Well, nearly reached the end so as it's the weekend I thought I'd make a start on the review of the random cars selected for this. I'm pleased to say that I managed to gain the coveted
Blue Font in both P2P and in Circuits. Here's what the randomiser gave me, some were very good and a few total rubbish.
Honda Civic Si 1999 (Drag Strips): FWD again for the drag racing was always going to put me at a disadvantage. However, this car pulled surprisingly strongly on the longer strips with power added, and with weight reduced did pretty well on the shorter ones. I expected little from this, but in the end it turned out to be apparently the fastest FWD dragster on my Friends List.
Pontiac Solstice (Ovals): Truly terrible here, probably the worst car the randomiser has given me. To be fair, it's not that the car is bad, just that it handles very well and starts off high in E Class so I could get very little power in it. A top speed of 135mph explains why I lost about 20 seconds per lap of Benchmark Oval to the best cars on my Friends List.
Alfa Romeo MiTo (Amalfi): A very good car around here. Lots of grip left me very impressed with some good times on the leaderboards. It didn't do too badly in online play, but the lack of speed (due to lots of grip and downforce) meant overtaking was very difficult. Once I got ahead of other cars though, they had a hard time keeping up even if they were running 4WD.
BMW 3.0 CSL (Benchmark): Oh dear! It just didn't seem to have much in the way of grip or acceleration around these tracks and was generally surprisingly bad, especially considering how good it was in FM2. I lost over a minute to most of my FL around Benchmark with this car and have to say that it's a prime example of how T10 have hindered the competitiveness of the old RWD cars.
Mazda Axela Sport (Camino): I enjoyed running this car in F Class, and this was repeated in E. Even though I thought Camino would be a little too power oriented for this car, it was top 1% for the heavily run tracks and top 5% for the more lightly raced ones. It also beat my existing times on all 6 of the ribbons previously run. Overall a very good car.
Ferrari Dino (Catalunya): This only managed to get my fastest time at Cat School of all tracks, but that doesn't tell the full story. It was in the top 1% at all the tracks and did quite well in online races. The car has good acceleration and top speed so would go well on longer tracks and while the handling isn't the best, it's not too bad either. In fact, it was only just shaded by a (FWD) Mk2 Golf at the National circuit.
Maxda RX-7 FC Savanna (Iberian): I didn't expect a lot from this car as it's RWD and there is very little you can do with it. But, as with the F Class Camaro, it really surprised around here. So much so I put the tune on my storefront where it received the massive total of one sale. It beat all pre-existing times around here and has proved a very strong online performer. It's also set a time at Suzuka East which I couldn't quite beat in the Kia.
Porsche 914/6 (Kaido): Being RWD it loses a little bit off the line in the P2P's and the lack of power hinders it uphill. But with lots of grip and superb handling I can honestly say that this is probably the best car I've tuned - certainly it's the only one to have made it's way into the top 100's albeit only on the downhill sections. A really great car for the really twisty tracks, although the lack of top speed really hinders it where there is any kind of a straight.
Mazda 2 (Ladera): Another really good car. Five top 1% times around Ladera (a track I'm not keen on) shows how good this car is. It's also a bit of an online demon - when I ran it around here against some of the usual suspects it had a lead pushing 1000ft after 6 laps of the full course. Definitely worth a try if anyone bought this car pack.
Honda Fit (Laguna Seca): Well, it got a top 1% time and beat my other cars here, but I came away feeling a little disappointed. It's reasonably quick and seems to handle well, but just lacks that extra something to make it really good.
VW Rabbit (Le Mans): Not surprisingly I got a sinking feeling when the car/track combination came up but by shoving a load of power and race gearbox into it the car did amazingly well. There are another 2 seconds sitting on the Full Le Mans if I hadn't uncertified on the run-in of the previous lap but even so it is up challenging with a number of cars I didn't expect it to be equal to.
Renault Twingo (Maple Valley and Sedona): Take two tracks where you want lots of speed and combine with a titchy car with good handling. You'd think it would be a recipe for disaster but the car did surprisingly well. It set my best times at Maple Valley (all in the top 5% with one in the top 1%) but really shone at Sedona with 3 top 1% times out of 4 tracks. I'm not surprised this car is so popular with the FWD fans.
