JGTC vs. D1GP (Which was BETTER?)

[Craftsman]

Just wanted to see everyone's opinions.

I personally enjoyed the D1GP more. If you see my photos, you'll see the same.

JGTC is engineering genious, but D1GP was way more exciting to watch.

[dubb]

i definitely enjoyed d1gp and i enjoyed jgtc. but, i was looking forward to enjoying jgtc more because ive always played "Gran Tourismo 1 2 3 and hopefully 4". my main complaint was the fact that there wasnt any announcements or stats of the jgtc drivers. if i didnt know what jgtc was...then the jgtc even would seem like a bunch of cars just racing around a track.

now d1gp, there was an announcer, everyone was hyped up. i could not get hyped up i didnt know what was goin on till i got hooked up with vip room with the tvs during the 75 lap race.so overall the d1gp was the best...but i expected the jgtc to take most of the noise.

[visual homage]

D1 and JGTC

i feel D1 is far more interesting and exciting and fun to watch. after seeing live drifting on different occasions, JGTC was very "flat." some reasons for this are as follows:

as dubb just said, i would have gotten more out of the JGTC had there been an announcer(s), just like for D1, explaining the rules, what to look for, what they are competing for, what just happened where. this lack of information and effort to bring to the audience any narration made the JGTC look like a bunch of fast cars running around the track.

--why was simple narration/ announcing not to be found? why did they not plan this, especially when such a circuit of racing has never been seen in the united states?

from what i could make out from reading the free, but barely informative, program, the JGTC is a time clock event, ie, the drivers are racing against the clock. i got nothing more out of the oversimplified, overly-brief, program.

is this correct? or is it like a LeMans style race?

i was impressed by the noise and the all-out speed of both the GT300 and GT500 machine classes. that impressed me fully, as did the car designs. the cars coming out from under the walk-bridge over the straight were shockingly fast --the true scale of their speed was felt most from that viewing point.

maybe event planners for future stateside JGTC events will heed the above suggestions from me and from race fans in general.

[mechaniac]

There is much more to JGTC than what was represented at the GT Live event. The event hosts didn't set the event up for "optimal" track viewing. The whole event felt more like a NOPI nationals than a race.

It is only the first time that JGTC has been brought to the US, so it's understandable. Let's just hope it comes back proper.

I think D1 should not be melded with JGTC. Both have their own entertainment values. Like WWE and Olympic Wrestling.

[DataXUnknown]

The D1GP was very intense. Especially when the twin drifting came towards the end. Although the announcer was pretty funny, I was right in front of that messed up speaker and it got really annoying. It was a great view from the front, it looked like the cars the spun out were going to hit you. I enjoyed the XDL a lot also. XDL there was a lot more smoke due to hot cement. The tuners time attack was pretty cool also. With that really bouncy evo.

Otherwise, JGTC was to loud. The Celica was super quiet, but the rest were just extremely loud. Nobu Kumakubo was a very great, perfect angle drifter which got him 1st. I think Reece in his GTO should have got a lot further...it was a close match with the RX-7 and him. It was funny how the GTO spun out, then the next run, the Rx-7 spun out XD

They advanced the RX-7 instead of the GTO just because the GTO isn't a japanese car. Thats what I think.

[visual homage]

Originally posted by mechaniac
There is much more to JGTC than what was represented at the GT Live event. The event hosts didn't set the event up for "optimal" track viewing. The whole event felt more like a NOPI nationals than a race.

It is only the first time that JGTC has been brought to the US, so it's understandable. Let's just hope it comes back proper.

I think D1 should not be melded with JGTC. Both have their own entertainment values. Like WWE and Olympic Wrestling.

yes. i agree fully.

also, about the viewing --they set it up for the D1GP part, not the JGTC. it was so obvious, and this compounded the whole JGTC problem: it was barely presented correctly in the first place, then, knowing everyone was really there to see the main event of D1, they arranged the stands only to view the drift area properly. so the JGTC was relegated to a day-long afterthought.

their dilemma was "how do we introduce JGTC racing to "cross over" to the drift fans while not compromising the drift part?" IMO, they tried to bite off way too much. which brings us to the grand irony of it all --the track was more cut out for JGTC racing only, not D1GP. yet they had to make it "drift friendly."

