Seattle Circuit

Seattle Circuit is a street circuit based on the roads of Seattle, WA. It features in Gran Turismo 2, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, Gran Turismo 4,Tourist Trophy and Gran Turismo PSP. It also features as the only circuit in the PS2 demo Gran Turismo 2000, a precursor to GT3. The circuit also has a shorter variant, Seattle Short Circuit, in Gran Turismo 2.

Seattle Hybrid (Long) — The Seattle Circuit superimposed onto the full course

Circuit Layout[]

Sector 1[]

The Seattle Circuit begins with a long stretch along the waterfront, curving gently to the left, and followed by a tight, double-apex right-hand hairpin with very little room for error. This takes you under the elevated highway and round the back of the pit-lane. After a short straight follows a tricky left hander towards the top of the course. After a left kink, the circuit goes uphill and over three trademark jumps. At the top of the hill is a tight, awkward right hander where most cars are prone to understeer. This is the end of the first sector.

Sector 2[]

Sector 2 is very technical, but is mostly mid-speed turns. After the mid-length straight, you go into a right hander into another very short straight, which leads you into Turn 7. After Turn 7, You are lead almost instantly into Turn 8 (right) and another 2 follow-up turns 9 and 10. Turn 9 (left) is a softer, less technical turn that is easy to master, but the exception is that it leads into Turn 10, which is a tight left hairpin turn. Luckily, a straight comes after this, with a another gentle right-hander. after this last long downhill straight, you brake hard into the right-hand Turn 10. Turn 11 is a right-left chicane that leads into another short, thin straight, about half-way through which is the check point that ends the sector.

Sector 3[]

Sector 3 contains the rest of the circuit. After the second half of the straight, another two-part chicane (left-right) is encountered, although the turn is noticeably looser than 11. Turn 13 is a sharp, acute right-hand turn just after the straight out of Turn 12 which heads under the freeway. A light, short curve is the last speed section before entering the infamous Turn 15, a tight, tricky, thin chicane. Turn 15 is arguably, the most difficult corner of the Seattle Circuit. To effectively drive through the corner, you have to keep a reasonable pace, while making use of the curb space provided. Too much speed or throttle coming out of the turn will result in understeer, usually crashing into the outside wall at the exit of the turn. Following this very tricky chicane is a long straight leading to the finish line.

City Streets[]

CaptureSW — The circuit imprinted onto a real life map, note that due to the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, this course can no longer be driven in its current configuration.

Until Lumen Field and Convention Center were built, it was actually possible to drive the Seattle Circuit in real life, assuming you ignored one-way streets and no-turn signs. It can still be mostly driven, aside from the section in the Kingdome parking lot, but with the coming demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, only a close approximation will be possible in the vicinity of the Seattle waterfront.

The (normal direction) race starts on Alaskan Way, near S Washington St. It continues north to Marion St (just past the ferry terminal), where the hairpin takes you to the parking lane under the viaduct. A left turn is made on Yesler Way (prohibited by sign), followed by the slight left onto James St. The 90-degree right turn is made to 5th Ave, which becomes 5th Ave S near the slight right. The next 90-degree right turn is onto S Washington St. The next slight right is to Prefontaine Pl S (prohibited M-F 6-9 and 3-6:30!), followed by a slight left to Yesler Way (again), this time westbound. The tight left hairpin takes you to 2nd Ave S. As you pass King Street Station on the right, you take a slight right to 4th Ave S, with the Kingdome and (in GT4) Safeco Field in the distance. The road to the right that curves back to the left (inaccessible in the game) is the western end of I-90...or was until the realignment along Edgar Martinez Dr S; just past that, you turn right to S Royal Brougham Way (SR 519; in GT4, the southbound sign visibly shows shields for SR 519, I-5, and I-90) (though now you must take an immediate left and loop around to stay on Royal Brougham). The right and left chicanes take you through the Kingdome parking lot and back to Royal Brougham; at the end, the final hard right is onto Alaskan Way beneath the viaduct (accessible only up to 1999), and the left chicane (at S King St) puts you back on the waterfront section of Alaskan Way to the finish line.

