Car of the Week: Week 124 Alfa Romeo 4C Gr3

Not true, actually. I've had it up to some terrifying speeds before.

 

Youre right, I don't know what I was thinking.

 

You were thinking of one of the other Plymouths.

 

Buckle up kids....

 

The Plymouth is a real unicorn. I think it represented how the future has been imagined in the 60s. It looks very special I would say: Kinda reminds me of the SLR Stirling Moss because of the seat configuration. Engine note is very satisfying but this is definitely not a racer.

 

Sorry I missed you guys last night we had a bit of a family emergency here. I'm looking forward to the race reports and car reviews. If you had a full lobby and three hours of intense racing, I don't want to hear about it

Ill try to work up a livery.

 

Well, I won the first two races in a row. BBR put up the mother of all laps at the end of the Red Bull Ring race and very nearly caught up to me. A lot of people had problems with the XNR sliding out at unexpected times, too.

As for my thoughts on it?

The XNR requires a bit of a learning curve because of its plain weird combination of a soggy suspension, high RPM engine and a three speed gearbox with the 3rd gear's ratio stretching past 200 MPH. It has some potential as a speed car and as a general power build if you can get the other stuff (power, suspension, weight) sorted out.

I'm torn between a Neutral and a Sleeper because of how unorthodox it is.

 

The car was tested when it was built and it accomplished 155 MPH. That's very good for a 250HP Slant 6. And this was 1960!
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Many people think the car is ugly because of its assymetrical shape. Many race cars of the period like the Jaguar D-Type were assymetrical. But I think it is a very beautiful car, it has a very unique look.
I learned when Virgil Exner designed the car, he incorporated the huge single tailfin for two reasons. 1. For aerodynamics. 2. It was a final big bang for the tail fin era for Chysler cars and American cars in general. By the early 1960s, tailfins were becoming a thing of the past and were out of style. So making an assymettrical one was completely unorthedox compaired to the symmetrical pairs that were found on most of the American cars of the 1950s.
The small fins on the fenders of the car were carried over to the 1960 Plymouth Valiant. What if this car went into production? It was meant to be a competitor for the Corvette and the Thunderbird. I wonder if it would've been as successful as the Corvette.

 

It took me all four laps on Red Bull to figure what I was doing wrong... with only a 3 speed tranny and my still using auto gears, NOT getting it into 1st and powering out of lower speed corners was fatal for me. Keeping it in low second gear just took way too long to get it up to speed again. My fourth lap I managed to put it all together properly and had my best lap time wise... but you were VERY consistent and couldn't be caught. Well done man!

The XNR surprised me at LeMans though... it had way more top end speed than I had thought possible. @Infineon , myself and someone else were neck and neck running up Hunaudieres with some minor bump drafting helping along the overall speed. I was impressed with the speed, just not my own performance there of all places...

Personally, I questioned why it was N300 of all classes, but LeMans showed me why (I think). With the stock tyres, it's a fun handful. It will keep you on your toes, and maintaining speed is important to remember. It's surprising in certain aspects, and a lunch bag let down in others.

This Yankee roadster is turning Swiss... Neutrality can be a good thing, cause it means it's not all that bad.

@Draggon ... hoping all is well with you and yours.

Cheers

 

I was up there with you guys and Jack down the Mulsanne, I think.

 

Livery by zeptrans
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This week we're looking at Plymouth's lone entry in Gran Turismo Sport (thus far). And in classic "Kaz Logic" it's not a Road Runner, a Barracuda, or even a Belvedere; but rather a super obscure concept car that even the most hardcore American car fans may have never heard of. The XNR doesn't look anything like any other car in the game, and its styling probably would have been too radical for a production car without some modifications.

While the Plymouth XNR may look futuristic, you'll never forget that you're driving an almost six-decade old car when you're on track. The three speed transmission has extremely tall gearing, in fact you'll probably won't reach third gear except on the longest of straight lines. This gearing in turn makes the mere act of accelerating the car from a standstill difficult; get the revs wrong and your launch will more resemble a Model T than a Saturn V.

As for the car's handling, turns are usually exploratory efforts rather than routine missions. The narrow tires won't accept much lateral g-forces and even slightly overdriving the XNR will usually result in splashdowns in the gravel traps. However, the car's biggest problem is its price tag. With an asking price of a million credits, its hard to justify buying this car when you could buy a Le Mans Prototype for the same amount.

