Beater or Sleeper? COTW! [Closed]

[SomePlayaDude]

SPD Writes Car Of The Week: Week 20 - Nissan Skyline (R31) GTS-R

Anyone bummed that this is not the kind of Skyline that impacted car culture in a big way? Well, keep reading, and maybe I'll, umm.. unbum you, if that's even a statement.


This week, we head into another Nissan. And lo and behold, it's the long standing brand's flagship: the GT-R, or used to be the Skyline GT-R. More specifically, it's the R31: probably the least popular of the bunch. If anything, there are sure a LOT of these Skylines/GT-R cars in the game. I'm not having an issue with things like 3 R35s, but it shows the magnitude of how popular they are.

For this car, I'm not sure how to look back. It's not the same model that bases the Group 5 Super Silhouette bosozoku looking thing. But maybe in a personal note it's the Skyline I had felt its presence firsthand, due to a neighbor owning one. It's not the homologation GTS-R that's on the stage, but I say any R31's quite a car.

When it comes with what it has, this is a sports car with racing flair: coming in with 206 horses bringing 1.3 tons. It's also the last of its kind to carry a RWD drivetrain; a trait that will help define the Silvia better.

Also: this Skyline comes with the first variant of the incredibly popular RB engine, on which the car will carry one branded as the RB20. The mainstream RB26 comes in years later with the R32. Interestingly, this is the engine that allowed the R31 to, as my research says, keep up in track racing. The car's been taken to touring car races, with rivals in the form of the Ford Sierra RS500 and Holden Commodore Group A: two cars also in Horizon.. though not the latter for now, I hope.

And now to the PI: oh how do you do, fine sir? Another entry to the COTW's packed middle C-class contenders, at 543 PI. I'm going to have a field day with this. Hmm, that felt odd. Anyhow, it's interesting to see its many race rivals position higher on the PI scale, with the Sierra at bottom of B. When it comes to other COTW nominees, the R31 compares closely to the likes of the facelifted C1 that I've been enamored by the beauty of. Other nearby members include the Starion/NC MX-5/Alpine trio not far ahead, and for the other side: the Corrado VR6. We can probably include that recurring MINI Countryman at stock.

Considering the kind of car, the price isn't dirt cheap. This is kind of like the limited final car for the generation. The Autoshow has it for 100,000 credits. But, if you've been doing your accolades, the car's a reward for finishing Road to Stardom. This is achieved by winning a race set on Horizon Apex final boss: The Colossus. But if you're the kind that wants to check out the Auction House instead, I've checked for you and prices for a stock one range at the 13,000 credits mark. So wherever you get it from, it's not one that's hard to get. I myself have 3 to play with. One's souped up.. for B-class dirt. But I don't ever recall ever driving it at all. Even though I have a Sierra for the exact same purpose, I got no Showcase later. But all this packed class does mean something else is in.

So, to play with my habits these past weeks, I've painted this one green, in a tone that's both disgusting and intentional.

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And this week's track of choice has cars round around a road next to the Teotihuacan Pyramid.. it's Teotihuacan Scramble!

So jumps are the main feature of the trail? The MINI's main feature is to just give me a better idea on how to win. And that's by learning and making the best of the trail's bits and bobs.


"Looping around the mighty Pyramid of the Sun, this route follows a bumpy dirt trail through the ancient city of Teotihuacan. With enough speed you can catch some big air on the straights!"


I dunno about you, but racing around an ancient monument isn't the right thing to do at all. Fast cars can do some damage to the land around, or God forbid, the priceless monument itself?

But if we ignore that fluff, the track itself is kind of similar to those rally trails of a past time, where jumps are a thing. The track's not bad. The challenge comes in the speedy corners, just like in Reservorio. Also, the tarmac amount isn't much, and the use of it is rather relevant. It's the place to gain some speed and test your brakes.

If we think about it within the game meta, Teotihuacan has been getting an abundance of activity. There's a couple of Cross Country events, a drag race, a street race, and this. That said, we do need more events, even if the map might look crowded eventually. I wonder when we'll get our first repeat.

Being a homologation model means you gotta back those figures, right? I believe it can, but let's see how the notes add up.


- And once again we find ourselves in the same position the Mitsubishi GTO had a couple of weeks ago. But we have a different mindset: is it out of place, or is this what its destined to do? In real life, that's a resounding no, but here, we might do more than just go up and down (heh, more innuendo.)

- The interior comes in next, and oooh look, everything is so square and edgy: a very 80's style for sure. Exceptions include one steering wheel and the speedo + tachometers. The view outside is a bit tight, but I don't see anything wrong elsewhere. This isn't a luxury sports car after all. Though to be fair, this segment mainly is here to praise eye candy, or open top machines: now an in game meme that's developed quite a chunk this week.

- As is the past few weeks with dirt and tarmac, I get to test out the car in both terrain in this week's Horizon Wilds action. I dunno, could it be all the weeks? So we head out to the launch: it's solid, which is quite good for a lower classed car. Any worse, and it's probably too much spin, or the engine feels terribly bogged down. No strategy other than put your foot down, from what I see. My shift's at a high 8100 RPM, but it gets lower by.. about 150 after each gear.

- It appears the car has 4 wheel steering. This is the sort of thing I would see in things like dedicated off-roaders and monster trucks, so I guess it has to be noted, especially coming from an RWD powerplant. I don't quite notice the presence of it, but I can say one thing: the handling on this thing in general is quite nice and responsive.

- Unfortunately, not all is good: the suspension in general is too hard for this dirt. Bringing out the rear doesn't usually come, meaning I can get understeer when it's definitely not wanted. And when it does go out, it can go fine, or go too far and I lose speed. More on this suspension: landing post jump just hurts my bones, even when it's not me driving. It's not exactly a big issue, since this is quite a low class, the car settles back quick, and we're not doing cross country.

- For the majority of this scramble, one technique I like to do is just not brake, but let go of the gas and slide across a turn, then reapply the power. This is prominent in the double left handers before the 2 jumps (and the one after), and the set of corners that follow the second road portion, and also the final turn. This car does this excellently. Which is sort of surprising. The issue is: sometimes it does it too well and goes too wide, losing grip. That brings me to..

- Another issue: of course, being RWD means grip has to be an issue. There are a lot of cases where I veer the car's backside to good old Barry R, and the rest is history. So the right way to put this car around a corner is to not pull it way too far. Gentle entry, and gentle exit. There, not so hard. This also means that technique I used with the Corrado (shift down and handbrake at the same time) will not work with this car.

- With the car's nature of having not much power and sorta tall gears, the brakes don't play much a role for this analysis. They're fine, and I haven't found out what happens if you engine brake. Maybe it locks behind.

- A bit of a track guide since I frequent here: the left hander during the 2nd road portion usually has me go wide on exit. This is fine if I'm driving something heavy. This car isn't. So don't do it. This focus allowed me to have a quick look at turn traction. It's really good.

- How about a first: Barry R actually is positioned in good places, and protects the track very well. For those who haven't any idea: I usually bash on Barry and its bad placement on most tracks. Of course, the checkpoint insides used as corner apexes, and the general cut happy of Horizon Wilds events can't be helped.

- So the issue portion of the track is, surprise surprise: the first corner. It's not only banked to reduce oversteer and mess with the hard suspension, but it's also got Barry R working hard to punish that. It's one of the few places I have to take differently than the rest of the track.

- On the whole, the entire premise comes down to the smoothness of the general ride. Get the line down, then learn how to turn with the car. Then when you get the feeling of smooth sailing down, you're pretty much wanting to stay in that dream world for the rest of the run.


Looking at it, the drive to get a time is all kinds of fuzzy. The car is nice and the track is great. But putting them both together kind of messes that up. It's a sports car driving on dirt. I didn't have fun in some cases, such as using Rewinds to master taking the first turn with this car.

And it also took Rewinds to practice and practice.. until I get a few clean laps down. This isn't so bad as week 6, but not having joy out of it in my end.. it's still kind of bad.

The best time of these clean runs is set to 1:31.894.

The whole dynamic of this is that I managed to beat 1:32 just with a flag on due to a touch. So I just did the grind and ta-daa. I do frequent this track, so I wonder why I'm having some trouble with it in general, hmm..

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It's not a showcase, but I think I'll call it a.. throwback? Thinking that sounds right. Okay, throwback it is!

Throwbacks are another of my extra segments, kind of like a showcase, just that the roster includes exclusively past COTW members, stock within PI range duking it out on the provided venue. The format's been done before with the Alpine on week 11, and the entire idea of it might be sourced from week 8's MX-5. Yes, this is how I'm going to retcon this.

With that said, nothing will be tabled, and I don't have to describe the car's traits again. Just that it will battle the best time I've achieved with this week's nominee, and a quick observation on what happens. And of course it will have to be settled with a 5 lap Eventlab so that the ghost don't go bye bye. The cars would also have to be suitable, so I don't get situations with the MX-5 on week 10: a verifiable sleeper, but is just horrid on the dirt.

Let's get started with the first car.


Volkswagen Corrado VR6

I'm a little Veyron, short and stout.


Stepping up first is the Corrado. After an interesting take on it by sending it to a dirt trail, the Sleeper and Mark of Zen one-two knockout punch gave me the verdict to send it to another.

And this Sleeper would earn a completely sleeper time of 1:31.001. Nearly a whole second ahead of the nominee.

Back in its week, I praised the handling and how safe it is, while being a completely worthy off-road car. And look how amazing it did, 8 tenths ahead! For a car 10 PI behind. Have my approval at an all time high once again.

But will it be the last time that happens?


Mitsubishi Starion ESI-R

Sunday Sunday Sunday!! It's time for a monster torque rally!!


Next is the Starion: the very car that pretty much gave this throwback idea to fruition. Is the Starion ever going to remain my top Sleeper? That's a statement that's getting harder and harder every week that passes.

The right car for the right track, the Starion makes an impression in the form of a 1:30.930.

What the car has shown, from its torque and its already suitable handling for rally, is the time that'll be the first to break 1:31. But the Corrado only had a couple of thousandths to just get that. Just to make a point on how the Corrado just decimates the idea of this throwback so far: I tried my darndest just so I can beat that V6 VW with this car.


Alpine A110 1600s

A dirty little champ tries for the 10 count.


A no brainer entry for this rallying throwback is the classic champ: the Alpine A110. This is pretty much a round 2 with the Starion since its week's throwback. How does the track work out for the Alpine this time?

The 5 lap run with this old fashioned rally machine has it run a best of 1:30.811.

It's a handling machine alright, and this track I definitely see the Starion to be more appealing to drive. However, the handling allows it to exit certain turns better and faster, while factoring the added difficulty of losing momentum, or even possibly spinning out.

So far, this throwback's been such a beautiful sight, cars just barely at the 1:31 range in competitive pace. Speaking of beautiful.


Chevrolet Corvette C1

I might need a new dictionary to find new synonyms for beauty.


The down to earth, muscly pretty boy is back, and let's not beat around the bush: it's about to take on a bumpy, poorly maintained, wild animal infested (okay, probably not) dirty road! And one look at this kind of car means it's definitely not ready! How will it fare?

It fared.. I guess you can say.. okay, it's 1:32.703.

The muscle traits of this old Vette doesn't translate very well to the dirt. Another issue is the 4 speed gearbox not allowing me to transfer power efficiently. And so, we get this slightly slower time, but it's not all bad.

Of course, we have one more. The last one, but definitely not least..


Drumroll, you know who it is..



It's..

RAMBO LAMBO!!


