Technique for beating those Samba buses.

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I know its off but I managed to just miss Silver in the Lotus Challenge and its not as hard as people say it is. The car requires coddling and you need to make sure that you do NOT over-correct a slide. The hardest corner is the first one this go-around.
 
Blitz24
I know its off but I managed to just miss Silver in the Lotus Challenge and its not as hard as people say it is. The car requires coddling and you need to make sure that you do NOT over-correct a slide. The hardest corner is the first one this go-around.
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Aye, once you get used to the car, its not THAT bad... you can overtake one car on the first corner if you slide around the outside. Its a different line than in the bus
 
I'm going to re-do it later. Maybe I'll get silver this go-around. Honestly I tried it right after I won gold in the Samba so I'm pretty worn from it.
 
digitalic
this has to suck if this is the only way to unlock the top gear track, sigh, i still cannot get it.
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Put your foot down, turn one, don't brake and slide the van, you should overtake the 1st van, shift down as you straighten and you'll be on the next vans tail, take the next three/four at chicago, again don't brake or just tap em. At hammerhead go on the inside line as fast as you can, follow through stay on the outside. then don't brake into the next turn until you are level with the van. Gambon should be set up nicely. That'll get you to 7th or 6th. Second lap just go for it, same way but you can be more aggressive since there will be more space. Slipsteaming is the key. The final van should be in your sights after hammerhead. Chase it all the way and you should be able to overtake as you appoach Gambon.

And across the line!
You did it in......! Congratulations, you're the fastest van around the track!
 
I found this challenge to be fairly easy to complete, drafting doesn't matter much it's all about just going balls to the wall through the corners, don't worry, you won't roll it. :P

Now the lotus challenge is proving to be a real pain for me, I'm not really digging this car. :(
 
One time I was 4th and then spinned out and got disqualified. After a whole bunch more runs I settled for bronze on the Samba buses. Only to find the ridiculously hard Lotus challenge... It's like that car has NO grip. Damn...
 
i just spent the good part of an hour to get gold on both the samba bus and the lotus challenge, once you get used to it its not so hard just gotta remember not to stay behind someone coming up to a braking point as they brake rediculously early (compared to my driving style anyways)
Ended up getting into first in the bus just at the full speed left hander on the second lap (bently?) and won by about 5 seconds at the finish. All aids off using a controller

For the lotus, well thats just rediculous with aids off, i had trac control set to 4 and turned on that slide recovery thing. Once you get a line sorted your set, again staying off the arses of other cars coming up to braking points.

My tips for the lotus, brake early for the first left hander (before where the racing line is first red if you have it on) get on the inside lane of the car infront and accelerate a bit before braking again to actually get around the corner. If you nail this spot you can get into 10th by getting on the inside of the next car mid corner (a bit of dirty driving involved by rubbing against him if you dont hit too hard).
You should then be able to take the next 2 on the small left hander at the start of chicago, again cutting the inside lane, clip a couple cones if you have to, you'll carry enough speed to slip on the inside on the next car (maybe 2 if lucky) for the longer right hand corner of chicago. On the straight before hammerhead you should be in 6th or 7th position already.
I took the outside coming into hammerhead, inside is difficult as you have cones to worry about, if you cut its DQ'd, if you dont do that your also highly likely to hit another car too hard here. Stick with the outside for the quick left hander, you'll be able to outbrake the next car picking up a spot, plus it puts you on the inside of the next car for the right hand longer corner.
Straight up to the follow through, brake a touch, slides easy here on full power and hard to correct, i kept over correcting here so it was safer to brake a bit more and only had a slight slide coming out of it easier to correct (kept power on and pretty much sorted itself without any steering input here if you arent going too fast)
Last 2 corners on first lap i was sometimes able to get into 3rd spot, on time when i actually finished first i was still just in 4th spot start of second lap.
All going well, pass at same points mentioned for first lap, i made it to second coming out of chicago, and passed the leader on the straight before the last 2 corners. Win by 3.7 seconds!!

All passing points are the same for the samba buses.

hope this helps anyone if it makes sense, i took pics of me passing the leader in both races using photo mode in the replay, but then realised its not much proof if we all dont have the same colour vehicles? my bus was red and white and my lotus was white i think.
unlock the track with the samba gold, and win a lotus type 72 '01 for the other, mine was black.
 
