Ah yes, one of many ‘Turbo Bricks’ from the same company with arguably the strongest pursuit for vehicle safety on the planet.
The 242 Turbo Evolution like already mentioned is a homologation special, a homologation special from the 80’s.
Already it’s looking good out the gate.
Not literally though as it’s design isn’t exactly striking, ditch the rear wing and unless you know what to look for, you could mistake it for just an ordinary 242.
But with 225hp on tap it’s no ordinary 242, this one was built for Group A Touring Car racing.
Annnd this is where things get rather interesting.
Those 500 cars that were made? They didn’t come off the production line as Evolution models.
Instead, 500 cars in America were retrofitted with the Evolution Kit and once the FIA in the USA approved it for Homologation, they removed the Evolution Kit except for the intercooler.
I’ll leave a link to the Turbobricks forum where it goes into slightly more detail about it.
A mostly dirt track might not be the best place to test out the abilities of a road going touring car, but weirdly enough it's not the worst place either. The 242 does fare surprisingly well on loose surfaces. Due to the length of the car it is quite oversteery on the dirt but not to a unmanageable degree. Add to that decent enough front end grip and traction and you've got a perfectly capable dirt scramble machine. Though maybe not the best suited to very tight tracks, it's a bit too long to be agile.
It should probably not come as a surprise that the Volvo is a great dirt driver, given the road/weather conditions of its home country. It has great control and balance during oversteer conditions, with good braking too, and it is quite easy to drift at low speeds. However, it is too slow to be competitive in rivals, and it is probably the ugliest car we have tested here! All in all, a true SLEEPER.
👍A remarkably competent car with good stats all around. Could potentially put up a fight against C600 cars in the right hands and context.
👎 God dang is it an ugly box. I find it attractive though.
Sleeper. And with that, the Volvo has a clean sweep of sleeper votes. Is that really much of a surprise?
This is the final eligible car for the year 1 COTW awards. The cars being announced in this post are the first of Year 2. Thank you for sticking with me on this exploration of the car roster. Let's put the pedal to the metal and send ourselves into year 2 at redline, yeah? COTW BOS AWARD NOMINATIONS ARE STILL OPEN.
We have two more weeks for votes to be submitted! I only have one set of votes in besides myself, I'd love to hear from more of you folks! To submit your votes: Send me a direct/private message here on GTP (subject FH5 COTW Award Nominations) with your nominations in the following categories:
Ya valió. (it bit the dust.): The worst Beater covered in the thread
¡Campeón de México! (champion of Mexico!): The best Sleeper covered in the thread
Best New Car: Best of the cars that debuted in FH5
Best Veteran: Best of the cars that have been carried over from prior FHs
¡Fiesta! (party!): The most engaging/enjoyable car in the thread, regardless of its overall rating
Showstopper: Best-looking car covered by the thread
Trash Heap: Ugliest-looking car covered by the thread
It is week 53, and I'll be closing and tallying the votes when we start week 55.
And, now that we're kicking off Year 2 of a Forza Horizon COTW for the first time, I figured we'd celebrate this with one of Mexico's most iconic cars, the...
VOCHO!! (aka the 1963 VW Beetle)
I'm surprised we didn't visit this car sooner, the Beetle is a truly legendary car and a common sight in Mexico's roads. I admit I don't know much about Mexico and this car, so I'll leave it to our friend Nacho to elaborate (if he wants to, that is!).
But wait, there's more. There's always more.
The Vocho has an FE edition!
Sporting a 2.66 liter engine that's pushing 329 HP, this 1,500 pound machine is one of the wilder looking FEs we have in the game. It's also easy enough to obtain, given that there is a dedicated story to the Vocho.
A legendary car deserves a good test bed, so:
The base Vocho, at D 100, will be tested at El Pípila Scramble, a two mile run around Guantanjo on the roads and on the dirts to try and capture the types of routes the Vocho tackles during commutes.
The FE Edition Vocho, at S1 900, will be tackling the Bahía De Plano Circuit.
As someone who hasn't bothered with most of the game's various Stories (except the Anniversary ones, and of course Drift Club, but nobody talks about that), umm..
Hmmm..
Oh crap..
So the VW Beetle, known in Mexico as the Vocho is one of the most popular cars ever built.
It also had an incredibly long lifespan from 1938 to 2003, during which over 21.5 Million cars were produced.
For Context, the current population of Sri Lanka is 21.6 million.
Powered by a 1.2 Flat Four making 40hp, it sends to the rear via a 4 speed manual gearbox.
It felt more eager to get going than the Ford Anglia did, despite that being lighter and only 1hp down on the Beetle, but it’s still no rocket ship.
Handling is classic RR, understeer until you hit the brakes and then the weight transfer brings about oversteer, more so on the dirt section.
As a performance car, it’s not winning many races in stock form, but as is mentioned in the Horizon Story on the Vocho, it’s a canvas for you to build it in to your own desire.
Mine? B Class, Taxi livery, a grippy little thing through the city and backed by 161hp.
But unlike prior Horizons, the Beetle can only be unlocked by completing the Horizon Story for it, no autoshow option here.
So you see that Vocho up there?
It’s Nacho Vocho.
Verdict: Neutral (Stock)
As it turns out however, we aren’t the only ones turning up the Vocho’s, Horizon has their own ‘HyperVocho’.
For 3 starring the whole Vocho Story, you get access to the S1 900 Beetle FE and you notice really quick it’s had everything thrown at it for performance.
The standard 1.2 F4 has been given a major overhaul, 2.7 litres, Revs past 9000rpm and makes 329hp naturally aspirated, all of which is made much louder by the megaphone exhaust and sent to the rear via a 7 speed gearbox. 👍
It might be dressed up like a dragster with the rear wing, no engine cover and the wheelie bars, but it’s also got grip, thanks to its vintage race slicks and four wheel steering(yes really).
While it’s grip isn’t endless and there’s no front aero to adjust, it’s still capable of being a menace on the right tracks.
Despite being ranked at the bottom of D class like its peer the Anglia, the Vocho is a much peppier car off the line. It has much more composed handling, due to the suspension being much tighter all around. Being RR also helps with a lot on this car, and I can sort of feel the beginnings of the Porsches in it.
It's quite a pleasant drive, and it's obviously positioned as a canvas on which you can create any kind of masterpiece. Quite a nice little Sleeper as no one really uses the Vocho.
As for its FE... I've driven it a lot. It's actually behaving in a manner quite similar to the VUHL from week 2: Immense grip, relatively little attitude and a whole lotta speed in a small package. Heck, it's even got similar specs on paper.
Unlike the Vuhl, though, it's liable to snap on you on the default settings. You'll need to wrench it a bit to get it fully compliant.
Another bottom of D class machine, which somehow doesn't feel as slow as the Anglia, maybe helped by the track being a circuit and not an open sprint with long straights. Other than that there's not much to say about it, 4 gears is enough for its power. Doesn't have enough speed to cause handling problems. It's fine.
Neutral. It's adequate, but wouldn't drive one in its stock form.
On to the Vocho FE.. One thing I like about FH5 is how the FE cars are actually interesting and wacky this time around. S2 track special X5? 911 GT3 offroader? Electric classic Mini? Circuit special Beetle with a comically large tailpipe? Yes please!
Despite looking like a dragster it isn't really one. A fair amount of wheelspin on launch and a rather low top speed means it's not the best option for straight line races. But it more than makes up for it with buckets of grip in the corners. It tops out around 265kph so you're best using it only on circuits, but on those it comes into its own. On the Bahia track, most corners are flat out, or near flat out, there's only really two corners where you need to use the brakes.
Lacking front aero and being rear-engined it's not a car with a pointy front end, and can occasionally snap on you, so there isn't many ways to get the best time out of it. That said it's not difficult to drive and the huge levels of grip does make it decently fun.
Sleeper. Fun FE edition, though maybe a slightly narrow range of competitiveness.
The Vocho this week has earned itself a Neutral majority, and its bonkers FE edition has earned a unanimous Sleeper vote. Nicely done.
