Racer's Tune Reviews

[racer39658]

Hello everyone, and welcome to Racer's tune reviews. This is not a one-car-at-a-time review thread, but something a little different. I'm going to take a look at cars that have quite a few different tunes from the various garages here on GTPlanet, and take them out for a spin.

So, what I'm doing is looking through Adrenaline's list, and picking out some cars that have a bunch of tunes to choose from. Then I'm buying the cars, tuning them up, and taking them out. Because this is a road test, I'm taking out the drag tunes and pure rally tunes, and because of my lack of skill, I'm taking out the drift tunes.

I'll be taking these cars out on Trial Mountain in practice mode using the standard controller. No aids are used aside from ABS 1, and I am disregardling "red" laps.

All of the cars I am looking at will be driven using the tuning specs in their garage, including ballast and power limiting if applicable. If the tuner has a choice of tires recommended, I will generally be going with the hardest compound (the exception to that being comments like "sure, this Veyron will work on Comfort Softs, just try it!")

However, to even out the comparison, I will be using the final gear adjustment in the transmission to give each group the same top speed (as listed in the top right corner of the transmission screen).

Please note that some tunes may be pretty old, and thus adversley affected by recent GT5 physics changes.

A huge thank you to Adrenaline for his complied tune list, without which I couldn't have done this.

Feedback is certainly appreciated, and encouraged.

 

[racer39658]

Episode 1: The 2006 Alfa Romeo 147 TI 2.0 Twin Spark

"You cannot be a true petrolhead until you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo" - J. Clarkson

I decided to start my review shootouts with an Alfa Romeo 147. This front wheel drive hatchback starts at about 150 HP and 1280 kilograms. While not difficult to drive around a track in stock form, it's rather boring. The comfort soft tires have no problems handling the acceleration or braking, but only because it's so dang slow. In fact, the hardest part of driving the stock Alfa around Trial Mountain is staying awake on the back stretch.

And so, to cure the Alfa of it's infectious boredom, I visited some tune shops, and here's what I found...

Iron's Tuning: In Silver and Gold, fully modifed except for aero kits. 317 HP, 1060 kg, 473 PP on Race Soft tires. Tuned by P Irons.

Red Valley Racing: In White and Red, fully modified. 317 HP, 1060 kg, 483 PP on Race Soft tires. Tuned by Dylans1o.

Revolve Automotion: In Black and Gold, partially modified with aero kits. 240 HP, 1060 kg, 445 PP on Sport Soft tires. Tuned by DriftMastrClass.

RKM Motorsport: In Red and Gold, partially modified with aero kits. 243 HP, 1060 kg, 440 PP on Sport Soft tires. Tuned by VTiRoj.

ZedTunes: In Blue and Black, minimally modified with aero kits. 226 HP, 1265 kg, 420 PP on Sport Medium tires. Tuned by C-ZETA.

And so, with a lineup of shiney new Alfas, I set the top speed to 165 MpH and it was time to hit the track.

First up was the lowest powered of the group, the ZedTunes Cloverleaf. Although a very minimal tune in that the only adjustable part added was the wing, sometimes it just takes the right selection of parts to get a car around the track quickly. What I found was a car that was in the grey area between perfect and boring to drive. The sport medium tires easily handled the power of the car, and there wasn't a hint of understeer or oversteer, and the low power and nice handling left a wide margin of error throughout the course. The 5-speed transmission was a bit short for Trial Mountain, hitting the rev limiter on the back straight. Overall, the car was pretty decent around the track in terms of lap times, and very easy to drive, but short on excitement.

Next up, RKM Motorsport's 147 RS. More power, less weight, better tires, and just a touch of downforce combined to make an excellent track car. There was virtually no understeer on corner entrance or exit, and the car was easy to flick around through direction changes. It handled the bumps of Trial Mountain without flinching. All around a great, stable drive, hard to make a mistake with, but the additional speed kept it fun.

Third in the lineup is Revolve's Alfa, dubbed "The Joker". Putting out about the same power at the same weight as RKM's Alfa, Revolve added a bit more downforce to keep the car glued to the track. It payed off... sort of. In the corners, The Joker didn't play any tricks, cruising around corners quickly and handling everything the mountain could throw at it easily. However, while the extra downforce helped it rail through corners, it did act as an anchor, giving a hit to the acceleration in the upper gears and hurting the overall lap times.

The first high power Alfa on the track is Irons Tuning's 317 HP beast. Running on Race Soft tires and without any downforce, this 147 had no problem on the mountain. The grippy tires never slid at all, and there was a conspicuous absence of tire smoke. The lightweight hatchback was fun and easy to dart into corners with, braking on a dime and carrying great speeds through the corners for a hatchback. Pretty much no matter what I tried with this car, it went where I told it instantly.

Finally, Red Valley's 147 RVR edition, taking the maximum power and minimum weight of the Alfa and combining it with the most traction and downforce available. You can pretty much take everything I just said about Iron's 147, add in just a bit more speed in the corner, and take away some speed in the straights due to the full rear downforce.

Lap Times

Stock: 1:55.004 (Top Speed: 107 MpH)

1: 1:31.311 - Irons Tuning (142 MpH)
2: 1:31.887 - Red Valley Racing (139 MpH)
3: 1:38.416 - RKM Motorsports (131 MpH)
4: 1:39.277 - Revolve Automotion (129 MpH)
5: 1:43.458 - ZedTunes (122 MpH)


Conclusion: Downforce on this little front wheel drive Italian hatch doesn't help, it hurts. The slight gain in corner speed would only help your lap times if you're on a track where you don't hit 4th gear, which doesn't happen often. All five of these tunes were great, as you can see by my notes above, which surprised me, as FWD cars usually have understeer issues. For this shootout, though, we have three winners.

If you're using race tires, Irons Tuning is the easy winner, gaining time over RVR in every section of Trial Mountain.

On Sports Softs, RKM takes the prize with better times in every section over Revolve.

ZedTunes setup, though more of a parts selection than a tune, is a great combination for 420 PP and less sticky rubber.

Tune in next episode for a Supra Shootout!