MasterStorm's Ratings
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Bigracer
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Thoughts:
Another all-round 'safe' setup, which to me felt quite similar to opendriver19a's. I found the exiting on corners to be a bit more predictable with this setup, but the acceleration out wasn't quite as good, leading to more consistent, but slightly slower laptimes. It's not too difficult to pull very smooth looking laps with this.
Total Combined Ranking: 67
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darkblu
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Thoughts:
When I first looked at the parts list, the first thing I noticed was the lack of sports brakes. Generally my racing style revolves around hard late braking, and knowing that the SL65 brakes like a suptanker, I was worried that this could be a huge oversight. Thankfully, it didn't prove to be too much of a problem. The setup excels at turns with a low to mid entry speed, but for the faster corners where you have to brake and turn together, and the understeer generated sends you straight off. When you do run off though, the car is very forgiving, and can often be kept under control. Theres a small ammount of sliding at low speed corners, but if anything its more of a fun thing than a hinderance. Due to the long gearing, the acceleration of the line isn't exactly mind blowing, but out of corners it's not too shabby.
Total Combined Ranking: 57
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Duck
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Thoughts:
A very stable and safe setup. The car didn't seem to have any weaknesses, being fairly consistent through both high and low speed turns, and the balance felt solid throughout my testing, though I would have liked the cornering to be a little sharper. My only other criticism is that acceleration out of corners felt a bit weak at times, but I dont feel it was affecting lap times. The setup produced some of the fastest laps of all the cars I tested, and I get the impression it's neutral feel will make it suited to a wide range of tracks.
Total Combined Ranking: 63
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Europides
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 10
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 10
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 3
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 4
Thoughts:
High acceleration gearing and no traction control, I knew from the start this wasn't going to be a high scoring setup. Which is a real shame because the setup is really good. Turn in and line through corners is sublime, and as long as your not in the lower gears, you can happily power out of corners with tremendous acceleration. The problem comes at low speed, where the lack of traction control makesit difficult to pull away cleanly and quickly, and on the exit of low speed corners make the car very tail happy. With a few notches of traction control, this setup would probably score another 15 or more points, finally giving it the score it deserves.
Total Combined Ranking: 53
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Greycap
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 10
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 6
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Thoughts:
One of the more 'fun' setups to drive, most of the time this had pretty sharp cornering, but could get quite slippy whilst doing so. Powering out of corners almost always put me into a drift, but more often than not it was perfectly controllable. Gernerally I found that the acceleration wasn't great at launch, and combined with the cars slight tail happy nature, this is where most the points are lost.
Total Combined Ranking: 58
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Leonidae
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 5
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 3
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 5
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 2
Thoughts:
With almost 1000 horsepower and no traction control, this setup had wheelspin all the way through first gear, even at half throttle. Unfortunately, down to the super long gearing, first gear took me over 100mph, and this meant that even when being careful on the throttle, I spent around 2/3 of the lap with my tyres generating a wealth of smoke. The only other option was to use so little throttle that I would barely accelerate. Turn in was pretty sharp, and the racing line through corners could be held pretty well, but I just couldn't utilise the power when exiting slower corners without going into a spin. In short, if you can keep the car above 90mph all the way round, the setup performs resonably well.
Total Combined Ranking: 45
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opendriver19a
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Thoughts:
Not a bad setup, but its felt quite conservative in areas. Personally I would have like sharper turn in on cornering, and a slightly less grippy rear end. The car was able to get good acceleration out of corners, but although it was good under braking, I still had to brake earlier than I like due to the turn in. Once you got used to this though, the setup seemed to be pretty fast round Suzuka.
Total Combined Ranking: 67
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Sonzilla
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 6
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 7
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 5
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 8
Thoughts:
I'm not really sure how I feel about his setup. Sometimes its great, and you can really power out of corners, and other times it feels wooly and will understeer heavily. At the same time though, it's quite easy to swing the rear end out, something which I personally like (the balance of the car complements this). Finally, the car is very unforgiving to errors, and will spin most times you touch the grass. I get the impression that the car was set up for full weight reduction, but as it wasn't in the parts list, I didn't apply it.
Total Combined Ranking: 55
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TS
Turn-in (entry to corners)
Ranking (1-10): 10
Mid-Corner response (whether the car under/oversteers mid-corner or holds the racing line well)
Ranking (1-10): 10
Corner exit (how quickly you can exit a corner whilst staying in good control)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Stability (rear end staying in line, car not 'jumping' or feeling skittish in turns)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Grip (start-offs, how much power can be used without the drive wheels losing traction? Does the car oversteer excessively?)
Ranking (1-10): 7
High-speed controllability (whether the car becomes 'frantic' and turns far too sharply at high speeds)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Handling while braking (are you able to easily turn the car while braking, and without going into oversteer?)
Ranking (1-10): 9
Acceleration (how good is it? Is there a lot of traction while doing it?)
Ranking (1-10): 7
Thoughts:
This was a great setup that really complimented my driving style, which is quite aggressive. The only points lost are for a bit of traction issues under hard acceleration and low speed cornering, and for the odd bit of understeer when powering out of corners, but in reality, these things don't become much of an issue. The only real downside is that it can be quite unforgiving to mistakes.
Total Combined Ranking: 68
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Final Thoughts:
This is the first time I've judged the tuning competition, and so it was quite an experience. The bulk of the entries fell into two distinct categories, those that were stable but needed early braking, and those with sharper turning but could be a little tail happy. Personally I'm a fan of the latter, as I like to race quite aggressively, though all the setups here improve on the stock SL65 by a massive margin, and with a few tweaks here and there, I'd be happy racing them.
Of all the setups, I personally liked Europides the best. It was sharp through corners, with just a hint of oversteer, but nothing that wasn't controllable. The lack of Traction Control affected it's scores for grip and acceleration, and this resulted in me having to give a low overall score, which was quite awkward for me as I liked it best. I contemplated giving it 20 bonus points, just for being great, but I don't think that would have been allowed.
Finally, I wan't to say well done to everyone for taking a car that to me handles like a boat, and making it much more satisfying to drive. Every car was a comfortable 15 or more seconds faster than stock, even those without engine upgrades. Well done! 👍
Master Storm
and the car had enough torque to do the corners with second gear..
maybe I've been drifting too much lately.
how in the blazing hell that guy is so fast..
