Beater or Sleeper? FH3 Edition! Thanks for coming.

[Bastet]

Gave it another go today.

 

[VXR]

Ahhh, the Fiat Icsunonove. There is so much I could write about this car! It's a semi-forgotten piece of Italian history - the perfect car for a public which was more concerned with terrorism and rising gas prices than it was with saving money that was going to devalue in months - thanks to double-digit inflation rates. Like Italodisco and Silvio Berlusconi it offers criminal levels of flamboyance and not much else, and even through we may not want to admit it in front of ze Germans, we love it exactly because of its outrageous attitude.

Originally intended to become a sporty model in the Autobianchi range (a role that would go on to be served by the equally excellent A112 Abarth instead), it was eventually noticed by Sua Maestà Gianni Agnelli instead... And immediately became the protagonist of a Cold War-esque spy story in which de Tomaso found out about the project and convinced Ford (which, back then, was locked in a losing battle against Turin for the hegemony of the European car market) to assist in developing a copycat prototype just to unveil it before Fiat, and steal its thunder.

The X1/9 both has humble - the engine, transmission and most of its running gear come from the 128's parts basket - and lofty - it shares its underpinnings with the Lancia friggin' Stratos - origins. Even today it looks like a supercar or a powerboat on wheels, but is a frugal, approachable car. It invented the "mid-engined, two-seater cheap sports vehicle" genre twelve years before Toyota created the MR2, but outlived the first generation of the MR by almost a year. And there is no middle ground when looking for a used X1/9 - it's either going to be a well-preserved car, or a survivor of years of hillclimbing and rallycross which has been chopped up and modified almost beyond recognition.

Ssooo, how does it drive?

View attachment 625424

Well, it's no Ferrari, no doubt about that. The 1.3 litre SOHC 128 engine isn't very powerful, and struggles with a narrow powerband which is worringly close to the redline. And the mix of stiff chassis (remember? Lancia Stratos stuff!) and suspensions which are a perfect metaphor for the Italian work ethic (remember? Fiat 128 stuff...) make for an interesting ride which will reward white-knucles, Brambilla-like driving with copious amounts of body roll and side slip - while at the same time scoffing at a gentler, more reasoned approach
Is it a bad thing? No, not really - for its PI ratio it's a very competitive and thorougly fun package, once you learn how to get the most out of it (a process which is, in itself, a blast). And hey, if you really need to go fast, it's very easy to turn it into a corner-tackling machine - the light weight means that achieving blistering acceleration is kid's play, and once you get the suspensions sorted, you have a pure-bred racecar which is easily adaptable to any situation the game may throw at you, from twisty gravel tracks to highway races.

Fiat's most successful sportscar's a sleeper which will entice you with its midget-supercar looks, low price and a high growth potential. Whether you are in the market for a fun ride, or the base on which to build the definitive leaderboard monster - the Icsunonove has plenty to offer.

I want you to write about all Italian cars with such brio. Love it.

 

[Vic Reign93]

Gave it another go today.

View attachment 625507

I saw that little trick you pulled on that run.

Credit where it's due, I didn't count on someone taking the shortcut at the hairpin.

But as the saying goes, "What you can do, I can do better."

As for the Fiat X1/9, I won 3 of these things and yet have kept them and built them into C class, B class and even a A class Rally racer.

The fact that I had them around for so long and not even got rid of them should show that I had plans for them long term, either that or i'm a low level hoarder.

All still have the original engine, albeit with some go faster parts thrown on them and they are all decent machines.

Quite the fun little Sleeper this Fiat. 👍

 

[Obelisk]

There is something that has come up that I need to address. Corner cutting will not be tolerated after this point in time, as it ruins the point of the time attack challenges weekly.

You know who you are. I'll let it slide this time.

If you aren't sure what extent you can drive off the inside or outside of turn, let me set a rule.

Any driver in the time trials cannot have more than two tires off of the road/route at any point in time. Corner cuts after this point in time will result in your time being removed.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I didn't get to drive the X1/9 on this week's time trial but prior experience tells me it's a solid little car.

Congrats, @Vic Reign93!

