Started testing S1-class vs. Unbeatable Drivatars in Street Races.
Sample: S1-Class RWD coupes, Stock only, no tuning, S1-802 to S1-xxx. Street Racing only
Testing method: Playing against Unbeatable Drivatars on every Street Race in game (21).
S1-Class
Season: Summer
'12 Aston Martin Vanquish (S1 802) *
- Winning the Monument Wynds was quite a challenge. This time not against one but two Drivatar cars. Fastest in numerous attempts was Drivatar Lamborghini Gallardo (S1 833) clocking between 2:22.409 - 2:21.250. Second positions went to Hoonigan Ford Fiesta (S1 828) clocking with times between 2:22.860 - 2:21.850.
I beat Drivatars finally when there were lot’s of collisions between Drivatar and traffic cars with time 2:23.577 against Drivatar Hoonigan Fiesta clocking 2:24.212 Drivatar Lambo Callardo finishing in 2:28.032. It’s important to note though that my finish time was still slower of what Drivatars could do when they weren’t hindered by traffic. Alas, I only won because of dump luck.
Silliest thing on Monument Wynds runs was that I never felt that car wasn’t able to do it. It’s more about route, traffic and other things influencing human factor. That said, even though times around 2:21.xx would be possible, it’s another question to be able to make that sort of runs constantly with stock Aston Martin I used. Too bad I forgot to screencap Drivatar starting positions, but I would bet that Lambo and Hoonigan were starting from the first row.
There was one anomaly on my test run. There were no traffic at all on Coastal Charge. Won the event on first try, but I wonder why that happened. This time I saw co-op and Rivals icons lit and unlocked so traffic cars not appearing couldn’t be because of I wasn’t connected to Horizon Life.
In general Aston Martin Vanquish turned out to be really great experience in Street Scene. There’s something it shares with BMW M4, line between sports car and race car becoming blurred. I didn’t had problems winning with it except for Monument Wynds, biggest annoyance during my test run being LEGO-Mini which appeared quite a few times among Drivatar lineup sticking out like sore thumb.
Season: Autumn
'93 Jaguar XJ220 (S1 811)
'97 Lotus Elise GT1 (S1 815) [Track Toy] **
'11 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (S1 822) ***
'13 Dodge SRT Viper GTS (S1 831) ****
'16 BMW M4 GTS (S1 841) [Track Toy] * mw *
Jaguar XJ220 turned out to be really fine car. Hadn’t much trouble with at all winning events but on Ambleside Ascent and Highland Charge, latter where I was able to win after re-tries with time 2:15.036, it still fell short of 2:14.677 clocked by Drivatar Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder (S1 814) in one of the re-tries. Main contenders were Gallardo Spyder and Caterham R500, which started from first row.
Had to rerun Marathon which is very rare and even on second try it was really tight my 7:45.207 with Jag vs. Drivatar Ferrari GTC4L (S1 840) taking second place in 7:45.451. I made some slow exits on that run though.
** Lotus GT1 is a race car which I like a lot but racing with it also turned out to be very uneven experience during my test run.
While Lotus did great on most of the routes, I was not able to beat fastest Drivatar time with it on Ambleside Ascent. My best time there was 2:25.871 and won with that but best Drivatar time was 2:25.212 with ‘17 Nissan GT-R (S1 836). On Glenfinnan Chace I had to retry, finished second with 2:14.843 vs Drivatar Morgan Aero GT (S1 811) taking first position with time 1:14.777. I took the wrong line in final straight and hit the drivatar. 
However I was not able to beat that time on my second run winning the race with time 2:15.377.
Real trouble started at Highland Charge where I got stuck for retrying for a long time. Drivatar with Audi R8 V10 plus (S1 856) finishing in times between 2:14.510 – 2:12.041. My best time was 2:12.191 but I finally won the event after some Drivatars crashed to something ahead of me and had pretty clean run with time 2:12.925.
