The Elan is so pretty.
Someone might point out that newer Lotus’s are less likely to kill you in an accident, but I’d have to counter with “That only goes for the Exiege, and only if you haven’t put an LS in it.”
Esprit couldn’t be reached for a one make race 'cause the game is about racing cars, not putting out fires.
Colin’s victory was the last one we needed in North City. So tonight we head to South City which is home to all of the US brands. We have some unfinished business at Dodge, so we head there.
We need a normal style Dodge Viper for the Viper Festival of Speed one make race. We already completed the racing style race previously with Lucy, so let’s buy a “normal” Viper and see how it feels!
These are a few things I know about the Viper.
We buy a Viper RT/10 in Viper Black and name it Lacy. The RT/10 is cheaper and lighter than the GT-S with the same exact power rating. The race Viper was fairly well planted and set up for road courses, but the normal Viper will prove to be a handful.
We try our luck in the Viper Festival of Speed normal style race at Grand Valley East. This car seems to be made to go in a straight line very fast. The acceleration is hard to describe. The engine sounds industrial and vulgar. Acceleration does not feel urgent, but the numbers go up very quickly. This engine makes mountains of torque. It feels more like you’re moving the earth past you vs. you moving along the earth.
There’s not much need to manage revs here. Accidentally upshifting from 2nd to 3rd too early doesn’t really cause me to lose any time. The torque is just always there.
Unfortunately, the stock brakes seem very weak considering the power level. No matter how early I brake, I always end up understeering off track. Then getting back on the throttle results in instability. We even completely spin out in the final turn of the first lap, but the car ahead of us spins out as well! It’s all tricky to manage, and we only manage fifth place here at Grand Valley East.
I’m hoping on subsequent attempts we end up getting a less technical course. We do! The second attempt takes place at Super Speedway! This is the kind of course I can handle in a car like this! We finish first here as the lighter RT/10 has a bit of an edge.
Did the Americans try to one up TVR here? I’m not sure. I’m sure the Viper was refined further and further throughout the generations, but Lacy is just too wild in stock form.
Next time we’ll race Dodge Neons! That’s more my speed 
One time I saw a guy with a viper speed past me and then a couple miles later I start seeing debris on the road and then my wife said she saw him on the shoulder with the whole ass front of the car missing, still sitting in the drivers seat & conscious. He didn’t even hit another car, idk he just lost control. Yeah
So, basically, yes.
The Viper was meant to capture the sense of driving an over-engined muscle car, which it pretty handily does. Relatively simple suspension, no modern driving aids (though in the Viper’s case, it was made a bit before those were the norm), and emphasis on slam-you-into-your-seat acceleration.
The RT/10’s had notoriously bad build quality. The roof leaks, the side-pipes are virtually guaranteed to grill something when you get out, and the interior is maybe half a step above that of a barebones '96 Ford Taurus. The Viper family’s final drive ratio and final gear was, through several iterations, terrible to the point of basically being the world’s worst overdrive gear.
However, what you got was a car that was, being generous, lively through the lower gears, especially for its price point. You also got a car that, for a cheap at the time (like $200, maybe) ECU change would make 650 HP. It generally embarrassed the early 5th generation Corvettes until Chevy put out the C5 Z06 model.
You’re right that improvements were made through the various generations. The sidepipes went away (but keep well clear of the rocker panel where the muffler and exhaust is located 'cause they’re not much less dangerous), interior quality improved a bit as did the suspension and transmission.
That said, it wasn’t until the final generation, starting in 2013, that the car would get ABS, Stability Control, and Traction Control. It’d also be the last, as Chrysler would pull the plug on it after 2017. Some sources cite poor sales, others that it wouldn’t have been able to comply with new safety regs requiring side air bags.
To finish up at Dodge, we need to race in the Neon Trophy one make race. The Dodge Neon was always one of those cars I was curious about but never got a chance to drive. On the surface, it’s a fairly unremarkable American economy car. Perhaps the butt of a few jokes when it launched with all the cute “Hi.” ads.
