FH5, Series 33, Week 3

 The weekly challenge was in the 2018 911 GT2 RS. I used Street Scene for the Rivals challenge for reasons I’ve previously mentioned – I’ve not generally used Street Scene for Rivals. I tried to use one of this week’s Eventlabs for the Eventlab task, but it didn’t register, and I used some circuit created by DJS to deal with this.

Eventlab (1). Park Valley Raceway. I drove my BMW M3 GTR again round this nice, flowing circuit and got an SWS that was one-third good.

Eventlab (2). GP Mantavo. Went with the Elise 190. This was another good, flowing circuit. The reward was a BMW i8. I’ve actually seen one of these unpopular cars in real life.

Eventlab (3). Kruos Circuit. Rubbish. Another track that’s mostly ridiculously tight corners in 2nd gear. Might improve with a good deal of practice, but there’s good technical and bad technical.

I started the PR stunts with the 1966 Porsche 906, which did the Riviera Maya speed zone in one go for an SWS which the critics said was “utter rubbish”. I switched to the ropey Alfa Romeo TZ2 (which I used last week for the speed trap in Sierra Nueva) for Cloverleaf because the 906 didn’t have enough top speed. The biggest nuisance was the turn before the Street Scene Festival site, but other than that, the car had no problems hitting the required speed. Once again, the critics found the SWS to be “disappointing”. I one-shotted Swamplands in the 906 by a whisker, starting from the dirt road to the south. The SWS was one-third all right.

I took a picture. I got gloves. Now I can steal things from widows and orphans, and leave no fingerprints.

This was also the point at which I unlocked the Evo TA car, which I used to smash the collectibles round the Apex site. More about the car below.

The BMW Z4 Roadster was, I think, the best choice for On the Run. I’d used my A-class 2020 Supra for a recent daily, but had found it unsatisfactory. The Z4 made light work of the races and I got another 2018 911 GT2 RS. My third?

The only car I had that was ready to race in Going for Marigold was my Shelby Cobra Daytona, which I ought to have switched it back to RWD. Perhaps. Part of me wanted to because of Panorámica, but part of me preferred the benefits of AWD to obviate sliding out of corners. I got a third Lola from this. I know this is my third because when I was looking for classic racers, I found I had two already and have driven neither of them. I think I tried the car in FH4 before it got added to FH5 and found it to have such terrible handling that I’ve never even bothered with it since.

The botch of the week – unless you’re German – is that the car for Horizon Open is supposed to be a BMW when, in fact, it’s meant to be a KTM. I used one of my GT4s, which is also when I unlocked the KTM X-Bow GT4. #ForcedEngagement #Irony. The KTM GT4 is an odd car in that it’s allegedly an extreme track toy, but would be better in with the track toys. It’s a car that ought to be good, but is in wholly the wrong category.

I surveyed my Renault Clios for the Trial and selected the Clio Williams because it had the most scope for upgrading. I left it FWD and off I went. I know some players weren’t too keen on Bola Ocho, but I know what to do and managed a 2nd. The Teagan drivatar was off like she had a billion Scoville Units up her posterior. And then Winter Wonderland (#ForcedEngagement). I was briefly in 1st and just as I was thinking that I was set to win the race, Teagan passed me by, and once again, I finished in 2nd. However, in both races, there was solid support from the rest of the team apart from one clown who was prestige nine, level 2,999, who just managed to avoid getting DNF’ed at the end of Winter Wonderland. The EB110 is a little different from the Lola in that it’s quite drivable in FH4, but rubbish in FH5.

I managed to one-shot the HW PR stunt in my 2012 Nissan GT-R and was rewarded with a one-third good SWS.

I have no idea what hazard race contains what sort of hazard. Seagulls after your chips? Pink-faced gammons? The Guardian being the modern Temperance Movement (and just generally disapproving)? I thought I’d better choose something with rally pedigree for the HW seasonal, From Forest to Frost. I chose the Nissan Pulsar. It was very fast and had somewhat iffy handling, but duffed up the drivatars. I probably ought to have stuck with the 2012 GT-R, but the Pulsar got the job done.

I managed to one-shot the RA PR stunt in the 2012 Mini JCW even though it had next to no upgrades. More noteworthy was that I passed prestige 6, level 600.

In the Works. B700 Mini, it said. I spent time building the 1965 Mini JCW, went to start the races, and found that that model was excluded (why?) I was forced to use the 2012 Mini JCW again. Well, not forced, but I couldn’t be bothered building any of the others to the right spec. Yes, I won the races. No, I can’t say that it was a bunch of fun in an understeery German barge. I got a T-shirt which, I believe, I already have.

The Evo TA car seems to have everyone falling into one of two camps. On the one hand, AR12 Nick was in a right bate because he couldn’t graft the transwarp drive from a Borg cube onto the car, or castrate it into S1 class. On the other hand, DUBS thought it was brilliant.

I think it’s very niche and I think it’s in the wrong category. I thought I’d try the Volcán Sprint. I pulled the plug on that idea when it became apparent that the car had no chance of making any headway against the drivatars. I switched to doing S2-class Rivals in a few events, and so long as I hadn’t already done the event, the Evo TA was quite good; but if I’d done rivals in S2 class previously, the car didn’t have a chance. “Close, but no biscuit” as the critics say.

My advice would be to opt for Anything Goes (a category I generally abhor) because the car’s outmatched by other extreme track toys. As a final thought, this is also what I’d do with the KTM X-Bow GT4, which is also out of its depth against other cars in the same category.