I'll be putting all my 550PP Times in this post.
550PP
I test with a DS3 and an Automatic Transmission
1) VTiRoj - NSX Evolution R
Tsukuba: 55.939
Suzuka: 2:05.736
Feedback: (Started on Tsukuba)
Tsukuba: My first impression of the car was madness with a hint of genius. The car is very loose and takes quite a bit of skill to drive properly. Only the smoothest inputs will do here. Get rough with this angry ball of fluff and it will bite. Exiting corners on Tsukuba the car felt like it was all over the place - jiggly and bouncy though that only lasted the first two laps. Once I got used to the suicide-style handling all was well. No more jumping, no more drama. Excellent turn-in and entry into corners as well as exit. It almost feels like the car gets pushed out of corners..Hard to describe - that's the genius part.
Over on Suzuka it felt a bit different. A tad understeery in certain spots but most of all just a handful mostly everywhere else. In particular on Spoon Curve, the car simply wanted to drift the entire section. It was very tempting but for a good lap I held back on the throttle. Again smooth inputs here were key
Really enjoyed the car. Was an absolute blast to drive around. Congratulations on a job well done. I wouldn't try to drive this car in a particularly long race but for quick blasts around here and there, it's perfect.
2) Rotary Junkie - The Kia that could (Lack of Soul detected)
Tsukuba: 55.599
Suzuka: 2:06.015
Feedback: (Started on Tsukuba)
Tsukuba: I felt like I wanted to crash the Kia into anything heavy and immovable the entire time. Really wasn't a happy person in the car. The car felt docile, very sure planted and unless you got your line perfect, prone to horrible wall hugging understeer. Sure it was fast, but really rather utilitarian.
Suzuka: I liked the car more here - thank god - lots of high speed sections that could be used to ehm..redecorate bumpers and such
. Anyway the one thing that surprised me is just how big of an effect the brakes had on the whole experience here. Braking in a straight line is perfectly fine, however in a corner, hit the no-fun pedal a bit much and the car starts to rotate. Pretty sweet if done right, annoying otherwise. Had quite a bit of an issue the first couple of laps with the first corner due to the car having a tendency to rotate and skid. Overall though it was a pleasant experience. Had an even faster time on Suzuka, partly due to doing the 1st section very well, but I lost it later on it the lap. Damn you sand pits!
Car is a mind numbing experience on some tracks - Quite lively on others. Due to the torque split, those front tires would be destroyed in no time had tire wear been on.
3) Hermanvongerman - Mellow Green WRX STI Wagon
Tsukuba: 56.836
Suzuka: 2:09.112
Feedback: (Started on Tsukuba)
Tsukuba: Initial impression was a fair bit of understeer when trying to put the power down. Should have expected that though since this is a four wheel drive car. After a lap or so I got the hang of the car and learned when to put the power down. Car feels okay - no major discrepancies other than the fact that it feels like jell-o. You're never really sure what the body is doing. It's more of hoping for the best and secretly hoping the car doesn't disintegrate trying to take a corner.
Suzuka: The marshmallow nature of the car is truly revealed here along with another nasty surprise. First off the car is pretty nice under braking. Stable, quick, and just a hint of rotation. Good job on the brakes. That's as much praise as I'll give to the car. On to the bad stuff. The car has a nasty tendency to understeer at high speed turns. I discovered this on the first lap just after taking off from the hairpin and onto the Spoon Curve.
Overall it feels like there's too much engine and not enough chassis. I don't know what's to blame, the car or the tune.
4) XDesperado67 - Sneaky Caldina GT-4
Tsukuba: 56.965
Suzuka: 2:08.821
Feedback: Started on Tsukuba
Tsukuba: The car felt wonderful right off the start especially after the pudding like experience of the WRX STi. Grabbing my attention most was the wonderful way in which the car handled mid turn. Perfect rotation where I was expecting disastrous understeer. Good job! Now for the bad stuff...There's a fair bit of understeer initially when applying power and on corner end. The last section of Tsukuba was particularly bad for this car since I just couldn't put the power soon enough. Floored it too soon one lap and I ended up in the barriers by the finish line.
