Having several times looked at it, and with it being the by far fastest car on the 1st time trials (the only ones I tried out so far), I figured it was about time to give the
Evil Kusabi a try.
As usually I started off by installing all the required components and trying the car as is, without applying your settings - the exception of course being the gearing. Having never driven the car, your description and the Time Trial fame is all I had to go on before starting. Well, looking like it was made out of a Stormtrooper helmet certainly raised expectations somewhat.
My first experience was the lvl 15 Tuner Challenge race at GVS, a track I am quite familiar with by now. I really need not have worried. I was in first before the first tunnel on the starting lap and it never really looked like the position was endangered. The late charge by a Yellowbird was nice but taking about half a second a lap off me with 8 or so seconds behind, there was little to be afraid off. Well, for me, anyway
The car was pretty sweet out of the box, with enormous grip, practically no understeer and while no wonders can be expected from its 270hp, these are at least delivered in a fairly linear fashion and at this track the power certainly sufficed to best the opposition. The only issue with the car stock, and I am splitting hairs here, was a bit too much understeer on accelerating out of the third corner. Not dramatic but a bit surprising, given that it occured nowhere else.
The best time I achieved was a 1.58.1xx, which is pretty close to the times I set with your NSX (albeit with Sports soft tyres).
Applying your settings next (I was actually thinking of lowering the power, to make it fairer on the opposition
) I went for another go. Initially there was not much difference to be noted. The washing out of the front when accelerating out of turn 3 was now much better controlled, however I needed to concentrate more in the section between the first sector timing post and the first tunnel. I somehow managed to get too closely acquainted with the armco there once or twice, which did not happen with the stock settings. Still, if I nailed it, the times were as good as with the stock setting. And these were pretty spectacular - I would need to check back but I recon the speeds achieved in that section are some of the best I have had with any non race spec car.
The other section where the car is simply amazing is accelerating out of the second tunnel, basically from the mid point on out. The third tunnel is also really easy, with speeds of 140 kmh inside - not something to be scoffed at for a FF.
The S curves after were taken at a very good speed, too and the front end grip was good enough so that I never needed to use the concrete section next to the track at the penultimate corner when accelerating out there. The final turn also requires no lifting and gets you onto the final straight at pretty sweet speeds. My best lap was the last one of the race again, recording a 1.57.0xx time, so just over one second faster than with the stock setup. I guess given that the car felt so good in the original setup already, this is quite a significant difference. Most of it, it seems, came from a better first sector, with the other 2 or so tenths coming in the third one (the middle one being pretty much equal as far as times go).
The next track I tried it on was Suzuka. Being a faster track than GVS, I was a bit more worried about the power deficit to the other Tuner Challenge cars and on the start finish straight I had two cars pass me at warp speed. After the 1st and 2nd turns I was already back in fifth, though and the S curves got me up to 4th. Managed to pass a Nismo Z (too quick to check which one) in the first Degner for third, and got up to second on the exit out of Spoon. Speaking of which, the exit speed out of Spoon was pretty impressive, too.
The car was good through 130R, too and as usually, I could make up time in the Casio triangle. Unfortunately, finishing the first lap first did not mean staying ahead till the end of the start finish straight, this time both a Nismo and an Amuse GT-1 passing me. Generally those could easily be dispatched in the S curves but as opposed to GVS, the car seemed to understeer more at Suzuka, with both Gyaku and Dunlop (the latter especially) requiring a careful approach, not to plow on too far to the outside of the corner, losing time and potentially hitting gravel.
The exit from the Hairpin curve also needed patience before applying throttle, otherwise you'd understeer out, and as opposed to usually, where lifting or a slight tap on the brakes would tuck the nose back in, it seemed not to happen at this turn.
To cut a long story short, I could win against much more powerful opponents at this circuit, too but am not so sure that a human driver in A GT-1 would not have passed me fairly easily.
I then decided to take it to the Nuerburgring to see what it would do there. I found no race where I felt the car would be fairly matched to the opposition, so in contrast to my regular habit of testing the car in A spec races, I went for a round of practice.
I was feeling fairly cocky by this point and thought the car would be fairly murderous in the Eiffel, just like previously. The result, I am sad to say, was a bit of a mixed bag. The grip was there, the speed was good but I felt on several occassions that the car was most certainly not tuned for this track (I might of course be mistaken).
While the car handled both bumps and kerbs at Suzuka and at GVS without a problem, so much as looking in the general direction of a kerb at the Nuerburgring could mean the car skipping a meter or more in the opposite direction. In the end I decided to just steer completely away from them, as they disturbed the handling way too much. I guess the maximum lowering of the suspension also had something to do with it and a softer setup would work better on this track.
I also felt the back did not really follow the front perfectly on the bumpy surface here - I often felt the car became very lively with the back breaking out on several occasions. Had such 'moments' at Hatzenbach, and then even more in the second part of the track, when elevation differences come into play as well. From Eschbach to Schwalbenschwanz it's a really wild ride - it seems the suspension cannot quite cope with track imperfections, elevation differences and the stresses of the engine all at the same time. The fact that the back seems a bit snappy here means I would have totalled the car on several occassions, were PDs damage modelling a bit more realistic.
Another place where I felt too much braking and associated time loss was required was at Klostertal - in order to completely avoid the kerb on the inside the corner (which would launch you into the armco opposite) you needed to brake quite a bit - in spite of the car having sufficient grip to carry you through the corner full throttle otherwise.
Finally, I decided to be a bit naughty and check out the car with sport soft tyres instead of the race softs as originally specified. In order not to (figuratively speaking) kill my self in the attempt, I did this at GVS. The car still worked after a fashion, of course not nearly as well as on race softs. There was more understeer and corner exits required some more patience before throttle could be applied when compared to the race soft tyres. The final corner could no longer be taken flat out either, leading to the entry speed onto the final straight of ca. 10 kmh less than with race softs. The first sector was only about a second slower, however the second one, previously the warp speed one of the Kusabi, was significantly off, with the third accounting for the rest of the difference.
I guess I could shave perhaps another half a second off with my driving and the DS3, if I practiced some more, as is, we are talikg times in the 2.05.xxx area, so not that different from your '08 CTR with the turbo removed. As said, it is clear the car was made for race softs, so this is a bit beside the point, just as an aside, really
So final verdict? Works wonderfully on smooth, preferably curvy tracks - the grip there really is phenomenal. It is probably a solid beginners car - if we are not talking really bumpy, it will flatter any driver and the fact that it has enough grip to handle braking / accelerating and steering at the same time, and that stability under braking is good, while mashing the throttle on corner exit usually does not produce much understeer, I would certainly say that it is the easiest novice car of your tunes that I have tried so far. The fronts never seem that overloaded to prevent further inputs and it really handles sharply for a FF. Care needs to be taken on bumpy surfaces - i.e. Nuerburgring, where I think that a softer setup would suit the car better. But then again I am no Nordschleiffe fiend, so take it with a pinch of salt. My best time was in the 7.18.xxx range, with some improvement to come. Another suggestion for that track - the 6th gear is too long - I struggled to get to 270 and above 250 the car's acceleration with the existing 6th gear is really glacial.
In any case, a fun little car and certainly not to be underestimated - the force is definitely strong with this one
), the diff was probably the single biggest time reduction of everything I did to it. It does cause slightly more wheelspin than default or any higher value for that matter but it generally eliminates the car's want to kill the driver the instant too much throttle is applied... And even on the race softs it eventually wound up on, "too much" was really very little in the lower gears.
