Car of the Week | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE Package '18

[Yard_Sale]

Terrible? This car is very sharp and demands a lot of precise control. In my opinion the RX Vision is a good car because it’s more on the edge of grip.

Not done with testing..


But as soon as I stopped trying to drive it like a group 3 or 4 car, I was actually quite impressed. Has some VERY unexpected attributes tho…

 

[ScottPuss20]

Driving the RX Vision last night was not a fun experience. If you weren't precise enough with your throttle control or steered a little too hard at the wrong time, you'd begin to slide almost immediately. Never mind the brakes which didn't always work in the way I expected. Sometimes I'd pull up too soon and sometimes I'd pull up too late. I was happy to leave it behind.

 

[Yard_Sale]

The biggest issue I ran into with the Mazda RX Vision, wasn’t its inherent handling issues and causes (those were apparent right off the bat)…but how to drive around them

I think that front fender scrape should come stock on this car from the dealership






I was very pleasantly surprised when I stepped into the cockpit and discovered that this vehicle was a 6 speed H-pattern instead of the paddle shifted modern supercar I was expecting. Right from the start, it was apparent with what was the Achilles heel of this car…


THE SUSPENSION IS WAAAAAAAAAY TOO STIFF FOR THE SH TIRES IT COMES WITH.


Putting power down to the ground with anything less than TCS-2?

Nope. Not gonna happen.





Try braking at a reasonable distance - while taking into account its PP rating and relative speed? Nope. That’s not going to happen either. What you’re left with is an imaginary supercar that has a GT3-stiff chassis - with none of the aerodynamics and grippy tires that will aid in getting the power to the ground, or slowing its mass.

Or getting it around a corner at a good clip without the tires melting

Myself and my friends at YouTube.Com corner are still trying to figure out what these “camera sin screen” side mirrors still do…





The best way I found to drive this car, was to short shift it like a Demio, make all downshifts earlier than you expected - in a straight line - while maintaining a gear higher than you would think.

TCS-2.

Don’t try to drive above 7/10ths in stock form.

Fancy footwork from 1980’s Michael Jackson helps too

Sleeper.


Once I got the hang of this car, I really liked it

 

[Obelisk]

I was very pleasantly surprised when I stepped into the cockpit and discovered that this vehicle was a 6 speed H-pattern instead of the paddle shifted modern supercar I was expecting. Right from the start, it was apparent with what was the Achilles heel of this car…

Not an H-Pattern. Sequential auto box. I did not spend four hours doing the SPC to not notice that it's being treated as a traditional Mazda auto box.

 

[Yard_Sale]

Not an H-Pattern. Sequential auto box. I did not spend four hours doing the SPC to not notice that it's being treated as a traditional Mazda auto box.

Damn. Coulda sworn it was an H pattern. I’ll have to go back in the headset and check. I know that in stock form, I was missing gears and getting false neutrals if my timing wasn’t great


Edit:

I stand corrected fine sir. Upon further inspection, the animation does show that of a sequential, but the transmission action is that of an H-pattern. And it does have 3 pedals…but so do all the other Super GT and 2010ish GT3 cars that utilized a clutch pedal to start and stop irl

 

[Obelisk]

Damn. Coulda sworn it was an H pattern. I’ll have to go back in the headset and check. I know that in stock form, I was missing gears and getting false neutrals if my timing wasn’t great

Many road cars in GT7 are programmed to accept H-Pattern inputs even if they do not actually have H-Pattern transmissions. The HiMedic and HiAce are the most egregious and obvious examples of this behavior.

 

[XSquareStickIt]

Of course, we always welcome opinions, tunes, liveries, photos, videos, or stories about the car here on the the thread! (I have a feeling RX8 Racer himself will be chiming in this week specifically... (watch as he punks me by not sharing any photos here on the thread just to spite me now that I've said that.))

I freaking knew it...

The results for the Improvised Endurance Triple Crown Challenge are in!

Obelisk	26:45.801
Aiko_Mac	25:28.869
K31thc0m	25:14.195

Congratulations to K31th! I deliberately set the rules loosely so players of all skill levels can engage, perhaps that was a mistake?

(Probably won't be as big a mistake as this week's SPC...)

