Gran Turismo 3 - License S-8 (

Over the years I've done numerous runs on this particular license test on this game. In 2012, I did a run where I got a 1:30.157. In 2013, I improved that down to a 1:29.393. Although I was stuck with a non-pressure sensitive controller at the time and so had to wall grind a select few corners to make it happen. And for the little attention that video got, it still wasn't received well even though I explained why I had to do it. A couple years down the road in 2017 when I did my video of getting gold on all 8 Super license tests along with the other 5 videos I did that year for each of the other licenses, I improved my record even further down to a 1:28.520. Now having a pressure sensitive controller again. But here's the thing, depending on the version of the game your playing, the target times you have to achieve can be very different. For the most part players on both NTSC versions, NTSC-U (North America) and NTSC-J (Japan), have it considerably easier over PAL (European) players.

There's always been 2 sides to the conversation surrounding this particular license test with some people saying it was strangely the easiest of all 8 Super license tests while others say it was fittingly the hardest of them all, now I understand why. It's the PAL players that have all the struggles with it. On both NTSC versions, the gold target time is 1:31 along with a 1:32 for silver. For all versions the bronze time is a 1:35. But on the PAL version, 1:31 is only the silver target time. You have to get over 3 seconds faster down to a 1:27.8 for the gold. I personally now feel bad for people playing on that version. And it's not just this test that's harder on there, but quite a large number of them. For instance, the last arcade time trial, the infamous one with the RUF RGT at Complex String. On the NTSC versions the target time to beat is a 4:52.716 but on PAL you have to get a time nearly 3 seconds faster down to atleast a 4:49.869 to beat it. There are also quite a number of tests that are the exact same in both NTSC and PAL versions so other notoriously difficult tests like A-7, we all share the same struggles together still.

Not everyone's an ace driver which can make progressing through the game on the PAL version more difficult. I've heard that PAL is better for speedrunning, but then again most people aren’t speedrunners. What originally started as a challenge to beat my 1:28.52 from over 5 years ago turned into trying to get a time that would be considered gold on the PAL version to see how hard it really is, I have the NTSC-U version btw. Eventually I did it with a 1:27.45 and it was pretty damn hard. But then over the next 2 hours afterwards, I just kept going. My next improvement was a 1:26.69, followed by a 1:26.30, finally followed by the 1:26.145 I've done here averaging 87.34 MPH. I wanted to keep going for a 1:25 but I didn't have enough time to, and I was sore as hell from how hard I was straining from being in full concentration mode for as long as I was going for.

Overall, by going above & beyond getting a time nearly 1.7 seconds faster than the PAL gold target time and nearly 5 seconds faster than the NTSC gold target time. I now have a much greater level of admiration for what people on the PAL version have to go through to achieve the same level of success as it seems totally unfair to them sometimes. Not to mention, the NTSC versions get 6 F1 cars while the PAL version only has 2. No F686/M, F687/S, F090/S, or F094/H on there, it’s kind of sad actually. And the 2 F1 cars they actually have don’t even use the same names, they’re just called Polyphony001 and 002. As opposed to their NTSC counterparts, the F094/S and F688/S.