Chevy Lineup Really Shines

[Fit4aking]

I've been grinding away at the World Tour to accumulate wealth, I want to be a 1%'er, and to gain Affinity for free parts and manufacturer bonii.  Somewhere along the way I earned a couple Chevy's and they were taking up garage space so I put them to good use on the track.

My Z28 in stock trim earned me enough money to do a complete restoration, ground up, and it is sitting pretty in the garage at the moment.  May be up for some retro Trans-Am racing but those classic car races favor a car with Pedigree so I may do some more shopping before I hack up an original.

After seeing my attention to detail the boys over at Chevy of Catonsville decided I could have one of their new Camaro's so long as I add them as primary sponsor.  Currently that car is outfitted in a B-class trim with a few race parts I managed to order from the GM Performance Parts catalog.  I guess the outcome was pleasing because the GM higher-ups went ahead and waived the fees on all parts.

As luck would have it I entered and won a raffle for a Corvette Grand Sport, a new one too!  Something about the shiny black paint and those demonic read stripes on the hood really do it for me.  While the boys at the dealership delivered it with a couple parts already installed I had to pull it back to stock and rebuild it to my liking.  What a screamer this car is!  As an A600 gripper the car exceeded all of my expectations in the handling department and is no slouch off the line either.  So far I have poured more time and effort into that build and tune than any other car.  Last night she drove me to double digit Affinity levels and we just kept right on going.  Hands down the best car in my garage at the moment.

Turns out the GM board members are still taking notice because right before I closed up shop last night I had a Cinnamon Z06 sitting out front.  I did a few donuts in the parking lot before parking it by the door but if it is anything like its racier sister I'll have a pair of 'Vette's that can handle the high speed tracks and the technical twisties.

What manufacturer has your blood flowing in FM4?

[DirtDriver]

Pontiac is challenging Chevy in my book at the moment for the old school stuff. GM seems to have it over the Blue Oval guys for quick platforms. But...The Princess of the Ball is definitely the 65 Mustang GT Coupe!

DD

[Fit4aking]

I only have a couple of Fords.  I hope to get more into them and start some rivalries.  Oddly enough, I began my trek in a Ford Ka, then stepped up to a Fiesta and ultimately to the Focus as I moved through low rank World Tour.  I splurged and bought an '05 Stang because I remember how much I enjoyed that car in FM3.  It has been a wonder in A-class but the Grand Sport just craps all over it as it sits right now.  I do have to apply a proper toon to the Ford but the allure of the 'vette is just too great.  Perhaps there is a Modern Muscle showdown just waiting to happen 

I think A-class is about to get crowded for me anyway, I picked up a Sagaris as a prize car last night and we all know how those cars get me going.  So much fun to be had and so many possibilities.

[Tonka Crash]

The Alfa GTA has been a surprise. Being a Miata owner I planned on working on Mazda affinity going into FM4, but my strategy to the gift cars was to pick up the most expensive cars as freebies and buy whatever else I wanted. The Alfa GTA was an early gift that keeps on giving. I keep going back to it for E-Class twisty tracks and started doing D-Class with it. Somehow I've got the Alfa affinity up to 11 driving pretty much just this one. I got all the other Alfas in the garage at this point and they've each done some laps but nothing like the GTA.

Toyota and Mazda are the only other manufacturers with more affinity with Chevy and BMW right behind Alfa, but with every other manufacturer the driving is spread over several cars where I can look at Alfa and know it's pretty much all GTA. I finally had to put it in storage and go drive something else to spread the affinity around for the free parts. The BMW 2002 has been a pretty good substitute.

[Fit4aking]

I chose the 2002 over the GTA when I had the choice.  I drove the bejesus out of the Alfa in FM3 and it was one of my favorite go-to cars for lower level twisty tracks. (Without large elevation changes)  No other manufacturer is even close to the Chevy's in my garage.  World Tour took me on a different route and I have racked up quite a bit in the Ford camp but so far only the Grand Sport has any significant mileage on it.

I hope to get back to the smaller cars, rwd's specifically, and have fun learning the shorter ribbons.

[Spiny Anteater]

Another GTA fan here. It took a bit of doing to tame the stock car's understeer, and then a bit more to tame the oversteer on corner exit, but I think I got there in the end. Well, 51st on the leaderboard at Motegi West in a career race suggests I got there anyway However, that's all the racing I've done so far, but it's my current world tour car so let's see what it does before it reaches the level 4 milestone and I move onto the next one...

[TAL1ES1N]

Sorry guys being a Brit and growing up loving the looks of the Lotus Europa and having owned a couple of Elises that has been my alligance this time. Love the way you can get wonderfull performance from a little engine and light weight. Plus I tend to be better at tracks that are flowing rather than stop start which tends to be their strength.

