Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
The third game of the Gran Turismo series, released the year 2001.
- Acknowledgements
- Arcade mode
- Cheats, Modifications & Secrets
- How to tune properly?
- Regional differences
Acknowledgements
Just because this site has a ton of information doesn't mean that everything that comes from this site originated from our incredible minds! Here we make sure that every piece of information/resource that has been taken from somewhere else it is being credited properly. (It's important to know that if any of these users credit anybody else for their work, it will be only shown on their project pages for simplication's sake)
- muzzleflash: for developing and making sure that MFAudio works correctly
- pez2k: for being the main developer of GT3VOLExtractor
- snailrush: yet another developer, in this case for the program called PSound
- TeaKanji: for creating an awesome guide for the game, which this guide is heavily based on
Arcade mode
If you're tired of just playing GT mode for a bit, then arcade mode is the perfect option for you. Even though at first glance it might seem that this is just your average quick race mode where you simply pick a car and off you go, you'd be wrong.
This mode will net you some unlockable cars for this mode, and also it will help you complete even more the game, but let's not get ahead of ourselves already.
How this mode works
Once you have selected this mode, you'll be granted a couple of modes for you to choose from.
With the exception of Time Attack, all of the modes will simply let you pick a car and a circuit, with the nuances that each mode might bring into the table.
If this is your first time picking this mode, you'll realize something: there's barely any circuits whatsoever to choose from! Not to worry though, as it is not like Polyphony Digital decided to lock out some circuits from this mode in order to incentivize players from skipping this mode, far from it.
What have they done is very simple: they added a progression system for this mode. If now you're asking yourself on how this unlocking process works, it is pretty simple. To make it more understandable, going to the "Bonus Items" option will help to make everything more visual.
As you can see, there's the entire list of circuits listed in different packs and with some labels for the difficulties. What this means, is that in order to unlock the rest of the circuits locked in this mode you must first win at least one race in each of the circuits unlocked already in single player mode. Said races can be done in any difficulty one may wish to do them, but doing those in harder difficulties will grant you access to new cars to choose from (check the "Walkthrough of this mode" section for more information on the matter).
Walkthrough of this mode
Like we stated in the first section of this page, the progression system is pretty simple. Beat a series of races in some specific courses, and you'll unlock the next set of races to race on.
Down here you have the list of each block of circuits that the game will throw at you alongside the rewards given for winning those races in each difficulty.
Area A
Circuit |
Direction |
Super Speedway |
Normal |
Mid-Field Raceway |
Normal |
Smokey Mountain | Normal |
Swiss Alps |
Normal |
Trial Montain Circuit |
Normal |
Mid-Field Raceway |
Reverse |
Area B
Circuit |
Direction |
Smokey Mountain |
Reverse |
Tokyo R246 |
Normal |
Grand Valley Speedway |
Normal |
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca |
Normal |
Rome Circuit |
Normal |
Tahiti Circuit |
Normal |
Area C
Circuit |
Direction |
Swiss Alps |
Reverse |
Trial Mountain Circuit |
Reverse |
Deep Forest Raceway |
Normal |
Special Stage Route 5 |
Normal |
Seattle Circuit |
Normal |
Test Course |
Normal |
Area D
Circuit |
Direction |
Tokyo R246 |
Reverse |
Grand Valley Speedway |
Reverse |
Rome Circuit |
Reverse |
Tahiti Circuit |
Reverse |
Tahiti Maze |
Normal |
Apricot Hill Raceway |
Normal |
Area E
Circuit |
Direction |
Special Stage Route 11 |
Normal |
Deep Forest Raceway |
Reverse |
Special Stage Route 5 |
Reverse |
Seattle Circuit |
Reverse |
Cote d'Azur |
Normal |
Complex String |
Normal |
Area F
Circuit |
Direction |
Special Stage Route 5 (Wet) |
Normal |
Apricot Hill Raceway |
