FH5, Series 47, Week 2

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-shotted the DZ, but not with the greatest competence for a one-third excellent and one-third good SWS.

Eventlab (1). Slippery when wet. I picked the  M-Sport Fiesta for this one. Marks on for props. Marks off for night. All marks off for the use of ghastly neon lighting.

Eventlab (2). Horizon Midnight Scene. This turned out to be a road race even though it looked like a dirt race with a large tarmac component. I went with the 2013 Audi RS7 Sportback. Props good, and the layout was mostly all right apart from a blind left hand corner that was obscure by trees. The SWS was rubbish.

I one-shotted the HW PR stunt for a two-thirds excellent and one-third very good SWS. I tried the RA PR stunt, but the conditions this week are rubbish, and I thought, “Why am I wasting my time on this absolutely rubbish ST?” I tried it a bit later until it started raining and my non-existent interest entirely evaporated.

The it was on to the Trial. I’d already been hearing things about Tierra Próspera, and my attempt to do a five-lap race at lunchtime seemed to confirm that there could be issues. (I had thought the drivatars were set to Pro or Unbeatable, but when I checked later, I found they were on Expert; this track, though, can be a drivatar cheatfest.) I started on the back row and came 1st, but there was just enough support from the rest of my team. I started on the second row for Los Jardines and came 1st again. What were my teammates doing? No idea. This was going to be down to Riviera. I was on the front row for this one and ploughed through the drivatars even though the car was a bit of a slug on launch. Yes, another 1st, and sound support from the rest of my team. I strongly suspect that everyone else was in absolutely stock Corsas, whereas I’d built and tuned mine, which is probably what gave me the edge.

I finished off with the seasonal Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Porsche to get the Backstage Pass. I was in the Carrera 6 on stock tyres, and it was all night, night, bloody night with vile neon lighting. This series is a visual offence under the Geneva Convention.

Horizon Tour

I’ve been doing a lot of Horizon Tour racing this week and generally doing quite well. In the S1 900 anything-goes cross country race series, I turned up in my Jeep Trailcat, which only S1 847, and apart from beating the drivatars, I expected little else. There was a genuine prestige 9 player, and another prestige 8 player, both of whom were in S1 900 cars. Nonetheless, I managed to win all three races by a decent margin.

On the other hand I was doing the Chevrolet vs. Dodge series in my 1969 Charger. I won Mulegé by 13 seconds, but in Gran Pantano was deliberately, viciously, violently and malevolently punted off the course. I quit as there was clearly no point in wasting my time with a bunch of bad-tempered asses for teammates.

I’ve kept ending up in races in the 2015 Range Rover SVR. I have two of them, both of which are outstanding. I think one is meant to be for dirt racing and the other for cross country racing, but I have no idea which is which even though they’re two different colours. Mind you, I have an advantage in the A800 Rule Britannia cross-country series when other players turn up in Aston Martin Vantages or Vanquishes. I confess that there have been one or two occasions when I’ve also been guilty of such solecisms because I’ve been an inattentive old git.