GT Racing 2002 - Simbin's Debut - A Casual Review

Developed by the Simbin Development Team, GT Racing 2002 was the culmination of years of impressive mods simulating the FIA GT series. Starting with EA's F1 2001, the mod was released in its full V3 version for F1 2002 in November 2002. More of a full conversion and totally new game rather than 'mod', GT Racing 2002 illustrated the SBDT team's impressive skill and helped pave their way to becoming a full developer. Simbin was awarded the official FIA GT license in 2003, and published their first game, "GTR" in 2005.

If you would like to try the mod out for yourself you need a working copy of F1 2002 installed, I recommend a fresh install. From there you can install the mod from the download below:

0:00 Intro
1:38 Overview
5:41 Menus
7:24 Cars
10:04 Tracks
11:52 Testing
16:45 Race 1 - Donington
28:32 Race 2 - Sugo
40:42 Race 3 - Spa
52:58 Final Thoughts

[DiegoRuiz]

FUN FACT/CORRECTION = All "new" tracks are ripped from another licensed EA Sports game of the time: Superbikes 2001, made by the Milestone guys. Sugo, Valencia, Oschersleben, Misano, Donington Park and Brands Hatch were all used in that game.

[rocket]

As a newer simracer, learning about the history of this wonderful discipline has been fascinating. Thank you for covering this niche, as specific as it is. I was aware of the famous classics (rF1, GPL, GTR2 etc) but your comprehensive and well-edited presentation of slightly more obscure, older games & their background makes your channel really special.

I sometimes wish there was an official FIAWEC game today, like there is for WRC and F1. It's great that all sorts of sims/games have LMPs and the like, but they lack the authenticity of a licensed game. Now that we're in the increasingly popular Hypercar era, maybe there is hope...

[maxleitschuh]

This mod actually has its roots in a Sports Car GT mod. A guy named Marco Demontis made a great set of FIA GT cars for SCGT, and shortly after F1 2001 came out he put out the same car pack for F1 2001. That retroactively became the "FIA GT Mod V1." Marco then disappeared from the scene for a while, and a few other folks released physics updates for the mod, one of which was made by some folks at Simbin (which was just a website/message board at the time). There were some really nasty fights over which of the physics updates was best. The Simbin effort eventually evolved into a re-release of the original pack as "FIA GT Mod V2, " which may or may not have had permission from the original author, and the Simbin folks re-branded themselves as SBDT. The original author eventually joined SBDT and worked on the GTR 2002 mod.

I don't think Roos linked up with SBDT until after GTR 2002. I think he was primarily a financial investor who helped them make the jump from a modding team to a full-fledged game dev.

[bystudz]

Man, i discovered your channel 2 weeks ago, and i am devouring your content, the quality is deffenetly there !

[toquitad]

Just a correction: the "SimBin that we know", the one that developed Race07, is not the team that developed GTR2. At the time, SimBin were splitting up and most devs parted with Ian Bell to create "Blimey! Games" (now SlightlyMadStudios). That is the studio mostly responsible for creating GTR2, and it was really like 2 people from "the SimBin that we know" that also worked on the title.
Right after developing GTR2, EA scouted the talent from Blimey and hired them to make a couple Need For Speed games, and they also developed a game for Ferrari IIRC.

[THighthorn]

Never played this mod but Simbin's first game, fia gt racing, oh my.... THAT was simply amazing..
24 hours at Spa... That was the best.

[markisaki]

I'm glad that you're covering more Sim content from the late 1990s-early 2000s! My favourite era of motorsport. Hope your other fans feel the same way.

[batteryman]

The biggest struggle i'v had with GTR1 was the wheel physics, i could either drive safe, but be like 10 seconds slower than the A.I or if i as much as even think of trying to push it harder i understeered alot, forcing me to slowing it down to a crawl speed or it suddenly with out any warning spin out, and there was like no forgiveness, and even trying to do the correction, it was impossible .
It was quite frustration not knowing if i was being a complete idiot or something else was wrong, and it didn't help when the A.I didn't struggle at all.

So then one day, i copied the tire physics files which is 13 *.tyr files in total from GTR2 to GTR1, and suddenly i felt like i could actually drive, and not like a nervous gambling game where the car would spin out, clutch will kill me and spin me out, throttle had 0.5% too much throttle and i spin out, or the car didnt do anything and just jump into the wall.

I don't know way GTR1 treated me like a bully who will kick me in my groan and spit in my face every day in school, but GTR2 is like that cheerful friend who says every day "Come on.. you can do it.! i believe in you :D"

[TheDeeGeeNL]

Played this a ton, mainly drove the Marcos because of the sound ^^

[Marcel_be]

it's remarkable how the AI behaves the same in F1C as in AC at the start: just scramble onto the racing line from the standing start, and cause trouble.

[Marcel_be]

37:56 some trivia: this Porsche is in the mod because it raced the Spa 24 hours in the "Local" class. it's technically a GT1 car, and in the Belcar (the Belgian championship), they shared the same class. but under FIA GT rules, they were restricted because of the turbo engine (it's a Porsche Bi-Turbo by PSI), so they wouldn't have been competitive

also, Sugo is in Project Cars 2

[randomfaca]

For all the hype about the 90s GT1 homologation specials, IMO these were even better. When a Ferrari has the smallest cc engine (5.7L) in the class you know these cars were not messing around.

[nikbear]

This takes me back, I drove the Marcos, not very well I might add, but what a sim this was, it rewarded the time you put into it, and when you did, even just to get in the top ten, felt glorious!
Thank you for posting this, loved every minute of it👍🏁

[simracingbasement]

THIS! Takes me back. Loved this mod a lot. As i can remember, i was not very good at it, but i loved How detailed everything was compared to the standard of the day. Also remember i printed the manual for the mod with all the physics details, including all the differences for the tyre compounds. Loved it! This made me want to try this mod again just for the nostalgia👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[JorgeAraujo]

I remember downloading this mod in early 2003. Took me about 18 hours in a dial-up connection. xD It was worth every second of the download time.

[stazz]

Ive never played any real sims, the closest ive ever been and probably going to be is codemasters f1 games but fuck me i love your videos so much. Its just pure passion put into video format. Love ya, love your channel and i wish you the very best.

[prostetnikjeltz]

I remember driving the Lister around Spa in the GTR1 Demo with my Logitech Momo Force. Those where good times. Great video, as always.

[vividvulpe]

I revisited GTR2 FIA over the weekend following playing AssettaCC over the last few weeks. I prefer the "rubbery" feeling the cars have in GTR2 over the stiffer/slicker feeling of cars in ACC. I also feel like the cars in GTR2 have a better feeling of front tire grip which lends more confidence in throttle control.

[BlueCJ]

Did a short race at Mugello in one of the Ferraris and I was pretty impressed! Some of the most fun racing I've experienced in these classic sims

[tomanderson]

Sugo is a classic Japanese track. There's a great video of a Toyota Starlet one-make race from 1984 (mislabeled 1994) on the faster, more flowing original layout here on YT.