The reality of the Neon is that it is a very capable contender up there with the likes of the Honda Civic at your local autocross. It’s light, makes decent power, and gets great gas mileage. I think it’s a nice looking little machine as well. There’s not any extraneous crap going on here. The jelly bean 90s look is in full effect.
We pick up a Neon ACR in Intense Blue. The ACR appears to be the four-door version while the RT is the coupe. They weigh the same and make the same power. The four-door just happens to be a hair cheaper and more pedestrian looking without the “viper stripes” of the RT. We name the car Bob. Hi.
Bob and I head out to the Neon Trophy’s normal style race at Special Stage Route 5. This car is fairly peppy in stock form! I would much rather chuck a group of these around a course over a group of Vipers any day! The handling is very nice too. Nothing crazy remarkable, but the car does what you tell it to with little protest. We manage to knock our way into first place and finish there. Excellent!
The race modification colors are pretty mad! Look at this blue:
As tempting as it is, we go for this obnoxious green!
The racing style Deon Trophy race takes place at Clubman Stage Route 5. It proves to be very tough as at least some of the cars appear to have tire and engine upgrades. We do not! Somehow, we manage to pull out a victory with some very aggressive late braking and perhaps a few love taps.
That completes the Neon Trophy. We are finished with Dodge! I’ll add the Neon to the list of cars that I thought were goofy in their day but have aged very well and we would be lucky to get now.
There are a couple of one make challenges left at Ford, so that’s our next destination.
We need to buy a Focus for the Focus Challenge. There is a choice between the 1.8 Zetec and the 2.0 Zetec. The 1.8 is a lighter three door while the 2.0 is a heavier five door. Both are cool, but we go for the 1.8 as the three door Focus always looked best to me. We pick Radiant Red Solid as the color and name the car Charity.
80 percent of the peak torque available anywhere in the rev range sounds like some BMW E30 trickery! Not some American econobox thing! And rear multilink suspension is a surprise. I always thought these had a torsion beam. This ought to be exciting!
The only race in the Focus Challenge is for normal style Focuses (Foci?). We end up at Grindelwald. This car struggles to accelerate a bit on the uphill sections. I wonder if the 2.0 Zetec five door does better with the extra torque that displacement probably brings. No matter! We picked our fighter! And we put up a good fight! It’s enough for first place! Charity handles just as well as any Civic hatchback.
Next time we’ll buy and race a Ford that was never sold in the USA!
Edit: I just realized I named the Saxo Bob as well 
Oh well! I’m sure I’ve repeated a few names already. They’re both Bobs to me!
The Ka was never sold in the US. There are a lot of great Ford vehicles we never got here. In any given country, Ford only (smartly) sells what will sell. And here that means pickups and SUVs.
So we have to admire the Ka from a distance. Or in digital form! We pick up a Ka in Copper Glow Metallic. We name it Gwen. I like that the Ka kicked off the “jelly bean” era of Ford cars.
At that Kei-car-like power level, Gwen looks to be a bit heavy. But on the track, the car proves to be peppy enough. The turn in is pretty quick. There is probably the typical FF understeer, but we aren’t able to find it at the not-super-technical High Speed Ring. And a simple lift off the throttle does indeed let the rear step out a bit as the description says.
It’s all very controllable and pleasant! And the normal race here in the Ka Challenge is a challenge indeed! We place first, but every car finishes with times inside of a half-second from one other. Did that sentence make sense?
Close!
What a fun race! I have a feeling we will end up having to modify the engine for the racing style race, but for now we’ll just buy the racing modification. There’s a great green color! And I love the white OZ wheels!
We’ll try it out in the racing style Ka Challenge next time!
That sentence made sense, no problem.
(also noteworthy:
Kinda Kool how the Ka is shown with a serious sideway angle drifting like Ka-razy in that promo shot for the Ka Challenge… they knew how to have fun at PD, it is only that they have lost that kind of playfulness when they bekame too serious from GT4 onwards!)
