Well, what do you expect? After all, I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me …
Amazing! I have new found respect for Little Crazy Horse, my Pinto-Shaped-Race-Car and found what he’s good at…
I had been using him on twisty roads like Fujimi Kaido, and having a blast, but I just entered him in the Speedway Event top speed challenge event, here’s what he was lined up against;
Hennessy Venom (2)
RUF R1
Bugatti Veyron (2)
SSC Ultimate Aero (2)
Konegsegegegegegegegegeg Agera (2)
Some really impressive supercars for sure
Here’s the results, top 5 finishers;
Hennessy Venom
LITTLE CRAZY HORSE
RUF R1
Bugatti Veyron
Hennessy Venom
I Just missed first place by a half second or so, basically, the Venom and I were jockeying for first for the last three laps or so, the veyrons? Bah, I blew past them right off the start line
Looks like LCH is my track day monster…
And there’s just something twistedly fun and somehow “wrong” about using a “Pinto” to utterly humiliate the Überexpensive supercars
Or passing Ford GTs in a Ford Transit.
Or finishing barely ahead of a heard of muscle cars in a VW Rabbit (took a photo of that one and put it in my storefront).
My career recently put me in a race around the Fujimi Kaido in its entirety and I discovered that the joystick simply does not allow me enough control to get any supercars through those twists & turns. Ended up finding a car that would open a race for Turbos then entered my Turbo Smart. Had lots of fun jockeying for position after that!
So I just ran the Smart in a race around the Hockenheimring short circuit against other city cars.
The short wheelbase makes the Smart the twitchiest, most unstable car I’ve ever driven in this game. I have stability control on and if you miss even a little bit of the turn the recovery requires wiggles and waggles galore. You have to be right on or you’re slowing way the hell down just to regain control. Amusingly, though, if you do toss it and have to go through the recovery routine, its size is such that you really have to make an effort to put it off the track.
I wonder if there’s any chance of Turn 10 visiting the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum and digitizing their road-going 1936 Cord 810 and 1929 Duesenberg J.
Turn 10 is releasing the cars to be included in the Porsche pack one by one, apparently to build the anticipation. In addition to the slew of 911s one would expect (including some works models) they are definitely releasing the 914/6 (yes!), the 550 (sure to get the “Little Bastard” paint job 5 minutes after release), the 959, and the 962. Also included is the Cayenne Turbo, though the game doesn’t really do much with SUVs/trucks so it seems like a gratis inclusion that won’t be doing much but sitting in my garage.
Now all they need is the 917, Panamera, 928, 944 and the Carrera GT and all will be good.
Also, I wasn’t paying attention this weekend and just found out that Caroll Shelby died on Friday. Jalopnik has a bunch of stories about his death.
RIP Cobra man.
Yes, and in his memory, I cashed in some MS points towards 3 car tokens, and purchased an AC Cobra 427, aside from race compound tires, it’s going to remain bone stock
Wonderfly fun car to drive, RIP, Carrol Shelby 
The Cobra is in the club garage
Oh, and on a whim, I took the LuteSmart on the entire FK track, 11:42 to do the whole thing…
Number of ground loops? I lost count, that thing loves to swap ends around
Number of 360’s? Probably about six
Number of 720’s? A couple
Number of times I rolled it over? Once
What a schizophrenic little beast, makes Little Crazy Horse look sane, and he’s insane…
Some other lap time comparisons, driving the closest approximation to my real cars on the full FK course
All cars bone stock, no mods
2007 VW GTI MK V - Class C 379 PI (real car; 2007 VW Rabbit) 10:52, and no crashes, ground loops, or rollovers, just a couple guardrail scrapes, overall I didn’t tag the walls or go off course once in the GTI, the GTI was stable, composed and precise, in other words, the stereotypical German car 
2006 Saturn Ion Redline - Class C 392 PI (real car; 2007 Saturn Ion Level 2 sedan) 10:55, this was a close run, and as luck would have it, the ghost car was the VW GTI, so I could see the major differences between these two cars;
The Ion had a major advantage in the straightaways, thanks to more horsepower, and a supercharger keeping power on tap instantly, whereas the turbocharger in the GTI had a slight, nearly imperceptible lag on the throttle response, on the straighter sections of the course, where I could “open the taps”, the Ion briskly strolled away from the GTI
HOWEVER, the GTI had a MAJOR advantage over the ion… HANDLING, it carved corners, it had crisp responsive steering, and communicative suspension, it talked to the driver, allowing me to feel the road surface and conditions, and it handled the twisties with aplomb, the Ion, OTOH, had vague, numb, laggy and imprecise steering, a major case of understeer, and suspension tuned more for the comfort side of performance, one word describes the Ion best in the corners;
Vague
It just wouldn’t commit to tackling corners, it felt soft, squishy, and vague, coincidentally, I had to slow down through the corners more than I did with the GTI, I also had to brake earlier, and could not get back on power as quickly as in the GTI
And yes, the real Ion handled just as craptacular as the one in the game, the Ion driving “dynamics” are 100% accurate (so are the GTI’s)
2005 Dodge SRT-4 - Class B 429 PI (real car, 2002 Dodge Neon) 10:44, a bit of understeer, but not bad, excellent straight line acceleration, and handling sort of in the middle of the GTI and Ion, leaning more towards the GTI
Finally, just for fun, the Caroll Shelby Memorial Lap, one lap of FK in the Cobra 427; 10:20, may not be the fastest, but definitely the most theatrical with long smoky powerslides…
A few more tests on the Nurburgring;
Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I took a bone-stock Smart ForTwo around the Ring; 14:20 minutes of agony
Then I took the Chevy Volt around the Ring; 13:15, but I noticed a couple things about it in the process…
you really need to change your driving style with the Volt, come off the gas well in advance of the corner, and for most average corners, you can coast through them with minimal braking, the battery pack keeps the weight pretty much dead centered, however, in hairpins, it still has a terminal case of understeer
The strange thing though, was that the Volt chassis actually seemed to get more stable the faster it went, at speeds above 70 MPH, the chassis dynamics actually smoothed out quite noticeably, the platform has potential, it just needs to shed some major pounds
So, since I have a 100% parts discount with Chevy, I purchased a Volt and decided to see if it could be salvaged
Yes, with all the race upgrades, and the race weight reduction, which removes SEVEN HUNDRED some odd pounds of dead weight, and a race electric motor and battery pack, the Volt actually handles relatively nicely now, sadly, it still has a bit of understeer in the hairpins, but for everything else BUT hairpins, it’s pretty stable and handles well
It also completed the Ring in 10 minutes dead in full racing kit
I got the Porsche pack, and it has (count 'em) 18 911s, including stock and racing variants. Yes, it has the 914, Panamera, 962, Cayenne, 944 and 959, but no 928, 917 or the new 918. They couldn’t have squeezed out one or two of the racing 911s that are the same but with a different paint job to get those other ones in? I can’t say I’m feeling cheated because I’m still happy with it, but seriously, 911s out the wazoo? Sure, it’s Porsche’s bread and butter, but come on. I suspect the dickish hand of EA in that particular decision, holding out on the rights to cash in some more if Turn 10 wants to make them available.
