Mostly because the FJ40V is more my speed, but, you know, we can ignore that. In fact, I'll probably edit out this line somet
As of late, there has been a noticeable divide in the GT7 Update discussion threads between those who want up–to–date racecars that would feature in the game's most prolific mode, shunning the addition of SUVs and city cars, versus those who couldn't care less about racecars and appreciate all the weird quirky cars that make Gran Turismo unique. I lean more towards the latter camp, because racecars must drive more or less similarly to each other and be bopped to have roughly equal performance to be able to race competitively together, whereas something like a Jimny is an entirely unique experience. That being written, I also feel that GT7 as a video game really fails to translate over much of the real world sensations and quirks that largely define the driving experience of these oddball cars. Driving a HiAce at the speed limit IRL is scary; driving a HiAce as fast as it'd go in GT7 feels... boring. And it doesn't help that manufacturers generally only want their best stuff represented in the game, meaning that GT7 feels like an interactive advert at times. It speaks volumes about the feats of engineering that a CH-R doesn't drive completely awful, and I literally described the 2008 SUV as, "If someone were to dump me into my rig with the 2008 already loaded in bumper cam, I wouldn't guess at all that I was in some big, tall, wasteful, poser SUV from the way it drives." But from the players' perspective? It just feels... more of the same meh. If they're all going to drive similarly, I'd much rather they add racecars instead; at least those have gameplay purpose in the game.
I bring up that discourse because the 1974 Land Cruiser FJ40V doesn't feel like a nondescript people carrier in GT7 with all the inherent flaws of its category sanded down into oblivion. It actually drives like a rugged offroading machine with no aspirations of being a track day toy, and therefore, it's really unique and adds so much value to the game as a way to meaningfully experience a variety of different cars. The FJ40V is slow, heavy, tall, soft, and has narrow tyres, and it can get itself into a mess with just 130PS if the driver is lax with it. Despite its 200mm ride height, the FJ40V can hit the ends of its suspension travel and spin out unexpectedly when push comes to shove, with Turn 3 of the paved Eiger Nordwand track, a slow 180° right hander downhill bend, catching a few of us out this past Wednesday. First gear is a crawler gear and just causes wheelspin off a standing launch, and the 3.9L NA engine needs to have its nuts revved off to make meaningful propulsion, stretching the ratios of its 4–speed gearbox to its limits. With a soft setup, low power, and rev happy engine, the FJ40V can be described as a bit of a challenge to drive, but then again, the Miata can also be described similarly, and that's the default car for spec racing. Both are cars that heavily emphasise the importance of "rhythm and inertia", if you will, necessitating and rewarding momentum preservation and careful weight shifting in driving. So involving is the driving experience of a FJ40V in fact, it genuinely skews my perception of time simply because there's so much to do and think about over a lap. I often cross the Start/Finish line of our lobby races surprised there's still one more lap to go, and I mean that in a good way.
I've not many critiques against a car clearly not meant for track duty, but the ones I do are sadly rather glaring. The first hardly pertains to the car itself: there simply isn't enough small, narrow, and twisty tracks to run these low powered cars on, and if anyone has insomnia, maybe try spending half of Fuji's home straight at the rev limit. The rev limiter is also really... "lazy", for the lack of a better term. Hitting it causes it to cut out power for a whole second or so, only for the revs to quickly spike back up and smack the limiter again. It's not a big deal on a paved track, but on bumpy dirt or snow surfaces, those short hops can cause the car to hit the limiter prematurely, and shifting up early to circumvent that just kills the peaky engine. That means slides are a bit difficult to hold as well. Lastly, its PP rating I feel is a little too high for the performance it has; a Copen would smack this thing silly despite rated some 13PP below the FJ40V, and a HiAce van would actually give the Land Cruiser a run for its money with only a 273.63PP rating compared to the FJ40V's 305.78PP (ratings are as of v1.63).
What I find most interesting however, is that the FJ40V is listed as a 4WD vehicle, but in stock form, only its front wheels are being driven. According to the car's in–game description and McKeel of the Ripoff Car Dealer, the FJ40V we have in the game comes with a 4WD system with a 2–speed transfer case, actuated via the shift lever like thing to the right of the skyscraping actual shift lever. However, to switch the FJ40V from front to 4–wheel drive, one doesn't use a clutch pedal and a second lever; they instead buy a Variable Centre Differential from the tuning shop to send power to the rear, and I believe this is the first non hybrid car in the game that can switch up its drive wheels. It's supremely cool just for that, but being FWD also allows the driver to rip the handbrake while keeping the throttle pinned in a slide if that's what they're into (but maybe don't try putting down 1,100HP from the LS7 Rampage Engine through just the front tyres...).
