C12 vs C12
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Wow this is a mixed bag of cars. The Zonda is ... striking, it has character and has a bold look.
The Callaway - looks like a weaponized Corvette - super sleek. I half expect it to have a large USAF decal on the side of the doors and the driver to flounce out of it with a jetfighter babygrow and a pair of dodgy RayBan aviators on.
I know both are fast. The Zonda is a car that has a challenging look to it. It isn't beautiful but it is striking and memorable... It uses a customer engine, but then again so does many a great car. (McLaren F1, TVR Griffith, AC Cobra, Caterham 7... Hmm alot of English cars in that list - German, British, American and Japanese engines.)
Again from the looks I'd expect the Pagani to be better in the twisty bits due to its squarer posture and mid engine layout, maybe more tricky for the novice wheelsmith. The Callaway should be more stable in turns with a longer look to it.
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Looks (memory)
The Zonda is a ground breaker, the look is powerful and has a robotic Cyberdyne Systems like feel to its use of bold straight lines. It looks like it was sent from the future to do some sort of wicked thing.
The Callaway is like a polished jewel. Based on an already sleek car they made this even sleekier Like a starship being pulled into the gravity well of a black hole. It looks slightly out of proportion Like a Professional Female Basketball player - but don't be fooled into thinking it is a tottering supermodel on platform point shoes.
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Firstly the Zonda is known for its real life comedy colours, Lime green, Shaolin Orange. Silver is the only chip you get in GT6. If you do choose to paint the car you will have to endure a few gripes the rear wing flap and the bottom of the car has a black trim that remains black whatever you do. This detail work only gets worse with the more developed versions of the Zonda.
I myself chose to respray the car in Lamborghini's Nero Nemesis - the darkest shade of black and it has a matt effect too. This however made the light grey wheels stand out so I swapped them out for Ray's 57 Ultimates which I then powdercoated in the same Nero Nemesis as the car...
Looks the Zonda has an exagerated "Cab Forward" design and cluster of design details - a central quad exhausts contained in a circular chromed bezel, High 'A' pillar mounted door mirrors, Small twin side by side headlamps. Twin rear lamps mounted over and under.
The Callaway.
Looks are odd, It has a long lean flow to it that makes the original C5 seem truncated and stubby... which is odd as the Corvette evokes long and lean. The Callaway is longer, wider and lower. It has much more of a classical look to it, but what car doesn't look reserved and understated next to a Zonda.
(Horacio Pagani was the guy who made the 25th Anniversary Countach look full Big Top Circus, with the strakes and vents and overall bloated 80's excess look.)
*** Speed test***
I took the pair to the Route X emporium of velocity.
The Callaway was first up and that gearbox was - trouble. The car could only really use 5th gear. Under it's own steam the car could punch over 200mph and cruise along at 202mph. IF you tried for 6th the car would slow down like you dropped an anchor... it is such a Tall gear I half expected it to catch its head on low bridges... Obviously this gear is for fooling miles per gallon fuel tests as you'd only use it when you are in a slipstream behind a car doing over 210mph... My initial thought was a better gearbox would get more from the engine and maybe 5-10 more MPH as you could use a more powerful bit of the 6th gear powerband, rather than a place that isn't.
The Zonda
The giveaway was the Speedo only went up to 160mph...
The car blasted off nice enough but it just ran out of power and gears at 180. You can run 200rpm beyond the red line in top gear in clean air to notch up a top speed of 186mph - IF you get a slipstream you can get up to 195mph before the ultimate rev limiter kills the throttle.
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Engine note.
5 and 2/3 litre V8 vs a 6 litre V12....
The Zonda is a bit musical - an odd sound that I don't really equate to a powerful engine. V12's should sound great - all burbly and powerful. (Matra V12 - Weslake V12 maybe a Honda RA301 Engine or a Cerbera Speed 12... For whatever reason the Merc 6 litre sounds more Musical than anything. Maybe you enjoy Musicals, I don't. The Callaway has a good old V8 and it sounds like a solid "nascar style" racing V8 - Not as good as a Cosworth DFV but it fits the Cally very well.
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Paint Chips
This one is a slam dunk for the Cally - 5 chips isn't many but it is 4 more than Pagani. The Cally has a Nice shade of Yellow but a stunning deep dark purple shade Enzia Blau (something like that). Neither have Dark Green, but a Deep Purple is good for some smoke on the water.
