FH5, Series 20, Week 4

That was the week that was. And the series.

From the picture, I guessed that the treasure hunt required you to three-star a speed trap in the McLaren F1 GTR (or whatever it’s called). I did it. I got my treasure. And then the game informed me several times that I’d completed the treasure hunt, especially as I went through the speed zone on the motorway. I had the message about give times, and I may be a decrepit old nitwit, but even I don’t need to be reminded of this so many times.

The weekly in the 812 Superfast was a doddle. Good car, too. Nice to drive.

I did the photo shoot in the Aventador J, which is another Lamborghini that I don’t drive often enough.

The jump into Mulegé was a colossal pain because although I was getting the distance, the car kept going nose down, arse up and flipping when it landed (no, aero was not always co-operative). In the end I managed to keep the car flat and get it to land in a gap. I managed to PB the speed trap and the speed zone without intending to do so.

I managed to survive in the Eliminator, but the drops were thin on the ground. Rather annoyingly, the Ariel Atom was not far from spawn, but another player was closer, and I also missed out on the Macan that was nearby.

Horizon Tour was back on the menu and being contrary. I ended up in S2-class cars costing ≥ CR2 million. I chose one of my Centenarios, which had the lowest PI out of the entire field, but unlike some of the other players, I didn’t get DNF’ed even though that almost happened in the Plaza Circuit race in which I came 3rd.

C600 retro rally cars for Alacrit-Rally. I started with the 1965 Mini Cooper, which struggled in El Pípila, but won. In Tapalpa it really struggled and got slowed so much by the fords as the trail crisscrossed the river that I abandoned the race and the car, switching to the 1973 Alpine A110 as the retro rally car with the best PWR. What happened at the end of the third race? The game froze and I had to get brutal with it. I returned the next day, but while the Alpine was triumphant, it didn’t really dominate the field. The reward was a Honda NSX-R because who doesn’t need another of those?

You won’t be making your surprised face when I say that the Eventlab tiles were dead as usual, but they were live today. Canyonball Run was S2-class car on slippery surface. I kept flying over one crest and being stopped dead by the kerb on the far side. Decent SWS. The other Eventlab event, Origami Park, was five laps. Why? I’ll do five laps in a proper race, but three is enough. Another 2011 Scirocco. Shrug.

Easy Deutsch It was another pain. B700, German cars, off-road. I thought I’d try the Desert Flyer even though it was RWD. I tried it round the course of the Mangrove Scramble as a test. It seemed all right, but being RWD, it had to spin in the first race. I switched to the 1995 Avant RS2 for the second race, but knowing that the final race was round the hotel, I then changed to the BMW X5 M (which also seemed the poster car in which the drivatars were going impossibly fast). The reward was an HSV Maloo. Why? How is that relevant to German cars? I’m still missing several exclusives from German manufacturers.

I headed up to the HW theme park where after many attempts I not only completed the speed trap PR stunt, but PB’ed it. The trick was a very long run-up and accepting some loss of speed from inevitably hitting the side of the track.

I opted for the Audi Sport Quattro for Audi, partner which was a bunch of those annoying hazard races. It wasn’t the best car for the Lava Loop Hazard Sprint (speed bumps), but was better for the other two races. Did we get the 2018 Audi RS4 Avant as a reward? Don’t be silly. We got the 2012 MB AMG C63.

In Sierra Nueva this week, it was the turn of the annoying speed zone in the north-west corner of the map to be the PR stunt. I got back in the Brabham BT62 and repeated the drattedly annoying thing until it was done. And the SWS was rubbish.

The seasonal championship was Flex on the Road, which was A800 modern muscle cars. Since the Mustang RTR Spec 5 was ready to go, it got to go again, although I wonder whether I should look at other options. In the first race it only took the lead on the final corner before the finish line. The second race was better, but the third was at night and annoying. During the course of the races I got a wheel spin. What was my reward? Clothing. Gods! What was the reward for the championship? Clothing. Gods!!

I should quickly mention the 2021 Audi RS6 Avant, which I took racing. It may not be top of the form, but it was much better than I was expecting. I think rear-wheel steering helped. I’ve tried the Mission R, but not seriously. The high-pitched whistling from the electric motor is a pain, though. I was using a pair of headphones when I unlocked the car, and if you dislike treble noise, you’re not going to like this.

Well, that’s series 20 more or less done. Some good cars, but some missed opportunities. Although this just pertains to me, there are still enough exclusives missing from my garage for there to be three months of content where the 80% car could be an exclusive rather than a car recycled from the Autoshow. We ought to have seen the F8 Tributo again, the MB AMG GT-S and the Singer Porsche, not to mention other thematically relevant cars.

Finally, a prediction for the series 21 car rewards and Forzathon shop: Extreme E. Well, it’s clearly another off-road series, and quite a few of the Extreme E cars are missing. Again, I used to have all of them until the game’s appalling notion of a save system deprived me of them. (Mind you, I only ever drove the original one since all the rest were same-actress-different-hair.)