Car of the Week 228: COTY GTS Finale

[Nismonath5]

Perhaps we all should have drove the COTW this week.

I thought the F50 was a dumb enough choice for that race, but then a Copen? That guy's got to be having a giggle, surely!

 

[Draggon]

I thought the F50 was a dumb enough choice for that race, but then a Copen?

I watched the replay and it looked to me like he was taking people out-on purpose

 

[Vic Reign93]

Either that or he was 🤬 incompetent and doesn’t check his mirrors.

Safe to say I had a few choice words to say about it afterward.

 

[Alex p.]

Either that or he was 🤬 incompetent and doesn’t check his mirrors.

Safe to say I had a few choice words to say about it afterward.

I've seen the replay...

 

[Nismonath5]

Racer and I are keen for more racing, if you guys are too! Who's up for another meet tonight? Doesn't have to just be the F1500 either, we can shake it up a bit

 

[RobboGTAddict]

I only saved one replay from our second get together. Let me know when it happens again.

 

[Racer283]

This car has produced some great battles from GT6 and quite popular among the COTW community. We are testing the Honda Civic Type R '98. This weeks car is chosen by @MidFieldMaven

 

[Alex p.]

Great car choice! The "little brother" of the Integra, if you want so. Lovely design, nice sound and great handling. It is basically 10 seconds slower, than the Integra though (on the Nordschleife). Considering the specs of both cars, I really didn't expect such a big difference in lap times. Colour me surprised.

GTS Nordschleife hot lap STOCK Honda Civic Type R EK '98: 08.34.942

 

[90sEnthusiast]

This car has produced some great battles from GT6 and quite popular among the COTW community. We are testing the Honda Civic Type R '98. This weeks car is chosen by @MidFieldMaven

Great choice! I love this car. Handles great and the engine noise is lovely. I'm looking forward to this COTW.

 

[Shingo_civic]

This car has produced some great battles from GT6 and quite popular among the COTW community. We are testing the Honda Civic Type R '98. This weeks car is chosen by @MidFieldMaven

I love this car

 

[Nismonath5]

The Lotus 97T F1500 TA
Little did I know, 1500 stood for the average heart rate while driving this thing!!!!!!

Ah, the 80's. What a time to be an F1 fan! Senna, Prost, Lauda, McLaren, Ferrari, Williams. Sure, all of this happened 10-20 years before I was born, but the stories and archive footage are great! The era of huge turbos, massive rear tyres, and even bigger man bags required to wrestle these mechanical monstrosities!!!

Suffice to say, it's common knowledge that this is a real F1 car, just with a fake name and skin. It's loud, it's fast, it's dangerous. So what's it like to drive? Frankly, it's brutality is easy to overlook. Just shy of 1000bhp with virtually half the weight. This is not a car for the casual driver. The turbo lag also lures you into a false sense of security, prompting you to put your foot down harder before it spools up and delivers all the power at once, causing either a lengthy third gear burnout or a violent encounter with the wall.

One aspect of driving this car I absolutely love is that it's one of the few race cars you can drive H pattern manual. The AI's gear changes take about a week and a half, so I can use my shifter to cut the change times two fold, although it's not like I could use it to much effect. I'm the first to admit open wheelers just aren't my thing, and the F1500 is no different. The races weren't my best, although I did have a fantastic battle with Baron and Wtru at Spa when I switched my car for a Gr.1 Tomahawk.

There's a lot I could complain about with this car, but most of it is down to my own driving, not the car itself. Too loose? Nah, just be a bit earlier on the throttle next time. Too powerful? Nope, just be more progressive on the throttle next time. The only legit complaint I have is the brakes aren't as strong as perhaps they could be. I'll give it a pass due to the car's age, anyway.

It also had surprising torque, through tight corners I could just leave it in 3rd instead of going back to 2nd or 1st and it would pull away just fine. A bit slower, but without the risk of lighting the bags and spearing off track!! All in all, much as I enjoy driving it, I can't race it for the life of me, so I'm calling this one a big fat neutral.

