I put a race-spec Class S Country Squire in the club garage. Still wants to turn at the wrong time but it really shines on a speedway like Indy. I mean, try to open it up in the last straight on Kaido B and it tries to swap ends!
It went around Laguna Seca like stink.
Man, I suck at this game. Doors, I just took your Countach around Kaido in 10:36. That seems… Awful.
The King Cobra is terrible. I just have an affinity for it; my parents owned one before I was born, and have told me a few stories about it. It got repossessed because they were too broke to actually afford a new car, but I think that may have been a blessing in disguise.
Turn 10 isn’t saying anything about the Porsche DLC other than there will be 30 cars, seven of which have never been in a Forza game.
Being in May, this will not be part of the Season Pass unless it’s extended.
How exactly does season pass work? If I buy it today, do I get all of the previous DLC?
Yes, you get all previous DLC except for the launch cars, which you have to pay for. Apparently we will have to pay for the Porsche pack, which is a dick move and probably why they’re waiting until May to release it. 1600 MS Points is what I’m seeing it priced at. Not cool, but it is what it is.
If you have the chance in career play, buy the '66 Nova SS. Once you get the hang of driving it you will never lose a Class-D race. It turns solidly, drifts through turns well, and crushes all in the straightaways. Buy it and keep it handy for when you have a track you just can’t get past, select it and run the Class-D race they offer and it’s done.
I enjoy Forza and would like to join the club. My gamertag is Jazzmanvibratio. I’ll send a friend request as soon as I get my hands on the box.
Or… would you send me an invitation? (I thought I should ask to join, but it seems that the club asks me, rather.)
Wakinyan, I tried to send an invite to your XBL gamertag but it says you don’t exist…
tried both uppercase and lowercase first letter, no go…
Oh, and I finally picked up a bluetooth headset so we can talk during races and such
The garage is getting awfully packed, I like it, thing is, it’s getting hard to try out all the new cars and write out my thoughts on them, plus, I’d like to read some reviews of my cars, go ahead, be as brutal as you like, I can take it ;), suffice it to say, I DO enjoy the wide choice of cars in the SDMB Stigs garage, it’s interesting to see how each one of us tunes for our own preferences…
For Example, Doors’s Pinto looks to be set up as a drag car, and sounds like it’s turbocharged, and it is one FAST little bugger, it’s easily a 9 second car on the Infineon dragstrip, I can just barely break the 10 second barrier with my Pinto (Little Crazy Horse), but when I take each Pinto up Fuji section B (the Gutless Wonder hillclimb), Doors’s Pinto blows me away in the straights, but I carve past his Pinto in the corners, I set up LCH as a twisty road course car, I lose a bit of acceleration, but I shine in the corners
One thing I’m really loving with this club is how there seems to be a “Crap Brigade” forming, dedicated to the, well, less than stellar cars, the Pinto, the King Cobra, the Country Squire (or as I call it, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster 
)
I also added a few new cars to the garage, the “Rampage” Dodge Charger, an Aston DBS, and my new favorite car, a classic Jaguar E-type, I just upgraded the tires to racing slicks, and dropped a small turbo in to reduce the lag/bog off the line, but I’m leaving everything else stock
There’s just something graceful about the swooping lines of the E-Type, it just looks right and it’d be a sin to butcher it up, besides, the way it just “dances” through the twisties is absolutely beautiful, it’s not the most powerful car, but it seems to move and flow far more organically than expected, I use the term “Car Ballet” to describe the way a XKE moves gracefully through the twisties
Give it a try, you’ll see what I mean, the XKE is a great classic car
Oh, and I tried both versions of the Country Squire up Fuji B, the Little Red Wagon was a blast, but I didn’t think the stock model was too bad either, sure it has marshmallowy suspension and very little power, but if you balance the chassis dynamics right, and treat it like a big, squishy pendulum, it doesn’t do too badly in stock form
I’d write reviews, but I’m not nearly as good of a driver as you or Doors.
I’m finding something odd in career mode. When I play World Tour, I practically always win as long as I’m racing within my limitations. When I choose from the Event List, however, I can’t crack the top 5 in a race, sometimes in a series I just dominated a different race in.
The C class races, and The North America C Class Tour in particular, are really giving me trouble. I’m coming in 8/8 every time, no matter what I drive. Somehow my Ferrari 356 is getting smoked by American battle tanks from the 1960s. It out specs them in every way, I’m driving it perfectly, and I can’t catch a freaking Dodge Challenger through corners, let alone on straights.
Thought you’d enjoy that. 
I nearly had my first trip up B without a ! in that wagon but nailed the guardrail in the very last turn. 
OK, I just took the Mazda MX-5 Superlight up Fuji B in 3:39.
My impressions:
The car has a bad tranny for this track. I was stuck waffling between 2 and 3 for most of the track because of the climbing. It’s a very stable car, and easy to drive, but it really lacks some oomph. A better transmission would make this car way more fun to drive.
