After December's poorly conceived (and almost-unanimously panned) car pack, 2018 brings a breath of fresh air to Forza Motorsport 7 with a DLC whose most dubious element is the title sponsor (because really, how the heck do you eat Totino's pizzas? They don't look appetitizing even on promo shots!). The January Car Pack brings a nice blend of nostalgia, quirkyness and performance with its eclectic selection of cars - way to go, T10! And if that wasn't enough, we also got an unexpected duet of Velosters for free. More work for me, then? Yay.
Introduced in 1948 after years of engineering and tinkering - disrupted, but not interrupted by the Second World War - the experiment in automotive minimalism that took the name of Citroen 2CV comfortably and reliably put France on four wheels, serving a cultural role not too dissimilar to that of the American Ford Model T, Italian Fiat 500, or (spoiler alert!) Japanese Subaru 360. Nowadays, the
deux-cheveaux is a car that probably needs no introduction - everybody knows the story about the basket of eggs it was supposed to deliver unscathed through a tilled field. But it's also a car that I have a deep connection with: my aunt's first car was a 2CV6 (that was totaled in a crash), and my father owned the more square-ish Dyane 6 (which sadly languished in a backyard years, until it was scrapped). So, it goes without saying that I grew up with tall tales of the heroics of the French tincan: sure, the 2CV was slow, and perhaps a bit undignified; it lacked many of the comforts of the Renault 5s and Peugeout 205s (or, but that goes without saying, VW Golfs) popular in the early 80s, and the sheet metal was so tin you had to be careful with opening the doors on a windy day, but nothing could stop it - other, perhaps, than a steep incline or strong crosswinds. It was a car adapt from any situation, and as a kid I imagined myself having such wonderful adventures too, the day I would've gotten my driving license. I can't say life has disappointed me in this regard: I've driven myself more than one exemplar of this ugly duckling... Not necessarily in a manner suitable to road regulations. So, how does this virtual replication fare against the real thing? Well... The sputtering sound of the 600cc twin-cylinder engine is not exceedingly accurate, but the modelling of the handling is. Hitting a kerb at full throttle and not feeling any significant reaction from the car is a weird sensation in Forza... But it's what this car is built for. Honestly, I'm glad for the dynamic camera providing some inputs, because just like in real life, the 2CV is a buttery-smooth ride.
Pros: just like in real life, it's basically impossible to roll this thing, try as you may.
Cons: and just like in real life, it doesn't like climbing. At all.
Nurburgring laptime: 13:05.620
As I mentioned before, the Subaru 360 is the car of Japan's mass motorization. Unlike the 500 and 2CV, however, it wasn't a smash hit: in its 12-years production run, "only" 400,000 were ever made. A large reason for its lesser commercial success may be the geographical isolation of Japan: the only foreign market in which the "small, cheap and ugly" 360 was sold was the American one, where it looked definitely alien (and felt absolutely unsafe) next to the gargantuan cars of the 60s and 70s. It was, however, the perfect car for its home market: its lightweight monocoque body (employing fiberglass and wafer-thin sheetmetal wherever possible) kept the weight to a minimum, and while being small enough in displacement to comply with the then-new "kei car" regulations, the two-stroke engine produced close to 100 hp per litre, a figure that's quite respectable even to this day. People who, like me, spent countless hours playing Gran Turismo 4 in their youth will undoubtedly remember the 360 as the hare in Driving Mission 30, a desperate chase of past Subaru models in the then-latest WRC Impreza, around the highly-technical Tsukuba Circuit. Good times, huh? And well, good times can be had behind the wheel of this toy car for the streets: the engine is properly peaky, and while I have no doubt the chassis would be severely challenged by a more powerful powerplant, the car as it comes from the showroom can hit corners at full throttle without any esitation. Perhaps surprisingly, it manages to barely edge out the 2CV around the Norschleife, suffering from a top speed disadvantage, but catching up on the steep inclines of the Kesselchen and Klostertal, and showing less of a propensity for understeer around the fast corners of the highly technical, high-speed section between Hohe Acht and the Schwalbenschwanz. Sure, at 120 kph you're not going fast anywhere... But you'll be having loads of fun.
Pros: screw "motorsports", this is one of the most enjoyable cars in Forza!
Cons: the two-stroke engine isn't "smokey" at all. T10, please fix.