We are entering the final week of voting. Please submit your votes if you haven't yet!
To submit your votes: Send me a direct/private message here on GTP (subject FH5 COTW Award Nominations) with your nominations in the following categories:
Ya valió. (it bit the dust.): The worst Beater covered in the thread
¡Campeón de México! (champion of Mexico!): The best Sleeper covered in the thread
Best New Car: Best of the cars that debuted in FH5
Best Veteran: Best of the cars that have been carried over from prior FHs
¡Fiesta! (party!): The most engaging/enjoyable car in the thread, regardless of its overall rating
Showstopper: Best-looking car covered by the thread
Trash Heap: Ugliest-looking car covered by the thread
And with that, we roll into week 54 with something that I actually forgot was in the game. We're tackling an early model of a brand that's cut its teeth at speeds well over 200 MPH, with the...
2002 Koenigsegg CC8S!
The Koenigsegg CC prototype was first revealed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the first production car, a red CC8S, was delivered in 2002.
And the rest is history. We now have Regeras, Jeskos and One:1s everywhere.
Relatively speaking, the CC8S was a humble start for a manufacturer whose cars are some of the most elite of the elite. And to see what this humble beginning (S1 846) brought to the table, we'll be taking it through its paces at the Carretera Chase.
I had high expectations for this week's car. The car that kicked it all off for Koenigsegg, now very much a household name in supercar and hypercar circles. Only recently was this very car celebrated with a updated version, the stunning CC850. It's been 20 years since the first car was delivered, and the supercar market and landscape has completely changed since, so let's find out if the CC8S still holds up today.
One thing it certainly doesn't lack is speed, even by today's standard this car is fast. Breezes past 350kph without even breaking a sweat, and then there's still another gear. 564bhp doesn't sound impressive these days, your typical sport german saloon probably has more horses, but in the CC8S it's enough to compete with any supercar and even some hypercars, thanks to a lightweight body and a decent drag coefficient (due to it having basically no aero, but we'll come back to that).
There's only six gears, and as I mentioned already six gear isn't required below 350k so they're on the long side. Even so, there's no way to avoid wheelspin in first gear launching from a standstill. First and second gear require some throttle management. Once your past second, acceleration is decent, there's enough horses despite the lengthy ratios.
Brakes are where it starts to show its age. They lock up very easily, any kind of additional input while braking makes them lock up and sends you into the wall. Which isn't ideal when doing 300+kph. The lack of aero means the car is prone to understeer at the best of times so driving this car near its limit is more of a challenge than its contemporary counterparts.
The handling on the whole is reminiscent of supercars of the classic/retro aero when cars were simple, without aero and all the bells and whistles of today. Except it's a lot of faster.
Time trialing with it was quite frustrating I must say, it's not a forgiving car. There's a lot of speed to manage with subpar brakes and buckets of understeer, not to mention a touch of on-power oversteer. That said the performance is undeniably there. So I'll go with a low Sleeper, despite leaning towards a neutral initially.
So the CC8S, Koenigsegg’s first production car and it’s also one of its rarest too at only 6 cars built, 2 of which were right hand drive.
I’ll cover the details of its in game performance with what @space_wadet already said, Understeer at high speeds, slightly sub par brakes and some throttle management at lower speeds.
But I will add this.. It’s underpowered.
I don’t even mean that in a ‘feels’ way, it’s literally underpowered compared to its factory stats.
We have 564hp, real ones have 655hp.
On the subject of engines, let’s talk about how it ended up with Ford Modular V8’s or rather, the other engines that were seriously considered for the CC8S when the CC prototype was about.
Audi’s iconic 4.2 V8 was considered, but rejected, the other engine however was not only strongly considered, it’s possible that it would’ve got the green light had it not being for the untimely death of the owner of the company that built it.
That other engine was a Subaru commissioned, 3.5 litre Flat 12 engine which made a reported 560hp.
Ok, let’s unpack that last paragraph a little bit.
Why would Subaru commission an engine like that?
Answer: Formula 1
They wanted in to the F1 world in 1989 as engine suppliers for teams, just like how Honda and Yamaha were doing.
So they asked Motori Moderni, an Italian company to build them an engine and they came back with the Flat 12.
Flat 12 have had success in F1 under Ferrari and another Italian team called Coloni ended up accepting a deal from Subaru for the engine for the 1990 season.
It turns out it wasn’t really a great engine.
It was under powered against the Cosworth V8, heavier than the V8, fragile and rarely ran on all 12 cylinders at once.
It’s only saving grace from being the joke of the 1990 season was the fact that there was an even WORSE engine & car combo on the grid that year.
The Life Racing Engines 3.5 litre W12.
Life is up there as one of the worst teams ever in F1 history, but it can be argued that 2 other teams also qualify for that title too.
Andrea Moda and Mastercard Lola.
But to keep it somewhat brief, here’s the TLDR for all 3
Mastercard Lola: Bad Sponsorship deal & pressured to start before they were ready.
Life Racing Engines: Bad chassis, very terrible engine
Andrea Moda: Decent chassis, poor engine, Shambolic & shady Team owner.
(This is what happens when a cars story has an interesting detail, I end up falling down a damn rabbit hole.)
But back to the CC8S for the summary.
I’d say it’s a Sleeper, being quick as it is on the straights despite being nearly 100hp down on what it should be making, it’s rare IRL and only costs 400k(or 300 Forza Points for this week.).
I would say the Auction House prices at this point, but given that the community utterly demolished the in game economy with a money glitch last week and the subsequent money washing by selling common cheap cars for 20 million a piece, the Auction House is currently offline.
SPD Writes Car Of The Week: Week 54 - Koenigsegg CC8S
On this year's Pebble Beach, Koenigsegg took to the video game HD remake culture and brought us the return of the old school themed CC850. But what of its original source material?
While the ultimate daddy tribute the Jesko was featured in COTW a few months ago, we now head back in time to 2002 to see the CC series of cars. This would be one car that's famously done two things: be the first car that nudged the McLaren F1 in achieving a production car top speed record. And set the benchmark for Koenigsegg that started very strong with the almighty CCX that isn't in the game yet, which makes me fume the more I think about it.
But even though this is an early 2000s car, the company was actually born in 1994, which means Christian von Koenigsegg took his sweet time of 8 years to get something rolling out of his sports car loving passions to the masses. To think he was starting off trading in the frozen food business means old Christian had to work his way into the hypercar development seat.
But nothing really of note happened until the reveal of the car's prototype in the Paris Motor Show in 2000, which debuted the car's iconic design still used today, and the engine, which was a supercharged variant of Ford's modular V8, but heavily modified to run even better. And yes, like the MR2, the CC8S name is also an acronym, CC V8Supercharged. No, I don't know what CC means, it probably is something, but I never found out what.
While the CC8S matched the McLaren F1's top speed, it was a later variant, the CCR, that managed to get past the 240 MPH barrier. However, the Veyron would come in years later, and the top speed competitive environment just changed over night. Unlike the Veyron, only 6 CC8S models exist, so you can say this is a very exclusive car. And being the predecessor to the CCX that infamously crashed out on the Top Gear Test Track, to say we're going for a ride might mean more than initially thought.
And would you believe the CC8S would be known to me due to an old game known as Midtown Madness 3, also known as the predecessor to Rockstar's cult classic racer Midnight Club. But in terms of games, or any form of exposure, this isn't a car with a strong visible representation at all. Understandable, really. There's not much I can write about it.
Sitting in the middle of S1, the CC8S carries a PI of 846. In its class of Hypercars (odd), the Aventador would be the only car in its reach with a 1 PI advantage. But that car's definitely a lot easier to work with. If you ask me, I would say why wasn't it in Retro Supercars? And a car this exclusive strangely would cost only 400,000 credits. For this week only, it's also buyable at the Forzathon shop for the low cost of 300 FP. Convenient?
And I guess thanks to a recent thumping of the in game economy thanks to a certain money glitch going strong, I might have to drop the quick peek at the buy outs within the Auction House entirely. But even if you're free to ignore me on this suggestion, should you do check the Auction House, you can see it's closed off at the moment. My garage has 2: one for the top of S1, the other now finally getting some miles in.
