So I was playing some Forza as you do and was getting a bit bored as you do. Didn’t want to race online, do leaderboards or do the ‘campaign’ because well, that I find to be rather repetitive and dull. So I though I’d test out a couple of the race cars from one of my favourite periods in motor racing, the 90’s GT1 Le Mans Era that occurred after the demise of the all powerful Group C cars. Any who getting to the point, decided to try out two of the race cars that raced each other at Le Mans in 1998, the Ferrari F333 SP and the Porsche 911 GT1, and what I found kinda perplexed me quite a bit. Now I understand that before I say any of this Le Mans has since changed, the main change being the run from the Dunlop bridge to the Forrest Esses now longer being straight however I very much doubt that this plays a huge effect, especially not the one I found. So here is what I found;
Ferrari F333 SP
1998 Qualifying Lap Time - 3:46.3
My Time - 3:29.3
Difference - -17 Seconds
Porsche 911 GT1
1998 Qualifying Lap Time - 3:38.4
My Time - 3:59.5
Difference - +21 Seconds
To me This difference in performance sticks out like quite a sore thumb seeing as in 1998 the Porsche 911 GT1 crushed the F333 SP and obviously went on to win the race, although that was partly due to the fact that the Toyota and Mercedes had bad luck. Either way the two feel majorly unbalanced to what they should be which is a shame because in real life the GT1 and LMP1 were pretty competitive with each other. Sadly it seems that this isn’t the only set of cars that feel unbalanced. The Toyota TS040 and Audi R18 e-tron are a good pair that spring to mind and from what I’ve tried I can’t get within 10 seconds of the lap record set by the Porsche 919 last year at Le Mans in last years 919. I hoping that they do sort this out along with other various bits and pieces such as the strange bumps that are on race tracks such as on Le Mans on the entrance to the Mulsanne there is a patch where the suspension freaks out or the yellow bumps being the only bumps in game to slow your car down which when exiting the Porsche curves is the last thing that you want to have. Sebring too the curbs feel like they are backwards almost kicking your car tremendously when going over them at times or the weird bumps like at turn 2. These are just my opinions and it would be nice to know what people think about these inconsistencies, if that’s the right word to use.
As far as the tracks goes who knows why these things are there. As far as cars go in the game turn 10 inputs whatever data available to them into their physics engine and then test them on some sort of test track and thats how they get there ratings. Im sure they tweak things here or there to keep them competitive with other cars of their type whether its higher or lower performance than it should be. Id say for the most part they do a good job of this but here and there these “inconsistencies” arise. It is a video game after all not a simulator. If we werent able to modify cars this would be more of an issue, but since most of the time cars pi levels are brought to the top of the class it goes unnoticed. I also like to drive cars unmodified most of the time and there are definitely some head scratchers in there but i take the game for what it is.
As I have detailed in another thread, the 911 GT1 is horribly inaccurate in FM6. It can achieve nowhere near the top speeds or lap times the real thing has recorded. For instance, my fastest lap in it at Road Atlanta is a 1:19.4, whilst the real deal set a pole time of 1:13.7 at Petit Le Mans in 1998.
It’s been deliberately nerfed, along with the Super GT Nissan GT-R, which can lap Fuji in real life faster than the Rebellion R-One. so that it’s balanced with the Aston DBR9, which is nonsensical. Both the 911 GT1 and the GT500 GT-R should be about 100 PI points higher than they are if they were actually representative of their real life counterparts.
I don’t understand why Turn 10 think it’s best to balance and nerf different cars to compete with others from different classes and eras instead of actually representing them accurately and realistically in comparison to the real vehicles, but I really wish they’d stop.
2 Likes
Its because its not a simulator its a game. Theres many factors that go into modeling these cars like weight, weight distribution, power, and so on, but im sure many, expecially handling characteristics like braking and aerodynamics have to be made using educated guesses from whatever info they can gather. No car in this game is 100% accurate, and if it wasnt for the fact that these race cars have set real times no one would ever know the difference. Im sure on some tracks some of the cars are pretty close to reality and others as the op pointed out arent, theres no way any developer is going to invest that much time to every car in the game to make it perfect. Im all for realism, but there comes a point where there’s developmental road blocks and also the fact that real life isnt much fun, which is why games like forza and gran turismo will always outsell any simulator out there. In reality no one but a race car driver could put up times that other race car drivers could. I also think if some of these cars were exactly like their real life counterparts, theyd have no competition but themselves which wouldnt be much fun. Theres a few cars in the game that dont fit into any division and theyre not used in career and will never be used in a league event. I think theyve made the right decision by altering the cars to give them (although false) competition.
As has been said 1) Forza is not a sim 2) balance.