--- title: "I Dropped $50 on This Rare Gran Turismo Demo and I Regret Nothing" date: "2025-07-05" modified: "2025-07-05" authors: - name: "Adam Ismail" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/adam-ismail" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/features/i-dropped-50-on-this-rare-gran-turismo-demo-and-i-regret-nothing" categories: - "Culture" - "Features" - "News" - "Video Games" --- # I Dropped $50 on This Rare Gran Turismo Demo and I Regret Nothing ![Gran Turismo 2000 sleeve and disc, on top of other Gran Turismo packaging.]() *\Adam Ismail\* If you're reading this website, you're probably nerdy about something—and I'm willing to bet it's not just cars. Maybe that leads you to hoarding memorabilia or working far too long on a project, never content to put the tools down. Oftentimes, such passions manifest in questionable financial decisions. I made one such purchase last weekend, when I dropped $50 on an old *[Gran Turismo]()* demo disc with one car and one track, in a race the [game]() won't even let you finish. Why would I do this? The disc I purchased at a gaming convention last weekend is called *Gran Turismo 2000*, and it was kind of a mystical thing back in my youth. Even before shipping *Gran Turismo 2* on the original PlayStation, developer Polyphony Digital started work to bring the smash-hit franchise to Sony's next-generation console. Its initial efforts materialized in builds of a project called *GT2000*, which was first shown to the press in the spring of 1999, well ahead of the PlayStation 2's Japanese launch in March of the following year. *GT2000* notably appeared at [Sony's PlayStation Festival]() in Chiba, Japan, in February 2000, and then months later at trade shows in the U.S. and U.K., typically with new content each time. Those PlayStation Festival attendees in particular received *GT2000* demo discs they could load into the PS2s they'd soon have, and this iteration of the game is the only one that has ever made its way into the public's hands. That's the one I bought. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MaPYMz_TB8&t Whether *Gran Turismo 2000* was intended to be the third *GT's* title is unclear, but once the game slipped into 2001, Polyphony naturally chose a new name: *Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec*. *GT3* went on to be a juggernaut, understood to be the second-best-selling PS2 game ever, at least [as of the last time anyone bothered to count](). But *GT2000* is almost nothing like it, even though it was compiled just 14 months before the final game hit stores in Japan. See, this is why I couldn't pass up an opportunity to own a copy of *GT2000*. With demo discs of yore, you'd typically get a slice of the full game; depending on when the demo was minted, it might even look or play a little differently from the finished article. But, to anyone who knows *Gran Turismo*, *GT2000* barely feels like an early, work-in-progress snapshot of *GT3*. In fact, it feels more like *GT2*—and that's what makes it so special. ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() In *GT2000*, you drive the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V around the Seattle Circuit, a track that first appeared in *GT2*. There are five opponents: a Honda NSX, FD Mazda RX-7, R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R, Subaru Legacy B4, and Toyota Altezza, always in the same colors. The race isn't limited to laps, but rather a 120-second timer that is *just* about long enough to pass the finish line once. Then you get a replay, and then you're rudely punted back to the title screen. One song plays as you drive— ["Mirage" by Daiki Kasho]()—and it's kind of infamous for being obnoxious, but I love it. The car select menu (it's honestly more of a color and transmission select menu, because you can't choose another car) spits you out into a race with no countdown—just a rolling start where you immediately have control over your Evo. The first thing you notice is that the vehicle physics are pretty much a match for *GT2's*. The Lancer feels extremely light and tossable, and you can fling it into corners and pull off some effortless drifts that would require a bit more finesse with *GT3's* weightier, more nuanced handling model. *GT3* drives well, of course, and certainly more realistically, but *GT2's* liveliness appeals to the arcade racing lover in me, and I have a lot more fun throwing around the Evo here than I do in the final game. ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() This demo is rough, though. For one, walls don't slow you down much at all. If you turn around at the start and drive through a tire barrier, you can easily break out of the course's bounds. Computer-controlled opponents exit most corners wide and strike the guardrails. And the graphics are hardly stellar. Aside from the physics, this is the other big difference between *GT2000* and *GT3*. The car models resemble *GT2* assets with slightly more intricate geometry; their windows are still opaque black, just like on the PS1, while they'd be transparent in time for *GT3's* release. The Seattle Circuit itself also looks rather flat and simplistic, with lower-resolution textures throughout. Comparing key sections of the track across both games, you can see how Polyphony built far more detail into the environment and trackside scenery in little more than a year. The overpass that the circuit runs beneath after Turn 1, for example, is mostly flat in *GT2000*. In *GT3*, we see beams and cables in shadows. ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() Further into the lap in *GT2000*, we pass Seattle's since-demolished Kingdome. In *GT3*, the Kingdome is still present, but resides next to Safeco Field, known as T-Mobile Park today. The Mariners' new home wasn't finished in time for the environment modelers to get it into *GT2*, so it's a nice touch that they were able to go back and include it in *GT3*. ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() ![Gran Turismo 2000 rare screenshot]() Indeed, *GT3* is an objectively better experience, and history has proven that few developers were able to harness the PS2's power as well as Polyphony. And yet, there's something fascinating about seeing what is effectively *GT2* running on more powerful hardware at double the framerate and a higher (albeit interlaced) resolution. For all its faults, it almost feels like a *GT2* "Plus." Audiences around the time of the demo's release were stunned by the heat haze effect Polyphony was able to convey in replays. It seems quaint now, but *Gran Turismo* was on the cutting edge of real-time graphics even then. Little details, like how *GT2000's* cars accurately reflect the environment they're in, rather than the vague, scrolling light effects you'd see in the PS1 games, represent serious steps forward. And all of it would be further refined for *GT3*. *GT2000*, then, is a fascinating snapshot of *Gran Turismo* at a precise moment in time, to a nerd like me. And, as *Digital Foundry's* John Linneman pointed out in his [fantastic retrospective]() on the series that you ought to watch if you care about stuff like this, what makes *GT2000* all the more special is how Polyphony improved upon it so profoundly in *GT3*. These days, it's sadly not uncommon for our first glimpse at a game to be [markedly more impressive]() than the final shipping product, but *Gran Turismo* bucked that expectation in a big way. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Personally, snagging a copy of this demo represents something else, for me: closure. I remember gaming magazines talking it up when I was a kid, and when *GT3* eventually emerged, I wondered what happened to *GT2000*. Of course, it was never a secret—the final game literally missed the year 2000, and this disc was never released outside Japan—but these kinds of things carry a lot of weight when you're young. And I'm happy to say that there's been a positive development in my securing a copy of *GT2000*. Remember how I said that you could only drive the Evo in this game? I shared my purchase with members of the racing-game-centric Discord community I run. One of them goes by the name of [Silent]()—he's the developer perhaps best known for fixing old *Grand Theft Auto* games so they run better than ever on PC. Silent built upon work done by another *Gran Turismo* modder years back, named Xenn, and is [whipping up cheats]() that can be used in the PCSX2 emulator to remove *GT2000's* two-minute time limit and let the player drive any of the game's six cars. Neat stuff! ![]() ![]() It's unclear how many *GT2000* discs Sony pressed for that Festival show, whether in the hundreds or the thousands. Either way, they're not impossible to find, and if I really wanted to, I could've [scoured eBay for a copy]() years ago. Yeah, $50 is a lot, but you might be surprised to learn that it's a pittance compared to what some truly rare or high-demand games command nowadays. I could never bring myself to shell out the cash until the chance presented itself in person. Now that I have, surprise, surprise: I regret nothing. ![]() *Got any memorabilia you love yet spent a stupid amount of money on? Email me at adam.ismail@thedrive.com*[]() ## Author Adam is a Senior Editor at The Drive, concentrating on curating and developing the site's slate of daily journalism, from initial pitch to final copy edit. When he's not at his desk researching leads and working with writers, he's testing vehicles or reviewing racing games, new and old. He joined The Drive in 2023, following seven years of covering consumer technology and cars. A car lover and gamer since his earliest memories, Adam came to know the automotive world through video games. First it was Daytona USA, Sega Rally, and Ridge Racer; then came Need For Speed, which inspired an encyclopedic knowledge of '90s supercars, and, of course, Gran Turismo. If not for them, he'd assuredly be doing something else right now. Adam is based in the suburbs outside Philly, where there are ample roads for his hot hatch to stretch its legs. In his car, he's probably listening to indie rock, drum and bass, or Yankees baseball. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()