I think I’m finally going to turn off the last assist in my config, I’ll be disabling ABS…
The main reason I kept it on is that most modern cars have ABS anyway, so leaving it on makes it more realistic, but I really haven’t come to the point of locking up the brakes for a while now
Plus, it’ll give me bragging rights, "you see that time, that was done with no assists 
"
Just giving the redesigned Lute Specials another go…
“Herbie” (original config)
Fuji Kaido -B time; 3:33
Fuji New Hillclimb; 6:04
TGTT; 1:30!
Herbie Rev. B;
Kaido -B; 3:05!
New Hillclimb; 5:30!
TGTT; 1:24!
On the Kaido tracks, the switch to an AWD drive system was a great idea, it now puts power efficiently and effectively to all four wheels, rather than simply melting the front tyres of the rims 
it still needs a tiny bit of tweaking in the hairpins as there is some very minor understeer, but overall a great tuning job, and a vast improvement, Herbie Rev. B is far more driveable in this form…
two little suggestions;
1; If you have the race limited-slip diff in the car, I’d suggest tuning it to bias the rear wheels a bit more, to give the ability to break the rear end free for drifting/powersliding through corners, if you still want to retain the advantages of AWD, perhaps a 30/70 or 20/80 split (20% power to the front, 80% to the rear)
2; I noticed the car gets a little “floaty” as you approach 85 MPH and above, it starts to lose grip on the road as the car actually starts to lift, like an airplane wing, now, I’m the LAST person to make this kind of suggestion, as I HATE the things, but you may want to gulp, choking back bile, perhaps consider… no, no, I can’t do it, it’s too horrible to suggest, no, I won’t, you can’t make me!..
…
…
.
okay, here it is, and bear in mind this is coming from someone who HATES doing this…
You may want to consider putting the Forza adjustable front and rear spoilers on Herbie, if you want him to be a high-speed car, as you approach the triple digit speeds (got him up to 110 on the final long strait on Kaido), you need to have something pushing him back on the road, and the spoilers do just that, the ADJUSTABLE Forza spoilers, not the stupid cosmetic poseur crap
Personally, I’d keep Herbie Rev. B tuned for twisty road courses and dispense with the hated spoilers, he’ll get twitchy at around 85 and above, but if you plan to use him on twisty road courses like Kaido, it shouldn’t be an issue
On the TGTT, Herbie Rev. B was an absolute HOOT, I was grinning ear to ear the whole time, the AWD made high speed cornering easy on the more open territory of The Stig, I’d say the tuning in it’s current form is absolutely ideal, spot on for open road courses, I was able to get him up to 125 on the final straightaway before the Penultimate Bend, and the AWD helped immensely in the hard cornering, no sliding, just GRIP, I was even able to apex Gambon corner reasonably well…
Oh, and I think you’ll like this, the ghost car he was set up against?
my lightly tuned Ferrari F40!, the A.I. thinks Herbie is capable of hanging with the immortal Ferarri F40, perhaps one of the finest supercars on the planet!
Herbie did get thoroughly trounced by the F40, it had at least a 3 second lead on him consistently, but the fact remains Herbie was able to keep Herbie in his sights the whole time, not bad performance at all
I even saved a video of Herbie on the TGTT in my Forza storefront 
If you plan to use Herbie on road courses, leave him as-is, he’s pretty much spot on, if you want him to be a twisties car, perhaps a little LSD tweaking (no, not that kind, the automotive kind… geez!) is in order, move the power a bit more towards the rear wheels
Killer Rabbit 2.0;
I hate to say it, but I thoroughly SUCKED with KR 2.0, so I’m not going to post the Kaido times, I got too frustrated with it, it seems like the KR 2.0 has too much power for it’s chassis, even with AWD, there’s just nothing to hold it down on the track, too light, too much power, it’s scarier than my Crazy Pinto!
Bravo, Lute, you’ve made an absofrakkinglutely TERRIFYING car for twisty technical courses
Now, let’s go to the TGTT and see how I fare with it… and see what ghost car it’s put up against…
TGTT time; 1:30!
