RVR Double Whammy!
RVR are now one of the top tuners around here, with a wide variety of tunes and a good ability and goal of getting a car's handling absolutely perfect. Like Alfa Giulia TZ2s.
Dylans1o, who has notably used many more exclamation marks than anyone in the world, is the main tuner of the garage, with Nismo34 proving to be a good drift tuner of theirs as well. I will be testing tunes from both of these tuners, but not really the ones you'd expect.
From Dylan we have a
Mazda Autozam AZ-1, fully modded to become the 'Super Speedy Mazda', whilst Nismo34 has provided us with a drift tune for none other than the epic
Volkswagen SambaBus of 1962. But do these tunes actually work? Let's find out with some considerate testing.
So first up, it's the AZ-1.
Yes, I can't believe a car can look that weird either.
But anyway, let's get on with the small matter of performance improvements. The standard car has 64bhp, as do other kei cars. This one has 146bhp, which has improved the sheer speed of this car enormously. Also the car now weighs just 647kg, which puts it right at the 450PP mark. But would you really use it for one of the races there? Well...let's be considerate.
The handling on this AZ-1 is nothing to be laughing at. Even if it looks like an aerodynamic experiment gone stupidly wrong it gets around corners. It has removed the so called 'oversteer' from the car (though that should be impossible if the car has no more than 64bhp) and it handles very slickly. Around my custom Kracht Circuit, which is filled with many speedy turns, the AZ-1 could hold its own very well around them. So that's a good few marks gained there already.
The looks, as I've already said, are very weird. The bodykit on the AZ-1 actually makes it look like one of the best cars in the game...but not with the orange paint I've had to give the car to make it look like the one Dylan has.
If it was the default Cyberia Blue colour you could get with this car it would look great. This car with that colour goes very well together. It's also why my tune of the car has that colour. But with orange paint...it looks like a piece of Dutch cheese.
It also as a result makes it look really very funny. Particularly when you consider what it actually is.
But enough of moaning about how odd this car looks. It's still very fast, and it caused me a very big surprise when racing down the straights on my circuit. It was hitting 130+, which is high for a car with barely that much power and also very fast for a car that I could carry. And I'm 5'5" and 45kg. Alright, enough personal information about me!
The AZ-1's sound is still a pretty good one. With the new exhaust it bears an uncanny resemblance to the sound you'd have in the bonkers Furai Concept. However on the inside you get either a nice or annoying, according to who you are, whine on the inside that seems to act as the sound for the transmission, but can't because then you'd be getting an actual transmission whine. It's weird.
The horn of the AZ-1 is also comically funny and the lights look simple but cute. It seems like the kind of car for a cute girl, but in this state, it's certainly too mean for one.
It is however, my personal favourite over all of the kei cars in this game, despite the Copen's power, the Cappuccino's speed and everyone else's oddball loveliness.
So RVR has done a very good job on turning the AZ-1 from a cutesy little sweetie bag to a very fast, nippy and agressive looking orange piece of cheese.
It's one of the funniest cars I've ever driven, and all the better for it. However the AZ-1 is nowhere near close enough to what's coming next...
The Volkswagen SambaBus drift tune.
So, with some Phantom Black paint, some wheels by Blitz, some front and rear bumper adjustments, a lot of new parts and a lot of adjusting later the SambaBus is ready to...uh, Rock the Kasbah.
Now clearly, if you're a sane person, there is no possible way you could expect a Bus to drift at all. Thankfully, people believe in this sort of thing, and Nismo34 is one of these people. He has a picture of 2 of his massively exciting SambaBuses drifting away Like a G6, so it clearly is possible...but how? Well thankfully he released a tune that would help us realise that it is possible to drift a Bus like this, so I applied it to my SambaBus (being the crazy Volkswagen classic freak I am) and saw what was what.
Now can I say at first: I am not a natural born drifter. I don't understand how to set a car up for drifting (apart from massive camber, I've noticed that
), I'm not very good at it and my main drift car in the game was a Nissan 240ZG. Notice a crucial word towards the end of that sentence? You should, because that Nissan 240ZG is no longer my top drift car. Well, it is my top drift
car, but not my top
drifter.
Y'see, this SambaBus is just so wonderful at drifting and so amazing that I can actually get it to work because it is so simple. I've never seen a car - err, I mean bus, that can get this much work done. I was as shocked as anyone to see my Bus drifting through the last corner on Eiger Nordwand Reverse, up the hills back to the start line and through the last turn again. You would be surprised too, wouldn't you? Well, I can tell you, I have some shots of me doing some actually successful drifting.
No, those aren't emissions, that is actual smoke from me drifting the tyres. On a SambaBus. I know. I know!
It should be impossible, but it isn't! And I love it because of that! Granted, you won't be getting many
fast drifts (the 5-speed tranny limits this thing to 72mph at max) but it can get you around the corners in style still. The Mid Range Turbo Kit helps certainly by not only giving more power but easier control around the range of RPM. I'm an auto user, so I'm not used to saying such stuff, but I can here because the SambaBus is such a perfect drift bus because of it. Part choosing is never this crucial normally, but it is here.
To be fair, looking at the settings, it looks like a drift car, but it also doesn't. I don't know the way to set a car for drift, but I know the camber could be a bit wilder. However I do know now that you have to go absolutely crazy with the LSD, and that you obviously need to have a very low height (and the height is
really adjustable on a SambaBus, believe me) and that the springs should obviously be quite hard. Thank you so much for all this information, Nismo, since not only am I now learning how to drift for real, but I'm also learning how to make cars do it too! It's brilliant!
So in the end, the SambaBus, tuned by Nismo for drifting, makes impossible things possible. I have never known that a Bus can really drift, and I didn't even know it had enough power, but it does, and it works like a charm. Well done to you RVR, your tune is brilliant. And since impossible is nothing with this car, I'm now sponsoring it with Adidas logos! Well, I wish I could anyway.
Meh, to be honest, that shot looks more like the SambaBus blowing up in a cloud of smoke. But it isn't, trust me. Trust me.
Final Scores!
AZ-1: 13/20
SambaBus: 16/20
). So, I went and saw his tune, and tuned up my present to the specs that he got. So, how did I get on with this new baby boy?
).
So they're close-ish but stock they're all leagues apart 
), red, pearl red, pink, light green, turquoise, blue, lavender, dark green, gold...it's a rainbow of colours! And it's not that hippie, it's just...variable! Really! 
