0-100hp Challenge - Finding The Best Of The Slow Cars

[Freddy]

I've read eiriksmil's 'best FF car' thread and that has inspired me to do one of my own. I want to see which of the cars below 100 hp is the best.

Why Am I Doing This?:

1. I find it fun.
2. To work out the best low-powered car.
3. Low-powered cars often get ignored.
4. I don't have much money and these cars are cheap to buy.

Cars:

I will only be using cars that can be bought as I don't want to bother winning races for old cars. I know that you can win a whole ton of slow cars but I'm making it a bit easier for myself. If I can be bothered I'll go back and use some prize cars as well.

Rules:

Nothing can be added or removed to the car. They will be run as they were bought. The only changes allowed are oil changes and tyres. I will be using racing hard tyres.

Format:

I will be running on 3 different tracks. Each car will do one outlap and then one timed lap. All 4 wheels must remain on the course, rumble strips may be used, no wall banging and no corner/chicane cutting.

Tracks:

I will be racing on a mixture of road and city courses. I will be driving on El Capitan Normal, Circuit De La Sarthe 2 (no chicanes) and Hong Kong Normal.

Why Am I Using El Capitan Normal?:

I find it a challenging track. I want to see how the cars perfrom on the sweeping corners at the end and how they handle the sharp turns near the tunnel and towards the bottom section of the track (the loop).

Why Am I Using Circuit De La Sarthe 2?:

To test the maximum power of these cars. To see what top speeds they can get up to on the straight. Also to see how they handle the sharp turn after the long straight and the 2 chicanes at the end.

Why Am I Using Hong Kong Normal?:

Lots of sharp tricky corners in this track. It is to test how good these cars are at braking. I'm interested to see how they perfrom at the middle hairpin. There are no fast corners on this track so that will make it that little bit harder.

Scoring System:

As some cars may have advantages over others with horsepower, I will turn the lap times into whole numbers by removing colons and decimal points and then divide by the weight of the car. All 3 lap times (after being averaged) will be added up to get the final score. The highest score after all the cars have been tested is the winner.


That's all for now. Expect some updates soon.

Please tell me what you think of this idea and give me some feedback.

 

[Tornado]

The 106 Rallye is going to walk this. Either that or the Ginetta, but I'm guessing that the Ginetta is too crazy to do so.

 

[Freddy]

We'll see. It really depends on how well I drive each car.

 

[Freddy]

Car 1 - MINI ONE '02:


Power: 88hp
Weight: 1125kg
Price: $19,620


El Capitan:

T1: 41.440
T2: 1:32.561
Fin: 2:25.377

225377 divided by 1125 = 200.335

For a slow car this performed quite well. Although it felt a bit slow in some places. It was able to take the first hairpin reasonably well and I glided through the sharp turn before the tunnel. The car sped up towards the downhill part but I made a slight mistake at the wide hairpin. From then on I took the 2 next corners excellently but stuffed up the first of the sweeping corners. I was able to recover and took the rest with ease and practically no braking. I feel that I drove pretty well but I reckon that the time could be reduced to below 2:23.000.


Circuit De La Sarthe 2:

T1: 57.136
T2: 1:55.162
T3: 2:33.931
T4: 3:10.234
T5: 4:04.033
T6: 4:58.735
Fin: 5:47:237

547237 divided by 1125 = 486.513

From the start I took off well but made a slight error at the chicane before the Dunlop bridge. I took the next few corners well but braked too much at 3rd last and 2nd last corners before the big straight. This cost me a bit of time. Now it was on to the straight for a while which meant I could relax a bit. I managed a top speed of 184km per hour. Coming up to the sharp turn before T4, I broke at just the right moment causing me to clip the outer rumble strip. Once again I was back on a straight. I didn't take the turn before T5 too well but I made up for it by taking the sharp turn after T5 very well. The rest of the track was relatively simple to complete. Although I still had to deal with those 2 chicanes. The first one was taken okay but I feel I could take it at a bit of a quicker speed. The second chicane is the harder one and I made a mess of it. I clipped both rumble strips and was a bit shakey coming off on to the finish line. I know I can definitely do better on that last chicane. I took it too quickly (unlike the other one which I took too slowly).


Hong Kong:

T1: 40.983
T2: 1:23.178
Fin: 2:01.932

201932 divided by 1125 = 179.495

Hong Kong is one of my least favourite circuits. It gets repeditive too quickly. It needs to have more variety. Anyway, from the start I slid a bit at the first hairpin which caused me to go wide coming on to the next straight. I took the next sharp corner too wide but I got right into the very inner of the next one. I could have gone quicker going into the sharp left-hand corner because I braked too soon. After a little bit more easy driving I was coming up to the middle hairpin, quite a hard corner to get correct. I went on the outside and broke slightly which caused me to go on the inner of the next stretch. I can't say I did it perfectly but I tried my best. From here on until the finish it's just 90 degrees turns. They were all really easy to take. Go to take the inner of the corner and slide to the outer on the next straight. Go back to the inner and repeat the process.


