Caterham Fireblade is a little underwhelming...

  • Thread starter MockngBrd
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Fully tuned with sport softs + gears set to 150mph it still wasn't amazing! :(
Sure it handled great, but I thought this thing would be a acceleration beast, just as it is in real life.

I think it is because of the Fireblade engine, take the Fireblade out and but the CSR 260 engine and that should be much more like it!
 
DeolTheBeast
Fully tuned with sport softs + gears set to 150mph it still wasn't amazing! :(
Sure it handled great, but I thought this thing would be a acceleration beast, just as it is in real life.

I think it is because of the Fireblade engine, take the Fireblade out and but the CSR 260 engine and that should be much more like it!
Click to expand...

It's because GT doesn't handle engine inertia properly. It revs far slower than the real thing (i.e. in neutral) so you're overcoming that inertia before you can even put any power to the road! That is, the car will not accelerate any faster under its own steam than the revs can climb in neutral.

EDIT: I may have posted this before, but listen to how responsive the engine is. It revs faster on partial throttle (during the botched upshifts) than the one in-game does at full throttle. Note how quickly he rattles through the gears, too.

[youtubehd]42M1tjQpqt0[/youtubehd]

Also, as SHIRAKAWA Akira mentioned, listen to the start up sound in the garage. It's pretty peppy in real life, but totally lethargic in the game.
 
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Griffith500
It's because GT doesn't handle engine inertia properly. It revs far slower than the real thing (i.e. in neutral) so you're overcoming that inertia before you can even put any power to the road! That is, the car will not accelerate any faster under its own steam than the revs can climb in neutral.

EDIT: I may have posted this before, but listen to how responsive the engine is. It revs faster on partial throttle (during the botched upshifts) than the one in-game does at full throttle. Note how quickly he rattles through the gears, too.

[youtubehd]42M1tjQpqt0[/youtubehd]

Also, as SHIRAKAWA Akira mentioned, listen to the start up sound in the garage. It's pretty peppy in real life, but totally lethargic in the game.
Click to expand...

Sounds and goes just like a bike engined car should do! If only PD had recreated the car properly to match it's true greatness :scared: .
 
Griffith500
It's because GT doesn't handle engine inertia properly. It revs far slower than the real thing (i.e. in neutral) so you're overcoming that inertia before you can even put any power to the road! That is, the car will not accelerate any faster under its own steam than the revs can climb in neutral.
Click to expand...

Ah now i get it
 
^ This.

And I also think it should have the CSR 260 engine rather than the stupid bike engine. Nothing wrong with those engines, but they should be kept in bikes where they work best.
 
Interesting thread but thought I would offer a dose of reality. Just wondering how many people that posted here actually own a caterham or a fireblade specifically and have learned how to to drive it on the track? Just wondering...there's about two dozen of these cars out there yet lots of opinions. There's many reasons EVO magazine named it track car of the year when it was made and to this day it's still a genius car developed by James Whiting.

To start off my first post right most of you guys that 'drive' the fireblade in a video game have no f$&@ing clue what's its like. of the fireblade, csr260, and r400 that I have the fireblade is THE favorite caterham on the track of the three and still is in light of all the other variants I've driven on a real track or road. Sure the r500 or csr260 will in real life post faster lap times on long tracks but not on tight technical tracks.

As said in another magazine doing a retrospective of caterhams current and past the absence of weight and lack of inertia is intoxicating. Sorry you just don't get that sitting at home playing a video game.

just trying to keep it real.
 
Speedcraft
Interesting thread but thought I would offer a dose of reality. Just wondering how many people that posted here actually own a caterham or a fireblade specifically and have learned how to to drive it on the track? Just wondering...there's about two dozen of these cars out there yet lots of opinions. There's many reasons EVO magazine named it track car of the year when it was made and to this day it's still a genius car developed by James Whiting.