Spoiler: Standings

Vic Reign93: 1:08.302
Bastet: 1:09.372
SLP950: 1:10.404
Populuxe Cowboy: 1:12.940
Gotbeefboy: 1:14.000
VXR: 1:14.041

So...I was supposed to have a winner this week. He didn't reply in time. Now I have to manually pick the car for this week.

It's the...

2016 Ariel Nomad!

Our TT this week is the Gold Mine Cross Country Circuit in the Outback!

What? I no mad.

Edit: I want to add an additional note to the corner thing. There will be tracks with poorly defined route edges. Use your best judgement and try not to leave the boundaries of the checkpoints.

 

[SLP950]

Corner cutting will not be tolerated after this point in time, as it ruins the point of the time attack challenges weekly.
If you aren't sure what extent you can drive off the inside or outside of turn, let me set a rule.

Any driver in the time trials cannot have more than two tires off of the road/route at any point in time. Corner cuts after this point in time will result in your time being removed.

Edit: I want to add an additional note to the corner thing. There will be tracks with poorly defined route edges. Use your best judgement and try not to leave the boundaries of the checkpoints.

I will say this: I get the spirit of the event and I will do my best to comply. I do feel this will be a difficult thing to enforce, and I feel like taking "creative lines" from checkpoint to checkpoint is just part of the nature of an open world racing environment.

But I get that it's really just about friendly rivalry and I enjoy these competitions so let's keep it rolling! Thanks for hosting this Obelisk!

 

[Obelisk]

I will say this: I get the spirit of the event and I will do my best to comply. I do feel this will be a difficult thing to enforce, and I feel like taking "creative lines" from checkpoint to checkpoint is just part of the nature of an open world racing environment.

But I get that it's really just about friendly rivalry and I enjoy these competitions so let's keep it rolling! Thanks for hosting this Obelisk!

It's all in the name of fairness. The hairpin cut was yielding a one to two second advantage on that track that can't be recovered in the rest of the lap. There are cuts that are even more severe. I only applied the rule now to cut the head off the problem before it grew.

That said, you guys have been pretty good about fair driving, so 👍 to you.

Also... @xXPeacockXx I'm waiting to hear from you here!

--
The Nomad. Interesting car to have in the garage, as it's more rounded out than the other buggies.

I ran a few laps around the Gold Mine, and noticed that the Nomad is nowhere near as twitchy as I expected.

Sleeper.

 

[The Stig Farmer]

I must counter your opine @Obelisk because I believe the Nomad is a Beater. The lack of weight over the front makes it push through every corner and if you try and get sideways to compensate it scrubs a lot of speed off while sliding in a fairly uncontrolled manner.

Alas I do enjoy the Nomad and it's a definite favourite in my Forza garage

 

[Populuxe]

Running this last night, I noticed the Gold Mine Cross Country Circuit has it's own problematic turn. The start-finish line is in the braking zone for turn 1, so to get a faster lap, don't brake for turn 1. You're going to miss turn 1, but you'll post a faster time.

 

[Obelisk]

Running this last night, I noticed the Gold Mine Cross Country Circuit has it's own problematic turn. The start-finish line is in the braking zone for turn 1, so to get a faster lap, don't brake for turn 1. You're going to miss turn 1, but you'll post a faster time.

That's what I did.

 

[xXPeacockXx]

I like the Nomad. Definitely feels like a solid off-road racer. It's one of the few off road cars I'd prefer to keep in RWD rather than swapping in an AWD drivetrain. Stock suspension is a little bouncy which is to be expected, but it definitely requires some proactive driving or else you'll find yourself bouncing past your checkpoints. The stock power feels fairly balanced. The back end kicks out when you need it to but it'll keep its composure nicely even on dirt roads. Honestly its more likely understeer than oversteer in turns. All in all fun car and a good track to play with it in. Couldnt really call it a sleeper since its an Ariel... nothing about an Ariel says sleeper lol. Good pick.

 

[Obelisk]

Question for everyone: For next week, would you mind if I use a custom course for our TT next week?

 

[Populuxe]

Question for everyone: For next week, would you mind if I use a custom course for our TT next week?

Fine with me.

I'm not going to impress anyone with my times this week, but then again, have I ever?