The FJ40V Land Cruiser may not seem like it belongs in a racing game, but it provides a very interesting experience both to drive and to customise. It may not be very useful for grinding the "big 4" races due to its horrific fuel economy, but thanks to the LS7 Rampage Engine, it can do the classic Gran Turismo thing of taking something that has no business being on a racetrack and smashing bona–fide racecars with it. It may not be the easiest thing to drive even when tuned, but as far as surprises go, the FJ40V really pleasantly surprised me with how much I've come to appreciate it. After all, finding out overlooked gems is the whole idea of Car of the Week, and with the game feeling more and more like a car advert, surprises are really hard to come by nowadays.
So much so that I'm going to sign off with the classic COTW ending.
Verdict: Sleeper.
SPOILER:
I'm just going to preserve this here because it made me laugh so much. The meme machine, SPD, remembered that I'm a Shawn Michaels fan more than I remember that I'm a Shawn Michaels fan!
Also, since I'm rambling, we turned off track limit penalties during Saturday's lobby, resulting in a rush to find the most egregious track cuts the game would let us get away with. It was the most fun lobby I've been a part of for a long time!
Unfortunately, there's no way to turn off the auto reset that warps a car back onto the track if they veer off too far. I also found out the very hard way that those "reset boundaries" are a LOT more stringent in a race than during free practice... Come on, PD, let us have fun when we want to have fun! I switched off track limit penalties for a reason!
SPOILER: Quick Writeups on Some Cars I Missed
SLS AMG
It drives weird, with a twitchy rear end. The AMG GT suffers from this as well, though not to the same extent. I actually prefer the SLR.
964 RS
I really hate to dunk on the 964 after it brought so much activity to the thread, but I really wasn't all that impressed by it. Yes, it was an extremely pure driving experience, and one that even feels stable and approachable. However, the harder I pushed the 964, the more it soured my initial impression of it. A lot of its stability is tied to its huge rear tyres, and so it can very suddenly lose composure and get into a mess should bumps and such unsettle it even minutely. Also, its body shape I think is to blame for the car being as horrifically unstable at high speed as I've found it to be, and the Nordschleife really drags that weakness out into the light of day. The R32 GT-Rs have similar pace, but are so, so much easier to drive, being much more surefooted mechanically and aerodynamically, with gobs of turbo torque. Of course, the RS probably isn't the quickest 964 model out there; there are Turbo and AWD versions of the 964 out there, so maybe pace isn't the best metric to judge it by. In terms of driving experience though? It's still got nothing on the NA1 NSX-R IMO.
8C Competizione
The 8C Comp, despite packing a Ferrari engine and looks to die for, is a strangely forgottable car to me. Maybe it just doesn't "speak" to me, but I don't see beauty in its styling, nor do I think its engine note has translated over well into GT7 at all. That leaves me with a softly sprung GT car that, while incredibly well–balanced, is just too sloppy for my spoiled hands and feet. No sane person would think that the uphill left kink running beside the Pit Lane of Eiger Nordwand is a place where a 449PS modern car would come undone, but that's exactly where my 8C Comp decided it didn't want to car anymore and would rather identify as a mangled martyr on the side of a mountain. No, I have no idea why it did that. I just know I want no part of it.
Delta Rally Car
I know nothing of the Group B era of rally cars nor Lancia's storied history with it. That makes the fact that it still left a shining impression on me when it was added to GT7 all the more significant, because it's a car that stands on its own four wheels instead of something that can only be appreciated through sepia–tinted glasses. To introduce the car to us players, PD created an Online Time Trial at Grand Valley East for us to try the car, and I was initially so far off the Gold target time that it really made me question what the heck was going on. I kept pushing and pushing for some reason; the car was just that enticing and begging for more abuse somehow. It really doesn't like smooth and slow inputs, instead preferring quick and sudden flicks to get the car rotated into the turn, and it eats up the Californian sand as though a mere appetiser for the stuff it's built to handle. I eventually lucked my way into an unsafe Gold which stuck, and despite not being able to replicate that lap on demand, it still left me feeling so ridiculously satisfied. The Delta Rally Car is basically joy in a box.
That said, PD have traditionally shunned older cars in grouped categories of racecars with Balance of Performance, and nowhere is that more evident than in the Gr.B class. Instead of words, I'll instead use a table from GT Engine to show you what I mean:
Group B is basically unofficially divided into "Old Group B" and "New Group B", but officially, they're all supposedly on equal footing. We are looking at an obscene 80PP difference between the lowest rated car and the highest rated, with the average of the group being indicative of none of the cars in said group. Combine this favourtism with the fact that the old cars are more expensive and aren't always available to buy, it's really hard to justify having the older cars unless one is already partial to them to begin with, and even then, one would need to find an online community that either agrees to manually BoP each car with an honour system, or specify Group B with a strict PP limit. It's not exactly intuitive.
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