Occasional Tales

This week saw me polish off another notebook which, I see, I started using way back in Series 23. The most annoying thing about the weekly in the Lynk & Co. 03+ was spending CR60,000 on a car that needed little or no more money spent on it. I went with an engine swap, but this sort of thing only makes sense when the car is new. The danger sign was a matter of lather, rinse, repeat until I PB’ed it by a whisker. Best to start near the bonus board, and I suppose I ought to have tried to build my Jesko for dirt or off-road racing, but couldn’t be bothered. A one-third very good SWS. I one-shotted the drift zone and PB’ed it. My reward? A horrendously terrible SWS. The Eventlab tiles were broken again and only worked after I resumed the game after lunch. Eventlab (1) was Old Bridge Rally Stage . I used my A800 Extreme E (practice for the Trial). Not a bad circuit and the use of props was minimal, but effective. Eventlab (2), Gummy Bear Circuit , was generally not terrible, but in cockp...

Yes, I’m back from my hols. They seemed all too short as the missus will attest. I painted my Pagani. I went to the drowned church. I found treasure. We had to drive the Saleen S1 for the weekly challenge, a car I’ve done almost nothing with ever. No real problems doing the challenges. I assume I’ll drive the car again when they recycle this weekly. I got the HA in early. Some drifting. Less bungling than of late. I did the usual cheat with the speed trap on the bridge outside Mulegé by barrelling down the hill. The SWS was rubbish. The trailblazer was a colossal pain i’ th’ arse mainly because of the stones at the top are difficult to spot even when I’m using chase cam. I know there’s a path through the trees to the finish, although it’s easy to miss. I ended up in the FE Fairlady (or whatever it is), the off-roader, and got it done by a decent margin. However, this is a PR stunt which wastes time for an SWS that was one-third very good. I got my idiot reward of the week by photograph...

The treasure hunt was a matter of doing danger signs in my Bentley until I randomly hit whatever the target was. 100 FPs reward. I can spend them on, er… Somefink nice for the missus. The weekly in the 2017 Alpine A110 passed without anything of note occurring. I got through a wreckage HA by myself. I feared I might acquire 37 dependents who’d expect me to do all the work for them. I one-shotted all the PR stunts, even the speed trap. The trick there seems to be to use all the road from the top, but not to start booting it until you get to the right-hand curve that head down the hill. One SWS was one-third good, and the other two were rubbish. The photo unlocked the Dark Horse, which I’ve had a brief play with it, but have had enough of FH5 for the moment. Rivals round San Juan was advertising for the Universal Icons Car Pack. It was quite possibly the slowest Rivals event I’ve ever done. Línea Costera was a pain. Fat EV SUV, hopeless handling, several visits to Barry R. Not a fun ex...

“Four! Five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain! … – in all honesty I don’t know.” Why didn’t we get the Mustang Dark Horse instead of the GT as this was the obvious model to add to FH5 in the first place? Not that I mind the GT, but I have to admit I don’t bother with the (modern) Mustangs in the game because my attention is elsewhere. I hope this is another decent addition to the extensive line-up of Mustangs we already have. I also hope the wait for the GR Yaris was worthwhile and that it’s a good car on dirt. Kia… Er, EV… Eerr, SUV… Eeerrr. No, seriously, no. Marketing. Another Hyundai Ioniq. Still no. Marketing. What the hell’s a Taycan CT? It looks to be an estate car version of the over gifted, unwanted Taycan. No again. Yes, I know the WP Taycan can be a missile, but this looks like another instance of FH5 as a marketing platform. Where’s the latest 911 GT3 RS? As for the Universal Icons Car Pack, I see nothing to actually excite me. Three Deloreans is a bit l...

The treasure hunt returns. As my Sagaris, well, one of them, couldn’t hit the required speed, I switched to the Cerbera. Job done and I went and got my treasure. The weekly was in the BMW M1. As others have observed, we had to race it first and then upgrade it. It’s fairly iffy stock. Anyway, there were no major issues with the weekly, but it was annoying to upgrade it after the race. Chance I’ll drive it again? Remote. The sole Eventlab this week was Waterfall GP . It’s the sort of circuit which needs practice beforehand. I thought some of the turns were a little too tight, Again, scaling. Two laps were quite enough. Once again, I did some practice last week for the PR stunts. The BMW M3 GTR was good for the job, although it took me two attempts to take the jump because of the unusual amount of traffic just ahead of the left-hander ahead of the danger sign. A one-third very excellent and one-third very good SWS. I one-shotted both drift zones, but ineptly and got a one-third very good...

Move along, nothing much to see here. All right, the 2021 Lamborghini Countach is a welcome addition. I’m hoping that there might be something else that turns out to be a nice surprise. The Citroen BX4TC is apparently a failed Group B rally car, but might be all right on dirt. I can’t imagine the 1986 BMW M6 will be much different from other BMWs of the period (probably right down to the tuning and the perks; #CopyandPaste). I tried the Lotus Esprit in FH4 last night and found to my surprise that I must’ve driven it fairly recently because I didn’t need to retune it. It wasn’t bad to drive, but struggled to get away from the drivatars in the Colossus by a decent margin. I must try the BMW 850CSi again as well, but I didn’t think much of it the last time and doubt whether I’ll like it better this time. The motorway decorations will sync to your music, but that can be switched off. Might work well with the yoof stations or the new station, but perhaps not with Radio Eterna. I wonder whet...