Beater or Sleeper? GT6 Car of the Week Thread

A Galant Showdown

To the ones who were there last night, you already know the story.

To the ones who weren't, this is a story about me, Lady Luck, slightly superior 4wd rivals, the Ring and my modified Galant.

All wrapped up in the former life of GT5. :P

As me and my fellow racers gathered at the start, an old friend crept into my mind. His name was Worry and he made his presence known.

My rivals had all sorts of 4wd turbo'd racers, Evos galore, a skyline or two and a Subaru Wagon painted very blue. He and a Golf R will play a big part in this whole battle.

As we left the start and battled around the F1 circuit, any optimism I had was dropping away fast and we only just got to the start of the Green Hell.

As I went full throttle, struggling to stay close, I was starting to slowly lose hope, of the smell of victory and gold awaiting the winner.

This bleakness of defeat was right behind me even though no else was....

Until Lady Luck took pity on me and threw me a life line of sorts.

The Wagon very blue who until this moment was leading this race overcooked a turn and screwed up his race.

While others went through and got caught in the guys blunder, I dove through the smoke like Days of Thunder and lucky me, no crashes happened to good ol' me.

With this newly established luck, I set about chasing the Golf R who was now making a run for the gold, but he had me on his tail and there's still the long straight to go.

As we came on to the straight which a few years later would see two fast Brits go side by side in Rockets, I was within attacking distance and I made my move half way down. The battle was half won, but this is where the Golf driver showed his true colours.

In a attempt to take it back, he cut the grass and took it back and left it late to hit the brakes. I slip back past and then WHACK!!.

He wanted me off the track, but the car and me had come too far to budge now so we held off the hit and took away the win.

To this day, that trophy still holds the name, Linthuim Victory.

My predecessor, my GT5 life. :bowdown:

And this car, like the person who drove it that day, was out of his depth and yet it kept going.

Driving it again in GT6 with the same paint scheme back then, to say I was just smiling would probably be lying. :lol:

When all's said and done, it's good to see the old girl run. :cheers:

Verdict? Sleeper. 👍
Why? Punching above its weight, that's why. :D
 
Sorry that I couldn't make it, I was a little busy last night*, but I'll try and get there for next time.

Didn't really get a chance to drive the Superbird last week either, but I have been using it frequently ever since. If only the stock transmission was longer it would be great in my opinion, for it's size, age and weight, it handles better than expected. I found that gradually bringing the throttle on from about 60% power when at an apex eliminated the one tyre wheelspin, allowing the Superbird to launch out of the corner.

When you add more rear brake bias and some rear ballast, the car's handling is borderline exceptional - extremely smooth, planted and predictable, however that does not mean it can match smaller car's cornering speeds.

I haven't driven the Galant stock, I have one tuned for 500pp (I think) and remembered it being slow and unimpressive compared to other cars tuned to the same PP. A shame as it would make a great sleeper. I will have to try it out in stock form against other cars of the same PP to see how it fairs.

*Gee, hope no one has any disturbing images next time we're racing.
 
Took the Galant VR-4 around Sierra for a couple of laps. It´s a ok car. It handle pretty good. Prone to understeer though, as most 4WD cars. Best time I managed was 11:47 (not a perfect lap, missed a couple of corners)

If you de-wing it and paint it in a solid white or beige, keep the original rims, it will sure look like a sleeper. Only thing that gives away, that this is something more than the ordinary Galant, is the 2.0 DOHC VR-4 writing on the sides.
 
Congratulations turismoslayer!

Tell us what we've won....

'98 Ford Taurus SHO. What is this thing really? And what were they thinking? Cosworth block, Yamaha head? Okay. A V8 with FF layout and a 4AT? Much to be desired but what ever it is, it's this weeks COTW!

That's right, the 1998 Ford Taurus SHO!!!

SCS001167.jpg


Ok, so that's not the actual car that we're testing pictured above, but try finding pics of girls posing next to one. We'd wait, but we'd rather be racing instead. Look, it's this, or the estate version that's bagged, with it's ass up in the air. You don't want that. No one wants that. Trust me!

I had an ex-girlfriend that drove one of these, plus I got to drive a ton of them when I was a lot porter. 6 a.m. runs to pick up cars and deliver them to an auction house. No cops... no speed limits.

Happy hunting!
 
The SHO is capable of 2:34 at Suzuka on SH tires, pitting it against such cars as the

Civic SiR-II
Cooper S
Celica SS-II
Tiburon GT
Prelude Type S
MiTo 1.4
TF160 / MGF
Airtrek Turbo R

But it needs a V8 just to compete with a bunch of 4-pots.