Yep, KR 2.0 is a handful here too, I was never above 50-75% throttle and had to seriously feather it through the corners, go full throttle and all you get is wheelspin, from all four wheels…
Huge grin the whole time though, you sure this isn’t actually a TVR? it clearly shares TVR’s propensity to want to kill the driver if they do one tiny thing wrong
oh, and the replay of KR 2.0 is on my storefront as well, it looks a heck of a lot cooler than I was expecting it to, is it 20% cooler, perhaps, but I’m unsure…
the ghost car? the SSC Ultimate Aero,
Maybe I should put some weight back in. Or a wing?
OK, I am rethinking my friend strategy.
The friends that I have in my club are only available a few days a month and really never share cars. We don’t use the club functionality at all.
I saw MacTech online tonight in Forza but didn’t say anything (via message, etc) because I hadn’t been online in over a week and wanted to take care of some stuff.
But having a club where we all take ridiculous cars up a hill, post times and then laugh at the absurdity…that sounds like fun.
I want to drive Killer Rabbit 2.0 up the hill!
The AI is no problem - I can consistently beat it. It’s the online humans who smoosh me to bits.
Killer Rabbit 2.0 should be a bit more driver-friendly now. Moved most of the power to the rear wheels and added an adjustable wing.
OK, I figured out why it wasn’t working. For some reason it was defaulting into another configuration. Now that everything is right (and has been for a while) I’ll message you for an invite. I just forgot all about this.
I uploaded a couple of cars last week. My 1978 King Cobra is a blast to drive, but it wants to spin every time it sniffs a corner. I’ll get the drag-ready Mach 1 up sometime this week, but I haven’t been on in a few days.
Because I was feeling stupid and had huge discounts from Ford, I bought and made the uber-Pinto. Its current rating, which I believe is as high as it will go, is R3/794, and my horribly bad self took it through the entire Fujimi Kaido course in 8:57.393 seconds, something most of you should be able to do with no problem. I added to it a custom blue/yellow paint job complete with the Straight Dope decals pilot141 made and put them on the hood, sides, and tail.
There’s something inherently fun about beating people with older cars. My car of choice is an AMC Javelin (complete with Mark Donahue Trans-Am paint job) and I have a boatload of other old-school American muscle I roll with on occasion. Winning with a Ferrari isn’t nearly as satisfying as winning with a '66 Nova or winning a Ford performance race with a Pinto.
Once I get some money to get all of the DLC (so once I can get Season Pass), I’ll try out the Pinto Brigade. Doors, you should try my King Cobra out. I tried to make it like something I would see at the Woodward Dream Cruise near Detroit when I was a teenager - I didn’t want to make it too crazy, but I wanted it to be what I think some dude with more money than brains would do to it.
I also uploaded my 2010 Nissan 370Z today. I needed it to be competitive in A class for a career event, but I wanted to upgrade braking and handling before I touched the powertrain.
Um. I think I screwed up. It’s the scariest car I’ve driven in the game. Of course, I never shut off the nannies in Forza 3, so I’m learning to drive without TCS and with a manual transmission. My first race in it was at the Bernese Alps, and it would not stay straight at all. I didn’t realizwe that the car had a 6th gear until the end, as I never got to that point. Scary, scary, scary.
11:44.746
That’s the time I put up for a bone stock 1978 Mustang King Cobra on the full Fujimi Kaido course. Almost 4 minutes off my Über-Pinto time. That car is a dog, yet it has its own redeeming values. I thought its handling was pretty good, I was sliding it around like a champ, controlled, lurid slides all over the place. However, the Flintmobile has more power, and as appearance goes the only car uglier than that in that era was the AMC Matador coupe.
Speaking of which, wouldn’t that be the best DLC ever, the AMC pack? Who doesn’t want to try to ace people with a Gremlin or build a sleeper Pacer? Aside from the Matador coupe I am an unabashed AMC fan. Give me the AMC pack and the pre-Golf air-cooled VW pack and I’ll be happy for a very long time.
Invites have been sent, and Doors, I sent you a friend request…
and now, my times on some of the new and updated club cars
Lute Skywatcher’s Killer Rabbit 2.0;
Kaido B; 3:00 flat
Kaido new hillclimb; 5:16
TGTT; 1:21!
