Favorite
Alsace: This inadvertently became my 600pp test track. I love the flow, undulating terrain and weird high speed corners. The track width helps for passing, set-up for the next corner as well as making even road cars on comfort tires feel exciting, fast and engaging. The yellow flowers are also very pretty. I'm surprised that a bunch of people hate it.
Road Atlanta: This track was designed by a (fun) psychopath. Crazy elevation changes and a pace that my brain can barely keep up with. That blind Sector 1 chicane is a bit much though.
Grand Valley Highway 1 (in Gr.1 cars): Sector 2 feels vague and random, and the bollard penalty zones at the final chicane are truly stupid, BUT the flow is still amazing, and the scenery is beautiful.
In road cars, this track is meh. Too long, and the corners are too tight for them.
However, the reverse variant of this track is wonderful. The radius a lot of corners opens up, and Sector 1 from original version makes a lot more sense to me backwards. Note that my experience here is limited to the (terrible) Ford Mustang from this week's time trial.
The short variant in the historic event is also lovely.
Brands Hatch: The God of Flow. Everything, from economy boxes to prototypes to fantasy cars, feels fast here. Love it, love it, love it!
Least Favorite
Le Mans (driven in anything NOT a prototype)
: Le Mans feels wonderful when powerful Gr.1 cars get to stretch their legs, but driving anything slower and with less downforce here feels boring and frustrating. The Porsche Curves are particularly miserable in a high-powered road car.
Nurburgring GP: No flow. Technical in the most depressing and annoying way. Feels like a disjointed collection of late, later and latest apexes that leave you waiting forever to get on the throttle. The entirety of Sector 1 makes me want to quit sim racing.
The only time I ever enjoyed this track was back in GT Legends where I drove a Ford Cortina and Ford Falcon around a super short version of this track. Every other time I've driven here, the track is meh at best. The time trials here have made me grow a deeply passionate hatred of this track.
Fuji GP: Same as reasons as Nurb GP, but more boring.
Catalunya GP: Do you see a pattern? Same reasons as Nurb GP and Fuji, but the least annoying of that bunch; though not by much.
The corners across this entire group of tracks feel intentionally designed to frustrate drivers
- let's hide the apex in another dimension,
- let's have a subtly decreasing radius that throws the car off the track if you look at the throttle wrong,
- let's make the line through this corner deceptively narrow and awkward,
- let's make the rumble strips unsettle the car,
- let's find the most infuriating place to put the penalty zone...
I live in a world that's constantly gaslighting me into thinking that struggle for struggle's sake within systems that are intentionally designed to grind my mind, body and soul into paste is... fun.
That is the absolute last energy I need from the thing I use for my escapism.
