If anyone would like my suggestion for the game without having to read this thread, the devs should really add engine modifications and engine swaps to existing cars to allow for continual variation in the meta and renew interest in older cars, giving players more reasons to return to them regularly. This also lets them address some glaring complaints with the performance of specific older cars along with new yet dissappointing additions I will discuss in this thread.
TLDR because im sure this will be a long comment -
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The meta is stale with like 3 or 4 cars at the top, and most of those were added at launch.
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Engine performance with modified engines is not consistent between cars with identical engines. (i.e. many of the subary imprezas share the same engine but the variation in game is around 200hp between them? the same can be seen in the Lancer Evolutions, etc)
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Engine performance is not accurate to real life; within some amount is reasonable, cant expect them to update every engine when some new company comes along with a new power boosting modification, but when cars are known for making 2,500hp+ regularly for over a decade and the version(s) in game makes a max of 800hp, thats an issue, and it keeps happening. This also occurs when manufacturers themselves have already made cars with more power with the same engine (such as Bugatti making their W16 make over 1,800hp from factory, meanwhile we struggle to push them past 1,400hp at all)
Engine Performance Variation
To start with, Engine variation between cars with the same engine is absurd. Sure you can say “this car restricts cooling or airflow so of course it would make less power” but given we can make a classic rear engined air cool porsche make 1,200hp with a modern engine, im sure that does not matter in the slightest.
The 2004 impreza sti makes a max of 574hp with the stock engine:
The 2005 impreza sti makes a max of 619hp with the stock engine, which in turn was the same as the engine in the 2004 pre-facelift version, or at least it would be when every part has been replaced with upgraded parts. These upgraded parts would also be the same between engines:
This is the case between all generations of the impreza, along with the Lancer Evolution, 86/BRZ, and many many more.
More recently, this is seen again in the grand showcase car, the Aston Martin Valkryie AMR (Pro…? is it missing that from the ingame name?) but to a different degree. First, the car is fitted with restricter plates to drop it down to S2 meaning it it slower stock in game than in real life, I understand why this was done to avoid a stock X class car though according to competative players, it could have had the full 1,000hp stock while in S2 and it would not have been overpowered, and with the restrictor plates it feels slow compared to its peers.
The real problem this car has however is not that it gets restrictor plates, rather, thats all it gets.
The normal Aston Martin Valkryie has a stock engine, Naturally Aspirated, make 1,140hp. Bare minumim, the AMR should be able to be upgraded to make that figure, there is no argument for it not to. On top of that, the normal Valkryie can have twin turbos added and upgraded (also unlocking intercooling upgrades) to make 1,559hp:
Currently while fully upgraded, the Valkryie AMR is slower than the older Vulcan AMR, while having a larger engine and less total downforce. From what I have seen others say, and what I had decided as soon as I started trying to use it to beat my previous personal bests in PR stunts is that this car is needlessly wasted potential.
This is not the first (and im sure not the last) time this has happened, as several other cars have followed the same fate, such as the Ferarri FXX-K Evo, which cannot make as much power as either the normal La Ferarri or the Ferarri FXX-K.
Potential Engine Performance Inaccuracy
Why does the 2005 Ford GT only make 883hp?
Are we just ignoring the very famous Texas Mile run where a road legal ford gt of that generation built by M2K Motorsports went 300.4mph (483.45kmh) in a standing mile and not on a prepped track? thats parked, to 300mph within a mile of driving. we dont know exactly how much the car made but the dyno they took it on said ~2,500hp, though I doubt thats a very accurate reading.
im not saying the car in game has to make quite that much, but less than 900 is depressing for that engine when we know its potential.
One of the vids showing the run:
Another car is the Viper. they are known to also make >2,500hp. According to this 2023 artical, there is at least one viper that is making 3,300hp - https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a38001671/3300-hp-dodge-viper-acr-hits-200-mph/
The lancer Evolutions are in the same boat, some in game making only 600 or so horsepower when pleanty of real ones with the same engine as a base are nearer (or passed) 1,500hp, same goes for toyotas 3S engine (in the 2nd gen MR2 and Celica GT4s) are known to make over a thousand while the ones in game are stuck at 650 or so.
The chevy LS engines are also a good example of the inconsistencies between engines. sure the generations exist but within generations we see far too much variation, and more importantly, not nearly enough power being put out by these supposed “fully built” engines that we make in the modification menu. As much as I dislike the LS, people have made them push out wild numbers, and its just not represented in game.
moving away from the aftermarket examples and on to OEM outputs, the Bugatti W16 is a great example of engines in game not reaching their potential. The Centodeci makes around 1,600hp, over a hundered more than the cars we have in game, while Bugatti (claims they have) manages over 1,800hp from the Bolide pushing the game to over 300hp less than what the company has managed, never mind the fact that there is clearly room for potential in a video game since the limiting factor with this engine is the cost of development. if a similarly sized viper engine can push 3k with less cylinders, more than 2,000hp should be achievable with the W16 when you arent worried about fuel milage and rebuild costs lol.
