(ETZ)Esattezza Autosport! Lancia Stratos "La Italiano" Model added

Aston Martin DB7 coupe ’04 review.

This is a great little car with awesome stability and response. Coasting and careful acceleration should be used to avoid the last but of remaining understeer while accelerating, but this is simple to overcome.

Speaking of acceleration, this is where the car really shines. Third and fourth especially have great speed and I found myself taking a couple of corners at GVS differently, using the speed at the bottom end of third to avoid shifting.

By far the coolest thing about the car is the sound it makes. We spent the first couple of test laps giggling like schoolgirls whenever we hit third, fourth, NOS, anything really. And nailing that last turn at GVS at 130 or more is insane, the acceleration gives you so much more time to set up the line and stabilise the car.

Still, this isn’t an easy car for beginners. As newbies we got really bad times, but had tremendous fun doing so, and it’s our favourite of the three ETZ cars we’ve tried so far.

I can’t find the notes for the SL600 in the 190+ pages of my GT4 folder, but will post the review as soon as I do.

killer450235

Thanks for letting me join!I have a JGTC300 Rx-8 ill post soon,playing Forza2 atm.

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Wouldn't that go against the "exotic" theme of this garage?

Thank you very much for the review, PF. It brings a smile to an engineers face when somone enjoys playing with one of his creations 👍.

Killer, welcome to the shop my good sir . Take a good look around and get a taste for what we do here at ETZ. Altho' I'm sure that a race-prepped RX-8 would be of technical interest, it will look somewhat out of place on our forecourt.

Surkerkin Is there anyway you guys may make a tune for a Merc-benz CLK 55 '00? I need one two keep up with SLR McLaren. And you guys seem to be the Merc masters. Keep up the good work guys.

Killer I wish you the best of luck at ETZ! You may get that review you wanted.

Oddly enough, Shoman, the CLK 55 AMG is just what I've been working on .

I've been tailoring her to 200 A-Spec the Premium Sports Lounge and I can forsee that trying to get her to match the SLR will be a problem if the SLR is driven by a human rather than the AI?

If it's against the AI and the McLaren isn't starting on Pole on a HP biased track then I would hope that what I have to date will serve you well. She's not yet finished as I've been laid up with a kidney infection (seriously not fun) but she wins for 200 A-Spec against grid 5 (Ford GT, Zonda C12, SL600 (R129), Cerbera Speed 12, Saleen S7) at Cote d'Azur, Opera Paris, Hong Kong and High Speed Ring. New York has eluded me so far and I may well have to accept that I can't 200 A-Spec there.

Do you have a specific race in mind?

sukerkin

Oddly enough, Shoman, the CLK 55 AMG is just what I've been working on .

I've been tailoring her to 200 A-Spec the Premium Sports Lounge and I can forsee that trying to get her to match the SLR will be a problem if the SLR is driven by a human rather than the AI?

If it's against the AI and the McLaren isn't starting on Pole on a HP biased track then I would hope that what I have to date will serve you well. She's not yet finished as I've been laid up with a kidney infection (seriously not fun) but she wins for 200 A-Spec against grid 5 (Ford GT, Zonda C12, SL600 (R129), Cerbera Speed 12, Saleen S7) at Cote d'Azur, Opera Paris, Hong Kong and High Speed Ring. New York has eluded me so far and I may well have to accept that I can't 200 A-Spec there.

Do you have a specific race in mind?

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Nurburing (sp) one make race's. Oh I hope you feel better. Take your time. No AI man. I've been trying to tune it but, it's not my cup of tea. lol

The Silver Arrow series can be won in the CLK but my notes on it consist of just a single line listing A-Spec in the low 110's. I added no details about grids or car modifications.

I shall have a play with getting better records over the week-end.

killer450235

Thanks for letting me join!I have a JGTC300 Rx-8 ill post soon,playing Forza2 atm.

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No problem killer, we can appreciate an extra hand around the lab. All I really ask is that your vehicles are presented with a type of benchmark orientation and try to stay with the ETZ theme with our rare, exotic, luxury, and classic choice of platforms. Some Asian manufactured cars are excepted (like the Tommy Kairas, NSX, Proto, Acura, RC390 etc.) But note all these vehicles fit our theme perfectly. Like sukerkin said, take a look around the garage and get a good feel of what we're about here at Esattezza Autosport and have fun.