Also helps that they are competitive from F to R3

[BarbecuePete]

My main affinity seems to be following my RL affinity, with Ford being my #1 at the moment.

That's closely followed by Shelby after the OSS Cobra challange and I think the next 2 were Toyota and Chevy, Not sure how, must have been from racing standard cars in the first few days online as I don't own any Toyota's and I haven't raced the Corvette Grand Sport or either of the two ZR1's I have yet... (got the profile import one and forgot about it, then took one as a gift car  )  Jaguar will probably end up being up there too, I went for the XF and Jag XKR GT Car for gift cars and I'll be picking up an E type and a D type at some point...

[Fit4aking]

I had to pause and think on a couple of the gift cars too BBQPete.  Luckily I didn't pick a second ZR1, don't know what I would do with another Ring Killer.

It seems that Ford is running a very close second to Chevrolet in my paddock.  I wonder if there is some gravity towards local cars on a worldwide sample of players.  I would suspect that early on more players are picking familiar cars since the supercars aren't readily available. 

Are more American players choosing cars from their domestic market?

As the game gets older will there be one make that ends up a clear "winner" with the highest user rate?

It will be interesting to see which makes are the most popular in a month, three months, or even a year.

[GICheeze]

Although I have been sticking primarily with the Muscle cars, Ford and GM have impressed me pretty good this go 'round.  I really do like the '65 GTO, but then the Nova with the 350 Hp 327 runs a real, really close second.  And the 428 Shelby GT 500 makes a hell of a D Class car straight up.  A decent set of tires will probably make it a terror.

As soon as I finish up with the GTO, I will be moving to either the '65 Mustang GT or the '68 Firebird, maybe even the Impala...

Too many choices.  I feel sorry for Blooze... he has about 520 cars to pick from.  I just have 56 in my pool...

[BarbecuePete]

I had to pause and think on a couple of the gift cars too BBQPete.  Luckily I didn't pick a second ZR1, don't know what I would do with another Ring Killer.

I think I'll probably end up building both out eventually and have maybe a grip and power build in S Class or keep one in S Class and push the other up to R3 to run as an alternative GT car... I've decided already if I want multiple builds for a car i'm going to buy extra ones, too many times when racing in FM3 i'd forget what cars I had multiple setups for or builds saved in other classes so I'd rather just have them sitting in the garage ready to go. Especially now with the free parts I shouldn't be short on funds to splash on extra cars.

[Tonka Crash]

I had to pause and think on a couple of the gift cars too BBQPete.  Luckily I didn't pick a second ZR1, don't know what I would do with another Ring Killer.

I didn't pay attention very well going through the World Tour.  I got around to doing an inventory of the garage last night for the first time and found duplicates of the 2010 Camaros and a pair of Veyron.  With the ability to save setups I don't really need duplicates of cars for different builds, so the original pair got sold off. 

It also annoys me to see the "gift" icon on cars in my garage.  Once it's in my garage I shouldn't care where the car came from, but that little reminder makes those cars feel less like mine.

[Spiny Anteater]

Are more American players choosing cars from their domestic market?

OK, so I'm not American, but I'm pleased to say that the randomiser doesn't seem to be biased any way (except so far not a single 4WD ). A comp I'm in at the moment involves me running an MX-5 (Fender will be pleased!) so Mazda is my current top affinity. But following very close behind is Oldsmobile - not bad for a single car.

I suspect that a couple of months down the line the situation may be somewhat different though...

[EXOR Warpedo]

I have 11 manufacturers at level 10 or higher. The leader is Ford at a high level 14 due to all of the Mustang Muscle plus I did some work at Fujimi in a Ka. Toyota, Abarth, and Renault are very close behind in the 14's. I am not really sure why Toyota is that high, I do like the 2000GT but did not think I had driven it that much, there are a number of them needed for the event list so maybe that is why. Renault is all Clio V6 and the Abarth 131 is one of my early favorite cars. I have 131's in E, F, and D and my wife made up a sweet Alitalia paint job for it so that is even better.

[fndrbndr]

Are more American players choosing cars from their domestic market?

Funny you should ask.  My current favorite is probably the JDM '01 Mazdaspeed Miata, since the American Market '04 (my RL car) isn't in the game.  I've always had a thing for British cars, too, but most of them are available stateside.  I tend to buy cars in the game that I like in real life.  More than once, I've seen a car on the drive home, liked it, and immediately bought one in Forza.  I've done the same thing when I get a new copy of GRM.  So yes, I end up driving American-Market cars, but I'm OK with that.