What did you do in FM23 today?

[WHO1]

Finished the Wild Horses series using the Shelby GT 500 - awful car, just glad it's fast in a straight line (which wasn't very helpful at Laguna Seca) and finishing at Grand West at Virginia Raceway wasn't exactly ideal - glad I put a rear wing on it. May I never have to drive a Mustang ever again.
And when I thought cars couldn't get worse, then I drove the Saleen. Having to lift when coming on to the main straight was the first clue that this was going to be a long race.
Lastly, did the first race of Open D Class in my Ginetta G40 - slower than a couple of cars on the straights but could brake so late it make passing easy. So nice driving a car that can turn a corner.

 

[ShavedBadger]

Did the 60's Mustang series with the 68 Fastback in McQueen green, and it turned out to be a quite a fun thing to drive once I got used to the (lack of) brakes and the need to powersilde it everywhere to make the front go kinda sorta where I wanted it.

I'm now doing the last Mustang series and I thought it would be a bit of a laugh to try the '13 GT500, which is basically a stripey waterbed with a blown V8 dragging it along.

I now understand why Mustangs are the leading cause of injury for pedestrians standing outside Cars and Coffee events.

At Daytona this, ahem charming waywardness could be excused because of the absolutely mighty straightline speed. At Laguna Seca just now? Well I imagine it's like trying to drag your drunken and irascible ex-rugby playing mate away from a barfight and up the stairs out of an underground nightclub. Lots of wrestling, infuriating insistence on mucking around at the wrong moment, and careering 'round corners with almost no control or predictability.

Sounds fantastic with the race exhaust and full weight reduction though.

 

[r_outsider]

Not sure what everyone was expecting with the GT500's, but they do highlight some of my comments on T10's choices. Both the '67 and '13 were never conceived as road racers, they were boulevard cruising brawlers with huge engines more suited to the stoplight nationals. For a road racing game, the earlier ones I'd have picked were the '65 GT350 or maybe the '66 Hertz car, and the Boss 302 we already have of course. For the S197, they should have gone with one of the versions of the 2012-13 Boss 302 or the FR500. Anyway...

Finally got back online and have some serious catching up to do . I had AFK'd most of the open series for the Boss car, although I had to do A and S myself as there was no way I was level 50-ing my 2005 GT that way. Grabbed the Jones car, which is awesome, and away we went to tackle the Mustang tour. Really liked the 2024 GT, for a car that heavy it handled quite well. For the 60's series, having previously used every other eligible car already, I embraced the fact it was going to be an interesting drive and took the Shelby, and was not disappointed. I had fun sliding it everywhere. For the record, the intellegent choice here is literally any other eligible car- they're all better choices. Then it was a no-brainer, the '95 Cobra R has been one of my favourites since 1995. I love how lively it feels in FM.

So now I just have the last series to run, trying to decide which car to pick. The 2020 GT500 is clearly the fastest, but it's also the heaviest and with that and all that power, quite a handful. The 2024 Dark Horse and 2016 GT350 are both solid choices, really not much between them but I thought the GT350 handled a hair better. Oddly though, in my one lap Road America shootout, I managed to beat both of those with the 2013 Shelby, and that was the first car out! It was certainly lively and edgy to drive but sometimes life is more fun that way.

 

[Ryan81]

Finished off the Mustang Tour and got the Saleen S302 Black Label (damn, sounds like an alcoholic beverage 🤣) Great car, though!

 

[sirjim73]

Finished off the Mustang Tour and got the Saleen S302 Black Label (damn, sounds like an alcoholic beverage 🤣) Great car, though!

You're best bet for a fuller flavour...

 

[WHO1]

Finished the C Class Open tour events in the 2011 WRX - was a struggle as the Rex isn't fast enough at C class but managed to win the series by 3 points.

 

[Jezza819]

Finished all of the Open series races and the rewards race. Yeah that Exorcist....thou shall not drive thee again.

 

[UKMikey]

Drove in circles (and on The Glen) for about an hour to complete the NASCAR series. I'm glad they waited until they had a decent selection of ovals and a functioning (if somewhat functional) radar before they brought this out. I don't even care if that radar resembled a seventies Atari game; it did the job.

My skill level was a bit lower than on regular tracks with corners though.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Okay, it's been a while since I commented here. I kinda left Forza for a bit to do other things, but I started playing again this week.

I of course did the featured events focused on Mustangs and this morning just finished the last championship using my Shelby GT350R. I thought of using the 2020 GT500 I had, but I wasn't sure how to nerf it down to A-Class. So, I went with the GT350R instead since it would have room to grow.

It wasn't too bad, though I had a clear power disadvantage at first compared to some of my opponents. But I did manage to win overall, even on VIR. Despite me hating that track.

Of course I happily won the Saleen S302 and did the race with it on Sunset Pennisula, quite a different experience to the Shelby GT350R. With that said, I'm happy to have a Saleen Mustang in Forza again and I hope this means more will appear in the future.

