- 4,209
- Wasilla, AK
Yes, I know there's already an MW12 general discussion thread. However, I figured this could use its own.
Some time ago, someone created a spreadsheet on Google Docs to rank the cars found in NFSMW 2012. Thing is, it accounted for the Ultimate Speed Pack, but did not include the Focus ST or the Slim Jim Charger, and the Terminal Velocity/Movie Legends/NFS Heroes packs weren't available at that point. It has not been updated to take into account the new DLC. I also didn't agree with some of the rankings. Nevertheless, here it is for reference:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao1CItunSGVgdEo2SjRWMWlqaUktWjQtSDkybmgydkE#gid=0
So, I've started to work on my own version. I realized that, since my game data got corrupted and all the online cars were back to standard Burn Nitrous, I could do reliable comparisons. Unfortunately, I still can't add the Focus ST, since I forgot about not being able to switch back to Burn Standard after equipping Burn Pro, and switched it to Powershot - now it's Burn Pro or that, so the car is incapable of being used for an apples-to-apples comparison. Once I have a job, I'll get a new account for a YouTube series and delete the data from this one so I can add the Focus, but for now, it's not being factored in.
I'm running down the list in alphabetical order, so I started with the Alfa Romeo 4C Concept. After accounting for both objective stat-bars and some comparison runs around Ripley's Point (including cornering speed tests around the cooling towers and practical-speed tests along Burke Street and Connors Bridge Road, I ranked the Alfa Romeo 4C 36th out of the 62 cars under consideration. It was decently quick but very slightly difficult to drift. It also exhibits some Porsche Carerra-like speed scrubbing when turning without drifting at low-medium speeds. With enough finesse, though, it can be "gently forced" into a drift without too much speed loss - it's a trick I haven't fully got the hang of. The thing about all that is, drifting can actually cut cornering speeds from "adequate" to the "lackluster" level. Ultimately, it fails to distinguish itself. Mod-wise, a couple good ones come early, with Short Gears and Aero Body for the first two mileage targets. After that, you get Reinflates Tires and Powershot Nitrous, then the good stuff picks up again at 100 miles with Track Tires (finally). If you want the Reinforced Chassis, you'll have to wait a good long while for it, while Lightweight Chassis requires some Short Gears near misses. If you want your transmission tuned for top-end speed, Long Gears require some Track Tires drifting. Impact Protection Body requires Powershot Nitrous takedowns. Off-road Tires require Reinforced Chassis air time, though fortunately not too much of it.
While you wait for more cars to be added (eventually, I may attempt uploading the spreadsheet somewhere), here are some more impressions I got from the comparison runs.
Porshe 911 Carerra is statistically similar to the Alfa Romeo 4C. It might be just a smidge faster in a straight line, but is also a bit more reluctant to drift and goes for speed-scurbbing high angles quickly once coerced to do so. Cornering speeds are a bit low as a result, but proper (extremely precise) drifting can help. Emergency brake is pretty much required for getting the tail out.
The Porsche 911 GT2, at times, doesn't seem all that much faster in a straight line than the Carerra, though it's still one of the faster Sports cars. It's also one of the best, for the simple reason of its handling. Unlike the Carerra, it doesn't have much of a problem with understeer, nor does it drift too hard when finally convinced to. Instead, it moves gently into a drift on its own and can maintain a good angle without much effort or skill, allowing consistent and high cornering speeds.
The Porsche Panamera S has fairly interesting handling, moderately easy to no-brake drift at low-medium speeds but understeery and reliant on e-brake abuse at higher speeds. Note that the e-brake usually has a negative effect on cornering speeds at the lower ranges, taking them from "fairly high" to "lackluster". It is, however, decently fast.
Nissan 350Z is easy drifting, with good cornering speeds to boot, but lacks a bit of speed.
Nissan Skyline has fairly easy handling and is quite quick. E-brake use for drifting is often counterproductive.
The Subaru Impreza Cosworth might be lacking just a little bit of speed, but it makes up for it with easy-drifting handling.
The Ariel Atom 500 V8 is probably the best vanilla-game Race car. It's extremely quick off the line and drifts without much coercion, which tends to mean high cornering speeds. Top end is a bit lacking, but most non-exotics need a freeway to do much better. Loses just a couple points for the typical race-car problem of getting stopped cold by certain "heavy" obstacles.
