FH5, Series 35, Week 3

Yes, I’m back from my hols. They seemed all too short as the missus will attest.

I painted my Pagani. I went to the drowned church. I found treasure.

We had to drive the Saleen S1 for the weekly challenge, a car I’ve done almost nothing with ever. No real problems doing the challenges. I assume I’ll drive the car again when they recycle this weekly.

I got the HA in early. Some drifting. Less bungling than of late.

I did the usual cheat with the speed trap on the bridge outside Mulegé by barrelling down the hill. The SWS was rubbish. The trailblazer was a colossal pain i’ th’ arse mainly because of the stones at the top are difficult to spot even when I’m using chase cam. I know there’s a path through the trees to the finish, although it’s easy to miss. I ended up in the FE Fairlady (or whatever it is), the off-roader, and got it done by a decent margin. However, this is a PR stunt which wastes time for an SWS that was one-third very good.

I got my idiot reward of the week by photographing a Korean car.

Eventlab (1). California Hills Highway. Not a bad layout or decorations, but the road surface was terrible, and expecting that it might be rally racing, I went for the Subaru STi S209 which wasn’t really the car to use, but you could cut corners to gain on the drivatars. You also had to do this to get the retrowave outfit which I probably ignored; or got again. No idea, don’t care.

Eventlab (2). Ark Drift City Dash GP. A silly, annoying spaghetti layout in which in spite of getting a bit lost and going the wrong way, I still managed to emerge ahead of the drivatars. I suspect that it might’ve been possible to cheat outrageously and drive straight to the finish line once you’d reached a certain point in the course. Thank the gods this was only one lap. I don’t mind another Lexus RC F, but I probably now have three of them.

For Light as a Chevy, I picked the Hyundai i30N. It was a good choice once again. The AI traffic was absent again, which isn’t such a bad thing. The reappearance of Tunnel Run was a bit irksome. The reward, a 2016 Corvette, is decent, but how is the car connected to Korea?

I was a lazy boy with Lancia Me This because the Delta HF Integrale was ready to go apart from some minor adjustments to the tuning. There might’ve been something better, but it did well enough. I think I managed to survive Montaña without actually banging into a single wall. Another Range Rover Velar. No. 3.

Sprinting to the Finish was another reminder of how awful hypercars are to drive in this game and why it needs motorsport tracks. I picked the Zenvo TSR-S which was fast, but sketchy. And why was the reward the Rimac Concept 2, a car which has been superseded by the Nevera? What? Same actress, different hair? Oh.

I survived the Eliminator long enough to get my fourth (?) Zenvo TSR-S.

I opted for the McLaren 570S for the Trial. Team win in Panorámica, but I only managed 8th place. The start of the race was a massive mess which I bumped into and bounced off. I later thought that some car behind me was a drivatar until I realised it was a player, but in letting him pass me, I let two drivatars by as well. Round Lookout I started from last and managed a 2nd place. Team win. We got an Alumi Craft buggy. What’s Alumi Craft to do with McLaren?

I one-shotted the HW PR stunt and PB’ed it in my Jesko. It was the speed trap beyond the loop. Again.

The question I had about Red, White and Blue was “What should I drive?” And also, “What sort of races are these?” All right, two questions; talk about value for money. I thought about the Crown Vic for the first race and then opted for the GT70, which was not a good choice because this included snow and ice sections. I tried the CJ5 Renegade for the circuit race, which is really just a road race with ice sections. So, game, tell me it’s a road race. The label “hazard” is uninformative. The car was all right in spite of not being built for this sort of racing. I switched to the 2017 Ford Focus for the final race, which was another road race, the one with the speed bumps. Another Maserati GTS for the collection. My, er, third?

The RA PR stunt was that damnable sand dune jump which reminds me of that awful desert jump in Lego Valley (the autumn PR stunt?) Several attempts to hit the target. SWS? Utter rubbish.

I chose the Tavascan Concept for T-Rexing through Dirt. Meanwhile, the drivatars were in cars like the McLaren Sabre because that’s just the thing to use in dirt races. The Tavascan might be a bit fat and slidey, but it put the drivatars to shame. At least I didn’t have to worry about gears. I can either watch the road or change gear in Sierra Nueva, but struggle to do both effectively.

I’ve had a fiddle with the GR Yaris and have built it to the top of A class, but haven’t got round to trying it properly. I can do that tomorrow.