I'm a big fan of the Ariel Nomad. I so want this car in real life. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so we've got plenty of fire and forestry roads all over two mountain ranges, plus Long Beach WA, a 28 mile long continuous sand beach, the longest in the US. There are so many places out here to have fun in a car like this. Sleeper.

 

[xXPeacockXx]

Question for everyone: For next week, would you mind if I use a custom course for our TT next week?

The problem with using a custom course is that the timing is a lot less precise. Also leaves a lot more opportunities for cheating. Unless we start linking game DVR vids it's going to be hard to regulate. Oh and traffic/drivatars? I can already feel the rage lol.

 

[ClydeYellow]

Question for everyone: For next week, would you mind if I use a custom course for our TT next week?

I assume that you inted to use a custom Bucket List event for that? Truth to be told, I wouldn't mind using some of the more exotic possibilities BLs could open up (i.e. custom cars and/orconditions, limiting the amount of damage the car can take, etc.) and to its perks (having a leaderboard which wouldn't be polluted by results achieved in other cars or by people who're not competing in our little competition); however, there is also a lot more room for cheating, as @xXPeacockXx said. And I don't see why someone should, considering that this is a friendly competition, but then we're on the internet, where people often don't make sense.

Anyways, I'm not too late for this, am I?



Ariel's most famous product, the Atom, is a mental car, a rickety trap which in Forza doesn't belong to any class - being much too powerful to compete equally with the street-legal trackday toys such as the Catheram RS and KTM X-Bow, while at the same time losing the grip battle against the Radical SR8 and (now) RXC, which can count on superior aero and slick tires.
The Nomad follows this recipe successfully: it is an amazingly lively and fun-to-drive car, sure, but it is not a specialist tool like the Class 10 buggies and T6 Raid cars, which essentially renders it useless for racing purposes.
But then, who cares? Car games such as Forza and Gran Turismo are not necessarily all about racing; sometimes you just want to drive fast and have fun. The Nomad will be a steadfast companion in your flat-out Outback adventures... You don't even have to worry about the lack of any form of protection from flying debris and/or dirt.
For me this - and the fact that come on, this thing's as subtle as a Sasha Baron Cohen character - keeps it out of any possible categorization: not a sleeper, nor a beater, the Nomad is just a car which delivers on its promise of offroad shenanigans while being uncompetitive against more established peers.

Still, it's no slouch...

 

[Obelisk]

I am happy to announce that we will be sticking to vanilla tracks.

Quite frankly, custom tracks have too much chocolate for my taste.

So let's get the ball rolling for this week!

Congrats, @xXPeacockXx!

Spoiler: Standings

xXPeacockXx: 49.349

The Stig Farmer: 49.950

Populuxe Cowboy: 51.084

Obelisk: 51.919

ClydeYellow: 54.288

Tagging @Vic Reign93 because...well, you don't want an engineer to say he's faster than you, hm?

Anyways, our winner this week is an engineer in an impressive position.

Congrats, Isaac Clarke!

...

Uh, he seems a bit preoccupied. So let's go with our second best engineer.

Congrats, @xXPeacockXx!

What engineering genius might we get to drive this week?

How about the...

It's the 1966 Chevrolet Nova SS!

I, er...Wait, what? I thought you were gonna give us something properly engineered.

*someone whispers something in my ear* Oh? Sure.

The Chevrolet Nova has an upgrade preset! You guys know what that means.

The stock Nova will be tested at Three Bridge Circuit in Surfer's Paradise, and the upgrade preset variant will be tested at the Drag Strip in the Outback!

Freaking engineers. Give me my dispenser already.

 

[SLP950]

I apologize if my late post of the Nomad bugs anybody but it's all in good fun so here's my contribution to the thread.

Welcome to Dirt Every Day, I'm your host Fred Williams and today we take a break from motorhome sized go karts and driving Diesel jeeps underwater and instead take a break from the normal, backyard built budget brawlers and jump into something very cool, very wacky, and very capable off road.

We hopped on a plane (not something I'm very fond of) and landed in the Outback of Australia. After meeting up with our old pal Warren, he carted us to the nearest Horizon festival where I was introduced to the Ariel Nomad for the first time.

