A new season of the Manufacturers Cup is here. That means it is time to pick a car. In my ongoing quest to use all the brands, I've decided once again to pick from the least popular ones in Canada from the previous season. That gives me the choice between two brands -- Citroën and Jaguar -- neither of which were driven by any Canadians last season.
To decide which one pick, I drove them each through all four races of the coming season as Custom Races against a single opponent. For the purposes of testing, I disabled penalties and damage and used the default weather (Afternoon S01). Here's how that went (detailed results are in
this spreadsheet).
Rd.1 - Interlagos
| Manufacturer | Model | Strategy | Opt time | Best time | Avg time | Avg dev | Total time |
|---|
| Citroën | GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3) | 14RS-16RH | 1:32.097 | 1:32.132 | 1:35.691 | 0:01.998 | 47:50.731 |
| Jaguar | F-type Gr.3 | 15RS-15RH | 1:32.131 | 1:32.386 | 1:35.101 | 0:01.794 | 47:33.041 |
For this race, since I didn't know the optimal strategy, I started on RS tires for each car, drove until one of the tires was completely worn, and switched to RHs for the rest of the race.
I drove the Citroën first. The whole time I was on RSs, it felt like the car was trying to kill me. Lap times were all over the place from all the times I went off the track. When I switched to RHs, the car became much easier to manage.
The Jaguar was just the opposite. No drama at all. I pointed the car where I wanted it to go and it went there.
Rd.2 - Tokyo Expressway
| Manufacturer | Model | Opt time | Best time | Avg time | Avg dev | Total time |
|---|
| Citroën | GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3) | 2:02.426 | 2:02.971 | 2:04.283 | 0:01.082 | 24:51.390 |
| Jaguar | F-type Gr.3 | 2:03.504 | 2:04.027 | 2:05.299 | 0:00.974 | 25:03.591 |
This was a straight-ahead sprint on RH tires. Both cars barely saw any tire wear.
I tested the Jaguar first on this race. I haven't driven this track much, so I spent a fair bit of the race just trying to remember how to drive it. If I were to re-run the test, I imagine I could get a significantly better time. I don't know if it would be enough to beat the Citroën, though. It was surprisingly strong on this track.
Rd.3 Autopolis
| Manufacturer | Model | Opt time | Best time | Avg time | Avg dev | Total time |
|---|
| Citroën | GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3) | 1:46.857 | 1:47.471 | 1:50.817 | 0:01.733 | 18:28.166 |
| Jaguar | F-type Gr.3 | 1:47.951 | 1:49.236 | 1:50.404 | 0:00.312 | 18:24.036 |
I wasn't sure what the tire wear was going to be like for this race, so I picked RM tires for both car, which easily made it a no-pit race.
The Citroën was first up this time. Aside from an incident on turn 1 of lap 4, the car felt pretty good here. The Jaguar was good, too, but slower. I just couldn't match the lap times I was getting with the Citroën.
Rd.4 - Nurburgring
| Manufacturer | Model | Opt time | Best time | Avg time | Avg dev | Total time |
|---|
| Citroën | GT by Citroën Race Car (Gr.3) | 1:55.033 | 1:57.185 | 1:59.663 | 0:02.559 | 29:54.943 |
| Jaguar | F-type Gr.3 | 1:55.251 | 1:58.193 | 2:00.145 | 0:02.433 | 30:02.175 |
I was pretty comfortable on this track having just run the TGR race there recently. Under the current tire physics, both cars easily made it to lap 14 on the RSs for a switch to RM for the final lap.
I ran the Jaguar first on this race. It felt fine. As usual, there was no drama at all. Then the Citroën came along and was consistently beating it.
A Decision
Probably no surprise here.
The Citroën was significantly faster on most of these races. Of course, I have some reservations about Interlagos with the dreadful performance on RS tires. I'm hoping with some practice I can get the car under control there. But even if I can't, I feel like it is obviously the better option for the remaining races.
All I'll say is the Dodge wears out the front right first by some way, even whilst running the brake balance at 4 to try to shift some of the wear rearwards. This is also whilst on a wheel.
