FH5, Series 36, Week 1

I started this series last night, which meant that today’s MS outrage… sorry, general MS outage didn’t inconvenience me quite as much as it might’ve if I’d waited till today to deal with the Festival playlist.

In accordance with long established traditions, I began with the treasure hunt, driving over some bumpy terrain north of Playa Azul to randomly complete the challenge.

The weekly was in the Honda S2000 CR. It included the Volcán Sprint, which was also in the Up to Grade seasonal. Did no one at PGG notice this reduplication?

I one-shotted the Coast View speed trap from the north, just picking up enough speed without taking too long of a run-up. As I predicted, I was too slow to be able to complete Océano Azul from the north, but had no problems starting from the main Festival site. The two SWSs were one-third good. One-shotted Punta Allen from the south and got a rubbish SWS.

I dealt with the HA and the picture beside the statue. The latter got me yet another ridiculous outfit that merely reminds of those sad people who are trying to promote some shop, and be enticing to children rather than terrifying.

Another strategic round of the Eliminator. Rather good wheel spin afterwards.

For Cosworth a Try, I chose the 1971 Nissan Skyline. Went AWD and aero to compensate for a lack of tyre upgrades, which made the car a bit more manageable. Won the 1992 Escort Cosworth, which is ironic because…

…after starting Up to Grade with the 2020 Supra, I switched to my rally-specced 1992 Escort Cosworth, which proved to be just the thing for wet tracks. The reward was the 1997 Skyline in a week where if you didn’t have the car for the PR stunts, you needed to do a seasonal championship first.

I’d forgotten about Rivals which once again ended up being some advertising for the car pack. I had problems with Cathedral Circuit because the first time I did it, the lap didn’t register and I had to repeat it. The new Mazda MX-5 felt like a sound performer out of the box, and by the time I did Copper Canyon in the Aventador Ultimae, I’d already been driving it.

Anyway, this morning the xbox app was spitting out warnings that nothing was working, and it wasn’t till after lunch that I did the Eventlab events. And once again, the tiles weren’t working last night. Eventlab (1), Mink Creek Circuit, was a struggle against an OP Lynk & Co. 02. Rubbish SWS.

Eventlab (2), Jumbo Jangle Juggernaut. I picked the BMW M3 GTR, but the car really needed semi-slicks or slicks. It’s also one of those tracks that really needs practice. Not a terrible example of the art.

I liked Jungle Rally Circuit, and the FE Puma romped round it, spanking the drivatars by a decent margin. That got me my third M-Sport Fiesta.

I came 5th in both races of the Trial, but humanity won by creating a solid bloc of cars. Two of the drivatars blasted off into the distance in Aerodrómo, and we had one of them do the same in Gran Pantano, although the winning player managed to pass it. I went with the Renault 5 Turbo, but with some trepidation because I feared that it’d languish, especially Gran Pantano. In fact, the car performed much better, and at one point I was the first player in Gran Pantano. It didn’t last, but the other players drove cleanly. Pity they couldn’t take corners competently. There was, though, some weirdness near the end of Gran Pantano. One player seemed to have understeered round the right-hander ahead of Playa Azul (easy to do), and another player spun very late in the race (snagged on a wall?)

I thought that I’d do a proper drift build with the RX-7 Spirit for the HW PR stunt. A sadly stupid idea as the car refused to drift. I ended up doing a road build with spongy springs and stock tyres, and hit the target by a generous margin. The SWS was one-third excellent and one-third good.

I decided to use the Ferrari F12 tdf for That’s the Spirit. I’ve used the Ferrari Enzo several times for these sorts of races. Not sure whether the F12 tdf was quite the right car to use, but it was ready to go after a little tuning. Third RX-7 Spirit.

Somehow I one-shotted the RA PR stunt with a short run-up. The car swept through the corners as if they were nothing of much consequence.

Turning up the Heat was road racing. I wish it said “road racing” in words because I expect races in Sierra Nueva to be dirt affairs. My choice of car was the 2003 Ford Focus RS which can be built to keep it to C600 and yet unlock all the tuning options. Basically, the trick is to add aero. Apart from understeer, the car was a sound performer.

Now, this Aventador Ultimae. Yes, I still think we have quite enough Aventadors in the game without the addition of another variant, but after watching AR12 Nick’s video about the car in which he whined that you couldn’t install a billion hp in the car, I welcome the Ultimae with open arms. I haven’t done anything much with it, but it’s nice to drive out of the box. Ditto the AM Vanquish Zagato, which I’ve also taken out for a brief jaunt after getting back to Mexico and finding that I’d earned the Brownie points for it.