3.4L
234 hp / 6,000 rpm
230 ft-lb / 5,000 rpm
1,509 kg (3,327 lbs)
407 pp

Other cars with 407 pp:

Honda Integra Type R (DC2) '95
Suzuki Concept-S2
Peugeot RCZ

All three are faster than the SHO...

 
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One of my guilty pleasures this car. :P

Yes the engine was let down by the decision to give it a 4 speed autobox when it should have had a slightly beefier 5 speed manual.

Having said that, on both GT4 and GT2 I wanted to see if the stock box could hold the extra power and did surprisingly well.

I even ran 200mph with it using some Nos on GT4. :drool:
The GT2 version had a nice party piece, it could be converted into a NASCAR, a FWD Nascar mind you but one no less. :lol:

The only question now is come raceday, will it be a SHOstopper or will it be a SHOwrecker ? :sly:
 
I want to like this car more than I do. I bet with a proper gearbox and weight distribution the SHO could be a better beater. But like @SuzukaStar said, it needs a V8 to compete with a bunch of 4 pots!

I had fun last night though. 2 laps at Sierra with no sound whatsoever coming from my car, not even wind noise. I tried keeping up with @McClarenDesign so I can hear him but lost him during the second lap. I'm going to blame it on the color of my SHO. It was so loud I couldn't hear my car.
 
Quite a fun set of races last night.

From battling at Daytona to a war of bump drafting at SSRX, the latter of which showing who would side with who if it were a team battle. (@McClarenDesign in my case. ;))

In a sense, the Taurus is like a junior NASCAR, it's got a V8, 4 speed gearbox and its heavy.

Despite it only making under 250hp, the bump draft war at SSRX took us to over 180mph. :D

The downside of a FWD V8 is that the weight balance is 64/36 and that can play havoc with front tyre wear.

At Sierra, I was having to heavily defend from Bruno in his type R Civic throughout the second lap.

Overall, while I do like the SHO, it needs a bit more go to be great but it's not the worst car I've driven for COTW.

Verdict? Reluctantly a Beater. 👎
 
I found this more enjoyably entertaining than the Accord EX, but not as fun as the RCZ.

That said, against unskilled drivers in "faster" cars, it's a ton of fun beating them, laughing while pointing at them yelling "you got your ass beat by a Taurus".

It's a nice sleeper if you can put it on the limit, and the volume of fleet sales also guarantees it's mark as a true beater. I mean, thousands of AT&T/Century 21/local municipality employees can't be wrong, right?

Beater? Sleeper? Nah, best of both worlds. The only way it'd possible be better is if PD gave us the Crown Victoria, especially of the 80's variety.

mmmmmmm... Crown Vic....
 
The only way it'd possible be better is if PD gave us the Crown Victoria, especially of the 80's variety.

mmmmmmm... Crown Vic....

Crown Vic? or Marauder!!

I like that the 1st and 2nd generation SHO's came with Mazda transmissions.

The 1st generation should be premium in GT7. It's such a better car, a true sleeper.

3.0L V6
220 hp / 6,200 rpm
200 ft-lbs / 4,800 rpm

0-60 in 6.6 seconds
1/4 mile in 15.2

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/04/15/lost-cars-of-the-1980s-1989-1991-ford-taurus-sho/

I Thought the Mazda tranny only came in the first gen where a manual was offered. ?? Hmmm I guess what I'm thinking as the second gen is when the body style changed.
 
Getting sick of the people working on the highway killing the cables feeding where I live... having said that, beyond curious as to the tribute coming up. C.S. maybe??? Almost as bad as waiting for Wednesday!!!

Cheers
 
Ford Taurus SHO '98

I just wanted to start by saying: Hi, I'm new here. I've been on the website for a while but I recently made this new account and am finally going to start using the forums. The idea behind this thread is really great, it gets you to try out cars you'd otherwise never use. So this week I've joined in and bought the car of the week: the Ford Taurus. After purchasing it, I promptly painted it that rich metallic red from the Ferrari Enzo and 599; the exact name of the paint I used escapes me at the moment. I bought this car way back in GT4, because my young and naive self decided it looked "cool". I never drove it once. Now that I have the to look at it again and actually drive it I'll be able to see if this really is a "cool" car. It isn't. But more on that later. The first thing I did with my shiny new... Taurus... was take it down to Special Stage Route X for some speed tests.

