The Historic Sports Car Masters Marathon - Part 2
Progress as of Writing
- Up to the classic Skylines (yay!)
First, the Suffering:
Fiat 500 F. 101hp, Ultra High RPM Turbo, Racing Softs ~506pp.
Death via short wheelbase. I ate everyone in the corners, but the transition between cornering and oversteer was too narrow and I kept scrubbing off speed. My one and only 1st place finish was RNG because the Miura got held up by slower AI and then we both died from aggressive stupidity in turn 1. Otherwise, I can get a consistent 2nd place on hard difficulty, depending on how many Lamborghinis are present.
DB5
Weird sounding, weird handling. Sluggish to turn in but ultimately grippy. Slightly unsure of itself during high speed corners. Quite fast on the straightaways.
M3 Sport Evo
Absolutely perfect when de-tuned from crazy DTM specs (less aggressive front aero). Perfect power delivery. Perfect balance. This is the benchmark for FRs. Amazing enginge roar.
M3 '89
All the greatness of the M3 Sport Evo multiplied by 0.85.
3.0 CSL '73
I had to build a new one because my other max tuned one was swapped. Freakishly good without much fine tuning. Some slip and oversteer under heavy acceleration.
No wide wheels this time because I suspected these cars may still suffer from fender wheel rubbing. My CSL looked supremely disappointing, but the lap times didn't lie.
Hey PD, where is my front downforce??
3.0 CSL '70
In my garage we make FRs handle like MRs
So, this one got front downforce 🧐 Much more finicky than the 'newer' CSL. Heavier too. Stock wheels. My ballast positioning was so extreme that this BMW handled like a 3000lb / 1360kg Lotus Elise.
I had to balance the throttle through corners as if were in a mid engine car
Camaro
Brutal and effective. A bit loose. It was a Trans Am racecar in disguise.
Chevelle
Like the Camaro, but with more power and weight, and more difficult to tune.
I
really need to make a historic Trans Am custom race.
Corvette C2
Tons of mechanical grip. Freaky sounding engine. But weird jittering / bouncing / pushing while turning at the limit.
Corvette C4
- On default racing suspension settings, the C4 veered off to the right / left when the suspension experienced a hard compression. Also, something felt REALLY wrong with the rear during extreme weight shift from side to side.
+ When I stiffened the rear and covered up this handling bug, the C4 became an old GT class racecar. No nonsense, just grip and go.
Bonus: The C4 felt oddly slow at first. I forgot that I was paying the PP penalty for having fitted Racing Brakes
:
And without the Racing Brakes
DODGE - Of Trans Am Angels and Demons
Dodge Challenger '70
Trans Am Angel
My other Challengers had engine swaps, so I had to speed run this build. I forgot a bunch of stuff and remembered that this car really benefited from an LSD. Also, I forgot that I had the Racing Brakes fitted (again) - which gave a massive PP handicap.
Once sorted, the Challenger was wonderfully neutral and responded well to trail braking, despite the stock brakes.
A pure Trans Am racing machine.
Dodge Super Bee '70
Much sloppier than the Challenger, with a lot more understeer despite having an oversteer biased suspension setup and brake balance. I ran stock wheel width, because in prior updates, wide wheels made the Super Bee under-perform massively.
I suspect that the other reason the Super Bee under-performed initially was because my driver avatar cannot properly see over the steering wheel:
Charger R/T '68
Trans Am Demon
Freakishly good with just the parts fitted. Neutral on braking and acceleration. There is
so much potential here, even without the engine swap.
Pantera
Classic mid engine brutality. Awesome V8 soundtrack. Quinticential point and shoot car.
Oh my, oh yes!
Mangusta - Secretly a Rear Engined Car
Mi Gusta
Mid engine car with the weight bias of a 911. Understeer on power, but otherwise magical.
More Gowron!! It IS a good day to die 🤣
Enzo now judging my
- tuning philosophy
- willingness to bolt a supercharger onto anything and everything
- general dislike of FR handling
- belief that the 250 GTO is overrated
My Response to Enzo:
I shall bring glory to my garage with large displacement V8s;
Songs will be sung in superchargers' whine about what I shall do here
Enzo pisses off everyone; including the Klingons.
250 GT '61
The 250 GT was very unhappy with a slight rear weight bias. It felt uncertain in high speed corners and was prone to oversteer just around the mid/end of accelerating to corner exit. This one was fast but had a learning curve.
The 250 GT is also far better looking than the 250 GTO. Fight me and lose.
365 GTB4 '71
I hated this car when it was stock. With tuning, it became much more enjoyable. It still had sluggish turn in, and it would bite back with sudden oversteer at the very end of the trail braking phase, but otherwise the 365 had grace and balance.
Again, the PP system preferred that I have more weight.
512BB '76
Another mid engined car with a rear engined weight bias 🧐 I'm
definitely not complaining, though. I had to recalibrate my mind to driving old 911s. The PP system is strict with this car. I could only get ~270hp.
Stock brakes were scary good. Top speed was surprising good. The acceleration out of the last corner was beautiful.
Considering this and the Citroen, I may not need as much front downforce as I first thought.
308 GTB '75
It had an oddly high top speed for 580pp, and it also gets away with having 307hp, despite weighing only 2407lbs. Handling was quirky. The 308 was also twitchy and oversteery at the end of a trail braking phase.
It was also prone to big understeer movements on heavy acceleration out of corners. Powerful Naturally Aspirated cars, example: Mclaren F1, do this. I adjusted with a more gradual throttle input.
I made the car sound terrible, but it was great. Maybe I'm just biased.
Mustang Mach 1 '71
Classic FR handling. My earlier setup was too aggressive on braking, and it pushed in the high speed corners. A quick fix brought the car back to neutral. Excellent balanced Trans Am style racer.
I really, REALLY need to make a historic Trans Am custom race.
GT40 Mark I '66
Please do not disappoint me...
Incredible high speed stability and braking. But somewhat unwilling to rotate in high speed corners.
Feels every bit like the old prototype that it is.
Ford Roadster
I did not expect the Ford Roadster to handle as fundamentally well as it did. Great high speed stability, mechanical grip as great or better than the Citroen DS 21.
But, the Roadster did have the Corvette C4 handling bug where it wanted to launch itself hard right/left during hard suspension compressions, but I sorted the problem by stiffening the rear springs again.
The engine note sounds very strange tuned, but I like the weirdness. Kudos to PD for giving us many distinctive V8 sounds.
Because the Roadster was so unexpectedly good, I will consider forgiving PD for arbitrarily prohibitting us from entering any car older than 1960.
Hey PD, I noticed that the Roadster doesn't have a year designation 🧐
Sierra RS 500 Cosworth '87
Ultimately very average. I needed to tune out some oversteer on braking. Good top speed, and it bullied everyone accerlating out of corners.
COMING SOON
Everything else