Car of the Week 228: COTY GTS Finale

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A couple days ago, I joked that I should just take an Aston Martin DB11 and pretend it was an Aston Martin One-77. As it turns out, maybe I should have.

Let’s start with the looks. From the front, the car looks a little dopey, at least in my opinion. That massive gaping grille certainly isn’t doing the car any wonders, however I suspect it’s a necessary evil to cool the monster under the hood. From the sides and behind, the car does look much more exotic, if not necessarily very beautiful. It looks like what Aston tried to do was make a blend of supercar and GT car, and somehow ended up with an amalgamation if both, neither side really works. That said, I do get the sense that it’s one of those cars that looks far better in real life, so I won’t judge too harshly.

The same cannot be said about performance. But first let’s talk about the engine. What an excellent engine in this car. Polyphony doesn’t do this car justice, Aston Martin V12s sound glorious and this is no exception. The way this nuclear power plant manages to give you the power of a small space shuttle with the precision of an expert archer simply cannot be ignored. The powerband is comfortably linear, no scary torque spikes or turbo lag, you know exactly what you’re going to get when you press the throttle. Connected to it is an extremely tall geared transmission, but thanks to the sheer power of the engine, it means you can simply sit in a gear instead of losing time trying to shift the car into its powerband. It’s a shame they bolted this excellent powertrain to a cruise ship.

Aston Martin went to great lengths to make this the ultimate GT hypercar, using advanced manufacturing techniques and fancy building materials, and the result of that is a car that somehow weighs MORE than a Mach 1 Mustang. (I’m not joking.) This coupled with the soft suspension means you end up with a sporty looking car that dives and hunches back like an old Buick with worn out shocks. You can see that in the pictures attached. It’s just as bad in the corners. I swear, at some points of you turned in while braking at just the right point, it would almost lift a rear wheel off the ground. While the car is surprisingly good at putting its power down, it simply cannot corner at speed. So when you lap the Aston, you get into a rhythm of blitzing down the straights, slamming hard on the brakes to slow the behemoth down, going very slowly through a corner, and only well after the apex can you get back on the power. If you do so before, the car hunches back and you lose traction on the front tires, basically causing mountains of understeer. This car was genuinely frustrating to drive.

So it’s no good on track, but maybe it’s a good GT car. Well, not quite. While the suspension lets you settle in nicely, the engine never really settles in with it. It’s always tugging at the reigns, hating that it has to go slow. This is another case where Aston Martin tried to blend GT and supercars together, but ultimately not satisfying either. Also, the interior is a horrible sea of black plastic, looking only slightly nicer than something out of the entry level V8 Vantage. (Fun fact, the tach stops at 8000rpm even when the engine is able to rev slightly higher)

So is it worth the 1,320,000 credits? Unless I’m missing something, then definitely not.

Out of curiosity, I then hopped into the Aston Martin DB11 after setting a laptime in the One-77. The DB11 has 600hp as opposed to the 748hp of the One-77, and amazingly it’s somehow 400lbs heavier too. However, the DB11 was a completely different experience, it’s body motions were tightly controlled, not chaotic, and it was certainly no slouch in the straights either. It ended up being just under a second slower around Suzuka, which is truly impressive considering it’s far heavier and less powerful. But by far my favourite thing about the DB11 is the interior. When you buy the car from Brand Central, different paint colours come with different interior shades as well, so I ended up getting something with a lovely tan interior. My goodness, what a beautiful place to be, it made the One-77 feel a bit like a dungeon.

So not only is the DB11 only slightly slower, far cheaper, easier to drive, and nicer to sit in, I actually think it’s better looking too. It highlights the shortcomings of the One-77, and while it’s a fair few years more modern, the One-77 never really feels worth it’s massive asking price. So sleeper or beater? I’d say it’s a big heavy beater.
 

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A couple days ago, I joked that I should just take an Aston Martin DB11 and pretend it was an Aston Martin One-77. As it turns out, maybe I should have.