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It's been a while since @Skyrocket44 last had their pick, and this week, they seem to have chosen yet another banger.

Why do I say this? Well, that's because this car won COTW's 2019 Car of the Year award! Let's welcome back into the spotlight, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE Package '18!

#1 Ross Chastain - Be A Moose by paullogan_1977
#nascar #chevrolet #moose​

Skyrocket44​

We haven't had a Chevy in a while (call 1 and a half years a while), so my pick is the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE Package '18.

Ahh, the Camaro, the last of the Muscle Car trio to die. The ZL1 is the most powerful trim of the Camaro, with a supercharged 6.2L V8 out of the Corvette. Pair this with the aero and bespoke tyres of the 1LE Package, and you're looking at a car that lapped the Nordschleife in just under 7:15—supercar territory. And the best part about this car? It costs just under 80k Credits in GT7!

It looks good, sounds great, and has a stick shift (unlike the RX-Vision), and dirt cheap! What's not to love? Join us in our weekly lobbies, where we'll race stock examples of the ZL1 in quick sprint races!

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Join Our Weekly Lobbies!​

Spoiler: Lobbies Information

Our weekly lobbies are ongoing as usual, and anyone (not a dick) is welcome to join us in racing Camaro ZL1s under BoP conditions!

Click on the hyperlinks to convert the times to your time zone, and feel free to add the hosts as friends on PSN to make searching for the lobbies easier!

The Americas Lobby​

• Tuesday. 10th December, 10 P.M. CST
• Host: Victory_Reign93

The Asia/Oceania also kinda European Lobby​

• Saturday, 14th December, 4 P.M. Singapore Time
• Host: XSquareStickIt

BoP/Settings Disabled: On (Cars will temporarily be reverted to stock settings, WIDE BODIED AND/OR ENGINE SWAPPED CARS WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE!)
Tracks: Randomly selected by lobby participants (~5 mins practice, ~10 mins sprint)
PP Limit: 645PP
Car: No Limit
Tyres: Sports Medium

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~Single–Player Challenge!~​

For this week's SPC, we'll be turning left... a lot.

Skyrocket44​

It's going to be a left-turn literacy test this week, and your main goal is simply to beat a Custom Race.

An ULTRA Cursed Custom Race @ Northern Isle Speedway

• Race Type: Lap/179
• Start Type: Rolling (Default Interval)
• Starting Position: 10/20
• Tyre Wear/Fuel Con: 1x/1x
• Boost: Weak
• Slipstream: Real
• Damage: Heavy
• Difficulty: Professional
• Pit Lane Cut Penalty: On
• Wall/Car Collision Penalty: Strong
• Flag Rules: On
• Opponents: Camaro ZL1 1LE (stock)

Fastest race time wins!

Skyrocket44​

The only thing you're allowed to change on them is the paintjob, and no points for guessing what kind everyone will run.

In general, you're also encouraged to travel across GT7's oval lineup to take some cool pictures and debate whether BB Raceway is really an oval or not.

Why do I say it's "ULTRA Cursed"? Well, try it for yourself and you'll find out...

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And speaking of Car of the Year, 2024 is drawing to a close, and it's time for yet another round of voting here on COTW!

The awards for this year are as follows:

• Best Looking Car
• Worst Looking Car
• The Most American Car Award
• Beater of the Year
• Car of the Year

Regulars who have chimed in here on the thread, or have been familiar faces in the lobbies can nominate one car for each category! If you need a reminder of what cars we've run this year, a complete archive can be found on the first post of this thread! Of course, 2024 isn't quite over yet; we still have 3 cars left, so you can change your votes before 1/1/2025!

Nominations can either be PMed to me or publicly made here on the thread!

 

[Racer283]

Ah! The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE Package '18 a great car and some great racing memories with this car. I think what amazed me with this car is that we were racing at Blue Moon Bay Tri-Oval and it was on the final lap and heading into the final turn. I managed to pull along side another member pull off a pass on the outside. Somehow I kept it there and crossed the line in first place.

It was quite the fun car to drive.