In stock form at least, Plymouth XNR is a Beater. Yet I can safely say this is one of the most interesting selections we've had for Car of the Week. The XNR is a look back at how cars were evolving from the fifties and where they were heading into the sixties. So perhaps "Kaz Logic" makes some sense after all.

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Hey hey folks!

Just thought I'd drop by to let you know that COTW has a Discord channel, and although I'm not yet part of the GTS edition, I've made a GTS section for you guys!

https://discord.gg/2gXSvc

As we found in the GT6 edition, Discord's perfect for the race meetings as it means less time typing in the text chat, which in turn means more time racing! Plus not everyone has a gaming headset but everyone has a phone!! Oh, and you can banter during the race.

 

What is this "phone" of which you speak? Oh, you mean that thing that flips open and I type messages to people! No smart phone here, and not much of a smart computer either. When we were doing this in GT6 I had a difficult time hearing you guys. I gave up. LOL.

 

Discord is remarkably simple to use once you learn it. I'd be happy to teach you how to set it up.

 

The Plymouth XNR Concept is a fairly decent car and put up a decent set of races. The races were close all around but if you ended up making a mistake you had a hard time making up for the time lost. I think it was pretty noticeable when we took the XNR to Le Mans. I'd say this car created some decent races but the down side was trying to get it off the line. Overall it's a decent car but not something you drive on a regular bases. I'd pry give this car a beater status.

This week we head to the windy city where Ford and GM are head quartered and home to the Belle Isle Street Circuit. We will be taking a look at the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2014.
Chosen by @JackRyanWMU


Also big congrats to Corvette Racing for a championship win in the Weather Tech United Sports Car Series. We will also be testing the Gr4 and Gr3 Corvettes as well.

 

We're all in for a nice treat this time around. The racing Vettes are remarkably stable.

 

I'm not sure if I'll make it tomorrow night. In the meantime, here's a classic (and not) set of liveries.

 

Include the Group 3 road car....



One of the best. OP in n500/600.

Pretty sure it doesnt go down to n400. I say avoid it since its so good. You should be tempering your skill on lesser cars.

I drove the Mustang Group 3 road car first and that car is pretty impressive itself and yet the Corvette is faster everywhere and it feels like its more controllable over the limit.

The Corvette is a car you can drive on the throttle and chain the power oversteer on linked corners say like on Kyoto long.

Hard to beat the classic mid front big 6.0 to 7.0 LSX pushrod V8 with the manual transmission and resulting perfect weight balance.

 

Yes, the Gr.3 road 'Vette is a beast in its own right. And everyone knows it.

I motion to include the Gr.3 Road, but I want to point out that not everyone might have access to it, given that it's only popped up a few times thus far in the game's life cycle.

 

I feel like everyone should have easy access to all four C7 corvettes.

You should have multiples of the road car. The game is very free and easy in dole-ing out the GT3/4 cars on the daily.

The Gr3 road car has been on the board multiple times in various colours but shame its now 4,000 points. They were 2,500 for so long.

All of them are serious business in their classes. I feel like there are ordinary 'fast cars' like the Mustang Camaro Challengers and then the Corvette is the next step up.

They are toe to toe with the 911s but they dont have the 'cachet' of the exotics since the base 911 Carrera is more expensive than the most high performance showroom stock Corvette.

The Corvettes have no obvious vices (that at least I can see) unlike the 911s where you have to be aware of what they do on the limit.

 

@Obelisk @TonyJZX We'll just save the road car for another time as Jack requested the Corvette and Gr3 and Gr4 variant this time around.

 

I don't mind if people want to review the Gr. 3 Road Car as well this week if they want, just that 4 cars in one session might be a little much for our weekly races. I hence chose to do the street car plus the racing variants like we did often in GT6 Car of the Week.

 

Indy 500 Pace Car Livery by JadeCat95
Le Mans Race Livery by Dubbex
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If the car press is to be believed, the C7 will mark the end of the front-engine Chevrolet Corvette. In a change that makes the end of the pop-up headlamps seem wholly inconsequential by comparison, the C8 will apparently bring a change to a mid-engine layout. It's worthwhile then to take a look at the C7 at what might be the end of its life cycle and perhaps the end of an era for the Corvette nameplate.