Completely stock excluding sports hard tyres:

Recorded top speed:
268 km/h
0-100 km/h: Roughly 6.5 seconds

dnZuXSJ.png


Its top speed actually really surprised me. Sure, its got a V8 but that only produces 234 BHP. Its also heavy and has a 4 speed gearbox, but that didn't stop it from being very fast... in a straight line. Throw this thing around a corner at high speed and you'll experience not a lot of turning and a lot of smoke from the front wheels as you spear off track and into a wall. In short, its handling is appalling.

Yl9o231.png


So much weight is at the front of the car that when you turn the steering wheel it doesn't really do anything but generate a lot of noise and smoke. Not to mention the car looks comical when you slam on the brakes at high speeds.

G9GzGgk.png


Anyway, as mentioned previously the car's performance around corners is dreadful. It feels unbelievably heavy and slow and has the tendency to gravitate towards walls and sand traps in a phenomenon known as understeer. This is one of the most understeery cars I have ever driven in GT. The second gear of the car is also extremely long compared to the rest of the gears, so the car starts off quickly and then when you change gears it slows down and begins to slowly build up speed until the revs get higher and it starts going at some sort of speed again.

In order to avoid the car's catastrophic understeer you could always just slow down for the corners, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds in the Taurus. It's brakes feel like they're made out of play-doh. This combination of understeer, terrible brakes and general slowness at low gears proved to be a terrible combo when I tried to get a hot lap in this car on Mount Panorama. Before I started, I set the time to 5:30 am on the track and time progression to 60. By midnight that day I finally gave up and went with the fastest time I'd managed to achieve, which was 2:45:415.

Nt5uH2b.png


Then there's the styling, and even if my younger self really liked this car I don't think too much of it now. It looks alright for what it is, but that still doesn't make it stand out in my eyes. The back of the car looks interesting, and in certain light such as late in the afternoon like in the photo above it doesn't look too bad. Its just that in pretty much every other situation it looks just meh.

Then there's the sound, which was actually a pleasant surprise to me; especially if you use chase cam. It sounds far more beefy than I expected, although if you go into cockpit view or look behind you while in chase cam it starts to sound a little vacuum-y.

I will say one thing about this car, though. The basic concept of an FF car with a V8 engine under the hood is fun. Sure, you can't go around corners quickly. That doesn't really matter when after going around each corner at a walking pace, you slam your foot down and accelerate out of it spinning your front wheels and suffocating several children in your tyre smoke in the process. It's dumb, and I find it amusing. Far from practical or efficient and definitely not handling-friendly, but amusing.

But, unfortunately, when it comes down to it this car is well and truly a beater. It performs poorly around a track, doesn't look too great and will probably get several people killed after they've suffocated in the tyre smoke its sure to cause. I have to say just one more thing. I decided that, because the car is terrible at going around corners, I'd take to down to Sierra Andalucia to see how it did. It did not end well.

ZBTIA06.png
 
Ford Taurus SHO '98

I just wanted to start by saying: Hi, I'm new here. I've been on the website for a while but I recently made this new account and am finally going to start using the forums. The idea behind this thread is really great, it gets you to try out cars you'd otherwise never use. So this week I've joined in and bought the car of the week: the Ford Taurus. After purchasing it, I promptly painted it that rich metallic red from the Ferrari Enzo and 599; the exact name of the paint I used escapes me at the moment. I bought this car way back in GT4, because my young and naive self decided it looked "cool". I never drove it once. Now that I have the to look at it again and actually drive it I'll be able to see if this really is a "cool" car. It isn't. But more on that later. The first thing I did with my shiny new... Taurus... was take it down to Special Stage Route X for some speed tests.

Completely stock excluding sports hard tyres:

Recorded top speed:
268 km/h
0-100 km/h: Roughly 6.5 seconds

dnZuXSJ.png


Its top speed actually really surprised me. Sure, its got a V8 but that only produces 234 BHP. Its also heavy and has a 4 speed gearbox, but that didn't stop it from being very fast... in a straight line. Throw this thing around a corner at high speed and you'll experience not a lot of turning and a lot of smoke from the front wheels as you spear off track and into a wall. In short, its handling is appalling.

Yl9o231.png


So much weight is at the front of the car that when you turn the steering wheel it doesn't really do anything but generate a lot of noise and smoke. Not to mention the car looks comical when you slam on the brakes at high speeds.