Honda Civic 2004 (Motegi and Positano): With only 3PI to play with, this is a car which demands compromises in E Class. Fortunately, the stock suspension is excellent as are the stock gear ratios so I was able to put on some smooth aero kit for Motegi and add a couple of bhp. That was enough to beat the dreaded 2003 Toyota Celica at all versions of Motegi and create a great online car. For Positano, I added the Forza wings and widened the front tyres a little creating a fun car for the track. While it lacked a little grip and tended to spin up the front tyres, it handled really well so I could happily have the back end swinging around to help it around the corners. Blooze may be faster, but I doubt his car is as much fun
Nissan Versa (Mugello): A bit like the Honda Ft, this is a car I don't feel I've quite got right. It has decent, if not outstanding straight line performance and handles pretty well but just feels like it's missing a bit of edge somewhere. Top 5% at both tracks is ok, but it couldn't match an almost stock Toyota Altezza at the short course.
Toyota Celica (1994) (Nuerburgring): Another car with very few spare PI before it hit the limit, so I was a bit limited in what I could do. Generally it felt very good, even if the fact that it was around the 95th percentile (top 5%) suggests otherwise. In the main it just lacked the top speed to really compete with the top cars around here, but other than that there were no real issues. And around the full track it was in the top 1% so I can't complain too much.
Honda Integra (2000) (Nuerburgring GP): The percentages don't do this car justice around here. It actually feels really good, accelerates well with a decent amount of grip but with not many drivers I struggled to get it into the top 10%. Much more highly recommended than the placings suggest.
Ford Mustang Cobra (1993) (New York and Silverstone): I expected this to go well at New York, but it only got into the top 5% at 3 of the tracks. Too slow for the old track and not enough handling for the chicanes on the new one. At Silverstone, it exceeded my expectations with the grip tune being able to stick with much more conventional cars - I was very pleasantly surprised. When tuned right it doesn't handle too bad at all, just a shame that I couldn't get much more in the way of straight line speed than a conventional hot hatch.
Chevrolet Chevelle (Road America): What at first glance looked like a match made in heaven (450bhp in E Class, long straights) ran straight into the brick wall of PI. Basically, there were not enough spare PI from the stock car to fit even the sport gearbox and keep the car in E Class, even with all the PI dropping additions (e.g. diff, ARBS etc.). That meant I had to use the stock gearbox which maxed out at 132mph 3 times per lap. So I used those few PI to get a sport suspension, no tuning but it held the road better than before so at least I could carry a bit more speed through the corners. The time wasn't that great, but there wasn't a better alternative.
Alfa Romeo Brera (Road Atlanta): It's a heavy car in E Class, but even so it didn't do too badly. The Brera has always been one of those cars which promises much and is rarely a bad car. It wasn't bad here nudging the 1% bracket, but didn't set the world alight either.
Mercedes A200 (Sebring): This combination has so much comedy potential. Take one car which seems to roll at the drop of a hat and mix with a track with high steep curbs. So I was really pleased with the way it turned out - I lifted the suspension a bit and softened the springs a little along with the bump damping and it coped surprisingly well with the curbs. Even tried it out online and came third, only losing to cars with much more power. Much, much, much better than expected.
PT Cruiser (Sidewinder): Not the fastest (as Blooze can attest), but the wide torque band really helped with this and it seems to have set very good times for an FWD. The handling was very good, although a lot of that is down to the slick tyres and full downforce. Despite the FWD, it punches pretty well out of corners thanks to that torque, but the high downforce restricts it on the longer straights.
Lotus Elan (Sunset Peninsula): This car/track combination came up in F Class too, and surprised me then. It was even better in E Class combining good rather than great handling, acceleration and speed. Generally, a very good all-round power tune and I think this could surprise a few people if it gets raced here onlone.
Kia Forte Koup (Suzuka): I was expecting great things from this car as in a recent competition over at fm.co.uk it has been the car to have (albeit at A550 PI). But, although it felt fantastic in terms of both grip and acceleration, the ultimate speed was just (only just lacking). No surprise that it lost out to a 2003 Celica, but I was really surprised that the RX7 mentioned above had a slight edge on it around the East track.
Mazda MX-5 Gen 2 (Tsukuba): Probably the rarest of the MX-5's on the leaderboards and I can sort of see why. Although it felt pretty stable, I had to stick with the stock suspension to keep in PI which limited the tuning I could do. The car felt pretty good when it was warmed up and was the fastest around the short track, but couldn't quite keep up with the FWD Aveo on the full track. I still can't put my finger on where I was losing time, but suspect that I couldn't quite get on the power as early in the MX-5 as in the Aveo.
