TOCA 2 - Touring Cars

TOCA 2 Touring Cars was developed & published by Codemasters in 1998. It is based on the 1998 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). 1998 was the change of rules: with a sprint race & feature race. The feature race involved a compulsory pit stop. The qualifying for both races was determined by a single lap. I first got into the series when I got hold of the demo for TOCA Touring Car Championship, when TOCA 2 came out, I bought it. I usually play this great game on expert mode with manual gears and have no visual aids to make it as realistic as possible.

The 90's were a golden period for the BTCC, with Supertouring 2.0 L cars, there were many classic championships. I first remember watching some races in the early 90's and I got heavily into the sport in the late 90's.

In TOCA 2, there are 8 teams / vehicles:

Honda Accord
Audi A4
Vauxhall Vectra
Volvo S40
Ford Mondeo
Nissan Primera
Peugeot 406
Renault Laguna

There are 8 tracks:

Thruxton, Hampshire
Silverstone, Northamptonshire
Donington Park, North West Leicestershire
Brands Hatch, Kent
Oulton Park, Cheshire
Croft, North Yorkshire
Snetterton, Norfolk
Knockhill, Fife

There are also 8 (unrelated) bonus tracks & 8 test tracks.

In Championship mode, there is radio from the crew chief and pre & post race analysis by Tiff Needell.

There is also a support championship with 7 different cars:
Ford Fiesta
Van Diemen Formula Ford
Lister Storm
AC Superblower
Grinnal Scorpion
TVR Speed 12
Jaguar XJ200

The support championship has a field of 10 cars. This possibly could have been the influence for the later TOCA Race Driver series.

In some races there was changeable weather, which would affect your tire choice. I think the lights and rear water spraying still looks great to this day.

My criticisms of the game are that it has no independent drivers (Michelin Cup for Independents) such as Tommy Rustad, Robb Gravett & Matt Neal. Hence, there are only 16 cars on the grid. This could have been for legal reasons and/or been too complicated for TOCA 2's championship.

There isn't a full damage model in the game (there is barely any damage), i.e.: if you drive into another car in the opposite direction, you both can still drive off. When compared for example to the NASCAR Racing series, which has full damage modelling, mechanical failure, tires affected by usage, damage, full setup, etc).

There is no safety car or yellow flags.

Your team mate has the same AI as the other drivers, i.e. very aggressive, so in effect they're not real team mates.

In Championship mode you must score 15 points (or more) per 2 rounds. Although this adds an additional constant challenge, it can be very tough and annoying (especially in Expert mode). In real life, most drivers would not be sacked by their team if they didn't score highly every 2 rounds...

However if you type in 'timeout' in the name section, that will give you the correct amount of laps in Championship and even if you come last you will still be able to continue to the next rounds.

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Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• motorsport
• racing
• auto
• stock
• sim
• reid
• menu
• plato
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• britain
• uk
• xp

[dougster84]

best racing game ever made. used to sit for hours on end with my steeringwheel playing this game!! computer a.i. on this game is second to none!

[nascar3racing]

TOCA 2 Touring Cars is one of my most heavily played games, back when it was released, I used to play it almost every day for a year, it's so addicting and has great replayability, I've been playing it a lot recently.

Even though it's missing the independent drivers and a safety car, I love how official the game is with the tracks, sponsors, etc and Tiff Needell's post race championship commentary really adds to the atmosphere.

A great way to relive the 1998 BTTC season.

[superallye]

TOCA 2 was such a milestone leap in graphics from TOCA 1

[nascar3racing]

I still think some elements of TOCA 2 still look very good to this day, especially the headlights (in rain and fog) and water spray (from the rear of the vehicles).

[grovestreet]

Nothing can beat TOCA 1 and 2, best racing games I've played.

[TLTBoy]

Best Toca and race game ever. It's funny how this game is how old? and it still has THE best racing physics, damage, and fun factor. The racing is the best and the sound. RacePro is the new TOCA but still NOTHING touches this!

[Celsus1984]

I like british rainy lap. Maybe because i played it first. The love from the first lap)

[wakyuz]

This is the best racing game I ever played. I remember playing it for like 12 hours one day. Best graphics for a PS1 game and I really want to know why it's not released to PSN yet

[thecreator224]

@nascar3racing Correct, the spray looks unbelivable, another good effect is the shine on the windscreen and the engine noise. I always just played this game so I could listen to the different engine noises.

[thecreator224]

Dear Codemasters, Pease remake this undeniably good game so that people like me who still enjoyed playing this game in 2006 can have some good times once again/

[DaniiCEO]

anygame similar to Toca 2 ? I have a ps3 but its not backward compaitable so chance of me getting to play this game again :(

[djspeed85]

Man they need to revive this game & with like the 98 - 00 seasons. Think about the amount of realism they could put into it now!

[MLKshit]

Even after all these years the graphics don't disappoint me at all. This is the game that made me fall in love with real racing games.

[uk285]

i want it again SONY MAKE IT A PSONE CLASSIC!!!

[Dim4323]

Hope Toca 3 on the ps3 would Revamp the franchise

[mclarenguy22]

@pesseries O_o