Lamborghini LM 002


To be fair: Rambo Lambo always finds a way to get a mention just as much as I tease driving a Countryman around, maybe because it's the sole Beater of the current COTW period. It's still an off-roader, coupled with the fact it lost to cars 10 PI behind means that it somehow has to be redeemed, right? Well, it's earned itself a round 2 for this throwback. Let's see if a V12 can be the right choice to terrorize the pyramid's sound threshold.

And for all the bad it's got, it did good, giving a new best overall of 1:29.896.

The thing about Rambo Lambo this time around is that its very poor start was now irrelevant as this is a circuit, and it has one thing that every other car in the throwback doesn't: all wheel drive. The gears are still long, but as mentioned on its week: the car's understeer issues only exist on the tarmac, and there's not enough of it for the thing to be held back. It is located a few PI ahead, so it should be the fastest.

Well, if you want my advice for an off-roader on this range of C-class, go and get yourself.. Ramb-a Corrado VR6!! It is about 17 PI behind the Starion/Alpine, and look: it's not even 2 tenths of a second behind. Saying it's THAT good isn't going to cut it!

And I guess this will settle this week's throwback nice.

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There's not much else to say for this R31. Maybe that AWD conversion its descendants get is kind of beneficial.


So..

What is the Nissan Skyline (R31) GTS-R? It is..

The last, great step in RWD Skyline mainstay before the big 4 wheel leap ahead.

First thoughts go to Neutral due to the provided combo: the car's suspension is made more in line for the streets. So that's what I did: took it to the streets. There, it turned into a nice RWD sports car, that has ample amounts of traction, with a bit of understeer to battle through.

But the thing is: I don't see anything wrong with it. Speed's good, accelerates great. Quite safe too.

Well, alright. It is an RWD Skyline. Even without the Skyline name, Nissan knows how to keep it going with the Silvia. Let's go with Sleeper.

The main determining fact is how it might be one car that's definitely ignored over its brethren, past and present. It has the performance too! Get it to overtake someone, and it's going to be a strike! Speaking of strike..

This would also be the last moments we see the Horizon Stadium Stunt Park. I wanted to get a shot of it smashing the pins, but look what bad timing can do.

 

[Obelisk]

1:31.8? Man, that's just plain mean. Nice driving 👍

 

[space_wadet]

Bit of a shorter one this week, haven't had that much free time, and a chunk of it was just trying to get a clean lap in 😅.

Having grown up in the Fast & Furious era, I have to say my knowledge of pre-2000s JDM cars is spotty at best. I hadn't even heard of the R31 before buying a Hotwheels of it a couple years back. But it's an interesting piece GT-R heritage. It's wonderfully boxy, a true 80s design, yet already had all the design cues from later models. It's unmistakably a GT-R, especially the headlights and rear lights. If you remove the license plate and squint really hard, it does look like an R32. It's also a body type we don't see much of these days, with a long overhang on both front and back, despite being a 2 door. I've always felt like these long coupes have an inherent sleek elegance, and it's a shame they've all but disappeared. Even the R35 strayed away from it, becoming a bit taller with a shorter back.

It's a great base for mods though, the general body shape and proportions are great, while being quite understated on the whole so it'd fit both more racey and VIP styles. Good base for cyberpunk inspired build as well. The stock wheels need to go though, they give me strong taxi vibes though, for whatever reason. But a retro-concept like Hyundai did with the Grandeur would be absolutely amazing.

Anyway, had to talk a bit about the design first because I don't have that much to say about the driving. Didn't drive it much outside the scramble track, so I only have the dirt driving to go on. Which was not especially pleasant if I'm totally honest 😆. I struggle with RWD rally cars at the best of times, I find it hard to have the discipline of driving cleanly without throwing the car around on dirt. And this car does not like to be driven that way on dirt, at all. You really need to brake only in a straight line, and be precise and commit to your line. 206bhp isn't quite enough to power out of slow corners. This car doesn't do well with mid corner corrections on dirt, as all the times I understeered (zerosteered?) in the barriers will attest. But if you get your line right it does really well in high speed corners, which probably is due to the 4 wheel steering.

I ended up doing quite a few laps, just to get a clean lap in, and by that time I'd gotten the hang of it, so my time isn't too bad I think. I definitely know where I could make up time, but I'm not sure if I'd have the patience to improve that much.

It can do quite competitive times though, seeing its place on the leaderboard, and I'm sure it'd be even better on tarmac, so I would go with Sleeper. Though maybe not my first choice for rallying.

 

[Nacho Libre]

Ok, it would be unbecoming of me to not comment on the car I proposed, so here it is:

On the road to Teotihuacan, I felt the base suspension to be somewhat soft, and the braking distances long, most likely a combination of the base brakes and narrow tires. I did like the base engine since it doesn't have to move a lot of weight, to begin with, and the car feels reasonably balanced.

Now, on the scramble circuit, the base suspension proved very valuable in the dirt sections, as the car does not bottom out and the body roll is very manageable, however, the long braking distances dictated a careful selection of the braking points to prevent carrying too much exit speed, especially in the last turn before the finish line, and the almost 90-degree corner to the left when the dirt road becomes paved.

As for the HICAS system, I found it is best for countersteering (which probably is the whole point) in long dirt slides. My best times in C class were about 1:43, so I decided to go for a B build: much better brakes, rally suspension/tires, more power (but below 300 hp), and better wheels (the base wheels are hideous). This paid off by shaving almost 13 seconds off my time (1:30:7X).

And now I will reveal something about my choice of car, it's because it reminded me of this:

This was sold in Mexico during the late 80's and was really one of the most affordable sporty cars of the era (in a country that more often than not is in economic crisis), as the 240SX and 300Z were for practical purposes, unattainable.

Anyways, for performance (and sentimental) reasons, our dear Nissan Skyline (R31) GTS-R is a SLEEPER.

And lastly, by all having paid a visit to Teotihuacan you are hereby afforded a blessing from the local gods, and on your next visit to Mexico, you will not get food poisoning and will gain immunity from the local water! (Do take care of your wallet, though.)

 

[Obelisk]

A new series, a new breath of fresh air as Horizon Mexico stirs for another chapter in its story. And a new chapter of COTW to go with it, to boot! Including an episode where Obelisk loses his sanity for a week - but we'll get to that one next week. Gotta build the suspense, make people nervous. Y'know?

For now, let's embrace the blessings from the local gods and review our...reviews of the HR31 and see what the final verdict was for this loud 80s beast.

The verdict was a resounding Sleeper! Nice, nice. Now the car's gonna crab its way home with that four wheel steering to taunt its younger peers. "Back in my day..."

And with that, let's put our hands together for our car maestro this week, COTW newcomer @space_wadet! They gave us a strong first review and followed up with a great, brief read about the car last week...so as COTW chief, I felt compelled to welcome them onboard with the car and track this week. And boy howdy did they have a good one.

It's the...

1995 BMW M5!

And our course this week as selected by space_wadet is the Tunnel Run! They had a very good reason for it, too - hence the title for this week. All you need to know is this chase sequence from the 1998 action-thriller movie Ronin.

Now, let's take this old school Beemer (B 634) for a spin and relive the thrills of the late 1990s!

 

[Obelisk]

COTW: BMW M5 '95, Lots of Fives

I will be honest, I'm not a fan of BMWs. Being a resident of ye olde New England, driving anywhere will result in at least one BMW 3 or 5 series driving like your average Horizon player on top of not having any blinker fluid. And yes, I know Horizon is very much divided from reality, but the BMW badge just sets me off regardless of where I see it.

With that said, the game gives me a window to experience the car without being stereotyped as the typical Masshole or entitled BMW driver. As expected of BMWs, the '95 M5 is a solid cruiser in Horizon freeroam. Why the '95 M5 doesn't have a straight five is beyond me. It'd make for a hilarious thematic connection all the way down to the underpinnings. It also has six gears, not five. BMW, you guys had one job. M5. Five cylinders, five gears, five wheels- okay, maybe the spare tire counts as the fifth wheel.

The track this week is Tunnel Run, an underground route in and around Guanajuato that uses tunnels...pretty self-explanatory. Let's take it for a spin and see how this goes.

Acceleration: Solid acceleration! Sort of reminds me of the Ferrari we reviewed the other week where it's decent but not the best in the tier.
Brakes: Strong brakes. No need to say more.
Top Speed: This car has really good top speed and straight line performance. It's a little bit slow to get to speed, but it sure does hold that speed well.
Handling: Typical BMW handling. Handles well, and the car is generally balanced unless you drive like a Masshole.
Other: Wheelspin launch, but the good kind. Stays near redline until it runs out of gear space in 1st.

ihatethiscornerihatethiscornerihatethiscornerihatethiscornerihatethiscornerihatethiscornerihatethiscorner

After a couple of tries on Tunnel Run, I've found the thing that frustrates me the most about any kind of hotlap: corners over a sharp crest. It upsets the M5 and it upsets the driver. Those crest turns are a very quick way to get caution sign'd and introduced to Barry R (as SPD calls them).

Final time?

Not bad. I decided to take it up to B700, with a specific set of upgrades in mind: an AWD swap, to bring the back in line, a wing for style and engine power.

Let's give it a try:

Man, AWD does wonders for these things, huh?

The M5's a nice ride, all things considered. I'd call it a Sleeper, since I'm not aware of a lot of people using this particular car.

 

[SomePlayaDude]

SPD Writes Car Of The Week: Week 21 - BMW M5 (E34)

I like my sedans like my pre-cooked tender meats: big and juicy.


So, quick thought: what would be the kind of car you would make up if the terms 90's performance come to mind?

There are varying answers, for sure. From Japan we have things like the Honda NSX, Mazda's RX-7, and of course Nissan's Skyline that headlined last week. In Europe, we got the big name legends of Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis, McLaren's F1, maybe a nice Jag in there as well. Let's not forget America, for then was also the period that birthed the Dodge Viper.

There's maybe a few of you that would mention a boxy sedan in here. Yes, the Lancer Evolution and Impreza WRX has made strides in here thanks to rally, and the infamous Vauxhall Lotus Carlton can be the one that solidified this strongly. Another icon usually people would overlook might be the second gen M5, coded as the E34.

But what does it offer? Under the hood, we can see the in house developed S38, with this car carrying it's last hurrahs. This be an inline 6 engine initially conceived by the E28 M5, but this one gives out 335 horsepower, going to a 6 speed manual. It's the last M5 to use inline engines, with the future models going for V8s, with the exception going to the E60, so happens to be the M5 I like the most. And if you look outside, you're seeing airbags, seating for the family, ample space for luggage, and the well known reliability of BMW's 5 series at the time. This car would also be credited with being one of the cars that kickstarted the performance station wagon trend with the M5 Touring, along with certain a Volvo and Audi that's also in the game, actually.

Then again, to gather more opinions from myself, I figure it needs more representation in games. The only game I know with this car, aside from Forza, is Need For Speed: High Stakes. And I don't have much to say about that in this regard. It would definitely fit in games with customization: the E34 is known to be highly tunable, and thus favored by young drivers and enthusiasts of other fields alike, like drifters. It's the last of this breed of car to be this accessible, as future models lean towards luxury in addition to having a bigger power output.

This M5 has a PI marked at the early half of B-class, at 634. The closest rival I can see is the aforementioned Lotus Carlton, who sits at a measly 1 PI above. Should we talk the numbers, we can see the Carlton works better in acceleration, while the M5 edges above it a bit otherwise. Though, that car is a Hard-to-find, so I don't think I'll be using it this time around.