Reverse |
Special Stage Route 11 |
Reverse |
Tahiti Maze |
Reverse |
Special Stage Route 5 (Wet) |
Reverse |
Complex String |
Reverse |
Rewards (Easy)
Area |
Reward |
A |
- |
B |
- |
C |
- |
D |
- |
E |
- |
F |
Ending A |
Rewards (Medium)
Area |
Reward |
A |
Mazda Eunos Roadster (NA) '89 [NTSC-J], Mazda MX-5 (NA) '89 [PAL], Mazda MX-5 Miata (NA) '89 [NTSC-U] |
B |
Audi TT Coupe 1.8T quattro '00 |
C |
Mazda RX-8 Concept (Type-I) '01 |
D |
Nissan Z Concept |
E |
RUF RGT '00, TVR Tuscan Speed 6 '00 |
F |
Dodge Viper GTS-R Concept '00, TVR Cerbera Speed 12 '00, Ending B |
Rewards (Hard)
Area |
Reward |
A |
Nissan C-WEST RAZO SILVIA (JGTC) '01 |
B |
Lancia DELTA HF Integrale Rally Car '92 |
C |
Gillet Vertigo Race Car '97 |
D |
Pagani Zonda LM Race Car |
E |
Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Race Car '98, Nissan R390 GT1 Race Car '98 |
F |
Toyota GT-ONE Race Car (TS020) '99, Mazda 787B Race Car '91 |
Once you have completed all of the races in hard mode, congratulations! Now you can go back to GT mode and finish the game once and for all! (unless you also want to do the time trials)
Time attack
Putting the other modes aside, there's also the Time attack challenges, which is basically its own set of time trials on some specific courses with some preset cars. The times set for those trials are done by members of the Gran Turismo 3's development team; in fact, the best time for the 10th time trial is done Kazunori Yamauchi himself, the president of Polyphony Digital.
As for how this mode unfolds, it is as basic as it can be: beat the best times on all of the courses. The particularity of this mode though, is that the reward is for the GT mode, and not the arcade one, in this case being a Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Race Car '98 and an increase of percentage of in-game completion.
Cheats, Modifications & Secrets
Wanna try discover all of the secrets this game may offer to you, or even better, modify it a little bit in order to improve its experience as much as possible? Then follow along this page, and maybe you'll pick up some goodies here and there.
Cheats
Line-up reset (only in Gran Turismo mode)
Is the race you're doing way too hard because of that pesky car that it is simply way too powerful? Not to worry, since you can make your life easier depending on your circumstances.
Steps to follow:
- Select any race you wish to race
- When seeing the race line-up, exit the race
- Enter said race again, and repeat steps 2 and 3 until the desired results are obtained
Notes:
- The race line-up for each specific race is coded in, up to the point that you only have a very specific amount of cars that can show up in every race.
- Regarding the last point, it is also important to understand that every car has a very specific tuning setup, and/or they might also receive an extra horsepower boost just to make them even faster than having the same car under the same circumstances.
Prize car resetting
Everybody enjoys roulettes, said every Gran Turismo 7 player. Thankfully here, the roulettes are not rigged and we have the chance of winning great vehicles without having to grind a lot. Even then, a roulette is a system that is designed around luck, and not skill, so you might end up getting a car that you do not want. Here we will explain how to get that car you really want more easily.
Prerequisites:
- Entering an event that has a championship in it
Steps to follow:
- Finish all of the races except for the last one, while making sure that you have at least 11 points more than the every driver from the competition
- Save the game in the post-race menu
- Enter the last race of the championship, and immediately exit out from it
- Check the prize car you receive for your championship win, and if the car obtained is not the one that you want, exit the game, and reload the save file so that you can repeat step number 3
Notes:
- This trick can be used alongside the series manipulation one and the trade trick, that way you can skip multiple races and have a smaller difference of points from the competition, which in return that'll make you win all of the prize cars even faster.
- Since you skip the last event, that race will count as a loss towards your stats in the Profile section in the garage.
