Here's the results for the VTC 1973-1980 category. It was tougher than I thought, but 1 car came out on top due to it's overwhelming improvements overall in ALL categories.
6th Place - VTiRoj's Autobianchi A112 Abarth - 82.0pts
Stock GVS: 3.04.871
Worked GVS: 2.27.418
Stock Thoughts: Well, this car I could've made a coffee in the time it took to make a lap, and it was a struggle all the way around, it feels like a brick, understeering even at those lowish speeds at stock, I wasn't liking it at all.
Worked Thoughts: This was a huge improvement over the stock version, behaving a lot more like a hot hatch should be but I felt that 2nd-5th gears should've been made 1st-4th gears, having uncontrollable wheelspin in 1st isn't good for lap times, neither is having a chasm between 5th & 6th gears. The rest of the car felt just a little bit under though.....understeering and underpowered. I was able to gain over 3 seconds a lap through improvements in those areas, as I could keep the power in areas where there the power gap between 5th & 6th were and able to turn in better with different toe angles (I went 2/-2). Otherwise good car.
Stats:
0-100: 9.40 seconds
0-160: 20.22 seconds
1/4 mile: 16.879@145km/h
Top Speed: 222.61km/h
Scorecard:
Speed: 81, Acceleration: 72, Handling: 78, Feel: 80, Improvement on stock: 100
5th Place - Leonidae's Triumph Spitfire 1500 - 85.4pts
Stock GVS: 2.38.783
Worked GVS: 2.08.482
Stock Thoughts: Well, this car was a decent handler, like something you would normally take out on a Sunday cruise, and since I had 2 spitfires to tune, I tested them back to back, thus spending double the time on the laps aswell, cruising around having fun with the car. Leo's was the 2nd spitfire I tested.
Worked Thoughts: I initially thought what a bucket, not able to do anything, but then realised I had the final ratio set wrong. After that fix-up, the cars acceleration performed a lot better, being the quicker of the 2 in all the acceleration tests. It also changed the handling of the car but it was still a very understeery car. I initially thought it was the lack of wing (since I'd just raced with Holdenboy's winged version), and tried it with a wing afterwards but it didn't fix it, the toe angle was out of sorts, aswell as the ride height. It was a big improvement in laptimes over stock, but in comparison to the other Spitfire it just didn't match that car's performance overall and I didn't feel comfortable at all with it's suspension settings.
Stats:
0-100: 5.82 seconds
0-160: 12.90 seconds
1/4 mile: 13.948@167km/h
Top Speed: 256.89km/h
Scorecard:
Speed: 93, Acceleration: 90, Handling: 75, Feel: 75, Improvement On Stock: 93
4th Place - Rotary Junkie's Renault 5 Turbo - 89.0pts
Stock GVS: 2.18.805
Worked GVS: 2.04.360
Stock Thoughts: This is one of the best handlers on the game for a stock car in my opinion. Crisp, sharp and very potent. The fact it was quicker stock than the worked Autobianchi shows how good it is.
Worked Thoughts: That was a great way of improving a very potent car. But 1 problem came up for me:
Your car had 261hp w/S2 turbo, my one with those same mods had 286hp, big difference and thus couldn't be unfair to the competition. I used a S1 turbo which gave me 258hp & around 310Nm for similar performance for you but still got better performance numbers than what you posted, and it was the quickest to 100km/h.
Apart from that, there was great turn in, had some of the best cornering speeds around....just was getting choked in the top end in a sense. The only downfall was this great feeling car didn't translate into a drastic improvement on lap time, actually it was the one that improved the least.
Stats:
0-100: 5.38 seconds
0-160: 11.26 seconds
1/4 Mile: 13.360@173km/h
Top Speed: 248.83km/h
Scorecard:
Speed: 90, Acceleration: 96, Handling: 93, Feel: 95, Improvement on stock: 81
3rd Place - CraftyLandShark's Alpine A110S - 89.4pts
Stock GVS: 2.17.101
Worked GVS: 1.59.205
Stock Thoughts: I had to change my driving style a bit to get the best performance out of it, with some turn-in oversteer in mid-speed corners, but nothing too out of whack with what I'm used to. The engine was it's biggest plus, getting the best time stock with decent semi-neutral handling.