Price...
The Callaway is an Expensive 175880... the Zonda is 388,720 - much more than twice the price.
Performance Points
This is an odd one but the Cally is under 500pp - which lets you run it stock in a cluster of races. the Zonda is 20pp fatter, so you can't run the 500pp events which limits what you can do with it. 20pp is quite alot but when it crosses a PP threshold you have to give alot of respect to the underdog car... In this case the Cally which so far has drubbed the Pagani at every turn Except the "Which car would Mooky the Clown use to drive to the Circus in? (With 5 of his mates inside too)"
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Zoinks The Zonda is losing the fight here... But there is one place all the above matters little. the track. If the Callaway has a couple of American Sized portions of understeer and that gearbox takes the edge off it's racing performance the Zonda could make a comeback victory. Mid-Engine, Lighter, More Torquey bigger engine should give it every advantage on a race track that doesn't hang its hat on top speed - But it will need to mush the face of that Callaway into the dirt at every chance...
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Next day -
As my Internet conenction keeps kicking me off PSN I'll have to run a Normal race, but as the Zonda is a Fat boy in terms of PP I'll have to run a race that puts the Callaway at a huge disadvantage...
LaSarthe 2013 - 3 laps in the Supercar Festival
(Open to all cars under 630pp - Pirelli Ultra Soft tyres)
(I'll stick with Sport Hards)
(Love the intro music here!)
(ABS=0 TCS=0 DS3 (Sticks) -
Track limits all wheels inside the white lines at all times -
No curbs, no run offs, no corner cuts, no hitting other cars -
Zonda C12
4m29.064 (3rd lap)
Car felt a bit juddery - the whiny engine note warbling over the bumps. The car felt a bit loose in places, not drilling corners and a bit vague - but this is high speed track on Hard tyres. The Brakes didn't slow me down as well as I first expected and I ended up in the kitty litter at Mulsanne but I managed a clean laps after that faux pas.
Callaway C12
4m39.660 (2nd lap)
The Callaway sounded great but the first big factor was the haphazard gear ratios... 5th and 6th are far too long and that strangled any chance of the car leaping out of the corners.
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So The Zonda is much more nimble on even a long longed Le Mans layout. But the Callaway has the advantage in every other area? Which do you pick?
Not an easy choice as the negative points of both cars stand out to me.
Naff Gearbox ratios, (C12)
Clowncar looks (C12)
Comprehesive shade of Silver Paint chip collection (C12)
"V12: the Musical" Engine note. (C12)
Much slower on a pucker track. (C12)
Much slower in a straight line, (C12)
Eyewateringly expensive.(C12)
Some points are minor but some are huge.
Quick recap - as I am confused myself over which car I actually like and enjoy the most.
Round 1 Price
(C12) 388,720
(C12) 175,880
Round 2 Chips
(C12) 1
(C12) 5
Round 3 Top Speed
(C12) 186mph
(C12) 202mph
Round 4 Looks
The C12 is striking, but so is a milk float.
The C12 is a graceful swan of a car - not a car I would normally prefer but this time...
I'd have to give this to the C12 as it is less pantomime ugly than the C12.
Round 5 Engine Note
The C12's Mercedes V12 sounds awful.
The tweaked LS1 V8 in the C12 sounds rich and authentic.
Round 6 LeMans
(C12) 4m29
(C12) 4m39
Round 7 Fun to drive
I have to edge the C12 on this. it may be a bit sloppy on turn in but the engine is smooth and the gearbox is nicely chosen. The (C12) feels awkward in turns but those gear ratios feels like they dropped the ball at getting the most from the engine.
(If you swap to a generic 6 speed gearbox, then the car is a step up in drivability but oddly the speedo drops down to the bad 160mph one the C12 has!)
Miles driven
57 Miles (C12)
68 Miles (C12)
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All things balanced out... I'd pick the
Callaway
- I'd lose every race against the Zonda save at Vmax tracks. But I dislike the Zonda more than I enjoy to drive it.
The Zonda never looked good and it sounds awful, a V12 Engine only getting up to 6,000 rpm...tut tut
But the Callaway has that lame gearbox mystery mix of ratios. I can fix that easily - I can't alter the gopping looks of the Zonda.
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