Dammit, you guys are making me wish I had an Xbox and a copy of *Forza *(honestly, if I did own an Xbox, *Forza *would probably be the only game I owned)! Anybody got a couple hundred bucks they wanna throw my way so you can have another member in the club? 
Picked up this Microsoft Wireless Wheel Controller today because the reviews were all really good for it. Definitely takes a little getting used to but I’m finding it makes it easier to finesse the wheel than with the stick. Thing only costs $50 so its worth it.
A.C. bought a 360 specifically for the Rock Band drums & guitar that someone tossed. Forza 4 (and now 3 Ultimate) are the only games I bought for it. Might spring for a wheel later but I do OK with the pad.
Damn, just realize that I already created a club for a few of my flying buddies. Not many, but if I leave that club the whole thing disappears.
I think a friend request and then friending the members of the club will work for some things like challenges and hot lap times. I won’t be able to drive the cars in the community garage but then again I like tuning my cars anyway!
My name on XBOX live is “furlough” instead of my SDMB username. Someone else grabbed that name before I could.
I made a Straight Dope decal that you can put on your car.
Here it is on my hood in the sweert pea-green Pinto going up Fujimi Kaido B.
You can find it in the store front under vinyl groups. Just search for SDMB.
I put it on the side as well.
This month’s DLC:
American Le Mans Series Pack
•2011 #2 Audi Sport North America R18 TDI
•2011 Panoz #050 Panoz Racing Abruzzi
•2010 Dodge Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Challenger SRT8
•1991 Mazda #55 Team Mazdaspeed 787B
•2011 Bentley Platinum Motorsports Continental GT
•1986 #2 Audi Sport quattro S1
•1992 Alfa Romeo 155 Q4
•1995 Ford Mustang Cobra R
•2011 Holden HSV GTS
•2011 Volkswagen Polo GTI
After a few days of cajoling, I bought Forza 4 for my stepson, but I’ll probably be playing it a bit too. I’m pretty bad at racing games (I usually win by using the other cars as speed bumps), but I’ll join in when I’m ready.
MacTech I got your request to join the club but I can’t join without wiping out my current club.
I’ll be on a trip for the next few days but when I get back I’ll try to friend everyone so we can race together even if we can’t share cars.
My Class-B V6 '84 Rabbit GTI is now in the Club garage.
Nice additions to the club garage, Lute 
I especially like your Beetle cosmetic package, nice Herbie tribute
I think I’ll take them for a spin on Fuji Kaido B, the Fuji Uphill climb, and the Top Gear test track…
Times to follow
I think this car club thing could be loads of fun, actually, I thought just my garage was sharable, the fact that any member can share makes it, well…
…at least 20% cooler 
I might build a second Killer Rabbit as a top-of-the-line I4 and keep the existing one a V6. There’s a photo in my storefront of the little V6 barely beating out a bunch of American V8 muscle.
Forza 4 “Lute Skywatcher Specials”
Running Lute’s shared SDMB Stigs cars up three courses;
Fuji Kaido stage B, the track we use for the "Gutless Wonder challenge, the average HW does the course in 4:00 to 4:30 depending on variables
Fuji Kaido New Hillclimb; the first two sections of FK, long, twisty hillclimb with some brutal corners, the lower section is straighter so you can build up some good momentum/cut your overall time, but it’s easy to lose that early lead in the hairpin twisties
Top Gear Test Track, exclusive territory of Tamus Racingdriverus Stiggus, some say this track is a figment of his imagination, others say that reality is a figment of HIS imagination…
“Herbie”
Fuji Kaido -B time; 3:33
Fuji New Hillclimb; 6:04
TGTT; 1:30!
Boy, “Herbie” sure has some cojones here, nice tuning job, really throttle sensitive though, putting all that power through the front wheels, and with nothing over the back to balance it out puts some MAJOR torque steer on the front wheels, a tad heavy on the understeer through the corners, but really nice straight line acceleration
What’d you put under the hood on Herbie, sounds like some form of forced induction system?