Let’s start with the looks. From the front, the car looks a little dopey, at least in my opinion. That massive gaping grille certainly isn’t doing the car any wonders, however I suspect it’s a necessary evil to cool the monster under the hood. From the sides and behind, the car does look much more exotic, if not necessarily very beautiful. It looks like what Aston tried to do was make a blend of supercar and GT car, and somehow ended up with an amalgamation if both, neither side really works. That said, I do get the sense that it’s one of those cars that looks far better in real life, so I won’t judge too harshly.

The same cannot be said about performance. But first let’s talk about the engine. What an excellent engine in this car. Polyphony doesn’t do this car justice, Aston Martin V12s sound glorious and this is no exception. The way this nuclear power plant manages to give you the power of a small space shuttle with the precision of an expert archer simply cannot be ignored. The powerband is comfortably linear, no scary torque spikes or turbo lag, you know exactly what you’re going to get when you press the throttle. Connected to it is an extremely tall geared transmission, but thanks to the sheer power of the engine, it means you can simply sit in a gear instead of losing time trying to shift the car into its powerband. It’s a shame they bolted this excellent powertrain to a cruise ship.

Aston Martin went to great lengths to make this the ultimate GT hypercar, using advanced manufacturing techniques and fancy building materials, and the result of that is a car that somehow weighs MORE than a Mach 1 Mustang. (I’m not joking.) This coupled with the soft suspension means you end up with a sporty looking car that dives and hunches back like an old Buick with worn out shocks. You can see that in the pictures attached. It’s just as bad in the corners. I swear, at some points of you turned in while braking at just the right point, it would almost lift a rear wheel off the ground. While the car is surprisingly good at putting its power down, it simply cannot corner at speed. So when you lap the Aston, you get into a rhythm of blitzing down the straights, slamming hard on the brakes to slow the behemoth down, going very slowly through a corner, and only well after the apex can you get back on the power. If you do so before, the car hunches back and you lose traction on the front tires, basically causing mountains of understeer. This car was genuinely frustrating to drive.

So it’s no good on track, but maybe it’s a good GT car. Well, not quite. While the suspension lets you settle in nicely, the engine never really settles in with it. It’s always tugging at the reigns, hating that it has to go slow. This is another case where Aston Martin tried to blend GT and supercars together, but ultimately not satisfying either. Also, the interior is a horrible sea of black plastic, looking only slightly nicer than something out of the entry level V8 Vantage. (Fun fact, the tach stops at 8000rpm even when the engine is able to rev slightly higher)

So is it worth the 1,320,000 credits? Unless I’m missing something, then definitely not.

Out of curiosity, I then hopped into the Aston Martin DB11 after setting a laptime in the One-77. The DB11 has 600hp as opposed to the 748hp of the One-77, and amazingly it’s somehow 400lbs heavier too. However, the DB11 was a completely different experience, it’s body motions were tightly controlled, not chaotic, and it was certainly no slouch in the straights either. It ended up being just under a second slower around Suzuka, which is truly impressive considering it’s far heavier and less powerful. But by far my favourite thing about the DB11 is the interior. When you buy the car from Brand Central, different paint colours come with different interior shades as well, so I ended up getting something with a lovely tan interior. My goodness, what a beautiful place to be, it made the One-77 feel a bit like a dungeon.

So not only is the DB11 only slightly slower, far cheaper, easier to drive, and nicer to sit in, I actually think it’s better looking too. It highlights the shortcomings of the One-77, and while it’s a fair few years more modern, the One-77 never really feels worth it’s massive asking price. So sleeper or beater? I’d say it’s a big heavy beater.

Can't agree with you here. The DB11 is around 12! seconds slower around the Nordschleife and the One-77 has same/similar times as the 650S, CTR3, Aventador and Enzo. It is a full hypercar/supercar and the DB11 is a supercar light at best.
 