To start off my first post right most of you guys that 'drive' the fireblade in a video game have no f$&@ing clue what's its like. of the fireblade, csr260, and r400 that I have the fireblade is THE favorite caterham on the track of the three and still is in light of all the other variants I've driven on a real track or road. Sure the r500 or csr260 will in real life post faster lap times on long tracks but not on tight technical tracks.

As said in another magazine doing a retrospective of caterhams current and past the absence of weight and lack of inertia is intoxicating. Sorry you just don't get that sitting at home playing a video game.

just trying to keep it real.
Click to expand...
No, not really starting off well. Rehashing a dead thread to criticize members on a basis which has nothing to do with driving the video game version of the car, which is the overall point of the thread, is neither tactful, tasteful, righteous, or admirable. Just trying to keep it real.
 
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Speedcraft
Interesting thread but thought I would offer a dose of reality. Just wondering how many people that posted here actually own a caterham or a fireblade specifically and have learned how to to drive it on the track? Just wondering...there's about two dozen of these cars out there yet lots of opinions. There's many reasons EVO magazine named it track car of the year when it was made and to this day it's still a genius car developed by James Whiting.

To start off my first post right most of you guys that 'drive' the fireblade in a video game have no f$&@ing clue what's its like. of the fireblade, csr260, and r400 that I have the fireblade is THE favorite caterham on the track of the three and still is in light of all the other variants I've driven on a real track or road. Sure the r500 or csr260 will in real life post faster lap times on long tracks but not on tight technical tracks.

As said in another magazine doing a retrospective of caterhams current and past the absence of weight and lack of inertia is intoxicating. Sorry you just don't get that sitting at home playing a video game.

just trying to keep it real.
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Not the greatest of starts my friend.

Do you play GT5 or did you just stumble across this thread while searching google for "Caterham" related webpages?


Assuming the later; a video game can only do so much. The car feels sterile and underwhelming to drive in the game compared to other cars such as the AE86 or Honda S2000 for example.

Sure, I haven't driven the Caterham in real life. I'll freely admit that.

But the point of this thread that you have so kindly revived is that the game doesn't feel too hot in the GAME.

I haven't read all the pages so I don't know if anyone has said anything to this effect, but the intention of the thread wasn't about how the car performs or feels in the real world.

Simples.
 
Old thread I know but I thought I'd add my two cents...

I love the fireblade, so much control, fast enough, great handling, and an amazing interior view.
There is nothing I would change about the Fireblade, besides a GSXR motor swap ;)
 
MOTORTRENDmitch
Old thread I know but I thought I'd add my two cents...

I love the fireblade, so much control, fast enough, great handling, and an amazing interior view.
There is nothing I would change about the Fireblade, besides a GSXR motor swap ;)
Click to expand...

^+1^ It's awesome. Don't tune it, especially the suspension. Sports tyres only. What a hoot... 👍
 
Speedcraft
Interesting thread but thought I would offer a dose of reality. Just wondering how many people that posted here actually own a caterham or a fireblade specifically and have learned how to to drive it on the track? Just wondering...there's about two dozen of these cars out there yet lots of opinions. There's many reasons EVO magazine named it track car of the year when it was made and to this day it's still a genius car developed by James Whiting.

To start off my first post right most of you guys that 'drive' the fireblade in a video game have no f$&@ing clue what's its like. of the fireblade, csr260, and r400 that I have the fireblade is THE favorite caterham on the track of the three and still is in light of all the other variants I've driven on a real track or road. Sure the r500 or csr260 will in real life post faster lap times on long tracks but not on tight technical tracks.

As said in another magazine doing a retrospective of caterhams current and past the absence of weight and lack of inertia is intoxicating. Sorry you just don't get that sitting at home playing a video game.

just trying to keep it real.
Click to expand...

I have driven a number of Caterham's, Tiger's, Dutton's, etc. with a range of both car and bike engines, both on road and track.

