Shelby Cobra vs. 50 Laps of SSR5 (Gran Turismo 2)

I'm back with more Gran Turismo 2 shenanigans after a long hiatus. SSR5 All-Night was among the endurances I never made a challenge run for on my main channel back in 2023, and because both of its prize cars are quite desirable, I set out to find the 'weakest' car that's capable of winning it. After testing quite a few cars, I settled on the Shelby Cobra 427 '67, with stock power (423hp) and all other upgrades. The Cobra has a bunch of positive and negative attributes all bundled together. It only weighs 982kg after reductions with a 48 : 52 distribution, but it also has sub-par 95 / 100 grip modifiers, abysmal stock downforce with no racing modification available, and a very high 42 drag coefficient. The combination of rear-heaviness and low front grip means it's difficult to increase its responsiveness and rotation without making it overly twitchy. Thankfully the high drag isn't actually as problematic on SSR5 as you'd think. It definitely benefits from the slipstream (as you can see at the end of lap 1), but it still has great acceleration regardless thanks to its low weight and wide power band. The endurance ended up being quite a bit easier than I expected. The issue with finding a balanced race is the GT-One's ability to drive 19 laps before pitting. Very few cars can match the GT-One's pit strategy while also being powerful enough to keep up with it. The Cobra could reasonably stay out for 12-13 laps, requiring one extra pit stop over the GT-One, meaning it had to put in faster lap times across the race. The GT-One ended up being not much of a threat at all thanks to the Cobra's acceleration. As a result, the main challenge of the race became managing the Cobra's weight through corners. The rear-heaviness works to its benefit on SSR5, but it also requires a lot of careful control and anticipating each corner well ahead of time. I had three major mistakes during the race that cost around 25-30 seconds total, but it went quite smoothly otherwise and I held a comfortable lead for most of the race.