Car of the Week 228: COTY GTS Finale

  • Thread starter Racer283
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Don't think this is the thread to call for that kind of stuff.

That said, looking at the cars this week.

Didn't get to race the Megane road car, but previous experience with it has been pretty positive.
Does anyone remember the funky Megane that was in GT4 with the weird back shape? That thing was funny.
Neutral for me.

The Trophy one. Hoo boy. It's a solid car but there's not quite enough grip on the rear relative to the other Gr.4 cars I've driven so far, so it's kind of frustrating. It's freakin' fast though.
Neutral.
 
My apologies, I couldn't help myself, I'm missing my Chevy days ATM, looking at old pics of cars that used to come through my bay. The owner actually tracked that Callaway daily, and it was an automatic to boot lol..

To stay on topic the Meganne Trophy is indeed a beautiful car. I aggree its slippy for a Gr.4.. arguably in the wrong class too. Cockpit view is one of the best imho.
 
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Megane R.S Trophy and the Gr.4 Trophy


The Megane R.S Trophy (N-300)

As for the Hatchbacks go the Megane R.S Trophy ranks as one of the top contenders in the game. Being at or near the top of your class the Megane has no problems winning all its events in GT League especially the Hot Hatch Events.
However like almost all FF cars it has massive understeer problems and its stock SH tires only intensifies that problem. When coming out of a turn it seems like you have to wait an entirety to get back on the throttle but it still wasn't nearly as bad as the Honda we tested out earlier this year.

Online race night showed everyone was struggling with the understeer at times and it made for some interesting racing. Good thing a simple tire upgrade to SM or SS will really help with the understeer.

The Megane has good power for its class and a great sound too. Handling is nice on upgraded tires and it overall pleasing to look at. It will get my vote as a Sleeper


The Megane Gr.4 Trophy

Now here is a car that will take anyone from Zero to Hero.
The Gr.4 Trophy has no competition in its class and easily runs circles around every other Gr.4 car. Not because it's over powered but because it has the handling of a Gr.1 car and the brakes of a SRT Tomahawk. In the 1.5hr endurance races I host the Trophy will lap the entire field not once but twice on almost every track.

I really had some good battles with @JackRyanWMU and @Racer283 during our online racing with this car and it sure was alot more fun than its road going counterpart.

Simply put the car has no faults at all and if you struggle to do good in this car well racing just might not be for you.

Sleeper all day long
 
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R5 Throwback Livery by TC-mr_dose78
Nurburgring Livery by francky1714
Some manufacturers pride themselves on racing what they sell in the showrooms. Meanwhile, Renault moves its engine several feet backwards from its street Megane to its Group 4 version. While perhaps not as ludicrous as V-8 engine rear-drive Toyota Camrys on NASCAR's high banks, it's still a major modification from the street car to say the least.

Not that the street Megane is a particularly bad car. While I'm not a fan of hatchbacks, the Renault at least looks decently sporty and feels competent most of the time. Pushing it to its limits means understeer will rear its ugly head though, and while it may not be as pronounced as the Civic R, it does still feel again like the front wheels are tasked with too much power. I'm going call the street car a Neutral. This is a good car for when front drive or a hatch is required for an event, but otherwise I feel like I'd opt for a different car.

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Onto the Group 4 car, and its a completely different animal. With its engine and drive wheels both moved rearward in a car with such a small wheelbase, the race Megane feels more like an enlarged go-kart with some sheet metal thrown on it. Handling is twitchy and its easy to inadvertently put the tires off in the grass with too much steering input. That characteristic makes it extraordinarily quick through the corners though, and it easily outruns the similar spec but front-drive Volkswagen Sirocco Group 4. I would call this car a Sleeper, but it may be hard to do given the infamy the Renault has gained among GT Sport racers.
 
Last week we tested the Renault R.S Megane Trophy and the Gr4 Magane Trophy. Both cars created some close racing and created different challenges. The first car we raced with was the R.S Megane Trophy. It's a pretty decent car but when trying to squeeze as much power out of it you tended to understeer out of the corners. It's not as bad as the Civic but it's noticeable. I'd give the R.S Megane a neutral standing for me.

The next car we raced with is the Gr4 Megane Trophy. This car is quite controllable and pretty quick for a Gr4 car. If was racing against other Megane Trophy it was the same through out but against it's other Gr4 counter parts, it is among the top Gr4 cars in it's class. It can easily carry more speed through the corners and accelerate pretty quickly on the straights. It definitely receives a sleeper status among the Gr4 cars.

Now that it's done, we now pick up from France and travel to South Korea where we pick up the only sports car from the country. This week we will be racing the Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track. Thanks to @Macboyilija for choosing this car.

Also tomorrow we will be starting the races at 11pm CST instead of the usual 10pm as I have another event going on around that time. As a heads up we might have to skip out the following week November 20, as I might be away from my PS4 as I get ready to travel to Kansas for Thanksgiving.
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So I've already done a review on this car during one of @MrWaflz55 duels this year so I will just copy and paste some of it here because I really don't want to ever drive this car again.