When it comes to price, this BMW is another entry at the super cheap. Only 25,000 credits out of your wallet to get one. Which is odd, considering the car's worth a good chunk more in reality. But if you've been going around in Rivals, making a name with low clean times, you'll probably already have one thanks to the "'C' Class Elite" accolade. That wants you to be part of the 5% in a Rivals leaderboard, within the C class leaderboard. It can be any track, so difficulty varies.

A car this cheap means the Auction House isn't going to be a mandatory visit. I've done that for you, as per usual, and the common costs come up at around 14-34 thousand credits. Maybe I gifted my hoard of them away or something, because I have one now when I recall having more, and it hasn't been worked with yet.. which works out! I get to yoink one out of the Auction House for dirt cheap.

Coming out of the.. unusual 4D dimensional Doraemon pocket of my own is this one. It's weiss this time, not gruen. No, it does not call for a celebration.

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To convince everyone of the E34's timeless performance, we go down to sigh yet another city track in Tunnel Run.

Barnacles, I hate the pill Tunnel Run.

Least with the announcement of the general theme of this week, I sort of get why we have to mess around these pile of arranged bricks. Come to think of it: can the MINI Countryman do as good for in city chases like what it's past brethren did?


"Diving underground, this route makes extensive use of Guanajuato's tunnel network before bursting onto the surface and heading back across town."

Eww, ugh, no, we don't head into Guanajuato for a good time, nope, never, nada, zilch. Bad. BAD!!

So, the thing about this track comes down to what it offers, and how that's being offered. It's the latter that brought this track to a bitter taste for me, but we'll get to that in a jiffy.

What the track definitely gives is sort of the experience of driving through a hillside town while people are still going about their business. The thing about the track is the term 'town', meaning it's not made to race for. Yet another moment for street scene don't give a damn.

So it's actually more fitting for cars with grip. I feel bringing something like a dedicated offroader would be way more pleasing than bringing your bog standard sports car. Softer setups with extra grip will rule here, because there are so many sudden elevation changes on this place. Not to mention traffic and obstacles about too. And before I say it's a speed track: there's a hairpin out of nowhere. So it's not terribly one sided on either speed or handling.

And to make matters worse: there are moments where Barry R feels like it deserves to be here. Seriously, there's no indicator for the sudden Y junctions in the area. Rewinds value end up strong in tracks designed like this. If I need to make it better, it should start by being a Horizon Apex event for Barry to shine around here, and that won't bandage the holes all around.

But I guess there's one way to get the full analysis on this place: assume I'm being chased by cops. Or some criminal group. Or the driver's seriously jealous ex..


- In the dead of night, I decided to review the black interior. Not being able to see much of inside isn't an issue to note. I don't think there's any issue: it's a large family sedan with a nice engine. One thing I do realize is how the speedometer is the exact same for this car with a newer BMW, in my case being an E46 3-series that I used to daily drive. Before you ask: everywhere else isn't.

- Launch wise, I don't see any issue holding it down. It definitely looks like the kind of car that would benefit from softening the throttle a bit. It might be. My shifting RPM finds itself at 7400 RPMs.

- So, the main focus of this track's challenge comes from the elevation. This M5 isn't the best car to tackle this in speed, with a curb unsettling it a good bunch. And guess how much segments of this track carry this? I'll let you recount.

- At least for a car with big proportions, the brakes of the car are very good, if you do it properly and not muck it up. Though engine braking will unsettle it greatly to the rear, it's not bad if you choose to hold it. The track has a lot of braking segments, and the car has it sweep through these by a pass with flying colors.

- So with all this elevation would mean I can test out a few things better. The first is grip at the rear. As a lower class, this isn't a very big issue. It probably will be if we bring in the AMG Hammer, but lucky enough this M5 doesn't have much in terms of power spinning the rubber away.

- Next is acceleration. It's pretty good for this class, even accelerating going up a steep hill at the last portion of the track. Plus, it has good enough traction for your usual drag racing. So the next obvious step is to combine this with taking a turn. Let's see.. it's a bit slippery, but it's not in the realm of completely loose.. which is definitely okay, until you slam the brakes, then it's not okay. They did use this BMW to represent oversteer, I think. I dunno. Compare this to the Hammer weeks ago, which understeers instead, it's quite odd to see the roles sort of reverse in a first impression kind of outlook.

- Time to take on the track, and I have serious issues with this one. It's not the tunnel's blinding effect as seen with the GTO and the Carrera RS, because night time. It's that we're racing through obstacles left and right. I guess it's kind of a given, but my issue is not their existence, but their role of blocking the view past the road. This is most notable an issue with the first Y junction.

- And more on the, umm, track. Right. It's one that's definitely punishing if you don't take your time learning through racing on it. Sudden turn or undulation, yep. High speed to a braking point you normally would ignore, present. Y junction completely messing you up? The sort of thing that gets me going GRRRRRRRR SPONGEBOB BETRAYED US!!!

- Let's put this one aside, since I just hate this. Not the car, I mean the venue. The key to mastering a good race or car chase with the M5 E34 is to watch that rear. The car loves to bring it out, even veering off as if it's completely attracted to Barry R. So what you have to do is either drive it safe enough, or do what I do: exploit this issue to the fullest, put it as part of your racing regiment and have some fun with a big sedan.


Ugh, the car isn't bad at all, but the track is just straight up unbearable. I had to do 3 different sessions to complete my analysis, and I usually do a single session per nominee. If there was an opposite of the Mark of Zen, this is just barely inching it. But that sort of achievement I don't want to make. Mainly because the car is just great to drive if someone wants to have a bit of fun. It's pretty agile for what it looks.

Let's have a quick look ahead at my best run here. I swear, it's just like week 6 with this: an overall unknown ratio that very heavily skews on the walls getting a hit.

After losing the pursuees, I stopped the clock to a best of 2:38.405, and to be honest, I can definitely do better.

My goal this week eyes on just finishing this track clean. Anyone and their mom knows this is reasonable, as in my eyes, the entire experience was a sour taste overall. There's a whole host of brick walls and town buildings that are in serious need of repairs if my efforts reflect to a real life replica. How does one even drive this place without the driving line on?! It's terrifying!

But I am a sucker for themes, and just like week 9, this week's provided theme is spot on the money for my approval. Car chases make up a good portion of how cars become icons in movies. It's how I was introduced to the classic fastback Mustang, for starters.

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Let's head for a more eager place with a Rieger.

And since I loathe Tunnel Run, I'm not going to host another Showcase or Throwback or whatever around here. Instead, let's ramp the nominee to A-class and head for the Horizon Circuit: something done with the Supervan 3 and the Corrado in weeks prior.

I need a name for this, perhaps. I'll call it The Test or something. I can say things like: 'Let's take it to The Test.', or 'If nothing else, perhaps a quick Test can bring the mood up/down a little/lot', I dunno.

But what's probably already set are the ground rules. This one's a lot more restricted than the usual Showcase or Throwback. It's only for nominees under or are at A-class, make a best lap run in the Horizon Festival Circuit, and it has to be with a non swapped road build that's not specified for anything: just one for general use. So no drag cars, powerbuilds, AWD hot rods, or these days it's banned electric cars with 4 gears.

And the time to reach is always to try go be within the region of 1:07. They can always go faster, but that's where the specific online racing builds come from. The entire purpose of this is to see if a car can be upped to A-class, and still work. As a B-class car, there's not much to work through, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

So, let's take out the same M5 and bring it to the top of A, with regards to what we've learned on the stock ride: add grip on the rear with some sports tires, and.. that's it! Everything else was slapping on race parts, even fully going all out with the power.

No matter the car, this road has more magic to me than Tunnel Run will ever have.


This 2nd gen M5 clocked a best of 1:07.646.

Just touching in the center of my quota, I say it can work. The initial efforts had it go through some understeer, and I've catered to that by adjusting the tow, stiffness and the differential.

It's main selling point is straight line acceleration. After dealing with traction, acceleration came out in full force, faster than most A-class cars I have, and mind you: it's not even turbocharged or anything. Just straight up tuned with its soul fully intact. Definitely an impression from something shaped like a daily commute.

And that's the Test done with. Time put away the bunsen burners and the test tubes and head for the verdict.

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After a few tunnels too much, saying that I hate them would probably be the nicest thing coming out of my mouth.


So..

What is the BMW M5 (E34)? It is..

BMW's family sized representation for a statement: performance in the early 90s doesn't have to be a low profile, expensive supercar.

The only way this is escaping Beater is to put aside the track. Because that combo just makes you want to feel like the receiving end of a tense car chase. It makes you want to get out. And in that situation, I don't think I can say much about the car.

But let's look at the fact that the M5s of the past have been crowned a good Sleeper, and I say, even if bare, it's no different here. If this was the E28, I have a feeling it would be a much more amazing car, but that's for another time. The whole reason for this is, other than the usual 'nobody is going to expect a sedan to overtake me' mentality, is how it's a big heavy sedan that gives me a chance to have fun playing with the slippy rear end.

It definitely fits the bill for a car chase. Be it the mouse or the cat. And when the latter's the case, that's the moment when everyone stops being gangsta. It's fast.

But should anyone want to record a good old car chase, I am definitely not a Guanajuato kind of dude. More of a Playa Azul one instead. You get the idea.

 

[Vic Reign93]

Quite a fast and decently handling saloon, only real complaint I have with it is the rear is prone to stepping out under heavy braking and downshifting as you end up running wide gathering it back up.

A loose tail is great when you have full control over when it gets loose, but not when it beats you to the punch and you’re now playing catch up.

Engine’s got some low down poke and it can come alive with some boost thrown at it which’ll really make it an Autobahn Rocket.

And for 25k from the autoshow, it’s no real loss even if you do have buyers remorse, but a absolute bargain for those who specialise in Bang for your Buck or Pyrotechnics for your Pound.

Verdict: Sleeper👍

Also, Go watch the Ronin Car Chase. 😎

 

[Nacho Libre]

Ok, I'll be very brief this week. It's a DNF dud. The car can't turn, is heavy, braking is mediocre, ride is floaty, and so on. BEATER. Overrated yuppie ride!

 

[space_wadet]

As the one responsible for this week's car and track choice I feel like I should start by apologizing for putting everyone through this.

I chose the E34 M5, as it's often overlooked in favor of other more iconic BMW M cars, but I think it's definitely one of the best looking. Just understated enough to go unnoticed to untrained eyes, but still having enough personality to not be boring. It's a real baddies car, if you see one filling up your rear view mirror, you know you've angered the wrong people.

Might be time to drive faster if you see this behind you.

After the car choice, the Ronin car chase was the obvious reference, though technically it's a standard 5 series in it. But the chase wouldn't have lasted very long against a FWD Peugeot 406 otherwise. To best emulate the chase through the tight twisty streets and tunnels of Paris, Tunnel Run seemed like a fitting choice. Squeezing between the buildings, navigating the maze like tunnels, stamping on the brakes to make almost impossible downhill turns, all into a long uphill full throttle section to open up taps on the inline 6 and lose your would-be pursuers. It all seemed fun in my head, challenging sure, but fun. Little did I know...

On the whole the M5 performs how you'd expect from a big BMW saloon. Understeer into corners, oversteer if you're asking more than the car can handle. Decent power and acceleration, but the gearing is a bit long for street chases. Torque is a big lacking under 4k RPM, so you really need to be in the right gear to get a decent exit out of slow corners. Which isn't the most difficult thing to do on most routes, but it can be if you have to contend with a jumps and downhill turns into hairpins. Brakes are good but quite easy to lock up without ABS. Braking too hard can also bring the back end out, which can be used to your advantage. Once you start sliding, it's still fairly controllable, so you won't crash, but you'll be slow.

