FH5, Series 37, Week 1

Treasure hunt. Has to be done in the Polestar. Trailblazer off the motorway. Job done.

I used the weekly challenge in the 2010 Audi TT RS to do the Switchbacks PR stunt (terrible SWS).

My first attempt to do the danger sign got ruined by a front flip. Terrible SWS. I one-shotted the speed trap and got another terrible SWS.

Rivals. (1) Bola Ocho, Fiesta ST. Rain and understeer, the winning combination. (2) Gran Pantano. Toyota Camry. This thing will be better with upgrades. (3) El Pípila. The Durango. Overpowered, fast and wobbly. (4) Dunas Blancas. Lucid Air. What?! Again?! Overpowered, fat barge. I think I did take the car out for a spin the last time it was in the game, and even on gentle corners it wanted to go sideways.

Eventlab (1). Yes, the tiles were actually working this week. Black Sands Truck Ranch. Terrible “track”. The first hairpin need a mid-corner checkpoint or something. Prop placement ahead of the final corner was terrible. The reward was another MB A45. Third? Probably.

Eventlab (2). Super Twisted Noodle Circuit. Oh dear, I thought when I saw the name. I was pleasantly surprised. The track is a little bit kiddie kart racer, but not actually annoying, suggesting that some proper thought and planning went into this. Excellent use of props and elevation changes. Rubbish SWS.

I did Horizon Open in my Abarth 124 Spider. Got in on the second race (Bola Ocho) and managed a 5th. A lot of players were already in the 2022 Ford Focus ST. Managed a 4th round Lookout. So glad that Horizon Open is such a balanced game mode.

I briefly flirted with the Cupra Formentor, but it was overpowered and I switched to the more reliable Porsche Macan for Mud Runners. No probs. Job done.

I did some testing for Muscle Bound yesterday. Didn’t like the Viper AE (too sketchy). Tried the 2009 Corvette. Decided to test the 2016 Cadillac ATS-V because of the (sadly ineligible) racing version. My first build had a PWR of 0.660 and the handling to match. Once the car got up to speed it was all right, but the launch was awful. Rebuilt it to a PWR of 0.350 (which translates to S1 822). Three sprint races, sound performance. I was expecting the new sprint races to feature in the Festival playlist this week. Apparently not. Third BMW 1M.

I did a wreckage skills HA, but think I picked up a friend on round 2.

For the Trial I initially inclined towards the Hyundai i30N, which I’ve liked in previous championships, but ended up with the 2016 Honda Civic Type R. Against type I slapped drag tyres on it. I started on the front row of the human grid for Sierra Verde. I managed to survive the sharp right-hander, but some clown in an OP Golf went slamming into the wall, narrowly missing me (although I don’t think he was trying to nobble me). Once again my superior cornering skills helped and I won the race. There was some Forza counting again as it was a team loss… win! I think we won because the player in last place quit. I was in much the same spot on the grid for Mulegé, but the Golf proved too fast on the straights, and the player in the Golf managed to maintain a decent level of control round the corners. Solid team win. The reward was a Jaguar XE-S. Third again? Don’t know.

I tried the HW PR stunt in the GTC4 Lusso, but although it could hit the target speed, it slowed just ahead of the speed trap. Switched to the Monza SP2. All trousers, no handling, job done. The SWS was one-third good. I ought to have done it from the opposite direction.

Grounding Out was another HW seasonal which needs to explicitly state that there was one road race and two off-road races. I used my BMW X6 even though the tyres are stock. I retuned it for the speed bumps race, and thought the snow races was also on the road. No. I stuck with the tuning I had, but this sort of thing is irritating.

The RA PR stunt was that annoying speed zone in the north-east of Sierra Nueva. Took me a couple of attempts mainly because I’d forgotten the route and kept going into one corner far too fast. I also did it uphill. What a showoff skill I am.

Reap the Rewards was another series of mixed races. I started with the Lynk & Co. 03+ because it was pret-à-drive [Quality French. –ed.]. And then I found that the other two events were dirt races. All three were at night and in the rain, so there was some consistency after all. I switched to my 2013 Audi RS7, which was a good choice.

The new sprint races

I assume these have been added so that they can be trumpeted as New Content™. Actually, San Juan is part of the Colossus, and the rest frequently coincide with the routes of various other races. As I thought, it’s a matter of becoming familiar with them.

I also assume that there’s some target demographic driving this. For the most part I tend to use sprints when I’m testing cars and builds and want comparatively short races. I’m not sitting here wringing my hands and exclaiming, “Why do all the good ones die young?” [Er, ‘Why can’t we have more sprint races?’ –ed.]

The game now has more sprint road races than circuits, but if you add Street Scene as well, then the circuits are massively outnumbered.

For me these fall under heading of “fine”, but must admit that I’ve never really gelled with the previous four new sprint races and probably won’t ever gel with these. The one good thing I can say about all eight of them is that none of them are as irksome as Panorámica and Reservorio.

Ford Focus ST (2022)

I suppose it’s appropriate to add the last Ford Focus to the game. Tuning 1/9. Perks – a bunch of irrelevant rubbish probably copy-and-pasted from the …\perks\generic\ folder. Turbo rally engine swap. Er, well… That’s it! Some cosmetic body parts. Shrug. Make them tunable.

I built this to the top of A class, leaving it FWD, and did the four new sprint races. It was – sorry, have to use the word again – fine. Obviously a bit understeery at times, but all right and no more than that.

Since the engine swap is the turbo rally, I assume we’re really meant to go dirt racing in the car. Again, A-class build (AWD sans aero; I should perhaps have added aero). Again, it was fine, but no more than that. Between road and dirt racing in this car, I’d prefer the latter. I expect we’ll get some message about the Focus ST as a rally car.

Overall, I see no reason to prefer this over the 2017 Focus or even the 2009 model.