Warren claims he just picked this shade of green out of the air. I guess he meant the arch and banners in the air? Anyways, I didn't care what color it was, I just wanted to get it dirty!

As we headed down the highway to our test spot, we ran across a Class 10 race buggy. I guess everybody out here just has these kind of cool off road machines huh?

We reached the construction site and I wasted no time throwing the awesome Nomad into the sky as I hit a "small" dirt mound a little too fast...

I tried to see if we could climb a buried tire, but all I really managed to do was verify that the full floor skid plate works really well. So the Nomad as a teeter-totter, not such a good idea.

We hung out all afternoon, "hooning" around the construction site and surrounding areas, just getting a feel for the Nomad's balance, which is pretty good considering it's got the Honda 2.4 liter engine in the back, suspension travel, which is also good thanks to Ohlins shocks, and just how it drives in general. It has enough power to be fun but not dangerous, and the wind in your hair open cockpit experience is great. Also, the night sky in Australia is way better than I expected it to be.

We camped out overnight, swapping stories of races won, woman lost, and cars and trucks we still lust after. I was a little nervous about coyotes, but since we didn't have any babies that could get eaten I didn't worry too much.

The next day we set up a course through the still unused construction site. The cops in Australia must be super understanding, as this place wasn't abandoned, it was just the weekend. But, I've never been one to turn down a chance to tear up some dirt so once we got all the track markers set up, I strapped in and got to running laps.

The Nomad's power and weight balance coupled with the mud terrain type tires means drifting on the street is really easy and happened quite often while I was pushing it hard.

It floats through the air and the suspension is really good at soaking up the landings of the many small jumps on this course. I loved this shot too! I had it blown up and framed, and I'm going to hang it in my shop when I get home.

Water doesn't slow it down either. It just splashes through and keeps on moving. Man this thing is awesome!!!

After running a bunch of laps, I decided to call it because I wanted to get back out in the open desert and just blast through the dunes in this thing. Unfortunately, we lost the sd card with the footage from desert. Sorry guys! Anyways, my best time was 49.449 seconds. I felt pretty good about it, but I'm sure others could do better.

All in all, I call this thing a beater. Cause you can beat on it and it can take it! It's not the fastest, it's not the most capable off road, it's not exactly affordable (Warren said this one costs around 80k USD) but it was a lot of fun. That's all for now, catch you guys later! Keep wrenching, keep wheeling, and stay dirty!

 

[Vic Reign93]

So the '66 Nova SS or to give its less "offensive" name, the Nova Super Sport.

Minor gripe aside, the Nova SS is actually a decent machine especially as a drag car in reality.

Here in Horizon, in the Classic Muscle it combines good power with relativity light body, with the Dodge Dart Super Stock as the exception, every car in its championship that's more powerful than the Nova is heavier and each car that's lighter is way down on power so it's a good compromise.

I'll get the preset run at the drag strip out the way first, with over 1000hp and a set up we assumedly can't touch, getting it to hook up is tricky as it'll happily roast its tyres in 3rd gear if you have a real lead foot.

Once it's hooked up, it'll shift all the way to just over 220mph at the finish line.

My best run after a few tries of getting the launch right.

As for the Stock Surfers run, I thought I do something different, rather than just show a photo of the time, I decided to record my run using the Xbox One's DVR.



First lap you see went wrong at the end of the long straight and the second lap is when I got it together and banged home my time of 1:14.374. 👍

Apologies for the camera twitchs, force of habit after racing online for a long time.

And if you wonder why my rear bumpers gone, As you'll see on my lap I get pretty damn close to the walls and an earlier shave with the wall took my bumper off.

 

[SLP950]

Hello guys and girls, Marty and Moog here back for another episode of Mighty Car Mods! Last month we ventured to sunny southern California to meet up with Freiburger and Finnegan of Roadkill to build and bash on some cool cars. We introduced them to AWD turbo power coupled with Aussie style in our stylish and fast "Subar-Ute" WRX and they showed up what nearly 700bhp worth of power in a rusty old american barge could do.

Well, once we got back we realized the bug had bit us, and we wanted to see if we could build a rusty and grossly overpowered death trap too, so we posted a plea on our Facebook page looking for someone who might have something and our friend Alfia told us to check out her project car. We zoomed over to Byron Bay to see what she had.

