Gran Turismo

Picked up a random memory card and it had some OG Gran Turismo save files on there..

I played the first game back in the day a little, but I quickly moved on to the later releases and never put much time into it. Out of nostalgia, I’ve been picking up old games and consoles and during my PS1 collecting phase I grabbed a PS1 memory card (picked totally at random at a retro game shop) out of necessity. As a sim racing nerd I have the original Gran Turismo in my collection as it’s a pretty important racing game, to say the least.


Anyway, by pure chance when firing it up I realized I could load a game and holy balls he unlocked EVERYTHING. Fully upgraded Viper’s, RX-7’s, Supra’s with 900+ hp, crazy lap records, and all the licenses unlocked. What are the odds. Copied the save files to a second memory card as a backup and ima just buy another memory card instead of ever deleting these save files.

To the guy who unlocked all this stuff over 25 years ago: Thank you. There’s no way I’d ever have the time/patience to do it now. This save file makes the game 100x better and it’s genuinely a treat now to boot up and reaffirm how revolutionary the series was to the racing genre. It really is amazing to see what Polyphony Digital achieved in 1997 when you look at racing games prior. Sure simulation racing advanced in many ways and the Gran Turismo series is now comparatively pretty arcadey as they’ve targeted general audiences and couch play with a controller on Playstation consoles, whereas the typical racing simulator generally appeals to a niche audience with custom hardware. But make no mistake, they were the beginning. The genesis of simulated race tracks, cars, etc. attempting to emulate reality. I’ll always respect the series for that.


Anyway, I wonder what this fella is up to now. Wild to think about how this person probably obsessively played this game to completion a quarter of a century ago. 

From the future: thanks ‘90s bro

-K

My Top 20 Active Open-Wheel Rankings for 2025

As a fan of both F1 and IndyCar and their respective feeder series, for fun I put together a list of how I personally rate the top 20 open-wheel racing drivers in motorsport currently. There’s definitely more F1 drivers on this list, but I think there’s actually more IndyCar drivers than folks would expect. A few of them I think are knocking on the door of the very best, and just as a fan of motorsport if you love racing and want more then don’t limit yourself to just one series! 

For the most part I feel I’m pretty unbiased here. Only active or reserve drivers in an open-wheel series for the 2025 season are considered:

1st – Max Verstappen

2nd – Lewis Hamilton

3rd – Charles Leclerc

4th – Fernando Alonso

5th – George Russell

6th – Lando Norris

7th – Carlos Sainz

8th – Álex Palou

9th – Oscar Piastri

10th – Colton Herta

11th – Pierre Gasly

12th – Pat O’Ward

13th – Josef Newgarden

14th – Scott Dixon

15th – Scott McLaughlin

16th – Esteban Ocon

17th – Lance Stroll

18th – Yuki Tsunoda

19th – Nico Hülkenberg

20th – Alexander Rossi


??? these drivers could be in the top 20, but I’m not sure about and/or just don’t have enough information for me to rate yet:

Andrea Kimi Antonelli

Liam Lawson

Franco Colapinto

Jack Doohan

Oliver Bearman

Gabriel Bortoleto

Kyle Kirkwood

Felipe Drugovich


I don’t watch enough Formula E or Super Formula beyond the occasional race and highlight to gauge if I’d rate any of those drivers up there. From what I’ve seen and know of the drivers I think only a few would possibly sniff around 15-20th on this list. Like Vandoorne and Wehrlein. Vergne and Buemi definitely back in the day, dunno if they’re still as high tier though after so many years outta high level open wheel racing. Formula E is only just now starting to get performance and competitiveness that I’d consider enough for me to rate at this level. Legacy talents in that series are a question mark for me. Especially if they aren’t fighting for wins and championships the last couple seasons.

While past results do influence my decision, it’s not the main factor. It’s why Dixon is a bit lower on the list despite having the best record in IndyCar, as I just think he’s a bit down on his prime, he was actually edged out by Franchitti back in the day, and today Palou is comfortably beating him. And Hamilton is statistically the goat, but Russell (who I rate a few spots below him actually as he’s consistent, but I don’t think has outshined the best of what Hamilton is capable of) has edged him out at Mercedes. I still think he’s got it in him and is impressive on his day, so we’ll see how the Ferrari move goes, but if he’s unsuccessful he might drop a few spots for me. I also try to keep in mind their team either holding them back or flattering them when considering the ranking. In IndyCar a “Penske Perfect” seat can elevate even a mediocre driver into contending for wins. Same goes for top teams in F1. Yes these teams attract top talent, but that doesn’t necessarily determine their ranking for me. Overall I think Verstappen is the greatest active open-wheel racer right now. While I can see debates for the rest of my list play out, I think at least that is pretty much agreed upon.

Here’s a handful of honorable mentions that I’d totally understand arguing for, but this is my list so kick rocks and go make yer own:

21st – Alexander Albon

22nd – Will Power

23rd – Valtteri Bottas

24th – Romain Grosjean



….aaand now you can complain about how your opinion is correct and mine is wrong.

-K

Brain Rot

I hope your holidays were great, but mannn, I’m happy to be past em! Bring on the new year. There’s a lot I want to accomplish and I’m certainly over spending money I don’t have! Anyhoo, while I was busy with IRL nonsense, I casually chipped away at comic stuff. I finished a page of Driving Nowhere, and I have a fun six-part (!) mini comic I’m excited to throw together.

While working on that I observed and was reminded of the bizarre (to me..) culture of the current generation. A term I like being labeled for this nonsense, brain rot, made me think initially about how there’s no way my generation would be this stupid… then I thought more deeply about our cringe and… yeah we weren’t any better.

Every generation has their own pop culture cringe they try to forget about… they’re no worse than us…

Not any better either.

-K