First impression is this car should not have the words Track Edition anywhere near it. What a underwhelming slow piece of poo this car is. I actually believe a golf cart would be faster than this thing.
On paper it looks good and has you believing that it should perform well but looks are deceiving in this case.

This week we are on SS tires ( Edit - COTW is on SH and it's not hard to imagine how much worse it will be) and with that extra grip you would think this car would handle great.. wrong again.. The car feels like your driving around in a 4500lbs steel box. Absolutely nothing about this car is worth putting it on the track.
Probably the most irritating thing I've found about this car is its take off power from slow starts or corners. Its so slow and struggles to get any momentum going and yet it lights up those rear tires like you just fed the motor a whole bottle of Nitrous. I really believe you could walk faster than this thing or even out run it in a Yugo.

So why Hyundai attach the words Track Edition to this car is quite baffling as it should never be used for anything other than grocery runs.

This is the Holy Grail of Beaters.
 
Worth noting there are Group 4 and Group 3 versions of the car to be had this week as well, though understandable if we don't get to all of them tonight with the later start time.
 
We'll just stick with the normal Genesis tonight but someone else can choose those cars for the next time. I know we have over 200 cars at the moment but don't want to go through them too quickly.
 
I was hoping Rinsky would give a different review since he bought a wheel and there is a major difference between the car driving it with controller and with a wheel.

The car is nearly perfect for drifting corner and corner again. The control of the car is almost perfect when sliding and having fun. One would only suspect such great grip on the borders of understeer vs oversteer with German brands such as BMW.

The car deserves a good test. Sure hope the others would be as surprised as I was.
 
The car is nearly perfect for drifting corner and corner again. The control of the car is almost perfect when sliding and having fun. One would only suspect such great grip on the borders of understeer vs oversteer with German brands such as BMW.

Sure hope the others would be as surprised as I was.

I sure was surprised as well, i've been using it for drift since i discovered it, after it being a daily gift for me.
 
I was hoping Rinsky would give a different review since he bought a wheel and there is a major difference between the car driving it with controller and with a wheel.

The car is nearly perfect for drifting corner and corner again. The control of the car is almost perfect when sliding and having fun. One would only suspect such great grip on the borders of understeer vs oversteer with German brands such as BMW.

The car deserves a good test. Sure hope the others would be as surprised as I was.

I don't have my wheel yet.. I have to hold off until after the holidays. Things really changed around here once my 2nd kid was born.
 
So I've already done a review on this car during one of @MrWaflz55 duels this year so I will just copy and paste some of it here because I really don't want to ever drive this car again.

First impression is this car should not have the words Track Edition anywhere near it. What a underwhelming slow piece of poo this car is. I actually believe a golf cart would be faster than this thing.
On paper it looks good and has you believing that it should perform well but looks are deceiving in this case.

This week we are on SS tires ( Edit - COTW is on SH and it's not hard to imagine how much worse it will be) and with that extra grip you would think this car would handle great.. wrong again.. The car feels like your driving around in a 4500lbs steel box. Absolutely nothing about this car is worth putting it on the track.
Probably the most irritating thing I've found about this car is its take off power from slow starts or corners. Its so slow and struggles to get any momentum going and yet it lights up those rear tires like you just fed the motor a whole bottle of Nitrous. I really believe you could walk faster than this thing or even out run it in a Yugo.

So why Hyundai attach the words Track Edition to this car is quite baffling as it should never be used for anything other than grocery runs.

This is the Holy Grail of Beaters.



Uhm...you ok? I don't share the same opinion at all about that car. I use it sometimes for GT Leagues events and for drifting on stock form because it's predictable. That's not the fastest car in that category because of the size/weight of it, but at least it's fun to drive. It's very easy and fun to drive in real life to. It's easy to drift with it, even if you're a beginner. ''Track Edition'' is obviously some marketing non-sense as always in the auto industry. This car is a really good value for the money and it's made to be fun, not to kill track times. I mean, it's pretty hard to find a better bargain if you compare what you get VS the price.
 
It's not really a stellar car by any means, to be fair. Sure, it's solid and fast enough, but the handling is rather questionable.
 
It's not really a stellar car by any means, to be fair. Sure, it's solid and fast enough, but the handling is rather questionable.

No that's not a stellar car at all. But Rinsky's ''review'' was exagerated.
 
No that's not a stellar car at all. But Rinsky's ''review'' was exagerated.
He's entitled to his opinion about the car, just like you're entitled to your opinion. You're also allowed to disagree with him.

All of us COTW people have differing opinions and expectations for the cars presented every week - which is why these threads do so well even with only a few members. It's fun to see how different people react to the same thing.
 
He's entitled to his opinion about the car, just like you're entitled to your opinion. You're also allowed to disagree with him.

All of us COTW people have differing opinions and expectations for the cars presented every week - which is why these threads do so well even with only a few members. It's fun to see how different people react to the same thing.

