So, we already know the Daihatsu Copen RJ Vision Gran Turismo costs a million credits, hasn't even 150HP to show for it, is Fail Wheel Drive, has next to no adjustability as a typical VGT, and to top it all off, I think it looks bloody ridiculous. As if it needed any more damning points, it's even more useless than the reproductive organs of an incel in the game's campaign, to paraphrase RX8 Racer's succinct and excellent post a little.
#rallyjapan #copen #dsport
Hell, the 2002 Copen Active Top we tested back in Week 2 won't even cost a fifth of the 2017 Copen RJ VGT's asking price, even when taking into account the cost of bringing the former close to the RJ VGT's performance level. While the 2002 car can't quite reach the 2017's raw specs even with a blank cheque, the 2002 car is a much more useful investment than the 2017 VGT simply because the production car has the classifications of a Road and Kei car, both of which the 2017 model completely lacks, thereby disallowing the RJ VGT in events where it might actually stand a fighting chance—and this is in spite of the RJ VGT's newly added in–game description for GT7 vehemently insisting that it's very much built to Kei regulations. The RJ VGT also cannot fit dirt tyres for some bizarre reason despite rocking a whopping 140mm (5.51in) ride height, which is 35mm (1.38in) higher than that of the road car which can fit dirt tyres. The fact that Copens in real life have been fielded in dirt rally stages, as the livery on my car shows, just adds to the bewilderment. If, like me, you don't like to tune, a 1997 turbo MR2 with just an upgrade to Sports Hard tyres to match those shoeing the RJ VGT's would be a close match assuming a rolling start, and a factory fresh S15 turbo from Week 11 wouldn't as much walk the RJ VGT as it would wrap the Racing Jacket around the VGT's neck and drag the Kei car wannabe through the mud.
And this I think is all that would be relevant to most people, and they can take this very obvious "Beater" verdict and get on with their lives. But, there is just one thing I've read from maybe two people having wrote about this car back in GTS' COTW: that it drives well. Maybe the RJ VGT is a really expensive toy that only excels at its one job and nothing else, which is just fine—A set of anal beads wouldn't be a bad set just because it can't help you gain a competitive advantage in a chess match, right? It just has to give you the fizz to be good.
So, does it fizz?
I'll start by saying that, if you're not the kind of driver that enjoys driving FF cars, this is not the car to change your mind; it's no DC2 ITR or a supercharged Mini. It will still make you hate your life with wheelspin and power understeer out of corners whilst beating you up via the steering wheel with nonstop judders and clatters, with no recourse other than to accept your own failures for having trusted too much and be forced to swallow your pride and accept your loss by backing out. It didn't give me that sense of driving nirvana, that place of Zen, a fizzing feeling, or whatever superlative people come up with to describe that very place so very few cars can bring a driver to.
While others may generously describe the rest of the car as "good", I'll instead say that it's just fine... to the point where it feels completely lacking in any personality. The soulless 3–Cylinder engine has torque everywhere, which makes shifting almost irrelevant. Turn–in is sharp on its own, but the car will respond further with proportionate and immediate trimming of its turning radii with trail braking, which only gets better the further rearward the brake bias is shifted, and why wouldn't anyone with this current set of physics? The only thing to really watch out for when driving the RJ VGT is that the front end will get extremely high on gasoline, and OD–ing just a little on corner exit can send the RJ into a disproportionately long and arduous road to recovery—The front lifts on power as though a telescope, causing the car to struggle to put down its eager 202.5N⋅m (149.4lbf⋅ft) of torque, and using even the mildest traction control setting just kills the engine cold. All told, I'd say that the RJ VGT is better behaved than even bona fide Gr.4 racecars saddled with the FF layout, but at the same time, it's so well–behaved and unremarkable that it ends up not having much character to it, either. I was so, so tempted to just condense this whole paragraph down to, "it's a powerful FF, watch for power understeer".
The 7 speed gearbox on the RJ VGT may look incredible, almost overkill for a car with only 147HP (110kW), but there are 2 caveats to that gearbox: the first is that 3 of the 7 gears in it are COMPLETELY useless, and the second is that this box is seemingly based on the second generation Copen's 7–Speed "Super Active Shift" CVT, which makes about as much sense to me as an overachieving couch potato, so don't ask me how it works. All I know from the comfort of my sweaty sim rig is that downshifts are particularly annoying in this car, because the drivetrain won't blip the throttle to rev match at all, and for someone whose T300RS eats downshift inputs when I click them in too quickly, not having the car affirm my inputs to have registered is particularly annoying. 1st and 2nd gears in the RJ are so short that they essentially serve as a normal car's first gear—completely useless once on the move. 3rd gear in the RJ is then the equivalent of a normal car's 2nd, corner exits at 80km/h (50mph) is taken in 4th, etc., etc.. It seems to me as if Daihatsu has somehow invented a dog–leg paddle shifter, because the RJ VGT makes me offset one gear number in my mind when shifting. So, not only do I have to manually count my downshifts with the lack of throttle blipping, I have to do mental gymnastics in my head to be one gear higher than would be intuitive. Great.
A 5 speed manual isn't that much of an ask, is it? After all, that has the exact number of useful gears on a racetrack as the 7CVT we wound up getting.
The Daihatsu Copen RJ Vision Gran Turismo may cost a million credits, hasn't even 150HP to show for it, is Fail Wheel Drive, has next to no adjustability as a typical VGT, built for Gran Turismo games but is completely useless in said Gran Turismo games, doesn't give me the fizz, and to top it all off, I think it looks bloody ridiculous. But, none of that is the reason why I most dislike the RJ VGT—The reason why I most dislike the RJ VGT is that it's so clearly based off of a second generation Copen, with its exterior styling, gearbox and engine options, and even its dashboard being ripped straight from the production car. It makes me yearn for a GR Copen with a proper 5 speed stick shift, which would undoubtedly be cheaper by several magnitudes, not to mention eligible for so much more of the game's events. The usual excuse of, "it most likely is a licensing issue" hardly sounds plausible in this context, does it?
In essence, the RJ VGT is a very bad tease, like a woman getting super flirty with me at a bar just to get a very expensive drink out of me, with zero intention of anything beyond that, short or long term. It's confusing at best and impossible not to begrudge at worst... especially when she isn't even attractive enough inside or out to try to get a free drink from anyone in the first place.
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