FH5, Series 30, Week 3

It was convenient to deal with the first daily of the week, the photo and the collectibles at the stadium all in one fell swoop.

This week’s weekly was in the Hoonigan F-150, thus continuing the whole drift theme of this series. I’d already practised the Volcán Sprint in less than ideal conditions (i.e., the wet) yesterday, hence I knew it could be done without too much grief. I’m surprised we weren’t made to do Reservorio as well.

Eventlab (1). Arcadia. Another artistic Eventlab course from DJS. Not a bad circuit, but it looks to be designed for drifting. Absolute rubbish SWS.

Eventlab (2). Hilltop Scramble was another decent circuit. This is more like it.

Eventlab (3). Otoribashi. I liked the style, but was not so keen on the course.

I one-shotted all three danger signs in the Hyundai Ioniq which merely needed the gear tuned to make the car ridiculously fast in A-class. A couple of the SWSs were one-third all right, and the other was good.

I chose the Lynk and Co. 03+ for Fine China. It turned out to be an excellent choice, although it was also when things started going a little funny. The car absolutely spanked the drivatars, and the handling was mostly excellent. But there were also occasions when the car seemed to want to go this way when I wanted it to go that way and I’d have to haul it off its chosen course to get it going the right direction. See below for the answer.

For Year of the Volkswagen I first picked the 1981 Scirocco because it was the lightest, relevant car in its class, but that immediately proved to be underpowered. The drivatars showed the way, cheating monstrously in the 1998 GTi VR6 Mk 3 (or the Corrado), which proved to be a much better choice.

The only choice for the Trial was the Cobra which, it seems, was already specced up for dirt racing (previous seasonal. I guess). I came 3rd round La Selva, but neither I nor the player ahead of me could even get close to the Tristan bot. I drove from last place to second in the Tulum Trail, and victory was complete.

I did the HW PR stunt in the Hoonigan Porsche once I’d reduced the aero to minimum and got a one-third very good SWS out of it.

Today’s HW seasonal was The Goliath in hypercars. I didn’t fluff round, choosing the Jesko. I was rather puzzled when the car went flying after the exit from the loop and realised that aero was set to min. As a consequence, the lap was very fast and very scrappy in a time of 04:42.590.

The PR stunt in Sierra Nueva was a bit of a nuisance, but could be done in both directions. Another one-third good SWS.

I decided to use the 2005 WRX STi for Very Imprezzive, although the 2019 (?) WRX STi might’ve been a better choice. The wins were mostly sound even though I think the car was on stock tyres.

In other news

I completed a couple more of the stories in the game this week because I was bored and because I wanted a million points for accolades.

The steering issue mentioned above appears to stem from the d-key on my ikbc C210 mechanical keyboard having issues. It sometimes registers the keystroke when I press it, and sometimes doesn’t. (And when you’re an old git like me, you sooner wonder whether you somehow failed to type the letter than you wonder whether there’s some fault with the device.) I’ve switched back to the keyboard’s predecessor, my Cherry MX-Board 3.0, which confirms the diagnosis because the steering in FH4 was all right on this keyboard. (My test was multiple attempts at this week’s Goliath; multiple partly because of steering issues and partly because of the drivatars being dicks.)