IMO, Fontana is a bad venue for drifting altogether.
instead, Irwindale is the perfect setup with the small oval area, where the cars can return to start the next run without stopping, running back to start, and restaging as happened in Fontana.

the whole Fontana setup of just using the straightaway that lead to the drift area, going only one-way basically, made the entire event run very tediously and long, with too many lulls between stagings. don't get me wrong, though, the D1GP evening was completely kick a$s. and i drank it up.
but it did lack the flow that the Irwindale D1GP offered.

so i think, too, as mechanic said, that the mixing of the two events was somewhat of a half-baked idea: in order to host both events, both events had to suffer, especially the JGTC.

i think they will get the clue about it, however, as the shortcomings were probably widely whispered that day. and now, with hindsight, the opinions are going to fly out of people's mouths.

[dubb]

im glad some of you agree with me that jgtc was not properly represented at csc. i personally enjoy watching jgtc the most. but at gt live i would say that i enjoyed d1 the most.

haha...i was standing at the speaker when it was cutting off...and haha..yeah that announcer was cool.

[sdtouge]

i liked both alot but i think the seating for jgtc was kinda lame, you could only see 2 turns at most. and then for d1 you couldnt even itch your should without touching someone it was so packed.

i didnt realize how fast the jgtc cars were taking the turns until the nasa cars came out. how sick was that guys flat red ferrari?
that and the e36 (black on i tihnk ) were owning. that little convertible car looked pretty fun imo

[visual homage]

JGTC

yes, i liked the primer red ferrari 550, too. and i liked the GT300 class evos.

i really liked that strange VQ-powered orange car, the "arta garaiya." hopefully, when JGTC returns to socal, they arrange the venue differently. i'd go back to it, definitely.

[Craftsman]

Originally posted by visual homage
IMO, Fontana is a bad venue for drifting altogether.
instead, Irwindale is the perfect setup with the small oval area, where the cars can return to start the next run without stopping, running back to start, and restaging as happened in Fontana.

So you think a deformed oval is better for drifting? LOL You have to be kidding me man.

Anyways, I agree with you from a spectator standpoint, but from actual technical driving, the drivers are only driving a deformed oval also. You want drifting to be like NASCAR? They make few right turns.

I think Laguna Seca or Buttonwillow would make much better drifting courses. Actually, any road race course would be better than an oval track.

[visual homage]

Originally posted by Craftsman
So you think a deformed oval is better for drifting? LOL You have to be kidding me man.

Anyways, I agree with you from a spectator standpoint, but from actual technical driving, the drivers are only driving a deformed oval also. You want drifting to be like NASCAR? They make few right turns.

I think Laguna Seca or Buttonwillow would make much better drifting courses. Actually, any road race course would be better than an oval track.

you're putting way too much into what i said. NASCAR? the D1 at Irwindale resembled nothing of nascar. Fontana was technically more difficult than the oval, as the lead-ins to the drift were extremely high in speed, and there was that hump that they had to hit on fast-approach. this is probably why some of the best drifters of the night did not even qualify -- like Kazama and monkey-boy Nomura --they didn't click with it. but that nothwithstanding, my point is about show pacing and viewership:

for the spectacle and viewers, the Irwindale setup flowed better, was more exciting, and was generally better. there were no awkward lulls between stages like at Fontana. and in the tandem drifts, they could just go right into the next run uninterrupted. the Irwindale show flowed better because the oval allowed for constant movement on and off the track. thank god the round one of D1 in february is back at Irwindale where it belongs.

[sdtouge]

the speakers didnt work in the section i was sitting in for d1

[Ripper]

Originally posted by mechaniac

I think D1 should not be melded with JGTC. Both have their own entertainment values. Like WWE and Olympic Wrestling.

I agree. Although there was an awesome drift session before the GT race.

Hey Craftsman, I do think that Irwindale's track is better in the crowd's stand point where you can see everything happening. But then again, that's just my opinion.

[Shin_Kudou]

There actually was an announcer at JGTC, but the volume was way too low, I could barely hear him from right up at the front.

[visual homage]

in general, i feel the JGTC event was half-a$s planned. or it was too much to bite off for what they had in mind, the venue was too big, there wat too much to coordinate.