XBox 360 Forza 4 100% Completed Chapter Two

Gentle reader,

Thank you for the overwhelming response to my coverage of completing the challenging racing simulation known as FORZA 4. 

Some more info about the Forza series. Some minor gripes. A positive first: In  real racing the gravel laden ares outside of curves are thickly covered to act as a friction component to slow or stop an out-of-control racer that has left the course. Usually, one gets stuck and has to be towed out. At least in Forza, we can motor through it and get back on track.

What I HATE is that on some circuits/courses, if you set ONE WHEEL in the grass, the program throws out a virtual anchor and if you weren't belted in, you'd fly through the windshield! Most places if you get off the tarmac, you may slow some, and that's OK. But those other places it sucks, because many of the AI cars that were chasing you down, go zipping by you doing their virtual, "Nana, nana, nana!"

Plus if one of those same AI cars goes off track, it flies along just like a real car would. Plus, they often are aimed right at or right in front of you as they get back on track. I have become wise to their ways, however.

Now, to the next fifteen or so cars in my virtual garage. Starting with the French Citroen DS4. Here's hoping they load in the right order this time.

Lighter wheels, of course and front and rear spoilers and nice racing livery.

Next is my 2nd 1970 Ford Boss 429 attempt. The first one I bought and modified some time ago was an awful handling beast so I got rid of it. 

Era-correct Trans-Am racing livery. Of course Trans-Am engine size was restricted to five liters or 305 cubic inches. The 429 was a hemi engine Ford created to run in NASCAR. For homologation purposes, the had to have street cars with that engine. Thus the Boss 429.

For visual and performance comparisons, the reincarnation of the 1969/70 Mustang, the 2005 GT. Here in Falken Tires racing livery. Mostly stock as I recall. Compare the performance numbers of the two.

Next the mostly stock Toyota-Subaru built Scion FR-S. I have a second one that you will see in a future chapter that is highly modified. Very nice paint scheme.

Those are replacement, lighter wheels. I will buy one of these or the Subaru BRZ version in a few years.

Below is a mostly stock '73 Porsche 911 Carrera RS. Excellent and correct livery. One drawback of Forza is some cars that have decorate trim or decorations, like the "Carrera" and stripes on the lower sides of the car can't be painted over. Still, awesome Rally livery.

Two more classic Porsches. The 1989 944 Turbo and 1955 (older than me) 550 Spyder. Both slightly modified and excellently decorated.  OK, so I converted the 550 to all-wheel-drive. Makes it more fun.

This is period-correct livery for I think, the Mexican Road Race. Called Panamerica Carrera, then.

Another homologation special is below. Changing the humble front-wheel-drive Renault Clio to a growling mid-engined rear-wheel-drive monster.

Below is a 1953 Corvette that is actually fun to drive and race. I replaced the two-speed automatic trans with a six-speed dual clutch unit. Added some other perfomance mods and off I go!

Check out those acceleration and launch numbers! Zora would be proud.

SEAT, pronounced, say-ought is owned by Volkswagon and is basically Spanish built versions of VW products. My modified Ibiza CUPRA is lots of fun!

The Europe-only, well at least non-USA-market VW Scirocco GT is a fun car too.

Another of the many Mustangs I have and the first Carrol Shelby massaged car in my garage, this '95 Cobra R was a thinly-disguised race car.

Very nice racing livery it has.

Below, another thinly-disguised Rally racer for homologation and a BLAST to drive, the '82 Lancia 037 Stradale.

Next a rest-of-the-world Honda sold here as Accura: Integra Type R. It is JDM, so right hand drive. 

Below is one of my Lexus IS300 cars. This one mostly stock. The IS series is designed/built to compete with BMW 3 series. I test drove and wanted to buy but could not afford to buy, the wagon version of the IS300 they called "SportCross". It was fire engine red and SO nice! Sadly, the wagon models in the USA only came with an automatic trans.

That's today's fifteen cars. We're into the C class now. A LONG way to go for me! I'm glad you appreciate my efforts. I appreciate your time in reading and hopefully enjoying it.

