A few days ago, I discovered this great site, www.gtplanet.nl. The site is very clean looking, has lots and lots of downloadable Gran Turismo 3 replay movies, and a great forum.

One of the problems of Gran Turismo 3 (and the playstation in general) is that it can not be decently played over a network. To overcome this, entheusiasts have come up with weekly race series in which you submit your fastest laptime for a specific race. This is based on an "honor" system, which effectively means that you're not allowed to cheat, and your fellow racers will trust you that you won't. If suspicious times are observed, the race initiator/controller can ask you for details about your run, thereby trying to find out if you cheated or not. Ultimately (if you have the hardware) you can be asked to send the replay or other video/photo proof.

I really liked the idea of racing with the PS2. It would solve some problems for me, since I can no longer go to the racetrack for an extended period of time. The PS2 has a "pause" button which makes racing on the PS2 ideal for me. I don't know what will happen when GT4 comes out and real online races are being run, since these can't be paused, but I'll worry about that later.

Yesterday I submitted my qualifier time for the weekly race series. I don't expect it to be a fast one compared to others, I've seen some times by other racers and I know I am generally 2 to 6 seconds behind them, if I m trying hard. It will be fun to measure up to those guys, and I expect it to be a learning experience.

GT3 is a nice surrogate for RC racing for me. I can do it at home, it is not time-and-place dependant, and still offers nice things as extensive car setup (camber, brake balance, tire choice, bound/rebound settings, spring rates, stabilizers, downforce, fully customizable geartrain and much, much more). Another nice thing about it is that it doesn't cost as much as a weekend of eating expensive foam tires and fuel and parts. ;-)

I think my site is going to have some articles about online racing, and specifically my experiences with it. It looks very promising.