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Can't agree with you here. The DB11 is around 12! seconds slower around the Nordschleife and the One-77 has same/similar times as the 650S, CTR3, Aventador and Enzo. It is a full hypercar/supercar and the DB11 is a supercar light at best.
I’ll have to give it a try around the Nords. There’s no denying the One-77 is faster than the DB11, I just felt the DB11 was much nicer to drive. It’s very much a GT car. Tbh, if I wanted a good looking sporty GT car, I would probably pass by both of those and go get a Lexus LC500
 
I’ll have to give it a try around the Nords. There’s no denying the One-77 is faster than the DB11, I just felt the DB11 was much nicer to drive. It’s very much a GT car. Tbh, if I wanted a good looking sporty GT car, I would probably pass by both of those and go get a Lexus LC500

Funny anecdote: the DB11 was the car that broke my 3 months old TR300. It's no coincidence, that it will be the last car for me to hot lap, this very sunday. I hope my new T-GT survives it...

And yes, the LC500 is georgous...
 
The race lobby is now up, folks! Come join in the action in the One-77!
Well damn I'll have to miss it :(
Tbh honest I could just do 15mins of racing and get this car, there's just something stopping me...mainly, that it's an AssTon Martin (jk lol bad joke, plus you *know* I like heavy cars) and there's no Lotus in the game. I'm super weird about British cars and Lotus is my favorite brand (followed very closely by the Mitsubishi GTO which is also an AssTon and more).

However, what @Alex p. said about it's acceleration intrigues me. I may just buy it and if I don't like it sell. Not like money's a problem in this game, farming is fairly easy
 
There are heaps of people who like these 90‘s japanse ****boxes but the amount of people who really love them is way smaller :D Most of the time it‘s just some idiots who claim to be JDM af but don‘t know anything, can only drive in a straight line and get ugly wraps and fake wheels for their cars :dunce: It‘s a general german car scene thing tho. 98% of it is garbage :lol:
 
German here and passionate JDM lover. :embarrassed: Gimme all the Skylines, Supras, NSXs, etc. all day!
Well, I just like good cars. (All cars of all shapes and sizes are beautiful :P)
 
There are heaps of people who like these 90‘s japanse ****boxes but the amount of people who really love them is way smaller :D Most of the time it‘s just some idiots who claim to be JDM af but don‘t know anything, can only drive in a straight line and get ugly wraps and fake wheels for their cars :dunce: It‘s a general german car scene thing tho. 98% of it is garbage :lol:

I am in the apparently really small group that loves/cherishes 90s JDM cars - I've owned 2, a 1996 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 and 1992 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo, neither was a **** box. Both were more reliable than any new car I had, it's pretty simple - you take care of it, it takes care of you.

The Z was a legend, it made Chevy go back to the drawing board and they ended up making the 330HP Gran Sport C4, an awesome car. It also pushed them towards the C5 Vette, a truly fast and reliable platform.


The Z was a legend but the VR-4 is just plain FAST.
My bone stock 1996 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 ran a 13.31@103.79mph.
That ET is very quick for 2020 in a bone stock car, not to mention it was Ferrari fast in '96. Also, the VR4 spanked the Nissan 300ZX TT and Mazda RX-7 TT in a straight line. It beat every Z and ties the Z34 as far as acceleration times. It was basically a cut rate USDM Skyline GTR without the insane handling.
The 1994 GTO MR (J spec VR4) beat the R32 Skyline GTR over a mile and the '96 GTO MR beat the R33 Skyline GTR pulling a 12.888 to 400M and they always go over 400M, it would equal out to a 12.90 stock quarter mile. Pretty impressive for a stock car.

The difference between a normal VR4 and an MR? 67lbs. Thats it.

I love all of these cars. I think you would too if you drove one. Yes, when they're riced out or someone is a fake JDM person, yes, it's annoying AF. But some of us (me/@Alex p. and many others im sure) DO know our **** and don't rice our cars. I kept both my Z and VR4 bone stock, no body mods or power mods.

