Integra! Integra! Integra!
Fresh out of the Dealer: 210 HP, 1180 kg, 415 PP, Comfort Soft Tires
Best Lap Time: 1:47.454
Thoughts: Not a bad car, the Integra is pretty steady all-around. The big weaknesses I saw were on corner entrance, where I felt the car couldn't turn in at speeds which the car could handle through the rest of the corner, and a bit of high-speed instability, where the car felt like it was bouncing and shaking down the last third of the back straight.
Crimson R
Parts added, no settings changes: 243 HP, 999 kg, 448 PP, Comfort Soft Tires
Best Lap Time: 1:45.478
Thoughts: The only way the parts improved this car is on a straight line. Without tuning, the hp and weight combined with the tighter transmission killed this car in the corners. Even worse on the entrance, and now the tires can't handle the drive out either, giving me understeer in two phases of the corner. The high speed shakes persist as well, and the braking seems to take forever given the higher speed and the tire limits.
Parts added, RKM Tune, 5 lap first impression:
Best Lap Time: 1:43.655
Thoughts: And just like that, most of the problems just melt away. The car still seems to want to drift a bit on the brakes going into a corner, but the exit understeer is a ghost of what it was previously. The car feels like it's now reached a happy agreement with the Comfort Soft tires, and although it feels like the car's on the edge of overpowering the tires, it doesn't cross the line.
After a couple more races: Final HP: 245 Final PP: 449
Best Lap Time: 1:43.561
Thoughts: There's really nothing wrong with this car that can't be easily explained by the limits of the Comfort Soft tires used. The tires probably couldn't handle much more applied power, and the tune really does feel like it's found the limit of what this car can do with the available traction. As someone who races tire restricted rooms online, I look forward to seeing how this car competes against others with the traction limit. I still found the car to be a little unresponsive going into corners, and there was understeer present on the power through the corner exit, but neither of those should be surprising given the platform. Truely, it feels like even those negative aspects have been reduced greatly through the tune. It may leave a driver feeling like there was something missing, but mostly if that driver is used to the traction of Sport Soft or better tires.
Integra Type R
Parts added, no settings changes: 317 HP, 999 kg, 493 PP, Sport Soft Tires
Best Lap Time: 1:35.289
Thoughts: Most of the time, when you add on a bunch of random parts then hit the track, the car gains in speed but suffers greatly in handling. This is really not the case here. On-throttle understeer was very minimal, the braking was sure and strong, and the car handled fairly well overall. Honestly, my only complaint about this version would be the horrible gearing on the untouched transmission. Let's see what the tuned version does to the car to fix the problems I'm really not seeing.
Parts added, RKM Tune, 5 lap first impression:
Best Lap Time: 1:35.130
Thoughts: Not much improvement in lap time here. The cars feels a little more responsive throughout the corners, but it was already a nice ride to begin with. The transmission gearing also feels like it helps, but it's a little too tall for this track, so the improvement there is marginal as well. It seems like the big difference is in tire wear. I'm seeing much less tire smoke / red tires, and although that doesn't do a lot for a short race, it could be a difference maker in a longer online race. I'm sure I can knock off a couple more tenths, but since there wasn't a whole lot wrong with this car to start, I'm not sure how much faster I can get in it.
After a couple more races: Final HP: 319 Final PP: 496
Best Lap Time: 1:34.223
Thoughts: I guess the initial problem was that I wasn't pushing the car hard enough. The car is able to take corners much quicker, and get on the gas a bit earlier, than I had expected. It doesn't feel like I've hit "the wall" yet with this car. It's very gentle on tires outside of 2nd gear, which is a very nice feature on a front wheel drive car, and certainly helps it maintain a line while on the gas on corner exit. Although the character of the car may not have changed much, the limits have certainly been pushed out quite a bit. Just as nice of a drive without the tune, only with a nice ration of speed mixed in.
Integra Type R Turbo
Parts added, no settings changes: 386 HP, 950 kg, 534 PP, Sport Soft Tires
Best Lap Time: 1:33.143
Thoughts: It looks like a race car. It sounds like a race car. But this is not a race car... at least not until they find a series that requires pit stops every three laps. The front tires were lighting up and smoking from 2nd thru 4th, causing massive understeer on corner exit and painfully slow exit speeds. The braking was average, but contributed a bit too much to the front tire problems. When people talk about how bad FF cars drive with decent HP, this is what they talk about. It was barely a second faster than the Type R, and I think over a 5-lap race or longer, the Type R has the advantage as long as the course has turns.
Parts added, RKM Tune, 5 lap first impression:
Best Lap Time: 1:32.000 (yep, a perfect 1:32 flat)
Thoughts: That's more like it. Great corner speeds, fairly stable on corner exits, solid brakes. The extra HP, especially when the turbo spikes the power band, causes a bit of understeer, but the only time it really feels like it hurts is in the S-turn transitions while on the throttle. If you push the front a bit too hard you'll light 'em up and lose a fair amount of grip, but being a FF car with decent power, that's really not surprising.
After a couple more races: Final HP: 389 Final PP: 539
Best Lap Time: 1:31.439
Thoughts: I had a hard time pushing the car to go much faster, as it seemed the front tires would protest any time I tried to brake any later or gas any earlier, so it seems I'm pretty close to my limit in this car. The car's only weakness, for me, is that it feels a bit mushy in transitions, and will oversteer a bit if you try to push too hard on exits. Other than that, the car is very strong. Mid-corner speed is the car's strong point. The straight speed was OK, as the transmission was geared much too tall for Trial Mountain, and I never had to shift to 6th gear. I wouldn't want 2nd or 3rd to be much shorter than they are, but it seems like some high end acceleration could be had by shortening the top half of the gearbox.