..... but im gonna turn some things down to make it smoother (even like that, im gonna have to miss all races at Brno, as it runs really badly on my system), how does GTL stack up in this respect, does it run well on older hardware like mine?
System Specs:
AMD Athlon XP2000
ATi Radeon 9200SE 128Mb
768Mb RAM
I just upgraded my Graphics card from a simular spec to yourself Kidzer. I had a ATI 8500 and Brno and Enna are the two heaviest tracks (on older graphics cards anyhoo).
I found that turning down graphics options to Low in GTR does not help much and in some cases can make it worse - I've seen this on various forums too.
Try leaving the game settings at medium to high but go to your generic DirectX 3d settings for your card and move the slider towards performance and away from quality.
For me this made a huge difference but has the disadvantage of affecting alll your DirectX games.