Great, I for one am really hoping for a certain Wheelspin car for my next nominee. Back to the planning board.
If we were to write a book about it, Chapter 1 of this ultimate Swede super sports machine would have us describe this need for speed, provided very nicely within Carretera Chase.
With friends you can do proper highway rolls. But this is an otherwise very silly track with AI because as you can see behind, what is racing lines?
"After skirting around the ancient city of Teotihuacan, this route joins the highway for a high-speed battle to the finish next to the Horizon Street Scene outpost."
Oh boy, it's a repeat track time! Oddly enough, the car that preceded this: the TVR Griffith, is also related directly to a Ford V8. Well, it had a Coyote, so it definitely is related.
When it comes to Street Scene, as long as it's outside the city, I am mostly okay. This track's overall guise remains strong towards speedy, especially with flowy turns around the pyramid, then a dash through the expressway. I mean, this all is perfect for this week's famously high speed choice. But I'm not putting tabs on Mark of Zen already until I'm done. We do have something that's absolutely nuts when it comes to the car's balance.
Though, since I use Rivals, the Griffith's time is going to be getting in the way of a proper screenshot. But with a 19 PI advantage, I think I can beat it no problem.
The CC8S once held an official world record for having the most powerful engine in a road going car. However amazing that achievement is, in the early 2000s, young SPD was stuck into the Saleen S7, which is a more impressive machine at 100 HP less. Doesn't mean the car's any bad. Thinking: if there be a SPD's favorite Koenigsegg, the Regera has that spot filled up for the time being. Still, should the CC8S to swing its favor more to me, the better.
- The view inside the CC8S is tight as tight can be. I've yet to be in one of these for real so I can get a general feel about it. The information inside reminds me strongly of those lightweight British sports cars that are found within the likes of a TVR or a kit car. Not stylish, but I get what it's for.
- Yes, it's about time where we get a car whose launch will massively improve if you control the throttle. Remind me to get a high powered car for my next undertaking should I get to choose the next nominee. Be gentle on first and get the wheelspin steady before going into 2nd, then full out. 3rd onwards is pretty much cruise control. I shift at the edge of the redline, at around 7600-7700 RPM.
- When inspecting the braking, the car won't let its rear out very badly, but it still locks them with a rear bias. Braking early is important, due to how it has this massive understeer when locking. But this is a car that's okay with various braking techniques, and misusing the brakes is probably the only source of it going wild. Brake early is pretty important, huh? With this car, it's probably important in all caps.
- Speaking of understeer, it has this general weird mix of slightly throwing out its back, but while doing so understeers. You will notice this when on a long sweeping road. But this trait diminishes drastically when at higher speeds, where its stability for some reason improves. I didn't see it until a while, but this is also a wide car, so I suppose points are given for this design choice.
- Even though it's made for 230+ MPH, the power doesn't get a good representation. They're long, and that 6th gear maybe is made for large speed test rings. This has 2 purposes: to throw down that supercharged V8 and its stable power band, and also with traction. I'm impressed that when it comes to traction, the CC8S only gets this issue only during launch. Maybe also during rain, but past 2nd, putting your foot down is a safe bet.
- Even without a turbo, the car's general acceleration is really good. Don't worry too much about forgetting to shift down. My complaint is that if we head to some other track, we're not going to exploit its strength in speed. And should you go a bit wide, the car's not too bad on the grass. Maybe like the Griffith you'd want to stay away from anything but road.
- I've already mentioned track advice on Week 24, so let's recap: get your car in control during the technical portions, watch out for the road barriers, and when you reach the dual lane expressway, change lane ASAP.
- While similar to the Griffith in terms of having a nice V8, this is a much more stable, planted car that suffers from a nasty case of understeer rather than instability. Beating that is going to be your first goal, and the top advice is to not be afraid in making adjustments to your driving. Brake early or you're going to reset. Do note that while some cars like your style, some don't, and you gotta be adaptable.
Some people are the kind of people that want to drive a car with a godlike top end, and some others love track tuned grip monsters. I love this track, more now with a second run. And even though this is a nice combo, that understeer sours the moments. Still a combo to go for if you like speed and challenge, and the challenge is just right.
The CC8S powers through the pyramid and the Street Scene Outpost to a best of 2:23.681.
It's a car with power and stability, but that understeer means, for me, it's a one and done deal. I definitely feel I can cut off 2 or more seconds. On the whole, this is a car bred for speed, and it's easy to see it in play here by the end. Despite flaws, I find ourselves a case of a good, but not exactly amazing combo.
While we're still here, let's keep the revisiting flow going, and also revisit Griffin's Run: a track used for Week 24's TVR Griffith. I mean, why not, the purpose and PI for that black CC8S is the same as the Griffith: at the top of S1. We still got the share code in 237 802 198.
Since the purpose and general performance range remains the same, the black CC8S now gets a run around some track to see how good it is compared to the Griffith. It's got less PI to get to the top, but it does have a defined reason for certain parts. Better tyres, obviously since I can't do powerbuilds yet. Adjustable gears so I can get that power in proper use. New adjustable springs to get the handling right. And also added a small squirt of extra power: the creme de la creme.
These species may be fast cars, but not really one born on the track at all. Aside on ye olde Top Gear, I don't ever see Koenigseggs on lap record boards now I think it.
Out of the nest and into the track, this upped CC8S lands a time of 2:16.262.
To compare, the TVR's time is a 2:17.855. The other car in that run, the McLaren F1, that car's time is 2:16.897. The CC8S beat them clean, mainly because of how much better of a car it is at a higher level. It's built for higher speeds than those two. The understeer's pretty much gone, but in return, the tighter gears mean I get the first 2 gears to be under strict throttle management.
And with yet another revisit done, let's fini-
Oh not again. even though this is supposedly scripted.
So, even though time travel doesn't exist, the influence of a young, 10 year old SPD has popped up.. even though I don't think the SPD name ever rose before I ended up frequenting GTPlanet.
But now let's go back to what car can challenge the CC8S on its time period. One such car came on the radar, and it's time to see how much of an asswipe it is. I bring you..
Saleen S7
Let's welcome the return of an American Alpha: a car which gave me the idea a brutal V8 would go in a radical, overcompensating machine of downforce.
Last seen at the Week 16's massive Showcase dubbed the 'Great American Bash', my Speedlab Yellow Saleen S7 made highlights by being 2nd in the Showcase, which was dominated by a speedbuild Hypercar on its turf.
The first car from tuning firm Saleen, the car made headlines by being the first modern production American supercar. While now a collector's piece, and a very nicely performing hard to find in the game, its influence today still remained solely in Horizon: a niche I don't mind seeing outside here and The Crew 2.
The Saleen's overall shape and looks contribute to its immense downforce at stock. I'm starting to think how devastating this thing can be in the right hands. And with this devastation I plan to, like the F1 to the Griffith, influence the outcome of the CC8S.
Representing a slice of performance from a bunch of American performance freaks, the S7's best run screams a best of 2:13.838.
Suffering succotash, 2 and a half seconds ahead? Are we at the same PI? What the heck?
The thing about the S7 is that traction control is the only issue. Every other aspect of the car is pure perfection. This is also my first run with the car, and it's just straight up dominant. It can do handling and speed. Maybe I'll not put the car into consideration. You can mistake it for a race car so easily... I need this car to be in a modern GT game now, since I really like poking the nerves of people when it comes to what's road legal or not.
First set of Swedish meatballs in the bountiful feast known as iconic hypercars.
Don't get me wrong: I LOVE Swedish meatballs. The idea about them is that you can't go horrendously wrong with them, but like a good meatball: you gotta season it just right. And you don't get that right off the bat.
But It's a car that drives pretty badly for general purpose. Even towards more traditional supercars of the McLaren F1 and Saleen S7. Those were supercars I definitely put next to each other in this unusual era of 90's to early 00's performance. It might have beaten the Griffith in the track, but that's a given. And considering how it did on Griffin's Den, it's definitely not slow. It can go, but it's a car that needs a tune to make work.
