FH5, Series 31, Week 1

“What are you rebelling against, Johnny?” How many mediocre reward cars have you got?

The weekly in the 458 Italia went off without any problems.

The HA was also easy money, although in the past couple of days, my connection in game has been less stable.

Eventlab (1), Coast City Circuit, was another example of a well-built track with an absolutely dreadful layout with too many tight turns for this to be fun.

Eventlab (2), Dancing Gopher, was a pretty decent scramble. One lap was enough, but it was all right. The placement of checkpoints ahead of corners was a bit disconcerting, but I can only guess the creator did that as a kind of marker for braking.

Eventlab (3), Powerplant Surge v. 1.3, was another sort of GTA 5 style circuit. Not too bad, but the props seemed a little patchy. Very good wheel spin afterwards.

Doing the collectibles got me the Valkyrie AMR Pro. More about that below.

As this is the first week of the series, it was time once again for Rivals. We had to drive the Valkyrie along Reservorio. Oh ha bloody ha, PGG. If the car had been added to FH4, Rivals would’ve been round the Festival Circuit or the Ambleside Village Circuit (and the car would’ve been released in winter). We had to drive the Lotus Esprit round Plaza Circuit, which isn’t a problem for me because I know it well. The car has, I think, terrible tyres, but I managed to survive without botching it.

And then it was EV time. I took the Battista round Lookout Circuit with a certain amount of care. I fear that the VW ID.4 was going to be a pain along Tunnel Run, but fortunately, it’s not some EV speed monster.

I managed to come 2nd overall in a Horizon Open championship and had a decent couple of races against another player in a 360 Challenge Stradale. Ended up having to deal with players who think that shoving is the same as racing.

I one-shotted all the PR stunts in the Volvo 850R, which I chose for these things because it had a marginally better PWR than the 242 Evo. Some partly very good SWS’s this week.

After that, it was time to get the Lancia Fulvia from Lucky Lancia. I picked the Lancia Delta Integrale because… oh, all right, it was in the right class. The Delta S4 was a naggy nuisance, and the races had to include Montaña just to irritate me.

I opted for the Ferrari Enzo for Ferrari Park. What pestered me? A drivatar in a Ferrari Enzo. The reward was a BMW, which makes so much sense after doing a seasonal in an Italian car.

I somehow one-shotted the HW PR stunt in the Rimac Nevera and got the most rubbish SWS.

I didn’t like Competitive Avant-age. Raced in the Zenvo, but not competently and got annoyed at the effort required to win a car I don’t care about. Got an utterly rubbish wheel spin, too. Up yours, game.

I also one-shotted the PR stunt in Sierra Nueva and got another crappy SWS.

At least Cupra-sized, which I did in the BMW X6 M, wasn’t a pain.

No, the Trial was where the pain really started. It started with the 2015 Porsche Cayman GTS, and seven or eight attempts later… nothing. The problem, it seemed to me, was too many inexperienced players attempting something they should stay away from or quit when it’s clear they’re not contributing anything. I missed a few checkpoints (a. stupidity; b. slow drivatar taking an inside line resulting in me understeering; c. punted by “teammate”, but I was driving a red car and might’ve been mistaken for a drivatar) and promptly quit to give everyone else a chance.

This led me to test the eligible cars to see what might work. The answer, I felt, was nothing. None of the modern European sports cars that fall in A or B class seemed to have anything special to offer. On the forums the chat was about the S1-class TVR Griffith, and from this cue, I thought I’d have a look at modern sports cars in S1 class, which led me to the 911 Speedster (car pass). I tried a build with drag tyres, but felt that it lacked sufficient grip and switched to off-road race tyres before returning to the Trial this afternoon. 3rd in Carretera, but the lead drivatars were uncatchable. Looked like a team loss, but we won. Jungle Descent, 3rd again, and a team win, but I wondered whether there was some Forza counting going on.

I also wanted to try the Valkyrie AMR Pro. I tried it out of the box, but for all the talk of 1,000hp (actually, 800hp without upgrades), I could only get it to 306kmh down the motorway. The tuning is 9/9 and after I made my usual adjustments, I got the car to 321kmh. Naturally, I wanted to try it round the HW Goliath. Oh dear. It was one of those races where the lead to drivatars hare off into the distance while the drivatars behind you keep harassing you. Not fun, and seeing the FE BMW X6 walking all over the Valkyrie was particularly galling.

I returned to Mexico to do the Horizon Festival Circuit. Same sort thing again. Bumped the car up to X class, added AWD (to counteract wheel spin in 2nd and 3rd gear), and tried again. Success, but of a hollow sort. Overall, this feels like a disappointment after all the hype that was emanating from FM8… sorry, FM (“built from the ground up”) about the car.