Reverse shifting
Are you stuck in a specific race because you can't afford a custom gearbox to make your car go faster? Or even worse, there's a pesky license test that you can't manage to get a gold no matter how much you try? Well then, reverse shifting is what you need. If the car goes into neutral gear while driving, the car will slowly lose speed until it stops and then enters reverse gear.
If you don't wait for the car to stop, the car may gear up or down depending of its current RPM. If the car is at a high RPM and the reverse button is pressed and immediately released, the car will automatically shift into the next gear while the RPM needle slowly glides down to where is should be.
While the needle is gliding, the game thinks that the car's RPM is higher than it actually is. If the car has its power band in the high-RPM range, the car will accelerate faster than if you had geared up normally. In addition, if the clutch was not upgraded, the clutch stall will be shorter than normal and the car will begin accelerating much sooner.
Prerequisites:
- Set the transmission to manual
Steps to follow:
- Accelerate your car enough to be at a high RPM
- Immediately after completing the previous step, now tap the reverse button
Notes:
- Remapping the reverse button to R1 can make reverse shifting much easier to perform. Remember that the less time the reverse button is held down for, the less time the car stalls in neutral for, which means that optimal reverse shifting requires frame-perfect inputs. You can also pause-buffer reverse shifts if needed.
- Cars with wide power bands may not get a speed boost from this trick. In fact, clutch upgrades can make regular shifting even faster than reverse shifting, although that can be the complete opposite. Testing the car at the 0-1000m machine test is a good idea to see what kind of shiting is the most optimal one for your car.
Series manipulation
Want to get that pesky reward car that you want so badly but you don't wanna to put up with that long championship again? Lucky you, since there's a method to avoid repeating entire championships and still getting their respective rewards. How this trick does work is pretty simple: everytime that you skip a race, you'll get no points whatsoever, and the AI the ones that they get depending on their position. What does that mean? This implies that if you exit a race in first position, none of the other drivers will be able to snack 10 points, and that will make you be able to limit the AI's capability of racking up points.
Steps to follow:
- Enter a championship, and before starting the races, decide which races are you going to complete
- Complete the races that you want to win, and when the first race that you want to skip comes up, analyze the championship's positions, and look for who is a possible threat for your championship win
- Start the race, and by any means possible (that includes brake-checking, ramming...) make sure that the 2nd racer in the championship's leaderboard is in last position, and once you've done that, run into first position quickly and then exit the race
- Repeat the second and third steps of this trick until the championship is over
Notes:
- If there's a tie in points, the game will always favour the AI and won't make you obtain the prizes for winning the championship, and that includes the car.
- For the most part, most championships will more often than not include a runaway car, which will make the process a bit harder than without them. That is enough reason to use the line-up reset trick if there's such a need to do so.
- If you're not sure that your planning is working out correctly, make sure to save during the championship during different stages in it, that way, if you have to repeat the tournament, you won't have to start from scratch.
Trade trick
Wanna upgrade your cars for cheaper? Well, thankfully, thanks to the Trade feature integrated in the garage, it is possible to buy the cars from another save game. The perk? Is that the prices for the cars are always the same, no matter how much you modify the cars, meaning that you can save up a lot of money by repeating this track for as long as your budget allows.
Prerequisites:
- Two memory cards
Steps to follow:
- Save the game on slot 1
- Get upgrades for your car until you run out of money
- Save the game, this time on slot 2
- Load the original savegame located on slot number 1
- Go to the garage and select the Trade option
- On the Trade menu, select the savegame located on slot 2 and buy the upgraded car
- Repeat all steps except the first one until the car has all of the upgrades that you can afford/wish to have
Notes:
- Concepts cars do not have any monetary value being shown when trying to trade, but it is simply hidden. Like with any other car, the trade value is 4 times its sell price.
- If you want to make the process quicker, you can sell the cars that you do not want beforehand, so you'll do this process even quicker since you will not have to repeat the trick as many times.
Wheelie trick
Test track. Do I need to say anything else? If you don't know what I mean by that, just watch a video for the Like a Wind event and you'll get an idea of what we are talking about. So, follow along this little tutorial on how to tune your car in an unique fashion in order to make those annoying Test track races dissappear in a whim.