The BAC Mono is an interesting case. It's quick, but doesn't seem as quick as the Ariel despite a higher accerleration stat, and it doesn't usually drift of its own accord. It also tends to scrub a lot of speed when turning without drifting, though it can still maintain a high cornering speed... for a while. If it's e-braked into a drift, it can easily maintain a good angle, and a high, consistent cornering speed.
The Caterham Superlight R500 is a heap. It's quick off the line, but very difficult to drift without laying on the emergency brake and a bit diffcult to turn without drifting. With the tail out, cornering speeds can be fairly consistent, but run in the low-medium range. When maintaining grip, cornering speeds can be fairly high, but not for too long - and if you twitch too far in the direction you're turning, you lose quite a bit of speed. Top speed is also very low, and acceleration may taper off badly above 100mph. Notably, it does have slightly better off-road ability than the other Race cars, which should be useful for that once SpeedList that has you racing Race cars on the train tracks.
The Mercedes SL65 and SLS have very similar stats, but I think the SL65 is faster and has higher cornering speeds (as well as easier drifting).
Ford Focus RS500 handles well but is ultimately mediocre
Lamborghini Diablo was a tough car to rank and will probably go a lot higher than it should. I thought the Diablo was superior to the Alfa 4C, but the stats said that was confirmation bias. The Lambo was definitely a lot faster, but lost points for extremely lairy low-speed handling. However, it gained some of those back for easy-drifting high speed handling. In the end, I called it in favor of the Lambo, since it's fast enough to compete with some Exotics and the higher weight isn't always a problem (sometimes even the opposite).
Lan Evo X seems to seriously lack speed & scrubs a lot of it when not drifitng properly. Also not as easy to drift as the Focus.
P.S. If you have any opinions on my rankings, I wouldn't mind hearing them. At this point there's probably not much to go on, but I'll attempt to get this going as quickly as possible.
09/22/13 UPDATE: It turns out I didn't get this going as quickly as possible. I've decided that, rather than attempt to do it now, I'll wait for whenever I get a new PSN account, then delete my game data on this one again. I no longer wish to keep standard Burn Nitrous on every car for a list that'll be incomplete until I get a new PSN account anyway.
Some time ago, someone created a spreadsheet on Google Docs to rank the cars found in NFSMW 2012. Thing is, it accounted for the Ultimate Speed Pack, but did not include the Focus ST or the Slim Jim Charger, and the Terminal Velocity/Movie Legends/NFS Heroes packs weren't available at that point. It has not been updated to take into account the new DLC. I also didn't agree with some of the rankings. Nevertheless, here it is for reference:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao1CItunSGVgdEo2SjRWMWlqaUktWjQtSDkybmgydkE#gid=0
So, I've started to work on my own version. I realized that, since my game data got corrupted and all the online cars were back to standard Burn Nitrous, I could do reliable comparisons. Unfortunately, I still can't add the Focus ST, since I forgot about not being able to switch back to Burn Standard after equipping Burn Pro, and switched it to Powershot - now it's Burn Pro or that, so the car is incapable of being used for an apples-to-apples comparison. Once I have a job, I'll get a new account for a YouTube series and delete the data from this one so I can add the Focus, but for now, it's not being factored in.
I'm running down the list in alphabetical order, so I started with the Alfa Romeo 4C Concept. After accounting for both objective stat-bars and some comparison runs around Ripley's Point (including cornering speed tests around the cooling towers and practical-speed tests along Burke Street and Connors Bridge Road, I ranked the Alfa Romeo 4C 36th out of the 62 cars under consideration. It was decently quick but very slightly difficult to drift. It also exhibits some Porsche Carerra-like speed scrubbing when turning without drifting at low-medium speeds. With enough finesse, though, it can be "gently forced" into a drift without too much speed loss - it's a trick I haven't fully got the hang of. The thing about all that is, drifting can actually cut cornering speeds from "adequate" to the "lackluster" level. Ultimately, it fails to distinguish itself. Mod-wise, a couple good ones come early, with Short Gears and Aero Body for the first two mileage targets. After that, you get Reinflates Tires and Powershot Nitrous, then the good stuff picks up again at 100 miles with Track Tires (finally). If you want the Reinforced Chassis, you'll have to wait a good long while for it, while Lightweight Chassis requires some Short Gears near misses. If you want your transmission tuned for top-end speed, Long Gears require some Track Tires drifting. Impact Protection Body requires Powershot Nitrous takedowns. Off-road Tires require Reinforced Chassis air time, though fortunately not too much of it.
