Occasional Tales

The title of the weekly challenge is Corvette Racing . “Drive the 2015 Camaro,” it says. Ah, that must be how the Americans pronounce “Corvette”. That wasn’t the only oddity because when I did the speed trap task, I used the ST that was also one of this week’s PR stunts. The game ought to have been giving me irate messages such as “Wrong car, you utter arse!” But it seemed not to mind that I wasn’t in an S2-class car. I also used the Camaro Z28 for the photo. The tank is on the wall to the left on the wiggly street as you look towards the statue up the hill. I did the collectibles as well, but had an HA to contend with. There’s no need to try and hit the cubes in awkward places unless you’re being a try-hard. I think I said this last time we did this. PR stunts. The DS took a couple of goes, but I managed to PB it on the second attempt, and the SWS was one-third very good. I one-shotted the ST, but there was some rewinding because of annoying traffic. On-third good SWS. I also one-shot...

I drifted down Costa Este for the treasure hunt and still managed over 800,000 points in spite of my lack of practise. I can’t even recall what the treasure was, but suspect that 100,000FPs are not far away. Nothing much to report about the weekly. I did Marigold for the race, my usual speed zone, and easily hit the speed target. I one-shotted the DS for a two-thirds good SWS. I PB’ed the ST on the bridge outside Mulegé for another two-thirds good SWS. Took me a couple of attempts to do the SZ because I was too tentative on my first try. The SWS was one-third good. Eventlab (1). Parametric . Props – full marks. Road surface – pah! Track layout – fine. Choice of cars – inappropriate. Nighttime – all marks deducted for annoying me. Eventlab (2). Miami Vice Riverside Drive . I went with the Ferrari Challenge Stradale for this one. Props were all right, the layout was fine (but say it in an ironic tone of voice). Nighttime – sodding irritating again. The SWS was one-third good. The Trial...

I probably haven’t driven the Meyers Manx since the last time we were forced to drive this thing. In the Baja California race, it was completely outclassed by the Delorean and the VW Thing (which introduced this week’s theme – drivatars cheating in dirt races). As I’ve said before, this is the sort of car that’s driven by pretty blonde girls in tampon adverts. For this week’s DZ, it immediately became apparent that you’re supposed to use one of the Hoonigan clown cars. Rubbish SWS. I’m OK with the TB, La Marisma , even if I don’t ever do it. I’m not OK when I get bounced into a tree, but my Renault 5 Turbo was the right car for the job. The game being the veriest model of generosity gave me yet another crappy SWS. Eventlab. Guanajuato Race Track . One lap would’ve been enough of this combination of Panorámica and Cathedral . Good use of props. Baja Mil was the most annoying thing since the last time it was the most annoying thing. I’m sure I repeated myself by starting in the Desert...

The treasure hunt was to do the TB that ends in Las Ranas (sp? where the start of the Eliminator is). It took several goes because I haven’t attempted this TB in ages. I know there’s a path through the trees that makes the sharp left-hander less painful, but I’ve forgotten where it is. I eventually managed to three-star it, but not in a way that might attract the adjective “competent”. The weekly was in the Vūhl. I had to switch to my S2-class Vūhl for the DS. I one-shotted the DS of a one-third excellent SWS. The SZ was once again a massive pain, although it took me fewer tries to complete it than it did previously and the SWS was one-third very good. Eventlab (1). The Sierra Annual River Run was a solo jaunt in unlimited off-roaders. It wasn’t a bad idea, but the wriggly first sector was irritating as was the declaration “The crowd grows wild” when it ought to be “The crowd goes wild”. And that got me my fourth FE MB CLK GTR. Eventlab (2). Holiday Dash was a decent, intermediate-l...

No treasure hunt this week, which meant straight on with the weekly in the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor. The biggest bother this week was having to amass 500,000 skill points. The only fortunately here was the random arrival of a skill song on the radio. This was a week of very painful PR stunts. The ST (speed trap) was the same as the one we did last week or the week before. In spite of my Mitsubishi Evos apparently having the speed, they were way short of the target. The answer was the Eclipse, which you could equip with off-road race tyres. However, that all took about 20 minutes and thoroughly annoyed me because I wish we’d be told which car could actually achieve the target. The reward this time was a car. I one-shotted the SZ (speed zone) in the Porsche Macan for a one-third good SWS. I knew the TB (trailblazer) was going to be a massive pain i’ th’ arse and it was. Almost every run I did was a second short. I’d forgotten that the car to use was the VB Beetle and must’ve spent the bett...