For fellow achievement hounds, the new Porsche achievements can be done with AI opponents online, negating the need to make even a perfunctory effort to beat other players. Just do it with the AI and get it over with. It makes you wonder why Turn 10 even bothered.
Anyway, I’m steadily grinding out the Event List. It gets brutal, especially when you have to race the Tuners of Japan speedway event and have no viable cars to run in it. Fortunately for me I won my first and only Unicorn (Yes! the Unicorn Hunter Achievement!) yesterday from a VIP event and it qualified, and even then I had to take off the tuning setup and turn difficulty down to easy just to win. For those of you that are stuck with the standard list of cars you’ll find it very difficult to beat that event should you take on the Event List.
Also, I read somewhere that Turn 10 put the Bucket List achievement up with the explicit assumption that 99% of all players would not earn it and those that did would take up to 24 months to finish it. I’m 70% completed after just 4 months, which tells me one thing: I’m playing this too damn much and need to get a life. Alas, this is pretty much the extent of my fun since I don’t go out anymore and it’s not yet football season.
Back to the grind I go. I’ll run the 914, Porsche’s gutless wonder, on the full Fujimi Kaido course and report back soon.
The 914, bone stock, did Fujimi Kaido full in 11:04.479. I was rather impressed, actually.
What was NOT impressive was a fully-modded version of it. It was quite literally uncontrollable, and I didn’t even bother to finish the lap. Mild upgrades seem to be the rule with the car, and the AWD conversion is absolutely useless unless you like hitting walls. Too much power, too little weight, and drive wheels at odds with each other make for a very bad car. This is the first time I’ve encountered this particular phenomenon.
I bought the Porsche pack last night. I took the 944 Turbo (the Porsche nearest one I could actually afford) up Fuji B in 3:32 and loved it. The 911 3.3 (is that an '87?) did it in 3:28, but was a bit much for me to handle. The '10 Boxster was squirrelly, and I didn’t finish the lap; I blame my own exhaustion on that.
I wish I had more time to play. My wife is due to have Laxette #2 today, and Laxette #1 keeps getting sick.
I get my wish next week. The Meguiar’s car pack comes out with a 1963 Beetle. Finally, a real Herbie. Too bad they didn’t go whole hog and give us a Thing, SP2, Karmann Ghia and a Punchbus.
Also included is the first pre-war car ever in Forza, a 1940 Ford Deluxe coupe. This one is going to be the best pack yet. Usually in these games you get nothing but exotics, but Forza is delivering most of the dream cars I might actually be able to buy one day. They definitely know how to keep my interest, and consequently keep the money flowing in. This is probably the best DLC model I’ve seen yet, though they do need to get more tracks out eventually. Classic tracks would be amazing. Imagine running Trans-Am races with Golden Age cars at Riverside.
Stock Beetle, full Fujimi Kaido course: 13:38.507.
On the plus side, the car handled well. Mostly. And I got my very first clean lap. The negatives? It was so slow it actually started to decelerate going up hills. I had the hammer down the whole time going up and never, not once, broke 50. It was dusted by every car in the game. Next up: pimp it out and see what happens.
9:35.689. Complete with four spins, a full barrel roll, and a full-twisting nose spin/flip. The Beetle becomes thoroughly nasty once you put everything on it. The all-wheel-drive is to blame, I suspect. My trick Pinto smoked it, I couldn’t hang with the ghost.
I’ll put it up as is so you guys can see for yourself. In the meantime, mild tweaks will make it a lot of fun for F, E and D-class races. Above that and I have my doubts. Still, it’s ow my second-favorite car behind the Pacer and just above the Javelin. It’s a freakin’ Beetle, how can you beat that?
2011 McLaren 59 GT MP4-12C GT3
1973 AMC Gremlin X
2012 Ascari KZ1R
1998 Aston Martin V8 Vantage V600
1952 Hudson Hornet
1954 Jaguar XK120
1956 Lotus Eleven
2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG
1995 RUF CTR2
2012 Spyker C8 Aileron
Yes, another AMC legend! They’re really tickling my fancy with these packs, and are certainly getting their money’s worth out of me. I’ve paid three times as much for the upgrades as My sister did when she bought me the game.