Considering the theme, I think it's only right to review how well it'd perform in a car chase.

At the start of the chase, adrenaline pumping, you'll surely be overdriving the car. Going too fast into corners, stamp on the brakes, the back steps out, stamp on the throttle, powerslide out. It looks like you're showing off, but the baddies (or good guys?) will be right on your tail all the way through. Sudden swerves to avoid city traffic or obstacles, upset the car in sliding. It's slow but manageable. Once you've settled in a bit, get a feel for the car and stop expecting it to defy physics, it becomes surprising good. As you know to expect understeer, you slow down a bit more, a bit earlier, trying to really hug the inside line, getting on the power gradually after the apex for a textbook "fast out". As long as you're clean with your inputs, traction out of corners is stellar. You'll give up time into the corner, but once you're past the apex you'll pull a decent gap. Inevitably though, you'll take a wrong turn and end up in some corners too tight for your liking, or even a hairpin. As you know the car now, you keep your composure, slow down, maybe too much, aiming for the apex. The car is well behaved, but it seems like the longest corner of your life. It's a long car after all. Once you see the exit, you're free to use the acceleration and straight line speed and great stability to power through the esses uphill towards the edge of the city and disappear into the darkness.

Not the best way to take the hairpin, but makes a decent photo.

Imaginary chase aside, this was really a not a great course to show off this car's strengths. It's not a twitchy car, but it's nevertheless not exactly easy to drive on the limit. Carry to much speed and you'll either understeer into the barriers, or go into oversteer, which you can control with the throttle, but slows you down a lot. Not the best car for unfamiliar courses. But on tracks you do know, or after a decent amount of runs, if you have an idea of how much speed to carry into each corner, you can take full advantage of the car. It'd probably make a good daily driver that you could also take to track days.

But Tunnel run is about as bad an unfamiliar track as you can get, so many blind corners, downhill corners, street furniture littering the course. You need bravery, but too much bravery and you end up in the wall. Once you get a hang of the tricky sections you'll be rewarded with heaps of time to make up on better handling cars. The first clean run I did in a very short session after completing the playlist, I posted a 2:42. Seemed like a decent run, no mistakes, not too much oversteer. But after another 1.5h session yesterday, I made up almost a 9 seconds.

Compared to rival ghosts, the single biggest time gain was the blind downhill left into the first tunnel. Against B700 cars, the launch is terrible, but in turn they would all brake a fair bit before the corner. In the M5 you can almost take it flat, just the tiniest of lift to get a better turn in, smashing into the flowers and praying you don't hit the wall. Then you can brake to bring the back out just enough to angle the car for the right hand into the tunnel. And just like that, in a couple of corners, you've made up and gained all the time lost from the start.

Turn in and pray.

The rest of the course then is just about driving clean enough to hit the apexes and not the walls, which is easier said then done of course. When you get it right, the times are super competitive for a low B class car, especially if you compensate for the lack of agility with some high speed bravery, so it's definite SLEEPER.

Had another M5 with some light upgrades sitting in my garage, at a cool 667 PI. An exhaust for the noise, tires, brakes, springs and a front splitter. And with just those upgrades it becomes massively improved. The understeer is reduced to a manageable amount, giving it the agility needed to navigate the streets of Guanajuato. Feels a lot more responsive, giving you a big boost of confidence. Only did one clean but very imperfect run of 2:32, but the potential is there. With just a few upgrades it gains the versatility to be a go-to B class build.

 

[Ali]

This one's a bit tricky to drive, the rear end is quite lively to say the least. Perhaps not a bad thing for freeroam cruising/drifting, but it's not fun when you're going for a fast lap time. You really have to drive this carefully if you wish to be fast.

I tried my best to be careful, but I still managed to take out some lamp posts

Cool looking car, not so great handling (at this route anyway)... I guess it's a sleeper, barely.

 

[Obelisk]

Man, where've ya been Sutuki? Good to see ya back with us at COTW!

Before I go any further - I wanted to make an announcement regarding an experiment I want to try with COTW. With how robust the course creator is, it'd be hard to say no to the creative potential that it provides the drivers in Horizon Mexico.

Going forward, COTW is now accepting EventLab blueprints independently of car nominations.
What does this mean? Well, pretty simple. Design a point to point or circuit track and submit it to me via a Private Message here on GTPlanet and I will try out the track. The reason for this?

EventLab blueprints are now an optional secondary track for all submissions from today onwards.

I only require three things from the course:
1) The course blueprint is "Anything Goes".
2) The course blueprint does not have any Drivatars.
3) The share code so I can actually access it and use it for COTW.

I'm hoping that this change will keep COTW feeling fresh and varied as we continue to chip away at the huge car list in the world of Horizon 5. After all, we're 21 weeks in and starting to run out of tracks to use in a couple of areas.

As for the BMW - we have five Sleeper votes and one Beater vote. Ouch, BMW. You got someone to hate you, that's not a good sign. Still an overwhelming majority in favor of Sleeper, so nice job regardless.

And...

(papers shuffle)

That can't be right. I thought I rejected this car.

(muffled conversation)

It's in the Autoshow?! And it's only 150,000 credits?!

(muffled conversation)

Well, surely I can reject it because it's not a production car, nor is it a real car.

(muffled yelling from COTW management)

It's real...?

(bitter sigh)

It's...


It's the Bone Shaker.

Our Time Trial this week is on Tierra Prospera Circuit, taking the BoneShaker around at its factory PI of A 790.

And our first EventLab Blueprint is by yours truly, the "COTW Super Route" - a 7-8 minute sprint around the southern sections of Horizon Mexico with a number of flowing corners and some hairpins to break things up. Share Code 749 264 177.

Just...let's get this week over with.

 

[Vic Reign93]

Half a second quicker than the Sunshine F1 I ran here awhile back, I’ll let you decide if that’s down to the Sunshine being underpowered on the straights or the Bone Shaker being a capable monster right outta the showroom.

Despite the huge tyre offset, the huge rear tyres didn’t cause as much understeer as I initially thought, went through its 6 gears quickly and put its power down rather nicely.

For 150k you have a very capable, if slightly quirky base for a monster A class car, I mean this car has a reputation in the Forza Community as a car that almost anyone can pick up, get a tune and be competitive.

Of course that does mean you get the odd muppet taking fully advantage of its performance to be a weapons grade tool behind the wheel, but that’s sadly to be expected.

On the whole, it’s a capable machine for a reason.

Verdict: Sleeper. 😉👍

 

[Nacho Libre]

Well, I gave it a go, it's a fun car to drive around and it's even able to 3-star the shorter drift zones on pavement. But I had more dirty than clean laps on the track, no doubt from poor front braking with those skinny tires. Also, a bit of slow steering.
It is a Neutral for me, because it's a fun and silly car, just not a lap specialist.

 

[SomePlayaDude]

SPD Writes Car Of The Week: Week 22 - Hot Wheels Boneshaker

This has to be the worst time to know that the Stunt Park has moved on.

I've been on a Horizon break as of.. last week. It's been great, but these days, the game turned incredibly stale for what it offered for me. The cars don't even helps, even though the Car Pass provides a fine selection of the new. The only thing hooking me back is obviously Rivals. Let's hope those expansion DLC plans can live up to the hype somehow. And speaking of expansion DLC, here's a car that came with one from Horizon 3.

Today, we delve into a most interesting machine. One that has been shouted at for being a completely foul being in general in game performance. I've been meaning to take a look at this thing myself, but my time's been pretty bare in Mexico these days. Have I been burnt out? Yep. I mean, I'm not even trying to get some of this season's exclusive cars: it's 3 McLarens, and none of them is the 12C!

And believe it or not, I have some history to share. Back in my youth, I was a big Hot Wheels kind of kid, with cars owned from all over the flaming spectrum. A lot of them eventually morph to interests in real life machinery. If I had to pick an original, my favorite one's known as the Sol-Aire CX-4. I had this yellow one, don't quite remember which, and the car looked a lot like the kind of car that would scream a killer of men.

Anyways, back to the Bone Shaker. The car apparently was produced in 2006, and it was the kind of car that screams Hot Wheels of the past 60 years. I get the appeal in general, but to end up being one of the biggest hit cars of modern days is something I should investigate deeper toward. I like skulls, and I like hot rods, but for that kind of car from this company, I'm still leaning towards that one undertaker known as Rigor Motor.

How about that other history, hmm? Y'know.. games! Well, my memory's altogether fuzzy on its debut game Hot Wheels Beat That, and let's avoid Forza Horizon 3 onwards. For me, that leaves with a couple games, firstly: Rocket League. Though, the nature of that game wants you to pick certain cars for certain hitboxes, and the Bone Shaker shares this with the poster boy Octane. Of course the latter mentions sleeper racing game Hot Wheels Unleashed: something that has been screwed over royally by being released very closely with Forza Horizon 5. In that world one can observe there's, count it, 3 variants of this car: the usual, a Baja Bone Shaker that's similar to the monster truck, and the Unleashed variant from the game's pre-order DLC. And unlike here in Horizon, none of them are overpowered or the popular choice. I have a nicer Octane styled body, and Rigor Motor is doubly more competitive, and so happens to also be in Unleashed.. with Sol-Aire CX-4 being in the game files too, how exciting!

The car isn't just some smart people doing smart car things ala Vision GT, but it's a real build hot rod, built straight up by PCW: a bunch of dudes who's been making movie cars for a while now. Their website has them tell us they did a whole heap of cars in 2 Fast 2 Furious within time and budget, and it's quite the feat if true. The Bone Shaker would be powered by a Camaro/Corvette LS1 V8. Though, there's more to this than just being a shiny stylish showboat in the game.

Without anything done underneath, the Bone Shaker sits near the top of A class, at 790 PI. Now, we all know this is the value the game tells us, and in our hearts this is underselling it by a healthy.. 30 to 40 PI, maybe 60 if it's all wheel drive swapped. I don't know about it in 3, but the car's so broken in 4, they banned it from online racing. In 5, it's definitely not as strong, but it's good enough that people want this rule also applied here. I don't see why not.

Obtaining one such machine requires you to cough up 150,000 credits. This is okay in terms of price. But there's a trick that allows you to get one... for free!! That's right, by sending a quick ten dollar tip to SPD at redacted address, you can have your very own in game Bone Shaker to terrorize your friends and their lasting opinion on yourself. And since I'm giving you a ten dollar discount for this first time offer.. I'm swindling you guys but have plans to obviously swindle myself. It's the whole story with this car; more on this at the on track analysis.

Lucky, this is one car where you can just go obtain one aside a straight purchase: complete the 'Reach for the Stars' accolade: that has you go out and 3 star every base game danger sign. Funny enough, I hadn't bothered with it, so I bought one. It's still in my garage, pristine and all. But if you want to have a chance at a steal from the Auction House, my observations there has prices at the regions of 258,000 to half a million credits. Talk about high demand, am I right?

Still, could be worse..
hinthint(the Twinmill is going for the ranges of 3 million)hinthint

Now with a second thanks to the Autoshow, I can at least get my dirty hands on something so iconic be hated universally to some extent. Sort of like a John Cena, without any issues being invisible, however.

