Snake's and Community Run VisionGT Review Thread - SKODA VGT reviewed!

[Snake55wildcat]

Also...I think we might have our first view of the side profile of the Gr1 Genesis from the recent video that came out about the normal car

 

[Snake55wildcat]

Going to try and get the BVLGARI VGT review done this or next week, hopefully earlier rather than later, must say though it's shaping up to be good!

 

[Snake55wildcat]

It's about time I did one of these again-- wait the last review was only a month ago, relatively speaking this is early for me then, might need to check my watch....speaking of timely, welcome one and all and this time I'll be reviewing the month delayed technically 4th car of the February update (I don't count it in the Jan update because of the £4,500 watch buy-in early access) with the BULGARI VGT (or BVLGARI for stylisation I guess)



First of all, and it is going to bother me...but this car already failed in the eyes of many because of it being announced in the January update - but was only buyable to most of us 'peasants' - the people that actually play the game in the February update, I'm not sure who made this baffling decision over a VGT - a type of car that already will have trouble gaining audience due to the ill perceived perception of most of these wonderful concept cars...but thankfully those dark times are behind us, with its sleek retro 70s/80s inspired looks and speedster open top flair, looks wise this car genuinely does not disappoint personally, though it does come in only one colour - stainless steel/aluminium from the 'factory' (weirdly it was advertised in the promo photos in a bright yellow too, yet that isn't available) thankfully the livery editor can fix that at least if you want some colour, and in addition those barchetta stylings and open top thrills with no roof in sight allows this car to be a wonderful car to drive in PSVR2!.

Spoiler: pop-down headlights demonstration

Also this car has pop-down headlights, a unique take on the usual 80s/90s trend of pop-up headlights, and I think it's pulled off pretty effortlessly here, so in my eyes we are already off to a good start looks wise!



So let's get down to business on how this looker performs - with a 1 ton exact weight, 394bhp power from its mid-mounted motorbike inspired NA V4 that revs all the way to 9.5k and a 192mph top speed down SSRX with an engine that peaks early on torque but peaks late on power output, meaning tou have a large window to shift gears in - so this thing absolutely punches well above it's weight BUT it's brakes somewhat let it down here due to them being more like road car brakes - and yes while this car has downforce (implied at 150 units on the front and back) it is still a slippery customer on its default sport hards and will spit you out if you don't drive it in a refined manner, but at least its actuslly classified as a road car unlike some VGT's that are strangely not in that category (LOOKING AT YOU VOLKSWAGEN, MINI[?], MITSUBISHI AND SUBARU...oh and FERRARI AND LAMBORGHINI FOR NOT BEING RACE CAR CLASSSIFIED).



So, how does this thing drive you may wonder. Is it a worthy experience or is it one best viewed from afar? Well I have good and bad news, but mostly good - it has fantastic acceleration and you can pretty safely short shift in the mid-high rpm range too, and this thing - brakes notwithstanding - responds to your steering inputs pretty directly too, a welcome trait compared to some cars, even if it's overall grip level could hamper it somewhat...but as eluded to earlier this car really wants to not be thrashed around as it's very difficult to do big angle drifts in haha. All in all this car is just a hoot to drive honestly, and its also fantastic with wonderful fuel economy too, and slap on some racing mediums (thank to it's incredible tyre life management) and you got yourself an effortless contender for WTC700 LeMans too!



Sadly as I must mention this to be as complete and thorough of a review as possible - in custom/arcade races it can only race itself, meaning your races in custom mode will be one-makes

Spoiler: BVLGARI VGT at nurburgring

But at the end of all this praise....was it really worth waiting an additional month for a car that will not blow everyone away? Personally I'm not so sure, as much as I enjoy this vehicle, it leaves a suspicious aftertaste of what could happen if they push these timed exclusivity stuff maybe a bit too far, this car admittedly won't be topping the leaderboard of anything anytime soon, but for what it's worth, if you want something that is purely FUN then this is your ticket to the fun fair, as this car reminds me more of what the Suzuki VGT tried to emulate than the Suzuki did - the GSX-R4 concept from 2001


(Yes someone already made a Suzuki GSX-R4 livery for it once it was available in February, which is hilarious)

So all in all in this extended conclusion that I have probably waffled on for too long over, this car is honestly, a wonderful car to drive that is just pure fun on wheels, even if it is not the fastest thing around it doesn't pretend to be, and it's all the better for it - with its striking visuals, impressive performance figures (but not absurd ones) and drivability thst still requires your upmost concentration, this thing, despite being a 'watchncar' companion to the IRL watch is a proper driver's car, and that I can only be thankful for in the sea of ever increasing EV schlopp in the real world, that there are some companies wlliing to make drivers centric cars first - even if those companies may not be known for their cars in any way shape of form, but sometimes arriving purposely late will kill all attention this car would have had and is now seen as something not worth getting, and anyone who says this car has no uses cannot be trusted, so let me set the record straight - the watch is no longer an excuse, get this wonderful car as the BVLGARI VGT is secretly the best car of February 2024 update.


(I'm getting my mileage out of these photos damnit)

For now though, I'm gonna relax a bit and...oh wait I have more VGT's to review, well I need to continue where i left off from before, so the Peugeot VGT Gr3 will hopefully be next! Unless another VGT arrives between now and when I eventually get to the Peugeot.

 

[Snake55wildcat]

So...uhh it happened again, a new VGT had unexpectedly shown up to the game when I least expected it to. Sorry Peugeot VGT Gr3, but until then welcome one and all to yet another VGT review and this time it'll be one very new...yet all too samey - this is my review of the

SKODA VGT - is it electrically charged with substance or as it a flash in the Prague pan?

