As I've stated elsewhere on the forums, I recently purchased a bundle containing Forza Motorsport 3 and the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel from GAME for £100. I've been having some races when I've got the time and so far the game has been a blast, it's got a 92 rating on Metacritic. Just curious if anyone else is planning to pick this up soon.
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I don't do any tuning myself nor am I a big racing fan, however I get cravings from time to time and Forza 2 was a game I craved quite a bit. I like the attention to detail and the racing lines they provide, a lot of the assists truly do even out the odds so newbies can keep up with veterans easier.
I'm slowly trying to ease myself into the tuning scene too, but I've got a long way to go. I've had more interest in learning the advantages of the various drivetrains and engine placements in cars, mainly thanks to Initial D. I want to get into RWD cars like the Toyota Supra and the Mazda RX7 as I've got quite an eye on the drifting aspect of Forza Motorsport, which I imagine the video above might have given away.
My mate was telling me how FWD is only for weak cars that aren't intended for racing. Most cars on the road have FWD because it's apparently cheaper and since you don't really need RWD for day-to-day commuting people just build them with FWD to save money. Still, I like FWD because that's what most Hatchbacks use and I like the responsiveness but they kind of suck for drifting.
ZTO Jamie
Member
Its subjective as to whether your talking about cars in real life, or cars in Forza 3. A FWD will give you better grip and responsiveness depending on the tuning. Some FWD cars, if they have a poor turn in set-up, won't get around a corner, however they are generally the best reagrding cornering. While a RWD gives you the better acceleration, if you can't control it, your gonna spin out in the corners.
Then of course, it depends on the track your racing. A twisty, windy one, will obviously benefit from FWD, while a track with many long straights, is going to benefit from a RWD with higher downforce.
That's also subjective though. A FWD vehicle does have sharper turns compared to a RWD, but that's assuming I'm trying to beat you at turning normally. A RWD car shines when drifting, so when going around turns I'm be sliding around them at a good speed and leaving the turn at a good speed too. This is the advantage of drifting if you can do it well, you avoid having to slow down when going around turns. Now if you were taking the same turn as me in a FWD without drifting, you would obviously have to hit the brakes and slow down, with drifting I can maintain good speed whilst only hitting the breaks briefly to force my car to lose control on purpose, thus initiating a basic handbrake drift.
A FWD and an AWD car can also drift, but not as good as a RWD. The AWD technically doesn't even drift, it kind of forces its way through corners in a way. As for FWD, yes it can drift, but because you're using your front wheels to push the car and control the dift, this isn't a very favourable thing to do when the whole idea of a drift is to make your wheels lose traction on the road. A RWD car on the other hand uses the rear wheels to push the car whilst the front wheels handle the control, so you're not forcing both tasks on your front wheels.
There's a big thing to note here of course, and that's the skill required in taking advantage of the RWD's drifting abilities. It's a lot harder to master drifting around corners at the optimum level compared to turning around corners with a nice FWD hatchback or something. So if me and you were to race, and I'm trying to drift my way through corners in a RWD whilst you try to just turn through them with a FWD, you would probably gain a big lead on me as my drifts would be too sloppy to race seriously with.
ZTO Jamie
Member
Yeah, unless you can drift to a high level its pretty pointless using it in a race. This can be nulified if you make the race drifting only, but its going to be hard to find people that do this, unless you get involved in a drifting community. You'll also need to master the gears on the car, something I have trouble with. To drift properly, you have to use the car in manual, which I assume you already know. This can invariably make you faster, whether you drift or not, as you're reducing the shift time that takes place on an Automatic transmission.
Another problem you may find when drifting is using it to overtake. You'll obviously be taking a different racing line when in the corners when drifting comapred to a regular driving style. Therefore, it may become more often that you're inadvertently hitting other drivers, or struggle to find a way past.
Michael, I was actually starting to get bored of racing games so badly needed something to give the genre some life; a racing wheel seemed like a great way to do this and Forza Motorsport 3 just solidified that craving for me. The wheel takes some practice as it's an even bigger transition than going from a controller to an arcade stick, but in the long run I think it's a better piece of hardware if you take racing games seriously or just want to take the immersion to the next level.
Also Jamie, I think the best way to go would be to know when to drift and when to just take corners normally. Sharp U turns for example where an opponent will break and take the inside line around the turn gives you plenty of space to drift around the outside and overtake them. The trick is to also tune your car properly, you want to have good drifting abilities but also a fairly fast car so you're not losing too much on straight roads.
That's the fun in games like Forza 3 though, it's like mech customisation in ACFA where there's no perfect setup. Though I don't tune my cars just yet, I do like to practice the same track trying to improve my drifting. There's a downhill mountain track on the game that is similar to the tracks shown in Initial D so I love racing on that trying to copy what I see in the manga.
By the way this video is a decent example of what I'm talking about in regards to using drifts to take turns without slowing down too much. This guy burns through turns with an AE86 Trueno fairly well, giving you all a glimpse of how drifting can help you gain an edge when used masterfully.
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