None of them have made me physically and literally sick like the Ferrari Vision Gran Turismo.
The problem with the FVGT is that it has only 30mm (1.18in) ground clearance front and rear. For some context, a 2023 Super Formula car has 25mm (0.94in) clearance, a modern supercar R35 has 110mm (4.33in), and a sensible family hatch like the Honda Fit has 135mm (5.31in). The FVGT is so stupidly low that it skates over the mirror–smooth asphalt of fictional and FIA Grade One racetracks as much as it drives over them. As with most VGTs, customisation options are severely limited with the Ferrari VGT; only the dampers, the accel and decel sensitivities of the diff, and brake balance can be adjusted in addition to the usual tyres, power limiter, and ballast. Oh yeah, the dampers are what's wrong with this car, thanks Ferrari. With a car this low, its suspension is just glorified bricks, meaning that the car not only skates across tracks, but it also hops like a crazed kangaroo on crack. You think I'm exaggerating? Here, watch for yourself if you think you can stomach it:
https://youtu.be/DP0m9exeqYg
Even when being spared the likely fate of crapping out my still beating heart, that kind of constant jumpiness literally makes me carsick even through a TV screen. And just to reiterate, I've never gotten carsick before in real life nor in a video game. I've even had to resort to driving the FVGT in chase cam just to keep my lunch in my stomach. Something in me kinda wants me to believe that someone at Ferrari knew this car would mash every bone in a human's body down to fine dust, hence why they force drivers into a driving suit that looks like a mummy cast with the silhouette of a strap–on drawn onto it to remind you just how far up into your rectum they are.
I know I've portrayed myself as a Ferrari hater these past five years, but I hope you'll trust me when I write that I genuinely try to approach each car with an open mind hoping to find something that brings me joy. I don't like being angry, nor do I like feeling like I've wasted my time. I find it a shame that the FVGT makes me sick, because it looks amazing, has an incredible cockpit view, generates immense downforce, and is stupendously surefooted in the turns when it isn't hopping from pole to pole. It's even fast, too: on the right tracks, it'd even outrun a 2023 Super Formula and embarrass anything in Gr.1 even without BoP holding the bona–fide racecars back.
......buuuuuuut, a good chunk of its pace comes from its hybrid boost, which goes completely limp after around 2 minutes of hard driving, and that's just about enough for 1 lap of Spa. After it dies, it takes about 4 minutes of sitting still for the engine to recharge the battery up to full. Also, because the engine recharges the battery, sometimes you just don't get any engine braking in the car when coasting through a sweeper. Oh yeah, rob me of engine braking for 0.5 seconds and understeer me wide to give me 0.25 seconds of boost. Worth. Combine this with how its tyres take about half a lap or so to warm up and will melt in just a few more (as is typical with high–downforce cars that cook their tyres), and the result is a car that operates at its optimal pace about as frequently as solar eclipses and about as consistent as fickle, moody mistress with multiple personalities.
Fortunately, alternatives exist to the FVGT, though most of them are VGTs themselves. For those not keen on VGTs, about the only things that will keep pace with the Fezza are the Super Formulae cars, and even that is rather track dependent. The Aston Martin Valkyrie will ideally need some stiffening up to its suspension to handle racing slicks, but match the compounds on both cars, and the Valkyrie will be really even competition for the FVGT after the latter's two minutes of fame is up. If one doesn't mind VGTs, the Tomahawk S and Corvette CX, both similarly classified as #Road Cars, will unapologetically whoop the FVGT despite being rated lower by the PP system even with Racing Medium tyres, and crucially, none of the aforementioned cars other than the Ferrari makes me sick.
I usually come away from driving a VGT thinking, "what the hell were they thinking? Did anyone test drive this?" But no other car really embodies that more than the Ferrari VeGeTable.
Sorry, Baron.
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