GTR Revival: Straight4 Studios Needs Your Help

Straight 4 studios.jpg
In the middle of developing its new game, GTR Revival, Straight4 Studios is looking for help as it determines the game's key focus. The team is seemingly looking at recreating one epic moment in motorsport history, but can't decide between four options. Now's your chance to shape a simulator.

Rising from the ashes of what was the team behind the legendary GTR 2, Straight4 Studios may sound like a thoroughly unimpressive name. Honestly, why not call it V12 or Flat 6. Anyway, the team has slowly been releasing teasers of its newest project and is now looking for help from the community.

Straight4 Studios, headed by Ian Bell, is currently working on its next venture GTR Revival. The game is set to follow on from the legendary status of the GTR series which focused on the FIA GT Series of its day. GT1 and GT2 cars roaring around some of the best circuits in the world certainly made the old Simbin titles great.

Still looking to focus on a fan favourite series and era, the development team is asking for the opinion of the community as to which specific moment in motorsport it is to recreate. Four options feature on the poll found on the Straight4 Studios website.

Late-1990s BTCC​

The late-1990s were an impressive time in the British Touring Car Championship. The Super Tourer regulations had just hit a point at which budgets were exceeding those of Formula 1, the cars were mind-boggling pieces of engineering and the drivers appeared to be super heroes.


Ever since the original TOCA Touring Car games, this is an era that has lacked representation in the simracing industry. However, a recent and popular mod in Assetto Corsa has brought this time back from the back of our minds.

A game focusing on the ins and outs of the Super Tourer era would be a fantastic proposition. However, the other periods mentioned in the poll have seen even less love in simracing's history.

Historic Trans Am​

Today, Trans Am is a relatively unknown form of purist motorsport. Massive V8 engines, H-pattern gearboxes and heavy chassis make for a NASCAR road course racing on steroids experience. But back in the championship's early days, around the late-1960s and early-1970s, the championship thrived with road-relevant muscle cars on the best American circuits.


Models like the Dodge Challenger, Ford Mustang and AMC Javelin went head to head in a race on Sunday, sell on Monday ethos. While the V8-powered muscle cars dominated the over 2-litre class, European saloons took to the under-2-litre category. Alfa Romeos, BMWs and even Fiats raced on the same weekends as the big boys.

Straight4 Studios is offering the simracing community the chance to race in this era of motorsport. A niche national championship much forgotten by many, there must surely be a fan base out there that would love to see this idea come to life.

Can Am​

Much like Trans Am, Can Am was a regional series that travelled the North American continent. Motorsport fans may have heard of cars like the McLaren M8F and Ferrari 712M. These massively powerful, significantly light machines were absolute rocket ships, testament to what happens when you give manufacturers a near-empty rule book and infinite budgets.


Often surpassing the 1000hp mark in qualifying, these Group 7 cars raced around the North American circuit. Or they did until the sport became too expensive compared to other forms of motorsport around the mid-1970s.

The Canadian-American Challenge Cup thrived in the early-1970s just before the series began to tumble. This is the era Straight4 is interested in covering. Other than the odd impressive, yet uncontrollable racer, Can-Am and Group 7 have remained anonymous throughout the course of racing games. Could this be the series' time to flourish in the eyes of simracers?

1973 World Sportscars​

In 2023, we are entering a golden age of enduance racing. The FIA WEC and IMSA championship haven't seen such top-class participation in a number of decades. But fifty years ago, the sportscar racing scene was also seemingly living one of its greatest times to date.


Mixing Group 5 open top prototype sportscars and Group 4 GT racers, the series visited countless infamous events. Le Mans, Daytona, the Targa Florio and the 1000km of the Nurburgring. All these events were contested as part of the WSC and made for some of the most exciting endurance racing seen to this day.

This was also the last time Ferrari competed in the top class at Le Mans, surely making it worthy of representation in the simracing world. Other brands like Matra, Porsche, Chevrolet and Lola showed themselves throughout the 1973 season.

Which of these four championships and eras would you like to see as the focus for GTR Revival?
About author
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

Comments

Hey Ian
How about helping Reiza solving the millions of BUGS in AMS2 instead of hyping this vaporware?
Because it looks like Reiza themselves are not up to the task:sleep:

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: But if the vapor actually does condense then it will be interesting to see where the users come from. The niche is small I mean.:whistling:
 
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I think 70's World Sportscars gives the best range of cars out of that choice of 4, so gets my vote.