G9GzGgk.png


Anyway, as mentioned previously the car's performance around corners is dreadful. It feels unbelievably heavy and slow and has the tendency to gravitate towards walls and sand traps in a phenomenon known as understeer. This is one of the most understeery cars I have ever driven in GT. The second gear of the car is also extremely long compared to the rest of the gears, so the car starts off quickly and then when you change gears it slows down and begins to slowly build up speed until the revs get higher and it starts going at some sort of speed again.

In order to avoid the car's catastrophic understeer you could always just slow down for the corners, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds in the Taurus. It's brakes feel like they're made out of play-doh. This combination of understeer, terrible brakes and general slowness at low gears proved to be a terrible combo when I tried to get a hot lap in this car on Mount Panorama. Before I started, I set the time to 5:30 am on the track and time progression to 60. By midnight that day I finally gave up and went with the fastest time I'd managed to achieve, which was 2:45:415.

Nt5uH2b.png


Then there's the styling, and even if my younger self really liked this car I don't think too much of it now. It looks alright for what it is, but that still doesn't make it stand out in my eyes. The back of the car looks interesting, and in certain light such as late in the afternoon like in the photo above it doesn't look too bad. Its just that in pretty much every other situation it looks just meh.

Then there's the sound, which was actually a pleasant surprise to me; especially if you use chase cam. It sounds far more beefy than I expected, although if you go into cockpit view or look behind you while in chase cam it starts to sound a little vacuum-y.

I will say one thing about this car, though. The basic concept of an FF car with a V8 engine under the hood is fun. Sure, you can't go around corners quickly. That doesn't really matter when after going around each corner at a walking pace, you slam your foot down and accelerate out of it spinning your front wheels and suffocating several children in your tyre smoke in the process. It's dumb, and I find it amusing. Far from practical or efficient and definitely not handling-friendly, but amusing.

But, unfortunately, when it comes down to it this car is well and truly a beater. It performs poorly around a track, doesn't look too great and will probably get several people killed after they've suffocated in the tyre smoke its sure to cause. I have to say just one more thing. I decided that, because the car is terrible at going around corners, I'd take to down to Sierra Andalucia to see how it did. It did not end well.

ZBTIA06.png

Very good write up. 👍
Welcome to COTW and welcome to GT Planet. :gtpflag::cheers:
 
Great review and welcome @ThinkKritz. I am a bit lacking in the reviews department aside from a few comments here and there, which reminds me. Both cars I've chosen, the G35 and SHO, how on earth does the driver see over the dash and steering wheel? Maybe they didn't model seats in the standard cars???

Thanks! It appears that none of the interiors other than the top of the seats and the dash seems to be modelled in most standards. Your driver just kind of sits in a black void.

Very good write up. 👍
Welcome to COTW and welcome to GT Planet. :gtpflag::cheers:

Thanks, I'm really looking forward to next week's COTW. Hopefully next week's car can actually go around a corner, as opposed to spearing off track in a cloud of smoke and embarrassment.
 
Thoughts and best wishes to Jules Bianchi, and condolences to the family of Andrea De Cesaris.

On with the show.

Congratulations Peter Sauber!

October 13th is Peter's birthday, and to thank Sauber for all that they've done, I'm dedicating the next few weeks to one of the best teams on the grid. (regardless of stats)

This week's car, the 1966 Volkswagen 1200 Beetle!

carf10306192331.grid-6x2.jpg

boob

Peter started his career in a VW Beetle, so if that's what will get our foot in the door, it's worth a shot. He started off in hillclimbs after a friend tuned his Bug and talked him into it. After the BMW kerfluffle, he bought the team back rather than seeing all the employees lose their job. Sauber also has a very active media department, engaging with fans on a daily basis! Don't believe, me? Go say hi on Twitter, Google+, or any other social media.

So like Peter, we'll be tuned this week, upto an FIA-approved 471PP. Lindsay Lohan may require some assembly.

 
The Beetle's closest competition around Suzuka Circuit, all stock on SH tires:

3:21.638 - 272 - 1985 Honda Today G
3:25.031 - 279 - 1998 Daihatsu Midget II D Type
3:25.825 - 248 - 1966 Volkswagen 1200
3:26.044 - 275 - 1970 Honda Z ACT
3:27.004 - 280 - 1967 Honda N360
3:38.477 - 226 - 1949 Volkswagen Beetle 1100 Standard (Type-11)

Top speed? 75 mph

1.2L
33 hp / 3,500 rpm
61 ft-lb / 2,000 rpm
780 kg (1,720 lbs)
248 pp

 

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