As many of you know, I won the Tanner Foust Competition and I got to fly out to Long Beach for the Drifting World Championship.   I thought I should give you all a write-up of the experience.

The week the contest ended I was contacted by Brian Dunn, “Product Marketing Specialist” for Gran Turismo.  He sent me some paperwork to fill out and made all of the accommodations for the trip.  I found out that I would be filmed at the track for a video that will go up on the PSN.  On the 14th my sister and I flew out to California.  It was almost a 6 hour flight from National to LAX but it was definitely worth it.  We stayed at the Westin Long Beach, which was a really nice hotel, and we were only a few miles from the track.  Brian met us at the hotel and he gave us VIP passes for the event and I got a $500 check (thank you Sony!).  


VIP pass

On Saturday, we went to the track.  We got to go hang out in the Playstation Truck and mess around with the games before the truck opened.  The truck had about 10 setups with GT5: P, Rock Band in one corner, Sing Star in the other, and LittleBigPlanet along the back wall.  That's when we got to meet Tanner Foust.  They were filming a video for GT:TV about drifting and it was pretty fun to watch.  

After the filming for the drifting video, we went to a driver autograph session.  Most of the drivers were there and I got plenty of poster signed.  The cameras started filming me then, too.  It was embarrassing at first but by the final interview on Sunday I had it down pretty well.  

GT poster signed by all drivers at autograph session (they thought it was cool)

At around 1:00 I got to do the ride-along with Tanner.  It was amazing.  It was so much fun riding along with him drifting the track.  He said he was going around 102mph into the first turn.  He used the hand brake to get sideways for the first turn, and the rest was full throttle.  It was like the car was floating around the track.  It was so smooth, like the car wanted to be driven sideways around the track.  I got two laps around the track with Tanner and it was awesome.  He gave me some information about setups and driving the car too, which was really cool.  There was a onboard camera in the car so that should be in the video.

Me getting strapped into the car;               Tanner's 350z

Later on was the race against Tanner.  The race was at London with the BMW M3 with standard physics.  That was more for fun then anything else as I don't think either of us could drive seriously on that setup.  There were no chairs or anything so we had to stand up when racing.  The wheel was probably at stomach height, and I had to right foot brake.  My shoes were too big so when I would go to brake, half of my shoe would be on the gas.  Most of the corners I ended up over shooting because you can't slow down when the gas and brake are both pressed!  I made up 5 seconds on the last lap but it wasn't enough because my crash in turn 1 of lap 1 was too much to overcome.  It was fun, although frustrating (Tanner had his racing shoes on so the gas and brake thing wasn't a problem for him), and I'm going to try my hardest to get a rematch with Tanner on a real track with a real car.  After the race I received the prizes from the online competition, and there were a few surprises thrown in!


Me Losing to Tanner;             GT shirt;                                           Playstation bag;                      GT jacket/sweater (cool material);           GT wind breaker;                   Signed GT5: P, Motorstorm 2, GT hat

Sunday was the actual drift competition.  I was rooting for Tanner of course and he did great.  I had never actually seen drifting in real life, but it was amazing!  It's a lot different then on TV.  The cars look way faster, and closer.  There were times where only inches separated the cars from the walls and each other.  Those drift guys are really talented.  Tanner ended up finishing 3rd with Rhys Millen winning (the Rockstar sponsored driver couldn't win at the Redbull event!).  I'd definitely go to another drift event if I got the chance.

I think that's about it, the video should go up in about a month (I was told 3 weeks but it may take longer).  I should have a more pictures up soon and maybe a video or two.  I'll try to answer any questions.

Playstation Blog post

Gran Turismo site

Edit 2: Made post smaller, added new pictures, added descriptions

Edit 3: Added links to online articles

Taking a break from GT to pursue my dreams.

Sounds like a blast! Too bad you didn't teach Tanner a little something on the track.

What kind of setup help did he give you? Was it for racing or for drifting?

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MasterGT wrote:
Thanks for your report, gar529!

I'm sure you and your sister had lots of fun and this will be an experience to remember.
Maybe you can do just as well in their next contest, eh?

Cheers,

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He might be ineligible... did they mention anything like that? Mind you this isn't a 'luck' based contest, like you're radio call-in contests. This is a real competition, where talent prevails. 

I can think of a couple of people who will try their damndest to make sure you don't win the next contest!

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ForgetfuI wrote:

Sounds like a blast! Too bad you didn't teach Tanner a little something on the track.

 

What kind of setup help did he give you? Was it for racing or for drifting?

