GPL- Ferrari: Pro/Cons

The GPL Ferrari: It sounds great but it handles sloppily. Little low end torque but great high end power. Little power-on oversteer, but this keeps surprises to a minimum. Great on long fast tracks, but terrible handling on short/tight tracks. I noticed the conspicuous absence of this car from the descriptions in the included strategy guide, and am curious of what people think of it's pros/cons. Also, I have found it to be quite quick at some tracks (namely Zandvoort 1:30.75) and quite competitive against even the mighty Lotus. What do you like or hate about the Ferrari? Matt

I was driving the Lotus pretty exclusively and loved it. Decided to try the Ferrari and have cut 3-5 seconds off all my best times. It doesn't seem to have the acceleration of the lotus but I love the way you can just throw it into a turn and and steer the car with power. I think the handling is exceptional and this car seems to be the most stable IMO at speed. I know I can go faster in the corners and expect to see even further improvements. Very stable under braking plus I am not getting passed under braking the way I was since I am faster into the corners. Regards Michael

On Sat, 10 Oct 1998 19:22:52 GMT, "Matt & Audrey Lewis" >It sounds great but it handles sloppily. Handling depends on setup, it can be great. Depends on setup. Hmm, it kicks ***at the Ring, nicely chuckable. I'd say the opposite - the tail happy nature gets it around the tight stuff, but you'll be a couple of seconds a lap down on the Lotus or Eagle at Spa and Monza - long fast tracks are not it's forte. The Lotus can get into the 25s around Zandvoort, and even the Coventry can do 27s. It'll be a while before we find the limits to compare, if ever! :-) Cheers! John

On Sat, 10 Oct 1998 19:22:52 GMT, "Matt & Audrey Lewis"

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>The GPL Ferrari: >It sounds great but it handles sloppily. >Little low end torque but great high end power. >Little power-on oversteer, but this keeps surprises to a minimum. >Great on long fast tracks, but terrible handling on short/tight tracks. >I noticed the conspicuous absence of this car from the descriptions in the >included strategy guide, and am curious of what people think of it's >pros/cons. Also, I have found it to be quite quick at some tracks (namely >Zandvoort 1:30.75) and quite competitive against even the mighty Lotus. >What do you like or hate about the Ferrari? >Matt

Im pretty much a Ferrari user and Ive made me a setup which is only 1 mph slower than the lotus' top speed at monza, and so my Ferrari time is only 1/3 second slower than my best lotus time. (and that hotlap I screwed the first lesmo up) Julian aka Juju http://gpl.cjb.net

After playing around a litlle with most of the cars, I settled in with the Ferrari for a while. After a few days, my best lap at Monza was in the high 1:35 range. The things I liked about the Ferrari was that it was very tossable and forgiving, and of course that sound! Then I decided to try the Eagle (still at Monza). I felt a lot less comfortable in this car, especially entering turns. At initial turn in it was difficult to get it to turn, very pushy. When I applied power, the push got worse up to a point before I started getting power-oversteer. In fast turns I often oscillate between a mild push and mild oversteer. The Eagle also seemed more sensitive in general and more vulnerable to sudden spins. I was ready to go back to the Ferrari until I checked my lap times and found I had gotten nearly 2 seconds faster! I have to attribute this mostly to the higher horsepower of the Eagle, although I haven't done a direct comparison of laps int the Eagle vs. the Ferrari, so I'm not sure how speeds at different points compare. It's also possible that track time and experience could account for the improvement in my times, although the increase seemed to dramatic for that alone. Probably I should go back and do a direct comparison between the two again and see how I do now. -btw- I've hardly tried the Lotus at all, in the brief go I did have it just seemed too sensitive to inputs (ie. very abrupt transitions) for the time being. Maybe after I get more practice. Ed Benson