Welcome to this week’s challenges. This week, we have small oval action, the return of the Yangwang one-make, and the infamous Tokyo 600 grind race. We also have a chance to get a cool car at the end of it all. Here’s how I fared.
Race 1 - Sunday Cup @ Northern Isle
A track that isn’t used much at all in this game, this early-game race is easily forgotten. Here, you must complete it in order to obtain the rewards this week. Sure, you could use a machine like the Tomahawk S or something to blitz through without a blank to give. However, I don’t work that way, so I used something more…ideal for a Sunday Cup race. Enter the Mazda Demio XD Touring. Bone stock, comfort soft tires, nothing else. Managed to overtake the leading Prius on the final lap and won by just about a second.
Race 2 - Japanese 4WD Challenge 600 @ Kyoto
I personally like this track, specifically the Yamagiwa layout by itself, which is what we’re using for this one. I decided to go with the Mitsubishi GTO, which is one of my favorite cars to use in the game. Sitting at just under 600PP with sports mediums and tuning parts, this car will more than easily beat its rivals. It has tremendous grip and sounds pretty good on its standard V6 too. Won by a good margin, so I could get away with less power or less grippy tires.
Race 3 - Race of Turbo Sports @ The Glen
One of my favorite tracks in the game. I have put in quite a few laps here with various cars, so I should be very familiar. As I have gathered, the AI is just so bad in the Race of Turbo Sports events. You can get away with a decent handicap from the 700PP limit. Can a fully upgraded Honda S800 with a turbo kit and 191 horsepower on its standard engine win it? Hell yeah it can…in the right hands. Got by the leader on lap 4 and won by a couple seconds. Absolutely loved this thing, especially the high-revving engine. It certainly screams.
Its main flaw, which I had the misfortune to discover myself, is how it handles curbs. It detests these things, transforming from an oversized go-kart into an oversized pogo stick in an instant if you take a curb aggressively. Be very careful over them.
Race 4 - Yangwang One-Make @ Grand Valley
Since I don’t really like either of the two Chinese cars, I just wanted to get this one over with as quickly as possible. So, the U9 I used was fully upgraded. Of course, the upgrades themselves are limited: three stages of weight reduction, customizable suspension, race brakes, aero, and soft slicks. As far as the driving experience with upgrades and tuning, it’s a nice contrast to the Xiaomi which has too much oversteer. So, it shouldn’t be too difficult to soundly beat the AI while keeping your Yangwang on the track. Got past the leader on lap 2 and never looked back. Okay, next…
Race 5 - WTC 600 @ Tokyo East CW
Ah yes, the infamous grind race that we’ve been dealing with for years now. Some of us will bust out the glitch builds like the ‘99 Subaru and destroy the field. I decided to take the normal route and used something that wouldn’t trick the performance point system into thinking the car is slower than it actually is. I used the Mk4 Toyota Supra RZ, which is capable of winning the old-fashioned way. Setting low front and high rear downforce, using a manual transmission, removing the racing braking parts, throwing some ballast weight on with a distribution at or near 50:50, and using sports hard tires can help drop your car’s PP rating while keeping your power fairly high. Considering this race favors power over handling with that very long straight, I’d say it’s more important to have as much power as possible. However, you do want some handling through the twisties in the middle of the lap. Tweaking the suspension and LSD to promote more agility can help with this. The PP rating will not be affected by suspension and LSD setting changes.
Remember that the track starts out damp, then slowly dries out over time. For the first few laps, you must be careful. Go too wide and the wetter part of the track will suck you off course and into a wall. Stay on the dry line and you should be good there. My Supra is also capable of kicking the tail out when exiting slower corners, especially the final hairpin before the main straight. Throttle control is important, whether your car is understeery or oversteery. Wall ride if you wish, but I personally have zero tolerance for it in my own runs.
In the end, I beat Kokobun’s RX-7 by 30+ seconds. I pitted on lap 8 and cruised to victory after some fuel. Some like to crush their rivals with something that doesn’t belong. I like to battle my way through the field.
With the challenges completed, it was time to open my six-star car ticket. For me, it was the Pagani Zonda R. A very cool car indeed. Since I had another one sitting around, I wound up selling the duplicate for 1.28 million credits. Lots of money made this week.
That was how I got through the challenges this week. Take care!