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It might be one of the fastest cars in Horizon within boundaries, but I'm willing to bet it can break more than just the inter-gaming boundary. But it has a track to take on: Tierra Prospera Circuit.

There seems to be a tornado alert earlier, and some drivers didn't get the memo.


"Set in the heart of the region's farmland, this circuit provides plenty of room to rumble. The entire route sits on the side of a low hill, providing a near constant gradient."


Well, this isn't exactly the kind of description I would expect.

But it's the kind of track that suits well for just about any road car. You have a few speedy turns, plus a bit of cornering challenges along the track. And as the official description mentions: elevation changes are bare, so you combine all of this, and you can deduce it's on the much lower end of the difficulty bar.

But room to rumble? Man! If you wanna go do your Marco Polos or whatever, do it somewhere safe. No, not here. I mean, sure it's a very safe circuit, but that's besides the point.

Seeing the kind of circuit isn't for purely handling machines, let's take out the Bone Shaker and stir up us some trouble in the form of some not so handling oriented laps.


- So, we talk about the interior of this bespoke hot rod, and are you thinking what I'm thinking? I dunno, were you thinking "Holy [BLEEP], holy [BLEEP], a skull on top of a spine standing tall is the gear lever!" If so, yes. Ehh, how do you even race this thing for real? It's even shaking, so I can potentially slip my greasy palms through the metallic skull. Other odd things include the lack of just about anything on a regular car interior. It's a hot rod, so it's a given when it comes to the styling, but damn, that spine. Sub-Zero probably drifts around the Lin Kuei Temple with a shifter like that.

- Coming up is the launch, and I gotta say, it's pretty respectable. Massive wheelspin on the spot, and no slipping out because this is one wide boi. My attempts on controlling this usually messes up the launch, so just push it down. And I change gear at 6950 RPM.

- One such issue with the car I keep hearing about is the handling, and yes it turns like the Earth going around the sun, but it's not bad at all. I guess it is when you drivetrain swap it. And not to mention the incredible stability if you turn it all the way with your foot down. Just not after shifting, however.

- Ever since week 1, brakes have been something I have to note no matter the car. This week, I can say they're mediocre at worst, just that the rear is prone to locking up pretty nasty. Lucky enough, this car is wide and stable so that it's not an issue unless you're turning. However, the brakes would come up as one of the main tools to drive the Bone Shaker fast: something the superstars of Horizon seem to misuse. In fact: trail braking the car is actually both satisfying and very enjoyable.

- Now after a few laps, I've come to notice the car's main feature: its width. If I were to relate with this, it's essentially bicycle training wheels. You're able to go around and not need much experience to use them, but you're pretty much taken out the full joy in riding a bicycle proper. For the car, this statement comes in many forms, most notably on how it can turn safely for a RWD car, but it's got terrible understeer along the way.

- Though, with understeer, does it mean it has solid traction? Sure it does! It loves long sweeping turns that aren't terribly long. The understeer is pretty consistent no matter the drivetrain, however. It also has grip, but not too much. Foot down on corner exit takes the behaviour page straight from the high powered RWD book. The thing is: even letting go of the acceleration gets it to understeer, so you have to shift down when you can. Sorry, automatic drivers.

- Surely a notable strong point of the car is the acceleration: which is where people's complaints mainly stem from. It's good, so good, I often forget to swap gears and still keep pace. If we want to relate, it's like.. FWD Group 4 cars in the early GT Sport days. It has an LS1 V8, giving power to a 6 speed with ratios akin to a modern race car. The power it carries is very good for something that weighs just at a ton. Not to mention how the body is hung low to the ground. There's another kind of car that has these traits in play too, what was it.. oh yeah: an open wheel racer. It is missing the aero, which sort of justifies the use of Forza aero if you want to use it to race.

- Now to the track: Barry R is out and about again in good spots so that the cheating is at a minimum. But with this car, I usually swoop off the road just to get a better line. This brings me to the off-road grip being absolutely great: surprising for a RWD car with a low ride height. That width probably did something.

- Let's take on the width again: the car's shape is not even, meaning a hit to the wall might hurt more than just your car. It might collide the rear and it angles the car towards the wall and.. disaster. I can't imagine a tree doing it's thing solely on the rear tires, though I'm guessing the hitbox is triangular, so, hmm..

- The top tip in racing the Bone Shaker in its intended form is to be responsible. Get yourself hyped up, prepared for anticipation, and do the right things. Try to go even further than that of the racing line intends. Change up to manual, accelerate when the steering angle is super small, make use of downshifting and learn how to trail brake. And also use that width! You can clip checkpoints better, and make sure to not mistake Barry R as something to clip as well. It's easy to drive, but just as easy to mess up with.


So, the initial plays with the car would be on tackling the understeer its known for. And the track we are given here caters to cars that can turn well in high speeds: a notable weakness for the Bone Shaker. To me, this sounds like a challenge. Not only for driving fast, but to learn and be a better Bone Shaker driver than the 90% who drivetrain swap it. And I don't know why, but I can't seem to stop, even after reaching my best lap quota. I've never expected my fingers to work this hard on such an overpowered, but unique, demanding car.

Do I have with me a Mark of Zen? Unusually, yes! The infamous Bone Shaker would be the 6th car with this kind of magic in it.

But what kind of SPD best time does putting this car away from it's natural habitat of orange strips and loops?

The custom made toy car clocks in at a solid 1:07.553.


What helped elevate the car's position to such a time from being a shoddy understeering boat was definitely its acceleration. It's both overpowering and easy to manage. It's exactly the kind of thing I would like in a muscle car: crappy handling but a monster on the straights. If this sort of thinking would end up in most of them and their PI, I assure there's going to be a variety of classic ponies aside a powerbuild Dart or Charger.

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This week, the Bone Shaker's PI reach gives me a hard decision between all three Showcase, Throwback, and Test. And I've gone for a Throwback on Tierra Prospera Circuit.

Due to the overpowering nature of the Bone Shaker as a statement for being the cream of the crop, the entries of this week's Throwback will be from the somewhat occupied entries from early S1. Of course, we'll compare mainly with the Bone Shaker's time of a middling 1:07.

Enough with that, let's head on to see who's our (un)lucky contestants!


Week 12 - Ford Supervan 3

The five year reminder still stands.


First up is a meta car of the past: the Supervan 3. These days, I've seen it dominate S1.. mostly on dirt. Interesting how things can change, huh? It's no original Ford GT or Lola, but it's superb handling does mean it will be fast in a circuit.

The main purpose of the Supervan is to find out if Tierra Prospera Circuit caters more to handling or speed cars. Well, now it's time to see how the stock Cossie V6 van thing can handle these fields.

Not working for your usual couriers, but it still delivers, and that'll be a best of 1:06.476. About a second ahead of the Bone Shaker.

I'm quite sure handling is going to work on a track like this. High traction, tight handling, and a general lack of acceleration works out with the track's general reliance of not needing speed. I expect the Supervan to keep this top spot for the entire throwback.


Week 1 - Chevrolet Corvette C8 Stingray Coupe "Pinky"

So, SPD, what other cars in your roster come blanched in pink? Well, you remember the original C1 Corvette? There's also my DeLorean, and the Eagle Speedster that's not in yet..


Another S1 meta car comes in, and it's our old friend Pinky from the very first iteration of this weekly gathering of sorts. This one's a road meta, possibly a top competitor from all the way back in it's UK Horizon debut, though that would include swapping it with a Lamborghini engine. Without one, it's still good. But without anything to hold on its terrible braking and transmission handling, how does the base C8 stand?

Not to be confused with a certain Carby, Pinky guns for a best of 1:07.368.

Once again with the car's overall safe drive and terrible transmission and braking in play, the time it gets reflects on the struggles I had to deal with in terms of the car's traits. The drive overall wasn't similar to the Bone Shaker, but it shows how underrated that car's PI is when the times are competitively close to each other.


Week 14 - Jaguar XJR-15

A rogueish V12 screamer returns, eyeing away to take more than just your clothes.


Y'know, it seems all our entries in early S1 are meta cars.

The Tom Walkinshaw developed XJR-15 takes this role to heart, with players declaring it as the absolute king of S1 road, though it's in the form of a hard to drive powerbuild. But let's not understate how great the car is even when stock, which gives me an excuse to see it loose once again on the farmlands.

The Jag pounces ahead very far, hunting down a new universal best lap of 1:04.486.

Being an all around supercar with handling on the side means this is impressive, although it isn't surprising thanks a combo consisting of having the highest PI of the throwback, plus of course the excellent drive and performance. After all, how do I back up Mark of Zen #4 otherwise? If the track would be part of this Jag's combo, I'd still declare it Mark of Zen.

And to be honest, I'm just more surprised the Bone Shaker still remains completely relevant in this at all. But let's head to the last member of this throwback.


Week 16 - Dodge SRT Viper GTS

Time to put your lights up.

We head back into Colorado vision again with the VX Viper. I was going to include the VUHL 05, but it might overpower the whole list.

If I said all the cars are meta relevant, where does the VX Viper lay? Of course, in S1 road. Though, probably not as dominant as the two other aero packaged ACR brothers, the Viper sneaks through for another chance to impress, as it has in Ruta Norte. Maybe for the heck of it, let's have it compete with the Corvette C8's time as well.

The VX Viper slides through the fields to effort away a best of 1:07.392.

Despite the very small margin of a MISSION FAILED against the Corvette by a couple hundredths, the Viper's sporty handling and muscle acceleration provides an unrelenting drive through the roads, of course requiring a certain input to make work. Well, it still beat the Bone Shaker, but in terms of being a throwback nominee, it's the worst car of the bunch.

And Throwback this week is over.

What an interesting outcome. While it's not surprising that the Bone Shaker has been broken, it kept up while being a good 20 PI behind. Time to call it a day.

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It makes me glad we aren't taking this thing around a city, because that would be all sorts of nightmares.


For now, there isn't an entry for the EventLab segment. Most of the uses I made with it are pretty much themed within reason of Showcase or Throwback. I'm going to find a way to execute this so that it isn't completely useless, and maybe carry that small bit of SPD flair. The way I think it, it's likely I have one entry submitted once every fortnight, so stay tuned!

My first ideas? Something for the boys at middling C-class.

So..

What is the Hot Wheels Bone Shaker? It is..

A car so fast and so stable, it can definitely be mistaken as a case of Mattel bribing the development team.

It's obvious position at the top of the food chain means it's very hard to say it's a Sleeper. And the position of Beater would come to the car should it be drivetrain swapped, or be overall unredeemable. But this car can go, and go it does supremely well.

They've done the car great, even having it's own bunch of Forza aero that looks nice. It's just that.. the numbers are put at the wrong place. See the Throwback above, and the numbers there explains it.

But let's put aside the fact it's an overpowered hot rod with Sub Zero's credentials in the center. The appeal comes from how it has dominating strengths and a just as glaring weakness. This is the kind of balance I do want to see in most cars, and the Bone Shaker is the example of this act in the most outrageous way. It reminds me of an opinion of SoulCalibur 6 in terms of character balance: nobody's outright weak because each character has a trait or factor that's considered super broken or busted.

I'll put my cards on it as a Sleeper. Barely, but verily so. Maybe it's that Mark of Zen that helps with this. However flawed, I really enjoyed my drive in this game car based off a custom car based off a toy car. Just in the future update or entry in the Horizon series, maybe you can bring up that PI by 20 at least. Or 30.

To garner a drive that earned itself the Mark of Zen, that really took me off every time I think about it.

But as always, we gotta put the toy away or people might step on it. This is a dramatic recreation of the playerbase as clouds coping with the pain.

