mini-review:
ok i loaded up arcade mode and went for a drive in all three cars, (s-class), i selected 'racing' mode for all three of them. i took them out on complex string and made some assumptions but then figured i needed a slightly more accurate comparison so i traveled to cote and did one lap in each of them there. its safe to say my previous analysis was sound and the cars turned out as i expected. (well, more or less)
firstly the lap times, i had a 1:31:8xx in the toyota, and a 1:31:9xx in the nissan, both could have gone faster but like i said i only did one lap in each. i am suspecting the toyota could have gone faster but more on that later. the mazda had a 1:28:xxx so clearly the fastest time.
the toyota felt the fastest out of the three by far. from what i could discern, it had no oversteer and no understeer at low speeds. though i felt it was TOO good in that respect. every turn seemed to catch me by surprise and i had to be very accurate with my steering since i was always either going to clip the inside edge or end up going too fast and hit the far wall. the car constantly feels like it wants to go faster and faster which is a nice feeling. i thought it would easily beat the nissan on a lap of anything. but as it turned out the lap times were only 0.1 seconds apart.
the nissan was the most pleasant car out of the three to drive, it felt very balanced, had smooth acceleration, never caught me off guard and would be the one i would choose for an enduro, i thought this was all because it was driving much slower than the toyota but the lap times proved me wrong. the car was forgiving, pleasant and was always able to pick out the racing line on a track.
the mazda is a very interesting animal indeed, the car looks and sounds like it'll eat up any track for breakfast and then another one for lunch!
however, handling into corners was ok (the brakes felt a little weak) but i was constantly running wide out of the corners. the car was a little more friendly to drive than the toyota but you were always under the impression you were losing time due to a poor setup/balance/tyres/something. i thought it would be a dog to drive around cote but it proved a little more manoeverable around corners esp the tight hairpins. as for speed i knew it had good straight line speed but i thought the toyota would beat it, though it was the mazda that did the beating. i think the car lacks in the brakes department and lower end acceleration, mid and top end are very good. Perhaps it is just a little heavy??
to sum up, i think the nissan is the best car, simple
the mazda was good but not balanced enough for my liking. i suspect the car is too heavy, or the brakes aren't good enough, or both. the gt one is a good car also and if you can master it would probably give you the fastest times of the three but i felt you always had to be on your guard, because the car was entirely unforgiving. for enduros, and street circuits i'd pick the nissan. perhaps the cars would fair differently under circuits with long open straights like midfield or apricot but i'll let someone else analyze that!