I'm calling it a Neutral. Let's put it next to the Griffith. Not saying it's anyway a bad car. Koenigseggs in general are underrated machines for race purposes, but unless you're driving the CCGT, I don't see them doing you any favors outside the highway.
Y'know, all this Koenigsegg talk makes me hungry for some speed. So let's put aside the CC8S and go ahead 14 years for the one gear wonder to shine in the deluge.
Reminder that you guys have until tomorrow night's car update to submit your votes.
I only have two submissions not counting myself.
Just send me a DM with your nominations in the categories listed in the announcements on week 52 and onwards. You don't have to choose cars you haven't driven, so don't feel pressured to vote outside of your experience.
Announcement post is slightly delayed, but will be my next post so keep your eyes peeled. Just working on the vote tallies.
For now, the CC8S.
I genuinely enjoy the aesthetics of this car. It's still a gorgeous car, 20 years down the line.
And being the apparent sole wheel user in here, I can say that the understeer is more subtle on the wheel. As is the oversteer, since you get the warning signs in the FFB a lot quicker than via the controller's feedback systems.
Didn't help me one bit with my pace, though. To keep this brief, the CC8S is:
👍 An excellent straight-line speed car, and an excellent corner carver at high speeds.
👎 Lacking a little in grip overall, with obvious room for improvement.
I remember when I didn't enjoy driving any Koeniseggs (from now on, the Konis!), especially in Forza Horizon 4, where basically no S2 cars could keep their grip on the horrible, narrow British roads!
Now, thanks to the reworked physics on FH5, I am not scared of the Konis' traits, which in general involve massive power and dubious aerodynamics (Jesko and One:1 being the exception).
In short, the first production Koni, their blueprint essentially, is a very enjoyable NEUTRAL, bordering on Sleeper. Yes, it understeers, but that trait is a welcome one in a car like this, so it keeps you honest, both in and out of corners.
I did consider voting it the best-looking car of COTW, but there was another that just slightly came on top.
The Awards are a little delayed - I lost my draft on here, and we at the admin staff still need a bit of time to figure out what to do with two of the categories as we had four ties out of the seven categories.
In the meanwhile, here is our late weekly update:
The CC8S has earned itself a Neutral majority, with a 3-2 vote in favor. This was a very close week, and rightfully so for something like this car.
And now, we move to this week's car. And way, way, way into the future, where a Petty Officer by the name of John-117 would go down in history as one of the greatest military heroes of all time.
Our car this week is the...
2554 AMG Transport Dynamics M12S Warthog CST!
Otherwise just known as the Warthog, this edition of the car is a civilian model much like the H1 Alpha was a civilian model of the HMMWV (or "Humvee" as a lot of people know them).
And it's somehow 500+ years in the past, in the hands of a bunch of car maniacs. Master Chief would have a field day with this.
To see what power the future brings to us in the form of this car, we will be taking the Warthog (A 719) to the Ribera Rocosa Cross Country event, to simulate some of the environments featured in the source game's multiplayer maps.
Let's wonder: Why is the Spartan Armor not an available outfit in this game?
I'm not going to go deep into fictional cars, because let's face it: there's not much to say. That might also be the case with.. perhaps a new car, but oh look: I can write a bunch on the new AMG ONE back on week 32.
Appearing in just about every Halo game, the Warthog is pretty much one of the main icons of said series. Yes, a car. It's like a Star Wars vehicle in Battlefront. Though, you're not getting a turret in the back this time to destroy those rammers. There appears to be a civilian one, and I don't ever remember these existing in my short time playing Halo.
But if anyone's ever played Halo, you can tell from the get go that the variant we get introduced from Motorsports 4 is.. a little bit downscaled. Also the thing is supposedly powered by hydrogen, which would be a hoot.. if not for this downsized version instead using a twin turbo V8. Which V8? Well, I'm looking around Cadillac, but nothing seems to click, so I don't know.
And with that, it's time to go to the PI analysis. New record for intentional shortest writeup, huh?
Getting argued that it was once going to be called a Puma, the Warthog sits in early A class with a PI of 719. And if you thought you can bring this up higher, it's going to be with the help of an engine swap. In its class of my Unlimited Offroads babies, the Warthog has to contend with the original 3D printed car: the Local Motors Rally Fighter that's just 3 PI behind.
And how about a personal note: the Warthog has always given me a low opinion when it comes to competing with other cars in this favorite class of mine. Since I need to fill this section up, let's put on this sorta tier list of mine.
TOP
DeBerti Wrangler
Spark ODYSSEY (Extreme E cars)
Brocky
Rally Fighter
HIGH
Rockstar F-150 Trophy Truck
Toyota T100
Nissan Pickup
MID
Polaris RZR
Trailcat
Deberti F-150
Mercedes Tankpool24 FE
LOW
Warthog
Baja Bone Shaker
EWW
Z33 FE
So this week's review will maybe help me understand the car a bit more. We'll see if this'll help it up the tiers, and all. Although, due to costing 850,000 credits in the Autoshow, it's already shaping up to a bad start being the most expensive Unlimited Offroads.
To see how much Forza thinks Halo is a pretty cool guy, we head through the extraction route that looks a lot like Ribera Rocosa Cross Country.
I'm still baffled they somehow made a branch out via Offroads from the Horizon 4 bunch of Unlimited Offroads. The XRAID MINI always felt at home racing with the Trailcat and the Polaris RZR.
"Starting from “De Otro Mundo” crop circles, this route leaps and bounds onto the rocky beach of Cabo San Lucas and past its distinctive arch of rock, before heading north into the desert."
While Horizon Baja on the whole is a total, inconsistent mess of whatever surface, I quite like this one. It might have some deadly jumps and warrants your car to have a good suspension setting, though. And the turn by the Cabo San Lucas arch is one of my favorite turns in the game. It test racing line, entry speeds and offroad grip.
Not to mention it's actually one of the prettiest Cross Country races, going through some farmlands, then the beaches and ending just as we enter the desert.
If you thought this was out of place, remember that the Bone Shaker exists in a lowriding wide boi that's dominated the meta in many ways.
- As you go third person in Halo when riding driver in the Warthog, I'm quite interested to see if this interior is made with the original devs of Bungie in mind, or maybe the not as talented but still quite as passionate folks we have today. It has screens for days, and I'm unsure if they're going to come in useful in the Horizon world we roam in. It's a fictional car, so I'm quite sure it's not important unless someone's nutty enough to get a 1:1 replica of the car in real life. That's a pretty tight rear view mirror, gotta say.
- It launches spectactularly on the gravel, so I'm sure it'll one up on me when we reach the road. Even though there's no way we can get this to be road worthy.. a Test on one of these Unlimited Offroads is an idea I can get behind. Just gotta find a proper place.. My only issue is that the gears are supremely short. More on that later. The car's shift points should be somewhere before 6900 RPM, as that's where it'll redline.
- The brakes are just excellent, and you know why? It's because the vehicle is loaded with adjustable parts from the get go. This is a class with these on normal.
- But now it's time for where the differences come. If we take a look at Brocky or the ODYSSEY from weeks prior, those cars lose some speed if we turn all the way. The Warthog has this but much worse in 2 ways. It loses even more speed, even if not as gradual, and when you do turn it, I can't help but feel unhinged with the experience, due to the car's really strange way of telling me it does oversteer. A quick look gave me the answer: an open, but very rear focused LSD setup.
- Let's tackle gearing. It's a super short 6 speed. Now, the issue is that it's super short, meaning while acceleration is pretty nice, you're going to work your shifting limb/finger. The car's 1st gear barely goes 30 MPH, so that does mean I do start the car from 2nd instead of 1st since the total of both isn't even 50.
- The car won't even go past 115, and in the Horizon world, this is bad, especially where power rules the Horizon Baja environment, and even moreso if we're going down the mountain. This is lower than the ODYSSEY, which is a bona fide Sleeper that has earned a nomination or two in the awards show, by the way.