Prerequisites:
- Owning one of these cars: Toyota GT-One (TS020) '99, Nissan R390 GT1 '98, Mazda 787B '91, Suzuki V6 ESCUDO Pikes Peak Special '98 and Gillet Vertigo Race Car '97
Steps to follow:
- Set the damper bounds to 1 and the damper rebounds to 10
- Lower the car's height to the minimum that the game allows
- Adjust the front and rear springs to be as soft as possible
Notes:
- Remember to keep these tuning settings only for Test track events, as they are not suited for the other circuits in the game.
Modifications
Changing the music
Are you sick and tired of hearing the same songs over and over again? If so, you're in luck, since that is something that can be done pretty easily.
Prerequisites:
- A program that is capable of modifying .iso files and extracting files from them
- GT3VOLExtractor
- MFAudio
- PSound
Steps to follow:
- Extract the file gt3.vol from the game, which is located on the root folder of the game
- Using a Command Prompt instance, extract the files from the gt3.vol file with GT3VOLExtractor
- Change the frequency of the new song you want to use to 44.1 kHz
- Open PSound, and select the directory where the songs are, in this case the folder it is called bgm
- Now that you have all of the songs loaded, listen to them in order to know the file name of the song that you want to replace
- With the use of MFAudio, press the Open button to select the .wav file of the song that you want to use as a replacement
- Make sure that the interleave is set to 400 bytes and the frequency to 44100 Hz
- As for the output goes, select the file format to be "SS2 - Sony PS2 Sound - Compressed ADPCM" and the name to be the same as the one that you want to output
- Convert the .wav file onto .ss2 by pressing the Process! button
- Now rename the newly obtained .ss2 file to the EXACT same filename to the file of the song you want to replace, including the extension
- Replace the old .ads file with the new one
- Repackage all of the game files onto a new gt3.vol file with the use of GT3VOLExtractor
- Replace the old gt3.vol file from the game with the new one with a program that is capable of editing .iso files
Notes:
- If you prefer, there's no need to use PSound to listen to the songs, since MFAudio does let you listen to .ads fles, although in a more uncomfortable manner.
- Just to clarify, it is important to know that the file songs are divided in three sectors. The first one, whose names start with an i_race prefix, those are the files loaded in the Options menu when modifying your playlist. Those songs have some seconds cut off from the beginning and have a fade in effect, so remember to add that effect with any program that can edit audio files. The second part, which in this case use the race_ prefix, comprises basically of the same licensed songs as before, but when you are in a race, and those are not modified in any shape or form, so no modifications on them are needed. Last but no least, there are the other songs that play during the rest of the game, with some notable exceptions. These files use the prefix str.
- Under the circumstances that the frequency of the new songs must be modified, in order to make the song listenable, you gotta make sure also that the speed gets also modified correctly, otherwise you will get a distorted song. In case that you're doubting about what's the correct percentage of change to the speed that you must apply to the new song, here's the equation that you must use:
Secrets
Engine and oil wear
Did you know that the mileage of your car does not serve only as a way to know which cars do you use more? As it turns out, the mileage of your car can determine the total horsepower that your car will have at that instance. This table will give you a general idea on how the engine wear works exactly.
Range of mileage (in kilometers) |
Effect towards the HP |
0 - 300 |
Slow increase up to a 3% |
300 - 800 |
Nothing |
800 - 900 |
Slow decrease up to a 2% |
900 - ∞ |
Nothing |
On a not total unrelated point, it is also important to mention that oil also plays a factor in the total horsepower that your cars have. The next table will explain the cycle of horsepower that you car will have every time that your oil gets changed.
Range of mileage (in kilometers) |
Effect towards the HP |
0 |
Immediate increase of 5% |
0 - 200 |
Nothing |
200 - 300 |
Slow decrease of 5% |
This last table though takes in consideration that you change the oil when the car is brand new or has been driven for at least 300 km, since the oil change will only give you a set amount of horsepower, meaning that if your car was still somewhat being benefited from the maintenance, what will happen is that the car will recover the lost HP due to oil wear (if that was the case) and the cycle shown before will repeat itself again.