Nice tuning job, KR 2.0 is sharp, precise, and I can steer it with the rear wheels now, much more tail-happy little car, and gobs of fun, still a bit of front understeer in the hairpins though, but all told a far better tune job
Interestingly enough, the Ghost Car on Kaido new hillclimb was none other than Little Crazy Horse, my heavily upgraded Ford Pinto, up until around 25-35% in we were leapfrogging, but once we got into the steep twisty hillclimbs, LCH just took off like a shot and left KR 2.0 in the dust, I was having a bit of understeering problem in the twisties, and the engine was still spinning the rears with too much power…
On the TGTT, once again, KR 2.0 met up with The Ghost of Little Crazy Horse…
Talk about a close race!, KR has a definite edge in off the line acceleration, easily staying a half to a full car length ahead of LCH, but it’s in the corners that LCH shines, where KR tends to float, slide, and understeer through the corners (I’m sure it’s the setup of the AWD system, I was fighting the same tendencies on LCH), LCH just sneaks in, ducks under the tight inside line and zips ahead, as long as there are no straightaways his lead is safe, as he is tuned for the corners, in a straight line drag I think that KR has a slight edge
the TGTT was basically a game of leapfrog the whole time, and KR basically won by a nose
Superb tuning job on KR, Lute
I uploaded a video of KR2.0 on the TGTT to my Forza storefront
And wmulax93’s additions to the club;
starting off with the Nissan 370Z…
Kaido B; 3:15
TGTT; 1:25
On Kaido B the 370Z was remarkably docile, well damped, and had a nice, solid, heavy feel to it, I found nothing scary about it, in fact, it seemed very mild mannered, sure, in tight switchbacks the rear end could get a bit lively with rapid direction changes, especally if you gave it too much welly, but nothing horribly uncontrollable, in fact I found it enhanced handling and cornering nicely
Then again, I’m a big fan of rear wheel drive cars, and this behavior is typical of any big powerful rear drive vehicle, if you’re primarily used to front drive cars I can see how this could be intimidating at first, so here’s a friendly recommendation, go buy an inexpensive rear wheel drive car, a Miata, or even, dare i say it, a Ford Pinto (don’t laugh, it handles really nicely and doesn’t even explode in the game, so it’s far safer than the real thing…), choose a favorite track or two (Fuji Kaido section B and Top Gear test track) and learn them both inside and out, rear drives handle corners differently than front drivers, and starting off with a low powered rear drive car gets you used to their mannerisms
On the TGTT, the 370Z was an absolute pussycat to drive, controlled, poised, and smooth, with just enough oomph to break the rear end free but not to get out of control, I also uploaded a vid of this car to my Forza storefront
Mustang Mach I
Kaido B; 3:16
TGTT; 1:31
On Kaido, one word sums up the Mach I…Heavy! you can definitely feel the weight of this car on the road, overall it’s not a bad setup though provided you work with the chassis dynamics, don’t carry too much speed into the corners or you’ll deal with weight-related understeer, and feather the throttle though the corners or you’ll spin out due to throttle oversteer, once I got a handle on the dynamics, treat it like a big, heavy car, it did okay up Kaido B, if you wanted to set it up for twisty road courses though, I’d look at shedding some weight off the car first
On the TGTT, again, the sheer mass of the Mach 1 works against it, that and the '70s era suspension, it felt like a big, heavy marshmallow, a powerful big, heavy marshmallow, but, it’s not a fair comparison anyway, as you said, the car is set up for straight line drag races, not road courses or race tracks, still, a fun car to blast around in, and I saved a TGTT replay of this one too
I can’t wait to get home and see the vids of someone with actual skill driving those. I watched Top Gear US last night, and I’d liken my driving to Adam’s (before Boris Said taught him to drive the Ariel Atom). I’m not awful, but I’m in no way trained to race. I spent all of that time with TCS on and an auto trans, and now I’m struggling with handling the car the way it would really react.
I remember Clarkson driving the 370Z on Top Gear and just repeatedly using the adjective “nasty” to describe it. That’s how it felt to me: powerful, but willing to bite me for any little mistake. The car made the rewind button my friend!