The Civic on the other hand, I'm really looking forward to. FWD, hatchback, small variable valve 4 banger.... It's a familiar combo for me, personally

 

[Nismonath5]

Well, here's something I certainly haven't done in a fair while! Pics from tonight's meet!

Cheers to everyone who was there, what a crazy fun bunch of races!!! Like Vic said, "What is it with this group and FF Hondas?!"

I might well take a few more shots as there was no shortage of cars nice and close to eachother, but here's the first wee bunch I took

 

[Alex p.]

I love this car

One can tell...

 

[90sEnthusiast]

Well, here's something I certainly haven't done in a fair while! Pics from tonight's meet!

Cheers to everyone who was there, what a crazy fun bunch of races!!! Like Vic said, "What is it with this group and FF Hondas?!"

I might well take a few more shots as there was no shortage of cars nice and close to eachother, but here's the first wee bunch I took

View attachment 904718 View attachment 904719 View attachment 904720 View attachment 904721 View attachment 904722 View attachment 904723 View attachment 904724 View attachment 904725 View attachment 904726

Che bella! Gorgeous shots!

 

[90sEnthusiast]

Great car choice! The "little brother" of the Integra, if you want so. Lovely design, nice sound and great handling. It is basically 10 seconds slower, than the Integra though (on the Nordschleife). Considering the specs of both cars, I really didn't expect such a big difference in lap times. Colour me surprised.

GTS Nordschleife hot lap STOCK Honda Civic Type R EK '98: 08.34.942

I drove the Integra Type R back to back with the CT-R, the Integra is definitely faster on its feet but I'm also surprised at the difference in your Nur runs based off the numbers alone!

 

[Nismonath5]

Still buzzing from last night's races, that was some of the most fun I've had in ages!! These ones are going in the archive for sure!

 

[Nismonath5]

Gone a bit quiet here... Everyone doing okay in isolation?

I'm keen to run an extra COTW room tonight for those who are stuck indoors with nothing to do, so I'll see how many of you guys are online around then and either put up a room or not.

I'd also ask that you guys have a look at this video and let me know what you think. For a little while now, @Racer283 and I have been silently mulling a few ideas to get COTW a bit more exposure, try and get a few new faces involved. Imagine racing each week with a full lobby! I've even heard stories of before I joined the club, where two lobbies would be run because there were that many people joining in!

So, I've drafted up a quick video ad for the club, to be released to the world. This probably isn't the final cut, but that's why I'm asking for feedback. Is it good, what needs improving, etc, etc. There's no deadline for getting it released, so no time pressure, but still let me know what you think!

 

[Racer283]

Gone a bit quiet here... Everyone doing okay in isolation?

I'm keen to run an extra COTW room tonight for those who are stuck indoors with nothing to do, so I'll see how many of you guys are online around then and either put up a room or not.

I'd also ask that you guys have a look at this video and let me know what you think. For a little while now, @Racer283 and I have been silently mulling a few ideas to get COTW a bit more exposure, try and get a few new faces involved. Imagine racing each week with a full lobby! I've even heard stories of before I joined the club, where two lobbies would be run because there were that many people joining in!

So, I've drafted up a quick video ad for the club, to be released to the world. This probably isn't the final cut, but that's why I'm asking for feedback. Is it good, what needs improving, etc, etc. There's no deadline for getting it released, so no time pressure, but still let me know what you think!

That looks pretty good not sure what else I would add or give good feedback on. Also I just set up a twitch account that I could try and use for the races on Tuesday night.

 

[Nismonath5]

That looks pretty good not sure what else I would add or give good feedback on. Also I just set up a twitch account that I could try and use for the races on Tuesday night.

Ah yes it will be interesting to see if that garners much attention.

