My Take on Sam Mitani's Take on GT5P

Sam Mitani is the International Editor of one of the most recognizeable car mags out there: "Road & Track". For those who have purchased Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, you would also recognize him as the man who wrote "Gran Turismo and the World of Automotive Enthusiasm" for the GT5P manual.

Because of Mitani's position, he is one of the few people who actually gets the privilege of driving the real life counter-parts of Gran Turismo's cars and of course drive them on the actual race tracks.

Based on his opinion, he is so full of praise as to how GT captures the real life characteristics
of the real cars from the way they look, they sound and most importantly, the way they handle.

Comparison cars that he used ranged from the Honda (Acura) NSX Type S Zero, Nissan GT-R, Ferrari F430 and the BMW 135i.

For Mitani, the GT franchise is still the best when it comes to depicting reality. As accurate as it is, the game can actually be the ultimate car buyers' guide wherein you can examine production cars in virtual reality first.

And it's not just the cars that matches realism. According to Mitani, even the tracks are greatly resembled saying as much that you could learn the tracks by playing GT.

Yep, Sam Mitani is undoubtebly a fan.

But because of the nature of his work, his occupation does give credibility to what he wrote.

I am not going to contest his opinion. As a die hard fan of the game, I love what he wrote about the game.

Rather, I'll simply share what was going through my mind reading Sam Mitani's introduction: Blue NSX driven by Jeremy Clarkson in Laguna Seca.

That was one funny experiment from the comedic witty Brit from Top Gear. During that test, his GT lap time in Laguna Seca with the NSX was more than 10 seconds quicker than his actual lap time.

In racing, 10 seconds difference is more than eternity. That is the difference between a 599 Fiorano and a Toyota Corolla around the same circuit.

Judging from Jeremy Clarkson's run, the accuracy of the game takes quite a hit.

However, Clarkson still believed that the NSX was capable of matching the in-game lap time. The only reason for the 10 second difference was, according to Jeremy, his driving.

In fairness, the Laguna Seca is one of the most terrifying tracks out there. Like Spa Francorchamp's Eau Rouge and Istanbul Park Circuit's turn 8, Laguna Seca's Cork Skrew is one corner racing drivers always remember.

According to Clarkson, he just couldn't muster enough courage to push the car to its limit. He mentioned that racing drivers suffer from the lack/absence of imagination. They never think 'what if a wheel comes off, what if the brakes have gone, what if the steering column breaks etc'. They simply go out and race as hard as they could. In Clarkson's own terminology, racing drivers suffer from the "Mansell Syndrome".

Driving to the absolute limit is something reserved for the select few. The few who are willing to transcend their own fears to achieve something that most people can't. In a sense, racing is an ideal in itself.

Sam Mitani wrote that he became a devout disciple of the 'church of Gran Turismo' as a reference to the game's cultic like following. It was a joke obviously written to emphasize how well the franchise has sold.

But then again, because racing is about the pursuit to trancend one's own limits, it is like a spiritual experience in itself. It symbolizes that drive within people searching for meaning: searching for something more, something bigger than just one's self.

Perhaps, a reference to religion isn't that far fetched.