The C7 is easily one of the best looking Corvettes made, and absolutely nothing about its interior can be labeled "parts bin" by even its most ardent critics. The small-block V-8 provides over 400 horsepower and one of the best engine notes in the car world. The one sticking point of the street car was its handling, however. I'm not sure if this was down to the Sports Hard tires being inadequate or the fact that this is a base model Corvette and not a Z06 or ZR1. While I don't think the Corvette should ever become a car that requires no effort or talent from the driver to go fast (go buy a Nissan GT-R if you want that), this version may go too far into 'unhinged' territory. It's still a great value for money and certainly no Beater, but considering the C6 Z06 was one of my favorite handling cars in GT6, the base C7 was a bit of a letdown.

Action Express Racing Livery by gloria-33-GT
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As for the Group 4 and Group 3 Corvettes, I'll be the first to admit I'm not great with pure racing machines and there are more capable drivers in COTW that can offer their opinions on them. However, these cars have always been my go-to cars in the few times I drive Group 4 or 3 and I find them very balanced, reliable and predictable. Not to mention they both look great and sound great when they're on the track. I would like to see a true GTLM spec version of the Corvette in the game, a car that has forced Porsche to finally put the engine in front of the rear axle in its race cars and Ford create a "street car in the loosest sense of the term" to try to compete with it.

Which brings me back to the mid-engine Corvette....and I ponder to myself about it. Is there really no more performance to be gleaned from the FR layout as some car magazines have declared? Is a mid-engine Corvette truly still a Corvette? Even as more evidence has forced me to go from thinking "It'll never happen" to "It's probably happening," I still find myself not wanting to see the FR layout go away and for the nameplate to undergo such a radical change.

Then again, I'll still likely fall in love with the mid-engine Corvette the moment the cover comes off it.

 

I live 20 minutes away from Bowling Green Ky where the Corvettes are built and I've seen the mid engine corvettes first hand in camouflage. There is a certain gas station they full up at before taking them on test drives then over to NCM Motorsports Park race track.

 

The USS Vetterprise???



This past week saw us trying out the C7 Corvette... even though I'm far from a fan of the Vette, I must admit I do like the looks of the C7. But looks aren't everything, are they? With the stock setup on the C7 Stingray, which includes SH tyres of all things, she's a handful. A scary handful at that. She will step out on you if you let her, probably right in the way of another car. I would have like to have her on upgraded rubber, even bone stock to see if that would tame her a little.



As for the racing C7's, the Group 4 gets my vote. I find it the most stable of them all, and a joy to drive. Not my favourite within the class, but she's no slouch either. But you can't ignore the sound at all. Any car buff will enjoy the eargasms induced by either the Gr.4 or better yet, the Gr.3 Vettes. Even I've had a few extra W's added to the Win column thanks to the C7 Vettes!



Cheers

 

This week we did the trio of Corvettes. The first bit of the night we drove the standard C7 which was great fun but it's downfall was that the backend would step out on SH tires when you pushed it to its limits. In the end there were some great races happening between everyone. As for the Gr. 4 and Gr. 3 Vettes they are purposely built race cars. Both of them are quite stable and could hold their own against the others cars in its class.

Corvette C7: current form it's a beater but if tried on a higher compound it could possibly reach a neutral standing.
Corvette C7 Gr. 4 and Gr. 3: These are a sleeper because they are very stable and give off enough power to be competitive.

Now onto this weeks victims. We head over to France for these two cars and they come from the same family but one sits in the Gr. 4 category. @RobboGTAddict choose the Renault Megane R.S Trophy and the Gr.4 Trophy. So give big warm welcome to these two cars and since we have an update tomorrow we will race on Wednesday at 10CST. Also be aware that the US jumped back an hour over the weekend. Besides the races on Wednesday, it is my birthday and I'll be turning 28.

 

We can still race Wednesday that absolutely fine with me but the update is already underway and should be finished by the time I get home in the morning.

 

Nevermind did my own investigation and it is today. So if everyone is up for it we can race tomorrow on the regular schedule. I originally thought it was happening tomorrow on a Tuesday instead of today.

 

I leave it up to you just tell me on what you decide.

 

GTS needs one of THESE!

Edit: my bad, just realized the COTW changed back overseas :'(