 

[Racer283]

Ah yes it will be interesting to see if that garners much attention.

Though I don't have a mic or anything to really talk during the live stream.

 

[MisterWaffles]

I really liked that trailer. I have a couple suggestions for clips that could have been included, but then it would probably have been 10 minutes long.

 

[Nismonath5]

I really liked that trailer. I have a couple suggestions for clips that could have been included, but then it would probably have been 10 minutes long.

Definitely keen to hear them! I'm not limiting it to one clip, chances are I may well make a couple of wee adverts...

Also, to anyone interested. The bonus lobby room is up now!

 

[Soyuz 77]

Loved the video @Nismonath5 Good collection of clips, I'm a big fan of the display of the variety of cars we use. Good choice of music in the background to.

 

[MidFieldMaven]

I'm going to boot up GTS at some point today and try for a 1:08



It's 4 tenths behind the ITR and 8 tenths slower than Toyota 86 GT '15.

 

[Vic Reign93]

*Checks thread for last vehicle I reviewed*
*Notices he hasn’t done one so far this year*

Well given that the current social climate is to put it lightly, a dumpster fire, I figured with all the isolation going on I put some of this free time into getting back up to date on things.

So we start with the car I kept coming back to, but for a different reason, The GrX version of the Renault R.S.01.

Now a few weeks ago @Nismonath5 invited me to the NZ Renault R.S.01 trophy hosted by MMC(Monkey Motorsport Club) which has some of NZ’s fastest drivers fighting it out for prizes and bragging rights.

Now that series has wrapped up for now and the winners are declared, but that’s not to say I didn’t throw some of these guys a few curveballs.

2 Sprint race wins in Lobby B and a dead heat tie with another Kiwi in Lobby A, during a one lap shootout for one of the feature races.(got a funny habit of doing that against Kiwis.)



The First 20 mins cover the qualifying/race I was apart of.

So it’s safe to say I’ve had plenty of mileage behind the wheel of the Renault recently so I can safely say that if you want a car for a one make series, you can’t argue with the R.S.01.

7 speed gearbox, 550hp 3.8 TTV6 from a GTR mounted midship and weighing around 1150kgs.

That vid also serves as my driving impressions too.

The only two big issues it has are it’s classification and it’s GT3 counterpart kinda undermining its relevance, but on it owns merits I can recommend it. 👍

Verdict: Sleeper

The Lancia Delta Integrale Evo, the quintessential road going rally bred machine.

4 doors, 4wd, 4 cylinders with 2 litres of displacement and a single turbocharger churning out 209hp at 6000rpm.

While a few rally livery’s showed up, me and Monty had 2 different versions of the restomodded Delta Futurista.

The Delta handled quite nicely off and on road, but couldn’t quite get around a classic Camaro at Catalunya.

Which is expected considering you can almost buy 2 Deltas for the cost of one Camaro Z/28.

So in summary, eh it’s alright.

Verdict: Neutral

Next up is the return of a long time friend for GT and many other games during the period of ‘EA exclusivity’ on the Porsche licence, RUF and they brought with them their own in-house Supercar in the form of the CTR-3.

With nearly 700hp on tap from a twin turbo 3.8 Flat Six, Speeds of well over 220mph are second nature for the CTR-3.

Weighing in at 1400kgs, it’s over 170kgs lighter than a similarly powerful Lambo Aventador.

While that does sound great, it does mean it’ll likely want to kill you when you’re trying to hustle it around the track as it’s rear wheel drive.

It’s quick, but it doesn’t take too much for it to go from being the quick to being the dead.

Your mileage will vary of course.

Verdict: Neutral

The following double act are led by a couple athletes, Toyota Crown Athletes to be exact.

One is N Class in civilian spec and the other one in GrX Safety/Police spec.

Both powered by 3.5 V6 engines making 309hp, both have an 8 speed automatic gearbox and open differentials which does mean putting power down through slow turns usually equals one tyre fires.