Another thing I was doing today was completing my goal of maxing out 5 Fords. Prior to this week, I just had 3 Fords maxed out to level 50, but I managed to fix that with a couple of these championships plus some hot lapping.

The Fords I maxed were my 1993 SVT Cobra R Mustang and 1969 Mustang Boss 302.

With a max discount of 25% at last, I bought the IMSA Mustang Race Car on sale in the dealership and then the new Mustang NASCAR stock car. I also did a couple of races in the NASCAR championship, I'll probably finish the rest tomorrow.

 

[UKMikey]

The Paul Newman Bob Sharp Datsun 280ZX I bought wasn't very sharp at turning as I could barely get around Mid-Ohio in practice. Then I took @Nacho Libre's advice on the main thread and switched to simulation steering. My lap times are a lot more variable now as catching the apexes is a lot more hit and miss but the fast ones are a lot faster, like two seconds faster and at least it gave me something to concentrate on during the long repetitive sixteen lap race.

He also said turn off all assists but after the first corner without ABS I didn't have the patience to be able to brake that early to make it workable. I can't drive manual so engine braking was a no no also.

 

[sirjim73]

The Paul Newman Bob Sharp Datsun 280ZX I bought wasn't very sharp at turning as I could barely get around Mid-Ohio in practice. Then I took @Nacho Libre's advice on the main thread and switched to simulation steering. My lap times are a lot more variable now as catching the apexes is a lot more hit and miss but the fast ones are a lot faster, like two seconds faster and at least it gave me somefhing to concentrate on during the long repetitive sixteen lap race.

He also said turn off all assists but after the first corner without ABS I didn't have the patience to be able to brake that early to make it workable. I can't drive manual so engine braking was a no no also.

I can sympathize with you on that, I've got no chance these days without ABS.

Ran the 3 new races today, but also struggled at Mid Ohio. It's not helped by the rubber banding (both slowing up and speeding up) in these races which is more blatant (at least in my eyes) than the shorter races.

Also ran the second Modern Nascar oval race to get my third Podium for the Weekly Challenge. (Rationing these to one a week to avoid falling asleep )

Lap 1-4 approx Rabbit runs away.
Lap 5-8 approx AI slows down and you go past.
Everyone pits...
Lap 9-12 AI hunts you down like a pack of wolves doing lap times you can't match.

if you're not leading at the pit stop, you're not (in my experience) going to win the race.

And a warning - don't get too many penalties, after the AI does their pit stop they suddenly become 2 seconds faster than on the first laps and will finish close to you.

 

[DG_Silva]

Just a handy hint if you're running without ABS, try changing the brake bias 2 clicks to the right and brake pressure 85% - you should be able to have more trigger travel without locking, but just have enough left over if you need to brake harder. Also remember that smooth movement on the trigger avoids locking compared to sharp full-pressure jabs.

 

[Nacho Libre]

The Paul Newman Bob Sharp Datsun 280ZX I bought wasn't very sharp at turning as I could barely get around Mid-Ohio in practice. Then I took @Nacho Libre's advice on the main thread and switched to simulation steering. My lap times are a lot more variable now as catching the apexes is a lot more hit and miss but the fast ones are a lot faster, like two seconds faster and at least it gave me something to concentrate on during the long repetitive sixteen lap race.

He also said turn off all assists but after the first corner without ABS I didn't have the patience to be able to brake that early to make it workable. I can't drive manual so engine braking was a no no also.

Mid-ohio is one track that I hated with the regular steering due to the artificial understeering feeling. But after switching to simulation, it is one of my favorite ones because now I know that the understeering/oversteering is native to the car I'm driving. I've also found that lowering bump stiffness by two clicks front/rear helps with the curbs that are livelier with simulation steering and can throw you off.

These are my gamepad settings. As for no ABS, it just takes time and maybe adjust brake balance on a per car basis as @DG_Silva mentioned (and try bringing weight distribution to 50/50 or near).

 

[UKMikey]

Mid-ohio is one track that I hated with the regular steering due to the artificial understeering feeling. But after switching to simulation, it is one of my favorite ones because now I know that the understeering/oversteering is native to the car I'm driving. I've also found that lowering bump stiffness by two clicks front/rear helps with the curbs that are livelier with simulation steering and can throw you off.

View attachment 1405847
These are my gamepad settings. As for no ABS, it just takes time and maybe adjust brake balance on a per car basis as @DG_Silva mentioned (and try bringing weight distribution to 50/50 or near).

Thanks for the tips but my engineering expertise extends only to looking down the list of other people's tuning setups and choosing the one with the most lateral grip and shortest acceleration time. I know I'm only scratching the surface but if I had that much time to play a racing game I'd probably have picked one which didn't dribble out three or four races every week. It's good to know that others are getting a lot more out of the game's mechanics though.

You're absolutely right that the track is a lot more rewarding to play when I can turn the virtual steering wheel around that final carousel without having to saw slots in my gamepad for extra joystick travel. I took the simulation steering to the following Road Atlanta and trying not to fishtail the car at the end of the long straight was also kind of fun.