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Well I did it. Spent about an hour last night and finally got through. Thanks to all that posted here I was able to master the technique quite quickly. Despite that it took me about an half hour before I was even able to complete 2 full laps without getting DQ'd. I then finished 2nd 2 or 3 times before getting first. It's actually a fun challenge, but it would be much better if the DQ's weren't so strict. Those buses bang into me like they're in heat, but yet I get DQ'd for a tap.
 
I wish there was a cheat for this because for the life of me i cannot get it. Im not even close to bronze :dunce:

Practice is the name of the game i guess. :indiff: Im sure i would think it was fun if i managed to be able to do it though :lol:

AA
 
My biggest problem was actually completing the race with out getting DQ'ed. No word of a lie, the first time I managed to complete the race without getting a DQ I got gold. Nothing to gold just like that!
I found that ignoring what the racing line or the other competitors are doing and just going as fast as the bus can through the corners and drafting on the straights is the best way.
 
where in 1st almost the whole last lap.. then a cone striked me :s got silver now gave up on it but i will try again sooner or later for the gold. and the lotus thing.... craazy :s no thropies yet..

Edit: a cone or did i run out of the track the last turn? something like that
 
I had a tough time clearing it as well...

I just learned to be more aggressive and not be too afraid of a little bumping.

Not to mention that the bus is actually pretty good at drifting around the corners once you learn to trust it.
 
Sorry if it's been said before, but if you have a tough time clearing the Buses, wait till you get to the Lotuses in advanced!!!

Best thing to do for me was to check youtube videos
 
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What's irritating for me is that I got the gold ON MY FRIENDS PS3 FILE. I was just messing around to show him how hard it was and I get a gold. I tried on my save file and I got silver. Bah. I wanna play on the test track :(

Edit: OMG. Finally. I think I'll stay away from the Elise challenge for now.
 
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If anyones getting stuck with the lotus one, try switching on the 'skid force thingy' i did that and managed to do it within 2 goes after trying like 80 times!
PS sorry its off topic...
 
Got Gold yesterday with VW bus and unlocked TG track. One time I almost got gold, was neck and neck with the other driver. Tried again and I was way ahead of 2nd driver. Not that difficult if you follow correct line. Lotus one seems to be more difficult to get Gold.
 
didnt have time to read the 5 pages. If you still havent beat it,
letting go of the gas for the first couple of corners instead braking helps a lot. Also for the long straight before the finish, turn hard into the inside of the last two corners instead of braking. This actually applies to the other special events on the top gear track. Although the key to the lotus elise race, is to know how to successfully drift around the corners at high speeds.
 
I've seen replays on Youtube, where people seem to be able to overtake a bus on the first corner. When I play, I don't catch up with the last bus until after the first corner. And I'm going pedal to the floor - no braking. Am I missing some setting?

I eventually got gold, but it'd be easier if I could catch up quicker!
 
I must be one of the worlds worst drivers in games but I managed it after less than 10 tries.

After a few goes you learn when to give up and restart. If you're not right up the bumper of the van in front then you're not likely to catch them up, so restart.

I think I passed two on the tyres, one on the hammerhead, two on the second from last corner and two on Gambon, and pretty much the same on the second lap.

I have been keen for a long time to get a game that included the Top Gear track, but now I have it, I find I don't like it :(
 
Slipstream as everyone else has said. Try overtake 1 or 2 of the competition at every corner. Brake late in the corners. Most importantly, be patient and try to keep your cool.

When I finally beat this challenge I was in 6th place by the end of the first lap and managed to go from 3rd to 1st on the very last corner of lap 2.
 
It took me several attempts to even get through this event without being disqualified for ramming. But, the first time I managed a clean run I achieved gold (yay me!). This is a very frustrating challenge. I'll only redo it if I ever intentionally want to get myself worked up and pissed off.
 
I don't have the game yet, but would passing a few stupid vans piss anybody off that much? But I also have GT4 and that challenge at le Sarthe with those stupid pieces of crap was too much for me!
 

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