- That said, with this gearing, the power it delivers as you go up hills is adequate. You're going to keep going with no issue, and a very very slight case of deceleration.
- Now we head to the track, and boy we're not going to enjoy this unless your car's springs are done right. The Warthog's case is that the springs on default are way too soft for the jumps, you'll land HARD with this Covenant battling bruiser on the 2 large jumps this track has.
- So, if you're by the beach, steer clear of the water. I've seen my share of incidents in that area because taking the tires for a quick dip will help lose grip, no matter if it's these futuristic treads, or those giant Nittos from Brocky.
- By the 38% mark, there's a ramp on the right side of the track. It's to be avoided, unless something awaits me at the other side that isn't a speed loss. Don't know what they were thinking there.
- I'm going to conclude by saying if you want to make full use of the Warthog, you have to know how to tune. You not only have 81 PI to work with, but you also got adjustable parts at stock, meaning even if you keep the 719 PI it starts off with, a tuner is going to make this work even better than your average racer.
The location, while a bit reliant on the cross country case of luck and stability, is completely fine. Not much gimmicks and it's also a solid choice to try out your dusty machines without taking too much time. This week's car isn't so good, mainly because of the soft suspension and low top end. No wonder I'm not so interested in the car.
Follow me. Set me free. Trust me, and we will escape from the city with a best time of 2:00.439.. waitaminute, wrong franchise.
I have a few B class machines I know that can go faster than this. From an X-RAID MINI to the 2021 Bronco getting solid 1:56s after a quick check.. This is really a debbie downer of performance. It's a car you can definitely learn to drive, but if the results to lead to anything meaningful.. I hope there isn't a dedicated fanclub of the Warthog anywhere out there.
I'm probably going to be sadder should I decide to do anything, so let's clear it up.
So..
What is the AMG Transport Dynamics M12S Warthog CST? It is..
Remind me to learn Spanish so I can understand Lopez better.
High price, reliance on tuning (which options within are also quite limited), can't even tough itself from B class choices even with a 19 PI advantage. And worse of all: it's a heartbreaker.
It's not Rambo Lambo, but I can say it's cut from the same Beater cloth. But that Z33 FE still might be a worse car even though I didn't rate it. Boy, the only thing the Warthog got going is the aesthetic. This is a car I do want to pick up and drive after seeing it in Motorsports 4. The idea was there, the execution definitely needs work.
So, in my personal tier list, the car stays at low, because I genuinely feel it's still salvageable in its class. I'm going to hop back in a much more satisfying ride to curb the Warthog's general porkiness.
Now the Warthog(Don’t call it a Puma )
Is one of the many crossover cars from other franchises like Cyberpunk, Fallout and Final Fantasy, with it being the flag bearer for the Halo franchise.
Now like the Unimog, the Warthog is an off-roader built to be the best for whatever role it’s tasked with, but it’s roles tend to involve what kind of bullets it’s gonna send to their enemies.
Got a lot of Grunts & Elites ahead? there’s the Minigun option.
Light and heavy armour vehicles to worry about? Get the Gauss Cannon option.
Got a few pesky Banshees that won’t take the hint? Swat them down with the Anti Air Rockets option.
That’s not to say it’s always armed, some Warthogs were set up as APC’s, Ambulances, Scout versions etc etc.
Now couple things to note on the Warthog we have and the one from Halo’s timeline.
Their M12 Warthog courtesy of Halopedia, cost as much as 343,000cr(I saw what they did there. ) and as low as 52,000cr for a regular M12, ours is 850,000.
Engine is bigger too at 12 litres compared to the 8 litre turbo model we have, BUT our Warthog is much faster at 115mph compared to the quoted 78mph of the Halo version.
Of course in the world of Forza, 720hp and only 115 mph isn’t gonna cut the mustard, but good luck finding terrain that’ll halt its progress.
You can upgrade the factory engine, but you need an engine swap to get to the top of its starting class of A.
As SPD mentioned, It can salvaged to be a menacing A class Off Roader, but if you’re keeping it stock, the only real plus point is its novelty factor.
So it’s also a Beater verdict from me, It’s not terrible to drive, it’s just outclassed against its peers.
I can't add much to the discussion that hasn't already been covered by the previous two reviews on this thing.
So let's talk about my experience with this tank of a civilian vehicle.
It's so softly sprung that it basically ignores most terrain, which is a bit of an outlier even in the category it finds itself in. It has enough oomph to get up to speed quickly, but that lack of top end leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth. In the current state of Cross Country, you need horsepower, acceleration and speed. The Warthog is 2 of 3 there.
I also want to mention that the offroad handling is frankly incredible - the Warthog carries what bit of speed it has very well and doesn't get upset at all.
So it's a fantastic offroader. It has good numbers and a good feel.
I've never played Halo so I'm not familiar with this car's usual environment, but I'm glad we have these crossover cars from other games. However, as the other reviewers have already pointed out, this car is rather unsuited as a competitive vehicle in Horizon, at least in stock form. The main limiting issue being its 180kph top speed. The second biggest issue is the weight, which although doesn't affect the handling as much as you'd expect (except for some understeer), it does affect how it lands from jumps. As soft as the suspension is, it's not enough when landing this behemoth from big jumps, and you can easily lose loads of momentum. So there goes its competitiveness in cross country.
After the run I took it around the Baja circuit and it is actually a great dirt track car. It's well balanced despite its size, as weight distribution is fairly even. And the big chunky tires are placed right at each corner of the car, which helps counter some of the effects of the weight of it.
A Beater due to the dismal top speed, but not terrible to drive, there is potential.
Looks like the time travel antics got the best of the Warthog and it ended up a Beater. Ouch.
(also, lol at 3 of the 4 reviews showing a Warthog airborne in some way)
That said...It's finally time. Alright folks, let's put our hands together for the first ever FH5 COTW Award Show! We've spent over a year nitpicking at the various cars in COTW, so let's see what we all voted for!
To preface this, we managed to end up with a tie in four of the seven categories, so the methodology of breaking these ties was:
1) Ask @XSquareStickIt to review some of the tied categories.
2) Explain very carefully to the GT COTW folks why a horde of turkeys rampaging through headquarters last week is related to me losing the draft of this post
3) ???
4) Awards.
Let's get the two clear winners (or losers) out of the way.
First off, we've had a couple of duds over the first 52 weeks of COTW. Let's all take a couple of small steps back as we introduce the winner for our "Ya valió" award! This is the car that we put at the bottom of the barrel, the beater you'd never want to be caught driving.
Drumroll please.
...
I said, drumroll please?
crickets chirp
Keith, did you forget to prime the drums and fireworks? Last time, you double charged them! [Radio chatter] ...Uh-huh, so you're telling me our winning car, which had the drums on it, ran out of gas on the way here?
[Radio chatter] [Obelisk sighs bitterly.]
Our Beater of the Year, the winner of the Ya valió award, is the...
1986 Lamborghini LM002!
What an unfortunate turn of events for this car, though it was kind of expected.
From one extreme to the other, we now look at the ¡Campeón de México! Award, reserved for the finest sleeper the Horizon Festival has to offer over the first year of COTW. The cream of the crop. This is what we all came for.
Put your hands together for the Sleeper of the Year, the recipient of the ¡Campeón de México! Award!
It's the...
1995 Volkswagen Corrado VR6!
And on that note, every Horizon game has so many cars to choose from. Lots of new toys on every release, but also a lot of old friends returning from older games. This is the Best Veteran Award, for the best of the cars returning from older entries in the series.
The award for this category was an overwhelming supermajority with 3/5 votes. Let's welcome our old friend, the...
2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS!
And now for the more hotly contested categories...
First off, the Best New Car Award, for the best of the cars new to FH5. This was a five way tie. And ultimately, the musings of fate have decided on the...
Odyssey Spark 21!
Time for a ¡Fiesta! and time for another winner. You know, the Horizon Festival is an endless adventure, and it celebrates so many different aspects of culture beyond just being into fast cars. That said, great cars are a part of that culture and this award reflects that. We had so many different choices that this was a hard call. The ¡Fiesta! Award goes to the...
