Instead of selling now, I decide to head to West City to see what we do have that can compete in one make races. In the process, I’m writing down notes so I know what cars I’ll need to acquire later for one makes.
We head to the Citroën dealer for the Saxo race with Bob hoping that a rally car counts as a “Racing Style” car. It does! Bob gets a chance to shine at the Rome Night stage. We take first in a nice field of Saxos.
Antonio will need a full racing makeover for the racing version of the 155 and 156 cup. That’ll be interesting!
Next up is the Lancia Delta cup. We do not have a normal Delta, but we do have a racing Delta called Louise! And Louise is a fighter! This one is an easy win at Midfield Raceway.
The final one make challenge of the night will be at the Volkswagen dealer in North City. I can’t believe the Volkswagen info screen makes me feel a bit of nostalgia for the New Beetle! What have I become?
There is a Golf cup with a racing style race. I’m glad we won all those rally cars! Jack fits the bill for this race, so Jack gets out there and wins on the very technical Autumn Ring.
I now have a list of what I need to acquire for West City and North City. Next time we’ll visit South City and East City to see what we can compete in!
There is one more one make race we can do in North City! It’s the TVR Tuscan Speed Cup. Margaret is a non racing style TVR, so we head to TVR to see how that will go.
We get out on a field of identical purple Tuscans. All with comically weak brakes. Did TVR intentionally fit the Tuscan Speed 6 with horrible brakes? Are good brakes considered an unnecessary safety feature? No matter, Margaret manages to win a very close race!
We have a racing style Viper, so we enter the Viper Festival of Speed with Lucy. I love the way these racing Vipers look with their stripes. The RT/10 with the yellow headlights is actually my favorite! Lucy takes care of these losers and gets first!
That’s all we can do in South City for now! Looks like we’ll need to buy a few cars to take care of the rest of the one make events there. Next time we’ll head to East City!
trying to come up with a joke for this but all i have is “don’t talk to me or my son or my son or my son ever again” or “talk about a race condition!!!” and neither of these are funny
Let’s take care of some more one makes! We take Allison to the Celica Meeting for racing style Celicas at Clubman Stage Route 5. I pick Allison because this is my favorite generation of Celica. Also, I think about Sega Rally! Allison wins, but the lead is swapped with the newer Celica in the front several times. Good job, Allison!
Next we head to the Altezza Cup. I knew these cars as the Lexus IS in the states. Some of the competition even have Lexus livery! Howard qualifies as a racing style Altezza, so that’s the race we’ll do at the Rome Night course. Howard is hugely fast. We make easy work of the other cars for first!
Now we’re off to Daihatsu where there’s a Storia race! James is a racing style Storia, so we line up with a pack of other racing style Storias at Super Speedway. The other vehicles put up a fight, but James has the right gearing for this kind of course and wins! Imagine kissing 130mph in this kind of car!
Next we head to Nissan and find a couple of races we can compete in. The first race is the Skyline R34 Challenge. Willard is somehow considered a normal style Skyline, so we enter with Willard and have a huge advantage. We easily take the win at Red Rock Valley.
Our final race of this session is the GT-R Meeting. This is a joke for Eden, but we are allowed in! It’s an easy win at Deep Forest. I like the livery on this silver car in the back!
wanted to suggest that Margaret should have been called Waldo, thought about the implications (re: Black Mirror) and didn’t want to jinx our future more than it already is.
also, Altezza-style tuning rear lights somehow disappeared from the streets, just noticed that now…
also also, Starlet Meeting sounds like a movie premise that goes off-the-rails quickly and ends up being either a drab 3rd tier comedy, a kaiju wrestling Match flick, or a boring rich people societe documentary.
Would watch either, for the cars, obviously
One make races are tough! In a lot of ways, you are taking the car out of the equation when you limit everyone to the same make/model of car. It comes down more to driver skill. Of course you can mod the car to the point of being unstoppable, but that takes way more credits than these races are worth. Plus, it’s fun to try to see what we can accomplish with minimal modification!
That said, it’s time to continue to do what we can do with what we have in our garage. I have a note that says I need a racing modified Alfa Romeo 155 or 156. Antonio is a 156, and we have already won the regular style one make race. So it’s time for Antonio to evolve into a race car!
We head to the Alfa dealer and purchase the prerequisite weight reductions all the way to stage 3. Then it’s time for the eighty-two thousand credit racing modification. There are a few color choices here, but I’m a sucker for white with colored stripes.
Antonio has lost a bit of dignity along with all that weight! But we should now have a lean fighting machine to handle this challenge. I opt to not modify anything else aside from doing the racing modification. I really want to see what we can pull off without starting to add power.