But it also did mean it liked to rotate off throttle and under braking which I did like.

All in all, despite being a 1650kgs luxury car, it was quite fun and playful to drive and is only 2,500cr more than the Lancia Delta so its good value at 57,500cr.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

From inexpensive to High Roller expensive with the Aston Martin One-77 and it’s price of 1,320,000cr.

Packing a 750hp 7.3 V12 co-developed with Cosworth upfront, rear wheel drive through a 6 speed gearbox and a top speed of nearly 220mph.

On the flip side however it weighs 1630kgs, only 20kgs lighter than the Crown Athlete and the suspension is a bit on the soft side so it wallows a bit in the turns and under braking.

While it can fine tuned to address the issues, it just struggles with handling in stock form, definitely more setup for long distance cruising than carving up the canyon roads.

If you want an ultra fast exotic, An Enzo is cheaper and lighter, The Ruf CTR-3 is even cheaper and has a little more power than the Enzo.

I only recommend the One 77 for collectors and top speed runners, but for 1.32 million, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it.

Verdict: Beater 👎

Now the Citroen DS3 Racing I didn’t test when it came up as I was on holiday at the time, but I did get enough seat time with it to say it’s decent for its class and ok for N100 or 200 class racing.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

And now on to the Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

One word to describe it? Twitchy.

Most cars tend to have a safety net when you step over the line so that you can catch it easily, The Huracan GT3’s safety net is a very small one.

It behaves just fine and drives decent, but you even think of stepping over the line ever so slightly and it breaks out the pool cue and cracks you in the family jewels.

The race at Bathurst is easily one to forget for me, looped it twice in the same spot on consecutive laps.

But the Laguna race was solid with a close finish to boot.

So in summary, it’s a capable machine, but you have to trust it to not kill you every race.

Verdict: Neutral

The Aston Martin DBR9 GT1, most of what I said about the Lambo could apply to the Aston, aside from the whole twitchy part.

While it feels like it dies off after getting into 6th gear on longer tracks, it’s handling allows you to push it hard through the turns.

And it’s a Aston V12 in race trim, can’t go wrong with that.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

Next up is a car from the still small group of Gr2 race cars and is one of the older GT500 racers, The Lexus SC430 Super GT500.

Powered by a 4.5 487hp V8 and weighing 1100kgs, the Lexus is the least powerful of the Gr2 class stock, heck it’s even less powerful than the least powerful Gr3 car in the form of the Alfa 4C Gr3.

But what a Gr2 lacks in raw power is certainly offset by its lower weight and superior aerodynamic package with Super GT500 cars even back when the SC430 was active outrunning full on GT1 cars around tracks like Fuji.

And that pace showed with the Lexus as you could throw it through some section a lot harder than the Gr3 cars, brake that little bit later and so on.

Many good battles were had, including a solid three way fight between myself, Baron and Nismo.

That’s what I like about the Gr2 racers, They can still bite, but you have to be a bit of a spanner to get them to do so in stock form, they’re relatively easy to drive aside from that.

Then you upgrade them and they get real quick, near 800hp and under 900kgs.

Overall, Lexus SC430 is solid and we need more Gr2 machines.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

The Nissan 180SX Type X is another car I can refer to a car previously reviewed, the Silvia S13, it’s cheap, decent for N200-300 and will go nicely sideways when setup properly.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

Next up the Lotus 97-er F1500-A by GT.

It’s basically a non licensed version of the Lotus 97T from GT6, same body style, same 1.5 litre turbo V6 with enough boost to make a high performance diesel engine take notice.

Same near 1000hp output, same 5 speed manual gearbox and the same amount of turbo lag ready to light up the rear tyres.

Aside from that one incident at Blue Moon Speedway, the racing was great with battles up and down the field.

Again, your verdict with the F1500 will vary depending on how good one could drive it.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

And finally, but by no means least, The Honda Civic Type R EK.