2017 VUHL 05RR!
Folks say that beauty is subjective, that anything can be beautiful in its own right...
...Not this car.
The Trash Heap award for the Ugliest Car in the Horizon Festival goes to the...
Nissan Fairlady FE!
On the other side of the coin, there are some truly gorgeous Showstopper cars. The kind that make you double-take, then whistle.
The Showstopper award for the Best-Looking Car in the Festival goes to the...
1993 Schuppan 962CR!
And with that, we conclude our first year of FH5 COTW. Here's to another year of hijinks, cars and Vic breaking every single gearbox he finds.
Finally, really briefly, our car this week is provided by @Nacho Libre. Question: What do Mexico and the UK have in common?
They both have Jaguars.
This week's car is the 2012 Jaguar XKR-S at Jungle Descent, in reference to jaguars being native to the rainforests of southeast Mexico.
It's been a while since we've had a modern A class sports car on COTW. You'd think A and S1 class sports and supercars would be the bread and butter of Horizon, but us lot seem to gravitate towards more esoteric picks. Sometimes it's good to go back to basics.
Not that this Jag' is basic in any real sense of the word, with its stunning looks and a big supercharged V8 up front, but in the sheer vastness of Horizon's car list it might not always be enough to stand out.
After a couple runs on the course, not much about the car really stands out. There's a little wheelspin in first and second gear, but after that gearing is ok, no complaints. Brakes are fine, but trailbraking is tricky, the car has trouble turning if you do. On the whole handling is tuned to be very neutral. The car is well behaved, responds well to (reasonable) inputs, at most speeds. You chuck it in a corner, and as long as you're not too greedy it'll go through it as you'd expect without any nasty surprises.
Lower speed corners and especially hairpins is where it does struggle. Because the handling is so neutral it lacks the agility for more sudden change of directions. It needs a bit of manhandling to counter the combination of neutral tuning and the sheer weight of the car. But in doing so you do risk running into the previously mentioned trailbraking and wheelspin issues, as well as on-power oversteer.
This week's track choice was a good pick for this car, even beyond the jaguar theme. The high speed esses flatter the good high speed stability, giving you the confidence to focus on finding the right line through them. And the hairpins expose the car's flaws, especially the last one where a good exit is crucial to not lose time on the whole run to the finish line. A decent challenge without being unnecessarily frustrating. I found about 7 seconds between my first "okay" run and my best.
Despite the neutral handling, I'll go with a Sleeper rating. Not a perfect car, but its flaws aren't deal breakers either. And admittedly the engine and looks make the flaws easier to ignore as well.
The 2012 Jaguar XKR-S, When Jaguar started branching back out into making a driver focused machine.
Packing a revised version of the 5.0 Supercharged V8, it chucks out 542hp and sends it to the rear tyres via a 6 speed auto gearbox.
I’d said it was more driver focused, but it still retains its big GT cruising comfort despite stiffer springs all round.
Handling is as already mentioned, rather neutral, it doesn’t plow wide instantly nor does it try and swap ends at the drop of a hat.
Braking is decent, but they don’t like being overworked by trailbraking, do your braking first and then worry about getting it turned in to the corners.
I’m tempted to say it’s about as Neutral as a Sleeper can be, nothing overly wrong with it, but no OMG standout factor either.
If you want a XKR-S with such a factor, try and get hold of a Playlist exclusive XKR-S GT, an IRL rarity with 45 cars made worldwide.
That has the same engine, same power & gearbox etc, but is less GT and more track focused with a bigger rear wing and front splitter/canards among its upgrades.
In summary, while I wouldn’t consider the XKR-S as truly exceptional, it’s a well put together all rounder that slips under most peoples radars.
I may not be able to get the rest of the year an entry.. maybe by Christmas time I'll get my Arnie thumbs up and be back. I'm heading to Indonesia for a 2 week holiday, and a cousin's wedding to prepare for straight after. But I am open to nominating as always, though I might have to make an exception should I get a nomination in at this time period since I have a Showcase ready for that.
Also: how about some thoughts of the COTW Awards? Well..
For 'Ya valió', since I've already teased it, the whole thought process is fairly obvious. The LM002 still wins best nickname. Or best COTW meme, but if that category exists, it has to deal with the way more exploitable JCW Countryman that might've won by a landslide.
Within '¡Campeón de México!', the winner was the Corrado, and I'm happy it is, because I too felt very elated about it on the whole. The amount of Throwbacks it's managed to outright decimate if we were to make it competitive is pretty much a no brainer sign. Shoutouts also go to the JCW Countryman, who was a fair runner up. Other cars I've considered are the Starion, the XJR-15 and the ODYSSEY.
In 'Best New Car' I've listed the likes of the Supra, the AMG ONE and the XJR-15. But I've chosen Brocky for my pick. However, I didn't forget the ODYSSEY which got a honorable mention as I decided between it and Brocky. That car however did make the pick, and I'm quite okay with it. It's such a good car.
Not a coincidence at all, I chose the VX Viper for 'Best Veteran', and it was a list that also included the NA2 Miata, the Corrado, the Ford GT and the C8 Corvette. It wasn't a really hard choice.
And speaking of hard choices, we have '¡Fiesta!', it's a whole 5 car roster of hard choices. In the end I picked the VUHL 05 because, as I have worded it in the nomination PM: Going around an uphill corner at 160 MPH without issue still remains a COTW highlight for me. My other nominees in this include the Miura wanting to kill you any chance it gets, the monster torque rallying Starion, the Deora II with it's amazing handling for an overweight beast, and the Hammer which serves as an exceptional way to start up driving muscle cars. The VUHL took it, and to be honest I didn't expect it.
Further on, in Showstopper, the winner was the Schuppan. I should put the writeup for it that I didn't get to upload, hmm, where is it..
Back in the days where Group C ran rampant, long time Le Mans experts Porsche took their past experiences and experiments to develop one Porsche 962. Racing in both Le Mans and IMSA, the car has claimed many finishes in these leagues, with a good chunk of them being pole finishes. One of the drivers that would lead to this development would be Aussie born Vern Schuppan.
Mister Schuppan so happens to be not a stranger to racing, having stints in both F1 in the 70s, indycar racing in the 80s, and various leagues within endurance racing by the latter end of that period. His biggest success would be with the Rothmans team Porsche 956 in 1983, where he won the Le Mans after running up last year. Said 956 was the predecessor to the more well known 962.
Eventually retiring from racing in 1987, Schuppan would start a company to help with servicing other race teams and manufacturers. His efforts definitely didn't go to waste, especially in Japan where he's gotten a bit of a following thanks to his team's efforts in IMSA and JSPC. He would make a joint venture with a Japanese automotive industry group of organizations, knowns as the Art Sports Company.
While they were slated to make 50 of them, financial issues compounded from the fall of communism happened, causing the ASC to not be able to fund this undertaking, and Schuppan had to declare bankruptcy after the sixth was made. And that 50 was so that Schuppan can race the car in Le Mans again. He really was thinking ahead, but we all knew what really went inside that head of his when the racing world saw Dauer in 1994.
While Schuppan managed to make a few copies, there were actually 2 variants of his 962: the LM and the CR, and we focus on the latter. Even though a lot of it looks and screams Porsche, the car's only Porsche part was the twin turbo 3.3 liter flat six engine from the Jagermeister racing 911. Just about everything else is specially made based off the 962's original design. Featuring functional design, the 962CR carries intakes on the side for cooling, all with a fully carbon fibre body. It's also quite luxurious, with leather inside, custom brake callipers and also a small CRT TV for the reverse camera. They didn't cut corners for the quality it seems.
The Schuppan lives and breathes with a PI of 869: on the upper end of S1. And like the Langheck also finds itself now as the top upper end for its class of Retro Supercars, where it would sit 3 PI ahead of the longtail McLaren F1, and 8 PI ahead of the most fearsome car to drive in the Cerbera Speed 12. Being strongly based off a race winning prototype does that to you for performance.
