Obelisk
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It's been a while since I've written a substantial review about any of the cars featured here, including my own submissions. I figure I should start with the Volvo 240 SE and the unusual challenge I laid out for that car.
What sparked off that challenge was a conversation that I had with @XSquareStickIt the week prior, discussing some of the intricacies of my hearing loss and how it intersects with my desire to race and drive fun cars. The long story short is that the absence of many audio cues when driving without hearing aids makes things difficult for me when I don't have visual aid. And when I do have my hearing aid in, it produces different results based on how I'm configured.
To demonstrate this to Square, I made a series of videos with the audio adjusted to show how the sound balance plays out for me in various states of equipment.
Hence why I made the Volvo challenge in such a way that you'd have to look for cues other than the engine noise to shift without slamming into the rev limiter. I honestly hope more than one or two people tried it out, it'd mean a lot to know the actual # of people who tried. The challenge didn't have anything to do with the car, so I apologize if it seemed like I was shoehorning something in.
===
Moving on to the car. The 240 SE is a bog standard commuter car, family car... Whatever phrase you'd use to describe the cars around you on the freeway. Interestingly enough, this is the SE's first appearance in Gran Turismo. The 240 that was in previous Gran Turismo entries was the 1988 GLT Estate model.
Which, fun fact, was massively overweight in its GT depiction. It was listed at a whopping 1820 kg when the real car had a kerb weight of 1340 kg.
It's important to make that note about the 240 being an everyday car because it's going to be set up as an everyday car. The suspension is tuned for ride comfort and ease of use, the gearbox configured for everyday driving and fuel efficiency, and the engine only produces as much power as it needs to without compromising its fuel efficiency.
In other words, the 240 will get you from A to B safely, but it won't engage you on the way there.
Without a real one on hand to reference, I can't really attest to things like the driver and passenger comfort, safety features, reliability, fuel economy... Nor can I really speak to how it feels on rough, awful Massachusetts roads. Essentially, everything that makes the 240 a family car.
With that noted, you'd think the 240 would be out of place in a racing game... But it really isn't here. Gran Turismo has always tried to include everyday economy cars to contextualize its much nicer selection of performance cars - after all, you can't appreciate even a simple sports car like an NA Miata without knowing what cars it was concurrent with. Context drives understanding, understanding drives appreciation. It's a bit of a lost art these days.
(Stares at Forza Horizon 5's car roster)
Anyways - I figured the best way I could get a feel for what the 240 brings in terms of drivability would be to... [shudders] Join a cruise lobby and spend some time with it in a casual context before I start trying to beat it to death at a race track.
To sum it up:
First lobby didn't last long. The "Sheriffs" had even less control of their cars than the racers did, and a bunch of drivers blocking the road caused a pile-up that I got caught in the middle of.
Second lobby: I got repeatedly harassed by a Renault Gordini, Dodge Charger and another 240 who even purposefully rammed me. I left not long after.
Never doing that again. And on that terrible disappointment, back to the car! Driving it around at 100 kmh, it felt really simple. It also had pretty good visibility in VR. To get it to pick up speed at anything more than a crawl on the highways, you need to be in 3rd for quite a while. I'd say they got the day to day driving down pretty well.
Now to beat on it and see what it does when asked to do something outside its job description. And for that, we are taking this European spec 240 to the most accessible track in the world: the public toll road known as the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
The very things that make it such a solid commuter car should, on paper, be a hindrance to it on such a demanding road. So the question is: Is the car hampered by its setup?
Surprisingly, no! The high ride height and somewhat soft setup actually helps it on such a bumpy, demanding road. The brakes are perfectly capable for what they are, and I didn't have any issues with instability under braking. The car was also surprisingly stable - I had more than a few moments on the lap where the back of the car threatened to step out, then immediately changing its mind and complying with what I was asking of it. It's, obviously, a very slow car, but it's a slow car that is surprisingly cooperative when driven fast. It'll only use four of its five gears in hard driving, but to be fair, 5th gear is an OD gear for a car like this.
And just on that bit of merit alone, I appreciate this car that much more.
My bridge-to-gantry time on the Nordschleife was a 9:41.540, which I imagine is fairly reasonable for a car of this nature.
I can't find fault with the 240 in stock form. I know it gets much, much better once you take it to Understeer Engineering / GT Parts shop to get some parts installed. Just keep in mind that it's a station wagon and was never meant to be pushed to the ragged edge like a Miata or Corvette would be. It is, as a station wagon, shaped like a brick. It'll have some drag issues at higher speeds.
