 2.
The circuit is the setting for several license tests, missions, speed trials and races in all versions of Gran Turismo, except for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Gran Turismo 5, Gran Turismo 6 and Gran Turismo Sport where it has been excluded and replaced with the Top Gear Test Track and Special Stage Route X
Motorland[]
- Main article: Motorland
Motorland is a short, highly technical circuit in the Driving Park facility of Gran Turismo. It appears in Gran Turismo 4.
Motorsports Land[]
- Main article: Motor Sports Land
Motorsports Land, the predecessor to Motorland, appears in time trial mode of Gran Turismo 2.
Beginner Course[]
- Main article: Beginner Course
Beginner Course is a very short, simple oval track with a chicane in the back straight. It is one of the most basic courses in Gran Turismo 4. A version of this circuit without the chicane exists in the Driving School area of Gran Turismo 4 Prologue.
Circle Courses[]
60R[]
60R is a 60 metre radius (377m length) circular course used in license tests in Gran Turismo 2 and 3.
In GT3[]
100R[]
100R is a 100 metre radius (628m circumference) circular course used in license tests in Gran Turismo 3.
In GT3[]
Gymkhana[]
Gymkhana is an open paved area of the Driving Park facility used for the Coffee Breaks on Gran Turismo 4's license tests. In these Coffee Breaks cones are arranged in different setups depending on the level of the license.
Gymkhana can also be accessed via the Driving Park area of the Gran Turismo map.
In GT4[]
- Coffee Break 1 in "Cone Field" setup
- Coffee Break 2 in "Cone Spiral" setup
- Coffee Break 3 in "Cone Spiral II" setup
- Coffee Break 4 in "Coned Racetrack
- Coffee Break 5 in "Cone Maze" setup
Complex String[]
- Main article: Complex String
Complex String is a long, highly technical test circuit from Gran Turismo 3. It features several long straights as well as many 'themed' areas of compound corners. It is designed as the ultimate test of power, speed, acceleration, handling and stability of cars, as well as testing the ability of the driver to the limit.
Karting Tracks[]
The Karting tracks (apart from Kart Space), though only available in the Gran Turismo Karting Experience Special Event in Gran Turismo 5, are small tracks designed for karting events, based on two locations of the Course Maker, namely "Tokyo Bay (Kart)" and "Eifel (Kart)". While these tracks are not available in Arcade Mode or Practice Mode, tracks based on these locations created by the player at the Course Maker can be used in the aforementioned two game modes.
It should be noted that while these kart tracks aren't technically part of Gran Turismo 4's Driving Park facility, due to the tracks being located in different locations than the one used in Gran Turismo 4, the Driving Park logo is displayed during the loading screen of these tracks during the Gran Turismo Karting Experience Special Event.
Trivia[]
- A fleet of seventh-generation Honda Civic Ferio RS appears in the background of the Driving Park hall in GT4, although that particular model have yet to appear in the series.
- A course logo item for a course named "Split µ" (internally named sprit_mu) with Driving Park logo in it can be found in Gran Turismo 5's files.[1] It is not known what purpose of the track was for, but since the term (with the "µ" symbol read as friction) refers to a road condition where conditions are different on the left and right wheels, it could have been used for physics testing.
- A Driving Park logo can also be found in Gran Turismo Sport's game data files, presumably an preliminary logo before the name and logo used for the similarly named Kyoto Driving Park tracks were finalized.[2]