Race Series featuring Seattle Circuit[]

GT2[]

Special Events[]

4WD Challenge - Race 2, 2 Laps
80's Sports Car Cup - Race 4, 3 Laps
Muscle Car Cup - Race 2, 2 Laps
Pacific League - Race 2, 3 Laps

Endurance Events[]

Seattle Circuit 100 Miles - 40 Laps

GT3[]

Beginner League[]

Stars & Stripes; 2 Laps - Race 1 and 2 Laps - Race 4 (reverse)
80's Sports Car Cup (reverse); 2 Laps - Race 3
Altezza Race; 2 Laps - Race 5
Beetle Cup (reverse); 2 Laps - Race 3
Gran Turismo World Championship; 2 Laps - Race 6

Amateur League[]

American Championship; 3 Laps - Race 1 and 3 Laps - Race 4 (reverse)
Gran Turismo World Championship; 5 Laps - Race 7
Stars & Stripes; 3 Laps - Race 1 and 3 Laps - Race 4 (reverse)
Boxer Spirit; 3 Laps - Race 2
Gran Turismo All Stars; 5 Laps - Race 7
Tourist Trophy; 3 Laps - Race 1

Professional League[]

Race of NA Sports; 10 Laps - Race 2
Gran Turismo All Stars (reverse); 15 Laps - Race 7
Tuscan Challenge; 10 Laps - Race 4
Polyphony Digital Cup (reverse); 20 Laps - Race 5
Formula GT; 40 Laps - Race 2

Endurance League[]

Seattle Circuit 100 Miles; 40 Laps

GT4[]

Driving Missions[]

Beginner Events[]

FR Challenge (reversed); 2 Laps - Race 1
Sport Truck Race (reversed); 2 Laps - Race 3

Professional Events[]

World Compact Car Race; 3 Laps - Race 1

Extreme Events[]

Polyphony Digital Cup (reversed); 7 Laps - Race 2

American Events[]

All American Championship; 5 Laps - Race 1
Stars and Stripes; 3 Laps - Race 2
Muscle Car Competition (GT4); 2 Laps - Race 3

One Make Races[]

Vette! Vette! Vette!/Chevrolet Corvette Festival; 4 Laps - Race 1
Chrysler Crossfire Trophy; 2 Laps - Race 1
Mini Sports Meeting; 2 Laps - Race 4
Opel Speedster Trophy; 3 Laps - Race 5
Shelby Cobra Cup (reversed); 2 Laps - Race 1
Suzuki Concepts; 2 Laps - Race 2

Trivia[]

Bmw120dseattlekingdomegt4 — An image from Gran Turismo 4, showing a BMW 120d '04 in front of the Seattle Kingdome stadium, which was demolished in 2000.

The circuit layout lags behind the time the games were released. On Gran Turismo 2, T-Mobile Park (originally Safeco Field) is completely non-existent, despite the fact that it was already a working stadium by the time the game was released. On Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, the new stadium is shown as still being under construction. Moreover, its predecessor the Kingdome is still standing, despite the fact that the real Kingdome was demolished in 2000. Gran Turismo 4 uses the same track as its predecessor, making it even more outdated.
In GT3, Seattle Circuit II (Seattle in reverse) has darker clouds in the distance, making it seem like it could start showering within the moment.
This track was known for the 2,147,483,647 mph glitch on Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.
- The glitch was not present in the PSP version, even though the player can exit the map.
- In Tourist Trophy, this glitch cannot be done as, because the player is riding a motorcycle, they can crash and fall off of the bike, rendering it impossible to do so.
A recently-rendered version of the Seattle Circuit, specifically on Sector 1, was utilized for the trailer of the Acura NSX CONCEPT '13. Despite it being heavily updated in this trailer, Seattle Circuit didn't appear in GT5 and has still yet to appear in any game after that.
This course remains as a leftover from GT4 in the game files of Gran Turismo 5, even including graphical enhancements for the PlayStation 3.