Not trying to be an asshole, just saying these cars aren't **** boxes
 
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I always wondered how Germans feel about the Japanese sport legends since Germany is the home of so many coveted machines so it always felt weird to me to see Germans who like those 90s to early 2000's Supra Skylines Silvias etc.
I also wondered this, but @Alex p. is German and loves them. I think most enthusiasts can appreciate a good car, no matter what. For instance I'm not a huge German car fan, but I almost bought a 2003 MB E55 AMG/2003-2006 MB CLK55 AMG; they were awesome cars. Unfortunately, unlike Japanese "**** boxes", German cars lose the most value and cost the most to repair.
I also greatly admire many German cars including the Porsche 928, Porsche 959 and the 993 911. Same with many German brands
 
Andrew you gotta chill dude! Lmao. No one's hurting our beloved JDMs! View attachment 892074
Alex you know me, I won't stand for it. He's sh*ing on the 90s JDM cars. Mio amico you know my temper unfortunately lol. If anyone tries to say the Nissan 300ZX TT is faster than the VR4/GTO theyre getting that huge link list i have, and anyone talking ish about these cars will have me angry.
I'm not willing to delete the post but I can edit the mean stuff I guess?

EDIT: I edited the comment, but only because your my friend, I trust you, and you're right about my temper. The comment isn't offensive anymore. Congrats, you're one of 5 people that's able to make me shut up :lol:
 
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Me? Hell no :D


Ok, if you think 90s JDMs are "**** boxes" we're gonna have major issues.

You didn't answer the question leading me to beleieve you actually think they're **** boxes. Yet your profile pic is a gorgeous scape of an R32 GT-R; I'm massively confused mate!

Fun Fact: The 1994 Mitsubishi GTO MR beat the R32 Skyline GTR over a mile in acceleration (same exact car as in your profile pic)
 
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This week we are going racing with one of the few road going cars from Citroen. The car we are testing this week is the Citroen DS3 Racing. This weeks car is chosen from one of our newer members @FullhouseGame

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Great choice @FullhouseGame! I love road cars, and I've actually never driven this one. I know you're a new member, but to me you're as "old" as anyone else here - I've enjoyed every review you've done. Keep up the great reviews man, I love em.
 
Alex you know me, I won't stand for it. He's sh*ing on the 90s JDM cars. Mio amico you know my temper unfortunately lol. If anyone tries to say the Nissan 300ZX TT is faster than the VR4/GTO theyre getting that huge link list i have, and anyone talking ish about these cars will have me angry.
I'm not willing to delete the post but I can edit the mean stuff I guess?

EDIT: I edited the comment, but only because your my friend, I trust you, and you're right about my temper. The comment isn't offensive anymore. Congrats, you're one of 5 people that's able to make me shut up :lol:

I do know you, I do. LMAO. I feel honoured. Temper your Italian temper my friend lol
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EDIT: please someone upload the replays
of the ONE-77 races! :bowdown:
 
So... the Citroen DS3. One of the earliest cars I've taken a hold of when I first got a PS4 and GT Sport shortly after Christmas of 2017. Haven't really touched it too often; and it seems like it's for good reason, after dusting it off.

As usual I took it to my usual stomping grounds at Autopolis and it lapped a 2:14.793 on the first lap, but never seemed to improve from there unfortunately. On my personal leaderboard it's 0.6 seconds faster than the EK9 Civic and 1.2 seconds slower than the Subaru BRZ. Certainly not the fastest N200 car I've tested so far, as it seems. Driving experience is honestly kinda forgettable, as the acceleration didn't impress me too much and the time seems to speak for itself, especially compared to the other cars in its category that I've driven so far. Cornering is pretty lackluster too as far as I'm concerned; the understeer mid-corner and during the exit was unbearable by my standards.

Gonna have to rate the DS3 as a beater; I didn't expect much from it and honestly felt disappointed driving it. Guess it's going back to rotting in my garage!
 
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