We’re going to put in some work tonight! We have the Ka Challenge to finish with our racing style Ka. Let’s get straight to it!
Gwen and I head to Clubman Stage Route 5 in stock powertrain form with the race modification. There’s no hope of catching up with the other cars. No matter! We are learning what this car is all about in the corners. The turn in is immediate!
Gwen looks great out there!
It’s upgrade time. We need to be competitive. Since Gwen is so nimble and seems to shift fairly well, I think we may be able to get away with just a stage 1 turbo kit. That’ll set us back four thousand credits. Not too bad! Let’s try our luck! We almost double the power output while keeping the turbo small as to retain what little low-end torque we have.
Our next attempt at the one make racing style Ka race takes place at Seattle Circuit Full. There is a tricky hairpin here that I like to screw up on. I end up blowing it on this race and finishing second, but we figure out that Gwen is definitely competitive now! This car feels right at home with some boost! I’m sure the 0-60 would be a lot more impressive if the shift to third wasn’t required to get there.
I’m certain we can win this challenge with another try. We can! Our third try takes us back to the nighttime highway. It’s Special Stage Route 5. We finish first! The pack is ruthless and aggressive. The racing is incredibly fun!
I am going to keep this car!
The American races in South City continue. Up next we head to the Chevrolet dealer for the Corvette Meeting. I have several thoughts on the Corvette. Some may be accurate, some may not. I’ll just bullet point them below:
Anyway, let’s pick up a Corvette. We go with a '95 ZR-1 in Torch Red and name it Boomer As much as I like the early models, I want something modern for the challenges ahead.
Boomer’s got the stuff! The Corvette Meeting normal style race at High Speed Ring is pretty easy to win in stock form. This car is a handler. The brakes are much better than the Viper’s, and oversteer is manageable. It’s not exactly a novice car, but it’s not actively trying to kill you. You can enter corners with confidence as long as you brake early enough. We recover from some mistakes that would have been catastrophic in the Viper.
Next up, Boomer gets a race mod for the racing style Corvette Meeting race. The race livery is embarrassingly patriotic. But it’s fitting for this car I suppose 
When you’re already a race car for the street, you really don’t need anything outside of the racing modification to be competitive here.
We head to Seattle Circuit Full and take the win. This race is a bit tougher with its tight corners and city streets. Thankfully, the AI cars have just as much trouble as I do here.
!
Thanks Boomer! Now it’s time to sell you!
We are finished with South City! The only place left is East City which houses all the Japanese dealers. There’s still quite a bit to do there!
Toyota has a Starlet meeting we need to finish. There is only a normal style race here. I’m so glad to be back to dealers that have used cars! We find a nice Starlet Glanza V in Purplish Blue Mica Metallic for eighty-five hundred credits. We name this car Cindy. I forget to snag a shot of the information screen. I don’t believe I’m familiar with this model. Unless it’s some type of Corolla hatch? It’s right up my alley!
Cindy kicks ass at Clubman Stage Route 5. And we get to see a nice varied field of Starlets. We win first place.
That was a lot of racing for one session! Next time we need an Altezza to complete Toyota’s challenges.
We are nearing 90% completion!
Can we see one of these live at the meetup?
I could save the final race to 100% the game for it if someone brings a PC that emulates PS1 well.
re Boomer:
Just saw a Stingray Cabriolet yesterday, and Jesus Christ is that a Beatiful Piece Of Craftsmanship!
The owner was rocking it (unfortunately a bit too cold to drive w/ open top) and was free to admit there were a few minor things he has to fix, but was full of praise and would recommend the Cabriolet anytime over the Coupe (sorry old man, I’d still prefer the Coupe, but i am prooooven to be stupid when it comes to cars 
).