Notes:
- Using cars from your garage in the Test & Setting mode, machine tests and races in arcade mode will increase their respective mileage.
- Vehicles obtained from events will already have its engine as if it was driven for 300 km, meaning that the decrease of its horsepower will happen 300 km earlier than expected.
Unlock the difficulty "Professional" (arcade mode only)
Wanna challenge yourself in arcade mode with an AI that is better than the one offered already? Then this secret difficulty might suit your needs.
Steps to follow:
- Select any game mode that includes AI to race against in arcade mode
- When prompted for a difficulty selection, hold the L1 and R1 buttons
- While you're following the instructions for step number 2, select the "Professional" difficulty (which will replace the "Hard" option)
Notes:
- Any circuit not completed previously will count towards the progress of arcade mode as if it was done in hard difficulty.
How to tune properly?
One thing is for sure, there will be a moment where you will have to upgrade any of your rides. But like with any proper sim racer, upgrades do mean that your car has to be tuned in order to adapt to its new stats properly. If you don't have too much knowledge on how the game works regarding tuning, you can grasp an idea on how to by either reading the information the game gives to you, or if you want a more concise way to know how to tune your cars, follow along this guide.
Introduction
When getting a new upgrade for a car, it's important to set it up correctly. What does this mean in practice? It means that it's pretty important (although not necessarily mandatory depending on what were the upgrades) to go and set up the car according to its new stats.
But how do we accomplish this? Simple, you just go to several race tracks (mix up the kind of circuits you're choosing, since you'll want to make sure to it drive more or less well in most circuits) and do a couple of laps to feel the car's driving experience.
Once your hands are on the steering wheel, try to look for possible issues you car may have, for example: Does the car suffer from heavy wheelspin while driving on first and/or second gear? The car has trouble at any specific point during the turns? Is it possible to keep a high speed for long stretches?
Then, exit the race and configure the car in order to fix the detected issues, and rinse and repeat until the car feels adequate for your driving style.
Tuning is a pretty subjective matter, what works for someone might not be for someone else, hence why it is important to tune the car by yourself, don't ask anyone else to tune it for you. Last but not least, remember that there's no such thing as the perfect setting, so just try to find what works the best for you.
Suspension
Spring rate
- Front: its value will depend on the tyres equipped (softer tyres --> stiffer springs), the amount of downforce the car has, the car's drivetrain, and how powerful it is (powerful engine --> stiffer springs).
- Rear: its value will be relative to the front (stiffer/softer rear --> oversteer/understeer).
If the front springs are too soft and the rear springs are too stiff, the car will lose stability when entering corners. Meanwhile, if the front is too stiff and the rear is too soft, the car will have trouble to turn around corners.
Ride height
Issue |
Solution |
Negative consequences |
Lack of stability |
Low front and high rear |
Worse turning ability |
Lack of turning ability |
High front and low rear |
Worse stability |
Overall height |
Positive consequences |
Negative consequences |
Low |
Increased stability on flat surfaces | Reduced stability on bumpy surfaces |
High |
Increased stability on bumpy roads |
Reduced stability on flat surfaces |
On powerful cars, if the height is pretty low sparks will appear. Not to be worried though, since those are purely cosmetical.
Dampers/Shocks
Issue |
Place |
Solution |
Understeer |
Corner entry | Soft front bound and stiff rear rebound |
Oversteer |
Corner entry |
Stiff front bound and soft rear rebound |
Understeer |
Corner exit |
Soft rear bound and stiff front rebound |
Oversteer |
Corner exit |
Stiff rear bound and soft front rebound |
Camber angle
The camber angle helps the car grip better in corners, at the cost of losing traction in straights and uneven tyre wear. It is important to not set up extreme values, since higher tyre wear will be added to the list of consequences of modifying the camber angle.
So in general, you want to have at least 0.5 of camber, but not more than 4.5, because at that point the car's braking distances will be noticeably worse.