 

[Obelisk]

(Side note: As I was writing this and loading up into the custom course, it crossed my mind that SPD'd been silent. Sure enough, he posts right as I'm writing this up.)

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking with this one. It's a HotWheels car turned to real steel, rubber and petrol that then got converted back into a video game toy. And it's kinda busted, too. In both this game and in FH4, it's had a strong reputation in online racing because of how easy it is to get a competitive tune on it, and...you know, the number of bell-ends that think they're hot stuff. Even though they have some kind of weird magnet towards faster cars next to them.

10/10 animation work

That said, the BoneShaker is quick. That's why it's got such a reputation online. It has good marks in most aspects, though the brakes lock up a bit quickly on the front and the handling leans towards understeer.

It's kind of a free Sleeper verdict, isn't it?

Anyways, I figured I should also try out the optional course and see how it does on there.

Barely a clean run, but a clean run nonetheless. Note to self: shorter tracks would do well in future weeks.

But yeah, BoneShaker is a sleeper. Now to send this thing back to the pits of Hell.

 

[Ali]

I'm sorry, but I refuse to drive the Bone Shaker again. I hate absolutely everything about it




Instead, I thought I'd give the Week 16 car, 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS, a go.

This wasn't a completely random pick, as this is one of my favorite cars in the game.

Slightly off-topic: I remember playing Gran Turismo 1 as a young boy back in the late 90's, and having just found out how to buy and race your own cars I set myself a goal for the day: buy the Dodge Viper GTS '96. There was something special about that car, it just looked so unique and the blue with white stripes really stood out. Oh, and that Viper brake light, now that was cool!
I think I had a Honda Prelude that I used to grind one of the early races over and over, not earning all that many credits each race. I'm not sure if I ever actually won a race with that car. At the end of the day, I was finally able to buy the car and I was absolutely ecstatic

What does that have to do with this car? Not too much, I guess, but at least in my eyes the Gen V Viper is very similar to the original GTS. To me, it looks every bit as special as the original GTS did in the late 90's. It has more or less the same overall shape, the 3rd brake light with the Viper logo on it, and now it even has side exhausts!

There's one thing I've never liked all that much about these cars: the exhaust note. They just sound so lazy and boring. On the other hand, one could say it's just another thing that makes this car a little more unique.

Handling is a little bit floaty, but by no means bad. In slow speed corners it doesn't really want to turn as sharply as I'd like and at higher speeds it becomes increasingly unstable. I'm sure some simple suspension tuning could fix that.

I always struggle with this route (Ruta Norte), I'm not even sure if this was a clean run. Tricky.

Also gave Circuit of the Week (ok it wasn't exactly a circuit, but it could have been!) a go, now this run definitely wasn't clean. Missed every other apex and one 90 degree turn . A little shorter route would be better, making it easier to memorize it.

Viper GTS '13, verdict: super cool.

 

[Obelisk]

Well, darn. I'm late to my own show. No one is perfect, I guess.

I was going to release the car for this week last night, on schedule, and uh...the Gran Turismo brain-rot set in. I spent five hours trying to tame a C4 Corvette with that game's wonky physics.

Anyways, I might as well set things straight, yeah? Starting with the Bone Shaker!

Three Sleeper votes, one Neutral vote and one refusal to test the car. Goodness. This one was controversial. Still barely a Sleeper. Somehow, it managed to beat its own reputation.

And this week's car was originally going to be me, but it turns out I made a clerical error. I originally gave @Sutuki the win, so we're going to have his car choice first, then @Vic Reign93, then me. After that I'll randomly select someone else.

His car is the...

2018 Lamborghini Huracan Performante!

From awkward to awesome, we find ourselves with a truly high tier beast this week. A stripped out, up-tuned version of the Horizon 3 cover car, the Huracan Performante sits at S1 874 and can be had from the Autoshow for...quite a chunk of credits, but I find it hard to imagine that everyone has less than two copies of this car sitting around.

Our official Rivals track this week is Bosque Del Sur, a tricky Street Scene with a ton of elevation changes that are sure to push this thing to its limits.

And our optional COTW course, due to the clerical errors above, is made by yours truly. It's the Huracan Hurricane, a roughly 5.5 mile course based on the freeway that offers a bit of everything: a long dash down the freeway, a series of mid-speed corners with elevation changes and a few tight bends for that AWD to shine. The share code is 392 955 292.

Drivers, let's take this thing on the road and see what we think of it.

 

[Obelisk]

I normally am not a man of very words, and I'm sure that's obvious to everyone in the thread, but I've been wanting to get something more extensive written up for a COTW review. And the car this week is as good as any to take a shot at it.

The Performante is one of a number of Lamborghini model variants that are cranked up compared to their base models. The Superveloce trim for the Aventador, and the Diablo SV both come to mind. Suffice it to say, Lamborghini has a track record for these things. This one has some interesting numbers to boot - the Performante has 630 HP, up from 602 in the base model; it also weighs in at a reasonable 3047 lbs, some 88 pounds lighter than the base model. The most interesting numbers that need to be documented here: 750% and 6:52. 750%: The (supposed) increase in downforce relative to the base Huracan. 6:52: The Performante's best lap at the Nurburgring, though I don't imagine that too many people worry about the laptimes around the Green Hell. Don't be fooled by the power and weight difference being relatively small, those two numbers add up in a way that you wouldn't expect.

In game, the Performante finds itself in the upper middle segment of S1 at a relatively comfortable PI of 874. By comparison, its less insane relative is at S1 838. It also finds itself 23 points above its newer peer, the Huracan Evo (851). The most intriguing comparison, however, is that it is 2 PI higher than the Aventador SV. The Aventador finds itself at 872, which leads to some interesting comparisons about price and stats. A basic visualization:

10/10 graphics work.

This brings up an interesting point about the Huracan Performante:
It's the second cheapest car and has the highest PI rating of the four Lamborghinis. Relative to the cars in its Category, Track Toys, it is the 6th most expensive car available, behind the 911 GT2, the not-a-NASCAR by Forsberg, the 488 Pista, 620R and the Supervan III - hey, a previous COTW candidate! Of those 5 other cars and the Huracan, the Huracan has the 4th highest PI.

My impression so far is that this car isn't quite the wallet-breaker, but it also isn't cheap. It packs a solid punch on paper: reasonable bang for the buck, and a stat line that's reminiscent of how the XJR-15 had near-S1 max stat lines.

But how does that translate to the track- er, sorry. The roads of Mexico.

This isn't the Nürburgring anymore, Lamborghini...

Given that this is a high-horsepower Lamborghini that has 1) all-wheel drive, 2) a 9.8 acceleration rating and 3) a perfect launch rating, it should come as no surprise that this flying orange wedge has phenomenal launch and acceleration off the bat. 60 mph is had in nearly two seconds flat, and 100 mph is had in five and a half seconds. It's the kind of acceleration that'd pin a driver to his/her/their seat. It's the kind of acceleration where it'd slap you in the face and you'd praise it for slapping you.

In addition, that 750% downforce number seems to have some grain of truth, as the Huracan is planted and very easy to control at and under the limit. It's so planted that it'll forgive you for running the outside or inside tires on the dirt on a corner, which can't be said for some of the 2WD Track Toys or other high-S1 cars. The caveat to this, though, is that any kind of high speed crests (like the one before the first 90° left-hander on our Rivals track) will upset the car and send it into a slide. It's not the kind of car where you can necessarily turn your brain off the entire run and land a high leaderboard time - you still gotta catch those slides, man.

Throw caution to the wind gods.

Something I wanna call out here, having ground out a few laps and a few sets of tyres, is that the Huracan's brakes are incredibly high quality. I was having a very hard time getting them to lock up short of going full force on the brake pedal, which led to some nearly Trackmania levels of tire tracks being burned into the ground while cornering at full speed...trail braking is a godsend with this car!

And in terms of straight line performance, this car saw that it was racing what was likely a powerbuild Dodge ACR's time, shrugged and kept up with it throughout the entire run. it only lost out on the very final 10% of the track where there is a very long open-throttle segment.

Still got him. And everything around me is an S1 900 car, so this thing is pretty high up in stock form.

Overall, this car is properly fast. It's basically a sleeper, but...

Here's the thing: It's a Lamborghini. And we all know what the younger players of this game are going to lean towards. And we all know the S1 meta...

It's a Neutral for me.

 

[SomePlayaDude]

SPD Writes Car Of The Week: Week 23 - Lamborghini Huracan Performante

Now heading out of the fields last week, a certain bull decides to chase us to bring a modern performance touch to the track.


This week, we welcome a track variant of Lamborghini's V10 flagship for a decade now. This Huracan famously had a 6:52 record on the Nurburgring that one time, and it was the sort of proof you need to show the world you're fast where it mattered.

But of course I don't head into the politics of green hell lap times. I want fast cars that look good. Sounds like a simple job for modern day Lamborghini, amirite? But let's say you don't want to handle the likes of the big boys such as a Murcielago. You want something just as good, but smaller, easier to drive, and is way more open for use in general.

Enter the flagship Lamborghini V10, developed under the watchful eyes of owner Audi, and starting off its life with giving heart to one Gallardo. As of right now, this powerplant still remains used in the Huracan. It's not alone there. When it comes to the cars in this game, we have the Audi R8, the Gallardo, the 2 Sesto Elementos, and the Italdesign Zerouno.. that last one I didn't realize until now.

With success comes in variants, and for the Huracan, we have track packs, race models, and even a facelift not too long ago. To me, even though they're made different, the Huracan Performante for the Huracan is similar to me to the Aventador SV for the Aventador: just a generally more jacked up version.

And since it's a modern Lamborghini, it's representation in games is not little. It started off as a free DLC car for Assetto Corsa, and eventually became the face of that game too. Moving on, let's see.. we have NFS Heat, where it suffered as one of the worst Lamborghinis in the game (the regular Huracan was miles ahead too, funny, eh?), and the direct opposite in The Crew 2, where it became an excellent, and semi competitive addition to the Hypercars class. If we're to head further into the STO, I'd talk about Rocket League for a bit.

The Performante sits in the later end of S1 at a pretty reasonable 874 PI. Sounds pretty high, right? It's not the entry with the highest PI right now, that goes to the original Mark of Zen holder: the VUHL 05RR.

As the most requested car of Forza, I'm sure the Huracan is a pricey old bull. That's quite true in 4, due to its Hard-To-Find delegation earning it a very high auction price, up to ten million as a minimum, I think. In Mexico, one can just buy it off the Autoshow for 275,000 credits. Nothing shady so far, and unlike the cars last week, it's not earnable for free.

Again with the Bone Shaker, the Autoshow is the way to go for a spare, since it goes for 400,000 to 500,000 credits on Auction. In my case, I have one, and it's stock. I guess I've been mistreating my Lamborghinis when it comes to optimized class tuning.

One thing I notice with this car in the Auction House is how its used as a way to get an X class car for cheap. How good is it as a freeroam machine, I'm sure the Forza Edition Sesto Elemento has that made irrelevant. But I'm fairly certain the car would still do well in its class.. The thing was straight up 900 PI in the UK, which is terrible.

I mean, what can I do with a spare on-oh goodness, it's green!

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With a whole host of performance ready to burst, we take the Performante out to Bosque Del Sur.

You were the chosen one! It was said you would shove aside the bigger modern car trend, not join them! Bring balance to MINI, not leave it in largeness.. okay, is largeness even a word?


