Well, finally got D Class finished so I guess it's time for another run down of the runners and riders.
Audi S4 (Drag Strips): A good way to start - after all 4WD and the Forza Audi factor is rarely a bad combination in game, especially on the drag strips. The car didn't set the world alight (you need a 4WD muscle car for that apparently
) but is pretty good for a "normal" car
MINI Cooper (2003) (Ovals and Camino Viejo) - Suprisingly quick around the ovals, although no match for the leaders. The car is quite quick around the Camino tracks, but ultimately just loses out to the best cars in the quest for a balance between power and grip as needed here.
BMW X5 (Amalfi) - OK, so you won't see this under my name on the leaderboards, but even so I was impressed by the car. I really expected it to struggle around here since it's so big and heavy, but you can fit full fat slicks and sport weight reduction which helped a lot. Ultimately, it was about half a second off my fastest times around here in both directions, but I was very happy to get below 1:04 going forwards in this. If you were ever to race it online, you need to go for a track with tight corners and shortish straights as it lacks top end. However, the combination of size and acceleration means that once it is in front on a track like this, it is very difficult to pass.
Acura RSX (Benchmark) - My best performing car around here yet, and I still struggled to hit the top 10% on many of the tracks. But, it grips quite well and accelerates well if you keep the revs up - I suspect it's more my lack of practice at the Benchmarks combined with few runners which has hurt the leaderboard performance here than anything else.
Scion xD (Catalunya and Road America)- Nicknamed the memory card when I run it online, this is quite a nifty performer and is capable of causing an upset. At Catalunya it set a few good times, although in the end the Twingo edged it at the National track. I couldn't really tell where it was losing time either and suspect it was losing slightly all around the track. The most obvious weakness is in the faster corners though. On Road America, it did much better than expected. Despite the lack of power occasioned by the low weight, it was still able to get up a decent top speed with the right spoilers fitted and didn't take too long in getting there.
Toyota MR2 (1995) (Iberian) - Despite losing out to the MINI Cooper at the full circuit I was quite pleased with this one since it didn't lose by much and that particular MINI tune is very good. The car grips well and has a much better torque than expected - for example on Iberian Mini I only change gear twice a lap.
VW Beetle (Fujimi Kaido) - I've mentioned this before, and it's been noted in the Blooze chasing thread, but I'm very pleased with this car. I swapped the engine out for the non-turbo 5 cylinder Beetle engine which allowed me to take off more weight and add more tyre as required. Despite being FWD, the car pulled pretty well uphill and the grip downhill was nothing short of amazing.
Chevrolet Camaro (1968) (Ladera) - I expected this to be a bad combination, but it didn't do too bad at all - in fact it's probably the first muscle car I've come across in the game which doesn't feel as if it's being artificially limited in some way. It actually beat my Mk6 Golf at the full track, and wasn't far off the Renault 5 on the short one, but on the full reverse track the Fiat 500 was just too strong. Nonetheless, this is a car I would be happy to use in a race around here.
Mitsubishi GTO (Laguna Seca and Sedona) - This felt really, really good when I first drove it. Very stable and it seemed to pick up speed well too. But, the clock proved otherwise, particularly at Laguna. I think the weight (it's a fat old beast is this) is the key here - it's best track was Sedona Full where it could really stretch its legs. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot I could do to trim any weight off, so slowish but stable seems to be the summary. That stability does mean it's consistent and a pretty good race car though.
BMW M3 E30 (Le Mans) - I was very impressed by the feel of this, so impressed in fact that I put it on my storefront. It won't beat the Rabbits, 550's and Celicas most of the time, but with good safe handling (even with stock suspension) and a decent turn of pace, it can more than hold its own with the normal cars. The only place it suffered a bit was at Old Le Mans where it barely topped 150mph.
Nissan Silvia S15 (Maple Valley) - I see lots of 4WD versions of this around, but mine is 2WD. It was really good around the short track, but on the longer track it just didn't have the legs to really hit the heights. Still a good car though.
Hyundai Genesis (Motegi) - There's only 6PI to play with on this car, but it's a good one out of the box. Top 1% times at East and West and not too far off at the full track show the story. It won't go so well on the twisty tracks, but around here it was very good, and takes that form into races too.
