Daily, weekly and monthly rivals

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at Barcelona in the McLaren 720S GT3. This might be the least exciting GT car in the game; other than the slightest touch of that ol' McLaren understeer, it's handling is incredibly neutral and stable, making this a rather dull event overall.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today's Daily event is a Hot Lap at Zolder in a Formula Rookie. This one's rather boring as well. The Formula Rookie is really slow for this track, so there's not a lot of excitement to be had; just don't over-brake for the corners or go bouncing over the curbs in the chicanes and lose too much momentum.

The new Weekly event is a Hot Lap at Oulton Park Island in a Lotus Exige Cup, in the rain. Finally, some proper excitement! The Exige is a bit of a handful in the wet, but it's a lot of fun sliding it around the twists and turns of Oulton Park. There aren't any particularly troublesome patches of standing water; just be careful on the throttle coming out the waterlogged hairpin and some of the other tight corners.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Shanghai Wusong Chase in a Porsche Carrera GT Racing car. As always, nailing the tricky corners at the waterfront and the chicane in the tunnel are key to running a fast lap here. This car does get a bit loose under braking, so don't slide the rear too much entering the tight corners, or you won't be able to get the power down on exit.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at the Indy road course in a NASCAR stock car. This car is a handful as always; big, heavy, and way too much torque for its own good. Just watch those track limits; unlike in real life, they're enforced with penalties, not breakaway curbs that launch your car several feet into the air and tear off your oil pan...

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at Sonoma GP in a Bentley Speed 8. A very stable and grippy car, so it's a blast to drive here, with many of the corners being more or less flat-out. Just don't get behind in your steering through the esses, and don't get caught out by a few of the tricky camber changes in the first half of the course (especially turn two).

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at Laguna Seca in a Corvette C7.R GT car. Not quite as planted as the mid-engine C8, so it can be a little slippery in the slower corners, but it's still a pretty easy drive. Just don't push too hard at the corkscrew, as it's easy to run off course there.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Lake Valley Outer Short in a Stadium Super Truck. The truck is a slippery beast, as always, so the key here is to be nice and smooth and keep the tail-wagging to a minimum as best you can.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today's Daily event is a Hot Lap at Cadwell Park GP in an Alpine A110S. This is a fun one; the Alpine is an awesome little sports car, and a blast to throw around a twisty track like Cadwell Park.

The new Weekly event is a Pace Setter at Bahrain GP in a Formula B. Not really a fan of this awkward Tilkedrome myself, but it's not too difficult an event.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Fuji in a Dodge Viper ACR. Pretty fun car at this track; it's heavy and doesn't like to corner very well, so don't brake late into the faster corners, and try to manage the wheelspin in the final sector.

 

[MattJXN]

Today is a Hot Lap at Fuji in a Dodge Viper ACR. Pretty fun car at this track; it's heavy and doesn't like to corner very well, so don't brake late into the faster corners, and try to manage the wheelspin in the final sector.

Man i appreciate your dedication to this game.

 

[LordDeimos]

Heh, it's just fun to take a quick break each day and do a bit of driving.

Today's event is a Hot Lap at the classic Monza circuit in the Lotus Type 51. The car is rather slow, but you don't have a lot of grip without any wings to give you downforce, so the key is to find just the right entry speed and angle into each corner. Too fast and you'll just slide right off the track, too slow and you'll ruin your lap, and if you give it too much wheel, the rear end will start to slide and you'll get the worst of both. With so few corners and all the long straights, even the smallest mistake will cost you a big chunk of time. You really don't need to use your brakes much if at all, except on the Parabolica where you will need to scrub off some speed for the tight entry.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at Rouen Les Essarts Historic Short in a Porsche 917/10 Can Am. I don't care much for this car; the steering is weirdly dead and it's difficult to control precisely as a result. Doesn't help on this track when the slightest contact with the curbs will instantly send you hurtling off the track, and because of the unresponsive steering it's impossible to correct in time.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Barcelona in a Formula B. Pretty standard event; this high-downforce formula car can tear through the high-speed corners here at a good clip. Just try to keep it under control in the slower turns, especially the final chicane.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at Yas Marina GP in a Ferrari FXX K. I really don't like the FXX; it's a chore to drive, especially in tight corners where it just refuses to turn, and Yas Marina is basically nothing but one tight corner after another, so this event ain't much fun.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today's Daily event is a Pace Setter at Zandvoort National in a Lotus Exige Cup car. Lovely car and track combination, for sure; the Exige is smooth and stable and gets around the twisty circuit easily enough. Just remember that it's the National layout with the hairpin at the exit of turn five, so don't forget to brake in good time for it.

