Me doing this week's Volvo V40 one-make in a stock V40:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Video for Context (please shower after watching):
Right, so I have observed the following over the 15+ times I've won this event with a stock V40
- The AI definitely have more power / lower weight - you can hear from their in-car views that they are running semi-racing exhausts at least
- The leaders have the hollow interior sound that suggests weight reductions
- They have virtually no body roll in corners, therefore, they have upgraded suspensions
- There are no penalties for cutting corners, but...
- The game will reset your car's position back 10+ seconds in the final 2 corners if you spend too long outside of track bounds
- As usual, the AI adjust their pace to you - mine ran in the 1:56s
My Strategy
Drive as dirty as possible. My best runs had a total time around mid to low 7:39s, with laps in the low 1:55s to mid 1:54s.
Using ALL of the runoff? Yes. Anything to get a faster lap time here.
ANYTHING.
Corner cutting? Yup. Because it's faster.
Mowing the lawn? Yes, but not as much as you would expect. Going over the grass for extended periods hampers acceleration so much that it nullifies the time gained from a corner cut. Especially at the first big hairpin.
Full Contact? Of course. I need to keep my momentum somehow when the AI park on the apex. They are fast until you are exactly behind them: where suddenly, they brake early and try to be on all parts of the turn at once. Meanwhile, the AI behind you transform into Senna... I feel no shame shoving them around.
Bonus: Ramming / Shoving is how I gain access to the AI's magic brakes! And it unsettles them enough that I can get away without having to worry about magic braking assisted AI dive bombs in the next corner.
Final Thoughts
I hold zero shame the dirty runs, because the AI and the event annoyed me greatly when I drove the stock Volvo. The V40 is fine without mods, with just a tad too much body roll for my liking. And the car is great tuned. PD clearly wanted us to see how the V40 drives and looks modded.
Bonus: Maximum Volvo
Because I am vindictive, enjoy tuning and I love seeing how fast something can possible go, this was what happened when my Maximum Volvo V40 came out to play:
No need for corner cutting this time. Clean race bonus too
The Maximum Volvo V40 is 680pp~690pp and 450hp of Front Wheel Drive racecar goodness. It takes the power marvelously. I only wish it had more straight line speed and higher downforce. I'm currently harassing hypercars with it. Despite only being able to do about 180mph / 300kph, I still slapped Super Gallo and his cheating Alfa Romeo around in this week's Nurburging race:
The Maximum Volvo Tune (go with taller final drive for the Nurburgring) - I may have been only slightly annoyed when I began building it
:
! To hunt down the 5000 hp GTAm, I needed 307 hp on my 890 kg wide body well tuned 50 years old Dino on SM tires ( 620 PP ). And N2O for the Finale Grande. And I still wonder why PD did code such crap that makes them look bad.
