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"A-Spec Points - S Licence - Endurance"

Three points I was hoping to discuss on GT4:

A-Spec Points

Does anybody know what the maximum is? I know the missions are 250, so does that mean the maximum A-spec points for a race is 250? I've won races for 200, but have never managed to even enter a race with more points available. Also, does anybody know what these points actually achieve - are there targets for each race/category or for the whole game?

S Licence (se)

Is it just me or have they made it too easy? I mean, the gold is still rock hard, but the bronze is just silly. Quite often the difference between silver and bronze is five times the difference between silver and gold. I started rushing through them towards the end, just settling for bronze on the last few s-tests in order to get the car, but felt quite bad about it. Is it because we're used to it in the previous GT games, or have they just made things easier after complaints?

Endurance Races

Has anybody gone to the European races and looked down the list to the 1000 miles championship? I started it to see what would happen, and was shocked to find that you have to do 25 laps of the Nurburgring in a pre-1970s car (and not a powerful one if you want decent A-spec points). Given that a car that age probably takes about 10 minutes to get round the course, that's a 4 hour race minimum. Did I miss some small detail, or is that truly insane?

Bonus Topic

Another thing that just came to mind is the B-Spec mode. I really hope your driver learns to race as he goes. I have only tried this mode once, but despite giving him a nicely tuned car that would easily have won in the right hands, he managed to plonk it back in fifth. Thanks for the dent in the win ratio. Who's driving that thing, David Coulthard?

I got it yesterday and had a little spin...
By little, I mean 4 hours :)

Does anyone know what the A-Spec points are about?
And my best moment weirdly enough was failing a license test, than hearing the duffman theme :)

I can usually make them last around 10 laps before they start to get orange

I don't know about anyone else but I go through tyres very quickly. I can shred medium racing tyres within 5 laps of a moderate distance track. It must be my aggressive racing style and heavy braking.

Well taking my 969hp Dodge Viper around El Capitan on sports tires was an 'experience' May as well have been on ice as i was slipping all over the place power sliding around bends at a monstrous 70mph. Stupid race requirements, i miss the grip of my racing tires :-D

Well I've had it for about two weeks and I've got them all.

But I'm just that geeky.

That can't be right.

I have only had the game a week, and I have already got about 5 or 6 of those tracks.

Tracks appear after a certain number of days. You have them all after a year.

from gamefaqs.com

Apricot Hill Raceway = 169
Autumn Ring = 281
Cathedral Rocks Trail I = 239
Chamonix Days Complete = 309
Circuit de la Sarthe 1 = 267
Circuit de la Sarthe 2 (Unchicaned) Days Complete = 351
Costa di Amalfi = 253
Cote d Azur = 183
Deep Forest Raceway = 15
Fuji Speedway 2005 F Days Complete = 323
Fuji Speedway 2005 GT = 141
Fuji Speedway 80s = 43
George V Paris = 225
Grand Valley Speedway = 99
Hong Kong = 113
Ice Arena = 155
Infineon Raceway Stock Car Course = 309
Opera Paris = 29
Special Stage Route 5 = 57
Suzuka Circuit = 71
Suzuka Circuit West Course = 127
Tahiti Maze = 197
Tsukuba Circuit Wet Days Complete = 337
Twin Ring Motegi Road Course = 211
Twin Ring Motegi Road Course East Short = 85

Aha! That would make sense - after a few new A-Spec points it does seem to say "... has been added to world circuits". I always assumed it was because I had just done a full race around a new course and that allowed me to use it any time, but that theory went out of the window when the tracks started appearing totally at random.

As for B-Spec - that little driver is still totally rubbish in short races, but I have to give him credit for some great endurance performances. There's no way I wanted to do a 24 hour race, so I let him do it in 8 instead. Spent the day doing various bits of work, chores, cleaning etc... whilst occasionally stopping to put the game speed back to x3 after each pitstop.

Saving during the race didn't seem possible, though I finally found out how to do it during a championship. I didn't realise you could just exit, let it autosave, then return to the races where you left off - very helpful, but why not have a "save" option in between "replay" and "next race"?

And I think you unlock extra tracks for Arcade mode with A-Spec points.

ssxpro wrote:
> As for 24 hour endurance. That's insane. I might try that with a
> friend or two, taking it in shifts, but there's no way I'd be able to
> do that. As was mentioned below, that must break a regulation or
> two!

I'd bet on being able to save during a pit-stop. Even in real 24 hour racing the drivers get breaks.