Mark Turismo

Soprano 3 1 3

No problem killer, we can appreciate an extra hand around the lab. All I really ask is that your vehicles are presented with a type of benchmark orientation and try to stay with the ETZ theme with our rare, exotic, luxury, and classic choice of platforms. Some Asian manufactured cars are excepted (like the Tommy Kairas, NSX, Proto, Acura, RC390 etc.) But note all these vehicles fit our theme perfectly. Like sukerkin said, take a look around the garage and get a good feel of what we're about here at Esattezza Autosport and have fun.


Mark Turismo

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Soprano what's going on man. I have bad news. Killer was banned man. Well good luck with everything man.

shoman

Soprano what's going on man. I have bad news. Killer was banned man. Well good luck with everything man.

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Wow was he really?! Thats shocking news bro, I had no idea. Thats really too bad.

Soprano 3 1 3

Wow was he really?! Thats shocking news bro, I had no idea. Thats really too bad.

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Yeah I think he tried to start a flame war. Sorry for off topic.

Thanks for the 'heads up', Shoman. I wondered what had happened to him.

I'd better stop slacking off and get some work done then .

sukerkin

Thanks for the 'heads up', Shoman. I wondered what had happened to him.

I'd better stop slacking off and get some work done then .

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If you guy's need any help with testing just let me know? I will help you guy's in anyway. I have to get that cr-x out for a race with the boss of this shop. But let me know. know problem on the heads up man.

Killers banned? Wow, didn't see that.

I will also help if you need help.

killer450235 - 2nd October 2008 - Consistently poor quality of posts and determined attempts to start 360 vs PS3 flame wars saw this one leave the Planet.

From the Banned User Log.

So that's why he didn't respond, I thought he just didn't want to respond when I told him to put up his setup's for me to fix (since he apparantly used my FF drag guide! ). Ohwell, one more sacrifice to the banned GTP member beast.

sukerkin

Thanks for the 'heads up', Shoman. I wondered what had happened to him.

I'd better stop slacking off and get some work done then .

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I'll be getting back to work also very soon. I can't give you definite time but trust me some weight will be lifted off your shoulders.

Glad to hear that non-GT life must be getting into shape to give you the time to get back under the imaginary cars, Soprano 👍.

Also, to the kind words of those above, thank you gentlemen. Please feel free to test and review anything we put up on the forecourt. They're there for people to use and enjoy after all and it'd be great to hear what drivers think.

The majority of my output is tuned for a purpose and involves a lot of compromises (because otherwise I'd have to have a set-up for every track ). This means that the cars are balanced for me and designed such that I know in advance how they will handle in a certain corner at a certain speed. As I also tend to design to even out tyre wear as much as I can; this can mean that working the handling out leads to even more compromises.

Hearing peoples thoughts and experiences would be very interesting.

However, a cautionary note is that we know that heavy cars, with high torque/horse-power, riding on sports tyres, have a tendency to understeer. Despite the fact that it's exagerated with the PD engine (especially for non-Nissan's) it is a law of physics when it comes to suspension dynamics and tuning solely to eliminate that tends to lead to a car that eats tyres and is slower overall.

RUF CTR2 Review

Let me start out with this...... I doubted the car, not the tuner. Instock form the car understeer's like a pig, and is no fun to drive. ETZ ruf took all of the doubt for my mind. I started my Sunday drive,On the ring to get a feel for the ruf. I shook my nerves on the first corner. The FC LSD worked wonderful I wasn't after that. I started to push the car hard.

ruf was a very stable car at the limit. I pushed this car very hard. Sukerkin worned what would happen if you stay in the loud pedal. I didn't listen to well. With the amount of grip this car now has in the corners, I pushed and pushed in the 170 mph range around corners. There were corners the car wanted to take much faster, that I wasn't willing to take that fast. The trans was a great piece of work. Note to self stay out of 6th gear on straight of the ringTire wear was dang great. Oh did I say how stable the car was. Off to drive the 4 hours at the ring.

That's wonderful to hear, Shoman. As a tuner yourself, I'm sure you know how much of a smile it raises when someone likes what you've done. Thank you 👍.

sukerkin

That's wonderful to hear, Shoman. As a tuner yourself, I'm sure you know how much of a smile it raises when someone likes what you've done. Thank you 👍.