Did all the races except Monument Wynds without incidents but Monument Wynds turned out to be another real challenge where I got stuck for a long time. Main opponents were Ford RS200 (S1 839) and ‘14 Porsche 911 Turbo. I kept finishing third Ford RS200 clocking between 2:21.692 – 2:21.600 Porsche 911 clocking even faster time at one event, 2:21.358. My times with Lotus GT1 were between 2:23.769 – 2:23.060. I was able to win with my fastest time but only because Drivatars had a crash with traffic. Perfomance with Lotus was poor compared to Drivatar times and I can’t pin down where (excluding normal Street scene chaos) I lost so much time, except right at start.
I won remaining events without much effort, but there’s very important thing regarding times. I felt I was sometimes faster and sometimes slower with Lotus GT1 than with Jaguar XJ220 despite Lotus Higher PI and after studying screencaps I took it turned out to be so.
| - -Times :::: ‘93 Jaguar XJ220 | ‘97 Lotus GT1
AmbsideAs: 2:30.375 - - - - - - - - 2:25.871 (!)
Marathon - : 7:45.207 - - - - - - - - 7:45.967
Monumt W: 2:21.208 - - - - - - - - 2:23.060
Highland C: 2:15.036 - - - - - - - - 2:12.191
Edin NewT: 2:10.306 - - - - - - - - 2:12.433
It’s interesting relating to Drivatars. If I sometimes must upgrade a car to handle demands of Weekly Challenge or simply change to higher PI car, what I see first is that as my vehicle PI goes up, Drivatars also get faster. On current playlist when I changed my vehicle from Ferrari F12tdf (S2 901) to McLaren 720S Spider (S2 914) Drivatar cars stayed the same, but suddenly got about two seconds faster.
With Lotus in campaign races, it looks like sometimes Drivatar time target or whatever they have is influenced by Lotus higher PI and sometimes not. Some of times I posted are likely due random nature of Street Scene and simply human factor, but I believe there might be something in time data of Ambleside and Monument Wynds.
*** '11 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (S1 822) Good car, though feels tad heavy, yet it’s another sort of unique vehicle in game. Had no problems winning with it, had to retry Otleydale Dash couple of times it but few things occurred.
Ambleside Ascent turned out to be quite a challenge again. There was Drivatar Lamborghini Reventon (S1 841) starting from first row clocking times between 2:25.746 - 2:27.514. Finally managed to beat it when Drivatars had to slow down because of traffic car in section which is the same as Ambleside Approach Speed Zone where I could take advantage of situation and overtake. Forgot to screencap my winning time, but they were typically in 2:.27.xxx area and I don’t think I was any faster than usual on last section of route.
Derwent Valley Dash is one of my favourites and I was quite surprised to had to retry it few times as I was unable to beat Drivatar Caterham R500 (S1 820). It clocked the route in between 2:20.658 - 2:22.718. my best times being between 2:24.211 - 2:22.635. While I managed to win the race when I caught Caterham in last section in race, I practically side swiped it to hold my racing line. I was never able to beat it’s top times in 2:20’s. Caterham was starting from the pole.
After that everything went well, even Highland Charge but in Monument Wynds I ended in real trouble. There were Acura NSX (S1 850), Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder (S1 817) starting from the first row and KTM X-Bow GT4 (S1 861) in second row. I was only able to beat KTM X-Bow somewhat consistently on my numerous retries. Drivatar Lambo Gallardo Spyder was mostly consistent winner clocking times between 2:18.556 - 2:20.983. It wasn’t however fastest, Drivatar Acura NSX when it got to first in race managed to finish in 2:18.364 and was constantly getting close to identical times with Lambo. My best time was 2:20.432 but my times usually were in 2:21.xxx’s. After grinding that race for hour or so I came into conclusion that traffic pattern that would mess up leading Drivatars wouldn’t happen and gave up against that Drivatar lineup.