That's actually the first time I'm clicking on that thread and I was expecting reviews like you can find on the internet about irl cars. The worst track review i've ever read about a car don't even come close to this one. Maybe that's why I find it exagerated.
 
That's actually the first time I'm clicking on that thread and I was expecting reviews like you can find on the internet about irl cars. The worst track review i've ever read about a car don't even come close to this one. Maybe that's why I find it exagerated.
There was a thread for GT6 that you can find here and there are several in the Forza subforums (one for FM7, FH3 and one for FH4 i think).

Edit: FH4 one is non-existent as of right now.
 
The Genesis wasn't as bad as expected, but not as good as hoped for. As mentioned on race night, I spent an hour or two playing with the Jag XKE, which has pretty poor grip, even on SS tires. Jumping right into the Genesis felt almost like I was on racing slicks. It does have some trouble telegraphing what it wants to do to the driver, hence the pushy-loose feeling. I dialed the brake bias to the front a couple notches which seemed to add grip to the turn in, and TC1 helped the rear unless I really got on the throttle too soon. I found it to have a very nice exhaust note, which sounds even better from the cockpit. It's quite capable when tuned up, albeit sensitive to the LSD settings. It also is pretty decent as a drift car. I'm lousy at drifting, but did find it easy to control.

All that being said, after Tuesday's races I jumped into the new Maserati, a car that I've never been fond of, and found difficult at best in GT6. What a world of difference. It's just so much better than the Hyundai, and the Maserati (IMO) is not even close to being one of the top FR cars in the game.

I really wanted to like it more than I did. It's ok in career mode or arcade, but for online (unless its one make) it might be one of the last cars I choose. Verdict : Beater. At least I did a livery for it. Bonus drifting pic.

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No that's not a stellar car at all. But Rinsky's ''review'' was exagerated.

It's how I really feel about this car and others might share a different opinion from that and that's ok.
I absolutely do no drifting in this game or any other GT game so I can't really comment on how the car performs in that category. But considering it's lackluster performance I can't imagine it's a top choice among drifters.
 
You can just try to drift a little. In the end, its all about the fun isn’t it ? If you drive on the edge of oversteer and understeer you can never reach your goal without drifting a bit.

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A car that does this so well and easily is almost like a BMW killer. It can never be that bad now can it ?
 
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Reviewing Virtual Cars: It's Just a Job To Do
There must be some Misunderstanding. There must be some kind of mistake. The Hyundai Genesis would seem to have everything to be a good car. Sure, the front end could be mistaken for a Toyota Camry, but overall it's an attractive looking vehicle. It's not too expensive, not too heavy, and provides over 300 horsepower to its rear wheels. More than once I've seen Hyundai hawk this as a superior alternative to a V-6 Camaro, Mustang, or Challenger. However, while it looks like a contender on the spec sheets, my experiences with the car on track made it seem a pretender.

I Can't Dance. I can't talk. Only thing about me is the way I walk. The car handles fine up to a jog, but once it gets to sprinting pace the car feels like it's In Too Deep. At a moderate traction control setting the car consistently understeered far more than would be expected for a rear-wheel drive vehicle. Lowering the TCS helped this somewhat, but then the car would start trying to destroy its back tires on certain turns. Really, driving the Genesis at its limits felt like listening to an album on shuffle; you never knew what you'd get next. Some corners the car would be loose, others it would be tight, sometimes it would even be a mixture of the two extremes.

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We're going to make it right. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight. I don't know how you fix the handling problems of the Genesis...other than just getting out of it and into another car. There's really no need to get the Genesis when you have a car like the the Nissan R34 GT-R that occupies the same performance realm, but is so much more predictable and easier to handle at its limits. I have to borrow an analogy from Jeremy Clarkson; one of these cars is a dog. The other can be driven by one.

It's always the same, it's just a shame. Some cars are simply Beaters. And the Hyundai Genesis is one of them. That's All.
 
Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 '13
343 hp / 6,500 rpm
292 ft-lbs / 5,000 rpm
3,433 lbs.

At Tsukuba on Sport Hard tires:

1:04.246 - Ford Mustang GT
1:05.034 - Mercedes-Benz A 45 AMG
1:05.628 - Honda Civic Type R (FK2)
1:05.828 - Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8
1:06.329 - Ford F-150 SVT Raptor

Its closest competitor in GT Sport is the Civic Type R. The Genesis has 38 more horses, but 3 fewer ft-lbs of torque, while weighing a massive 391 lbs more. Ford's Mustang is over 1.5 seconds quicker around the track. Overall, it's a decent car. Not quite a sleeper, but not much of a beater. I'm leaning towards neutral on this one.
 
For this week of COTW, I'm going to cancel the races on Tuesday as I'm getting ready to go spend Thanksgiving with family in Kansas but we will return for Week 12 on Tuesday, November 27. For those that live in the US, hope you have a great Thanksgiving with your family and friends and those that live outside of the States, hope you have a great week.
 
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