"A true test of driving ability, almost every corner is coupled with an elevation change, making it hard to read the road ahead. The race can be won or lost at the hairpin before the end!"

To be honest, I was kind of hoping it's Mount Panamera levels of elevation, because that's where elevation is truly a challenge. And to call the last corner a hairpin is sort of insulting, while it's still a super tight corner.

The track overall is speed with a strong reliance on handling of all speeds. There are portions where you want to brake properly just to get through without touching the grass. There's bound to be moments where you just swear the track's suddenly shrunk down, so it's not all a breeze to get through.

But to test out a track oriented supercar on a road is something else. Would the already stiff and aero packed Lamborghini be in any ways hindering?


- We head to the interior as always, and I'm quite sure there's no issue to note of. It's your usual flair of modern Lamborghini here. Carbon portions, hexagons and orange stitching galore! I feel a bit distracted about the speedometer being a radial one than the computerized graphic we get in the Aventador.

- Launch is.. well, it's an AWD supercar with race technology up the wazoo. Just push it all the way! There is no issue.. obviously. My usual shifts for this car would be at 9000 RPMs.

- As a track car, the brakes are just phenomenal. Go ham and have no fear in doing any of those braking techniques. It doesn't feel like it would even lock up, actually. Then I found out the car already came with race brakes on stock. Fair enough, they are still top tier brakes, because they already are.

- Of course, with all these holes and smooth shapes, the handling in both lower and higher speeds are excellent. It's a little slippery, but it isn't at all an issue. There are many cases that I get to take a turn with just letting go of the throttle, kind of like the F355 in week 19.

- Due to the car's excellent state as a hot lapping hero, I better head to noting down problems with the track. There is the aforementioned elevation hindering... only if you manage to put the car off road. And since it's a low slung supercar, it's super bumpy. Maybe a dirt build wouldn't be the right idea for this car, but the base Huracan and Evo variants do exist..

- Now, without Barry R, going on the grass is fair game. It definitely is, but the nature of the car wants you to avoid that. There are moments where it can't be avoided, however, such as the first turn being a high speed roundabout first exit, barricades included. The car's swift and manueverable enough to dodge anything in these situations, and I recommend that rather than charging through like the bull you are.

- I haven't covered top end in a while, but the car's acceleration on the whole is excellent, oddly for a car that has natural aspiration.

- On my test run with the MINI (yes, that's the purpose of that first picture, by the way), I notice by the 20-25% range is a sharp left hander that's preceded by a small jump, causing the mass amounts of cars to shoot through ahead and lag behind. The Huracan has no issues in this field (heh, intentional pun), and the excellent brakes also play its part. Since the MINI is upgraded, no issue is noted there too. It's all up to the driver to anticipate this.

- The car seems perfect, right? I can't dispute this, but the one issue I have with the track is checkpoint placement. It feels as if it's tighter than usual. I often miss it, and using the checkpoints as apex points definitely contributes to this happening.. a lot. Especially during turns.

- With the sort of perfect car, and the kind of track that wants to challenge you, it's all about you. Yes, you! This is a casual driver's car all the way. No difficulty. No gimmicks. No style of driver it won't cater to. Whatever your intentions, it will do your bidding. Since this is the closest thing to the type of car one sees online, this Huracan is a fine starter car if one wishes to dabble with Horizon Open. Though, I wonder if the regular Huracan still bests it in that regard..


So, quick question: has this Huracan blown me away? Maybe. It's a modern track pack Lamborghini after all: these things have all the right ticks to impress. The track didn't quite take me super fancy, but it's not an issue. Still quite a combo to definitely test your mettle in an AWD supercar. Barry R sends his regards Let's go to the best run.

The factory fresh Huracan Performante performs a best of 2:37.773 under my tutelage.

The real challenge on getting a time like this is not the car, but the track. The car is excellent as a first supercar, but maybe I would head to a RWD supercar instead so one can learn to be more dexterous in regards to power and braking inputs. May I suggest the Forza Motorsport 6 flagship: the 2017 Ford GT instead? Because a bit of DANGER DANGER is the kind of spark I need to get learning.

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With the Huracan's position of being high in S1, it means we can't have a Test, and a Throwback isn't so suitable when there's just one car available for it. So let's go with the Showcase.

And this time it's Track Toys in S1. Before you assume I'm going to pick a random selection of these, think again. It's themed, and let's call it a Worldwide Track and Field, with a car representing a certain country. Maybe it's a bit obvious, but Italy gets 2.

Let's use the newly set EventLab for this: Huracan Hurricane, which I gotta say is a not very well thought out name. Mainly due to how it translates to Hurricane Hurricane. But I don't find it troubling at all. I can be a Playa kind of Playa whenever I want to anyways.

Initially I thought of week 16's Horizon Callajera due to that bulge on the top of the track layout, but I'm sure it's unique enough. It did remind me of Special Stage Route 5 for some reason.

But if there's one combo I know won't work, especially here in Forza, it's Track Toys on the highway. So it's time to see what cars around the world can bend that rule.

This is for my reference, but I'll keep the EventLab code here just in case it wasn't made super clear in the week 23 announcement: 392 955 292

Just like in week 14, let's begin with the obvious rival.


GERMANY - Porsche 911 GT2 RS (991.2)

Two turbos make a difference, but if we're on the same footing, how much of a difference can it make?


The Huracan Performante was famous for one thing: getting a record breaking Nurburgring time for mid/rear mounted engined cars. Enter the car that broke the Huracan's record: an amped up turbocharged version of a track modified Porsche. So, to begin the Showcase, let's have this German staple set a time to beat.

It might not be the ring, but I know this benchmark time of 2:23.919 is a good one.

The overall experience is definitely average, meaning it's not too dangerous, yet no way holding your hand. Traction is excellent, and the understeer is very minor. Definitely a time that's bound to challenge the other entries.


ITALY - Ferrari 488 Pista "Tortellini"

A red striped black beast intrudes the Huracan's proving grounds.


Representing the country of Italy is a car I for some reason declared a Tortellini. Why? I don't really recall why. Something to do with NFS Heat and a status update one time. Either way, it's a Pista, and as the name suggests, it's fast. But how fast?

Not to be confused with tadpoles or tennis balls, the track oriented Ferrari rallies through a best set of 2:23.593.

This is what happens when a traditional rear wing isn't used: the car is prone to slipping its rear quite often. Should you manage this weakness with good inputs, the car will reward you. It has a very solid top end.


AMERICA - Dodge Viper ACR

The omega entry of Dodge's fabled Viper. I'm always sad to be reminded of this.


When it comes to the land of the free, there's quite a variety of choices. It was a total 'eenie meenie miney mo' moment. My initial plans was to get Shadow: my Camaro ZL1, go for a second run. But I took one of my 3 Viper ACRs and developed it into something to take this road, and of course make America proud. With an impressive 7 minute lap time around the ring, would the Viper belong with the bigger and more lavish of track toys?

The Stryker badged beast snuck through the track with a best time of 2:24.240


When I initially made the tune, the top speed was really poor. I wondered why. Then I saw it already had fully adjustable aero from factory default. Instead of trying to fix the poor top end, I opted to make great use of the downforce instead, giving this time that actually surprised me. This EventLab design is pretty good when it comes to balancing handling and speed, something I plan to test further with a notable entry further below.


UK - McLaren 600LT Coupe

When you can make your entry level supercar like this, they're certified mad.


For this part of the UK, there's an abundance of selections, and due to that big highway stretch, I've headed for McLaren this time. Maybe one of my favorite McLarens of recent day, the 600LT isn't long or got a tail in any sense, but it's quite a mad machine. Twin turbos, a radical design and adjustable aero would play a role in this track toy's performance, but is it good enough?

The not so long tail would prove that point, with a Showcase's new best of 2:22.955.


The entire drive is very similar to that of the Pista. Difference being the 600LT is more forgiving in almost every aspect, except that it accelerates much better thanks to its turbos. However, it does have a hint of understeer. So far, the Pista still remains king of speed.


JAPAN - Nissan GT-R NISMO

Any monster movie fans out there are in for quite a treat.


The only possible entry for this part of the world would be last season's exclusive ride: a 2020 Nissan GT-R NISMO. With AWD and the go to characteristics of making the GT-R a staple of road going performance, you can say it's the closest thing to the Huracan from where it stands. But there's more to this GT-R than meets the eye, so let's find out in what sense.

Japan's favorite movie monster in car form takes a best lap of 2:22.684, shattering the McLaren.

The NISMO had one thing going for it: top speed in the straights. It's unbeatable there from nil to ludicrous speed, going up to 230 MPH. And the handling, while a bit sluggish and heavy, isn't bad at all. Not to mention the car isn't hard to drive fast in: a very notable GT-R trait.


MEXICO - VUHL 05RR "Zoom"

A return for the original Mark of Zen holder.


From all the way back in week 2, we have Zoom: my personal VUHL 05 that I've made and tuned very early in the game's life. With that big stretch being part of the track hurting the cars with no speed, the ACR Viper earlier proved to me there's still a chance we might get something decent with the VUHL.

A spicy lightweight track car such as the VUHL paved the way to a time of 2:24.211.


Oddly enough, the Viper was the more handling oriented car with a whole load more downforce on it. The VUHL had acceleration, stability and traction backing it, while not turning as good as the Viper. Still, it's a good indicator on the sort of leaning this track has for performance. It's an enjoyable experience, even if we never go past 185.


FORZA EDITION - Pontiac Firebird Trans Am GTA Forza Edition

Today we're going to set the streets on fire!


Now here's a surprise entrant: a Horizon Edition car. Now there apparently are a good selection of these cars to pick from, such as an aero laden Charger, the meme ridden Vocho and a Maserati Gran Turismo. But I went with an already proven speed machine that made headlines when I used it in week 16. I did say earlier I wanted to test the speed handling balance of this EventLab, and with how the VX ACR Viper and the VUHL done for handling, here's another taste of high speed.

Just like in week 16, the Firebird manages to impress with a time of 2:23.279.

I'm not actually surprised it got this kind of time. It's just very slightly ahead of the GT-R in the big straight. However, the car's low grip in low speed traits didn't translate too well in the technical portion, requiring the kind of inputs similar to a powerbuild. Still, definitely a Forza Edition to try out in the high speed tracks.


COTW NOMINEE - Lamborghini Huracan Performante

Nothing like finishing off the Showcase with a high V10 powered note.


Now we get back to the Huracan. I'm sure you can see this tinge of purple on the Huracan: a color derived from my personal Miura. There has to be one to inherit that color, right? I doubt we'll ever see the Miura Concept in any newer game ever.

As per usual, let's huddle up the times and make up the tiers to satisfy. For the first time, I guess, there aren't any terrible outliers as the Showcase's competitors really kept the competition close. So I don't think I would want to weigh in the Huracan's performance to the overall opinion of the car very much.


HIGH - This is for under 2 minutes 23: the region with the GT-R and the 600LT. One would have to find a car that would balance a great speed and similarly great handling ability to maybe inch here.

MID - Headlined by the surprise Forza Edition car, this region covers the entire 2 minutes 23 second area. Again, not a remarkable place to be at, but in no way I find here to be bad. Like all the cars this week so far have been quite exceptional in performance, even if we do have a one and a half second gap.

LOW - For this tier, the Huracan would have to go over 2 minutes 23 seconds. This would include the Huracan in the cars that lean towards handling. Though, the stock car test does give hints of that, actually.

It let out an impressive performance when stock, but I'm sure what I've done to this Performante brings that up a level or two.