‘What is it with us and FF Hondas?’

I stand by that statement because nearly every time we get behind the wheel of one, brilliant racing happens.

From the race long 3 way fight for the lead at Interlargos to the final lap, final turn drama at Bathurst.

Heck even the warm up race was good too.

The Civic didn’t put a foot wrong all night, though I wished for either a shorter 3rd gear or a little more torque, but hey beggars can’t be choosers.

Best part? Only 20k all in, 3rd cheapest car we’ve tested, only the 89’ MX5 and Swift Sport are cheaper.

Overall, the Civic has once again got the stamp of approval of a Sleeper.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

Now let’s not fall behind like that again shall we Vic?

 

[90sEnthusiast]

Damn good work!

*Checks thread for last vehicle I reviewed*
*Notices he hasn’t done one so far this year*

Well given that the current social climate is to put it lightly, a dumpster fire, I figured with all the isolation going on I put some of this free time into getting back up to date on things.

So we start with the car I kept coming back to, but for a different reason, The GrX version of the Renault R.S.01.

Now a few weeks ago @Nismonath5 invited me to the NZ Renault R.S.01 trophy hosted by MMC(Monkey Motorsport Club) which has some of NZ’s fastest drivers fighting it out for prizes and bragging rights.

Now that series has wrapped up for now and the winners are declared, but that’s not to say I didn’t throw some of these guys a few curveballs.

2 Sprint race wins in Lobby B and a dead heat tie with another Kiwi in Lobby A, during a one lap shootout for one of the feature races.(got a funny habit of doing that against Kiwis.)



The First 20 mins cover the qualifying/race I was apart of.

So it’s safe to say I’ve had plenty of mileage behind the wheel of the Renault recently so I can safely say that if you want a car for a one make series, you can’t argue with the R.S.01.

7 speed gearbox, 550hp 3.8 TTV6 from a GTR mounted midship and weighing around 1150kgs.

That vid also serves as my driving impressions too.

The only two big issues it has are it’s classification and it’s GT3 counterpart kinda undermining its relevance, but on it owns merits I can recommend it. 👍

Verdict: Sleeper

The Lancia Delta Integrale Evo, the quintessential road going rally bred machine.

4 doors, 4wd, 4 cylinders with 2 litres of displacement and a single turbocharger churning out 209hp at 6000rpm.

While a few rally livery’s showed up, me and Monty had 2 different versions of the restomodded Delta Futurista.

The Delta handled quite nicely off and on road, but couldn’t quite get around a classic Camaro at Catalunya.

Which is expected considering you can almost buy 2 Deltas for the cost of one Camaro Z/28.

So in summary, eh it’s alright.

Verdict: Neutral

Next up is the return of a long time friend for GT and many other games during the period of ‘EA exclusivity’ on the Porsche licence, RUF and they brought with them their own in-house Supercar in the form of the CTR-3.

With nearly 700hp on tap from a twin turbo 3.8 Flat Six, Speeds of well over 220mph are second nature for the CTR-3.

Weighing in at 1400kgs, it’s over 170kgs lighter than a similarly powerful Lambo Aventador.

While that does sound great, it does mean it’ll likely want to kill you when you’re trying to hustle it around the track as it’s rear wheel drive.

It’s quick, but it doesn’t take too much for it to go from being the quick to being the dead.

Your mileage will vary of course.

Verdict: Neutral

The following double act are led by a couple athletes, Toyota Crown Athletes to be exact.

One is N Class in civilian spec and the other one in GrX Safety/Police spec.

Both powered by 3.5 V6 engines making 309hp, both have an 8 speed automatic gearbox and open differentials which does mean putting power down through slow turns usually equals one tyre fires.

But it also did mean it liked to rotate off throttle and under braking which I did like.

