Gran Turismo/YMMV


 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: The Top Gear test track is available in Gran Turismo 5.
 * Car Tiers: Cars can be roughly ranked as sluggish subcompacts, slow sedans, medium sport cars, fast supercars, very fast Super GT racers, lightning-fast Le Mans racers, and one Formula 1-like car to rule 'em all.
 * GT5 Prologue had an actual Formula One car, the Ferrari F2007, which was the top tier car. Later GT5 also throws in the Ferrari F2010 as well as a fictional car, the Formula Gran Turismo, which is an even faster car.
 * And if you reach a certain level in either the A-Spec or B-Spec games in GT5, you'll unlock the ultimate badass race car of all: the X1.
 * Contested Sequel: Gran Turismo 5. Some of the fanbase has criticized this iteration for tedious grinding, the fact that you can't sell highly expensive cars or farm for them anymore, endurance races giving you low sums of money, a poorly implemented paint system, segregated A-Spec and B-Spec modes, no fast forward for B-Spec, a weak track generator, a 20 million credit limit, among other things.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: The main theme of the Gran Turismo series, "Moon Over the Castle", composed by guitarist Masahiro Andoh of the famous Japanese jazz fusion band T-Square, is perhaps one of the most certifiably epic intro themes for any game, and has only gotten better with each incarnation of the series. A shame that Sony seems to enjoy ripping the amazing original soundtracks out of the Gran Turismo games in the American and European releases, and replacing them with licensed garbage. The aforementioned T-Square performs this song under the title Knight's Song.
 * Gran Turismo 4 at least had the original replaced by "Panama" by Van Halen in the US. The EU release got shafted by comparison, with a remix of "U-Boat" by Kasabian.
 * Gran Turismo 2 did have a great intro with "My Favourite Game" by The Cardigans (From their album oddly also named Gran Turismo.)
 * The rest of the original soundtracks created for the series are excellent as well. Gran Turismo 4 at least had a few songs from its original Japanese soundtrack intact when it made the jump to Europe and North America.
 * Also notable is the Crowning Music Of Funny license test fail tune from the fourth game. The second game, whenever you failed, played the same upbeat music as when you passed, quickly leading to controller-throwing anger. The third game played a slightly sympathetic slower tune, but which eventually it felt as though it was mocking you. Realising they couldn't prevent feelings of anger from the player, in the fourth game they went with this.
 * Another recurring musical theme from game to game is guitarist Daiki Kasho - a few choice tracks from GT4.
 * Here's something of Kasho's from GT5 ("5OUL ON D!SPLAY").
 * The Spec 2.0 update brings us a remix of the above track with this from the new opening movie.
 * 8.8: The full release of Gran Turismo 5 was met with positive professional reviews... that fall just short of perfect. Much Forza vs. GT fanboyism did commence across the internet.
 * Game Breaker: The Pikes Peak Escudo in 2. They nerfed it in 3 by making it nearly uncontrollable, and worse, they removed the course it was designed for. However, a skilled enough player with a good setup could still use it efficiently, and it could be tuned to 1843 freaking horsepower, enough to get it to 430 km/h while still outdragging all other cars. They had to nerf it again in 4 to get it stay as a curiosity rather than a Game Breaker.
 * A properly tuned Escudo could literally break the game in GT3 by popping a wheelie and then suddenly going FTL. Seriously.
 * The fourth game has the Plymouth Superbird and the '65 Pontiac GTO for historic car events -- often resulting in five 40 hp alleged cars put against a 400 hp V8 monster -- and once you unlock it, the Polyphony Formula Gran Turismo.
 * The Chapparal 2J, with its vacuum downforce system (it was banned from competition due to this). As an opponent, it often made the All-American Championship Unwinnable.
 * Thankfully it was nerfed in 5.
 * For early- to mid-game, the stock Dodge Viper. It's essentially the same car as the racing-class Team ORECA model, but it costs one-tenth as much (to the point where, with an Old Save Bonus, you can buy it as your first car in GT4) and, unlike the latter, it is fully upgradeable, letting you reach up to 1000HP+  in some games.
 * In GT4:
 * Step one: Win first rally, get Cien.
 * Step two: Win 2nd rally with Cien, get Toyota Rally car.
 * Step three: Sell Toyota Rally car for a quarter million.
 * Step four: Repeat steps 2 and 3 for tons of cash.
 * GT4's "rules" are easily bendable in a lot of cases. If you're into earning A-spec points for a Self-Imposed Challenge, you'll find that installing a racing suspension to improve cornering does not at all affect your points earns. Want to use a car as a rolling wall to make a turn at higher speed? The game usually will not object. This also extends into cases where driving across grass to avoid a chicane does not cause a penalty at all.
 * GT5's Stealth Model "Gift Cars", which consist of black versions of: a Nissan GT-R GT500, a Honda NSX GT500, a Mazda 787B, a Mclaren F1, an Audi R10 TDI, and a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. Made especially moreso by the fact that repairs on those cars from racing damage are dirt cheap.
 * And they can still be upgraded (with some limitations) at the Tuning Shop. See just how fast the upgraded Audi R10 TDI can go in the "Like The Wind" Challenge here (or here if you prefer a view from the cockpit).
 * And now in GT5, the X1 (renamed X2010 after an update) - insanely fast with ungodly grip (basically, combine the best features of the Formula Gran Turismo and the Chapparal 2J, then put that on steriods), if you can master it.
 * It does the 20km Nurburgring in a lot less less than half the Real Life record, doing most of the corners well over 300km/h. Did I mention that the Nur is one of the most difficult tracks of the world?
 * Arguably the borrowing system and having friends that have a X2010 to put online. Step one, Borrow X2010, Step two, race with it, Step three, Profit.
 * Fridge Awesome: Most of these cars exist in Real Life, and since reality doesn't care about Competitive Balance and can't be nerfed as easily as a game can, some of the real cars (like the nerfed cars in the later games) are even more game-breaking than their in-game counterparts.
 * Grand Theft Auto Effect: Though not as intensely as the trope namer.
 * Memetic Mutation: Zombie Jeff Gordon.
 * "Don't hit the cooooones!"
 * That One Level: Many of the Driving Tests and Driving Missions.
 * And of course, Cote D'Azur(Monaco) and Nurburgring, both of which are the That One Tracks in real life.
 * Uncanny Valley: GT5 features the "Jeff Gordon NASCAR Driving School," starring Jeff Gordon, who voices "Zombie Jeff Gordon", a terrifying alien that looks somewhat like him.