How did the Huracan manage on a track named after itself? Well..

With a statement to make apparent, the Performante lands a best lap of 2:22.097.

This is half a second ahead of the mostly similar GT-R, and if I would put a God tier, the Huracan would be the car that sets it.

So how is it that the Huracan manages this? To summarize, it's because of the car's overall performance not in any way faltering in certain aspects. Like how the VUHL and Viper suffers in the straights, and just about anything else in the corners. It's an all around bovine that definitely is designed not to intentionally slow down. Having no weaknesses usually means everything can work. The event convinced me that the car on the whole works.

With another showcase done, it means there's a table incoming.

And it's time to finish this week. Yes, the top 2 are AWD cars. I'm not sure how to feel about that.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Let's escape from the city.


So..

What is the Lamborghini Huracan Performante? It is..

Lamborghini setting up their road legal influence with a smaller but just as dominating track based presence.

So, if this was 4, it's a Beater, mainly because it's stuck at 900 PI.

And I was just going to give it a Neutral, mainly because it's a track car with some great numbers and reputation behind it. It's at that weird limbo spot between Neutral and Sleeper, actually. But I feel I gotta explain it scooching it to a bare Sleeper.

Maybe it's the dominating presence of just about every purist track toy in this Showcase? Maybe because the drive it gives is excellent and easy to make work? Maybe because there's no Lamborghini present in the game's online racing meta? Maybe because it's a real Italian machine not from those kind of egotistical ponces within Ferrari?

I guess I can merge all those in one go. Besides, I'm quite sure a tricked out base Huracan always is a better car for racing. That's been the case in 4 with rain builds.

Interestingly, I sort of forgot the base Huracan is the flagship car for Horizon 2. But aside that, I'm glad we finally got something fast, so I'm hoping upcoming weeks with a brand like this won't be dull. Sort of like, y'know, the dull time we had with.. Rambo Lambo.








HAH, I MANAGED TO SNEAK IT IN!!
RAMBO LAMBO IS BEST NICKNAME EVER!!

 

[Nacho Libre]

I did enjoy the car/route combination and gave me something to do this week because I'm boycotting the playlist!
It is a very stable car with excellent launch and acceleration out of the corners provided you nail the braking points early, which is essential in this route, specially at a point where you go uphill/downhill/ sharp 90 degree corner to the left (you will know where) that can make or break your time.

The only negative traits are that the brakes can/will fade if you brake very late, and you can encounter some understeering at the very top of your speed (in real life this is good!). I found that moving the brake balance to about 55/45 does improve the braking feel in general.

My times were about 2:43, but after encountering a really annoying rival on a Ford GT (and a kiddie gametag, you know the ones, nonsensical and with lots of numbers) I upgraded just a bit to 880 (fitted the widest tires, and the sport suspension, basically) and posted a 2:41:XX.

It is a SLEEPER!

 

[Vic Reign93]

In a nutshell, it’s got Sleeper performance, but you expect it to.

It’s also cheaper to buy one from the Autoshow than buying out one at Auction.

It’s handling certainly inspires confidence, almost too much in some cases, same for the brakes as you brake a little later each time, right up until you lock a wheel and go sailing through someone’s backyard.

It won’t try to kill you, but it will make you overconfident if you’re not careful and overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

Again, Sleeper performance, but you expect that.

Verdict: Neutral(A very good one at that😁👍)

 

[space_wadet]

Sorry I missed last week's COTW, I actually was busy and caught out by time and wasn't trying to avoid the boneshaker

There isn't that much to say about the Huracan Performante in the scheme of things. It's a great car. The few styling updates from the base car gives it a bit of pizazz that the base car lacks, considering it's a Lambo. I especially love the mid-mounted exhausts. But the rear wing looks a little basic IMO, but that might be a performance decision.

As for the driving, with AWD, more power and less weight, and more downforce compared to the base car, seems to be no downsides. The brakes are great, hard to lock up, which is definitely a plus in FH5 without ABS. Launch is what you'd expect from an AWD, and acceleration keeps going after that. It's stable at high speeds, thanks to the downforce, gives you all the confidence you need to go flat out in the fast bends. Which sometimes leads you to take too much speed in and the car slides out, but it's easy enough to catch with the AWD. In the end it's a bit of a "point and squirt" type of car, though you can use the AWD for stability in mid-corner as well as traction, which makes it a great, easy to drive all-rounder.

It's a bit hard to judge on its own, so I decided to compare it to its Maranello counterpart before giving it a rating. Enter the 488 Pista. Also the performance variant of the mid engined supercar, which means more power and less weight, and a more aggressive exterior. Compared to the Huracan P, it's 80bhp up and more than 100kg down, so you'd think it wouldn't be a fair fight. But in Forza terms it's only 15 PI higher, and only 2WD, so I think it's an adequate comparison.

Launch on the Pista isn't as good obviously, but not as bad as you'd expect, especially with FH5's new physics which limit wheelspin. And once you get to the left-right-left of the roundabout on the track, the difference is huge. The Lambo feels understeery and sluggish compared to the Ferrari, which is a lot more direct on corner entry, and keeps turning in, where the Lambo would start to straighten. Change of direction is much more responsive as well. It's just that much more agile, and in turn so much nicer to drive. The power and RWD makes it prone to oversteer, but in a way it's more enjoyable, as it gives you the driver more to do. My first clean run in the Pista was almost a second down on the Performante, at 2:35.0, while still being a scruffy run. It isn't surprising that this is the car Charles Leclerc chose as a company car.

I would have maybe given it a sleeper rating at first, but after driving the 488 Pista I can't go higher than NEUTRAL. I'd take the 488 every time.

 

[Ali]

I don't know what to say about this car. In real life it's one of the very few supercars I'd (probably) like to own if I had the money, but in FH5 it's... not all that interesting? It has very good acceleration, braking and it corners well, but I wouldn't necessarily drive it just for fun. It pretty much stays planted no matter what and if you manage to push it too hard it just understeers a little bit.

This week's route was a nightmare, I tend to avoid going offroad as much as possible, it took me some time to get a clean drive here.

This week's Eventlab circuit was a lot more fun, and the Huracan was... well, quick.

A very capable car, but not a very enjoyable one, in my opinion. Neutral it is.

 

[Obelisk]

Another week gone, another bit of my sanity gone in the wind. But that's par for the course in this pandemic world, haha.

Let's see how the Huracan did! ...I think this is the week with the most votes by far! And oh, boy. The Huracan Performante has gotten four Neutral votes to two Sleeper votes. So it's a Neutral! Good work, but you didn't wow us enough. Not enough bull in my bull-badged car.

This week's car is brought to us by Vic Reign, as I mentioned last week when sorting out the snafu with schedules. And it is the...

2018 TVR Griffith!

A surprising revival of the TVR brand after it went quiet in the early 2000s and 2010s, the Griffith featured this week is the second generation of the model and a continuation of what TVR stands for: absolutely murderous and rapid RWDs.

And this week's challenge for our local crazy car (S1 825) is Carterra Chase, a Street Race that starts by paying a visit to the ancient city of Teotihuacan, then ending with a mad dash down Mexico's highway to the Street Scene outpost.

The EventLab for this week is the "Griffin's Den", a sprint starting at the foot of the volcano and takes you north, before sending you south and ending with you crashing a concert. Share Code 237 802 198.

Let's take the beast for a spin and see if we can survive this thing's fury.

 

[space_wadet]

It's been 5 years since the TVR Griffith was first unveiled, way back in 2017, and there's still no official production start date. Hopefully the project is still on track for release at some point, as TVR is a mainstay of the weird and wacky world of British "shed" produced sports cars. But here in the Forza world, we need not fret over such real world difficulties, we're free to drive, jump and crash semi-vaporware cars to our hearts' content.

If this videogame version is anything to go by, it'd be a real shame if the car didn't make it in the real world. It really is a lovely car to drive. Plenty of power, while only weighing 1200kgs, it's incredibly well balanced. Not a hint of understeer or oversteer in medium or high speed corners. Those things only happen through driver error. Its only letdown is the launch. It's a decent amount of power going through the rear wheels, and wheelspin is inevitable. But more powerful cars in FH5 don't spin their wheels as much so there's something else going on. Maybe shorter gears, skinny rear tires or a lack of torque in the lower end. Trying to turn while wheelspinning brings the back end out, so low speeds and hairspins are tricky. You can't be too greedy with the throttle. But it's nothing a good driver wouldn't be able to manage.

Once you're at higher speeds though, there's very little to complain about. Turn in, stability and balance through corners are hard to fault. Front end could use a tiny bit more bite. Brakes are decent but not amazing, mostly helped by the fact that the car is light. The redline is just under 7000rpm but the car continues to accelerate until 8000rpm so there's room to play with. Top end is good, pulls all the way to 300kph without breaking a sweat.

Carterra chase, apart from a handful of corners around Teotihuacan is almost all full throttle, including a long section on the highway. Finding time is mostly about how brave you want to be through corners you're not sure whether you should lift for.



This week's Eventlab is a better track to show the Griffith's strengths, with more corners you need to actually brake for. After a few runs I felt I was just missing a front spoiler, for an extra bit of front end grip.

All in all, in stock form it's SLEEPER, despite the poor launch. Not sure if it'd make the cut for top of S1 though. It's fairly low in S1. It does leave me wishing S1 was split in two classes.

 

[Nacho Libre]

I dunno, for a company with such "colorful" history the new Griffith feels kind of mild. I agree with the above impressions (stable, balanced, light, etc.) but then again, most modern sports cars are like that.

Old TVR's have found a nice digital home in both Forza franchises and there is nothing mild about them, performance and otherwise, and that's why they are so enjoyable (except in FH4, nothing above S1 is enjoyable there).

So after posting a very average 2:37 time (I was rather bothered by the understeer, specially around the Sun pyramid), I decided to build a Targaris to match. Not only it bested the Griffith's time by about 1.5 seconds (2:35:7XX), it was memorable all the way through, as the front end is lighter and the car is snappier, but very recoverable.

So the Griffith (without regard to the company's history) gets a Neutral. Very competent car, like a modern Mustang.

A Targaris built to match the Griffith at S1 825 (same HP) is a Sleeper and a giggle machine.

 

[Obelisk]

(Carterra Chase)
Not much to really say about it, it's a composed car that has a lot of promise. It lacks that...insanity that other TVRs have, though.

(Griffin's Run)

wadet has a great point, though. The car has just enough grip that you can challenge some of the more risky corners. And clearly, I was not brave enough to try that.

Neutral for me, but a worthwhile car to have.

 

[Vic Reign93]

As TVR’s go it is as mentioned, much less of an axe murderer than previous TVR’s, but it’s still crazy enough to take an eye out if provoked.

It’s usual insanity has been focused and now it’s a very capable performer with 500hp from a Cosworth tuned 5.0 Coyote V8.

Was originally meant to hit production back in 2019, but funding issues and production facilities being damaged pushed it back to 2020.

And then the world went to 💩 in a hand basket courtesy of The Human Malware bug.

According to its Wiki page, as of November last year it’s still not hit production and finished cars aren’t expected to be delivered until the end of next year.

Safe to say it’s not had the greatest of starts, but I hope everything sorts itself out and it actually hits production.

Verdict: Neutral(But definitely pick one up, it’s a good platform for a Diesel S1 build. 😉

 

[Obelisk]

it’s a good platform for a Diesel S1 build.

Heresy! Heresy, I tell you!

In all seriousness, does anyone actually use the diesel swap?