The Hot Lap Classic Remastered: 1998 Vector M12 American Spirit Racing GT2 - Gran Turismo 2

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01][music] >> Hello there and welcome back to another edition of the Hot Lap Classic Remastered. And this time we're taking a look at the 1998 Vector M12 American Spirit Racing GT2. This car was added with the Project A-Spec mod and this is essentially a re-skinning of the base game's Vector M12 LM Edition, the American Spirit Racing car obviously being the real inspiration behind that LM Edition.

[00:00:32]A car that was not successful whatsoever. Go figure. It is essentially a racing Lamborghini Diablo. They weren't particularly successful. And this is the Vector version, so even less successful. Um I did actually reach out to Jurrasic on this one cuz I had a few questions in regards to this car's weight. As far as anyone who researches the Vector M12 can tell, there was two race cars. One of them was lighter than the other one.

[00:01:00]This one's the one that isn't so light and is essentially just an EPA test mule with a roll cage in it and they just sort of sent it. So, that's something.

[00:01:10]Raced a couple of times at Road Atlanta was the best spec. This one apparently is based on the Las Vegas spec race car.

[00:01:17]So, there you go.

[00:01:19]Not expecting this one to be quick considering the Vector M12 LM Edition was phenomenally quick. The stats on this one lead me to believe this one isn't going to be so good. Mid-engined rear-wheel drive, 534 horsepower, 1,508 kg of weight. Yep, apparently that is accurate. It did weigh that much.

[00:01:42]So, yeah, I think that's going to hinder this slightly. But let's find out. The Vector M12 LM Edition is going to get six laps of the Motorsport land track and also set the best time it possibly can.

[00:01:54]That first gear runs out at the uh at the magical 80 km/h number again.

[00:02:00]Um our current leader is the Jaguar Formula 1 concept of that car set a time of 25.481 uh the Vector M12 LM Edition. Unlikely to beat that. Um that is not quick. Um in terms of where this is going to go, I was honestly going to say like the GT500 Diablo, but I think that even weighs sort of 400 kilos less than this does, so I'm not actually too sure. If we can get under 30, I'll be happy. Uh if we can even manage that though, it's still going to be the slowest Vector, which I have got to admit, I am finding this with sort of some of these A-spec, the GT300, GT500 cars, stuff like that.

[00:02:46]I The realism I 100% get, but race race cars in the base game seem to have sort of an advantage in terms of like handling and grip, and the gearboxes are snappier and stuff like that.

[00:03:00]In the case of this specifically, I raced at completely the wrong time there.

[00:03:06]Um it doesn't feel like there's any like advantage to this whatsoever.

[00:03:14]Like to be honest, the uh the Vector M12, the standard road going one. I'm not sure how much this costs. I can't remember if it's a mill or if it's 500,000. If it's 500,000, then maybe. If it's a mill, then that's ridiculous.

[00:03:29]Um but like there's no advantage whatsoever for choosing this over the M12 race car, cuz the M12 race car when it came around here, granted fully upgraded, it's still a full second quicker than this is. I think it was like 29.4 or something, so the gear ratios on this really aren't helping, either. The gear ratios are super long. Admittedly, they are super long on the base M12, as well.

[00:04:07]It's one of those cars that you expect to be like far quicker than it actually is.

[00:04:16]We are under 30.

[00:04:19]That last sector was atrocious, though.

[00:04:25]I would like to get another running with this.

[00:04:30]I'm having to use first gear in this.

[00:04:31]Normally, I just use the torque of the engine, but obviously, cuz the uh M12's that big Lambo V12, there's no torque in it whatsoever, really.

[00:04:45]That was messy, but we got it done. 29.891.

[00:04:49]Honestly, that final sector there was not my best work. I think sort of a lower 29.8 probably possible, but uh yeah, it is not a good car, though.

[00:05:03]I'm not impressed by the uh Vector M12 GT2. It does have to be said, if you are looking for a Vector race car, the LM Edition in the base game is definitely uh the one that you want.

[00:05:18]Time's sort of all over the place.

[00:05:20]Sector three, yeah, the sector freeze on those last couple of laps is because I took a really conservative line on my fifth lap, and I wanted to sort of do the same thing.

[00:05:30]Or I wanted to not do that on the sixth lap, and I think I sort of overshot the braking zone slightly on that.

[00:05:36]Um if you kept pounding around in that, I do suspect you would maybe sneak this into the 29.7s, but I don't really think it's that deserving of it if I'm being honest. Like in terms of the way it drives, it's probably roughly where it should be. Actually puts it in a bit of an interesting spot as you'll see in a second. So, yeah, not I don't know. It's better than I was expecting to be honest. I was really expecting this to be a sort of early 30s car when I sort of gone into it.

[00:06:06]And then it sort of gradually got better as we kept going around.

[00:06:10]A 29.891 will place this into 286th place. Goes in between the Acura Integra Type R and the Nismo 260RS tuned by Nismo.

[00:06:23]Interesting thing to note there is the Venturi Atlantique Bi-Turbo is very slightly slower than this. The Tommykaira ZZII is very slightly slower than this, which is sort of another mid-engined boutique supercar, if you will. Um it is slightly slower than the Lotus Esprit V8, although again, admittedly probably could beat that. Uh the interesting one here is the Ferrari F355 GTB 300 car. That car had 200 less horsepower than this, but also weighed like 500 kilos less than this. So, I do think if this weighed like 400 kilos less, you'd probably be looking at a car that could match the M12, but you can't race reduce uh you can't do weight reductions to this race car. So, now, unfortunately, is where it has to sit.

[00:07:09]Anyways, that's it for this episode.

[00:07:10]Thank you all very much for watching.

[00:07:11]Join us next time when I'll be driving something completely different. Until then, farewell.

[00:07:15]>> [music] >> I'll be there as long as I'll try >> [music] >> and save you.

[00:07:25]I want to leave >> [music] >> this place where I feel so worthless.

[00:07:33]>> [music]