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Yes Sirrrrr. I have a few more I'm going to drive for you. I just like what you did with what you had. Oh I just learned something with this car. don't let the tank drop to a half a tank.

I'm going to put up another review hear so I don't double post

Ruf CTR " Yellow bird '87

I just want to start out this review with the only problem I didn't like about the car. The brakes. I didn't like how the tail wanted to come out under braking.

Everything was going fine. I just couldn't wrap my arms around this one, It's nowbodys fault but my own. I loved this car on R2 tires. Trans, LSD, Suspension work was great. The car drove great. I was pushing this car a little to hard, and wasn't one with the car and wasn't on the same level. The R2 tires I layed down some great times. The LSD work on this car was great work as it let this car have great turn. A lot of work was put into this and it showed. I will be driving this car to get it the flow with it.

Update: I got better at driving the car. I mixed and matched some tunes that were given. I just need to get in it's head. CTR2 is the car I drove 4 hours last night.

9.5/10

Thanks again, Shoman. It really is very pleasant to hear 'good things' about a car you've worked on 👍.

Speaking of which, I finally recovered enough from my recent bout of bereavement, injury and illness to finish off that CLK I've been working on. I'm actually pretty pleased with her now and altho' I worked on her mostly at New York, she handles the 'Ring with great aplomb.

I'll post up a presentation tonight.

Can't wait for it man. It's been great driving your cars. I will test out more I have a few more reviews to put down and all. Just keep up the good work.👍 I would love to test out more money has been tight on the game. but that should change.

Mercedes Benz CLK 55 AMG '00



The SLR McLaren may be fast but he certainly seems to like leaving the 'door' open



And again



Flugplatz, one of my favourite places for confirming general suspension balance ... by being off the ground




I've had this particular CLK in my garage for I don't know how long. I recall that I tried it in the Legend of the Silver Arrow series but I obviously didn't persevere as she only had 27 miles on the clock.

I dusted her off and did some experimenting at the Premium Sports Lounge. I discovered a few things, the most pertinent to performance being that the gearbox seems to shift quite slowly and there is a general lack of torque in the mid-high gears whilst far too much at the bottom of the box.

Also, as a game note, there seems to be a glitch with the cars A-Spec value as I get worse points with the 4.623 pwr/wt CLK than I do with the 4.046 pwr/wt SL55 i.e the car with the better ratio, confusingly, gets more points.

I played around with various hardware modifications, trying to find something to give a dramatic improvement in performance to offset the A-Spec 'nerfing' and finally settled on:

Sports Exhaust & Chip & Stage 1 NA Tune (416HP)
S3 Tyres
Racing Brakes & Balancer
Racing Suspension & Chassis Stiffness
Custom gearbox & Custom LSD
Triple-Plate Clutch & Racing Flywheel & Carbon Prop Shaft

I ran the first twenty grids at the Lounge, finding that the lineups changed from previous runs here. Grid#1 and #2 were the same but from Grid#3 onwards there were differences. I settled on Grid#5 from re-boot, which consisted of:

Ford GT, Zonda C12, SL600 (R129), Cerbera Speed 12, Saleen S7

This delivered 200 A-Spec at all races but be warned that New York appears, again, to be a special case where the AI go like the wind and the Speed 12 is a missile un-erringly targeted on you. The Ford GT runs away from the front of the pack here and I lost count of how many attempts it took me to win with the TVR working hard to spoil my laps. The other circuits are easy by comparison, including, surprisingly, the High Speed Ring where I expected the 12 to shine.

The set-up that I finally whittled out is as follows:

Brakes: 5/3
Springs: 10.6/7.2
Ride: 107/107
Damper Bound: 4/3
Damper Rebound: 3/8
Camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: 0/+2
Stabalisers: 3/6

Gears: Tranny Tricked then Final of 3.410
1st: 2.620
2nd: 1.799
3rd: 1.317
4th: 1.017
5th: 0.828

TCS: 2 (to counter those moments when a rush of blood to the head prompts too much right boot whilst in first gear)

LSD: 9/27/18
Ballast: 46 @ 0 (Total Car Weight 1666kg)

Don't be put off by the odd looking damper settings. It is important to remember that the dampers work in longitudinally opposite pairs viz the Front Bound and the Rear Rebound work together, as do the Rear Bound and the Front Rebound.