Final Score:

200.335 + 486.513 + 179.495 = 866.343

 

[Freddy]

Car 2 - Vauxhall Corsa Comfort 1.4 '01:


Power: 88hp
Weight: 998kg
Price: $17,960


El Capitan:

T1: 41.441
T2: 1:32.388
Fin: 2:23.796

223796 divided by 998 = 224.244

Even though this car has the same amount of horsepower as the Mini, it felt a lot quicker. Athough that is probably due to the fact that it has less weight. Coming up to the first hairpin, the first thing I noticed was that the car slid a lot more then the Mini. As I mentioned earlier, I do an outlap so I get a feel of the car before I do the timed lap so I knew I had to brake a bit more. I still slid a bit but not as much as on my outlap. For the next few corners it was easy but I messed up the one before the tunnel. However when I went through the tunnel and passed T1 I was only +0:00.001 in front of the Mini's time. I took the downhill part at a much quicker speed and knew that I was definitely going to beat the Mini's time. Once again I slid a bit at the wide hairpin but I was able to take all the other corners afterwards pretty well. I was going really well before I seriously screwed up the second or third sweeping corner. I was too relaxed and by the time I got to the corner I had to brake quite sharply. However I was able to cross the finish line and finish with a quicker time then the Mini.


Circuit De La Sarthe 2:

T1: 56.627
T2: 1:52.961
T3: 2:31.224
T4: 307.314.
T5: 4:01.165
T6: 4:54.127
Fin: 542.083

542083 divided by 998 = 543.169

I made the same mistakes with the first part of the course as I did with the Mini. I messed up the chicane before the Dunlop bridge and the 3rd last and 2nd last corners before the big straight. Coming up the Dunlop bridge I went too wide on the chicane and slid off on to the rumble strip. I was able to take the 2nd and 3rd last corners before the big straight better then the Mini but I didn't take the racing line causing me to lose a bit of time. On the straight I managed to get up to 186km per hour. I was a bit to adventurous coming into the sharp corner and braked too much, too late. I got to T4 roughly 3 seconds quicker then the Mini. I slid a bit at the corner before T5 but I was trouble free form then on. I was looking at a lap under 5:41.000 but I took the first chicane too quickly and clipped the rumble strips. I was a bit more cautious at the next one from my experience with the Mini and only slightly clipped the rumble strips. I finished over 5 seconds quicker then the Mini although I know that could be more.


Hong Kong:

T1: 38.569
T2: 1:22.330
Fin: 2:01.819

201819 divded by 998 = 202.223

Another lap at a boring circuit. Oh well, I can live with it. I went wide at the first hairpin but was able to recover quite well. I took the next 2 corners almost perfectly but I messed up the sharp left-hand corner before T1. I went on to the rumble strip and lost a bit of time. When I came up to the hairpin I took it well but not as well as the Mini. I went form the outer but I ended up in the middle rather then on the inner. I took the next few sharp corners okay but messed up the one after the wide straight (the city part). I went for a little bit further then I could and had to brake more then I should've. The turn after I took the best out of all the 90 degrees turns but slipped up a bit on the final corner. I only finished -0:00.113 better than the Mini. I was quite disappointed. I was expecting a time under 2 mins.


Final Score:

224.244 + 543.169 + 202.223 = 969.636

 

[eiriksmil]

Nice. I don't remember how many sub 100 bhp cars there are in the game, but you'll have a decent amount of work in front of you. I've only driven ten cars, and I'm exhausted. Wonder how you'll like the Daihatsu Copen, will be fun to see.


Eirik

 

[Smallhorses]

Wow Freddy! That's some good work, looking forward to more & seeing the finished article. 👍 +Rep
Between you and eiriksmil we should have comprehensive guides to FF cars and sub-100HP cars. Marvellous!

*edit* You may also want to check out RenesisEvo's thread 30BHP Nordschleife challenge for some interesting info regarding the sub-30HP cars! 👍

 

[Freddy]

Thanks for the warm replies guys. I fell honoured. I'll see if I can sqeeze another car in this week but expect a bigger update next weekend.

eiriksmil, I think there are quite a few sub-100hp cars in the game. Although many of them you win as prize cars. For now I am only using bought cars but I may go back and redo championships to get some slower cars. I may also add that doing this is very time consuming. Each car takes me between 30-45 minutes. After the 2 cars I did yesterday I was exhausted as well.

By the way I won't be testing any of the 1886 cars. Too slow and too boring.

P.S. What does that +Rep thing mean?

 

[eiriksmil]

P.S. What does that +Rep thing mean?

It means that you can give reputation points, by clicking the red tick in the right corner of the post. Each time you recieve rep points, you get 10 rep points.. When you reach 300, you'll get a badge with "Quality Poster" stamped on.


Eirik

 

[Alfaholic]

Nice work so far! Is the 106 Rallye actually under 100bhp? Also with the Ginetta being a prize car, I guess it won't be figured, which is a shame as it could be a real contender.

 

[Freddy]

Nice work so far! Is the 106 Rallye actually under 100bhp?

I was just about to question that myself. I think it is over. Just like the Elan and Triumph are over by about 15-20hp.

I've just realised (stupid me) that once you win a prize car it becomes saved in Arcade mode so I can just race the Ginetta, Marcos, etc. there. The mileage is set to 0, I can change tyres and oil changes don't matter.

Why did I not think of that?

By the way I've already won the Ginetta so yes Alfaholic it will be used.

 

[Freddy]

Sorry to disappoint you guys but I am finding this too time consuming and it gets awfully boring after a while. I'd love to test them all but I have so many other, better things to do. It's not really as fun as what I thought it would be. It is because of this that I will probably abandon the whole idea and leave it for someone else to do. Good luck to eiriksmil and Smallhorses and thanks for the support. I'm not as big a fan as you guys.

 

[xjr-9]

Just to let you know, the 106 Rallye has 90-something horsepower. It is a great car. I personally reckon that the Ginetta will do well. Also, I think that the Triumph Spitfire 1500 is actually below 100hp as well, unless you give it a Stage 2 Turbo, take the driver aids off, and fling it round Le Mans at 150mp/h. With a fully customisable transmission of course. 👍 💡

xjr-9