 

[r_outsider]

Had some time this morning so I finally finished the last Mustang series (Wild Horses? I can never remember the names), as the resident nutter I took the 2013 GT500 of course, and had at it. Really, it's a dragster. Extend the braking zones a bit, roll the corner to set up the exit, and floor it, it's fine. Left it stock less the satin silver paint and a set of Torq-Thrusts. Laguna and VIR were a little tricky, stomped the field at Indy and Daytona.

Got to the Saleen showcase, and oh boy. After driving the nose-heavy GT500 this was, well, it was a thing. The biggest problem here is, the car is set up to be very reactive and back in to corners on the brakes, which at a tight handling-style track, would work great. However, on Sunset, on the banking on the oval on entry and especially when exiting to set up the following left hander, that's not quite going to work there, you need good braking stability at the back. So, many practice lap crashes in, I started shutting the throttle off well in advance and using a lot of maintenance throttle to balance through the middle of the oval, and endured it rather than having fun with it. It'll be a great car but not there.

And then we started on the NASCAR series. While not a fan of NASCAR itself, I do like me some stock cars. As they say, if F1 is dueling with a rapier, stock car racing is a barroom brawl with broken-off beer bottles and pool cues, and that suits me fine. I do really, REALLY like these latest Cup cars. I've gone through Daytona, Indy, and Watkins so far, I've been using level 7 but really could be on 8. Highlights one of the problems with the AI I think, with these nearly identical cars, they've mostly been pretty predictable and I've been getting some mostly great races in with it, whereas in classes where the cars are all different, I think things maybe get a little tougher to balance. Can't wait for Eagle Rock, that should be fun.

 

[sirjim73]

Ticked off Watkins and Eagle Rock tonight. Watkins I came in third passing a car on the line... by 0.04 seconds!

 

[WHO1]

Finished the Open Class series - B Class I used the Mitsubishi Evo III and got it to level 50 which was nice. For A Class I used the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio (bit tail happy but did the job). For S class I used one of the Mercs - there were lots of acronyms, AMG CLK etc. Can't remember which one it was. Nice car though. For R class I used a Corvette which was also a bit tail happy but more than driveable.
Then there was the Exorcist - OMG - Firstly why would they choose Maple Valley for such a car? Secondly, you had to crawl off the start line because you spun your tyres for 5 secs before you moved. And thirdly, who is the target audience for this car? You can't use the power of it legally on the road and it's useless on the track. Mystifies me.

Anywho, on to the NASCAR series, the only race I had an issue with was Eagle Rock where I finished third. Couldn't use the pace of the car with such short straights. Car handled very nicely on Watkins Glen, actually looking forward to driving it again when the need arises. Liked having the pitstop and tyre strategy (while basic) did add a nice element to it.

The prospect of the next series scares me though. Those look like awful cars to drive.

 

[AEKara38]

The prospect of the next series scares me though. Those look like awful cars to drive.

If that's what you think beforehand then you won't be disappointed They're terrible!

 

[Nacho Libre]

If that's what you think beforehand then you won't be disappointed They're terrible!

Agreed, I just couldn't get into terms with the Zakspeed Roush Mustang, so I had to restart the series with the Corvette which is probably the friendliest of the bunch. I researched a bit and indeed the Zakspeed had a crappy history... I'm impressed they modelled the crappiness too!

 

[WHO1]

If that's what you think beforehand then you won't be disappointed They're terrible!

In my infinite wisdom I'm using the 1976 Chevrolet #76 Greenwood Corvette (another overpowered menace). Got lucky at Limerock, went into the pits in 5th or 6th and somehow managed to come out in 2nd (maybe they refuelled 🤷‍♂️) and snuck past first to win. Finished 5th at Mid-Ohio so I'm now equal first with one race to go. At least Road Atlanta has a long straight so I've got a chance at beating the one car I need to, to win the series - I definitely don't want to redo this one.

 

[sirjim73]

In my infinite wisdom I'm using the 1976 Chevrolet #76 Greenwood Corvette (another overpowered menace). Got lucky at Limerock, went into the pits in 5th or 6th and somehow managed to come out in 2nd (maybe they refuelled 🤷‍♂️) and snuck past first to win. Finished 5th at Mid-Ohio so I'm now equal first with one race to go. At least Road Atlanta has a long straight so I've got a chance at beating the one car I need to, to win the series - I definitely don't want to redo this one.

The AI seemed pretty slow to me at Road Atlanta on the long straight, so I won that race relatively easily. Upgrading the brakes helped me as well.

 

[Nacho Libre]

Sebring, the first race of American Le Mans, has to be one of the best racing experiences in rain I've ever had in the game, especially after my practice laps were utter crap, but I managed second place (starting from eleventh).

 

[UKMikey]

Challenge The Grid lied to me this series as far as its predicted finishes went and I ended up starting way too far in front to have a memorable experience during the races.

 

[Nacho Libre]

I'm about to finish the NASCAR part of the tour. I respect oval racing more now, but I think we should have asymmetrical tuning options for that, don't you think?