Special Stage Route 11 is a track that appeared in the original Gran Turismo game and Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. Like Special Stage Route 5, it is an urban course raced at nighttime. The track is primarily meant for speed, as it has a few very wide turns and very long straights. Despite this, the track has some sharp turns that can become a problem. Interestingly enough though, the Gran Turismo 3 version of this track doesn't go through the underpass as the one in the original Gran Turismo does. Instead, it goes through a semi-straightaway which is dotted with lighted trees.
Similarities and Differences with other Special Stages
Special Stage Route 11, as aforesaid, is an urban-based track that is raced at night, like all Special Stages. As with Special Stage Route 5, Special Stage Route 11 is set on a highway, and partway through a city. It has many transitions between sharp, low-speed corners, and wide, high-speed corners. The two variations have 24 (GT1/'98, 4,894 km) and 21 turns (GT3/'01, 4,561 km) respectively.
Although it shares a brand name, setting, and time, SSR11 is longer, more technical, and trickier than it's little sister Special Stage Route 5. This is mainly because the course was made to be more difficult than Grand Valley Speedway, one of the hardest circuits at the time. The track is also noticeably more decorated than other Special Stage Circuits, as it has various lighting patterns, billboards, and tunnels (The 3rd hairpin tunnel is the only one remaining since the Gran Turismo 3 rebuild of the circuit).
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The original version of Special Stage Route 11 in Gran Turismo 1
Compared to the new Special Stage Route 7, it is much shorter, but practicality is more or less, a tie. A major difference between the two is that Special Stage Route 7 is practically a circuit made out of a two-lane highway, which turns around at the enter/exit roads to the highway. Whereas Special Stage Route 11, much like Special Stage Route 5, uses both highway and major and minor city streets to make a complex circuit.
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The Gran Turismo 3:A-Spec remodel of SSR11, bypassing the underpass chicanes.
In overall, Route 11 is a tactical, fast-paced, and very technical course that was most likely created to outdo the other circuits at the time. With the inclusion of real-world circuits after GT1, the track would eventually lose it's appeal in favor of the real-world racetracks. Many people who raced on the track though, will generally say it's one of the best tracks out of the Special Stages, and ultimately out of the franchise. The track's fan popularity has declared it to be one of Gran Turismo's all time greats, despite its disappearance from the series after Gran Turismo 3.
Omission Status
Many speculate that the track "died", or developers Polyphony Digital "Killed off" the track, as it has not been seen in recent installments. There are no current plans for its return thus far. This has happened to many tracks throughout the series since Gran Turismo 2, such as Test Course, Smokey Mountain (North & South), Tahiti Circuit (Tahiti Dirt Route 3 In North America and other regions), Super Speedway, Rome Circuit (Pre-Gran Turismo 4), and more.
However in Gran Turismo 6, a map of the course was briefly seen in the first trailer of the game despite it not being in the game. It may be hinted that Special Stage Route 11 will be added to future updates in GT6; however, it has not been added since release.
1 Lap Guide
Sector 1
You zoom of the start/finish line, located half way through the northernmost straight. Heading into turn 1, you turn right gently. After exiting turn 1, the torture starts, as you brake hard into turn 2, a tight, right-hand turn about 90 degrees. you head down a short-length straight, encountering turn 3, a tight chicane. Heading down another short straight, turns 4 & 5 come therafter with turn 5 following up turn 4. You shoot down yet another short straight, halfway through which is the checkpoint ending the sector.
Sector 2
Sector 2 has two different layouts, both of which are listed below.
(GT1 Ver.)
After howling down the last half of the straight, you brake into the low-speed, turn 6, a right-hand, semi-wide hairpin turn, once again, heading down another short straight. Afterwards a sharp, short, left hand turn (turn 7) is followed. After another short straight, the hairpin turn leading into the underpass, known as turn 8, is the last hairpin turn of the sector. Now you have some breathing room, heading down two short straights with a high-speed bus stop chicane in the middle, after which only leaves the smooth, wide, turns 10 & 11. The following straight has the checkpoint for sector 2 half way through.
(GT3 Ver.)
The first part is the same as the GT1 version, but the similarities stop here. You are now heading down the straight after the first hairpin. It is here that instead of the sharp, left-hander leading into the underpass hairpin, you have another follow-up hairpin (turn 7 on the GT3 circuit) with a shorter radius than the preceeding hairpin. Afterwards, you will speed through two mid-length straights, with only a right-left chicane coming between them. Take some time here to admire the great scenery, with the lighted trees, the ferris wheel in the background, and the other city buildings surounding you. The checkpoint is still in the same spot as before.
Sector 3
After the last half, or that last part of the straight in the GT3 version, you slow down for turn 12, or turn 9 in the GT3 version, with turn 13/10 following up directly after. after a microscopicly short straight comes turn 14/11. A short straight, and turn 15/12 lead into a mid-length straight, with turn 16/13 leading into a right, hairpin tunnel section, which is turn 17/14. Turning gentally right into turn 18/15, then to turns 19/16 & 20/17, two left hand corners. After a short straight, a right-hand hairpin turn, turn 21/18 comes with the first half of the second-to-last straight, half way through which is the checkpoint that ends the sector.
Final Sector
This sector is the rest of the circuit. which starts with the last half of the chicane straight, going into the chicane. After the chicane comes the last two corners of the circuit, two right-hand, parabalic-style corners that blend in so it only looks like one corner. The rest of the section is just the first half of the start/finish straight.
Trivia
- Special Stage Route 11 is one of the most noticably changed original circuits in the entire GT series of games; this is reflected through its re-introduction in GT3 as the double chicane section under the start/finish line after the first hairpin is removed and redone.
- It is the second longest original city course in the GT series, falling only to Special Stage Route 7.
- A video on YouTube, and many pictures on the internet theorizes that Special Stage Routes 5 and 11 are connected to each other (usually at the final hairpins).
- Much like Special Stage Routes 5, and 7, Special Stage Route 11 is rumored to be based on a location in Japan, where the highways and streets are famous for street racing, though the road names on the road signs seem to be purely fictional.
- The Licence Tests in both GT1 and GT3 have a test held on this track, both of which have the TVR Griffith 500 as the test car.
- The track is seen on the first trailer for Gran Turismo 6.
- If you look closely in the Gran Turismo 3 version of the stage, at the second U-turn after the first checkpoint, you can see the old road leading into the old route from Gran Turismo blocked off.
- In older, demo versions of Gran Turismo 3, this track had its Gran Turismo 1 layout. See here for proof
- In certain parts of the track, you can see two large, double-pronged towers, that look strikingly similar to the ones on Special Stage Route 7.