I mean, some cars won’t reach it no matter what, and, if you build them for a higher class, they lag behind even further. Nevertheless, most of those cars still sit very close to the limit, and there are even presets that bump them up to the highest they can be, without any concern as to whether they sit at S1 900 or 897, or 895, or even below 890 sometimes.
However, with the way the meta is, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a car at 880 with all points spent on engine parts outperforming one at 900 with race tires and weight reduction but less power.
Another example is S2 class, sure you can try reaching 998 points, but I suspect there are cars at 998 being outperformed by cars in the 980 or even 970 range, at least on certain tracks, especially when, to my knowledge, not every car in the game can push all the way to 998, even with engine swap and AWD conversion.
No, the PI system on this game is a mess, there’s cars that have almost equal performance and the PI could be 800 to one and 880 to the other. What really makes the difference is how well you can tune your car to make it fast and at the same time comfortable to your driving style, don’t believe on PI, just don’t use transmission, body kit and rubber on the front tires and you’ll have a decent build to A class. Also, all the presets are just to offline race, they are really bad and can’t be competitive online.
My example was the Audi quattro, with full engine parts and stock tires it won’t get to 800 no matter what, especially because it’s already AWD in stock form. However, if you add street tires to it and lower the PI accordingly, it becomes way too slow for A class. In S1 class it might be competitive in rallying but you can only get there with rally tires anyway, if you don’t swap the engine, that is, so it performs well on gravel but pitifully on tarmac, on top of not being fast enough for the class.
U probably referring to stock/street trans for cars with AWD in stock form and with low redline top speed I guess? Some cars’s PI actually lower with street/sport transmission I would almost always upgrade those.
Bodykit I 1st thought the same when game 1st started but now I’ve put it on for quite some available models. It doesn’t really improve cornering limit but doesn’t always worsen it either. Maybe should say it’s more about shifting the “handling bias” (low/high speed) towards the low-speed side.
The (usually) wider rear options available for bodykit also allow ditching of rear downforce for some cars (e.g. NSX 92’) and might give the wide-bodied car the last bit of edge on braking/high-end accel.
In cars with good stock ratio I don’t see any need to upgrade transmission to race, but there are cars with crap ratios, 8 gears, overdrives, etc., those should benefit from race tranny, though since most of those are RWD the point is moot.
It’s worth noting that AWD lowers top speed because the AWD conversion tranny is limited to 6 gears. This can be helpful because theoretical top speed is completely unrelated to gears, more so to power and aero, as with gears you can just put on a tall enough gear and it’ll go. But, since the standard gears don’t allow you much speed and they’re what counts for stat and PI calculation, the PI increase from race tranny is actually not that much and in some cases negligible.
McLaren P1, F50 and Porsches are good with RWD for two reasons:
AWD adds weight in the front. This will always make the handling less sharp. Tuning a car like a transatlantic ship might be fastest but everyone has their preferences, some prefer cars with good turn-in, and AWD gives you the opposite of that.
With lots of weight in the rear, these cars have enough exit corner grip that they can forego the AWD conversion, especially when fitted with fatter tires on the rear. I mean, the 911’s claim to fame is precisely the “slow in, fast out” mantra! Why not make the most of it?
This game puts an emphasis on power and AWD, always do an AWD swap.
For S class; Max your engine and leave your front tire width skinny. Don’t upgrade brakes unless you really need to. Use race or sport weight & up to sport stiffening, the cage Is too heavy. Sport tires, leave your front tire width skinny & largest rear tire width.
AWD: most of time yes but not always. Most rear/mid-engined Porsches, F50 and Mclaren F1 and few more others are better with RWD.
Maxed out engines: Disagree. Yes high power needed in general but I definitely would avoid 1500hp on cars with poor high-speed handling/poor high-end accel by nature, e.g. most old Muscles and Bone Shaker.
No brake upgrades: Disagree. Totally car-dependant. If a car only has 8.0 rating with stock brakes I would definitely upgrade those. I personally usually aim for 9.0 if possible.
Cage too heavy: in general yes, but very high powered vehicles (~1000-1500hp) tend to benefit quite a bit from cage as u put down power much better at launch/corner exits.
Sport tires: Wrong. I’ve explained to NightDriver before. One car’s grip level from sport tires can be totally different from the sport tires for another car model. (Same for race/street)
No but you want to make sure your handle and acceleration is on par with its class. You might be able to get away with more speed if you can hold corners as fast a good handle a class. Should be around .9 lateral g’s a class with then go for accel. Speed and breaking are just a benefit of your car and drive type and wieght. Find your favorite a class look at its stats then build some thing you think would be better even if it’s the same Quattro. Maybe rear wheel drive swap with street tires might make an acceptable a 800
Th pi system is not broken btw. I have low class leader board cars that are rwd and they out preform the awd at everything but launch and low speed corners. I take them in the first few turns because they smoke thier tires and are forced to ride the edge. Amen while I saved pi points on rwd and got better handeling. Now
I can afford a cam and transmission upgrade and maybe even rims! Now I can hold speeds in corners with less shifts. Awd is good for tight turns short straights and bumpy rough roads. A rwd set up would have a very hard time keeping up. You times will be affected my the track, the class, your car, and then your drive style. I’m pretty sure the average driver in a tuned car would give the seasoned racer in a stock car a run for his money.
I want to write a small article on this as well as why the old cars get such big PI increases with tire upgrades. Forza is indeed its own thing but a lot of what it is does have grounds on IRL stuff.
Unfortunately I don’t have the time right now to learn the archetypical FH3 leaderboard setup nor test lap times, but one thing is certain, there are a few courses in the game, mostly short circuits, where I’m skeptical about the validity of the “power is king” theory. Granted, this doesn’t mean you should put race tires on a 110 bhp car, but it doesn’t mean handling is completely useless either.
Sprints on the other hand usually require powerful cars because most of them end in long straights where the straight line speed can be crucial for victory.
I will say awd seems to be king in online adventure. People will hit you or take your perfect line so you need a car that can accel quicker, you will be doing a lot of breaking and speeding up. Acceleration is the main factor. Awd adds
Predictability at peak grip and even beyond with the right tuning. You will need to some tricky stuff and not spin out into walls if you want to keep your points and be on top of the leader board. Coming in first place is just a perk of good driving.
Some cars’s PI actually lower with street/sport transmission I would almost always upgrade those.