RVT Amuse S2000 GT1
749PP - Suzuka - Power: 541PS - Torque: 443ft-lbs - Weight: 952KG
Enter the Dragon
I've been avoiding this car for two reasons - There's way too many of them online and they're way too easy to beat in a GTlm but when a new up and coming tuning outfit contacted me and asked me to try their setup I decided to put my prejudices aside and give it a try.
First off I don't like the look of this thing, with the gokart-on-steroids bodystyle and the comedy rear spoiler it looks more like the kind of thing you'd expect to see in the next starwars movie than an honest to god racecar. But I'm here to judge the setup, not the look so I let that one go.
First off I slap a set of stickys on, dial the weight down as far as it'll go and knock 7notches off the power. Time to see what this puppy can make of suzuka...
Three laps later and I'm enjoying this thing despite myself. It buzzes round the track like an angry hornet, The tiny little 2200cc engine more than enough to bring it's flyweight chassis up to speed, end keep it there! Other than a dodgy dropoff from first to second gears this thing seems to be always in the powerband. It's a little tail happy (even with a kitchen table bolted to the back) but it's a fun little drive and I've soon racked up a respectable 2:04 and change.
I head back to the pits, feeling a lot more positive about this car than I was when I left. What happened next can only be described using a new prototype word which I think you'll be hearing a lot of in the near future - the car became
Dragonized
From the off it's much more balanced, RVT have bent the kitchen table up as far as it will go and that's exactly what was needed to give a leadfoot like myself the confidence to slam that accelerator pedal on the floor whenever I goddamn well feel like it. The gears are spectacular - floor it in first coming out of the hair pin and second gear arrives like the ride of the valkyries, catupulting me into 200R as if I'd been fired out a cannon. There's loads of torque in 3rd, there's loads of torque in 4th, and 5th, and 6th and there's even a 7th which, unsurprisingly, comes complete with loads of torque!
Keeping the revs up is the key to this machine. T1/2 of suzuka involves tapdancing on the brake and throttle in an MR-style rhythm , little bit of brake, drop a gear , rev! Wash, rinse repeat. By this point many an FR drivetrain would have exited the track but not the amuse - it wants to play! The suspension is perfect as it hugs the esses and stays planted up through dunlop. Carrying me smoothly round degner with no loss of control under braking and back on the throttle to carry me across the apex and slithering down the camber into the hairpin.
Once again the mindblowing cornering speed is evident as I hammer through spoon and out again with barely a touch of lift required to nail the exit and fly on down to 130R and through. Casio is an exercise in simplicity and I'm out and across the line in a staggering 2:03.1 - suddenly it doesn't look like this is going to lose much road to the Fords. Lets go find out...
There is only one conclusion I can draw from what happened next - this car totally dominates online. It can hunt down and bitchslap a GTlm - first time I've managed to do that in any other car. And, testament to how good this tune is, it treats even other S2000's with the same utter disdain. I lost a few races to punters but I won most of them. It charges through the pack, hanging behind anything and, at any corner exit you can pretty much safely assume you're going to have ten times more grunt, twenty times sooner than the guy in front. This isn't like shooting fish in a barrel - it's like shooting elephants in a shoebox!
Congratulations to RVT, I haven't had much experience in this car but, based on how competitive it was against a full grid of them in one of the many races I sailed to victory in, my guess is you're not going to find one that's much faster than this.
9/10