You start off your GT career as the owner of a single garage and an investment from a sponsor wanting you to take lead in the “Abarth Cup”, a new GT series. Your sponsor is willing to give you a weekly allowance to spend on parts, wages and garage upgrades. Their initial investment will need to buy you your starting car and hire a driver for it. As you progress you can upgrade your garage to have more than one car, so you can enter multiple classes inside the Abarth Cup.
The setup of the car is totally down to you. You will have full control over gear ratios, spring rates, damper rates, brake balance and downforce (but only if you have aftermarket parts which allow the adjustments). The aftermarket parts will have other effects other than allowing adjustability where appropriate, such as adding/reducing weight, increasing braking rates or acceleration, improving top speed, increasing engine strength, increasing power or increasing turning ability.
The driver is down to you also. You will have to hire a driver from a pool of unsigned drivers, all of which will have set attributes such as reaction time, likeability, experience level, weight and age. Each driver will also have a driving skill level on each track which can be increased with practise/experience. The better their skill, the better place you should expect to get…
The Abarth Cup is set out in multiple classes based on car models. There are class races at the end of each week (Sunday) on a rotating track schedule, for which you’ll have to ensure your car setup is tailored for the track. You will be allowed to test and setup your car throughout the week, although you’ll be limited to 3 test attempts a day. Each race win will gain you 3 points, 2nd 2 points and 3rd 1 point. These all add up and determine your position in the class leaderboard. By winning weekly races, you may receive bonuses / prize money from your sponsors.
During your race career, it’s possible to attract more sponsors. Gaining sponsors is a good thing, as that means more money for you to spend on new cars, parts of drivers. The higher publicity level you have, the greater chance of attracting new sponsors, though you will have to keep up a high chart position to keep the high paying sponsors happy. To improve your publicity level, you need to win races / promote your race team by going to events or entering exhibition races when available.
At the end of the season, there will be a large endurance race whereby the setup of the car and the efficiency of it and the driver are crucial. Its here the most points are won, which could make or break your successful race leadership. After this, the car with the most points wins the Abarth Cup, and the winner of each class gets the class trophy. If you enter more than one car in the cup, you can achieve multiple places. By winning the cup / classes, you will receive accreditation and prize money.
Once the final race has been completed, the game will pause to allow for game additions/changes etc that can’t be done mid-round. After a few rounds it will probably have to be reset to allow other changes and allow a fairer playing field for newer members that join mid-round.
The purpose of this game is simple, it’s to bring together like minded individuals that enjoy racing and have an interest in cars. During their stay they will learn the basics of how cars work and how different setups affect how the cars perform (IE its not all about maximum power).
