Ok. These are my results for the testing of the Duel.
All cars were given as many laps as I needed to get a decent time. All cars were tested with a DS3. Whilst testing I listened to a custom playlist of 4 Rob Zombie songs (in case anybody thinks that it could have altered the results). My first testing in a competition has been great fun, and I hope that no one is annoyed at my possibly strange times and differing driving style.
Here goes nothing.
Tune #1: RX8
DC: 7.5
Best time: 1:11.048
Not a bad car overall, but it had a feeling of dissonance with me. The whole time I drove the car I didnt feel much confidence in it's abilities. I would push it, and push it, but it would eventually just put me out onto the grass going the wrong direction with smoke and dust everywhere. I also felt that sometimes the front wheels were not even connected to the road. This however, only happened on the first corners, where I would regularly have to trail brake much more than usual to keep it off the grass. The car also seemed to use only a fraction of it's entire suspension travel, which made quite predictable, but also made it feel a but slippery at all times. Amongst all this you wonder why I gave it a 7.5 DC score. The reason for which is because for 4 or 5 laps it just kept getting faster and faster, but after this I lost a bit of patience and failed to beat the final best time, and leading on I learned the car a bit better and I warmed to it very much.
Conclusion: Good tune, but not my kind of tune.
Tune #2: S2000
DC: 8.1
Best time: 1:12.257
Very interesting tune. Loads of grip everywhere except corner entry where its heavy tail end wanted to peak around the front. I was in disbelief at the standard trans, and how it matched the track, and the only con was it's slight sluggishness on corner exit; which made the car easier to control anyway. Spread out over the whole track, this car did exceptionally well and kept me very happy most of the time. I feel that a custom trans setup would have been very beneficial to this car in terms of speed, where the tyres and suspension always seemed to wait for the engine to catch up. very relaxing tune to drive. The engine setup suited me perfectly. The fact that this tune looks, in my eyes, so disjointed and contradictory, and yet performs so well, makes me respect the tune greatly. First impressions were also good. I feel as though I could not grasp it's full potential however.
Conclusion: Different, slower, more relaxing, and very much to my liking. Very good tune: both generally and personally.
Tune #3: RX8
DC: 9.8
Best time: 1:10.880
Absolutely amazing tune: I loved every second of driving it. Everything about this car feels as if it were my own dream come true: it is the embodiment of all of my tuning dreams. The LSD setup; perfect rotation and plenty of grip on corner exit. I found that I was planting the throttle much more vigorously than normal, and when I tried my hardest to get the car to slip or spin, it simply glided through the corner as if the backwheels were not engulfed in smoke, and the front wheels were not almost on fire. This would be a great car for endurance racing. I wont go through every minor detail of this car and how it pleases me, but I will say that I could ask very little more from the tuner of this machine, Literally the only things that separate this car from being a solid 10 DC score is: the fact that 6th gear could be slightly longer for the straight to really get all the available speed out of the car; and my preference to BHP over Torque, which gives me the tiniest shred of incentive to take of the exhaust and raise the power limiter (more power).
Conclusion: My dream car; a masterpiece; a car I will likely keep for later (if thats ok). I had so much fun driving this car that I completely forgot about the best time, and when I saw that it managed a sub 1:11.000; I was all the more happy. My thanks to the tuner for so much fun in a car.
Tune #4: RX8
DC: 9.5
Best time: 1:10.048 (I have no idea how I managed it though)
Excellent car; I really loved it. The gears were near on perfect as they were an improvement on tune #3. I find it hard to compliment this car because of it's largely mechanical feeling. There are no immediate problems with the car, and likewise; there are no things that really spark my interest in it either. The one thing I can say is that I have never felt such control in my life: I actually stopped at one point to check if I had for some reason moved the TCS up to 1 or 2 it was that good. If I could name this car I would call it "Ole Faithful". I was also amazed at how fast it was.