XBox 360 Forza 4 100% Completed Chapter Twelve and Thirteen. 30 cars today!

Gentle reader,

I realize that my taking so long to do this seems like I'm dragging it out. I'm not, just lots of other things going on in my life. 

I found a black XBox 360 with 120 gigabyte hard drive at the local thrift store for $20. I took a chance and aside from the game disc tray being stuck, it works fine. I wanted it for the much bigger hard drive. The HDDs on these come off with the press of a button. 

So, I deleted everything on it and started fresh on Forza 4. I'm up to level 31 (woo hoo!) and am picking different cars with each level win than last time. But I digress, you're waiting to see the next fifteen cars from my original virtual garage. Last time we left off with my 1957 Ford Thunderbird. 

Now, a much newer and more expensive car, 2012 Jaguar XKR-S painted up in a nice livery:

Next, a car most people, except in California, will likely never see, the Lexus LF-A:
One of the car's featured on Velocity TV's show How it's made, Supercars, made in Germany, the Weismann GT MF5.

The first supercharged Corvette that put the supercar world on notice, the ZR1:

One of many Audis that I "own". Most people don't realize the difference, if they notice at all, between an "A", "S" or "RS" before an Audi's number. S is for Sport, RS is for Renn Sport or racing in German.
A coworker has one of these, very fast and fun, but the stock 2015 GT out performs it in every way. So much for paying extra....

Last of the Mazda RX7 models were the sleekest looking and best performing. The RX8 that followed, while a fine and more practical car doesn't have the same desirability.

The Escort was Ford's world car way back when. These were rear-wheel-drive. This one I modded to AWD and more.

Having the name "911 Turbo" says it all. Much more forgiving than the "Ur" (original in German) model, thanks to advances in everything.

At one time the most expensive new car and fastest top speed, well over 200 MPH, the street version is more powerful and faster than the race version. Parity, don't you know.
Oh, and  it's a three-seater with the driver sitting in the center!
Really wicked looking Aston Martin. One that 007 never drove.

A more conventional looking Aston painted in GULF livery. The colors used in the ALMS and Le Mans series races.

This was a stock Ferarri F40. The car that Enzo himself said after getting out of it after his test ride, "That car scared the sh_t out of me!" Forza 4 has a race version of the F40 as well.

The first hatchback, although some called it a "shooting brake" a strange name for a two-door wagon. Saw one of these as well as other awesome cars at VIR when we went to the second-to-last ALMS race there. Also the first Ferarri with all-wheel-drive. Google it to see the unique way they achieved that.

Although there may have been or still is a faster 1940 Ford than this virtual one. It really pisses off the AI cars to see this thing beat them. Period correct paint on this the first and slowest of the Race labeled cars. Slowest to fastest: R3, R2, R1 and X.

Now, because I have the time, I'm going to provide the next fifteen cars that would normally be in the next chapter. All from now on are Race rated with the last 14 were real race cars to begin with. Many I replaced the livery or paint scheme with a newer or specific version than the one that it came with.

Next and second of the Race designated cars is my Pontiac Solstice GXP Coupe. I was SHOCKED to  see in a TV insurance ad two of these super-rare cars have salvage yard magnet drop on them, crushing them! It still bothers me. Sigh. Anyway, in the now-deceased world of Pontiac, GXP was the fastest models. In this case and sister car, Saturn Sky, it meant turbocharged and with dual tailpipes. 
Do you suppose religious fanatics would be upset by Nokia using this image for cell phones?
One of the few in my garage that does not have race livery. The pickup version of this called Cyclone, out accelerated the Ferarris of the time. Gotta love turbos. Plus, one of my favorite TV shows was Border Wars on National Geographic TV.

Chevrolet advertised (in print ads) the Impala SS which like their Cosworth Vega "could be painted any color you liked as long as it was black"* said, "If Darth Vader had a car, it would be this one. *Attributed to Henry Ford.
Waffle House makes the BEST waffles in the world, so this livery was a shoe in.
As mentioned above in the Typhoon's description, this was faster than supercars of their day.

The most beastly of the Cobra cars, this 427 S/C is quite a handful. It will snap around and bite you at the least provocation. Being convertibles, even with a fastback fiberglass top added, they didn't go as fast as their competitor Ferrari racers. Thus the Cobra Daytona was later invented.
Next, again quoting Enzo Ferrari who called this car the most beautiful in the world, the vaunted and so sexy Jaguar E-Type, NOT XKE as Americans called it.
Period correct livery as the Group 44 Jaguar racing team's paint scheme.
I must correct an earlier statement about "Real race car" although I haven't checked to see if this car truly existed. This one was possibly made as a "drift car". Which I think is a silly waste of all resources.

For many years, this was the "last" Camaro. I had a real 1996 Z28 which was fast and fun, but too big a car for me. 