I just got the season pass, but it didn’t give me the March Pirelli Pack with it. I bought a '66 Nova, but haven’t been in it yet. I’m working through some club cars tonight.
I don’t get the inclusion of trucks and SUVs in the game. I just took the Ram up Fuji B in 3:54 of utter misery. It handles, well, like a truck. No traction, too much power, and no fun to drive.
I’ve been trying over the past few days to get the Dodge Ram SRT-10 drivable on Kaido B or the TGTT…
It’s an exercise in futility, NOTHING I do, short of detuning the engine, can get this bloated, understeering, wheel-spinning bastard under control, it’s the only vehicle in my garage I actually HATE
So, I sold it back to the game, and am now trying my next project truck, the Ford SVT Raptor
I’m still tweaking it, but so far I did 3:04 on Kaido B and 1:24 around TGTT, handling is far more stable than the Ram, still a bit of understeer I need to iron out though, mainly in tight hairpins, have the AWD diff set to a 70/30 power distro, biased to the rear, and 10% accel/decel lock on the front, 75% accel/decel on the rears, I’ve also shifted the brake bias towards the rear to deliberately induce a tad of oversteer and make it easier to break the rear end free
It’s got all the racing upgrades, the 5.4L Ford V8 underhood, with an Eaton twinscrew race supercharger and race intercooler, it’s putting out 925 HP and 772 TQ, so feathering the throttlethrough the twisties is essential…
Benchmark numbers;
0-60; 3.9 S
0-100; 8.0 S
Top speed; 193 MPH
.97 lateral G at 60 MPH
.87 at 100 MPH
A few tidbits about the career mode:
First, the last race is a cast-iron bitch. It’s the full Nurburgring. I ran it with the Pagani Zonda Cinque, and while it was an absolute hoot I never got more than two car lengths ahead of the guy behind me. If you don’t take the turns perfectly 90% of the time you’ll lose repeatedly when they bat you out of the way.
Second, the end is disappointing, to say the least. No cinematics, just an achievement and the credits. After all that time and effort I expected something special. Alas, there is nothing.
Last, you get 50 free cars. After Driver Level 50 you get credits and nothing else. That’s OK, but it’s not like it costs the game anything to throw some cars your way. Fortunately, the credits you get are enough to buy all but the really exotic cars, the really expensive collectibles, or the race-modified cars.
So, what now? I suppose I’ll go online and race some people, and I’d like to get a unicorn car eventually, but the bulk of the work is done. I’ll probably play through the career again or maybe just hit the Event List.
Incidentally, MacTech, your modified DeLorean is an absolute hoot. If you would be willing I’d love to get the specs on it.
Sure, here’s the spec sheet on my little Time Machine;
Benchmark specs;
0-60; 3.5 Sec
0-100; 10.5 Sec
top speed; 196.4 MPH
Braking 60-0; 96.4 Ft
Braking 100-0; 264.3 Ft
Lateral G (60 MPH); 1.11G
Lateral G (120 MPH) 1.08
422 HP / 370 TQ
Rear engine rear drive (stock layout)
3.2L stock motor with Race-Spec Centrifugal Supercharger and Intercooler
All other components race-spec
Max tire width all around
all tuning tweaks at default settings
So it’s basically all bolt-ons
Forza 4 actually helped me make a decision in my real-life driving…
I’ve been getting increasingly sick of my '07 Saturn Ion, it’s had a difficult life, in the 4.5 years I’ve owned it, it has suffered FOUR collisions, the worst one being the first, the first one was partially my fault, but mostly the vehicle the Ion struck was at fault, the incident in question was detailed in this thread
the other accidents? all inattentive drivers, all minor damage, fixed within two weeks, but I’ll be honest, I was getting the feeling that the Ion was unlucky, or even “cursed”…
The suspension was mushy and vague, the steering was dead and lifeless, performance was nonexistent, AND it had a major thirst for gas as well 25MPG on the low side, 27 on the high side, all hilly back roads with speed limits from 35-45 MPH, I was getting the mileage of a more powerful car, but none of the fun…
To make matters worse, it was going to need new brakes, rotors and tires soon, and the brakes and rotors had only lasted 41,000 miles, horrible performance, my previous Dodge cars, driven on the same roads, with factory pads and rotors, lasted 85,000 miles before they needed to be replaced, truly pathetic performance from the GM parts, these were unexpected expenses I hadn’t planned for, and I was getting some belt squeal when turning the engine off, the drivers side door had a faint air leak even with the door closed, and the drivers seat side bolster cushions were worn through against the seat frame structure, to put it mildly, the Ion was aging badly, and more rapidly than I expected…
I’ve been stopping in once a month at a small independent used car dealer that my family gets their cars from, checking inventory, taking the occasional test drive, hoping to find the right car, one that spoke to me, that softly said “take me home”…
I found that car! 