So we head to the 155 & 156 Race to see what we can do! The first race takes place at Clubman Stage Route 5. We finish second. The other cars clearly have superior tires and/or perhaps some engine tuning, but second place means we should be able to pull off first if we keep trying!
Bested by a half liter and two less cylinders! But that makes for a lighter engine that may have also been modified. Or I really just need to spend more time with Antonio.
We give it another shot and are taken to Rome Circuit Full. Here we are able to take first with another very close race with lots of position changes!
Excellent work, Antonio! Now it’s time to race mod Margaret for the TVR Tuscan Speed Cup. I always dread getting back into a TVR, and I’m hoping a racing modification tames the chassis a bit. It doesn’t.
I’m not sure why I picked this McDonald’s looking paint scheme. Maybe I see this as a car for a clown.
It takes three races to finally win the Tuscan Speed Cup. We finish fifth at Rome Short. The car is no easier to control than it ever was even with the racing modification.
I don’t have any screenshots of our second attempt. We head to Seattle Short and it’s a DNF. I lose complete control of the car in one of the first turns and give up.
Our third attempt nets us a first place finish. It takes place at Super Speedway. The AI cars are very ram happy here and seem to run into walls just as much as I do! So I play dirty just like them!
As much as I talk bad about Margaret, I now feel like it’s a personal challenge to get this car in a controllable state. Down the line maybe we’ll fit some racing brakes, better tires, and see what we can do about stability management.
Honestly, I’m having more fun in the one make races than I’ve had with this game in a while! I’m looking forward to seeing what other cars we can evolve next time!
Totally agree, there’s something special about one make races that you only seem to be able to enjoy when you get older, i.e. having a level playing field and being able to understand how to work with the handling of the car, instead of against it.
Way too often I found myself being taken by the urge to win or claim a certain position, instead of understanding the specific handling traits a car has, and make it work to the best effect against the AI, or other people, with the same parameters.
There’s something deeply satisfying in keeping up momentum in a sloppy old barge, or tiny econobox with less CCM than bottle of milk in the fridge. Also, it makes you understand where the AI or other drivers never adapt their driving and stick to a pattern of behaviour, and it is there where you can pounce.
Well, if it isn’t just one or two laps on a mile circuit, two laps Nür are a different beast…
(n.b.
i blame ENTHUSIA for that line of thinking btw, it made me enjoy understanding handling characteristics a lot.
I love small hatchbacks. It’s a tragedy that they aren’t really sold in the states at all anymore. I drive a Mazda 2, and I love that I can floor it everywhere, downshift like a race driver, and absolutely fling it into turns without breaking any laws.
Nadine is a small hatchback. One make hatchback racing is probably where my heart lives. So I’m excited to take Nadine to the Vitz Trophy yet again. Only this time we will need to convert Nadine into a “racing style” Vitz. Pulling tons of weight from these cars is the equivalent of adding power, so let’s get to it!
We do the three stages of weight reduction on Nadine then pay for the racing modification. I realize that the racing modification involves a whole lot more than removing weight as a racing cage is bolted in etc. This just stiffens the chassis even more!
We leave the rest of the car stock for now. I want to see what a very lean Nadine with the stock 67hp can do! So we head to Red Rock Valley for the Vitz Trophy racing style!
The first attempt takes place at Red Rock Valley Speedway. Right off the bat, Nadine still has somewhat sluggish revs due to the heavy factory flywheel. I remain hopeful until we all take off and get left in the dust! We finish sixth.
That’s okay, Nadine! You are still on a stock drivetrain. I give Nadine another shot. This time we head to Special Stage Route 5. This course has a very long straight that spells trouble for us! It’s another last place finish!
We are finishing way behind the other cars! That’s okay though! It’s time to head to the tuning shop to see what we can improve upon here.
We perform the following modifications to Nadine (with my reasons next to each):
ECU Tuning (A really cheap way to add power by leaning out the AFRs and sometimes even increasing the rev limiter a bit. I wonder if the ignition timing is adjusted for racing fuel.)
Sports Muffler + Air Cleaner (In small displacement NA applications, this sort of mod is usually just going to add cool sounds and possibly lower power output. Combined with ECU tuning, real power benefits can be seen from the freer flow of air through the engine. A leaner fuel mixture + better airflow = more power in theory.)
Sports Transmission (We swap in maybe a slightly closer-ratio transmission? The common way to do this would be to swap in a better gearbox from a sportier model of the same vehicle. A closer ratio transmission means fewer revs between gears. This means you can stay in the engine’s power band (the rev range in which it makes optimal power) longer. That should result in less “waiting for the power” in up and downshifts.)
