Occasional Tales

I tried the RWD 33 Stradale in FH4 this morning and got a sound performance out of it. Was I going to get the same sort of quality in FH5 (looking at you, Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio). On a whim I took it round the Emerald Circuit in FH5 (A800, RWD, senza aero) and found it to be too floaty. There was also some weird drivatar behaviour with the drivatar in the GT40 Mk II driving very slowly and probably not even completing a full lap. I’ve never seen this sort of thing before. Overall, the 33 Stradale dominated all the races, and I’d recommend aero, but depending on the event, lowest aero settings seem fine. The Giulia TZ2 (A800, RWD, senza aero) is even lighter than the 33 Stradale. I tried it round the Estadio Circuit, but it got floaty through the dips and the rises, and I added aero. Like the 33 Stradale, that needs to be tuned for the course, although I note again that some parts of Dunas Blancas could do with aero and others don’t need it at all. I increased the aero for Plaza...

Finally an update which deserves the accolade. We finally have an update that will be difficult to dethrone as the Best Evah™ along with DLC which can also be accorded the same honour. We knew what was coming and we’re not being disappointed. All right, the cars are all recycled from FH4. The Lancia Fulvia is missing (shame) and the Alfa Romeo Stelvio (don’t care). I thought the Abarth 124 might be omitted because it’s merely a Mazda MX-5, and I feared the Biposto 695 might be replaced with the Abarth EV that Tim “Shmee150” Burton recently added to his garage. This update deserves praise because it has five decent cars for every shrug. As for the DLC, which is about £8, it’s worth it almost all the way. The previous DLC was one good car (the Emira), one sexy car (the Huayra R), and two that you were stuck with to get what you wanted. I’m guessing that some of the Lamborghinis have been imported from Forza Motorsport as promo for that game. I don’t know why the Italdesign Da Vinci Conc...

The content of Series 23 has been revealed, but immediately overshadowed by the news that Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Lancia will be returning to the game in Series 24. Although Series 23 may be called Summer Party, it really ought to be called the American Automotive Update (which as we now know sometime later, is series 27) since all we’re getting is a bunch of American muscle cars, the McLaren 765LT, and an SF90. This will be the third time the last of these has been a reward and yet there’s still no sign of the F8 Tributo making a second appearance in the game. The Deberti Mustang returns, although I can already hear a chorus of complaints about yet another Mustang. I like this particular car, but I could do without the other fat old American bangers that are about as redolent of summer as Christmas decorations. Of course, cue the usual hysterical sorts who think American muscle cars are the greatest ever etc. I assume the YouTubers will all claim this is the greatest update ever ...