One of the more common criticisms against GT7 is that some of the cars in its de facto Gr.3 category are horrendously out of date, and the 2013 458 Italia GT3 that is Ferrari's sole representation in Gr.3 is one of the more glaring examples of this, being more than a decade old and two generations out of date at the time of writing, with many crying out for a 488 GT3 or 296 GT3 to be added into the game.
Me personally, I've never understood the point of adding new Gr.3 and Gr.4 racing cars to brands that already have representation in said categories, because the moment that happens, the old, perfectly serviceable racecar of the same manufacturer gets bopped out of contention by "Balance" of Performance to encourage players into the newer machine. We've seen it happen when the Supra Racing Concept replaced the FT-1 VGT, when the RX-Vision GT3 replaced the Atenza Gr.3, and we continue to see it with the BRZ GT300 replacing the WRX Gr.3 and the 2013 GT-R GT3 being a complete disaster to drive in comparison to the 2018 GT-R GT3, just to name a few examples. There's always an indisputable, objectively "better" car to be in among the choices offered by a manufacturer that offers more than one car in any given category, and not being in that car inadvertently has the effect of making one's racing suit look like that of a clown's.
This practice is one that utterly baffles me, because one would think that having more options ought to mean more variety to choose from. Drivers for BMW could have been made to choose between straight line speed of the M6 and the handling agility of the Z4, or deliberate between short lived speed versus steady longevity with the two M6 models, but NOPE, you will drive the M6 Endurance Model for any and all purposes if you want to drive a BMW in Gr.3, and you will like it. The sad reality is that racing games are just another arm of marketing for manufacturers, and which marketing department would okay an older, out of production car walloping a shiny, newer car whose silhouette is actually on sale?
From the players' perspective, what's the point of having Polyphony Digital spend what precious little time, effort, and resources the relatively small studio has into adding a new racecar into a game, if said racecar is going to serve the exact same purpose of a car it's going to make redundant? Just for the sake of being a little more up to date? I don't know how many have noticed, but with the insane fidelity of cars in GT7, there's seemingly a gap of 2 years at minimum between when a non–Toyota car is launched in the real world and when it gets added into GT7. In other words, a car new to GT7 is always going to be out of date by real world standards, doubly so if it's a racecar in a widely adopted and often used category.
So then, my interpretation of players clamouring for a 488 GT3 or 296 GT3 to replace the 458 GT3 is not that they want the variety, but because they want something else to fix Ferrari's Gr.3 representation, because—hoo boy—does the 2013 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 badly need fixing in this game.
Style edited from Ferrari 458 "Itariya" GT3 by XSquareStickIt
#itariya #italiya #gte
This might come as a bit of a shock to those that know me well, but I'm going to start by praising a Ferrari: the 458 GT3 has the looks of Medusa, the voice of a succubus, and the purity of an angel in its 9,500rpm–capable 4.5L NA V8 powerplant. And don't think for a moment that it's all show and no go, because it has a front end so incredibly agile that it's boarderline difficult to get used to, partially because it's difficult to believe how responsive it can still be deep into a corner with the brakes held, but also because I know that getting used to this responsiveness is going to spoil me silly when it comes time to drive another Gr.3 car—it feels like a Radical SR3 in a sea of what might as well be family sedans. It's THAT ferociously sharp of a front end.
So much that the rear end simply can't keep up with it whatsoever.
While there may be other tail happy cars in Gr.3, none let go as willingly and quickly as the 458, and despite many of the automotive industry's most notorious widowmakers calming their tits down with GT7's current understeer biased physics, the 458 retains its psychotic handling undeterred and untamed across several different versions of multiple Gran Turismo games, seemingly never to find peace with any set of physics not licenced by Ferrari. The 458 GT3 in Gran Turismo 7 struggles immensely to put down power out of a turn; past 80% throttle, the rear diff locks up at the worst moment possible—when a driver is meaning to unleash all the horses as the curve straightens out—causing the entire stable to spin. It's deathly allergic to even microscopic bumps on the road, to say nothing of rumble strips and grass, making tracks that necessitate heinous offroad cuts, such as Lago Maggiore, a deeply frustrating drive, especially when the 458 squirms suddenly at the apex and earns its driver a track cut penalty. This thing is ENITRELY. INCAPABLE. of trial braking on a downhill whatever the brake bias or ABS setting. In the wet, I suspect that wheel users have it extra rough because this thing won't even need the steering wheel or the throttle pedal to break sideways: just stomp hard on the brakes going into Spa's Pouhon from the outside, and behold in amazement as the 458 GT3 so vehemently refuses to hold a straight line under braking that it would sooner learn how to tear into another dimension to leap across space and time than to simply go straight: the way it spears off under hard braking in seemingly random directions in the wet somehow makes me think my car somehow got backported to Gran Turismo 1, and this behaviour makes me leave safety margins so wide that my 16:9 flatscreen TV might as well be a 4:3 CRT.
Is it a fast car when allowed to slide? I don't know, and I don't care enough to know, because in my hands, even something long obsolete like an Atenza Gr.3 would have the same "practical speed" as a 458 GT3 across several laps, even if the Ferrari can set much faster lap times if it felt like cooperating once in a blue moon. Under v 1.47 BoP, I notice that the 458 GT3 has strong acceleration for a cornering car—if you're charitable enough to call it that given its eager front end—but wanes off in fifth gear at around 235km/h (146mph). Unless a rare Sport Mode race allows for adjustments to the suspension and differential, I would stay the hell away from the 458 GT3 and pick among the swathes of easier to drive and faster RMR Gr.3 cars, such as the 911 RSR, 650S GT3, Huracán GT3, R8 LMS Evo, or even a surprise sleeper that I'm sure SPD will tell you more about. I will have to note however, that the 458 GT3 feels bewilderingly comfortable at home around Nürburgring GP for some reason, so much that it made driving the 458 GT3 around other tracks feel like trying to force a Nürburgring GP–shaped peg into a round hole.
While the ever changing Balance of Performance can adjust a racecar's power and mass figures to make different cars competitive at different points, BoP doesn't ever change a car's default suspension, aero, diff, and weight distribution setups, which are locked most of the time in Sport Mode races, and it really shouldn't be any excuse for a more casual player to put up with the 458 GT3's nonsense. I'm with the crowd that badly wants a 488 GT3 or 296 GT3 to replace the 458 GT3 for this reason, but I'd also be lying if I said there isn't any part of me that wishes the 458 GT3 could be fixed instead of taking a chance at the completely unknown, because it is still the best looking, best sounding Ferrari in my eyes. IF a 488 or 296 GT3 ever does arrive to replace the 458, I suspect even someone who dislikes Ferrari as much as I do would feel a bit sad that the 458 GT3 will be retired. Here's hoping for the love of pasta and pizza that whatever replaces it will be set up to run on more than a single track...
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