All in all, despite being a 1650kgs luxury car, it was quite fun and playful to drive and is only 2,500cr more than the Lancia Delta so its good value at 57,500cr.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

From inexpensive to High Roller expensive with the Aston Martin One-77 and it’s price of 1,320,000cr.

Packing a 750hp 7.3 V12 co-developed with Cosworth upfront, rear wheel drive through a 6 speed gearbox and a top speed of nearly 220mph.

On the flip side however it weighs 1630kgs, only 20kgs lighter than the Crown Athlete and the suspension is a bit on the soft side so it wallows a bit in the turns and under braking.

While it can fine tuned to address the issues, it just struggles with handling in stock form, definitely more setup for long distance cruising than carving up the canyon roads.

If you want an ultra fast exotic, An Enzo is cheaper and lighter, The Ruf CTR-3 is even cheaper and has a little more power than the Enzo.

I only recommend the One 77 for collectors and top speed runners, but for 1.32 million, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it.

Verdict: Beater 👎

Now the Citroen DS3 Racing I didn’t test when it came up as I was on holiday at the time, but I did get enough seat time with it to say it’s decent for its class and ok for N100 or 200 class racing.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

And now on to the Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

One word to describe it? Twitchy.

Most cars tend to have a safety net when you step over the line so that you can catch it easily, The Huracan GT3’s safety net is a very small one.

It behaves just fine and drives decent, but you even think of stepping over the line ever so slightly and it breaks out the pool cue and cracks you in the family jewels.

The race at Bathurst is easily one to forget for me, looped it twice in the same spot on consecutive laps.

But the Laguna race was solid with a close finish to boot.

So in summary, it’s a capable machine, but you have to trust it to not kill you every race.

Verdict: Neutral

The Aston Martin DBR9 GT1, most of what I said about the Lambo could apply to the Aston, aside from the whole twitchy part.

While it feels like it dies off after getting into 6th gear on longer tracks, it’s handling allows you to push it hard through the turns.

And it’s a Aston V12 in race trim, can’t go wrong with that.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

Next up is a car from the still small group of Gr2 race cars and is one of the older GT500 racers, The Lexus SC430 Super GT500.

Powered by a 4.5 487hp V8 and weighing 1100kgs, the Lexus is the least powerful of the Gr2 class stock, heck it’s even less powerful than the least powerful Gr3 car in the form of the Alfa 4C Gr3.

But what a Gr2 lacks in raw power is certainly offset by its lower weight and superior aerodynamic package with Super GT500 cars even back when the SC430 was active outrunning full on GT1 cars around tracks like Fuji.

And that pace showed with the Lexus as you could throw it through some section a lot harder than the Gr3 cars, brake that little bit later and so on.

Many good battles were had, including a solid three way fight between myself, Baron and Nismo.

That’s what I like about the Gr2 racers, They can still bite, but you have to be a bit of a spanner to get them to do so in stock form, they’re relatively easy to drive aside from that.

Then you upgrade them and they get real quick, near 800hp and under 900kgs.

Overall, Lexus SC430 is solid and we need more Gr2 machines.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

The Nissan 180SX Type X is another car I can refer to a car previously reviewed, the Silvia S13, it’s cheap, decent for N200-300 and will go nicely sideways when setup properly.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

Next up the Lotus 97-er F1500-A by GT.

It’s basically a non licensed version of the Lotus 97T from GT6, same body style, same 1.5 litre turbo V6 with enough boost to make a high performance diesel engine take notice.

Same near 1000hp output, same 5 speed manual gearbox and the same amount of turbo lag ready to light up the rear tyres.

Aside from that one incident at Blue Moon Speedway, the racing was great with battles up and down the field.

Again, your verdict with the F1500 will vary depending on how good one could drive it.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

And finally, but by no means least, The Honda Civic Type R EK.

‘What is it with us and FF Hondas?’

I stand by that statement because nearly every time we get behind the wheel of one, brilliant racing happens.