So...how to begin, with this being a new brand to both the VGT project and to GT as a whole, they sure made a big deal about it, even if it's reveal trailer was...about the same as some other recent ones, being a short overview of it then some shots of it driving around, it almost reminds me of an update trailer they do, it's a bit tame...especially in comparison to the reveal event they had, where they had a variety of drivers take it out for a demonstration race around Spa, which had me concerned at first it'll be another situation of a VGT being awful to drive (not pointing any fingers on which one...yet)...but thankfully we did not have to wait long as it arrived in the April update, thankfully without a £4,500 early access paywall this time!


And then if course it has to share side-by-side limelight with the Sony honda afeela, which feels more like a poor attempt at self sabotage, but also served well for the update as a whole, the past (Chevelle), present (afeela) and future (Skoda VGT) - and if that future is EV hypercars with styling inspired by SUVs...then I'm not entirely sure about it...but let me get into detail about what I just said

The Skoda VGT heavily borrows styling design cues from the Vision 7S Concept from two years ago in 2022, even lifting it's matte green body colour in tow. Which is an interesting choice, because I personally feel the styling works better on the VGT, they done a fantastic job translating it over to a more sleeker design, but this car in general is full of contradictions, the other colour option this car has is based off of what they are more well known for - their rallying career, with a colour scheme reminiscent of the 130RS rather than they're racing heritage which is often forgotten, so my guess is they wanted to focus on that over the usual and expected route...but than the contradictions don't stop here.

Because then after the reveal video...they post a 'full story' video and this brings up a whole load of questions, because at about 1:30 minutes into the video they say it's made to 'perform and compete with the best in its class' which is already a very narrow field of EV VGTs...then the biggest contradiction comes next, and its a doozy - at about 3:53 in the video...they call it a 'full electric racing special' and, when we get to its actual specs, it looks like that on first glance with near Gr1 levels of downforce and racing medium tyres as standard, and 1071 combined horsepower from its EV system with motors housed by each wheel individually with insane torque you come to expect from EV too, it's also not too heavy for an EV too at 1300kg, so it ain't too bad here either, so things are looking somewhat promising arent they?

I thought so too until I saw this;


ITS CLASSED AS A FRIGGIN ROAD CAR, so it's no longer competing with the Jag VGT SV, Audi e-tron VGT or Hyundai N2025 VGT... It's competition is the normal Jag VGT's and the Porsche VGT...but this contradicts what was said in the full story video about it being a racing special, and it definitely does not compete against Gr1 cars well unlike the Ferrari VGT (which as a reminder is also classed as a road car) so this car is once again a bizzare mishmash of things that don't always fit too well together...sums up GT7 as a whole really. But I'm not here to sully the VGT thread with my thoughts on GT7 as whole, I'm here to talk about VGT's and that I shall continue with how it drives!

Spoiler: Skoda VGT TT PSVR2

As for how it drives, well this is where things get interesting...first tihng that immediately is apparent is the active aero flaps on the rear - they are ginormus relative to the size of the car, and the central seating position...with a half closed cockpit priving an additional HUD extension to the car and a large central rear camera just like the Genesis VGT.....yet despite this, only the indicator lights and mirror/camera actually work on it, soo uhh whats the deal with that? Oh well, let us continue to the driving dynamics....OH GOD THE ON THROTTLE UNDERSTEER, IT FEELS MORE LIKE A FWD CAR. But if you can be gentle with your application of the throttle it ain't too bad, this car thrives on lifting and coasting, it's brakes aren't the best, but I've also seen far worse. And my god it's acceleration is great. But with a seemingly hard capped top speed of 194mph (312kmh) with a negligible increase on the downhill of SSRX it won't be winning any top speed records anytime soon, it's not perfect by any means but it also isn't too bad either...and had me thinking where have I seen a high downforce EV before that isn't a VGT....

The Skoda VGT is basically a road legal VW ID.R


it trades weight and downforce for slightly better battery life and speed, both technically have active aero too and Skoda is owned by VW afterall, both are EV concepts with similar goals, and both are loosely referencing concepts - VW's ID range of concepts, and Skoda's vision 7S...AND both have very limited uses ingame so they are a match made in heaven!

Yet I don't care, because besides the contradictions it is a nice car to drive, deficiencies be damned, and it's also a car I thoroughly enjoyed pushing in it's time trial where anyone can try it out for free, like the good old days of GT6 VGT reveals...without getting the car as a free prize of course, but this was the first TT I felt like I could actually push for faster times and be confident in my ability to do so, with the Skoda VGT...a feeling ive never had in many other cars before or since.


This car certainly will not be to everyone's tastes, hell is isn't even to my own, but this thing ain't as bad as all it's issues and contradictions set it out to be, so this one is worthy of being a consideration for your VGT collection, in my eyes.

And maybe hopefully I'll get the Peugeot VGT Gr3 review out next time

 

[Snake55wildcat]

Had to briefy update the review, I posted it slightly too early!

 

[Snake55wildcat]

Sooo...I was going to do the Peugeot VGT Gr3 review this week, but then I remembered it would be a bit pointless to do since there'll be physics changes next update, so I might hold off on that until after the racing genesis review, I'm so sorry this car has taken so long to finally get a review

In the meantime here's a cool scapes pic of the Peugeot I did alongside the VW VGT Gr3 which im desperately hoping improves in the new physics