Historic trans am would get my second vote, though AC has some amazing mods in this space - it would be good to know if they get much racing. A pro version of these cars would be fantastic, cough-Bathurst-cough.

Can am is a close third, but they're mad bits of kit in every sense.

I love super tourers, but in terms of delivering something unique and desirable, I'm not sure these are it - though in saying that, the cars of Race07 (heritage code?) made for great racing that if you fancy can still provide some great gaming.
 
Premium
I think that the Btcc would be a reasonable start point, the cars would be manageable without the need to babysit new players.
The Trans AM series would be in a similar vein because the lower capacity class would again be reasonable for the Newbie.
Can Am, I'd dearly love that, but how would you show just how difficult it is to hold onto 1000 hp without new players getting the hump and raging.
The 73(ish) WSCC could work as there were lower categories to start with for newer players.

But really, I suppose we could have all of them with expansions (note: I didn't say updates and fixes pixel by pixel)
But really I'd prefer 70's BTCC, must include Gerry Marshall, 50's sports cars get them D-types running, Can Am...
In fact why don't you go get in touch with the Duke of Richmond and do a Full Goodwood Revival, then include a big ol' pile of tracks
 
Classic touring cars would be cool. Maybe a bit like the cars from gt legends good variety and not the same old same old but don't have much confidence in this title already when it's called gtr revival but clearly is going to have no link to the gtr titles :roflmao:
 
Premium
I voted btcc and sports car.
I think it should be concentrated on european series (nothing against our american friends, but nobody in Europe really cares about nascar and canam. And the serveurs are more populated in Europe (i may be wrong).

But let´s be honest.
What is the sim which have never been replaced ?

GRAND PRIX LEGENDS

we need a new Grand Prix legends more than anything else, with online, mods, gplrank ..... everything.
 
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Super Touring: I was first exposed to the BTCC and ATCC via Speedvision on US cable systems. The ultimate was a 24hr Bathurst with driver teams comprised of both series. Heck you could even throw in the USA NATCC that barely lasted two seasons. If I remember correctly there were Super Touring leagues in Sweden & Brazil that used mostly year-old cast-off cars from the BTCC(same for NATCC I guess) Alain Menu, Jason Plato...Judd engines in Nissans...
So THIS would be an epic choice.

Trans Am: For Euro fans who have never been exposed to Parnelli Jones, this would breathe life into the history of one of the world's most dynamic drivers, you might say he was the American Gilles Villeneuve. Then there are the cars, acid dipped bodies that crumpled if you set a tool box on the fender(to save weight) Cars built exactly to spec EXCEPT one team built the cars where every dimension was 7/8ths of the real street car. Famous Teams. Jim Hall of Chaparral ran the Factory Camaros(white of course) Roger Penske blew the establishment away by bringing AMC into the fray with the Javelin. Many of the Can-Am drivers like Mark Donohue or Sam Posey, Dan Gurney vacationed in the T/A in between F1 and Can-Am and Sportscars and... and..
So this would be an epic choice.

Can-AM What is NOT to love about this. Can-Am would present a true progression from 1966 to 1973. Fast revving Fords vs pavement ripping Chevrolets with an odd Ferrari or other Euro marque thrown in. Titanium cars, winged cars, tires that grew wider than a midwesterner's belt line at a county fair. The Chaparrals with a type of DRS loooooong before F1 made it a thing.(and you could use it anywhere you were brave enough, no restrictive DRS zones) The sucker car with additional Snowmobile engines hidden under an ugly square box, sucking the car to the asphalt even when standing still. The Shadows, the Mclarens, the Lolas. History man. Oh, and faster than F1 for most of it's life with much richer prize earnings to boot!
So this would be an epic choice.

World Sports Cars To an American, these are the most mysterious. We just weren't exposed to this type of racing much. Little, if any TV coverage, some magazine stories. But strange sounding names and manufacturers at locations we never heard of...except Le Mans. If Can-Am was the brutish High School Captain of the Football team, then WSC was the French Foreign exchange student in short shorts & a tied off Halter Top. Can't think of a more exotic form of racing back in the day.
So this would be an epic choice.