Highly modified and almost uncontrollable, this Scion FR-S racer.

This 1967 Ferrari 330 P4 which was and is a race car, in Forza 4 it and the Ford GT40, it's main competitor are designated as "S" cars. I fixed that! Correct paint, but the real ones would not have the added spoilers and painted over headlight lenses.

Next, and the last five in this double-posting is a much newer Ferrari. And I am totally wrong in stating that the last fourteen  are the only real racers as I will designate below for each that is/was a real racer. Understand, there are 547 photos in this folder. Some got mixed around and even my slight OCD brain doesn't want to correct their order.

The Ferrari 458 Challenge, I believe, was a series of cars built for "spec racing" series. Thus the "Challenge" name. Without researching that and/or without firing up the XBox 360 to see, I will leave my statement open to correction by sharper readers as to whether this was a factory racer.

The Ferrari F430, made prior to the F438, is still a viable and fast car, despite what Jeremy Clarkson had to say about it.

Some don't like Nissan's changes to the 350Z to make the 370Z's look. But I do.

The closest thing in Forza 4, (Forza 3 had a non-turbo 944) to the one-and-only PORSCHE that I was fortunate to own for a while. Mine was a 1986 924S. The '86 and '87 924S were the last of the line in the 924's sleeker body than the fat-fendered 944. They shared the "phone dial" wheels of the 944 of the time, though narrower. 924S was a 944 engine in the 924 body. In a race with '86 924S verses '86 944, the former would win because they were lighter and more aerodynamic than the 944. 

There are two Panoz in the car world. Don Panoz started ALMS and owned Road Atlanta and the long term lease to race at Sebring. His son was the man behind the Panoz automobile company. This was a real racer.

That's it for today, time to get up and move. Thanks for looking!

Scott
 

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ALL my posts about stereo equipment, speakers and more!


Gentle reader,

I made this list of links to all my posts about music equipment for a coworker/friend who has been HiFi/Stereo/music lover much longer than I have, (but he's at least ten years older than me) and hails originally from the Philippines. In doing so, I saw spelling errors and weird stuff when I pasted them into my word processor program. But when I pasted them into the blog template, at least the weird things are gone. Fixing the few spelling errors, well, I can live with them. 

So,  I figured since you like to read my blog (well over 60,000 page views so far) that you might also like to see and utilize the links below. 

I skipped my very first one because it was before I figured out how to add pictures and well, looking back, it wasn't all that interesting. 

The links are chronological starting with the first one with photos. There is not a lot of the equipment left from back then, plus the stereo moved into what was out TV/Movies room and the TV/etc. moved into the living room. 

Having all the kids grown and gone, and hopefully done coming back home to move in with the folks (that means us) we converted their bedrooms to other uses. This room I sit in has always been my home office/study/library/museum/photo studio. The "listening room" was originally the master bedroom, but only slightly larger than the other two bedrooms up here. The other bedroom is my wife's home office/whatever she want's to use it for.

This is my 132 post, the first being published on December 12th, 2008. As you proceed through each linked post, you'll see that I got better at doing this and have developed a style that readers seem to like, based on their comments. Also, I got better at arranging  the pictures and making them larger and hopefully more informative.

I first got into good music listening equipment in 1975 after seeing/hearing a new friend's stereo in his bedroom. His poor long suffering parents and neighbors! One link below shows some photos from 1993 when I still have some of that original equipment. You will see that I am a voracious buyer/tester/seller of equipment. It is an all consuming hobby which I hope to enjoy as long as I can see and hear. One other thing, sometimes I combined several different things into one post. Do not be confused with this. With all that rambling explanation,  here is the list:


Did you notice how many times I announced that I was DONE? I stopped saying that. In fact, being so enthused about the old Radio Shack Minimus 11 die-cast speakers that I upgraded (on stands in front of big speakers in photo at top of this page) that I decided to find and buy Radio Shack's own ribbon tweetered speakers. Thanks to ebay, I was able to buy the later version called Optimus Pro LX5II. Got them for $25. I will post about them later. And yes, I know "tweetered" isn't a real word, but then look at how many new words end up in daily use and ARE later added to the dictionary. 

While on that subject, if you are old enough to remember a TV show called All in the Family which had Carroll O'Connor playing a bigoted character called Archie Bunker. He once said to his son-in-law something along these lines, "People who live in communes are communists!" Since I do not, nor am I ever likely to use Twitter, it seems to me that people are not tweeting they are twitting. So, perhaps old Archie, were he alive today, say, "People who use Twitter are twits!"

On that note, I sign off. 

Thanks for looking!

Scott
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XBox 360 Forza 4 100% Completed Chapter Eleven

Gentle reader,

It's been a while since I last exhibited the virtual garage and cars I had in Forza 4 when I completed it the first time. Yes, I have completed it again, this time via the "World Tour" which is the default form of racing in the simulation.