Worked Thoughts: I heard you complain before that your gearing was out, I would disagree, it was well-ratioed, and you could've eeked out another 10-15km/h on top end without affecting 6th gear. My main problem was that you had made it a tad too twitchy for my liking, I spent 1/2 my lap counteracting the oversteer and hopping that the car was doing and that was affecting it's lap times. It was like I was dancing at 200km/h!!
On the plus side however, it WAS the quickest on the 1/4 mile and top end, and while it was the only car in the field to go sub-2.00, for a car with this kind of performance, I was expecting a little bit more of an improvement from the car. To tell you the truth, something nearer to 1.55 would've put this right in the hunt. But it's scrapes past RJ's car for that same reason....if it only ran 2.00.xxx it would've been RJ taking the bronze.
Stats:
0-100: 5.76 seconds
0-160: 9.66 seconds
1/4 Mile: 13.208@197km/h
Top Speed: 274.44km/h (hit limiter in 6th)
Scorecard:
Speed: 100, Acceleration: 97, Handling: 85, Feel: 80, Improvement on stock: 85
2nd Place - Greycap's Mitsubishi Lancer 1600 GSR - 93.2pts
Stock GVS: 2.30.061
Worked GVS: 2.05.703
Stock Thoughts: This car reminded me so much of the Celica that I entered in the 64-72 category it was uncanny. I was able to cruise around in a similar time, and found a very well balanced car allround. Bit squishy in parts but well balanced nonetheless.
Worked Thoughts: Once again, MFT has created something that would make any manufacturer proud. The chassis was almost spotless, making me want to push harder and harder each lap I tried it. I was getting similar or better speeds to the R5T through the turns and with very similar performance to it, the stock lap time was demolished by a good margin. I couldn't really fault this car in any way, shape or form, it was balanced in all areas.....the only reason it hasn't won is because the winner had an even better result from a worse package.
Stats:
0-100: 5.80 seconds
0-160: 12.40 seconds
1/4 Mile: 13.870@170km/h
Top Speed: 247.19km/h
Scorecard:
Speed: 89, Acceleration: 92, Handling: 95, Feel: 95, Improvement on stock: 95
1st Place - Nd4HoldenSpd's Triumph Spitfire 1500 - 95.0pts
Stock GVS: 2.38.783
Worked GVS: 2.05.096
Stock Thoughts: Well, this car was a decent handler, like something you would normally take out on a Sunday cruise, and since I had 2 spitfires to tune, I tested them back to back, thus spending double the time on the laps aswell, cruising around having fun with the car. Holdenboy's car was the 1st I tested.
Worked Thoughts: Mr.Holdenboy, you've turned this Spitfire into a P51 Mustang mate. That was brilliant. There was phenomenal turn-in and grip through the whole circuit, the acceleration was still good although slower than Leo's car (due to final ratios being different) but you compensated for that with it's top end. Your trump cards though were it's handling....I could've gone even harder than the 2.05 I put up, but felt 33 seconds over stock was great enough and also the fact it just felt like it was on rails compared to Leo's was giving you bonus points more and more.
My ONLY complaints....and these are niggly, are that your brake balance could've been fixed up a tiny bit better, it wanted to tramline at certain corners, and having the 1st three gear ratios similar to Leo's.
Stats:
0-100: 6.16 seconds
0-160: 13.16 seconds
1/4 Mile: 14.236@167km/h
Top Speed: 266.53km/h
Scorecard:
Speed: 95, Acceleration: 87, Handling: 98, Feel: 98, Improvement on stock: 97.
That's the 1973-1980 division over and done with, now if you excuse me, I've got some Touge Monster's to build in the next couple of days.
Mafs!!