We were stoked to see a '66 Chevy Nova sitting next to her house. Yeah it's a little rough, but if we learned anything from the Roadkill guys, it's that beauty is more than skin deep. Popping the hood we were giggling like little school girls at seeing the big V8, and after waking Freiburger up to ask what the 327 ci engine could put out, we nearly lost it when he told us it could make nearly 350hp!

We quickly purchased it, and towed it back to the shop. New ignition, battery, and fresh fuel was all it took to bring it to life.

Now that we had the old girl running, man did she run! Talk about POWER! We heard there was an event going on where we could safely run the SS on a closed course, so we cranked up the engine, rolled down the windows, and cruised along the coast to Surfers Paradise to compete in the run-what-ya-brung Three Bridge Circuit event. It was a hot lap contest, and we were told our car would compete in C Class. We knew with the skinny tires, soft suspension and big v8 power it would be handful but didn't realize how much!

First lap out and first turn, I spun it big time. Major pucker factor! That wall came up on me so fast!

I let Marty take the keys and I took up a camera and captured him nearly capsizing our boat. Looks like shocks might be in order soon!

Soon enough though he was getting the hang of it and you would have thought we built a power skidder the way he was hanging the tail out and roasting the tires!

We had a great day at the track and the Nova was a real champ, and besides trying to kill us with every hard corner exit it never gave us any grief.

Our best run of the day netted a time of 1:15.590 or something close we forgot to grab the timeslip, probably because the self preservation instinct was so high we couldn't focus on much else! The Nova is a real handful!

But we had to have MORE. So back to the shop it went and after a few calls to some local "weapons dealers" some real firepower showed up in a big crate. Our new view looked like this after we installed said firepower:

We enlisted some help from some friends and in true Aussie Style, we built it into a true power skidder, complete with a massive supercharger on top of the new 7 liter LS engine, plus we replaced the suspension and wheels, brakes and some more but in true Roadkill style we did NOTHING to the body. We sent some pics to the Finnegan and Freigburger and they said it was nearly perfect, now it just needed to break down a half dozen times and it would be just like their work. They were huge fans of how we fit the massive rear tires too. The body was already rusty so we just cut out the fenderwells haha!

We invited a local hotshoe and friend, Vic Reign to see what he thought of our car, but he was more focused (he says skilled) on going fast than we were, and posted a pretty quick time on the airstrip, so we tried to match him and just couldn't get that last tenth of a second. Maybe next time eh Vic?

At the end of the day, though we did what we set out to do, and that was meet some cool blokes and sheilas, have some fun with our mates, and build a ridiculously over powered car to destroy tires with. We never expected to have as much fun with it as we did, so we'd call it a sleeper as it really snuck up on us!

So that's how we ended the day, destroying tires down the runway. Thanks for coming along for the ride, see next time!

 

[Populuxe]

Our best run of the day netted a time of 1:15.590 or something close we forgot to grab the timeslip

Don't worry, I've got you covered.

You time and mine. The Surfers Paradise Timing Association is pretty cool about this stuff.

And here is my drag race time.

Maybe this is too much like the Rebel from a couple weeks ago, because it just felt like more of the same. It's a nice car with surprisingly good handling, probably because it's lighter than most muscle cars. Getting those 90 degree corners just right through downtown SP is the make or break area for me, and to be honest, I didn't get them just right. Maybe next time.

 

[xXPeacockXx]

Wrapped up my testing of the Nova earlier this week but havent gotten around to putting something up. The nova in its 1000+ HP form is a bit of a handful on the drag strip and takes some finesse with the throttle to get the wheels to hook up. It took a lot of trial and error to get some decent times but theres still lots of room for improvement.

For the stock configuration, she's floppy but has enough power to make up for the sloppy turns. Once you get the hang of the car's inertia, it barrels through corners and launches into straightaways.

The Nova might have aged, but it has aged well. Solid sleeper.

 

[Obelisk]

Hey @Populuxe Cowboy you do know that the Drag Strip is accessible in Rivals?