We left off with my 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS which I modified to "S" class. That is the 150th car in my stable. So, next, number 151 is:
My 2006 Pontiac GTO. Made in Australia and being (in 2004) the SECOND car exported from OZ to the USA. The FIRST being the 1990 (sold as 1991) Ford Capri. Sold in the USA as a Mercury. Of which I own one of the very earliest ones, born in May, 1990. It's a red XR2 which is the turbocharged model. But I digress. We did sit in one of these when shopping for a car for me back in 2011. BOY was it nice! I still want a real one! 
Another car I'd like a real one of, is the Saturn Sky Red Line which means it too is a turbo. Also exported to Europe and sold as an Opel GT. I test drove it's predecessor, a low mileage Pontiac Solstice. It was a non-turbo model but in like-new condition. Sigh, stay on task, Scott!
Note how almost all of my virtual fleet has a racing number on it. Gotta be accurate!
Below is a newer model Audi TT quattro of which I DID own a real one, it was a 2000 model coupe like the one below in the introductory color of Denin Blue with a blue leather interior. And while it was the 180 horsepower model from the factory, a previous owner had modified and tuned it to put out almost 50% more. Was it FAST! Yes, and expensive to fix.
I'm not crazy about the body kit's looks or the heavier front end weight from the  15 degree 3.2 liter V6 engine. In Gran Turismo 4 in my now ancient SONY PlayStation 2, I have a virtual version of my real one, same color, same RS4 wheels and WAY faster. 
Below, painted in authentic British Touring Car Championship racing livery is the predecessor to the Volvo V70, big brother to my V50 T5. The "R" model of the 850 and V70 is all-wheel-drive and in the latter puts out 300 HP and 300 #'. (Pound feet of torque) Yes, "#" is a pound sign, not a hash tag!

Below, only exceeded in un-loved-status by the Pacer is a super fast AMC Gremlin X. Painted in the tri-color paint scheme used by Mark Donohue on his Javelin Trans-Am racer.

Next, BMW's first foray into exotic car territory, the M1. Built for them by Lamborghini, it is an awesome car.

The Ford Sierra was sold in the USA as a Merkur. Made up name, but aren't most car names made up? 

Below, another Volvo of which I lust after is the C30. Baby brother to my V50 and an homage to the P1800ES of yore, it is a turbo model. The "R-Design" is only an image package, not AWD as my virtual one is.
K-PAX is a real Volvo racing team.
Most folks have never heard of RUF. It is a German company that buys Porsches and modifies them and sells them as a RUF. The first was called "Yellow Bird" because it was, wait-for-it, yellow and really fast. 

One of the last years to retain the new-for-1970 Camaro body style. Note how I chose CRAGAR S/S wheels for it.

That's ten, the last five for this chapter are, from Italy, the '10 Ferarri 458 Italia.

Called Godzilla by the automotive press, the very impressive, especially for it's curb weight, the '10 Nissan GT-R. This one a higher-performance SpecV model.

A car you are not likely to see, but super-fast as-is, the '09 M-B SLR Stirling Moss special.

Ford and Chevrolet, and a little later on, most of the other GM makers, struck gold as the Vega and Pinto came out shortly before the Arab oil embargo. The Pinto was later known for the chance of a fiery explosion if rear ended. It was a better engined car than the Vega, whose aluminum block tended to wear out quickly. This Pinto has a V8 engine and conversion to all-wheel-drive. It's amazingly fast and pisses off the AI cars it competes with.

As a young car mechanic, I had a chance to drive a '57 T-bird. I was not impressed. It was hardly true competition for the Corvette. Still, very sought after. This one is far from stock.

That makes 165 so far. I chanced upon a black XBox 360 at a thrift store marked: $20 As-Is. I took a chance and bought it. The only thing wrong with it was the CD/DVD/GAME disc drive was jammed. The Internet provided me lots of info on taking the unit apart. I wasn't able to fix the drive, but did de-dust the components. The good thing is it has a 120 gigibyte drive, much larger than my white unit has. So, after deleting the 48(!) games and eight profiles and in effect returning the hard drive to empty, I downloaded my profile and started Forza 4 from the beginning. Yes, I have four other simulations I could be trying, but Forza just has a handle on me and countless other would-be-racers around the world. I've won all the races save one second place finish and am already into the forth-of-ten seasons. 
Oh, by the way, the last race in the tenth season in two laps around the Nurburgring in R1 class i.e., Le Mans top prototype class, racers. I chose my favorite Audi R8 now in Gulf Racing colors and won handily.

That's it for now, thanks for looking,

Scott

PS We passed 60,000 page views a few weeks ago and I have you to thank for that!
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