FH5, Series 28, Week 4

In spite of exams this week and the horrors of marking, I’ve managed to get through the Festival playlist. Almost.

Treasure hunt. I guessed that the best jump for the Isetta was off the volcano. Job done, but the chest had to be placed awkwardly for a lovely slice of slight irritation.

The weekly was in the BMW M4 GTS. Be nice if there was an in-game manual explaining exactly what a Hard Charger skill is. Nope, I have no idea. Something to do with going fast off the line; something I achieve randomly. I wasn’t much impressed by the reappearance of the Ladera speed zone which so vexed everyone last week. I did it badly, but completed the task. I got a good wheel spin afterwards.

Eventlab (1). Rabbit Raceway, was a twisty Hot Wheels track which merely succeeded in being another slice of annoying for the week. Too many fiddly turns and no banking.

Eventlab (2). Touge Battle Vol. 3. Drive down some narrow road. Pretend it’s fun. Get a one-third excellent SWS.

PR stunts. It was another week of maximum vexation on this front. I’ll start with speed trap. Odd. My first attempt came close. I went away and rebuilt the Fairlady. Couldn’t get anywhere near the target, and alternative routes (i.e., across country) were too slow. In the end I installed someone’s tune and managed to maintain my speed through the corners to get the job done for a one-third good SWS. That took about half an hour or so to achieve. Does no one test these on a keyboard to ascertain their viability? I did the drift zone incompetently, but did manage to hit 100,000 points for an SWS that was one-third very good.

The danger sign was the biggest pain. I immediately realised that to hit the target, an engine swap was needed. I installed the 1,500hp engine, but the handling was terrible (or terriable [sic!] as my little darlings have been writing). I switched to the 800hp engine and switched to AWD, but was having problems with the corner ahead of the Festival site. On the forums, PD_Top_Gun suggested a shorter run-up, which worked after a few attempts. The biggest problem then became the run through the Festival site until the Forza gods directed my path and wafted me to aerial glory. You don’t think I could’ve done this myself, do you?

Horizon Open had me doing dirt racing in Land Rovers. I used my 2015 (?) Range Rover. 2nd in Mangrove and 1st in Tapalpa and San Juan (the last with a lead of 17 seconds).

The reward for the photo was some American phrase. What foolish things are said in America should stay in America.

I used my Elise 190 for Petal to the Metal, but wonder whether the 2-Eleven might also have been a good choice. (And now that I’ve had a play with it, the 340R would probably also be an excellent choice.) The seasonal had to include that awful Winter Wonderland Circuit.

The Jesko was my choice for Divo vs. Jesko. It was a decent choice even if I’m not fond of ridiculously overpowered hypercars. I got an excellent wheel spin out of it.

I was 3rd in Wetland Charge, the first of the races in the Trial, but we lost. I managed a 4th in Las Afueras and another 3rd in Cruce de Valle along with team wins in both. The 2013 BRZ seemed to be a better choice than the new one. Got a Zenvo TSR-S, which is a hypercar I have time for.

In the Eliminator, I got lucky with a drop, getting the MB 4-door. I got challenged and was happy enough to let the other player win, but he crashed into a tree. I then got challenged by another player who, I suspect, had ginger up his tailpipe because his win was sudden. Never mind because the pity is that the Eliminator is part of the playlist.

The HW PR stunt is my almost. Again, it was clear that you needed to start your run-up on the far side of the loop. The problem was maintaining speed through the corners. I switched to RWD (which bottomed out through the loop), but decided after a few attempts that life too short to waste my time on this, preferring not to get extremely angry, irritated and annoyed. Don’t need it because I unlocked both cars several events ago.

Get a Groove On was one of those seasonals for which I had a small range of eligible cars, but for which there was only one choice – the FE Meyers Manx – as I found in the first race where I watched the drivatar in first place sail off into the distance ahead of my Chevelle Supersport. I switched cars and the podiums all went to the Manxes. The races had to include the Ram’s Head Speed Sprint with its annoying hairpin and the Waterslide Circuit yet again. But at least the reward was a 2016 BMW M2, and I got an excellent wheel spin, too.

I was wondering what nuisance the Sierra Nueva PR stunt would be, but it wasn’t. I knew there was a trick to doing it. I maxed out the engine in the Peugeot 205 R and switched to AWD; it was a dirt build. The trick is to start on the riverbed near the bridge and veer slightly left. On the map is a fainter line of the river which you follow. I managed to get way over the target distance by a ridiculous amount.

And then I was back in the Lancer Evo VIII for New Year’s R-evolutions. I know this is a not-again moment, but the car walked off with the prize.

I did give the Lotus 340R a spin. It’s a good car, but was a drivatar cheatmobile in Horizon 4, which put me off it. I’ve never driven it stock, but it was decent, and after doing what tuning I could (4/9; car masteries are a bit rubbish), I raced it round the Stadium Circuit. It’s the only B-class track toy, which meant creating a new race in which it was the only car – as I predicted. Perhaps my feeble tune helped me to victory against the rest of the field.