Beating the Vector M12 LM Endurance with 249hp Miata C-Spec (Gran Turismo 2)

The infamous NTSC-U 1.0 Trial Mountain 30 Laps endurance against the Vector M12 LM returns. Given how others have managed to prove that the M12 can be beaten using road cars, I decided to give it a go as well.

This Mazdaspeed Miata C-Spec looks and drives like a monster, but it's very difficult to control on a bumpy track like this due to its light weight, FR drivetrain and low downforce. It took hours of fine-tuning to make this car endurance-friendly, and even then it still feels very inconsistent to drive. If the springs are too soft, the car gets sucked into elevation changes, and if they're too stiff, the car becomes more likely to spin out instead. The car is very unpredictable, and you constantly need to be thinking one step ahead while driving so you can adapt to any sudden handling changes.

High front camber did improve stability greatly though, and I felt the car worked best with the LSD set to 1 / 1 / 1. The Miata's power band is way up at high-RPM's, so I made close gears from 3rd to 5th to squeeze as much acceleration out of the car as possible. Super soft racing tyres last 15 laps no problem, and the ride height is what makes this all possible as usual.

There were a few small mistakes here and there, but thankfully nothing major. When tuned to 249hp, the race demands near-perfect driving, or the M12 will keep gaining on you. You can see how even touching the wall in some sections can give the M12 enough time to catch up and potentially overtake.

As before, NTSC 1.0 uses different memory addresses than later NTSC versions, so I was unable to convert all of Silent's graphic-enhancing Gameshark codes. The 60 FPS code still works, but tyre smoke is disabled. Game saves and replays are cross-compatible between NTSC 1.0 and 1.1, so I switch between the two versions in this video. The 4:3 sections are 1.0, while the 16:9 sections are 1.1.

Music used:
Driving Challenge - aM
Supercruiser - ESTi (from Ridge Racer 7)
Highway Fusion - Sampling masters MEGA (from Ridge Racer 6)
Explorers - Hiroshi Okubo (from Ridge Racer 6)
Down To Earth - Ryuichi Takada (from Ridge Racer 7)
Floodlight - Sanodg (from Ridge Racer 6)
Awakening - Tetsukazu Nakanishi (from Ridge Racer 7)
EXH* Notes - Sanodg (from Rave Racer)
Draw the Waveform - Yu Miyaki (from Tekken 4)

NTSC 1.0 codes for 60 FPS:
E01D52C4 00000002
301D52C4 00000001
A401F888 AEB40008

See Silent's GT2 blog for more codes for all other regions: https://cookieplmonster.github.io/mod...