a 2007 Sage Green VW Rabbit 2 door hatch with the 2.5L five cylinder engine and 5 speed manual transmission, 61,000 miles, one owner car, all factory maintenance performed at a VW dealer, and it feels as tight and put together as the day it rolled off the production line, on the test drive I couldn’t wipe the maniacal grin off my face, the Rabbit was pure, unadulterated FUN…
I went back into the dealer, poker face on, said it was okay, but I needed some time to think it over, and I’d know by Monday, we decided to work the numbers, just out of curiosity, in the interim…
I went home, hating the wallowy, marshmallowy ride of the Ion the whole way, went in the house and booted up Forza 4, took the Ion Redline around the Top Gear test track in 1:40, the whole time the car was wallowing and understeering, not fun, the handling was just as vague and imprecise as my real Ion
I then took the VW GTI around the track, in 1:39, essentially the same time, but the difference in handling was quite noticeable, sharp, precise handling, minimal understeer, and no wallowing, it was a hoot to drive
about 45 minutes later, the dealer gave me a call, they had done some magic with the numbers, and were able to get me into the VW for basically what I’m paying for the Ion, and the Rabbit is a far better car than the Ion
I had 3 years left on the Ion loan, and had 41Kish miles on it, on a car with four accidents on the Carfax, the warranty was expired (aside from the powertrain warranty, that is, but i have yet to see a powertrain fail), and I was still paying $209/mo on a car I HATED, for three more years…
the Rabbit loan was for five years, on a car with a few more miles (20K more), but the carfax was clean, no damage/recalls/defects or anything, so for about $8 more a month ($217/mo), I get a FAR better car, more powerful, more FUN, and not cursed with a history of four accidents
It made sense to me, it may not make the most financial sense, or logical sense (aside from the repaired accidents, the Ion has been 100% reliable, just mundane, boring and blah), but the Rabbit makes me happy, wheras the Ion made driving dull, boring and dreary
Plus, I love the fact that it’s a hatchback, I love hatchbacks, my first two cars were hatches ('88 Ford Escort Pony, '92 Dodge Shadow) and I’ve always missed the utility of a hatchback
And it’s the little things as well, my first car with power windows, with cruise control, an alarm system, those cool “switchblade” keys, and a FULL SIZE SPARE TIRE on a standard steel rim, little cubbyholes and storage bins hiding everywhere, a 12V power outlet in the hatch area for tailgate camping, a front passenger seat that can be laid back down flat, increasing the storage area, it’s just got so many little nice touches
Goodbye Ion, I’m sorry you had such a rough life, it wasn’t fair, and hello Rabbit
So I’m working my way through the Event List. Man, it is tedious. Multiple races abound within each category, so what looks like one race turns into as many as 12 when you hit the group championships. There must be damn near 300 races, and you have to buy a ton of cars. All that for the Bucket List achievement. Most of the achievements are pretty easy, but the Unicorn Hunter one is impossible unless you played Forza 3 or got in early with the VIP package (which I didn’t).
I’ll keep plugging away, but I am growing to hate Silverstone and the Hockenheimring, two fairly technical tracks that seem to reappear with every event. Check that, I do hate those tracks. Lots of tight, slow turns with lots of opportunity to lose at the end, making you have to run them yet again. Fortunately you can lower the difficulty, at the expense of bonus points, but at least then the race is over.
The Alpinestars car pack is due out on Tuesday. Here are the cars that will be released:
2011 Mercedes-Benz #35 Black Falcon SLS AMG GT3
2011 Aston Martin #009 Aston Martin Racing AMR One
2012 Jaguar XKR-S
1995 BMW M5
2011 Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S
1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE
1972 Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3
1997 Volvo 850 R
2012 Scion tC
1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible
The last one has all kinds of absurd written all over it. A bespoke 3-ton convertible with fins that a stegosaurus could be proud of (the largest to ever appear on a mass-produced car), sprung softly so as to not spill a drop of the optional perfume when your lady uses it, about 30 feet long… you get the idea. And I’m going to buy it, run it through the twisties, and then completely trick it out and do it again. Yeah.
I was going through the Event List and came across something that ended up being all kinds of fun: Prototype oval racing. I found out very quickly that prototypes should not be raced on ovals. Even the slightest ding wrecks the aerodynamics. The bad part is that it becomes extremely difficult to turn. The good part is that it turns into a demolition derby. Admittedly, I had the AI difficulty on medium, but cars were flying all over the track and I was ducking and dodging for my life. I have it saved if you want to see how wild it really gets. The one I saved, the race at Sonoma, was by far the craziest race I’ve ever been a part of, bar none.
I just ran the full Fujimi Kaido course with the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible. My time?
11:27.450
The ghost of my King Cobra Mustang never caught me. I beat it by nearly 5 seconds. I keep harping on this because it’s just so horrible. There is no worse car in the game.