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He told me a little about how he liked his car setup.  Like for drifting, he needs rear grip so he said he'll have about .5in of negative toe in the rear so that he can control the power in the turns.  He was going to try and set up a car in the game like his car in real life but no one could figure out how to access the quick tune menu.

As far as future contests, no one mentioned any future contests or me being unable to compete in them.  I just hope if there is one it gives the winner a chance to drive a real car like the European contest.

Taking a break from GT to pursue my dreams.

Wow, GAR, great report.....can't wait to see the movie on GTTV!.  That was a cheap shot, though, I mean with the shoes thing. You should have taken off the shoes and driven in your socks   I KNOW how well you can drive that London track...I've been a victim before (so I think it was s "set up" for Tanner to win)  Looks like you "cleaned up" - Shirt Jacket, hat, bag and $500 Cash Money!!  Congratulations o.k., now, back to work

GT INFO CENTRE OFFICIAL GRAN TURISMO WEBSITE OFFICIAL RULES OF CONDUCT NEW USER GUIDE

Ey gar, any chance that he gave you his psn name? Probably not though, just curious.

But as for the psn/GT-TV video, do you know if it will be free charge, or will we have to pay. I really want to see it.

Anyway, glad you had fun. I'm so jealous you got to experience drifting at 102mph! I can only dream  of that happening to me.

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gar529 wrote:

As many of you know, I won the Tanner Foust Competition and I got to fly out to Long Beach for the Drifting World Championship.   I thought I should give you all a write-up of the experience.

The week the contest ended I was contacted by Brian Dunn, “Product Marketing Specialist” for Gran Turismo.  He sent me some paperwork to fill out and made all of the accommodations for the trip.  I found out that I would be filmed at the track for a video that will go up on the PSN.  On the 14th my sister and I flew out to California.  It was almost a 6 hour flight from National to LAX but it was definitely worth it.  We stayed at the Westin Long Beach, which was a really nice hotel, and we were only a few miles from the track.  Brian met us at the hotel and he gave us VIP passes for the event and I got a $500 check (thank you Sony!).  




On Saturday, we went to the track.  We got to go hang out in the Playstation Truck and mess around with the games before the truck opened.  The truck had about 10 setups with GT5, Rock Band in one corner, Sing Star in the other, and LittleBigPlanet along the back wall.  That's when we got to meet Tanner Foust.  They were filming a video for GT:TV about drifting and it was pretty fun to watch.  

After the filming for the drifting video, we went to a driver autograph session.  Most of the drivers were there and I got plenty of poster signed.  The cameras started filming me then, too.  It was embarrassing at first but by the final interview on Sunday I had it down pretty well.  

At around 1:00 I got to do the ride-along with Tanner.  It was amazing.  It was so much fun riding along with him drifting the track.  He said he was going around 102mph into the first turn.  He used the hand brake to get sideways for the first turn, and the rest was full throttle.  It was like the car was floating around the track.  It was so smooth, like the car wanted to be driven sideways around the track.  I got two laps around the track with Tanner and it was awesome.  He gave me some information about setups and driving the car too, which was really cool.  There was a onboard camera in the car so that should be in the video.

Later on was the race against Tanner.  The race was at London with the BMW M3 with standard physics.  That was more for fun then anything else as I don't think either of us could drive seriously on that setup.  There were no chairs or anything so we had to stand up when racing.  The wheel was probably at stomach height, and I had to right foot brake.  My shoes were too big so when I would go to brake, half of my shoe would be on the gas.  Most of the corners I ended up over shooting because you can't slow down when the gas and brake are both pressed!  I made up 5 seconds on the last lap but it wasn't enough because my crash in turn 1 of lap 1 was too much to overcome.  It was fun, although frustrating (Tanner had his racing shoes on so the gas and brake thing wasn't a problem for him), and I'm going to try my hardest to get a rematch with Tanner on a real track with a real car.  After the race I received the prizes from the online competition, and there were a few surprises thrown in!







Sunday was the actual drift competition.  I was rooting for Tanner of course and he did great.  I had never actually seen drifting in real life, but it was amazing!  It's a lot different then on TV.  The cars look way faster, and closer.  There were times where only inches separated the cars from the walls and each other.  Those drift guys are really talented.  Tanner ended up finishing 3rd with Rhys Millen winning (the Rockstar sponsored driver couldn't win at the Redbull event!).  I'd definitely go to another drift event if I got the chance.

I think that's about it, the video should go up in about a month (I was told 3 weeks but it may take longer).  I should have a more pictures up soon and maybe a video or two.  I'll try to answer any questions.

 

Edit: Added poster signed by all drivers at autograph session.

Message Edited by gar529 on 11-18-2008 02:46 PM

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Imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery...Sig wars are cool