After finishing North Coast Rush and Coastal Charge I went to try Monument Wynds again. I won on first try against different Drivatar lineup. My time was 2:22.526, so not that fast, but as Drivatar finishing in second position with Ferrari Cali T (S1 821) clocked 2:24.529, it wasn’t even tight. I wonder though if this time something happened during race to bottleneck Drivatars. Finished this Street Scene race through on Marathon, winning it with pretty good margin.
It’s interesting how some cars work on Monument Wynds and some don’t. Starting location on Unbeatable is clear disadvantage, but other factor is that higher PI doesn’t always result better performance. While my best time there was 2:20.432 that was only once I manged to finish in time sub 2:21. From previous races, my time with ‘93 Jaguar XJ220 (S1 811) 2:21.208 was perhaps on better half of what I managed with '11 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (S1 822) in constant runs.
**** '13 Dodge SRT Viper GTS (S1 831) not much issues with this but on Ambleside Ascent, to my surprise Windfarm Rush and especially at Monument Wynds. Won Ambleside Ascent on sixth try, there was Drivatar Lamborghini Aventador J (S1 871) giving lot of trouble, when I finally managed to pass it in curves where Ambleside Approach Speed Zone is.
Windfarm Rush had again Lamborghini Aventador J starting from first row clocking the race between 2:27.147 - 2:27.606. Finally won when it slipped into ditch when I got close while chasing it, but my finishing time was still poor in comparison, 2:33.279. My best time was 2:29.008.
No issues after that until Monument Wynds where I ended up against ‘14 Porsche 911 Turbo (S1 830) starting from pole. Porsche finished quite consistently between 2:14.668 - 2:15.986 whenever I got clean enough run to get anywhere near it. Whenever I got bad start or otherwise terrible race it could finish in 2:17’s. Best time I could do with Viper was 2.19.256 but I managed to win on my eight try, after Porsche collided or had to slow down because of traffic with time 2:21.200, Porsche right behind me in 2:21.333.
I don’t know what to think. Viper isn’t a bad car. It’s demanding, has a learning curve but it can be amazing in corners, a bit unpredictable at high speeds, but while I finished three races left for this test run, I felt I still didn’t knew how to utilise its full potential. On Monument Wynds it had besides that great cornering ability, also advantage of being able to cut corners over sidewalks (stock '11 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG couldn’t do that) and my times were more consistent than with MB-SLS, I was only 0.5 to about 1 seconds faster. Leading Drivatar was however 3-5 seconds faster than on my race with M-B SLS. That’s heck of a penalty for 9 PI of Viper over M-B SLS.
- mw * '16 BMW M4 GTS (S1 841) turned out to be really fantastic car. Had some really great races with this, winning Edinburgh Stockbridge despite having bad start especially. Only time I needed to grind retries happened on Monument Wynds. This time Driviatar lineup even from first row was '15 Corvette (S1 871) and Lambo Murcielago (S1 840). They didn’t pull magical times compared to mine. Lambo was consistently bit faster than Corvette faster clocking times between 2:18.147 - 2:18.847. My best time with BMW was 2:19.656. However I won when something happened to leading Drivatars with time 2:21.450 against Drivatar Bugatti EB110 finishing in 2:21.727.
BMW had issues with sidewalks Viper didn’t which may explain why I couldn’t beat best time I did with Viper (2.19.256) with BMW. What comes to certain pattern which seems pretty clear with Monument Wynds on higher class cars, I leave that analysis for later.
Season: Winter
'98 Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion (S1 850)
'10 Ferrari 599 GTO (S1 861)
Porsche and Ferrari turned out to be quite different and after finishing test runs on both I studied what tyres they have stock. Porsche appears to have Street tyres while Ferrari has Sport tyres.
Difference between tyres means a lot, at least during winter. I needed ~89 races to complete all 21 Street Scene races in game with Porsche (didn’t managed to win Monument Wynds even with 10 tries) while with Ferrari it took only 23 races. To win Monument Wynds on first try was really big surprise with Ferrari, even I was getting familiar with car at that point already.
I guess tyre selection for Porsche may be to reflect it’s Retro Supercars division.