While you wait for more cars to be added (eventually, I may attempt uploading the spreadsheet somewhere), here are some more impressions I got from the comparison runs.
Porshe 911 Carerra is statistically similar to the Alfa Romeo 4C. It might be just a smidge faster in a straight line, but is also a bit more reluctant to drift and goes for speed-scurbbing high angles quickly once coerced to do so. Cornering speeds are a bit low as a result, but proper (extremely precise) drifting can help. Emergency brake is pretty much required for getting the tail out.
The Porsche 911 GT2, at times, doesn't seem all that much faster in a straight line than the Carerra, though it's still one of the faster Sports cars. It's also one of the best, for the simple reason of its handling. Unlike the Carerra, it doesn't have much of a problem with understeer, nor does it drift too hard when finally convinced to. Instead, it moves gently into a drift on its own and can maintain a good angle without much effort or skill, allowing consistent and high cornering speeds.
The Porsche Panamera S has fairly interesting handling, moderately easy to no-brake drift at low-medium speeds but understeery and reliant on e-brake abuse at higher speeds. Note that the e-brake usually has a negative effect on cornering speeds at the lower ranges, taking them from "fairly high" to "lackluster". It is, however, decently fast.
Nissan 350Z is easy drifting, with good cornering speeds to boot, but lacks a bit of speed.
Nissan Skyline has fairly easy handling and is quite quick. E-brake use for drifting is often counterproductive.
The Subaru Impreza Cosworth might be lacking just a little bit of speed, but it makes up for it with easy-drifting handling.
The Ariel Atom 500 V8 is probably the best vanilla-game Race car. It's extremely quick off the line and drifts without much coercion, which tends to mean high cornering speeds. Top end is a bit lacking, but most non-exotics need a freeway to do much better. Loses just a couple points for the typical race-car problem of getting stopped cold by certain "heavy" obstacles.
The BAC Mono is an interesting case. It's quick, but doesn't seem as quick as the Ariel despite a higher accerleration stat, and it doesn't usually drift of its own accord. It also tends to scrub a lot of speed when turning without drifting, though it can still maintain a high cornering speed... for a while. If it's e-braked into a drift, it can easily maintain a good angle, and a high, consistent cornering speed.
The Caterham Superlight R500 is a heap. It's quick off the line, but very difficult to drift without laying on the emergency brake and a bit diffcult to turn without drifting. With the tail out, cornering speeds can be fairly consistent, but run in the low-medium range. When maintaining grip, cornering speeds can be fairly high, but not for too long - and if you twitch too far in the direction you're turning, you lose quite a bit of speed. Top speed is also very low, and acceleration may taper off badly above 100mph. Notably, it does have slightly better off-road ability than the other Race cars, which should be useful for that once SpeedList that has you racing Race cars on the train tracks.
The Mercedes SL65 and SLS have very similar stats, but I think the SL65 is faster and has higher cornering speeds (as well as easier drifting).
Ford Focus RS500 handles well but is ultimately mediocre
Lamborghini Diablo was a tough car to rank and will probably go a lot higher than it should. I thought the Diablo was superior to the Alfa 4C, but the stats said that was confirmation bias. The Lambo was definitely a lot faster, but lost points for extremely lairy low-speed handling. However, it gained some of those back for easy-drifting high speed handling. In the end, I called it in favor of the Lambo, since it's fast enough to compete with some Exotics and the higher weight isn't always a problem (sometimes even the opposite).
Lan Evo X seems to seriously lack speed & scrubs a lot of it when not drifitng properly. Also not as easy to drift as the Focus.
P.S. If you have any opinions on my rankings, I wouldn't mind hearing them. At this point there's probably not much to go on, but I'll attempt to get this going as quickly as possible.
09/22/13 UPDATE: It turns out I didn't get this going as quickly as possible. I've decided that, rather than attempt to do it now, I'll wait for whenever I get a new PSN account, then delete my game data on this one again. I no longer wish to keep standard Burn Nitrous on every car for a list that'll be incomplete until I get a new PSN account anyway.
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