Making inappropriate cars do inappropriate things: Take 2

[jammyozzy]

Some of you may remember my adventures around the Nurburgring with a Renault Avantime, one of the most ungainly vehicles in the game. The verdict was that, with qualifying tyres, it could lap the 'Ring worryingly rapidly, break the double ton and provide insane amounts of laughter in multiplayer.

At the time I said I'd hopefully do a follow-up, but I never got around to it, until now.....

So, ladies and gentlemen, I proudly (sort of) present:

Making inappropriate cars do inappropriate things: Take 2

The vehicle
My last attempt at this featured one of the largest vehicles in GT4, the Renault Avantime, so I decided to change tack and choose......

Done laughing? Good. Fully tuned this thing pushes 209hp and weighs just over 900kg, so don't write it off instantly.

The 'Ring

Okay, wheelspin from a rolling start, into 2nd, brake into the first corner and.....oh god this thing understeers! my first attempt at a lap results in me giving up by the 8th corner or so, there's no way I can put in a fast lap after diging the car out of the armco at every turn.

After tinkering with the suspension, and finally figuring out how the toe settings work, I was back and ready for lap 2. Turning into the first corner and....understeer still. Just as I'm about to quit and change the settings again, I tap the brakes and suddenly, I'm round the corner. Memories of my Avantime come flooding back, and I'm soon in control, even managing to kick out the back end around Schwedenkreuz. The car handles quite well on soft sports tyres, with the understeer only catching me out a couple of times. At the end of the lap, I see a flash of 145mph through Tiergarten before i'm braking into Hohenrain, and across the line in 8'35.762. Not too shabby.

Max speed test

So, just how fast can a Ford Ka go? My Avantime made it to 201mph, but that had over 350hp + a 70hp shot ofnitrous oxide, over 200 more than me. Surely a Ka couldn't also break the double ton aswell, could it?

After bolting on a tank of N2O and stretching out the gears, I record a initial top speed of 186mph.

Not bad, but I ran out of revs and nitrous, so I go back for a second run with longer gears and an adjusted reference point to hit R1. Coming out of the turn, and I'm already doingg 190mph. The speed slowly climbs....194...195...I see a flash of 196 as my nitrous tank empties itself, but I've run out of revs again, and end up coasting across the line at a rather docile 172mph. maybe this thing can break 200 after all....

However, the next few runs yeild little improvement, I gain just 1mph through adjusting the gears. Then something hits me, the car's still running with lots of camber and toe angle from my lap of the 'Ring. Could they be my missing 3mph? Quickly I remove the camber and toe angle, and restart the top speed run. This time I come off of the corner carring much more speed, the speedo showing 195 mph into the tunnel. But I'm running out of revs again, and I bounce off of the limiter at 198.5mph.

Feeling more hopeful, I stretch out the gears just a little more. This time I'm even faster, hitting 198 as I burst back out of the tunnel. 199...199.........come on, 199...gah! I'm at the finish again. This time I'm beaten. I can't find any more speed, and my next few runs all et proressively slower, leaving me with a top speed of 199.51mph. I can't break the double ton, but maybe one day.....

Phew, that's a lot of typing! If you're still reading, you can enjoy (or not, as the case maybe) some pics of my rather nippy Ford.

Pics

 

[GT40 MKII]

cool whats next?

 

[rheinaoi]

All hail the Ford Ka! It was quite the entertaining little write-up.

For your next challenge I'd like to see either a fire-breathing version of the classic Beetle (hmmm wonder if you can coax 100hp out of the thing ) or your fastest VW Golf (the old one as well, I think it was the Mk1 )

I wouldn't mind seeing what your laptime could have been on R5's, you'd probably have the world's first 7 minute Ka

Keep up the good work and keep the "interesting" car choices coming.

 

[jammyozzy]

Hmm...that's not a bad idea.

*sticks R5's on the Ka*

*edit* Well, my first (very messy) lap on R5's gave a 7'52, so I'm not sure there's much chance breaking the 7 minute mark. I'm almost certain I could run a sub 7'30 though.

 

[niky]

What tire set was the 8 1/2 time done on?

Interesting write up... fun stuff! 👍

 

[Eric.]

I wonder...did you give the car an oil change as soon as you acquired it (before driving it)? That could give you just a bit more power. Also make sure it was lowered completely.

I'd love to see the Ka break 200.

 

[Amemiya]

Sounds fun. It's always fun to make wrong cars do amazing things.

 

[Appie]

cool report dude

and some awsome pics:tup:

when is yor next report

 

[Praetorian]

Good heavens, someone's actually bought a Ka! And not only took it to the burg, but attempted 200mph with it?? And then admitted it openly online??!!

That thing... um... its just so... ugh. Nevermind. GT will never be the same

Ah who am I kidding, I took a stock XB to the 'burg the other day on N2's so I guess I cant talk

edit: Have you tried mashing it with some downforce? Get that big double-bladed wing thats at the end of the list... I think the black one should do nicely... and while you're there maybe a snazzy set of rims? personally the yokahama 024 are one of my favourites to add to cars of your Ka's coloring. Especially when you want to draw attention away from how the rest of the vehicle looks

another edit... for the track (not speed test) maybe adding about 25-35kg of ballast to the rear will help it swing around the corners, I find this helps me on many of my understeering FF's (after full weight reductions), but up to you

 

[Perfect Balance]

Check the torque curve, if it curves down at the end, then stretch out the gears so the 200 is right at the top of it, that will give you some extra speed as some of the cars go slower if you let it run all the way up to the rev limiter.

 

[jammyozzy]

Yes! Hahahaha! I finally broke 200mph, 200.01 to be exact. *runs off to save the game*

 

[Scoop2004]

shot and a half that

 

[Master_Yoda]

HAHAHA great report! 👍

EDIT: can you PM me the settings please? i wanan see if i can put a little bit more power into this thing.