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

Premium
I must admit, I’m a bit baffled by this. I’ve obviously missed a memo or I’ve totally misunderstood this title from the get-go. I kinda thought by it being called GTR Revival, the motorsport era focus was almost predetermined? FIA GT?
 
Staff
Premium
A remake of GTR 2 would already be more than I can dream of. Funny enough getting all these cars and tracks back in a game would technically, due to the course of time, would class it more as GT Legends 2 by now :)
 
What a... weird set of choices. As someone else wrote, these are all "very niche" choices. I would say the target audience for this is around... 61 years old? OK, I'm kidding, but these choices look more like DLCs than the basis for a brand new sim. Unless they've realized that the market is saturated with GT3 cars and they've opted for something different.
 
Premium
This is so true

A better approach would probably be to make a minimal prototype with just one or two cars and tracks from each era, and show us how it will look and feel to play

Then see what we think

You'll get a tonne of input once people see something in front of their eyes

This is the key philosophy behind agile development
Nah, that's a rubbish way, if Michelangelo had approached the Pope and said "look guv here's the fingertips gimme the money and I'll finish it... I promise" and his Eminence would rightly say "nah, nah, boisy, you finish the worka and I'll'a come and'a looka innit, anda if I lika disa thinga I pays you...OK?"
Personally I can't see that our input at this stage 'the creation of body' is gonna be all that helpful,
have they not sorted out licencing yet? there's a million folks to please and pay to use their cars and tracks, then there's all the period adverts, many of which are banned.
I feel that the direction decision has already been made and the voting is simply about any 'Expansion/DLC' we might see in the future.
However, I've been wrong in the past and no doubt I'll be wrong in the future.
 
Premium
Nah, that's a rubbish way, if Michelangelo had approached the Pope and said "look guv here's the fingertips gimme the money and I'll finish it... I promise" and his Eminence would rightly say "nah, nah, boisy, you finish the worka and I'll'a come and'a looka innit, anda if I lika disa thinga I pays you...OK?"
Personally I can't see that our input at this stage 'the creation of body' is gonna be all that helpful,
have they not sorted out licencing yet? there's a million folks to please and pay to use their cars and tracks, then there's all the period adverts, many of which are banned.
I feel that the direction decision has already been made and the voting is simply about any 'Expansion/DLC' we might see in the future.
However, I've been wrong in the past and no doubt I'll be wrong in the future.

I had that thought, too, about the best things being made by determined artists

But if you're in business and want to get the right thing out to get paid well you gotta listen to your customers
 
I hope none of the clowns slagging Ian and the Pcars series had the audacity to vote. "Fool me once..." blah, blah blah, then they're probably over at the website clicking BTCC, clearing their cookies, and clicking again...

Sim racing is not a new thing, I get excited by things that are actually new and novel. From this list, the '73 championship is probably the most mysterious.

But if I could choose the four epochs, I would REALLY want to see:
1) 1980's GTO/GTU (Halsmer Merkur's vs. Schroeder's Cougar)
2) early 1990's Trans-Am (Fellows vs. Pruett vs. Gentilozzi)
3) Mid to late 2000's Speed GT and TC Series
4) Proper BPR 1995 championship (though the GTR2 mod is beryliant!)

Ian, take my money. NOW!
 
I would have all 4!
Because of the difficulties with getting all the licenced cars in any past series I hope this title will be moddable so that the full roster of cars is available
Being a retro sim,surely it will also include the GT1 cars from GTR2 as well?
 
Premium
I had that thought, too, about the best things being made by determined artists

But if you're in business and want to get the right thing out to get paid well you gotta listen to your customers
Absolutely, I'm a retired Decorator and I'd listen then do the job, and only when I was happy with the job would I hold my hand out.
The game/sim industry is a bit different, but if you plan on selling something then make sure you have a product and direction first.
 
Nah, that's a rubbish way, if Michelangelo had approached the Pope and said "look guv here's the fingertips gimme the money and I'll finish it... I promise" and his Eminence would rightly say "nah, nah, boisy, you finish the worka and I'll'a come and'a looka innit, anda if I lika disa thinga I pays you...OK?"
I agree. In fact, Michelangelo already had enough problems with the Pope when he tried to paint the Last Supper... :D

 
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Nah, that's a rubbish way, if Michelangelo had approached the Pope and said "look guv here's the fingertips gimme the money and I'll finish it... I promise" and his Eminence would rightly say "nah, nah, boisy, you finish the worka and I'll'a come and'a looka innit, anda if I lika disa thinga I pays you...OK?"
Personally I can't see that our input at this stage 'the creation of body' is gonna be all that helpful,
have they not sorted out licencing yet? there's a million folks to please and pay to use their cars and tracks, then there's all the period adverts, many of which are banned.
I feel that the direction decision has already been made and the voting is simply about any 'Expansion/DLC' we might see in the future.
However, I've been wrong in the past and no doubt I'll be wrong in the future.
Tim Wheatley, ex iracing and rFactor 2 licensing manager has been appointed head of Licensing for Straight4, the poll reflects their goal to cater for older simracers which is fine. Not forgetting this title will have mod support, those that like modern racing cars modders will take of.

 
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None of them... BPR, 90s JGTC, 80s/90s SCCA/TransAm, Group 4/5, Group C, ALMS are much better and popular

If any of those options wins, please have the decency to rebrand your game TC Revival because your are going very far from GT cars. If I had any doubt, now I know, I won't buy this.
 
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Premium
This is so true

A better approach would probably be to make a minimal prototype with just one or two cars and tracks from each era, and show us how it will look and feel to play

Then see what we think

You'll get a tonne of input once people see something in front of their eyes

This is the key philosophy behind agile development
The best example of this in simracing was Grand Prix Legends. A dedicated team recreated a single, glorious F1 season. The sim did not even let you change the driver attributes—you had to learn to be competitive the hard way. The rest, they say, is history.
 
Ugh, My pc is in my kitchen atm in my new place. No room for my sim rig facing the monitor and really awkward space to set up VR and have my rig facing 90deg one way or the other so I can fit it, albeit temporarily if I want to eat etc. :mad:

I guess I should fix my old PC and put my decent one next to the TV where there's room :unsure:
 
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I must admit, I’m a bit baffled by this. I’ve obviously missed a memo or I’ve totally misunderstood this title from the get-go. I kinda thought by it being called GTR Revival, the motorsport era focus was almost predetermined? FIA GT?
Same here. Was expecting GT1, GT2 from the noughties...oh well.
 

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Angus Martin
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What's needed for simracing in 2024?

  • More games, period

  • Better graphics/visuals

  • Advanced physics and handling

  • More cars and tracks

  • AI improvements

  • AI engineering

  • Cross-platform play

  • New game Modes

  • Other, post your idea


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