Despite her fine pedigree and aristocratic looks, this lady, as set up here, does not like to be treated too gently. She is designed to allow throttle oversteer to overcome the excessive drag on the nose on corner exits. Line her up through the apex and give her all there is and she will fly out of corners with gusto. Gentle her too much and she will understeer. Of course, in some corners she's contrary and softer throttle management is required but generally, if you're too soon on maximum loud pedal, a quick lift will drop her back on line again.

After winning the series, I moved on to running her in the Legend of the Silver Arrow manufacturers series, to see how she would do fulfilling a customers request for an SLR McLaren beating build. Running against grids that had the SLR on Pole and the CLK at the back, we were still able to pull off victories as long as we got past the field quickly, with minimal holdups and held our nerve under braking at Tiergarten.



Closing in on the speedy McLaren.



Still hunting after an attempt at a pass was 'shut down' very physically by the SLR.



The pass has been achieved; now we just need to hold off the faster car down the back straight



The CLK's impressive braking performance wins the day ... and what is that SLR up to there mid-Tiergarten?

To finish, a nice shot of a lot of pounds-worth of exotic metal at the hairpin on the Monaco circuit:

Sukerkin I must give You a pat on the back.

Revirew CLK 55 AMG

I must say that is car is the real deal. I loved everything about it. The damping on this car is amazing, and the lsd work is great. I pushed this car like no other before it. I kicked the McLaren butt as long as it wasn't on a long straight. There was not a track I have been with this car and it just wanted to go.

I wish I could say more in writing about it, Just can't put it to words. I want to tell everybody is to just drive it and love it.👍

Oh and I'm glad your feeling better

Thanks for the good wishes, Shoman and I am very glad indeed that the CLK was worth the wait.

I'm sorry for the big delay but it seems that everything ganged up on me at once - it's hard to dial cars in when you can't sit in the chair because of the pain .

sukerkin

Thanks for the good wishes, Shoman and I am very glad indeed that the CLK was worth the wait.

I'm sorry for the big delay but it seems that everything ganged up on me at once - it's hard to dial cars in when you can't sit in the chair because of the pain .

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Oh don't worry about delays. I liked every secound of the ride. Everything is better when you have to wait. No Problem everybody needs good wishes every now and then.

Brief review of the ETZ SL600

I initially was not terribly impressed with this car. We put a few laps on GVS and found the typical handling characteristics for your cars (see post #288 above) but with more braking and understeer problems arising, it seemed, from a more difficult front-rear weightshifting.

It’s obvious this car is made for the ‘ring and indeed, as soon as you get on that track it feels like a different car. The suspension deals admirably with the chaotic surface, and the torque, gear ratios and top speed are perfect for the long sweepers. Actually it may be a bit too fast for me, judging by that 150mph crash just past the back straight.

The best thing about this car’s performance at the ‘ring is exactly the same thing that irritated me on GVS: the slower and more delicate front-rear weightshift. On the long curves of the ‘ring one is able to point the car in the right direction and it will take the corner for you; you’ve got heaps more time to figure out the coasting/accelerating technique required, and the more you get to know the car the less useful the brake pedal becomes.

If I were going to Grand Valley, I’d take the more responsive ETZ DB7 Coupe, and the times would probably be close, but at the ‘ring the SL600 would smash the Aston into little pieces.

Also, a standard warning for Esattezza cars: they are made to a very high standard of driving and tuning, so if you’re a beginner/amateur like myself, be prepared to spend a bit of time and effort before you can get to know the car.

Thanks very much for those insights and the implicit compliment, PF.

It is indeed worth emphasising that the work that I do with the cars in GT4 is certainly the product of a decade of driving experience within PD's games. Combine that with the set-ups being honed on a G25 and I can certainly agree that leaping in to one of my Mercs as someone new to the game would not give a good impression. Of course, I love them, game-exagerated flaws and all, but it has to be admitted that, at the end of the day, each tuning is intrinsically suited to the person that developed it .

I think I lost my stake in your company during the stock market crash.
Psst- I have plans for GT5 you will be interested in. PM if you want to know more now.