Toe angle
Issue |
Solution |
Negative consequences |
Lack of stability in straight lines and in corner exits |
Positive toe angle |
Worse turning ability |
Bad turning ability |
Negative toe angle |
Worse stability in straight lines and in corner exits |
Something worth noting, is that rear toe has a bigger impact on the car than front toe. Regardless of that, if you set up some toe-in or toe-out, the tyre will suffer from some higher wear than without any, so if possible try to remedy the issues discussed below by adjusting the car's height.
Stabilisers
Highest value |
Impact |
Front |
Stability |
Rear |
Turning response |
Brakes
Brakes balance
Drivetrain |
Highest value |
RWD |
Front |
FF |
Rear |
4WD |
Rear |
Drivetrain
Limited-slip differential initial
This sets the general severity of the effect of the other LSD values. Make sure to keep this at a value that is adequate for what you're looking for with the other LSD configurations.
Limited-slip differential acceleration
Issue |
Solution |
Power oversteer |
Higher value |
Difficulty to turn at corner exits |
Lower value |
Limited-slip differential decrease
Issue |
Solution |
Dive-bombing into corners |
Higher value |
Difficulty to turn at corner entries |
Lower value |
Remember to set its value alongside the brake balance, since both things are able to fix stability issues while braking.
Gear ratio
- Step #1: move the final gear to the right (or to the required value where this setup doesn't hamper the car's acceleration)
- Step #2: move the auto setting slider to the right, then back left
- Step #3: move the final gear to the left until the point before any of the gears disappears completely from the chart
- Step #4: move the 1st gear to the left
- Step #5: move the 4th and 5th gears to the right
- Step #6: position the 3rd and 2nd gears so the transitions between each gear is as smooth as possible
- Step #7: position the 6th gear
- Step #8: move the final gear to the left if that wasn't possible during step number 3
Others
Downforce
Circuit |
Value |
- |
Maximum |
Test course |
Minimum |
If you're configuring a car that only has an adjustable downforce for the rear, beware of your configuration, since having a value way too high may impact the car's ability to turn into corners.
AYC controller
This component does not seem to do barely anything good. In fact, a high setting makes the car's handling more unpredictable as it can randomly begin to understeer mid-corner.
ASM
Set it to 0, since this assist does nothing but prevent you from actually driving properly and just bruteforce your way to victory without any kind of effort into your playthrough.
TCS
Type of input |
Value |
Analog acceleration |
0 |
Digital acceleration |
1 |
Digital steering |
2-3 |
VCD controller
Setting it to 10% it will make any 4WD car turn like a RWD one. Increasing its value is not necessary unless the car needs extra stability.
Regional differences
The game has been released in 3 different regions, NTSC-U, NTSC-J and PAL. All of them have their own differences between themselves, and we will compare all regions in the instances where any game version differs from the rest.
Cars
Acura RSX
Region |
Sell price (in credits) |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
7.500 |
PAL |
75.000 |
Dodge Viper GTS-R Team Oreca '00
Region |
Purchase price (in credits) |
Dealership brand |
Livery differences |
NTSC-U |
1.000.000 |
Dodge |
- |
NTSC-J |
1.000.000 |
Chrysler |
Includes a PlayStation logo in several places |
PAL |
- | Dodge |
Includes a PlayStation logo in several places |
Formula 1 vehicles
The selection of F1 cars between regions is pretty different. While the NTSC versions of the game have 6 cars, PAL only has 2 of them. Not only that but their naming structure and design are completely different.
First we'll start with the NTSC ones, since those are the most complex to understand.