Nurburgring laptime: 12:54.628
The last of the slow, old junkers of this pack - the "Type 3" Volkswagen 1600 - is a lot less interesting than its peers. It was originally designed to diversify the VW range, offering a car with more interior space and a more conventional styling than the Beetle; however, it still retained the rear-wheel-drive, rear-mounted boxer engine layout, with the flat-4 being redesigned to occupy less vertical space and thusly allow the car to have a luggage comparment at the front, and one at the rear. Three body variants were produced, a Fastback coupe, a "Squareback" Variant station wagon, and a Notchback which more closely resembled the conventional three-boxes sedan of the time: while most of us were expecting the first to be featured, due to its sportier design, we oddly received the rarer Notchback, which was never imported (at least officially) in the US. The 1600 doesn't have an interesting story, and it's not an awfully enrapturing ride either. Like any other rear-engined Volkswagen, its back end will show a very subdued tendency to kick out, but it is, otherwise, a highly-predictable car that will rarely make you sweat through a corner. All in all, it's a stout performer, and with the right upgrades it will no doubt displace other Volkswagen cars in the Vintage Sport Compact division; it fails to entertain, sure, but that's not always a bad thing.
Pros: a very well-mannered German.
Cons: boring. Also, not the Fastback.
Nurburgring laptime: 10:59.622
We now start to leave the slow-movers well behind us, with the Nissan R380. Wait, did I call this a Nissan? Because originally, the R380 was introduced by the short-lived Prince Motor Company. The Tokyo-based manufacturer was not short on ambition: after introducing the first inline-6 powered Skyline, the 2000 GT, in 1964, they immediately entered it in the Japanese Grand Prix, with hopes of proving the new car's performance with a win. However, a privately entered Porsche 904 dominated the race, leaving them only second through sixth place. Immediately, a decision was taken to develop a purpose-built racecar: to that purpose, a Brabham BT8 was bought, provided with an aerodynamic body which drew inspiration from that of the German car that had beaten the 2000 GTs, and equipped with a twin-cam version of the G-7 engine that powered them, named "GR-8" (the pun likely being unintentional). The resulting car would fend off the equally-new Porsche 906 to collect a win in the 1966 Fuji Grand Prix. The same year, Nissan and Prince merged. Nissan engineers redesigned the bodywork and improved the engine with a mechanical fuel injection system, that allowed an increase of power from 200 to 220 hp: the result is the R380-II you see here. Sadly, by then the acerbic 906 had evolved into a more fearsome competitor, which left the Nissans 2 minutes behind. The R381 was thus developed, with an eye to the CanAm series; sold to privateers, the R380s however continued to compete in races in Japan and Australia until 1970. As for its engine, it'd serve as a development base for the S20 found in the Skyline GT-R, and the latter RB. In Forza, the R380 is put in the same category as the Alfa 33, providing us with an important clue as to where other cars from the 2-litre sportscar era may land in the future: it's not the easiest car to drive, requiring a deft use of trail-braking techniques to go around corners, but it could easily be the car to dethrone that pesky Alfa Romeo. And then, there's the wail of the six-pot engine... Priceless.
Pros: a great Japanese classic, and it's competitive in its division.
Cons: not stacking it into a wall requires more than just "a little" finesse.
Nurburgring laptime: 08:02.945
Today, all the 911 Turbo S gets over the standard model is a boost in power and torque. And after all, the Turbo itself is not what it used to be: since the 993-series introduced twin turbocharger forced induction (which essentially eliminated the infamous turbo-lag of previous models) and a four-wheel drive layout, it has essentially become just a more upscale trim of the 911, a high-ticket option fit for lawyers, dentists, and other such professionals buying a Porsche at the peak of their mid-life crisis. But the 964 Turbo S... Oh, boy, that was a completely different story. Built in very limited numbers by the Porsche Exclusive division, it was designed for one thing, and one thing only: going as fast as possible, both in a straight line and around bends, as it was possible for a car sold to civilians and registered for the roads. The 3.3 litre engine was tuned to produce 380 horsepower, many of the creature comforts found in the more pedestrian 911 - including the rear seats - were ripped out of the car, the suspensions were massively re-engineered, offering a much lower ride height and improved stiffness, and finally, many of the body panels were replaced with lightweight kevlar elements - saving more than 120 kgs from the standard Turbo and earning this version the nickname "Leichtbau", German for - you guessed it! - "lightweight". The final product was far more similar to the future GT2, which it inspired: a raw, uncompromising ride worthy of the "widowmaker" moniker that Porsche wante the Turbo model to lose. The first 964 (well, second, if you count the heavily modified Turbo featured in the Hoonigan pack) to come to Forza doesn't disappoint: in game, it has a laser-sharp handling, the engine is responsive and almost explosive, and if you know how to handle a rear-engined monster, it will make short work of its competition, giving trouble even to the 993-series GT2.. And proving proving that yes, T10 haven't lost their plot and can still properly implement a 911 in the game.
Pros: the ultimate Widowmaker, also available with a flat nose!