Need a spare? After a disappointing race with Rami, I might. Autoshow spares come in with a cost of 2.5 million: the rumored price it was advertised with when the car was going on market. And if anyone like me wants a spare, the Auction House has this car with 1.9 million as most common, and I found a few as low as 1.3.
I picked the Chevy Corvette C1 facelift. And this list also includes the Miura, the Lola, the AW11 MR2 and the Griffith. Not sure what to say, truly. Maybe I didn't quite get the Schuppan so well in my radar. If there was a road car based off the Sauber C9 though..
Trash Heap is the last, umm, 'award'. I definitely picked the Z33 FE, citing it as both an aesthetic and functional failure. Other entries in this list are probably cars that don't tick too well for me, which includes the Ford Supervan 3, the RX-8 R3, the Mk2 Golf and the Morgan 3-Wheeler.
Okay, back to the script.
SPD Writes Car Of The Week: Week 56 - Jaguar XKR-S (X150)
When thoughts come about the X150 XK, I would always think the phrase "there's a bloke at some point going to say I'm going to go outside and wax the Growler".
Before the F-Type took the world by storm, Jaguar's main flagship sports cars came in the form of a grand tourer known as the XK. Built to succeed the V12 XJR models, the car lasted a good period of 2 decades, under 2 generations, while powered with 4 less valves to make use of.
The XKR was a full on proper british V8 in beautiful GT body. Not until 2007 where former owners Ford would sell the rights to Indian group of companies Tata. Now, the first thing they did, probably, was rebuild the XK to a new generation, and of course make sure it's properly done the British way. Under a new aluminum body and still with their supercharged V8, refined, the car came out for a 7 year run before Jaguar moved on to the F-type.
This XKR-S trim would be not only the most refined, road worthy variant of the 2nd gen bunch, but also commemorate 50 years of Jaguar's iconic E-Type.. a car so beautiful it would eventually get its cues taken for the succeeding F-Type. From the base XKR X150, the car got a slew of improvements, such as an updated engine to pump out more power, have larger wheels, tuned suspension, Pirelli P-Zeros, a revision of the front bumpers, and of course a spoiler.
Though, there's also the XKR-S GT a couple of years ahead, but that car's a much more exclusive selection for a more exclusive type of road. With a 300 KM/H top speed coming from its 5 liter supercharged V8, it would earn the name as the fastest production Jaguar.. until the F-Type came along, that is.
And the entire motive of the car: to bring its specs up without losing the soul of the car it began life with. This made me smile. It's the entire mindset that got me in to doing the Tests that occassionally happen.
After taking advantage of your Jaag credentials, one can find out the XKR-S can be a proper heist escape car thanks to its PI of 756, which is the middle of A. Within its class, the only notable car it can do battle with is the BMW M6. If it were to still be around, I'm sure the 8C Competizione would also be a good match to face against.
Only costing 100,000 credits off the Autoshow, let us ramble with these for the current week before you find out if it's worth your money. While the Auction House has made a return, I'm probably going to just do this segment when a car's worth more than 500,000 credits, or is a hard-to-find/wheelspin exclusive. You're able to win the XKR-S this week through a Seasonal Championship 'Money Pit', locked to a 500 PI COTW alumni in the NA2 Miata.
And where else do we take this Jag for a spin? There's a whole load of choice, but Jungle Descent is where it'll make its mark.
It's the (forcibly) most common car of this iteration of COTW, and.. the JCW MINI didn't win anything? As a certain Heavy Weapons Guy would say: Oooh, it is sad day. Let's have this somber drive along with a few familiar faces.
"Race to the river at Mulegé, starting from the lofty heights of Gran Puente. With a steep downhill section, you'll pick up a lot of speed before having to deal with a set of alternating hairpins on the home run."
It does sound like a Cross Country event, no? But alas.. I did mention this phenomenon the first time we were here.
This speed focused track not only tests speed and anything revolving around it, but also braking, since the latter section has hairpins and you don't want to be the one going through those vibranium adamantium or 'whatever its really dang strong-ium' trees. If it was Wreckfest or Trailout, sure, it's fine to get to see a man fly away to the mercy of physics.
Being another repeat, we mention the last time we had this track, it was with the NC Miata, which was an excellent handling car put in a terribly nuanced towards speed road. I'd say it's unfortunate at the time, but at least with today we have a V8 to push.
The track would also be the first precursor event for my recurring event in Throwbacks. I don't have plans for one today, however.
It might be exhausting sometimes, but bouncing out of the jungle before the animals would wake at night is kind of impossible with such a ferocious Jag on hand this day.
- Carrying a sensible modern sports car interior for the period, there's nothing really to note of the car's insides. Jaguars are better known for their external visage. The XKR-S is still a very fetching machine when it comes to looks. I'm of course going to keep mentioning the XE SV Project 8 until it gets into a video game, because yes I'm still waiting for a non-GTA representative for a track made AWD Jaguar saloon.
- Another week, another car with ample power to give some wheelspin on launch. On this Jag, you probably want to control it in a mild way for the best effect, but I didn't experiment too deep into this. Using the sounds of the V8, my shift point is at just before 7000 RPM.
- The braking of the car is very nice. But the issue is that it's the kind of brakes that isn't friendly to those that misuse it. It will lock up very very slightly to the front rather than the rear, so you're going to deal with understeer when you push this hard. Trail braking is going to be your friend, but it doesn't quite enjoy it too much, since it just understeers a little thanks to the brake ratio mentioned.
- We're not seeing much in low speeds, but the high speed handling of this car is amazing. Very stable and not exactly planted to straight line. In lower speeds, I noticed it's only problematic should you manage to keep the rear out by lack of traction. That rear wing did something, I wager. In fact, you're probably not going to get a favorable angle in turns, but it's not a massive issue.
- Looking at power and gearing, while the 6th gear doesn't find itself useful at stock, the car reaches its top speed quite quickly thanks to supercharging. It's also a car that prefers you don't forget your gearing because it bogs down quite a bit when you're at mid low RPMs. But the car does its work at the later RPMs, where it feels like you have more than a billion horsepower sometimes: notable when on this speedy sprint.
- So, with this much power and a supercharger, one can tell this car's strongest point is acceleration. This is notable that I stick to my guns in 5th at the initial speedy portion of the track until the big crash zone that is the 1st hairpin. Even in lower RPMs you do want to control it or you're going to go wild.
- It's another repeat track, so there should be a familiar vein to running it again. My best advice is keeping on line, and ensuring when you go off course, it's coming back on in the same pace. The junfle is unforgivable, because mother nature in most games is unstoppable.
- Not a warning at the first time of this track's featuring, but it's one now: the last bit before the finish line. You must get your line right, or you're going right off the road. I saw enough of this in some of the earlier ghosts. And myself, too, don't forget.
- The XKR-S is a beast, but if you want my best advice on taming it, it's the braking and traction. Don't mess it up, and you should find yourself going for a cruise at above 150. The braking especially you don't want it tapping when you're not going slow enough to go around a bend.
I've been looking up my earlier writeups on COTW and noticed that I used to care for how clean or dirty I was on each run. Odd how I dropped that. It's a factor I need to reconsider adding if I ever get to doing it for Gran Turismo, whenever that might be.
As with the NC Miata, this is a very nice combo, nice enough to say it's better than with the original car. But this is one car I think needs some more work in the tuning department for me to enjoy more of.
Wait a minute.
Well, that's oddly specific for a positioning. Where's my script??
Housing rogueish machines for Bond villainy, this XKR-S makes its mark here with a best of 2:16.069.
I say this is a run for the daredevils, but you don't have to be one to enjoy a V8 orchestra in spite of nature. You gotta try it if you think you're suffering from naturally made understeer. It might be the cure with a few runs and a little tuning know-how. The Jaguar on the whole wants you to enjoy the road, while saying it's not the perfect car.
Is Horizon Circuit attendees ready to lose their personal belongings and see this car carry it at 130 MPH?!
To maybe get away with acoustic arson on the jungle, the XKR-S has to perform in the circus, and that looks to me as another way to say we have a Test to get through.
