Ford Shelby GT500, is it me?

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Wide Boy

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Well either Americans are clinically insane or they don't drive round corners.
More likely is Polyphony mucked up the stock suspension, must have surely.
Seriously getting to grips with it now but it cant be as much of a boat as the game portrays, can it?
Man this thing wallows all over the place there is no way I would push it in RL if its portrayed correctly.

Only experience I have had with powerful USA cars is a early Viper which I never got to push, it felt okay though you were aware there was a big engine sitting out front & a 5.7 litre twin turbo Trans Am.
Man that car, you put brown undies on before driving it just in case you crashed so the skid marks wouldn't show if you ended up in hospital.
Never known a car get so crossed up on the throttle if you tried booting it out of a corner, slow in slow out then boot it was the only safe method.
That got sold pretty quick you could actually travel most UK roads far faster & in safety in a old Lancia Delta Integrale.

Ford can make very good suspension for the European market & this has been touched by Shelby so I would have expected more.
Heck its like driving an old muscle car on steroids.
They are fun though at least in game, the Shelby is an accident waiting to happen.

Anyone driven one in RL, it has to be better than the game model doesn't it?
Off to try the Boss & see what that's like.
 


Here they are at Calabogie, which is a pretty technical track near Ottawa. Track stuff starts at 2:00. They do seem to be taking it a little cautiously in the corners.

They do still have a live axle in the back, so it will be quirky.

Review is here:
 
On a race track the live axle is no hindrance. It suffers in terms of ride quality and can skitter over bumps but on a smooth track it's just as fast as IRS if all else is held equal. Testing between live axle and IRS Trans Am cars demonstrated this.

The issue with the GT500 is weight. It's a VERY heavy car (heavier than the old muscle cars by a large amount) and it has a lot of weight out front. So it understeers a lot. Add in the massive power and it's easy to make it power-oversteer too. So it does have to be driven a bit delicately around corners as a result.
 
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I actually think PD improved the handling of the old muscle cars. Those were not driveable in GT4 but not that bad here. I haven't tried the new and heavy muscle cars yet.
 
Interesting to note that it's 20 seconds faster in GT6 on Sports Hards. CS tires might make for a closer lap time and is probably closer to real life tire grip anyway.

07:17.649 - Ford Shelby GT500 '13 (mike_gt3)
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You can see from the video above at the 'Ring, it does understeer on entry quite a bit so maybe PD got this one right:tup:
 
You can see from the video above at the 'Ring, it does understeer on entry quite a bit so maybe PD got this one right:tup:
Click to expand...

Its GTs one saving grace that the cars handle pretty much like the real deal so your probably right.
Somebody said weight is the issue & I have to agree though other heavy cars fair much better.

Sad really Ford can do better & enlisting a tuner you would have thought they would have.
The domain of the supercar no longer belongs to the Italians & Germans look at the vette or skyline to see the leaps in recent years. Affordable speed rather than Porsche prices, okay more affordable.

I have a horrible feeling in RL a lot of lower powered cars would be way more fun because you can push them
 
Wide Boy
I have a horrible feeling in RL a lot of lower powered cars would be way more fun because you can push them
Click to expand...
A good example of this would be the Toyota 86 and Scooby BRZ. On a track experience thingy i went on a couple years ago the Porsche 911 and the F430 i drove were terrifying whereas the imprezas we were given lessons in were a blast in comparison.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn the Mustang handles as badly IRL as it does in game. 'Tis American after all and a hell of a lot of the roads in America are wide and straight. For the most part all it needs to be decent at is quarter miles and looking good.
 
My only problem with the GT500 (in game as I've not driven it IRL) is its stopping ability. Brake early, turn in, hit the apex, and power out smoothly for fast laps. There's a bit of understeer and considirable mass when entering a corner so you just need to rein in any tendency to bomb corners as it will not end well. Buckets of oversteer on tap at any time. It's a car that takes a delicate touch to get the most out of. It is a handful and its limit is quickly reached considering the HP the thing makes. It's not a supercar tuned for the Ring and it's not a top of the line Autobahn cruiser either. It's a comparably cheap GT car with monstrous gobs of HP and torque. It's not perfect but there's nothing about it that is horrible either. It's a really good car that can tuned to something that deserves respect and should be feared. On the whole though I prefer the 302.

Sark
 
Sarkazmo
My only problem with the GT500 (in game as I've not driven it IRL) is its stopping ability. Brake early, turn in, hit the apex, and power out smoothly for fast laps. There's a bit of understeer and considirable mass when entering a corner so you just need to rein in any tendency to bomb corners as it will not end well. Buckets of oversteer on tap at any time. It's a car that takes a delicate touch to get the most out of. It is a handful and its limit is quickly reached considering the HP the thing makes. It's not a supercar tuned for the Ring and it's not a top of the line Autobahn cruiser either. It's a comparably cheap GT car with monstrous gobs of HP and torque. It's not perfect but there's nothing about it that is horrible either. It's a really good car that can tuned to something that deserves respect and should be feared. On the whole though I prefer the 302.

Sark
Click to expand...

I think you summed it up, sure you can tune it but this thing is supposed to have been already.
For mere mortals as suspected less power is more fun, 302 is even in the game& its still not great. If you have to treat a car with respect early on in its power range the fun factor is gone.
Imagine suddenly having to take emergency action in this car, I am guessing you would only do once. It doesn't stop well & needs smooth input so take avoiding action with care.

Simplest analogy I can think of is back when I used to ride bikes fast there was one tyre that gave a bit more grip than any other. It was awesome but when you reached its limit it let go big style & could regain grip just as quick, all with little or no warning.
The next best tire let you know when you were on the edge, it let go & gripped again in a controlled manor.
I went back to it because it didn't scare you to death & you could actually go faster because you could find the bikes limits & indeed drive beyond them.
One had you bricking it the other had you hanging the back out & generally mucking about without even realising you were doing so because it felt natural.
 
I drove the car on CMs around the ring the other day, cause I didn't know it had these grippier tires in real life. Although I could drive it with no major problem, I couldn't drive it fast, because it only accept full throttle when pointing straight. Despite that, I do think it was depicted right in the game. I don't remember my time, but it was higher than the 7:39 it did IRL. So @Johnnypenso is probably right about the CS.

The problem is that the department responsible for Mustangs seems to only know one answer to the question "How do we make this car go faster?".
 

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