For this second test, I decided to go with another Time Trial – one actually seemingly made available before the Sardegna Road Track B trial. This time around, I decided to do 4 sets of 5 laps, alternating between the DualSense and the Fanatec Gran Turismo Direct Drive Pro, which I’ll definitely be sticking to from here on out for time trials. This time, the time trial track is…
The Fuji International Speedway -Short-
Hell of a long straight.
Unlike last article’s fictional Sardegna Road Track, the Fuji International Speedway is a well-known real-life track. First opened in Oyama, Japan in December 1965, it’s a beloved part of the Japanese motorsport industry and community, and has been a mainstay of the Gran Turismo series for multiple entries now, as well as featuring in fiction media like Engine and Overtake!! Here it’s presented in its slightly simplified “Short” version, with a small modification – the full version of the track is also part of the game. Its overall profile, seen above, is actually not dissimilar to the Sardegna Road Track – one side of multiple turns and bends, coupled with an extended straight testing your car’s acceleration capabilities, as well as your skill at transitioning into a sharp turn from a high speed.
DualSense – First 5 Laps
Being able to look around the cockpit like this never gets old.
So far this is probably my most consistent – even boring – performance, starting OK and getting a touch better with each lap. Extremely straightforward, apart from my Section 1 best time being on lap 4 instead of 5, and another good example of how the ease of using the DualSense and my years of personal experience with it are giving it a huge early advantage in these tests. Making my way around the twists and bends of Fuji International was pretty smooth here.
Fanatec Gran Turismo Direct Drive Pro – First 5 Laps
A turn and a straight – one is definitely easier.
I had some real problems with the wheel on this track. Constant rainy turns and a general feeling of over-caution made for both slower times and a series of major spin-outs. You can see that Lap 4, especially, was a catastrophe, as I experienced constant failed turns – almost like the initial failures were causing new ones. As well, my best time was still slower than on the DualSense, though by less than a second. There are still positives to note here, like the fact that I’m clearly still progressing, hitting my Section 2 and 3 best times on the final lap. But it’s very clear here that far more practice with the wheel will be needed to really get the most out of it.
DualSense – Next 5 Laps
The notification comparing your time for a section to your record can be seen in the second shot.
Interesting results here – I trumped my previous best time by almost a full 2 seconds right in the first lap! However, this was then followed by four more laps, where I failed to meet or surpass that time and actually seemed to get progressively worse. We also have the oddity of my best Section times being all over the shop – they each appear in different laps, none of which was the “Best Time” Lap 1. And then the final lap is my worst, with a rather rough loss of about 4 seconds on Section 2 alone, at least compared to my record. This is still and overall good showing for the DualSense though, and really drives home (so to speak) that the out-of-the-box solution compares well to a wheel for casual racing.
Fanatec Gran Turismo Direct Drive Pro – Next 5 Laps
The Dunlop turn was one of the more forgiving on this track, at least in my experience.
Woof. Well, sort of. The big positive of this set of laps is pretty obvious – the shining, golden Lap 2 where we see all green, all the time. Best times for every single section, and for the track overall, coming in at less than a tenth of a second behind the DualSense’s best lap. I’m pretty proud of that one. I also didn’t end up with any absolute garbage like the 2.31.416 from earlier. However, the other laps here continued the trend we’ve seen so far, where when on the GT DD Pro I find it harder to navigate the turns and bends without experiencing at least a bit of spin-out. You can see that here on the first and 4th laps especially, where I lose 8 and 12 seconds respectively on Section 1 alone, compared to my best time of 25.672. My consistency on the wheel is nowhere near where I would like it to be. But, again, we have a major gap in experience here, so I decided to go a few extra laps on the wheel to see what I could manage. There were a few restarts due to continuing spinout issues, but after some more practice I was able to produce a better couple of laps:
The second lap here demonstrates that I can actually manage to match the DualSense on the GT DD Pro with a little more practice – and this was when I was a touch slower on Section 3!
Conclusions
This time trial made for some excellent tests, I think, and continues to prove that getting used to a chair, wheel and pedals setup takes a good deal more practice than I initially thought. It’s tempting to assume that the added realism of the racing sim rig will naturally translate into you just automatically being better at the game, but the DualSense is a very well-designed and high-quality controller by normal standards, and Polyphony Digital has put an immense amount of work into making it both fun and competitive.
That said, I’ve been doing some extra research how other people have configured their setups, and it looks like I’ve been doing a substandard job of it. Something I didn’t realise is that the PlaySeat Challenge X’s wheel base table plate can be unscrewed and set either closer to or further from you, exposing some of the other mounting holes. I’m going to test this out and see if I really do need to drill new holes in it to mount the GT DD Pro wheel base, or if that’s actually unnecessary. While I’ve enjoyed using the wheel it has felt unnaturally close to me to the point of being somewhat awkward to turn – it’ll be very interesting if properly mounting the base directly results in a visible improvement to my times. Just another part of the learning process, I guess.