Ford Focus ST (Mugello) - My real life car, and the first thing I noticed was that the engine sound is very, very wrong. The real car has a tuneful burble which becomes very throaty under hard acceleration. The in game car sounds feeble in comparison. [Che touched on this just before the game came out. Their microphones struggled to pick out the bass notes on some cars, the Supra in particular sounded almost silent apparently. The Focus ST seems to be one of those cars]. In game, it is quite heavy and unfortunatley this held it back. I've seen this car do very well on the faster circuits, but the weight meant that it wasn't great around Mugello, even losing out to the MINI Cooper at the short track.
Mitsubishi Eclipse (Nuerburgring) - Blooze's favourite, and from the performance I can see why. It's been discussed elsewhere, but when you add the cams this car really pulls well. Top 1% times at all the stages and the full track give an indication of the car's quality.
Honda Civic Type R (2007) (Nuerburgring GP and Sidewinders) - The position on the leaderboard suggests this car isn't very good, but it's better than that. You need to keep the rpm up as with most Honda's, but if you do it will pull and corner well. Part of the reason it's well down the boards is the few people who have played this track, but it feels faster than it is. It's not a bad race car though. Around the Sidewinders it did much better, although I suspect that earlier, lighter Civics would still be able to beat it. But, it seems to be a better grip car than power car.
Shelby GT500KR (1968) (New York) - The muscle cars have been a disappointment in this game, and unfortunatley this is no exception. The track should have been tailor made for this car, but it didn't shine in the least, even losing out to a 180bhp Trueno on one ribbon. At least it's fun to drive though.
Nissan Versa (Positano) - A small, grippy car with only 148bhp should be perfect for this track, and it did do very well for an FWD car around here. You can carry a lot of speed which partially negates the losses from traction as it pulls out of corners.It did struggle a little on the B stage though, probably due to not having much power.
Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray (C2) (Road Atlanta) - I hate to say it, but this car was awful. There isn't a lot of PI left so I had a choice of suspension or gears - I went for the suspension since it wasn't hitting the rev limiter, even on the back straight of the full course. At least that meant I could modify the suspension tune, but for a muscle(ish) car this sure is lacking in muscle. Around the short track I was over 3 seconds off my best time, and it wasn't much better on the long class. Moral of the story - if you're in D Class, avoid the C2 Corvette.
Vauxhall Astra (Sebring) - A pretty good handling car this one, even with the wings taken off and stock tyres. In the end the times were good, but nothing to write home about and it even lost out to the 2009 MINI Cooper on the Club track. Ultimately, I'd say it's just slightly too heavy in D Class and there isn't enough PI available to significantly improve on that.
Vauxhall Insignia (Silverstone) - This one is the surprise package. Everyone I know who has run one of these has complained about how bad it is, usually in the higher classes. In D Class, there is a mere 1PI to play with so I had to run stock tyres, stock gears and sport suspension. Not much modification going on here, but it did surprisingly well. The Brera just headed it at the International circuit (where I expected it to struggle due to the twistier nature of the track), but it is my fastest car on the other two tracks. In an online race, it held off a faster driver in an Audi TT for two laps before the driver let it down - the car has a good combination of reasonable grip and good acceleration out of corners making it a formidable, if overlooked online car.
Acura TSX (Sunset) - I thought I'd lucked out with this one judging by the way the TSX seems to dominate the ovals and Le Mans in D Class. Unfortunately, all that shows is that it has a very high top speed. What it doesn't show is that you need a calendar to measure the time taken to reach said top speed, and that really hurt it, even around here.
Honda Civic VTi (1994) (Suzuka) - It's small, pink and light and a lot of fun. It's also a very well rounded contender with fantastic acceleration out of corners and even though I haven't challenged some of the faster guys, I can see why the EXOR folk have run this at a lot of tracks.
Saab 9-3 Aero (Tsukuba) - The times are top 1%, it feels good and it's my fastest car around here. So what's not to like? Well, quite a bit really. It may be top 1%, but that's only because so many people have run these tracks in D Class. And the straight line speed is surprisingly poor. My full track time is particularly bad, and I feel that's because it lost out down the back straight and didn't make that time up through the corners.
