FH5, Series 24, Week 1

So, it seems that for the treasure hunt I have to drive the Maserati GT S from Mulegé to Guanajuato. A few minutes later… That didn’t work. Perhaps I should’ve used the FE Maserati GT S because that’s in the picture. A few minutes later… That didn’t work. House-to-house? A few minutes later… That didn’t work. Perhaps it might work after I reboot my laptop. The next day… What?! Why aren’t you bloody well working?! [Interlude.] I decide to give it one more go, but this time veer off the motorway and head cross country towards Guanajuato, slamming into the houses on the south side of the town. Job done. FFS.

Since the update, the chance that I’m actually online in free roam and seeing other players has improved. It won’t last, but it meant I could do an HA to tick that off the playlist.

The weekly was in the Abarth 595. I think the game told me that one event was complete, and the rest of the time I had to check.

The Eventlab tiles were working. I started with Forest Mountain Circuit, which was an interesting custom route. The Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale was ready to go. It also explains why I now seem to have four 488 GTBs. Two is enough.

The other Eventlab event was Beachtown Scramble which I did in my Lamborghini Miura which – even better – is equipped for dirt racing.

The Ferrari F40 Competizione (S2 998) has been the car of the week, taking down the danger sign (min. aero; rubbish SWS), eventually getting the speed zone (uphill with a better run towards the gate at the end; the SWS was on-third good), and one-shotting the speed trap (the SWS gave me an FE Maserati GT S; oh the irony).

I also used the F40 for the photo in Guanajuato. The car does everything.

And of course there were new Rivals challenges. The Essenza was an absolute grip monster even stock. It was also nice to have an early go with the Alfa Romeo 4C even if it was up the wriggly, winding Volcán Sprint.

I decided to attempt the Trial while the game was letting me do things online. I managed a 5th place in the Riviera Sprint in spite of a naggy drivatar, and then I found myself in Playa Azul. Yes, the game kicked me back to the map after the first race. I tried again, came 4th, and was dumped back in Playa Azul. The next day… This time I was 2nd in the Riviera Sprint because the lead drivatar was a missile on greased rails, but our team won. It was off to Plaza Circuit, which is a race I do a lot. 1st place by a decent margin. Job done (in spite of three of my teammates getting DNF’ed), which got me a second 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint (I bought the first one).

We had to have a Street Scene seasonal. Scream! Yellow vs. Red, Ferrari vs. Lamborghini. I went for the Ferrari Enzo. Not bad, but there was a late threat in Jungle Descent, and I don’t mind another Diablo SV. (I also unlocked the Lanca Delta S4 at this point.)

This Way Up was another PGG favourite – race the car you can barely upgrade at all. In this case the SUV was a Maserati Levante. There is some scope for slapping upgrades on, but not much, and I admit I made some mistakes with my first build. Off-road race tyres drop the PI, but were a disaster for dirt racing. Increasing the rear tyre width had no effect on the PI, but adjusting front tyre widths raised it too much. Fuera del Camino was a massive pain (when is it not?), and I decided to switch back to stock tyres and to add aero to compensate for the excessive flabbiness of the vehicle and the lack of adequate brakes. This worked, and once again showed that you use the right tyres for the job. I assume that people see “off-road race tyres”, but mostly just see “race” and think they’re the ticket for any non-tarmac race.

It was off to the HW Theme Park for the PR stunt, which the F40 Competizione completed for an SWS that was one-third good.

The F40 also made short work of Nexus of Speed for a Lamborghini Miura. This is the first week in a long time when the seasonal hasn’t been a prolonged pain.

And then it was off to Sierra Nueva, a place which I’m increasingly hating. If I was never that fond of Fortune Island, I’m even less fond of this place and its irritating physics. The PR stunt had to be that annoying speed zone in the north-east corner of the map. I tried it in the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. Took a few goes, but not to the point where I was getting frustrated.

No, the awful Midnight Run was where I got frustrated. The condition was A800 AWD. I thought I might try classic rally since this was dirt racing and picked the Ford GT70. The races are at night. Scream!! The weather conditions are atrocious. Scream!!! The drivatars are driving any old rubbish just like the kiddies do in Horizon Open. Scream!!!! In the first race I began to wonder whether I really ought to have been driving something off-road. The biggest nuisance was a drivatar in a Warthog, and there was his mate in one of those Extreme E vehicles.

I managed to win the first race, but by mere millimetres. The second race was better, but the helicopter was a view-impeding nuisance. For the third event I switched to the Eagle Speedster because it was a road race. In spite of this, the Warthog remained the biggest challenge. Seriously?! If I drove the Warthog in a road race, tuned for road racing, I would not be taking corners at speed in Sierra Nueva, but the conditions didn’t affect the drivatar at all. Where’s the balance?