Suzuka: Car felt much better here, don't they all? Lack of any nasty understeer for most of the entire lap. Wonderful power delivery all around except for two sections. One would be between the hairpin and Spoon Curve. The car understeered just like Herman's STi except to a lesser degree. The other would be the final chicane before the start/finish line. Had to hold off just a tad there. My only other complaint is about the brakes. I see no point in having them be rear biased when there is absolutely no way to make the car feel like it's got rear-biased brakes. Really I think a nice front bias would have been helpful in shortening braking distance and providing the same secure feeling.
Wonderful car - Great midcorner - A bit of understeer here and there - Bit boring
5) Praiano63's 4WD MR HSC
Tsukuba: 56.129
Suzuka: 2:06.174
Feedback: Started on Tsukuba
Tsukuba: Initial impression was understeer under acceleration on the long sweeper. Odd for an MR to say the least. Heading out into the mess of turns in the track the car proves quite adapt at putting it's power down but it all feels a bit cautious. The car just doesn't feel like a Mid-engined rear wheel drive car should. The last sweeper was a problem for the car since it wanted to understeer so I had to hold the power back a bit longer than I would have liked. A bit less safe understeer and I think the car could have done it in the 55's range.
Suzuka: Great going into the first corner and the consecutive turns afterwards. Car stays nicely planted yet has pretty good turn in. Good news continues through the Degner Curve section. Heading into the hairpin is where the problems start. Accelerating from nearly a dead stop proves a tad difficult as understeer crops in. Hitting the Spoon curve, the car encounters a nasty hesitation to turn. Never had this problem up until now but it seems the car just doesn't want to turn all that well under hard braking. Quite a lot of time was lost here.
Overall a nice solid car, albeit a bit too safe - Great traction, great braking. Would be great for an endurance type race since it's not very demanding on the driver.
6) Ugabugaz - Fluffy Bunny LFA - AKA The Growler
Tsukuba: 55.964
Suzuka: 2:05.372
Feedback: Really, are you really expecting me to give feedback to myself? Now that would just be silly. I will say this though, It's good to be home. Car is phenomenal on flat tracks. I had an even faster time on Suzuka but I ran wide after the spoon curve (The turn/kink before the final chicane).
7) ACSR421 - I dunno Acura
Tsukuba: 56.143
Suzuka: 2:05.834
Feedback: I really didn't enjoy my time with this car. Right off the top it felt pretty poor at Tsukuba, meaning bouncy and in general not a fun car to drive. Perhaps it was just me, but I simply didn't like the car. Over on Suzuka things were a little better but still quite poor. First off the car is a friggin rocket, I had a mild heart attack when it was time to brake for the first corner since I was doing at least 5-10mph faster than any other car. Good thing the brakes on the car are nicely solid, thumbs up for that. Doing the first section proved difficult in the car as it wanted to over-rotate on basically every turn. Felt a bit unnatural to be honest. The rest of the lap was more of the same...Too much rotation and jet-engine type powahhh. Refinement is what this car badly needs.
8) krenkme - Old Man's LFA- Only the safest understeer
Tsukuba: 56.887
Suzuka: 2:07.304
Feedback: So why the heck did I call this LFA, the old man's LFA you ask? Well...It's as the title implies the safest out of the bunch. No surprises, none of this fun oversteer nonsense, oh no absolutely not. It's a very easy car to drive but also not very fast. Understeer is all fine and dandy but when it prevents you from adequately putting down power or say taking a turn correctly it quickly becomes quite the bother. On Tsukuba the car was okay and as evidenced by the times it's only about .4 seconds slower than the next [Fat] LFA. On Suzuka things were a little worse as the Understeer was a major problem in nearly every section of the track. The poor showing really does speak for itself. I do believe the camber setting has something to do with the annoying Understeer. Generally having more camber in the rear than front tends to have that effect.