One suggestion I’d make, do a Rear-drive drivetrain swap, it’ll balance out the handling and make corners more controllable…plus you can powerslide it at will
Oh and this thing was a total BLAST on the TGTT, The Stig would enjoy it, but then again, Some Say he finds VW Beetles arousing, and that his date for Senior Prom was a Wankel Rotary Engine…
Again, I posit that a simple Rear-Drive upgrade would help the handling immensely
VW Rabbit;
Fuji -B; 3:17
Fuji New Hillclimb; 5:46
TGTT; 1:37
This one was a tough one, the Rabbit had great straight line speed, but was an absolute handful in the corners, it felt like there was no weight over the rear wheels, it felt “whippy” at top speed, the rear end wanted to snap around, and with all that weight up front, dear OG, I haven’t seen a car with that much understeer in the corners, since, no, wait, I lie, the Chevy Volt and Saturn Ion Redline have worse understeer, at least the little Rabbit has decent weight and tracks well
It seems to me that the biggest issue of the Rabbit is it’s far too front heavy, and wants to plow straight through the corners, rather than take them, in order to sort out the handling, we need to move some weight out over the rear wheels, or at least lighten the front end…
On the TGTT, the handling got a bit livlier, it wasn’t as “pushy” through the corners as on FK, and the longer straights did give it an opportunity to stretch it’s legs, this would be a fun little go-cart on less technical tracks, like TGTT, on “Cornerfests” like FK, it’s just too heavy in the front end and too whippy in the back, at least when on a more open course, you can count on some aerodynamic effects to help keep the rear end planted…
'65 Ford Mustang;
Fuji Kaido -B; 3:22
Fuji New Hillclimb; 6:14
TGTT; 1:37
NOW we’re talking my language here, a big, naturally aspirated motor, and REAR WHEEL DRIVE!, gives me the ability to break the rear end loose in corners and drift/slide through them, no understeer to speak of, and what little oversteer there is is controllable, the classic 'stang has it all, a nice throaty roar, enough guts to break the rear end free, and decent enough acceleration…
…now, about that body roll, made the corners a bit too “soupy” and cut down on precise steering control, bolt on a set of Race Anti Roll Bars front and rear, stiffen up the suspension, put stickier tires on it, and you should be good to go
On the TGTT, that body roll really worked against the 'Stang, as it had a tendency to “pendulum” a bit, especially in the Hammerhead, the Penultimate Bend and Gambon corner
Once again, all the 'Stang needs is a bit less body roll and some stiffer shocks and it’d be set
Mazda MX5 Miata;
Fujimi Kaido -B; 3:45
Fujimi New Hillclimb; 6:36
TGTT; 1:44
Y’know, I don’t care that the Miata has a reputation here in the United States as a “girl’s car”, the fact remains, the humble little Miata is a GREAT handling sporty car, out of all the cars driven tonight, it had the most poised, neutral balance of them all, it felt like a classic British roadster, like an old Lotus, as it should, as that was one of Mazda’s inspirations and design goals, and I think they did rather well with the end results, it had the most instinctive handling of the bunch, went exactly where it was pointed, the only downside I could see with it was the engine was a tad anemic, but that’s to be expected in this car, it’s not meant to be a brutal musclecar, it’s meant to be a light, flickable roadster
That said, it’s inspired me to perform a little experiment, pick up a MX5 (not the MX5 Superlight I already own) and see if I can’t fix the slight power deficiency with nothing more than a Supercharger and Intercooler, and not even a race model, just the basic street model
Since a supercharger is driven by the engine itself, there’s no lag like you get from a turbocharger, the power is on tap the moment you ask for it, the only downside is a slight increase in parasitic loading on the engine, as it has to drive the supercharger, but the power increase from supercharging itself should mitigate that issue
On the TGTT, this little beauty felt truly alive, it was a joy to take through the turns, nimble, agile, flickable, it was a great performer, I pretty much nailed the apex on Hammerhead and Penultimate, and only went a bit wide in Gambon as i entered the corner too agressively, carrying too much speed into the corner
Nice selection of cars, Lute
Herbie has a full race-spec Golf I4. Hadn’t actually driven him until a few minutes ago and I agree about the handling; he now has AWD.
Killer Rabbit Mk 2 is now available, also with a race-spec Golf I4 and AWD.
The Mustang is a work in progress. A Ford NASCAR plant will be in there eventually.
I’m also working on a Class-S Renault 5 Turbo.