(Edit: almost wrong place, since this post should belong in the fading brakelights topic…)
Coupe all day! It’s hard to make a good roadster that doesn’t interfere with the body lines of a car. Plus ‘verts are usually heavier and less structurally rigid if there is a coupe version of the same car.
That said, you wouldn’t have to twist my arm at all to make me drive that
My rich neighbor directly across the street, Mr. Ken, has a small white dog named Blossom who is allowed to stay outside all day in their fenced courtyard and she yaps at everyone going past but is also very friendly. He takes her to the grocery store in a shoulder bag, I’ve seen him there. He also has trained her pretty good to run along side him on the sidewalk while he rides his electric scooter around.
More importantly he also has a red '67 C2 Convertible, that he has owned since the 70s. He doesn’t drive it very often.
It’s interesting watching those digital inputs turning the front wheels
Yeah… I have my Xbone controller set to be a dualshock in Retroarch, but it still feels pretty digital.
The C2’s are cool, my mom’s garage did all the mechanical resto on one back when it was open.
Just gotta be careful about going fast in them, as they work like an airfoil. Air gets up under them and they want to fly. It’s why you’ll see racing ones from that gen with a bunch of cuts in the modified hood. Not the best angle, but you can see 'em at the front of the bulge in the hood in this pic.
Because of years spent playing the original Gran Turismo, I’ll forever be more comfortable using d-input for steering than analog control, because I wrapped my head around the idea of using little feather taps, but if the left analog stick is primary position (xbox, pro controller) I tend to have an easier time with analog steering. I definitely feel like I might be the odd one out in 2021.
Digital pad and analog stick might as well be the same thing to me when it comes to steering a car. Both are extremely exaggerated methods of steering compared to a big ol’ two-handed wheel.
When it comes to throttle, Senna somehow managed to convert an analog input into digital. I have no idea how his right leg/foot didn’t fall off when he was alive.
I’ve been on a bit of hiatus. Wonderful vacations with wonderful friends happen. Life stuff happens. Etc. But tonight I’m back to start easing back into the world of GT2 100%!
On a recent trip I rented a Chevrolet Trax. I’m sure it’s a fine practical car for whatever modern American requirements are. It just reinforced my “we are living in the modern malaise era” line of thinking when it comes to newer vehicles. It was very much a compact crossover with zero road feel, zero passion, and bad visibility. A fine appliance car. At least it did have physical buttons for things.
Anyway, I’m not here to shit on the Chevy Trax all night. If I had one I’m sure it would get me from Point A to Point B consistently. It’s just the kind of car that has almost zero enthusiast value. That’s fine, but I wouldn’t be able to live with one myself.
What I am here to do is celebrate the Toyota Altezza. We got this car in the states as the Lexus IS200. I think this was the first Lexus I ever actually liked. Lusted after even.
With its cool rear light layout, it spawned a ton of tasteless taillight modifications for a decade or more. It probably caused a lot more kids to throw around the term “JDM” loosely. But that’s okay. It probably also got more people interested in Japanese sports cars when you could buy a used one for a very reasonable price.
There is a normal style Altezza Cup race calling to us, so we head to the dealer and buy an Altezza RS200. I’m assuming the 200 is for the 207hp the car produces. We pick Super bright Yellow and call the car Kai.
A four door sedan with a rev happy engine, sub 3000 lb. weight, simultaneously aggressive yet restrained styling, and the FR layout sounds like a pipe dream nowadays. It basically is.
We get Kai out to Midfield Raceway to see what’s up. The field looks great! This car is an absolute joy to drive. There’s plenty of usable rev range. The chassis is incredibly well balanced. You can easily correct mistakes like entering corners too quickly or apexing too late with a bit of throttle steering or trail braking.
A lot of engineering and thought went into making this car work as well as it does. We take the lead on our first try. I’m almost sad that we won and that my time with this car is already over. I guess we can always revisit later
That’s the Altezza Cup complete. Apparently we finished the racing style race somewhere back in this thread.
Next time we’re headed to Mitsubishi.