Racing Flywheel (Every day manual street cars come with heavy flywheels to make shifting slowly still feel somewhat smooth. It just helps overall driveability in normal driving situations. Racing is not a normal driving situation, so we want to lighten up that flywheel to allow the engine to rev more freely! More rapid deceleration when lifting off the gas in gear is a good thing in racing! It helps you engine brake more effectively. There are also some acceleration benefits here as well as there is less rotating mass in the driveline.)
Sports Tires (The game mentions tires being the best upgrade for a car. I know in real life tires can dramatically decrease lap times. And economy cars like the Vitz most likely came with tires meant to optimize gas mileage. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we are focusing on handling and performance above all!)
I think Nadine’s power output has only been increased from 67 to around 74hp at this point. But the car’s performance driving characteristics should be noticeably improved. All of the modifications done to Nadine are things I’ve personally done to various vehicles in my life outside of the weight reductions and racing modification.
We head to the Vitz Trophy again to see what’s what. This time, we are at Autumn Ring. This short technical course has very short straightaways as well. This may work in our favor! Right off the bat, I can tell Nadine revs more freely and shifts faster. Our inputs are much quicker overall. Another green Vitz puts up a serious fight. I even see it taking shortcuts and being extremely aggressive. So we return the favor! Nadine manages to win the race! We didn’t even have to fit a turbo or go into other insane power upgrades!
Spec Miata time! Well sort of. I love Miatas, and Spec Miata is cool as hell because it’s a low cost form of very close racing performed by people with day jobs who just want to get out and race when they can! We all know we’ll never get a chance to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans or F1 or whatever, but anyone can become a spec racer!
Look how close this is:
I’ll try to keep my Miata evangelism out of here. But I’m really glad Mazda made a low cost sportscar that is attainable by mere mortals and can even be a very reliable daily driver.
We are not competing in Spec Miata today, but we are going to the Roadster Trophy with Melinda! So it’ll be pretty similar! First we do the requisite racing modification. I’m going to miss that special color. I will not miss those wheels.
There is a cool looking black livery, but I believe race cars should be as bright and garish as possible!
Melinda, like Nadine was at the beginning of the Vitz one makes, is bone stock aside from the racing modification. We’ll see how this works out on the circuit! First up we head to Clubman Stage Route 5. Keeping up with the crowd is tough but possible. We manage to place fourth. I am optimistic that we can win this event depending on the track without any further modifications to Melinda.
Well done, Melinda! In some ways I’m sad we won after two attempts. I did kind of want to tweak this car a little. We can always come back and do that another time!
The blue livery looked cool! I basically flipped a coin because I couldn’t decide between the blue or the red. Time to get out there and see what Diego can do with the new makeover!
The race takes place at Laguna Seca. The final turn is going to make things pretty tough for us here. I love to choke there! Fortunately, my blocking skills are good enough to get a win! It’s not easy as the other cars are quite formidable. This may be the most position changes in a race I’ve had yet!
The variety in the liveries based on model year and type of Demio are neat! This game has so much detail at times!
We only have one more car in the garage that we can bring to the one makes with a racing modification. It’s Francine! The first car we bought! That’ll happen next time! Then it’ll be time to really start selling and buying cars.
The situation is… not good. Francine is just so slow compared to the other cars. We try three times in a row to win this race in our current form. We place sixth at Clubman Stage Route 5, Fourth at Midfield Raceway, and sixth at Special Stage Route 5. We simply cannot accelerate like the other cars can in the straightaways.
We head back out with these upgrades to see how we can do. In a cruel twist of fate, the random track chosen is Super Speedway. We just LOWERED our gear ratios, so our top speed will actually be lower than it was before. D’oh! We get sixth here.
We try again and end up at the Autumn Ring. It’s another sixth place finish. Francine clearly needs more power. There’s not much more I can do to be able to compete.
Back to the tuning shop! We only buy one upgrade this time:
Stage 1 Turbo Kit (This kit should keep the turbo as responsive as the stock one is. You really don’t want to slap a huge turbo on that makes a lot of power only at high RPMs when your engine is super tiny unless you’re drag racing or something.)
Engine output is increased significantly with this kit. When I was younger I figured higher hp is always good. Just get the number up as high as you can! Now I understand a lot more about power bands and driveability.
Will this power bump be enough to make Francine competitive? Yes! We place second at Seattle Short Course. And I know we can do better given another shot!
A second attempt puts us back at Seattle Short. We’re feeling super confident this time! Francine wins! The upgrades we purchased really put us right where we needed to be!
What a hard battle! The Kei cars can be some of the most challenging and rewarding machines to race and tune.
I was wrong about being out of cars to turn into race cars. I need a racing Civic. I have plenty of normal Civics in the garage! So that’s what we’ll do next time!
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