The new Weekly event is a Hot Lap at Sonoma National in a Ford Falcon V8 Supercar. This is a fun car at this track; it can get a little slippery in the low gears and anytime you hit that torque peak, though.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Monza Historic in an Aston Martin DBR1/300. This old race car can be a bit tricky, and is a bit faster than the old Lotus from the last event here, so it requires a bit more slowing down for the corners. Try to keep the drama to a minimum; "slow down to go faster" is key here. If you miss your mark or enter the corner too fast, there's no saving it, and if you slide around too much, you'll bog the car down and kill your lap times.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Tuscany Salketti Vineyards in a Toyota GT-86 Racing. This is a fun little race car to bomb around the Tuscan countryside with. This is a fairly high-speed layout, but with lots of elevation changes, so some corners are trickier than they look. Don't let the rear tyres break loose on the couple of tighter corners, and straighten out both sets of high-speed esses as much as possible without breaking track limits.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at Brands Hatch GP in a Radical SR3-RS. A brilliant little prototype, and a lot of fun at this track. Most of the corners require little or no braking in this car, so just hit your marks and keep your foot in it.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Mugello in a Ferrari 458 Speciale A. This is a fun car on this track; lots of high-speed corners to power through. Just remember that the 458 isn't a GT car; it takes a bit of persuading to get it to rotate through some of the corners. You don't want to get back on the gas too early, or you'll have to slow down again before exit and that'll kill your time.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Havana Castillo Approach in an Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO. It can be a bit tricky to manage the significant understeer through all of the long curves on this course; finding just the right braking and acceleration points through each section is key.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at the very short Ruapuna Park A layout in a Ferrari 488 Challenge car. Not much room for error on such a short course; the key is to be nice and smooth and keep the drama to an absolute bare minimum. Also, the start/finish line is a fair distance beyond the braking point for turn one, so remember to keep the hammer down on that last lap; your car will suffer for it afterwards, but you can shave a few hundredths off that last lap time.

 

[Nacho Libre]

Today is a Hot Lap at Havana Castillo Approach in an Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO. It can be a bit tricky to manage the significant understeer through all of the long curves on this course; finding just the right braking and acceleration points through each section is key.

Did you notice that the car didn't had any tyres? Also lots of stuttering in the Havana track. Hilarious and frustrating how unrefined this game is, how much potential was wasted.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Brno in a Viper ACR. Nothing too tricky; just be smooth and avoid sliding the tail around too much.

 

[LordDeimos]

Did you notice that the car didn't had any tyres? Also lots of stuttering in the Havana track. Hilarious and frustrating how unrefined this game is, how much potential was wasted.

Didn't notice any graphical issues or stutter on the PC, at least. I've heard some not-so-good things about the various console versions, though. As for the tyres, the quattro IMSA GTO of that era actually had some odd wheels whose covers extended well outside the tyre (maybe for ventilation, since the hubs were solid?), so maybe that's what you were seeing. It does look a bit bizarre sometimes in the game, but it looked a bit funny in real life as well:

 

[Nacho Libre]

Wow, my bad! Surely that's what I saw.

 

[LordDeimos]

New month starts today!

New Daily is a Breakout; meh.

New Weekly event is a Pace Setter at Donington Park National in a Formula Rookie. You won't do much braking here, just a touch in a few of the corners for weight transfer more than anything else, and a bit of slowing down for the first corner and the last chicane. Otherwise it's just picking the right entry points and hitting your marks.

New Monthly event is a fun one; a Pace Setter at Sugo GP in a Caterham Seven 620 R, in the rain, so lots of powersliding madness around Sugoland's varying corners. The Caterham does not like standing water, so be careful where you put it. The water at the apexes won't be an issue, as your rear tyres will be nowhere near that part of the track unless you've already gone arse over teakettle, but there are a few other trouble spots: a small but treacherous puddle across the whole track in the middle of turn 4 (the hairpin just before the chicane), a large one on the short chute between turns 9 and 10 (let off very early for 10 to avoid spinning here), and by the final lap the right two thirds of the frontstretch is a lake, so keep it tight up against the white line on the left side as soon as you exit the last corner and don't deviate. Tuning is also unlocked for this event, so you can muck around with the suspension and such if you want.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today SMS got lazy and decided to mash the weekly and monthly events together, so it's a Hot Lap at Donington Park (GP this time, though) in a Caterham Seven 620 R in the rain. I won't say no to some more Caterham wet-track drifting action, though. Donington's corners are a little trickier to powerslide through than Sugo's, but being a Hot Lap, there's not as much standing water to deal with through most of your run, though the second-to-last hairpin is really tricky, as the whole turn is underwater. Don't be afraid to cut the chicane on the backstretch a bit, though there isn't much grip, so be careful not to go flying into the left-hander there too fast, or you'll miss the right-hander entirely.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at Pista de Fiorano in a Ferrari F50 GT. This is a track and a car we haven't seen much of, so it's an interesting experience. The F50 GT is very fast, especially for this tight circuit, and it likes to be driven very aggressively; it rotates well under braking, so charging deep into the corners and using plenty of trail braking is the way to get a fast lap with this beast. Just watch the wheelspin out of the many tight corners here; the final turn is especially tricky when looking for some forward bite.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at Imola in a Formula X. A very fast F1 car on a classic F1 track, so this one is pretty fun. The Formula X is a tricky car to drive due to the sheer speed, but it handles Imola's varying turns quite well. Don't forget to make use of your KERS on some of the straights; it's particularly useful on the very long main stretch from the top end of 5th gear or so when the drag really starts to kick in; you can get it up to 8th gear by the end of the straight with the aid of the KERS. (Just don't forget to brake in plenty of time for that first turn, as you will be absolutely flying...)

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Pace Setter at the Daytona road course in a Porsche 935/78. This car is a bit of a mess; it basically has two modes, "not turning at all" and, when you hit that torque peak around 8k RPM, "turning too much". The steering is also very slow and unresponsive, making it tricky to recover from any mistakes. Not a really fun event, but not too difficult once you come to grips with the poor handling.