From the race long 3 way fight for the lead at Interlargos to the final lap, final turn drama at Bathurst.

Heck even the warm up race was good too.

The Civic didn’t put a foot wrong all night, though I wished for either a shorter 3rd gear or a little more torque, but hey beggars can’t be choosers.

Best part? Only 20k all in, 3rd cheapest car we’ve tested, only the 89’ MX5 and Swift Sport are cheaper.

Overall, the Civic has once again got the stamp of approval of a Sleeper.

Verdict: Sleeper 👍

Now let’s not fall behind like that again shall we Vic?

Damn good reviews! Love it when you have time to catch up and review the cars!

 

[90sEnthusiast]

1998 Civic Type R (EK)

The EK generation Civic may be the most popular of ALL the Civic generations (Honda fans, correct me if I'm wrong). For good reason as well - light weight, snappy shifts, and easily modified engines that could be easily swapped out - and I'm not even talking about the SI or Type R models!

The EK Type R was one the US could have really used but never got. It makes a healthy 200HP/181TQ, and the power is literally all uptop. Very close stats to the legendary DC2 Integra Type R, but that car was tuned for a bit more torque. Imagine the EK R battling the Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T/GS-X, Ford Probe GT, VW Corrado, base model Mitsu 3000GT/Nissan 300ZX/Supra. It would have been a great player and would probably beat most of these cars on a track.

As far as straight line speed, it's mundane until you reach V-Tech when it feels like a turbo kicked in. That's what I love about these older Type R cars - you have to rev the nuts off them, but when V-Tech hits you can feel it kick in. And the sound when it does is pretty nice imo.
It fairs much better in cornering. This thing just goes where you put it without drama. Its basically a race car for the road in similar vein to the DC2. It's been stripped in weight, has more power and short throw ratios (a bit too short for my taste), and the brakes are awesome. There's not much need to brake on longer courses since you won't be seeing much higher than 100mph where the car is in its element, stable and pretty planted for such a feather weight. This car can compete with N300 cars around shorter tracks like Tsukuba, but easily loses on longer ones.

The styling is iconic and practical. My livery is definitely sub-par in general but the basic shape and headlights are a dead giveaway for the Japanese treat it is. One odd thing is how it's noticeably slower than the DC2 Integra in this game; yes, the DC2 has more torque but I noticed 1-3s differences in lap times.

Verdict: Sleeper

 

[Racer283]

This tuning company has been around since GT2 but mainly had their JDTC or Super GT cars until GT5 when they introduced the tuned road version of the RX-7. This week we will be taking a look at the RE Amemiya FD3S RX-7. This weeks car is chosen by @Rinsky

 

[05XR8]

Gone a bit quiet here... Everyone doing okay in isolation?

I'm keen to run an extra COTW room tonight for those who are stuck indoors with nothing to do, so I'll see how many of you guys are online around then and either put up a room or not.

I'd also ask that you guys have a look at this video and let me know what you think. For a little while now, @Racer283 and I have been silently mulling a few ideas to get COTW a bit more exposure, try and get a few new faces involved. Imagine racing each week with a full lobby! I've even heard stories of before I joined the club, where two lobbies would be run because there were that many people joining in!

So, I've drafted up a quick video ad for the club, to be released to the world. This probably isn't the final cut, but that's why I'm asking for feedback. Is it good, what needs improving, etc, etc. There's no deadline for getting it released, so no time pressure, but still let me know what you think!

Cool ad!

 

[bjl23]

So the CROSSOVER CUP finished today and TEAM CHALLENGE HUB won round 5, 3 points to 2.
Which meant TEAM CHALLENGE HUB won the cup overall 14 - 11.

@Thematic was racer of the round and @Vic Reign93 was racer of the cup winning all 5 of his races.



Thank you to everyone who took part, It was a great competition and I had lots of fun with some old mates and I've made some new ones.

Season 2 is coming soon.