I can lighten a car significantly more by upgrading to the race intake manifold (12-20 lbs lighter typically) than by removing the front (or rear) bumper (always just 4lbs lighter).
You can also lighten a car by a huge amount with the race exhaust upgrade. The manifold weight difference seems unrealistic, as does the extremely lightweight bumper.
On a typical 50s to 70s American car the front bumper weighs a whole lot more than 4 lbs and removing the front bumper should be a significant move to lighten the front end and redistribute weight, whereas it’s really just cosmetic at only -4lbs. I noticed this back in F4, and see it’s unchanged in F7. Why can’t each car have a more appropriate bumper weight?
Apparently you have never removed Cast Iorn headers from a V8 before or a Strait 6 both are quite heavy easily in the 10kg to 20kg range where a set of Stainless extractors about 3kg
It’s a classic flaw in the game for many parts you mentioned.
Although you can definitely lighten modern cars a fair bit IRL with what I would call a ‘race’ exhaust upgrade. Many cars have heavy multiple resonators, muffler boxes, particulate filters, catalyst elements etc where the total system can easily exceed 100lb. Rip it all out for a straight through titanium/inconel system you halve the weight or better.
Those are axles, sometimes called halfshafts. FWD doesnt have a driveshaft like RWD does, even though they show the same part icon in the upgrade menu.
You have the same arrangement for mid/rear-engined RWD cars too - the word driveshaft is conceivably generic enough (and with a pretty generic picture) that you can use it to describe tail-shafts, half-shafts, axles or whatever other names are used - they are all shafts that transmit drive to the wheels.
Driveshaft: a stick with with multiple articulating joints designed to transfer torque from the engine to the wheels
Axle: a stick with with multiple articulating joints designed to transfer torque from the engine to the wheels
Half-shaft: a stick with with multiple articulating joints designed to transfer torque from the engine to the wheels
Different manufacturers and different car communities call the same exact part something different. For example: what’s the difference between a steering knuckle, a spindle, and a wheel bearing housing? Nothing, they all serve the same exact purpose.
Live axle, stick axle, solid axle; I’m sure there are other descriptions or names but usually “car people” know to refer to it as something that shows that it’s not a part of a fully independent suspension system.
Yeah, the axles contained within a “live axle” assembly are (usually) referred to simply as axles, but context clues separate them from independent axles with articulating joints.
That’s why semantics and cars is so tough, and also why I don’t mind that they dummied it down a bit and lumped “drive axles” and “drive shafts” into the same upgrade category.
Sure, if an owner of an old Camaro said they blew an axle at the drag strip but the driveshaft is what actually failed, maybe you’d look at them funny because in that situation specificity matters. But Forza’s upgrades are referring more to “systems” rather than very specific parts. The “drive shaft” upgrade refers to the system of sticks between the transmission and the wheels, good enough for me.
The upgrade system is starting to show it’s age. The Forza series is all homologous now. I think that’s why the design the career mode pushing the homologated rules for car division. We get general upgrade systems, strange wheel upgrades where the brake rotors move offset depending on which wheels you change. Unrealistic, usually there are wheel hub spacers, but I never heard of shortening or lengthening the axel to fit rims on a car. Quite disturbing how general Forza treats upgrades.
And the 4 foot long tube you replace with carbon fiber for the weight reduction on RWD doesnt exist on FWD, even though you get still get the weight reduction.
It’s like the clutch packs on cars that were only automatics, you are upgrading parts that either dont exist or to unrealistic amounts.
This is done strictly for show, to allow people to make cars look the way they want them to. Very handy for painters. It’s not intended to be realistic even though there’s a minor effect on performance.
I like how when it comes to homologation you’re all about realism but when something is unrealistic it all of a sudden becomes about something else.
The game is filled with inconsistencies like this either within the game or between versions of the game that when you look at them show a lack of attention to detail. It all comes out in the PI system so it isnt a big deal but it does take you out of the “sim” aspect of the game.
Bottom LINE, the driveLINE upgrades the game shows for being available on RWD cars dont exist for FWD otherwise if you could take 10 pounds off of a FWD driveLINE you should be able to take 25 pounds off of a RWD driveLINE and 35 pounds or more off of a 4WD driveLINE.
The difference is that you split hairs whereas I don’t.
Cars with DCT have clutch upgrade. So what? Just because it shows an actual clutch set does it mean it’s unrealistic? I’m sure you’re aware there’s software remapping for automated transmissions these days, aren’t you?
Besides, you just picked the single least desirable upgrade in the game to make an argument out of. The driveline upgrade is almost useless, no one buys it except when they have PI leftover they can’t fill with anything else. The practical implications of unrealistic weight for the driveline upgrade are negligible.
In the engine section there’s tons of stuff that would affect weight distribution but don’t. Race ITBs shave a lot of weight but don’t help weight distribution. Same with exhaust. Yet oil cooling and intercoolers do. This would make more sense than driveline being lighter because you could round off ITB with oil cooling in a power build. Instead, oil cooling adds so much weight for little power and worsens weight distribution on top of that.
Furthermore, my biggest complaint when it comes to class and homologation is that AWD conversion makes this game almost arcade. Even with the accessibility it provides, it’s just too much. And some classes let you drive cars closer to how they were, with tons of body roll and little grip. It’s not all about fitting race slicks first then everything else as an afterthought. It has even made people consider upgrades such as Sport suspension.
If we take it to full realism then I want my stripped race interior with rear seat delete along with your tweaked driveline.