Mazda MX5 Supercharging experiment…
My whole basic concept here is to retain as much of the original Mazda handling balance and precision as possible, while working with the stock engine and transmission, that means no engine swaps, no transmission swaps, and only bolt-on upgrades, anything that would require a change of engine or transmission would be outside the realm of this experiment
Basically, I’m trying to replicate what a driving enthusiast on a “limited” budget could do while keeping as much of the car as stock as possible.
Top Gear test track;
Previous time in Lute’s Miata; 1:44
Time in Supercharged Miata; 1:41
I installed the basic Sport twinscrew supercharger and Sport intercooler, nothing else, no tire mods, no suspension, just the supercharger, and that was to fix the overall lack of off-the-line power, Supercharging and Intercooling the Miata filled in the gaps in the powerband.
Next step, install racing air intake and exhaust to help the engine breathe easier
SC/IC and Race intake and exhaust; 1:37
Vastly improved power delivery, it pulled hard in all gears across the powerband, the power was on tap the moment you requested it, the race air intake and exhaust made the supercharged powerplant breathe much easier
Next step, put stickier tires and larger wheels on it, to maximize the tire contact patch;
235/40R14 wheels and racing slicks installed; 1:34
At first I thought I had screwed up the handling, it was getting floaty and unbalanced in the corners, then I realized, the stickier rubber was allowing me to enter the corner faster and the suspension was being pushed too hard, causing unwanted body roll, once I dialed the agression back a notch, I was able to carve some nice corners and hold my line better
next step, Race Anti Roll bars front and rear; 1:34
No change in overall time, but the handling was flatter, vastly reduced body roll, again, causing me to enter corners to agressively at first
Final tune steps;
Full Race suspension, Race brakes, full lightening, race driveshaft; 1:32
This round of upgrades really brought it back together, it handles and feels just like a stock Miata, only one with usable power and decent performance, just a great, fun car
Tell you what, Lute, I’ll share my tweaked Miata, when you next play the game, do one lap on the TGTT in your Miata, then one in mine, let me know what you think…
bear in mind that all the upgrades on my Miata are just basically “Bolt-Ons”
Oh, and new car added to the garage, a Morgan Aero SuperSport, and yes, of course it’s in British Racing Green, it has to be, it’s a British roadster (made by Germans 
), same reason I repainted my Miata British Racing Green, it’s inspired by a British roadster…
I took the Morgan Aero around the TGTT… in 1:29
This thing is a BOAT, needs some serious work to get it controllable in the corners, felt like I was driving a faster, land-based Titanic…
What I’ve determined about Forza is that I’m not really very good at it. It’s a struggle to even be competitive for last place, much less finishing further up. Any ideas what I can do to improve my driving? Other than taking corner too wide and ending up in the sand, I know that’s a problem!
I need to bite the bullet and switch to manual gear changes - I expect that will be a big one - and I need to figure out how to tune cars, and select the right ones for the right tracks. Learning the tracks better will probably also help quite a bit. Anything else?
My general recommendations for Forza novices;
1; Ignore the career mode until you get the basics of car control down, spend all your time in free play hot lap
2; use a low powered starter car, personally I prefer rear wheel drive cars as the handling is far more balanced, front drive cars tend to under steer in tight corners
3; find a couple favorite tracks and learn them inside and out, spend all your time in your training car on these tracks
4; start off with the “nannies” (assists) on, but disable them as you get more confident, turn off autobraking first, you’ll never learn properly with it enabled
Actually, come to think of it, just go ahead and disable ALL the nannies except ABS (and automatic IMHO), if you choose a bad line or otherwise screw up, rewind and retry until you nail it
If you leave traction control and stability control on, you’ll never be able to use the full potential of the car, as these nannies really screw up power delivery and chassis dynamics, with TC and SC enabled, you’ll never be able to initiate a proper drift corner or properly power out of a tight sweeping corner
TC/SC are for people that are too lazy to learn how to properly drive anyway
I’ve found that the only way I’m competitive against the AI is to set it for Easy with ABS on and default steering. Medium AI, no matter what game it is, always seems to result in me never being able to catch the leaders.
I decided to go against the assists even though I knew it would be a challenge, mainly because I figured I wouldn’t be able to go without them later. Usually I’ve been doing well, although I still have problems with hairpin bends or in trying to pass.
But when it works though…the game is beautiful. I took a 1961 Jaguar E-type, added some race upgrades, and raced it on Maple Valley. It sure was fun to watch the car blow past everyone else and win by over 25 seconds.