So I wanted to start a new discussion to see what people’s preferences are when it comes to Drivetrain Swaps.
Let me begin by saying when I first started playing this game I didn’t do much tuning myself and downloaded a lot of tunes, it was only a little while later I realised most if not all had changed the cars to AWD. Recently I went through my cars and tuned them myself putting cars back to their default Drivetrain and I started enjoying driving them more than when they were all AWD.
Ever since then Ive started to keep all my cars at the Drivetrain it comes with as standard. So if a car comes with FWD or RWD I will keep it at that instead of converting it to AWD. Of course if the car comes with AWD standard I will keep it at that.
I recently went through every car as I said and changed them back to RWD or FWD and personally I’m enjoying driving them more than when I would get tunes making it AWD.
So for this discussion I’m curious as to what other players prefer, do you prefer to make all your cars AWD or is there people like myself who don’t swap the Drivetrain and keep it as whatever its at stock personally I like keeping it stock and I particularly like FWD cars leave your thoughts and opinions below and let’s have a friendly discussion.
Depends on the car but more often than not as an auto user I’ll go for an AWD swap to minimise the shift penalty.
In lower classes though there is more cars where they’re best left as is, AWD swap often adds too much weight and makes them more steady but sluggish, like in D I couldn’t believe the difference in pace between an AWD swapped Toronado and a GTO that was left RWD, GTO is much quicker once it gets going, handles better and even on launch the Toronado doesn’t have any sizeable advantage.
Also depends on the tune, someone who doesn’t know/care about what they’re doing tuning wise will result in an under/oversteering pig regardless of the drivetrain, a common theme amongst many of the AWD swapped ones you see in the menus.
Nearly all my overhauls includes conversion to AWD and some differential tuning. Reason being better off the line performance but sometimes I make exceptions with RWD cars that have rear or mid-engine configuration as there’s weight advantage already on the driven wheels, giving them more grip. More difficult to control in some scenarios but can be built to be faster.
FWD cars I have only because some races require them.
I only drivetrain swap very rarely. I might be able to count the number of drivetrain swaps I’ve done on one hand.
Usually I go for near stock builds, and I want to keep the stock characteristics of the car. There are times when I have a specific build in mind though.
A few examples:
Turning a Ford F-100 into an AWD supercharged CC and dirt machine.
Turning a Golf GTI into a lightweight B class dirt hopper.
Turning the Acura RSX into a RWD JDM street racer.
These are the exceptions though not the rule, and sometimes they are build 2 or 3 on the car. The GTI for example is my second build on the car. The first one is a D class near stock racer with a once loved now rusted paint job.
I would say it depends on the car for me. As a wheel user and given the better than FH4 physics, I’ve left a fair majority of my RWD cars as RWD unless I end up using them for the trial then I meta tune them more and usually that means AWD. I almost always swap FWD to AWD because virtual torque steer isn’t any more fun than real torque steer, and if I wanted the back-end to slip out around every high-speed corner I’d drive a 911 from the 80’s)
I do tend to do purist tunes most times. If I add anything it may be a turbo, it just depends on the platform.
I do some meta styled tunes with some of the things, but not all of them. I for instance tune more for handling/braking and tires, and reduce weight before I really worry about adding power.
Interesting points speaking of shifting penalties I haven’t had any issues with that maybe I’m. Just used to it so I don’t notice it but I do know RWD accelerates slower as expected.
I see people say that cars with a lot of horsepower need AWD to control like with the Jesko for example, personally I have my jesko as RWD and i do fine with it and other top power cars. So I just like to leave my cars as they are whether it’s RWD FWD AWD
Ye off the line performance is one drawback with not converting to AWD that is something I noticed when I switched back all my cars to their stock Drivetrain off the line and main acceleration is noticeably slower
You make some really good interesting points here, I see there are advantages and disadvantages to swapping and not swapping. Both have strengths and weaknesses hence why I started this topic to see people’s preferences.
It’s just my play style that I keep the Drivetrain stock no matter what I’m using the car for and I find more enjoyment that way.
FWD cars are so fun to drive for me, I don’t know why that is, I just seem to really enjoy driving them and I find the handling decent on them when tuned right. Only downside to FWD is slow off the line and acceleration, but that doesn’t ruin the drive for me. I particularly like rally racing in FWD that presents a unique challenge and experience for me.
I generally will swap an FWD (wrong wheel drive) to RWD if I can within the performance limitations of the restricted class I intend to participate in – but I generally avoid AWD because I LOVE a little oversteer. If the situation calls where I do end up using AWD, I shift the differential specs to like 70% rear wheel drive.
Outside of S2, AWD to me, for a lot of cars feels like it is just way heavier going into a apex of a turn and is sluggish in turning response.
I would narrow it down and say rear-engine, rear wheel drive cars are what I am having most fun tinkering with, especially the Ferrari 599XX Evo, and 92 NSX-R with the LS3/LT1 and a camshaft lol
Such a comment can only come from somebody who never drove a proper FWD car.
Just an example…
When it comes to swapping to AWD. At least with a wheel everything FWD or RWD becomes a pig to handle above class B thanks to the borked tire physics and aero in this game.
And I’m not saying this because I need to “git gud” and can’t handle a fast RWD car around a track without assists in a computer game.
Something like this is simply impossible in FH5.
Even an upgraded P1 on slicks is far, far away from the above when it comes to handling, grip and downforce. You simply have to AWD swap it to even come close.
I almost never change drivetrains. I feel like changing it gets too far from the original character of the car, which I prefer to preserve as much as I can.