I think it might be for the best if I rerun these cars through Street scene again during Spring.
Season: Spring
'98 Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion (S1 850) Rerun
I needed 68 races to complete all Street Scene events in game with Porsche during Spring. I didn’t won on Monument Wynds and Edinburgh New Town. I only did 5 tries on Monument Wynds, I considered it pointless, but not being able to win Edinburgh New Town was curious, so I did 10 attempts there.
I came once pretty close winning Edingburgh New Town with time: 2:03.858 losing to Drivatar ‘19 Porsche (S1 849) clocking 2:03.324. I wasn’t able to repeat times near that, typically finishing ~2.06 to 2.07’s. Fastest time I saw from Drivatar happened during my first 5 attempts, Hoonigan Group A (S1 880) finishing in 2:01.705.
Porsche was weird experience what comes to many races. Car evidently can be fast, but it’s very difficult to actually realise that potential. Yet I wonder if times around 2.01.xxx are consistently possible with it on Edingburgh New Town. It’s quite gimped by it’s poor tyres.
There were 3 races where leading Drivatars crashing into traffic helped me to win.
Overall result with Porsche on Spring was marginally better than during Winter, but there’s also human factor that I was really tired when I did first 12 Street on this run. If this weren’t being re-run, I would have done 10 races on Monument Wynds rising number of races with 1-5 to 69 – 74.
I did one race with one repeat with '10 Ferrari 599 GTO (S1 861) which I also run during winter and noticed quite fast that there’s no reason to grind it. It’s the same as during winter.
Series 16 Content Update
Season: Summer
‘14 McLaren 650S Spider (S1 873) [Car Pass]
‘12 Porsche 911 GT2 RS (S1 882) [Tracktoys]
‘14 McLaren 650S Spider (S1 873) turned out to be fun car, though it’s bit tail happy and its front can be a bit unpredictable at times. It’s also sort of unique and I can understand why these cars have their fans.
I was able to win all but Monuments Wynds, where my best position was second with time 2:16.954 against winning Drivatar finishing in 2:15.970. There was some sort of collisions with Drivatars and traffic in that race. My best time however was 2:14.169 finishing third versus Drivatar Ferrari FF (S1 867) clocking 2:13.367 and winning Drivatar Porsche 918 GTS (S1 871) finishing in 2:13.283.
In three out of five races leading Drivatars times had in 1:13’s and once in 1:14’s. I didn’t do but five tries on Monument Wynds.
‘12 Porsche 911 GT2 RS (S1 882) turned out to be another great car. I experienced couple of positive and negative surprises with it.
I was able to win Ambleside Ascent with first try. I side glanced a leading Drivatar in first right in curves in Ambleside Approach Speed Zone section.
I ended in trouble on three routes and two of them were quite baffling. I was finishing in second position on Ashbrook Apex and Broadway crossfire. My best time on Broadway Crossfire was 2:19.606 vs winning Drivatar Ford Fiesta GRC (S1 880) finishing in 2:17.621.
Otleydale Dash was another where I was able to get on second position but no win. I have screencaps from both races results but Xbox console companion activity history doesn’t reach back to them so I must to dig those times up later.
I gave five tries to each race. I was wondering if I’m feeling well really, as I had no major issues on other routes. My biggest surprise was winning on Monument Wynds on first try, but maybe I got some help from the Drivatar Line-Up. Starting from the first row there were #43 Dodge Viper (S1 878) which is a drift car and Ferrari 458 (S1 879). I won Drivatar Ferrari 468 with time 2:11.198 vs. 2:11.583.
‘12 Porsche 911 GR2 RS is really awesome car. It has race parts stock, though I didn’t adjust anything because that would render racing it meaningless for purposes of these test runs, but even in it’s bone stock form and all the races I still didn’t felt I was using it’s all potential. I was also pondering if losing on Ashbrook Apex and Broadway Crossfire was partially because of that and PI that comes from its adjustable parts. I had bit of issues with unpredictable weight transfer but it even in stock form that could be tuned out.