 

[SomePlayaDude]

Dat main ass protagonist SPD: I'm sure there's going to be no cars I'm going to write for the rest of December


[Chevrolet Camaro ZL1]

Also an SPD sneak from my personal text file listing cars I will write..

okay, maybe it's not so bad.. finally some chicka chicka BOOOM wub wub wub wub.. I guess it's no surprise Past SPD has prepared something for me in the form of early 2010s racing game nostalgia

 

[Aiko_Mac]

A big American beast is going to be fun!

 

[XSquareStickIt]

Me after lag spiking SPD's Carrera GT at 250+ km/h in today's lobby:

 

[SomePlayaDude]

Me after lag spiking SPD's Carrera GT at 250+ km/h in today's lobby:

View attachment 1412057​

 

[RX8 Racer]

The Mazda RX-Vision, Mazda’s concept of a future rotary sports car. Unlike the RX-8’s RENESIS engine, notorious for questionable reliability and poor fuel economy that could be summed up as ‘Burn more, that’s what I was born for’, the RX-Vision’s SKYACTIV-R is touted by Mazda to be more efficient and reliable while also cutting back on emissions.

In game though, the RX-Vision is a difficult beast to wrangle. Its rear is highly prone to stepping out in corners when flooring the throttle (like the final kink of Deep Forest) and this is complicated by the 6-speed SKYACTIV-MT gearbox, which is geared a little too short for my liking. Wheelspin is a constant issue when accelerating in 2nd gear and the SKYACTIV-R gets uncomfortably close to redline while in 6th gear down Conrod Straight. While short-shifting helps to arrest the wheelspin and loose rear end, the RX-Vision’s Brembos aren’t great at stopping power, and the resultant long braking distances are a lot harder for me to adapt to.

While the RX-Vision’s handling is much better than its fellow cover car the Porsche VGT (not like that’s a very high bar to clear), the RX-Vision remains a challenging car to drive. It certainly isn’t a car that beginners can get in and just go, it demand attention and care from its driver like an old-school sports car.

 

[Obelisk]

I have a lot to say about this week's SPC, but first - my only successful run:

I don't have much to say about the Camaro - Northern Isle is an extremely compact track where the difference between the fastest and slowest speeds achieved on a flying lap is about 21 MPH. It's in an environment where the car is being supported by steep banking, so trying to assess the impact of the downforce and the car's natural handling are both moot points. About the only thing I can infer is that the Camaro isn't as stiffly sprung as it'd seem to be - it frequently hits end of travel/bump stops on the banked turns and that causes the steering to spaz out.

Now about the SPC:
I genuinely do not comprehend what the intention was behind setting this SPC on Northern Isle. I would have set this to Daytona Oval or Road with the same distance (90 miles) to achieve the same NASCAR effect without the endless frustration.

This challenge is pretty skewed against even skilled players due to pure RNG and AI induced stupidity.

A couple of examples of issues I'd spotted over 5-6 hours of trying the challenge:

• The AI are not able to control the Camaro correctly. I frequently see them spinning out due to bottoming out. I also see them losing the rear over the slight crest out of 3-4. They like to draw out the recovery, so it leads to the out of control car flying across several lanes of traffic.
• The AI are very contact-happy. Count how many pit stops are made in the first 30 laps. Now imagine you're stuck in the pack.
• The AI do not know how to resafe joinly after a pit stop. Their immediate reaction/primary programming is to dive for the racing line, which means they drive straight across all four lanes at 40-50 kmh below the flow of traffic. It's not uncommon to see an AI car get stuck in an endless loop of exiting pits, immediately wrecking, then entering pits to repair the fresh damage.
• The rubberbanding (even on Boost: Weak) causes the AI to become incredibly suicidal when they're trying to unlap you. There is absolutely no logical way to race side by side with them. The only safe approach is to pull over and let them roar by on the inside line. Even then, it won't be guaranteed. Many of my runs were stopped on the spot by an AI botching the pass and killing me anyways, even though I am giving more than enough margin to let them go by.
• The AI are immune to penalties, so the only driver that will be forced to serve wall contact penalties is the player...
• The AI do not have any sense of corner rights and will forcibly shove themselves up the inside line where possible - makes it impossible for me to take my specific line of starting high and dropping low to maximize speed.

It's not just me having these issues. @Vic Reign93 is having a lot of the same problems and has probably noticed more than I have.