Ran twice, first with F40 and then with 300ZX. Finished 15th with F40 due to losing draft, and 9th with 300ZX, 6 seconds off the lead pack, right behind the leader of my pack. It's less crazy than the previous N800 race, mainly due to the weaker Real slipstream. Having said that, it looks like the Supra is meta but a few other cars are in with a shout surprisingly.
My thoughts on car selection based on my race and analysing other cars in my room:
F40 & Enzo - fastest accelerating at the start. Can keep up with the Supras in slipstream but if you get >0.5 sec behind it's game over. The extra downforce/drag slows you down too much and you can't catch back up to the pack. Also makes it difficult to pull out and overtake to the line. Basically, if you want to be a joker in the room and break off the pack behind, choose these. Otherwise stay away.
Diablo & 300ZX - mid acceleration (not as fast as the Ferraris, but slightly faster than Supra). Decent enough top speed with or without draft, but just lacks the edge of the Supra. If you can hang with the pack and time your overtake right, you can win, but it's difficult. Choose this if you wanna avoid the meta and still want a chance.
Supra - quite slow at the start but best top end. I can't figure out why honestly. It doesn't have the best powerband because you're wayyy past peak power at top speed. The Diablo with more power, smaller frontal area and also no downforce should be faster in theory. I guess it's just PD's JDM buff showing through.
Corvette & Ford - not tested, nobody in my rooms picked these. Corvette has terrible power so I wouldn't choose that. Ford according to some people above are quite quick? But given it also has a lot of rear downforce probably suffers from similar issue as with the Ferraris.
Some general tips & tricks:
Bump drafting is safe, no penalties but not that effective here because of the weaker slip. Most cars top out at 420-421 km/h in the pack. If you can slingshot past each other you'll be faster, but this only works maybe once or twice before you both run out of steam and the distance between you two becomes too small.
According to Mistah MCA, in the time trial holding the gas 85% is faster than 100%
I have no idea why. He said it doesn't happen in the race but I've seen some people do it anyway. In any case I think it's a small difference and not that useful in the race.
The previous daily race with Ford GT N600, the top leaderboard players used Wet tyres. Basically it makes you lose less speed entering the turns because the turn in is less sharp due to the lower grip of the tyres. Again it's a small difference and probably doesn't matter in a race, but I used it anyway
For the last corner, the ideal distance is 0.2-0.3 second to the car in front. Stay high and around 3/4 of the turn do an out-in-out line (and pray no one blocks the inside). You'll slingshot past the group you're drafting because you're taking a straighter line (and downhill) to the finish.
Good luck and Happy New Year everyone