To qualify for a test, all you need is a car under 800, tune it to there for road, without any engine or drivetrain conversions (aspiration is mainly okay, sort of necessary if I really want to bring those classes up). Then, all it needs to do is go around the Horizon Mexico Circuit and see how well it does. This usually ranges in the 1:07 area, with 1:06 being an okay region to be in.
I actually have a slew of Jaguars in this class and level. From the E-Type Lightweight, to the F-Type. Strangely not the XJ220: the car that got me into supercars to begin with. This Jaguar's drive I plan to improve with shedding it's weight mainly because of how it has issues with turning. Of course I added a whole slew of improvements as well. Sadly, no compound change, and we still have those stock brakes on that might impact the run on the whole. Unfortunate we don't have a lot of PI to work with.
I'm sure we have Scotty Tyler in the boot of the car, tied up and ready to ship wherever the next big expansion is. And not even law enforcement finds this in any ways illegal, because he's in a Jag.
Upscale the big cat to a even bigger one, the XKR-S comes home with a best of 1:07.020. That's actually surprising considering stock brakes and tires.
The main issue of not being able to change compound or brakes is that the car drives mostly the same. You really want it to turn, yes? That's what the suspension is for. On the straight line portions is where the car shines very very greatly, like the M5 we had that time. Though, I do need to review the roll bars and the differential. In my household, it's a bit hectic as of writing, so you get what you get.
A suitably grand reason why we don't mind more Jaguar GTs.
GT car with oodles of power and a penchant to turn great in a cruiser's form? I like. But I want to compare it to a similar premise from the Deora II: a car that's got amazing handling despite the size. And while that car's many steps ahead when it comes to how fun it is, it's stuck at top of A. And the Jag is definitely not on that level, even though I've done whatever I got.
But thanks to the Test, I got the idea this Jaguar does the whole performance thing better than the Deora by 3 tenths. I say that's more than enough convincing for it to be quite the Sleeper. We can work out the kinks, because whatever the XKR-S can do well in, it's done really well.
I forgot to take an ending picture this week, so here's a random picture from my Media album for this game. Mainly because it's a slog to get through 5 minutes of loading screens. And now I think it, even though we're a year in, some manufacturers have been missing. Notably Subaru, Audi, Honda, Aston Martin and McLaren comes to mind.
So, just to add up to what you guys have written about the big, beautiful cat (in Spanish, pronounced Ha-guar), I picked the track specifically to see how it can test a fast and relatively heavy GT (around 1.8 tonnes or 4,000 lb, which nowadays is rather light!). If you have played that Jungle Descent in S1-S2-X you know the havoc it can unleash if you just go fast and suddenly step on the brakes.
So the car is quite stable and won't snap under heavy breaking, a fact that surely is welcomed by both its owners and the company's lawyers. It also packs a 500 hp punch with a really nice low rumble, and I'm thinking it's more a British muscle car than GT. Anyways, my vote goes to Sleeper as it fulfills its mission with aplomb: To safely cruise at rather high speeds with style. I did a build to take it to A800, with a focus in losing weight and installing wider sport tires and race brakes, and my time in Jungle Descent dropped about 10 seconds with a much more agile response.
Nothing says good handling like taking the first hard turn at 159 MPH without so much as a fuss from the car. This thing is, in many senses of the word, incredible. Handling is superb, acceleration is superb, top end is superb. There are a lot of good things with this car. Despite it being a GT car and carrying the weight of one, it doesn't feel like either thing. It's a proper Sleeper, though the looks kinda give it away.
And the other half of the post is something I imagine you folks would find handy.
Horizon Plus.
What is it, then? It's a mod made for Horizon 5 on PC (via SimHub) that updates the UI to include basic and relevant information such as steering input, throttle/brake input and even lateral Gs, lap deltas and suspension telemetry! It's all free to download and pretty easy to set up, you only need WinRAR or 7Zip for the process. Though if you want the UI to refresh at 60 FPS rather than at 10, you can donate to the developer and get the full license for a mere six euro. If you want to improve in Horizon 5 or just hate not seeing your inputs at all, it's worth a look
I've uploaded a demo of it for this week's car and track so y'all can see what it looks like in the default mode. Note that some of the UI elements are absent simply because it's a time trial and not a race. They automatically pop in during race time.
Week 56 update will go out after my league races tonight conclude.
So it turns out the Cupra was sent to everyone on FH5 as a gift. All the more reason to see if it's worth picking up a second copy from the Autoshow. It is also eligible in the seasonal Track Toys championship in stock form, which is a great opportunity to test it in a few areas. For the rest of this review, this car is going to be referred to as the UR as I can't be bothered to write out UrbanRebel every time.
Let's look at the numbers for the car on paper first.
429 HP, 485 ft-lbs. 3142 lbs with a 48F/52R weight distribution.
High marks in braking and handling, actually on the low side for competitive S1 class (~7.9 to 8.5 for a handling/balanced build iirc), but low marks in speed and acceleration. It's classed as a Track Toy, which is gonna be relevant for my next point. Since everyone got one, the cost for this car is nil. Zero. Just for the one copy, mind you.
If you want more than one copy of the car, each additional copy is going to set you back two million credits.
This makes it one of the most expensive cars in:
1) Track Toys
2) S1 Class
3) The entire game. It is one of only 69 cars (about 10% of the game's total roster) in the Autoshow's 1 million + credit range.
For reference, here is the value of the Cupra versus previous Track Toys covered on COTW:
Cupra: 2,000,000 Cr. Supervan 3:500,000 Cr. Huracan Perf.:275,000 Cr. VUHL 05RR: 100,000 Cr.
Let that sink in for a bit.
Some additional numbers:
0-60: 3.1 seconds
0-100: 6.9 seconds
Top Speed: 163.1 MPH (RPM limited, the car redlines at 160 MPH at an alarming 15,000 RPM)
Lat.G 60 mph: 1.6G
Lat.G 120 MPH: 1.92 G
Now that I've set the tone for the paper stats, how does it actually drive?
Well, it's the first time I can say I've driven a modern racing car. And we've actually had a couple of racing cars on the thread!
The UR has very precise, responsive handling and shows no hints of oversteer nor understeer. You can just chuck it into a turn and carve a smooth, fun line out of a turn. Especially the last hairpin of the circuit for this week, it digs into the tighter part of the turn and just rotates ever so slightly for a fast exit. The brakes are actually perfect for the car, and I can trail-brake pretty aggressively without fear of getting a lock-up or understeer. It is also VERY forgiving about running off the track, as you'll hopefully see with my onboard footage.
And after twelve engaging laps, here we are:
This was a real delight to drive, honestly. In a way, it reminds me of the Supervan 3 in that both are mid-range S1 Track Toys with a lot of room for potential improvement. Both are quick on their own terms, but both lack the top end necessary.
And the UR is AWD by default, so any power boost is going to translate better than you'd expect. This is also absolutely a car designed for shorter, more technical circuits where acceleration is at an all-time premium. You put it on any track that doesn't allow for momentum cars, and it'll crumple like a paper bag.
Ultimately, you get one for free and it's a really good car, so you don't lose much of anything.
It's a Sleeper, with some obvious flaws. Work with the car, pick your races with it, and you'll go far.
Onboard laps. It's a little stuttery because my CPU is an old one that was mid spec in 2018 and certainly not up to snuff for a 2022 game as well as recording.
The Cupra UrbanRebel is I believe the lightest EV in stock form at 3142lbs and with 429hp, slick tyres and quite a bit of aero, it’s a EV Touring Car right out of the box.
Top speed is low for S1, but on very twisty tracks, the acceleration, the lack of shifting and the grip make up for that.
As for upgrades, you can turn the motors up to over 1000hp and combined with everything else, it’ll go to the top of S2 Class.
As mentioned before, Everyone got gifted one of these, but extra ones are 2 million at the Autoshow, I grabbed my 2nd one for half that at Auction to build into an S1 Rally Car.
All in all, new to Forza, new to COTW and a new addition to the Sleeper class. 😁👍
