I'm sad we have no Speirling as I was curious about how it would perform and how the sucker fans were simulated, and I wanted to play with power cuts on it and paint it as it looks like a smooshed Micro Machines version of an LMP1 car... but this set of cars makes up for it.
While it's disappointing we got no new Spotlight Cars, the quality of the Car Pass cars is enough to make up for it this time. The last few updates haven't had much in the way of new Spotlight Cars, so my guess is they are saving some of those "missing" cars like the Camaro TA and Mazda DPi for Spotlight Cars in updates after the Car Pass is over so there is still some new stuff to talk about.
The end of the Car Pass is going to make the next update interesting. While it's getting better, I feel like the game still isn't really in a state where they can fall off with bringing new content in updates. If tracks get rarer and only 1 or 2 of the prize/Spotlight Cars are new, then I think they will have to really bring big improvements to the gameplay side of things to keep a lot of people interested. Single player needs more than a few seemingly RNG-created championships, and multiplayer needs some things to mix it up, and both need a bunch of QoL features and to open up some options to give them some depth and replayability.
Taking the cars for a drive, the LMP3 and Ginetta are excellent, the Matra is pretty good (but doesn't sound special), Renault is fine I guess, but the Brabham is suprisingly... uncooperative. Doesn't like to turn in, and you have to be really gentle in trailbraking as too much brake and it just plows, I found it much harder to be fast and consistent in than significantly faster/more powerful vintage sportscars like the Matra or Lotus 40. Will be interesting to see what it's like after some tuning.
I forgot to go play around with it, but assuming it works the stretch tool in the paint shop is a neat addition. The proximity arrows still aren't great but they are better/more consistent at least. Another minor thing that I didn't see mentioned in the patch notes but is very nice for organized leagues is that when running "compare best lap" lobbies, fast dirty laps no longer overwrite clean laps. Still don't understand why they can't put things like in this in the notes though...
Keen to see how competitive the Levorg is now, it's fun to drive so looking forward to try it again.
Hmm, the Subaru and Veloster changes are interesting. The Subaru was kind of a no-stop gimmick car, but it will be interesting to see if it's still as gentle on its tires with an extra 30hp, which is pretty significant. Most tracks still required some finesse to make through the medium length races and with that much extra power will probably require being a bit more gentle, but it could make it OP for medium length races.
The Veloster I'm not sure about... I've only driven it once because it sounds horrible, but it seemed like it was pretty strong on speed-leaned tracks anyways and I've seen people run very solid times with it. Didn't really seem power was what it needed to be an overall strong car, but it could be very quick on speed tracks now.
Nice to see the MG knocked down a peg. I like it because it's fairly "unique" as far as TCR cars go and I like it's looks kinda, but I never drove it since it was the "meta" car and it's the only car in the division I don't have a win with to complete Devon's challenge... So I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow after my league race... Or actually probably not if TC is still on the short length races.