You seem to be under the odd impression that this thread is Haveing a go at the real thing, its not, rather its commenting at PD's virtual recreation of the Fireblade. Doing so with good reason, as it doesn't come close to how the real deal feels or responds, not a major surprise given that its a video game, however this particular car is further from the real thing than most and as such stands out in that regard.

You make a lot of rather broad, and inaccurate, assumptions in your first post on the site and I would strongly suggest that if you are to post again you do do with a more measured tone.
 
The Caterham is a right blast, you've just got to be on the right tyres, not be in a race, and maybe have some power upgrades. I have a maxed Caterham which I ran with Comfort Mediums around the Nurburgring, it's the liveliest car I've ever driven!
 
The Caterham was rubbish offline (stuck to the road like glue), but then the 2.10 physics made it awesome to drive offline. Take it stock for a few laps round Suzuka East will put a smile on even the most miserable of faces! :D

Drove a Caterham 7 Superlight at Palmersport Bedford Autodrome, feels similar I have to say.


👍
 
This will probably get me flamed and banned but here goes anyway ...

I had been sick of how poor the gt5 caterham has been since the game was released. With the new hacked/modded cars about i found a friendly fellow who made me a couple of updated caterhams based off the lotus elise 111r/111r rm chassis. Now i know its 'cheating or bad' to alot of people but in this case it has given me 2 great fun little cars that arent overpowered but just alot more fun than they used to be. I have a video of each one so you can make up your own minds on them ...

The videos are at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b19qO4K_4tE for the 500pp 111r version and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WpZLUUW3rA for the 575pp 111r rm.
 
^^^ Any photos of those cars? Interested to know how they look with the Lotus chassis.

I put a 2.0L Nissan engine in mine (Nissan Primera 20V) and it definitely made the car better for me. 👍
 
The Fireblade is the right car. I agree, It definitely should be quicker than an Elise. I made an R500 a couple years ago, as close as possible and I couldn't beat a stock ZR-1 time around the Top Gear track. I too am a lil disappointed with its performance. I love the car in real life. Haven't raced one since.
 
R1600Turbo
^^^ Any photos of those cars? Interested to know how they look with the Lotus chassis.
Click to expand...

Sorry i did take some pics but cannot seem to add them here very easily (forum noob lol) so ive had to zip them up ...
 

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More than 10 years ago I drove a Caterham at Croft Circuit near Darlington Co' Durham. It was a track day with lots of other people in E-types, Caterhams and a couple of fast saloon cars, I can't remember the makes.

The Caterham was well fast and I passed several cars, including a couple of E-types. The Caterham in the game has the Fireblade engine the one I drove had a 145bhp 1.7l Ford derived engine. The light weight made the car very agile and there was enough power and traction available to be slightly faster away from slow corners than the 265bhp E-types and not noticeably slower in top speed on that circuit. I passed a few!
 
With the drivetrain and transmission upgrades, even with stock power this car is fantastic! On any tyre, on any track. I wish there were more rooms for it online, it's as fun as the Clio Trophy cars but they get a lot more rooms dedicated to them!
 
Could you please introduce me to your friend who does it? My friends and I started a Caterham gang and I would like to have a faster one to get away from people haha
 
Yes i did tune the car but not like an elise, the 500pp version has 200kg in the front and the default m3 csl spring settings to try and make it feel less like an elise. The 575 pp car does have more of an elise setting because i cant fill it up with weight so much at higher pp. If the car is left standard it is just like using a standard 111r so for me a tune is needed to add a tiny bit of realism to it.
 
For me, the Caterblade has always been there reference point to my driving. Ever since GT4. I've a half dozen of them at this stage, in varying stated of tune (and indeed, detune! 85bhp and slippery tyres for that classic Lotus 7 experience! )

Any time I'm learning a new track, it'll be in on of them, with the top speed reduced to 120mph (which is realistically about as fast as you'd want to go in a car with no windscreen :D) and sports tyres, so I can get a decent feel for the grip.

Quite simply, no other car grips or feels as good as it does, and for soem of us, that's a bigger priority! :D
 

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