Car |
Cylinders in the engine |
Year of participation |
Driver |
Polyphony Digital F090/S |
10 |
1990 |
Ayrton Senna |
Polyphony Digital F094/H | 10 |
1994 |
Damon Hill |
Polyphony Digital F094/S | 10 |
1994 |
Ayrton Senna |
Polyphony Digital F686/M | 6 |
1986 |
Nigel Mansel |
Polyphony Digital F687/S | 6 |
1987 | Ayrton Senna |
Polyphony Digital F688/S | 6 |
1988 |
Ayrton Senna |
If you can't figure out the naming for these cars, here it goes: the first number equals to the number of cylinders of the engine that car has, the last two numbers are the last two digits in the year those cars were driven by the specific driver they wanted to pay homage to. The letter in the end represents the first letter in the last name of the drivers whose real counterpart of those cars were being driven by.
As for the PAL vehicles go, there's simply no structure to follow, even though they are simply reusing two of the NTSC vehicles (with some minor changes and some extra liveries).
Car |
NTSC counterpart |
Polyphony001 |
Polyphony Digital F094/S |
Polyphony002 | Polyphony Digital F688/S |
Honda S2000 '99
Region |
Purchase price (in credits) |
Differences |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
33.800 |
- |
PAL |
- | The front bumper has two black bars, and its title thumbnail is missing when viewing the car from the garage |
Initial credit funds
Region |
Amount of credits |
PAL/NTSC-U | 18.000 |
NTSC-J | 15.000 |
NTSC-J is basically a harder NTSC-U version, and here's one of the reasons why that's the case: the credits you get upon starting the game. If we take into account the Mazda MX-5 '93's price, we can see that the best initial car cannot be bought, meaning that your initial car must be another one by force.
Language differences
Between regions, some elements are called different due to some nuances between regions, even if the language is the same. Considering that english is the only language that gets repeated between regions, we'll stick to only this one (with an exception). The following table will compare the names used for the same terms between regions.
NTSC-U |
NTSC-J |
PAL |
PAL (not in english) |
Hard racing tyres |
- |
Slick tyres |
- |
HP |
PS (slightly higher value than HP and BHP) |
BHP |
- |
ft.lb |
kgf.m | kgf.m | - |
Take into consideration that this list could also include car names changes, but it is kinda unnecessary since the name differences are pretty minor all things considered.
License tests
B license
Region |
Differences |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
- |
PAL |
Stricter times overall |
A license
Region |
Differences |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
- |
PAL |
Stricter times overall |
IB license
Region |
Differences |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
Harder IB-6 gold time requirement |
PAL |
- |
IA license
Region |
Differences |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
Harder IA-4 gold time requirement |
PAL |
Stricter times overall |
S license
Region |
Differences |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
- |
PAL |
Stricter times overall |
R license
Region |
Differences |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
- |
PAL |
Easier times overall |
Events prizes
Region |
Differences |
PAL/NTSC-U | - |
NTSC-J | Less credits given per victory overall |
Like we just mentioned in the "Initial credits fund" section, NTSC-J is basically a harder version of NTSC-U. In this case we will omit listing all of the events, but to make it clear, the japanese version of the game gives you way less money for every event completed, meaning that you must be more conservative with your purchases, specially during the early and mid-game.
It is also worth pointing out that some events also have different car prize pools between regions.
Time trials
Circuit |
NTSC-U/NTSC-J |
PAL |
Midfield Raceway | 1:25.533 | 1:24.993 |
Trial Mountain | 1:47.968 | 1:49.025 |
Tokyo Route 246 | 2:02.270 | 2:02.330 |
Deep Forest Raceway | 1:25.350 | 1:26.360 |
Laguna Seca | 1:22.716 | 1:23.178 |
Apricot Hill Raceway | 1:17.447 | 1:18.558 |
Grand Valley Speedway | 1:48.795 | 1:49.453 |
Swiss Alps | 1:23.104 | 1:23.703 |
Tahiti Maze | 1:59.459 | 1:59.964 |
Complex String |
4:52.716 | 4:49.869 |
As we can see, for the most part, PAL times tend to be easier than the NTSC counterpart, with a big exception, Complex String. This actually makes the time trials way easier to complete in NTSC, since the last time trial is considered to be the harder one to beat by a long stretch.
It's important to mention that in every NTSC version of the game, disabling the assists in the options menu does not disable them in this mode, unlike in PAL.