One last OEM difference thats funny to point out, the Napier Railton. this car uses the Napier Lion engine, famous for its use in many land speed cars for decades, truely one of the greatest engines ever built, along with its Rolls Royce R rival. Railton, the man who designed the car in game (and is arguably this the “brand” of car, not Napier), also used that engine in several other land speed cars and made a variety of power outputs. The car ingame maxes out at 765hp and 1,501 ft-lbs of torque, his other car called the “Railton Special” made around 1,350bhp, and I assume a lot more torque as a result. This one was supercharged and was also found in LSR cars such as Bluebird, however a turbocharged version was apparently fitted to a plane in 1927 called the Gloster Guan but only made 525hp (perhaps a reading given at altitude with it being an aircraft, prehaps the lesser use of turbochargers at this time, who knows)
I guess one example of a Ficticious car being greatly underpowered is the Hotwheels Twin Mill. Sure it makes 1,918hp but it has a total displacement of 17 Litres and is comprised of 2 engines. Thats 2x 8.5 Litres of Supercharged V8 making only 959hp each. how do you get less than a thousand horsepower with a fully built engine with 8.5L? at least the Napier only revs to like 3k rpm, the Twin Mill goes almost to 8k. Go back and make the twin mill make 3,000hp, it deserves it.
The Meta is Stale - and a Solution to it
Somewhat put this at the start because I dont expect anyone to read this mess but yes, the meta hasnt moved much at the top and its really boring as a result.
Recently I went on a tyrade against 2 cars in a bit of friendly competition, basically me trying to beat the Jesko and Sesto Forza edition in every speed zone and trap in the game (without rewind, because the game should not be balanced around rewind, but thats a separate thread to complain about). This lead me to quickly realise how broken those two cars are, and how they just dont follow the same physics almost.
The Jesko should not go the speed it does with that wing on the back, and the performance it has in every other metric that dedicated top speed cars must sacrifice, but even those other cars dont get close. The only cars that can seemingly take it to either of these are hotwheel cars or the normal cars released with the hotwheels pack, the Venom F5, the Brabham BT62, the Bad to the Blade, etc.
situationally I was able to use some level of skill gap and car specificity to get some positions, but the fact that even with that I was struggling against people in the cars that I KNOW dont take the game seriously, and I KNOW they were using the exact same tune on every single speed trap and zone was really sad.
What is the solution to these OP cars without just adding more cars to beat them? Go through and add new modifications to existing vehicles. I wouldnt even mind if every so often we got a monthly update where there were no new cars, only a bunch of new performance and visual mods to existing cars and all the reward cars were backlogs of hard to get cars like the caddy limo or lancia 037.
Many cars listed here complaining about strange and inconsistent power figures would be a great start, giving cars more engine swaps, maybe from new cars you have added since that have new and unique engines. Giving cars engine swaps of other engine options the real car had like the TOMS Toyota supra having a 3S-GTE engine instead of a 2JZ, the Volvo 850R touring car having a high revving NA angine while we are stuck with only an underpowered turbo engine, etc, etc. Even if we just got an “Inline 5 ‘racing’ engine” engine swap to that car (and maybe the other volvos) that woule be great. maybe you could even give the Iron Knight engine to one of the big volvo estates because they are known for being one of the only cars you can get that will fit a lot of massive engines.
Give some cars some famous funny swaps like a dual engine VW golf based on the common hillclimb build or maybe reference some obscure builds and concepts from real life or fiction; There were plans to make a twin (or quad…?) engine Honda CRX for group B rally that never made it to the prototype phase, only some technical drawings and homologation paperwork that would use 2 (or 4) 1100cc motorcycle engines to make an AWD car like nothing else in the sport, or from fiction (and weirdly also a CRX) there is a manga called “KING” which features a mid engined CRX that uses a Subaru F4 turbo engine. Or, stick to what you already do and give a bunch of cars more powerful engines from the same manufacturer or family of cars, with a few “universal” ones that get dropped in to anything that makes sense for it to be in. Why do only some cars get the 1,876hp V8 engine swap like the RTR mustang but even the other mustangs dont? especially the hotwheels mustang thats stuck at the bottom of S2, just give them it.
The End
If anyone made it to the end, would love to hear if any of these issues have bothered anyone else. to some extent this is just the top of the iceberg with things I am annoyed with since I personally spend my time making replicas of real life race and rally cars in game, and am constantly annoyed by the inability to match the numbers of either minimum weight, or maximum power, to the racing version. To some extent this also goes to tyre sizes and gear count, being unable to change gear ratios of a car with 4 gears (or less) unless its been given the drift transmission, or that race transmission automatically upgrades gear count to 6 while I often want 5 but cant change the indevidual gears… woe is me.
Hope something here is able to cause some movement within the games development, its such a shame for these cars to be nerfed from what they are lining up to be, especially if youre going to hype it up and make it the title car for the update… If I can enjoy the Valkryie AMR in a future update as much as I wanted to when it released, thatd be great.