There is potentially another uninvited variable, left stick of my controller is starting to have a bit of wandering issue. I see if I can continue with it or if it starts causing anomalies to data.
Season: Autumn
'16 Dodge Viper ACR (S1 893) [Tracktoys]
'12 Pagani Huayra (S1 900)
'16 Dodge Viper ACR (S1 893) wasn’t competitive in every race. At least in it’s default configuration its poor acceleration after about 145 – 150 mph is its Achilles heel.
I wasn’t able to win with it at Ambleside Ascent, Otleydale Dash, Highland Charge and Coastal Charge. I gave 5 tries to each race. There were also 5 races where leading Drivatar(s) crashing to traffic contributed winning the race.
Times:
--------------------- Player Best - - Drivatar Best ---------------------
Amblside Ascent: 2:17.120 (4th) 2:13.100 - VW GRC Beetle (S1 982) Beetle started from first row
*Otleydale Dash : 2:27.906 (6th) 2:22.818 – Lamborghini Murcilelago (S1 888)
Highland Charge: 2:01.222 (3rd) 02:00.121 Ferrari 458 (S1 890) Ferrari started from first row
**Coastal Charge:1:47.983 (3rd) 1:44.196 Lamborghini Aventador J (S1 892) from first row
- Even leading Drivatars happened to hit traffic or having other issues in race, the best position I managed was second with 2:28.324, against time clocked by Lambo in table above. Slowest winning Drivatar time was 2:25.364 with Mercedes SL65 (S1 886).
** Coastal Charge results are interesting. I was able to get on second position in 3 out 5 attempts. Lambo Aventador J won every race with times between 1:47.241 - 1:44.196 usually at 1:45’s. My times were between 1:51.937 - 1:47.983 typically at 1.50’s. However once I pushed time below 1:50 not only leading, but also Drivatar racing on second position got faster, effectively getting faster causing me to lose position(s). It’s interesting because same thing happened at Highland Charge, after getting second positions I ended up finishing 3rd on my fastest time.
In a nutshell, if it is as it appears, as my times got better, my position got worse there might be bit of an issue with FH4 rubberband, though I assume situation like this might be very rare occurance. I furthermore speculate that it might be related to high PI in Track Toys division cars when raced without tuning.
IMO Losing positions because of faster times in race is definitely punishing player for getting better at gamee and should be fixed.
Viper however It turned out to be quite strong on Edinburgh races, only Edinburgh Stockbridge requiring 3 attempts, as it’s final section is about acceleration and top speed.
Won Monument Wynds at first try with time 2:09.329 against ‘18 Aston Marting Vantage (S1 890) finishing second in 2:09.764 and Porsche 917 LH (S1 888) finishing third in 2:12.984. Aston Martin and Porsche were starting from the first row.
Overall I did 69 races to complete 21 Street Scene races with Viper. For comparison I needed only 34 attempts to complete Street Scene races with '12 Pagani Huayra (S1 900). I was also able to win every race with Pagani, though on 3 races Drivatar crashing to traffic contributed towards win.
'12 Pagani Huayra (S1 900) turned out to be really great all-arounder. Won Monuments Wynds on second attempt finishing in 2:11.689 vs. Drivatar Ferrari Cali T (S1 899) clocking 2:12.300 and ‘16 BMW M4 (S1 898) coming third at 2:12.500. BMW starting from first row and Ferrari Cali T from second row.
Times on Marathon:
‘16 Dodge Viper 7:21.408 (one major mistake though) and 6:59.453 for Pagani (pretty clean run).
I didn’t noticed controller causing issues in races, even though right stick tends to wander on it’s own a bit on map and sometimes on menus. I don’t believe it caused unknown variables to test results as if that were been causing issues with Viper it would had done so with Pagani too. Despite PI difference between Dodge and Pagani only being seven points, results stand.
To do: Determine Peel vehicles spawning threshold relating to player vehicle PI in D-Class Completed