This week, we're taking a different path. I've gone and set up a custom time trial. @SLP950 and @xXPeacockXx can share it. You could also add me at RMedia Obelisk on XBL and get it there.

Let's get last week's TT out of the way!

Congrats, @Vic Reign93! Win hog.

Spoiler: Standings - Stock

Vic Reign93: 1:14.378

Peacock: 1:14.508

SLP950: 1:15.509

Populuxe Cowboy: 1:15.809

Spoiler: Standings - Preset

Vic Reign93: 24.558

SLP950: 24.658

Peacock: 24.758

Populuxe Cowboy: 32.724

I decided to give myself the choice of car this week so I could test something.

So, it's the...

1967 Lola T70 MKIIIB!

*record scratch*

Yes. I picked a Forzathon car. Why?

I realized I could make basic point to point tracks with the stock car and let other people try it.

So this week's time trial is a custom course that's here:

Have fun!

 

[GTvsForza]

Do you have to be in the GTP club to do it? I recently changed to JackUltraGamer's club and the GTP club is full.

 

[Obelisk]

Do you have to be in the GTP club to do it? I recently changed to JackUltraGamer's club and the GTP club is full.

Nope. Just follow me on Xbox Live and you should be able to access it.

 

[FastBud]

Nope. Just follow me on Xbox Live and you should be able to access it.

I'm also following you now, to join in the fun if ok

 

[Obelisk]

I'm also following you now, to join in the fun if ok

Welcome aboard! Just watch out for @Vic Reign93, he'll do...something? He's stupid fast.

 

[FastBud]

Welcome aboard! Just watch out for @Vic Reign93, he'll do...something? He's stupid fast.

Game on Need something to get me back playing Horizon!

 

[PJTierney]

Hey @Populuxe Cowboy you do know that the Drag Strip is accessible in Rivals?


This week, we're taking a different path. I've gone and set up a custom time trial. @SLP950 and @xXPeacockXx can share it. You could also add me at RMedia Obelisk on XBL and get it there.

Let's get last week's TT out of the way!

Congrats, @Vic Reign93! Win hog.

Spoiler: Standings - Stock

Vic Reign93: 1:14.378

Peacock: 1:14.508

SLP950: 1:15.509

Populuxe Cowboy: 1:15.809

Spoiler: Standings - Preset

Vic Reign93: 24.558

SLP950: 24.658

Peacock: 24.758

Populuxe Cowboy: 32.724

I decided to give myself the choice of car this week so I could test something.

So, it's the...

View attachment 629133
1967 Lola T70 MKIIIB!

*record scratch*

Yes. I picked a Forzathon car. Why?

I realized I could make basic point to point tracks with the stock car and let other people try it.

So this week's time trial is a custom course that's here:

View attachment 629134

Have fun!

What's your Gamertag? People will need to have you added before the Bucket List shows up in their game.

[edit: I obviously didn't read the post I quoted and just looked at the picture ]

 

[Obelisk]

What's your Gamertag? People will need to have you added before the Bucket List shows up in their game.

Hey @Populuxe Cowboy you do know that the Drag Strip is accessible in Rivals?


This week, we're taking a different path. I've gone and set up a custom time trial. @SLP950 and @xXPeacockXx can share it. You could also add me at RMedia Obelisk on XBL and get it there.

 

[SLP950]

Cool, this should be fun. Depending on the course, it will probably be pretty challenging to "cheat" or shortcut, plus there's no way to tune since it's a bucket list. I just picked up a few of these this weekend and haven't tried it out yet.

I gotta figure out how to sneak some nitrous in there or something, I'm badly want to beat @Vic Reign93 and pick something big heavy and ridiculous for us all to bash through the desert in.

 

[Obelisk]

Cool, this should be fun. Depending on the course, it will probably be pretty challenging to "cheat" or shortcut, plus there's no way to tune since it's a bucket list. I just picked up a few of these this weekend and haven't tried it out yet.

I gotta figure out how to sneak some nitrous in there or something, I'm badly want to beat @Vic Reign93 and pick something big heavy and ridiculous for us all to bash through the desert in.

I personally tested the route I picked. There may be one or two sectors that could be cut, but why would you want to do that on sweeping turns?