Scott

 

XBox 360 Forza 4 100% Completed Chapter One

Gentle reader,

 

NOTE: This article is from 2015 and is the first of what turned out to be fourteen chapters. I have revised it a bit in 2021. I do not plan to do so for the rest of the series unless you let me know, via the Forza Motorsport 4 Community | Facebook that you would like to see more. ALL revision text is in blue. I also enlarged the text and added white areas between some lines to make it easier to read and comprehend.

Based on the HUGE jump in readership yesterday, it seems many of you are also interested in Forza Motorsports.

First a little bit about driving perspective, as it pertains to what you, the racer, sees on the TV screen while racing.

 

Being ancient (age 58, now 64) by what one imagines a gamer's age to be, I set the view up so that I am seeing while racing is what I see when actually driving: In cockpit view. 

 

In real life and in most cases in Forza 4, we see nothing of the car's hood and fenders, when racing with In cockpit view.

 

Side note, since the windshield in a closed cockpit Le Mans Prototype racer which is usually TINY, I tried one press of the left button on the (Microsoft Steering wheel horn area, see photo below)

and I could see SO much more, it was like I had stuck my head THROUGH the windshield. Actually, it is like one is seeing through a camera placed outside at the base of the windshield of whatever you are driving. 

 

In the 1973 Porsche 911, it is almost what one sees in the real car, minus the inside the car stuff, because of the 911's iconic fenders. With THAT setting, I am able to easily race and win forward-vision-challenged racers like Audi R-18s and their ilk. 

 

The pictures below, for those of you who didn't know one could change the perspective (it's the little button to the left of the big X button in the middle of the wheel or controller) here are photos featuring my BMW 2002 on the most awesome and toughest course in Forza: Fujimi Kaido in Japan.

Above, the view is to the rear and perhaps 10 feet in the air. Is that how we REALLY drive? Of course not! So why choose to race this way? I know, earlier racing games ONLY had this view.

THIS view puts one even HIGHER in the air!

Above is "in cockpit". One does not get quite as wide a view as in a real car, but it works in most cases. Sorry about the DARK interior, as you know, it is not this dark while racing.

 

Below is the "base of the windshield" view. It too is similar to reality if one never looked down at the dash or gauges. Plus, the mirror is wider helping keep track of who is trying to catch or pass you.

Below is the "no car at all" view which seems kind of silly to this old man, but if you like it, go for it.

This series of photos shows, by looking at Mount Fuji, the different perspectives of each forward view method are easier to see. Note the size of the mountain in each picture.

Below, in 2015, I showed EVERY car in my garage, starting with a Porsche 914-6 F Class car. However, i did NOT tell the reader WHY there were suddenly race car photos following the photos above.

I deleted the car's photo and F199 specs, just now, because there was no space for the explanatory text. I still have the car's photo, and re-uploaded it, but not the cars specs.
 

I always modify the cars to the maximum in each class so that they perform well. I did not so much back then. And, I OFTEN choose an older car if the race will allow it, rather than some modern, under-powered front-wheel-drive car.

 

 

According to the artist of this paint scheme, this is an authentic livery used on an Australian Datsun 510 racer back in the day.

Appropriate that Alitalia (Italy's national airline) is a sponsor of this Fiat 131 Abarth racer. 

The BMW 2002 featured at the top. Replacement wheels, added intercooler and other tweaks.

Tiny Toyota needed for "Micro cars" races. Converted to AWD and tons of fun!

I just had to choose John Player Specials livery for this mostly stock Esprit.

Tricked out modern Alfa Romeo. Cool paint scheme.

An "Omologato" The "O" in GTO, which is Italian for homologation. Car makers are required by race organizations to make a specific number of street versions of their rally or other race series cars. The Stratos uses the V6 engine from the (Ferrari) Dino.

The blogger program loaded the photos above in the opposite order than I wanted it to. So it took quite a while to put them in order. That's why some of the performance photos are not centered as I'd like them to be. 

Stay tuned, many more chapters to follow. Keep the shiny side up and DON'T race on the streets!

 

Scott

 

Revised and updated 05-28-2021

Scott