9) Onboy123 - Sweet chuckable Scooby that slightly feels like jell-o.
Tsukuba: 56.260
Suzuka: 2:08.105
Feedback: Simply put, this car handed me a complete and utter surprise when I tested it. The way it handled, the way it flowed was simply remarkable. More so on Suzuka than Tsukuba - Really isn't it that way with every car? BOO TSUKUBA - You're no fun! Over on Suzuka it felt absolutely...well one of a kind really. Front grip was absolutely insane and this was one of the only cars that truly felt easy to drive past the Spoon Curve into the final kink before the last chicane. One thing I didn't like all that much was the dive under braking. Sometimes it would be a bit too much ending up with me skidding more than I bargained for. Also there's a distinct lack of power so a competitive vehicle this ain't. One thing I will say though, this car has given me a lot to think about tuning wise. Thank you very much for your brilliant effort
10) SolidSnake7735 - Grippy [Slow] RX-7
Tsukuba: 56.704
Suzuka: 2:08.236
Feedback: At first the car felt fine and very, very grippy. Now this was before I went to test on Suzuka. After the first corner on Suzuka, everything fell apart. For some reason this car does not want to turn. Point the car into a turn and it goes but then it sort of stops and loses grip halfway through the corner. It's a very weird sensation because you think you have enough grip, so you have faith in the car, take the turn nicely, and you end up getting stung. Neither can you turn very well at all, nor can you ever attempt to put power down since the car will just end up understeering into an armco. Looking over at the tune it seems the dampers a bit too low, perhaps that's the issue? In any case, I highly recommend no-one drive this car.
11) Motor City Hami - Young and Unrefined LFA
Tsukuba: 56.434
Suzuka: 2:06.726
Feedback: The quickest of the [Fat] LFAs - Congratulations on that front. Car is pretty decent to drive with meaning there aren't any apparent nasty suspension faults or things of that nature. The brakes however are a point of MAJOR concern. The amount of brake-dive the car experiences under hard braking is simply stupid. Both on Tsukuba and Suzuka brake dive was a major issue for me as I had to over-correct and be veeery careful as to how I got off the brake pedal [Or Stick in my case]. Having to spend all that time worrying about brakes had it's influence as the times posted are nowhere near what I would call quick. Another point of worry in the tune is the amount of Camber used. I understand why perhaps you used so much, but in a "real world" situation tire scrub would be quite a bit more than a car with normal levels of camber. The poor braking performance could also be in part due to the high camber as it tends to have that effect.
12) CSLACR - A refined or tamed Fluffy like Bunny LFA
Tsukuba: 55.940
Suzuka: 2:05.675
Feedback: LFA feels very similar in certain respects to my Fluffy Bunny LFA. This is the only LFA apart from mine that has no glaring faults or major issues. Brakes were great, suspension was great and the transmission obviously worked the part. The car felt good to drive, again very similar to my own tune though there is one difference. This LFA is a bit on the safe side especially at mid to end Corner. Where as mine would begin to slip at the back this one starts to hint towards slight understeer. Pretty sure most of that is due to the toe setting. Overall this LFA was slightly faster on Tsukuba than mine but it took quite a bit more effort to get there. Over on Suzuka the slight safe nature of the beast is what let me down I believe. Would have liked a bit more front turn in, otherwise exceptional tune.
13) Sheephead99 - No surprises R34
Tsukuba: 56.532
Suzuka: 2:08.005
Feedback: Feels a lot like what I was expecting from the car. No surprises, or really anything out of the ordinary for an R34. A bit of understeer here and there in part I think due to the 50/50 torque split. Car kept pace with the other mid-range vehicles so that's a plus. Brakes were pretty good as well. Really I don't have much to say about the car. It's what you expect an R34 to be like.