There, that is my vote.
 
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1. 1973 WSC season! Golden era, wide appeal, wide range of cars, the endurance potential is huge! Wide car selection with something for everyone, multi-class racing always gives a solid platform to build leagues, and the cars should be tricky enough to drive. Tracks are interesting and varied too, although I doubt anyone wants to recreate Targa Florio on an official scale. Still, sports cars, prototypes, GT cars, what's not to like?
2. Can-Am. Not enough presedented, cool cars. Although a bit more niche as there are not as many recognisable tracks as in the WSC season, and the balancing might be a bit tough, but overall a good second option. Racing these cars online though could be an issue, as they undoubtedly require a lot of skill if they were to be realistic with 600-900 bhp, active aero, historic brakes, and not much weight.
3. BTCC. Not the first option as I doubt it'll have enough of an appeal as the cars are still only front-wheel drive and not supercars but instead 25 years old sedans, but otherwise it should produce the closest racing of the categories here! If they go ahead with the BTCC cars, then maybe add the whole Super Touring regulations as a whole, so that tracks like Suzuka, Spa, Nurburgring, AVUS, etc. can be added. Whilst the UK tracks are great, there isn't enough variety in themselves, and some tracks are just plain boring to me. On the plus side, this category is the most approachable for a casual sim racer.
4. Historic Trans Am. Cool cars, but the appeal isn't big enough. Also the variety is not too big, tracks might be whatever and they just don't hit the sweet spot to me or many europeans either. Cool cars, but they don't hit the wow factor as hard as they should or could.

Some day I'd love to see Group C added as a whole, with three eras: 1983-1986, 1987-1990 and 1991-1993. Just a thought, albeit off-topic as hell.
 
Super Touring: I was first exposed to the BTCC and ATCC via Speedvision on US cable systems. The ultimate was a 24hr Bathurst with driver teams comprised of both series. Heck you could even throw in the USA NATCC that barely lasted two seasons. If I remember correctly there were Super Touring leagues in Sweden & Brazil that used mostly year-old cast-off cars from the BTCC(same for NATCC I guess) Alain Menu, Jason Plato...Judd engines in Nissans...
So THIS would be an epic choice.

Trans Am: For Euro fans who have never been exposed to Parnelli Jones, this would breathe life into the history of one of the world's most dynamic drivers, you might say he was the American Gilles Villeneuve. Then there are the cars, acid dipped bodies that crumpled if you set a tool box on the fender(to save weight) Cars built exactly to spec EXCEPT one team built the cars where every dimension was 7/8ths of the real street car. Famous Teams. Jim Hall of Chaparral ran the Factory Camaros(white of course) Roger Penske blew the establishment away by bringing AMC into the fray with the Javelin. Many of the Can-Am drivers like Mark Donohue or Sam Posey, Dan Gurney vacationed in the T/A in between F1 and Can-Am and Sportscars and... and..
So this would be an epic choice.

Can-AM What is NOT to love about this. Can-Am would present a true progression from 1966 to 1973. Fast revving Fords vs pavement ripping Chevrolets with an odd Ferrari or other Euro marque thrown in. Titanium cars, winged cars, tires that grew wider than a midwesterner's belt line at a county fair. The Chaparrals with a type of DRS loooooong before F1 made it a thing.(and you could use it anywhere you were brave enough, no restrictive DRS zones) The sucker car with additional Snowmobile engines hidden under an ugly square box, sucking the car to the asphalt even when standing still. The Shadows, the Mclarens, the Lolas. History man. Oh, and faster than F1 for most of it's life with much richer prize earnings to boot!
So this would be an epic choice.

World Sports Cars To an American, these are the most mysterious. We just weren't exposed to this type of racing much. Little, if any TV coverage, some magazine stories. But strange sounding names and manufacturers at locations we never heard of...except Le Mans. If Can-Am was the brutish High School Captain of the Football team, then WSC was the French Foreign exchange student in short shorts & a tied off Halter Top. Can't think of a more exotic form of racing back in the day.
So this would be an epic choice.

There, that is my vote.
Chaparrals, I want the Chaparrals.
 

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