FH6, Series 5, Week 4

 I guessed that the treasure was to be found in the north corner of the spaceport. I was right. First time in ages.

I needed to do Aston Martin Nights to get the DB5. I used the DB7. Festival Chase was awful in cockpit view with all the spray coming off the road, Matsumi Climb switched to daylight, but the additional traffic didn’t actually affect the race ’cos it was way easier to see. Shimanoyama Charge was a repeat of the preceding race, but at night.

And then I was able to do the weekly except I upgraded the car before leaving my house, which meant I had to do a drivetrain swap to spend CR20,000 on the car, leave the house, and return to undo all of it. A couple of Street Scene races. Gods! An HSP interrupted this, but this week I jumped on it, and then one-shotted the SZ task.

And as I was in the DB5, this was also a good opportunity to deal with the photo to acquire yet another stupid phrase that no sane adult would ever utter.

Rally on Dirt was B-class total rally, but that seemed tantamount to “B-class modern rally”. I chose the Subaru Legacy for the races. Terrible driving in Oyashirazu because I don’t really know the course. Airfield Trail was more of the same, but if PGG made it worth my while, perhaps I’d bother with these races. I’m more familiar with the Horizon Stadium Scramble, but I was merely less inept.

I had no ideas what I should use of the Shimanoyama DA, and ended up in the Metro 64R, which I had to retune, although how I hit the target score, I don’t know. I don’t see the point of trying to drift in A class.

The Ine Beach ST took a couple of goes. The DB7 almost managed it, but the stock 2019 Vantage had the necessary top end. Rubbish WS. I guessed that the AM DBX was about the only eligible B-class vehicle for the Clifftop Crest DS. One-shotted. Rewarded with a 928 GTS.

There were very few options for the Trial (unless you wanted to start doing silly tyre swaps). I ended up using the Aventador Ultimae, which I was able to build and tune (although it was understeery). There were only two of us, with the other player being in the 2012 Aventador (which is a car I still don’t have; nor the Apollo IE). I came 5th in the Ito Sprint, but the other player bolted away and got us the win. We lost Shimanoyama, but that seemed to be one where the drivatars were off like rockets and uncatchable because there weren’t enough turns where I could pass them. My teammate also fell to the back for some reason (missed checkpoint?) and was unable to make up a sufficient number of places to save us. I came 5th again. Lastly, the Satta Sprint, which went much like Ito, with the other player putting on an impressive burst of speed to carry us to victory. I finished in 5th again because some annoying drivatar suddenly passed me by in the most casually easy fashion imaginable. Little bastard. (I also note that at one point one of the drivatars flew through the air without taking a jump first.)

Horizon Racing was also a trial because the game doesn’t specifically prohibit custom racing. I did quite a few custom races before I realised the error of my ways. Once I got the message that I’d got a McLaren 650S, I knew that I’d completed the task and could stop participating in the whole loathsome business. Again, why isn’t there some sort of ranked racing which spares us the try-hards and exploiters.

The Eliminator was also a trial. On my first attempt there were 70 players. I got to about 60th. On the second attempt there were 65. I managed to get to 50th. On my final attempt I started in Narai-Juku and largely trundled up and down the same stretches of road. I did win one head-to-head because my opponent was trying to be a little too clever. At that point there were 30 players left and all I needed was for some kind soul to release me from this vile purgatory.

I did try the Vauxhall Astra, which was actually quite decent to drive. I’m used to FWD cars being all wheel spin off the line, but the launch was good. I can’t say I gave a damn about this week’s reward cars.

As for the forthcoming series, I saw something about 7-Eleven doing a Hot Wheels promo (cue all the dim bulbs screaming, “We don’t want no stinking Hot Wheels expas… expan… DLC!”) Perhaps we’re going to be getting some Hot Wheels cars; if this is true, I’ve seen nothing further about it. Or is this going to be one of those promos? Buy a Hot Wheels car from 7-Eleven and get a code to unlock some uninspiring car with a one-off livery in FH6. Where I used to be, there were 7-Elevens. Where I am now, there are none.