Test Track: Grand Valley Speedway.
All cars were first given an oil change and s3 tires, as well as having the aids turned off, for the stock run. Next I purchased all of the parts and did more test runs, after which I applied the specific settings and completed the final tests. I then ran each car in a family cup difficulty of 10 to see how they would fare.
Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale '63
Tuner: Greycap
Stock GVS Time: 2'32.539
Initial Stock Feel: The car feels very balanced, handling is fairly neutral all around. It's not the fastest horse in the barn, but that's to be expected in a stock car this old.
PA GVS Time: 2'16.766
Parts Applied Feel: No surprises in the parts department, all of the best was purchased and applied. This gave the car more speed, a more aggressive cornering feel, and displayed GT4's ineptitude in the BBC default settings. Oversteer under throttle and understeer under braking, though neither was too-pronounced.
TA GVS Time: 2'12.461
Tuned Feel: A nice controlled car with just a hint of power-oversteer if you want to slide the back around. Brakes were still a little soft for my liking but they meshed with the car well. It handled well around all the corners of GVS and never once did it step out of line and try to kill me with snap-oversteer or suicidal braking tendencies. Overall a great tune on a splendid classic.
Family Cup-GVS-Difficulty 10
A-spec points: 189
Competition: TVR T350C '03/Aston Martin Vanquish '04/Mitsubishi HSR-II Concept '89/Aston Martin DB9 Coupe '03/Aston Martin V8 Vantage '99
Race: An enjoyable test of the car, I caught up with the pack around the first corner and proceeded to piss off several Aston Drivers on my way to pass the TVR in the last S turn. He passed me again on the straight but couldn't hang with me through the corners and crossed the finish 1.8 seconds behind.
Grade: 95
KC Motorsport Lotus Elan S1 E.P. Special
Tuner: CraftyLandShark
Stock GVS Time: 2'19.974
Stock Feel: This car is very poised, steering response is good under throttle and under braking, it's not terribly slow, and even the brakes already seem good.
PA GVS Time: 2'06.514
Parts Applied Feel: All of the best parts were utilized in the tune, and it shows in the time improvement. The car lost a little of its poise, and incorporated a slight snarl. A little bit of power-oversteer is there if you want and the car can slide and maintain control fairly well. Around the bends it still shines, though the default transmission gearing is way to little and I felt as if I was bouncing off the rev-limiter even in some of the cornering sections.
TA GVS Time: 2'00.595
Tuned Feel: The snarl that was added when the parts were applied was muted somwhat, and perfect control came out of it. The transmission gearing was nice but I would have liked to see some individual tuning of the gears as well. The suspension setup seemed a little weird, as the damper settings were soooo soft, but it worked perfectly. Wherever you turn the wheel is exactly where you go in this little convertible, be it under thottle, under braking, or under neither. A very nice tune overall.
Family Cup-GVS-Difficulty 10
A-spec points 189
Competition: Nissan R390 GT1 Road car '98/Dodge Viper GTSR Concept '00/Mercedes SL 65 AMG (R230) '04/Ford GT '02/Cizeta V16T '94
Passed the leader at the second hairpin and never looked back, I love watching replays like this, where a little under powered car thrashes supercars, won with a 6 second lead.
Grade:97
Chervrolet Convertible (C1) 1954
Tuner: nd 4 holden spd
Stock GVS Time: 2'29.679
Stock Feel: Very nicely behaved in stock trim, the two-speed tranny is a little hard to get used to as it has so much torque redlining in 1st and so little when you shift to second.
PA GVS Time: 2'02.380* 2'21.859
Parts Applied Feel: The parts applied certainly opened this beast up. Super tail happy under the default tune. The default transmission setting topped out almost immediately so I bumped the auto setting to 20 from 3, that is where the time difference comes from(and it is a HUGE time difference for just setting an auto setting from default). This car has some serious snap oversteer and spin out problems that pop up every now and then.
TA GVS Time: 1'57.493
Tuned Feel: a very nice car overall, the tail comes around nicely through the corners and yet still manages to catch grip when you need it to. The snap oversteer problem was refined and now it only rears its ugly head if a tire leaves the tarmac, and it is certainly not as pronounced as it was before.
This car came along way under tuning though on some tracks you may want to raise the ride height as curbing can give it some problems.
Family Cup-GVS-Difficulty 10
A-spec 189
Competition: Ford Gt '05/Saleen S7 '02/Aude Le Mans quattro '03/Honda NSX-R Prototype LM Road Car '02/Mercedes SLR McLaren '03
never mind there wasn't any competition. 9 second lead across the line
Grade:90
M-B 300SL-R '54
Tuner: Leonidae
Stock GVS Time: 2'23.142
Stock Feel: She's not to slow around the track, wheelspin even in second gear stock is a little weird to deal with, and lots of body-roll to contend with. I'm interested to see what happens here.
PA GVS Time: 2'11.981
Parts Applied Feel: A nice improvement in time, though it came with gobs of wheelspin and the need for very precise throttle control to prevent spin outs. Thank god this car doesn't have snap oversteer issues or I don't know if I ever would have made it around GVS.
TA GVS Time: 2'11.245
Tuned Feel: hmmm. . .still loads of wheelspin, the car requires a lot of finesse in throttle use. I did improve my time, but it took quite a while to get 2 clean laps in a row from this beast. Understeer while braking is very apparent and this merc loves to get dizzy.
Family Cup-GVS-Difficulty 10
Competition: same as with the vette except zonda c12s 7.3 replaces the ford gt, and the VW Nardo replaces the mclaren
A-Spec: 175
eek. Finished in 3rd 8 seconds behind the Audi and the NSX-R, not bad for a 54 year old merc I suppose, but not great either. I was a little disapointed with this car, though I suppose I just need a lot more time with it and a G25 to really apppreciate it.
Grade: 85
Jaguar E-Type Coupe '61
Tuner: nissan tuner
Stock GVS Time: 2'21.708
Stock Feel: Nice 4spd tranny, almost as fast as the elan in stock trim. I did notice some wheelspin issues though as well as lots of body roll, overall I enjoyed driving it.
PA GVS Time: 2'13.666 (I didn't know the devil drove an E-type)
Parts applied feel: Well it was faster, and more tail happy. Body roll was a little subdued, but I can't help but notice the lack of an FC transmission here, though the E-types 4spd is nice. Transmission tuning can go along way toward helping cars, however no one ever said it was required and this is a nice little car to drive.
TA GVS Time: 2'11.272
Tuned Feel: It's a wee bit faster than it was, other than that most of its driving characteristics feel the same, except for the body roll which is now more pronounced and I suppose is acting as the BBC of the car. My main problem with this tune is that the only things that were tuned on it were the LSD which was not very different from the default, the ride height/spring rate and camber. Nothing else was touched. I find it hard to believe that none of those 'other' settings could have made the car better. . .
Family Cup-GVS-Difficulty 10
Competition: Zonda C12/Ac 427/Viper SRT10/Spyker C8/Viper GTSR Concept
A-spec 178
finished fourth 6 and a half seconds behind the zonda with the srt10 and the AC passing me on the last straight-away of the race.
Grade: 80
Overall I enjoyed all the cars, the top three were just heads and tails above the merc and the jag as far as performance and handling went. Time to get onto the post '63 class. . .
I'm sorry for the format or lack thereof in this post, I'm not at home, and had to write this on a mac. Basically this thing confuses me and I don't want to accidentally delete all of this writing.
Thanks for the Tunes!