I got a double bonus for you guys, not only am I back again, but for this car in particular, you’ll be getting the most un-biased, true, and informative review from me yet, as I (dare I say it) am a NASCAR/Grinding virgin
, ripe for picking of info and w/e feedback you could want.
Seriously, once I won the #48 NASCAR I just put it away in storage, spent more time re-learning the reins in various cars I chose to help ease me back to pace the best, never grinded a race (the need never came), but now I’m just looking to make some extra money for a few toys I want to play with.
However, with the car having been stored, It never got broken in, so in a third bonus for you guys (
), you’ll also get feedback on how the car breaks-in overall (which if you’re a good and observant driver, can be noticed), and have that little bit extra feedback to work on. So onto the review.
MFT NASCAR review
“The break-in”
Once I had the car setup per MFT specs, I had to find a way to break-in the car quickly, I pondered the nature of the Engine’s in-game break-in -> the thoughts of which lead to a Engine dyno -> then to a chassis dyno-> which I noted is also known as a ‘rolling-road’ (you might see where I’m going with this)->that lead to the thought of roads I could use to maybe simulate it all -> and somehow decided the shape and layout of Daytona would suit as a good way to break-in a car quickly if used right .
First couple of laps, the car was fast, but not quick, I could still feel the suspension and chassis squirm here and there, wanting to do its own thing. This wasn’t ideal for me needing to be able to follow a very specific line, but it did give it that “alive” feeling, I could feel the rear end behave differently than the front, the left vs the right and such, very realistic. I pitted and exited the drive, saved the best ghost lap for a reference point, and went out again. Once again I was noticing that odd squirm, but right about 7 laps in during the second heat, something changed in the cars behavior, no more squirm and bounce, It was happy to stay in a very straight line all of a sudden, allowing me to find that line that was just right, and sure enough I was coming out of corners a few mph faster than before when it squirmed. “Did the chassis settle in ?, has everything worked itself together ?” and other questions ran through my head, something was different though, I was now coming out of the corners with more speed, I wasn’t imagining it either, You guys know I have enough experience to know the difference, and crunched the numbers to be sure.
The data logger backed it up, after lap 7 I was coming out quick at 203mph at the second curve leading to the back-straight , and according to the ghost data of the previous run I was doing 200-201. Now you may say that bit is just the engine starting to make more power, and you could very well be right, but remember that I said I noticed a change in chassis behavior, rather than power output, I’ll also mention that I play with a DFGT, so from a driver’s aspect there was a noticeable (to a observant driver) change in car behavior.
“So why bring all this up ?” – Well to put it simply I want to give you two as much feedback as possible from every aspect any regular player might experience, say you tune a car that gets broken in over a few hundred miles as you get things adjusted as you like, and how it behaved during break-in may be forgotten by you once the car is settled and ready to go. If a player picks up the tune and only drives it a few miles and only experiences the break-in stage, they may be turned away and you could be none the wiser that the exp you got from a car and what a player got from a car were two opposites. I’d like to bridge the gap and let you know how it feels at all stages, this way you can determine whether a side note needs to be attached to a MFT Tune informing a player that the car needs a proper break-in before any real testing should be done or if its good to go right from the start.
“The multi-test”
After breaking the car in and getting adjusted to proper driving tech for NASCAR, I felt it was time to see how it would treat corners outside of ovals. Sadly though one of my GT4 favorites, Infineon Raceway, is not in GT5, which does ‘bum me out, but I decided I’d see what I’d work with.
Tsukuba Circuit.
No I’m not joking (you can stop laughing), I decided the first road course to test would be Tsukuba because of 2 reasons, 1 is that it is very flat, and therefore boring, just like ovals
– which would mean little initial argument from the nascar, and 2 is that even though it is flat and boring (I have come around to seeing it more as a go-kart track, than a road-course), it still does have some unique corner transitions that would test the cars ability in a range of corner set-ups that might be seen at other common road courses. (and on a 3rd note, who wouldn’t be interested to see a full NASCAR race here, I wouldn’t know what to classify it, sports or entertainment ?)
Driving around Tsu, The car was very well behaved in the suspension/chassis, not a sign of squirm anywhere and it instead wanted to hug the driving line, even when entering the corners with a bit of gusto, the car just stayed planted and complied, allowing me to squeeze even more speed out of it. To my surprise I set a ’51 sec laptime without any effort and short-shifting, a time equal to the legendary NSX of Keiichi Tsuchiya, granted I had more than plenty of power, though that is off-set by the cars weight.. to a point.
I could easily see this car hitting mid ’49 second lap times here, but I’ll leave that to some one else who wants to spend a while at a simple circuit.
Moving on to a course I thought would provide some different in-sight outside of corners, I packed the car and shipped off to La Sarthe to see how it would handle the straights and chicanes in-between. Cresting over the hill at the tire near the begining, the car once again stayed glued to the road as I carved out every corners apex with no worry of understeer at speed, then made my way onto the back straight and floored it.
200mph was there and gone quickly, and as the speed kept increasing, I kept an eye out for signs of the on-coming chicane, “barrier, post, sign, house, ‘nother house, house-BRAKE!” I stomped on the brake pedal, and my heart skipped a beat. To put it simply, this thing LOVES to brake, I can’t remember the last time I felt a car stop so quickly - so well (though I still haven’t played with race cars in GT5 yet too much), It brakes so well, straight or in the bends, that I found myself re-adjusting my common braking points to a noticeable spot later in a corner. For a car this heavy, at those high speeds, to shed speed so well, is a impressive feat. I see that the brake bias is set more towards the rear, and I’m not saying that its wrong or not good enough, but I am just curious as to how you came to those specs, was there a good amount of testing involved, or has a experience in the past lead you to that result ?.
For the final test I went to Fuji Speedway with the GT layout, no particular reason other than I think it’d make another interesting track to see NASCAR at some day. The car behaved beautifully once again as I still was amazed at the cars braking ability, only to be more impressed by how well it stays glued to the road and obeys commands, to the point that I’m actually considering using this for some experimentation in a few race series to see how it handles in a crowd and possibly off-line.
Through the tests I was only able to find a few small flaws in the car as it is, rather than what MFT has done with it, Those being that if you plant the throttle a little early to jump out of corners, The car likes to kick its rear out a little too much, usually enough to touch the grass or dirt and spin or slide if you quick enough to catch it, not MFT’s fault, just the nature of a un-restricted stock car. The other small issue is its gearing, Intended for Indy (say that 3 times fast) grinding, and that fact that it only has 4 gears, some hairpins and sharper corners can get interesting, sometimes too high in the rpms, or too low, there’s sort of a “grey-area” in gearing outside at other courses that ends up getting played with until the sweet-spot of speed is discovered. Again not so much MFT’s fault as NASCAR rules coming into play, and I’m sure they could remedy the issue with the ability to fine-tune gearing if it were available.
But in the end, the intention of MFT to make a boring car and boring grind more fun and enjoyable is clearly evident, If a guy like me with little interest in the motorsport outside of road courses, can hop-in, rev it, brake it, and repeat all for fun rather than money, I don’t see why anyone else can’t.
(Unless..you know, their morons, lazy whiners or something
)
I am also planning on testing 1 of the classic RM muscle cars you 2 came out with, I’m just not sure when, but I do have the Historic cup to do so it will happen, and I'll have to wait on Leo's GT, as I'm not level 24 yet, it will come though, but in the meantime I do have some German muscle I’d like you guys to take a look at
. I’ll send a PM
