I forgot all about that, good times. But yeah, I don't know anything about the compounds, I tend to stick with sport tyres unless I have an actual race car, I'll try out the comforts now
Quoting my "
Tyre Compounds in GT5" post again, long read but it helps understand the philosophy behind everything.
Gran Turismo 2 was the first GT game that introduced adequate suspension and tyre physics in the series (first GT was very simplified in that area, despite being above majority of other games backthan). With that came the first fundamental introduction of selection of tyres as we know it today, but in the slightly different form. We had Sports, Racing Slicks, Dirt and
Control tyres.
Control tyres were the first step towards mimicing the *real-life* tyre slip/grip in the series, which is absolutely described in both in-game explanation and in game-manual. None of the cars were initially equipped with the Control-compound but player could do it for himself in order to experience the more *accurate* feel of the car. As manual says,
Control Tyres are tyres which are as close as possible in characteristics as real tyres... (player) can experience a simulation of real driving which does not feel like a game. Those tyres require quicker braking, careful steering and delicate work with the accelerator. Those are tyres specific for the surfaced roads.
Gran Turismo 3 renamed Control compound into
Simulation, clearly explaining how
those tyres offer only slightly more grip and are only suitable for professional drivers.. Same logic for compounds remained, with offering Sports, Race and Dirt tyres for *normal* selection.
Both Control and Simulation tyres in both games were always very cheap - same philosophy that remained later for GT4 and GT5 - in order to make them accessible for interested drivers in any moment. Also, no cars actually came equipped with those - road cars were always equipped with Sport compound while race cars were equipped with the Race Hard compound - logic we still have today.
Gran Turismo 4 was the first game in the series that introduced
Standard/Comfort (if I recall, US game was naming them Standard, while EU release called them Comfort) compound as *normal* selective compound with 1-2-3 range (hard/medium/soft or as GT4 was naming it, Economy/Luxury/Road), again with lowest price possible (Standard tyres carried no price - 0 Cr - in order to make the fully accessible at any moment). When you were purchasing the car (road vehicles) there was a special disclaimer after each purchase that said ...
(cars are) fitted with the Sports Medium for circuit racing. For factory spec purchase Comfort (Standard) compound.
GT5rologue introduced *Japanese* naming for compounds for the first time in the western-releases, as famous "N"/"S"/"R"/1/2/3/ logic. N1 were Comfort Hard, N3 were Comfort Soft, etc. Also, in the in-game manual - that majority never actually read properly - there was extremely detailed explanation of tyre-types and logic of their use. All cars were coming equipped with the Sport Hard/Medium compound by default (Racing for those few race cars), but with following explanation presented in the options:
Also, GT5
rologue went even further and gave the list of fitting-recommendations for various *types* of the cars, covering majority of similar models in game depending of production year/power/drivetrain type/weight:
Gran Turismo 5 continued the same philosophy/principle where Comfort compound is the one that corresponds with almost all *factory-spec* vehicles, with notable exclusions of some supercar models that would probably be equipped with Sports Hard compound as their factory-spec tyre, but those are minority.
Greatest *issue* of GT5 is omission to actually present that philosophy in any of game-manuals: either game-manual, in-game digital manual and even in Apex book that came with Collector's Edition.
However, in some points game clearly implies such selections, such as Comfort/Soft tyre-compounds being mandatory in some Seasonals, etc. But all those *implications* are unfortunately very vague.
We have another clear example of above with post on
Japanese GT official site (
Polyphony was the one that noted that) where the Japanese finals for FT86 championship were driven on Comfort Hard (N1) compound:
The virtual 86 was fitted with N1 tires (comfort hard) that simulated the grip of the Michelin Primacy compound.
To conclude, Gran Turismo series is very clear and transparent about the way tyres are fitted by default on the cars. GT5 *issue* of not making it clear enough as in previous games is probably one of the 346 small details that are missing from GT5's explanations and that have to be determined by the players themselves (such as brake-bias, LSD settings or whatnot).