On a different note, for some reason the game gave me credit for beating you in the TGTT challenge, but your ghost car finished at least two seconds ahead of mine. I’m not sure what happened there.
I tried the super light Miata tonight. That was a blast to drive, and much easier than the Zed.
I also threw a supercharger on the Mach 1 and took it to the 1/4 mile drag strip. I got it down to 12.467 seconds, but I feel like it should be faster.
So the March car pack is due on the 6th, called the Pirelli pack. The cars?
2011 Aston Martin V12 Zagato
1972 Ferrari #2 Ferrari Automobili 312 P
2012 Ultima GTR
1969 Chevrolet Nova SS 396
2010 Renault Clio RS
1966 Ford Country Squire
1995 BMW 850 CSi
1986 Alfa Romeo GTV-6
2011 Wiesmann GT MF5
1969 Chevrolet Corvair Monza
I’m not ashamed to admit that the car on this list that I have absolutely lusted after is the Corvair. Ever since I read Unsafe At Any Speed I have wanted a post-1964 Corvair. Hell, I’d take a pre-1964 Corvair, but the late-model coke bottle styling is more appealing to me. I’ll probably buy two, one to trick it out and the other to keep stock.
The Country Squire is an odd inclusion, but that should be interesting as well. Strangely, none of the high-performance cars do it for me, the reason being that I absolutely suck in Category A or higher races. I can’t explain it, it’s not like my reactions are that bad, but I get repeatedly dusted off every time I run one. The computer blocks me or brake-checks me and POW!, my motor is shot. I get in the lead and suddenly the brakes don’t work anymore or I get kicked off-course and end up sideways. It’s all very frustrating, so I avoid the ludicrous-speed cars except in free play and stick to the old school dogs.
The real shame is that they couldn’t come to a deal with EA over Porsche. I’d love to run a 356 or a 914 in this game. Instead all we get is Ruf 911 mods that EA couldn’t be bitches about. Oh, well. I can’t wait to see the build I can give the Corvair. The best part? With Level 5 affinity with Chevrolet most of it will be free.
This is the main reason that I also picked up Forza 3 Ultimate.
I, too, am looking forward to the Country Squire. One of the first cars I remember riding in was my dad’s '71 Ranch Wagon.
Good news! If you have yet to see the message from Turn 10, Porsches are coming in May!
Yeah, I saw that. I wonder what happened that EA finally gave in since they were dead-set against it trying to protect the NFS brand. I’ll bet Turn 10 put the boots to them about Ferrari, which they have the rights to. Anyway, I want to see a 356 of some sort, a 914 (either the 6 or the VoPo), and the Panamera.
I downloaded the Pirelli pack and immediately went to work. I did a lap around Laguna Seca with the Corvair, and damned if it wasn’t the tail-happiest car that ever was. I was waiting for it to flip or blow a tire, but it apparently didn’t get the Nader mod. The tail got even happier after I gave it 975 horses, 800+ pound-feet of torque, and all the other go-fast goodies. Did it ever.
Also took the stock Country Squire for a ride on the full Fujimi Kaido course. The time? A mind-numbing 11:22.196. It couldn’t turn, steer or accelerate, but at least it was slow. And yet, it beat the stock King Cobra by a full 22 seconds. Either I’m getting really good or the King Cobra is really that bad. I’ll run it again and see what happens.
OK, it’s official. The Ford Mustang King Cobra is the biggest dog of all time. By far. You may argue that the Pinto is, but the Pinto never made any pretense at being a sports car, or even sporty. It was an econo-shitbox, period. But the King Cobra, with its scoops, gaudy decals and 5.0 V-8 was supposed to be the Ford flag-bearer, right?
Revised King Cobra lap, doing everything I could do to squeeze time out of it, came in at a devastating 11:32.315. It was spanked by the Country Squire. In the downhill it was a hoot, I tossed it around like last time. But the uphill? It would have gone faster if someone had pushed it up the hill, I think. It got beat by a 3-ton 1960s station wagon that would cover the entire road if it went sideways.
How in the hell did you people ever survive the malaise years? Was there anything good about the '70s? The cars certainly sucked.