Cons: a naturally-aspired Carrera would've been interesting... And I'm not saying that just because I'm a fan of the uber-90s active rear spoiler.
Nurburgring laptime: 07:54.212
If the Subaru 360 caused memories of a (then) painfully difficult challenge in GT4 to abruptly resurface... The Lotus Elise GT1 brought my mind back to the days of Gran Turismo 2. That was the first, and last time it was officially featured in a videogame, until now. In real life, it was an absolute disaster: built hastily to capitalize on the 1997 liberalization of the GT1 category homologation rules, the road car featured the same 3.5 litre twin-turbo V8 engine found in the previous GT racer from Hethel, the Esprit. However, in testing the engine proved to be underpowered and unreliable, so in the three cars fielded by the works team it was replaced by... The LT5 found in the road-going Corvette ZR1, fitted with a flat-plane crankshaft and bored to six litres of displacement. Believe it or not, this provided only a marginal improvement of performance, and actually worsened the already limited chances the Elise had of ever finishing a race. The program lasted for only one year, before the high costs and lackluster results forced parent company Proton to shut down the program and fold the factory team; despite that, the last showing of a private car was in 2004, when one exemplar owned by British Team Elite was entered as a LMP car in the Sebring 12 hours... Retiring with a shredded transmission after a mere seven laps. In Forza, the lack of performance of the sadly disappointing Elise is faithfully replicated, with the car sitting a good 70 performance points below its closest competitors in the Elite Factory Racers division; however, it'd be unfair to say it's an undeserving car: it basically has the handling of a go-kart on steroids, and the V8 may be underpowered, but it still sounds like a choir of angels. Besides, you can't beat the looks of a 90s GT1 car, and the Lotus is the one that's aesthetically the closest to its racing counterpart.
Pros: high-PI fun for all the family.
Cons: hard to tell if it doesn't drive this poorly just because of the underpowered engine not pushing the chassis to the limit...
Nurburgring laptime: 07:33.257
Dulcis in fundo, the BMW M6 GTLM. This racecar was short-lived: introduced in 2016 in the IMSA circuit, it's already been replaced with the M8 after collecting four class wins in the 2017 United Sportscar Championship. However, the very similar GT3 version of the car is likely to enjoy a long career in the hands of privateer teams, which clinched victories in the VLN, Super GT and Blancpain Endurance Series. At its heart is the same engine found in the road-going car: a twin-turbo, 4.4 litre V8 producing 500 mad horses. Despite being based on a "big boned" grand tourer, the M6 manages to be quite light, at 1,250 kgs of weight; and thanks to the wonders of a perfect weight balancement, smooth torque curve and well-tuned aerodynamics, it's probably one of the best-handling cars in its class. And like many others of the faster vehicles introduced in this pack, it also has a hair-raising sound on its side. The addition of a modern GT racer on the tail of last month's 911 (which received an update to its 3d model this month, to better reflect its status as a WEC competitor) is undoubtedly welcome... But will the trend last through the next months?
Pros: they couldn't have choosen a better GT car to add...
Cons: other than the brand-new M8 GTE.
Nurburgring laptime: 07:05.666
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Oh, wow, look! A new Veloster! Although it's honestly hard to tell what's "new" in this "reborn" Veloster Turbo after you step in the cockpit: the engine's the same old 1.6 litre unit, producing the same 200 horsepower. Sure, it may looks very stylish (almost like something that jumped out of Ridge Racer), but the suspension seem a fair bit too soft, and the lack of a limited-slip differential means that the car will answer any attempt to attack the corners with copius amount of understeer and tall clouds of smoke coming from the inner tire. Plus, what's with the rims and the twin fartcannon? Bah. Pass.
Pros: doesn't look too bad, all considered.
Cons: one tire fires all day long!
Nurburgring laptime: 08:40.524
This Veloster, on the other hand, is an actually enticing proposition. Until now, Hyundai's new "N" division - put in charge of developing the racing cars and sportier models of the Korean brand - has delivered us one heck of a Vision GT car, endless heartbreak in the World Rally Championship - with Thiery Neuville barely missing out the crown in 2017 - and a souped-up i30. This quirky ride features the same 2-litre turbocharged 4-pot, with a power output raised to 275 horsepower which are let to gallop through the front wheels, and bridled by an electronic diff. The result of N's efforts is a car that is sharper, faster, meaner; the looks aren't any less garish, but scream less of "Chad" and much more of "pocket racecar". So, the Koreans have my curiosity... When are they going to grab my attention with a 4wd, 350hp,
actually rally-inspired hot hatch?
Pros: this is the kind of car the Veloster was always supposed to be.
Cons: it could still aim a bit higher.
Nurburgring laptime: 08:28.509