But at the end of the day, it's also a fairly light FR with solid potential.
In my book, it's a Sleeper.
What sparked off that challenge was a conversation that I had with @XSquareStickIt the week prior, discussing some of the intricacies of my hearing loss and how it intersects with my desire to race and drive fun cars. The long story short is that the absence of many audio cues when driving without hearing aids makes things difficult for me when I don't have visual aid. And when I do have my hearing aid in, it produces different results based on how I'm configured.
To demonstrate this to Square, I made a series of videos with the audio adjusted to show how the sound balance plays out for me in various states of equipment.
Hence why I made the Volvo challenge in such a way that you'd have to look for cues other than the engine noise to shift without slamming into the rev limiter. I honestly hope more than one or two people tried it out, it'd mean a lot to know the actual # of people who tried. The challenge didn't have anything to do with the car, so I apologize if it seemed like I was shoehorning something in.
===
Moving on to the car. The 240 SE is a bog standard commuter car, family car... Whatever phrase you'd use to describe the cars around you on the freeway. Interestingly enough, this is the SE's first appearance in Gran Turismo. The 240 that was in previous Gran Turismo entries was the 1988 GLT Estate model.
Which, fun fact, was massively overweight in its GT depiction. It was listed at a whopping 1820 kg when the real car had a kerb weight of 1340 kg.
It's important to make that note about the 240 being an everyday car because it's going to be set up as an everyday car. The suspension is tuned for ride comfort and ease of use, the gearbox configured for everyday driving and fuel efficiency, and the engine only produces as much power as it needs to without compromising its fuel efficiency.
In other words, the 240 will get you from A to B safely, but it won't engage you on the way there.
Without a real one on hand to reference, I can't really attest to things like the driver and passenger comfort, safety features, reliability, fuel economy... Nor can I really speak to how it feels on rough, awful Massachusetts roads. Essentially, everything that makes the 240 a family car.
With that noted, you'd think the 240 would be out of place in a racing game... But it really isn't here. Gran Turismo has always tried to include everyday economy cars to contextualize its much nicer selection of performance cars - after all, you can't appreciate even a simple sports car like an NA Miata without knowing what cars it was concurrent with. Context drives understanding, understanding drives appreciation. It's a bit of a lost art these days.
(Stares at Forza Horizon 5's car roster)
Anyways - I figured the best way I could get a feel for what the 240 brings in terms of drivability would be to... [shudders] Join a cruise lobby and spend some time with it in a casual context before I start trying to beat it to death at a race track.
To sum it up:
First lobby didn't last long. The "Sheriffs" had even less control of their cars than the racers did, and a bunch of drivers blocking the road caused a pile-up that I got caught in the middle of.
Second lobby: I got repeatedly harassed by a Renault Gordini, Dodge Charger and another 240 who even purposefully rammed me. I left not long after.
Never doing that again. And on that terrible disappointment, back to the car! Driving it around at 100 kmh, it felt really simple. It also had pretty good visibility in VR. To get it to pick up speed at anything more than a crawl on the highways, you need to be in 3rd for quite a while. I'd say they got the day to day driving down pretty well.
Now to beat on it and see what it does when asked to do something outside its job description. And for that, we are taking this European spec 240 to the most accessible track in the world: the public toll road known as the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
The very things that make it such a solid commuter car should, on paper, be a hindrance to it on such a demanding road. So the question is: Is the car hampered by its setup?
Surprisingly, no! The high ride height and somewhat soft setup actually helps it on such a bumpy, demanding road. The brakes are perfectly capable for what they are, and I didn't have any issues with instability under braking. The car was also surprisingly stable - I had more than a few moments on the lap where the back of the car threatened to step out, then immediately changing its mind and complying with what I was asking of it. It's, obviously, a very slow car, but it's a slow car that is surprisingly cooperative when driven fast. It'll only use four of its five gears in hard driving, but to be fair, 5th gear is an OD gear for a car like this.
And just on that bit of merit alone, I appreciate this car that much more.
My bridge-to-gantry time on the Nordschleife was a 9:41.540, which I imagine is fairly reasonable for a car of this nature.
I can't find fault with the 240 in stock form. I know it gets much, much better once you take it to Understeer Engineering / GT Parts shop to get some parts installed. Just keep in mind that it's a station wagon and was never meant to be pushed to the ragged edge like a Miata or Corvette would be. It is, as a station wagon, shaped like a brick. It'll have some drag issues at higher speeds.
But at the end of the day, it's also a fairly light FR with solid potential.
In my book, it's a Sleeper.
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