FH5, Series 21, Week 2

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We start as usual with the treasure hunt, which was to do the next three pathfinders. Pantano de La Selva was a nuisance because I found the endpoint, but every time I tried to trace my way back to the start, I kept looping round to the finish until I noticed some balloons that were obscured by the woods.

The weekly in the RAM Power Wagon was all right even if the thing is a barge. Why on earth does it have a dirt racing perk when it’s a chubby American off-roader?

The Eventlab tile was properly live this time, but the course needed some more walls on the approach to the water section because I couldn’t see where I was meant to go. Spaghetti maps don’t help.

The photo challenge. Location: the top of the rocky cliffs which are too far from Mulegé for the directions from there to make much sense. I think of the cliffs as being closer to the main festival site.

Fortunately, the game wasn’t perpetually disconnecting me, which meant I was able to do an HA for that part of the play­list. Indeed, the connectivity was a bit more stable because in recent weeks, any HAs on the playlist sometimes took days to do.

I PB’ed both PR stunts, just clearing those buildings on the far side of the river from the danger sign. The SWS for that one was good, but rubbish for the speed trap. For that stunt, I followed the dirt track, but I think that may be a speed trap I’ve done by approaching it from an odd angle.

The Eliminator started well because I found a Trailcat not far from spawn. I ended up in an MG Metro in a race against the MB 4 door, which had the pace on me. When I saw that the number of remaining players had dropped below 30, I stopped and waited for my opponent to win. And waited… and waited… I can only guess he got tangled up trying to get through the Festival site, and just as I was going to see what was going on, he won.

This week’s collectables were a little less easy to find, but a decent off-roader of some sort will be able to handle it.

I opted for the FE Exocet for Rally Good Time, but wonder whether I ought to have gone with Colin McRae’s Ford Focus. La Selva was a bit of a pain and threw a rubbish wheel spin at me. The reward was the Maserati Levante. Um…

Once again the Hummer EV was the obvious choice for Ready for Lift-Off. I beat up the drivatars round the airfield circuit, but too much weight and speed caused me some minor problems round Costera. The reward was a 1973 Ford Escort. Um… Again.

I PB’ed the HW danger sign after several rewinds because of annoyingly placed pieces of track. The SWS was rubbish.

The HW seasonal was called Super Loops. S1 900 modern supercars. I went for the Acura NSX which, I thought, was a decent car. The drivatars went for cheating, and I had to restart the second sprint to clear them out. The reward was a hat. A hat?! Rubbish wheel spin, too.

The speed zone in Sierra Nueva did not – thankfully – delay me unduly.

For Time Warp, I chose the 1991 BMW M3, but wonder whether I should’ve opted for something else as the drivatars were right pains, and the car had no top end. I was so delighted to get an emote as a reward. Not at all pointless and infantile. The races also showed up another problem of twisty courses because I was spending so much time keeping an eye on the mini map that I wasn’t paying sufficient attention to gear changes.

I tried rebuilding the car afterwards and racing it round Mulegé. Not good. I then maxed it out and got a much more satisfactory performance from it.

Overall, this week’s playlist was quickly done.

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